《Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG)》


 Chapter 1: A Death in London

    ¡°Thanks for helping me move things about, Isabella; I really appreciate it!¡± said Maria, as with a groan and a final heave, we dragged the last box into her new apartment.


    ¡°No¡­ no problem,¡± I said, gasping a little as I leaned against the wall. ¡°I¡¯m happy to help out. I¡¯m a little confused, though ¨C don¡¯t you usually ask your brother for help with things like this? I haven¡¯t seen George around recently, and I was hoping all of us could hang out one last time. Our final semester starts next week, and we¡¯ll be too busy to think about group gatherings after that. I know Olivia was interested in doing something as long as it¡¯s before New Year¡¯s, and Jo wanted to play board games if we have an opening in our schedule. The gathering wouldn¡¯t feel complete without your brother, though. Do you reckon he¡¯d want to join us?¡±


    ¡°George is busy for the next few days. His girlfriend got back from her study abroad program in Korea yesterday, so he¡¯s helping her settle in. I¡¯ll send him a text later to see what his schedule looks like. Even if he¡¯s busy getting his girlfriend reacquainted with London, he has to make a bit of time for the group, right?¡± Maria said, pulling out her phone as she grinned at me.


    I gave my best friend a tired smile, before I struggled back to my feet. ¡°Well, at least we¡¯re done with everything.¡±


    ¡°Of course! I really want to thank you for taking time to help me move furniture around. I know it was a bit last-minute because I messed up the scheduling, but thanks to you I still managed to get everything moved in on time.¡± She paused, then turned back to me. ¡°Since we¡¯re done, how about we go get something for dinner? My treat. What are you in the mood for?¡±


    I thought about it for a moment, frowning as I tried to remember what was in the area. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Are there any good restaurants near here?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a good Indian restaurant nearby, I think. I haven¡¯t tried it yet, but my new neighbor strongly recommended it to me. Want to give it a try?¡±


    ¡°That sounds lovely,¡± I said, giving Maria a much less tired grin this time.


    The two of us stepped out of Maria¡¯s apartment, and after she locked it up, we started heading down the stairs.


    ¡°So, did you hear about -¡± Whatever Maria was about to say, she was cut off by someone else¡¯s yell, from several floors above us. I couldn¡¯t hear what they said very well due to the distance.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked, peeking my head into the stairwell to figure out what the person above us was saying. Then, right as I turned my head upwards, I saw a flash of a brown wooden box falling from the sky.


    Huh?


    The box slammed into my head after picking up momentum from falling several floors. I heard a snapping sound, and there was incredible pain in my head and neck all of a sudden. I felt myself slam into the railing as the heavy box bounced off of my head and then continued freefalling towards the floor. However, it was suddenly very hard to breathe, or think, and my vision was rapidly growing dark. I got one final look at Maria¡¯s horrified face before I fell unconscious.


    The next segment of time was a distorted blur of sounds and images. I heard someone yelling, crying, and a few beeping sounds. Then, I felt something¡­tear away from me. Then I became one with the darkness.


    * * *


    On December 19th, 2016, Isabella Patel passed away due to a careless group of children playing around several floors up in Maria¡¯s new apartment. They knocked a heavy crate of metal tools off the railing by accident, which coincidentally managed to hit Isabella and seriously injure her spine and brain. While she did not die immediately, she did not regain consciousness before her death.


    The inscription on her grave was simple.


    Isabella, you were the glue that held a group of friends together more tightly than any family. You were a beloved daughter and a loyal friend. We will never forget you.


    * * *


    When I came to, the only thing I could see was darkness. All around me was an endless inky. I also felt a sensation that reminded me of acid, swirling around me. It didn¡¯t hurt, but I still felt a strange sensation of dissolving. Every second, I could feel something gently nibbling away at me, taking away bits and pieces of me every second. Even though I wasn¡¯t sure what I was losing, I was sure it was important.


    ¡°Ma¡­. Ma¡­ Mar?¡± Who was I calling for? I knew there was a name that was at the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn¡¯t remember what it was. It was the name of¡­


    What was it the name of? What was I even trying to say? Mar... The month of March? Mars, the planet? My brain kept screaming at me as I desperately tried to remember what word I had been about to say. It was important to me, even if I couldn¡¯t remember why.


    But after a moment, I realized something even scarier.


    Not only was I confused, I couldn¡¯t remember my name. What was it? Is¡­ Is¡­ my name had something to do with Isa¡­. Isa¡­ I kept thinking about my name, but I couldn¡¯t remember what came after ¡®Isa.¡¯


    I tried to shake away the fogginess from my thoughts, but it was like there were cobwebs in my brain now. I didn¡¯t know my name, and I didn¡¯t know where I was.


    As I tried to understand what was happening, I realized that there was something wrong with my vision. I tried closing my eyes and then opening them again. I couldn¡¯t see a difference in the world around me at all. Was I blind?


    I panicked, trying to wriggle my arms and legs around. Then I realized I couldn¡¯t feel my arms and legs. Were they gone?


    What was wrong with me?


    I started sucking in air, trying to scream, but no air came.


    I couldn¡¯t breathe.


    I flailed about in increasing confusion and panic. I couldn¡¯t hear, see, or feel anything. It was just endless nothing no matter what kind of response I tried to get from my body.


    Finally, as I wildly thrashed around, I managed to somehow shift¡­ whatever my view was coming from, just enough to realize that there wasn¡¯t only inky darkness in all directions. I could see one other thing in my surroundings. Myself.


    I no longer had a body. Now, my body was comprised of a soft, silver glow. I no longer had limbs or a head - I was just a sort of fuzzy, blob shaped ball of light. And if I looked closely, I could literally see through myself.


    Floating inside of me were two glowing orbs of light. One was located right where I felt that my brain would have been if I still had a head. The other one was located in my stomach. It was a bit pointier, and looked more like a needle than a simple orb. As I watched it, it was continuously growing brighter and brighter.


    Why could I see through myself? What were the glowing orbs of light inside of me?


    Was I a ghost?


    I tried to focus on myself again, probing my memories to see what I could remember. I knew that there was something important to me called Mar¡­ Mar¡­ Mar - something. I also knew my name started with ¡®Isa.¡¯ There were other people that I knew were important to me ¨C but I couldn¡¯t remember anything about them. Their names, their likes and dislikes, the reason I cared about them, what their face looked like ¨C all of those were hazy. It was like trying to look through a fog bank.


    In fact, most of my memories were hazy. I could remember that I lived in something called London, but couldn¡¯t remember what London was. Was it a country? A building? A city? Most of my memories, especially of my personal life, had been scrambled beyond recognition. Finally, however, I managed to scrounge up a vague memory, my final memory before waking up in this void.


    It was the feeling of pain lancing its way through my head and neck. I could remember someone shrieking in the background, but couldn¡¯t remember who it had been.


    Finally, I realized what had happened.


    I was dead. In that case, this was¡­


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The afterlife?


    I closed my eyes again, before reopening them in hopes I might be able to see more around me. However, the only thing I could see was more darkness and the two blobs of light inside of me. I didn¡¯t know what they were. Now that I had realized I was dead, I stopped panicking at the realization that I couldn¡¯t breathe or move. If I was a ghost, it was only natural that I couldn¡¯t breathe or move my limbs around. However, the realization that I couldn¡¯t even remember who I had been alive rocked me to my core. I felt¡­ uncomfortable at the idea that I had once had a name and people I cared about, but I had no idea who I once was. The feeling was muted, possibly because I didn¡¯t have a brain to process emotions anymore, but I still felt like I had lost something incredibly important. Since I felt uncomfortable, I focused on my surroundings again. I didn¡¯t want to focus on the growing realization that most of my memories were lost, so I wanted to pay more attention to my situation instead.


    I looked around me, and realized I still couldn¡¯t see any other ¡®souls¡¯ nearby. Was I alone, or was I just unable to see other dead people? If I had gone to some sort of ¡®afterlife¡¯ I would have expected to see other souls somewhere, but I was just drifting alone through the void.


    After a few minutes of looking around, I started to become aware of a tugging sensation deep in my soul. The needle-shaped blob of light in my stomach seemed to be growing stronger, and I realized that it was trying to pull me somewhere.


    Was it trying to guide me to the afterlife? If I spent the rest of eternity staring at abyssal emptiness in all directions, I would go mad, but if I could see other souls and go somewhere, I would be able to do¡­ something. Talk with other dead people, figure out what was happening, maybe. Anything was better than this inky void. And the feeling of losing something every second I remained in this place was persistent and incredibly uncomfortable.


    I focused on the needle of light, and suddenly, it started to expand. From the size of a needle, it grew until it became a lasso of light.


    It wrapped itself around me, and suddenly, the feeling of dissolving vanished. Then, I was yanked upwards. I could feel that I was moving at an incredible speed. However, even though I was moving incredibly quickly, there was still no light around me. I had no clue where I was going, or how fast I was moving.


    I lost track of time as I continued to fly upwards. Time passed as I saw nothing but darkness around me. Hours turned into days, which turned into weeks. Eventually, I lost track of time completely, and started wondering how long I had been flying. Weeks? Months? Years? Did time even mean anything to me anymore?


    Then, with a pop, the scenery changed completely. The darkness was replaced with glittering silver light above me, and I finally saw something new. Above me were all sorts of glittering lights, resplendent as they lit up the void and filled it with color, like a distorted rainbow.


    I looked down. There, just below me, was the largest ocean I had ever witnessed. Endless black water stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see. The river dwarfed the size of the ocean by trillions of times. Heck, it seemed to dwarf the size of the planet I used to live on.


    As I rose higher and higher, and time crawled forward, I started to notice other things in the massive black ocean. Occasionally, there would be little streaks of silver light. While I couldn¡¯t see them clearly, I eventually realized they were other souls.


    Unlike me, they didn¡¯t seem to be aware of anything. They looked like they were asleep, as the ocean¡¯s currents gently swept them along. They looked¡­ lighter than I did. Cleaner, somehow. And unlike me, they didn¡¯t have extra orbs of light in their soul. While their soul emitted a small silvery glow, they didn¡¯t have the golden lasso pulling me through the air, and they also didn¡¯t have an orb of light where their brain should be. Occasionally, one of them would suddenly fly in another direction entirely, shooting off into the distance at speeds I couldn¡¯t track. Sometimes a few souls would also lose their silver glow, then collapse and turn into part of the ocean around them, becoming part of the black ocean of souls. Souls collapsing into the darkness was a rare occurrence, but gave me an awful feeling. Were those souls just¡­ gone? Before I had time to process the idea that souls might be destroyed sometimes, I realized I was still getting higher and higher.


    Soon, I was so far above the ocean that I couldn¡¯t even see the little silver-colored souls in the ocean anymore ¨C they were just too far away for me to see. I began to feel alone as time passed. Even if the other souls hadn¡¯t been awake, knowing that I wasn¡¯t alone in this glittering sea of lights above the black ocean had been comforting, and now I couldn¡¯t see anyone but me.


    Eventually, I felt another sudden jerk as the golden lasso started pulling me more quickly than before. My speed increased by leaps and bounds. If I was previously moving at around the speed of a jet fighter, soon I was moving as fast as a rocket. Then I accelerated far beyond that speed. Beyond sound, beyond light, beyond anything.


    With a sudden crackling sound, everything changed around me. I flinched, but since I had no body it was an entirely a mental reaction. Color, sound, shape¡­ all of them bent by a very slight amount. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on what was different, exactly. However, as I looked at the endless black ocean around me, it seemed to be subtly different than before.


    Then, after some time, the crackling sound came again, and reality changed. And again, and again, and again. Every single time, it came more quickly than the previous crackling sound. And every time a new crackling sound came, the giant ocean I was flying over would subtly shift and adjust itself, until finally, I could see with my ghostly eyes exactly what was different.


    The endless black ocean that stretched in all directions was becoming more and more bizarre with each crackling sound. First, the water started to change ¨C after about thirty crackling sounds, it became fog instead of water. Then, the color had started to change, from black to silver. Then, after a while, it transitioned into a giant flowing stream of giant green gas bubbles, all slowly bobbing and crackling as they floated along.


    Then, the ocean shifted again, returning to a black color. However, the gas bubbles did not transition back into water ¨C instead, they started to change into shapes that were impossible for me to understand. They became non-Euclidean geometries that wriggled as I tried to nail them down in my thoughts.


    Before I had time to process the strange shapes, everything changed again.The endless ocean turned into magma, then a layer of brown, leather like foam. Then it became a curtain of soft, yellow incandescence, akin to the gentle candlelight of a church in the evening. Every few seconds, the ocean changed color, shape, and texture again.


    Then, I began to slow down. Changes in the endless ocean began slower, although it continued to swap shapes, colors, forms of matter, and sizes.


    Eventually, everything changed for one final time. The ocean was currently in some sort of half water and half gas state, as if the ocean was boiling. Its color had settled on a deep violet color, bordering on black.


    And I was now flying towards something sailing on the ever-shifting ocean.


    It looked like a ship. A massive, seventeenth century pirate ship, except it had no mast. On this endless, infinite ocean, the ship simply sailed forward, despite the fact that it was the first and only thing I had seen on this river besides myself and other sleeping souls.


    And the ship was large.


    VERY large.


    At first, I had just thought it was a normally sized ship. But as I got closer, it just kept getting bigger.


    Finally I realized that this ship wasn¡¯t just huge. It was literally larger than a galaxy - and not just by a tiny margin. I could see cities spotting the surface of the ship, each of which was dozens or hundreds of times larger than any city I had ever seen before. And there were millions of these cities on just the ship¡¯s railing - I had no idea how many more massive cities lay on the ship¡¯s deck, or if there were any further cities elsewhere on the ship.


    Finally, my speed started to slow down as I approached one of the cities on the ship¡¯s railing.


    My destination finally became visible. I was approaching one of the smaller cities on the ship - ¡®smaller¡¯ meaning that it was only a dozen times the size of an average metropolis.


    The city seemed to be hazy, almost as if it were a mirage that would disappear at a moment¡¯s notice. It continuously rippled, swirled, and moved; buildings appeared and vanished every second as the non-Euclidean geometry of the city and strange movement of its surroundings propelled structures in and out of visibility.


    The city architecture had no sense of cohesion. Some had massive neon advertisement billboards in front of them, advertising things such as ¡®Tier 2 Soul fragments for low prices!¡¯ or ¡®Glut reductions for low prices! Get an appraisal now, before your glut cuts off your future growth!¡¯ There were even more strange advertisements, such as ¡®Missing Keyword Abilities? Don¡¯t let your 10 slots go to waste! Get advice before you go down the wrong path! 50 Achievement per consultation from an expert!¡¯ and even a few signs that advertised ¡®How to innovate in new worlds with World Surveyor Vincent! The easiest ways to adapt inventions from the Laws of one dimension to the next and farm [Influence] Achievement in each world. Listening slots are only 20 Achievement each!¡¯


    These odd advertisements on modern neon signs were built right next to squat huts and castles made of stone and wood, creating an incredibly bizarre sight that was neither modern nor medieval in aesthetic. Floating above the city, there were even majestic floating islands, all glowing as they defied gravity with leisurely grace.


    Floating above the city was the largest advertising billboard of all. It was the size of a small moon, and so bright that it easily doubled as a sun for this starless city.


    ¡®Welcome to the Nurseries of the Market, Newly Deceased! Before your next life, LuxCorp strongly recommends that you purchase more Abilities, Stats and Items! Buy ten tier 1 Soul Fragments now, and get your eleventh for free (while supplies last; may not apply to all Market-Associated retailers)! Buy a generic, no keyword ability and get a free consultation on how to train and apply it to worlds with the relevant Law(s). Get consultation from a Clone of Eluxia for how to plan your build and what Abilities suit you best for only 100 Achievement!


    Don¡¯t settle for less - get advice from the best!


    Please be aware that LuxCorp takes no responsibility for your original death, soul dissipation if you run out of lives, or any incidents of permanent death if you or your comrades are attacked by something that can destroy souls. Thank you for your cooperation!¡¯


    The city looked like a space age megacity mashed together with random high-fantasy architecture sprinkled in here and there. At least, that was what the city must have looked like in its heyday.


    The city filled with strange and extraordinary buildings was in ruins. The giant, moon-sized billboard floating above the city was cracked. There was a giant, glowing hole near the center of the advertisement, and cracks and holes riddled its surface. The floating islands above the city were all tilted at crazy angles. I could see that the former buildings on top of the islands had fallen off of them, crashing into the city beneath them like billion-ton asteroids crashing to the earth. The afterlife which I had spent hours, days, or possibly months flying towards was a dust covered pile of rubble.

 Chapter 2: Welcome to the Market

    Moments after I reached the outskirts of the city, the golden lasso that had pulled me to this place disappeared. I looked at the ruined buildings and broken flying islands, trying to process what had just happened. Was this city really my destination?


    Before I had further time to process my thoughts and emotions, a set of words unfolded in midair, right in front of me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome newly Deceased! Due to your extreme innate talent in one of the four essences, you have been automatically drawn to the Market and placed in one of the Nurseries! Please acquaint yourself with your surroundings and circumstances by asking the people around you for help.


    Six lives have been automatically given to you as part of the city¡¯s Provisions for New Transmigrators! Please buy more lives before you run out, or you will experience permanent death!


    Welcome to the Market!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have been detected to be (dead), and your soul was no longer housed inside of a physical vessel. You have been returned to the Market, and one life has been deducted to grant you a (basic) physical vessel.


    Five lives remain.


    Warning: Basic Physical vessels will begin to deteriorate within a few months. If you want a more permanent vessel, please buy or rent one. Otherwise, please enter a pool or river of reincarnation before deterioration occurs.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I frowned. Floating words? Why had a floating blue box with words suddenly popped up in front of me?


    Before I had time to finish reading the list of notifications, two more boxes popped up in front of me. However, their contents were¡­ very different from the first two boxes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Need a Physical Vessel? Tired of needing to rent bodies over and over again after every death? Do you feel that the stats provided by Basic and Advanced Vessels simply can¡¯t keep up with your needs inside of the Market? Do you want a few specific stats to be emphasized while making a new piece of equipment?


    Order a custom-made body from BodyCorp! Providing the best tailor-made bodies to suit the enterprising and advanced Transmigrator!


    Buy a better YOU today!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Below the new floating box filled with words, there was a second floating box that held a different, yet similar advertisement.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Need a few extra weeks in the Market to finish a research project?


    Do you want to take part in a tournament or take some time off in between worlds?


    Do you want to try making an item or Skill, and just don¡¯t have enough time before deterioration sets in?


    Buy a suitable vessel at BodyBuilders! Providing economic and affordable bodies for the New Transmigrator!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Were the floating words in popup boxes¡­ advertising to me? I suddenly realized that the afterlife looked¡­ more capitalistic than I had expected.


    After a few more moments of processing, I decided to ignore the advertisements for now. Whatever society had existed in the past, it was clearly gone now, so I doubted I could buy anything even if I wanted to. I waved my hand at the boxes, hoping I could clear away the ads, and all of them disappeared in a flash of light.


    Then I realized I had just moved my hands.


    I had hands again!


    I looked at my hands, and then laughed out loud. The sound of my laughter rang through the desolate surroundings. When I heard the sound of my voice, I laughed even harder. Even though I was standing outside of a ruined city and had no clue what to do next, I couldn¡¯t help but feel happy.


    I had hands! A voice!


    I began touching my arms and legs, smiling as I remembered what it felt like to move. To have control over my actions. To have a body. I sucked in a great, greedy gulp of air, before exhaling and grinning. I was alive again!


    Finally, I started to notice details I had missed in my first rush of excitement. My limbs felt¡­ off. Not by much, but the way they moved felt weird to me. I looked at my hair, my arms, my legs ¨C all of them looked right. However, I couldn¡¯t help but get the feeling that my balance was wrong. I was also slightly taller than I remembered being. My height wasn¡¯t off by more than a few centimeters, but it definitely threw me off. What had the first blue boxes said? A new physical vessel had been constructed for me?


    Clearly, the body I was given wasn¡¯t quite the same as my old one. Still, after some thinking I realized it wasn¡¯t a big deal. Even if my balance and height weren¡¯t perfect, I had a body again. That was enough to send me reeling with excitement, even if my new body wasn¡¯t perfect.


    I turned back towards the city, and I felt much more confident and energized this time. Having a physical body again meant I had control over my actions, instead of just floating along and hoping for the best. That alone made a huge difference in my perspective on this strange afterlife.


    I gave the ruined buildings and cityscape a closer look. The looming skeletons of buildings lay across the landscape like the desiccated corpses of giants, testaments to what had once been, and was now lost forever. I stopped for a moment, thinking about what I should be doing to learn more about my situation.


    I had five lives left, according to the blue box from earlier. After those five were gone, I would permanently die. I didn¡¯t want to lose my new chance at having a body and living again, which meant my first priority was to find out how to restock lives. And if I could figure out more about what happened to this city, that would also boost my survival chances, so I decided my second priority was to gather more information.


    Both of those goals required entering the city. I couldn¡¯t see anywhere else likely to have information I needed. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, before I turned to face the city.


    With my mind made up, I took a cautious step forward.


    The city was mostly quiet. However, I could hear very faint shuffling sounds in the background from time to time. Did this city have animals that took over the ruins once the people left? Or was it a threat, perhaps related to whatever destroyed the city? After some hesitation, I decided to turn away from the sound and move in a different direction. I didn¡¯t want to come into contact with potential threats until I knew more.


    Instead, I began looking for a library. I needed information, and my best guess for where to find it was either books or electronic records. I started scanning the houses on the side of the street, but couldn¡¯t find anything that looked like a library. I decided to try invading a few houses and see if they had any written records, since I couldn¡¯t find a better option. I started walking towards the house that looked like it came from the modern era, ignoring the two middle-ages huts and the space age skyscraper sitting right next to each other. Since I was most familiar with modern era houses, I would be able to navigate it more easily.


    The door to the house was wide open. I took a few steps inside the house to find a floor riddled with scorch marks. It seemed like someone had lit the floor on fire for some reason.


    I dialed up my caution again. I didn¡¯t know whether the scorch marks came from some sort of trap, or Magic, or technology. Either way, scorch marks were a sign this area might be dangerous.


    After stepping over the scorch marks, I found myself in a living room. Inside, there was a couch, which was riddled with holes and more scorch marks, and a flat screen with buttons on the side of it. The screen looked familiar, but I couldn¡¯t quite remember what it was called. A tele¡­ tele¡­ tele something?


    There was even a bag of potato chips spilled over the floor. A few of them had been turned into charcoal, but the rest were intact.


    I leaned down, before I picked one up. It was¡­ dusty. And stale. I set it back down before wiping my finger on the couch.


    The potato chips must have been here for several months, at least. Maybe years. The messy environment and scorch marks gave me the impression that the residents had been suddenly attacked while eating chips on the couch, and had used some sort of fire to defend themselves.


    I moved further into the house. I found a kitchen, devoid of anything except stale junk food. Oddly enough, there were no actual ¡®meal¡¯ supplies. 100% of what I found was snack food and desserts such as melted ice cream, stale potato chips, and some sort of now-moldy cake. None of it seemed very edible anymore. Finally, in the back of the room there was another door that had been kicked down.


    On the other side of the door, however, I found my biggest surprise.


    There were four corpses in the room.


    And each of them was exactly the same.


    It wasn¡¯t just at the level of identical twins.


    Every single corpse was EXACTLY the same, down to the tiniest detail. Each of them was male, had curly brown hair and green eyes, and stood at a little under six feet tall.


    The only thing that differed from corpse to corpse was the method of their death.


    The first corpse had been beheaded. The second and third corpse had their jugular veins slashed open. The fourth one had a stab wound stretching through its left eye and out the other end of its skull. Each corpse had the same horrified expression, and each corpse had its hands extended towards the door.


    A cone-shaped scorch mark extended along the floor from each of the corpses towards the kitchen doorway.


    Luckily, there was nothing else in the room. If I had come face to face with whatever had killed these guys, I doubted I would have survived the encounter.


    I took another step into the room, only to be surprised as more floating words appeared in front of me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have discovered an Unowned and uninhabited tether! Since nobody has legal ownership of it, you may claim it as your own! Would you like to set this room as your tether? (If not, you will continue to use a tether in a random communal zone in the nursery upon each death).


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    What the heck was a tether? And a Communal zone? None of these terms meant anything to me at all.


    I looked at the four perfectly identical corpses, and a vague guess started to form in my thoughts.


    Perhaps a tether was my ¡®respawn point?¡¯ After I died, this strange city had dragged my soul into it and created a new ¡®physical vessel¡¯ for me to inhabit. Maybe these four bodies weren¡¯t actually four different people.


    What if these were four corpses of the same person? Maybe after each time he had ¡®died,¡¯ the ¡®tether¡¯ in this room pulled him back, and made a new body, only for him to get killed again? While it was just speculation on my part, if I was correct the possibilities were frightening.


    If a tether acted as a ¡®respawn point,¡¯ getting killed near one might cause me to lose all five of my lives one after another. Being killed by an enemy over and over moments after being reborn would be a pretty ridiculous way to die permanently.


    I shook my head, selected ¡®no,¡¯ and waved away the confirmation box. For now, I wanted to avoid the same fate as this guy. Having a semi-random ¡®respawn¡¯ point might be safer for now, if I was guessing what all of this meant correctly.


    I walked over to the guy¡¯s corpses. Unlike the stale potato chips outside of the room, each corpse looked largely fresh, as if he had died moments ago. However, the corpse¡¯s extremities had started to turn blue. I could see through some of the flesh and bone at the end of the corpse¡¯s fingertips as well, as if the corpses were turning transparent as time passed. The room had no smell at all, which also struck me as odd. It was almost like I was looking at a plastic mannequin. I didn¡¯t see any blood either, despite the gruesome way each of the four corpses had been attacked. This made the scene far more surreal than it already was.


    I grimaced, before I began checking the corpses for useful items. This person being killed over and over again made me even more wary of this city. The stab wounds on the body, along with the scorch marks, made it seem likely the city had been invaded. Stab wounds weren¡¯t caused by natural calamities or falling debris, after all. They were the deliberate work of someone with a weapon. In that case, I needed to be on the lookout for whoever had done this.


    I also needed some weapons. This guy had made a cone-shaped scorch mark on his floor while trying to defend himself. Maybe he had a weapon I could use? I searched his body, but I could only find half-melted chunks of steel on his wrist. Whatever useful items this guy might have had were now melted slag. There was nothing else worth looting on his corpse.


    I sighed, before I left the ¡®tether¡¯ room and continued searching the house. Even if the body didn¡¯t have anything on it, the rest of the house could have something useful in it, right?


    The house had plenty more furniture and junk food. There was even a small room with comfortable chairs and a variety of books, all of which seemed to be entertainment novels with no useful information inside of them.


    In the last room I finally found something interesting. This room appeared to be some sort of walk-in closet. The clothes were all made for a guy with a much bigger frame than me. However, I did find a single wooden bracelet.


    Upon touching the small, seemingly unimportant wooden bracelet, yet another set of floating letters popped up in front of me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You are currently in contact with an unowned Item! Would you like to claim ownership of it?


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Simple Friendship Bracelet


    Effects: Allows you to designate other people who have a FriendshipCorp bracelet as your ¡®friend.¡¯ Upon reincarnation, you will always be born in the same dimension as your friends, in fairly close geographical proximity to each other.


    This item is ¡®regenerating,¡¯ and will be reconstructed every time you return to the Market. Note that this process activates automatically whenever a life is spent, and only works if this item is equipped to an item slot.


    Maintenance cost - 1.3 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I thought at the box of words, acknowledging that I wanted to equip the item. The bracelet suddenly vanished into thin air, and I felt a physical weight settle around my wrist. Unlike before, the now-invisible bracelet had a certain presence to it that hadn¡¯t been there before. Even though I couldn¡¯t see it, I was more conscious of its weight than I had ever been in the past. It was as if the item was making itself known to me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Simple Friendship Bracelet Equipped


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item slots used: 1/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I grinned, knowing that I had successfully equipped the bracelet.


    After a few moments, I thought ¡®unequip¡¯ and the bracelet reappeared on my wrist.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Simple Friendship Bracelet Unequipped


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item slots used: 0/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Simple enough. I re-equipped the Friendship Bracelet and began to think.


    I had been seeing floating letters appear in front of my eyes over and over again since I had arrived in the Market. I hadn¡¯t thought about it very much at first, but I couldn¡¯t help but start to wonder. Where did these words come from? Why did they¡­ remind me of something?


    I looked into space for a moment, trying to figure out what memory I was missing. After a moment, a strange thought came to me. This looked a lot like an RPG game, with limited item slots and text-based notifications. Maybe there was more I could see?


    ¡°Status? Status Screen?¡± I tried calling out. Nothing happened.


    ¡°Profile! Uhhh¡­ Personal Status? Something?¡± I tried calling out a few different words, but nothing happened.


    I thought about myself. While speaking out loud hadn¡¯t produced a single result, when I started concentrating on the feeling of me, finally, the result I was looking for appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Basic Physical Body (Default Market Model ¨C Mass Produced Model 417-T), Mana Brain (Default Market Model ¨C Mass Produced Model 62-B)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Basic Physical body: + 5 grades (100 points) to all stats while you are inhabiting this physical vessel. Body will begin to deteriorate in a few months. Body has some leaks and cannot perfectly house a Transmigrator¡¯s soul. It is advised you find a replacement or reincarnate before problems occur.


    Mana Brain: Allows you to think. As this is comprised entirely of mana, it is possible to house this mana-brain inside of a soul, rather than being reliant upon a physical body to function.


    Warning: It is strongly advised that you keep your brain safe, and always have at least one brain or brain-equivalent functioning at all times. If your brain is damaged or destroyed, possible ramifications include losing the ability to think until a new brain is acquired and linked to your soul. Please keep this in mind at all times.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    0/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut Penalty: 0


    Abilities:


    Birth Abilities: Body Control


    Achievement Abilities: Taxes


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Remaining Achievement: 8.79


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 1/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1: Simple Friendship Bracelet


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Body Control ¨C You gain the ability to control what sex you reincarnate as.


    Current Setting: Female (click to see more options)


    Taxes ¨C Whenever you gather Achievement, 20% of it will automatically be deducted and paid to the person who added you to the Market. (As you were added to the Market by an automated System, you pay taxes to the Ruler of the Market instead. Taxes are thus paid directly to Eluxia¡­ Scanning¡­


    Eluxia not found. Attempting to find tax recipient_Market¡¯s owner¡­ Error. There is no owner of the Market right now. For more information, please consult the legal code of the Market.)


    The ¡®Taxes¡¯ Ability in my Status screen started to turn gray. Then, moments later, it disappeared entirely. The entire ¡®Achievement Abilities¡¯ category deleted itself in front of my eyes, and the ¡®Taxes¡¯ skill disappeared without a trace.


    Huh?


    I spent a few minutes parsing the information on my Status Screen, trying to figure out what just happened. However, I couldn¡¯t find anything useful or easy to understand, until finally, something else popped up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Newly Deceased sensed. Would you like to enable automatic information tooltips? This will allow you to view more details about certain Keywords, especially those on your Status Screen. This is recommended for new souls to familiarize themselves with the Market and the System! Available for the low price of 0.01 Achievement per hour! Can be disabled anytime.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Yes/No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had enough Achievement to pay for it, and I desperately needed to know what I was looking at. I thought ¡®yes¡¯ at the notification. Suddenly, I felt chunks of information assemble themselves inside of my brain, allowing me to make sense of what I was looking at.


    Suddenly, I understood what my stats meant.


    A totally normal human being should have stats of 100 in every category. The Status Screen currently showed two things ¨C my ¡®permanent¡¯ stats and my ¡®temporary¡¯ stats. All bodies had some differences in physical abilities and mental abilities, but those could be changed after I gained a new body. On the other hand, my soul also had Stats. These were permanent, and were added to the abilities and limitations of a body I inhabited. At that moment, my ¡®soul¡¯ had no Stats at all, and all of my Attributes were given by my current body.


    Attributes were also divided into grades. To increase the grade of an attribute, one needed to add 20 points to that category. The difference in strength between someone with 100 and 119 Strength was noticeable, but mattered far less than the difference between 119 and 120 in an Attribute. Every 20 points increased a Stat¡¯s grade by 1. Right now I had grade 5 in everything - I was a completely ordinary human being, with nothing special about me. Besides the fact that I was in the middle of a ruined city in the afterlife, at least.


    Finally, I knew that ¡®Achievement¡¯ was currency. The only currency that mattered in the Market. It was also a crafting material of some sort. I couldn¡¯t figure out what it was useful for, because the information the tooltip provided was too vague, and I had no idea how to earn more Achievement.


    More importantly, Achievement was what I needed to survive. It was like food, water, oxygen, and warmth, all combined into a single thing. As a soul, if I ever ran out of Achievement, I would stop existing. This wasn¡¯t a kind of death that could be fixed by spending a life and getting a new body. It was the end. Being destitute here was equivalent to immediately dying.


    I looked at other parts of the Status Screen, hoping that more tooltips would pop up. I only got the information that Abilities were permanent, much like Stats attached to my soul, and that keyword abilities could only be acquired through proper reincarnations. Whatever that meant. The tooltips had no explanation for it, leaving me pretty confused about what I actually needed to do.


    After a few minutes of looking through my Status Screen, I couldn¡¯t find out anything else. Since I had all the information the tooltip was likely to give me, I disabled it for now. Right before I closed my Status Screen, I saw something change.


    My Achievement decreased by 0.02.


    I felt an instinctive flinch reaction, deep in my soul. I realized that I might be on a much shorter timer than I had thought.


    Every so often, my Soul needed to ¡®eat¡¯ some Achievement. The tooltips had already told me that Achievement was both food and money, but it was only now that I finally realized what that meant.


    I needed to eat Achievement to live. And my Achievement was very low, almost on the verge of running out. I only had 8.77 left, and every single minute was a minute my Achievement was running out. I had to find a way to get Achievement or I would become another rotting pile of black water in the ocean of souls.


    As I tried to brainstorm ways to get more Achievement, I heard something totally unexpected.


    ¡°Hello? Is anyone else here?¡±


    In the distance, I heard a girl calling out to her surroundings.


    Was someone else here?

 Chapter 3: Sallia

    ¡°Hello?¡± The girl called out again. She sounded close ¨C she was probably just outside of the house. I looked around for a moment, before I grabbed the best weapon I could find nearby ¨C a metal frying pan. Even if it wasn¡¯t great, I could still slam it into someone¡¯s face if this turned out to be a trap.


    Then, I slowly crept out of the house while trying to locate the source of the girl¡¯s voice.


    I crept onto the street, moving slowly and keeping an eye on my surroundings. If I found whatever had killed the guy in the house, I wanted to be able to fight or run at a moment¡¯s notice.


    ¡°Is there anyone here? What¡¯s going on?¡± called the girl¡¯s voice, this time laden with more fear and uncertainty.


    I crept closer to the source of the sound. Finally, after passing several houses and turning a corner, I saw another human.


    She was tall and willowy, and wore the same plain, white linen clothes that I did. She was currently looking around with a confused, lost expression, and since I had remained quiet and hid myself, I could observe her without being noticed. I couldn¡¯t spot anything abnormal about her, at least at first sight.


    ¡°Where am I?¡± she said, her voice growing quieter. I gritted my teeth, trying to figure out if I should keep observing her or make my presence known. This city clearly had various kinds of magic available - the floating islands above the city were already testament to that. The girl could be an illusion, or she could be an invader who had helped destroy the Market. However, I knew almost nothing about my situation, and I was working with several time limits, any one of which might explode in my face and kill me at any moment. If I took a risk here, I wouldn¡¯t be alone while wandering through this city, and she might be able to figure out something I couldn¡¯t if we worked together. Then, I hid my frying pan behind my back and stepped out from behind the building I had been hiding near, exposing my presence to her. It was time to take a small risk in this land of unknowns.


    ¡°Hey!¡± I called out to her, quietly.


    ¡°Aaaahh!¡± The girl whirled around at the sound of my voice, her hand unconsciously creeping towards her waist where she found nothing, while she extended her other hand towards me. Then, she stopped moving, wincing a bit. I got my first good look at her face.


    She looked younger than me, though not by more than a few years. I guessed she was probably in her late teenage years. She was probably eighteen or nineteen. She had blonde hair, a nervous expression, and a reasonably attractive face. These features were pretty normal, and if I saw her on Earth, I wouldn¡¯t have thought twice about them. She would have just seemed to be another pretty young woman passing by. However, her eyes were different.


    They had no pupils, or whites. They were entirely purple, with no other colors at all. It looked like someone had taken two chunks of amethyst, carved them into perfect spheres, and jammed them into her skull. I felt sudden fear. Had I guessed wrong? If she wasn¡¯t human, maybe she was hostile?


    ¡°What¡­ what, what¡¯s wrong with your eyes?¡± she asked me, staring at my face in horror. ¡°Why are there¡­ black holes in the center of them? And the rest of your eyes are so¡­ so white. I¡¯ve never seen anything like that before. It¡¯s... ¡° She shivered slightly, before she stopped herself. She visibly worked on composing herself, the fear disappeared from her expression. ¡°Ahem ¨C my apologies. I¡­ I did not mean to touch on a sensitive topic. Let it be known that regardless of what birth defects you were born with, what truly matters is your actions and what you make of yourself. I hold no ill will towards you for your station at birth, only for who you have become,¡± she said, as if trying to erase the awkwardness of her initial reaction. ¡°Might I inquire as to where precisely we are? I am under the impression that I should have died recently, but this looks rather different from the afterlife the Priests told me of¡­¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but suddenly feel amused. I thought her eyes were weird and unnerving. She thought my eyes were weird and unnerving as well. After the tense time spent creeping through this city, my nerves had been on edge. However, I realised the two of us might still be in pretty similar situations, even if her eyes looked alien to me.


    I started laughing, feeling more than a little absurd at how utterly ridiculous the situation suddenly felt. The girl gave me a strange look as I worked on regaining control of myself, but the situation suddenly struck me as so utterly hilarious that I took a minute or two to get myself under control. Perhaps it was the tension I had felt for all of this time, or my initial panic when I had seen her, but the entire situation felt downright hilarious to me. I took a few seconds getting control of myself, before I managed to pull myself back into the conversation.


    ¡°May I¡­ may I ask why you¡¯re laughing?¡± She said, shifting uneasily. I finally calmed myself down.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I just think it¡¯s really funny you¡¯re afraid of my eyes, because your eyes are also kind of scary. Ummm¡­¡± I shook my stress-related giggles off, and glanced back towards the street I had come from.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get inside a house I found first. It should be safer than out here. I did find a corpse inside though, so stay alert - there might be hostile things moving about.¡± I gestured for the girl to walk to the side of me, but kept my other hand near my frying pan. As much as the situation seemed like a misunderstanding, I was still afraid of getting caught off guard by a strange ability or abnormality in this city I wasn¡¯t able to guard against. I still needed to keep an eye out for any tricks she might have.


    She eyed me up and down for a moment, uneasiness and confusion warring on her face, before she nodded and stepped to my side. Out of the corner of her eye, she seemed to glance at my right hand, which was still awkwardly positioned behind my back, but she didn¡¯t say anything as the two of us made our way back into the dead guy¡¯s house.


    Once we were inside, I quickly shut the door, before turning back to the girl I had found.


    ¡°So, I¡¯m¡­ uhh¡­¡± I suddenly recalled that I did not seem to know my name. All I knew was that it started with ¡®Isa.¡¯ ¡°To be perfectly honest, I don¡¯t really remember my name. But it¡¯s still nice to meet you.¡± I held out my left hand towards her, and she gave me a baffled look. It didn¡¯t look like she refused to give me a handshake - it looked like she had no idea why I was holding my hand out towards her. She frowned for a moment, before clearing her throat.


    ¡°I am Sallia Nostrausse, last of the Nostrausse family,¡± she said, giving me a very elegant curtsy. The elegance and ease of the motion was seriously hampered by the fact she was wearing very basic linen pants and a shirt, rather than a dress, which was a problem she seemed to realise moments later. She blushed, before brushing past the failed curtsy attempt. ¡°Ahhh¡­ Please forgive any discourtesy I have shown you,¡± she said, looking at her clothes and frowning in distaste. ¡°Regardless, may I ask if this is the afterlife? What does it appear so¡­ odd? I thought my heart was to be weighed for judgement, but I can¡¯t seem to find Ashra¡¯s court. Could you¡­ erm¡­ kindly direct me towards where I¡¯m supposed to be going? Also, though it may be presumptuous, may I ask what the¡­ strange black ocean I saw while coming here was? This is also quite different from what the priests described¡­¡± She turned to me, and her gaze started to become filled with expectations and curiosity I had no good response to.


    Her questions, combined with her unusual eyes, started to give me a sneaking suspicion...


    ¡°Sallia¡­ Before we continue speaking, do you mind explaining what your home was like? Not a long, detailed explanation ¨C just a quick description will do.¡± I said. I was starting to realise that she came from somewhere very different from whatever home I came from.


    Sallia gave me a strange look. Then, her eyes widened as she seemed to realise what I was getting at.


    ¡°I live¡­ lived on a continent where the priesthood rules the lower posts of the country in the name of the gods. They run the education system for nobles, and answer directly to the god-king. Nobles are the families born with magical talent, and are blessed with the task of keeping martial order within the kingdom. Upon dying, it is well known that the first god-king, Ashra, will take us to his halls and weigh our hearts upon the scales of judgement. Those found worthy will be granted another life as nobles, while those found wanting will be born again as commoners, to learn the lessons that eluded them in their previous life. Those in between will be reborn as the children of wealthy merchants, and those found to be truly benevolent and perfectly free of evil will be reborn as phoenixes, the holiest and most sacred animals of all.¡± She took another dubious glance at the scorch marks inside of the house, before giving me another strange glance from the corner of her eyes. ¡°I see that perhaps the afterlife is quite different than I was told. What about you? Were you born in a different kingdom or continent?¡±


    ¡°I was born¡­ in something called a London. I¡­¡± I felt a pounding headache as I tried to reach into my memories. The more I concentrated on my previous life, the more I felt dizzy, and my headache grew worse as I tried to figure out what London was. However, even if my memories were hazy, I was absolutely sure that I had lived in a world with lots of technology in it. Even though many of my memories were like jigsaw puzzle parts without a full picture, I could still remember bits and pieces of information, like computers and cars, even if some other obvious ¡®daily¡¯ things were completely gone. The world that Sallia had described was utterly alien to me. I struggled with my headache for a few moments, before I shook my head and gestured at one of the giant skyscrapers visible down the street. ¡°I came from a place where a lot of people made buildings like that one. And at home, magic and mages were considered nonsensical stories for children.¡±


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Nonsensical stories?¡± Sallia seemed shocked at that statement. Whatever she had been thinking or preparing herself for, it clearly wasn¡¯t this. ¡°Wait, how did your continent function without Mages? I¡¯ve never heard of ¡®London¡¯ before either. Even if you were born in another kingdom, life without magic is just impossible. Who would rule the country? Or heal the sick and wounded? How do you even know who is or isn¡¯t noble if nobody can cast spells?¡±Sallia looked appalled, like I had just suggested that people in my world had walked upside down every day, or like I had suggested that breathing was optional where I came from.


    If I hadn¡¯t had a few hours to process the idea of a city where floating islands and System popups existed, I would have also had a hard time accepting the idea that her world also existed. A continent where magic and god-kings ruled would have seemed impossible to me before I had come to this place. However, besides just feeling confused and amazed, I was growing even more curious about the nature of this city.


    What was this place? Both Sallia and I knew we were dead, but had arrived in this city after our deaths. We came from two worlds that were so utterly and completely different from each other that it was difficult to believe we were from different parts of the same world, or even the same universe. And yet, somehow, here we were, in a city with a wide variety of technology and magic, all thrown together in a hodgepodge of nonsensical shapes that made me wonder if Cthulu was the city planner.


    And, in this city powerful enough to pull in two people from totally different universes and shift things around through space at will, instead of a thriving civilization, we found massive piles of rubble and corpses.


    What the hell happened here? And who or what had destroyed this civilization that could do things I couldn¡¯t even imagine?


    * * *


    Sallia and I spent about an hour inside of the house, talking to each other and recounting our experiences to each other. I learned a fair bit of useful information in that time, and had also slowly grown comfortable enough with her to put down my frying pan.


    First, Sallia also remembered her death ¨C in fact, she knew much more about her death than I did about mine. Her family had been devastated by a plague less than two years ago, and eventually, she followed them to the grave after a strange bout of serious pain in her stomach. Sallia thought she had probably been poisoned. She also didn¡¯t have a particularly long journey before she reached the Market ¨C she described it as taking a day or two, rather than the weeks or months I remembered floating above the ever-changing ocean.


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit of admiration for Sallia now. Even though she had a few speculations about who might have ordered her assassination and why, she was remarkably calm despite knowing that someone had murdered her just a few days ago.


    Her situation also formed a stark contrast with mine. My best understanding of my death was ¡®something heavy hit my head and I died,¡¯ and I didn¡¯t even remember my first name. I didn¡¯t know why there was such a huge difference between our two situations, but the fact that she hadn¡¯t attacked me over the course of the time we spent talking made me feel assured that she wasn¡¯t hostile, at least. I remained somewhat wary of her, but I didn¡¯t think she would just fire a spell at me the moment I turned my back anymore.


    After Sallia described more about her world and her death, she asked me more about what I remembered of my world. I had a hard time remembering specifics, but I still gave her an overview of what I did remember. I could describe computers in some detail, which Sallia found fascinating, and I could also describe vehicles, even if I couldn¡¯t remember some of the specifics.


    However, by the end of the hour, I had finally noticed something¡­ peculiar.


    My body was a fair bit more odd than I had previously thought it was.


    Even after walking around the city for several minutes, maintaining a high state of tension for almost an hour, physically exerting myself to move things around inside of the house while searching it, and then standing for almost another hour while talking with Sallia and getting to know her, I was still in exactly the same physical condition I had started in. I didn¡¯t get tired. I didn¡¯t seem to get thirsty, or hungry, or need to use the bathroom, either.


    At first, I thought this was just because I hadn¡¯t been here long enough. However, since I found it increasingly odd, I decided to mention it to Sallia. She frowned, and then began jumping up and down and doing what looked like a high-intensity exercise routine for a few minutes, before turning back to me and shaking her head.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel any change at all. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t be able to finish this exercise routine. My instructor said it was a difficult exercise routine even for an average mage-knight, but I just finished it and I¡¯m not even out of breath.¡± Then, Sallia¡¯s face turned even more strange. ¡°Also, I just realized this, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve been breathing all of this time, either. I need to breathe if I want to talk, but if I don¡¯t say anything, I don¡¯t need to breathe at all.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± I frowned, before I started consciously paying attention to my breathing. I stopped talking, and just sat there for a few minutes, before I confirmed Sallia¡¯s suspicion.


    If we didn¡¯t feel like talking, we could just¡­ hold our breath.


    Forever.


    ¡°How odd,¡± said Sallia, frowning. ¡°It¡¯s very easy to not notice, but not needing to breathe is just¡­ strange.¡±


    I frowned, before I thought about all of the weird notifications I had gotten during my exploration of the Market.


    ¡°I think I got a notification that a basic body was created for me to inhabit when I got here, or something like that. Also, if you take a look at the bodies in the room I mentioned earlier, there aren¡¯t any bloodstains in the area, even though the wounds on the corpse should have leaked blood all over the place. Instead, there¡¯s just weird clumps of light everywhere, that look sort of like floating candles. Do you think the bodies we¡¯re currently inhabiting are just¡­ flawed, somehow? Or fake?¡± I struggled to put what I was thinking into words, but Sallia nodded after a few moments of thought.


    ¡°I suspect that the civilization originally inhabiting this place treated bodies like clothes. They could change out of them at any time, and if a pair of clothes got damaged, they could simply buy a new body and change into it. Skilled craftsmen might have specialized in providing good bodies for people to inhabit. However, they might have also valued convenience over durability. If they found breathing annoying, perhaps they specifically created bodies that no longer needed to breathe, even if it caused bodies to deteriorate more quickly as a result. After all, if they could simply buy another body later on, it doesn¡¯t seem like a serious problem if a body collapses within a few months.¡±


    I frowned, before I nodded. ¡°That also explains the food stockpile in this house. I know a lot of them, and they¡¯re all kinds of food well-known for being bad for you if you eat too much of them. I was originally wondering if the owner of this house just didn¡¯t care about his health, but¡­ if he didn¡¯t need to eat at all, things make much more sense. Food was just a form of entertainment, so once his body became unhealthy, he would just swap to a new one.¡±


    Sallia looked at the random scraps of food throughout the house, displaying a bit more curiosity than before, and then nodded.


    ¡°Either way, this information does not solve our fundamental problems. We must figure out what ¡®reincarnating¡¯ actually entails, find it before our Achievement runs out, and keep an eye on when and how our bodies will deteriorate. We may also need to learn how to ¡®swap out¡¯ of bodies and change into new ones, if we don¡¯t find a better solution to our other problems in time. For all of our problems, we must explore the Market more. And neither of us knows enough to solve these problems on our own.¡±


    Sallia took a look at my frying pan, before shrugging and digging into the pantry. She pulled out a frying pan of her own, before holding out her elbow towards me for some reason. ¡°Are you willing to work with me to explore this city together? Since we are in similar situations, it makes sense to work together, no?¡±


    I had no idea why she was holding her elbow out, but I grinned at her and nodded. ¡°Sounds good. Let¡¯s work together.¡± Sallia took a glance at my elbow, before finally realising I had no idea what she was doing. She fell into thought, before holding out her left hand towards me.


    I took her hand and shook it. She seemed surprised when I touched her, but after a moment she also grinned and shook my hand back.


    Then, the two of us set off. I wasn¡¯t actually sure how effective our frying pans would be as a weapons, but they were better than nothing.


    The two of us crept through the city, street by street, while keeping an eye out for anything else in the area. Weapons, items, allies, enemies¡­ neither of us had any clue what we should expect, so we just watched out for anything unusual.


    As we shuffled along the silent and empty streets of the massive skeleton of a city, our surroundings started to change. Paved roads and houses began to be replaced with recognizable commercial districts. Buildings, with strange signs advertising a variety of things, started to litter our surroundings, while advertisements also floated in the sky above the city.


    The advertisements seemed to want to sell anything I could think of. Everything from alcohol, to clothes, to snacks, to games and books were advertised. For now, Sallia and I ignored those shops, since they seemed devoted to entertainment and didn¡¯t seem useful. We started searching for something related to the city¡¯s unique features instead. A bookstore, a library, or one of the companies selling physical vessels or other Market-unique items would be far more useful to us than a store selling snacks which our bodies probably had no use for.


    Finally, we started to come across more signs of battle on the streets, rather than just the occasional broken door or corpse. Scorch marks started to litter the streets. Random craters scarred the pavement. Headless corpses, piles of bones, and lumps of¡­ meat were scattered across the sidewalks. Most bizarre of all, many of the corpses looked like they had been partially dissolved into clumps of light. The clumps of light looked sort of like the wicks of candles, except for the fact that there was nothing connected to them and they were blue instead of orange. There were also several half-demolished skeletal remains, which had been destroyed in a wide variety of ways.


    Sallia and I grew more and more nervous as we came across these increasing marks of battle. Whatever had happened here, we were finding more and more of the city¡¯s former residents. And not a single one of them was alive.


    Half a street later, I saw something in the corner of my eye move.


    I immediately got my frying pan ready, whirling to face the destroyed shop front.


    A cluster of white bones assembled themselves in front of my eyes.


    In front of us was a freshly animated skeleton. Clumps of green soulfire glowed inside of its eye sockets. It held a greenish-purple sword in its right hand, and a yellow shield in its left hand. And it was looking right at us.

 Chapter 4: Skeleton

    ¡°Hello?¡± I asked, looking at the skeleton and hoping that, despite all odds, it wouldn¡¯t be hostile. Since our bodies were also incredibly weird, maybe it was intelligent and friendly.


    The skeleton¡¯s hate filled gaze locked onto me, its eyes glowing with frosty hunger and emptiness. Its jaw clacked, and even though it had no lips, I could still feel that it was giving me a malicious sneer. It lifted its blade, and without a moment of hesitation, charged at me.


    The skeleton was not friendly.


    Sallia raised her hand and pointed her palm directly at the Skeleton. Her Amethyst eyes seemed to sparkle, twinkling like stars in the night sky. I was confused, before remembering that Sallia had mentioned magic existed in her world.


    Was Sallia about to use Magic? I suddenly felt like the threat of the skeleton was seriously diminished, if I had a powerful Mage with me. I started to feel excited, instead. I was about to witness real magic for the first time! Not magic so incomprehensible I couldn¡¯t understand it, like the magic that brought me to the market, but flashy, extraordinary abilities that didn¡¯t belong in my first world!


    And then¡­


    Nothing happened.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Sallia looked at her hand with total confusion, as the Skeleton swung its sword directly at me. I was shocked, but managed to flop to the ground and roll out of the way before the Skeleton killed me.


    Sallia quickly recovered from her shock, before she slammed her frying pan into the skeleton¡¯s face. It did no visible damage, but the skeleton stumbled back a few steps. Then, she helped me up, before the two of us began running for our lives.


    ¡°My magic isn¡¯t working!¡± said Sallia, shock and confusion still evident in her voice.


    ¡°I noticed,¡± I said, thanking whoever made the Market for the fact that I didn¡¯t need to breathe and didn¡¯t get tired while running. Otherwise, I would have been panting with exhaustion after a minute of this.


    The two of us dashed down the street, back the way we had come. The skeleton, which had already recovered from Sallia¡¯s attack, looked even more pissed off than before, and chased after us. Neither side ran faster than the other, so it kept pace with us, always just a few steps away.


    Seconds crawled by as we ran. I started to realize that this was going nowhere ¨C we weren¡¯t getting any further away from the skeleton, and neither party would ever get tired, if my rudimentary knowledge of the undead was correct. If anything, time was on the Skeleton¡¯s side, since Sallia and I would eventually run out of Achievement and ¡®starve¡¯ to death, while the Skeleton might be able to keep going forever. Fighting wasn¡¯t an option, because I had no idea how to fight, and escaping seemed impossible because it was too close to us to find a way to hide from it


    We needed something to break this stalemate.


    ¡°Do you have any ideas?¡± I asked, turning to Sallia.


    ¡°I¡¯m working on it,¡± said Sallia, continuously jerking her head in different directions as she looked for a path to survival.


    ¡°Do you think it can climb?¡± She asked. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have any flesh on its body, so its hands probably don¡¯t have very good grip, right?¡±


    ¡°Maybe? I¡¯ve seen a lot of things I don¡¯t understand recently, so maybe it has a way around that problem. But it¡¯s worth a shot?¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s try it! Come with me!¡±


    Sallia darted to the left, heading directly into the front yard of a modern-looking house. Then, she immediately started climbing up a drainage pipe attached to the side of the house. In a few seconds flat, she scaled the side of the house and reached the roof.


    I didn¡¯t have time to give Sallia a dumbfounded gaze, although I wanted to. I ducked left the moment I saw Sallia move, and started climbing for my life. My movements were much slower than Sallia¡¯s. Nervously, I took a look at the skeleton.


    It was too close! I panicked, nearly missing a handhold. Before I tumbled to the ground, I caught myself. However, the skeleton was already preparing to swing at me, and I had nowhere to dodge or flee now that I was partway up the drain..


    Before I had time to think further, Sallia¡¯s frying pan slammed into its head, sending the skeleton tumbling to the ground. I looked up, and realized that Sallia had slid back down the drainpipe after seeing my situation, and had offered me timely assistance. She gave me a grin as she climbed back up to the roof.


    With the seconds Sallia bought me, I finished scampering up the pipe, before flopping over the lip of the roof and collapsing onto the tiles. Even if I didn¡¯t need to breathe and didn¡¯t get tired, the fear and stress I had gone through in the past minute far surpassed anything I had previously experienced. I spent a few moments silently laying on the roof, reveling in the fact that I was still alive.


    Meanwhile, Sallia picked up the frying pan that I had dropped. She looked over the side of the building, hefting the frying pan and giving it a menacing twirl. Then, her expression became increasingly bizarre, and she lowered the frying pan.


    ¡°Sallia?¡± I started to feel nervous. I had thought her plan was to knock the skeleton off the roof if it climbed up, but I had no idea why she would lower her frying pan. Even if it couldn¡¯t climb, as Sallia hoped, keeping the frying pan ready just in case would make us safer. Was she under some sort of mental attack? Why was her expression changing into such a strange one? I got up and leaned over the side of the building, trying to figure out what was happening.


    There, I saw the skeleton sprawled on the ground.


    Huh? Why hadn¡¯t it climbed to its feet yet?


    The skeleton climbed to its feet before staring up at us. I wondered why it was so much slower now. It had climbed to its feet nearly instantly after Sallia clobbered it earlier, and it hadn¡¯t seemed very injured. Its jaw clattered angrily as it gave us a death glare, before it turned to the drainpipe. The skeleton placed two hands on the drainpipe, before it tried to mimic our movements. Its movements were slower than ours, but my heart sank as I realized the skeleton could copy us, even in a very limited way. Even if it was slower, we would still need to find a way to deal with this thing, or else it might keep hounding us forever. Then, the skeleton placed one of its feet on the side of the building and began trying to climb its way upwards¡­


    And fell to the ground. I suddenly realized its posture looked eerily familiar¡­


    It turned towards us. Its jaw clattered angrily. It gave us a death glare¡­ again? And then repeated the exact same motions as before, preparing to climb to the roof and stab us. That is, until its feet left the ground, at which point it tumbled to the ground, landing in exactly the same posture as before¡­It repeated this exact same loop of actions a third time, and then a fourth time.


    And then a tenth time...


    It then failed a twentieth, and a thirtieth, and a fortieth time. Every single time it fell to the ground, it mimicked almost exactly the same motions, never learning a thing from its previous failures, never trying anything new, and never getting any closer to success.


    The terrifying creature that had chased us for a few minutes suddenly seemed far less threatening.


    ¡°Do you think we¡¯re safe? Also, how did a noblewoman like you learn to climb a drainpipe like that?¡± I asked, looking at Sallia. Since the Skeleton didn¡¯t look like it would be getting up here anytime soon, my tension was slowly draining away.


    ¡°I was¡­ a bit of a feisty child in my younger days. My father always insisted that I conduct myself like a proper lady, so that I could get married to a nice noble family. I¡­ I did not wish to get married to someone I had never met before. When I was nine, I had a rather¡­ questionable solution to this problem. Whenever my father mentioned my future marriage, I climbed the trees in the estate and threw apples at him. He was not amused, so he had the gardeners cut down the trees after I did it a second time.¡± said Sallia, her eyes gaining a bit of a wistful gleam to them. ¡°I always thought I hated him for trying to make me marry somebody I had never seen before, and how he always pushed me to get married earlier for the good of the family.¡± Her eyes lost the nostalgic gleam, and her mouth began to uncontrollably curl into a frown. ¡°When he died I realized how much I missed him. Even if we never got along when he was alive, I¡­ I did not wish for him to disappear.¡± She sighed, before she finally seemed to snap out of it, returning to the present. ¡°Anyway, I think we are safe for the moment. This thing does not seem very intelligent. It keeps making errors at the exact same spot. It has failed forty six¡­ make that forty seven times in a row. I do not think it will be getting up here anytime soon.¡±


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    We stood over the side of the building and watched as the skeleton fumbled and fell to the ground again. And again, and again. Finally, I broke the silence again.


    ¡°Do you think it¡¯ll just keep trying forever?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Sallia looked at the skeleton, before she shrugged. Given how surprisingly formal her speech was, the shrug caught me off-guard when I saw it. ¡°Perhaps? It is difficult to say how this thing will react, but given its odd persistence, it would not surprise me if it simply keeps trying for the rest of eternity.¡±


    The skeleton tumbled the ground another sixteen times. At this point, both of us were very sure the braindead bag of bones wasn¡¯t going to get up here anytime soon.


    The fact it never learned from its previous mistakes was encouraging - it meant that tricking any other skeletons we found should be pretty easy. However, it also meant that the skeleton probably wasn¡¯t going to leave on its own. It would keep chasing us until one party died.


    ¡°I am starting to regret coming up here,¡± said Sallia, as she looked at the skeleton on the ground beneath us. ¡°We are still slowly eating away at our Achievement, and we only have a few months before our physical bodies deteriorate. This means we already have two different problems that will kill us if we don¡¯t solve them. And if we are stranded up here, we cannot solve either problem.¡±


    I checked the amount of Achievement I had remaining, and felt more than a little nervous when I noticed it had gone down by another few fractions of an Achievement point. I was probably losing around about 1 Achievement per day, by my rough estimation. In short, if we were stranded on this roof for eight and a half days, I would permanently die. That gave me some wiggle room, but far less than I was comfortable with.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± I frowned, looking around the house roof we were stuck on. The roof was nice and flat, which made it easy for us to walk around without slipping, but it didn¡¯t have any loose items we could use to escape our situation. The neighboring building was a medieval hut, which I doubted could hold our weight, and the other neighboring roof was too far away for us to try roof-hopping.


    Then, I looked down at the roof beneath me. While the building was fairly modern, its roof was made of something quite different from what I was familiar with. The roof tiles seemed to be made of heavy clay bricks. I looked at them for a few more moments, before I got an idea. I gave Sallia a slight grin, and gestured towards the roof tiles.


    ¡°I think if we pry off a roof tile or two and throw it at mister bones over there, we can get this thing off our back,¡± I said. ¡°Even if the roof tiles are pretty tightly packed together, they aren¡¯t stuck together. I think we can pry a few of them up with some work.¡±


    Sallia made a slightly dubious expression, before she shook her head and smiled. For a moment, her expression was no longer gentle, or ¡®polite¡¯ in the way that her smiles had been in the past. She looked at the skeleton, and her grin turned savage, like something one would see from a hardened warrior on the battlefield. ¡°Well, let¡¯s give it a try. Since this thing enjoys chasing us so much, let¡¯s turn its skull into bone dust.¡± For the first time since I had started talking to her, Sallia dropped her formal speech entirely. However, even though her speech was less formal, she felt more¡­ real now. As if she had been wearing a mask all this time, and she had taken a tiny corner of it off.


    It took a few minutes of straining ourselves, as well as scraping my fingers to try to get some purchase. It took almost ten minutes of prying to get the damn roof tile out of its position, but after much struggling we had a block of ammunition.


    We looked back over the side of the roof. The skeleton was still trying to climb the drainpipe.


    Sallia looked at me, and gave me a feral grin as she handed the heavy roof tile to me. ¡°It was your idea. You do the honors.¡±


    I hefted the tile, getting a feel for its weight. Then, satisfied, I threw it at the skeleton.


    Whoosh! The tile sailed through the air. Then, with a hefty crunch, it smashed into the skeleton¡¯s head. The skeleton immediately collapsed to the ground, before crawling to its feet again. Unlike Sallia¡¯s frying pan attack, this time I could see visible damage to the thing¡¯s skull. It looked like a piece of pottery that had been cracked, but it hadn¡¯t shattered yet. I gestured behind me, and after a bit of work, Sallia handed me another roof tile.


    It took four throws before the skeleton¡¯s skull turned into powder. Once its skull was destroyed, the thing stopped getting back up. I did miss one of my throws, but since the skeleton didn¡¯t learn from its mistakes and had no way of fighting back, killing it was surprisingly easy.


    I felt something strange mere moments later. A small dribble of energy seemed to sink into my soul.


    Another popup box appeared in my vision, disrupting the euphoric feeling before I had time to sink into it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Killed a skeletal foot soldier for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +20, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked at the glowing words that appeared in front of me.


    What was this?


    I turned to look at Sallia, before realizing she was also staring into space, possibly looking at a popup box on her own.


    As I read the new popup box, I felt energy continue to trickle into my soul. The feeling intensified, and I quickly realized something.


    First, killing the skeleton had given us Achievement. If we could find more skeletons and deal with them, Sallia and I would have a way to solve our most immediate problem. However, gaining achievement was like a cocktail of pleasant emotions. A strange and unnatural concoction of happiness, akin to the first shot of a drug and the euphoria of a first kiss, all rolled together. This feeling of excitement welled up inside of me the moment I acquired some Achievement, and the feeling made it hard to control myself. It was like a drug, and the moment I felt it, I wanted more of it.


    I shivered, cutting off my train of thought before it could finish. I hadn¡¯t ever thought of Achievement like this before, but it was definitely addictive. If I was distracted by this feeling while surrounded by skeletons, I would definitely lose a life right afterwards.


    Getting Achievement was something I needed to do in order to survive. However, it was also dangerous until I found a way to keep hold of my emotions upon acquiring it. If I didn¡¯t, I might start prioritizing Achievement over my survival, just because of how pleasant it was to acquire more of it. And thinking like that could easily get me killed.


    I spent almost a solid minute wallowing in a mixture of fear and concern. Then, finally, I refocused on the present. I didn¡¯t know exactly what Achievement was yet, besides the fact it was a survival supply and a currency, but maybe there was some way to control this feeling. I needed Achievement to survive, so I would never be able to stop earning Achievement. If that was the case, I needed a way to control it instead. I would revisit this train of thought later, though, when I knew more about the Market and Achievement.


    I opened my Status Screen again, to see if anything else had changed. The Attributes remained completely unchanged, as did the items section, but the third section of my Attributes panel now had a little more Achievement in it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    0/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut Penalty: 0


    Abilities:


    Birth Abilities: Body Control


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Temporary Effects:


    N/A


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 8.77 -> 28.65


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I did notice that none of my stats had increased, despite the fact I had physically and mentally exerted myself quite a bit. I had been hoping that perhaps I would get a popup, informing me of a new Skill or Ability or something after the fight or something. However, nothing of the sort appeared. Clearly, Attributes didn¡¯t increase as a result of exercising or thinking. I probably needed to buy them or something. In any case, exercising wasn¡¯t going to make me stronger here.


    I turned my attention back to the remaining Achievement I had. When I first arrived, it had been at 8.77. I had gained 20 Achievement from killing the skeleton, but I had lost 0.12 Achievement during the few hours Sallia and I had wandered around and fought the skeleton.


    I now had 28 days to live instead of 8. Still very short, but I had a lot more room to work with than before.


    I shivered, feeling a mixture of nervousness and determination as I looked at my Status Screen. Was 28 days enough? Would I be able to find everything I needed in that time?


    I had no idea. However, the skeleton confirmed with resounding certainty that this ruined city was even less peaceful than I had thought. Not only did I need to figure out how to survive Achievement starvation, solve the addictive pleasant sensation I got when I acquired Achievement, and prevent physical deterioration from killing me, but Sallia and I also needed to keep an eye out for nearby skeletons if we didn¡¯t want to get surrounded and killed.

 Chapter 5: The One-Stop shop for the New and Enterprising Transmigrator

    ¡°How much Achievement do you have left?¡± I asked Sallia, turning towards her after I finished processing the gains from the end of the battle.


    ¡°I have 129.64. Why? How much do you have left?¡± asked Sallia.


    129? Why did she have so much more than me? I had only been in the city for an extra hour or two compared to her, so I shouldn¡¯t be that much lower than her. I had even landed the finishing blow on the Skeleton! Shouldn¡¯t I have gotten more Achievement from killing the Skeleton compared to her?


    I frowned, thinking over this problem, before realizing that I hadn¡¯t arrived with 0 Achievement. When I had arrived, I had been in possession of a measly eight Achievement. In order for our numbers to make sense, she had to have entered the Market with more Achievement than me.


    I sighed, then shrugged. My companion having more Achievement than I did meant she had longer before she died of starvation, so it wasn¡¯t a bad thing. It meant she was in less danger of dying. Even if I wished I had more, being jealous wasn¡¯t productive. Besides, now that I knew a way to get Achievement, I just needed to work hard and earn more. So long as I could find a way to reduce the downsides of absorbing Achievement, I would love to see what else this Market currency could be used for.


    ¡°Erm¡­ I only have 28 right now,¡± I said, finally answering Sallia¡¯s question.


    ¡°Why so little? I thought you would have more than me. I got 2 Achievement for helping to kill a Skeleton foot soldier for the first time, so I thought you would get a lot more for actually killing it¡­¡±


    ¡°I got twenty for killing it.¡± I made a face. ¡°I only had eight when I got to the Market.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± Sallia frowned. ¡°Your memories are also much patchier than mine, and you have less Achievement than me as well. Do you think perhaps these two things are related? Achievement seems to be used as a soul¡¯s¡­ nutrition, or something of that nature. So perhaps your soul got damaged because you had so little Achievement?


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said, frowning. ¡°Now that I think about it, while I was in the ocean of souls, I kept feeling like I was losing something every second I was immersed in the water. Perhaps my memory loss is because I spent too long inside of the ocean before coming to the Market?¡±


    ¡°Why would you spend so much longer in the ocean than me, though?¡± Sallia asked. ¡°Wait, you also said that you spent weeks, or even months flying to the Market, while I only remember spending a few hours or days flying here. Perhaps your home world was farther away from the Market than mine, so you spent longer coming here, ¡®ate¡¯ more Achievement during transportation, and have patchier memories?¡±


    I thought about Sallia¡¯s theory, before shrugging. For now, it was as good a guess as any. If I was farther away from the Market to begin with, perhaps it had taken longer to ¡®sense¡¯ me and add me to the Market. I had no way of knowing if that was correct, but it at least seemed to make sense.


    If so, was there a way to fix it? If I was suffering from some sort of¡­ soul damage, could it be healed at all? I felt a weird mixture of emotions as I thought about never getting my memories back. I had people that I had cared about once. People I had wanted to see again. Now, I didn¡¯t even know their names. If they showed up right in front of me, odds were I wouldn¡¯t recognize them at all. I had tried not to think about it since coming to the Market, but the idea of losing so much of who I had been bothered me.


    However, the sense of loss I should have felt was muted. Perhaps it was because I knew my life was on the line in this city, and I had several timers counting down to my death. Meanwhile, a bunch of skeletons roamed the city in search of people to stab. While I felt frustrated and upset about my missing memories, I could still focus on the problems at hand.


    I sighed. ¡°If I can¡¯t get my memories back, I can¡¯t get them back. I can keep going without them, just¡­ keep an eye out and let me know if you find anything that might help, all right?¡±


    Sallia gave me a less strained smile. She seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then, finally, she moved a little closer to me, and then gave me a very awkward, very gentle hug. Then, she patted my back a few times before retreating again. ¡°I will. Let¡¯s keep an eye out as we look through this city.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but smile a little bit. Suddenly, my situation seemed brighter than it had originally been. Even if I didn¡¯t have my memories of my old friends and family, I had a friend here, at least. I turned my thoughts back to the present. ¡°For now, do we have a better plan than ¡®go around the city, look for some sort of information repository, and hope we run into fewer skeletons?¡±


    Sallia seemed to sense my desire to change the subject. ¡°At the very least, I cannot think of one.¡± Sallia frowned, seeming dissatisfied with leaving our fate up to chance, but we had no better ideas for now. The two of us climbed back down the drain, before I paused for a moment near the skeleton¡¯s corpse. Then, I reached down and picked up the skeleton¡¯s sword.


    I hefted the blade with my right hand, struggling a bit to maintain the sword¡¯s balance as I did so.


    ¡°You¡¯re holding it wrong,¡± said Sallia as she grabbed the blade from my hands. ¡°First of all, this is a two handed sword. The skeleton was trying to use it as a one handed blade, but that¡¯s because these things are not very bright. Second of all, you¡¯re gripping it too tightly ¨C you¡¯ll lose flexibility that way, and you shouldn¡¯t be doing that if you aren¡¯t about to deliver a downward hack with the blade. Maintaining some flexibility in your wrists before delivering a strike is the right way ¨C like this,¡± she said, loosely gripping the hilt with both of her hands before she seamlessly transitioned into a tightened grip and delivered a weighty hack with the sword.


    ¡°Have you actually received training in blades?¡± I asked, curious. Sallia had mentioned being a noblewoman in her previous life, but she had also said that nobles were the military enforcers of the god-king and the priests. She had also mentioned a few times that she wasn¡¯t a very obedient child, so I was rather curious about how well she could handle weapons. Right now it might be a matter of life and death for the two of us.


    ¡°I¡¯ve spent a year or two learning swords. In my world, it was considered customary for most nobles to at least learn some basic swordsmanship and magic. Although most girls switched to etiquette classes after a year or two, depending on whether their family was planning on training them as a magic knight or marrying them off.¡± Sallia¡¯s expression turned sad again for a moment. ¡°My father tried very hard to get me to take the etiquette classes after my first year, but I managed to convince one of my teachers to keep training me after school every day. It was¡­ enjoyable. But I also didn¡¯t get to learn as much as I wished to.¡±


    ¡°In that case, how about you take the sword? In my world, nobody really bothered to learn how to use them. We used different weapons to fight,¡± I said, trying to pull a few more memories out of the hazy fog of my mind. Even though I was sure swords weren¡¯t very good weapons at home, I couldn¡¯t quite remember why. My brain kept conjuring an image of some sort of¡­ metal tube, but I couldn¡¯t figure out how the metal tube was supposed to be used as a weapon. It seemed much inferior to a sword or a bow, after all. I shook my head, trying to get rid of my growing headache.


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    ¡°Hmm. Is that so? I understand why your grip was so terrible then,¡± said Sallia, as she accepted the blade.


    The two of us also spent a few moments looking at the skeleton¡¯s shield, but sadly, it was a fair bit heavier than the sword. With our current strength, lugging around the shield would be too difficult for us, and it would probably be impossible to use effectively in a fight. Thus, we could only abandon the shield for now. The skeleton may have been incredibly stupid, but it was definitely stronger than us, if it could carry around this thing and still chase us through several streets.


    After that, we started retracing our footsteps, making our way back towards the center of the city. This time, we had a better idea of what to watch out for, so we kept a wary eye out for any disconnected bones littering the ground or skeletons wandering the streets.


    Most of the stores also had broken walls, windows, or both. Some stores were almost completely leveled, with little more than a few waist-high walls remaining of the original building. The less damaged storefronts would often have chunks of building missing, or scorch marks lining the front door. Puddles of liquified rubble just outside of a door was also a common sight here. In some cases, these puddles of lava were still hot, making me wonder what kept the temperature high after all of this time. Since I couldn¡¯t figure out the answer, I just moved on. There were more important things to think about right now.


    However, seeing all of these bizarre and uniquely destroyed buildings, and thinking back to our fight with the skeleton, I started to get a bad feeling.


    Were skeletons¡­ really able to cause all of this?


    The skeleton we had met was barely intelligent. It had found us and started chasing us, before getting stuck trying to climb a drain for several minutes while we leisurely worked out a plan to safely kill it.


    There was no way any number of those skeleton warriors could have possibly done the kind of damage to the city I was seeing.


    Which meant there must be much scarier things lurking in the city. Or, at least there had been at one point. Part of me was still praying that they just¡­ weren¡¯t present anymore. But my gut was telling me that was wishful thinking on my part. If the skeletons were still laying around long after this city had fallen, there was a good chance the scarier things were also still laying around.


    ¡°Do you think skeletons really caused all this?¡± I asked.


    Sallia stopped walking, and turned to me. Her eyes glowed and dimmed several times in rapid succession, before she shook her head.


    There was no need for further words. She understood my point as well. Her lips tightened into a thin line, and the both of us began scanning our surroundings even more vigilantly than before. The sense of security I had gained after realizing we could kill the skeletons vanished, as I realized that we might not have encountered the real threats yet.


    After a few more minutes of walking, Sallia tapped my shoulder, before she soundlessly pointed across the street.


    There, a massive floor-to-ceiling broken window lay underneath a shop sign. Inside of it was a group of three skeletons. These three were holding onto different weapons than the first skeleton we had encountered. Two were holding spears, and one was holding onto a warhammer. All of the weapons were made out of the same greenish-purple material as the original skeleton¡¯s weapon.


    Right next to them was a nearly uncountable number of bones. It was a literal mound of bones taller than I was. I remembered the first skeleton assembling itself out of bones and shivered. If that entire pile of bones turned into skeletons, and even one had some sort of ranged weapon, we would be in a lot of trouble. Unless it did something stupid like try to use a bow as a bludgeon, but I didn¡¯t want to base my plans on the skeletons behaving stupidly.


    At the foot of the bone mound were dozens of corpses. At least half of the corpses were identical copies of a slightly chubby, angry looking bearded man with one eye. Four of the other corpses belonged to a reedy-looking teenage boy. Apart from that, there were a few corpses of other people scattered around the area.


    In the back of the shop was a pile of metal cubes, each of which was nearly as tall as my waist. They glowed with a faint green light, although it was difficult for me to perceive it if I didn¡¯t focus on it. Whenever I stopped paying attention to the cubes, the glow seemed to vanish entirely, reappearing only when I focused on them again.


    The shop¡¯s sign read ¡®Tier 1 Soul Fragments! Bargain items every Transmigrator needs to thrive in the Multiverse! Generic abilities to match your keyword abilities! Welcome to Thriftmart, the One-Stop Shop for the New and Enterprising Transmigrator!¡¯ It wasn¡¯t exactly what we were looking for, but it was by far the most promising advertisement we had found. Unlike other buildings selling entertainment items, this building was actually related to the weird aspects of the city. For the first time, we had found a building that might actually be useful.


    And, unfortunately, it was also the building most heavily populated by skeletons.


    ¡°Do we risk it?¡± I asked Sallia.


    Sallia hefted her blade, seeming to weigh it, before she turned back to the skeletons and adopted a thoughtful expression.


    ¡°It is the first useful looking shop we have found. Also, I am noticing that the skeletons seem to be mostly clustered around buildings deeper in the city. We walked through the residential area for several minutes without a single sighting of skeletal soldiers. We found the first skeleton in the outskirts of the commercial district. Then, upon reaching the area where the higher end shops are located, we have immediately also come across three skeletons at once. I suspect the skeletons and more dangerous creatures are clustered near the center of the city, or perhaps located in the higher-end districts. And that¡¯s also where we need to go if we want to live,¡± said Sallia, frowning. Finally, she seemed to sink deep into thought for several seconds, before she gave me a crazy grin. ¡°If that is the case, giving this a try is the better option. We may as well take a risk here, instead of possibly running into whatever melted the store fronts later on. At least we¡¯ve fought a skeleton already, and as long as we climb a building first they aren¡¯t too big of a threat. At least, those are my thoughts.¡±


    Despite myself, I could feel a slightly crazy grin tugging at my lips as well. ¡°We¡¯ve got five lives and we¡¯re working on a timer that will run out soon. If we don¡¯t take any risks we¡¯ll die sooner or later. Let¡¯s try it. How good is your swordsmanship compared to the skeletons?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ the first one we found was pretty clumsy, but the skeletons in the shop are holding their weapons with much higher levels of proficiency. So these ones might be stronger than the one we fought earlier. And their physical strength does seem to be above mine, based on the weight of the shield the first skeleton was carrying. I might be comparable to the strongest skeletons, or slightly stronger after factoring in weapon technique? But probably only just, and I might be underestimating these things.¡± Sallia frowned. ¡°Also, my physical body is different from when I was alive. My balance is slightly off now, which could get me killed in a fight.I can still probably match them one or two on one, but more is definitely impossible. So we¡¯re taking some risk here, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s impossible to manage¡­¡±


    I examined the sides of the buildings along the street, looking for another drainpipe or easily climbable building. If it worked once, it might work again, right? ¡°That building over there - the one that looks like an apartment. It has a drainpipe that should work.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s an apartment?¡±


    What was an apartment? The word had come to me quite naturally, but now that I thought about it, I had a hard time remembering what exactly an apartment was. I was sure it was related to housing in some way, but the specifics eluded me. After a few moments of confusion, I just opted to point at the building.


    Sallia looked at it, and then her savage grin became wider. ¡°That one is much taller. It¡¯ll give any bricks we throw at the skeletons much more power. That¡¯ll work.¡±


    Since the two of us had made up our minds, we quickly started climbing the building. If we were going to pick a fight with at three stronger skeletons, we needed every advantage we could get.

 Chapter 6: The Skeleton Crew

    It took a few minutes of struggling before Sallia and I got to the top of our chosen roof. Or, more accurately, Sallia reached the roof in twenty seconds flat while I struggled along for another two minutes. After that, we spent some time investigating my chosen roof, before we came to the conclusion that the tiles on this roof weren¡¯t loose enough to pry up and use as ammunition. They seemed to be welded together by some sort of unfamiliar substance - it was somewhat similar to cement, but seemed much lighter and smoother than cement at the same time. Neither of us recognized it, but we couldn¡¯t get rid of it.


    Luckily, it wasn¡¯t too hard to jump to a couple nearby roofs, since the buildings in this area were of similar heights. We found an ancient-looking clay and brick building with more useful tiles within a few roof hops, then carried our newfound ammunition back to the original building. Once we had a good supply of ammunition, we got ready to fight. Sallia and I both did a final check, to make sure we were ready, before we attracted the attention of the skeletons.


    Whunk!


    Two heavy tiles sailed into the air before crashing onto the streets. It was time to test just how dumb these things really were.


    True to the behavior of the previous skeleton, the three skeletons immediately started jogging out of the building. They looked around the street for a moment, the hungry light in their skulls scanning their surroundings for several seconds before they found us. The moment the first one noticed us, the other two immediately found us as well, and began running towards the building we were standing on.


    And apart from the original three skeletons, six more skeletons assembled themselves out of the pile of bones inside of the shop. The moment each skeleton finished assembling itself, a weapon appeared in their hands, materializing from thin air.


    To my relief, all nine of them held melee weapons. Even though all nine skeletons had locked onto our position and started moving towards us, it didn¡¯t seem like the skeletons had any way to actually reach us.


    And then, a tenth skeleton assembled itself out of the pile of bones.


    Unlike the other nine, this one had a bow. I felt a sudden sense of danger.


    ¡°Archer,¡± I said, eying the skeleton.


    ¡°I see it,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°Aim for it and hope we hit?¡±


    ¡°Best idea I have,¡± she said.


    The two of us grabbed more bricks and took aim. I tried my best to keep my nerves steady, closely watching the bow-wielding skeleton and praying it didn¡¯t snipe one of us from afar. We released our bricks at nearly the same time, and our bricks sailed through the air towards the bow-wielding skeleton.


    And both of us failed to hit the skeleton¡¯s skull. I managed to clip the shoulder, knocking it to the ground. Sallia¡¯s throw hit its knee afterwards, shattering it and disabling its movement, but failing to totally take it out of the fight.


    The skeleton climbed back to its remaining foot, hopping angrily as it glared at me. Apparently, breaking one leg didn¡¯t render it quite as immobile as I had expected.


    It took an angry hop towards us. Then, with unpracticed motions, it reached its bony fingers into the air. A bolt of light appeared between its fingers, before solidifying into a purple-green arrow. It looked at me, drew the string back, and fired.


    A sense of danger tore through the haze I felt. An arrow swished towards me as I started dropping to the ground. I quickly realized it was too late, and I was about to get shot by an arrow.


    Or at least, I would have been shot if the skeleton could aim. The arrow was way off target - it was a solid meter or two to the left.


    I took a nervous glance to my left, before I rose back to my feet. I peeked over the lip of the building again. The archer was holding its hand out again, and light was pouring out of its fingers. It would be ready to shoot again soon. Panicking, I grabbed another brick and threw it at the skeleton.


    This time I didn¡¯t miss. The heavy tile smashed into the archer¡¯s skull. With a crunch, the skeleton dropped to the ground, its skill seriously cracked. Luckily, it didn¡¯t get up this time.


    However, no notification appeared. Was it still alive?


    Before I had time to think more about it, Sallia yelled.


    ¡°They can climb now!¡±


    I stood back up and looked at where Sallia stood. She was looking down the side of the building, at the street where I had expected the nine skeletons to be stuck. I ran to where she stood, and looked over the edge of the roof.


    There, the three skeletons we had first seen were fluidly climbing up the side of the building. The six fresh skeletons were also trying to climb up. However, they were as stupid as the skeleton who had chased us earlier, and kept falling down.


    I took another brick and dropped it over the side of the roof. Gravity would do a good enough job at aiming, and we needed to get these things away from us before they killed us. My brick caught one in the chest and knocked it back to the ground. Sallia¡¯s brick smacked another climber in the elbow, also knocking it away. The third climber reached the roof, giving us a chilling grin as it readied its warhammer to shatter our heads like watermelons.


    Sallia picked up her sword, adjusted her grip, and then fluidly slashed at the skeleton¡¯s neck.


    The skeleton¡¯s skull flew away from its body. The skeleton¡¯s body stopped moving as Sallia dodged away, clearly wary of a counterattack. The skeleton¡¯s body, however, had stopped moving completely, and Sallia suddenly gained a strange, distracted look as she stared into thin air. Shivering, Sallia seemed to lose track of her surroundings for a moment before she snapped out of it, then quickly kicked the skeleton¡¯s body off the roof. The skeleton flew off the side of the building, smashing back into the two other climbers and knocking them to the ground again.


    I grabbed another brick and threw it at one of the two injured climbers, managing to clip its skull and kill it. Sallia finished off the third climber. I still didn¡¯t get any new notifications.


    From there, the rest of the fight became very simple. The frantic desperation of keeping the archer from killing us and keeping the three climbers from getting near us was gone. The other six skeletons had no way to reach us, so we simply rained bricks on them until we managed to kill them.


    After the tenth skeleton was destroyed, I felt another surge of euphoria as I got another notification from the Market.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain four invading low-level troops in one battle. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of  your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time


    Slaughter: Assist a fellow transmigrator in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the first time. Assist a fellow Transmigrator in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +(ERROR), Achievement +60, Achievement +2, Achievement +5, Achievement +0.01


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Another sensation of joy, of happiness, flooded through my mind. I was more prepared for it this time, but I still couldn¡¯t help but stiffen for a moment as euphoria overloaded my senses.


    I gritted my teeth, suppressing the feeling. Within a few moments, it faded away, just like the previous time. However, the sensation had been much greater than before.


    It took me half of a minute to get myself back under control, and I could finally process what I was reading.


    First, I started looking through the numbers presented on the notification box, before I finally realized something. Including the archer I had killed at the beginning of the fight, I managed to kill a total of four skeletons, and Sallia killed the other six. However, I had been very confused throughout the fight as I hadn¡¯t gotten any new notifications for kills. However, it seemed the Market didn¡¯t give us a reward for EACH skeleton killed. Instead, it seemed to give us a reward for reaching certain milestones in how many skeletons we had killed. Our first and fifth kill and assist were each reward, but the second, third, and fourth kills had given me absolutely nothing as far as Achievement went.


    Second, I had realized that the sense of euphoria and drug-induced joy was dependent on the amount of Achievement gained at once.


    This was¡­ a problem. Had all of the previous people in this city felt like this every time they earned Achievement? I suddenly had a better idea why the former residents of this city seemed so insistent on getting more and more Achievement.


    I turned back to towards Sallia, and saw that she had also gained control of herself. If anything, she had been a bit faster than me at doing so.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°Does the amount of Achievement each skeleton is worth decrease with every kill?¡± I asked, looking at the notifications floating in the air in front of me and trying to take my mind off of the surging desire to acquire more Acheivement.


    ¡°I guess,¡± said Sallia as she squinted at her own notifications. ¡°I obtained 20 Achievement for my first kill, then gained no more achievement until my fifth kill. Upon the fifth kill, I got another 60 Achievement. That seems to mean that the first skeleton was worth 20 Achievement, and the next four were worth 15 each? I did not get anything for the sixth skeleton kill yet. I suppose we only get Achievement at certain breakpoints? First kill, fifth kill¡­ I wonder what comes next? Tenth kill, perhaps? Fifteenth kill?¡± Sallia shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s hard to guess before we see it for ourselves.¡±


    I nodded, since my thoughts were similar to Sallia¡¯s. Then, I began to think back over the other details of the fight. Unlike the first skeleton, in this group, four of the skeletons had plausible methods of harming or killing us. Three had been able to climb, and one of the newly assembled skeletons had wielded a bow. Even if it¡¯s aim wasn¡¯t great, it had still had a decent chance of hitting and killing me if the skeleton had been a bit better of a shot. The reason I hadn¡¯t lost a life was purely due to luck that time.


    In that case, trying to live off of fighting skeletons would be really difficult, even if we kept abusing the skeleton¡¯s low intelligence. The skeletons weren¡¯t as uniform as I had hoped they were. There were some differences between each skeleton, and even if some of them were incredibly stupid, older ones might be stronger or more intelligent. If one of the original three skeletons had been an archer, both Sallia and I would have probably lost a life.


    I felt my thoughts starting to sink into a spiral of worry. Fighting the skeletons meant we would run out of lives and die sooner or later, because even if the roof tactic had worked so far some skeletons could counter it. But failing to fight meant we would run out of Achievement and die. Either way, it felt like we were balancing on a tightrope. A single misstep, or even just a little bad luck, could send us spiraling into the abyss.


    ¡°Hey, focus!¡± said Sallia, waving her hand in front of my face.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I was jolted out of my thoughts, and stared at Sallia¡¯s hand.


    ¡°You looked like you were worried. Now is not the time to think. We do not know very much right now. Save your planning and preparation for when we know more. Right now, we should stick to our original objective, which is learning more about our situation,¡± said Sallia. She gave me a slight grin, and her eyes sparkled with energy. ¡°Let¡¯s take this one step at a time. The previous inhabitants of this city clearly managed somehow, and even if it¡¯s overrun by skeletons that doesn¡¯t mean our situation is hopeless.¡±


    I felt a small smile tug at my lips as I shook off the cloud of uncertainty and thoughts that had started to settle over my mind. ¡°Yeah. You¡¯re right. Let¡¯s get moving.¡±


    The two of us threw a few more bricks at the street, trying to see if any other skeletons would be lured over by the noise. After we were sure nothing else was in the area, we f climbed back down the building.


    Sallia took a moment to grab a smaller sword from one of the skeleton¡¯s bodies, swapping out her two-handed weapon for a smaller and more flexible one. After that, she handed me a warhammer from one of the skeletons.


    ¡°Take this warhammer for now. It should be useful even if you have no clue what you¡¯re doing, and blunt weapons seem most useful against these things. Of course, we should still consider melee combat to be a last resort.¡±


    I took the warhammer, hefting it and feeling its weight. It didn¡¯t feel quite right in my grip, but it was better than nothing.


    I noticed that unlike the bracelet, I didn¡¯t have any option to equip it to an item slot. Was there something fundamentally different about the two things? I didn¡¯t know, but right now there was nothing I could do about it. I sighed, looked at my four remaining item slots, and shrugged before we stepped into the shop.


    It was time to see our spoils of war.


    Inside of the ruined shop were various things that looked familiar to me. The shop walls were lined with shelves, most of which were stripped bare. Several of them were also broken, some having collapsed completely and some simply having cracked in various places. The floor was made of white tiles, and there were modern-looking lights installed in the ceiling. If it weren¡¯t for the glowing metal cubes and scorch marks, it would have been easy for me to believe we had stepped into a modern convenience store.


    I approached the glowing metal cubes while Sallia went to investigate the shelves and displays. As I approached the cubes, I felt a strange hungry feeling well up from the depths of my soul. There was something here that I wanted on an instinctive level, although I wasn¡¯t sure what it was.


    Inside of each metal cube was an inlay of glowing runes. And, at the bottom of each cube, there were also some slivers of light. Each sliver of light was distinct, like a small, glowing orb about the size of my thumb, and lay flat against the bottom of the cube. As far as I could tell, the light slivers were physical objects, or at least acted like they were.


    Each cube seemed to have a random amount of light slivers. A few of them had no light slivers at all, and a few of them had up to four or five.


    I reached out my hand towards one of the slivers of light as the feeling of hunger and desire grew stronger.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to create a Tier 1 Fragment of Agility?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Each soul fragment will cost 50 Achievement to make. This container can only create tier 1 soul fragments. Since your Agility is below 20, you can still use Tier 1 soul fragments.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Unconsciously, I thought of my desire for the metal cubes I had felt the moment I had laid eyes on them.


    I wanted them.


    I also had no clue what a soul fragment of Agility was. I had a guess, based on the name, but I needed to try experimenting in order to confirm it. I had about 95 Achievement right now, which was a little over three months of food if I didn¡¯t spend it. In other words, I could spend fifty Achievement to confirm my guess. And increased dexterity would make it much easier to flee if we were chased by a skeleton again, and would make it easier to aim any bricks if I needed to throw them in the future. Most importantly was the fact that we were almost exactly on par with the skeletons in terms of speed - if I wanted to run from a skeleton, right now, while fleeing I would gain exactly zero distance no matter how far we ran. Having one extra point of Agility could make a huge difference, because it would actually allow me to flee from fights I couldn¡¯t win. I took a look at the other Attribute cubes, but I didn¡¯t think any other single attribute point would be as useful as one extra point in Agility, at least at this very moment. I might wish I had invested in another Stat later on, or might want something else in the future - but I also felt the need to upgrade now. The last fight had been far more dangerous than the first one. If we faced another, even more threatening fight, I might lose a life because I was too weak to survive it.


    With a thought, fifty Achievement flowed out of my body and into the container.


    And then, a small sliver of light appeared at the bottom of the container.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have discovered a tier 1 soul fragment!


    Fragment of Agility is attuned to ????????? (You). (Since you don¡¯t currently have a name, please assign yourself a name in the legal documents of the Market whenever you can).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    As your Agility is below 20, you are able to absorb tier 1 soul fragment of [Agility].


    Would you like to absorb this one?


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I absorbed the Soul Fragment.


    My Status Screen suddenly popped up in front of my eyes, before my Attributes changed for the first time since I had arrived in the Market.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Name: ????????


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    <td>


    Devouring: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 1(+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 0 (+100)


    (Grade 5)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I could feel my arms and legs getting ever so slightly more flexible and agile, and I could also tell that it was a bit easier to run and move around than before. However, the effect was small. If I wasn¡¯t paying attention, I wouldn¡¯t have noticed a change at all.


    I chuckled as I finally realized something.


    It was no wonder I didn¡¯t get any stronger from jogging around and physically exerting myself. It was becoming increasingly obvious that I wasn¡¯t really attached to my physical body anymore. Ultimately, I was a soul inhabiting a container. Exercising might increase the strength of my muscles, but it wouldn¡¯t improve my soul. To make my soul stronger, I apparently needed to use these special containers to turn my Achievement into stat points. Which meant I could only improve myself in specific locations in the Market.


    I gave the warhammer an experimental swing, and found it ever so slightly easier to control my movements while handling it now. My stance while I was standing felt ever so slightly firmer. Even if the thing still felt too heavy, I felt like I could swing it a little bit faster and with a bit more precision than before.


    Even though the change was tiny, I could tell that I was a little bit better now.


    ¡°Sallia! Come over here! Check this out!¡± I said, grinning.


    Sallia walked over to me, holding on to a few different bracelets. All of them looked awfully familiar¡­


    ¡°Are those friendship bracelets?¡± I asked, looking at them.


    ¡°I found like twenty on one of the shelves,¡± said Sallia. ¡°They seem to have originally required purchase for 40 Achievement each. However, since there is no one to collect payment, I just grabbed them. Do you want one? They come in different colors. I don¡¯t fully understand the item description, but it seems like we¡¯ll probably need them sooner or later.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ I already have one equipped,¡± I said. ¡°Here, put one on and think of equipping it. After that, let¡¯s see if we can figure out how to ¡®add¡¯ each other to our friends list. We¡¯ll figure out the other functions when we know more. I also have some guesses about what they do, but¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°We just don¡¯t have a way to confirm anything yet, so I figured speculating about the subject wasn¡¯t too useful. Anyway, put it on!¡±


    Luckily, the ¡®friendship¡¯ function of the bracelets was easy to figure out. After a few minutes of fiddling with the bracelets, we managed to get the bracelets linked to each other. Now, we had a certain ¡­ sense for each other. It was very weak, but I could feel that the bracelet on my wrist was connected to something else. However, I couldn¡¯t use it to figure out Sallia¡¯s location, or any other useful information. I could only tell that there was another person somewhere else linked to the bracelet. Still, it would hopefully come in handy later.


    With that done, I redirected Sallia¡¯s attention back to the soul fragment containers.


    ¡°Touch the side of the cube.¡± I said, motioning towards the Agility soul fragment cube.


    Sallia did so, before she slowly nodded her head. ¡°Ah, hmm. Interesting¡­¡± Sallia frowned as she stared into the air in front of her, likely reading a System notification. ¡°How odd. So I suppose hard work, exercising, and so on is worthless here. That still doesn¡¯t explain why my magic doesn¡¯t work, though. I wonder¡­¡± Eventually she shook her head. ¡°Let¡¯s finish looting the shop first, then come back here. I may wish to buy some stats in a few minutes.¡±

 Chapter 7: Records of the Past

    After Sallia and I looked over the soul fragment cubes, the two of us continued exploring the shop.


    The most interesting thing we found was a small piece of paper at the back of the shop. Hovering above the piece of paper were two pens. Each pen had a different color ink, and after a bit of experimentation, Sallia and I realized that we couldn¡¯t move one of the pens at all. Our hands would simply pass through it, as if it was a ghost. The other pen felt like a normal pen, except for the fact that it floated wherever we stopped moving it.


    On the paper itself was what looked like a chat log.


    Rathiel: Man, earnings for this month are really starting to drop. Average customers are only spending around 300-400 Achievement on average per visit now, and the average number of visitors has dropped around 8% from last month. This nursery is too poor now. Even if my shop is supposed to cater to new transmigrators, this is just miserable.


    Reading this, I felt a sudden stab of pain in my heart. To think that 300-400 Achievement per customer was considered poor¡­ I didn¡¯t know whether I was supposed to feel better or worse after reading this. I had originally thought that Sallia was a very rich lady, and I was starting to make my way towards being wealthy. As it turned out, Sallia and I combined could barely match one day of spending for the former residents of this city. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how the previous residents of this city earned Achievement.


    Astra: Perhaps you could try moving your shop to Nursery 6,419? Your nursery was hit pretty hard by the new reincarnation deal with the Eldrian branch of the Universal Tree, and the associated trade deals. I hear that they are experiencing an economic boom in some of the other Nurseries, though. Maybe it¡¯s a good idea to move the shop somewhere so it''ll be a little easier to find young Transmigrators with more to spend? Since you cater to those who are only a few worlds old, it¡¯s best to go somewhere new transmigrators are still present but the average wealth is higher.


    Rathiel: Needing to pay for rent for a new plot of land again would kind of sting, but it might really be my best option. The new people in this city are either too poor to afford more than a few upgrades these days. Nobody has bought a general ability in almost a week, and I¡¯ve been forced to temporarily rent the Ability production cubes to another shop. Once my contract for this building is done, let¡¯s talk some more about moving. I¡¯ll give it serious thought if things don¡¯t improve.


    Astra: Sure! If you move to Nursery 6,419, let me know. I have a couple friends in that Nursery who can get some golems to help you move stuff. Much cheaper than robots these days now that mana rocks are so cheap. Also, I live much closer to that Nursery, so we could see each other more often. I swear, over the past few hundred years teleportation fees for long distances have just been getting worse and worse.


    Rathiel: Apparently, the Market has been sailing over a particularly chaotic patch of the multiverse recently, which is throwing PortalCorp¡¯s tech off. They¡¯ve been trying to shoehorn in some Binding and Manifestation solutions, but the company mostly uses technology. They haven¡¯t quite managed to get their magic and tech to work together yet, and in the meantime it costs way more electricity to get things running on the teleportation side. I don¡¯t know why the company never bothered messing with magic earlier, honestly. Tech is great, but combining the two is always the best way to get results. Sticking doggedly to just one or the other is a massive waste of resources and potential.


    Astra: Ah, so that¡¯s why. I hope we hit a less annoying patch of the Multiverse sometime in the next few centuries. If teleportation costs don¡¯t scale down a bit within my next few reincarnations, I¡¯ll have to drop my storage Ability and switch to something that adds a little less Glut penalty. I need access to other cities to sell crap, but if it costs me an arm and a leg just for basic long-range teleportation I¡¯m barely making a profit, especially considering how much time it takes to find stuff to sell. At that point, I might as well just make my future purchases cheaper and not bother with raw material acquisition at all. I¡¯ve been thinking about buying some abilities to let me use Essences in dimensions where they aren¡¯t available, and then trying to found a religion. It may be horribly inefficient for Achievement farming, but it¡¯d definitely be fun, and I should still break even after a few lives.


    Rathiel: That does sound kind of fun. Although sticking to only being able to do stuff in worlds with no essences is a little niche, honestly. The odds are, what? One in sixteen for a planet with no magic at all? I think it¡¯s better to be a little more well rounded than that. I¡¯ve heard people sometimes manage to strike it rich by founding religions in worlds without any supernatural abilities at all, though, so we could try it if you¡¯re really fixated on it. The real trick is surviving long enough for the religion to take off, since the first few decades only give a little Influence Achievement.


    Rathiel: By the way, are we still doing board game night this weekend? Brendel said he was going on a date this Saturday, which means we¡¯re down another person. At this point, I don¡¯t think trying to run a game really makes sense anymore. I¡¯ve still got two weeks before I can reincarnate again, so I¡¯ve got plenty of time to kill. Do you want to do something else if it¡¯s just the three of us?


    Past that point, the conversation changed into a discussion about mundane scheduling for a board game, and alternate plans for a weekend hangout. I ignored those parts, skimming the conversation until I got to the end of the chat log. There, I found a few final messages before the paper had no more markings.


    Astra: Things are getting really weird here. What the hell is going on? The Portals are on the fritz, and skeletons started popping up left and right. Those shouldn¡¯t be able to exist in the Market. Also, I¡¯ve heard a few pieces of news that don¡¯t make any sense. Any updates from your Nursery?


    Astra: Rathiel? Are you there? Please respond.


    Astra: Hello?


    Astra: Rathiel? Please be okay. I have to get out of my house for a bit and see if the city lord¡¯s residence has issued a public notice, but I¡¯ll send another message when I get back. I¡¯m getting worried. Please let me know if you¡¯re alright.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    There were no further messages written on the paper.


    However, as I looked at the paper, I felt a trace of sadness. I didn¡¯t know Astra or Rathiel, but I could still feel Astra¡¯s fear and loneliness when she had sent her final message to Rathiel. It felt¡­ bad to look at it.


    ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± asked Sallia, who had been scanning the chat log with me.


    ¡°Looking at this chat log makes me feel bad,¡± I said, after taking a few moments to silently mourn the members of this chat log. Seeing what had become of this city, I wasn¡¯t very optimistic about Rathiel¡¯s chances. Honestly, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised of Rathiel was one of the corpses laying outside of the shop.


    Then, I shook off my negative emotions. No matter what had happened to the previous residents of this city¡­


    They were dead and we weren¡¯t. We needed to do our best to make sure we didn¡¯t become like them. Right now, I didn¡¯t have the power to worry about two people that had probably passed away long ago.


    Sallia, by contrast, didn¡¯t have a visible reaction to reading the chat log. Instead, she was simply fiddling with the pens in rapt fascination. ¡°This paper and the pens are super fascinating. We can move one of the pens, my hand passes through the other one. How does it work? It even looks like these two lived pretty far away from each other, but they were still able to communicate instantly. That¡¯s amazing! The military in this place must have had a massive advantage in communication, if even the civilians casually used tools like this.¡± Sallia¡¯s expression was like a kid in a candy store, and for a moment, she gave me the impression of a little sister trying to look at her older brother¡¯s toys. Since Sallia usually spoke pretty formally, the contrast was even more amusing. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh as I watched her, and my gloomy thoughts dispersing once again.


    ¡°It looks like a text message, honestly. Did your world not have anything like that?¡±


    ¡°Were things like this common in your world? In mine, we had to send letters by courier. It usually took a week or two to get a message somewhere if you lived on opposite sides of the empire, and if you were expecting a letter back it might take over a month during the wet season because the roads would get really muddy. It was pretty bad. Instant communication¡­¡± Sallia shivered as she looked at the message log. ¡°It¡¯s like a dream.¡±


    ¡°Someday, if we get the chance, I need to introduce you to cell phones,¡± I said, grinning a little at the thought. ¡°Though I have no clue how to make one, or if we can find them here at all. Still, I think you would find them pretty cool. Actually, considering how many space-age skyscrapers I¡¯ve seen, I bet they exist somewhere in the Market, if only because there were buyers for it somewhere.¡± I sighed wistfully, longing for the ability to text and call¡­ people. People who I could barely remember anymore, but that I remembered talking to while smiling. Suddenly, I really wished for a cell phone, even if I didn¡¯t have anyone to call anymore. A small pang of loss and loneliness swept through my heart before I pushed it away. Survival. Right now, I just needed to focus on survival. I could deal with my thoughts and feelings later.


    Sallia turned her attention back to the rest of the shop. ¡°I do not think there is much else we can get from this strange letter-sharing device. Let¡¯s keep looking around. This shop already gave us a few things, and perhaps there¡¯s something else useful further in,¡± she said.


    The two of us finished searching the shop. Under the counter, we found a small pool of glowing light. When Sallia showed it to me, and I touched it, I got another surprise.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement Detected. Currently (unowned). Would you like to absorb some of it? There is currently 80 Achievement in this storage unit.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°So Achievement can be turned into this liquid?¡± I asked, looking at the small bowl of goo.


    ¡°Looks like it. I absorbed 1 Achievement from it to figure out what it was, and after that I reported it to you. Let¡¯s split it ¨C we might not have enough to really heavily invest in anything yet, but if those soul fragment making containers are anything to go by, we¡¯re going to have a lot of uses for Achievement in the future.¡±


    I nodded, and then thought ¡®yes¡¯ at the notification. A small confirmation box asked me how much I wanted to absorb, and I took 40 of the Achievement in the pool. Sallia took the rest. At the end of our shop-looting session, I was back up to around 85 Achievement, and Sallia had a little under 234. If I kept ¡®eating¡¯ one Achievement per day, I now had a little under three months worth of food before I starved to death. After some hesitation, I decided to buy one more stat in one of the physical attributes. It was obvious from the message log we had found that we wouldn¡¯t find any ¡®Ability¡¯ containers in this shop, and I didn¡¯t like our odds if we ran into something more threatening than the Skeletons we had seen so far. Besides, 35 days was enough time for the two of us to find other sources of Achievement, and another small boost in my physical abilities would make it easier and safer to move around without dying. Thus, I increased my Agility by 1 more point. While mental stats were definitely nice, right now I valued not getting stabbed in the face much more than being able to think better. And I have absolutely no idea what the Essence stats did, so I ignored the cubes that made Essence stats for now.


    Sallia decided she had enough wriggle room to buy a few more stats, since right now she had almost 234 Achievement. She ended up getting 1 in all of her physical Stats for the price of 150 total Achievement, leaving her with 84. The difference was slight, but both of us felt better at the fact that we were just the tiniest bit stronger than before.


    Vaguely, I wondered if it might be a better idea to focus on one or two stats in the future. Since each 20 points in an Attribute increased its ¡®grade¡¯ by 1, the difference in each grade should be pretty substantial. However, since Sallia decided to improve her physical abilities equally right now, I decided it wasn¡¯t my place to butt in with my opinion yet. I was also just guessing at the best way to improve was, after all.


    Besides, it wouldn¡¯t matter very much in the short term either way. It cost 20 soul fragments to get a stat to 20, and each soul fragment cost 50 Achievement each. In other words, it took 1,000 Achievement to get a Stat up to 20, and that was way too expensive for either of us to afford right now. Planning for the future was fine and all, but right now we were barely scraping by.


    Sallia and I also experimented a bit more with the general mechanics of the Market and soul fragments, since we were already boosting our Stats a bit. We discovered that we couldn¡¯t share Soul Fragments. Apparently, upon being created, a soul fragment was ¡®attuned¡¯ to whoever spent the Achievement to create it, and it was impossible to absorb a soul fragment that wasn¡¯t attuned to you. If we wanted to share Stats, we would have to figure out how to trade Achievement with each other. Which also meant that the extra soul fragments laying around in the containers were totally useless to us, unfortunately.


    With our spending temporarily out of the way, Sallia and I started to plan where to go next. The knowledge that we could loot Achievement from the destroyed shops might change our strategy pretty significantly, and the knowledge of how to use our Achievement was also welcome information. However, less than five minutes into our planning session, we were interrupted.


    ¡°Hello? Is anyone there?¡± a man¡¯s voice called out from outside of the shop.

 Chapter 8: Little Six

    "Hello? Is anyone there?" A man''s voice called from outside of the shop.


    Sallia and I glanced at each other, before we quietly crept back towards the front of the shop, weapons at the ready. We slipped behind the counter before peeking through one of the smaller holes in the wall.


    On the street in front of the shop stood a large man. He looked older than both of us, perhaps being in his late twenties. Unlike Sallia, he didn¡¯t have any features that screamed ¡®I¡¯m not quite as human as you are.¡¯


    However, while I could certainly have found people with his physique back on Earth, they would have been uncommon. He was very tall and muscular, and resembled a humanoid bear or a bodybuilder. His movements contained a trace of awkwardness though, making his gait weirdly disconnected and unstable, despite his well built frame. For now, I took that as a hint that he might also be unfamiliar with his body. Just like Sallia and I, he wore simple pants and a shirt.


    ¡°Hello? Is there anyone here?¡± the man asked again, as he looked at his surroundings with a surprisingly¡­ nervous expression. He didn¡¯t seem abnormal right now. That being said, I was still very wary of ¡®magic¡¯ because I had no idea what it was capable of or when it might be used. I glanced at Sallia.


    She looked back at me, then tightened her grip on her sword.


    ¡°You stand up and talk to him. I¡¯ll stay hidden. If he starts acting funny, I¡¯ll stab him. If you think he¡¯s about to turn hostile, do your best to keep his attention and swing your weapon around. Even if you have no clue what you¡¯re doing, you¡¯ll be able to keep his attention away from me while I make try for a killing blow,¡± whispered Sallia. I nodded. Sallia was the better fighter between the two of us, so she would be able to take better advantage of a surprise attack if it came to a fight. Sallia quickly shuffled out from under the counter, before shifting behind a shelf. Then Sallia nodded at me, indicating she was ready.


    I stood up and called out to the new person. ¡°Hello? Who are you?¡±


    The man¡¯s gaze swiveled back towards me, containing both shock and fear. He didn¡¯t seem to notice my weapon, instead simply settling on my face as the fear in his eyes quickly gave way to relief.


    ¡°Oh, thank Asaira! I thought I was alone in this bloody city!¡± He said, immediately taking a step towards me.


    Unconsciously, I dropped into a defensive stance, and my fingers tightened over the handle of my warhammer.


    The man stopped moving when he saw me fingering my weapon. For a moment, total confusion appeared on his face, before he seemed to realize something. He immediately held both of his hands out, palms facing towards me. It almost looked like he was trying to offer me a handshake, or ask me for spare change, but I immediately scuttled out of the way, because I had no idea what he was doing.


    ¡°Sorry! I am not armed, and I mean you no harm!¡± He said, maintaining his strange posture. I finally realized that there hadn¡¯t been any signs of magic use. I glanced at Sallia from the corner of my eye, but she didn¡¯t seem to be preparing to kill the man, so I settled back into place and gave the man another cautious look. Finally, I realized that this posture clearly showed his hands to me, and made it hard for him to attack me if he tried to start a fight. It was probably his world¡¯s equivalent of putting one¡¯s hands up. ¡°I was just really ¨C I mean, I haven¡¯t seen another human since I arrived here.¡± The man¡¯s voice sounded both anxious and awkward at the same time.


    As I continued to observe him, I felt my wariness towards him decreasing. He seemed just like Sallia and I - a normal person caught up in this strange city of dead and the undead.


    ¡°How long have you been here?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I arrived here a few hours ago. I¡¯ve been chased around this bloody city by skellies left and right. I haven¡¯t seen anyone else alive though - just piles of bones and corpses,¡± said the man, shuddering a little bit.


    ¡°The only other thing I¡¯ve seen so far is a bunch of boxes with numbers popping up in front of me. The skellies give me the creeps, so I¡¯ve been dodging them when I could. Luckily they¡¯re dumb as bricks, so even if they see me and chase me they¡¯re pretty easy to lose if you have enough distance and duck around some corners. I saw all of the broken skeletons and weapons lying around out front, so I thought maybe there was a group of humans or something here. Anything has to be better than more skellies, right?¡± The bear-like man chuckled nervously, his actions totally at odds with his body. ¡°Stick with your own kind and all that.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any clue how you got to this city?¡± I asked, unconsciously relaxing. I moved my hands away from my weapon. While I wasn¡¯t totally sure he was safe yet, I was starting to feel safer while talking to the man. He hadn¡¯t exhibited any obvious hostility or ability to threaten me, which was a relief.


    ¡°I¡­ I honestly have no clue. The last thing I remember was getting some nice dragon-clam for dinner with a couple of my mates. I think I heard something after that¡­ it sounded like screeching, I think? Then I heard a few screams and felt something hit my head, before I blacked out. Next thing I knew, I dreamed that I was flying above a giant black ocean. When I woke up, I was here in this city with a bunch of bloody skellies and floating boxes trying to get me to buy ¡®a better body.¡¯ I don¡¯t know what that means, but it seems really weird. I¡¯m so glad to see other people alive here - I can¡¯t find the restaurant or my mates anywhere.¡±


    I resisted the urge to snort when he said that he had found other people who were ¡®alive,¡¯ before trying to figure out what had landed this guy in the Market.


    This guy had probably died as well, sometime after going to the bathroom. His memories were a fair bit more¡­ put together than mine were, since he could remember exactly what he was doing right up until his death. However, he didn¡¯t seem to have realized he was dead. Part of the reason I had realized I was dead was because I had spent months floating over a giant black ocean filled with souls. Apart from that, the Market was just incredibly different from what I perceived as ¡®normal,¡¯ which quickly helped me understand that this place was very different from my old world. This guy mentioned the black ocean as well, but seemed to believe it was a dream. And he also didn¡¯t seem particularly surprised by the walking skeletons, and instead seemed surprised by how common they were. He also mentioned he heard screaming before he had died, and something had hit his head.


    I thought about it for a moment, before I sighed and shrugged. I just didn¡¯t know enough about his world right now, and the reason he had died didn¡¯t seem too important. I beckoned for the guy to come into the store. Sallia quietly moved to the side, remaining out of sight to observe this guy for a little longer.


    Doing my best to feel out the guy¡¯s intentions, I walked right up to him, keeping his attention on me. I smiled at him and reached out my hand.


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember my name, but it¡¯s nice to meet you,¡± I said, holding out my hand.


    The guy gave me a baffled look as he stared at my hand. Finally realizing his world also might not have a custom of shaking hands, I awkwardly put my hand back down.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°You don¡¯t remember your name? I¡¯m very sorry - I thought my problems were bad, but I didn¡¯t realize you had amnesia. My deepest apologies, miss,¡± he said, awkwardly shuffling in place. Suddenly, he seemed bashful, as if afraid he had brought up a sore subject.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± I asked, trying to change the topic.


    The man got a queer expression on his face. ¡°You know, it¡¯s the strangest thing. I¡¯m sure my mates called me ¡®little six.¡¯ But I can¡¯t for the life of me recall what my real name is. Must¡¯ve hit my head harder than I thought. But my head doesn¡¯t hurt right now. Weird. You know, now that I think about it, hearing you also can¡¯t remember your name makes me feel a little better.¡± I gave Little Six a confused stare. What about him was ¡®little?¡¯ This man looked like a bodybuilder!


    ¡°Is that so?¡± I asked, keeping a wary eye on Little Six.


    Despite the fact that Little Six was definitely in a range and position where he could easily attack me, this guy hadn¡¯t done anything. Even after I had moved my hand away from my warhammer, he hadn¡¯t attacked me. I was even doing my best to pretend I had dropped my guard. If this guy wanted to ambush me, now was a prime opportunity.


    The man simply did nothing, continuing to watch me with an apologetic expression.


    If he wasn¡¯t attacking me with this kind of opportunity, he probably wasn¡¯t going to.


    As if affirming my assessment, after several more seconds of tensed readiness, Sallia quietly sheathed her weapon. She walked out from behind the shelf she had been hiding behind, then grabbed a random crate of friendship bracelets.


    ¡°I think I found most of them,¡± she said, grinning at me before waving at Little Six. Sallia didn¡¯t show any sign of having been ready to kill the man mere moments ago, and was now doing her best to look like she had just been working on looting the shop. The man seemed a bit taken aback by her presence, but took it in stride a moment later.


    ¡°Ahh¡­ Ahem. It¡¯s nice to meet you as well, young lady ¡­ Asaira¡¯s tears, what happened to your eyes?¡± Asked the man, shocked, as he stared at Sallia¡¯s face.


    ¡°I was simply born this way,¡± said Sallia, her tone becoming unexpectedly dry as she stared at the man¡¯s eyes and then took another glance at me. ¡°It¡¯s a rare birth condition, apparently. In any case, I can still see just fine, so it¡¯s not a big deal.¡±


    ¡°Is¡­ is that so.¡± The man gave Sallia a more probing glance, before he nodded, relaxing slightly. ¡°Well, as long as you can get about your daily life unhindered, it¡¯s probably not too big of a deal. Anyway, do the two of you know how we all ended up here? Or how to go home to Lendrium? I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happened to move all of us here, but I¡¯d like to get back and check on my mates as soon as possible.¡±


    This guy¡­ still didn¡¯t seem to realize he was dead. Which made things a little awkward. For now, I decided not to deal with the subject. He would probably figure it out given a little more time, but we had other problems to deal with right now.


    ¡°For now, the two of us have discovered we¡¯re somewhere in a place called ¡®the Market.¡¯ My first guess for what happened to the residents is that the skeletons offed them. There are probably other threats here besides just the skeletons, so keep an eye out for them. The damage we¡¯ve seen so far is way too huge for the skeletons to account for. Sallia and I have been wandering around for the last few hours and trying to find other people, or at least find out what happened here.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°We¡¯re still trying to adapt to this place as well. The boxes with numbers and letters are¡­ interesting. Have you ever heard of anything about this place? Perhaps related to this ¡®Asaira¡¯ you keep mentioning?¡± I winced a little bit, before glancing at Sallia. Was she trying to ask if this place was in this guy¡¯s version of the afterlife?


    ¡°Asaira¡¯s teachings have never mentioned anything about this kind of place. Why would they? If I had to guess about this place, I would just guess that some rogue necromancers escaped the holy purge and are hiding here. Perhaps they managed to set up a teleportation beacon? I don¡¯t know how they could have possibly found enough people to sacrifice to make one, but if they did¡­¡± Little Six shuddered in horror, before sighing. ¡°As for why they brought us here, and why they haven¡¯t sacrificed us or turned us into undead¡­¡± The man frowned. ¡°I have no idea. Maybe they lost us somehow during the teleportation? For now, I¡¯ll count my blessings. Once the king¡¯s finest and the church authorities discover this place, they¡¯ll surely raze it to the ground and purge this nest of evil. We just need to find a way back home before then, or we might get mistaken as spellcasters and executed. Or at the very least, we need to survive. As long as they don¡¯t attack us at first sight, surely they¡¯ll help rescue us and take us home.¡±


    ¡°If that happens, it would certainly be nice,¡± I said. ¡°That being said, who knows what will happen in the future. For now, we should rely on ourselves. Hoping someone else will come and deal with the undead might just be wishful thinking on our part.¡± I had quickly decided that I should try to guide his thoughts away from the idea of relying on others. Unless I was seriously mistaken about the nature of this city, I seriously doubted the ¡®King¡¯s Finest¡¯ would ever be making it here. Or if they did, they would probably be just as baffled as the three of us. At best, they would probably weaponless and trying not to trip over their new, poorly coordinated mass-produced bodies. At worst, they might join the corpse pile.


    Little Six seemed to pause as he considered this. Then, he nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. This place looks old. Who knows how long it¡¯s been since the last living chaps were here? Relying on the King¡¯s Finest and the church might just leave us stranded here with no way to survive. We need to figure out where we are and what¡¯s going on. Otherwise, we might end up like those poor sods,¡± he said, gesturing towards the corpses on the ground.


    ¡°Do you know how to use any weapons, Little Six?¡± asked Sallia, gesturing towards the pile of weapons from the dead skeletons. ¡°Also, did you pick up a friendship bracelet? We¡¯ve been trying to figure out all of their functions, but we¡¯re still a little confused on the exact details behind how some things work. Still, both of us have one, and it¡¯s probably not a bad idea to have everyone wearing a bracelet. Just in case.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t say I know how to use a weapon, or have a bracelet,¡± said Little Six, giving the weapons a closer look. ¡°Why are these all middle ages weapons, instead of some proper rifles?¡± He looked at my warhammer again, before his eyes lit up. ¡°Oh, is it because it¡¯s hard to hit the skeletons in the head with guns? That¡¯s actually quite clever. Unfortunately, the closest I¡¯ve come to wielding a weapon is when my mates and I used to play Stickbatch when we were younger. If I find a weapon similar to the throwing natch, I think I could use it, but I don¡¯t see anything similar here.¡±


    What the heck was a throwing natch? I had literally never heard of this term before. I gave Little Six a blank expression, and then glanced at Sallia. She shook her head, seeming just as confused as I was. I decided to just ignore it, since it was probably some game local to his home dimension. If Little Six found a weapon similar to a ¡®throwing natch,¡¯ more power to him. If not, there wasn¡¯t much we could do about it. First we would get him a friendship bracelet and a connection with our bracelets, though. Even if I still didn¡¯t fully trust the guy, he seemed to be another person caught up in this mess, so I would just keep an eye on him where I could.


    ¡°Here, take this,¡± I said, grabbing a random friendship bracelet and chucking it at him.


    Little Six caught it. It didn¡¯t take long before he figured out how to equip it, and Sallia and I then linked him to our bracelets. While equipping the bracelet, Little Six had a strange expression on his face, especially for a few seconds where he seemed to zone out while staring at the air in front of him. I guessed that he was probably reading over the text related to ¡®reincarnation,¡¯ but that still didn¡¯t seem to cue him in on the fact he had passed away, even if he did seem a little confused and uncomfortable after reading it.


    Then I pointed behind him, at the pile of skeleton corpses. ¡°Just take whatever fits you best from the debris on the street over there.¡±


    Little Six looked behind him, before he headed over to the pile of bones and started sifting through the dead skeletons for weapons.


    After a few minutes, he picked out a solid, sturdy mace made of the same green and purple metal my warhammer and Sallia¡¯s sword were made from. He seemed very clumsy when he held it, and I was amused to see that his bodybuilder-like muscles granted him no advantage whatsoever here.


    ¡°It¡¯s not quite right, but I guess it¡¯s close enough,¡± he said, sighing as he tried to twirl the mace around. ¡°I must say, even if this is the best weapon we have available, I really wish I could use all of my strength. I feel pretty weak and dizzy in this place.¡±


    ¡°Must be the damage to the head,¡± I commented dryly. ¡°Anyway, Sallia and I are heading towards the center of the city. We figure this place must have a story, and information and weapons we might be able to use to survive. For that, we need to hit up the useful buildings and ignore the houses at the outskirts of the city. Since you spent all of this time looking for other people, I assume you¡¯re coming with us?¡±


    Little Six looked taken aback, before he furiously nodded. ¡°I¡¯d love to have some other people to stick with, Sallia and¡­ miss. Since we¡¯re both in the same situation and your plan sounds better than randomly wandering around, let¡¯s stick together for now.¡±


    With that, the three of us set out to see if we could discover more about this fallen city.

 Chapter 9: Grief of the Dead

    It took less than an hour of careful wandering for the three of us to find another interesting building. Closer to the center of the city was a building that looked like a massive Greek temple, made of pure obsidian. The entrance to the building had no doors ¨C it was instead an open archway that stretched into the sky like a cavernous mouth, dozens of times the size of our group of three. The road leading up to the building was also ludicrously wide, seemingly built to accommodate hundreds or even thousands of people walking side by side. On the sides of the road, massive trees lined the streets, all in neat rows and bearing odd fruits. Each fruit was nearly the size of me, and smelled vaguely like a mixture of apples and pomegranates. They were all as red as rubies, and seemed completely unaffected by the fall of this city.


    Of course, the building¡¯s massive scale and architecture weren¡¯t what stood out the most. While this building would have screamed ¡®important¡¯ in any other city, the closer we got to the center of the nursery we were in, the more bizarre and grandiose the architecture became.


    What stood out was the advertisement floating above the obsidian palace.


    ¡°Luxcorp¡¯s reincarnation point! Just pay five Achievement to proceed to your next life! Cheaper than anywhere else in the city!¡±


    And, right below that, in smaller letters¡­


    ¡°Short on Achievement? Need an extra few Soul Fragments or Abilities to give you a boost before you start your next life? Take a loan with Luxcorp! Starting at interest rates of only 3% per world if you have a good credit rating! Don¡¯t hesitate to strengthen yourself and live out the best life you can! Your brighter future in each dimension starts with Luxcorp loans!¡±


    ¡°Do you want to advertise through the System? Get an advertising slot on people¡¯s death Statistics report for just a small sum of Achievement! Starting at 0.03 Achievement per view! Get your product visible to hundreds of billions of Transmigrators across all levels of the cities of the dead!¡±


    In much smaller letters, I was still just barely able to make out another set of words below the larger words of the advertisements.


    *Legal Disclaimer: False Advertisements may be punishable with anything ranging from a severe fine, to up to six millennia imprisonment, or partial or full execution if the false advertisement results in the permanent deaths of Transmigrators. For more information, please reference legal code section 114-A.¡±


    What interested me the most here was the statement claiming this was a ¡®reincarnation point.¡¯ Thus far, Sallia and I had found plenty of evidence suggesting that the residents of this city considered ¡®reincarnating¡¯ over and over again to be normal. The friendship bracelets and casual mentions of centuries passing, traveling from world to world, and discussion of continuous rebirth we had seen all indicated that reincarnating was very important in the Market. However, thus far, the three of us had no idea how reincarnating worked, or why the Market put so much emphasis on it. If this place was a ¡®reincarnation point,¡¯ we might finally get some answers to our more important questions.


    I looked at Sallia, and she looked back at me. She smiled as she looked at the advertisement, and I did the same. This felt like a place where we could finally gather some good information.


    Then we turned back to Little Six, who was also staring at the advertisement. Unlike us, he was frowning in confusion. And besides confusion, I could also see a few other things in his expression. Wariness, shock, horror, numbness¡­ a slew of emotions that looked like they had been building up for a while, but were only finally erupting now.


    ¡°Why¡­ why is it referencing reincarnation and lives so much? That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s crazy, right?¡± He said, looking at Sallia and I with increasing uneasiness. ¡°The friendship bracelets were just a joke, right? And this¡­ this floating sign. It¡¯s also a joke. Right?¡±


    I sighed, before I gently stood on my toes so that I could add a bit to my height. Then, I gently reached out and patted his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I thought you would figure it out sooner or later, but¡­¡±


    Little Six looked at the city around us. The walking skeletons that Six identified as being related to ¡®necromancers.¡¯ The massive, galaxy-sized pirate ship that our city was built on top of. The strange and unique contraptions, with magic and technology braided around each other in almost every aspect of culture and architecture present in this place.


    And the three of us. Slowly, a look of dawning realization entered his eyes. His gaze turned incomparably bitter, and I saw a slew of emotions flicker through him in the span of a few seconds. Feelings of emptiness, desolation, and a growing sense of realization warred in his facial expression.


    ¡°So¡­ so we¡¯re really¡­¡± He started laughing hysterically, but his laughter turned into tears as the massive man began openly weeping in front of me. ¡°I thought it was weird. That I had ended up here. But I *hic* never thought¡­ that¡­ then I¡¯ll never see my mates¡­ That dinner was the last - that I¡± The rest of his words gradually became less and less coherent. Then, he reached out and hugged me. I felt like a rag doll as he picked me up and began sobbing onto my shoulder. My ribs creaked in protest as I slowly patted him on the back.


    I had felt less lost then he when I had realized I was dead, but at the end of the day, I knew that somewhere in my memories were people I cared about. People I would never see again. My grief was quieter than Little Six¡¯s, but I had felt it from the moment I had come to this world as well.


    ¡°Am I really dead? But I have so many things I still wanted to¡­ There are people I still¡­¡± The man¡¯s voice became softer and softer, and at the same time, a growing hollow feeling started to well up in his speech. ¡°I didn¡¯t even get to say goodbye. We - when I¡­ They were with me since I was young. Just two months ago, since I had always wanted to go traveling abroad, John and Wells got us three tickets to Eldriss and planned out a whole trip for us as a present for me. I was¡­ I was so excited, and it was so much fun¡­ I wanted to thank them, so I had been prepping with Grant to save up for a Lycinian pug, because John had always wanted one as a pet. I was so excited to see the look on his face when he got it¡­ Are you telling me that all of that is just¡­ gone? That I¡¯ll never see them again?¡± The man¡¯s voice had gotten louder and more high-pitched the more he spoke, and his shoulders started shaking as he spoke.


    I paused for a moment. Had I also left things like this behind? Unfinished regrets, dreams that would never be fulfilled?


    I was sure that I had. A hollow feeling crept up inside of me as well, as I tried to think back to those I couldn¡¯t quite remember. Even though I couldn¡¯t remember her face, there was still someone¡¯s voice I wished I could hear one more time. Someone who used to call out a name I didn¡¯t answer to anymore, one that I couldn¡¯t even remember. Someone whose name started with ¡®Mar.¡¯


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Isa¡­. Isa something,¡± I unconsciously muttered, my memory running into a wall when I tried to remember my name. Then, I shook my head as I felt my eyes starting to blur as well. For all that we didn¡¯t need to eat or breathe anymore, I could cry just like before.


    And out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sallia giving both of us a hollow expression. Her eyes were scrunched up, almost as if she wanted to cry, and her mouth was continuously twitching. Half of her face looked normal, an austere, frozen mask that suited a young noble.


    And the other half of her expression was that of a young woman trying very hard not to cry.


    I finally realized part of why Sallia seemed so¡­ formal. She was a former noble - she had probably been trained since the time she was young to avoid showing emotions and expressions in public, since that might mess with her house¡¯s standing. The fact the current circumstances were managing to break down that mask, even a little, was a testament to just how stressful things were for all of us right now. Sallia usually only showed emotions when she was preparing for a fight - a testament to a warrior that might have existed if she was less focused on being a noble. But now, I saw a very different side to her.


    ¡°Even if the three of us are dead, we haven¡¯t reached the end yet,¡± I said, pushing back the hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. My voice was scratchy, and trembled a little, but I needed to push my words out or I might never get to say them.


    Even if I had unanswered regrets, even if I had things that I had left behind that I still cared about¡­ I couldn¡¯t do anything about them now.


    I managed to get my feet back on the ground before I stepped closer to Sallia. I grabbed her arm, and pulled her a little closer to Little Six. Then, I gave both of them a tight hug. Even if Little Six had friends and family he had left behind, even if Sallia had regrets she had left in her previous world, none of them would ever be resolved.


    But at least the three of us weren¡¯t alone, rotting in the river of souls with no awareness of time passing.


    I couldn¡¯t choke out any more words, so I just hugged the two other corpses standing with me as we tried to etch our remaining memories of our previous lives into our thoughts forever.


    Little Six sobbed for a few more minutes, and Sallia silently buried her face into my shoulder. She didn¡¯t make a sound, and didn¡¯t move, but I could feel a wet sensation slowly grow on my shoulder.


    It was nice to know that even if our current bodies didn¡¯t need to eat or breathe, we could still cry.


    Finally, Sallia lifted her face up, and apart from the skin around her eyes being a little puffier than before, I couldn¡¯t see any sign that she had been crying at all. Her face was back to the stony mask she wore most of the time. Little Six also began to calm down. Finally realizing what he was doing, he gently set me back down, before he started wiping at his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I just hadn¡¯t realized before that¡­ Fuck,¡± said the man. Then, he took a few deep breaths, before focusing again. He turned to Sallia for a moment. ¡°No wonder you were asking if this place appeared in Asaira¡¯s teachings. You two already knew, and you were trying to figure out if I had any clue what this place was. I wish you had told¡­ no, I¡¯m sorry. You two must have also died, right? How¡­ how did you two¡­?¡±


    ¡°I¡­I was assassinated, I think,¡± said Sallia. Unlike her expression, which had returned to stony composure, her voice was still shaky and raw. ¡°In my world I was a noble. I have a few ideas who probably ordered the kill, but at the end of the day, it doesn¡¯t matter anymore. I¡¯m dead.¡± Sallia said. Then, in a voice I could barely hear, she said, ¡°I didn¡¯t leave anyone behind. I was the last of my house. My parents died before me. My world was a place ruled by magic and priests, and I used to answer to the god-emperor.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember how I died,¡± I said, the empty feeling returning to my stomach. ¡°I don¡¯t remember much about myself at all, I guess. I just¡­ I don¡¯t know. My memories of my past life are nearly gone right now. I think something heavy hit my head, and I know that before I died my name started with ¡®Isa.¡¯ I remember some chunks of the world I lived in before, but almost no personal details. I lived in a pretty technologically advanced world, where things like the billboards we see around us were pretty common. But we had no magic at all. What does your situation look like right now?¡±


    Little Six closed his eyes, as if deep in thought, before he opened them again. ¡°I think I have missing memories too. I can remember a lot about the people I saw the night I died, and I can remember people important to me. My parents, my friends, they¡¯re still clear in my thoughts. But I have no idea what the rest of my life looked like.¡± I felt a small spike of jealousy, when I heard he could remember his friends and family, but I washed it away after a few seconds. ¡°Damn, I just realized how much I¡¯m actually forgetting. What was my name? What did I do for a living?¡± Little Six shook his head in frustration. ¡°I don¡¯t know how I missed the fact that I can¡¯t remember my name. That should have been a pretty obvious sign that something was wrong, right? I think my work involved something a lot of metal¡­¡± Finally he sighed. ¡°Sorry, I know you have it worse than I do. You can¡¯t even remember your family or friends, which must hurt way worse.¡± He took a deeper breath, before he sighed again.


    ¡°My pain doesn¡¯t take away your right to be sad,¡± I said firmly. ¡°The universe isn¡¯t a competition of who has had worse experiences and gets to be sad. If other people tell you how you should feel because they¡¯ve had worse or something, tell them to fuck off.¡± I was surprised by how firm and vehement my voice became in that instant.


    ¡°So you were a noble Sallia? I¡­ I don¡¯t think my world had any nobles after the revolutions five or six decades ago and the beginning of the Dawn Era. Were you¡­¡±


    ¡°As far as Isa and I can tell, we come from totally different worlds,¡± said Sallia, her voice slowly losing its unsteadiness. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯ve never heard of the god-emperor? I lived in the empire where he, along with his priests, ruled the empire. Our sacred animal is the phoenix.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of it at all,¡± said Little Six with a nod. ¡°I guess I understand why your eyes are so weird then. Were your eyes common there?¡±


    Sallia chuckled weakly. ¡°When I saw Isa, I thought she was born with some sort of birth deformity. I¡¯ve never seen someone with these weird white and black colors mixed into their eyes before coming here.¡± Sallia shook her head. ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t really know much more than you. All three of us are lost and confused.¡±


    The man nodded, before finally turning back to the massive palace and the advertisements. ¡°So¡­ this is the place where we reincarnate, then. What do you think happens next? Do we just¡­ forget everything and get reborn?¡±


    ¡°I doubt it,¡± I said. ¡°This city, and these advertisements, seem based on the idea that people will be coming back here. Not just once or twice, or even ten or twenty times. We should be able to retain some amount of our abilities and memories, if I¡¯m guessing correctly?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Of course, I could be totally wrong, since none of us have confirmed how any of this works. But that¡¯s my best guess for now.¡±


    ¡°If we came from different worlds, what if we all end up on different worlds, and can¡¯t work together or see each other until we return to the - ah. The Friendship bracelets. I get it now.¡± Little Six paused again, and his voice seemed steadier and less broken than before. ¡°If this city is really built around people continuously reincarnating, it¡¯s likely we¡¯ll find plenty of information and records if we just keep looking. Is that what you two are doing here?¡±


    I managed to squeeze out a grin before I gestured towards the massive black palace. ¡°Of course! This place claims to be a reincarnation point. If reincarnating was common for the former residents of this city, I¡¯m hoping there¡¯ll be some books or hints around here that¡¯ll give us a better idea of what we¡¯re looking at. Maybe we can even figure out how this whole mess of a city worked in its prime.¡±


    Little Six didn¡¯t manage to smile. However, at the very least, his expression wasn¡¯t as downcast as it had previously been. Instead of being on the verge of tears, he looked more like he was trying to throw himself into a new task to distract him. Finally, after wrestling with his thoughts for a few moments, he clenched his teeth as he looked at the obsidian palace. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s get going,¡± he said.


    The three of us began making our way into the massive black palace.

 Chapter 10: The Pool of Reincarnation

    As we walked up the street and towards the temple, we started to come across the same signs of ruin and bloodshed that littered the rest of the Market. Corpses were tossed about left and right, destroyed skeletons littered the streets, and pools of lava, chunks of frozen or cut up matter, shadows that seemed disproportionately sized, and all manner of other weird magical phenomena littered the area. It had been hard to spot from the street, and the road to the temple itself remained curiously free of signs of battle. However, underneath the trees with glistening, gem-like fruits, the signs of battle became more and more abundant, far surpassing anything we had found in the rest of the city.


    Finally, we reached the entryway to the temple. It was blocked off by a booth. On each side of the booth, there were multiple stone basins, connected to the inside of the booth via a series of stone pipes. And floating directly above the booth on a much more sanely sized billboard was¡­ another advertisement. This one demanded we pay five Achievement to continue walking forward, or else we would be accosted by security.


    After frowning for a moment, I took a deeper look inside of one of the stone basins, before I finally recognized it.


    ¡°Hey, aren¡¯t these really similar to the Achievement storage containers we found in the shop earlier?¡± I asked Sallia. She squinted at the stone basins, before her eyes lit up.


    ¡°You¡¯re right!¡± She said, before she also stepped closer to one. ¡°So these things can collect Achievement too? I didn¡¯t know they had that function. In the first place, how are we actually supposed to move Achievement out of our body?¡±


    ¡°I genuinely have no idea. Thus far, we¡¯ve absorbed Achievement pretty easily, but getting it back out of our body¡­¡± I trailed off, before finally, I shrugged and reached my hand out to one of the stone basins.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to pay 5 Achievement?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Yes/No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I rejected the request to pay 5 Achievement. ¡°There¡¯s another System prompt. I guess transmigrators needed special tools to get rid of Achievement once they absorbed it?¡± I said. ¡°At least, I haven¡¯t found a way to remove Achievement from my body without help yet.¡±


    Then I looked inside of the booth. If I could figure out where the Achievement was collected, there might be something left over for us to loot. Whoever had manned this booth was long gone, and the long-dead residents of the Market didn¡¯t need Achievement anymore. I gave the door to the booth an experimental tug, and it easily opened.


    The inside of the booth was larger than the outside of the booth. While the outside of the booth made it look like it would be hard to squeeze more than a person and a chair inside, the inside looked like someone had grabbed a smaller gym and stuffed it inside.


    To the sides of the room were a huge selection of small pamphlets, scattered across wooden tables that lined the walls. There were also several snacks and chairs, all of which showed signs of dust and decay.


    And, luckily, in the center of the room was a large stone basin. The three of us inched closer to it, before finding that it was filled to the brim with Achievement.


    Sallia and I looked at each other, and then at Little Six. We grinned, although Little Six seemed less impressed than Sallia and I, perhaps because he was less used to the concept of how valuable Achievement was. Even so, his eyes were also fixed on the pool of glowing liquid in the room.


    ¡°How much Achievement is there?¡± asked Sallia, looking at the Stone Basin. I stuck my hand into the pool of incandescent liquid.


    ¡°300. Not bad at all. Two stat points each whenever we return to the shop.¡±


    We divided up the Achievement equally among the three of us, making all of us 100 Achievement richer. I spent a few minutes sinking into a state of twitching euphoria before I managed to clamp down on the feeling, gritting my teeth as I tried to ignore the sensation.


    I did not like how much control I felt like Achievement had over my actions.


    However, I also couldn¡¯t deny the results of absorbing more Achievement. I felt strangely¡­ full. Satisfied. For the first time since I came to the Market, I felt like I had eaten a full meal, and the empty and hungry feeling I hadn¡¯t even been aware of before disappeared like a dream.


    Then, curious, I turned to Little Six, to see how he was handling ¡®eating¡¯ Achievement for the first time since he had died.


    He had a blissful expression on his face, making me feel slightly uneasy. However, before I could sink further into the uneasy feeling, his expression suddenly warped into a frown as he snapped out of it.


    ¡°I¡­ is there a way to turn this feeling¡­ off, or reduce it a little?¡± he asked, turning back to me.


    ¡°Not that I¡¯ve found so far. I¡¯ve also been keeping an eye out - while a little bit of happiness when we get some Achievement isn¡¯t a big deal, as it currently stands it feels a little¡­ problematic,¡± I said.


    ¡°Got it,¡± said Little Six, looking slightly irritated. ¡°In that case I¡¯ll deal with it for now, I suppose.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s expression, by contrast, still didn¡¯t change very much as she chewed through her share of the Achievement. I did notice that at some point she had simply sat down, completely uncaring of where she was sitting as she silently twitched, her expression warping between glee and trained expressionlessness. Finally, she stood back up, her cheeks turning very slightly red before she looked away. .


    ¡°Done. Have you two looked at the books and pamphlets on the table yet? Was there anything useful?¡±


    Little Six and I shook our heads. ¡°We were waiting for you.¡±


    We started scanning through the pamphlets scattered throughout the room, before discovering the little pamphlets were all a copy of the same thing. The books were all things like ¡®best romance short stories - a collection by Jaia Brezno¡¯ and seemed entirely based around entertainment. While I felt a little disheartened by this, the pamphlets looked promising. I settled down to read one, before I saw Little Six and Sallia both begin making incredibly odd faces as they scanned through the pamphlet as well. A few moments later, I felt my own face begin to warp as I read through the pamphlet.


    ¡°LuxCorp Employee manual - booth position!


    Expectations:


    1) Collect Achievement from all customers without exception. Any customers who enter the pool of reincarnation without first paying will result in a deduction of YOUR pay.


    2) If any of my clones give you special requests or orders, you are to follow them.


    3) If a transmigrator attempts to brute force their way in without first paying, simply yell ¡®security¡¯ to activate the security golems. If anyone attempts to harass you or inflict bodily harm upon you, you should also say ¡®restrain¡¯ to ensure the golems know to capture the intruder instead of just robbing them and cutting off some limbs. If they have somehow prevented you from speaking, you may use any of the alternate signals, detailed further on in appendix A.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    4) You are allowed one snack break every 24 hours of work. These snack breaks are not to exceed more than one hour. You may use any of the snacks provided in the break room, and may additionally use any materials you have brought with you as entertainment during your break. You are not restricted from leaving the booth, but please ensure that you return by the time your break is over. You may engage in any other activities you desire during your break, with a few restrictions detailed in other rules.


    5) In case a Transmigrator attempts to commit suicide in front of you, please ensure that their soul is properly forwarded to the nearest authorized tether for further questioning. Commiting suicide in public is a crime punishable by law with potential imprisonment or small to moderate fines, as it can cause a disruption of business.


    6) If you wish to engage in cannibalism during your break, please do so out of the public eye. Eating humanoid meat in public is bad for public image reasons, and if caught, you WILL be fined or possibly fired. If you fail to get the other person¡¯s permission to eat them before engaging in the act of cannibalism you may be subject to further legal action, including becoming a forced participant of the cannibalism festival for the year or being imprisoned for a few centuries.


    7) Whenever going to another world to begin another reincarnation, please wait until a replacement is available to take over the booth. If it has been more than 500 years (your individually tracked time) since you returned to man the booth, you will be considered to have forfeited your job at LuxCorp and will be taken off the roster, as well as subject to reasonable fines.


    8) Whenever manning the booth, you must do so for at least 2 weeks at a time. Abandoning your post outside of scheduled snack break periods may result in a fine, imprisonment, or being fired, depending on the circumstances of your departure.


    I felt increasingly strange as I read through the employee manual. The sensibilities of transmigrators were¡­


    Very different.


    I flipped through the rest of the book, but most of the ¡®rules¡¯ in it were more of the same kind of thing. Things like following orders, not dragging down the company image, etc were more normal. However, mixed in with these rules were all kinds of incredibly bizarre, transmigrator specific rules such as ¡®publicly killing people is only to be done with permission of a clone or a golem, and is otherwise punishable by fine or imprisonment.¡¯


    What the heck was up with this rulebook?


    After looking through the increasingly odd employee manual, I finally shook my head. Even though some of the tidbits were rather entertaining, there didn¡¯t seem to be too much that was useful here. Still, one of the earlier rules mentioned the ¡®pool of reincarnation.¡¯ After the other two finished looking through the manual, we decided it was worth a further look inside of the temple. This wasn¡¯t the first time we had seen a ¡®pool of reincarnation¡¯ mentioned, and learning what a pool of reincarnation was and how it worked would be critical for our future in this place.


    The moment we stepped through the archway, the smell of apples and pomegranates cut off completely. The temple¡¯s interior had no smells whatsoever. Instead, the inside of the temple seemed incredibly hollow. The massive structure had no internal walls ¨C it was one massive room. At the far end of the room was a pool of violet-black water. It looked very similar to the ocean outside. As I stepped closer to the pool, I realized that it seemed to have no depths. It simply continued on forever, an endless abyss of water that seemed to expand as I gazed into its depths. Idly, I wondered if the pool of water was taken from the water outside of the ship. Then, I realized with a start that the messages we had seen earlier referenced long-distance teleportation costs. Maybe this wasn¡¯t taken FROM the ocean outside- instead, some part of this building might just be a portal into the ocean or something.


    The only other thing in the temple, besides the pool and some decorative mosaics detailing weird blobs of light, were large quantities of bodies. There were dozens of bodies and hundreds of destroyed skeletons littering the area.


    However, skeletons weren¡¯t the only monstrous creature we found inside of the temple. We also found what looked like a giant humanoid being, with orange-red skin, pus-filled blisters, and rot covering every inch of its body. It had probably stood at four or five meters when it had walked, though it was now cut in half at the waist.


    Even in death, it had an unnerving grin on its face that sent shivers down my spine, and its mouth looked like someone had taken a relatively human face and jammed a shark¡¯s mouth inside of it. All in all, it didn¡¯t look like something I would ever want to see up and moving.


    I didn¡¯t really know what to make of the giant things for now. At the very least, it seemed to affirm the earlier suspicions Sallia and I had - there were things besides skeletons which had attacked this city.


    Since nothing got back up to attack us, we were free to examine the room. However, sadly, we couldn¡¯t find anything else that was either informative or useful.


    Finally, we stepped closer to the pool at the back. Sallia, upon drawing near it, made a similar expression to the one I was making ¨C caution and fear.


    Little Six, on the other hand, just seemed fascinated. He looked at the pool of nearly-black liquid-gas.


    ¡°What do we do with the pool to use it?¡± asked Sallia, looking at me.


    ¡°Touch it, maybe?¡± Little Six said as he curiously grabbed a bone from nearby and threw it into the pool of water. I didn¡¯t know what I expected to happen, but it fell into the pool with a plop and began sinking into the watery depths. After a few seconds, I couldn¡¯t see it anymore.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ You know, I think the employee manual said something about entering the pool of reincarnation, didn¡¯t it?¡± asked Sallia, after a moment.


    ¡°So do we just jump in when we want to use it?¡±


    ¡°Maybe. Is there -¡±


    I heard something new. A kind of quiet, skittering sound that was just barely audible to me. I whirled around, trying to locate the source of the noise, before I saw something I really didn¡¯t want to see.


    Walking up the path towards the temple was a group of skeletons. There were at least thirty of them, far more than Sallia and I had ever faced before. At the head of the group of skeletons were two skeletons who bore no weapons. They gave me a much more dangerous feeling though - even if I didn¡¯t know why my instincts were screaming at me that they were not to be trifled with, I had a sudden urge to be well away from them. At the back of the skeleton war party were three more of the giant humanoid beings. Each of the fleshy, pus-covered giants were four meters tall and carried giant warhammers.


    I looked at Little Six and Sallia, before I frantically looked around the room. There was nowhere to hide.


    ¡°Shit,¡± whispered little Six, also looking through the doorway.


    The skeletons also seemed to see us. I saw one of the two weaponless skeletons raise its hands, pointing a finger at me.


    ¡°More new residents of the city! Welcome! I knew more would come here eventually! I¡¯ve been waiting soooo long for more prey, you see, and it¡¯s so very boring guarding this building. Please dooo stay a while, for I¡¯m always eager to meet new people¡± The weaponless skeleton said in a raspy voice, giving usa skeletal grin as its fleshless jaw clacked. ¡°Now, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re confused, and I really didn¡¯t expect someone to slip past the entrance while I was looking around, but I regret to inform you that this is as far as you can go. But make yourself comfortable. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll make lovely skeletons, and you won¡¯t be needing any answers as long as you follow my orders.¡± I was stunned, looking at the talking skeleton in horror. The skeletons we had seen so far were barely intelligent, but this one could talk. It was intelligent, knew more about our situation than we did, and had a pack of skeletons obeying its orders.


    Before I could finish processing how terrifying the talking skeleton was, a scythe of green light flew out of its finger. It moved faster than an arrow, whizzing through the air without a sound. Before I could react, it slammed into my arm. Bright pain exploded through me, and I realized with horror my arm was melting. I stared at my ruined limb, wide eyed, and noticed a swath of flames shoot out of the hands of the other weaponless skeleton, flying towards Little Six¡¯s stomach.Little Six began to emit a horrifying, burning smell as his flesh turned into charcoal in seconds. Then, the three giants hefted their warhammers, charging at us as the armed skeletons followed them.


    ¡°Wha-¡± I gasped, pain lancing its way through my thoughts. I stared at the mangled remains of Little Six¡¯s stomach, and then looked back at my ruined arm.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the talking weaponless skeleton raise its hand towards me, apparently intending to finish me off since its first spell hadn¡¯t killed me.


    Sallia, thinking more quickly than Little Six and I, grabbed us and jumped into the pool of reincarnation.

 Chapter 11: First Reincarnation

    I felt a strange jerking sensation as I sank into the inky darkness. I gaped like a fish as I tried to touch my arm, which had already stopped hurting, even though the limb was destroyed beyond repair. Then, I realized it wasn¡¯t just my ruined arm - all of my limbs were growing colder and harder to move. I felt familiar with the sensation of being dunked in this water. I tried to look at Sallia and Little Six, but I couldn¡¯t feel them anymore, and they were gone from my sight.


    The pool of black water had become all I could see. I could no longer see anyone or anything else. I began to feel my physical body collapse. In seconds, it was shredded into oblivion, releasing my soul from its physical container. However, my mana-brain given to me by the Market remained intact. I could still see and think.


    Moments later, I saw a band of light stretch out from the cheap-looking friendship bracelet now visible on my wrist. The light band broke into two threads, which both extended in different directions before connecting to something. Suddenly, I could feel Sallia and Little Six attached to me, although I still couldn¡¯t see or hear them.


    We were jerked upwards. As the three of us continued to rise, we rapidly flew above the surface of the ocean, confirming my suspicion. We were back in the ocean of souls that I had started my journey in. I could see two bands of light connecting me to two other souls. Both of them were far enough away that I had a hard time seeing them clearly, but I could intuitively tell that they were Sallia and Little Six from the sensation my friendship bracelet gave me.


    Then, I felt another strange, jolting sensation. It felt like I was being pulled apart, but it didn¡¯t hurt ¨C instead, it was more like I was a loose thread, and someone was untangling me before they gently tied me back together. The three of us were tugged sideways, being dragged farther and farther away from the river, before there was a sudden crashing sound and a flash of light.


    Finally, I felt myself sink into something. Instead of jolting and pulling sensations, I felt like I was sinking into a warm, fuzzy cocoon. The golden threads connecting me to Sallia and Little Six also settled down, before they gradually disappeared into nothing. Meanwhile, I suddenly felt very, very sleepy.


    I felt my thoughts beginning to slow down. I realized that my mana-brain was rapidly collapsing, its use over. Drunkenly, I tried to recall the warning I had seen earlier. Something about how without a brain, my ability to think would disa-


    I blacked out.


    The next thing I was aware of was a woman screaming in pain, and I felt something pushing me. A flash of light seared my eyes. I tried to look around, I couldn¡¯t rotate my neck properly and I couldn¡¯t see very far. I felt someone grab ahold of me, before a massive man¡¯s face suddenly appeared right next to me. He was blonde, with blue eyes, and had a massive grin on his lips as he looked at me. He said something I couldn¡¯t understand, before he turned me towards a woman laying on a bed. She also had blonde hair and blue eyes, and she looked exhausted. However, I could see her give me an exhausted grin, and she smiled gently as she looked at me. I felt an instinctive flash of warmth and comfort as I looked at her, and she gently reached out and touched my head.


    Mother. Even though I had only seen her for a few seconds, I knew that she was my mother.


    Multiple System popups then blocked my vision, completely obscuring my view of my mother and father.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations on Successfully Transmigrating!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Analyzing this world¡­ Analysis complete!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essences Present in this dimension: Absorption


    Estimated tier: 2 (according to the Market¡¯s standardized power evaluation scale)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like a more detailed analysis of your current world? Do you want to enter each life with a FULL understanding of how the magic System for each world works? Tired of being forced to figure out how magic and physics work in every new dimension and spending endless years wasting time?


    Don¡¯t hesitate! Buy a full Dimensional Essence Scanner from DimensionCorp and equip it to an item slot today! You can order directly right now, and receive a scanner shipped through the Multiverse for as little as 200 Achievement RIGHT NOW!


    *Extra Shipping and Handling fees may apply depending on your location within the Multiverse. Any items being lost due to interdimensional raiders, interdimensional empires, or being torn apart by the dimensional cracks between worlds are risks you accept when purchasing interdimensional shipments. For more details, please consult the Market¡¯s legal code, section 193-B.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Tired of only being able to use the Essences present in any given world? Do you want to use Essences that may not be present in your given dimension? Do you want to dazzle lower level worlds by performing impossible feats of magic, and make your name resound throughout history in your local dimension?


    Consider purchasing Essence-conversion skills at EssenceCorp! Upon returning to the Market, consult your nearest advertisement catalog to find out how you can use all of your essence-dependent abilities no matter where in the Multiverse you happen to be located!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I felt more than a little irritated by the popup ads, and I quickly dismissed them. I was starting to get a horrible headache as I tried to observe my surroundings, which certainly wasn¡¯t helping my mood. Thinking felt oddly difficult, as though I was thinking through syrup, and I was rapidly developing a migraine.


    I took a deep breath, before I pushed through the growing pain behind my eyelids and focused on what had happened before I reincarnated.


    First, the skeleton that shot green beams at me had almost certainly been using magic. This finally answered the question of what had done all of the structural damage to the Market. The Skeletons we had seen before then had no way of liquifying stone or shattering buildings, but the fire and acid magic the two spellcasters had used definitely had the ability to devastated parts of the Market.


    Second, the spellcasting skeleton had laughed at us and mocked us before attacking. It was intelligent, unlike its less intelligent brethren. It might be waiting for us to return to the Market, and seemed able to plan and think. If we wanted to survive, we needed a way to fight that thing. I had no idea what would let us fight against magic - however, more Stats seemed like a decent place to start. If we could find a place to buy abilities, that would also help. For Stats we needed Achievement, and the same was probably true for Abilities. Was it possible to earn Achievement in this world?


    I heard the smiling man saying something in a language I didn¡¯t recognize, before the woman sighed and stroked my head again. This took me out of my thoughts, and I observed my mother and father more closely while trying to ignore the piercing headache that was growing worse every second.


    My headache grew worse as my father handed me back to my mother, who held me and patted my back a few times. My father gazed at both me and my mother, before he smiled gently at me and lightly ran his fingers over my head. I managed to wriggle a little bit in my mother¡¯s arms, and realized with a start that I had both arms again. Whatever damage the skeleton had done to my body before Sallia pulled me into the pond of reincarnation, it hadn¡¯t touched me, the soul wearing my previous container like a pair of clothes. I was more than a little relieved to know that I had my arm back.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    As I tried to think, my headache got worse and worse. Why did my head hurt so much? Before I could focus more on my thoughts, I lost consciousness again.


    The next period of time was a jumble of disjointed images. Every time I woke up, it would be incredibly hard for me to think straight. I would feel hungry, or tired, but every single time I was awake, my head would start to hurt and thinking straight would become difficult. I couldn¡¯t stay awake for more than a few minutes before I fell back asleep. Sometimes, I would be staring at my mother¡¯s face when I was awake, and sometimes I would be staring at my father. Other times I was just staring at pieces of furniture, or the ceiling, or random objects. I never had more than five or six minutes to look around before I fell back asleep, as my headache grew worse every second I was awake. Thinking was hard, and I kept feeling like something was terribly wrong.


    These disjointed fragments of time gradually started to become clearer and clearer as the months passed by. Instead of a brain-melting headache, I started to be able to think somewhat clearly every time I woke up, and I became able to stay awake for longer and longer periods of time. Never enough time to figure out what was going on, but at the very least, the feeling of wrongness was getting weaker and my thinking was getting clearer. I started to realize that I was still sort of conscious during my blackout periods of mind-numbing headaches, however. I would still move, eat, and occasionally squirm - however, my body was on autopilot.


    Finally, as months and years passed, the headaches disappeared completely. I opened my eyes, taking some time to straighten out my thoughts now that I could remain conscious for more than a few minutes at a time.


    However, even though my headache was gone, it was like I was thinking through syrup. I could tell, instinctively, that the¡­ shape of my thinking was still wrong. It was close to before, but there was still something off. I took longer to form each thought, and it was harder and slower to form coherent ideas than I was used to.


    Am I drunk? I wondered, before realizing that was ridiculous. I was a baby, and my parents wouldn¡¯t have given me alcohol before I could even walk. Still, the sensation was similar. I tried to focus on the world around me instead, pushing my thoughts to the side for now.


    The next thing I noticed was my mother, smiling as she held me in one of her arms while doing something I couldn¡¯t make out with some pieces of wood and a wooden bucket filled with blue liquid. Now that my years-long headache had finally dialed down a bit, and my eyes seemed to be working again, I could get a better idea of what was going on.


    In addition to her blonde hair and blue eyes, my mother was on the taller side. She was drop-dead gorgeous, in a way that probably would have made me a little jealous in my previous life. She hummed softly as she messed with the bucket, before she glanced at me. Her eyes lit up, and she smiled brightly.


    ¡°Oh? ¡­¡­..Silas, ¡­¡­ Miria is ¡­¡­ ¡­.. and awake!¡± she said, smiling as she rubbed my head. I didn¡¯t understand some of the words, but I was surprised by the fact I could understand a few words of the language now. Even though most of it still sounded like nonsense to me, I could make out some of the word fragments and piece together parts of sentences. Even though I had spent most of my time either unconscious or with a thought-devouring headache, I had apparently still picked up a fair bit of the local language.


    After a few delayed moments, I realized something else. I was ¡®Miria.¡¯ After being reborn, that was my name.


    I had a moment of mixed feelings towards the name, but I felt oddly positive about it. It took me another few minutes of thinking to realize why.


    Previously I had been named Isa-something.


    And I also knew that I cared a lot about someone named Mar-something. Even if I couldn¡¯t quite remember who Mar was, or what the rest of her name had been, I knew that they had been someone very close to me.


    I liked my new name, because even though it was certainly coincidental, it reminded me of my first life. I had been named ¡®Isa¡¯ something in my first life. Someone I cared about had been named ¡®Mar¡¯ something. Miria sound like a combination of these two names, and because my name reminded me so much of my previous life, I was surprisingly happy with my new name.


    Miria was a perfect name for me.


    A moment later, I saw my father walk next to my mother, before he sat down and pulled out another piece of wood. He grabbed a crudely-made brush from nearby, and started helping out. It looked like they were painting pieces of wood blue.


    Since I didn¡¯t understand yet, I decided to take a good look at my father instead. He was a well-muscled and tall man, something I hadn¡¯t noticed during my first inspection of him. He was much less gorgeous than my mother, though he still definitely looked handsome enough. He had a bit of a tan, unlike my mother, and a smile was never far away from his lips.


    ¡°... ¡­¡­. Miria ¡­¡­? ¡­¡­.¡®papa¡¯ ¡­¡­..me?¡± He asked, as he gave me a kiss on the top of my head.


    I couldn¡¯t translate enough of his words to figure out what he was saying. Still, I smiled at him.


    Then, having given him a smile, I looked down at myself again. Why had I lost so much time to that horrible headache? Was there something wrong with my body?


    I took a moment to pop open my Status Screen. If there was something wrong with my body, it seemed reasonable to assume it would show up on my Status Screen. Starting there seemed logical.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Infant¡¯s Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.


    Immature Organic Brain: A vastly underdeveloped human brain that has yet to finish fleshing itself out. Made primarily of physical matter, with slight bits of Absorption Essence mixed into a few key parts of the brain to allow for rudimentary absorption-type spellcasting and interaction.


    Until this brain finishes developing, it will be difficult to think clearly, leading to periods of time where you are ruled by survival instincts. Attempting to perform advanced thinking with an underdeveloped brain may result in severe headaches or loss of consciousness. This will not result in long term harm, but will be extremely unpleasant. To reduce this problem, it is recommended you purchase more Intelligence Stats to speed up the development of future brains.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 108 (0+108)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 89 (0+89)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 118 (0+118)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 127 (2+125)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 130 (0+130)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation:126 (0+126)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 109 (0+109)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 115 (0+115)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 74 (0+74)


    Grade 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 76 (0+76)


    Grade 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    Lives Remaining: 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    Abilities:


    Birth related Abilities: Body Control


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    Achievement: 135.06


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td colspan="3">


    Items: 1/5


    1. Friendship Bracelet


    2.


    3.


    4.


    5.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ah. So the reason I had headaches and lost consciousness over and over again was because my brain was too young to keep up with me. That was¡­ unfortunate, but I was relieved to know it was a problem that would solve itself with enough time. With that settled, I moved on to figuring out what else had changed.


    I quickly realized that I didn¡¯t seem to be losing Achievement anymore. In the Market, I had lost Achievement constantly, as my soul ¡®ate¡¯ Achievement every second to keep me alive. However, I was pretty sure I was around two years old now. Despite that fact, I still had about the same amount of Achievement I had when the three of us had looted the LuxCorp reincarnation point. When we had left the Market, I should have had around 135 Achievement, after buying my two points of Agility and looting the Luxcorp pool of reincarnation booth. If I was still losing roughly 1 Achievement per day, I would be dead now. Instead, I had lost zero Achievement, even though I was at a few years old now.


    With my immediate concerns addressed, I felt much more at ease. I was no longer facing the ticking time bombs of physical deterioration and starvation by lack of Achievement. I was now facing the much longer ticking time bomb of being hunted down and killed by a skeletal mage when we returned to the Market, but I at least had time to think and prepare now before I died in this world and returned.


    My head started to hurt again, so I snuggled a little closer to my mother, who had picked me up and started gently stroking my head. My parents were healthy and so was I. I was probably safe, at least for now.


    Before I drifted off to sleep, I wondered how Sallia and Little Six were doing.

 Chapter 12: Absorption Magic

    The next two years were spent slowly adapting to my new mind and body. As I grew older, the time I was able to remain fully conscious became longer, and my intellect and clarity of thought grew closer and closer to normal. I also realized that I wasn¡¯t fully ¡®unconscious,¡¯ even during the times I had a terrible headache and couldn¡¯t remain awake. Instead, it was more like the instincts of my body ruled over me, leaving me on some sort of strange autopilot state. As I started to have an easier time interacting with the world around me, I studied the language my mother and father spoke, and by the time I turned four I was able to communicate a bit beyond a normal four year old¡¯s standards.


    I learned that there was no written language in this place, unfortunately. My mother and father seemed to have no concept of reading or writing at all.


    From that, along with a few other clues such as the construction quality of our house and the tools I saw my mother and father use, as well as some of the tools I used when my mother asked me to help out with chores around the house, I realized we were either living in the stone age, or just barely beyond it. Nobody knew what farming was, there were no domesticated animals, and tools were made of bones that, for some reason, were incredibly sturdy, and might have been able to outperform even copper tools. I had no idea whether they were as sturdy as bronze or iron, and no clue why the bone tools were so abnormally sturdy, and since my parents had no idea what metal was I had no way of asking them why the tools were so strong. As far as they knew, the bone tools being incredibly sturdy was perfectly normal, and I had no idea how to extend the conversation beyond that. For now, I chalked it up to some local property of this world and decided to investigate more later.


    Despite the lack of technology, there were some major ¡®oddities¡¯ in our lifestyle that hinted at major unique aspects of this world. We didn¡¯t have farming, but we still lived a settled lifestyle. We ate massive quantities of fish about nine months of every year, making me wonder how the heck the water in our area could possibly produce enough food to sustain the entire population in our settlement. We ate roots, vegetables, and occasional berries for the other three months. Even though nobody knew how to write here, a calendar did exist in this area, comprised of twelve months consisting of 29 days each. There were only two seasons the people here bothered recording - storm season and fishing season. Adults came to visit my parents sometimes, but I never saw other children below the age of six. Everyone I saw had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like my parents and I. I was beginning to think this was just a common physical trait in this area.


    My parents were also VERY explicit about the fact I was never to leave the house. I was not allowed to take a look out the front door. There were no windows in the house. The door leading outside of our house consisted of multiple doors that needed to be opened one after another in succession, meaning it was very hard to sneak a glimpse outside of the house unless I could open several heavy doors in a row without being noticed. My mother made sure I was away from the front door entryway whenever it opened. When I asked why I wasn¡¯t allowed to look outside, I was told that I would understand when I was older. For now, it was dangerous, and I was never, ever, supposed to look out the door until I was older, or I might go mad since I wasn¡¯t mentally mature enough to survive seeing the outside yet. I had to wonder what kind of environment could possibly cause death upon sight to young children, but with every adult I came in contact with warning me of the same thing, as well as the physical impossibility of seeing out the door, I grudgingly put away my curiosity for now.


    My mother stayed in the house with me most of the time, taking care of me while we did the housework together. The clothes in this area looked incredibly odd in my eyes, often being made of a mixture of large, hand-sized scales mixed with furs. Pearls were a common accessory for most people, and the villagers treated them as pretty but unimportant decorations and pieces of jewelry.


    As time passed, I became increasingly bored and frustrated with my lifestyle. Being restricted to a small area for multiple years was maddening. I began working on a small exercise routine, in order to keep myself in shape. I had no clue whether or not this actually helped when I was a four year old child, but it kept my mind off of the mind-numbing boredom.


    I had also begun to notice how massive a hindrance my low intelligence stat was. At four years old, my brain was at least developed enough to fully house my soul, but that clearly wouldn¡¯t fix my grade four intelligence. I still felt like I was drunk all day. I was mentally operating well below what I would have previously considered normal, which was an incredibly frustrating and maddening feeling. I was getting used to the constant struggle to think and put together information, but that didn¡¯t make it any less frustrating to deal with. I hadn¡¯t previously felt what it was like to gain or lose a grade in a Stat, but now that I was experiencing it, I could tell firsthand just how important going up or down one grade was. My two points in Agility at the Market had made me feel a little bit faster and more dextrous, but losing an entire grade of Intelligence was enough for me to feel drunk all the time. My low intelligence was also the greatest hindrance I encountered when trying to learn this world¡¯s language - if I had grade 5 intelligence, I was sure I would have been able to communicate easily and fluently with adults. However, since my Intelligence was only 89, while I still picked up the language faster than a normal four year old due to my adult - level brain, it was still a struggle to learn new words and figure out grammar sometimes.


    If there was an upside, it was the fact that my Willpower was 130, putting me firmly into grade six. Even though my Intelligence was terrible and thinking was hard, I could tell that it was easier for me to concentrate and focus on something than it had ever been before. I could spend hours on a task if I wanted to without any lapses in my concentration. When performing my exercise routine, I could very easily push myself to improve my muscles and bones, even though I hadn¡¯t confirmed whether it was useful after a full two years of trying to improve. Even if I had no clue whether this was the right way to improve my body as an infant, I certainly appreciated my vastly improved focus and concentration. It gave me some relief after the incredible frustration I felt when trying to wrap my head around ideas that should have been simple for me to understand.


    * * *


    Our boring but peaceful life continued, until one day, my father came back home injured. His leg was broken, and two villagers were helping him get back home. Other villagers came into the house, one after another, and most gave us a sack of fish meat while smiling gently at us. After that, many of them left, although a few remained standing around. One of the villagers, who had a slightly swollen arm, walked up to my father and gently hugged him with his good arm. He was obviously in pain, but he still managed to grin at my father, even though it was a little strained.


    ¡°Thanks for saving me, Silas. If it hadn¡¯t been for you, I might have broken much more than an arm! I can¡¯t believe the back of the boat cracked from just one hit and dropped us. That thing flailed around way more than most of its kind. I won¡¯t forget what you¡¯ve done for me - let me know if you need anything in the future,¡± said the man, giving my father a grateful look. ¡°Olav says we won¡¯t be sailing until we get the boat repaired. The hunters have already found some more floatwood, so we¡¯re just waiting on Arne to finish reconstructing it.¡±


    My mother was already walking up to my father, while holding something I couldn¡¯t quite make out. I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little nervous. I had never seen anyone seriously injured in this area, and I knew that we were probably living in an era with bad medical technology. What if we didn¡¯t have the ability to cure something serious? If my father¡¯s leg got infected, we didn¡¯t have any modern medicines to cure it.


    Then, my mother pulled a blue rock out of a small container made entirely of bone. Unlike the other furniture in our house, the bone container was exquisitely crafted, and decorated with pearls and bits of wood. It looked very fancy, and I couldn¡¯t figure out why my mother was storing blue pebbles inside of it. She handed one of the blue pebbles to one of the other villagers who had stayed behind. The older man took the rock, then placed his hand on my father¡¯s leg. Before I had time to wonder what he was doing, the elderly man closed his eyes.


    Various runes began glowing on his arms. Each of his arms contained three runes, for a total of six, and a seventh rune existed on his forehead. Three of the runes were red, two were white, and two were green, A moment later, five green runes lit up on my father''s chest, glowing just brightly enough that I could make out the light through his clothes.


    The wound, which had previously been an angry red and purple color, started wriggling around as my father grunted, trying not to scream. The broken bone straightened itself out, while the swelling began to quickly disappear and the edges of the wound began to pull together. At the same time, the stone the elder was holding started to lose its color, changing from a light blue color to a dark gray color. A few moments later, it crumbled into dust. The elderly man looked considerably more tired than before.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°I¡¯ve corrected the bone and dealt with the infection, so all that¡¯s left is to let your body heal itself. If you want to spend another fish stone, you can probably speed up the healing process, but I recommend just waiting a week or two. Since your boat is out of commission right now anyway, there¡¯s no point in wasting a fish stone when it¡¯ll heal just fine anyway. Let me know if there are any complications and I¡¯ll take another look.¡± The man took his hands away from my father¡¯s leg, and the runes on his skin slowly faded away. After a few moments, I could no longer see them. The man began walking towards the door, before he paused for a moment and turned back to my father. ¡°It¡¯s rare for things to go this wrong during a simple fishing trip, but it¡¯s good that no one was seriously injured. Well done keeping Claus safe, Silas. You did an excellent job making sure he didn¡¯t fall into the water.¡± Then, he gave my father a respectful nod.


    My mother, who had been holding another blue rock, put it back into the bone and pearl box before nodding at the magic healer.


    ¡°Thank you for treating my husband.¡±


    ¡°Anytime,¡± said the elderly man, giving my mother a more solemn nod before leaving.


    Then, my mother turned to the man who had hugged my father. ¡°Claus, now that Silas¡¯s injuries are dealt with, are you okay?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine - the healer already took a look at my arm,¡± said Claus, rubbing his swollen arm ruefully. ¡°It¡¯s still a bit painful, and I don¡¯t have a fish core laying around since I condensed a rune recently, but he still dealt with the infection for me. I¡¯ll take a bit longer to heal, but I should be fine.¡±


    My mother smiled at Claus. ¡°Glad to hear it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll visit again in a few days, Silas. Thanks again for saving me. I thought I was a goner the moment I was in midair, but you managed to pull me up. I¡¯ll never forget this.¡± With that, he gave my father one more one-armed hug before leaving the house.


    ¡°Papa? Are you okay?¡± I asked, trying to process what I had just seen.


    That had been¡­ magic. It had very obviously been magic. Suddenly, I felt excitement well up in my heart. This world really had magic in it!


    ¡°Yeah, sweetie. I¡¯m okay.¡± He gave me a wider, happier grin and ruffled my hair. I pouted at him, before straightening my hair. I suddenly felt like my previous worries and my excitement were both silly. Sallia and Little Six had both come from worlds where magic was well known. The Market had directly referenced magic multiple times, and the note Sallia and I had stumbled across when we were exploring had even mentioned that worlds with no magic were fairly rare. The messages I had seen when being reborn in this world had even mentioned something about ¡®absorption-essence magic being possible,¡¯ and the skeletal Mage we had encountered in the Market had nearly killed the three of us before we were pulled into the ocean of souls by Sallia.


    However, seeing magic performed in front of me by something that wasn¡¯t trying to kill me was incredible. The idea that an elderly man had just fixed my father¡¯s bone and dealt with an infection just by absorbing a ¡®fish core¡¯ was amazing to me.


    My father limped over to a chair and sat down. Then, he closed his eyes and seemed to fall into a trance. The five runes in his body began to faintly glow again.


    The color of his skin around his injury began lightening even further, until it returned to his normal skin tone. My father''s pulse and breathing started becoming slower and slower, but my father began to look healthier as the seconds passed by. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes, as his pulse and breathing sped up again. He still looked injured, but his body looked a little sturdier than it had before. He smiled at me again, mussed up the hair I had just straightened, and then began slowly humming a little tune as he went to take a nap.


    * * *


    It took a week and a half for my father to recover. During that time, Claus visited every few days. Sometimes he would bring a meal, sometimes he would bring a toy for me (which I didn¡¯t have much use for, since I was mentally a grown woman), and sometimes he would just chat with my father and check up on him. At one point in time, he also brought over a wooden hairpin studded with pearls.


    During the time my father spent recuperating, he spent a fair amount of time playing with me and spending time with my mother. I spent a lot of that time trying to tease out the details of whatever magic system this world used. This was my first real opportunity to learn magic, since Sallia was unable to use spells in the Market, and I didn¡¯t want to waste it if there was any way I could learn magic in this world.


    However, mother and father both deflected my questions, telling me they would think about it. If I tried to persist, they would change the subject.


    Finally, my father¡¯s leg fully recovered. He went out, saying something about thanking the other villagers who had helped out while he was hurt. A few hours later, he returned, and had an unusually thoughtful and serious expression on his face.


    ¡°Miria, your mother and I have made a decision. We were planning to wait until you were a little older, but we¡¯ve changed our mind. You¡¯ve always been focused for your age, which is why we think you¡¯re ready.


    ¡°That being said, if I catch you messing around, you¡¯ll wait until you¡¯re five before we talk about this again. Condensing your runes is hard, and it¡¯s hard to get together enough fish stones for everyone. As a fisherman I have enough fish stones for our family to use, but wasting them would set your progress back by a lot, and you need to take the subject seriously and not mess around. Do you understand me?¡±


    ¡°I understand, dad. I¡¯ll be careful and listen,¡± I said. I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little thrill of excitement. Was I finally going to learn about magic?


    Father made a somewhat doubtful expression while he was looking at me, but after that, he reached into the exquisitely carved bone box used to store blue stones. From inside, he drew out one of the blue rocks, and he solemnly handed me the stone.


    ¡°All right, Miria. The first thing you need to do is close your eyes and try to feel the energy inside of this fish stone. All humans can do this, although it gets easier when you turn six and starts to get harder again when you turn twenty. This stone has far denser mana than the air around you, making it easier for you to feel it with your Absorption Essence. For now, take the stone, and close your eyes. I want you to feel the stone with your mind. Tell me when you feel something¡­ different.¡±


    I closed my eyes and placed my focus on the stone in my hand, trying to feel it.


    However, the exercise proved incredibly frustrating. I couldn¡¯t feel a thing when I focused on the stone. I closed my eyes even more tightly, and tried to feel the stone, but no matter what, I couldn¡¯t feel anything at all.


    I spent an hour concentrating on the stone, but in the end. I couldn¡¯t sense anything unusual from it. Frustrated, I opened my eyes to see my father''s encouraging smile. He looked both amused and unsurprised to see my irritation, and chuckled when he saw me open my eyes.


    ¡°You spent a lot longer working at it before giving up than most kids too. Don¡¯t worry - it¡¯s very hard to feel mana and absorb it for the first time. It took me four days for my first success, and I was faster than most kids. And I only started when I was five. It¡¯ll be harder for you since you¡¯re younger. Even if it takes you a few weeks, don¡¯t feel bad.¡±


    For a moment, I feel impatience boil up from inside of me, before I pushed it down. My incredible focus and tolerance for boredom finally had another use besides allowing me to persist in my questionable exercise routine - apparently, it was now linked to my progress in this world¡¯s magic system.


    Another hour of no progress passed, before I started to get a headache. It was similar to the ones I had gotten when I was younger, though I could instinctively tell that the source of the headache was different.


    My father, seeing me knead my temples and wince, gently smiled and patted me on the back.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough for today. Give it a rest and get back to it tomorrow, all right? If you spend too much time and energy trying when you aren¡¯t ready, it might do more harm than good. You¡¯re trying to use your Absorption Essence for the first time, so it¡¯ll take a while for your body to get used to it. Don¡¯t push yourself past what you can handle, okay?¡±


    I nodded, and did my best to quell my interest and be patient. I would succeed sooner or later, apparently. I just needed to keep working until I got what I wanted, and I didn¡¯t want to ruin my chances to learn magic by being too hasty.


    Still, even though I hadn¡¯t succeeded today, I couldn¡¯t help but feel excited. I was learning magic.


    I wondered how Sallia and Little Six were doing. I could sense that they were nearby through my friendship bracelet, but I didn¡¯t know anything else. Were they all right? Were they learning the magic system of this world as well? I hadn¡¯t spent long with Sallia, and it had been a few years since I had last seen her, but I considered her to be a potential friend. Little Six was someone I had spent even less time with, but I had liked him as well. I hadn¡¯t seen them in this world yet, since my parents were adamant that I not look at the outside world, but I hoped they were doing well somewhere nearby.

 Chapter 13: First Rune

    The next five days were spent under my father¡¯s supervision, trying to figure out how to sense the mana inside of the fish stone. It was difficult for me to keep my focus and motivation up, even with my Grade 6 Willpower, but the thought of learning how to do magic kept pushing me forward.


    Besides the excitement of learning how to do magic, I was also pushed forward by fear. I still vividly remembered the fear of being killed by skeletons at any moment I had experienced back at the Market, and the feeling of my arm melting before my eyes when that skeletal Mage had launched a flash of green light at me. I also remembered the hollow, empty streets of the Market. If I wanted to avoid ending up the same way as the original inhabitants of the Market, I needed to boost my strength as much as I could. I didn¡¯t know how much of my abilities I would be able to take back into the Market, but learning how magic worked would still greatly improve my survival chances when we returned, since I would have a better idea what to expect from hostile enemies. And if I could bring some of my Abilities back to the Market, or even just cart back a huge amount of Achievement, it would make me much stronger as the three of us explored the area.


    Finally, on the sixth day of practice my hard work paid off.


    During the day¡¯s training session, I was able to sense a slight¡­ tingling sensation. It originated from deep inside of the fish core, and it felt like a tiny droplet of liquid electricity when I ¡®felt¡¯ it. The feeling of sensing mana by using my absorption essence was incredibly strange - it was like I was blindly sticking my hand into an electrical socket, but instead of getting electrocuted the energy simply rubbed itself into my fingertips, letting me know it was there without harming me.


    I was so excited that I nearly lost focus, but I forced myself to calm down and re-establish my connection with the mana in the stone.


    ¡°I think I got it!¡± I said, keeping my eyes closed and my senses attuned to the tingling sensation.


    ¡°You did get it! That¡¯s my baby girl. Now, focus on the energy inside of the rock, and try to pull it in. Everyone pulls in mana differently, but most people make a mental picture to help them. I personally think of the energy as a massive ocean, and then picture myself grabbing a bowl and scooping it into my mouth. This might not work for you, so try whatever feels right. Once you absorb some energy, your body will do the rest on its own.¡±


    I did as he instructed, trying to reach out and pull the tingling sensation inside of me. I first tried to picture the energy inside of the stone as a kind of air, and then focused on breathing it in. However, while I felt the energy inside of the stone wriggle a bit, it didn¡¯t actually enter my body. It seemed I needed a different image.


    My next two attempts at devouring the energy in the stone also failed. Worse, I could feel my absorption essence draining away with each failed attempt. I had only been vaguely aware of my absorption essence before, but now that I had sensed mana for the first time, I was finally aware of a reservoir of energy inside of my body. And every second I used it to sense mana and interact with it, the absorption essence in my body was slowly draining away.


    In other words, I had limited tries to get this right before I had to stop for the day. I had barely managed to sense mana today, and I wanted to at least eat a little mana before I ran out of tries for the day.


    On my fourth try I finally succeeded in taking some mana away. I imagined a spoon, and pictured the mana inside of the stone as a kind of liquid, similar to a soup broth. Then, I used my imaginary spoon to scoop out some of the ¡®liquid¡¯ inside of the stone. It worked, but I realized my visualization method was flawed. About half of the tingling sensation ¡®fell off¡¯ of my spoon before it made its way inside of my body, dissipating into the air.


    Even the half-spoonful of energy had an effect on my body. It felt like I had taken a sip of pure caffeine. I felt mana swirl around my body, and the absorption essence inside of me started to crazily rip away at it, digesting it and converting it into something my body could use. Finally, the newly digested energy began to make its way towards my arm.


    The energy in my arm started stabilizing itself, gradually ¡®solidifying.¡¯ The feeling of having chugged an energy drink started to fade away, and instead it started to feel like I had a small amount of gelatin on my skin.


    I opened my eyes before I took a look at my arm. Sure enough, there was a small, glowing chunk of white energy on my arm. It didn¡¯t resemble the fully-built runes my father and the elder had. It was much less mature, and it was white instead of green or red. But I still felt excited when I looked at it.


    I had taken my first step towards becoming a wizard!


    My father gave me a huge grin. Moments later, he started cackling, before he picked me up and swung me around happily. ¡°That¡¯s my girl! Good job, Miria!¡± He gave me a sloppy kiss on the top of my head. I quietly smiled and reciprocated his hug.


    ¡°All right Miria. Now that you¡¯ve gotten a little bit of mana inside of you, it¡¯ll be easier to pull in more. However, you need to practice every single day until you finish building your first rune. Whenever you aren¡¯t pulling in more mana, the mana inside of your arm will slowly leak out. Once you have a rune fully built, the mana you¡¯ve absorbed will stop escaping. Once you¡¯ve built your first rune, you will need to take a break. If you don¡¯t give your body enough time to get used to the rune, you might hurt yourself, so in the future you¡¯ll need to pull in a bunch of mana, turn it into a rune, and then stop absorbing energy until your body finishes dealing with it, okay?


    ¡°The other thing you need to remember is that every rune makes you stronger. The first three runes will naturally make your body stronger, healthier, and faster. Every rune will be harder to make than the last rune, so most people save up fish stones and other, harder to acquire cores called land beast cores until they feel that they¡¯re ready, and then.


    ¡°Every three runes also represents a much bigger breakpoint in rune creation difficulty, but will also improve the reward for each new rune. The first three runes enhance your body, getting you ready to make the next runes. Runes four, five, and six give you a new special ability. Runes seven, eight, and nine enhance your brain and mana pool, giving you more energy. And the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth runes will enhance all of your previous runes to incredible degrees, as well as grant a few other abilities. For now, just focus on making your first three runes,¡± said my father, as he finally let go of me. ¡°Other than that, each person¡¯s body can only make so much absorption essence.. That means you can only make a certain number of runes, because each rune costs a certain amount of absorption essence to maintain. Eventually, you¡¯ll spend as much absorption essence on maintaining your runes as you make every day, making it impossible to form more runes. You¡¯re still a long ways away from that, though.¡±


    ¡°I understand, father,¡± I said. ¡°Thank you for helping me learn this.¡±


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    ¡°Of course I¡¯d be here for such a big moment in your life! Your mother and I were going to wait until you got a bit older for you to learn, but since I got hurt, we decided it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to start now. Fish stones are uncommon, so we were worried you might waste them, but you¡¯ve always been focused for your age, and it¡¯s not like we have a huge shortage of fish cores either.¡± My father gave me another gentle hug before kissing my forehead. ¡°I¡¯m proud of you, sweetie. Now keep going and finish your first rune!¡±


    I frowned. ¡°Before I get back to working on my rune, what is mana, dad?¡±


    My father scratched his head, giving me a strange look. ¡°Well, uh¡­ that¡¯s a good question. I think I heard one of the elders mention that mana is the essence of everything, or that it was the ocean mother¡¯s gift to humanity. I don¡¯t know what that means, and there are a lot of contradictory ideas and legends about what mana is. Either way, I just know that runes absorb mana and make my body stronger, and I can¡¯t interact with mana without using absorption essence. If you¡¯re still curious when you¡¯re older, maybe try talking with the elders of the tribe? They would know more than I would.¡±


    I sighed, before I shrugged. If my father didn¡¯t know the answer to my question, there wasn¡¯t much I could do about it. And from what it sounded like, this world¡¯s understanding of ¡®mana¡¯ might be very vague, or even incorrect. Since the chat log we had found in a shop in the Market had referenced Magic multiple times, the Market probably had a better understanding of mana and the four essences, so I might just need to wait until we returned before I learned more. For now, I would just focus on finishing my rune.


    * * *


    I spent the next few weeks working on finishing my first rune. It was slow and difficult, and every night I would lose some of the progress I spent hours building up, but eventually I succeeded. My mother and father had obviously prepared a lot for my first rune - we had almost three dozen fish cores stockpiled for my personal use. Which, as it turned out, was far, far more than I needed. Every single fish core had around three ¡®spoonfuls¡¯ of energy inside of it. As I grew better at manipulating absorption essence, I started to waste less mana, and near the end of my first rune I only wasted about a third of each spoonful instead of half. While I felt that this was still a pretty frustrating level of waste, and felt bad for losing so much energy, my parents told me it was pretty normal to lose some energy from a fish core. According to my mother, even most adults lost a quarter of the energy they tried to ¡®eat,¡¯ and children often lost fifty or even sixty or seventy percent. In total, it took me seven fish cores to finish building my first rune.


    The moment the rune was completed, I saw a new System notification, and my body started to feel different. I ignored the System notification for now, and instead focused on the new rune I had built and its effects.


    The rune started pulling in energy from my surroundings. Tingly bits of mana filled up the rune, and then my physical abilities all started to increase by leaps and bounds. I opened my Status Screen to see if it had anything to say about my newly made Rune.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Runes: 1 Successfully Condensed


    (+20 to all Physical Attributes)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 128 (0+108+20)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 89 (0+89)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 118 (0+118)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 147 (2+125+20)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 130 (0+130)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 126 (0+126)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 129 (0+109+20)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 115 (0+115)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 74 (0+74)


    Grade 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 76 (0+76)


    Grade 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My physical abilities had all increased by 20 in my Status Screen. In other words, they were all one grade higher than before. After I had experienced the massive difference one grade of Willpower made, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh out loud as I experimented with my physical abilities.


    The difference of one grade in all of my physical abilities was huge. I could jump higher, lift more, and my body practically glowed with health. The effects were somewhat muted due to the fact I was currently four years old, but I could already imagine how much bigger the difference would be once I grew up and my body finished developing. As my body matured, I would be able to take better advantage of my Stats as my physical vessel finished developing and growing up. However, at this very moment, as a four year old I felt as strong and coordinated as a ten year old child.


    I also realized that my rune had another ability besides just passively strengthening me. If I wanted to, I could tap into the rune and ¡®spend¡¯ the mana inside of it, boosting my physical abilities further. It was nowhere near as big of a boost as increasing my attributes one grade, but it could certainly tip the scales in a fight if I learned how to use it properly. However, the energy cost was pretty intense, so I would need to practice timing it if I didn¡¯t want to waste the attribute boost. I could probably only maintain it for ten or fifteen seconds, so it was very much an emergency ability and not one I could use frequently.


    With my inspection done, I turned my attention back to the System notification I had seen.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Condense your first rune out of absorption essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I felt delighted, but I also felt confused. If the Achievement I had absorbed previously felt like a shot of addictive drugs jammed directly into my brain, this rush of Achievement was like eating delicious sweets until I was full - I felt a pleasant sensation, but it was nowhere near as difficult to control as it was in the Market. I didn¡¯t know why that was the case, but I decided to take it as a blessing.


    At least right now, even if I got Achievement I wouldn¡¯t feel like a drug addict looking for another high. While it felt good to get more Achievement in the Market, I had always been a little wary of how much the ¡®high¡¯ of absorbing more Achievement felt might change my behavior, or distract me at a critical moment.


    This System notification also told me that I could get Achievement in the middle of a reincarnation, which was very important for my future planning. No wonder people in the Market felt that a few hundred Achievement was just peanuts. I had gotten 100 Achievement just from learning the lowest entry-level magic of this world, and I was willing to bet more difficult and impressive feats would grant me even greater amounts of Achievement.


    I had a much better idea why people in the Market focused on reincarnations now. Compared to fighting skeletons in the Market, the amount of Achievement I could get by reincarnating and growing in a world seemed to be much higher. And the downsides of getting Achievement were also seriously minimized. Even if I couldn¡¯t spend my Achievement until we returned to the Market, it was comforting to know that I had just earned enough Achievement for another two permanent stat points, assuming I didn¡¯t find anything better to buy once we returned.


    I got up and started walking through the house, shaking off my excitement and trying to find my parents. When I found them, they were just as excited as I was that I had successfully condensed my first rune. After my mother and father both gave me tight hugs and celebrated, my mother brought up a topic I was exuberant to hear about.


    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve condensed your first rune, you¡¯ve shown that you have the patience and willpower to stay sane and alive when you go outside. We can¡¯t keep you cooped up in here forever, right? Tomorrow, would you like to go outside and see a few other children?¡±

 Chapter 14: Fish and Flight

    The next day, my mother took me out of the house for the first time. I was incredibly excited after I realized this might be my opportunity to check on Sallia and Little Six. I had been wondering how they were doing all of the years I had been reincarnated in this world without being able to leave the house, and if I was about to see other kids my age, there was a good chance I would be able to check up on the other two.


    My mother slowly undid one door after another in the entryway to our house. Each door required the previous door to be opened before it could be accessed, and there was a fair amount of distance between each door to make it as difficult as possible for children to sneak by. As she slowly worked her way through the doors, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder why the people of this world seemed so afraid of the outside world. My mother held on to my hand tightly as I took my first step out of the house, and I finally got my first real look at the outside.


    The first thing I noticed was the ocean. Less than five hundred meters from our house was a boundless expanse of clear blue water that stretched into the distance. As I stared at the ocean, I felt a strange sense of longing well up in my heart. I suddenly felt the urge to take a little dip into the water, but I suppressed the desire. Now wasn¡¯t the right time, though the sweltering heat outside of the house made the nice, cool water seem rather tempting. It made me feel incredibly interested in taking a swim, though, and I wondered if convincing my mother to take me to the water later would be easy or not.


    I did my best not to focus on the water as I continued scanning my surroundings. I could see several islands in the distance. Those islands were small enough that they couldn¡¯t house much more than a reasonably-sized village, but several of them were occupied by other villages that looked just out of the stone age.


    We also lived in a village. At maximum, I guessed that we might have 600 or 700 people living here, and that was with each family having a generous number of surviving kids. We were located on a sandy beach. The sand spread in every direction for at least a kilometer. The sand itself was something to behold. There were a variety of ¡®layers¡¯ to the sand. Each ¡®layer¡¯ of sand was a different color, making it look something like a confused rainbow. The width of each layer seemed utterly and completely random, but I could still distinctly see swathes of different colors of sand layered over the beach.


    The houses in the village were made of crude logs. I couldn¡¯t see any evidence of metalworking in the village, although there was some evidence of stone carving. Things seemed to mostly be made of bone and wood, though. In place of nails or clever construction, the villagers seemed to use some sort of light-blue paste to hold their houses together. I vaguely remembered seeing my mother and father use it to ¡®paint¡¯ other items a few times, but I had never realized it was a construction material rather than a decoration before. It actually looked like the blue paste was some sort of ¡®glue¡¯ in this area, although based on the way it was used to hold several houses together it was probably much stronger than a regular glue.


    Farther inland was a massive, awe-inspiring forest. Some of the trees looked like they had been lifted straight out of a painting of an elven forest. They towered far above the crude houses we lived in. However, these massive trees were the exception, rather than the rule. Most of the trees in the forest were more normally sized, creating two different treelines - one treeline made of the massive, skyscraper trees, and one made by all the normal sized trees.


    Most interesting was that our village was built well away from the treeline, and a long, wood and bone fence had been constructed separating the village from the trees. It was as if the  village was afraid of the forest, and felt the need to make sure there was as much distance as possible between them and the treeline. Some of the houses were practically hugging the ocean, squashing themselves against the coastline, but nobody built houses any closer to the trees than they had to be.


    Near the forest were a few groups of well-armed people, all of whom had several runes. The lowest number of runes I saw in these groups were some teenagers and near-teens who only had five or six runes, while the adults all had seven or more.


    The final thing I noticed was the giant fish. It was bigger than most ships, and quite possibly bigger than most mansions. It lazily floated on the surface of the ocean as it sunbathed, perhaps half a kilometer away from the coastline. It had two dozen eyes. And each of the eyes on the fish was larger than my mother. The fish was at least 50 meters long, making the largest whales look small in comparison.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I could make out a few tiny boats heading towards the fish. All of the boats, without exception, glowed silver and flew through the skies.


    I finally understood why the boat accident my father and his friend had been involved in had caused them to ¡®fall.¡¯ And why it had caused such odd injuries. Father had literally fallen onto the ocean from a height of several dozen meters. If the people of this world weren¡¯t all supernaturally enhanced, that probably would have killed everyone on the boat, regardless of whether they were falling onto water or stone.


    As one of the boats soared towards the fish, the fish seemed to grow wary. I saw a few shadows fly out of the boat, but before they reached the fish it reacted. It flicked its tail at the flying boat, and landed a hit, hammering the boat and sending it wildly spinning through the air. The wind suddenly picked up, swirling around the boat as its silver glow grew brighter. Then, rather than shattering into a million pieces or backing away from the fish, the boat decided to try again and started flying towards the fish.


    The boat looked dented, but after being hit by a tail that weighed as much as a house the people inside were apparently just fine, and raring for another fight.


    The fish, deciding it had enough, dove back beneath the surface of the waves, sending tsunami-sized waves roiling across the surface of the ocean.


    Near the coast, a bunch of people who were sitting near the water all stood up, calling out to each other in voices I couldn¡¯t make out. Most of them had four or five runes maximum. Then, nearly a dozen of these people raised their hands towards the ocean. Their blue runes lit up on their bodies, and the massive waves stopped dead in their tracks before shrinking back into the ocean, preventing the water from destroying the village. The dented fishing boat seemed to give up on hunting for the day, and began to fly back towards the island. I could finally see that it was flying more slowly than before. Clearly, it wasn¡¯t entirely unscathed from the encounter, which made me feel oddly relieved. If the boat had been totally unscathed after getting smacked by a sea leviathan, this planet¡¯s power level would have been far more ridiculous than I had thought.


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    ¡°Close your mouth, Miria.¡± My mother gently chided me, and I realized I had been staring with my mouth hanging open.


    ¡°What was that? The boats can FLY! And the fish ¨C¡±  I clamped down on my words, embarrassed. Even though most of my memories were missing, I knew I was much older than four years old. I didn¡¯t need to talk like a four year old. My body seemed to be affecting my thinking more than expected.


    My mother laughed as she listened to me. ¡°That¡¯s last night¡¯s dinner. Don¡¯t you recognize it?¡± she said, giving me a humongous grin. Then, her grin faded a bit, as she gave me a more serious look. ¡°Still, they¡¯re pretty tame as far as sea creatures go. Apart from their strength and their size, they¡¯re usually pretty peaceful. It¡¯s why the village hunts them for food,¡± my mother said as she gave me a mischievous wink. ¡°And they¡¯re pretty tasty, too. The rest of their body has a lot of other valuable uses, as well. The fish stones you used to construct your first rune, bones for tools, organs for fish paste to keep keep walls together and make our houses cool in the heat¡­ the great fish are the lifeblood of the village.¡±


    We¡¯ve been eating giant fish? It¡¯s true that I hadn¡¯t seen mother debone or descale any of the fish yet, and the chunks of fish we¡¯ve been eating were usually pretty large. I had always just assumed they were cleaned up before they entered the house. I hadn¡¯t expected that the fish were so large that processing one corpse was probably work for the whole village.


    ¡°What else lives in the ocean? Those things are tame compared to the other stuff?¡± I asked, more curious than anything else. Then, after a moment of hesitation, I decided to go for it and see if I could cool off a bit. ¡°Can I go and look a little under the water?¡±


    My mother¡¯s face grew firmer and harder as she stared at the ocean, before she turned back to me. None of her previous joking manner could be seen at all.


    ¡°Sweetie, all kinds of things live in the ocean. Scary things live beneath the waves. Don¡¯t EVER go into the water, okay? The things that live near the surface, like the giant fish, are tasty and peaceful most of the time. The deeper you go beneath the waves, the more that changes. The things beneath the surface are dangerous. Especially because, like all people, you¡¯ll feel a certain¡­ pull from the ocean. As if there are wondrous things just beneath the surface, or like it would be nice to just swim for a bit¡­¡± My mother shuddered as she stared at the ocean. Now that I was looking closely, even though my mother seemed afraid of the ocean, she also seemed filled with¡­


    Longing.


    It was faint, but I knew my mother wanted to go into the water. She seemed certain it was a bad idea, but some part of her still yearned to enter the waves. I frowned, thinking about my incredibly strange desire to take a swim just a minute ago. I hadn¡¯t thought very much about wanting to swim in the water, since it was much hotter outside of the house, but now that I observed my mother¡¯s expression as she looked at the ocean, I realized something was very wrong with the water here.


    ¡°The water pulls people in. Anybody who sees the ocean has a desire to swim, or explore the ocean, and until people get used to the Call of the Ocean, they won¡¯t even realize their desire is unusual. And sometimes, if people just take a little dip below the surface of the water, they come out fine. But most who go deeper into the waves never return. And the deep sea creatures that occasionally swim to the surface of the ocean are more than enough to show us just how scary the ocean is under the surface. Don¡¯t you ever go beneath the waves. The giant fish we eat are already strong, and the deeper creatures are stronger and more mean, so you need to stay safe and avoid the water. Don¡¯t give in to the Call of the Ocean, and don¡¯t go near the water until you have four runes. Okay, sweetie?¡±


    I nodded. If the ocean was really as dangerous as my mother made it out to be, I would be sure to avoid it. Now that I heard my mother¡¯s words, I felt cold sweat break out on my forehead. If no one had been here to warn me, I might have very well just taken a little dip in the water and never returned¡­


    No wonder kids weren¡¯t allowed to go outside much when they were young. If the ocean made people want to enter it whenever people saw it, the Ocean represented a lethal threat just by existing nearby.


    At the same time, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder. Why did the ocean draw people in? Was the water magical? I shook my head free of the forming headache. Those thoughts were fascinating, but I didn¡¯t know enough to make any guesses right now.


    ¡°Yes, mama. I understand.¡± Then, seeing my mother¡¯s weird mixture of longing and disgust, I decided it was best to change the subject.


    ¡°Where are we going?¡±


    My mother seemed to snap out of her thoughts, and turned back to me before smiling again.¡°For now, you¡¯re going to meet the other kids your age! I know you haven¡¯t had any opportunities to talk to other kids, so I thought you might like getting to know some of the other children a bit. Some other parents are also willing to let their kids move around now, so you can take this as a chance to make a few friends. Doesn''t that sound exciting?¡± She said, putting on a sort of faux-enthusiasm parents used when they wanted to encourage their children to get excited about something. However, I didn¡¯t need encouragement to feel excited about this.


    I grinned, feeling enthusiastic as I followed her towards one of the houses. I had already had my fill of taking in the sights of this world for now, and honestly, I felt a little desire to put some distance between myself and the ocean right now. It was interesting, and like everything magical I found it to be an object of fascination and wonder. But right now, I was having a hard time resisting the urge to take a swim, and I wanted some space to clear my head a bit.


    Besides, it was time to see if I could find the other transmigrators. My mother and I stepped into the house.


    Inside of the house, there were six other children. Two of them were older, a ten year old girl and an eight year old boy. I could see that the girl had four runes and the boy had two, and both of them were talking with each other and ignoring everyone else. The next pair of children were probably seven, and were a pair of boys playing with a few strings of pearls while talking to each other.


    And the final group of children was a boy and a girl. When I say them, I had to try very hard to resist the urge to start cackling madly. I felt the friendship bracelet latched around my soul - wrist start to heat up, and I could faintly feel the connection I had with two other presences start to flicker. Then, I felt a sort of recognition well up from the bracelet. It was a notification that I was looking at two other people who were part of my ¡®friends¡¯ network.


    Sallia and Little Six were the final two children. They were both my age, and were giving me massive grins.

 Chapter 15: Sallia and Little Six

    I stared at the other two Transmigrators, barely able to suppress my grin. The two of them looked absolutely nothing like they had back in the Market.


    Little Six now looked positively skinny, nowhere near the towering mass of muscle he had been back in the Market. His entire frame had shrunk tremendously in this life. Before, he had looked like a bear in human skin, but now he looked like a pampered rich kid, with slender arms and legs. Although that would probably change as we grew older, I found the massive contrast hilarious.


    Sallia, who had previously been a more average looking girl with gemlike eyes, now showed signs that she would grow up to become gorgeous when she grew older. At least, if it weren¡¯t for the fact that she looked a little sickly. Her arms and legs had previously contained a kind of dextrous, wiry grace due to her years of training in weapons and magic. Even if our stats had been the same, in the Market she had much more familiarity with how to use her body, and it had shown in every movement she made. Now, her limbs were thin and frail. The certainty in her steps had disappeared. Instead of a relatively strong eighteen or nineteen year old, now she looked like a cute but sickly child. The wiry strength in her body was still present, but much weaker.


    My mother patted me on the back, gently pushing me into the room where the children were playing. While she kept an eye on me, a few of the other men and women of the village quickly approached her and began speaking with her. I could see that most of the adults were still keeping a firm eye on the kids, but weren¡¯t actively interfering with the children playing.


    Sallia also glanced at the grownups, before she looked at me. Clear decisiveness shone in her eyes. She took a step towards me, opened her mouth, and took a deep breath ¨C before she looked at my hair and got distracted.


    ¡°Ooh! That hairpin is really pretty! I love how easy it is to find pearls in this world! How did you ¨C no, god-king¡¯s scales, what is wrong with-¡± She stared at the wall, frustration creeping into her features as she went totally off topic.


    Little Six burst out laughing. ¡°You didn¡¯t even manage to get through three sentences! Aria, you¡¯re really struggling to-¡°


    Sallia turned to him.


    ¡°Felix!¡± She hissed, giving him a death glare. Unfortunately, she was too young and un-intimidating to make the scene anything other than comical. Unable to help it, I also burst out laughing. Sallia began glaring at both of us instead of just Little Six.


    Little Six cleared his throat, before giving both of us an amused expression. Then, he took a step forward. ¡°Hi. Nice to meet you. My name is Felix. And I think you¡¯ve also met Aria,¡± he said, flicking his eyes towards Sallia. ¡°I¡¯ve only met her a few hours ago, but I think the three of us can be friends,¡± he said, his eyes twinkling a bit. I frowned, thinking over the names of my ¡®new¡¯ acquaintances.


    Felix? Aria? Why were their names¡­


    Ah.


    Suddenly, I felt a little sad. This was the first time I had noticed a very distinct problem with the idea of reincarnating over and over again.


    We didn¡¯t keep the same names from world to world.


    Our parents, naturally, would name their children something they felt ¡®made sense,¡¯ usually while the child had yet to be born.


    And there was absolutely no reason at all for them to pick the same name we previously had. For me, that hadn¡¯t been a problem so far. After all, my current name was wonderful, and I couldn¡¯t remember my name from my first life. Being given a new name didn¡¯t feel very strange to me.


    However, Sallia had a perfect memory of who she had been in her past life. She hadn¡¯t suffered the same memory loss issues Little Six and I suffered from. Naturally, her attachment to her first life and her previous identity was also much greater. For her to suddenly lose her name and have it replaced with ¡®Aria¡­¡¯


    It must feel awful. And in the future, Felix and I would suffer from the same problem. I loved the name Miria. I didn¡¯t want to lose it. But staring me in the face was solid proof that I might have to just deal with it.


    I frowned, before pulling up my Status Screen.


    I still had the Body Control¡¯ ability etched firmly into my soul. I had no idea how the ability actually worked, but I felt a sense of hope as I looked at it.


    Maybe there was a way to retain more of my identity from world to world? If the Market could keep my body¡¯s sex the same, maybe there was some way to keep my name as well. I wanted to get stronger from world to world, but I valued other things as well.


    Things like friendship, and who I was. I didn¡¯t want to lose those things in the endless cycle of reincarnation.


    I couldn¡¯t have been the only transmigrator that felt that way. And based on the number of weird and ridiculous advertisements I had seen from the Market, where there was demand, there was supply. Somewhere in the Market, there might be a solution to the problem of names.


    I felt a bit better when I started thinking that way. I didn¡¯t want to be forced to give up my identity every reincarnation. My name and my memories made up part of who I was. I didn¡¯t want to start changing them the way I changed clothes. If I started doing that, I felt like I would lose something I didn¡¯t want to lose.


    I quietly bumped this up in my priorities list. The moment we got back to the Market, I was going to invest a lot of time into figuring out how to keep my name. I wanted to survive, first and foremost, and as long as Sallia, Felix and I were still friends I wanted to keep them safe and happy as my second priority. However, my third priority was to learn how to preserve my name and my identity. Of course, this could only be fixed when we got back to the Market.


    ¡°Do you have any idea how to keep our names the same from life to life?¡± I said, after making sure the adults and other children weren¡¯t paying attention to us.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Sallia, looking lost and frustrated. ¡°I really want to find out a way to do so, though. I mean, Aria isn¡¯t a bad name, but it¡¯s not mine.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m also interested in this problem,¡± said Felix. ¡°I think that Felix is a fine name, since I can¡¯t remember my original one. But now that I have a name, I don¡¯t want to lose it, you know?¡±


    ¡°Well, I was thinking that the Market seems to have a lot of different weird objects stuffed in every corner. If possible¡­¡± I told them of my plans to find a way to preserve our names when we got back to the Market, and the two of them seemed interested as well. With a common goal, it felt like we had a more solid focus in front of us. Something besides just ¡®surviving¡¯ when we got back to the Market. We would return, find a way to keep our names, and survive the skeletons that had taken over the city.


    ¡°What else do you know about this planet?¡± asked Sallia, after the three of us finished discussing the Market. ¡°I¡¯m trying to figure out what sort of world we¡¯re in, but I¡¯m still kind of lost in the details of what I¡¯ve seen so far.¡± Sallia seemed to be trying her best to look mature, which was more than a little comical given the fact she looked four. ¡°My parents won¡¯t usually let me out of the house. Today, when we were coming here, my mother made me put on a band of cloth that covered my entire face for some reason. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s some sort of social custom or what, but I couldn¡¯t see out of it. So I have no clue what the outside world looks like. What does this area look like? And do either of you know why I was forced to put on a blindfold the entire time?¡±


    ¡°The ocean has some sort of weird¡­ mind-manipulation effect if you look at it,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s probably why you needed to cover your eyes. Try to work on building your first rune - that¡¯s when my parents decided I was ¡®mature¡¯ enough to look at the ocean without losing my mind. Though I have grade six Willpower, so that might also be why it doesn¡¯t bother me very much. Also, the ocean is apparently terrifying. Don¡¯t touch it.¡±


    ¡°You got grade Six Willpower! I only got grade three! That¡¯s so frustrating! Also, what¡¯s a rune? I have heard my parents talking about them before on a few occasions, but they won¡¯t tell me anything in detail. They just kept saying they would discuss it when I was older and more mature,¡± said Sallia, stamping her feet. For a moment, she looked like a real four year old.


    ¡°Your parents haven¡¯t gotten you started on them?¡± asked Felix. ¡°Mine got me started on my first rune a few months ago, I think. My mother said I should be ready to start building my second rune after a few more months, and that she already has the supplies ready.¡±


    ¡°I only got to start a month ago,¡± I said, pouting a little. ¡°I just finished building the rune yesterday, actually. I thought I was finally being allowed out of the house as a reward.¡±


    ¡°What are you two talking about?¡± asked Sallia, sounding more frustrated than ever.


    ¡°Ah¡­ here. It¡¯s easier if I just show you,¡± I said, rolling up my sleeves and showing my arm. I burned a little bit of my mana, forcing the rune on my arm to start glowing. It immediately started emitting a white glow. My body got stronger, faster, and sturdier, and my energy reserves rapidly began dwindling away. However, it made my rune flash with a very pretty silver light for a few moments before I stopped.


    ¡°This is a rune,¡± I said.


    ¡°Oooh, pretty!¡± Said Sallia, seeming excited as she stared at it. ¡°What does it do?¡±


    ¡°This one boosts my physical stats by 1 grade. I don¡¯t know if this world has any other kinds of magic, but apparently as you build more runes they do more varied things. The fourth through sixth give specific supernatural powers, the seventh through ninth give mental enhancements, and so on.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Sallia tapped her chin with a single, pudgy finger. ¡°That¡¯s pretty different from my home world¡¯s magic system. Enhancing the physical body? What kind of mage does that?¡±


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I shrugged. ¡°These ones, apparently. Although, the fact that this world¡¯s magic is different from yours is pretty interesting. What do you think, Aria? Any further insight on this world¡¯s magic system? You¡¯re the only one of the three of us who has ever used Magic before, so I¡¯m curious to know if you have any insight on changes from one world to another. It could be really useful information for our next world, after all.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ on my home world, magic was the process of studying one particular idea or element, and then learning to manifest it in reality by spending mana. I specialized in fireballs, so I would have been considered a battlemage, but there were plenty of other kinds of mage as well. Our physical bodies were pretty much the same as ordinary people, though. I mean, a big part of the reason nobles were expected to learn weapons was to compensate for this weakness, since without training we might not be able to properly wear or move in armor if it came to a war or something.¡±


    So, Sallia¡¯s world had more closely followed the mage class stereotypes from my previous world¡¯s works of fiction. Interesting.


    ¡°Does that mean the magic system will totally change from world to world?¡±


    ¡°Maybe? I mean, I also feel like the essence of magic is really different here. Like, previously, I was manipulating something deep inside of me. I don¡¯t feel that something in this world at all, but I feel a different something inside of me instead. It¡¯s hard to really make a comparison though, since I haven¡¯t been allowed to try magic yet,¡± said Sallia, who seemed lost in thought.


    ¡°Hey Sallia, you seem¡­ different,¡± I said. I meant it in more of a teasing way, because in the Market she had spoken like a perfect noblewoman, formal and serious all the time. The four years she had spent in this world seemed to have mellowed out her habit of speaking formally, and she showed her emotions much more readily on her face.


    However, the statement seemed to set her off.


    ¡°My Willpower is 74! The average person has a Willpower of 100! I¡¯m two grades below average! I can barely focus for more than a minute! It¡¯s like I¡¯ve got a gerbil living in my brain, running in circles while another gerbil tries to beat it to death with a spoon! I can¡¯t focus on anything!¡± Sallia hissed. ¡°I have an Intelligence of 129 and I can barely use it! It¡¯s so frustrating, being able to think more quickly and clearly than I¡¯ve ever been able to before today, and having none of the focus I need to use it,¡± said Sallia, her rage finally giving way to a sigh of pure exhaustion. ¡°I just¡­ ughh.¡± I started to feel a little bad about laughing earlier. Even if the sight of Sallia tripping over herself was kind of ridiculous, she was obviously a lot more upset about the situation than I thought she would be.


    Was there a good way to distract her or make her feel better?


    ¡°Sounds like you also got a crap roll in one of the mental stats,¡± I said, giving her a grin. ¡°I have crap intelligence now. I feel like I¡¯m drunk all of the time.¡±


    ¡°Ugh. You got a bad mental stat as well? Having the way you think suddenly change is so jarring. At least I¡¯m not the only one suffering here,¡± said Sallia, giving me a small snort. ¡°You know, I¡¯ve never been¡­ well, smart before. I was just average in my previous life. As much as the low Willpower is driving me nuts, having my Intelligence be a full grade above average is¡­ amazing,¡± she said, smiling again. ¡°I can think more clearly than ever before, and I can solve problems I didn¡¯t understand before. There isn¡¯t any overly complex problem to solve here, but whenever I think about things from my previous life, problems and ideas are just so much easier to remember and understand. It¡¯s amazing. But having my Willpower suddenly tank two grades makes me feel like I made a bad trade. What does having low intelligence feel like? What grade is yours at?¡±


    ¡°It feels like I¡¯m drunk half the time. It¡¯s the most frustrating thing I think I¡¯ve ever experienced,¡± I said, feeling a strange sense of shame. ¡°I have a pretty hard time thinking straight these days. I can put together coherent thoughts, but I can¡¯t process what they mean very quickly. I even realized something was weird about the ocean when I started wanting to take a swim earlier, but I didn¡¯t put everything together. I just thought that maybe I was in the mood for a swim or something.¡± I sighed, shaking my head. ¡°I guess I should have realized it already. My physical attributes felt so different when I got an extra grade tacked onto them from my rune. It¡¯s obvious that having Intelligence be a grade below average would also be huge. But it¡¯s really annoying to deal with. It feels¡­ weird to me. I often feel like I can still think straight, but I notice little holes in my thoughts and ideas that wouldn¡¯t have been there if I were thinking clearly.¡± I sighed. ¡°When we get back to the Market, I guess I need to throw some more points into Intelligence. I don¡¯t know exactly what has changed about us since we became Transmigrators, and I think that our Stats work a bit¡­ differently than we might expect. But I know for sure that having low Intelligence is a massive pain.¡±


    ¡°Better put some points into Willpower too,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Trying to live like this just feels infuriating. Each grade is what really matters, right? In that case, I don¡¯t care if it costs 500 Achievement to get it up 10 points. As long as I can keep some Achievement around for emergencies, I think I want to ¡®fix¡¯ my stats so that it¡¯s impossible to roll below grade 4. I want to prioritize Willpower, Intelligence, and Fortitude first. Even if getting lynched by Skeletons in the Market would suck, trying to live like this is almost as bad.¡± Sallia said, shaking her head as she started fiddling with a few pearls one of her hands. She didn¡¯t even seem to notice the fact that she was fidgeting, and simply kept going as she talked.


    ¡°Good point,¡± said Felix. ¡°Let¡¯s think about this some more when we know how much Achievement we¡¯ll be getting in this life, though. I got a hundred for forming my first rune. So I figure forming runes are good ways to get Achievement. Do we have any other ideas for ways to farm Achievement?¡±


    ¡°Killing stuff, maybe?¡± I shrugged. ¡°It worked in the Market, at least.¡±


    ¡°By the way, what are the rest of your stats looking like?¡± asked Sallia.


    ¡°Hmm. Is there a way to share Status Screens? It might be faster for us to just share them,¡± I said.


    After a few minutes of fiddling, we figured out that the Friendship Bracelets did, in fact, have the option to ¡®share¡¯ Status screens. They didn¡¯t display quite the same in-depth breakdown of my Stats that I could see on my own Status Screen, but I could still see their totals and the Stats added from their runes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Name: Sallia (Aria)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 107


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 129


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 72


    Grade 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 121


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 74


    Grade 3


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 114


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 74


    Grade 3


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 126


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 112


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 92


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Sallia¡¯s stats were skewed in incredibly bizarre ways. Her Intelligence, Agility, and Perception were all one grade higher than usual, and she was obviously very talented in those areas. However, Fortitude, Willpower, and Absorption essence were all dangerously low, especially because this world¡¯s magic system seemed totally reliant upon Absorption Essence, Willpower was needed to avoid taking a swim and never returning, and Fortitude was necessary to avoid getting sick. Sallia¡¯s stats were incredibly powerful in some very specific scenarios, but they seemed very dangerous overall.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Name: Felix


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Runes: 1 (+20 to all Physical Attributes)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 87 (+20)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 124


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 121


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 112 (+20)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 114


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 128


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 130 (+20)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 94


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 114


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 99


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Felix¡¯s stats were the exact opposite. If Sallia¡¯s stats made me feel incredibly worried about her, Felix¡¯s Stats made me incredibly jealous. Most of the Stats that seemed important were average or above average. His only other lowroll that mattered was Strength, and that was easy enough to compensate for by forming more runes.


    ¡°Your Fortitude is really low. Is that why you seem a little frail?¡± I asked Sallia.


    ¡°Yeah. I get sick a lot more often than I did in my last life,¡± She said sourly. ¡°I get cuts that take forever to heal and bruise really easily. It sucks. You said that Runes boost your physical attributes by a grade each? In that case, even if I¡¯m not going to ever be able to focus in this life, I¡¯m at least looking forward to not needing healer attention every time I get a splinter. My body barely recovers from injuries on its own. If magic healers didn¡¯t exist in this world, I don¡¯t know if I would even survive through childhood.¡±


    Since Sallia sounded like she was working herself up towards another fit of rage, I decided to change the topic.


    ¡°Do either of you have a better idea of where we are or what the rest of this place is like? Any powerful nations or news about where we¡¯re actually living? I haven¡¯t figured out if we¡¯re part of a bigger nation or if this is it yet.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything,¡± said Sallia, getting immediately distracted by the change in topic. ¡°We¡¯re part of an island chain. This is the biggest island in the area, by quite a bit. Nobody knows of a mainland in any direction, although exploration hasn¡¯t exactly been frequent either. Also, permanent villages are pretty new, relatively speaking. According to the bedtime stories my father tells me, I think these villages were established around ten generations ago. The villagers fled here from ¡®somewhere else¡¯ during a famine. No one seems to remember where we came from before then, or any relevant details about what was before then. The stories aren¡¯t too interesting, either - a lot of them are terribly unspecific, so I can¡¯t figure out much about the real world from them. A lot of them seem to feature weird sea creatures, but since they aren¡¯t very detailed I have no idea how much I can trust them or use them as references. It¡¯s super frustrating, even though the ubiquitous pearls are really neat.¡±


    ¡°So we¡¯re really looking at a society that just exited the Stone Age, technologically speaking?¡± I asked, doing my best to redirect Sallia¡¯s attention back towards the main topic.


    ¡°Stone Age? Ah, that¡¯s a pretty clever term,¡± said Felix, giving me a grin. ¡°Yes, it seems to be the case.¡±


    The three of us continued discussing our thoughts for a while longer. Sallia¡¯s distractibility didn¡¯t make it easy to keep the conversation on track, but Felix and I did our best to redirect her back to the topic whenever her attention started to wander. Eventually, we moved on to more relaxed discussions of our lives in this world, as well as weird anecdotes and stories about our parents. Felix¡¯s father was apparently dead, and his mother¡¯s face was partially paralyzed for reasons she didn¡¯t talk about. Sallia¡¯s mother didn¡¯t trust Sallia (which was probably fair, given how hard of a time Sallia had focusing, but seemed to sting Sallia¡¯s pride.) Sallia had an older brother who had died before she was born, which seemed to have put Sallia¡¯s parents much more on edge than other parents might be, while Felix was an only child and I was as well.


    Eventually, our parents finished chatting and came back to collect us. Even though we hadn¡¯t learned much, it was good to see my fellow transmigrators were alive and well. I had been a little worried in some corner of my mind that they might have been born in one of the other villages, or something might have gone wrong. Now that I had confirmed that we were all here, I felt a weight lift off of my chest.


    For now, I wasn¡¯t alone. I had two other transmigrators to spend time with and figure things out with. And with the three of us here, it shouldn''t take too long to get a better feel for the village and whatever was up with the giant flora and fauna.

 Chapter 16: Friendship

    Over the course of the next few months, I asked for my mother''s permission to ¡°go play with my friends¡± more and more often. She always tagged along with me, because I was still too young to go anywhere by myself and the Ocean¡¯s Call remained an ever-present threat. My parents did seem to be increasingly aware of how little influence it had on me, but even if I seemed mostly immune to it, they were naturally afraid of leaving a four year old alone in a dangerous situation either way. The fishing boat my father worked on was also repaired after another week or two, so he was usually out during the day. He always returned in the evenings and took a few days off every so often, so I still saw him, but I didn¡¯t spend as much time with him as I had while making my first rune.


    I took these months as an opportunity to get to know my fellow transmigrators a bit better. We were going to be seeing each other a lot in the future, and we were eventually going to be braving the monsters of the Market together as a team when we died. The two seemed interested in becoming closer as well, and the three of us quickly became more than the team of acquaintances we had been in the Market. Unlike other people, we had a certain understanding of each other, and an emotional bond that wouldn¡¯t fade away after our deaths, which made it easier to understand each other and sympathize with each other when we reminisced about our old lives or talked about the quirks and oddities of this world.


    After the first month, I paid particular attention to Sallia. I was increasingly concerned about her mental state. With how frustrated she seemed in this life, I wanted to check up on her and see if there was anything she needed.


    ¡°How are you holding up?¡± I asked Sallia one day. She had a particularly bad distractibility episode earlier that day, and had lost focus no less than eight times while trying to apply some fish glue to a piece of wood. Even though the girl¡¯s flightiness was pretty amusing, it was also obvious that having such a hard time keeping her attention on anything was difficult for her. Since she seemed particularly frustrated that day, I pulled her out of the situation and into her room, where she could cool down a little and get some space.


    ¡°I¡¯m holding up, I guess. It¡¯s¡­ difficult. Seeing you and Felix start building runes makes me nervous.¡± She shook her head after thinking about it for a while longer. ¡°No, that¡¯s not quite the right word. I feel frustrated since I can¡¯t do anything like that. I want to start building my own runes too. I¡¯m really worried that I seem to have gotten such a bad set of Stats in my first life. After all, we only have five lives to start out with. You and Felix are off to a great start already, and whenever we figure out how to buy lives, I¡¯m sure you two will have plenty of Achievement left over to invest in yourselves after buying some Lives. But I¡¯m¡­¡± She sighed, shaking her head again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m trying really hard not to be bitter about it, and make the best of what I have right now, but¡­ the three most important stats in this world, as far as I can tell, are Absorption, Willpower, and Fortitude. Fortitude to keep you alive long enough to grow up, Willpower to allow you to spend long periods of time building Runes and resist the Call of the Ocean, and Absorption to create runes more quickly and increase the upper limit of runes you can control. I am two grades below average in ALL THREE of them. My mother finally told me about runes a few days ago because I kept pestering her about it, and I tried to form my own without the fish stones, since you can theoretically make runes with or without fish stones as long as you can sense mana in the air around you. Even if it¡¯s harder, I thought I could use it to prove that my Stats aren¡¯t going to hold me back in this life, and I also wanted to prove that I can do things I need to get done with or without a high Willpower Stat¡­


    ¡°It was a complete disaster. Ever since then, my mother is trying really hard to distract me whenever I mention the topic again. I know it¡¯s because she doesn¡¯t want to waste fish stones, and she thinks I¡¯ll probably grow out of my attention problems when I get older. But my parents also need fish stones to trade for expensive services in the island, and neither of my parents have ¡®maxed out¡¯ on runes yet, either. Their Absorption Essence can still reach a little further. If my mother keeps ¡®waiting for me to mature a bit¡¯ she might never stop waiting. I¡¯ve been looking through as much information as I can find from the little information bits you can buy, and I¡¯ve learned that Transmigrators have less variance than normal kids - and our personalities are already formed when we¡¯re born. While a normal human changes a lot as they¡¯re growing up, we change much less because our personalities are already formed the moment our soul attaches to our body. So I¡¯m probably never going to have an ¡®easy¡¯ time concentrating on stuff until we return to the Market, and waiting for that long feels crushing.¡± Sallia sniffled a bit, and looked like she was about to cry. I gave her a hug.


    ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be harder for kids to form runes, so you don¡¯t need to worry¡­¡± I stopped what I was saying. Telling Sallia she would need to wait a few more years¡­ didn¡¯t seem quite right. I certainly didn¡¯t think it would improve her mood, or help her grit her teeth and hold out longer. In the first place, if Sallia was saying that we developed less mentally as time passed, Sallia really might have to deal with her current problems until we returned to the Market. Giving her a false hope to latch onto didn¡¯t seem like a real solution to the current problem.


    I had an idea, but I hesitated. What I was about to do might come back to bite me later. In fact, in some respects, it was a terrible idea, especially since right now all three of us were struggling to eke out a little more efficiency and power for ourselves. The Market would be incredibly dangerous when we returned to it, and none of us knew if we would survive going back and facing the skeletal spellcasters again. We didn¡¯t even have a guarantee of our own safety, and while the three of us shared information and talked about the Market, this would be a little different than our previous cooperation. It would require me to unilaterally spend resources I needed to help Sallia. I hesitated for a moment.


    But if nobody reached out to the other, we wouldn¡¯t grow closer together. And I liked Sallia and Felix. We had escaped the Liches at the Market together, and at that time, Sallia had pulled Felix and I into the pool when we were too stunned to react. I liked them both, and I didn¡¯t want to see them hurting or in pain.


    If nobody takes the first step, nothing will change, I told myself, working up my courage. I took a leap of faith.


    ¡°I¡¯ll help you. You¡¯re struggling a lot with controlling your distractibility and getting resources and runes in this life, right? I¡¯ll help you however I can. I can give you a few of my fish stones and help give you advice. I¡¯ll¡­ need to sneak them out of the house so that my parents don¡¯t notice. So I don¡¯t know how many I¡¯ll be able to get you or how often I can get them to you. But my parents gave me enough fish stones to help me get through my second or third rune, and I can sneak a few fish stones to you. I¡¯ll give you enough of them that it¡¯ll become easier for you,¡± I said, giving her as big of a grin as I could. ¡°And then I¡¯ll sit with you and help guide you through the process.¡±


    Sallia seemed to perk up a bit at the thought, before she deflated again, but her ears stayed partially perked up as she looked at me. ¡°My Absorption Essence is low, and my Willpower is low. It¡¯s going to be really¡­ I mean, are you sure?¡± Sallia had a strange expression on her face - a weird mixture of depression and anxiety, along with a tiny bit of hope. When I saw her expression I knew that she was interested, even if she was trying hard not to be a burden.


    ¡°I can definitely help you get started!¡± I said, injecting more force into my voice. ¡°I¡¯ll help you get through this. That way in the next life, if I get trash stats you can help me and return the favor,¡± I said, giving her a wink to let her know I was joking. I was helping her because I wanted to. There was no other reason besides the fact that it felt good and I didn¡¯t want her to feel bad anymore.


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    Sallia seemed like she had been depressed for most of her time here ¨C she needed someone to help her get back up and keep moving.


    Was helping her right now strictly correct?


    No. Not at all.


    Sallia¡¯s mind was still at least partially affected by her body, and I was willing to bet that she would have an easier time absorbing mana as she got older. As much as Transmigrators came into this world with a fully formed personality and set of memories, I had experienced first hand the fact that our thinking was still at least partially influenced by our bodies. After hearing what Sallia had said, it seemed likely the influence was reduced, but it was definitely still there. Right now, Sallia was around four years old, just like Felix and I, meaning she was probably far less efficient at absorbing mana than she would become in the future.


    But Sallia seemed depressed and anxious whenever I talked to her. I knew that she was struggling to feel optimistic about this life. Since I already liked her and enjoyed spending time with her, I wanted to make her feel better. If that required wasting some resources, it was a fine price to pay to cheer my friend up. I would figure out how to deal with other problems when we returned to the Market.


    I spent the next few hours going over the basics of how I had formed my first rune, explaining it as clearly as I could to Sallia. The next day, I smuggled her an extra fish stone to help the process along.


    Sallia really had a hard time sitting still for long periods of time. I could tell that she was trying her hardest to focus, despite her Grade 3 Willpower. She knew how important this was for her, and I could tell that she appreciated the fact that I was stepping in to help her when I didn¡¯t have to. She didn¡¯t manage to feel the energy in the air around us or in my fish stone by the time we were done on the second day, but at the very least she seemed to feel better.


    The next day, I went to Felix¡¯s house with my mother instead.


    Unlike Sallia, he was doing quite well for himself. His body had finally finished adjusting to his first rune, meaning that he would no longer hurt himself if he started working on his second rune. Combined with his above average Absorption Essence and Willpower, along with the abundant resources his mother had, he was already preparing to start pushing towards his second rune. Felix¡¯s mother praised him to the skies as a future talent, and even hinted that he would one day follow her footsteps and protect the village from the landbeasts of the forest. Her half-paralyzed face didn¡¯t betray her emotions terribly well, but when she smiled and bragged about her son I could feel how proud she was and how much she loved Felix.


    Felix and I played tag, talked about how sick we were getting of a diet of nonstop fish, and compared and contrasted the first worlds we had lived on. I learned that he had lived in a society that, by my world¡¯s standards, would have been somewhere in the very early industrial age. For my part, I spent a great deal of time describing to him what my world¡¯s technology had looked like. At least, the parts I remembered well enough to describe. He seemed endlessly fascinated by the concept of trains and phones, despite the fact I barely remembered how they worked, and started trying to put together little scraps of wood and cloth to model what I was describing to him. Despite the fact that he was using clumsy child hands to put together scraps of material, after a few dozen tries he started getting surprisingly close to a small model train, although his little cellphone looked incredibly odd even after several rounds of revision from him.


    After that, I brought up the main topic.


    ¡°I want to know if you¡¯re interested in helping Sallia out,¡± I said.


    ¡°With what? Is she working on a project or something?¡± Asked Felix.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s a mental issue. Since coming to this world¡­¡± I began outlining my concerns about Sallia¡¯s mental state. Her depression because she had a hard time focusing, her bleak outlook on this life, and how hard she was trying to form runes. I also talked about smuggling out my fish stones to help her.


    He seemed startled as I talked, and I finally remembered that he only had grade 4 Perception in this life. Maybe it made it genuinely hard for him to notice things about other people?


    ¡°I¡¯ll definitely help out as well,¡± said Felix, firmly. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice the problem at first, so thank you for pointing it out to me. I won¡¯t let you be the only one trying to help her - I¡¯ll smuggle some fish stones out as well. My mother keeps tighter control of my supply than your parents, but I¡¯ll find a way. Let¡¯s stick together and help each other whenever we can.¡±


    * * *


    ¡°I think I got it! I got it, Miria!¡± Sallia squealed in excitement, holding the fish stone I had given her. I was sitting next to her with my eyes closed, trying to sense mana in the air. Since Sallia was chewing through my fish stones, I needed to develop this skill earlier than planned or I would really struggle to make up for my fish core deficit later.


    I placed my finger on the fish stone Sallia was holding, sending my mind into the stone and trying to sense the energy inside of it. Then, I cracked a grin as I turned back to Sallia.


    ¡°You did get it! Good job!¡± I said, giving her an excited grin. The energy inside of the fish stone was a bit lower. Even if the difference wasn¡¯t substantial, it was definitely noticeable.


    I gave her a huge hug. It had been four days since we started working on these sessions.


    I actually found this to be more than a little bizarre. It had taken me a full week to sense any form of energy inside of the fish stone. Sallia¡¯s absorption Essence stat, as well as her Willpower Stats, were both two grades lower than me. These two categories seemed to be the most important ones in this magic system. How did she succeed so much faster than I did? I was more than slightly baffled by this.


    Still, I couldn¡¯t help but feel more happy than puzzled. Sallia¡¯s cheeks looked like they were about to cramp from smiling. Regardless of the reason behind Sallia¡¯s weirdly high speed, I was just happy that her mood had improved.


    This was a huge step for her.


    ¡°Good job, Sallia!¡± said Felix, from a bit farther away. Like me, he had donated a few fish stones to Sallia and was now trying to figure out how to cope with his diminished resources. ¡°I¡¯m glad that we¡¯re all starting to get our runes going. This is a great first step.¡± He also gave Sallia a hug.


    ¡°I¡­ I promise I¡¯ll pay you both back for helping me! When we get back to the Market, I¡¯ll give you some of however much Achievement I get in this world!¡±


    I snorted. ¡°I don¡¯t want the Achievement ¨C I want us to be friends. If we aren¡¯t mistaken about how the Market and reincarnations work, we¡¯re going to be spending a lot of time together. I could spend all eternity traveling through the multiverse alone, hunting for Achievement and trying to dodge whatever caused the Market to become a pile of rubble. However, I seriously doubt that kind of existence would be a happy one. I just want to spend more time with both of you.¡±


    ¡°I really like that idea!¡± said Sallia, exhibiting a childish exuberance at the thought. Then, she seemed to realize that her body was controlling her emotions, and she turned a little red. ¡°I mean, ahh¡­I¡¯m glad that we might get to keep moving forward together. Having some companions would make things much better in the future, especially if one of us gets a particularly bad birth situation or bad stats in a given world. This is a rather advantageous scenario, so I would be¡­ I mean, it makes me happy that¡­¡± She trailed off, slowly turning red as I resisted the urge to chuckle.


    Felix also smiled. ¡°I certainly don¡¯t mind the idea. If we¡¯re going to keep being reborn and living over and over again¡­ spending that time with you two doesn¡¯t sound half bad. Here¡¯s to a better future together,¡± he said, raising an imaginary glass of alcohol in toast.


    I was both surprised and more than a little glad that toasting each other was customary in his world as well. I also raised an imaginary glass to our future together, and Sallia did the same.


    Our friendship was different now. In the Market, we stuck together because we stuck to each other to survive, because none of us knew what was happening and wanted a group of people to improve our safety and share information. We were pushed together by circumstances, and while we had good impressions of each other, there had been no telling what the future might hold. But what we had now was different. After pooling our resources together to help Sallia and looking after her, I could feel the nature of our relationship slowly changing from cooperation to genuine friendship.


    Even if there was no blood bond linking us, that day, I felt like I had a family again.

 Chapter 17: Storm Season

    We spent the next several months working on our runes. Apart from building runes, we spent a lot of time with each other, getting to know each other and learning to trust each other and work together more effectively. We also told stories about our previous worlds whenever the adults weren¡¯t paying attention.


    Felix relished learning more about my world¡¯s technology, so I told him about the gadgets and innovations I remembered from home whenever I could. The gaps in my memory made it hard to describe some things, but I could still remember the basics of things like airplanes, phones, trains. Felix seemed to have a special interest in transportation methods and gadgets. Though he was also interested in a few other things, such as my hazy memories of my personal life in whatever ¡®London¡¯ was, as well as my few, extremely vague memories of my best friend whose name started with ¡®Mar.¡¯


    Sallia seemed far more interested in the stories I told of my original world¡¯s warmaking and communication abilities. She asked for stories about cell phones and the strange metal tubes I remembered my old world used as weapons. She seemed more than a little dubious of my claims about how scary the metal tubes truly were, but she was also curious to know what a world looked like when swords were almost irrelevant in a war, so she asked me about weapons pretty often. I had no clue how the weapons of my old world would match up to the superhuman strength and superpowers of this world, but both of us found comparing the two interesting.


    From Sallia¡¯s stories, I loved hearing about Sallia¡¯s time as a noble, as well as her world that had fully embraced magic. Felix also seemed interested in this, which made me happy. From what Felix had told us of his world, all mages there were known to be universally evil monsters who attacked innocent people and slaughtered them for power. The church of his world had legions of soldiers who hunted down and fought Mages wherever they were found, and the gunpowder revolution and industrial revolution on his world had put evil magic firmly on the back foot as non-mages pushed spellcasters further and further into a corner. The fact that he was able to put aside his prejudice and accept Sallia, as well as embrace this world¡¯s magic system, was a good sign for the future. It also meant that there wouldn¡¯t be drama within our group over using magic, which let me heave a sigh of relief. Even if Felix didn¡¯t exactly love magic, the way I did, he seemed to think of it as a useful and interesting tool, despite the prejudice he had been raised with in his old world.


    The three of us also started to get a more definite idea of what memories each of us lost. Sallia had almost no memories missing, but after some probing, she did realize that when she was younger she had a pet cat that she had simply¡­ forgot about, even though it had accompanied her for most of her life. Felix was missing memories of his parents and his first name, though he could remember his friends in perfect detail. I was missing almost ALL of my personal memories.


    Despite that, it didn¡¯t seem like we lost any skills. Knowledge of music, math, and science all seemed to be preserved much better, even though none of our memories of the subjects in question were perfect. The three of us had no clue why that was, but when I thought back to the memories I had lost, I couldn¡¯t help but wish it was the other way around. I didn¡¯t need to know how to get the derivative of velocity and use that to find the current acceleration of a tennis ball. I needed to know what my best friend and my mother¡¯s face looked like.


    At the end of the day, none of us knew why we forgot personal memories and remembered skills and mechanical memories, so we shelved the topic and resolved to keep an eye out for more information when we returned to the Market.


    During our time together, Sallia¡¯s rune formation advanced steadily. My mother, along with most of the other adults, seemed to eventually figure out that I was giving Sallia a fish stone or two on the side. Far from being angry at me, my mother seemed to approve of my ¡®good nature and ability to look after my friends.¡¯ Which was lucky, since I honestly felt she would have been justified if she got mad at me. I would have kept slipping Sallia fish stones either way, because Sallia¡¯s mental health had seemed on the verge of collapse for a while, but I was glad my mother didn¡¯t chew me out for it.


    Though, she did say that since I was so determined to give away my fish stones, I needed to form my next rune with fewer resources. She didn¡¯t hate my generosity, but she said I also needed to deal with the consequences.


    Which was fair. I had quite a way to go before I could start working on my second rune anyway, because my body hadn¡¯t fully adapted to my first rune yet, but Felix and I had been training in sensing mana in the air around us already. It was much harder than using fish cores to make runes, but I was already working on a solution for my future fish core shortage.


    Sallia only took two weeks to form her first rune. I had taken nearly a month, and Sallia had accomplished her first rune formation in half the time, with fewer resources, and two grades less Absorption and three grades less in Willpower than I had access to. When I asked her how she had done this, the conversation had gone in circles for a while before Sallia learned that I lost around a third of each ¡®spoonful¡¯ of energy. Sallia, apparently, lost none.


    This brought back one of my earliest memories of the Market, which had mentioned that I was brought to the Market because I had high talent in one of the four Essences. Once I mentioned this, Sallia, Felix and I started wondering if the reason Sallia was so good at using absorption essence was because she specialized in Absorption essence. If so, it seemed like a huge shame that her Stats were so far below average in the important categories this time. With an average set of Stats, she might have gone above and beyond what Felix and I were able to do in this world. Sadly, even though the three of us thought Sallia¡¯s talent in absorption essence was incredible, Sallia still couldn¡¯t quite escape the problems of having low absorption essence in her body.


    As our abilities grew, more time passed. Felix eventually formed his second rune, and got 200 Achievement as a reward for doing so. He reported that, like the first rune, the second rune raised all of his physical stats by 1 grade. Sallia and I worked on stabilizing our first runes, and prepared for the day we would eventually make our second runes.


    One day, Olav, the fisherman that owned the fishing boat my father worked on, stopped by while we were relaxing and playing in the sand on the beach. I had only met Olav a few times, but he stuck out very prominently in my memories. Mostly because he was one of the few people who didn¡¯t have blonde hair in the village. His hair was turning gray, a rare sign of old age in a village where people didn¡¯t usually live past fifty, but it was also easy to see that unlike the other islanders his hair had previously been brown. This, along with his grizzled beard and his accent, made me often curious about where he had come from, and why he was so different from the other villagers.


    ¡°The three of ya are doin¡¯ great with yer runes!¡± Olav said with his booming voice, giving us a grin. ¡°Miria, yer mama and papa were sayin¡¯ that the Storm season¡¯s rollin¡¯ around. Normally, ya¡¯d need to go back home, but since yer pretty mentally resilient and ya¡¯ve never seen it before, do you wanna watch instead? I was talkin¡¯ it over with them, and I convinced ¡®em that watching¡¯ it instead might do ya some good. It sharpens the mind, and it¡¯s good trainin¡¯! The clouds are gatherin¡¯ and the season¡¯s right, so it¡¯ll start soon! Felix and Aria (Sallia), yer parents are comin¡¯ along too. Do ya wanna watch too?¡±


    I thought about it for a moment, before I turned to Felix and Sallia.


    ¡°Thoughts?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m interested,¡± said Felix, shrugging. ¡°I don¡¯t feel much pull from the Call of the Ocean if I¡¯m careful. If my mother thinks I can safely watch the storm season, I don¡¯t mind giving it a try, especially if it has some sort of beneficial effect.¡±


    Sallia frowned, and shuffled nervously. ¡°Mister Olav, is that¡­ really a good idea for me?¡±


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    Olav actually frowned, seriously thinking the question over. ¡°Yer a little younger and yer Willpower has never been great, but yer ma and pa said that as long as ya don¡¯t let go of their hand you¡¯re allowed ta watch. I dunno if it¡¯s a great idea but¡­¡± he shrugged. ¡°They¡¯re yer parents, not me. If ya don¡¯t wanna join, I think they¡¯d accept it if ya said no, but it¡¯s yer choice, and if ya manage ta watch, ya might be able to fix a bit of yer weak mental resilience.¡± He gave me and Sallia a grin. ¡°And the storms are a sight to see, if ya can manage to watch ¡®em. It¡¯s yer choice though.¡±


    ¡±How effective is it? At strengthening your Willpower, I mean? Is it really effective?¡±


    Olav laughed. ¡°That got yer attention dinnit, it, little lady? I know that a lot of people who witness the Storms start ta get a little tougher in the head, but it ain¡¯t a miracle trainin¡¯ method. Ya gotta persist with it, and the effects won¡¯t totally solve yer problem. But it¡¯ll help, so it¡¯s still a good idea fer ya if ya can manage. Ya¡¯ve always been a little¡­ erm¡­ scatterbrained,¡± said Olav, trying to keep a note of awkwardness out of his voice.


    Sallia frowned, before she nodded to herself. ¡°I want to do it. If it¡¯ll help¡­¡± Sallia trailed off, but I had a good guess what she was thinking. In this life, Sallia¡¯s greatest hindrance was always her low Willpower and her low Absorption Stat. If there was a way to boost that Stat, even by a little bit, it made perfect sense that Sallia would be interested in it.


    ¡°All right, come along then.¡± The three of us followed behind Olav. A few minutes later we all stood next to our parents, and began moving a bit away from the villages so that the huts wouldn¡¯t block our view. The adults shuffled around, moving closer to their children.


    Sallia¡¯s father gave Sallia a cautious look, before he moved much closer to Sallia and grabbed her hand. Felix¡¯s mother simply gave him a warm, approving smile with the half of her face that moved properly, before she sat down in the sand and patted the sand next to her. Felix sat down in the spot as the two of them relaxed.


    My father held tightly on to my mother with one hand and made me hold his hand with the other. My mother also closed her eyes, covering them with her free hand while peeking out from between her fingers occasionally. Time passed as the clouds gathered.


    I felt a vague sense of pressure. The mana that I was slowly learning to sense started to gather in the air around the ocean.


    Before I had more time to think and observe, the clouds and mana started to warp together, and with a boom, the storms started. Instantly, the world transitioned from calm to absolute mayhem. Far away from the island, in the sea, the heavy gray clouds burst, and rain began pouring down in sheets, seeking to obscure the earth and wash away the islands. Lightning crackled above the surface of the water, coming down in sheets as it blasted the surface of the waves like a curtain of light dancing in unseen winds. The ocean itself rose up to meet the lightning, forming a towering vortex of water that slowly reached towards the heavens like an angry god clawing its way out of the ocean.


    In the center of the emerging pillar of water, a giant, glowing green-white light seemed to shine, like a star had fallen into the ocean. It gave the entire sight an eerie, ethereal glow. In the distance, I could see the water closer to the village began to drain away, revealing small clusters of pearls, all reflecting the sickly glow of the ocean.


    The water surrounding the vortex began to wobble and shake like a bowl of jello, jiggling back and forth. I could vaguely see some of the giant fish, along with other, more massive sea creatures I couldn¡¯t identify, swirling around in the chaotic and choppy towers of water. They looked like tiny ants when compared to the rising pillar of water, pitiful creatures swept up in a spectacle beyond mortal imagination.


    The pillar of water reached its pinnacle, touching the clouds. There was a massive boom, and I shuddered as I felt the soundwave crash through the world around me. The eerie white-green glowing orb in the ocean exploded like a firework, causing the world and the mana in the air to shudder. Then, like a lamp being thrown into the ocean, the storm abruptly stopped.


    The pillar of water collapsed. The choppy gelatin-like waves regained their fluidity and fell back into the ocean. The fish and other sea monsters were violently thrown in random directions, most of them retreating back into the ocean¡¯s depths. Near the shores of our village, I could see various people with runes already working to quell the tsunami of water before it crushed the village, stilling and calming the ocean before it swept away our homes.


    ¡°Ahahahaha!¡± Olav laughed, his booming voice echoing through the group. ¡°That¡¯s what I call a storm, eh!¡± His laughter continued echoing across the beach as he watched the massive fish flop and jerk around in the distance.


    Most of the other adults with stronger Willpower also laughed as they watched the ocean return to normal, the unnatural waves disappearing as quickly as they had first appeared.


    Mother uncovered her eyes. I could see a sort of hazy, glazed over longing in her gaze as she stared at the ocean. I hadn¡¯t noticed any of the other adults visibly struggling as much as my mother did, affirming my suspicion that my mother had unusually low Willpower.


    Sallia¡¯s mother was tightly holding on to Sallia, while Sallia herself twitched and gazed at the water with a glazed expression. Longing was evident in her gaze as she twisted and struggled to walk towards the water. I had little doubt that if her mother hadn¡¯t been restraining her, Sallia would have charged directly into the ocean and disappeared forever.


    Felix¡¯s mother didn¡¯t even hold his hand throughout the whole thing, apparently trusting him enough to avoid doing so. She kept a close eye on him, but apparently she considered that enough. Felix looked¡­ unfocused, but in much better shape than Sallia. He would be fine in a few minutes.


    Even among the adults, I was one of the best off in the group. I felt the usual tug of the ocean and the hazy formless desire to take a little swim in the waves. However, it was easy for me to suppress it. Now that I knew what the Call of the Ocean felt like, I had little difficulty identifying it and squashing it before it broke my will.


    A few minutes passed as everyone got their marbles back together. Sallia was also starting to visibly recover, twitching less as she slowly regained her awareness of her surroundings. My mother and Felix also slowly returned to normal.


    Quietly, my mother and father led me away from the beach, and Sallia¡¯s parents and Felix¡¯s mother also started to lead them away. The three of us would talk about our gains when we next met. However, for now our parents seemed eager to get us out of the area so that we could get rid of any lingering mental aftereffects from the Storms.


    However, after seeing the incredible mixture of magical and physical chaos caused by the Storm, I had a very different focus than before. I realized that I had a new idea, both for a way to farm huge amounts of Achievement and a method of sating my curiosity in this world.


    Someday, I wanted to be able to see what the stormy depths of the ocean looked like. The magnificent sight of the storms, and the danger accompanying it, were both fascinating for me. This wasn¡¯t the Call of the Ocean luring me into the depths of the waves. Now that I knew what the Ocean¡¯s effect on people was, I could tell when I had an unnatural urge to take a dip into the dark waters and never return. This desire was different. It stemmed purely from myself.


    The ocean and the storms here were simply incredibly odd, and after having seen a storm, I was fascinated by the raw, unbridled fury of a magically empowered mother nature wreaking havoc on the world. If I managed to do so, I would probably get massive amounts of Achievement, and I would also learn more about this world than I might ever be able to if I only pursued ¡®normal¡¯ goals in this place, so exploring the Ocean once I got older and stronger would work both as a means of preparing for our eventual return to the Market, and as a means of learning more.


    I wanted to find a way to explore the Ocean safely, without losing my mind in the process, and see what the creatures I couldn¡¯t see clearly were. I wanted to see what the strange, glowing orb in the center of the storm had been. I wanted to see what was going on in this place. It was a small dream, and it would be insanely hard. The sea creatures that lived beneath the waves seemed terrifying, but after I saw the raw sight of nature¡¯s fury in this world, I felt ensnared in it. I wanted to know what beneath the waves was actually so dangerous that almost nobody returned from the depths. It wasn¡¯t as important to my survival as training my magic and preparing for our eventual return to the Market, but I had a goal for this life now.


    I would explore the ocean, learn why the waters of this world were so unique, and transform that into the power I needed to keep my friends safe. I would need to wait many years before I could turn this hope into a reality, since I was far too young to do things on my own right now, but I was determined to see my idea through once I was older and stronger.

 Chapter 18: The Ocean Mother

    The storm season passed quietly. After the first day, where Olav had introduced the Storm season to us and our parents had allowed us to watch the Storms, we had been mostly locked indoors again. In small doses, watching the storms and resisting the Call of the Ocean could strengthen one¡¯s will. However, long periods of exposure could instead achieve the opposite effect, eroding one¡¯s willpower and making it more and more likely that someone would walk into the ocean and never return. Due to this danger, our parents only let us meet up and watch the storms once a month, and spent the rest of each month indoors with us. But once a month, the three of us were allowed to meet again and watch a storm together. I personally wished I could watch the storms more often, since my Grade 6 Willpower gave me a level of mental resistance most other villagers didn¡¯t have. Seeing the odd and magical storms more often would probably help me learn more about the ocean as well, which would be useful for my long term goal of exploring the Ocean of this region.  However, my parents both said I wasn¡¯t allowed to see the storms more than once a month, no matter how much I felt that they didn¡¯t affect me much. I decided to try again when I was older.


    The benefit of watching the Storms also started to become more evident as we did it over and over again, especially for Felix and Sallia. I personally didn¡¯t get as much out of it as far as direct stat increases, because the effect the Call of the Ocean had on me wasn''t very big to begin with. However, after my fourth and final Storm for the year, on my Status Screen the description for my ¡®body¡¯ changed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Young child¡¯s Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen. Your body is beginning to grow older, and you have an easier time using your stats. However, there is still a great deal of physical growth left before you finish growing up, and until you finish maturing your physical and mental stats will suffer certain penalties due to your physical body¡¯s immaturity.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.


    Immature Organic Brain: An underdeveloped human brain that has yet to finish growing. Made primarily of physical matter, with slight bits of Absorption Essence mixed into a few key parts of the brain to allow for rudimentary absorption-type spellcasting and interaction.


    This brain has been influenced by the user¡¯s training regime of watching the waters of the Althala islands during storm season. Due to the mixture of unique mana and careful observation of the water during Storm season, the brain is now slightly stronger than before.


    Storms observation bonus: Willpower +1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Felix and Sallia ended up getting similar changes to their Status Screen. Felix had a (+3) to his Willpower Stat, and Sallia ended up with a (+4) to hers. It put Sallia¡¯s Willpower at a total of 78, which wasn¡¯t grade 4 yet. However, we were hopeful that by next storm season she would be past 80, getting her to grade four willpower and dramatically reducing the difficulty Sallia experienced when trying to do basic daily tasks. Given how much her low Willpower stat had been bothering her, I was happy that there was a solution available - although I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if there was a similar solution for my low Intelligence stat. Even if I was getting used to the feeling of thinking through syrup, and it didn¡¯t disturb me anywhere near as much as Sallia¡¯s problem, I still wanted to be able to think clearly again if possible. Felix was probably the one that had the most mixed benefits from watching the storms - he already started out with 114 in Willpower, meaning he was pretty close to grade 6 in Willpower. However, even at grade 5 he wasn¡¯t seriously impacted in his day to day life, meaning he was mostly grabbing stats for the sake of grabbing stats. However, all three of us still felt it was a good idea to grow as much as possible, since we didn¡¯t have a full idea what would be taken back to the Market.


    The only other good thing to come out of Storm season besides the minor Stat bonuses was the sudden variety in our diets. For most of the year, we consumed nothing but fish all day long. I understood why - after all, the fish here were so utterly massive that one fish could feed the village for a week by itself. However, the village¡¯s ability to preserve food such as meat wasn¡¯t that great, and even though the fish meat stayed fresh longer than I would have expected, it still eventually went bad. Since the fishermen couldn¡¯t go out to hunt during the storms, the village had to turn to other food sources after a few weeks of storm season.


    I got to eat roots, nuts, a very limited amount of berries as treats, and tree bark. I had very mixed feelings about the last food, but apparently, one of the trees that grew in the outer fringes of the forest had bark that was edible. It didn¡¯t taste great, but it was nutrition, and it didn¡¯t actually taste that bad after being boiled into a soup. Apparently, the hunters gathered food in the forest year-round and stored it away, preparing for the three months a year that fishermen couldn¡¯t gather more food, and the bark and roots didn¡¯t spoil very quickly. Which led to the roots, nuts, and tree bark diet the villagers survived on during storm season.


    I had nearly forgotten how mind-numbing and boring it was to be stuck inside of a small house with no freedom. Even if I knew why I wasn¡¯t allowed to go outside, I started to feel stir crazy from all of the time spent indoors. I spent the rest of the storm season days stabilizing my first rune and trying not to go crazy.


    When the storm season finally ended, it was time to start preparing for the renewal festival to celebrate the end of the storm season.


    ¡°So what is the renewal festival?¡± I asked my mother, who was happily humming as she stared at the door.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°It¡¯s a day of festivities for everyone. It celebrates the end of storm season and the calming of the ocean mother¡¯s wrath. With the return of her calm, our boats can go out to fish again, and the ocean mother¡¯s children will return to the surface so that we can hunt and eat them. Everyone will also turn a year older,¡± said my mother, with a bright, eager expression.


    Everyone was considered a year older? Felix and I had were four years old according to our parents, and Sallia was three years old according to her parents. I had found it a little strange that Felix and I were so close in age and Sallia was a whole year off, but I now realized that this region¡¯s birthday system was a bit different. After asking my mother, I learned that if you were born on the day of the renewal festival, you were considered 1 year old the day you were born. If you were born one day after the festival, you were zero years old, and would remain so until the next renewal festival. Suddenly, ages started making a lot more sense. If Sallia had just been born a week or two after we were, and we were born near the renewal festival, it could neatly explain why she seemed a month or two younger than us when it came to body growth and time spent in the ocean of souls, despite being considered a full year younger by the village¡¯s reckoning.


    ¡°Is there anything else that we do in the renewal festival?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s great fun! We prepare everyone turning six or sixteen for their first or second coming of age ceremonies, take a day or two to weave flowers together to celebrate the return of smaller plant life, and sing and dance for a few days straight. The boys and girls who are of age also spend some time dancing together, and the young children get to join the singing. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll have a great time!¡± Said my mother, giving me a friendly wink. ¡°Since we need to welcome the calming of the Ocean Mother with open arms and make sure she keeps feeling happy every year, it¡¯s important that we make the festival as fun as possible, not just for us, but for her as well. Welcoming the return of the calm season with a big smile is a good way to let the Ocean Mother know that we¡¯re thankful for her blessings, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    ¡°Is there anything we need to do to prepare for the festival?¡±


    ¡°Not yet. In a few days, the hunters will start bringing back various things. Flowers, mushrooms, berries, and leather from landbeasts. Meanwhile, now that the fishing boats are able to start hunting again, they¡¯re going to start gathering food for the big feast. After that, I¡¯ll want your help putting together some decorations and weaving the flowers together. We still have a few days before the plants start really coming back in force, and then it¡¯ll be time for the normal villagers to step up and help out so that we can start the festival on time. For now, just sit tight until we have supplies, all right?¡± My mother said, unaware of my earlier discomfort.


    I nodded. It was my first time learning more details about the customs of the islands, and I was also a bit curious about my first festival in this world. I decided to just enjoy the festival for what it was this year - a celebration of the end of storm season, and an opportunity for the villagers to relax, have fun, and party now that life could resume again.


    * * *


    After a few days, the hunters responsible for keeping the land beasts at bay started to bring in various materials to the village. Wildflowers that could be pressed and woven together into wreaths and decorations, leathers to combine with fish scales for new clothes, and various foods fit for a celebration all appeared in great quantities. With the supplies finally ready, the villagers  began hustling to process everything and prepare for the festival.


    I helped my mother weave together flowers and pearl braids and hung them on the sides of our house, which was the most I could help with as a four year old. The rest of the village also began decorating everything they could reach with wooden statues, pearls, and flowers. Finally, some artisans from the village made a life size statue of the ¡®ocean mother.¡¯ In the center of the village, a group of three men used bone saws and wooden tools to start carving out a proper sculpture of the village¡¯s deity. Since Sallia had discussed in great detail how noble-mages had shaped her previous world¡¯s society, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the Ocean Mother really existed. How interesting would it be if there were actual gods in this world? I had been to a weird afterlife and reincarnated by jumping into a pool of water just a few years ago, so even though I would have originally scoffed at the idea of a god existing, I was much more open minded now. So far I had seen zero evidence of a god existing, but the amount of information I knew about the multiverse could fit inside a thimble. I decided to keep an open mind until I knew more, even if the idea of a real god seemed unbelievable to me.


    While thinking about that, I took a few minutes to stand in the center of the village and observe our patron deity.


    On the sculpture was a woman with the head of a giant fish. She had twelve eyes on the top of her fish-like head, but below her neck her body returned to that of a human woman for the torso, but there were other inhuman aspects of the statue. The right side of the Ocean Mother statue, for example, had three long tentacles instead of a human arm. Each tentacle was carved well enough to give me the impression that they were wriggling silently in the ocean. Meanwhile, the Ocean Mother¡¯s left arm was carved with an entirely human arm.


    The woman¡¯s legs were carved similarly to how a Mermaid might have been portrayed in my previous life, rounding out the weird mashup of human and ocean creature biology on the sculpture. Finally, the ocean mother wore a dress clearly meant to resemble flowing waves. I felt that the statue looked more than a little unnerving, possibly because the blend of human and ocean creature on the statue gave me the feeling that there was something horribly off about how the woman¡¯s biology blended into other creatures. But perhaps that was simply due to my remnant aesthetic standards from my first life.


    I shrugged, before I tried praying to the ocean statue. Most of the other villagers that visited the statue wished for luck and good health, and it certainly didn¡¯t seem like it would hurt to show a little respect if the Ocean Mother was real. I did recall the Market having a quick guide on how to pretend to be a god, which did make me feel a little dubious about the existence of the Ocean Mother¡­ but I didn¡¯t know if that was the origin of all gods in the multiverse. Being polite never hurt. After a quick prayer, I left the Ocean Mother¡¯s statue behind.


    I returned to my mother¡¯s side and continued layering fish glue on our decorations. Meanwhile the village bustled. Fishermen returned to their flying boats, before soaring off to the Ocean to hunt down the giant fish while hunters hunted.


    After about a week, the village had both the decorations and supplies for a massive feast. The Ocean Mother remained proudly in the center of the village, in the center of a large clearing that gave people plenty of room to dance and engage with the festivities. A variety of tables were also lined up near the area, in order to support the food that would later be stored there. My mother, practically buzzing with excitement, told me that the preparations were ready, and that the renewal festival would begin tomorrow.

 Chapter 19: The Renewal Festival

    On the day of the festival, all of the villagers gathered in the village center, waiting for the arrival of the village chief to officially begin the celebration. Mothers and fathers stood with their children, holding their hands and smiling as they talked and laughed with each other. Children played or stood with their parents, buzzing with anticipation. The square where the goddess statue was housed was out of sight of the ocean, so parents could afford to be a bit more lax with their children as long as no one slipped past the adults guarding the edge of the festival area. The air was filled with a cheery mood, as everyone welcomed the end of the long months locked indoors.


    I felt different from the other children when I stood among them. While I was also excited to see the festival, I had already attended plenty of festivals and parties in my previous life, and as I stood in the village center decorated with flowers and pearls, I couldn¡¯t help but compare my vague memories of my first life with what I saw now. I really wanted to be able to cut off my memories and enjoy myself, but comparing this festival to the ones I remembered made me feel oddly sad. As I watched the other children bounce around and pester their parents, I wondered if I would ever feel anything like what these kids were feeling again. Even if my brain wasn¡¯t fully developed yet, and I was still occasionally overcome by a bout of childishness, I had already grown up once. Being put in a position where I was expected to do so again just highlighted how different I was from ¡®normal¡¯ children.


    It made me feel lonely, seeing the other kids bounce around while I tried to figure out if I fit in with the adults or the children.


    Then, I spotted Sallia and Felix. They spotted me hovering near the edge of the crowd, and both of them started crazily waving at me. At that moment, my lonely feeling vanished. I laughed, and started crazily waving back at them. Their parents looked at me and suppressed chuckles, and my own parents also smiled as they watched our antics.


    Suddenly, I understood why friendship bracelets were so common in the Market. Why we had found friendship bracelets practically everywhere, and why they were cheap and mass-produced.


    It was because life in the Market without them would become a nightmare of apathy and detachment. As residents of the Market, we might never fully connect to the people we came across in other worlds ever again. The difference in perspective between residents of the Market, who died over and over again and worked to farm Achievement for their growth and survival, and ordinary people who had never seen what lay beyond their home dimension, was just too overwhelming to make friendships and connections easy to make and keep. The fact that market residents would live several lifetimes, while normal people would die and return to the river of souls after a single lifetime, only made this different in perspective bigger. But as long as the three of us had each other, we still had people to hold on to and care about.


    A friendship bracelet wasn¡¯t just a small item that let you spend lifetimes with your friends. It was what allowed one¡¯s time in the Market to mean something more than just survival. Having a group of friends to reminisce with and spend time with was what kept us human. I didn¡¯t know if previous Market residents had felt the same way. But I knew that I would have eventually lost my mind without the friendship bracelets, or broken under the stress.


    I grabbed my mother¡¯s hand, and began to drag her towards my friends. My mother didn¡¯t say anything, and began to slowly slide through the crowd. My father tagged along a few paces behind us, and Sallia and Felix began making their way towards us as well. We reached each other and stood together just as the crowd began to buzz with excitement, and the village chief stepped in front of the crowd.


    It was my first time ever seeing the village chief in person. The village chief¡¯s steps seemed both steady and hesitant at the same time as he strode in front of the statue of the Ocean Mother. The man shared the same blonde hair and blue eyes as the other inhabitants of the islands, but stood nearly two meters tall. He didn¡¯t wear a shirt, unlike most of the men in the village, instead opting to display his well-muscled arms and torso to everyone. Of course, it only took me a moment to realize why the man didn¡¯t wear a shirt - he had eleven runes glowing proudly on his chest and arms. Opting not to wear a shirt was a method of asserting his power and combat ability to the rest of the village, and to any members of other villages he spoke with. While it was also risky to expose your abilities so blatantly to others, the intimidation effect of eleven runes was massive to someone like me who only had one rune.


    Someone with eleven runes was absolutely terrifying. My father was considered a pretty normal adult for having condensed five runes, and most villagers sat somewhere between four and six runes. A few rare people would go beyond six, and those people usually joined the hunting teams to keep the village safe from landbeasts. But they were the exceptions, rather than the rule. The number of villagers with seven or more runes numbered less than forty in the entire village of six or seven hundred. For the village chief to display eleven runes was a testament to his hard work and his incredibly high quantity of absorption essence. And it was also a testament to how utterly terrifying the village chief would be as an enemy. Combined with my body¡¯s growth over the past few months, as a five year old I was able to wrestle with a weak teenager from a normal world already. This was as a five year old who was just getting ready to start her second rune. The village Chief¡¯s eleven runes were a form of intimidation that were impossible to overlook or ignore.


    However, the Village Chief also had an interesting habit of shuffling nervously every few seconds. It was very, very hard to notice, but since I was paying close attention to the village chief¡¯s movements I could just barely pick up on his nervous shuffling. I found the contrast between his obvious intimidation tactic and his apparent nervousness in front of crowds to be rather interesting. It gave him an oddly human side to contrast with his intimidating frame and rune count.


    After the village chief made his way to the front of the crowd, the villagers quickly reorganized themselves, and within a few minutes several children and teenagers had been pushed to the front of the group. The first row of children was comprised of teenagers, all sixteen years old. The second row was comprised of six-year old children.


    Seeing that everyone was gathered, the village chief gave the villagers a strained smile, before beginning to speak.


    ¡°Today, I welcome twelve new children into their first step towards adulthood. All of you have managed to reach six years of age, which means that if your parents haven¡¯t started teaching you how to create your first runes yet, they will finally start to do so. This is an important milestone for you, and I congratulate you all on having finally turned six years old.¡±


    ¡°Heck yeah!¡± One of the kids, a taller young boy, yelled out, pumping his fist into the air. A few of his friends chuckled by his side, and I saw a couple of the adults also smiling in the crowd. The village chief¡¯s smile became a lot less strained, and he seemed to relax a little.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve finally turned six, apart from learning runes, you¡¯re old enough to start helping out the village. What does this mean? Put simply, there are various tasks that provide for the village - however, none of them are as important as hunting the great fish. They provide food, bones, and scales for the village, as well as the organs we turn into fish glue and use to construct our homes and craft workshops. After the festival ends, the six year olds of the village will be tasked with finding a fishing boat to take them on their first hunt, so that even the young may learn to provide for the village and learn to respect the fishermen who put food on our tables. Those who need help finding a fishing boat, please see me after the ceremony. Those who are responsible for the fishing boats, as always, remember that children who are yet to complete their third rune have weaker bodies than you do, so you must find smaller and weaker fish to hunt, and you must be extra careful during the hunt. A few injuries or fatalities might be inevitable, But do your best to keep them to a minimum. Do all of you understand your roles?¡± The leaders of the fishing boats, who were standing to one of the sides, all solemnly nodded. The six year olds at the front of the ceremony seemed much less worried, and instead began giving the fishing boat leaders hopeful glances out of the corners of their eyes. Apparently, the mention of fatalities did nothing to deter the excitement of the children standing in front of the villagers.


    ¡°As for those who have turned sixteen, the eight of you who stand here today must learn to respect those who keep the village safe from land beasts. You will temporarily join one of the hunting crews and assist them in hunting down a land beasts. Hunting crews, I trust that you will ensure the new adults of the village pass their adulthood rite with as high of a survival rate as is reasonably possible. Again, it¡¯s normal for a person or two to get maimed or die, but do your best to keep people alive unless it¡¯s impossible,¡± said the village chief, his tone increasingly stern and focused. ¡°We want people to learn to respect the land beasts that prowl the forests, and we want people to learn how to defend themselves in case of an emergency. But if they die, all of their learning will become useless. I trust all of you to do your best. Does everyone understand their roles?¡±


    The teenaged crowd shuffled around, a bit as they began looking for the hunting crew leaders. Unlike the younger children, the teenagers seemed to feel a lot more nervousness, in addition to their excitement. The fact that they would be risking their lives during this village ceremony had clearly sunk in, and while they didn¡¯t have the grim facial expressions people forced to commit suicide would have, they still held a certain healthy respect for their rite of adulthood. The hunting crew leaders, unlike the fishermen, didn¡¯t have any visible change in their expressions. They simply stood there, silent and imposing, and I got the odd sense that I was looking at a line of statues rather than people. I didn¡¯t see them change their expressions at all. However, just by standing still, I got a sense of quiet, tightly leashed deadliness that betrayed their experience fighting the land beasts of the forest.


    ¡°With that out of the way, let us give thanks to the ocean mother for what she provides. The Ocean Mother, each year, bequeaths unto the village the great fish, so that we of the islands may survive¡­¡± the village chief began to follow a more obviously scripted set of words, giving thanks to the Ocean Mother for the village¡¯s bounty and prosperity each year. I found my attention beginning to wander as the village chief worked his way through his speech, and found Felix making funny faces at me when he thought his parents weren¡¯t looking. Sallia seemed to pay rigid attention to the speech,. However, this impression was ruined by the fact that she was quietly tapping her thumb against her thigh, and occasionally fiddling with her hair. Even with all of her training as a noblewoman, she was having an incredibly hard time sitting still right now. I winked at both them, before I pretended to pay attention to the village chief¡¯s speech again. It took a few more minutes before he finally finished up, then retreated out of the spotlight and blended back into the crowd of villagers.


    ¡°These speeches never seem to become interesting, no matter how many of them I go through,¡± said Sallia, heaving a melodramatic sigh after confirming the adults had stopped paying close attention to us. ¡°And god-king¡¯s beard, have I been through a lot of them over the course of my life. Lives.¡±


    I laughed at that. ¡°So these aren¡¯t routine for you yet? I figured as a noblewoman you would have spent plenty of time dealing with speeches.¡±


    ¡°Oh, they¡¯re routine all right,¡± said Sallia, grumbling. ¡°And every time I listen to one I remember why I hate them. Just because I¡¯m used to them doesn¡¯t mean I like them, and I haven¡¯t needed to brush up on my ¡®I¡¯m definitely paying attention to this boring speech¡¯ face in four years now.¡±


    ¡°Why bother trying?¡± Said Felix, giving both of us a relaxed smile. ¡°Nobody in this village is going to expect a four year old kid to stay perfectly still during a speech. Trying as hard as you do is pretty cute though. Like a kid trying to be a grown up. You just turned four by the village¡¯s reckoning, so seeing you try so hard to pay attention makes you look a lot like your age, you - blaagh!¡±


    Sallia swatted Felix in annoyance, before glaring at him.


    ¡°Rude!¡± Sallia said as she gave Felix a menacing glare. Felix was more than used to Sallia¡¯s attempts at being intimidating by now, and just laughed in response.


    ¡°All right, it is pretty impressive that you manage to look like you¡¯re paying attention to these things, especially since your Willpower is garbage. Still, keep in mind that you¡¯re just a normal four year old kid, all right? You don¡¯t need to try so hard. If you worry that much about being proper and looking like you¡¯re paying attention, you¡¯ll come across much weirder, especially as a four year old,¡± said Felix, giving Sallia a much more relaxed grin. Sallia seemed to think about his words, before turning to me.


    ¡°What do you think, Miria?¡±


    I gave the question some serious thought, before I nodded. ¡°I think you should try to keep some of your mannerisms from when you were a noble, in case you need to use them in a future world. Even if the etiquette is different, the training and posturing is something that might be useful to keep around as a sort of mental exercise for learning in the future, and I imagine it would make it easier to learn other habits of nobles and diplomats in future worlds. BUT, I also think you shouldn¡¯t worry about it as much as you currently are. At the end of the day, you don¡¯t need to be Sallia the Noblewoman, last of the Nostrausse house anymore. You can just be Sallia, and that¡¯s enough. Keep the useful skills, but don¡¯t feel stuck with them. At least, that¡¯s my opinion.¡±


    Sallia nodded thoughtfully, before Felix grabbed both of us by the arm. ¡°Enough philosophy! Let¡¯s join the festival and have fun!¡± He said, before dragging us into the crowd.


    The next few hours were a whirlwind of partying. Felix first dragged us to the food tables, which were lined up with rarities the village didn¡¯t often have large supplies of such as tasty berries and specialties from the other villages. After that, a few of the adults rounded up some of the kids and taught all of us some easy to remember songs. During the next part of the festival, we sang slightly out of tune songs while the teenagers and adults danced. There were plenty of kids who forgot the lyrics to the songs, but if anything, the villagers seemed to consider that an addition to the fun. Then, after a while, the teenagers and adults sang while the younger children danced.


    I couldn¡¯t help but be glad this village was the first world we ended up in after entering the Market. It was a good place to think and take a breather while we got the hang of things, got to know each other, and prepared for our eventual return to the Market.


    Hopefully, things on these islands would stay peaceful.

 Chapter 20: Land Beast

    The festival continued for another two days before it ended.The speeches and ceremonies all took place at the start of the festival, so the rest of the festival was just relaxing, dancing, and singing. Sallia, Felix and I toured around the festival, eating food and enjoying ourselves as much as we could. All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend a few days after the months locked indoors.


    After the days of celebration ended, the villagers gathered again for a different ceremony. All of the children would officially begin their adulthood ceremonies right after the festival was over. The festival period was a time of celebration, for most of the adults and children of the island, but it was also a time for those turning six or sixteen to scout out fishing boats or hunting groups to take them along for their adulthood ceremonies. It was a decision that might change whether they lived or died, so people had taken the search for a group of hunters or fishermen very seriously.


    Now, everyone had finished finalizing their groups. The villagers lined up near the outskirts of the village, near the wooden fence that separated us from the island¡¯s forests as we looked at the groups of children and adults preparing for their ceremony.


    The village chief stood at the front of the villagers, looking over the people who had gathered here, before he began to speak with the same characteristic nervousness he had displayed last time he was in front of a crowd.


    ¡°Over the next week, many of you will take your first or last steps into adulthood. Those of you who are just turning six, I hope you have chosen well when finding a fishing group. Those of you who are turning sixteen this year, I hope that you¡¯ve also chosen well, for your trial will be far more dangerous. For the fishermen or hunters who have taken in one of the children for this ceremony, I thank you for your help in guiding the children of our village as they take their next steps towards growing up. I¡¯ve already said most of what I wanted to say at the start of the festival, but I¡¯ll reiterate one thing a final time.


    ¡°While some injuries or deaths are common, take care of yourselves as best you can. All of you are important members of this village, and while failing to complete your hunt may mean you need to flee and try again, you won¡¯t be able to try again if you die. Your adulthood ceremony is important, but your lives are more important. Take care of yourselves. And if you are one of the adults helping children in this ceremony, take care of the children under your protection as well.¡± The village chief gave everyone a solemn stare, and I heard a few children and adults say ¡°Yes chief¡± in the background. Then, with the chief¡¯s speech over, the hunters began preparing their various bone weapons while the fishermen began walking towards their fishing boats.


    I took one last look at the six year olds walking behind the fishermen, as well as the sixteen year olds walking behind the hunters, and wondered what they would experience during their adulthood ceremonies. Unfortunately, I was still too young, so the adulthood ceremonies of the people here had nothing to do with me yet. Felix and I would need to wait another year before we could start our adulthood ceremony, and Sallia would need to wait two years.


    Just as I was wondering what adulthood ceremonies were like, I saw the village chief, as well as most of the hunters, suddenly turn towards the forest at the same time.


    Huh? I frowned. Why had all of the hunters and the village chief watching the forest? I looked at the forest as well, wondering if I was missing something. Sadly, my Perception was clearly much lower than the hunters and village chief. With my Grade 5 Perception, I couldn¡¯t make out what the hunters of the village were looking at yet.


    A few more moments passed, before Sallia¡¯s head snapped towards a specific spot in the distance, and she frowned. ¡°I hear something,¡± she said, loudly enough for Felix and I to hear her, but quietly enough others wouldn¡¯t. ¡°It¡¯s pretty faint, even though I have 126 Perception, but I can definitely pick up something weird at the edge of my hearing.¡±


    ¡°What does it sound like?¡± Felix asked, frowning. Since he only had grade four perception, he was the most confused of the three of us.


    Sallia frowned. ¡°It sounds like someone¡­ breathing really heavily. And rocks grating agains each other? It almost sounds like words, though. I can¡¯t quite make out what it is. It sets my nerves on edge¡­¡±


    After a few more seconds, I finally heard what Sallia and the Hunters were picking up. At the edge of my hearing, just outside of my understanding, was a series garbled ravings. Whatever was making the strange sound didn¡¯t sound like a human at all, though. Instead, it sounded like a pile of stones grating against each other, making sounds that were almost words, but weren¡¯t actually comprehensible language. Mixed into this series of grating noises was a distinctly more human sound. It was the noise someone made when breathing deeply before sighing, over and over again.


    I turned my head towards the source of the cacophony, frowning, before the village chief suddenly turned pale.


    ¡°Get the children away from the forest! Someone else notify the households with children too young to leave their buildings and tell them a creature has left the forest! The type of landbeast is unknown, but it should be strong. Hunters, gather near me and prepare to fight. With any luck, the scouts at the edge of the forest should have already realized they can¡¯t fight back on their own, and retreated a safe distance. We¡¯ll need to reorganize -¡±


    The village chief never finished what he was about to say, because all normal sounds in the area suddenly disappeared. I could still hear the grinding murmuring at the edge of my hearing, as well as the heavy sighing sounds, but any other sounds vanished into thin air. The village chief kept opening and closing his mouth, trying to talk, before he realized no sounds were coming out of his mouth.


    My father¡¯s eyes widened as unnatural silence fell throughout the gathering of villagers. He grabbed my mother¡¯s hand, then grabbed mine, and began trying to retreat away from the creature. I saw many other families also start to group up and prepare to retreat, while a few hunters began running towards houses in the village to alert more vulnerable families. However, since they couldn¡¯t talk, I doubted their efforts would prove useful. The teenagers who were supposed to start their adulthood ceremony stood at the edges of the scattering crowd, looking confused, while the hunter teams began to make hand gestures at each other. They sprang into motion, getting into formation to meet the horror from the forest. The villagers, having heard the village chief¡¯s words, began to stare at the edge of the forest as they started backing away from the trees.


    A moment later, something dashed out of the woods and ran towards the village at full speed. The creature looked like a floating set of human hearts, each of which hovered almost three meters above the ground. The hearts were disconnected from the rest of the creature¡¯s body, and beat in midair like foul mockeries of real human biology. The creature¡¯s limbs were made of floating bits of paper and sand, with strange limbs spread around its heart at unnatural angles and strange geometries. The creature¡¯s head resembled a cheap plastic mask one might find in a convenience store, and was completely expressionless. Its eyes were floating black beads, located just behind its face. The beady eyes were the only parts of the creature¡¯s face that moved, and they darted from left to right as they eyed the village.


    The creature didn¡¯t care about the presence of the hunters. After exiting the treeline, it simply continued charging towards the village as quickly as it could move. However, the whispered murmurs at the edge of my hearing started to change as the creature approached. At first, I had simply thought the sound was strange, but as the sounds grew louder and closer, I had a stronger and stronger desire to run towards the creature. The garbled murmuring no longer sounded like stones grating against each other - instead, they started to resemble human voices more and more effectively, until I could have sworn the creature¡¯s voice was mimicking Sallia¡¯s and Felix¡¯s voice nearly perfectly. Thanks to my high Willpower, the effect of the sounds were easy to shrug off, but they still made me feel uneasy as I listened to a twisted mockery of my friend¡¯s voice ask me to stand in front of the land beast.


    I felt a surge of terror as I looked for the real Sallia and Felix. Felix had adopted a strange, glazed expression as he looked towards the creature, but he still seemed to be holding on well enough. Sallia, however, was already trying to wriggle away from her parents and sprint towards the creature. Her expression was completely glazed over, and her parents also seemed to be struggling to hold on as their attention wandered towards the creature.


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    I slipped out of my father¡¯s hands, and as his eyes widened in panic, I made my way to Sallia. I grabbed her, and helped her parents drag her away from the creature, before I ducked into the crowds of villagers who were scattering away from the land beast.


    Meanwhile, the hunters of the village started to light up with runes. The first thing I noticed was that the sand around us was beginning to surge towards the sky. The sand rapidly formed into large numbers of fist-sized spearpoints, before freezing in midair. The sand-manipulating hunters stopped, while another group of hunters raised their hands towards the floating lumps of sand. Instantly, the sand began to ripple, like before it started transforming from sand into stone. With the magic spearpoints formed, a third group of hunters used wind abilities to send the spearpoints flying towards the creature at speeds I couldn¡¯t track with my eyes.


    Many of the spearpoints missed, but a few of them connected, tearing two of the hearts into shreds and ripping up some of the papery limbs of the creature¡¯s body. The creature shuddered for a moment, but otherwise didn¡¯t react to the attacks of the hunters.


    The creature continued charging forward, before it finally reached the fence separating the village from the forest. Suddenly, a leg made of paper appeared out of thin air, hovering near the creature¡¯s floating hearts, before it kicked the fence. The wooden fence protecting the village turned into chips of wood with a single blow.


    The village chief leapt in front of the creature, and his eleven runes lit up. Winds started to whip around, rivaling the winds of the storm season, and the village chief used the winds he had created to hold himself in midair. Then, he began flying towards the creature¡¯s face. At the same time, I noticed mana start to gather around the rest of his body, especially his right hand. In a moment, the mana near his hands formed into a glowing set of golden claws.


    Then, the village chief suddenly sped up. One moment, he was still several meters away from the creature, and then he appeared right in front of the creature¡¯s face a moment later. He tried to cut the creature¡¯s mask apart with his glowing set of claws, burning the mana in his body to strengthen himself as much as possible for one deadly blow.


    The claw cut into the creature¡¯s face, and I heard a screeching sound like nails on chalkboard. The creature stumbled backwards, and gray blood began to trickle out of its mask. Unlike the spear points, the chief¡¯s attacks seemed to have actually injured the creature. I could see four grooves along the creature¡¯s face, nearly a centimeter deep. One of the creature¡¯s beady eyes had turned into a pile of mush, and its mad dash for the village had been completely stopped. For a moment, I thought the village chief had killed the creature in one blow.


    However, after the creature finished reeling, it quickly rebounded. Strangely, the creature still didn¡¯t seem to care about the village chief¡¯s presence. After it got back to its feet, it immediately began charging towards the village again. It didn¡¯t counterattack the village chief, or even try to dodge out of the way as the hunters began bombarding it with more projectiles, arrows, and bone weapons. It was as if it didn¡¯t care about being injured.


    Jets of wind whirled towards the creature. Blood droplets controlled by runes drilled through its body, devouring its hearts and shredding its limbs into nothing. Stone spear points riddled its limbs with wounds. Hunters who were closer began using their bone weapons, dodging in and out of the creature¡¯s vicinity as they cut, shot, and stabbed the creature and tried to halt its advance. Bits of destroyed fence wove themselves back together, turning into cords of wood that wrapped around the creature¡¯s limbs and tried to stop its advance. Despite all of this, the creature ignored the hunters.


    It charged into the outskirts of the village. I expected the creature to start slaughtering the weaker villagers nearby, and prepared to knock Sallia unconscious so that I could flee more quickly and keep her safe. People were still scattering in all directions, with a few children being physically restrained by their parents as they tried to leap towards the creature.


    The creature caught one of the slower groups of people. Just as I expected to see them get killed, the creature ran right past them.


    The creature was still ignoring its surroundings. Apart from destroying the fence, the creature had yet to inflict any damage on the village. It simply charged through the village, totally ignoring the hunters trying to kill it. The village chief also hounded it, clawing at its face and desperately trying to drop the creature.


    Then, the creature rammed through a house, turning it into a pile of rubble in a fraction of a second. I finally realized the rest of the creature¡¯s body did exist - I just couldn¡¯t see it. However, as it ran, something I couldn¡¯t see crashed into the houses in the creature¡¯s surroundings, crushing houses underfoot and tearing away walls as the creature ran. If it stepped on a villager, they would probably be crushed, even if they had all 3 physical runes. Luckily, it was still ignoring everyone.


    I felt a breath of relief, as I realized that the creature wasn¡¯t about to slaughter the villagers. Most of the villagers had come to see the children and teenagers of the village set off for their adulthood ceremonies, so as long as the creature didn¡¯t attack us, the damage this thing inflicted on the village would be limited to property damage.


    Then, the creature¡¯s body rammed through another house. Inside of the house, I could see a family of four. A seven year old girl sat inside of the building, her hands over her ears as she tried not to listen to the creature¡¯s murmurings. Her mother stood next to her, holding her hands over a toddler¡¯s ears while the father covered his own ears in the background.


    After the wall caved in, the two year old child looked curiously at the newly made hole in the wall of her house. She took one, curious look outside¡­ and saw the ocean.


    Suddenly, her expression warped, turning into an expression of pure desire as she stared at the rippling water beyond the village. The creature quickly ran past the building, its interest nonexistent, but the girl inside of the house was staring at the ocean with rapt attention.


    The creature rammed through another house, and I saw red liquid spurt out of a corner of the building. I sucked in a breath of air as I realized that my assumptions were misplaced, because I had forgotten something. Families with children too young to see the ocean hadn¡¯t left their houses. They were still sitting inside of their houses, unaware of the strange creature tearing through the village, because nobody could make noise and tell people to evacuate. I looked into the distance, hoping that the red liquid wasn¡¯t blood, or perhaps that the person was still alive. Instead, I saw two crushed toddlers and a nearly dead father. The front half of his body was a soup of white and red substances, and held almost no resemblance to a human body anymore.


    Uncaring of the damage it caused, the creature continued charging through the village, until it reached the ocean. Then, it leapt into the water and began frantically swimming downwards. In moments, it disappeared, sinking beneath the waves as the grating whispers at the edge of my hearing slowly faded away. The land beast was gone. The village chief, who had been desperately trying to kill the creature, finally gave up when the creature sank into the ocean. There was no reason to pursue it anymore.


    However, while the creature had disappeared, the damage caused by its sprint into the ocean remained. Two children had died, a male villager was very nearly dead, and another toddler was now desperately trying to run towards the ocean. And that wasn¡¯t including the deaths I hadn¡¯t seen.


    I took in another deep breath, feeling Sallia finally relax as I stared at the ruined houses of the village. Even though none of my friends or family members had died this time, I suddenly felt how fragile human life could be in this world. I had hoped that this world was a safe haven for the three of us - that as long as we stayed in the village, we could safely work on condensing more runes as we grew up and explored our surroundings. But I was wrong. Even though the dangers here were less numerous than those of the Market, there was no guarantee that the three of us were safe here. Even though we were only children, we might die horrible and unexpected deaths at any time - not just in this world, but in any world we encountered in the future. I had felt so safe and peaceful since coming here that I had forgotten the fact that I had no clue what we would encounter, but after seeing the land beast tear through the village, I realized that every single world had its own dangers the three of us would need to deal with. The land beast from the forest had appeared like a bolt of lightning, wholly unexpected, and had carved its way through the village in less than two minutes with almost no forewarning at all. I had managed to get Sallia out of the way and dodge the creature¡¯s path in time, and Felix had managed to keep himself safe due to his mature mindset and decent Willpower stat, but that was more a matter of luck than any real preparation or skill on our part.


    Would the three of us be as lucky next time? I frowned, before shaking my head. I didn¡¯t want to leave my survival and the survival of my friends up to chance. We were alive for now, but I realized that I needed to treat this world with the respect an unknown, possibly dangerous dimension deserved. We only had five lives, and we had no clue how to restock them. We needed to make every life count while we farmed as much Achievement as we could manage - or else we might die, not just in this world or the next world we visited, but permanently. And to stay alive, I needed to change my mentality. I took in a deep breath, letting my thoughts and realizations sink in as the village chief slowly floated back towards the crowds of villagers who had started to regroup near the ruined fence.


    The village chief looked over those who had survived the flight of the land beast, before he gave a sorrowful sigh.


    ¡°Those who are able, gather around me. We need to assess damages and deal with the aftermath of this event,¡± he said, his tone taking a solemness I hadn¡¯t seen from him before. As he looked over the ruined houses, corpses, and damaged fence, he gave a deep sigh, before he took a few more steps and stood back in front of the crowd of villagers. Now that the sudden attack of the land beast had ended, it was time to deal with the aftermath.

 Chapter 21: Aftermath

    ¡°How many injuries or deaths have the hunters sustained?¡± Asked the village chief, turning to the hunters of the village.


    ¡°Not too many injured here, chief. A couple hunters got hit by the creature¡¯s limbs during its sprint towards the ocean, but most of the injuries aren¡¯t fatal,¡± said one of the hunters. ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone lost any limbs or got permanently injured. Within a week or two, we should be back to full manpower.¡±


    The village chief nodded. ¡°At least we won¡¯t suddenly lose the ability to protect ourselves, then.¡± He turned towards the other villagers, and then sighed again. ¡°Those with abilities that can be used for healing, come with me. Help me find out if anyone else is injured or dead, and help me rescue those who can be saved.¡±


    A few villagers with various runes grouped up with the village chief, and as a group, they began quickly sorting through the rubble of various houses to search for the injured and deceased. In the distance, I could also hear people starting to moan and scream in pain, letting me know that the people I had witnessed the death of weren¡¯t the only injuries in the village.


    My attention, however, turned to the two year old who had seen the ocean. Even now, she was trying to wriggle out of her mother¡¯s arms and head towards the ocean. And, strangely, she remained utterly insistent on reaching the ocean - even though her mother had covered her eyes and dragged her back into the building, blocking her from being able to see the water. Even though she couldn¡¯t see the ocean, and should have been able to shrug off the effects of the Call of the Ocean with some time, the effects didn¡¯t seem to be getting any weaker.


    ¡°Mommy, lemme go! I just wanna take a look!¡± Shrieked the little girl, desperately writhing as she tried to break free of her mother¡¯s grasp. I heard an awful desperation in her voice that chilled my blood.


    ¡°Sweetie, don¡¯t look. You don¡¯t have to look at it anymore, so just stop, just hold on a little¡­¡± The mother was quietly sobbing, hugging her daughter as she mumbled comforting words over and over again like a broken record. I didn¡¯t know whether the comforting words were for her daughter, or for herself.


    The village chief, who was near her house, gave the two a pitying look, mixed with a hint of sorrow and self reproach. Then, he walked past them. I felt confused as I saw the village chief ignore the two - wasn¡¯t he looking for injured people? Why had he just ignored the frantically squirming and screaming two year old? I had a bad feeling in my stomach. Because the village chief hadn¡¯t looked at the girl as with the same expression he had used with most injured people. Instead, he looked at her with the same hollow, sad expression he had when he looked at the corpses of other villagers.


    ¡°Village chief! Isn¡¯t there anything you can do? Maybe she can still be saved, with the right rune abilities¡­ or maybe fish cores! I can¡­ I¡¯ll find a way to get as many as needed. Please, just-¡±


    ¡°Dear, it¡¯s too late,¡± said the father, who had originally been cowering in the back and covering his ears with his hands. His expression was downcast as he looked at his daughter, and his shoulders looked hunched. It was as if the man had aged a hundred years in the course of a few minutes.


    ¡°How can you say that?¡± Asked the woman her voice soft and hollow. Even though she was saying her daughter could still be saved, even she didn¡¯t seem to believe her own words right now. ¡°There might still be a way to heal her, or there might be¡­¡± Her voice trailed off, as she glared at her husband. The village chief shook his head, before finally speaking up.


    ¡°She saw the ocean when she was too young. And her mind wasn¡¯t stable enough, so she failed to resist the Call. You can try, and you can keep hoping, and I also wish she could get better, but¡­¡± The village chief sighed. ¡°prepare yourself for the worst. She will likely never be able to shrug off the effects of the Ocean on her mind. One day, when your attention lapses for a moment, or when you¡¯re asleep, she will slip away and never return. I¡¯m sorry. I should done a better job protecting the village.¡± The village chief lowered his head to the mother, who trembled, staring at her two year old child who was howling and trying to crawl towards the ocean. Then, apparently done with the conversation, the village chief turned away and continued walking, until he reached a flattened house several meters away. There, he continued sifting through piles of rubble to find villagers who could still be saved.


    I turned to my father, who had caught up with Sallia and I after the ruckus from the land beast died down. Just behind him was my mother, who had a somewhat sleepy and confused expression, but was otherwise unharmed ¡°Father, why is the village chief saying it¡¯s too late for the little girl? Is it really true?¡±


    My father gave the mother and daughter duo a pitying look, before he turned to me and Sallia. ¡°Miria, people who see the ocean when they¡¯re too young don¡¯t usually recover. Seeing the ocean can¡­ change people. Especially if they aren¡¯t grown up and mature yet. The reason your mother and I never let you out of the house until you formed your first rune is because that¡¯s the easiest way to see who is mature enough to survive seeing the ocean. In order to form a rune, you need to have a big-girl mind that can resist a lot of information, and you also need to have at least a rudimentary grasp of your absorption essence. Once you have those two things, you will recover from seeing the ocean as long as you¡¯re pulled away for long enough. But that girl doesn¡¯t have either, because she¡¯s too young.¡± my father¡¯s voice trailed off, and I felt some pity as well, as I looked at the girl who would likely never recover.


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    Was seeing the ocean really that dangerous? I vaguely remembered my parents treating the ocean with a great deal of caution when I was younger. The entryway to our house even had five separate doors one needed to open if they wished to leave, just to make sure nobody inside could get a glimpse outside of the house by accident. But once I had formed my first rune, my parents had relaxed a lot. Afterwards, I had been taken out of the house for the first time, where I had met up with Felix and Sallia.


    I turned back to the forest. Unlike the previous times I had eyed the trees, I no longer felt a sense of wonder and curiosity when I looked at them. Now, I felt fear. The creature who had sprinted out of the forest had bulldozed its way through the village, even while the entire hunter team tried to stop it, and had crushed houses underfoot as if it were a giant rolling through a castle of toys. It had been seriously injured by the village chief after his first attack, but it hadn¡¯t been enough to kill the beast, and afterwards it had simply got back up and kept running towards the ocean. I suddenly wondered how common this was. I didn¡¯t remember anything like this happening in the time I had been conscious in this world, but in the future, should I expect things like this often?


    ¡°Father, what was that creature that escaped from the forest? Does the village get attacked by land beasts often?¡±


    ¡°Land Beasts manage to escape the hunters and attack the village every decade or so,¡± my father said. ¡°Land Beasts aren¡¯t as smart as people, so they have a harder time resisting the Call of the Ocean. Usually, after leaving the trees, they last an hour at most before they dive into the ocean, meaning the hunters usually handle an escaped creature by directing it away from the more vulnerable townsfolk  until it commits suicide, if it¡¯s a particularly strong beast. Or, if it¡¯s a weaker landbeast, they just kill it on the spot. Unfortunately, this one had the ability to stop other people from making sound near it, so the hunters couldn¡¯t evacuate people out of the creature¡¯s way.¡± My father gave the ruined houses of the village a solemn look, before shaking his head. ¡°The frequency of land beast attacks is also why the village requires children at the age of sixteen to hunt one with a group of hunters. Since they¡¯re very likely to encounter another few landbeasts during their lifetime, it works as a way to train people on how to react to the creatures of the forest. Sadly, some creatures, like this one, have abilities that are overly strange and hard to prepare for, making them much more dangerous.


    My father sighed. ¡°Either way, something like this will eventually happen again. Make sure that you make the most of each moment you can, all right? You need to condense as many runes as you can, and prepare as much as possible. You never know when something bad might happen, so you need to be ready to defend yourself.¡± My reached out and patted my head. ¡°Your mother and I love you and don¡¯t want anything to happen to you, so you need to stay safe.¡±


    ¡°Yes, father,¡± I said, hardening my resolve. I had already realized how dangerous this world could be, and I had no intentions of taking it lightly anymore.


    After that, Sallia¡¯s parents and my mother caught up to us, and Sallia¡¯s parents spent a few moments fussing over her. They seemed more relieved that she was safe than angry at me for dragging Sallia around, thankfully. We met up with Felix afterwards, and after we confirmed his safety, our group began to disperse as we helped the other villagers move away rubble, look for survivors, and prepare to rebuild the ruined houses and fence.


    At the end of the day, seven people died, and eleven more were seriously injured and would probably suffer permanent disabilities or death. Apart from that, there were numerous lighter injuries, mostly caused by people getting hit by flying pieces of rubble or kicked by the creature as it plowed through the town. Fortunately, as long as people didn¡¯t suffer a direct hit from the creature, most of them were only lightly injured, since anyone with three runes would have a fairly sturdy physique. However, the eighteen permanent injuries or deaths represented a more serious problem. Although eighteen people didn¡¯t sound like a huge number, in a village of less than seven hundred, losing eighteen people was catastrophic. The work force would be seriously hampered until the more lightly injured people recovered, and some of the village¡¯s workshops and fishing boats would face manpower shortages for a very long time. However, the village chief and the hunters seemed to take the deaths and losses as a personal failure, and for the rest of the day they walked around the village in a state of perpetual gloom.


    Then, oddly enough, their grief seemed to slowly fade away. Their gloominess started to disappear, and they began to return to business as usual.


    At first, I wondered if they were more cold hearted than I had expected. The village chief, in particular, seemed to feel a great deal of guilt over allowing the creature to break into the village, so seeing him return to normal after only a few hours caught me off guard. Eventually, I realized that it wasn¡¯t a case of the hunters and village chief being cold hearted.


    It was simply because they were used to this kind of thing. In this world, death and catastrophe were business as usual. Although humans inhabited these islands, we weren¡¯t the masters of the islands. The true rulers of these islands were the land beasts and the ever-present Ocean.

 Chapter 22: Time and Growth

    After the land beast attack and its aftermath were dealt with, the village began to rebuild. Destroyed houses were reconstructed, injured people were taken care of, and those who had died were given a death ceremony. This ceremony consisted of the islanders tying strings of pearl, flowers, and other objects around the wrists of those who had fallen, before the flying boats carried them out to sea and placed them into the waves, returning them to the Ocean Mother.


    Slowly, life returned to normalcy in the village. The injured hunters and villagers recovered. The children completed their adulthood ceremonies before taking on their first apprenticeships, or beginning their lives as adults of the village.


    During that time, the three of us focused on making runes as quickly as we could. The sudden attack of the land beast, as well as the deaths of the children and adults who were caught in its path, was a grim reminder to the three of us that this world wasn¡¯t safe either. If we wanted to survive, we needed to be prepared for any problems that sprang up. We still spent time talking about our old worlds and deepening our friendship, but there was a tension in the air that hadn¡¯t existed before. The three of us were driven to improve in a way we hadn¡¯t been when we thought we were safe.


    Apart from just increasing our rune count, about a month after the village finished its reconstruction, I decided it was time that I learned how to fight properly. Whenever we returned to the Market, we would be knee-deep in skeletons trying to kill us, and I still vividly remembered the robed skeleton that had blown my arm off with magic. I might not be able to fight against magic yet, but I could certainly learn how to wield a few weapons before we returned. Our bodies were mature enough to at least start learning the basics now, and I didn¡¯t want to waste any more time. Since we could die anytime in this world, we could also return to the Market at any time, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible. After some thinking, I asked Sallia to teach me what she remembered about swordsmanship. After all, she was the only one of the three of us who had ever been formally trained in wielding weapons, and in the Market she had shown herself to quick on her feet and at least competent in wielding swords.


    The moment I asked, her eyes lit up. I finally realized another reason Sallia was so frustrated in this life. Given how much she struggled with things that Felix and I found easy, such as focusing for long periods of time, as well as the fact that she had Grade 3 absorption essence, and the fact that she was forced to sponge off of my resources early on, she probably felt useless. I didn¡¯t think this was something that could be solved with just a conversation or a speech, so I made a mental note to find reasons to ask her for help more often. Once she could see Felix and I benefitting from her being here, her self esteem might improve. Her training as a noblewoman had given her the ability to mask her emotions and navigate social situations, but the unique stress of becoming a child again and learning how to function again in a completely different environment had started to crack her noble mask. I wanted her to be more confident about herself and her own self worth instead of just asking her for help more often, but that would take time to build up.


    My question about swordsmanship led to our first three person training session. Once Felix learned of my request, he also eagerly jumped in. The next day, we found a few smaller fish bones that were about the right length and weight for training swords.


    ¡°So, the first thing to keep in mind is that there are many different kinds of blade one can wield,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I personally chose three bones that are similar to a one-handed sword, because those are the swords I¡¯ve used most often. A one handed sword or spear paired with a shield is what most soldiers carry into battle, because it gives you an easy way to respond to most physical attacks. The way you fight will change drastically based on what kind of sword you have available, and whether you¡¯re holding a shield or not. But I¡¯m going to teach you one-handed swordsmanship first, because that¡¯s what I¡¯m good at.¡±


    ¡°If shields are the most common thing to have with a one handed sword, are we learning to fight with or without them?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I can¡¯t figure out how to get good practice shields here,¡± said Sallia. ¡°So for now, we¡¯ll train without them. I¡¯ll try to find a shield knockoff in the future so that you can practice with shields as well - perhaps I can find something made of wood or bone? Something I¡¯ll deal with on my end later,¡± Sallia said.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. When we return to the Market we might not be able to find shields anyway. When we fought the skeletons, we didn¡¯t find any shields, and we¡¯re probably going to be improvising how we fight on the fly whenever we return because we couldn¡¯t equip the skeleton¡¯s weapons to our item slots, so we won¡¯t have them when we return. Having some idea how to fight and how to improvise is what matters the most right now,¡± said Felix, giving Sallia a reassuring smile.


    Sallia brightened up again at his words. She cleared her throat, before she picked up her bone again.


    ¡°The first thing you need to do is learn to walk and stand properly,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Movement starts from your feet and legs, and if your movements are messed up there, you¡¯re going to have a very hard time exerting force with your sword. Start by placing one of your feet ahead of the other, and tilt your body just a little bit. Like this¡­¡± Sallia said, stepping towards me and grabbing my shoulders before carefully readjusting my position. One of my shoulders was now very lightly angled towards Sallia, and the other was tilted away from her, giving Sallia a more narrow target if she wanted to attack me. It also kept my shoulders loose, allowing me to move my shoulders, arms, and sword around relatively easily if I needed to. ¡°Then, after that, for basic techniques you want to hold your sword in one of three positions. First, it can be pointing towards your enemy, in which case you¡¯re looking to stab them,¡± said Sallia, adjusting my hand and elbow to its proper position, before she moved over to Felix and began adjusting his posture to match mine. ¡°This is the proper position to make a thrust from. It¡¯s not terribly defensive, but it can be the most effective way to get a decent level of accuracy with a sword thrust. You¡¯ll want to catch opponents in less well defended parts of their body if they¡¯re wearing armor, which usually means the neck and the joints. A smith needs to make those parts with more flexibility, or the wearer won¡¯t be able to move, but that also makes those parts easier to cut or stab through. Stabbing those spots will be hard for you, but it¡¯s the easiest way to punch through armor against an undefended foe,¡± said Sallia. ¡°This is the basic posture you want to make thrusts from. Try it - thrust the fish bone as if it were a sword.¡± We both did so, and I found the movement surprisingly natural and easy to use.


    ¡°Not bad. Now, for now I¡¯ll introduce the two guarding positions. The first one is the high guard, and to use it, you should start by positioning your sword a bit above your head. This is mostly used to hack downwards with the sword, although it can also be used to parry if need be, although it¡¯s a bit awkward. Finally, you should learn the low guard, which is very similar to the high guard, but instead of holding the sword above your head, you want to keep the blade near your waist. This is the main defensive position I¡¯ve learned, and you¡¯ll want to use it to parry blades, as well as make lower slashing attacks. These three positions are the fundamental basics of what I¡¯ve learned, and while managing them and swapping between them will feel unnatural at first, as you get more used to it you¡¯ll start to find it easier and easier to use these techniques, not only on the practice field, but in a real fight. Now that I¡¯ve demonstrated what they look like, I want you to try moving to a high guard and giving me a downward hack¡­¡±


    Sallia continued teaching us how to hold our swords and how to stand and move for most of the afternoon. We spent most of the day drilling stances and basic postures repeatedly, although Sallia occasionally made us practice actually hacking or thrusting our blades from certain positions, as well as defending ourselves with occasional parries when she tried to attack us. She would announce that she would attack us in advance, giving us forewarning, but as the training session wore on she started to give us less and less notification before making us defend ourselves. Most of the time was spent on learning postures, footwork, and how to move our bodies around, but by the end of the session I could already feel that I was a bit more comfortable with maneuvering a sword around. When I had grabbed a blade in the Market, the object had felt completely foreign to me, and I had been totally unable to figure out how to use it. While Sallia¡¯s current training was focused on one-handed swordsmanship, the ways I was learning to move my muscles and body were things I would be able to take with me to the Market. And if we actually found a few one-handed swords, I was sure I would be able to trade some blows with it as long as I practiced enough.


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    It was a long and grueling training session, but at the end of it, Sallia looked both tired and more positive than she had looked in years. And I also felt satisfied with what I had learned over the day. Felix laid on the ground, panting with exhaustion, but he also held a certain level of assurance when he moved that he hadn¡¯t had before.


    It was our first of many training sessions over the months.


    * * *


    Time passed. After about two months of training, Sallia got a rather interesting notification that she shared with us, although it took Felix and I another five or six months to get a notification of our own.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of a one-handed swordsmanship technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +25


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have gained [Basic] Grade Mastery of a combat-related Skill for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained a swordsmanship technique to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Basic One-handed Swordsmanship] as an ability, for the cost of 250 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    Anytime you train with one-handed Swords, your body will adjust itself and adapt itself to your previous knowledge of swordsmanship much more quickly and effectively. When reaching [Basic] Mastery of any one-handed Swordsmanship technique for the first time in each body, your body¡¯s Physical Attributes will permanently increase by 5. (Note - these stats are attached to your BODY. Not your soul. They will thus be lost whenever you die or swap bodies.)


    Glut Penalty: 2


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The three of us found the notification quite interesting, since it was the first time we had found a way to purchase an Ability. The only Abilities we had seen so far were the two that started out on our Status Screens, one of which was the taxes ability that deleted itself on the spot, and the other of which let us control what gender we reincarnated as.


    However, after fiddling with the popup, all of us concluded that we couldn¡¯t interact with the ability until after our deaths. This dampened our enthusiasm about our new discovery for now, but it still made us wonder what other Abilities we might come across during our time in this world. It also raised a few more questions about what glut penalty actually was. I had seen the term a few times while in the Market, but this was the first time any of us had a hint about what actually increased the Glut Penalty stat. For now, I decided to assume glut penalty was some sort of extra cost tacked on to most abilities, although none of us would know whether my assumption was correct until we returned to the Market.


    During the time we trained our swordsmanship, we also created more runes. Felix worked his way up to forming his third rune, consistently staying ahead of Sallia and I due to his higher Absorption Essence. Sallia and I lagged one rune behind him, but we both managed to form our second runes, at least.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a second rune.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Just like the first rune, the second rune also tacked another 20 onto all of my physical Stats. At this point, as a child who was almost six, I could probably wrestle a normal teenager pretty easily. If I burned mana to temporarily increase my physical abilities, I might even be able to match a grown man. The fact that my body hadn¡¯t fully matured yet, and that I would be stronger once I was grown up, made the entire situation feel ridiculous to me. What would my body be like once I was fully grown up and had 3 or more runes? I knew that past the third physical rune, my body wouldn¡¯t get stronger anymore, and I would start to get special abilities instead. However, just my physical abilities alone were starting to feel well above what a normal human could achieve. With 3 runes, an adult body, and mana to burn, I would probably be able to pass off my physical body as a kind of superpower. I doubted it would be enough to rip apart steel with my bare hands or match any feats of that kind, but I would be far enough beyond even professional athletes that I would be in a supernatural realm of my own.


    Of course, as we formed more runes, I was also increasingly aware of the ¡®maintenance cost¡¯ of each rune. Even with only two runes, the amount of absorption essence I had to help me form a third rune in the future was noticeably lower, and more and more of the absorption essence in my body was reserved for just keeping my runes stable. I was sure how many runes I would be able to make before I couldn¡¯t make any more, but I was absolutely sure that I would run into a wall sooner or later.


    Sallia¡¯s situation was much worse, since she was only at Grade 3 Absorption Essence. Since there was no way to increase the amount of absorption essence in our bodies, Sallia¡¯s maintenance costs were already eating up a huge chunk of the mana reserves in her body, even with only two of them formed. She was sure she would be able to form a third rune, but it was questionable whether she would even be able to form a fourth rune and get a special ability.


    Luckily, it seemed that Sallia was slowly learning to handle setbacks. One of the things that helped her was probably the increase in her Willpower, honed from watching the storms over the year of training swordsmanship. Sallia¡¯s Willpower increased to 79, during the storm season that year, and although it seemed reluctant to gain one last point and raise Sallia¡¯s Willpower a grade, she seemed optimistic about finally having fewer concentration issues within another year. I felt that this was more than just her being happy about her stats improving, though. Sallia had now spent five years in this world, not as a noblewoman yearning to be a knight and avoid bad marriages, but as a regular girl who struggled with everyday things. After falling from her position of power and command, Sallia had lost some confidence. However, due to our swordsmanship lessons and Felix and my attention to her mental health, she was growing as a result of her experiences here. While she wasn¡¯t quite emotionally secure, she was much closer than before. Her growing confidence in herself, despite the setbacks she had encountered early on in this world, was gratifying for me to see as the months passed. Felix and I also gradually improved our Willpower by watching the storms that year, boosting Felix¡¯s Willpower to 119 while mine grew to 133. It wasn¡¯t much growth on my end, but I was just happy to improve.


    Finally, the storm season for that year ended. It was time for our second renewal festival, when Felix and I would turn six years old. We were officially recognized as having taken our first step to adulthood by the village, and the chief congratulated us along with the other eleven kids who were turning six this year, before giving us a rehash of last year¡¯s speech. I didn¡¯t pay very much attention to it, because I was buzzing with anticipation as I focused on something much more important to me.


    It was finally time for us to hunt our first great fish.

 Chapter 23: Great Fish

    My father, along with Sallia, Felix and I walked towards the beach, where Olav¡¯s fishing boat was waiting for us.


    ¡°All right, a few things I want the two of you to keep in mind,¡± my father said, stopping for a moment as he turned to face us. ¡°First, as you already know, we¡¯ll be hunting one of the great fish today. However, it might take a while to actually complete the hunt. A lot of youngsters get disappointed when they learn that a lot of their first adulthood ceremony is sitting around and waiting for a great fish to appear near us, but that¡¯s the reality of a fishermen. A lot of time is just spend waiting.


    ¡°Second, before the fight with the great fish starts, you need to strap yourselves in at the back of the boat, all right? You¡¯ll some time to attack the fish and participate in killing it, but that¡¯s near the end of the fight, not the beginning. So sit tight and wait for one of the adults to give you a signal before you do anything.¡± I gave my father a solemn nod, and Felix did the same. My body was pretty tough compared to a regular human¡¯s, but if a giant fish directly smacked me with its tail I would probably die instantly. I had no intention of messing around when my life was on the line.


    ¡°Apart from that, listen to Olav while on the ship ¨C he owns the ship, and he has been doing this for years. Claus is the man who sometimes shows up around the house and gives you presents, Miria - I doubt you remember this, but when you were younger, Claus got into an accident when our fishing boat encountered some problems. He¡¯s a good man, but he¡¯s quite determined to pay off any debt he feels is owed - whether positive or negative. Finally, there are two other people on the ship. They¡¯re a couple. Woman¡¯s name is Joanna, man¡¯s name is Agnar. Agnar¡¯s on the quieter side, and so is Joanna. They¡¯re good people, but not too talkative. Be nice and don¡¯t expect them to speak up much, all right?¡±


    ¡°Sounds good. Thank you, dad,¡± I said, respectfully.


    ¡°I understand,¡± said Felix, nodding. ¡°I appreciate you helping me find a fishing boat for my ceremony, as well. My mom and I were having a bit of a hard time figuring out which fishing boat to go along with, so being able to take it with Miria is a relief.¡±


    My father gave Felix a friendly grin, before he ruffled Felix¡¯s hair. ¡°No worries. I know the three of you are close, and I can¡¯t just leave one of Miria¡¯s friends to their own devices when I can help, right? Don¡¯t worry about it - just keep treating my daughter well and we¡¯ll get along just fine.¡±


    ¡°All right, make sure you keep calm, and don¡¯t do anything stupid. As long as you don¡¯t do anything unusual, we should be able to get both of you through your first ceremony without any injuries or deaths, so keep cool and do what you¡¯re told on the boat. All right?¡±


    My father gave Felix a good natured grin and a pat on the shoulder, before he turned to Sallia. Sallia was only five this year, so she wasn¡¯t allowed on the fishing boats yet. She looked at both Felix and I, and I felt a small stab of reluctance as she watched us prepare for our adulthood ceremonies. Unlike Felix and I, according to the village she was only five this year. One year too young to do her adulthood ceremony. Finally, my father gave her a smile and a pat on the back.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Aria. You¡¯ll be able to do this next year. If I can convince Olav to take these two troublemakers on board this year, next year I can do the same for you. You won¡¯t have to worry about finding a fishing boat to take you along. I know it must be frustrating to be a year behind, but it¡¯s for your safety, all right? Just be patient.¡± It was a bit jarring to hear Sallia referred to as Aria, since Felix and I always referred to her as Sallia. Aria was, however, her name in this world, at least according to her parents.


    Sallia¡¯s expression of frustration didn¡¯t fully go away as she watched Felix and I prepare for the boats, but she managed to school her expression into a more neutral one. If I didn¡¯t know her so well, I might have been fooled.


    ¡°Both of you, stay safe. Good luck, and I¡¯ll be waiting when you get back to the shore, all right?¡± said Sallia. I gave her a quick hug, and Felix did the same, and then my father led Felix and I to the fishing boat. Standing inside of the wooden canoe-shaped vessel were four other adults, all of them ready to take off.


    Claus, the man who my father had saved from serious injury years before, gave me a huge grin. ¡°Glad to have you on board this year, little lady. Your father saved me from a dangerous fall years ago. If you have any questions or worries, stand near me. I¡¯ll do whatever I can to keep you safe and help you.¡± Then, he also turned to Felix. ¡°Your mother was one of the village¡¯s finest hunters before her injury. I have nothing but respect for her, and I hope you¡¯ll also grow into a fine man someday.¡± He gave Felix a more respectful nod, although I could tell it wasn¡¯t respect directed at Felix himself.


    ¡°I do my best, sir,¡± said Felix.


    Two of the other adults on ship were a man and a woman, who stood at the back of the vessel. I assumed they were Joanna and Agnar. They both gave Felix and I simple nods, before they ignored us. They didn¡¯t seem overly friendly or overly hostile to us, so I simply returned their nod before focusing on the last member of the ship.


    ¡°Good ta see ya again, Miria!. While on tha ship, I¡¯ll be a little more serious, so ya gotta listen ta me, okay? I¡¯ll be careful so we can get ya home safe and sound with yer ma and pa,¡± Olav said as he gave me a kind smile. ¡°You too, little Felix! Good ta have ya aboard. Stay safe and don¡¯ do anythin¡¯ silly, and both of ye will be fine.¡± He gave Felix a more boisterous grin, which Felix returned, and then Olav nodded towards the back of the boat. There, I could see a few ropes were woven into the back of the boat, where Felix and I began tying ourselves to the vessel to deal with the movement we would experience later. Once we were secure, the adults prepared the boat for takeoff.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s get goin¡¯!¡± said Olav.


    The adults touched the sides of the boat. Then, the runes on their bodies lit up, and I felt mana start flowing out of their runes and into the boat.


    With a shudder, the boat jerked upwards, before its flight began to smooth out. And as simple as that, we were airborne.


    How on earth did this boat actually work? I examined the sides of the boat in wonder, trying to figure out what was happening. There were no engines, no runes, nothing either mechanical or ¡®magical¡¯ looking that I could see at all. The boat just looked like a large canoe that happened to be flying.


    ¡°This is amazing!¡± I said, turning to my father and laughing in excitement.


    ¡°How does it work?¡± asked Felix, curiosity evident on his face as well.


    The adults cackled as they looked at Felix and I, and I realized that all of the adults had been closely watching us the whole time to see our expressions when we lifted off.


    ¡°It¡¯s the wood,¡± said my father, giving the side of the boat a sturdy tap with his free hand. ¡°Some of the trees inside of the island¡¯s forest are special. When exposed to enough mana, they start to float on their own. Apparently, they gave our ancestors one heck of a shock when they were just settling into the island, since trees sometimes just take off for the skies. Some bright bloke decided to make a fishing boat out of the wood and see if that could help them actually hunt a fish or two, and the food crisis of our ancestors was solved within a year. Nowadays, the hunters in the island do three things - first, they keep an eye out for floatwood trees. Second, they keep the land beasts away from the village. Finally, they stock up on foods that preserve themselves for long periods of time, to prepare for storm season.¡± My father chuckled. ¡°The hunters aren¡¯t strong enough to reach into the deepest parts of the forest, so we never harvest the trees there. Every few years you can see a couple trees just fly away from the depths of the island¡¯s forests. It¡¯s rare, but it¡¯s always pretty funny to see part of the forest just run for the skies, don¡¯t you think?¡± My father said, chuckling. Olav gave a great booming laugh, seeming to agree with my father¡¯s mirth.


    ¡°So how are we actually flying? You said that the wood flies with enough mana, but how are you getting mana to the wood?¡± asked Felix, his expression perking up as he examined the wood with heightened interest.


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    ¡°It¡¯s one of the big differences between having three and four runes,¡± said Claus. ¡°Your parents already told you there¡¯s a big spike in difficulty making more runes every third rune, right? The effects of runes also start to change every three runes. Your fourth, fifth, and sixth rune, for example, will each grant you a different, unique ability that you can spend your mana reserves to use. This ability relies on you taking mana out of your body and then applying it to objects in your surroundings. Which also means that, if you apply the same ability a little differently, you can apply just the mana in your body to an object, without activating your ability. Through carefully controlling our mana and directing it through the wood, we can control the flight of the boat. The wood itself does most of the work, and we just provide the energy and control the direction. It¡¯s a bit hard to get used to at first, and coordinating everyone takes a lot of practice, but it¡¯s the biggest part of being a fisherman. Learning to control the boat with your teammates and keep it steady while hunting is the most important skill for anyone who wants to hunt a great fish.¡±


    ¡°Huh. That¡¯s quite interesting,¡± said Felix, moving closer to Joanna and looking closely at the place her hand was touching the boat. He seemed fascinated enough that he slipped out of the more childish drawl he tried to use most of the time, and was now obviously trying to sense Joanna¡¯s use of mana. I smiled gently as I watched Felix continue to quiz the sailors and tried to figure out the mechanics behind the boat. More and more, I was noticing Felix really liked interesting and unique tools. He was fascinated by the minutiae of the boat¡¯s construction, and I remembered that he also loved learning about the trains and planes of my previous world.


    My attention started to wander as the group got into more specific aspects of how to shape each piece of wood, and I instead reveled in the feeling of soaring through the sky and gazing down at the ocean beneath us. The feeling of flying was novel and extraordinary, and it was something I didn¡¯t want to miss a moment of.


    After another six hours of flight, we finally spotted a good target. The water near our boat began churning frantically, alerting both the fishermen and the two of us. Then, out of the abyssal depths of the ocean came a great fish. It was smaller than its cousins, thankfully, which meant that it should be weaker.


    However, the strangest thing of all about the fish was that its geometry was slightly¡­ wrong. It reminded me of the way some parts of the Market looked. Although the fish was much, much closer to normal geometry than the winding and moving street layout of the Market, whenever I looked at its fins or its head, it felt as though the shape was subtly shifting in the corners of my eyes, making it hard to observe parts of the fish.


    The fish was completely disinterested in my observations. It gave me a disinterested roll of its dozens of eyes, before it flopped over and began lazily sunning itself on the surface of the ocean. The fishermen on the boat leaned over the sides of the wooden vessel, carefully observing the fish in detail.


    ¡°Is it weak enough?¡± Asked my father.


    ¡°I think so. Looks smaller than most fish, and it doesn¡¯t seem to have any unusual traits. I don¡¯t notice it using any odd abilities either, so it should be pretty manageable as far as fights go,¡± said Claus, critically eyeing the fish.


    ¡°I agree. It doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s too hard ta fight, so it should be a good target fer the kids. Let¡¯s go for it¡± called Olav. My dad and the others cracked grins as they looked at the fish, before they began reaching for the sides of the boat. Strapped to the sides of the boat were several bone spears with barbed tips, tied to the boat with thick, heavy ropes. The sailors all grabbed a spear, looking at the fish and grinning to each other as they prepared.


    ¡°Claus, start us off!¡± Said Olav. I looked on with interest as mana flooded out of Claus¡¯s body, before the spear in his hands began to writhe.


    The spear seemed to grow larger and sharper in his hands. I couldn¡¯t see any physical changes, but I felt a prickling sense of danger when I looked at the spear.


    Then, Claus hurled the spear towards the fish. The other fishermen followed suit a moment later, trailing behind Claus¡¯s spear as they streaked through the air. Claus¡¯s bone spear tore into the scales of the fish. Instantly, it began writhing, managing to deflect two of the other spears in midair. However, two of the other spears managed to lodge themselves into the skin of the fish.


    Then the ship lurched. The fish began thrashing, before flipping back and trying to dive back into the ocean. The ropes connected to the spears tensed, dragging the ship to and fro as the fish tried to escape. However, the sailors flooded the boat with mana as the fish struggled, and managed to keep the boat in the air and relatively undamaged during the struggle. As much as the fish wanted to escape the boat, now that we had hooked the fish we wouldn¡¯t let it go.


    ¡°Pull up!¡± called Olav, pouring more mana into the boat. The others all gripped the sides of the boat more tightly, before they increased how much mana they were pumping into the ship. The sickening rolling of the flying boat stopped, righting itself, and Felix and I finally stopped feeling like ragdolls that were being tossed around left and right.


    Finally, the ropes and the ship began straining, as they dragged the fish back out of the depths of the ocean. However, it didn¡¯t fully leave the water before it started fighting back.


    ¡°Get ready for its first counterattack!¡± Yelled Olav, a moment later.


    Suddenly, a new current of water appeared in the Ocean around us. As the fish flailed, the water actively assisted it, trying to suck the fish back into the ocean and tear it away from our fishing spears.


    My father and Joanna stepped up to the side of the boat, and winds began to whip at the fish and water around us. Their ability to feed mana into the boat decreased, but the fish was also being dragged out of the water by the power of the winds they two were summoning. At the same time, Claus took hold of another bone spear and hurled it into the side of the fish, causing it to writhe in greater agony and solidify the connection between the fish and the boat.


    Finally, Olav extended one of his fingers over the side of the boat. I noticed six runes light up on his body, glowing a dark red color, before he sliced open one of his fingers with the tip of a spear. A drop of blood fell out of his wound, before it whizzed towards the fish.


    When the drop of blood made contact with the fish, it drilled into its body. The fish¡¯s dozens of eyes began rolling wildly, and it stopped messing with the water around it and began flopping around.


    The drop of blood had disappeared inside of its body, but the fish seemed more distracted by Olav¡¯s attack than any of the other attacks raining down on it. And despite the fact that four of the five fishermen were focused on attacking the fish, Joanna¡¯s husband managed to keep the boat afloat, and even ensure that the boat was slowly floating higher and higher.


    The moment the fish¡¯s body left the water, my father and Joanna stopped using their rune abilities, and instead returned their attention to the boat itself. They pumped more mana into the wood, and the boat jerked as it began flying higher and higher out of the water.


    For another minute, the fish continued to struggle, with Olav and Claus attacking the fish while my father, Agnar, and Joanna kept the boat afloat. Then, the fish¡¯s energy seemed to dwindle. It grew weaker and more feeble, and its attempts to manipulate the ocean around it started to die down.


    ¡°You two can act now,¡± my father said, handing Felix and I a bone spear each. ¡°Use as much of your mana as you can to boost your arm strength, and then send it straight into the fish. If you miss, we have more spears, so don¡¯t worry. Just focus on wearing down its strength as much as you can with a few extra injuries. If you¡¯re a good enough shot, aim for its eyes - they never like having those destroyed.¡±


    Felix and I tested the spears for a moment, before we unstrapped a bit of our body from the rope harnesses and leaned over the side of the boat. Now that the fish wasn¡¯t struggling so much, the boat was much more stable than before, making it easy to stay on board and get a good throw in. I took careful aim, before burning through half of my mana and throwing my spear.


    My Grade 7 strength was nothing to sneeze at, especially with extra mana to boost my body strength. My spear flew through the air, along with Felix¡¯s, before the two spears cut into the fish¡¯s face. Neither of us hit an eye, unfortunately, and compared to the size of the fish it felt kind of like we had stabbed it with a sewing needle. However, with the fish already dying, it wasn¡¯t able to respond to our attacks at all.


    Finally, the fish stopped moving. A single drop of blood existed the body of the fish, before it flew back into the cut on Olav¡¯s body. He grinned.


    ¡°Got ¡®im. I hit the brain wit¡¯ my ability, so it shouldn¡¯t be alive pretty soon if it ain¡¯t already dead. Most fish do a better job expellin¡¯ my blood drop, but this ¡®un was pretty weak,¡± he said. Then, he turned to the other fishermen in the boat, including Felix and I. ¡°Good job, everyone! Ya did great work today.¡± Then, he focused on just the two of us, ignoring the adults in the boat for a second. ¡°And congratulations on completin¡¯ your first adulthood ceremony.¡± Then, the boat began to slowly fly back towards the island.


    After perhaps twenty seconds, I felt a rush of Achievement enter my body.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the first time


    Influence: Successfully pass your first Adulthood Ceremony


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +25, +50


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It was over. We had passed our first coming of age ceremony and hunted one of the great fish!

 Chapter 24: Arne

    It took a few more days for the other kids to get their first kills. After each successful hunt, the village chief would congratulate each kid before the villagers took the fish corpse away for processing.


    Interestingly enough, the fish corpses no longer gave me the sense of twisted geometry once they were dead. Whatever it was that made them feel like their basic shape was changing when I looked away, it disappeared once they died.


    After I completed my first hunt, many of the villagers I vaguely knew smiled and congratulated me for a few days. Sometimes, they would give me a few small presents to congratulate me as well. A new pearl hairpin, a wooden toy, and various other things that let me know that the villagers were thinking about me were given to me. As I basked in the warm and congratulatory atmosphere of the village, I started to realize something.


    Before I had noticed it, this place had become home. I felt safe and happy here. I had parents who loved me and who I loved, friends that I enjoyed spending time with, and neighbors I liked well enough. My memories of my original home weren¡¯t forgotten. However, my longing for the people and world that I had left behind dimmed with each passing month. I enjoyed spending time with Felix and Sallia, and I cared about the islanders as much as I had cared about the people I could vaguely remember from my first life. Even though new connections would never replace the people I had lost, I was able to look towards the future instead of wallowing in the past.


    Bit by bit, the hurt from losing my friends and family and forgetting who they were was starting to heal.


    Seven days later, the villagers began to call the children who had passed their first hunt. Now that we had turned six, we were considered old enough to start learning from the other villagers, which meant we needed to talk to the village chief and figure out where we were going for our first apprenticeship. I was one of the first ones the village chief called to his house.


    ¡°Good job, Miria,¡± said the village chief, smiling at me. ¡°I say it to every child, but it bears repeating every time. Passing your adulthood ceremony is a big accomplishment, and a sign that you¡¯re getting older and wiser. Your achievements deserve to be recognized, and as village chief, I¡¯m always happy to see kids growing up safely and happily. So well done, Miria.¡± Although the village chief seemed nervous whenever I saw him in front of a crowd, right now he seemed far more relaxed. He even seemed genuinely happy to see me.


    ¡°Thank you chief,¡± I said.


    ¡°So, as I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard, once you pass your first hunt at six, you can start helping out around the village. Have your parents already spoken with you about this?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°They have, but not in great detail.¡±


    ¡°Very well then. There are a few details and restrictions for your first apprenticeship. First - this wooden token represents where you¡¯ll be spending the next four years. Give this to a villager who is already an adult, and they will consider accepting you as their apprentice. If they reject your apprenticeship, they will return it to you the following day. If they accept, they will usually let you know, but if they don¡¯t return the token it also means they have accepted your presence. Second, I want you to remember that you can¡¯t choose any of the dangerous jobs. No fishing or hunting until you turn 10. If you have the potential to be a hunter, I wouldn¡¯t mind giving you a special wooden token, that would let you apprentice under a retired hunter and learn how to fight from them.¡± The village chief sighed.¡±But I will be blunt. Honestly, I don¡¯t think you are able to make it as a hunter. You only have two runes right now, and you started forming them about two years ago. One rune per year isn¡¯t bad, but hunting is very dangerous, and we tend to only take the kids who form runes really fast. After all, participating in hunts with more dangerous land beasts is hard if you don¡¯t have at least seven runes. With only six, you might have the body and the abilities to keep up with a fight, but without the ability to use multiple abilities in quick succession and perceive the fights that occur at higher speeds, it¡¯ll be hard for you to stay safe as a hunter. The perception abilities granted by a seventh rune are critical to staying alive, and I just don¡¯t think you¡¯re going to be able to form a seventh rune, unless something unexpected happens.¡±


    I nodded. After the land beast attack a year ago, I had also realized that I wasn¡¯t in the same power range as the creatures of the forest. And given the fact that I had grade 5 Manifestation Essence, I doubted I would prove to be anything special as far as rune count went. Forcibly participating in land beast hunts would just get me killed if I was too weak to fight properly. I grinned at the village chief to show him I agreed with his assessment. ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to be a hunter anyway. I like the fishing boats much more,¡± I said.


    The village chief nodded and relaxed. ¡°That¡¯s absolutely possible for you. You should have an easy time getting at least a fourth rune, and that¡¯s all you really need to be a fisherman. The ocean mother¡¯s children are far less dangerous than the horrors on land. When you turn ten, if you haven¡¯t changed your mind we¡¯ll talk again.¡±


    The village chief gave me an encouraging pat on the back, and said a few more words of encouragement before he handed me a wooden token. After a few more verbal headpats, he kicked me out of his hut so that he could receive the next child. Outside, my parents were waiting.


    ¡°Miria, are you interested in learning how to make tools from Arne?¡± asked my father, cutting straight to the point after he saw my wooden token.


    ¡°I¡¯m not opposed to it,¡± I said, after thinking for a bit. I wanted to be a fisherman, and work near the ocean more. It would give me more chances to analyze what was up with the ocean of this world, and it would also be a good way to farm Achievement. But I didn¡¯t really know what to do until then. Making tools didn¡¯t sound amazing, but it didn¡¯t sound bad.


    ¡°Then, if you don¡¯t mind learning about fish corpses and tools, look for master Arne tomorrow. He¡¯s one of the better craftsmen in the village, and he said he wouldn¡¯t mind having you around for a while when your mother and I mentioned you had passed your first adulthood ceremony,¡± said my father, reaching down and ruffling my hair. ¡°But we¡¯ll wait until tomorrow to bring you there. I want you to be sure you don¡¯t mind making tools, since you won¡¯t have a chance to change jobs for another four years once you start. Make sure this is something you¡¯re okay with, all right sweetie?¡±


    ¡°All right,¡± I said.


    * * *


    The next morning, I prepared to meet with Felix and Sallia. The three of us had decided to go find our apprenticeships together, even though Sallia wouldn¡¯t have an apprenticeship until next year. The village chief had judged that, unlike me, Felix actually had the potential to be a hunter, and Felix¡¯s mother was also a former hunter, giving him several connections to the hunter community already. Thus, he had been strongly encouraged to go into the hunter training program, and he had grudgingly accepted.


    ¡°How do you feel about your apprenticeship,¡± I asked Felix, curious, after he showed up.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Felix frowned, before sighing. ¡°To be honest, I wish I was doing something else. Hunting isn¡¯t bad, but it doesn¡¯t really speak to my passion, you know? If I had the chance, I would much rather do something crafting-related. I think my passion lies in crafting and machinery. But¡­¡± he sighed again. ¡°This world¡¯s tech level is a bit too low for me to do anything related to machinery, and I have no idea how I would go about starting the industrial revolution in this world. And based on our situation in the Market, we really need some high-level fighting abilities when we return, or we might permanently die. So I¡¯ll become a hunter this time. But in the future, maybe in a few lives when we¡¯ve figured out more of the Market, and when we have better ways to survive, I¡¯d like to do something else.¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°It is what it is, I guess.¡±


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I felt bad when I heard Felix say that. I had seen Felix show interest in mechanics, production, and engineering several times already, and after thinking about it, it seemed pretty obvious that Felix was a inclined towards crafting and mechanical objects. I couldn¡¯t argue with his assessment, though. We really did need good fighters when we got back to the Market, and encouraging him to pursue his passions might get him - and the rest of us - killed. But I felt bad that Felix had to sacrifice his passion for practicality. I made a mental note to myself. In the future, I would find a way to pay Felix back for what he was doing for us. He might forget about this in the future, but I wouldn¡¯t forget that he was putting aside his dreams for what might be an entire lifetime just to keep the three of us safe. Someday, I would give him something to make up for that, no matter how many worlds it took.


    ¡°So, are we heading to Arne¡¯s house first?¡± asked Felix, changing the subject.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go!¡± I said. If Felix wanted to change the subject, I would oblige him.


    Our group began walking through the village until we arrived at the correct house. I stepped forward, and then rapped on the wooden door three times.


    The door creaked open.


    ¡°Welcome! I was just wondering when you would come! You¡¯re Silas and Astra¡¯s daughter, aren¡¯t you?¡± Asked the man standing behind the door, giving me a warm smile. The man standing behind the door only had three runes, which shocked me. He had the same number of runes as Felix. But Felix was six years old, and this man must have been in his early or mid twenties. Most of the villagers had 4-6 runes, so he was definitely below average in rune count. And the difference between having 3 runes and 4 runes was massive, since people with 4 runes had superpowers and people with 3 were just unnaturally strong and healthy. However, he had a relaxed, happy grin on his face, despite the fact that his status in the village must have definitely suffered because of his low runes.


    At that moment, even though his rune count was low and his combat power was probably abysmal compared to most adults in the village, I felt respect for the man. For him to be so genuinely happy to see us, despite his hardships in the past, was respectable on its own. In the future, if I ended up with terrible Stats, or if I ended up crippled, I wanted to have the same dignity and joy towards life this man did. I wanted to be able to smile, work for the sake of those I cared about, and feel happy even if my circumstances were bad.


    Unaware of all of my thoughts, the man in the house turned towards Sallia and Felix before his grin grew even wider.


    ¡°The troublesome trio came to visit me, eh? Are you two here to cheer on your friend? Or are you also planning on learning about tools and fish bones as well, Felix? I heard you were going to train as a hunter, but if you changed your mind I could take you in.¡± He gave Felix a friendly grin.


    I saw Felix¡¯s face change for a moment, and he gazed towards Arne¡¯s crafting hut with a wistful expression. I could tell he wanted to say yes - despite the low technology level of the village, and the lack of things that truly interested Felix, he was still interested in learning to make tools. Then, he sighed and turned to Arne. ¡°We¡¯re here to cheer Miria on, sir,¡± said Felix, returning the man¡¯s smile. ¡°I have respect for the hunters who place themselves in danger every day for the sake of the village, and I want to be able to protect those I care about. So I¡¯ll have to turn down your offer.¡±


    Master Arne gave Felix¡¯s hands a glance, before shrugging. ¡°Shame. You look like you have a pair of clever hands. I think you could make some truly extraordinary items if you learned under me. But if you feel your path is to become a hunter, good luck. Their jobs are far more dangerous than mine, but without hunters this village wouldn¡¯t exist.¡± Then, Arne leaned in a little closer, and looked Felix in the eye. ¡°But if you ever change your mind, let me know. Plenty of hunters get permanently injured in their line of work. Your mother is a good example of the danger of being a hunter - half of her face is paralyzed, and it would be a shame to see a kid like you go through the same thing. If you want to become a craftsmen instead, or if you get permanently injured and can¡¯t continue hunting, I¡¯ll take you in anytime. And if you ever need an adult to talk to, come to me. I¡¯ll always be a willing ear for those in need of a chat.¡± Then, Arne turned back to me.


    ¡°So it¡¯s just little Miria then?¡± he asked, holding out his hand.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, handing him my wooden token.


    ¡°Welcome aboard, little one!¡± Arne said, as he took my wooden token. ¡°If your parents didn¡¯t already tell you a bit about me, I¡¯m Arne! I¡¯ve been descaling fish and making tools and clothes out of their bones and scales for over a decade now. I also make a lot of other things in the village. Two of our fishing boats were personally made by me. My runes might be low, but I¡¯m one of the most skilled in the village when it comes to making stuff.¡± He cackled a bit as he held out his hand to me.


    I reached out my hand and took his, giving him a firm handshake.


    ¡°Would you three like to come in for a snack, or are the three of you off for the next phase of your adventure?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re going to Felix¡¯s apprenticeship after this, and then we¡¯re going to play,¡± I said, fully intending to get in a practice session with Sallia after this. After the three of us had gotten a reward for [Basic] swordsmanship, we were very curious to see if there were any other rewards for continuing to improve.


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll see you tomorrow, little Miria! Try to come about halfway between sunrise and midday ¨C I should have your training equipment ready by then,¡± he said. With a final wave, he sent us off towards the next leg of our journey.


    Felix took one last look at Arne¡¯s hut, before we continued walking towards Felix¡¯s apprenticeship. We quickly arrived at a house set a little ways away from the rest of the village. Unlike the other houses, which usually hugged the coastline, this one was a little closer to the fence separating the village and the trees. Felix hesitated for a moment in front of the hut, before he knocked on the door. I saw an eyeball peer at us from inside of the hunter¡¯s house, through a very small crack between the door and wall beside it.


    ¡°Felix?¡± Asked the man, after looking at us for a moment.


    ¡°Yes. Sir, I¡¯m -¡±


    ¡°Token.¡± The man opened the door, and I got my first glimpse of Felix¡¯s new teacher.


    The senior hunter was an elderly man by the village standards, since he was starting to push past forty years old. He only had one eye, and he was missing his ring finger on his left hand. He had a stern expression on his face, though I couldn¡¯t find any trace of meanness in it. It was just¡­ stern.


    ¡°Token.¡± The hunter held out his hand again. Felix handed over his wooden token. The Hunter relaxed slightly, before nodding at Felix.


    ¡°I¡¯m Pata. Former hunter. Old now, so no more hunting. First rule - beasts listen in the forest. Don¡¯t talk so much. Bad habit. Beasts hear, then kill you and group. Strong landbeasts make noise in the forest. Weak landbeasts don¡¯t. If they make noise, they get eaten too. Learn to use hand signals. And when in the forest, stay quiet or die.¡± Pata gave Felix a stern expression. Felix frowned a bit, but then nodded.


    ¡°Are they - Ahem.¡± Felix cleared his throat, and he looked like he was already starting to regret turning down Arne¡¯s offer. ¡°So dangerous?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Landbeasts rule forest. Not Humans. Stay quiet. Always.¡±


    ¡°Will do.¡±


    ¡°Good. Tomorrow, Sunrise. Come back.¡±


    Felix opened his mouth, as if preparing to say something or ask a question. Then, he closed his mouth decisively, before he nodded.


    Pata smiled for the first time.


    ¡°You learn fast. Good.¡±


    After that, Pata closed the door. The whole time, he didn¡¯t acknowledge the presence of Sallia and I. However, I was beginning to get a better grasp of his personality, so I didn¡¯t take offense to it. Instead, I just shrugged, before I forced a grin and turned back towards Felix and Sallia.


    ¡°That should be it for the day, right? Are you guys up for practicing swordsmanship for the rest of the day?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Sounds good.¡± We returned to the sandy beach, where we began our swordsmanship training as usual.


    As we practiced swinging our swords and getting into stances, I kept thinking about Felix¡¯s regretful face as he left master Arne¡¯s hut and walked towards the hunter¡¯s hut. I imagined that every single swing of my sword was bringing me closer to a point where Felix wouldn¡¯t need to bend his knee to reality in such a depressing fashion. Having one of my friends sacrifice their happiness for me felt bad. In the future, I didn¡¯t want Sallia or Felix to be forced into unpleasant circumstances like this, if their dreams and passions lay elsewhere. I didn¡¯t want them to be forced to constantly think about the survival of the group, or the horrors of the Market. I wanted them to be safe and happy, and I would do anything for that.


    It was a stupid dream, perhaps. But it was one that I wanted to turn into a reality. Every practice swing that day carried the weight of my determination behind it, because instead of just practicing my swordsmanship for my own survival, I was working hard for the sake of my friends and their futures.

 Chapter 25: (Title is Spoiler)

    The next day, I went to Arne¡¯s house and rapped quietly on the door at the appointed time. A few moments later, the door swung open.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got everything ready for you. Come with me to my workshop,¡± said Master Arne as he stepped out of his house. I followed behind him as he strode through the village. A few minutes later, the two of us arrived at another building. Unlike the houses most of the villagers lived inside, this building had no complicated set of doors to block the entrance. It was larger than most houses, and the interior was one large room. Inside, lying on a table, was a partially dismantled giant fish corpse. The inner organs had already been removed and thrown into a bucket. The meat of the fish had already been distributed to the village, and the scales and skin of the fish had been placed on another table off to the side.


    ¡°All right, so a few ground rules before we get started. First and foremost, don¡¯t touch things before I teach you how to use them. Some of the objects in here are sharp, and you could hurt yourself with them. I know your body probably feels incredibly sturdy since you have two runes made, but I still don¡¯t want you to get a cut and have it get infected or something, all right? A healer might demand a fish core as payment for getting rid of the infection, and if they¡¯re running low on mana they might need one core as payment and one as an energy source. Two fish cores is a pretty expensive price for messing around. So don¡¯t touch any of the tools before I teach you how to use them. All right?¡± Master Arne gave me an easy grin, but I could see a steeliness in his gaze that told me he wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer here. I nodded.


    ¡°I understand, master Arne. I won¡¯t interact with the tools or the fish corpse without your permission,¡± I said.


    ¡°Good. All right, let¡¯s get started!¡± Arne gave me a more relaxed grin, before turning towards the massive fish bones in the center of the room. Each of the fish bones were larger than my arm, and some were taller and wider than Arne.


    ¡°So, I¡¯ll be teaching you how to process fish bones to make tools today.¡± He held out a knife towards me, a lovely tool with obvious art put into its craftsmanship. It had a handle made out of wood, with a leather grip. Parts of the grip were inlaid with pearls, making the knife a surprisingly pretty tool. The handle and blade were joined by a faint blue tinge I had come to recognize as the glue-like paste the village made from the organs of the great fish. The blade itself was a piece of bone, which had been carefully shaved down until it reached a level of sharpness that would allow it to cut through most objects.


    ¡°You can have this, but you need to hold it by the handle. And don¡¯t swing it around, or play with it - it¡¯s a tool, not a toy. If you mess around with it, I¡¯ll take it away until you demonstrate that you can behave with maturity, so don¡¯t treat it like a toy, all right?¡± I carefully grabbed the knife, taking a few more moments to admire its craftsmanship, before I turned back to master Arne.


    ¡°Now, I¡¯m going to teach you how to create a knife made of bone first, because it¡¯s simple to make, but incredibly important for dealing with fish bones in particular. Great Fish bones are very sturdy, especially when they¡¯re filled with mana. Luckily, after a great fish dies their fish cores no longer supply their bodies with mana, making their bones softer and weaker. This makes it possible for their bones to be processed. I finished making the knife you¡¯re holding last night, so that you would have a tool to work with, as well as an example of what you should be trying to make. You can consider it a present from me, as well as your first tool as my apprentice. Now, take this piece of fish bone,¡± He said as he handed me a piece of bone around half the size of my fist. Currently, the bone was fairly round ¨C closer to a rounded rectangle in shape than the shape of a knife blade. He also grabbed a bone for himself, as well as another knife.


    ¡°This is what I¡¯ll be giving you for your first crafting assignment. I want you to make this into a knife. To start out with, you need to learn how to cut at the bone. If you try to strike at the bone directly, it won¡¯t work very well: Fish bones are softer when a fish dies, but they still aren¡¯t soft enough to be cut easily. If you swing the knife willy-nilly at the fish bone, you¡¯ll chip the knife, and you won¡¯t succeed in cutting the bone. However, take a look at the bone ¨C do you see how there are tiny discolored lines in the fish bones?¡± I looked closely, and I could, indeed, see tiny lines in the texture of the bone.


    Then, Arne carefully used his knife to cut into one of the discolored lines, demonstrating how to interact with them.


    ¡°Those are flaws in the way mana was conducted through the bones of a great fish. Each great fish has unique patterns left behind in its bones, based on how its runes were formed and the marks each rune left on its body. This leaves behind little flaws in each bone, which are softer and weaker than the rest of the bone. If you cut into those flaws, you¡¯ll have a much easier time sawing into the bone than if you cut other areas. Then, once you have the rough shape you need, you¡¯ll sharpen the bone by grinding a stone or piece of waste bone against the blade, until it¡¯s properly sharpened. Does that make sense?¡± I nodded, before I felt the urge to frown.


    ¡°Fish have runes too?¡± I hadn¡¯t observed the great fish we had hunted using any runes. I had seen it use an ability, much the way other people on the island could control things in their environment with four or more runes - however, unlike people, I hadn¡¯t seen parts of the great fish light up during the fight.


    ¡°All things have runes, Miria,¡± said master Arne, giving me a grin. ¡°Land Beasts, Fish¡­ everything intelligent and alive in this world has the ability to form runes. You just can¡¯t see where some animals, like the great fish, store their runes, because unlike humans they don¡¯t form their runes on the outside of their body. Instead, they¡¯re usually attached to their organs - meaning I usually see them while working, but hunters and fishermen don¡¯t until the creature is dead.¡± Master Arne chuckled at that, before he took another look at the fish bone he had given me. ¡°Anyway, so I want you to take the knife and try giving this bone a little cut¡­¡±


    I did as he had shown me, trying to give the fish bone a slice from one of its weak points, and found the experience surprisingly difficult, even when I was cutting at the ¡®weak point¡¯ of the bone. Arne, however, seemed pleased, even though I failed to do anything besides nick the edge of the bone.


    ¡°Your grip on the knife is surprisingly good. I figured I would need to start teaching you from the very basics of holding a knife and using it without cutting yourself, but you already know that you need to cut away from yourself and not towards yourself. Good job.¡±


    I looked at the knife, before smiling to myself. I hadn¡¯t paid any attention to it, but when I grabbed Arne¡¯s knife, I had subconsciously used the same grip I used when holding Sallia¡¯s practice sword. The fact I gripped the knife properly without realizing it was another sign that I was truly starting to internalize Sallia¡¯s lessons. Even if it was minor, I was glad to see my swordsmanship and combat ability slowly progressing.


    ¡°Now, your grip on the knife handle was good, and your knife safety was also good, but your angle when cutting the bone itself was a bit off. Here, stay still for a sec. Let me show you¡­¡± Arne carefully gripped my hand, before tilting my wrist slightly to change the angle I was holding the knife. Then, he released my hand. ¡°You want your cuts to line up with the discoloration of the bones, but you were tilted a bit too much to the right. Try again with this angle.¡± I tried cutting the bone again, this time using the slightly adjusted angle Master Arne had shown me.


    ¡°Good! Like that. See if you can find the right angle without me helping you this time - it takes a bit of practice, but I think you can get there. If you make a big mistake, or if you get stuck, I¡¯ll give you advice or help you again as needed. Start cutting at this bone, and start by shaving off the edges a little. Don¡¯t cut anywhere near your fingers. I¡¯ll show you how to make a proper knife blade shape when you get rid of a bit more of the excess material¡­¡±


    I cut the bone as Arne guided me through the process, and I slowly began to carve away a hunk of fish bone. The original fish bone had been nearly as thick as my face, but I was quickly carving out a piece of bone about the size of both of my fists. I continued to work, and Arne sat next to me, gently guiding me through the process. After I had a fist-sized hunk of bone ready, he showed me how to whittle down parts of the bone without damaging anything, as well as the process of whittling away pieces of the bone, sawing off unnecessary bits, and making a crude edge for my practice knife. I had, of course, messed up several times, and the knife I ended up producing was much closer to a waste product than a usable tool. I had messed up the structural integrity of the bone beyond belief, my knife¡¯s blade was slightly crooked, and the edge was blunt in some spots.


    Arne didn¡¯t seem too bothered by this fact. Instead, he nodded as he watched me. ¡°All right, good job. This knife isn¡¯t particularly useful, but you¡¯re starting to get the hang of what you should be doing. From here on out, I want you to try again, all right? It¡¯ll take some time to get used to, but as you practice it¡¯ll get easier and easier with more repetitions. You¡¯ll be making real tools in no time as long as you keep at it!¡±


    Arne handed me another section of bone, and I tried again.


    The rest of the day wasn¡¯t particularly eventful. I made a semi-usable knife on my fourth try. It was far from Arne¡¯s works of art, but it was at least a working knife blade.


    Despite how bad my first ¡®successful¡¯ knife was, I still got a bit of Achievement for it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Crafting: Craft a [Basic] grade item


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +15


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The feeling of making a tool of my own was surprisingly good. It took me several hours of trying, and a few failures, before I made a usable tool, but once I was done, I was happy to see the fruit of my labor laying on a table in front of me. I spent the rest of the day smiling, as Arne congratulated me for my first success. After about six hours, master Arne dismissed me, saying my concentration was slipping and I should go get into trouble like other kids my age, so I went to find Felix and Sallia for the rest of the day.


    * * *


    Another year passed. I spent most of my time with Arne, learning my new trade. Felix and I didn¡¯t have as much time to train with Sallia and talk about our old worlds as we used to, but we still made sure to spend a few hours as a group every day. Felix formed his fourth rune, which gave him control over bones.


    Whenever he used the rune, he gained the ability to move bones in his surroundings, so long as they were within about fifty meters of him. He could theoretically turn the bones in his surroundings into a spray of missiles, and fight the way many of the other hunters and fishermen of the village did. However, this application of his ability was surprisingly weak compared to most other people in the village. Instead, Felix¡¯s rune seemed to at least partially follow his interests. His ability specialized in making and manipulating bone tools, making them sturdier and more effective. If he held a bone spear, he could easily make it sharper, sturdier, and longer. I remembered seeing Claus do something similar during my hunting ceremony, but what Felix was doing was far more extensive - and also far more specialized. While Claus could still help a bone spear find its intended target by manipulating it in midair, Felix¡¯s ability was almost exclusively focused on enhancing the tool itself. Moving an object mid flight was difficult for him, but at the same time, a bone tool enhanced by him would cut through another bone tool like a hot knife cutting into warm butter. Of course, he could also make a tool he was holding change shape mid-fight, which gave him a surprisingly high amount of options when it came to fighting. Although his rune was quite odd by village standards, it still gave him a very impressive repertoire of useful abilities, and while his mother and my parents seemed to find it rather weird, everyone acknowledged the usefulness of his rune.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Sallia and I congratulated him on finally getting a fourth rune.


    Felix started teaching us how to hold and shoot a bow, and how to fight with a spear, since those were the things he was learning from the hunter he was apprenticed under. When we returned to the Market, we had no idea what weapons we would have available, so learning to use a bit of everything seemed prudent right now. After about four months, Sallia got another Achievement notification for reaching basic mastery in Spear and Bow use, although it took Felix three more months, and took me an extra five more months than Sallia. I couldn''t help but feel jealous at how naturally talented Sallia was with weapons.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of an Archery technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +25


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained an Archery technique to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Basic Archery] as an ability, for the cost of 250 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    Anytime you train with bows and arrows, your body will adjust itself and adapt itself to your previous knowledge of archery much more quickly and effectively. When reaching [Basic] Mastery of any archery technique for the first time in each body, your body¡¯s Agility and Strength will permanently increase by 6 and your body¡¯s Perception will permanently increase by 3. (Note - these stats are attached to your BODY. Not your soul. They will thus be lost whenever you die or swap bodies.)


    Glut Penalty: 2


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of a spear technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +25


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained a spearmanship technique to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Basic spearmanship] as an ability, for the cost of 250 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    Anytime you train with spears, your body will adjust itself and adapt itself to your previous knowledge of spearmanship much more quickly and effectively. When reaching [Basic] Mastery of any spearmanship technique for the first time in each body, your body¡¯s Strength and Agility will permanently increase by 4, and your Fortitude will permanently increase by 7. (Note - these stats are attached to your BODY. Not your soul. They will thus be lost whenever you die or swap bodies.)


    Glut Penalty: 2


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I did find the fact the different stat bonuses we got for each weapon to be quite interesting. However, I still had no idea what ¡®glut penalty¡¯ meant, which made it very hard to figure out if I wanted to buy these Abilities or not in the future. In theory, spending 250 Achievement for 15 Stat points was excellent, even if it took a bit of training to get the stat points back online. However, without knowing how severe glut penalty was, I had a hard time figuring out what extra costs were added to each Ability. I hoped that by the time we returned to the Market, I would have a better idea of what glut penalty meant.


    I also got some Achievement for crafting tools from bones over the course of a year, and also learned enough about crafting with bones to make tools on my own.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] mastery of tool-creation.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +15


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained a crafting technique to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Craftsman¡¯s eye] as an ability, for the cost of 500 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    You gain a much better idea what material compositions work together well when creating tools, even when adapting to the differing laws of physics and magic native to each local dimension you encounter. This will give you a natural talent towards crafting items that will make you much better than other craftsmen with [Basic] Grade mastery, and may make it easier to reach [Intermediate] grade mastery.


    Glut Penalty: 8


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have gained [Basic] Grade Mastery of a crafting-related Skill for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I was more than a little surprised to see how different [Craftsman¡¯s Eye] was from the weapon-related Abilities the Market had previously offered me. There had been a pretty obvious pattern to how the weapon related abilities worked, but this ability caught me more than a little off guard. It didn¡¯t seem like something that I would want long term, so I doubted I would be purchasing this one. I did find the notification itself interesting, at least.


    By the beginning of Storm Season, I only succeeded in making a tool three out of every four tries, and my tools were still far inferior to master Arne¡¯s. However, they were usable, and I wasn¡¯t wasting the materials I used to make objects anymore. Instead of just garbage, I was now making tools the villagers at least had use for, even if they would prefer to get a tool from a more experienced craftsman. I also got more Achievement for producing tools as time passed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Production: Craft 25 [Basic] grade items


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 40


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Production: Craft 100 [Basic] grade items


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As of now, I had 1140 Achievement saved up - enough to get one Attribute a full grade higher, back in the Market, and still have enough left over for some basic food supplies. I wasn¡¯t sure if this was a big amount of Achievement or a small amount of Achievement for one life, because I had no clue how much it would cost to buy more lives, but I felt that I was at least off to a good start when it came to farming Achievement in this world.


    As I continued to make tools, the diminishing returns I got for doing the same thing over and over again became more noticeable. However, I was happy that I was getting rewarded for my hard work.


    During our training sessions, Sallia eventually decided that we were fit to start sparring with each other. Even though Felix currently had a two rune advantage over Sallia and I, he was still surprisingly close to even with me in physical abilities, since his base physical Attributes were much lower than mine. I had started with grade 5 strength and grade 6 Agility, while Felix had started with grade 4 strength and grade 5 Agility, meaning that when it came to physical abilities we were evenly matched. This made me feel more than slightly surprised, and allowed me to realize I had been slightly discounting how useful physical stats were. Even though we could tack on 3 grades to our physical attributes in this world just by relying on runes, having a higher starting grade meant that we would surpass the normal physical abilities given to us by each rune. This could add up to a massive advantage long term, although it would take a lot of Achievement to make work.


    However, I could only properly fight Felix  when he didn¡¯t use his bone rune. Anytime he did, he ended up demolishing me on the training field. He was able to create weird and unpredictable trajectories and movements with his weapons that I had no way of defending against, because his sword could bend like a sentient noodle mid-swing before hitting me from a totally unexpected angle. He could also afford to burn far more mana than me during a sparring session, meaning that I got soundly trounced by Felix whenever he got serious in a fight.


    Sallia, by contrast, somehow managed to squeak out wins against Felix in some fights, despite having the same stats and mana pool as me..


    Even though Felix¡¯s bone manipulation added an entirely new dimension to sparring, one that I had a very hard time dealing with, Sallia¡¯s natural talent in close-range fighting allowed her to cope with Felix¡¯s weird attacks in a way I simply couldn¡¯t. She would dodge attacks that I couldn¡¯t see coming, and then use the gaps in Felix¡¯s movements to create counterattacks. She was also much more efficient in using her mana than Felix and I. Every time she needed to dodge, she would burn the perfect amount of mana to just dodge an attack, never wasting a single drop of energy. She used exactly the amount of mana she needed to force Felix into a corner when she attacked. Most importantly, she had a sense of rhythm that neither Felix nor I had, which allowed her to control the battlefield far more effectively than her Stats would indicate.


    She still lost against Felix more often than not, but it was pretty close to 50/50. Which was pretty insane, since Felix had double her rune count.


    Embarrassingly enough, this put me dead last in our group of three when it came to fighting with physical weapons, at least for now. I simply hoped that whenever I got my third rune I would start winning training spars more often, because my physical stats would soundly trump Felix¡¯s physical stats again, although I suspected with three runes Sallia would become queen of the sparring sessions until Felix formed his fifth or sixth rune. I couldn¡¯t help but feel like none of the combat styles or weapons here quite suited me, although I couldn¡¯t put my finger on what felt off about them. Since I had no way of resolving my doubts right now, I just threw myself into training as hard as I could, in order to prepare myself better for the future.


    Storm season came and went. Sallia and Felix continued to watch the storms, and eventually, their Stats both went up by 1 more point, pushing them into a new Grade.


    Sallia seemed incredibly thankful for this, and nearly cried tears of joy when her focus problems were partially fixed. She still had a hard time sitting still and focusing for long periods of time, but she no longer constantly fidgeted every few seconds. She also had a much easier time focusing during practice sessions. She and Felix also reported that they got an extra twenty Achievement for raising one of their Stats by a grade solely through their own hard work. It wasn¡¯t a huge boost, but it was better than nothing. I was a bit surprised it didn¡¯t result in them being offered a purchase option for a new ability, but since I didn¡¯t know the rules around new Abilities yet, I decided to just take it in stride and move on.


    Interestingly enough, once Sallia and Felix got an extra grade to their Willpower, watching the storms no longer benefitted them at all. Meanwhile, I still got tiny but noticeable improvements in my Willpower as time passed. Eventually, it reached +5 total, putting me at 135 total Willpower. It would probably take me a few years to build up to 140 Willpower, where I would stop benefitting from watching the storms.


    Finally, storm season passed again. Sallia turned six, and Felix and I turned seven. Sallia was ready for her first hunt. At least, that should have been the case, but much like the first renewal festival Felix and I had witnessed, something terrifying interrupted Sallia¡¯s adulthood ceremony right after the fishing boats set off for the first day of hunts. Something I hadn¡¯t expected at all, even though I really should have, given some of the hints I had already seen on the islands, and yet somehow caught me totally off guard.


    Less than three hours after Sallia set off for her first hunt, foreign sails appeared on the horizon.

 Chapter 26: What lies in the Deeps

    ¡°Say, Felix, are those boats on the horizon?¡± I asked, looking into the distance.


    ¡°Indeed, they are¡­¡± he said, before he trailed off, looking uneasy.


    ¡°Why are they so big? And so different from the boats we use here?¡± I asked, also squinting as I eyed the massive sails. I already felt that I knew the answer, but I was hoping Felix had a different answer for me. Some sort of plausible explanation that could convince me I wasn¡¯t seeing what I thought I was seeing, even though I already knew I was looking at boats from outside the islands.


    ¡°Those¡­ probably aren¡¯t from the islands.¡± said Felix, shattering my hopes as he tried his best to squint at the boats in the distance. ¡°I mean, my Perception is only grade four, so I might just be having a hard time seeing things clearly, but¡­ The island boats don¡¯t have sails on them, because we just make boats out of floatwood and fly everywhere. And our boats are way smaller, too. We have no reason to build such a large boat. Unless one of the other villages on the islands somehow developed massive sailboats for no reason, those boats should be from somewhere else entirely.¡± Felix shivered as he looked into the distance, and I felt a chill creep up my spine.


    Outside the Islands. I had known that there must be something outside of the islands. After all, the first time I met with Sallia and Felix one of them mentioned that our villages fled to the islands several generations ago, during a famine. Obviously, they must have fled from somewhere. However, knowing that there was a wider world beyond the islands and seeing it were two very different things. And at the same time, I felt a fear at the thought of outsiders coming to the islands. If they were technologically advanced enough to invent massive sailboats, while we had barely limped out of the stone age¡­


    This could be very bad. If the outsiders were hostile and more technologically advanced than us, it might spell the end of our time in this world - and the end of the village as well. I loved my parents and the other villagers. I didn¡¯t want them to all die because a group of outsiders invaded the islands and killed everyone. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down and think optimistically. Perhaps they weren¡¯t hostile, or perhaps we could work out some sort of agreement¡­


    Felix and I, who were waiting on the beach with many other villagers, continued to look in the distance. Meanwhile, the flying boats from our islands started to return, dropping off the kids they had been carrying so that they could investigate the new boats in peace. The other  villagers, who had heard about the strange sails, had also started to gather around the beaches. I even saw some hunters grouped up on the beach, preparing for the worst.


    Soon, Olav returned, along with Sallia and my father. After touching down on the sand, my father and Olav quickly helped Sallia out of the boat.


    ¡°Do you see them?¡± Asked my father, turning to me for a moment.


    ¡°I see them,¡± I said, looking at the slowly approaching sailboats. ¡°It¡¯s hard to miss at this point.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve seen a proper sailin¡¯ boat,¡± said Olav, frowning as he looked at the approaching boats. I turned to Olav in surprise, before I connected a bunch of information in my head.


    Olav spoke the islander language with an accent. Most islanders had blonde hair and blue eyes, and any deviation from this was very rare. However, Olav had brown hair and green eyes. His hair was starting to turn gray, but enough strands of brown remained that it was obvious he looked different than the rest of us.


    Was he also from outside the islands?


    I shook my head. I would ask Olav about this later, in private. I didn¡¯t want to push him on his past if he didn¡¯t want to talk about it, but if he knew anything useful about the outsiders, the village needed to know. It might be a matter of life and death otherwise.


    ¡°Thanks for watching out for my friend, Olav. I appreciate you flying Sallia back first,¡± I said, giving him the brightest smile I could manage and doing my best to put aside my speculations for now.


    ¡°No problem. Now, we should be off,¡± said my father. ¡°We need to get a closer look at the strange boats from beyond the horizon, so that we can confirm any suspicions we may have about their origin,¡± said my father. ¡°We¡¯ll see what we can confirm for the village chief. We might already know what we¡¯re looking at, but we need to make sure we know before we say anything,¡± My father said as he glanced at Olav. I realized that my father had made the same connections I had, or perhaps already knew that Olav was from beyond the islands and might know more. He just didn¡¯t want to confront Olav in public. Or perhaps Olav had already shared the story with my father, long ago? Either way, I wasn¡¯t the only one who had realized Olav was now a vital source of information.


    I nodded, feeling much more relaxed. The important thing was that the village know what was happening. If my father knew about Olav¡¯s past, or if Olav was willing to share information with everyone else, that would mean a lot more than if Sallia, Felix and I talked about technology disparity and the potential power of whatever group we were dealing with. After all, the three of us were just children right now, and didn¡¯t have much influence.


    The adults boarded the boat again and began flying back across the ocean.


    Tense minutes passed by, as the foreign boats continued to sail towards us.


    Finally, they got close enough that I could see them clearly. The boats weren¡¯t quite as magnificent as I had first thought. There were seven ships in total, but all of them were damaged. Four of them were barely afloat, with parts of the ships dragging through the water as if they would sink or collapse at any moment. I could see that one of the ships had a massive hole in its side, though it appeared that the undersides of the ships were ribbed and thus the boat hadn¡¯t sunk. The other boats were also in poor shape.


    Even the three boats that weren¡¯t dragging in the water had massive damage to the hull and mast of the ships. Not a single boat was totally free of damage.


    Flying boats from the island started to return to land again. The adults hopped off the boat, ignoring the kids entirely as they started speaking with the other adults of the village. I snuck a bit closer to some of the groups, moving around and eavesdropping to see if I could pick up any information before my father and Olav returned.


    ¡°-Can¡¯t figure it out at all! There are a bunch of people on the ship, and the ship is massive compared to ours! We didn¡¯t get close enough to talk to the people on the ship, but it¡¯s just so strange-¡±


    ¡°-Outside the village? I thought it was just endless ocean. Are these people messengers from the Ocean Mother? But they don¡¯t seem very connected to the water¡­¡±


    ¡°-Can¡¯t tell if this is good news or bad news. We just don¡¯t know enough-¡±


    ¡°-Village chief is getting on one of the other flying boats, so I can¡¯t tell you anything right now. For now, a lot of my fellow hunters are still guarding the forest, but if need be they¡¯ll come back and prepare to fight. For now, every fishing boat needs to take at least one hunter with them. Boats with more experienced fishermen can take two instead¡­¡±


    I picked up snatches of information here and there, but most of the other villagers seemed confused and worried. I did notice the village chief boarding one of the other fishing boats nearby, showing just how seriously he and the villagers took the foreign boats.


    Finally, my father and Olav returned for a second time.


    ¡°We¡¯re back,¡± said my father, alighting from the boat. He took a moment to ruffle my hair, before giving me a smile and a peck on the forehead. ¡°The Village Chief is being flown to the strange vessels right now, so you don¡¯t have to worry about anything. We¡¯re going to figure out what¡¯s going on, and the adults will make plans from there. There are lots and lots of people on each boat, though, so be careful. Olav and I will talk with the village chief later and we¡¯ll make plans from there.¡± When I heard my father emphasize Olav and I, I relaxed a bit. At the very least, the island would be guaranteed to have some useful information.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen those giant cloth things before,¡± I said, letting my nervousness bleed into my voice. ¡°It must have taken a lot of people to put together something so big, but there are only a few ships here. I wonder how big their village is?¡±


    Olav turned to me, and his face contained a mixture of amusement and concern. ¡°Bigger¡¯n you can probably imagine, Little Miria. They come from someth¡¯n called an empire. But I don¡¯t know if they still think the people livin¡¯ here are supposed to be subjects of the Megailia Theuku Uftokraturia¡­¡± Olav sighed, sounded worn out and stressed. ¡°We¡¯ll talk ¡®bout it with the village chief.¡±


    My father sighed, before giving Sallia and Felix a look. ¡°Take your friends back to our house for now, and listen to your mother after that. The village chief isn¡¯t going to talk to the outsiders until they land on our island, since they might take it as a provocation if we disembark directly on their ship. For now, that means we¡¯re just going to be observing the foreign ships. If something goes wrong, your mother will know what to do.¡± I nodded. My father relaxed a bit, and gave me a nervous grin. ¡°Don¡¯t worry: your father and the other villagers will keep you safe, no matter what.¡± After that, my father and Olav made a couple hand signals towards some hunters. The hunters gave their weapons one last check, before they followed my father. The adults hopped onto Olav¡¯s boat, and began flying back towards the foreign vessels.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°All right. Let¡¯s go,¡± I said, beckoning to Felix and Sallia. For now, there was nothing we could do about the situation, so staying safe seemed reasonable. We began walking back to my house.


    I felt nerves and anxiety thrum through my chest as I told my mother what was going on.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry sweetie. The Village chief and the hunters of the village will take care of things,¡± she said, sounding as if she almost believed her own words. Then she cooked a few small strips of fish meat, before handing it to the three of us.¡°Here. Share some with your friends.¡± My mother continuously bustled around the house, working off her nervous energy. Sometimes, she would grab strips of fish meat and make us another snack for no reason at all, sometimes she cleaned corners of the house for the third time in a row¡­ my mother seemed to cope with her nerves by doing utterly pointless housework. Meanwhile, all of us waited.


    Within an hour, Sallia¡¯s parents came to our house, chatting animatedly as they discussed the sails that were becoming larger by the minute. Felix¡¯s mother, who I expected to show up, never did. Sallia¡¯s parents mentioned that the woman had grabbed her old hunting gear and hopped on one of the flying boats, demanding to be taken along. As a former hunter, she was still able to be one of the village¡¯s primary fighters, even if she was seriously injured. She seemed to take this role of a backup fighter very seriously, now that the village was in a potential crisis.


    Sallia¡¯s parents shared my mother¡¯s nervous energy. They talked too loudly, but they glanced at the horizon, over and over again every few minutes. Eventually, Sallia¡¯s parents convinced my mother that we should at least be able to see what was happening. If a fight broke out, it would be best if we knew who initiated the fight, and more importantly, who was winning, so that they could take steps to keep the children safe, if the worst came to pass. Thus, the six of us ended up back on the beach, staring in the distance and watching the foreign sails creep closer.


    Together, all of us waited.


    * * *


    Finally, the daylight began to fade into sunset. Hours crept by as the foreign ships grew closer. I couldn¡¯t see any sign of the foreign ships fighting with our own, thankfully.


    Shortly afterwards, one of the foreign boats finally gave out. With a dying creak, the boat began to disintegrate, finally collapsing from all of the damage it had sustained. I could see the ships from the village circling around the sinking ship. I frowned, feeling my muscles tense as my runes began glowing. Were they fighting? Was the village about to prepare for a battle with a powerful and unknown foreign entity?


    It took me a few minutes of nervous squinting to realize what was happening. The flying boats from our island were working to grab the drowning men from the boat, and carry them away from the ocean. It looked like we were trying to help them. I relaxed, my runes disappearing as I stopped feeding my body mana. I still had no idea what had damaged all of the foreign ships so badly in the first place, and Olav¡¯s hint that the outsiders might have bad intentions towards us remained in my thoughts. However, at least for now we weren¡¯t about to start to fight.


    Just as I was relaxing, something else appeared on the ocean.


    A giant tentacle erupted from the deeps. It was¡­ wrong somehow. The geometry of the surface shifted as I looked at it, and my head started to hurt when I stared at it. It was almost exactly like looking at the Market ¨C the continuously blending and shifting geometry, the inky black surface of the tentacle, the sheer enormity of what I was looking at. It reminded me of the first time I had seen the Market, and been overwhelmed by the thought of what I was looking at.


    However, unlike the Market, when I saw the giant tentacle I felt something I hadn¡¯t felt for years.


    Terror. Sheer, overwhelming terror that I would die soon.


    The giant tentacle reached out of the water, and with a mighty crash, it fell back upon the surface of the ocean. With a crash akin to a god slamming a meteor upon the waves, the ocean churned. Water and chunks of wood alike were flung at their surroundings like flotsam in a tsunami. I even saw a few of the giant fish flying in midair, before they slammed into the water with dazed expressions and fled beneath the waves. The outsider boats fared even worse, and were tossed around like toy boats in a kid¡¯s bathtub.


    Another one of the outsider boats shattered into splinters after crashing back into the water. The waves crashed against each other as the water madly danced, heralding the arrival of a true creature of the deeps.


    I saw several spears and arrows shoot out from the ships in our village, along with a wave of magical projectiles. Several of them pierced the massive tentacle. although they were the size of toothpicks compared to the massive creature. I heard a mighty roar, one that caused my mind to go blank, and suddenly my awareness of the world around me disappeared. I suddenly realized that everything was so very wrong! Shapes were illusions! The reality that I saw, that I understood, was so limited compared to the truth! All that I knew, all that I understood was a tiny fragment of what was really there. If I simply threw away my pathetic, mortal eyes, and learned the true nature of things, I knew that I would be able to understand the underlying truth of space, reality, and the ocean. If I could simply grasp the nature of space that underlay everything, the secrets of the ocean would be as simple to learn as opening a textbook and taking a look¡­


    I snapped out my temporary state of ¡®realization,¡¯ and finally realized that I had been under the influence of some sort of mental attack. The creature¡¯s roar was like the Call of the Ocean, but magnified dozens of times. However, instead of lure me into the water where I would never return, the creature¡¯s roar made me see reality in a strange, twisted way. I suspected it was somehow tied to the way the creature saw the world, but I didn¡¯t understand a thing about what I had seen while in a daze.


    My thoughts were interrupted by an arc of golden energy flying out of one of the outsider¡¯s boats. It sliced away the tip of the giant tentacle, which fell back towards the ocean. Inky blood poured from the sky. The tentacle writhed in agony, and a much louder screech rattled the world.


    The shapes of the world start swirling like a kaleidoscope again. I was besieged by another wave of understanding - an awful understanding that tore at my thoughts and made it hard for me to think straight. When I regained my senses, I was curled on the sand in the fetal position, clasping my hands over my ears to shut out the awful sound.


    During my daze, the boats of the outsiders had been fleeing towards our island at top speed. The giant tentacle was still rampaging across the ocean like an angry giant, and was now accompanied by multiple other tentacles. However, the creature seemed afraid of our island. For whatever reason, it refused to directly reach into a bubble of space surrounding our village, meaning that we were mostly safe from its mad rampage. Those with water-related abilities were barely keeping the tsunamis and crashing waves from flooding the village, but they had the situation under control for now.


    Luckily, the creature didn¡¯t seem interested in sticking around, now that the outsiders were close to our island. Since it wasn¡¯t willing to encroach upon our home, the tentacles slapped the ocean a few more times, as if to vent its anger. Then, with a final madness-inducing bellow, the creature retreated back below the waves. With its departure, the world fell silent.


    Sallia and Felix were both still dazed, staring at the world around them with enraptured expressions, as if feasting upon the mad visions of twisted and incomplete geometries each sound made by the giant creature left behind. I snapped my fingers in front of their faces a few times, hoping they would recover. Felix snapped out of it barely ten seconds after I did, before shuddering a few times. Sallia¡­ didn¡¯t respond, but that was probably due to her low Willpower.


    ¡°What the fuck was that?¡± asked Felix, his facade of being an ordinary seven year old child disappearing completely. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like that. No wonder the people who respond to the Call of the Ocean never fucking return - if they run into that thing, even the village chief would die almost instantly. Asaira¡¯s tears, what the actual-¡± Felix cut himself off, before shuddering again.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It was¡­ so¡­¡± I was at a loss for words, groping with the reality of what I had just seen. The fish, which I had previously thought were practically mammoths in size, suddenly felt so small. The villagers and trees that we lived next to were like ants in comparison to the massive sea creature that had never bothered showing itself to the islanders before. The ocean that had always seemed weird and interesting suddenly felt as threatening as the forest.


    ¡°Are you all right?¡± I asked, as I took a deep breath. I looked at my friends for any further signs of madness. The first thing to do was see if my friends and family were okay. I could figure out the rest later.


    Sallia was still out of it, but it looked like she was starting to come back to her senses. Her swimming eyes were slowly starting to focus again, and she was no longer waving her arms around like a drunk chicken.


    ¡°I¡­ What?¡± Sallia shuddered, before sucking in a great gulp of air. ¡°I was¡­ I could see, but I couldn¡¯t understand. It was so¡­ I just¡­¡± She seemed dazed, before she pointed at her ears.


    ¡°Hello? I can¡¯t hear! What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Finally, I realized that there was blood coming out of Sallia¡¯s ears. The unearthly screeching sound had been incredibly loud, but my supernatural physique was able to cope with it. Sallia, however, had started with a Fortitude of Grade 3, and with two runes had only reached the physique of a normal human being, at Grade 5. It seemed like the loud sound had broken something inside of her ears.


    ¡°I got it,¡± said Felix before he turned around, probably going to find a healer. I moved closer to Sallia and hugged her while I looked back at the waves.


    Whatever that creature was, it had retreated for now. But I knew it was under the water¡¯s surface somewhere. Lurking.


    The ocean that I had spent my life near seemed dangerous like never before. The Forest was terrifying, but¡­ I was beset by the sudden realization that the deep ocean might not be any better.


    I turned back towards the foreign ships, who were now only a few minutes away from the village. I felt a different kind of nervousness start to rush across my spine. Right after the attack of the sea creature, we needed to deal with these strange people from outside the islands.


    As Felix returned with a healer and Sallia¡¯s eardrums were patched up by a healer, I stewed alone in my thoughts, watching as the ships of the outsiders finally reached our shores.

 Chapter 27: Megailia

    As the outsider boats reached our shores and our flying boats returned, I looked for Olav and my father. I hoped that they hadn¡¯t gotten injured during the fight with the sea creature, because I didn¡¯t want my father to get hurt, and Olav was both a vital source of information and a family friend. I also scanned the flying boats returning to the island, and quickly realized that the injuries and deaths of the islanders wasn¡¯t as bad as I had feared. Perhaps two flying boats had been lost, but most of the people on those boats hadn¡¯t been killed. The island had only lost two or three people, with another few permanent injuries and an assortment of less important injuries. Considering how massive the tentacle from the ocean had been, and how powerful the creature had seemed to be, two deaths and a few permanent injuries was definitely far better than it could have been.


    Finally, as I was tallying up losses to the village, I located my father right as the healer finished fixing Sallia¡¯s ears. I breathed a sigh of relief as I looked over my father and his colleagues, all a bit shaken up and bruised, but alive. The village chief was also making his way towards Olav. I turned to my friends and family, before I let out a breath of relief.


    Felix was safe. Sallia was safe. My mother and father were safe. Olav, Claus, and my father¡¯s other two colleagues were safe. Everyone I cared about had come out of this catastrophe alive and without any permanent injuries. My father and the other fishermen were still talking to each other, so I didn¡¯t intrude on their conversation, but I waved at my father, to let him know my mother and I were fine. The moment he saw me, he stopped talking mid-sentence before running towards me. Then, he pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.


    ¡°I¡¯ll talk with you and your mother later. I¡¯m glad that both of you are safe.¡± My father said. He set me down, before giving my mother a hug. Then, he warily eyed the ocean. ¡°Stay well away from the ocean for now. And the outsiders.¡± He paused again, eyeing the village chief, before looking back towards Olav. ¡°Actually, do you want to sit with me and listen? Olav has said that since it¡¯s no longer just a personal matter, he¡¯ll tell us everything he knows about the outsiders. It won¡¯t hurt to learn that information as soon as possible. The outsiders have requested that we give them some space to tend to their wounded and dead, which will likely take a few days. The village chief has decided to allow it. Meanwhile, we will be holding a village meeting tomorrow to talk about what we as a village will do now. Knowing more information in advance won¡¯t hurt.¡±


    ¡°Okay, dad,¡± I said. I was very interested in what Olav had to say about the outsiders. It could be a matter of life and death for the village, and even if I was a seven year old with little influence, I still wanted to know as much as I could about potential threats to the village. Sallia, Felix and I followed after my dad as he returned to the small group of people surrounding Olav. Once the village chief joined us, he nodded at Olav, who took the village chief¡¯s nod as an indication he should begin speaking.


    ¡°The outsiders¡¯re from somewhere called Megailia Theuku Uftokraturia, which is like a real big village. But the scale of Megailia¡¯s far larger¡¯n one of the villages we live in,¡± said Olav.


    ¡°How so?¡± Asked the village chief, frowning as he listened to Olav. ¡°How much bigger are we talking? Do they have villages with thousands of people living inside of it, or something?¡±


    ¡°Much bigger¡¯n that. Our village has maybe 700 people? 600-700, give or take a bit? Across all o¡¯ the villages of the islands, I¡¯d be surprised if there were more¡¯n 10,000 people or so. And that¡¯s a high estimate for our population, honestly. The capital city o¡¯ Megailia has ¡®bout 30,000 or 40,000 people in it. An¡¯ they¡¯ve got a fair number o¡¯ smaller villages¡¯n towns that answer to ¡®em too. They¡¯re probably ¡®round 150,000 or 170,000 people total.


    I frowned, doing some quick evaluations in my head. Despite the fact that the Empire of Megailia called itself an empire, a population of 150,000 people didn¡¯t make it sound like it was actually an empire. That kind of population felt like it fit a city state more. However, although it didn¡¯t sound like we were dealing with a genuine empire, the resources and military of a city-state were still more than enough to overwhelm the islands.


    I frowned, but my expression began to brighten up as I realized the situation may not be quite as dire as I thought. While our small village had no way of opposing the city-state ¡®empire¡¯ of Megailia, and even united we would still struggle in a fight against Megailia, geography was a huge factor on military strength. Based on how infrequently people showed up on these islands, it must be difficult to reach our islands from any nearby lands. In addition, if Megailia had any competing empires, it would be impossible for them to ship their army out to sea for an unknown number of weeks or months to deal with our islands. After all, the number of days their troops were traveling to or from our islands was equal to the number of days their troops were away from their country, leaving their country undefended. If my assumption was correct, and reaching our islands from the mainland was a long and arduous journey, our situation wasn¡¯t as dire as I had first thought.


    The village chief, however, was focused on something else. ¡°How can such a big village exist? And where do they live? We haven¡¯t seen any other islands in our surroundings, even if we fly far above the island, or if we fly in one direction for a few hours. As far as most of our fishermen have seen, our surroundings are just endless ocean.¡±


    Olav frowned, as if he was trying to figure out how to explain a city-state to the village chief.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve heard that in the islands ya have legends that you fled here from the mainland ¡®bout ten generations ago, right? And ya founded yer villages here after fleein¡¯ from a famine?¡±


    The village chief nodded. ¡°The stories I heard from my grandfather indicate something of the sort, yes. I¡¯ve never been entirely clear on the details, but it is said that we fled here from a famine long ago, and discovered a land of abundant fish meat. Since this was a clear indication of the Ocean Mother¡¯s favor, we settled down here, and developed our current lifestyle after a few years of experimentation and growth.¡±


    Olav nodded. ¡°Ah thought as much. I¡­¡± Olav stopped, his voice growing unexpectedly choked up for a moment. He took a deep breath, before he started again. ¡°Long ago, I didn¡¯t live here¡¯n the villages. I¡¯m sure a lot of ya already know I came from somewhere else. I used to be part of the Megailia Theuku Uftokraturia, or the empire of Megailia for short. It.. it was a good life at first, but¡­¡± Olav managed to choke down a sob. ¡°My wifen¡¯ ma daughter got sick. Then me mum¡¯ and da¡¯ got sick too, and I kept carin¡¯ for ¡®em. But they never got better, until¡­¡± Olav paused, shaking for a moment. ¡°After they¡­ they returned to the Ocean Mother¡¯s embrace, ah left. There was nothin¡¯ there for me anymore, so I got my fishin¡¯ boat and sailed west. I thought I¡¯d just keep sailin¡¯ until I returned to the Ocean Mother¡¯s embrace, and then I¡¯d see my beloved and my little girl again. But I managed to feed myself as I traveled, until I reached a point where the fish got much bigger. Then, I landed here right as my fishin¡¯ vessel started to break down. So ah thought it was a sign from the Ocean mother, and kept on livin¡¯ here¡­¡± Olav took a few more deep breaths, before he regained control of himself.


    ¡°Anyways, I know a bit ¡®bout the Empire of Megailia.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit bad for Olav. Losing one¡¯s entire family to a disease sounded horrible. The village chief gave Olav a few minutes to calm down before he continued questioning him. Finally, he began to speak.


    ¡°I¡¯ve also heard that when you first saw the ships, you wondered whether they still considered us to be part of their empire?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, long ago you were probably part o¡¯ Megailia too. Ya see, back when I lived in¡­ when I¡­¡± Olav¡¯s throat caught again for a moment, before he pushed forward again. ¡°In Megailia, a few hundred years ago, there was a famine. Nobody alive now was alive back then, but the storytellers say it was real bad. A lot of smaller families, and even some small villages packed up¡¯n left, tryin¡¯ to reach other countries or undiscovered lands to find new sources of food. The fact ya speak Megailian is a pretty good indicator that ya probably came from one o¡¯ those villages, even if yer accents are a bit hard to understand. An¡¯ there are a few regions of Megailia where people with blonde hair and blue eyes are really common. The outsiders¡¯ll probably also pick up on that, which means they might assume you¡¯re part o¡¯ the empire or someth¡¯n.¡±


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    I nodded, turning Olav¡¯s words over in my head. After hearing his description of Megailia¡¯s history, I was inclined to agree with him. If we weren¡¯t descendants of Megailia, it wouldn¡¯t really make sense that we spoke their language, even if we had an unusual accent while speaking it. The real question was what kind of attitude Megailia would have towards us now, if it became aware of our existence.


    If our island had no valuable resources, I was inclined to believe they just wouldn¡¯t care about us in the first place. After all, we were a geographically distant people that would be a huge pain to take control over, and an even bigger pain to keep control over. Stationing troops here and supplying them would be expensive because of how hard it would be to ship weapons and supplies to any garrison, and if they initiated a hostile takeover of the islands they would need to be constantly wary of an uprising here. Storm season could also turn their supply lines into a huge mess, and extracting resources from the islands also required enough manpower to fend off land beast attacks. That meant that any conquest of these islands would be painful and costly, and keeping the islands under control would be a constant expense. However, I also didn¡¯t know how valuable floatwood and pearls were to the Megailians. If those two resources were valuable enough, they might be willing to pay the price of conquering us. In other words, it came down to how aggressive they were, and how much they valued the resources of our island.


    In the best case scenario, perhaps they would simply trade for our resources instead. That was the best case scenario, and given our geographical advantages I hoped they wouldn¡¯t want to actually conquer us. However, if they felt we demanded too much in trading, or if they were a more aggressive country, trade might not be their first instinct.


    I sighed. I was more than a little worried about what the outsiders would do, and I could see the village chief working through the same questions in his head. His thoughts might not be quite as detailed as mine, because the concept of ¡®armies¡¯ and ¡®city states¡¯ were likely less familiar to him, but I could see he was still thinking deeply about what Olav had said. I decided to give him a little nudge, by asking Olav some questions that might point out more relevant information.


    ¡°How many hunters does such a big city state have? Such a big number of people must have a really amazing amount of hunters. Do they have anyone like the village chief, with 11 runes?¡± I asked, my tone bright with childlike curiosity. I saw Felix¡¯s eye twitch, before he coughed once, trying not to laugh at how childish I was acting. Sallia managed to keep a straighter face, but I could see the corners of her lips curving up awkwardly as she tried not to smile.


    Olav turned to me, and then grimly chuckled. ¡°Their ¡®hunters¡¯ are called soldiers, little Miria. As for their number¡­ they probably have a few thousand that have seven¡¯r more runes, and a few thousand that have four ta six runes that they can call upon in times of need? I doubt they could field more¡¯n 10,000 soldiers at most, and doin¡¯ so would be a last resort.¡±


    ¡°Would they send those hunters here for us to see? I¡¯ve never even heard of so many people with seven or more runes! That¡¯s amazing!¡± Olav paused, clearly thinking about my question, and the village chief broke out of his thoughts and paid very close attention to Olav¡¯s next words.


    ¡°I doubt they can send that many troops here. Last I knew, tensions with the Thivanians were heatin¡¯ up, and diplomacy with a lot of other neighbors was dodgy at best. But if the diplomatic situation¡¯s changed, that might change the number o¡¯ troops they can send here.¡± Olav trailed off, deep in thought. ¡°As for their most powerful people, when I left, the emperor o¡¯ Megailia had sixteen runes, and most people guessed he was out o¡¯ absorption essence and wouldn¡¯t advance any further. He also has an elite guard, made o¡¯ people with thirteen to fifteen runes, but those people are very rare. Those with 9 ta 12 runes are considered uncommon in Megailia, and thirteen ta fifteen is downright impressive. In Megailia the amount o¡¯ resources like fish cores is a lot lower compared to tha number o¡¯ people, so most people need ta advance by absorbin¡¯ mana from the air around them. It makes it much harder to advance, so the average strength o¡¯ their citizens is definitely lower than here¡¯n the islands.¡±


    The village chief¡¯s eyes widened, as he heard the numbers Olav was talking about. An emperor with sixteen runes must have sounded terrifying to the village chief, who took great pride in his eleven runes, and the idea of thousands of hunters was obviously horrifying to him. Even the idea that there were multiple people in Megailia who had 13-15 runes sounded horrifying, since nobody in the islands had ever reached that number of runes.


    ¡°What does someone with 13 to 15 runes do, Olav? I know after every three runes the abilities they give you change. What does 13-15 do?¡± asked Sallia, doing her best to follow my lead and ¡®guide¡¯ the discussion towards Megailia¡¯s military capabilities. I listened closely, because I was quite curious myself. Even if none of the three of us had any chance of forming even a tenth rune this life, learning more about the absorption magic system of this world might help us in the future, if we encountered a similar magic system in a future world.


    Olav chuckled. ¡°I have no idea. Those people guard the emperor, and they¡¯re very, very rare. I doubt either of us¡¯ll ever see someone with that number of runes, and we certainly won¡¯t ever see the emperor. He has more important things to do than visit little areas like ours. Thankfully,¡± said Olav.


    I breathed a sigh of relief. Evidently, the emperor wasn¡¯t the kind of leader who charged at the front of his troops. If a larger military force sailed into our islands headed by a sixteen-rune monster, the islands would be finished.


    After listening to all of this, the village chief frowned, before taking another look at the camp the outsiders had established. It was far enough away from the village that it would take several minutes of walking to reach them, even with our supernaturally enhanced physiques. However, it was still close enough that we could see them easily.


    ¡°Do you know how the¡­ Megailians will react to our village¡¯s existence? Will they be hostile towards us, or want to trade with us, or will they simply not care¡­?¡±


    Olav frowned. ¡°I reckon it¡¯s either trade or war. The pearls and floatwood on these islands are too valuable ta ignore completely, so they¡¯ll definitely want some o¡¯ both. I don¡¯t know what method they¡¯d be usin¡¯ to get ¡®em, though. If it¡¯s trade, ya might be able to get some metals or somethin¡¯ here in the islands, which could help ya along. But if it¡¯s war¡­¡± Olav shook his head. ¡°That¡¯d be real unfortunate. I can¡¯t say which one they¡¯d be wantin¡¯ though.¡±


    The village chief sighed. ¡°Thank you for sharing all of this information with us, Olav. I appreciate you talking about a subject that must have been painful for you, and I won¡¯t let this information go to waste.¡± The village chief thought for a moment, before turning to my father. ¡°Silas, do you know of any fishermen who can alert the other villages of what happened here? While many of them have probably seen the great tentacles from the creature of the deeps, and they should have noticed the foreign sails on our water, it¡¯s best to alert them to the information Olav has given us. In addition, I believe it¡¯s best for all of the villages to discuss what we should do as a group. If the Empire of Megailia decides to seize control of our villages, this may be an existential crisis we need to work together to solve. I believe it¡¯s best to invite the foreign chieftains to our village for a meeting tomorrow night, near sunset.¡±


    My father pondered for a moment, before he took a guilty look at me and my mother. ¡°I¡¯m willing to fly to a few of the villages and let them know, chief. I know a few other fishing boats would also be willing to do so.¡± Then, more quietly, he turned to my mother and I. ¡°Sorry, sweetie. Sorry, dear. But the village is in need right now.¡± I felt a bit nervous, as I thought of the giant tentacles that had erupted out of the water less than hour ago, and the possibility of my father running into them again. However, after a few moments, I realized the odds of him running into the creature again were low. The creature hadn¡¯t displayed any interest in the boats of the island, even as our ships rescued drowning sailors from the sinking boat - all of the creature¡¯s ire seemed directed at the outsiders. In that case, he should be fine. Hopefully.


    My mother did not share my thoughts.


    ¡°Dear, maybe it¡¯s best if you don¡¯t go. There can always be someone else to take news to the other islands. it doesn¡¯t have to be you¡­¡±


    My father sighed, before gently pulling my mother in for a kiss. He whispered something in her ear. I didn¡¯t know what he said, but my mother deflated with a sigh, and then nodded. ¡°Come back safe.¡±


    After a few final details were nailed down and my father notified a few other fishermen of the village¡¯s need, my father set out to request the other villages come for a meeting, as well as to carry news of the Empire of Megailia and the history of the islands. Tomorrow night, we would see how the other villages responded.

 Chapter 28: Meeting

    That night, I went to sleep anxious, wondering what the future of the village looked like. So much depended on the attitude the villagers and the outsiders had towards each other, and I had no idea where this was going. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep properly until well past my usual bedtime. I woke up groggy and exhausted, before I went to Arne¡¯s hut. He had the same nervous energy I did, and instead of working on making tools for the day, he paced around the hut, occasionally glancing at the horizon. Neither of us spoke much, and neither of us got anything done.


    Finally, it was time.


    The boats from the other villages arrived near sunset. I, along with many other members of the village who had heard about what was happening, waited on the beach as the other boats began to touch down on our island. I hadn¡¯t seen the leaders of the villages before, so I stood near the front of the crowd and tried to take a good look at the other village chiefs.


    The leaders from the other villages shared the same blonde hair and blue eyes that our village did. Almost every village leader had ten or eleven runes, although a few of the village leaders from the smallest villages only possessed nine runes. There was also one village leader who had twelve runes, making him the human being with the highest rune count I had ever seen. Each boat also had a small honor guard of people, most of whom had eight or nine runes. They had the same shifty nervousness that the hunters from our village had - as if they were continuously prepared to fight or flee at the drop of a hat. All of them had a strong tendency to squint and glare at people who spoke too loudly, a result of the time spent in the forests.


    It occurred to me that a huge portion of the fighting strength of the islands was now concentrated here. While those with between four and six runes were definitely able to help during a fight, those with seven to nine runes had far more mana and combat experience than those with low rune counts, since those with seven to nine runes were the hunters who spent most of their lives fighting land beasts. And the seventh rune and above also provided the Perception one needed to keep up with high speed fights, giving people a qualitative improvement in fighting ability. The fact that the other villages had sent their chiefs, backed by the strongest hunters, gave me a sense of relief; At the very least, the other villages were taking this seriously.


    The visitors from the other islands didn¡¯t speak to us very much. The leaders of each village simply gave the crowd of villagers polite nods, before asking the fishermen who had contacted them to lead the way.


    All of the villagers from our village, as well as the visitors from other villages, walked towards the open area we usually used for festivals. As they walked, the other chieftains occasionally gave the camp of the Outsiders a wary glance, eyeing it out of the corner of their eyes as though it were a ravenous land beast about to pounce on us. Finally, everyone gathered in the center of our village. The other village chiefs and their honor guards sat in a circle at the front of the group, and the miscellaneous villagers from our village sat a bit further away. Our village chief stood in the center of this sea of people, since our village was most directly related to this incident. For once, the incessant nervousness that troubled him when he stood in front of crowds had vanished. He looked calm, serious, and completely focused. Even though there was still a hint of a nervous tremor that held up some of his movements for a moment, it was hard to notice, and could have easily been attributed to nervousness over the general situation. I couldn¡¯t help but feel impressed. Even though the village chief was always shuffling and twitching when he was in front of a crowd, he was surprisingly serious and reliable right now.


    ¡°Before our visitors from other villages ask anything, I will begin by saying what our village has come across,¡± said the village chief, once the other village chiefs had time to sit down.


    ¡°The large boats were first sighted several hours away from our island. This occurred right after the renewal festival, when many of our fishing boats were taking along children for their first hunts. After questioning some of the fishermen who were flying the children out, I have determined that a fisherman by the name of Farson was the first to see the Outsiders, at least among those of my village. Afterwards, I questioned Olav, a foreigner who joined our village two decades ago, for further information. Through the assistance of fisherman Olav, I have gained as much information as I could about the Empire of Megailia. I will share my own thoughts near the end of the discussion. Do the other  village chiefs have any questions or concerns, or can we listen to Farson¡¯s recounting of the incident?¡±


    A few of the other village chiefs glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes, but nobody said anything. The village chief waited a few moments, before he turned to a man in the crowd I barely recognized.


    ¡°Farson, would you please recount what you saw for the rest of us?¡± said the village chief.


    ¡°Yes, village chief,¡± said Farson, giving the village chief a respectful nod. He cleared his throat, and increased his volume.


    ¡°When the other sailors and I were sailing, we saw a bunch of strange giant cloths in the distance. They looked kind of like fur clothes, but much bigger and smoother. They were attached to tall wooden poles for reasons I don¡¯t understand. After dropping off the child we had taken along, we flew over to the odd boats to observe them. We stayed far enough away that they wouldn¡¯t feel we were preparing to attack them, since we weren¡¯t sure what stance we should take towards the Outsiders.


    ¡°After observing for a while, we flew back to the island again to report everything to the village chief. We were instructed to take two hunters with us on our boat, just in case, and then we sailed back out to observe the foreign boats some more. After another period of observation, one of the foreign boats began to collapse.


    ¡°We started helping the foreign sailors fly back to land, since just leaving them to drown seemed wrong. Afterwards, something from the deeps came up and attacked us. We haven¡¯t figured out why, or identified what it was. One of the foreign ships used some kind of golden light to cut off the tip of the sea monster¡¯s tentacle. We don¡¯t know whether that golden arc was created with an individual ability, or with some kind of unique material similar to floatwood. However, it was very strong. Unlike our attacks, it did noticeable damage to the creature, and managed to cut off the tip of the creature¡¯s tentacle. Then, the foreign ships finished evacuating to our island, though some of them were smashed to pieces first. The creature from the deeps seems to have been afraid of our island, although I¡¯m not sure why. Regardless of the reason, it refused to get within a certain distance of our shores, and so once we got home it stopped attacking us. The Outsiders landed on our beach, before requesting a few days to deal with their wounded and dead. They are now on the east side of the island. That is everything I¡¯m aware of regarding this incident.¡±


    The village chief nodded and gave Farson a smile. ¡°Thank you for recounting your experiences, fisherman Farson. Do any of the other fishing boats have anything to add or any details they wish to dispute?¡±


    After a moment of silence, one of the hunters spoke up. ¡°The rune count of the outsiders is high. Some of the members of the ship had rune counts equivalent to mine. Luckily, they don¡¯t seem to have many people with ten or more runes. However, the average rune count of the Outsiders is abnormally high, compared to Olav¡¯s information about the average rune count of the Empire of Megailia. I do not know what this means.¡±


    After another few moments, one of the sailors from another boat spoke up.


    ¡°The Golden arc of light that severed one of the tentacles looked like it came from a piece of¡­ some sort of shiny gray rock each ship had installed near the front of it. Several of the foreign sailors placed their hands on it at once and began throwing mana into it before it activated. I suspect that this strange rock is a material similar to floatwood, which does ¡®something special¡¯ when enough mana is supplied. Which would mean it wasn¡¯t an individual ability. But I couldn¡¯t get a good look from my position, so don¡¯t take my words as the absolute truth. Since I don¡¯t have a seventh rune, so my vision is a bit weak and my ability to keep up with fast movement is lacking.¡±


    Shiny gray rock? Are they trying to describe metal? I wondered absently, as I watched the meeting. Olav had also briefly mentioned that if the outsiders decided to trade with us, they might be able to offer metal as a useful exchange. Shiny gray rock certainly sounded like metal, at least to me. However, it was also concerning that the average rune count of the Outsiders was higher than anticipated. If they had a strange material that allowed them to hurt giant sea monsters, as well as a sizeable number of people with 9 or more runes, did that mean this was a boat of soldiers? Curious to know what Olav made of this, I glanced at him, only to see his mouth tighten into a grimace. Clearly, this information was news to him, and he didn¡¯t like it.


    I glanced at Sallia and Felix, who were also deep in thought after hearing the hunter¡¯s description. The idea of a boat of foreign soldiers landing on our shores was completely different from a boat of merchants or something landing on our shores, and, like me, they also didn¡¯t know what to make of this information yet. While we thought and listened, the meeting continued on.


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    A few other sailors made comments about how the foreign boats didn¡¯t seem to be able to fly, as well as what kinds of wood they thought the boat¡¯s construction seemed to be made of. A few others recounted the strange clothes of the foreigners - apparently, many of them wore strange clothes that were shiny, and had a color similar to orange, but softer than the orange of the sunset. They had no idea what to make of these strange clothes, and so after it was noted a few times, people mostly moved on from that detail. There were also plenty of people who focused more on the giant sea creature, discussing the way its tentacle seemed to stretch towards the heavens, or how unfathomably powerful it had been. The village chiefs seemed to put equal weight on both matters, questioning people about further details and occasionally rubbing their chins in thought.


    Finally, once the factual recounting of the first encounter with the Outsiders and the sea creature was finished, it was Olav¡¯s turn. He stepped in front of the gathering, before he recounted the same things to the village chiefs as he had when he was just speaking to the other members of his boat and the village chief. He discussed the history of Megailia, his assumptions about the origin of the islanders, and his own story before he washed up on the shores of our village. Afterwards, he recounted his assumptions about the military strength of the home country of the Outsiders, as well as his belief that the Outsiders would be interested in the pearls and floatwood of our islands. However, he added in a final bit of information, now that he had heard the other fishermen and hunters speak up.


    ¡°I have two new things to add in to my previous explanation, now that I¡¯ve heard more about what¡¯s happening. First, I want to point out something. From my experience, the shiny gray rock that the Outsiders used to attack the sea monster is something called ¡®Astrellium,¡¯ a rare kind of metal the Empire of Megailia has access to. It allows a lot of people to pool their mana together, before launching one incredibly powerful attack.¡± Olav frowned. ¡°Most importantly, it isn¡¯t available for civilian use, because Astrellium is very rare and hard to come by. Only ships helmed by a leader with at least twelve runes are allowed to carry Astrellium weapons with them, and they are primarily used in sieges to blast down city walls. Combined with the descriptions other people have mentioned, I¡¯m sure that what you encountered was a group of soldiers. I don¡¯t know why they¡¯re in this area, but they¡¯re wearing something called ¡®bronze,¡¯ which is a little bit harder than the fish bones we make tools out of. The Empire of Megailia¡¯s more important troops are usually equipped with a set of bronze armor and a bronze weapon, making them hard to hurt during a fight. I haven¡¯t the faintest idea why a group of damaged boats carrying Astrellium weapons and high-level troops showed up on our island, but I wished to let the village chiefs know of the potential danger and power of the outsiders currently present.¡±


    Many of the village chiefs frowned, parsing over this information. Then, I saw the village chief with 12 runes stand up.


    ¡°May I ask how trustworthy you find fisherman Olav to be?¡± he asked, turning towards the village chief of my village as he spoke with a calm and steady tone. ¡°I do not mean to question your village, but this information could decide the life or death of the people of my village. Thus, I wish to hear your thoughts on this matter.¡±


    ¡°Fisherman Olav has been part of our village for about two decades. I have never known him to be someone who tells tall tales. He is good at looking after children, an excellent fisherman, and someone who is good at keeping his promises,¡± said my village chief. ¡°I believe he is telling the truth.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for your input,¡± said the village chief with twelve runes, before sitting back down and continuing to think.


    ¡°How can such a big village exist?¡± Asked one of the village chiefs with nine runes. ¡°The amount of food they would need¡­ I just can¡¯t picture it. How many fish do they hunt per day?¡±


    ¡°Outside of the islands, people have dealt with a lot of the weaker land beasts and taken parts of the forest for themselves,¡± said Olav. ¡°They began doing something called ¡®farming,¡¯ which is where you take a bunch of seeds from various kinds of food and then plant them into the ground. By watering them each day, and taking care of weeds and pests, you can start to consistently harvest food over and over again at the end of each year. It ultimately provides a great deal of food for the villagers of each area, although it¡¯s quite reliant upon having good types of soil available. The sand most of us live on here in the islands wouldn¡¯t be good enough, for example¡­¡±


    The village chiefs of the other villages began to go slightly off topic, questioning Olav about how the outside world worked. Olav also mentioned that, outside of our islands, fish were usually only two or three times the size of a grown man¡¯s head, which confused the village chiefs to no end. Things like farming and metal tools were also foreign to them, but they were able to grasp how the entire system worked after several minutes of questioning..


    Eventually, the village chiefs finished questioning Olav, allowing him to sit back down as the village chiefs discussed.


    ¡°First and foremost, do we have any confirmation that the Outsiders are guaranteed to be hostile towards us?¡± Asked one of the village chiefs with 10 runes.


    ¡°None, so far,¡± replied my own village chief. ¡°However, as I¡¯m sure you¡¯re aware I called this meeting for a reason. While the outsiders have not been confirmed to be hostile towards us yet, the possibility certainly exists. It would be foolish to completely ignore it until we can confirm their intentions. So I wish to at least discuss our contingency plans first, before discussing how we might confirm their intent. Having multiple plans to respond to future situations is the most prudent way to keep our people safe, after all.¡±


    ¡°I say the answer is obvious - we should attack them now and then kill them all,¡± said another village chief, this one with eleven runes. ¡°You all saw the giant tentacles which came out of the water yesterday. This is clearly a signal from the ocean mother herself. The creature did its best to ignore our boats, while doing its best to crush the outsiders,¡± He said. ¡°This means that the outsiders must be bad news for our islands. Since that is the case, we should strike them down while they are weak.¡±


    I stared at the village chief who had spoken up for a moment, trying my best not to say anything. I was doing my best to keep an open mind about the potential for gods to exist, since I had no clue whether they were real or not. But to attack the outsiders solely based on the ¡®judgment of the ocean mother¡¯ seemed dubious, especially since the creature hadn¡¯t shown any ¡®benevolence¡¯ towards us besides ignoring us. I seriously doubted that thing was a messenger of the Ocean Mother, if she existed.


    Luckily, the other village chiefs didn¡¯t seem particularly swayed by this religiously inclined argument.


    ¡°The way I see it, there are two questions here,¡± said one of the village chiefs with 10 runes. ¡°First, a question - what do we do if the Empire of Megailia, or at least the boats that washed up on our shores, initiates hostilities against us? Second question, should we attack them before they have the chance to regroup? What are the odds that the people who washed up on our shores takes news of us back to the Empire of Megailia, eventually leading to the destruction of our villages? Based on Olav¡¯s stories about the Empire of Megailia, we stand no chance if they bring their full military might upon our islands to subjugate us. Thus, if letting these boats leave our islands would subject us to a future attack from Megailia, it would be best to simply stifle the problem in its cradle by ensuring nobody leaves the islands alive.¡±


    I was surprised, hearing the village chief¡¯s second suggestion. To attack a group of people that hadn¡¯t shown any signs of hostility towards us yet, based on the possibility that they might bring future trouble to us, was shockingly brutal. However, I could also understand the rationale. If letting these outsiders go might result in the destruction of our islands in the future, it was logical to remove the threat before it bloomed, even if doing so was brutal. If one of the outsiders put my parents, or Sallia or Felix at risk of dying or tried to hurt them in any way, I wouldn¡¯t hesitate to kill them and protect the people I cared about. Killing the outsiders before they exposed our existence was definitely a few steps further than that, but it still made a certain kind of sense.


    Many of the other village chiefs frowned, thinking over the man¡¯s statements, before a female village chief spoke up. ¡°I will say two things. First, if the Outsiders attack any of the villages in the islands, I am willing to step up with my village and support them. If the Outsiders are truly hostile, I believe that we must stand united. Many of our villages have traded with each other for generations, and all of us have a certain amount of trust for each other. While distance makes it hard, I¡¯ve always believed that if I needed help dealing with a land beast or if a problem occurred, the other villages of our islands wouldn¡¯t hesitate to send aid, and I¡¯ve never hesitated to help the other villages in the islands as well, if they encountered a crisis and my village was able to assist them.¡± I saw a few of the other village chiefs nod in agreement. I was relieved to know that most people agreed with the female village chief¡¯s sentiment. At the very least, if a war broke out, it seemed like everyone was more than willing to work together.


    ¡°However, I¡¯m also not willing to just attack a group of people with no provocation, especially if I haven¡¯t met them myself to assess their personality and how they¡¯re likely to act in the future. The Outsiders may be weakened right now, but they are still strong enough to kill many of us, even if all of the islands work together to purge the outsiders and prevent them from leaving the islands. Losing a bunch of hunters in a painful and dangerous confrontation with the Outsiders would place my village in a more dangerous situation, since we would have less protection against Land Beasts in the future. I know many other villages are in the same situation.  I will not risk the lives of the hunters of my village, unless I confirm that the Outsiders will become a threat in the future.¡±


    I saw a few of the other village chiefs nod at her second statement. I also wasn¡¯t sure what the correct solution here was, so I simply watched. In any case, I was seven years old - it wasn¡¯t like they were about to ask me for my opinion on the matter. I was just here to make sure I knew what the village was planning. The village chiefs continued talking, but most of them seemed to share the opinion of the female village chief who had spoken up. Everyone was more or less willing to work together if it came to a fight, but they wished to make sure a fight was actually needed before they initiated any hostilities with the outsiders. Even our own village chief didn¡¯t dispute the need to further assess the attitude of the outsiders, since we truly had no idea how the empire of Megailia would react to our existence.


    Thus, it was decided that in two days, after the Outsiders had time to finish burying their dead and were in the proper mood to talk and negotiate, the village chiefs and their honor guards would visit the Outsider camp and have a talk with them. Until that time, the Village Chiefs would be guests of our village, and would be given appropriate food and lodgings until then.

 Chapter 29: Pratian

    Pratian, leader of the fourth Megailian war party, frowned as he looked over his battle-weary and injured troops. Then, with a sigh, he turned to look back at the island he and his troops had found themselves on. The islands here were lush, filled with a bursting kind of vitality that was hard to come across when back on the mainland. At least, that was the kind way to put it.


    A more accurate statement was that the people of these islands had yet to successfully clear out even the smallest fringe of the forests, giving this place a wild and untamed danger that people of the mainland were safe from. The edge of the forest was far closer than he was comfortable with, especially since his troops were still weakened.


    ¡°How many have we lost in the past two weeks?¡± He asked his assistant, giving his seriously damaged ships another glance.


    ¡°We¡¯ve lost almost two-thirds of our army, in total,¡± said his assistant, a beefy man with eleven runes. As his assistant, the man wore a full set of bronze armor, and carried a spanthu - a half sword, on his left side. A sword that showed servitude, and also showed his position as second in command of the army. ¡°The losses wouldn¡¯t have been that bad if we had been allowed to retreat in a more timely fashion. Or if that accursed horror of the deeps hadn¡¯t attacked us. Out of the thousand warriors we set out with, less than four hundred remain.¡±


    Pratian sighed again. ¡°So many dead?¡± He had known the damage to his troops were severe, but he had been hoping he was mistaken. After all, while his army was far from the most elite group, it was still a well equipped army that he had spent years training with. To hear so many of his men had died made his stomach churn, both with anxiety and with a sense of loss. His anxiety was not for the dead, though - the Ocean Mother would take care of their souls. What he worried for was those who remained.


    ¡°What do you think the odds are, if we return home?¡±


    His assistant lowered his head, and his voice dropped to a near-whisper. ¡°They aren¡¯t good. We failed to conquer the Lacanarians, and were eventually driven away from the battle due to the storms and the heavy losses we suffered during the opening stages of the battle. If the king¡¯s father were still around, he would have been willing to accept our losses and helped our war party recover from its losses. However, the new king is both glory-hungry and paranoid. With him upon the throne¡­¡± his assistant left his words unfinished, but Pratian still warily eyed his surroundings. Luckily, none of the other troops were near enough to have heard his assistant¡¯s treasonous words.


    ¡°Do not speak of the king that way. It is dangerous,¡± said Pratian, putting as much sternness into his tone as he could. Then, much more warily, he eyed his surrounding troops. ¡°You never know who might be watching these days.¡±


    His assistant¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Would he even put informants in the army of a commander such as yourself?¡±


    ¡°Please keep your speculation to yourself,¡± said Pratian, knowing full well in his heart that the answer was yes. The new king had ruled for four years now, and yet he remained an insecure child, always eyeing anyone else in the kingdom who had a high enough rune count to threaten his position. Unfortunately, the king¡¯s delusions grew by the month, and now they even extended towards commanders such as Pratian. The fact that Pratian only had twelve runes, and was well below the threshold required to take the throne, did not seem to dissuade the king¡¯s suspicions in the slightest.


    ¡°My apologies, sir,¡± said his assistant. Then, his assistant¡¯s volume picked up again, as he glanced at the nearby troops. ¡°Still, the fight with the Lacanarians was a mad one from the very beginning. We have no way to win this war. The new king was¡­ misguided, when he ordered us to attack them. And if we return home as is, our families will likely be executed for our failure. Or perhaps our troops will be ordered to begin a decimation, as the ultimate form of punishment. If one in ten of our remaining troops is executed, I do not know if the morale of those remaining will ever recover.¡±


    Pratian sighed. He agreed with his assistant¡¯s words, for all that they sounded treasonous. The new king had none of the wisdom of the old king. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the Lacanarians, with their so called ¡®democracy,¡¯ had the same problems with their rulers that the once-glorious kingdom of Megailia did.


    When the current king had proven his extraordinary talent in absorption essence manipulation, he had been one of the hundreds of retainers who had applauded the previous king for finding a worthy successor. The king¡¯s newly adopted heir had been from a less prominent family than was customary, but the boy¡¯s incredible rune count promised to surpass even that of the previous king, with enough time. Pratian had thought Megailia would enter a new golden age once the previous king retired and the new king sat upon the throne.


    Now, his hopes seemed like a cruel joke. The new king was extraordinarily powerful, and his absorption essence was unmatched. However, that was the only merit the new king possessed. His grasp of economics and diplomacy were shallow at best, and the new king seemed very aware of his shortcomings. Rather than work to correct them, he instead grew increasingly insecure, lashing out at anyone he perceived to be better than him at managing the country. Anyone who tried to advise him or teach him was strictly punished. Meanwhile, seeking a way to regain his falling prestige, the new king had launched a war against the Lacanarians, one of Megailia¡¯s longtime rivals. However, the war was going poorly, and whispers of the king¡¯s incompetence were growing by the day. Pratian couldn¡¯t help but wonder, not for the first time, whether the Lacanarians were on to something when they claimed the ruler should be the wisest person in the country, rather than the strongest one.


    Either way, it didn¡¯t matter to Pratian and his men right now. Currently, they were caught in a position that practically guaranteed a horrible punishment upon their return. And since their families lived in Megailia, they had no way to run from this punishment, unless they completely abandoned their country of birth and the people waiting for them at home and pretended to have simply vanished into the sea.


    Pratian sighed, before turning to the village on the island again.


    ¡°Is there any way we can avoid the king¡¯s punishment? As it currently stands, we may be punished for desertion, or punished for failure in battle, or any number of things. I do not think the king will show mercy, since he needs this war to succeed.¡±


    His assistant paused, thinking back on the past few weeks, before shaking his head. He had a numb expression, as if he were already imagining what awaited them back home.


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    ¡°Unless we can produce a miracle, we can¡¯t escape punishment.¡±


    Pratian tapped a finger against his chin, falling deep into thought. There must be some way to make this right. He couldn¡¯t let his troops suffer from the king¡¯s failures. He wanted to do anything in his power to protect those who remained. However, as long as their army returned to Megailia in its current state, there was no way the army would escape unscathed. However, as he was thinking, his eye inadvertently crossed the village of this island. It was near their encampment, close enough that even someone without a seventh rune would be able to see the village with ease. He gritted his teeth, before turning back to his assistant.


    ¡°What do you think of these islands?¡±


    His assistant seemed to catch on to his train of thought, and turned towards the village as well. He tapped his finger against his chin, before frowning.


    ¡°If I were to speak of the islands themselves¡­ they are quite rich. The sheer quantity of pearls we have seen since arriving here indicate that it would be quite easy to harvest wealth from this area. And whatever wood they use to make their boats float may create an entirely new kind of navy, if it can be used in great quantities when making our boats. I cannot help but think that large swarms of flying boats armed with astrellium weapons would be incredibly difficult for even the Lacanarian navy to deal with. However, as for the people living here¡­¡±


    His assistant made a barely-audible snort. Perhaps it was pure schadenfreude that motivated his assistant¡¯s words, or perhaps he wished to ponder someone else¡¯s misfortune instead of thinking about what awaited them at home. However, when he spoke, it was with an audible sneer.


    ¡°They use bone weapons and don¡¯t have a single person with more than 12 runes. They speak our tongue, which means they might have been civilized at some point in the past. However, this only makes me feel more disappointed. How could even distant relatives of our country be reduced to this? They don¡¯t farm, or use metal tools at all. They are¡­¡± His assistant seemed to struggle to find words for his thoughts, but his assistant¡¯s facial expression still told him everything he needed to know. His assistant had a very unfavorable view of the residents of this island. The military strength of these people was greatly lacking, and they sat on a veritable gold mine of pearls and floatwood.


    ¡°Do you think bringing word of these islands back to the king, or conquering them, may allow us to escape punishment?¡± Pratian wasn¡¯t sure if this would work, but he saw no other way to keep his war party intact through the next few months. The troops may suffer some additional damage fighting the villagers, but it was far better to take losses in a glorious conquest than to a shameful execution at home. With some luck, he would be able to bring rich rewards back to the families of the troops who had died during the war, and with a few years of recuperation he might be able to turn the fourth Megalian war party back into a serious power in Megailian politics.


    His assistant fell into thought. ¡°Perhaps? If we simply bring back word of the islands, the king not believe our claims about this island¡¯s existence, or the abundance of pearls that lie on the beach like trash here. Trying to convince him about the existence of flying boats would likely be even more difficult, but without both resources I do not think the king would care about this island enough to look for it again. And if the king isn¡¯t interested in this news, it will not influence our punishment in any meaningful way.¡± His assistant paused, glancing at the village again. ¡°It would be best to bring back an actual object of study, so that the king would be able to see the proof of our claims. If we could bring back a few of the boats from the islanders, we may be able to escape punishment. If we could conquer the islands in advance, we would almost certainly be able to completely escape punishment. The strange wooden boats the islanders use might even give us a decisive edge over the Lacanarians, which would more than make up for our failure in battle. Of course, we would need to actually win a battle against the islanders if we wished to conquer them. Perhaps it is possible to trade for one of their flying boats? If we can offer them something else, such as metal weapons, in exchange for a flying boat, we could bring it back to the king. With such an obvious example of the resources of this island, it would be much easier to arouse his interest, and that should also allow us to escape our punishment. Conquering them would be better, but riskier if we don¡¯t have the backup of some of the other war parties.¡±


    Pratian nodded at his assistant¡¯s words. They mirrored his own thoughts. ¡°The islanders should be weak, and we need something to stave off punishment. It is unfortunate, since the islanders haven¡¯t shown any hostility towards us, but¡­¡± Pratian felt a trace of guilt worm its way into his heart as he thought of attacking the islanders. Just a day ago, the islanders had helped rescue some of his troops when they had fallen into the ocean, during the attack of the accursed monstrosity of the ocean. He would be betraying that kindness if he were to launch an attack on them, but he was already in a terrible position. Since he was desperate, even the vilest of acts became far easier to contemplate. If the previous king were still in power, he had no doubt that it wouldn¡¯t have come to this. The previous king had been intelligent enough to realize the benefits of trading instead of conquering, and would have been delighted to take the pearls of this island in exchange for metal tools. If he were still alive, Pratian would have been able to properly repay the islanders for the help that they had shown him, instead of returning kindness with treachery.


    However, the current king had a very poor grasp of economics, and preferred conquest. He would have been willing to try trading for a flying boat, as his assistant suggested, if the previous king were still in charge. But with the current king, he suspected that simply bringing word of these islands back home wouldn¡¯t be enough. He needed a military victory if he wished to keep his army safe from a decimation punishment, and his troops had no way to acquire a victory against the Lacanarians. Since they couldn¡¯t win against the Lacanarians, they could only search for other targets or accept their punishment.


    In another life, I hope that I am able to repay you for the help you extended to me, thought Pratian, grimacing. Then, he turned to his assistant. ¡°Prepare the troops for a potential attack on the village of this island, starting in a few days. By that time, most of the injured should have recovered. After that, we will offer the villagers an ultimatum. They must either tribute a few flying boats and a few barrels of pearls to us, and swear fealty to Megailia, or we will attack.¡± He frowned, gritting his teeth as he choked out orders that plagued him with guilt. But guilt wouldn¡¯t save the men under his command. ¡°Due to their primitive weaponry and weakness, winning a battle against them shouldn¡¯t be difficult. We have almost four hundred soldiers, and even if some of the men will still be weakened, the village here can¡¯t have more than seven hundred people in it at most. Many of those will be children too young to fight or elders too old to hold weapons. While we may lose a few troops, it must be done for the sake of our own futures. We don¡¯t need to provoke the other villages in this area for now. Should we succeed, we will have a great enough success behind us that we will be safe from the king¡¯s rage.¡±


    Pratian sighed, feeling another flash of guilt well up in his stomach. However, the paranoid and foolish - no, the current king, was unreasonable and looked poorly upon failure, regardless of the reasons behind it. If he didn¡¯t find something to bring back to Megailia, his men and their families would be the ones to suffer instead. And when he placed the lives of a bunch of strangers against the lives of his family and his troops, he would prioritize those he cared about every time.

 Chapter 30: Conflict

    The next two days were a flurry of activity, as the villagers prepared for the chieftains to meet with the outsiders. In that time, people engaged in all sorts of odd activities. Some ordered weapons from Master Arne or one of the other workshops, causing us to become incredibly busy. Master Arne and I churned out large numbers of bone weapons in the two days before the outsider meeting. I also took the chance to make a few personalized weapons for Felix, Sallia and I, since a lot of the adult weapons were too big for us to use comfortably. I also specially made three one-handed swords, just in case.


    Instead of ordering weapons, some villagers requested to temporarily move to other islands, especially those who had children that hadn¡¯t passed their first adulthood ceremony. Most people, however, opted to stick around. In the worst case scenario, they could help defend the village against the outsiders and participate in the fight, and if things turned really bad, most people felt that they could always hitch a ride on one of the flying boats later.


    Among the people remaining on the island, everyone began to debate what the outcome of the meeting would be, while offering prayers to the Ocean Mother in hopes that the meeting would go well. Nobody seemed to quite agree on what a good outcome was, however. Some people hoped that the village chiefs would see the ¡®true faces¡¯ of the Outsiders and attack them, removing any potential threats to the village and ensuring that our existence remained unknown to the Megailian empire. Some others hoped that the Outsiders would turn out to be nice, and that they would start trading with us. If Olav¡¯s words about the outside world were accurate, our pearls and floatwood should be valuable resources, so many people thought that we would be able to trade them for lots of useful things. People like Master Arne were especially interested in Olav¡¯s description of bronze, since we had no metal deposits on this island. Being able to make tools and weapons out of bronze would allow Master Arne to experiment with a completely different kind of material, and might even allow the hunters of the village to hunt more safely and efficiency than ever before. Since Land Beasts were a huge threat to the village, many of the hunters were just as interested in bronze as Master Arne was, leading to a big clash in opinions between those who wanted to fight and those who wanted to trade.


    On the day of the meeting, the village chiefs left the village surrounded by villagers, who surrounded the village chiefs and their honor guards in a big crowd as they departed. The group was abuzz with curiosity and barely contained anxiety, and as I sat in the group with my parents, I couldn¡¯t help but share the worry of the other villagers. If we could open up trade with the outside world, the villages might finally hop out of the stone age and enter the bronze age. However, if a fight erupted, it would be catastrophic for our village.


    After the village chiefs left, Sallia, Felix and I returned to my house, along with the rest of our families. Since the three of us played together frequently, our families had become increasingly familiar with each other, so all of us decided to wait out the meeting together. Felix and I were especially nervous - while my memories of my previous life were hazy, I seemed to recall that a technologically advanced neighbor making contact with a group of weaker natives usually ended pretty badly for the natives. Felix seconded this opinion, claiming that on his world, the nations which had begun the gunpowder era had rapidly begun conquering other nations, taking over territories left and right to extract resources and expand their nation. Ostensibly, the goal of each takeover on his previous world was to purge the Mages within a given territory and liberate the villagers. This was usually welcomed by most populations, since the Mages of Felix¡¯s world were almost universally reviled. However, after ¡®liberating¡¯ various nations of their Mages, the powerful gunpowder-wielding nations of Felix¡¯s previous world tended to stick around and place themselves in charge of the area. He admitted that he had never thought much about it before, but now that we were the technologically inferior natives, how the outsiders thought of us was quickly becoming a question of life or death for our islands.


    An hour after the village chiefs departed, the three of us finally confirmed how the meeting with the outsiders had gone. This wasn¡¯t because the village chiefs had returned, or because one of their honor guards had informed the villagers of the ongoing negotiations. Instead, a huge arc of light suddenly shot through the treetops, chopping down several of the larger trees in the forest. It was extremely similar to the gold arc of light that had cut off one of the ocean monster¡¯s tentacles, and I knew the moment I saw it that an Astrellium weapon had been used. There was no reason for an Astrellium weapon to be activated if the negotiations were going well. My heart sank.


    ¡°Something went wrong,¡± said Felix¡¯s mother, the moment she saw the golden arc of light. She immediately gestured for everyone to get up, and the mobile half of her face contorted into a grimace. ¡°Come with me. Let¡¯s follow the beaches for now, and head away from the outsider¡¯s camp. If they launch another Astrellium weapon and point it at the village, it¡¯s best if we don¡¯t get caught up in the attack.¡± After that, Felix¡¯s mother quickly grabbed a few weapons, before tossing a spear at my father a pair of spears towards Sallia¡¯s parents. ¡°It¡¯s not ideal, but we might be able to at least slow a landbeast down long enough to run away if we have weapons, and we can also put up a fight if we get unlucky and run into any outsiders. Actually, do any of you know how to shoot?¡± Asked Felix¡¯s mother, gesturing towards one of the bows laying on the ground.


    My parents and Sallia¡¯s parents shook their head. ¡°We only know a bit about using spears.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate, but we¡¯ll make do,¡± said Felix¡¯s mother, slinging a bow and a quiver of arrows over her own shoulder and then grabbing a spear. In the meantime, Sallia, Felix and I got the swords I had prepared ready, and also grabbed three smaller bows and sets of arrows. Felix¡¯s mother turned to the three of us, before frowning. ¡°Do the two of you even know how to fight?¡± She asked, turning to Sallia and I. The half of her face that wasn¡¯t paralyzed was locked into a stern frown, as she examined our postures and our weapons. ¡°I know my son has been training under a hunter and that the three of you spend a great deal of time together. However, weapons aren¡¯t toys, and if you haven¡¯t learned how to use them properly, you might hurt yourself before accomplishing anything with them.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve been learning from Felix, ma¡¯am. Even though we aren¡¯t directly training under a hunter, we still spar with Felix occasionally. We originally thought that it would be good training for when we hunt a landbeast when we turn sixteen. We¡¯re using our skills much earlier than expected, and we aren¡¯t as strong as an adult, obviously, but we can at least defend ourselves,¡± I said.


    Felix¡¯s mother¡¯s frown lessened by a lot, and she even gave me an approving nod. ¡°Good thinking. If you know what you¡¯re doing, bring the weapons along. Though it would be best if you don¡¯t need to use them, it never hurts to be more prepared. Let¡¯s go.¡± She led our group out of my house.


    After stepping out of the house, I quickly realized that I wasn¡¯t the only one who had realized something had gone wrong. Many of the villagers were running around like headless flies, picking up weapons, organizing a messy defense, and looking for hunters to save them from the approaching danger. The villagers hadn¡¯t really expected chaos to break out today, so everyone was scrambling to get into place and figure out the best course of action. A few of the villagers latched on to the sight of Felix¡¯s mother and us moving out of my house, fully armed and moving with obvious purpose. A few of the ones who knew Felix¡¯s mother better quickly moved closer to her.


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    ¡°Vanessa, where are you going? Do you know what¡¯s happening?¡± Asked one of the villagers, an older man with five runes.


    ¡°That golden ray of light looks like it was an Astrellium weapon being activated,¡± said Felix¡¯s mother. ¡°I figure they might toss another attack towards the village if things go really wrong, so we¡¯re heading out of the village a ways to stay safe. Do you want to come along? Bring your wife and your daughter, too.¡±


    Hearing this, a few other nearby villagers perked up, and gave the ruined trees in the distance another glance. Then, several of them quickly walked up to Felix¡¯s mother and asked if they could also join her. Since she was a retired hunter, she was much stronger than most average villagers. I assumed that was why so many people wanted to tag along - if we ran into outsiders or land beasts, Felix¡¯s mother could offer some level of protection against them.


    In short order, we had about twenty villagers gathered, instead of our previous eight people. After that, our group headed out of the village, before we started putting some distance between us and our houses.


    All of us kept a close eye on the forest as we traveled, wary of land beasts attacking us while we moved away from the conflict. We did see a few land beasts hovering uncomfortably close to the edge of the forest. Luckily, none of them seemed interested in us right now. It was obvious that the damage to the trees had alerted many land beasts that something was happening, but most of them were trying to protect themselves from stronger land beasts or were attracted to the noise I assumed the fight was generating. Thus, nothing came out to attack us.


    After travelling perhaps ten minutes away from the village, Felix¡¯s mother breathed a sigh of relief.


    ¡°We should be safe enough here. If the Outsiders lose the fight, they should either be completely annihilated or driven into the forest or ocean, where that creature or land beasts should eat them. And if they win, they won¡¯t have time to chase after our group before the other villages reinforce us. So we should be safe either way,¡± said Felix¡¯s mother, absentmindedly adjusting her hold on her spear. I looked around, noticing our relatively empty surroundings, before I nodded in agreement. At least from the outsiders, we should probably be safe here.


    Our group of twenty waited in silence for several minutes. My parents, Sallia¡¯s Parents, Vanessa, and the three of us held the majority of weapons in the group, since I had specially prepared some weapons for us, but we weren¡¯t the only family with weapons laying around. There was also a man with six runes in the group who held a spear with extreme familiarity, and a few adults with five runes carrying either spears or bows. Although almost a third of the group was children, we at least had the ability to defend ourselves.


    As minutes ticked by, I strained my ears to see if I could make out anything in the distance. A few other people, including Sallia and Felix¡¯s mother, shared my wariness towards our surroundings. They scanned our area periodically, occasionally tightening their grip on their weapons as they shuffled their feet and prepared for a fight that may or may not come. I was suddenly struck by how similar the two of them looked. Although Sallia was much younger and weaker than Felix¡¯s mother, and had less practical battle experience, something about her posture was extremely similar to Felix¡¯s mother. Both of them looked like battle-scarred veterans, preparing for a final charge into enemy lines, or a final defense against the enemy.


    After perhaps twenty minutes, I saw Sallia and Felix¡¯s mother both suddenly turn to look at a single spot in the distance.


    My heart sank. After the landbeast had crashed the adulthood ceremony last year, I knew what it meant when people with high Perception all zeroed in on a spot in the distance. My stomach sank, and I whipped out my bow and prepared an arrow.


    ¡°Of all the rotten luck¡­¡± Felix¡¯s mother cursed, also swapping out her spear for a bow as Sallia and Felix followed suit. Even though we weren¡¯t great shots, we could at least sometimes hit our target, and an extra wave of attacks might make the difference between life and death here.


    Nearly twenty seconds later, I heard what Sallia and Felix¡¯s mother could hear. It was a confused mess of sounds - some clanging sounds, heavy breathing, and rustling all mixed together as one.


    Felix¡¯s mother turned to our group of villagers. ¡°Those who are proficient in combat, prepare to fight with me. We must protect the children,¡± she said, before taking a few steps forward.


    Soon, a chaotic group charged out of the forest, and I finally figured out what was happening.


    At the front of the group was a cluster of outsiders. There were perhaps fifteen of them, and all of them were running for their lives. They were wearing metal armor, which was why they produced such an odd sound as they ran. It was hard to see how many runes they had, since their skin was covered by metal, but the ones with more damaged armor seemed to have five or six runes each.


    Chasing after them were three land beasts. One of the land beasts was shaped like a massive spider, and looked like it had already succumbed to the Call of the Ocean. Its eight legs whirled with rhythmic thudding sounds as it charged towards the water, completely uninterested in those around it. It was the least threatening land beast, since it wasn¡¯t charging directly towards us and would completely miss the group. The other two land beasts looked like a pair of massive wolves, but were made entirely of mist. Their bodies occasionally wobbled and subtly changed shapes, as if they could reform themselves at will. I had no idea what they were, but their presence made me very nervous.


    Chasing after the land beasts and the outsiders was one of the other village chiefs, a woman with eleven runes. With her were twelve members of her honor guard, men and women with eight or nine runes each. They were chasing after the outsiders with a determined look on their faces, as if they wouldn¡¯t rest until the outsiders were dead.


    My heart sank as I saw the chaotic group of warriors chasing after each other. While Felix¡¯s mother had led us away from the village in hopes of getting us out of the conflict, it was evident her plan had failed. Even though we had left the village behind, we were still about to be embroiled in the fight between the village chiefs and the outsiders.


    I turned towards an outsider at the front of the group, who had the least protected face, and glanced at Sallia and Felix. They also had bitter expressions on their faces, as they realized we were in for a fight, but they were also taking aim with their bows.


    Right before I shot my first arrow, I heard a sudden sound in the distance.


    From the direction of the village, I heard an incredibly jarring yell blasting through the area at top volume. The sound was enhanced far beyond any amount of clamor the village usually made, however. Once I heard it, I knew it was a rune enhanced sound. Why would anyone make loud sounds near the village? The terrible feeling in my gut grew increasingly intense. The person yelling had an incredibly heavy accent, and due to my low Intelligence I had a hard time making out exactly what they said. For a moment, I was just confused.


    Then, I realized what the Outsiders were planning. My heart sank.


    In the forest of the island, the only rule one needed to observe, no matter what, was to stay quiet. Sound would draw in the powerful landbeasts. Normally, a bit of noise from the village wasn¡¯t a problem. After all, the land beasts near the forest had been killed off by the hunters, and so the usual ruckus of day to day life in the village wouldn¡¯t draw in any new predators.


    But that yell had clearly been enhanced by runes to produce as much sound as possible. Felix¡¯s mother had been completely right in getting us out of the village. Based on the fact that the village chiefs were chasing down stragglers through the forest, the fight against the outsiders was going well for our villages. However, the outsiders had resorted to any trick they could think of to turn the tables.


    The outsiders were trying to flood the village with landbeasts, in a last ditch attempt to survive.

 Chapter 31: Battle

    I looked in the direction of the village, feeling horror as I realized what the last-ditch plan of the outsiders looked like. I hadn¡¯t thought about it before, since nobody in the village had a rune that enhanced sound. After all, nobody here would willingly form such an ability - amplifying sound was completely worthless when it drew land beasts towards the user. The only sound enhancing runes on the island were wind runes, and they weren¡¯t used to carry sound elsewhere very often.


    My heart sank, before I gritted my teeth and turned back towards the outsider soldiers who were fleeing towards us. I desperately wanted to help the village, but we had our own problems right now.


    I released my arrow, aiming directly towards the man¡¯s unprotected face. At the same time, Felix, his mother, and Sallia released their arrows. The arrow shot by Felix¡¯s mother suddenly divided in three midair, two of them hitting men near their knees and dropping them to the ground while one missed completely. Sallia and Felix¡¯s arrows hit armor, accomplishing nothing. And my arrow struck a man¡¯s throat.


    He dropped, blood pouring from his throat as he stared at me, uncomprehending. The arrow in his throat wriggled, as he tried to use his rune abilities to move the arrow out of him. Then, he stopped moving.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a human with 4-6 Runes for the first time


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Village by a [Negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +75, Achievement +??? (Achievement will not be awarded until current events are completed.)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I blinked away the System notifications and took aim again, completely uninterested in the Achievement flooding into my soul. What mattered was stopping these people from reaching my friends.


    Die.


    Another arrow flicked away from my bow, like sparks from a flame. It sailed past the head of the outsider I was aiming at, completely missing.


    Sallia, Felix, and Vanessa also poured arrows into the outsiders, dropping two more as I fluidly reached for another arrow and shot. Another miss. As I reached for a fourth arrow, my body suddenly felt much weaker and heavier. I realized that I had subconsciously burned mana to increase my speed, and now I had burned through the mana reserves stored in my two runes.


    I cursed under my breath, but managed to snap off one final shot. It bounced off of some armor, accomplishing little. I tossed my bow to the side and pulled out my sword, and saw Felix and Sallia do the same. Vanessa pulled out her spear, and in the distance I saw the two wounded outsiders get crushed by the spider landbeast before it sprinted past us and jumped into the ocean.


    The eyes of one of the outsiders, upon seeing me, lit up, like he had finally found a way out of this mess. He sprinted towards me. I swapped to a thrusting stance, but my limbs felt slow and clumsy now that I was out of mana. His speed suddenly increased, as he burned his mana reserves, and then one of his arms elongated towards me like a rubber band.


    ¡°Let us go, or I¡¯ll kill her!¡± He screeched, trying to grab at my neck. I was caught off guard by his limb changing shape, but I still immediately swapped to a low guard and prepared to hack at his arm¡­


    But before it was necessary, Sallia nearly vanished from my sight, and hacked off the man¡¯s arm.


    ¡°Get the fuck away from my friend,¡± said Sallia, burning through her mana in a fraction of a second as she madly dashed towards the would-be hostage taker. The man screamed, blood spewing from his severed arm as he stumbled backwards. Then, his eyes widening as he looked at Sallia running towards him, he reached towards his sword with his left hand. His grip was clumsy, but he managed to unsheath it and swing it at Sallia, aiming to decapitate her.


    Sallia¡¯s sword spun through the air as she knocked the man¡¯s blade away. Before he had time to recover, she stabbed one of his legs through a hole in his armor.


    The man¡¯s eyes widened even further, as his posture collapsed. As he stumbled, Sallia took a final step forward, and then stabbed him in the eye. He stopped moving.


    The other outsiders, seeing Sallia butcher a man with two more runes than her, veered away from our group. They no longer looked like they wanted to fight us at all - they were just desperately fleeing towards the ocean.


    However, as they tried to change directions, one of the two mist wolves suddenly grew a tentacle out of its face. I stumbled backwards, horrified, as the wolf¡¯s entire head suddenly writhed and squirmed, before disintegrating into a set of grotesque, misty tentacles. Then, several of the tentacles reached out towards the outsiders, managing to latch on to the four closest outsiders.


    The men opened their mouths to scream. Before they could make a sound, the misty tentacles glowed with light. There was a snapping sound, and then parts of the man¡¯s bodies just disappeared into thin air. What remained collapsed into a pile of blood and organs.


    The remaining five outsiders successfully dodged us and the wolves, running past our group before jumping into the ocean. Their metal armor weighed down on them, making it harder for them to swim, but their rune-enhanced physiques kept them afloat as they desperately swam for their lives.


    The mist-wolves turned towards us, now that the outsiders were in the ocean. They hadn¡¯t succumbed to the Call of the Ocean yet, and before their minds collapsed they were extremely interested in hunting us. The wolf with a head of writhing tentacles looked towards us, then pounced at Sallia and I. The instincts I had honed with Sallia and Felix kicked in, and I awkwardly rolled away from the wolf. The other wolf quickly attacked the other members of our group, distracting them. I didn¡¯t have mana to enhance my movements anymore, but the creature was far enough away that I could still dodge. Sallia also dodged in the other direction, before baring her teeth at the wolf and readying her sword. She looked more than ready to fight the landbeast to the death, despite the massive strength difference.


    The creature¡¯s face of tentacles squiremed, before several tendrils shot towards Sallia. I gritted my teeth, and did my best to slash away the creature¡¯s tentacles and keep Sallia out of danger.


    When my sword made contact with the creature¡¯s tentacles, it felt like I had stabbed a pile of wet cement. I didn¡¯t inflict any visible damage at all, and my sword felt like it was stuck. I panicked, giving my sword another tug, before I felt the prickling sense of danger from behind me.


    I whirled around, and saw a misty tentacle glowing as it made its way towards my face. Then, Sallia¡¯s sword cleaved its way through the misty tentacle, and the creature shrieked in pain. My sword suddenly didn¡¯t feel like it was stuck in the creature¡¯s tentacle, and I hurriedly retreated.


    ¡°It¡¯s only vulnerable when it¡¯s about to attack!¡± Yelled Sallia.


    I heard a shriek in the distance, and spared a moment to look towards the group of adults. Two of the villagers had died, but most of the creature¡¯s face had been cut off by Felix¡¯s mother.


    I glanced back towards the mist wolf, which was now glaring at Sallia with its writhing, twisting face. Its body wriggled, and I tightened my grip on my sword.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Then, like a pile of maggots squirming, its body bulged and shifted unnaturally, before dozens of tentacles erupted from its torso and legs. Several of its tentacles glowed, and I realized we might be about to die.


    However, the other village chief finally caught up to us. She slammed into the mist wolf, eleven runes aglow, and the wolf was knocked off its feet and flew towards the ocean. Its body quivered, as it seemed to finally realized the danger it was in. It began desperately trying to swim back towards land, but after a few moments, its body started to fight with itself. More and more of the tentacles in its body started trying to swim deeper into the ocean, instead of swim back to the island, and within a few moments it started to head beneath the waves.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist the Locals in killing a Wolf of Writhing Mist (Land Beast) for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I glanced back at the other mist wolf, to see the village chief¡¯s honor guard surrounding it. The other villagers had retreated from the fight now, and the mist wolf was slowly being herded towards the ocean. Anytime it tried to attack a hunter, one of its tentacles would get cut off. When its tentacles didn¡¯t glow, the hunters simply maneuvered around it, keeping its attention and waiting for a chance to counterattack. The village chief beside us rushed to join the battle, and began quickly cutting into the creature. Whatever her rune was, it seemed to ignore the incredible defense of the creature, so she simply butchered it while her guards sliced away any tentacles preparing to attack her. Within a minute, it was dead.


    The other villagers, who were standing around me, sighed with relief. The situation here, at least, seemed to be under control now. We didn¡¯t have time to mourn the loss of the two dead villagers. Even though our group was relatively unscathed, that was unlikely to be true for the village, after the outsiders had intentionally drawn land beasts towards the village.


    The other village chief, having finished off her own wolf, quickly reunited with her honor guard. ¡°Any injuries?¡±


    ¡°No serious ones, chief Nora,¡± said one of the hunters in her honor guard. ¡°Some of us are running low on mana, and the chase through the forest exhausted much of our physical stamina, but we can still fight for a while longer.¡±


    Nora gave her honor guard a curt nod, before turning back towards the village. ¡°These people should be safe enough for now.¡± She turned towards Felix¡¯s mother. ¡°Retired hunter?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± said Vanessa.


    ¡°Your village needs all the help it can get right now. Can you still fight?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± said Vanessa, tightening her grip on her spear. Then, she turned to my mother. ¡°If anything happens to me, can you take care of Felix?¡± My mother gave Vanessa a grim look, before she nodded.


    ¡°You have my word.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    Then, chief Nora turned to the villager with six Runes in the group. ¡°You lead the group for now. Stay here. It should be safer in this area. We¡¯ll send any survivors we find towards this area. Anyone with a useful rune ability, heal them up if you can.¡± Vanessa tossed a few fish cores towards Felix. ¡°Give those to any healers if they start running out of mana. If I don¡¯t come back, they¡¯re my final gift to you.¡± Then, she paused for a moment, before awkwardly patting Felix on the head. ¡°And always remember that I love you and I¡¯m proud of you. I¡¯m not good with words, but I want you to remember that. Just in case.¡±


    After that, the group of hunters and the female village chief began jogging towards the village.


    I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do right now. I found myself wishing, now more than ever, that I had my fourth rune built. That would at least give me a rune ability that might be useful. Right now I just felt like dead weight. My second rune had finally stabilized yesterday, so I could start making my third rune at any time. However, due to the pressing matter of the outsiders, I hadn¡¯t started building my rune yet. However, even my third rune wouldn¡¯t change how helpless I felt in this situation. The village was under attack, and I was just too young to help out.


    Bitterly, I wondered if this was the drawback of being a transmigrator. I was mature enough to understand exactly how bad things were, but every time I lived in a new world, I would be weak and vulnerable until I got old enough. Some Abilities might change that, and I desperately hoped they would, but for now, I was at the mercy of my young age and low rune count.


    As I watched the village, feeling helpless, I saw something else in the distance.


    Two outsider ships, limping their way out of the island. Although they were seriously battered, and had barely been repaired from when they first crawled onto our shores, they were making a break for it. Behind it, a swarm of twelve or thirteen flying boats continuously launched rune-abilities from the skies, trying to destroy the ships and kill their sailors. Now that the outsiders had initiated hostilities against us, we needed to make sure that they didn¡¯t spread word of our existence.


    However, the number of flying boats was much smaller than I would have expected. I frowned, as I realized that many of the other village chiefs, along with the warriors of our village, wouldn¡¯t sit by and let landbeasts tear apart our village and slaughter the people of the island. Many of our hunters were busy dealing with the land beasts pouring towards our village, which meant they weren¡¯t attacking the outsiders. The outsiders hadn¡¯t even attacked the village as a method of retaliating against us - they were using the children and civilians of our island as distractions. I felt a sense of hatred and disgust well up in my heart.


    Then, a massive tentacle tore itself out of the water. It was a pillar of water and squirming black skin, rising towards the heavens as my eyes tried to translate the squirming something I was seeing into a comprehensible shape. Seven more tentacles erupted from right underneath the island moments later. I recognized this thing - it was the creature who had herded these outsiders onto our islands in the first place.


    The sea creature let out of a massive shriek, and I felt madness settle over my thoughts. My vision and thoughts were suddenly consumed by twisting geometries and shapes I couldn¡¯t understand, before I clawed my way out of the creature¡¯s mental attack.


    I regained my senses just in time to watch the front half of one of the two fleeing sheeps turn into pulp as a massive tentacle rent it apart.


    The remaining ship sped up, some sort of ability pushing their boat along as other abilities controlled the winds around the boat and sped it along. However, the flying boats of our islands kept pestering the ship, killing a few sailors and interrupting their attempts to flee.


    The sailors of the ruined ship, realizing they were about to die, seemed determined to provide a chance for the other boat to flee. They fired their Astrellium weapon one last time, turning four flying boats into splinters and gore. I hoped the creature would destroy the final escaping ship, ending this nightmare once and for all. However, the creature was disinterested in the final escaping ship, concentrating wholly on the ship it had destroyed.


    The creature bellowed again. Geometry and sanity melted away.


    When I regained my sanity, the second ship was now in the distance, still fleeing for its life as our remaining boats chased it.


    And in the wreckage of the ruined ship, I caught a glimpse of a large hunk of gray metal. The massive tentacle curled around it, and then dragged it into the depths of the ocean.


    The creature likes Astrellium? I felt my hopes ignite. If the creature destroyed the other ship, none of the Outsiders would escape. However, the other ship seemed to have realized this problem as well. They fired one more Astrellium beam towards our flying boats, hitting two more, and then tossed their Astrellium weapon into the ocean. Our flying boats continued firing abilities at the ship, and the fleeing ship began throwing magic projectiles back at our boats. However, the fight seemed locked in a stalemate, before the boats got too far away and I stopped being able to see what was happening.


    I hoped the village chiefs would successfully kill the outsiders. And I also hoped that the damage to the village wasn¡¯t too bad. Many of our hunters and some of the foreign village chiefs had clearly stayed behind to clean up the mess in our village. I hoped that would be enough. The number of boats chasing after the outsider¡¯s ship numbered around five or six, and I had no idea if the village chiefs had the firepower to bring down the final group of outsiders. However, I had no way to interfere with that battle. Once again, my rune count was just too low to do anything. I sighed, before I turned to the surviving villagers in our group of people. A few still had dazed expressions, as they tried to process everything that had happened today.


    Then, in the distance, I saw a few other villagers running towards us, and breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless of how the battle between the chiefs and the outsiders was faring, survivors from the village were starting to trickle in. I could only see four or five clearly right now, but in the distance I could see a larger group of villagers also heading towards us.


    At the very least, we weren¡¯t the only survivors of this catastrophe.

 Chapter 32: Rubble and Ruin

    The villagers we saw in the distance made their way towards us, one after another. Many people were injured, and after seeing them, two of the people in our group quickly began setting up a small healing area to tend to injuries. One of them could manipulate bones, allowing him to fix up any bone-related injuries, and the other could make people¡¯s body quickly convert water into blood. We had no way at all to heal flesh-related injuries, but we could at least help those who were moderately injured.


    After the first few people were healed, bandaged up, and comfortable, the adults of our group began to quietly surround them and pepper them with questions. I quietly made my way to the side of a few of these groups, before listening in.


    ¡°How are things at the village right now?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re pretty bad. Between twenty and thirty land beasts came. A few of them jumped into the ocean right away, but they trampled quite a few houses. The other land beasts started fighting with the hunters and with each other once they arrived. Abilities keep hitting the area, and they¡¯re doing a lot of damage to the buildings. A lot of these landbeasts had ranged attacks, which was pretty unlucky, so the usual method of holding of the landbeast while dodging around was much riskier than usual. Lots of people are getting caught in the crossfire. Luckily, most of the land beasts aren¡¯t interested in hunting down villagers, so the ones who are targeting random people are being handled by the hunters right now. But trying to evacuate everyone and hold off the landbeasts is proving a big strain on the hunters and village chiefs who are helping out.¡±


    Many of the adults who were questioning the villagers fell silent at that, and I could see that many of them had grim expressions as they pondered this information.


    ¡°How long will it take until we can return, and help anyone who got trapped under rubble or something?¡±


    ¡°When I heard the hunters talking, one of them said they hoped it wouldn¡¯t take more than an hour before all of the Land Beasts succumbed to the Call of the Ocean and committed suicide. But there might be a few land beasts who take longer, or something could go wrong. We don¡¯t know for sure.¡±


    ¡°Do any of you know who¡¯s winning in the fight between the outsiders and the chiefs? How is the village doing? Have we killed the outsiders who didn¡¯t escape?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We were too far away from the outsider¡¯s camp to see what happened there. But since the outsiders were running away, they¡¯re probably losing.¡±


    ¡°I knew those outsiders were no good. The moment Olav told us about the empire of Megailia, I felt that they were trouble. Why, if it were up to me¡­¡± Past that point, the conversation between the villagers started to devolve into nervous complaining and discussions about the outsiders. Since none of it seemed relevant to the current situation, I opted to drift to another group, listening in as I searched for new information. However, I didn¡¯t learn much more. The outsiders had left, land beasts were attacking the village, and the hunters and village chiefs were evacuating people and fighting the land beasts in our village. That seemed to be all that anyone knew.


    As I listened to the adults conversing by the side, my eyes continuously drifted back towards the ocean, as well as the groups of survivors fleeing towards our area. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the village chiefs would destroy the last boat of outsiders or not. I also wanted to make sure a land beast didn¡¯t sneak up on us and take us by surprise, even if they seemed more focused on rampaging through the village. So my thoughts continuously drifted between the fight happening in the ocean, and the land beast rampage in our village.


    Eventually, however, I started to feel a different emotion.


    Is this everyone? I looked at the dwindling stream of survivors trickling into our area, and felt my heart sink. The number of villagers who had reached our area probably only numbered two hundred people. Our village had nearly seven hundred residents. Somewhere between one hundred and two hundred villagers had fled to other villages before the fight, but that left three hundred villagers unaccounted for. Where was everyone else?


    I knew in my heart what the answer was, but I didn¡¯t want to believe that so many of the neighbors and acquaintances I had met over the years in this world had returned to the ocean of souls so soon. Perhaps they¡¯re just injured in the village, and can¡¯t move. Or they escaped in a different direction. I comforted myself. Only three or four hundred people were confirmed to have lived through this crisis. However, the other three hundred people of the village weren¡¯t necessarily dead. Some of them probably were, but plenty of people might still return to the village once the landbeasts were dealt with. I felt my stomach churn with worry, but I forced myself to cling to that hope.


    I felt someone gently pat me on the back, and looked up to see Felix staring at me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry so much. Worrying won¡¯t help anything.¡± He said. ¡°I¡¯m sure your worst fears won¡¯t come to pass - there are definitely more people alive than this.¡±


    After that, he sat down on the sand, before tugging at my arm. I sighed, but sat down beside him and did my best to relax. Once the land beasts were dealt with, we would need to sort through rubble and find survivors where we could. Remaining tense and worried would just wear me out before I could help anyone.


    However, my thoughts kept wandering back towards the number of villagers who had died in this fight. I gritted my teeth, and in addition to worry, a new emotion started to sprout as I clenched my fists.


    I had never wanted to hurt someone before as much as I did right now. I hated the people who had caused so much damage and suffering for our village. The outsiders who had landed on our islands had incited the massacre of hundreds of innocent people, just to increase their chances of escaping. Such a despicable method of pulling noncombatants into the fight was just¡­


    I realized my jaw hurt, because I was clenching my teeth too hard. I took in a few deep breaths to calm myself down, and took comfort in Felix¡¯s presence by my side. After a minute, Sallia also joined us, and the three of us kept watch over the unsteady trickle of refugees from the village.


    Minutes crawled by.


    Eventually, one of the hunters returned to our area and told us the village was safe. With unsteady gaits, we began to trudge back to our home.


    When we arrived, much as I expected, it was basically just rubble. At least half of the buildings in the village were utterly destroyed. Chunks of wood and bone were scattered across our homes and workshops. Most of the bones looked like fragments of tools that had been destroyed during the fight, or fish bones that hadn¡¯t been processed before the fight had started.


    A few of the bones were distinctly newer, and were covered in red stains. I tried not to think about who they had once belonged to.


    There were four land beast corpses lying in the ruins of our village. One was a seven-headed chicken, half as tall as a human being. It was accompanied by three hunter corpses, letting me know just how fierce the innocent-looking animal had truly been. Two of the corpses were of giant snakes. And the final corpse was of¡­ something. I wasn¡¯t sure what it was - its remained looked like a ball of minced meat. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that its corpse was so massive, I might have thought it belonged to a human. I had no idea whether the creature had turned into this state after the hunters had attacked it, or if it was just particularly unusually shaped.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I took in a deep breath, before I started checking back through the villagers again, trying to see who survived. My mother and father were alive. Sallia and Felix were alive. Sallia¡¯s parents were alive. In the distance, I could see Felix¡¯s mother. Her left leg looked pretty badly injured, but she was still breathing, and a healer was tending to her injury. She should be fine.


    Nobody else that I knew well had been accounted for yet. Olav, Claus, and the other two fishermen on father¡¯s boat could still be alive or dead.


    My father also looked through the survivors, concerned, before shuddering. It was a minute motion, but I could tell he was worried about his colleagues. ¡°Perhaps they¡¯re still in the village, or on one of the fishing boats. I¡¯m sure the village chief and their hunters took along some fishermen to chase after the outsiders,¡± said my father. I wasn¡¯t sure whether he was comforting me or himself. He reached down and tousled my hair, before giving me a tight hug.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get looking for other survivors,¡± said one of the other villagers. ¡°There could be some people seriously injured in the village, but still alive. Let¡¯s find everyone we can and get them patched up.¡±


    Most of the villagers seemed to share the sentiment, and so all of us got to work clearing out rubble for the second time in the past year.


    * * *


    People¡¯s moods were foul as they found the corpses of friends and family members. After two hours of searching, we found the corpses of Joanna and her husband, Agnar. I felt even more sad and frustrated when I saw their bodies. I hadn¡¯t known them well, but they were people my father had worked with for years. When I saw them in the village, they were happy to smile at me and give me toys when I was younger, and they seemed like good people. For them to die just so that the outsiders could escape felt wrong.


    When we found their bodies, my father broke down and began sobbing. I spent a few minutes hugging him and patting him on the back, trying to make him feel better. He had worked with them for years, and so their deaths hit him much harder than it hit me. However, as his daughter, I wanted to comfort him and make him feel at least a little bit better.


    As the hours wore on, and villagers continued to sift through the rubble, I felt depressed as I saw the number of villagers who had truly died in this attack. Some of the villagers were trapped by rubble or knocked unconscious during the catastrophe, as I had hoped for. The natural resilience of people with three runes was well beyond what an ordinary human being would ever be capable of, and this had helped people shrug off some injuries that should have been fatal. However, for every one survivor we found, there were another two corpses. After it seemed like we had dug out most of the survivors, I took a quick count of the villagers we had confirmed the deaths of.


    Of the seven hundred or so people who had previously lived on the island, perhaps five hundred and fifty remained relatively healthy. This included those that had temporarily taken refuge on other islands before the fight started. Some of the ¡®healthy¡¯ villagers had suffered minor injuries, but none of them would be permanently disabled, and they could heal up within a few weeks or less. Then, perhaps another thirty people were permanently crippled or injured. That left around a hundred to a hundred and twenty dead.


    The only real solace was that very few young children had gotten caught up in the attack, since those with young children had been most wary of a catastrophe and thus most likely to leave the village beforehand. However, this was a shallow silver lining in the face of such a huge catastrophe. Even though there were probably a few dozen villagers left unaccounted for, because they were part of the boats chasing the outsiders or hiding nearby, we had definitely lost at least a hundred people. That was over a seventh of the village.


    I had previously thought that a single land beast was a catastrophe, when one of the land beasts had rushed through the village during the adulthood ceremony last year. However, this catastrophe was several orders of magnitude worse than the previous year¡¯s land beast catastrophe.


    As I stewed in my thoughts, I got an Achievement notification.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Village by a [Negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 3 (Achievement for your actions is awarded now that events are concluded)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I ignored the notification. Three Achievement was nowhere near enough to make me feel better.


    Then, I saw the flying boats, finally returning from the ocean. The fact that they returned hopefully meant that they had won. There was no way the village chiefs would let such a major threat to the island escape if they could end the threat once and for all, so if any of the outsiders had escaped, I doubted they would have returned.


    When the boats landed on our island, I was relieved to see Claus and Olav disembark from the boat, along with the village chief. Joanne and her husband were dead, but at least Olav and Claus were alive.


    The village chief looked over the ruined village, as well as the pile of corpses we had dug out from the rubble, and I felt as though he aged a decade in the span of a few seconds. He closed his eyes for a few moments, and a look of anguish and exhaustion flitted across his features, before he regained his composure.


    He strode towards the nearest villager and gave him a nod.


    ¡°How many dead or wounded, Alfing? Do you know?¡±


    ¡°Probably a little over a hundred dead, give or take a bit,¡± he said. Instead of anguished or frustrated, the villager just looked numb. He sifted through the rubble like a walking corpse.


    The village chief sighed heavily, before turning to the other village chiefs who were disembarking, as well as some of the village chiefs who were helping our village look for survivors.


    ¡°How about among the village chiefs? Does anyone have a head count for hunters and chiefs dead?¡±


    One of the village chiefs looked up from the pile of rubble he was sifting through, before sighing. ¡°Of the seventeen village chiefs, I can now confirm at least twelve of us are alive. That leaves five of us dead or missing. I think two or three might be looking through the forest for any other pockets of your villagers, and I know at least two are dead. Of our hunters¡­ I¡¯m not sure. I estimate most villages have lost at least a fifth of their honor guard, but the exact numbers may vary.¡± Then, the village chief focused on our village chief. ¡°What about the outsiders? Did you get them all?¡±


    ¡°There should be no survivors from those who landed on our shores. We had a hard time dealing with the outsiders at first, but we managed to kill most of the soldiers on the upper deck of the ship after chasing them and whittling them down for a while. After that, we landed on the ship and cleaned out the lower deck of the ship. Then, we used wood abilities to shatter the wooden ship into pieces. Finally, we hovered around the area, and used arrows and abilities to shoot down anyone that managed to hide from our boarding attack and surfaced after the ship was destroyed.¡± The village chief sighed. ¡°So at least for now, we should remain unknown to the Empire of Megailia, as far as I can tell. However, if Olav could drift to this island two decades ago, and a military fleet could land here this year¡­ who knows if or when we¡¯ll have more visitors from beyond our shores?¡±


    The other village chiefs frowned, their expressions turning grim as they listened to the village chiefs speculation, before one of the other village chiefs sighed.


    ¡°At least for now, the crisis is dealt with. We must finish dealing with the rubble here, and rescue any remaining survivors we can. After that, we¡¯ll hold another village chief meeting to determine what countermeasures we can take in the future.¡± She eyed the forest. ¡°At the very least, we don''t have to worry about attacks from the forest for a while. Those black-hearted bastards cleared out most of the land beasts immediately surrounding your village, so no more should show up and make a mess of things for at least a few months. It¡¯s something, at least.¡±


    The village chief sighed, before nodding.


    He seemed done talking with the other village chief, and so he instead started making his way towards a pile of rubble. However, before he got to work, I quickly walked up to him.


    ¡°Village chief¡­ what started the fighting? We thought that if a fight broke out, the village chiefs would fly in more warriors first. What happened.¡± It probably wasn¡¯t the best social etiquette to question the village chief right now, but I was seven years old. I could get away with things adults couldn¡¯t, and I used that to my advantage right now.


    The village chief turned towards me, and his expression softened a bit. ¡°Little Miria. I¡¯m glad you survived this mess.¡± He patted my head. ¡°The outsiders told us that we had to swear fealty to Megailia, and give them some flying boats and barrels of pearls. We don¡¯t even have enough flying boats for ourselves, since floatwood trees are hard to harvest when landbeasts rule the forests, so we refused. The outsiders took offense, and got pushier. Then, the village chief that claims the sea monster is a messenger of the ocean mother attacked them.¡± The village chief sighed. ¡°Not that I think the meeting would have ended any differently, even if he hadn¡¯t started the fight. The outsiders were very pushy, and things were heading in a bad direction almost the moment the negotiations started. The outsiders seemed surprised to see so many of us with ten or more runes, but still seemed to feel that they would win if it came to a fight. Luckily, with the help of the other village chiefs, we managed to drive them off.¡± He stopped patting my head, before turning to the ruined village. He sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, little Miria. The bad people are gone now. You¡¯ll be safe for now.¡±


    Then, done talking to me, he got to clearing out rubble.

 Chapter 33: Older and Stronger

    After we finished healing up survivors, dealing with funerals, and thanking the other village chiefs for coming, our village began to focus on rebuilding. The other villages didn¡¯t stand idly by after the catastrophe - many of them flew over extra manpower, supplies, and hunters to help us rebuild our village. I couldn¡¯t help but be impressed by how willing the other villages were to help out. It seemed like the fight against the outsiders had helped unify the village chiefs against the possibility of an outside threat, since nobody knew if the outsiders would return one day. After several weeks spent rebuilding houses, I finally had some time to myself, so I took about a month to form my third rune.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Successfully Condense your Third Rune


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Once I formed my third rune, I started to notice a strange problem with my body. It was a problem I had already had, when I had formed my second rune, but at the time it had been subtle enough that I hadn¡¯t identified it. However, with my third rune the problem became much more obvious.


    My body had gotten much stronger, just as I expected it to. All of my physical stats had increased by one grade, as per usual, and my mana reserves had also dramatically increased since I now had three runes to store mana instead of two. However, I was noticing that it was increasingly difficult to control myself if I tried to use my full strength and speed.


    Putting this sensation together with what I already knew, I realized there was another reason hunters needed seven or more runes, besides their ability to perceive high-speed fights and resist mental attacks. It seemed that my Perception stat also governed how well I could control my body, at least to a certain extent. Once my Agility became several grades higher than my Perception, it became hard to keep up with how fast my body moved during a fight. Perception also helped me intuitively control how much strength I used when gripping things like wooden spoons, helping me avoid the embarrassing situation of accidentally crushing my dining utensils with my bare hands. Most villagers simply adapted to this problem by learning to never use their full strength outside of a fight - however, to take full advantage of my physical attributes, I would need to raise my perception stat. I realized, once again, that my Stats were more important than I had given them credit for. Although each Stat did something different, none of the stats were useless. Since there was nothing I could do to raise my Perception for now, I simply adjusted to my enhanced body as best I could. I hadn¡¯t gotten weaker from forming my third rune - my body was still stronger, sturdier, and faster than before. However, since I couldn¡¯t make full use of my Stats, the benefits I obtained from my third rune were rather limited. At the very least, my Fortitude didn¡¯t need any conscious control on my end to benefit me, meaning that I was now basically immune to illness and could recover from injuries in days that should have taken weeks to recover from.


    After I finished acclimating to my third rune, I began helping out around the village again. I found that after my month of hard work, the village had entered a strange period of development. This was due to a few unexpected benefits from the fight with the outsiders. While two hundred people had died, at the very least, we hadn¡¯t gotten nothing out of the fight.


    First, we got several piles of bronze equipment. While much of it was damaged, and we had no way to repair metal right now, it was still much sturdier than the armor our hunters currently used. Thus, the hunters of our village got a major upgrade in their equipment, as did the hunters of many other villages.


    A far more unintended consequence of the outsider¡¯s actions was that the forest around our village had been cleared out. Instead of spending their time desperately fending off land beasts while our village tried to recuperate, the hunters of our village found themselves with strangely little to do.


    Having heard of Olav¡¯s stories of agriculture, our village chief decided to take advantage of this opportunity. Our village made several bone axes and then began clearing out the forest near the village. Normally, this would be suicidal, since it would have drawn over swarms of landbeasts to tear the operation apart. Even harvesting floatwood trees was usually a painful and risky endeavor for the village, involving a great deal of preparation from the hunters and high risk of death. However, since all of the nearby land beasts were dead, we were able to safely remove much of the forest, peeling back a layer of the dangers that resided deep within the island. We harvested several floatwood trees. Afterwards, Olav quickly began discussing his half-baked memories of how to farm, and the village began experimenting with a few of the native berries and various plants of the island, including an attempt to plant floatwood trees for the future. The results were mixed, since the villagers had no idea what they were doing, but the harvest the following year was at least large enough that we could cut tree bark out of our diet during storm season that year. It wasn¡¯t a huge part of the village¡¯s food supply yet, but I was sure that the village would eventually grow beyond its previous level now that the first seeds of agriculture had taken root. All that we needed to do was defend the farmland we had already carved out from any landbeast incursions, but the hunters were already used to dealing with land beasts.


    Sallia and I also made good progress in our runes over the years. Sallia formed her own third rune, about a year after me. However, after she analyzed the amount of absorption essence she produced per day, and how much she spent maintaining what she already had, she determined that she couldn¡¯t form a fourth rune. This was a bitter pill to swallow for her, since it would be hard for her combat talent to shine without at least one supernatural ability backing her up. She was ludicrously talented at Absorption essence manipulation, and whenever we sparred it was obvious just how talented Sallia was at fighting. However, her limited absorption essence made it hard for her to become one of the fighters of the village, no matter how well she could completely demolish anyone with a similar rune count to her own. Despite my worries about her mental state after this setback, she seemed to simply accept her situation. I was increasingly relaxed as I observed her, because I was beginning to realize Sallia was no longer someone who could be brought down by a little bad luck. She was starting to find her sense of self worth, and even if she couldn¡¯t fight as well as she wanted to in this world, she was beginning to genuinely enjoy her time here. And more importantly, she was finding a sense of self-worth that wasn¡¯t reliant on her abilities.


    After Sallia passed her first adulthood ceremony, Sallia also began learning tool production with me and master Arne. Having one of my best friends in the workshop with me every day made my work a lot more fun. Sallia¡¯s craftmanship was nothing special, as much as she tried to improve. She also still struggled to focus for long periods of time, making the tedious process of creating tools a challenge for her. However, she slowly adapted to these problems, and while her growth was slower than mine, after several months of practice she began learning to make usable tools.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    As time passed and the three of us continued working on honing our skills, Sallia eventually earned another round of Achievement for upgrading her One Handed Swordsmanship to Intermediate grade, netting her a fair amount of extra Achievement around the time she turned eight. For a few months, Sallia was nearly undefeatable on the training field.


    Three months later, Felix finally formed his fifth rune, giving him the ability to manipulate wood, both in the shafts of weapons and tools he was holding and in his environment. Combined with his bone manipulation abilities, he became nearly impossible for Sallia to beat, since he learned how to attack her with random wooden chunks from our environment. Sallia still occasionally squeaked out a win, but if I evaluated her combat ability, she was sort of like someone with four and a half runes. She was stronger than most people with four runes, but there was a clear and obvious difference between her and Felix, who had five runes. At least for now, I remained the weakest member of the group, although I hoped that would change when I formed my fourth rune.


    I also earned a fair amount of Achievement from continuously crafting basic-grade tools with Master Arne.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Production: Craft 250 [Basic] grade items


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 200


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Production: Craft 1000 [Basic] grade items


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The diminishing returns for doing the same thing over and over again were really starting to hurt my Achievement farming attempts, but I had gotten a lot of Achievement from spending years toiling away at making tools. The abundance of materials on the islands was a huge help, since I never ran out of materials to use. Even though diminishing returns were starting to pile up more and more, I still felt quite happy overall because I knew I would be able to seriously upgrade myself when we returned to the Market.


    In addition to that, I also finally raised my Willpower to grade 7 by watching Storms every year, giving me another 20 Achievement.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power : Raise a Mental Attribute one grade through the assistance of a special resource


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    + 20 Achievement


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    20 Achievement honestly felt a little lackluster compared to the amount of work I put in to resisting the Call of the Ocean during storm season for years on end. However, the benefit of getting to Grade 7 Willpower was far more evident. When I looked at the ocean, I no longer felt the Call of the Ocean at all. It simply didn¡¯t influence me. This was rather important, since I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to form 7 runes in this lifetime, and I still wanted to figure out what was up with the ocean of our islands. If I was still seriously influenced by the Call of the Ocean, any attempts to explore the ocean would be far more difficult. However, now that I had basically negated the mental effects of the water, I would have a much easier time fulfilling my biggest long-term goal for Achievement farming and improving myself.


    Finally, I got a rather interesting notification during my final year as an apprentice under Master Arne, when I was about nine and a half years old.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Production: Craft an [Intermediate] quality item


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    + 40 Achievement


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I didn¡¯t get an upgrade to my Crafting skill, but I was still happy to see my first [Intermediate Quality] item, as well as the Achievement reward for it. As a special celebration for the village¡¯s first good harvest of crops, Master Arne had let me work with the hide of a land beast one of the hunters had managed to bring down. The hide Arne allocated me was enough for about two thick pieces of armor, after the hide was treated. Master Arne had told me I could try making armor out of the fish scales and bones, mixed with the land beast hide, to celebrate my hard work over the years. My first attempt at turning it into a decent set of armor wasn¡¯t a total failure, but it wasn¡¯t great either. I tried gluing a bunch of fish scales to the treated hide, after consulting some with master arne. However, I messed up with some of the fish glue distribution, and so the end result restricted the movements of the wearer too much.


    In my second attempt, I tried using some pieces of fish bone in addition to the fish scales, and fit them together much more carefully before I started applying small amounts of fish glue at precise locations. At the end a few days of hard work, I had created a usable set of ¡®plates¡¯ glued onto the hide armor¡¯s exterior, created by interlocking small chunks of fish bone and fish scales together in a way that didn¡¯t restrict the wearer¡¯s movement but still deflected most attacks. It was nowhere near as good as armor made from bronze, of course, and it wasn¡¯t quite as good as Arne¡¯s creations either. However, it was my best work in Arne¡¯s shop, and it was good enough that a hunter could use it in battle against a land beast without being afraid that my armor would break or hinder the wearer.


    Arne had congratulated me for making my first piece of decent armor, before he showed me the way he did his own hide armor pieces. He took it as an opportunity to teach me how to better weave the plates of bone and fish scales together, creating smaller gaps in the armor. It was much superior to my design, but I still got a reward for making the armor and my first [Intermediate] tool. I felt a bit of sadness when I saw Arne so earnestly teaching me - I could tell that, in his own way, he was trying to convince me to stay in the tool workshop, instead of opting to become a fisherman. However, I still wanted to form my fourth rune and join the flying boats - not only did I want to fly, but placing myself in contact with the ocean frequently would make things much easier as I tried to explore what made our waters unique.


    When I was only a month away from turning ten, my third rune stabilized. Unlike Sallia, I still had plenty of absorption essence laying around, which meant that I could comfortably make a fourth rune. Naturally, I was very excited to finally get my first supernatural ability - while strengthening my body was an incredibly valuable asset in most fights, being able to use your environment to attack your opponents, or perform bizarre and tricky attacks, gave one an edge in combat that was hard to overlook. Most importantly, it also allowed one to externalize their mana, which was an absolute necessity to send mana into the floatwood we made our boats out of. Without a fourth rune, one was just dead weight on the boats because they couldn¡¯t actually help fly around.


    ¡°Are you ready, sweetie?¡± Asked my father, giving me a smile.


    I nodded. ¡°I think it¡¯s time. My body adapted to my third rune, which means I should be able to make my fourth rune now. I want to be done by the time I turn ten, as well - that way, I can join you on the fishing boat and become a fisherman!¡±


    My father gave me a reassuring hug.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be glad to have you on the fishing boat. But don¡¯t rush - if your rune isn¡¯t stabilized yet, you¡¯ll hurt yourself when you try to form a new one, and then you¡¯ll have to wait even longer before joining Olav, Claus and I on the boat. Are you really sure you¡¯re ready? You aren¡¯t pushing yourself just because of the timing?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± My father paused for a moment, before he nodded.


    ¡°All right then. I¡¯ll trust you. Make your fourth rune and make me proud.¡±


    I grinned, before getting to work.

 Chapter 34: Fourth Rune

    The difficulty of condensing a fourth rune was much higher than the previous runes. This was due to the fundamental change in nature runes had every third rune. The fourth through sixth runes could let people control water and air, bend weapons mid-attack, triple arrows they shot from a bow, and gain access to a myriad of other bizarre and useful abilities. This drastically increased the complexity involved in forming each rune. For the first three runes, I just needed to eat mana using my absorption essence, and my body handled most of the work after that. It was something even an average four or five year old child could do, once their parents helped them grasp the basics. However, for the fourth rune and beyond, I couldn¡¯t just eat more mana and let my body handle the details. I needed to actually concentrate on what kind of power I wanted.


    According to my parents and Felix, the most important thing I needed was a concept of some sort. An image that spoke to me, that would resonate with my thoughts and absorption essence and allow me to create my fourth rune. This image would also determine what kind of ability I formed. If I used a mental image of all of the air around the islands as my concept, for example, I would probably get some sort of wind-control related ability. While nobody had perfect control over what kind of ability their rune created, it was easy to control what general direction the ability had, at least. If one wanted to manipulate bones, they could ensure their rune interacted with bones. If someone wanted to heal, the rune they formed would have some sort of use in healing. The exact details were impossible to control, but people never got an ability that was utterly different than what they wanted, even if it often wasn¡¯t quite what they expected either.


    And in addition to the unique abilities created by one¡¯s runes, having a fourth rune allowed one to pour their mana into external objects. This was the fundamental property that allowed people with at least four runes to participate in fishing - they poured mana out of their runes into the floatwood their boats were made of, and the floatwood did the rest. This was why getting a fourth rune was so important in the village if one wanted to be a fisherman - one literally couldn¡¯t activate floatwood without a fourth rune.


    I was very excited to see what kind of superpower I would get. I had thought long and hard about what sort of ability I wanted. Since my long-term goal was still to explore the ocean, I felt that building my runes in that direction was a good idea. However, there were a ton of logistical hurdles I needed to solve before I even thought about going into the ocean.


    First, I needed a way to deal with whatever creatures I might find below the waves. The giant monster that had crushed the ships of the outsiders was probably at the top of the food chain in the ocean, but it was also a warning that all kinds of weird creatures existed beneath the waves. If I wanted to go deeper into the ocean, I needed some way to keep myself safe.


    Second, I needed a way to move around. I could swim a little bit, but the ability to propel myself around using water or something would probably help a lot.


    Third, I needed a way to breathe and survive the water pressure of the ocean. Asphyxiation and water pressure would eventually kill me if I went deep enough into the ocean, no matter how strong my physical body was. My first three runes made it easier to hold my breath for longer and made my body tougher, but I still needed to breathe in this form.


    I had a few ideas for ways to resolve this.


    First, I could use some sort of air rune to create a kind of air-pocket submarine around myself, or to at least create a sort of breathing helmet around my head. If I could create oxygen, I would be able to solve the problem of breathing underwater with some practice.


    Alternately, I could try to form some sort of healing rune that specifically helped me deal with oxygen and water pressure. As long as I could continuously regenerate my lungs as I swam deeper, I should be able to deal with a lot of the problems of asphyxiation. However, I wasn¡¯t sure if there were other problems with this idea, so I felt it wasn¡¯t quite the right direction.


    Or, as my final idea, I could try to form a rune ability that was a bit more generalized. Something water related, perhaps. If I could control water, it would be useful for hunting fish, and it would also solve any mobility problems I might have under the waves.


    I spent several hours pondering which idea I felt was best, but I eventually settled on water control. It seemed to be quite relevant for any future actions I might want to take, and as an added bonus, it was the most useful for being a fishermen, the job I wanted in the village. After making up my mind, I pulled out a fish core and began working on forming my rune.


    I tried to form an image of water, and began trying to absorb bits of mana with my absorption essence. However, I felt that my mental image was ever so slightly¡­ off. It would work - I could tell that if I just brute-forced my rune like this, I would eventually succeed. But something felt off to me. I frowned.


    The next few days were spent fruitlessly trying to figure out what felt off to me. I experimented with a lot of different mental images of water, the ocean, and a lot of other factors. But somehow, things always felt just a little strange. Finally, I found something that resonated with me.


    I had started out with a mental image of ordinary water, using a ¡®stream¡¯ as my base image and trying to make a rune from that. However, I kept feeling like I could do more.


    So I had started increasing the size of my image. From a stream to a river, and finally to an ocean of water. However, something still felt missing. Finally, I realized what was wrong with my image.


    A lot of the images I was using were half-baked memories of oceans and water from my previous world. However, they didn¡¯t perfectly match what interested me. I wasn¡¯t interested in those oceans, with their normal sized fish, still waters, and lack of strange and horrific sea monsters that could destroy boats like toys. What interested me was the ocean in this life - with all of its strange and horrifying abilities and creatures.


    Finally, I could feel an image resonating with me. One that I had never considered before, but that called out to me. I thought of the ocean of this world, filled with strange creatures that bent perception and reality around them in small, subtle ways. I thought of the way the waves of the ocean seemed to hypnotize those who stared at it for long periods of time, drawing them ever closer to the waves before dragging them into the dark depths of the ocean forever. I smiled to myself, as I finally realized what my image was missing.


    I wanted a rune that matched the ocean, not just water.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    I thought of the glittering sunlight reflecting off of the waves during the sunny season. Of the way the water rose and fell like massive hammers upon the world in response to the stormy season, like a leviathan set loose upon the world as nature raised its head towards the sky. Of the mighty, mind-bending tentacle that had risen from the waves and slapped the water around it when the great sea creature had attacked the boats of the outsiders.


    The waters of this world were pure and beautiful, clear and bright ¨C at least on the surface. However, beneath the waves lurked great behemoths and monsters. The giant fish the villages used as their primary food source were one of the tamest species around. I wanted my rune to encompass all of these ideas, and the mana in my body was very ready to cooperate with me. I no longer felt like something was missing when I started to form my rune.


    I would use the glittering, sunlit beauty of the top of the ocean reflecting light off of the waves and combine it with the abyssal horror of the depths of the ocean to create a kind of water rune that fit me.


    However, as I kept working, I also started to realize my idea was a bit too big for one rune to handle. The entirety of the ocean in this world had so many strange, unique features - it was hard to fit all of those oddities and abilities into one rune. So I split up my image a little bit. My first rune would focus solely on the glittering sunlight and the surface of the ocean.


    I used mana to continuously refine my image of the ocean¡¯s surface. I built the idea of ¡®controlling water¡¯ into the rune, because I still wanted to control my movement easily while underwater. Then, I engraved sunlight into it as well. As I thought of the surface of the ocean, unbidden, I recalled the giant fish that sunbathed on the surface of the ocean. Each one was large enough to feed the village for days by itself. Deep within the giant fish, also, there lay a fish core, useful for restoring mana and for helping children form runes. The ocean was the thing that gave life to this village, giving its inhabitants food and making life on these islands possible. Without the ocean, none of these villages would have any ability to continue existing.


    The light of the ocean could also play tricks upon the eye, deceiving one¡¯s perception by bending light or working as a mirror.


    I spent weeks working with this image, slowly transforming my vision of the Ocean into a rune. Finally, after a month and a half of hard work, my fourth rune was completed. My fourth rune was a deep blue color, and after I completed it, my first three runes also turned blue, confirming that I had completed my fourth rune. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure what ability I had just created, but I now had a fourth rune, and my first rune ability.


    I smiled to myself.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Successfully Condense your Fourth Rune


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +400


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After that, I walked out of my room and gave my mother and father a big hug. ¡°I did it!¡±


    They both smiled at me and hugged me back. ¡°Congratulations, sweetie! The fourth rune is a big step for you. I knew you could do it. What kind of ability did you go for?¡± My father asked.


    ¡°Something related to water. I haven¡¯t tested the specifics yet, but it might be a bit...weird. Kind of like Felix¡¯s ability is unusually focused on enhancing his own tools? I still need to test it. I¡¯m going out for a bit.¡±


    ¡°Weird is fine. There¡¯s no such thing as a useless rune, as long as you¡¯re creative enough in how you use it. Be back before it gets dark, and let your mother and I see what your ability is once you figure out the details!¡±


    After that, I went off to find my friends to celebrate, as well as to test out the exact properties of my fourth rune. I had missed the renewal festival this year, since I spent my time working on forming my rune, but I could still see traces of the festival laying around the village. I absently wondered if the children this year had finished their hunts yet, before pushing the thought aside and heading to the water near the edge of the village. I had built my fourth rune out of the idea of the sunlight glittering off the surface of this world¡¯s ocean, and the way the ocean made life in the village possible. Sallia and Felix would probably be able to help me figure out exactly what my rune did, and how best to use it in combat. However, I first wanted to get a basic grasp of what my ability was.


    The first thing I confirmed was that I could take water from my surroundings and move it according to my will. However, my ability to control water was weaker than the abilities most villagers with water runes had. If a normal villager with a water rune could break down a wave into a gentle ripple on the surface of the ocean in seconds, I would need a minute or two to accomplish the same thing. I frowned. Why was my rune so much weaker than other people¡¯s rune? Was I using it wrong?


    After several minutes of experimentation, I realized that moving water wasn¡¯t really what my rune did, even if I could kind of move water around as a result of my rune¡¯s ability.


    Instead, I had the ability to convert water into things. Specifically, I could convert water into light and healing.


    The first facet of my water-conversion ability seemed to stem from the focus on the life-giving properties the ocean had. It granted me a very generalized ability to heal. So long as I soaked a wound in water, I could heal a small cut in a few seconds, and I seemed to be able to restore flesh and blood. I wasn¡¯t willing to test whether or not I could restore a broken bone with my ability, since breaking one of my bones would hurt and I didn¡¯t want to be stuck waiting for a healer if I couldn¡¯t mend bones. I strongly suspected my rune didn¡¯t heal bones, even if I wasn¡¯t 100% sure.


    However, I was willing to give myself smaller cuts and bruises to test out how my healing ability worked. Once I had a grasp on what I could do, I felt rather pleased. I could heal a wide variety of injuries, meaning that my ability was surprisingly useful. The speed of my healing was a bit slow, and I absolutely needed water to make it work, but as long as I had water it was incredibly useful.


    However, my ability to convert water into light was much more¡­ odd. It seemed to be derived from my thoughts about the sunlight, glittering off the surface of the waves, and the way water looked under the sunlight. As far as I could tell, the major way to use this ability was to create illusions. This was, by far, the weirdest rune property I knew of in the village. I had never heard of someone in the village being able to create illusions using their rune abilities. And my illusions didn¡¯t have any sounds or smells attached to them - they were purely light constructs. Creating an illusion was also incredibly hard - I simply couldn¡¯t manage the level of detail I needed to create a complex illusion on the spot. Right now, I was limited to creating shapeless blobs of light, although I knew I would get better with practice. My low Intelligence definitely hurt my illusion-making abilities a lot, which was also quite unfortunate.


    At the very least, converting water into light or healing didn¡¯t take much mana, meaning I could use my ability frequently during a fight as long as I had a nearby water source to use. I shrugged, before I decided to just be happy with the rune I had made. Even if my first rune was heavily dependent on water, we were living on an island. Water surrounded us on all sides, so it wasn¡¯t exactly hard to come by here. And if I wasn¡¯t mistaken, the ability to heal my blood and flesh using water would probably solve the problem of breathing underwater, in a somewhat twisted fashion. If I continuously swapped out my blood while drowning, I could probably heal away the effects of drowning, once I had a better hold on how my ability worked. Most importantly, I had a fourth rune, and if I got creative enough I would definitely be able to use it for my long term goals, as well as for the benefit of the village.


    After messing with my ability a little more, I went off to find Felix and Sallia to brag, as well as to challenge them to a sparring match. My control over my abilities was pretty weak, but as long as we fought near the ocean I could definitely perform at least a little better than before, by chucking around balls of light at people¡¯s eyes while fighting. And using my abilities during a sparring match would definitely improve my control. And now that I had a fourth rune, I could finally become a fisherman.

 Chapter 35: Fourth Rune (2)

    After I finished my initial experiments with my first rune ability, I went to find my friends. After retrieving them from their houses, we gathered near the ocean, far enough away from the village that we could talk with privacy.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯ve already gotten your fourth rune built,¡± said Felix, giving me a  grin. ¡°Since you¡¯re a full grade behind me in Absorption Essence, I thought you¡¯d take a little longer to finish stabilizing your third. What kind of power did you get?¡±


    I didn¡¯t answer with words - instead, with extreme difficulty, I pulled a small blob of water out of the ocean and floated it above our heads. Then, I converted the blob of water into a ball of light. Slowly, but surely, I began manipulating the illusion until it looked less like a shapeless ball of light, and more like the eye of one of the giant fish. It wasn¡¯t a very good illusion, but it was the best I could do for now.


    ¡°Some sort of ability that converts water into illusions?¡± Felix looked at the ocean thoughtfully. ¡°It looks like you also have some very minor water control, although it¡¯s pretty weak.¡±


    ¡°I can also convert water into healing,¡± I said. ¡°It heals flesh and blood.¡± Felix nodded, thoughtfully. ¡°How much water can you move at once?¡±


    ¡°I can barely move a quantity of water equal to the size of my head if I¡¯m trying to go quickly,¡± I said. ¡°Nowhere near enough water to be useful for a fight, sadly. But the healing and illusions are the primary parts of my ability.¡±


    ¡°Illusions are pretty interesting,¡± said Sallia. ¡°In my previous world, illusionism was known to be a really tricky school of magic, but proper illusionists could do amazing things on a battlefield if they were competent and had quick wits.¡± Then, Sallia looked at me and frowned. ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t have particularly quick wits right now. Your Intelligence is a little lacking.¡±


    I winced, before sighing ¡°I¡¯ll make it work. Honestly, I think the healing bit is a lot more useful to me. right now.¡±


    ¡°True,¡± said Sallia, turning towards the ocean. ¡°You said you wanted to learn more about the ocean when you get older, and explore it if possible, so I guess healing is a decent fit. Also, abilities that heal flesh are pretty rare in the village - it¡¯s much more common to be able to treat bones and blood, since those have more obvious offensive uses as well. Does your ability properly deal with drowning?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t tested it yet. That¡¯s part of why I called you two over - I wanted to run a few experiments. First, I want to see if I can ¡®breathe¡¯ underwater by healing myself rapidly with my ability. And second, I wanted to spar - I figure that my control over illusions is really weak right now, but it¡¯s my most combat-oriented component of my first rune ability. For both tests, I wanted you two around to help me out and make sure nothing goes wrong.¡±


    Sallia suddenly looked a little nervous. ¡°How are you planning on testing drowning? You¡¯re not going to¡­¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I¡¯m going to immerse myself in water, and then try holding my breath as long as possible. Then I¡¯m going to try healing my flesh and blood, to see if I can deal with the effects of not breathing for an extended period of time.¡±


    Sallia breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°I worried you might just jump in the water and try drowning yourself to see what happens. That sounds a lot less dangerous, at least.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°If something goes wrong, I know a kind of treatment for it that can help flush the water out of your body and get you breathing again. It¡¯s nothing special, and it might break a few ribs, but it should keep you alive.¡±


    ¡°If something goes wrong, use your technique while Sallia calls for a healer.¡± I said, before taking a few steps into the ocean. Then, I closed my eyes and sat down. The water of the ocean now covered most of my body, but left my head above water. I took one final deep breath, held my breath and concentrated on my ability.


    Then, I started ¡®healing¡¯ my blood and flesh. The feeling I got when healing something that wasn¡¯t damaged was¡­ different. Odd. At first, my ability didn¡¯t seem to have anything to target, and so I simply wasted mana.


    Water gently lapped around me as I healed nonexistent injuries. Meanwhile, the desperation of not being able to breathe started to grow worse as the seconds ticked by. I started panicking. Was my ability not able to cope with drowning, the way I thought it would?


    As my body began to panic, my rune ability finally found a ¡®problem¡¯ it could heal. After almost half a minute of holding my breath, my ability was finally picking up my need for oxygen. The feeling of drowning stopped intensifying. I was still miserable - it felt like I was drowning, every single second that I sat here. I was forcing myself not to breathe in purely through the power of my Grade 7 Willpower, but my body was screaming at me every step of the way. However, the feeling of drowning didn¡¯t get any worse. It was nearly unbearable¡­ but I could keep concentrating.


    Five minutes passed. Then ten. In that time, I didn¡¯t take a single breath. After a few minutes, I even managed to open my eyes, and gave my friends a thumbs up. The feeling of healing myself while drowning was awful, but I could clearly do it. I did, however, get the feeling that it would have been impossible with Grade 5 Willpower. It might have just barely been doable with Grade 6, but every second would have been a struggle. Thankfully, I had endured the storms for several years now, and with grade 7 willpower it wasn¡¯t too hard to hold my breath, heal myself, and still look around. After ten minutes, I stood back up, since my test was concluded, before I started to suck in lungfuls of air.


    ¡°Looks like it works?¡± said Sallia, grinning.


    After I finished taking in lungfuls of sweet, sweet air and trying to erase the feeling of asphyxiation from my memory, I nodded. ¡°I think I can stay underwater as long as I have mana. The mana consumption is awful though - I doubt I can last more than fifteen minutes at most. After that, I¡¯ll be out of mana.¡±


    ¡°At least it works!¡± Said Felix, grinning. However, Salliafrowned.


    ¡°It works, but if you want to explore the ocean, fifteen minutes is nowhere near enough time,¡± she said


    I nodded. ¡°I notice that the mana pool my fourth rune holds is significantly larger than my first three runes. Maybe 50% of my mana reserves are coming from just the fourth rune? So if I make a fifth rune, I¡¯ll have 22 minutes, and with a sixth rune I¡¯ll have a full half hour. Even so, the time is really tight, which is unfortunate. I need a way to extend my mana reserves¡­¡±


    Sallia frowned, before her eyes lit up. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not that big of a problem, is it? You can absorb some fish cores while underwater to replenish your mana reserves. It¡¯s not like fish cores are rare here - I mean, they aren¡¯t common either, but you can probably afford to stockpile a dozen or so. I don¡¯t think you could even consume that many in a day before running out of absorption essence. It would give you a way to keep your mana reserves up.¡±


    I nodded thoughtfully. Now that Sallia pointed it out, it didn¡¯t seem like a bad idea. As long as I had even half a dozen fish cores, I could just manually replenish the mana I consumed while underwater. It would require me burning some resources, but it was certainly viable. Sallia, who hadn¡¯t noticed me thinking, was getting increasingly excited as she spoke.


    ¡°In fact, it¡¯s not that hard for you to acquire fish cores with your ability, either. There aren¡¯t many villagers who can heal flesh, and most people only heal bones or blood. Since that¡¯s the case, you can heal people and just charge a fish core for your healing services, whenever the injury is severe enough. It shouldn¡¯t be that hard to amass a small fortune that way - and it probably won¡¯t cut off your intention of becoming a fisherman, either. You can spend a good chunk of your mana reserves hunting fish for the day, then spend the rest healing people at night to empty your runes, and repeat. And you might even get Achievement for Healing people, in addition to the Achievement you¡¯ll get for hunting Great Fish!¡±


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    I grinned. ¡°I¡¯ll let the village chief know of my new intentions.¡±


    Felix also grinned.


    ¡°All right, that¡¯s one of my two objectives down. Now, I also wanted to-¡± I paused, suddenly struck by a thought.


    ¡°Hey, my abilities from my runes aren¡¯t rare, are they?¡±


    ¡°Not really. I mean, I don¡¯t think most people start with the idea of ¡®dividing one concept into multiple concepts¡¯ for their runes, the way you turned the entire Ocean into a three-part image for your runes, but I know some villagers do similar things. And healing isn¡¯t a rare concept either. It¡¯s not common, but there are certainly other villagers that can heal. Why do you ask?¡± Felix asked, curious.


    However, I saw Sallia also frowning, as she put together what I was thinking about.


    ¡°No, Felix, the problem is that Miria¡¯s ability to survive underwater only requires one rune. So it¡¯s not that hard to replicate her ability. The outsiders have a much higher population than our village, meaning there are a greater quantity of weird and off the wall abilities due to sheer population variance. Since they also have resources rich in mana in their homeland¡­¡±


    Felix finally got it.


    ¡°Ah. Maybe a few of the outsiders escaped, even after the village chief thought he wiped them out,¡± he said, frowning. ¡°In that case, what does that mean?¡±


    ¡°It means the village might need to fight against the outsiders again someday,¡± said Sallia, her face morphing into a frustrated expression. ¡°The outsider ships were really heavily damaged when they came to our shores, which means they were fighting either sea creatures or other humans. Either way, it means that accessing this area should hopefully be hard enough that they won¡¯t devote time and resources to us for now, but who knows how long that will remain true? Once they nail down where our islands are, or whenever they finish fighting with whoever they¡¯re fighting¡­¡±


    Felix¡¯s eyes hardened. ¡°They might return. Now that I think about it, the village chiefs have remained on very good terms ever since the outsiders came. I thought it was just a sense of camaraderie left over from the battle, or a recognition that another similar situation might happen someday, but¡­ The amount of resources and effort the other villages spent helping us rebuilding does seem a little unusual, now that I think about it.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°The village chiefs are the heads of each village, and they¡¯ve seen just how ridiculously varied rune abilities can be. Plenty of the more combat-oriented abilities are a bit more generic, and help people hit harder or use their environment as projectiles. However, runes can do all sorts of weird things. Even if none of the outsiders had a rune exactly like Miria¡¯s, it¡¯s not far-fetched to think one, or even a few of them, might have survived or found a way to send a message back to Megailia. And I doubt the village chiefs are unaware of this fact, which is why they¡¯re making sure to stick together and remain on good terms with each other. They did their best to wipe out any problems, but they¡¯re fully aware they might have failed even after doing their best. The outsiders may or may not have sent word back - but the village chiefs are preparing as if they have, just in case.¡±


    After thinking about it, I nodded. The behavior of the village chiefs matched up with Sallia¡¯s speculation - the village chief of our village said that he should have extinguished the threat of the outsiders, but with how many strange rune abilities there were, it was almost impossible to know for certain. So all of the village chiefs were being cautious, just in case. In the past three years, nobody had seen a reappearance of the outsiders, but that didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t ever going to show up again.


    I sighed, rubbing my temples. ¡°Should we mention my ability to the village chief then?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m betting the village chiefs are already prepared for something to have gone wrong, but just in case it¡¯s not a bad idea to mention it,¡± said Felix, after some thinking. ¡°Since you¡¯re planning on becoming a fisherman, you¡¯ll need to talk to the village chief soon anyway. You can pass the message along while stopping by.¡± I nodded, before trying to change the topic.


    ¡°The other thing I wanted to do was try out my new rune in combat,¡± I said. It was a bit of a clumsy redirection, but we couldn¡¯t do anything about the outsiders for now, and it seemed like the village chiefs were already trying to make preparations for the problem already. Since that was the case, there was no point in worrying about it. We would deal with any future problems when they came.


    Felix forced himself to grin, and after a few moments, Sallia followed suit.


    ¡°Which one of us do you want to fight first?¡± Asked Felix. ¡°If all you can do is make a flash of light, it¡¯ll be pretty hard to get use out of your rune right now, and we don¡¯t use real weapons while sparring. So healing is pretty useless in a spar.¡±


    ¡°She should fight you, Felix,¡± said Sallia. ¡°You know how to use rune abilities in combat, and I don¡¯t. You can offer her a lot more useful ideas than I can, although I¡¯ll obviously still offer advice if I think of something. But right now Miria seems to struggle just to use her ability in practical ways. The illusion ability, especially, seems hard for her to use because of her low Intelligence Stat.¡±


    Felix nodded, and I also felt Sallia¡¯s words made sense. The two of us grabbed a pair of training swords and prepared for a spar. Sallia moved off to the side, as our referee. She gave us both a glance, before she grinned. ¡°Start!¡±


    After Sallia gave us the signal, I immediately leapt towards Felix. Since I was already low on mana and he had more runes than me, he would last longer in a drawn out fight. I made the nearby water detonate into flashes of light, but since he knew I could turn water into lights, Felix blinked with perfect timing and ignored my distraction.


    I still thrust my weapon towards his stomach, but he parried my sword away, leaving my stomach undefended. He stabbed towards me, and I burned some mana to speed up my movements and dodge.


    Felix burned some mana as well, giving himself a burst of speed as he tried to follow up with an overhand swing, forcing me to burn even more mana as I reset my position. I swapped to an underarm guard, and swung my blade upwards as if I meant to clash with his sword head-on. He grinned as he spent more mana, amplifying his strength and speed, and right as he prepared for a clash of blades I turned more water into flashes of light.


    This time, I finally caught him off guard. He was blinded for a moment, and I took advantage of his distraction. I dodged out of the way of his sword, before thrusting towards his neck. He blinked, and then his sword bent in midair to knock my blade out of the way, before a chunk of house from behind me grabbed me by the leg. I stumbled, trying to tear my foot out of the awkward position as I made another wave of light. This time, Felix didn¡¯t fall for it. He burned another chunk of mana to speed himself up, and as I tried to parry his blow, his sword bent in midair before he tapped me on the neck with his blade.


    ¡°Miria dies. Felix wins,¡± said Sallia, as I sighed. I hadn¡¯t really expected to win - my new rune wasn¡¯t very easy to use in battle, and I had almost no control over it. Felix¡¯s runes were both combat oriented, and he had much more experienced using them. Still, I was a bit sad that I had such a hard time using my ability in a fight.


    ¡°How much mana do you have left?¡± Asked Sallia.


    I checked my mana reserves, before sighing. ¡°I have maybe a tenth left? Converting lots of water into light over and over again is also surprisingly taxing.¡±


    Felix shrugged. ¡°Part of that is just practice - you wasted a lot of your mana while you were trying to blind me, and once you get better at manipulating your rune you won¡¯t waste so much. Actually, I suspect that your illusions will be much cheaper than other rune abilities once you have better control over them - the problem is that you just formed the rune, so you barely even know how to use it.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Miria. You¡¯ll definitely learn how to use your ability in a fight with more time. Though, I don¡¯t know if sparring is the right choice right now, if you want to get better at using your rune ability. Some time spent playing with water might help more, until you get the hang of making more complex shapes. Light flashes are nowhere near the limit of your ability, after all.¡±


    I thought about Sallia¡¯s advice for a moment, before I nodded. My rune¡¯s ability would be much more valuable if I could convert my light into something that would throw an opponent off of their guard. For example, if I could create the illusion of another practice sword, and an illusion arm, I could probably throw people off guard since they wouldn¡¯t know which one to defend against. There were probably other uses for my ability, as well, but for now I decided to learn how to make an illusion of my arm, as well as the weapons we used often in training such as spears, swords, and arrows.


    After that, Sallia and Felix began dueling each other, while I rested in the sand. I occasionally took very small handfuls of water and tried to bend them into new shapes, but my control was still abysmal. I needed much more practice. I sighed, before shrugging off my loss and grinning. For now, I couldn¡¯t use my ability very well, but that just meant I needed more practice. My Intelligence was only grade 4, which was a huge hindrance when trying to use an ability as precise and delicate as illusions.


    However, I had a Willpower of Grade 7. If there was one thing I was good at, it was succeeding through pure practice, patience, and effort. If I couldn¡¯t succeed yet, it just meant I needed to practice for a few more years.

 Chapter 36: Fishing Boat

    The next day, I visited the village chief and requested permission to end my apprenticeship under master Arne, and instead start learning to fish. In addition, I asked for permission to heal people with flesh-related injuries when I had leftover mana. Since I had four runes, and Olav had already said he was willing to take me aboard, the village chief didn¡¯t have any reason to refuse my first request. Regarding my second request, he made me first demonstrate my ability by nicking himself with a spear point, which I quickly healed up. Afterwards, the village chief gave me permission to heal people. Finally, near the end of our conversation, I mentioned my experiment with drowning, and my ability to survive underwater. The village chief simply nodded his head after I finished recounting my experiment and the results.


    ¡°We know, little Miria,¡± he said, giving me an exhausted smile. ¡°We¡¯re hoping for the best, but there are so many strange and unique abilities in this world that it¡¯s hard to know if we successfully stopped word from spreading about our islands. If we¡¯re lucky, the empire of Megailia doesn¡¯t know about our existence, and life can continue the way it always has. However, we have no perfect way of stopping information from spreading. So all we can do is prepare for the worst together with the other villagers.¡± Then, the village chief patted my head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about it, okay? It¡¯s something adults should think about, not children.¡± After that, he didn¡¯t say anything else about the outsiders, and so I reluctantly dropped the topic as well. We chatted for a few more minutes, before I left.


    The next day, I went to say goodbye to Master Arne and Sallia.


    When I stared at the door to master Arne¡¯s workplace, I felt a mixture of nervousness and anticipation. I didn¡¯t know exactly how to feel ¨C on one hand, I respected Master Arne. He had helped Sallia and I learn how to make tools for years. He was a kind man and a good teacher. I didn¡¯t regret a single second of the time I had spent in his workshop, and I had made a lot of fun memories building tools with Sallia and learning how to craft tools from fish bones here.


    On the other hand, I was excited to hunt another great fish. I wanted to return to the ocean and feel the waves and fly through the skies again. Not to mention, killing the great fish was bound to be worth a lot more Achievement than crafting tools, now that the penalty for doing the same thing was getting worse and worse. I had only gotten 300 Achievement for crafting 1000 tools, and I was more than a little afraid of how long it would take before I got my next reward. I also wanted to explore what was unique about this world¡¯s ocean. It was much better for my long term growth if I spent a lot of time learning how to fish.


    Finally, with mixed feelings, I opened the door.


    Inside, Arne and Sallia were sitting there, staring at the door. Were they waiting for me?


    I looked around the inside of the room, and saw a few bowls filled with my favorite kinds of berries, as well as a variety of other foods. The room had been cleaned, and all of the working tools I was used to seeing strewn about had been moved to another room.


    ¡°So you¡¯re going on the fishing boats, eh lass?¡± Arne grinned at me. There was a little bit of sadness mixed into his smile, but not very much - it looked like he had hoped I would stay, but had expected me to leave. Sallia looked at me as well, and I could see a mixture of feelings on her face ¨C happiness for me, frustration that I was leaving the workshop, and a little bit of sadness as well. Even though we would still see each other every day, the amount of time the two of us spent together would drop by a huge amount. All of her mixed emotions were tangled together on her face. She looked at me and did her best to smile, absently winding her hair around her finger as she fidgeted.


    ¡°Congratulations, Miria!¡± She finally said, her voice echoing loudly in the quiet room.


    I decided not to call her out, and simply gave her a smile.


    ¡°I get to join the fishing boats tomorrow. I¡¯m happy that I finally get to contribute more to the village and do more dangerous adult work,¡± I said, giving Arne and Sallia a smile. Then, realizing my words could hurt Arne¡¯s and Sallia¡¯s feelings if they misunderstood what I meant, I quickly added, ¡°not that crafting isn¡¯t critical to the village, of course. I just want to be back among the waves, and I want to fish again ¨C it¡¯s been something I¡¯ve been looking forward to.¡± Arne simply chuckled, before reaching down and giving me a pat on the head.


    ¡°Don¡¯t feel guilty about moving, little Miria. Sometimes, even if it makes other people feel sad, you have to move forward with your own life, and you shouldn¡¯t feel guilty about that. Besides, I know that you¡¯ve been looking forward to this for years. I won¡¯t lie and say I won¡¯t miss you. But your path is your own, and while I¡¯m sad to see you leave the workshop, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re moving forward towards your own happiness.¡± Then, Arne gave me a small grin. ¡°However, you did hint that crafting isn¡¯t as important as ¡®dangerous adult work¡¯ like fishing, so I don¡¯t know if I can ever forgive you. So if you ever feel that fishing just isn¡¯t all it¡¯s cracked up to be, come back here. I¡¯ll make you craft another hundred tools as punishment, to let you realize the value of tool making, okay?¡± I smiled, feeling a warm, fuzzy feeling spread through my heart. Sallia watched as Arne and I bantered, so I felt the need to pull her back into the conversation.


    I walked over to Sallia, and pulled her into a hug. ¡°Of course I¡¯ll still visit you too. You, Felix and I will always be together.¡± I gave her the biggest and most reassuring smile I could, before I released her from the hug.


    Arne simply gave us both a smile, before he turned back to the bowls of berries and assorted food on the table. ¡°Come on! Let¡¯s eat! I heard from your father that you really like this kind of berry, right? Let¡¯s celebrate your last day at the workshop!¡±


    The three of us had a good time eating berries and talking for several hours afterwards. Sallia still looked like she had mixed feelings at the end of it, but she was smiling more than she was frowning by the end of the day.


    As I thought about that, and my future on the boats, I smiled. Tomorrow, I would finally go back on the fishing boats for the first time in four years. I had spent years waiting for this ¨C the water, the wind, the strangeness of the ocean¡­ they all called to me. I was excited.


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    * * *


    The next day was my second time aboard the fishing boats. Now that I had four runes, my father, Olav, and Claus smiled at me as I boarded the boat, welcoming me to my new apprenticeship. The boat looked a little empty, now that Joanne and Agnar weren¡¯t part of the boat anymore, but in their place stood a new fisherwoman. She looked to be about seventeen, and had an easy smile when she looked at me.


    ¡°So it¡¯s little Miria again,¡± said Olav. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see ya getting¡¯ ready to head back to the sea!¡± He made no mention of the two missing members of his boat. It had been three years, so perhaps he had simply gotten used to their absence.


    I cracked a grin at him. ¡°I¡¯m glad to be back, Olav!¡±


    Claus also offered me a congratulatory grin. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you growing up as well, little Miria. I¡¯ve heard you¡¯re pretty good at resisting the call of the ocean, so I¡¯m glad to have someone young and eager to learn aboard the ship. Just be careful as we run through the teaching process, or we might end up crashing into the surface of the ocean. I don¡¯t want to swim back. If we drop from too high up, we can get hurt, even if we have all three physical runes.¡± He gave me a mischievous grin. ¡°Of course, such incidents are pretty rare. And let me also introduce you to Edel. She¡¯s the newest member of our boat, and she joined last year after learning from one of the other boats. She¡¯s a ray of sunshine in our group of four. And you know me, Claus, and your father already.¡±


    Edel¡¯s smile brightened, as she leaned closer to me. ¡°You¡¯re Miria, right? I¡¯ve seen you around the village from time to time. Nice to meet you!¡± She reached out her hand towards me, and I shook it.


    After that, Olav seemed to be done with introductions, and gave the boat one final scan.


    ¡°That¡¯s everyone. All right, let¡¯s start out by heading twenty meters up - that kind of height won¡¯t be a problem if we fall, but it¡¯ll give us enough room to teach Miria the ropes.¡±


    The adults put their hands on the sides of the boat, and the boat lurched into motion. However, unlike my first hunt ceremony, this time, Olav turned back to me almost immediately.


    ¡°All right, Miria. Here¡¯s somethin¡¯ ya need to always keep in mind while flyin¡¯. Normally, when we pour mana into the boat, we also have to imagine the boat goin¡¯ in a certain direction. For example, we might think o¡¯ the boat moving forward, or right, or left, or up. However, we aren¡¯t always goin¡¯ to be imagining exactly the same thing, right? Part of fishin¡¯ is learnin¡¯ to mitigate that problem. Even if it ain¡¯t exact, we gotta all think o¡¯ flyin¡¯ the boat in the same direction. Fishin¡¯ is about teamwork, because if we don¡¯t imagine the same things, we might be sendin¡¯ the boat spinnin¡¯ in circles, or even drop back into the ocean.¡± Olav chuckled.


    ¡°I want ya to keep that in mind, durin¡¯ the rest of the lesson. Now, the first thing you¡¯ll learn is how to put mana into the floatwood. Put yer hand on the wood, and then send mana from your runes into it. You know how to use your ability, right? Try to use your ability on the floatwood, and then¡­ intentionally fail. It should create a small amount o¡¯ pure mana that¡¯ll fuel the floatwood.¡±


    I did as Olav suggested, and tried ¡®healing¡¯ the wood. Since I had no water to convert into healing, and the wood wasn¡¯t alive, my ability immediately failed. The floatwood absorbed the mana created when my ability failed, and the boat lurched a bit to its side. Not enough to throw us out of the sky, or toss anyone overboard - but enough that I could feel the boat moving.


    Olav chuckled. ¡°A bit more mana than you needed to add, but not bad. Now, like I said earlier, ya need ta learn how to move the boat in a certain direction, as well. Try sendin¡¯ the boat forward a bit. It¡¯s a bit hard ta manage thinkin¡¯ about two things at once, but with some practice you¡¯ll manage¡­¡±


    I placed my hand on the side of the boat again. Experimentally, I began to try to imagine both healing the wood, and propelling the boat forward. It was surprisingly difficult to imagine both at the same time. After a few moments, I lost my mental image of sending mana into the boat, and ended up sitting there doing almost nothing. Concentrating on both  things at the same time was hard. I turned back to Olav, wondering if there was a shortcut I was missing. He cackled as he saw my expression.


    ¡°Messed up already, eh? Don¡¯t worry ¨C it¡¯s pretty normal. Well, just work on visualizin¡¯ both at the same time until ya can do it, and that should be a good start to movin¡¯ the boat, eh? Once ya know how ta do the basics, I¡¯ll teach ya how to coordinate with the rest of us.¡±


    The next few hours passed with Olav mostly teaching me how to properly move the boat, while the rest of the sailors threw in helpful tidbits from the side. It was hard ¨C it took me multiple hours just to get the proper ¡®visualization technique¡¯ down. I attributed part of my difficulty to my low intelligence. It hadn¡¯t been that big of a penalty when I was younger, but as I got older my low intelligence became increasingly annoying to work around. However, after several hours I finally got some of the technique down. My control over directions was a bit weak, but I was starting to get the hang of it.


    After that, Olav started teaching me how to coordinate with the rest of the team. It took several more hours to start responding instantly to Olav¡¯s commands, but as time passed I started to get the hang of it.


    It was slow going, and I was still only sometimes helpful to the rest of the fishermen, but Olav deemed it good enough that we could start slowly flying around.


    The rest of the day was uneventful ¨C we didn¡¯t move very far from the island the entire day, and since the team had me on board, they didn¡¯t go after any fish. The team just continuously walked me through the process of moving the boat around and coordinating with the team, over and over again.


    Even though it was uneventful, I enjoyed it. Learning more about how to control the floatwood, learning to work with the other fishermen, and trying to coordinate was unexpectedly fun, even if I was terrible at it right now. And I enjoyed the environment as well ¨C the feeling of the breeze swirling across the surface of the ocean, the sun overhead, causing the sea to light up like radiant jewels spread as far as the eye could see¡­ Even though the ocean was actively trying to lure people into it, and frequently drove people mad in this world, as long as one ignored the Call of the Ocean it was surprisingly beautiful.


    It didn¡¯t have the same terrifying, extraordinary awe of the storms during storm season, but it held a kind of tranquil beauty instead. I could feel a connection with the sea, as well ¨C the image I had used to create my first rune resonated with the ocean sprawling in all directions, making me feel at home. As I spent time here, I could feel my understanding of and control over my rune start to increase, as I got better and better at coordinating my imagination with the rest of the team and learned how to manipulate floatwood.


    It was one of the happiest days of my life. When we got back to the shore, I couldn¡¯t stop grinning. Though, deep down, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how long my peace in this world would last. If there was one thing I had learned about life on the islands, it was that danger was rarely visible. However, it was never far away, either.

 Chapter 37: Glowing Fish

    I spent a few weeks learning to maneuver the boat with the rest of the fishermen. Flying using floatwood had a heavy demand on group coordination and teamwork, so it took me a while to reach a point where I wasn¡¯t actively hindering the team. Finally, I reached a point where I wasn¡¯t accidentally sending the boat in a weird direction, and so the team started teaching me how to manage the boat during hunts and how to cope with emergencies. After two months, I could blend in with the rest of the crew and coordinate the movements of the boat properly.


    Three years passed. Felix and I turned thirteen, and Sallia turned twelve. In that time, our boat hunted a number of great fish, adding to the village¡¯s food supply and giving me a fair amount of Achievement.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist the Locals in killing 10 Great Fish


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +120


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist the Locals in killing 50 Great Fish


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had begun to notice that I always got an ¡®assist¡¯ for killing the Great Fish, even when I struck the finishing blow against a fish. While my rune ability wasn¡¯t particularly offensive, I still inevitably struck the final blow against a fish from time to time just by hurling bone spears at it. However, despite that fact, I never got any Achievement for killing a Great Fish - I only ever got Achievement for assists.


    After some discussion with Felix and Sallia about my experiences here, as well as our experiences in the Market, we concluded that the Market didn¡¯t care who struck the last blow. Instead, it seemed to evaluate our overall contribution to a battle. Helping to reload ammunition or using mana to hold the fishing boat in the air was a contribution to a battle, just as much as actually harming a skeleton or a Great Fish. In order to get Achievement for killing something, we seemed to need to have the greatest ¡®contribution¡¯ in a fight.


    Apart from my time spent hunting great fish, Felix, Sallia and I continued sparring with each other. Sallia brought her other two fighting Skills up to intermediate grade, but since Felix had five runes Sallia never quite managed to reclaim her spot as queen of the sparring field. As Felix and I grew more familiar with our rune abilities and grew more experienced in using them, Sallia had a harder and harder time winning against us. However, I was glad to see that this didn¡¯t put her in a bad mood - instead, she simply took it as motivation to work harder on advancing her Skills and farming Achievement wherever she could, so that next life would be better.


    My rune abilities, in particular, got significantly better as I practiced them. In particular, my illusion ability grew more and more refined as I poured hours of time into learning the ins and outs of making detailed images out of light. Eventually, became able to grab a fist-sized glob of water whenever I was near the ocean and float it over to me in less than a second, and transform it into a variety of images. My first, and most well-practiced image, was to create a ¡®fake¡¯ arm and weapon. It was hard for me to move my illusory arm with perfect precision, since I didn¡¯t have the Intelligence to create a perfectly simulated extra limb. However, my illusion arm was realistic enough that it could fool Felix and Sallia during fights, allowing me to get in surprise attacks whenever they blocked the wrong arm. With extra practice, I eventually learned how to make my ¡®real¡¯ arm harder to spot as well, by camouflaging it and making my skin look like sand or water. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it allowed me to catch Felix and Sallia off guard during battles sometimes.


    After learning how to make proper illusions, I started trying to make new things. I eventually figured out how to make an illusory flying boat, as well as a variety of other weapons once I started thinking about a potential second attack from the outsiders. With more work, I even managed to start duplicating some of the more common projectiles used by other rune abilities, such as bone and wood. None of my illusions were perfect, but on a battlefield with dozens of abilities and projectiles flying around I doubted anyone would notice. It still took me a few seconds to construct a proper illusion, even after I took to carrying around a bowl of water, but I doubted I could solve that problem unless I found a way to improve my limited Intelligence Stat.


    Beyond just my Illusion practice, my swordsmanship itself continued to grow as well.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Intermediate] Mastery of a one-handed swordsmanship technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +150


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have gained [Intermediate] Grade Mastery of a combat-related Skill for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained a swordsmanship technique to [Intermediate] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Intermediate One-handed Swordsmanship] as an ability, for the cost of 1000 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    Anytime you train with one-handed Swords, your body will adjust itself and adapt itself to your previous knowledge of swordsmanship much more quickly and effectively.


    When reaching [Basic] Mastery of any one-handed Swordsmanship technique for the first time in each body, your body¡¯s Physical Attributes will permanently increase by 5. (Note - these stats are attached to your BODY. Not your soul. They will thus be lost whenever you die or swap bodies.)


    When reaching [Intermediate] Mastery of any one-handed Swordmsmanship technique for the first time in each body, you will gain 30 Physical Attribute points. These may be distributed as you see fit between all Physical Attributes. (Note - these stats are attached to your BODY. Not your soul. They will thus be lost whenever you die or swap bodies.)


    When using swordsmanship techniques, your relevant limbs will receive a small speed boost, equivalent to a quarter of a grade in Agility.


    Glut Penalty: 15


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Second Note: You can only have one Ability for one-handed Swordsmanship. If you have a lesser version of this ability, the previous ability will be deleted upon purchasing this one, and you will receive a discount when purchasing this Ability. If you have a specialized version of a one-handed Swordsmanship Ability, you may choose which Ability gets deleted. Please consider your purchases carefully.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Felix reached [Intermediate] Grade Mastery of his spearmanship, but lagged behind Sallia and I in one-handed swordsmanship.


    I didn¡¯t get [Intermediate] Grade Swordsmanship until I turned 12, making me wonder how long it would take to get the next grade of Swordsmanship. I was originally disappointed by this, since the name sounded rather unimpressive. However, I quickly realized that [Intermediate] grade weapons mastery was nothing to scoff at.


    According to Sallia, [Intermediate] Grade Swordsmanship put Sallia and I at the same level as someone who had trained with a weapon for years. It was at the same skill level as a veteran soldier or mercenary. If [Basic] Swordsmanship mastery was at the same level as a new recruit of an army, [Intermediate] mastery was at the same level as a reliable hand at the sword who had spent years learning their craft. In other words, [Intermediate] swordsmanship would already be impressive enough, at least according to Sallia¡¯s memories of her old world.


    Unfortunately, once I reached [Intermediate] mastery, my skill as a swordsman didn¡¯t grow very quickly anymore. I was still getting better when I trained with Sallia and Felix, but I could tell that it was much harder to grow. Sallia didn¡¯t seem to have this problem at all - she kept improving at about the same pace as before. However, Felix and I started having noticeable problems improving once we reached Intermediate Mastery.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how big of a difference the next grade of Swordsmanship would make, whenever Sallia reached it. It would be rather embarrassing, if I had five or six runes and Sallia demolished me purely using her superior skill with a blade. However, I hoped that the next grade of Swordsmanship would allow her to make some sort of astonishing comeback. Sallia¡¯s talent in manipulating Absorption essence was extraordinary, and it was a huge shame that her Absorption Essence Stat was so cripplingly low. If she had been Grade 4 or Grade 5, she might have been the strongest hunter on the island, and she clearly enjoyed sparring and fighting much more than Felix and I. If Sallia could prove her value as a fighter despite her terrible rune count, she might still be able to do something she loved in the future.


    Finally, my project as a healer finally got off the ground after a few months of practice and testing. Villagers started regularly asking me to heal serious and semi-serious flesh injuries, since there weren¡¯t many flesh-related healing abilities in the village. Through that, I was able to rack up a little bit more Achievement and a fair number of fish cores. Many of the fish cores were spent by me to restore my mana throughout the day, allowing me to practice more with my illusions, but I still kept half of them for future ocean exploration purposes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Successfully heal 20 humans with [Moderate] Injuries


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Successfully accumulate 50 Fish Cores for your own personal use


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +50


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Unlike most other Achievement categories, healing didn¡¯t provide me with Achievement for my ¡®first time¡¯ doing something. Which puzzled me a bit. But I still got Achievement for it, so I wasn¡¯t going to complain. I also got some Achievement from a totally new category, called ¡®Wealth,¡¯ which surprised me a little. I had never thought posessessing material wealth would be Achievement worthy.


    So, naturally, the first thing I tried was ¡®giving¡¯ the fish cores to Felix. I was hoping I could just donate 50 extra Achievement to each of them. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t work. Neither of us knew why, so Felix returned my fish cores and we moved on. However, now that I knew ¡®Wealth¡¯ was a category I could earn Achievement in, the three of us decided to keep our eyes out for other kinds of ¡®wealth¡¯ we could stockpile. Hoarding Pearls didn¡¯t work, and fish meat proved equally useless, so for now the three of us decided to assume we needed magic resources to get Achievement. We could absolutely be wrong about that assumption, but it was our best guess so far.


    During those three years, Felix and I both stagnated at the same level of runes. It was increasingly difficult to form runes as one built more and more, so Felix still had five runes and I still had four runes. However, both of us were nearly done stabilizing our current rune - Felix thought he could create his sixth rune before turning fourteen, and I thought I could form my fifth rune within three months.


    A few days after I turned thirteen, I happily looked through my Achievement. I was more than happy with my Achievement gains over the past three years, and I had now reached a total of 3,878.06 Achievement. I still didn¡¯t know enough about Glut Penalty to plan my spending yet, but I was hoping that the Market tooltips would explain the term to me when we returned. Either way, having more Achievement was never a bad thing.


    As the sun set and the three of us finished training for the day, I looked at the ocean while I flopped onto the sand.


    ¡°Good work today, both of you,¡± said Sallia, standing next to us. I could see that she was also exhausted, but her pride as our swordsmanship teacher kept her standing long after she should have collapsed.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad that I¡¯m still improving somewhat, at least,¡± said Felix, panting. ¡°I want the Achievement rewards for getting Swordsmanship and Archery up to Intermediate, at least.¡±


    ¡°I think you can probably get there in another year or two. It seems to take several years for you two to get a weapon up to intermediate, but you¡¯re definitely getting really close to - what¡¯s that?¡± said Sallia, as her attention snapped towards the ocean. Felix and I frowned as we also glanced towards the waves.


    ¡°It looks like¡­¡± I trailed off, trying to recognize what I was looking at.


    ¡°A great fish? But why is it so weird?¡± Felix asked.


    Unlike the usual giant fish, this great fish was much larger than its already huge brethren. If a normal great fish could be compared to a mansion in size, this thing was closer to the size of the average castle. However, that wasn¡¯t the weirdest part.


    The usual great fish of the islands had many eyes and slightly strange geometry, especially while they were still alive. However, this fish took weird geometry to the next level. Depending on what angle I looked at it from, it took on completely different shapes, looking like a normal fish from one angle, then something closer to a pufferfish from another, and like a squid from another angle. Its shape seemed to completely change as it swam around. However, I could instinctively tell that its shape wasn¡¯t actually changing at all - my eyes just couldn¡¯t fully comprehend what I was looking at, so I got a weird amalgamation of images when I looked at the creature. The only trait that remained consistent about the fish was that its body was translucent, letting me see inside of its body all the way to its internal organs. Inside of the fish, I could see a massive, crackling rune made entirely of light. It was almost as bright as a star. It had seven other deep-blue runes, although none of them were as unusual as the bright rune. Furthermore, the fish glowed like a lantern.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that rune look like the lights inside of the waves during storm season?¡± asked Sallia, who had the highest Perception among us.


    With a shock, I realized she was right. The rune of light in the fish very closely resembled the strange, massive balls of light in the middle of storms. I had always wondered what those lights were, but since the storms were incredibly dangerous, I had never been able to figure them out. Now that Sallia had pointed it out I could also see that the light inside of the fish looked very familiar. I suddenly felt much more curious about the fish - was it related to one of the mysteries of the ocean?


    I turned back towards my companions, and they also looked at me, frowning and thinking. Finally, I shook my head. ¡°Let¡¯s report this to the village chief. Something is a little weird here, and even if it might be nothing, we should check.¡± I restrained my curiosity for now. I wanted to know more about the fish, and its unusual rune, but I wouldn¡¯t have a chance to see the fish close up today anyway. Since that was the case, informing the village chief made the most sense.


    I dragged myself back to my feet, fighting off a wave of exhaustion. Then, the three of us turned towards the village and began jogging back.

 Chapter 38: Attack

    It didn¡¯t take long to find the village chief and lead him back to the shore. We returned to the spot where we had seen the glowing fish, before gazing at the ocean again. The glowing fish was still moving around in the distance, although it was hard for us to make out any details because it was too far away. The village chief, however, had three mental runes. I saw his body start to light up as he poured some mana into boosting his Perception, before he frowned.


    ¡°How odd¡­When did you first see this creature?¡±


    ¡°Just before we went to get you, chief,¡± I said, looking at the fish. ¡°We thought that the creature looked quite unusual, so we wanted to inform you about in case it was dangerous. We don¡¯t really know what to make of it.¡±


    ¡°I wonder if it¡¯s related to the powerful creature that attacked the Outsiders all those years ago?¡± said the village chief, although his voice was soft enough that I didn¡¯t think he was talking to us. He continued looking at the creature for a few more minutes, while we waited, before he shook his head.


    ¡°The creature is thrashing around for some reason. I can¡¯t quite tell why - perhaps it¡¯s injured? One of the other villages already have a few boats hovering around it, and the fish doesn¡¯t seem very interested in them. The creature is very strange, but at least it doesn¡¯t seem dangerous right now.


    Finally, the village chief sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll speak with the other village chiefs tomorrow, to see if they have any more information about the creature. But at least right now it doesn¡¯t seem like something to be alarmed about - the creature isn¡¯t reacting to the boats flying around it, and it honestly looks like it¡¯s about to die. I¡¯ll tell the villagers to keep an eye out for the fish, and I¡¯d be grateful if you told your families to help spread the word. If it doesn¡¯t die, avoid it for now. And don¡¯t try to grab its corpse - the creature gives me an uneasy feeling, and I don¡¯t want anyone eating it in case it¡¯s poisonous or something.¡± The village chief fell into thought, squinting at the glowing fish in the distance.


    ¡°Thank you for bringing it to my attention,¡± said the village chief as he looked at the three of us. ¡°I appreciate knowing anything about potential dangers to our village.¡± After a few more moments of quiet contemplation, he turned towards us again. ¡°You know, the fish oddly resembles the storm lights during the storm season, doesn¡¯t it? Every storm always has a massive, glowing ball of light in the center of the waves whenever a big water pillar forms. The glowing rune in the giant fish is the exact same color as those strange balls of light...¡± The village chief smiled softly. ¡°If one of the other villages grabs its corpse, I¡¯d be interested in taking a look and seeing what they make of it. Perhaps after talking with the chiefs tomorrow, I¡¯ll ask Olav to grab the corpse for me. I¡¯d appreciate it if you passed word along for me, little Miria. Avoid the corpse for now, but I might want Olav to take the corpse back later.¡±


    I nodded. Honestly, I was also very curious about the glowing fish. The fact that its eighth rune resembled an oddity of the ocean so strongly made me wonder if it had somehow absorbed one of the storm orbs, or if it had interacted with one of them somehow. I wasn¡¯t sure if absorbing a storm orb was even possible, but if it was, it might give me a new clue on the nature of the Ocean.


    The village chief gave all three of us a small pat on the shoulders, before he turned and left. The three of us watched the giant glowing fish for several minutes longer, chatting and discussing it, before it started to get dark. After that, we also returned home for the night.


    * * *


    The next morning, I got on the fishing boat with my father and the rest of Olav¡¯s fishing crew. I passed along the village chief¡¯s words to Olav, telling him to avoid the glowing fish if we saw it, and Olav simply nodded. After that, we got into our daily routine. We flew around, looked for giant fish, and chatted. We didn¡¯t have much luck catching fish that morning, but that wasn¡¯t anything unusual. It wasn¡¯t uncommon to only hunt one fish every couple weeks for most fishing boats. I appreciated the long, peaceful hours I spent watching the waves, thinking about the oddities of the ocean and hopping in and out of conversation when I wanted to.


    I spent most of the morning looking at the ocean and daydreaming about my fifth rune. Since my fourth rune was nearly stabilized, I was excited to see what new ability I would get.


    It was midday when things changed.


    I was jolted out of my thoughts by the sight of something massive in the distance. ¡°Giant fish spotted!¡± I called out, seeing a large shape speeding towards us. As it grew closer and closer, I spotted a certain telltale glow. ¡°It¡¯s the glowing fish the chief told us to avoid!¡±


    Olav seemed to pause for a moment, before he nodded. ¡°I thought ya said it might croak anytime?¡± Olav sighed, before shrugging. ¡°Not a big deal. Let¡¯s get clear o¡¯ it. Since the village chief said ta be wary of the creature, we should go up.¡± The five of us began powering the boat to fly higher.


    However, a few moments later, I had a sudden thought.


    Why was the fish speeding towards us? Great fish were usually apathetic towards humans. However, as we flew higher and shifted our position, the glowing fish seemed to be swimming directly towards us, no matter what direction we moved in. I started to get a bad feeling.


    ¡°Is it moving towards us? Why is it showing so much interest in us?¡± I asked. Olav was also looking at the fish and frowning. The ominous feeling in my heart intensified as Olav¡¯s frown deepened.


    ¡°It really does look like it¡¯s heading towards us. Keep flying up! And start heading back towards the island, just in case!¡± said Olav.


    The giant fish was starting to get uncomfortably close now. It was speeding towards us, and it seemed to have no intention of slowing down.


    ¡°Fly higher! Put as much mana as you can into it! I¡¯ve got a bad feelin¡¯ about this!¡± said Olav, who seemed to be noticing just how much bigger this fish was. Our ship lurched higher into the air, desperately picking up speed as we tried to stay coordinated while moving as fast as possible.


    I looked at the fish for a few more moments, trying to get a better look at the massive creature. I realized that it had hideous wounds on the sides of its body. Several open sores leaked glowing white blood into the surrounding ocean, although not particularly quickly. I frowned as I looked at its wounds. What had caused its injuries? And why was the fish so intent on swimming towards us?


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    As the fish drew closer, I started hoping that it would ignore us. My uneasy feeling was getting worse and worse with every second. I counted down the seconds until it passed underneath us.


    3¡­ 2¡­


    The fish jumped out of the water, sailing directly towards our boat in midair. I felt a moment of terror as I realized the fish was actually targeting us. Then, I realized the fish wouldn¡¯t make it - it hadn¡¯t jumped high enough to reach us. I breathed a sigh of relief - Olav¡¯s instincts as a fisherman had been perfect. He had steered us out of the fish¡¯s attack before it could hurt us.


    Then, the fish suddenly vanished into thin air.


    Huh?


    I felt a prickling sense of danger from behind me, and I whirled around. The fish¡¯s dozens of eyes stared at me, its wounded skin glowing as blood oozed out of its body. I finally realized that the fish had teleported next to us.


    Its hideous mouth opened, and inside of its maw I could see two massive rows of teeth.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± yelled Claus, but it was too late. Claus reached towards me and dragged me out of the way. I lost my grip on the side of the ship, and the boat lurched to the side.


    Purely by reflex, the other sailors of the ship tried to shift the boat out of the way. We shifted a bit to the right, but it was far too slow.


    The fish¡¯s massive jaws clamped over half of the boat, including one of Claus¡¯s legs, and bit down.


    Claus screamed and the boat suddenly lurched to the left. I nearly fell out of the boat, but grabbed onto the side of the boat at the last second.


    We lurched in midair as half our boat disappeared into the fish¡¯s gullet, and I nearly fell overboard as the boat shook. Desperately, I grabbed onto the boat but the boat¡¯s movements were too difficult to deal with.


    My wrist bent at a weird angle, and I heard a sickening snapping sound.


    Pain lanced through my arm, and if I hadn¡¯t had such a strong body and high Willpower I would have fallen into the ocean and died right there. Instead, I felt like I was going to pass out, but there was no way in hell I was letting go. My father finally noticed my situation, and used a gust of wind to help catch my weight before lifting me back on board. I resisted the paralyzing pain in my arm and placed my other arm on the boat, fueling our damaged vessel.


    Claus continued to scream, blood pouring out of his stump leg. He wasn¡¯t fit to help us move anymore.


    ¡°Fuck! Up more! Try not to fall off! Fly back ta the island!¡± yelled Olav, panicking as he stared at the glowing fish.


    Terrified, I poured way more mana into the boat than I needed to, and I could tell that I wasn¡¯t the only one. The other fishermen were all desperately dumping mana into the floatwood, trying to get the boat back even a second faster. The remaining half of the boat was still able to fly, and with a clear direction to travel we fled for our lives. However, the glowing fish was circling around, preparing for another attack. I realized it wouldn¡¯t let us go so easily. Worse, with its teleportation ability, there was no way we could dodge or outrun it.


    Finally, my reflexes and years of training kicked in. The fish was targeting our boat, and if we didn¡¯t flee fast enough, we would die. We couldn¡¯t dodge or flee without help.


    If that was the case, my rune ability would finally become useful.


    I pushed through my nausea and concentrated on the ocean, taking control of as much water as I could. Then, three globs of water turned into copies of our boat. The boats weren¡¯t very realistic, since I was in pain and couldn¡¯t focus.


    Luckily, the glowing fish wasn¡¯t very smart. Even though my fishing boats weren¡¯t very realistic, its attention immediately swapped to the nearest boat. With another blink, it teleported in front of one of my fake boats, before trying to bite down on it.


    I released the illusion, and the boat burst into a flash of blinding light.


    Then, before the fish could recover, I reformed the illusion of a boat near the ocean, making it look like the boat had teleported away.


    The fish seemed pissed off, and ignored our real boat, along with my other two fake boats, and started chasing the one that had ¡®blinded it and escaped.¡¯


    I heard a notification from the Market spring up, but I ignored it for now. I had more important things to do.


    ¡°Good work, lass. We¡¯ll take care of the boat - keep the damn thing occupied as long as you can,¡± said Olav. I nodded, and stopped pushing mana into the boat. I couldn¡¯t afford to focus on the boat right now - I needed to keep the fish occupied.


    The attack of the glowing fish quickly devolved into a strange chase. The glowing fish kept pursuing my fake boat, which continuously ¡®teleported¡¯ around and blinded the glowing fish whenever it tried to attack. Any human would have long realized something was wrong, but the glowing fish didn¡¯t seem to realize the boat was fake. After some time, I even dismissed the other two illusory boats, in favor of making the targeted boat as realistic as possible. I felt thankful for the fact that the Glowing Fish had such low intelligence - even with two mental runes, it was still easy to trick.


    I managed to wheeze out a sigh of relief, in between waves of pain radiating from my wrist. The boat flew back to the island, with the fish chasing my fake boat and tailing us all the way. Sadly, I couldn¡¯t control water that was too far away from me, or else I would have simply flown my fake boat into the distance. However, at the very least the fish¡¯s attention wasn¡¯t on our group anymore.


    Meanwhile, my father found a moment to wrap a piece of cloth around Claus¡¯s stump of a leg. It didn¡¯t fully stop the bleeding, but it slowed down Claus¡¯s blood loss, which was enough for now. Claus wasn¡¯t in any shape to help us fly - he was half passed out at this point. However, my father, Olav, and Edel were determined to get us back to the island. There, the village chief or the hunters could keep us safe from the creature.


    After half an hour of being chased by the creature, I started to get nervous. We were getting closer to the island, but the damn fish kept teleporting around, and it showed no signs of giving up or running out of mana. Did we have enough mana to get back to the island? If we didn¡¯t, we might fall out of the sky and get eaten by this bloody fish. I looked at the other fishermen, nervous, as they strained to send mana into the sides of the boat. Then, I pulled out a few fish cores. ¡°Take them if you need to replenish your mana,¡± I said, before absorbing one of them. Maintaining my distraction wasn¡¯t usually a huge burden on my mana reserves, but keeping my fake boat flying for half an hour while using light flashes and fake teleportation was another story entirely. The other fishermen simply nodded, too numb and afraid to properly respond. However, Olav and Edel took a fish core and absorbed it. My father, after some hesitation, followed suit.


    We fell back into a tense and uneasy silence, as we flew back towards the island. Luckily, the creature never wisened up to my illusions, so we stayed safe, if terrified.


    Finally, we reached the island. When it got within a certain range of our island, the fish suddenly recoiled, hissing at something we couldn¡¯t see. It gave my illusory boat one last, enraged glare, before it turned back towards the ocean and swam away. I breathed a sigh of relief, and my illusory boat collapsed into fragments of light. The fish had given up. We started dropping in height as we flew to the village.


    When our boat was finally back home, our boat wobbled, and then almost fell out of the sky as we rapidly descended. We landed on the sands of the beach, exhausted and terrified, but alive.

 Chapter 39: First Useful Market Advertisement

    Our brief respite didn¡¯t last for long. My broken wrist throbbed with pain, and Claus¡¯s missing leg was still dripping blood into the bandage wrapped around it. My father, along with Olav and Edel, struggled to their feet, before my father dug a fish core out and handed it to me.


    ¡°See if you can help Claus, sweetie. Olav and I will get a healer to look over your wrist and report what happened to the village chief.¡±


    I nodded, gritting my teeth as I pushed through the pain in my wrist. With my good arm, I grabbed the fish core my father had handed me, and quickly replenished my mana. Healing was much more expensive than illusions, and now wasn¡¯t the time to save my resources. Now that I didn¡¯t need to put all of my attention on the Glowing Fish, I could tend to Claus.


    After draining half of the fish core, I waddled over to Claus and started closing his wound. I also replenished some of his lost blood, but I mostly focused on sewing his flesh back together. Meanwhile, my father and Olav disappeared into the distance.


    Minutes passed. Claus¡¯s most grievous injuries were dealt with, so I removed the makeshift bandage my father had thrown on Claus¡¯s stump leg and was relieved to see no more blood come out. Eventually, Olav and my father returned with a few of the village hunters and healers. One of the blood-related healers looked over my attempts to heal Claus¡¯s injury, before nodding.


    ¡°Flesh is sealed up well enough. Don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything we can do about the missing leg, but he should live,¡± said the man, before pausing and looking at me.


    ¡°Good job. You did as well as you could have little Miria." Then, he got to work regenerating Claus¡¯s blood and dealing with Claus¡¯s other, more minor bruises and injuries.


    Meanwhile, another healer moved towards me and placed her hands on my injured arm for a moment, before she frowned.


    ¡°Hold still for a sec and brace yourself,¡± she said. Then, she sped up as she dumped some mana into her arms, and then jerked my wrist bones back into the right places.


    I gasped in pain, feeling my eyes water. Before I had time to react, the healer started pouring more mana into my arm, and I resisted the urge to shudder as I felt my bones start wriggling inside of my body. Bone fragments started to roll back into place, and my arm felt painful and itchy. Once I realized what the healer was doing, I resisted the urge to jerk my arm away and put up with it. After a few minutes, I felt my bones slide back into place, before they started to weld themselves back together. The process wasn¡¯t perfect, but the healer had removed the biggest problems in my body and kick-started the healing process.


    ¡°You can heal flesh, right?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Good. In that case, you can probably stitch up most of the damaged muscles and tissues in your arm on your own. Your wrist and arm will probably be fragile for a few days to a week after this, but you shouldn¡¯t have any permanent injuries, I think. Maybe you¡¯ll lose a bit of gripping strength in your arm? It shouldn¡¯t be too big of a deal though. But make sure to take it easy for a bit. I don¡¯t want to be forced to treat you again,¡± said the healer. I nodded, and she smiled at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad nobody on your boat died.¡± Then, with her work finished, she nodded at my father and Olav before she started walking back to the village.


    ¡°Where¡¯s the village chief?¡± I asked Olav. Now that I wasn¡¯t in mind-numbing pain, I found it much easier to focus on my surroundings and converse again. My wrist still hurt, but it had gone from nausea-inducing pain to extreme soreness, which was much more manageable.


    ¡°He¡¯s apparently on one of the other islands right now - the other village chieftains were meeting to discuss how to deal with the glowing fish already, so he¡¯s not around right now¡± said Olav, sighing. ¡°One of the hunters and a boat of fishermen left to inform the village chiefs what happened to your boat. We¡¯ll still want more detailed recounts later, but we¡¯ll pass along what we know as soon as possible.¡±


    I nodded, before turning to the hunters of  the village. They were mostly conversing with Edel and my father, getting as much information as they could about the attack. Perhaps because I was injured, or because I wasn¡¯t an adult yet, they didn¡¯t seem as interested in questioning me.


    I took that as an opportunity to finally look over the System messages I had received during the fight with the glowing fish.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Keep a boat of villagers alive under the attack of the Glowing Fish


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +250


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    After using a water/illusion-based Rune ability to fight against a fairly powerful creature of this world, you have created the Ability ¡®Illusory Sunlight Glittering on the Waves.¡¯ It may be purchased after your death for 2,500 Achievement.


    This is currently a [Basic] Grade Ability, but like all keyword abilities, after being purchased it may be evolved depending on your actions in the future.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Illusion, Water, Absorption (3 Keywords.)


    While you are partially or fully submerged in water and exposed to sunlight, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. This ability allows you to spend the stored absorption essence in two ways.


    First, absorption essence may be spent to slowly remodel your body and brain, allowing you to biologically support absorption-essence type spellcasting.


    Second, Absorption essence may be spent to form ¡®runes,¡¯ a unique magical structure created partially within the brain and partially within the body.


    These runes have varied effects, mostly relating to strengthening the body and mind and allowing limited control over specific abilities. (This rune system is copied directly from the world you are currently living in.) You will also recreate the relevant dimensional laws within your body.


    You gain the ability to partially ¡®materialize¡¯ illusions at the cost of some absorption essence. This will cost constant absorption essence AND mana to maintain, but may allow you to temporarily turn your illusions into reality. The greater the illusion, the greater the cost. This ability may only be used on Illusions which are exposed to sunlight and are close to water.


    Glut Penalty: 15


    Note: In order to use a magic system from another dimension, one must have three things:


    First, they must have access to the essence in question. It¡¯s impossible to use manifestation essence for spellcasting without manifestation essence, or use absorption essence type spellcasting without absorption essence.


    Second, one must have the biological ability to process said essence. Attempting to use unique magic systems without the right brain structure and body structure may result in injury or death to your current body.


    Third, one must have an ability that mimics the proper dimensional laws one wishes to use in order to cast spells. Trying to use a fire-related spell normally wouldn¡¯t work in a dimension where fire physically cannot exist, for example, and using binding essence to cast spells would normally fail if a dimension doesn¡¯t have any binding essence inside of it. With an Ability, one can make spells that cannot naturally exist in a given dimension.


    Some abilities do not grant all three of these things. Please read your ability descriptions carefully!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have gained access to a keyword Ability for the first time! Would you like to purchase ¡®The Market¡¯s Quick Guide to Abilities?¡¯


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like a more detailed understanding of Abilities and how they work? Do you want to plan out your future Abilities and Stats with full knowledge of what each number means? Do you want advice on what Abilities and items to prioritize, and how to plan your future builds?


    Don¡¯t hesitate! Buy the Market¡¯s Quick Guide to Abilities for only 20 Achievement! Delivered directly to your Status Screen!


    *Market¡¯s Quick Guide to Abilities is delivered directly to your Status Screen, and is not subject to any shipping fees or miscellaneous fees.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I raised my eyebrows upon seeing the System notifications. Getting some Achievement for escaping the fish wasn¡¯t that surprising. 250 Achievement was a higher reward than I was expecting, but the reward notification wasn¡¯t that important.


    However, the other two System notifications caught me completely off guard. First of all, I had finally found my first Keyword Ability. None of the abilities the three of us had seen so far had any keywords, and the ability I had unlocked by surviving the fish attack had given me access to a keyword ability for the first time.


    Second, I had seen a useful looking advertisement from the Market. Many of the ads the Market had shown me felt random and only tangentially useful. Or seemed unlikely to actually give me a product I bought, due to the current state of the Market. But, for once, the ad I had been shown was extremely relevant to my current situation.


    I hesitated for a moment, before purchasing it. 20 Achievement was a small price to pay for finally understanding what Abilities were and how they worked.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    An illusory book appeared in front of my eyes. It took me a moment to realize the book wasn¡¯t real - my hands passed through it when I tried to touch it, and I could only ¡®flip pages¡¯ in the book using my mind. The book was attached to my status screen, and I could close it and open it again at a moment¡¯s notice.


    Eagerly, I opened the first page of the informational booklet.


    Abilities are divided into several trillion different subtypes and categories, many of which have strange and unusual effects. For the sake of simplicity, this book will only address the most common ones, as well as the basics of how keywords and glut penalty works. Please bear in mind that there are exceptions to the general guidelines discussed in this book.


    Now, when assessing an ability, there are a few things to keep in mind.


    The first, and most important aspect of an ability, is whether it is a keyword ability or not. A Keyword ability is much stronger than a non-keyword ability, and has a much wider variety of things it can do. However, you may only have ten keywords in total. This is ten keyword slots - not ten keyword Ability slots. If you have two abilities with three keywords each, and one ability with four keywords, you will have zero remaining keyword slots. You must be careful when purchasing keyword abilities, since removing a keyword ability is much more costly and painful than removing a non-keyword ability from your soul.


    Why are keyword abilities so much stronger than non-keyword abilities? There are a variety of reasons, but the most relevant to a new Transmigrator is the fact that they provide much greater benefits for the same amount of glut penalty. As glut penalty tends to be the greatest early barrier Transmigrators run into when trying to become more powerful, it is especially important to find ways to get the most power you can out of every single point of glut penalty. Increasing the amount of glut penalty you can handle is an expensive process, and especially as a newcomer to the Market you will have very limited amounts of glut penalty to work with. But this will be discussed in more detail later.


    Keyword Abilities have two major benefits that set them apart from non-keyword abilities. First, they have Keywords. A Keyword allows a specific Ability to improve its strength while you or the ability interacts with one of its keywords. For example, if you have a ¡®Fire¡¯ Keyword ability, the ability will get stronger when you are near a fire. These multipliers from keywords also boost each other, allowing for explosive increases in strength when you activate all of the Keywords in an ability.


    Second, Keyword abilities can evolve. Once certain conditions are met, you will be given the chance to improve a keyword ability at the end of a life. This will increase its glut penalty, and will cost a large amount of Achievement to improve, but will also drastically improve its effects and push it in a specific, unique direction. This direction will fit you and your combat style better and better as you keep reincarnating and evolving the ability. After a few evolutions, your Keyword Abilities will usually become the most important part of what you carry with you from life to life.


    Now, Glut Penalty is one of the other things you will need to keep an eye on when purchasing Abilities.


    Glut penalty is the ¡®burden¡¯ on your soul your abilities exert. The more abilities you have, and the more powerful those abilities are, the heavier your glut penalty will become. This leaves you more and more vulnerable to the natural corrosion the ocean of souls exerts on all souls, making it easier for you to lose memories and abilities. Souls naturally try to use Achievement to defend your soul against the loss of memories between lives, but it is very rare for a normal soul to succeed in keeping track of who it was from one life to the next.


    Glut penalty exacerbates this problem, but luckily, as a member of the Market, you are exposed to far less corrosion from the river of souls due to the protection the Market gives you. However, you will still be exposed to the ocean of souls for a small period of time. If your glut penalty is too high, you might permanently die upon contact with the ocean of souls, regardless of how many lives you have left, because your abilities are too ¡®heavy¡¯ compared to the amount of weight your soul can carry with you.


    In order to avoid this problem, you should always keep your ¡®maximum glut penalty¡¯ in mind when buying abilities.


    All souls start out with a maximum glut penalty of 20. ALWAYS stay at or below your maximum penalty level.


    Now, you may have already noticed that most abilities have rather high glut penalties. With only 20 glut penalty, it would be very hard to keep purchasing new Abilities as you travel through the Multiverse. So how does one increase their maximum glut penalty?


    The answer to this question is to purchase and consume soul fragments. The reason so many souls that don¡¯t belong to the Market collapse and permanently die in between lives is because they have no way to strengthen their souls. Each person slowly gains memories and skills over the course of their life, and upon death, a non-Transmigrator is thrown back into the ocean of souls, which corrodes their memories and identity. Once a soul between lives runs out of Achievement to defend itself against the Ocean, a soul permanently dies and becomes one with the ocean of souls. However, purchasing Abilities also puts a strain on the soul, making Transmigrators inherently more vulnerable to this corrosion. The solution to this problem, and the reason the Market is the strongest power in the multiverse, is due to Soul Fragments.


    Every single time you consume enough Soul Fragments to raise the grade of one of your Stats in the Market by 1, you will increase your maximum glut penalty, and strengthen your soul against corrosion from the ocean of souls. Raising a Stat from grade 0 to grade 1 will increase your maximum glut penalty by 2. If all 10 Stats reach grade 1 or higher, you will get another increase of 10 to your maximum glut penalty, on top of the twenty extra points you will get from raising ten stats from grade 0 to 1.


    The bonus amount of ¡®glut penalty¡¯ you can handle will continue to increase as you absorb more Soul Fragments.


    Raising a Stat from Grade 1 to Grade 2 will increase your Maximum glut penalty by 3. Raising it from grade 2 to grade 3 will increase your maximum glut penalty by 4. And the total bonus to glut penalty also increases from 10 to 15 to 20 as long as you evenly raise your Stats. By using the tools only members of the Market have available to them, you can slowly strengthen your soul and permanently increase the amount of abilities you can carry with you from life to life.


    It is HIGHLY recommended that you don¡¯t focus too much on one stat. It¡¯s much better to spread your Achievement around, since the cost of higher tier soul fragments gets expensive very quickly. It is recommended to focus on getting the bonus for raising all Stats up to grade 1 first, then fill out your maximum glut penalty, before getting everything to grade 2 and filling out your glut penalty again. By repeating this process, you can eventually become a very powerful Transmigrator, so long as you keep improving.


    Good luck on your future lives, and I hope that all of you will one day become great Transmigrators known throughout the Multiverse!


    After the introduction to glut penalty, abilities, and keyword abilities, the booklet began focusing on a couple more specific recommendations for builds. It listed useful non-keyword abilities that paired well with various kinds of keyword abilities, items that one might find useful when trying to create specific builds, and recommendations for how to improve and upgrade one¡¯s Keyword Abilities. The last bit of advice wasn¡¯t useful to me yet, and the rest was downright useless since I didn¡¯t have a defined ¡®build¡¯ right now. However, I still filed away the information I could find for future use. I finally knew what Glut Penalty was, and how it tied into the rest of my Status Screen. I took a careful look over my Status Screen, thinking over what I had done and how much I had grown in this world.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Runes: 4 Successfully Condensed


    (+60 to all Physical Attributes)


    Abilities:


    4th rune: Water Conversion - Light (Illusions) and Healing


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Teenage Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen. Your body is mostly grown up, and you can exert your Stats with very few penalties imposed by your physical body now.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. If you wish to exceed grade 6 at birth you must purchase Stats.


    Organic Brain: A partially developed human brain that has yet to finish growing. Made primarily of physical matter, with slight bits of Absorption Essence mixed into a few key parts of the brain to allow for rudimentary absorption-type spellcasting and interaction.


    Special Resources:


    This brain has been influenced by the user¡¯s training regime of watching the waters of the Althala islands during storm season. Due to the mixture of unique Mana and careful observation of the water during Storm season, the brain is now significantly stronger than before.


    Willpower +10


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 168 (0+108)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 89 (0+89)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 118 (0+118)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 187 (2+125)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 140 (0+140)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (0+126)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 169 (0+109)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 115 (0+115)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (0+74)


    Grade 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (0+76)


    Grade 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    0/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut Penalty: 0


    Abilities:


    Birth related Abilities: Body Control


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 4,108.06


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Even after paying 20 Achievement for the informational booklet, I had enough points for the new Ability I had unlocked, which I definitely intended to buy unless I got a better option. The Market seemed to strongly encourage people to take magic systems from one world to the next, and having a few magic Systems that were completely foreign to the world I was living on would definitely be advantageous for me in the long run. Then, I sighed, shaking my head and focusing on the present again.


    I looked at Claus¡¯s leg, and gritted my teeth as I thought of the glowing fish that had nearly killed me. At that time, Claus had pulled me out of the way, and had lost his leg as a result.


    I wanted to kill that bloody fish.


    One of the hunters, seeing me staring into space and gritting my teeth, snapped his fingers in front of my eyes.


    ¡°You all right, girl?¡± he asked, looking at me.


    Surprised, I snapped out of my stupor and refocused on my surroundings.


    ¡°Yeah, sorry. Just thinking.¡± I said.


    The hunter gave me a careful look, before patting my shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry - the fish seems to also be afraid of our island. It won¡¯t get you here. And I¡¯m sure your wrist will heal up good as new soon.¡± The hunter paused for a moment, before adding to his statement.


    ¡°We can¡¯t make decisions for the chief in advance, but he¡¯ll probably call for a meeting tonight once he gets back from the chief meeting. Be ready to attend, unless you don¡¯t feel physically able to.¡±


    I nodded, and began quietly making plans for the rest of the day. I would tell Sallia and Felix what I had learned before tonight, and hopefully the chieftain would arrange a hunting party to deal with the fish soon.


    And after that thing had nearly killed me, and tore Claus¡¯s leg off, I wanted to be part of that hunting party if I was able to. I needed to give my wrist a break, and I wasn¡¯t sure if the chief would hunt the fish immediately or wait, but if it was possible, I wanted to pay it back for hurting one of the men who had watched me grow up.

 Chapter 40: Preparations

    Night came, and as most people expected, the village chief called for a village meeting. Many villagers had already heard bits and pieces of the whole story, so people flocked towards the center of the village once the time for the meeting came. When I arrived, I saw people standing or sitting in a loose circle in the village square. The only person with a specific seat was the village chief, who stood in the center of the crowd as he waited for people to arrive.


    I looked at the other villagers attending the meeting, and I noticed that several fishermen were missing. Of the fishermen who had showed up to the meeting, some of them looked seriously bruised and injured, and a few of them were missing limbs, like Claus. My heart beat a little faster as I observed the remaining fishermen of the village.


    I hoped the missing fishermen were just receiving intensive healing, and that they weren¡¯t dead. However, the expressions of many of the villagers and hunters didn¡¯t look right, and I knew at least a few people had died. Before I had more time to observe the villagers, the village chief began to speak.


    ¡°I have important information for all of you. Let¡¯s get started,¡± said the village chief, once most of the villagers had assembled. His expression was solemn, and once he spoke the chatter in the background died out.


    ¡°Yesterday, Miria, Felix, and Sallia reported seeing a strange fish in the distance. I did not think much of it at the time, and after I personally observed it for a few minutes, I told them to avoid provoking the fish, and to spread word to the other fishermen. I also took personal action to spread this information, and thought the matter dealt with. When I saw the creature for the first time, it was rolling around in pain and appeared on the brink of death. As of today, instead of dying off, as I had originally anticipated, the creature has begun attacking the fishing boats for unknown reasons.


    ¡°I first want to state that this was my fault. Miria, Sallia, and Felix did everything they could have to prevent the tragedies today, but I dismissed the potential danger after making my own obersvations. If I had done something differently, perhaps I could have saved those who were injured or killed today. I apologize to the village for my poor assessment.¡± The village chief¡¯s voice choked a little as he bowed his head. I saw a few people grit their teeth as they stared at him, as if they were suppressing anger. However, most of the villagers looked sympathetic as they observed the village chief.


    I didn¡¯t feel the village chief¡¯s actions yesterday were unreasonable. He had assumed the glowing fish would die of its injuries, and fighting the fish might have resulted in more deaths and injuries than necessary. Even when it had attacked our fishing boat today, it had been covered in odd wounds and bleeding. I wasn¡¯t sure how severe its injuries had been, but if the fish hadn¡¯t had the ability to teleport, the village chief¡¯s words of advice would have removed any potential danger from the fish. The only reason the creature was a huge threat was due to its ability to teleport and its aggressiveness.


    ¡°Now, I am sure many of you have already heard the details, but I will give the village a brief summary of what we know before those who survived an attack from the creature recount their experiences. There is a strange, partially-translucent glowing fish that is attacking boat after boat, inflicting great damage upon the fishermen of our village. Of the thirteen fishing boats from this village, six have reported seeing the giant fish today, and three of them experienced attacks. All three boats were seriously damaged, and are unlikely to be able to fly safely or hunt fish in the near future. There were four fatalities and five major injuries. If it were not for the assistance some boats from the other villages offered to our village in times of need, as well as some clever ability usage, all of the major injuries in our village may have been deaths,¡± said the village chief. Now, instead of just shame and regret, I could hear barely-restrained anger in his voice.


    I was shocked when I heard the number of deaths and major injuries. Each fishing boat usually had somewhere between four and seven fishermen on it, averaging somewhere around five and a half. In short, a grand total of seventeen-ish villagers had met with the glowing fish. Of those seventeen villagers, nine had died or been seriously injured by the encounter. Since five of the villagers who encountered it were on my boat, and we had one serious injury and no deaths, nine out of twelve-ish other villagers had been killed or maimed by the encounter.


    I had originally thought that our boat was pretty hard-hit, since one of our five fishermen had lost a limb. However, I finally realized just how lightly our boat had actually gotten off during the nightmarish encounter. For no deaths and only one major injury to occur on our boat of five was incredibly fortunate.


    The fact that I had gotten 250 Achievement for keeping our boat alive suddenly made far more sense. I felt a mixture of nausea and pride as I thought of the encounter - I had managed to nearly single-handedly save our boat from being slaughtered, purely as a result of my own hard work and effort. But learning how bad the damage to the rest of the village was made my heart uneasy. Floatwood boats were hard to make, due to the scarcity of floatwood. Things had gotten a little better, due to our efforts in clearing out the forest, but floatwood was still hard to harvest. And fishermen weren¡¯t easy to replace either.


    ¡°Now, before I discuss my plans, as well as the consensus of the other village chiefs, I would like to discuss the memories of those who were directly attacked by the Great Fish. Let¡¯s start with the boat that had the fewest injuries and fatalities on it. Would Olav please come up first?¡±


    Olav made his way to the center of the group. After the village chief gave Olav the signal to start talking, Olav shifted uneasily, before he spoke.


    ¡°We were huntin¡¯ a fish, like usual, when Miria said she spotted somethin¡¯ in the distance. I looked closely, an¡¯ I saw a giant glowin¡¯ fish with translucent skin makin¡¯ its way towards us. Its shape seemed to change when I looked at it - I can¡¯t really put a better description ta the creature¡¯s body than the fact that I couldn¡¯t see all of it at once. It was real hard ta understand.¡± Olav shuddered. ¡°Anyway, after that, the fish started swimmin¡¯ towards the boat. I got my crew ta start flyin¡¯ up, since I figured we could just get out o¡¯ the way, and even if it was hostile it wouldn¡¯t be able ta get us if we were high enough.¡± Olav fell silent for a moment, as if reliving the nightmarish moment when the fish vanished into thin air.


    ¡°Then, it used some kinda ability ta disappear into thin air. When it reappeared, it was right behind us. It took a bite into the boat, and it took Claus¡¯s leg with it. Luckily, after that, Little Miria realized the creature wasn¡¯t too smart, so she started usin¡¯ her rune ability to distract the glowin¡¯ fish. It started chasin¡¯ her illusions instead o¡¯ attackin¡¯ us, so we managed to flee back ta the island. It didn¡¯t pursue us once it got too close ta the island, like the sea creature that attacked the Megailians.¡±


    The village chief frowned, falling into thought, before he nodded.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    ¡°How quickly did it move? Did it show any obvious injuries? Did you observe any other abilities being used by the creature?¡±


    Olav frowned for a moment, before nodding. ¡°I reckon the fish had a lotta smaller injuries coverin¡¯ its body. It was bleedin,¡¯ too. But its wounds seemed ta get smaller as time passed - at a much faster rate than it shoulda been healin¡¯. Not sure if it was a rune ability or not, though. The fish moved pretty fast, so it definitely didn¡¯t seem like it was on the verge of death, the way you say it looked yesterday. I didn¡¯t see any other rune abilities bein¡¯ used.¡±


    The village chief frowned, before he finally nodded. ¡°Thank you for your information, Olav.¡± Then, he turned to¡­


    Me.


    ¡°Miria. Would you please discuss your memory of the encounter?¡±


    I was surprised when the village chief called me out, but after a few moments, I realized it made sense. My ability had reduced the number of casualties in my boat to a very low number, and the other boats that encountered the fish had fared far worse. This alone made me more important in this discussion.


    I made my way to the center of the group. I was intensely aware of the eyes of all of the villagers falling on me.


    ¡°The beginning of our encounter was as Olav said it was. The glowing fish noticed our boat. Since you told us to avoid provoking the fish, I let Olav know. We started flying up to avoid being close to the fish - we weren¡¯t really sure if it was hostile or not. But it kept beelining towards us as it got closer to us. Then, once it was right underneath our boat, it jumped out of the water. I thought that we would dodge the fish, since we were really far away from the water by that point.


    ¡°But the creature teleported behind us, and then took a big bite of the boat. I nearly got killed, but Claus moved me out of the way at the last second. Claus lost his leg. I nearly fell out of the boat, and I broke my wrist holding on to the side of the boat while it jerked around. My father helped me get back into the boat, before I started using my illusion ability to create a fake copy of our boat. I flew it around near the surface of the ocean to distract the glowing fish. It didn¡¯t seem to be able to differentiate between our boat and the fake one I created, so I distracted it until we reached the village.¡±


    The village chief frowned, nodding thoughtfully.


    ¡°Could you create the illusion of a boat again, just so that I can reference it? Knowing how well the creature can detect things might be vital information.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I need water to create an illusion.¡± One of the hunters nodded, before disappearing. A few minutes later, he returned with a large bowl of water. I quickly transformed it into an illusory boat. The village chief and several hunters walked over to my illusion, inspecting it as closely as they could.


    ¡°It¡¯s not a very good replica of a real boat,¡± said one of the hunters after a few moments of observation. ¡°It looks fine at first, but all of the floatwood is too¡­perfect. There aren¡¯t any scrapes on the wood, or signs of long-term use. And the components are too even and undetailed. If the creature is fooled by this thing, it isn¡¯t too bright. Or there¡¯s something wrong with its eyes.¡±


    The village chief nodded. ¡°I agree. Most fish aren¡¯t terribly smart, so it might not be very bright even after forming its seventh and eighth runes.¡± He turned back towards me.


    ¡°Did the creature display any other abilities during the time you were fleeing from it?¡±


    ¡°No. I know the creature has eight runes, but I haven¡¯t seen it use any mana or use any other abilities besides teleportation.¡±


    ¡°At least one unknown ability, then¡­¡± said one of the hunters, thoughtfully. ¡°Two unknown abilities if its body just heals quickly. We don¡¯t know if its species is just naturally good at regenerating quickly, after all.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Miria. You may sit back down,¡± said the village chief after he finished inspecting my illusion.


    After that, several other fishermen who had been attacked by the fish and survived came up to recount their encounter. Nobody else had confirmed what other abilities the fish had, leaving the village chief and the hunters scratching their heads, but the basic information about the encounter remained similar to what our boat experienced. The glowing fish would sight a boat, then chase after it. Then, it would teleport near the boat and attempt to eat the fishermen and the boat together. It was too big and heavy to be blown away by wind-rune abilities, and didn¡¯t seem to fear damage most of the fishermen had tried to inflict on it. The fishermen who survived the encounter were the ones with rune abilities that let them escape, or helped them distract the giant fish. Most of the fishermen from other boats, however, had died, or were only able to speak a little bit since they were still in recovery after losing limbs or sustaining severe injuries from the fish.


    After the fishermen were done speaking, the meeting fell silent.


    ¡°Those are all of the reports of people who encountered the beast and lived to tell the tale. Now, I would like to discuss what the village will do. Naturally, it¡¯s impossible for the fishermen to keep fishing like this. Without fish, our village will starve sooner or later. The meat from the land beasts is only a minor part of our diets, and the roots, berries, and nuts from the forest are few. While our farmlands will help us survive for a while, the food we can produce from our farms is still very limited right now. If we wish to survive, we must deal with the glowing fish or we will starve within three weeks. For the purpose of killing this beast, I intend to organize a group of people to kill the great fish. I request the assistance of several hunters and fishermen to fight the creature. I will also need the help of the craftsmen of the village, to help prepare weapons and tools for the fight.


    ¡°Now, I will not be taking just anyone along with me to the hunt - I will not force any of you to fight with the glowing fish if you aren¡¯t prepared to do so. Fishermen, especially - I would appreciate as much help as all of you are willing to extend, but I know that hunting the great fish will be a completely different level of danger from what you experience in your day to day lives. However, I also need the cooperation of some fishermen to manage the fight. Hunters are more experienced with land-bound fighting, but have little experience with coordinating and flying a boat. If you wish to participate, or wish not to join the fight, let me know in private over the next few days. After that, I wish for the fishermen who do participate to spend a few days training with the hunters - after all, we will need to be able to coordinate properly during the fight. We will probably prepare to subjugate the glowing fish within one week, but we can delay for an extra few days if need be. We have the food reserves to train a little, but we won¡¯t be able to wait too long or we might face a famine.¡±


    Hearing that the subjugation of the glowing fish would take at least a week, I clenched my good arm. I would heal up in time to join the subjugation.


    Are there any questions?¡±


    The rest of the villagers were silent, and a moment later, the village chief sighed, releasing the tension in his shoulders as he looked at us. ¡°In that case, this meeting is finished for now. Fishermen, please come and see me tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. The sooner, the better. If one of the fishermen wishes to participate, but isn¡¯t well enough to see me within the next two days, one of their kin or friends can carry a message to me, but they will need to be ready by the time the hunt starts.¡± With that, the meeting was over.


    I thought of Claus, with his missing leg, before shaking my head.


    Normally, this creature shouldn¡¯t be too hard to fight, since it only had eight runes. But teleportation was an ability nobody else on the islands had ever heard of before, and it made fighting and killing this creature much harder. If the fight went poorly for it, it could flee before we managed to kill it and then return in the future. I couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit uneasy as I thought of that, since planning around an enemy that could teleport away at a moment¡¯s notice made killing it much harder.


    As I tried to go to sleep, I wondered how the village chief would deal with that ability. But the village chief hadn¡¯t shared how he planned to deal with the glowing fish yet, so I could only wait and hope for the best for now.


    I slept uneasily that night.

 Chapter 41: Hunters and Fishermen

    The next morning, I found Sallia and Felix, and discussed what I had learned about keyword abilities and glut penalty. When I mentioned the ability to take magic systems from world to world, Sallia¡¯s eyes lit up for a moment, before they dimmed.


    I had gained the right to purchase a keyword ability by fighting the glowing fish and successfully fending it off for several hours, saving my boat in the process and overturning a deadly situation. For Sallia to do a similarly amazing feat with only three runes would be incredibly hard. Which was something she was well aware of, and something that made it all the more frustrating for her.


    The three of us knew that Sallia would become incredibly powerful in future worlds with an absorption essence Ability. Since her major talent was in absorption essence, she might become the strongest member of our trio until Felix and I found our own essence. But earning a keyword ability would be incredibly hard for Sallia in this world, and it was hard to guess when we would stumble upon another world with absorption-essence magic.


    I frowned, trying to think of a way to fix this situation, but I couldn¡¯t think of an easy way for Sallia to achieve a similar feat. All the ideas I thought of were half-suicidal, and didn¡¯t have a high chance of succeeding. I shook my head, before sighing. I would try to find a way to help Sallia get a useful keyword ability - but I wasn¡¯t optimistic right now.


    After I explained what I had learned, the three of us departed from the area.


    However, Felix followed me, instead of going towards his teacher. As Sallia disappeared from view, I stopped, and turned towards Felix. He must have had a reason for following me, after all.


    ¡°Do you think fighting a landbeast and winning with only 3 runes would be impressive enough for Sallia to get a keyword Achievement?¡± asked Felix.


    Huh? I tried to think, before I realized what Felix was aiming for. ¡°I think she already got an achievement for fighting a land beast - at the very least, she should have gotten an Assist for one. During the fight with the outsiders, one of the land beasts came up and nearly killed me. Sallia helped hold it off and injured it, until one of the village chiefs from a different island helped us finish it off. I got an assist for the fight, and I only distracted it for a few moments, while Sallia actually did some damage to it. The village chief knocked it into the ocean, where it died. Since she didn¡¯t get a keyword ability from the fight, it clearly wasn¡¯t enough.¡±


    Felix frowned, thinking. ¡°Hmm¡­ maybe the problem is that she got an assist, instead of a kill? After all, when you kept the glowing fish off of your fishing boat, you did it almost entirely by yourself. But during the fight with the outsiders, the other village chief did most of the work.¡±


    I thought about it for a moment, before I nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s the only factor that¡¯s different, but your idea seems plausible. Where are you going with this?¡±


    ¡°If Sallia managed to get the biggest contribution in a fight against a landbeast, wouldn¡¯t that get her lots of Achievement and a good keyword Ability? It would be insanely risky, but if we can figure out a way to do it¡­¡±


    I thought for a moment, before nodding. ¡°I do think it would work, if Sallia could somehow win. The problem is, I can¡¯t think of a way to make that happen without getting Sallia killed long before the fight was over.¡±


    Felix nodded thoughtfully. ¡°I was originally thinking we could go to the other side of the island, and then maybe try to lure a land beast over. If Sallia can just hold it off, maybe with some help from us, it¡¯ll eventually kill itself by diving into the ocean. There might be a way to make it work¡­¡±


    I frowned, trying to think of a way to make Felix¡¯s idea work. The problem was that Sallia just wasn¡¯t strong enough to survive against a land beast for several minutes. She could probably hold on for a bit with her incredible fighting abilities, but she needed to spend huge amounts of mana to keep up with a stronger opponent, and once she ran out, she would die. Some land beasts could take up to an hour before succumbing to the call of the ocean, and there was no way Sallia could last that long.


    I just didn¡¯t see a way to help Sallia do the majority of the work in a fight against a land beast. I shook my head.


    ¡°I like the idea, but I don¡¯t know how to make Sallia survive the process. I don¡¯t even know of a way to make the battle successful.¡±


    Felix frowned as well, before nodding.


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye out. I still feel like there must be some way to make it happen, if we put together enough resources and plans¡­ perhaps if Sallia prepares a bunch of traps in advance? Or¡­ I don¡¯t know. There must be something. Actually, the fact that I¡¯m a year older helps a lot, doesn¡¯t it? When Sallia does her second adulthood ceremony, I could ask my hunter group to take Sallia along, then help her drag a landbeast to a beach away from the village. That would at least ensure there were lots of other powerful fighters around if something goes wrong during the fight¡­ but the problem still comes back to the fact that Sallia can¡¯t win on her own.¡± Felix sighed in frustration. ¡°I just feel like there must be a way to make it work. If Sallia gets this ability, she could turn all of her future lives around. Even in this world, with her cripplingly low Absorption Essence and Willpower, she can nearly keep up with both of us. If she just has an Ability and gets another chance for better Stats¡­¡± he sighed in frustration. I gently patted him on the shoulder.


    ¡°It¡¯s not a bad idea, and your plan for improving her safety net is pretty good. We¡¯re just missing a key piece of the puzzle, and that¡¯s why it doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯ll work out yet. But we might be able to come up with an idea in the next four years. That¡¯s how long we have until Sallia turns sixteen and starts her second adulthood ceremony. We¡¯ll keep an eye out for ways to make this work. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re at least thinking in this direction - we can come up with an idea in that time.¡±


    Felix sighed, before he grinned.


    ¡°Let¡¯s make it happen then. I don¡¯t know how to boost Sallia enough to let her win a fight, but maybe we can come up with something,¡± said Felix. I also grinned at the thought.


    ¡°If we can get her that ability, maybe next world she¡¯ll be carrying the two of us along on her crazy adventures instead of barely keeping up. It¡¯ll be the story of Sallia and her two sidekicks, until we find our own essence abilities.¡± The two of us chuckled at the thought, before we continued on our way. It wasn¡¯t a fleshed out idea yet - after all, we were missing the most important part of our idea right now. We still didn¡¯t have a good way to help Sallia win against a land beast. However, it was a goal to work towards.


    Once I finished speaking with Felix, I continued making my way towards the village. It took me a few minutes before I found the village chief, and then told him I was going to participate in the fight against the glowing fish.


    He stared at me for nearly a minute after my statement.


    ¡°It is going to be dangerous, little Miria. Are you sure you wish to go? Nobody will blame you if you don¡¯t participate, considering how young you are. You haven¡¯t even passed your second adulthood ceremony yet,¡± he said, giving me a gentle look. ¡°It¡¯s going to be very dangerous, and plenty of the people who join the fight might not come back. The creature¡¯s teleportation ability makes the fight far more dangerous than it normally would be. I¡¯m sure your mother and father would be sad if you died during the fight. If you feel pressured to go just because you encountered the fish first, or just because your ability is a little useful, you don¡¯t have to feel pressured. The adults of the village can win the fight, with or without you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure I want to join, chief. The glowing fish hurt Claus, and if it doesn¡¯t die, everyone will starve to death. I want to protect the village with my own hands. My ability will be really useful in the fight, right? I could keep a lot of people alive if we¡¯re lucky and the fish doesn¡¯t wisen up to my illusions. I don¡¯t want a lot of people to die just because I was afraid of taking part in the fight.¡± The village chief gave me a solemn look, before falling into thought.


    Finally, he sighed. And then, he nodded. ¡°Very well. But make sure to take care of yourself and survive. I don¡¯t want to see a young woman like you die in this fight. Leave the dying to us older folks, all right?¡± He gently smiled at me, although the edges of his smile were strained. I gave him a much more genuine smile back. Although I understood the village chief¡¯s worry, and his hesitance at the thought of relying on a child to survive, I wanted to help win the fight. And I now had permission to join the hunt of the glowing fish.


    * * *


    The second day after the meeting, I went to report to my boat. There, I saw Edel, Olav, and my father, also waiting for our hunters to show up. A few minutes of waiting later, Claus came to join us, taking me by surprise. I hadn¡¯t expected him to participate in the hunt at all, since he had just lost his leg. When he saw me and my father, he stopped for a moment, and gave both of us a smile.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    I smiled back at him. If he hadn¡¯t reacted quickly enough and pulled me out of the way, I might have died during the first encounter with the glowing fish.


    He laughed, and hopped over to us. He now used a bone spear as a crutch, but he was still mobile enough to get around. My father also smiled at the man.


    ¡°Thank you for saving my daughter, Claus.¡± My father¡¯s eyes got a little watery, and Claus¡¯s expression turned a little more awkward as my father nearly crushed his ribs.


    ¡°When Miria was young, I remember you saved me from a crisis once, Silas,¡± he said to my father. ¡°Our boat got hit by a great fish, and the half I was sitting in broke off and I nearly fell into the ocean. If you hadn¡¯t reacted in time, and used your wind ability to float me back to the boat, I might have gotten killed in the chaos. You broke your leg in the process. I¡¯ve always wanted to pay you back for what you did for me,¡± he said, giving my father an awkward smile. ¡°I¡¯m glad I was able to repay my debt.¡±


    My father hugged Claus even more tightly, and I wondered if his ribcage would be all right. Claus patted my father on the back a few times, and my father finally let go. My father didn¡¯t say another word - his expression said enough. Olav gave me a gentle smile, before he continued making his way to the boat.


    A few minutes later, three hunters came to our boat and greeted us.


    ¡°Nice to meet all of you. I am Brezin. Your boat has a total of four adult sailors, plus Miria, right?¡± he said, giving Olav a friendly not.


    ¡°Yep, we¡¯ve got four adult sailors, and little Miria,¡± said Olav, giving Brezin a friendly handshake. ¡°I¡¯m thankful fer yer help in this fight. I want to kill that beast for takin¡¯ Claus¡¯s leg, and fer all o¡¯ the people it¡¯s killed from our village. Welcome aboard my boat,¡± he said.


    Brezin nodded, returning Olav¡¯s handshake and giving him a friendly grin. ¡°It¡¯s an honor to be aboard your boat, Olav. The work you and other fishermen put in to keeping our village fed is what allows hunters to do our jobs.¡± Then, he cleared his throat, giving us all a closer look. ¡°All right, first thing¡¯s first - we should go over abilities and boat capacity. Your boat has been assigned three hunters - can you handle that many, or do we need to figure out something else?¡±


    Olav frowned, mulling it over for a moment. ¡°I think we can handle three, but it might be a little tough weight-wise, especially if yer movin¡¯ around on the boat and shiftin¡¯ your weight durin¡¯ the fight. It can change how we need to move the boat, after all.¡±


    ¡°Do you need to drop it to two hunters? If so, let me know so I can inform the village chief.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s see how it goes in today¡¯s trainin¡¯, and we can adjust at the end of the day if it ain¡¯t workin¡¯ out.¡±


    ¡°That sounds reasonable to me. Now, what abilities do the sailors of your boat possess? Besides Miria, of course - I already know what ability she has.¡± Olav turned towards the adult sailors, before nodding.


    ¡°My first rune ability is to control blood. I can¡¯t replenish what¡¯s lost, but I can manipulate what¡¯s there. It¡¯s worth notin¡¯ that most creature fight back against me manipulation¡¯ their blood. My second ability allows me to deepen wounds that have already drawn blood in a creature - it¡¯s a bit specific, but can be very lethal in the right circumstances. My third ability is to take a drop of my own blood and weaponize it, turning it into a kind of acid that corrodes blood, inflicts wounds, and deepens then. By using all three of my abilities together, I can turn one of my drops of blood into a very lethal weapon against weaker creatures. But based on my experiences, the glowing fish is too big for me to do lots of damage to it with my rune abilities, and it¡¯s probably a bit too resilient as well.¡±


    Brezin nodded, before turning to the other sailors.


    My father spoke up next. ¡°I can do wind manipulation, and my second ability rune boosts my first ability and reinforces it. I usually work to catch people if they fall off the boat.¡± Brezin nodded.


    Claus spoke up next. ¡°I can drastically enlarge and reinforce bone spears and change their flight path in mid-air. I may be missing a bit of mobility, now that¡­ now that I only have one leg, but I can still help with the fight.¡± Brezin gave Claus a careful look, especially checking Claus¡¯s stump, before he slowly nodded.


    Edel spoke up last. ¡°I can reinforce ropes and heal bones. A little mismatched, but I can do a lot of useful things during regular hunts.¡±


    Brezin sank into thought, before he sighed.


    ¡°I think we can make this work. Miria, a few words the village chief asked me to deliver to you. You¡¯ve already proven that your ability is very effective against the glowing fish. There aren¡¯t any other villagers in our village or the other villages who have an illusion ability, and the glowing fish has shown that it can¡¯t differentiate between real boats and illusory boats very well. The chieftain has an idea that he¡¯d like you to expand on. Can you make a bunch of projectiles, or a couple large projectiles, in order to frighten the fish? A few of the chiefs are planning on using their abilities together to create a few big attacks during some parts of the battle - can you mimic those big attacks and make the fish dodge or frighten it away during the fight?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t make a lot of smaller attacks, but I can copy a big attack if I practice it long enough. What would the attack look like?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll look like a much bigger version of this - ¡° He said, and he gestured towards two of the other hunters.


    One of them pulled a small waterskin out of his belt, before he poured it into midair. The water began hovering, before it began to condense into a bubble.


    ¡°Imagine this is the surface of the ocean,¡± said Brezin.


    I saw a giant bubble of water begin to condense in midair. One of the other two hunters gestured, and sand and rocks from our surroundings began to fling themselves into the bubble of water. A few moments later, the bubble of water began to writhe and squirm like a volcano about to erupt.


    The sand and rocks assembled themselves into a spear, before they hardened into stone. Finally, I saw the other hunter cut herself before adding a few drops of blood to the stone spear. It glistened with a vicious red gleam, before the bubble of water exploded.


    The stone spearpoint was flung directly towards the ocean, where it whizzed into the distance.


    ¡°We don¡¯t actually have any blood-related abilities among the three of us, but one of the village chiefs specializes in it, and our village chief said the stone spears will be cooperative efforts. So I expect some spears will have blood abilities tacked on, and some won¡¯t. Can you copy that attack? And make sure to sometimes add a red color to the spear point, and sometimes keep it stone-colored?¡±


    I frowned, looking at the spear point that Brezin and the two hunters had created, before I nodded.


    ¡°I can already create illusions of spear points. I can probably make an illusion of the full attack with enough practice, I think. It¡¯ll look much cruder, but the glowing fish doesn¡¯t seem too bright.¡±


    Brezin grinned. I nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll get working on it, then.¡±


    Brezin grinned. ¡°In that case, you¡¯ll have a pretty hard job, Miria. You¡¯ll need to be helping fly the boat during some parts of the fight, but you¡¯ll also need to swap to rune abilities when I tell you to. I¡¯ve heard you have a lot of fish cores, right? You might need to bring some along, so that you can replenish your mana during the fight. Can you do that?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Good,¡± said Brezin.


    Olav nodded as well. ¡°What about your other abilities?¡± he asked, turning to the hunters.


    ¡°We have water, sand, and stone control, as you¡¯ve already seen. We also have the ability to convert sand into stone, and to make a stone spearpoint much sturdier. Finally, we can strengthen your mind, as long as you¡¯re within ten or twenty meters of him,¡± Brezin said, pointing to the hunter who hadn¡¯t been part of the spearpoint demonstration. ¡°I brightened up at that thought.


    ¡°Including Intelligence?¡± I asked. My low Intelligence was one of the bigger weaknesses I struggled with on this world, and it especially hampered my illusion abilities. If one of the hunters could boost mental strength, it might be a game changer for me.


    Brezin nodded. ¡°His rune enhances the ability to think, as well as the speed you think and your ability to sense your body and the world around you. Sadly, he cannot boost your mental defenses against things like the Ocean, or his ability would be much stronger. Finally, we have a few useless abilities like wood manipulation. Wood manipulation is great in the forest, but on the ocean¡­¡° Brezin shrugged. ¡°Not so useful. Any attack that hits a boat will probably kill the crew instantly during this fight, after all.¡±


    I nodded to myself. Brezin made it seem like the rune enhancing ability boosted Intelligence and Perception, but not Willpower. If that was the case, it would be surprisingly useful for my Illusion rune ability.


    Olav also nodded while I was lost in my thoughts. ¡°I think that¡¯s it for introductions. Should we get started?¡±


    The next several hours were an exhausting blur. The fishermen on the boat, including me, practiced using our abilities while keeping the boat steady and retaining our awareness of what everyone else was doing. We flew just a bit beyond the island, so that I had access to lots of water.


    The hunters inside the fishing boat practiced throwing spears to hit targets made of sand, which the third hunter floated around the boat to simulate the movements of the glowing fish. As a result of their incredible strength, and the huge amount of mana they could blow on each attack, some throws would mess with the balance of the boat. However, the five of us were just able to compensate for the throws after an hour or two of practice.


    Meanwhile, I also needed to try to actively use my ability to sneak in assistance during the fight. I would almost always be in charge of maintaining at least one ¡®fake¡¯ boat during the fight, and I needed to keep it near the ¡®glowing fish¡¯ at all times. When Brezin gave me additional orders, I needed to stop worrying about the boat and start creating illusory projectiles instead. It was incredibly difficult, although the boost to my mental Stats helped a lot. I estimated the boost to be equivalent to about a quarter of a grade. It wasn¡¯t enough to make my Illusions reach a new level, but it was just barely enough for me to hold on while juggling illusions and controlling the boat.


    The next five days followed a similar routine. The four hunters kept training in our boat, and gradually, we began to learn how to work as a team and better control our movements while coordinating with the hunters. Each session was exhausting and stressful, but the fishing crew¡¯s coordination with the hunters grew better and better, and my illusions also grew better and better. I got used to working under the influence of the mental boost from the hunters My broken arm also finished healing up, thankfully.


    Finally, after five days of training, we had reached a decent level of cooperation and coordination with the hunters. On the ninth day after the village meeting, the chief sent word to the participating hunters and fishing boats. Tomorrow, we would begin the hunt.

 Chapter 42: Hunting the Glowing Fish (1)

    The morning of the hunt came. Before I could leave for the meeting spot, my mother stopped me by stepping in front of the door. She stared at me for a moment, as if memorizing every detail of my face. Then, she smiled at me, although her smile was a little sad.


    ¡°Take this with you, sweetie,¡± she said, and handed me a bracelet made of pearls. I looked at it, confused, before I nodded. ¡°Wear it while you fight the glowing fish. Maybe the Ocean Mother will see it, and keep you safe during the fight.¡± I slid it around my wrist, and carefully sensed it with my absorption essence.


    There was no mana in the pearls. There wasn¡¯t anything but my mother¡¯s wishes for me to return home alive. I gently stroked the pearls wound around my wrist.


    Even though the bracelet had no special abilities, it was the most precious gift I could receive right now. I hugged my mother for a few minutes, and the two of us spent a few minutes taking in each other¡¯s presence.


    However, time waited for no one. After a few minutes, I gave my mother a kiss on her cheek. ¡°I¡¯ll come back home alive. And I¡¯ll bring father back too.¡±


    My mother¡¯s smile grew a little strained, but she stroked my forehead and gave me a peck on the cheek.


    ¡°Come back safe and sound. I don¡¯t need my little girl and my dearest Silas to disappear on the same day, so don¡¯t you dare die during the fight, all right?¡± I gave my mother the most confident smile I could, gave her another hug, and then left.


    When I was walking through the village, I found Sallia waiting for me just a few houses away. Like my mother, she also stopped me, and gave me a bracelet made of pearls.


    ¡°If you die before I do, I¡¯ll make sure that your training is extra hard for the next three lives. I¡¯ll be really angry with you, all right?¡±


    I hesitated for a moment, before I hugged her too. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡±


    We didn¡¯t say anything else. We simply stood together for a few minutes, in comfortable silence, as Sallia scanned me like she was trying to imprint my image into her memories.


    A few minutes later, Felix also arrived. Unlike Sallia, he didn¡¯t have a hard time speaking. He gave me a careful, studied look, before sighing.


    ¡°I wish I could join the fight too, but neither of my abilities are useful, and I only have five runes. Since I¡¯m not an adult yet, and I¡¯m not a fisherman, I can¡¯t join in. But at least take this with you, as a token of my confidence. You¡¯re strong, you have an Ability that counters the glowing fish, and you¡¯re determined. You can make it through this and come back.¡± He said, before handing me another bracelet of pearls. I chuckled, looking at the three pearl bracelets I was now wearing.


    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to do so.¡±


    The atmosphere was heavy after that, and so the three of us fell into silence. Finally, we just sat together as a group of three, taking comfort in each other¡¯s presence in what might be our final moments together on this world if I died during the fight.


    After a few minutes, I got up and left. I needed to reach the boats on time. When I arrived, I saw all of the other hunters and fishermen of my boat standing together. Like me, most of them were wearing several bracelets made of pearls. My father gave me a final, careful look, before he sighed and gave me a nod. I could tell there were a lot of emotions in his expression - pride, worry, hope, fear¡­ all bundled together as he looked at me standing next to the boat, and realized I was really going to participate in the fight.


    The group didn¡¯t say anything. We simply climbed into the boat and flew to the place the village chief told us to meet up. There, I saw several other boats of people sitting in the sand and waiting for the village chief¡¯s arrival. A few minutes later, the village chief came, where he gave us all solemn nods.


    ¡°First, thank all of you for coming. I know that being willing to risk your lives for the sake of your friends and family must be hard. All of you are men and women the village can be proud of, and I know that you will perform well during the battle.


    ¡°Now, there are a few things the other village chiefs and I have been testing during the time all of you have been training. I¡¯ve already discussed some of these details with the hunters, but I will reiterate what we have learned, and how we intend to use that to our advantage.  First, and most importantly, we have determined that we don¡¯t have the firepower to kill this thing in a few attacks. Its body is very resilient against damage, and it¡¯s definitely using a healing rune ability. This means that we need to exhaust its mana before we have any chance of killing it - otherwise, it will just heal itself while teleporting away. This means we will need to wear it down for a while before we trap it and kill it.


    ¡°This is the phase of the fight all of you will be most important for. The other chiefs and I will get in attacks when we see a good opportunity to use them, but we will mostly be conserving our mana for the second phase of the fight. We will only step in during emergencies. During the first phase of the fight, I want all of you to harass the fish and bleed it as much as possible. I¡¯ve asked the crafters to design some very special spears, which are quite a bit heavier than regular bone spears. These spears will have a much easier time penetrating the scales of the fish, meaning all of you will be able to deal damage even with regular thrown weapons as long as you¡¯re close enough.


    ¡°During this phase of the fight, little Miria will also do her best to keep the fish distracted. We don¡¯t know how long it will remain focused on her illusory boat, since we don¡¯t know how the fish will react when injured. However, Miria should keep the fish concentrated on her for as long as possible, and in the meantime, all of you should just do as much damage to the fish as you can. Make it waste mana teleporting and healing itself, until it starts to run low.¡±


    ¡°Once its mana is low enough, we will begin the second phase of the fight. We¡¯ve observed that the glowing fish is afraid of some islands - however, it isn¡¯t afraid of all islands. We aren¡¯t sure what differentiates these islands, but we intend to make full use of this. We¡¯ve discovered a few important traits of the glowing fish¡¯s teleportation ability. Most importantly, there is a cooldown between each use of its teleportation ability. Every time it teleports, it needs to wait about five seconds before teleporting again. And the range it can move is also limited. We intend to use a few ¡®minor¡¯ attacks during the first phase of the fight, to make the fish complacent against our actions. Miria, your illusions will also help with this, since it will make the fish fear our attacks even less - anytime the other village chiefs and I use a ¡®big¡¯ attack, try to follow up by adding an extra fake attack into the mix when you can. When the fish is low on mana, we will use a special combination of abilities to toss the fish onto an island. The island is relatively small and uninhabited by either humans or landbeasts - it doesn¡¯t even have a forest. However, it¡¯s large enough that the glowing fish would need at least three teleportations to get out of the island if it gets stuck in the center of it. From there, the village chiefs will use our abilities to trap it on the island before everyone will shred it to pieces with our abilities. This second phase of the fight will be much safer than the first phase.


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    ¡°If all goes well, we should be able to kill the beast once and for all without letting it flee back underwater. During the first phase, prioritize dodging over dealing damage whenever it¡¯s possible. Stay out of range of the fish¡¯s teleportation, and hit it only when you¡¯re able to do so, or when it¡¯s unable to teleport. Pay attention to your own safety first. Fishermen, make sure you¡¯re ready to flee at a moment¡¯s notice, and hunters, if you have any abilities that help the boats maneuver around, make sure you have them ready at a moment¡¯s notice. You can¡¯t hurt the fish more if you¡¯re dead, so be cautious. Miria, whenever the fish stops getting distracted by your illusions, focus on dodging with the rest of your boat. Keep as many other people as you can alive, but worry about yourself first, all right?¡± The village chief looked directly at me, and I nodded.


    ¡°Yes, chief.¡±


    One after another, boats began soaring into the sky, laden with their crews and weighted spears. We soared across the swirling waters of the ocean, and soon we met with several other flying boats from other villages. We temporarily landed on the island we planned to lure the fish onto during the second phase of the fight. The village chiefs disembarked, before going over last minute details together.


    Meanwhile, I watched the waters nervously, my hands tightening and relaxing over my fish core pouch. I had brought twenty fish cores with me - more than I could absorb in one day, in case someone else needed a mana resupply.


    Finally, the village chiefs finished speaking. Several scout boats took to the air, and began moving in different directions to find the fish and lure it towards the island.


    Finally, after almost an hour, we saw a distant ripple on the ocean.


    ¡°In the air, everyone!¡± Called one of the other village chiefs, and nearly a hundred and fifty boats soared into the skies. Meanwhile, the distant ripple on the water approached us. It wasn¡¯t long before I saw the beast that had haunted my nightmares for days appear.


    The glowing fish had come.


    It seemed totally unfazed by the cloud ships waiting for it. As it looked at us, I could swear I saw it smirk a little, its massive translucent lips curving ever so slightly as it prepared to fight us. Its distorted geometry flickered in and out of my field of view as I took a deep breath. Then, I summoned my illusory boat.


    I flew the fake boat near the edge of our cloud of boats, trying to lure the fish within range of everyone¡¯s attacks without getting it too close to real boats.


    The fish¡¯s eyes locked on to my illusion, and it suddenly looked pissed off. It clearly recognized my fake boat, and was eager to finally get revenge.


    I grinned, ignoring a System notification that popped up at the edge of my vision. I would deal with System notifications after the battle.


    The fish leapt out of the waves, before teleporting towards my illusion. The boats nearest to the fish moved a little farther away, keeping themselves safe, but most of the boats didn¡¯t need to move at all.


    ¡°Ready! Throw!¡± yelled Brezin, seeing the fish appear in midair near my illusion.


    The fishermen and I braced the ship, holding it steady as the hunters on our ship threw a wave of spears and abilities at the great fish. I could see the other fishing boats doing the same, forming a hail of multicolored attacks that sailed towards the leviathan the moment it finished teleporting.


    Its teeth crashed down ¨C onto my illusion, which exploded in a burst of light. My fake boat reappeared nearby a quarter of a second later. Many of our spears missed completely, but perhaps seven in ten hit the fish. Of those, perhaps half bounced off and half broke its skin.


    Even so, the fish didn¡¯t seem concerned with its minor wounds. Its size was so huge that the spears were little tiny needles pricking its skin. None of our attacks had been a serious threat so far. It plummeted back towards the waves, its eyes quickly locking back onto my illusion.


    It still hadn¡¯t started attacking the real boats yet.


    Then, the fish began swimming away from us. Its eyes were still locked onto my illusion, but it wasn¡¯t attacking. I felt my gut clench with fear. Was it running away? If it continuously ran away from large fleets in the future and only came back to attack small, isolated groups of fishing boats, we would have no way to hunt the fish down, and no way to get food. We would slowly starve to death. We needed this hunt to succeed.


    To my relief, the fish turned back around. I finally realized what it was doing - it wasn¡¯t fleeing, it was preparing an actual charge. However, its actions were very different from when it had been chasing our boat last week. Why was its behavior different this time? I frowned, but didn¡¯t have time to think more. Managing my illusion and flying the boat was already a strain on my mental resources.


    The fish charged my illusion, and leapt out of the water towards my fake boat. I again turned it into a burst of light, before reforming it.


    ¡°Ready, throw!¡± yelled Brezin.


    Another hail of weighted bone spears shot through the air towards the leviathan as it tried to attack a nonexistent boat.


    This time, more of the spears hit their target. The fish¡¯s smug smile was gone now. As it crashed back into the waves below us and the sea wobbled, and then turned towards my illusion.


    Was it still focused on my made up image? I grinned, preparing to dissolve the illusion the moment I needed to. Then, the glowing fish began to glow brighter and brighter, and the eighth, rune inside of its body began to look like a second sun that had been dropped into the ocean.


    I suddenly had a bad feeling in my stomach.


    A bolt of lightning erupted from the skin of the fish and struck my illusion, passing clean through it. The fish¡¯s dozens of eyes widened as it saw its attack literally pass through the illusion, and it simply sat there in silence for a moment. It didn¡¯t respond to the fishermen and hunters raining abilities on it, and simply stared at my illusory boat. I dissolved it into a blast of light, before making it reappear near the ocean, in case the fish somehow hadn¡¯t noticed that something was wrong.


    The glowing fish turned towards the cloud of boats and snarled.


    The jig was up. After only three attacks, the glowing fish had finally realized my boat was just an illusion.

 Chapter 43: Hunting the Glowing Fish (2)

    Huh?


    I stared at the fish, dumbfounded, as I realized that I had already lost one of my two jobs in this fight. I had expected the glowing fish wouldn¡¯t be tricked by my illusory boat after a while, but I had at least thought it would take a while. The fight had barely started, and my illusory boat was already useless.


    ¡°It¡¯s third rune ability is lightning! Everyone, be wary of whenever its skin starts glowing, and prepare to dodge or flee! Good job, Miria!¡± Yelled my village chief, his sound carried by wind to spread through the area.


    I felt a sense of relief, as I processed the village chief¡¯s words and realized I hadn¡¯t failed. One of the biggest dangers in this fight was the fact that we didn¡¯t know what the glowing fish¡¯s third rune ability was, besides healing and teleportation. Even if I had hoped to distract the fish for longer, the fact that we knew to be wary of lightning attacks whenever it started glowing would still help us win the fight with fewer deaths.


    The glowing fish scanned our ships, snarling as it eyed them, before its eyes settled on a totally random ship. It clearly hadn¡¯t realized where the illusion had come from yet - it was more pissed off by the fact it had been tricked in the first place.


    The fish continued glowing brightly, and then its rune lit up again. I frowned. The targeted boat realized another lightning attack was coming, and the sailors began desperately flying away. At the same time, chunks of sand and stone started forming a shield in front of the boat.


    Both were too slow.


    A burst of lightning shot out of the fish.


    The targeted boat suddenly dropped in midair, the sailors abandoning themselves to the pull of gravity in a last ditch attempt to dodge. As the lightning tore through the air, the lightning bolt bent, curving around the half-formed stone shield and slamming into the boat.


    The boat nearly collapsed as the smell of charred flesh drifted through the air. I resisted the urge to retch as I looked at the boat. The light from the rune of the glowing fish finally began to settle down, but I stared at the damaged boat.


    Had the sailors died, just like that? I felt my heart leap into my throat - my distraction wasn¡¯t working anymore, and the fish¡¯s new attack was fast and deadly.


    The glowing fish¡¯s eyes whirled around, completely ignoring the destroyed boat as it scanned the crowd for a new target. The boats started to shift uneasily, as the sailors realized they needed to be ready to dodge now. Without my illusion distracting it, the fish would attack real boats now. And the fish had just demonstrated once again how deadly it was.


    A boat flew towards the boat that had just been struck by lightning, and a woman jumped onto the boat filled with charcoal and corpses. She touched her hands to the side of the boat, single handedly stabilizing it, and then touched one of the ¡®dead¡¯ sailors with her other hands.


    ¡°Some can still be saved! Keep fighting! Don''t lose hope!¡± She bellowed. Her voice wasn¡¯t enhanced by runes, but in the silent wake of the lightning attack, her voice carried well enough to be heard. At the same time, I saw one of the ¡®charred corpses¡¯ on the boat start to grow new skin.


    Finally, the sailors regained their senses. The glowing fish had locked eyes on another boat, but it was swimming away again. I wondered if it was wheeling back around for another charge attack. I was thankful that it wasn¡¯t just resorting to lightning attacks - perhaps they were more mana-intensive than its other abilities? Or its lightning ability was hard to use? Either way, its lightning ability had some sort of restriction. That was good news for us, since it had a longer range than its teleportation, and was almost as deadly as having the creature devour a boat.


    As the fish began to charge towards us again, another hail of magical missiles flew through the air.


    Small wounds opened up on the skin of the fish, before the hunters with blood-related abilities burned mana to enlarge the wounds.


    Water and wind users finally got to work now that my illusion was useless. Suddenly, gusts of wind and water began to furiously push against the approaching fish, slowing its advance as it swam towards us. Its ferocious charge slowed to a crawl, and for a few moments it struggled against the waves.


    The glowing fish bellowed at us, and the sound was like nails against a chalkboard.


    The fish teleported towards us, breaking free from the prison of wind and waves. All of the boats immediately flew backwards, retreating from the fish. Another prison of wind and waves formed right in front of the fish, desperately trying to hold it in place.


    If we could keep the fish imprisoned at this distance, it couldn¡¯t harm any more sailors. I felt a surge of hope, as I realized the fish was unable to close the distance properly with us now.


    Surely this would stop the creature? If we got through this fight with only one boat of wounded, it would be a massive victory. One boat of injured or dead out of one hundred and fifty would be a tiny price to pay for restoring the food source of the islands.


    Magic attacks continued to rain down on the glowing fish from all sides. I frowned, as I realized that the creature seemed to be grinning at us. An uneasy feeling crept into my stomach. It wasn¡¯t glowing in preparation for a lightning attack, and it had just teleported. Why did I have such an ominous feeling?


    The massive water currents our hunters were using to hold the fish in place suddenly disappeared. I spared a glance at the water and wind hunters, wondering why they had stopped imprisoning the beast. However, I saw them looking just as confused as me.


    I turned back towards the fish, before noticing that the fish¡¯s dozens of eyes remained locked on its target. The boat it was targeting had drifted uncomfortably close to us.


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    I wasn¡¯t sure what the fish was planning, but the ominous feeling in my stomach was getting stronger and stronger. I turned towards Olav, who seemed to have also felt something was wrong.


    ¡°Dodge! Get away! Left!¡± screamed Olav, before we desperately flew to the left. Some of the other ships started flying away from the targeted ship, some of the chief¡¯s ships flew closer to the targeted ship. I wasn¡¯t sure what they were planning, but I wanted to be out of this area. The targeted ship was flying higher, trying to get as far from the glowing fish as possible. They also realized something was up.


    The water around the fish suddenly bubbled, before a pillar of water began tearing itself out of the ocean. Winds started to pick up, tossing our surroundings into disarray. The glowing fish floated on top of the pillar of water, as our surroundings started to stretch and wobble in ways I couldn¡¯t understand.


    Then, the pillar of water and the winds suddenly exploded, flinging the fish directly towards the targeted boat like an arrow released from its string.


    The spine of the glowing fish contorted in a strange way, like a twig about to snap. While we were caught off-guard, the fish got within range of the targeted boat. Suddenly, it disappeared into thin air.


    It reappeared right on top of the targeted ship, before its tail snapped down. Like the hand of a giant, the tail of the glowing fish tore through the targeted boat as if it were made of wet paper. The targeted boat, along with one chieftain boat, collapsed into splinters and corpses faster than my eye could track.


    I gasped in horror, as I finally realized what had just happened.


    The glowing fish used a fourth ability! Some sort of water-related rune that lets it launch itself around! I was shocked, wondering how in the world the glowing fish could use four abilities instead of three, before my eyes settled on its eighth rune, which glowed like a miniature sun.


    Something was definitely wrong with that rune.


    However, things hadn¡¯t gone quite as planned for the glowing fish. Because after crushing two boats of sailors, its tail had gotten stuck on the second chieftain boat it had attacked.


    I saw my village chief on the boat, gritting his teeth as he held his hands above his head. One of his shoulders was crushed, possibly beyond repair, but with both hands he firmly grasped the tail of the glowing fish. His hands had dug directly into the creature¡¯s flesh, and as the fish¡¯s body started to flop back towards the water, he dragged the fish into the air purely with the strength of his body and his wind manipulation. A moment later, glittering light appeared on top of my village chief¡¯s skin, and I realized another chief was either healing him or empowering him.


    ¡°Hurry up!¡± Yelled my chief, as the fish started frantically thrashing. It only had a few seconds left before it could teleport again.


    Then, I saw a giant bubble of water rapidly condense on the surface of the ocean. Sand and rocks from our surroundings began to fling themselves into the bubble of water, dragged there by the cooperation of several chieftains. Wind began to swirl around inside of the bubble of water, as if it were about to explode.


    Sand from the nearby island, as well as fragments of stone, bone, and other materials hurriedly assembled themselves into a massive spear. A droplet of blood flew through the air, before coating the surface of the massive projectile. The spear began glowing an ominous red color, before the entire projectile exploded.


    The massive spearpoint was flung directly at the belly of the fish, and tore through the fish¡¯s belly. It penetrated deeply into the fish, and I swear I saw a few of its ribs shatter, as well as a few fish organs.The fish shrieked, thrashing in agony, before its cooldown on teleportation finally ended. It disappeared, before reappearing in the ocean.


    The wound rapidly closed on itself, confirming that the fish could heal flesh, and possibly organs. However, its bones didn¡¯t heal properly - they remained uneven, causing the fish to swim unevenly now.


    However, the fish had still recovered from a massive blow. It was actually injured now, but it was nowhere near dead. My village chief was right.


    As long as this fish had mana, killing it was nearly impossible. It healed too quickly, and its teleportation ability meant it could flee too quickly. Its lightning ability gave it a huge level of lethality, and its water ability increased its mobility and how dangerous it was even when its teleportation was on cooldown.


    I gritted my teeth, before glancing at my village chief¡¯s shoulder. It looked like it was repairing itself, likely with the help of another village chief, but I had no idea how bad the damage was or if there would be problems left behind. However, at the very least he was still alive.


    The fish took a big look around the area, its dozens of eyes spinning wildly in circles. For a moment, I was worried it would flee. If it left after this, all of our effort and sacrifices would be for nothing.


    Then, its eyes locked on to another ship, and I felt a strange sense of relief. Even though that boat would probably be seriously damaged or destroyed, at least the ship hadn¡¯t given up yet. However, the ship it had targeted was another chieftain boat. When I looked closely, I realized that the chieftain on the boat was glowing, his eyes locked onto my village chief.


    Was he the one healing my chief? If he got killed or injured by the fish, it would make things far more dangerous, both for my village chief and for the rest of us.


    As the fish prepared to charge, I hesitated, before an idea came to me.


    The fish had repeatedly proved it wasn¡¯t very bright. It had realized my illusory boat was fake, but that didn¡¯t mean it would see through my other illusions. If that was the case, maybe¡­


    As the fish charged towards the boat with the healing chief, I created an illusion of the massive sand and stone spear the chieftains had used. My chief had made me practice this ability for the past week, and I finally realized that I could use it in other, more clever ways, instead of only making the glowing fish start to underestimate the attacks of the chieftains. After two seconds, my illusory stone spear flew towards the fish.


    The fish had just been seriously wounded by a similar spear a minute ago. Its memory of the massive stone spear was fresh, and so the moment it saw my spear, it flinched away. It completely broke off its charge towards the healing chief, and actually swam underwater for a moment.


    My spear crashed into the surface of the ocean, before it shattered into motes of light. I didn¡¯t have the ability to control too many different illusions, so the moment the stone spear was supposed to break into parts I totally lost control of it. But I had already succeeded. My village chief and the healing chief had noticed the fixation of the glowing fish, and were already retreating further into the sky. The other boats were surrounding the spot the glowing fish had submerged itself, preparing for the moment it returned from the water.  I grinned.


    Even if my fake boat wasn¡¯t fooling the fish anymore, I still had a way to contribute to the fight.


    A few moments later, the glowing fish emerged from the water, its dozens of eyes wildly rolling around as they searched for the target of these annoying illusions.


    Finally, it seemed to realize something. It looked at our boat, and put two and two together. Its eyes locked on to its new target, and I felt a tingling sense of danger as I realized the fish had finally figured out the source of the annoying light shows.


    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± said Olav, swearing as the glowing fish glared at our boat.

 Chapter 44: Hunting the Glowing Fish (3)

    As the fish glared at our boat, I scanned our surroundings, desperate to find a way to survive. I wasn¡¯t done with this world yet - I wasn¡¯t ready to die.


    The fish teleported closer to our boat, completely disregarding the fact that we were out of range of its teleportation. We began desperately flying away, completely ignoring any opportunities to attack the fish. The other boats would take care of that - we needed to survive first.


    The fish¡¯s odd rune began glowing brightly.


    Realizing what it was about to do, I pushed my water manipulation abilities as best as I possibly could, dragging a head-sized bubble of water up from the ocean and towards our ship. I realized I couldn¡¯t manipulate enough water for it to matter, so I turned to the other ships.


    ¡°Shield! Get us a shield!¡± I screamed, hoping the other ships could hear me.


    Luckily, a few other water users from other boats noticed our plight, and a screen of water and sand rose up from the ocean before turning into a thin screen, shielding our ship and protecting us from the glowing fish. Realizing the water would obscure its vision, I quickly took control of a small chunk of the water, before creating three copies of our ship and making them fly in different directions. With its view already distorted by the sand and water, the glowing fish might not know which boat to target.


    A blast of lightning tore into the bubble of ocean water, before it harmlessly dissipated into the screen of water and sand. I laughed out loud, fear and adrenaline making my heart run wild as I realized we had survived a blast from the fish¡¯s lightning.


    However, the glowing fish wasn¡¯t done yet - just like the first time it had used its lightning ability, it hadn¡¯t stopped glowing yet.


    The fish used an exploding pillar of water to launch itself towards us, as our boat and my fake boats flew in erratic patterns. The glowing fish¡¯s hulking body tore through the screen of water and sand, before its eyes settled on all four copies of our boat. It launched another lightning bolt towards us. I strengthened my body as much as possible with my mana, and prepared to die if the fish attacked the correct target. I didn¡¯t know which boat the fish would hit, but just in case, if I strengthened my body to the limit with my mana, I might survive.


    And, completely defying my expectations, the bolt of lightning burst forth from the skin of the glowing fish, before bending like a noodle in midair.


    I felt burning agony lance its way through my body, and felt the urge to scream. A burnt smell reached my nose - it was my hair.


    However, I was still alive.


    The glowing fish had bent its lightning bolt in midair several times to hit all four boats - our boat, and all three of my illusions.


    However, perhaps because of how hard it was to control lightning so precisely, the fish hadn¡¯t actually hit the passengers of our ship. Two of the lightning bolts tore whizzed across the top of each boat, which would have killed any passengers on the boat, and had missed one illusion completely. The lightning bolt targeting our boat had hit us - but since the glowing fish had shrunk the lightning bolt by dividing it in four, it hit the side of our boat, instead of hitting the passengers.


    However, the heat and electricity from the lightning still pierced through part of the boat, hitting us with a much weakened version of the lightning bolt. I gasped in pain, and I saw most of the other hunters and fishermen do the same, but I felt relief when I saw that.


    Even though we had been injured, nobody had died. Moreover, none of our injuries were that severe; we could keep fighting.


    However, while we were still alive, our situation was desperate.


    The lightning bolt may not have killed us, but it definitely confirmed which boat was the real one. Its eyes were firmly locked onto our boat, and it was too close for us to flee or trick it again.


    I started panicking. I was out of ideas now. Its lightning and teleportation were on cooldown, but the moment it could use either ability, we would die. I was out of tricks, and nobody on my boat could do enough damage to cripple the fish or distract it.


    A moment later, I saw a massive spear made of red sand fly out of the sky and towards the fish. It took me a moment to realize that the sand wasn¡¯t actually red. It was a pile of hardened sand, soaked in blood.


    The fish completely ignored the spear, as it continued staring at us. Its teleportation ability would be ready in two seconds¡­ one¡­


    As I prepared myself to die, the spear suddenly sped up in midair. It zoomed towards the fish, then tore through several of the fish¡¯s eyes, before exploding into corrosive sand. Nearly a tenth of its eyes turned into mush.


    The fish wheeled around, bellowing in pain and hatred as its eyes focused on the origin of the bloody spear. Instead of teleporting towards us, it teleported above the boat. I frowned, wondering why the fish seemed to have slightly overshot its target. What was going on?


    However, the fish¡¯s incorrect positioning gave the others a chance to rescue the boat. A gust of wind hurled the boat out of the way before the fish could kill the village chief who had rescued us.


    I heaved a sigh of relief. The fish¡¯s attention wasn¡¯t on us any longer. I suddenly wondered if the fish had even been targeting us because of my illusions - perhaps it was sheer bad luck it had swapped targets to our boat.


    Regardless of my thoughts, the fish wheeled around, preparing for another charge. Wind and water mages started using their abilities to slow it down, and our boat flew towards the edge of the formation. I quickly handed out a few fish cores, and we took the opportunity to replenish our mana after spending a huge amount strengthening our bodies to survive. My heart slowly stopped hammering as I observed the fight, and I realized we weren¡¯t going to die just yet.


    The fish charged towards the boat which had rescued us again, and began glowing more brightly. I noticed that a huge amount of strange, milk-colored liquid tear itself out of the ocean, before it formed a shield around the boat. I wondered what the liquid was, before I laughed out loud.


    Someone was using the fish¡¯s own blood to shield themself from a lightning bolt!


    The fish, seeing the shield of blood, shrieked in rage, before it teleported. It appeared right above the boat, and tried to chew through the boat. For some reason, the sphere of blood started expanding¡­ and then suddenly reshaped itself, before the blood turned into a ball of stone spikes. The fish shrieked in agony, before spitting out the ball of stone spikes, while the boat flew away, assisted by gusts of wind.


    The fish, seeing the little wooden boat escape destruction, fired a lightning bolt at the escaping boat.


    The boat, now unprotected by a blood sphere, took a direct hit. The boat stopped flying, instead listing to the side. I frowned, worried, but couldn¡¯t spare much attention to the boat. Hopefully the people on board the boat were still alive, since they saved us at a critical moment. I saw a nearby boat start flying towards the burned boat, and hoped the damaged boat and its crew could still be saved.


    The fish tried to blast another boat, but this one formed a shield in time. Then, it splashed back into the water, searching for a new target.


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


    Before it had time to stabilize itself, another hail of magical missiles rained down on it from above. A few more of its eyes popped, before it growled and locked onto a boat in the distance. Once it started charging them, I made another giant illusory stone spear, and fired it at the fish.


    It didn¡¯t even bother dodging, and the stone spear collapsed into fragments of light the moment it made contact with the fish. Since my attack was just an illusion, I dealt no damage to it at all.


    And then, another stone spear made by the village chiefs blasted through another dozen of its eyes, turning them into bloody goop as the creature shrieked in agony.


    I grinned. I had a better idea why the village chief felt I would be helpful in this fight now. With a random mixture of real and fake threats tearing into the fish, it was having an incredibly hard time figuring out when it needed to dodge and when it could just ignore an attack.


    The fish¡¯s remaining eyes spun around, before they locked onto one of the village chief boats. It seemed to have located one of the boats responsible for forming the massive stone spears that heavily injured it, and it decided to remove them from the fight.


    I created another illusory spear before ¡®attacking¡¯ it. The fish seemed to hesitate when it saw my attack, but ultimately realized it might be a threat. The fish teleported out of the way, putting its ability on cooldown long enough for the chief¡¯s boat to fly away, with the help of some gusts of wind. In the meantime, the surrounding boats continued to pepper it with small but important attacks, slowly draining its mana reserves as it healed away its small injuries over and over again.


    The fish seemed enraged when its prey escaped, and threw a few lightning bolts into random clusters of boats. I saw five boats go down, before the fish began looking for a new target again.


    For a few minutes, the fight settled into a steady rhythm. The fish would find a target, and then I or the village chiefs would hit it with a big attack to distract it. The fish would sometimes dodge and sometimes get hit, but it often disengaged from its original target and swapped to a new, totally random boat. It would still destroy a few boats with its lightning attacks sometimes, because they were fast and hard to dodge, but the boats were getting better and better at defending each other, forming shields quickly, and staying out of range of the fish¡¯s teleportation ability. As the fish¡¯s mana reserves slowly drained away, our casualties also increased, but we were losing fewer and fewer people as we got used to fighting the fish.


    Finally, after several minutes of grinding away at the creature¡¯s mana reserves, I noticed something that made me feel hopeful. The skin of the glowing fish was starting to grow dimmer. Was it finally running out of mana?


    The fish had been teleporting around left and right during this fight, and had also used several pillars of water to toss itself around, and bolts of lightning to shoot down our ships. Most importantly, a swarm of nearly a hundred and fifty boats had been raining down small but dangerous attacks on the creature the entire time we had been fighting. It had been healing itself during the fight, but even if it had more mana than a human with eight runes, there was a limit. And the glowing fish seemed to be reaching that limit.


    The fish also seemed to realize it was falling into a predicament. However, it didn¡¯t show any of the fear I thought it might. Instead, it searched for a new target, eventually settling on the boat carrying my village chief. It sneered at the boat, before it began swimming closer to it. I felt my heart leap into my throat. Was it going to kill village chief as its last act of the fight? I formed an illusory spear, but it didn¡¯t dodge, letting my attack scatter harmlessly against its skin.


    The fish flung itself forward with an exploding pillar of water, before vanishing into thin air. An ominous feeling sprang up in my heart.


    Then, the fish appeared to the left of my village chief¡¯s boat. It looked directly downward, sneering in delight, before its expression warped. It seemed confused as its remaining eyes whirled around, trying to figure out why the boat wasn¡¯t underneath it.


    The village chief, who was now floating above the boat and glowing brightly with mana, also seemed confused. He and the fish looked at each other in complete bewilderment as the fish plummeted back into the ocean, completely missing its target.


    It took me a moment to realize the fish had messed up its teleport. It had been trying to teleport on top of the chief¡¯s boat and then swallow it in one gulp, but it had somehow teleported to the wrong spot and missed entirely, taking both sides totally off guard.


    My village chief, however, laughed out loud. ¡°Aim for its eyes! I¡¯ve been thinking some of its positions were strange - it needs to see where it¡¯s teleporting to! If we can destroy its eyes, its teleportation will become useless!¡±


    The fish shook itself off after belly flopping back into the water. Its remaining eyes spun wildly before they fixed themselves on the village chief¡¯s boat again and it growled. However, I could definitely tell it was starting to run out of mana. With several of its eyes destroyed, and its mana reserves running low, the fish was near dead.


    Another volley of heavy spears popped a few more of the fish¡¯s eyes, as hunters started focusing on its remaining eyes. Less than a minute later, one of the other village chiefs decided it was time.


    ¡°Move towards the trap area!¡± Yelled a village chief. People took a moment to process the order, before the boats seemed to start ¡®retreating¡¯ towards the island. The glowing fish bellowed in triumph, seeming to realize it had broken the will of its prey, and then began charging after the fleeing boats. From time to time, a few of the boats would pause long enough for some of the hunters to lob a few more spears into the eyes of the fish, adding fresh injuries and popping an eye here and there, but for the most part we just fled towards the island.


    Once we were above the island, the boats stopped fleeing, before we spread out again, preparing for the final phase of the hunt.


    The fish, who had been chasing after us and occasionally teleporting after us, stopped for a moment, and gave us a wary glare. Almost half of its eyes had been destroyed now, and its body was covered in small wounds. It wasn¡¯t regenerating smaller injuries anymore - its mana was too low for that. Despite the fact that it was near death, it eyed us angrily.


    Another volley of stone, bone, and sand spears rained down on the fish, popping a few more eyes and enraging it. Finally, it leapt out of the water, towards the boat that contained my village chief, before teleporting towards him - and appearing directly above the island. Its aim wasn¡¯t perfect, but it was close enough to my village chief to pose a danger to him.


    My village chief began to glow with mana, and a halo of white light sprang into existence as another village chief boosted his power.


    My village chief managed to dodge the fish¡¯s teleportation by the tiniest of margins, winds swirling around him and keeping him afloat in midair. As the fish¡¯s jaws were about to clamp over the boat, he burst forward with incredible speed. Then, he grabbed the fish¡¯s tail again. At the same time, a giant flat paddle made of stone, sand, blood, and bone suddenly appeared on the other side of the island.


    The fish¡¯s dozens of remaining eyes widened as my village chief grabbed it in midair.


    My village chief threw the giant fish towards the center of the island, before the massive paddle swatted the fish into the ground. The island rumbled as the leviathan crashed into its surface, leaving a massive fish-shaped imprint on the sand.


    The fish bellowed, before teleporting back into the air in a desperate attempt to escape. It started glowing, preparing to punish us for daring to trap it - before another of the village chiefs tore through several of its eyes with a spray of ability-boosted blood. The fish launched a lightning bolt into a cluster of ships, but only downed two of them. Its second lightning bolt missed entirely.


    The fish teleported again, but messed up its teleport location. It only moved straight up, before flopping back onto the island, nowhere near the water.


    Another of the chieftains grunted as she summoned a sandstorm underneath the fish, her ability rapidly starting to tear away the flesh and skin of the creature as it shrieked. A few seconds later, the fish teleported towards the ocean, before my village chief grabbed it by the tail and threw it back towards the center of the island again. The village chiefs quickly surrounded the fish, and began blasting the giant fish with their abilities. Whenever the fish tried to teleport away, one of the village chiefs would blast it back towards the center of the island with their attacks. The village chiefs would have had a hard time coping with several blasts of lightning or physical attacks from the glowing fish, but it was nearly out of mana now. It was too exhausted to toss out lightning bolts like they were nothing. And with the healing village chief boosting their abilities, they were just barely able to juggle the fish and keep it trapped while everyone pummeled it.


    The glowing fish shrieked in horror, realizing its death was near, and then opened its mouth, trying to bite at a nearby boat that had gotten a little too confident. The boat didn¡¯t manage to dodge in time, and disappeared into the fish¡¯s maw, but the other boats used that time to pop the rest of the fish¡¯s eyes with a spray of abilities. The glowing fish¡¯s lightning rune began to glow more brightly, as if it was trying to blindly blast down a final wave of boats through sheer dumb luck, but a water shield quickly appeared and surrounded the fish. Two blasts of lightning hit the curtain of water, accomplishing nothing.


    The fish finally stopped trying to attack at all. Its mana reserves were too low, it was stranded out of water, and we had learned how to effectively counter all of its abilities.


    The glowing fish that had destroyed dozens of boats and nearly caused the islands to fall into a famine was no longer a threat. It was just wobbling in place, trying to move while the hunters, village chiefs, and boats ground it into dust..


    After a few more minutes, the fish stopped moving entirely.


    We had won.

 Chapter 45: Aftermath and Rewards (1)

    As people started to realize the glowing fish was dead, boats began to descend upon the beach and prod at the corpse. Hunters pulled out spears and started stabbing it, to make sure it was dead, and other abilities and weapons were occasionally launched at the corpse in case the fish was faking its death. However, as moments ticked by, more and more people began to realize the fish was really dead.


    While the villagers poked the fish corpse, I took a few moments to look over the boats who had joined the hunt and assess the damage from the fight.


    In order to kill the glowing fish, about a hundred and fifty boats had joined the hunt, including several village chiefs. Perhaps thirty of those boats had been destroyed, and one village chief had also died. Another village chief had been seriously injured, although it looked like they would recover eventually. In addition, several Fishermen and hunters had died during the fight with the glowing fish - perhaps fifteen percent of the people in the fight had died or been seriously injured. The losses weren¡¯t crippling, but they definitely weren¡¯t light either.


    I looked at the surviving members of my own boat, trying to double check whether any of us were seriously injured. All of us were charred and hurt as a result of the lightning attack we had survived, but we had gotten off relatively lightly. Most of our injuries would heal with some medical attention and a few days of healing.


    Brezin and Olav both looked at the glowing fish, madly grinning as they confirmed that the creature was dead. My father gave me a bone crushing hug when he finally realized that we had survived the fight, before kissing my forehead.


    I grinned as well, finally overcoming the surging adrenaline and fear of the fight. Then, since people were still processing the end of the fight, I checked my System notifications.


    Immediately, a flood of notifications filled my field of vision.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the battle against the glowing fish by a [Negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +??? (Achievement will not be awarded until current events are completed.)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the battle against the glowing fish by a [Moderate] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +??? (Achievement will not be awarded until current events are completed.)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the battle against the glowing fish by a [Negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +??? (Achievement will not be awarded until current events are completed.)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I quickly realized most of them were duplicates of the same message. During the course of the fight, anytime I took an action, I seemed to have been awarded an unknown amount of Achievement.


    When I cleared away all of the repeat messages, only a few remained.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Total contribution to the battle against the Glowing Fish was [Significant]


    Slaugher: Assist the locals in killing The Glowing Fish, a semi-unique leviathan of the deeps


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,000, Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Overall, my other System notifications seemed to be lumped into my final Achievement total. When I looked over the amount of Achievement I had received for participating in the fight, I was more than happy with the amount of Achievement I had earned.


    During my entire time in this world, I had managed to reach a total of 4,108 Achievement, including the 20 Achievement I had spent learning more about Skills and Glut Penalty. This was the result of years of hard work - I had crafted massive quantities of items, trained like a madwoman with Sallia and Felix, and killed huge amounts of Great Fish during my time here. I had earned a good amount of Achievement from each category of reward, and I had felt decent about my efforts to prepare for our return to the Market. However, the previous rewards I had gained were nothing compared to the Achievement I had earned from this one battle.


    In a single battle I had gone from 4,108 Achievement to 5,308 Achievement. My earnings from taking part in the battle today had given me more Achievement than I had earned in some years during my time here.


    I suddenly realized that Influence seemed to be a much more valuable category of reward than I had first thought. What I had done during the fight might not have totally changed the course of the battle, but I had heavily influenced the number of deaths and losses the villages faced during the fight. If I hadn¡¯t been here, it wouldn¡¯t have been surprising if we had lost another dozen boats during the fight. And the rewards were massive - I had gained huge amounts of Achievement as a result. However, I also quickly realized something even more important about Influence Achievement.


    As far as I could tell, ¡®Influence¡¯ rewards were based around taking part in big events that happened in the world I was living in. Subjugating the glowing fish, interfering with the first encounter between the Islanders and the Outsiders¡­ these were the types of events that gave me Influence Achievement. And, importantly, each of these important events was unique. Which meant that, unlike reward categories like Slaughter and Crafting, I wouldn¡¯t face the diminishing returns from doing the same thing over and over again. What mattered the most was how able I was to interfere with big events when I participated in them. Building up my Skills and Power were also quite valuable methods of earning Achievement, but taking part in big events and altering their outcome seemed to produce far more Achievement than quietly killing landbeasts or Great Fish.


    I decided to take note of this for future worlds. Right now the three of us weren¡¯t particularly impressive as far as the average strength of the islanders was concerned. However, due to sheer dumb luck, my illusion ability had been unique and useful in this situation, allowing me to play a big role in the fight against the glowing fish. In the future, as we got more Abilities and Stats and became more experienced, we would be able to play bigger and bigger roles in the worlds we were born in. I grinned to myself, before I continued scrolling through my System notifications. I had gotten a big amount of Achievement, but that wasn¡¯t the only thing I had gotten.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have [Significantly] influenced a major event in your current world.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    You have created the [Basic] Grade Ability ¡®Lies like Realities.¡¯ It may be purchased after your death for 500 Achievement.


    This is currently a [Basic] Grade Ability, but like all keyword abilities, after being purchased it may be evolved depending on your actions in the future.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Illusion (1 Keyword.)


    Upon Birth, you will immediately gain [Basic] Grade Skill with Illusion-related spellcasting. (This will apply regardless of which Essence you use, so long as the spell or ability is Illusion-related.)


    Upon reaching [Basic] Grade Skill in Illusions, your Intelligence will increase by 10 points. (This is attached to your current body, not your Soul.)


    It will become much easier to advance to [Intermediate] Grade Skill with Illusions.


    Upon reaching [Intermediate] grade Skill in Illusions, your Intelligence will increase by 20 points, and one Essence type will be increased by 5 points (you choose which Essence.) (This is attached to your current body, not your Soul.)


    Once per life, you may activate a state of enhanced Illusory ability, temporarily granting you access to [Advanced] Grade Skill in Illusion-related spellcasting. This state will last for one hour before it ends. Upon activating this State, one essence category of your choice will have a significant amount of essence restored (enough to refill you to approximately maximum capacity if you have Grade 5 in that Essence.) This places a significant amount of strain on your mind and body, and may leave you in a weakened state for a few days after the ability wears off.


    Glut Penalty: 3


    Note: Since you already have an option to purchase an Illusion-grade Ability after this death, you may get a skilled craftsmen to splice together components of each ability before purchasing an Ability that combines the best parts of each ability, or tailors it to your specific needs. You may also use any of the Skill Centers in the Market to do so automatically, but please bear in mind that the level of customization you can achieve with an automated center is much lower. However, it is also much cheaper.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked at the ability I had unlocked, thinking carefully about whether I wanted it or not.


    Did I want to keep using Illusions in future worlds? And was this ability useful enough to keep around, even if I did keep using Illusions in the future?


    If I did purchase this ability, I could have up to two keyword Abilities boosting my illusion abilities. However, I wondered if I would be making a decision about my future ¡®build¡¯ too quickly. If I bought both keyword Abilities I had seen, I would have spent 18 glut, 4 keyword slots, and 3,000 Achievement on boosting my Illusions and retaining access to the rune magic system. I wasn¡¯t sure if I was willing to invest 500 Achievement in the Ability I had just been offered, and I also wasn¡¯t sure if I should decide on my ¡®build¡¯ this early either. ¡®Lies like Realities,¡¯ in particular, seemed decent, but not outstanding. Its effects were similar to the [Swordsmanship] Abilities I had unlocked earlier in this life, and although I was obviously getting much more for a much smaller amount of glut penalty. However, I didn¡¯t think trading a keyword slot was worth it.


    I shrugged, and decided to think about it once I was dead. It wouldn¡¯t be too late to make my final decision later, after all. Right now, at least, I was leaning towards ¡®not buying Lies like Realities,¡¯ but if I got some sort of third Ability that synergized really well with illusions, I might change my mind. Illusions were a strong ability - much stronger than I had initially given them credit for being. However, they were also very tricky to use. I would think about it when I had more information.


    ¡°We survived the fight, little Miria. The path to surviving that fight was full of twists and turns, but at the end of the day, we saved the villages. We¡­ we won the fight!¡± Said Brezin, breaking me out of my thoughts. He sounded exhausted, and almost as if he was forcing himself to cheer, but a small, adrenaline fueled smile remained near his lips as he yelled.


    As we watched the hunters continue to attack the dead body, the tense atmosphere began to relax, and finally, Olav began cackling as he looked at the dead fish.


    ¡°We won! That damned fish¡¯s gone! Long live the Islands! Praise be ta the Ocean Mother, for givin¡¯ us victory against this monstrosity of the deeps!¡± called Olav, his voice booming as he laughed giddily.


    I heard another fishermen from a boat I didn¡¯t recognize take up the cheer a moment later.


    ¡°Thank the Ocean Mother! Long live the islands!¡±


    Another fishermen spread the same cheer, and soon the fishermen and hunters began cheering and laughing, as the corpse of the Glowing Fish lay collapsed in the nearby sand. I saw people crying and laughing everywhere, as well as a few people walking up to the dead body of the fish in order to kick it or spit on it.


    During the chaos, I walked towards the corpse of the glowing fish. Now that it wasn¡¯t fighting back anymore, I wanted to investigate something.


    Deep inside of its body, I could still see the eight fish cores and eight runes inside of the glowing fish, due to the translucent nature of its skin. Like most Great Fish, it had one fish core for each rune. However, one of the fish cores looked a bit different from a regular fish core. Instead of a deep blue color, it was a solid yellow color, and it still glowed faintly in the fish¡¯s body. When I looked at the core, I couldn¡¯t help but be reminded of the lightning strikes I had seen during storm season each year, and I couldn¡¯t help but think about the massive glowing orbs I had seen in the ocean during each storm. No matter how I looked at it, it strongly resembled the strange orbs from the ocean storms.


    Was it possible that the glowing fish had somehow swallowed one of the glowing orbs, causing its eighth rune to change? I couldn¡¯t think of any other reason the Glowing Fish would be able to use four abilities during the fight. Not to mention, the ability to teleport was way too unusual - I had never seen another creature in this world use teleportation, ever. However, the glowing fish was able to use an Ability nobody had ever heard of or seen before. While there was a chance the glowing fish had simply managed to conceptualize space and teleportation when nobody else on the planet had done so, I found that quite unlikely. The fish had proven multiple times that it wasn¡¯t particularly bright, after all. In that case, perhaps the glowing light from the storm orb had influenced the Abilities of the fish more heavily than I thought?


    I had always felt that the ocean of our islands was strange and unique, and for the first time, one of the mysteries of the deeps was right in front of me. I frowned and eyed the fish core, wondering if I could convince the village chiefs to let me look at it for a while. I had contributed a lot to the fight. Surely they would let me take a look, at least?


    However, now wasn¡¯t the time to decide how to divvy up the corpse of the Glowing Fish. The villages had already said they would deal with the corpse of the glowing fish as a group, after the fight. And right now, everyone was much more interested in celebrating their survival and the death of the glowing fish than worrying about the spoils of war.


    I began walking back towards Olav and the other members of my boat. However, it wasn¡¯t just members of my boat that were congratulating me and giving me hugs and nods of approval. Other, completely random sailors and hunters I had never seen before occasionally walked up to me, before congratulating me. They thanked me for participating in the fight, and a few teary men and women thanked me for saving their lives with a well-timed illusion. While I had played a much less important role in the fight than the village chiefs, who had borne the biggest burden during the fight, during the first phase of the battle I had played a huge role in minimizing the casualties of the combatants as much as possible. And several people from the villages had noticed that.


    After a few moments of scanning the wounded from the fight, I absorbed another fish core before I helped out where I could. Most of the injured were either dead already or had received treatment, but there were a few cases where I could still offer some help. Half an hour passed as I checked on the injured and offered healing where I could. Then, I looked into the distance.


    On the beach, I could see the village chiefs, gesturing towards each other, hugging each other, and crying and laughing as they also celebrated the end of the battle. Slowly, I smiled to myself as I drank in the revelry of our surroundings and let our victory sink in.


    Nobody I knew had died today. The worst injury was Claus¡¯s leg, from our first encounter with the glowing fish. But even though he had lost one leg, he could still fly the boat and hunt fish with us. My smile grew even wider as I walked back towards the rest of the group, and finally, I laughed.


    The fight was really over.

 Chapter 46: Aftermath and Rewards (2)

    The celebration lasted for several hours, with villagers wildly celebrating the success of the hunt. During that time, several boats also flew back to their villages, carrying word of the end of the threat to our homes and families, as well as news of who had lived and who had died.


    After a few hours of celebratory foods and congratulations, the village chief called me to a private meeting with the other village chiefs. When I arrived, I was more than slightly amused to realize that I was the youngest person here, by far. Everyone else here was at least twenty , and most of them were over thirty. Meanwhile, I was still thirteen right now.


    ¡°Little Miria,¡± said the Village chief, giving me his best attempt at a reassuring smile. ¡°The reason we called you here was because you performed exceptionally well during the fight. We have a few thoughts on what we wanted to say here, but first of all¡­ well done. I was hesitant to include you in this fight, since you aren¡¯t even an adult yet, but¡­ you have performed above and beyond my expectations. I¡¯m glad to see a member of our village perform so well during this fight and working to keep other islanders safe.¡± The village chief paused for a moment, as if stumbling over his words, and shuffled in place for a moment.


    One of the other village chiefs, seeing my village chief stumble over his words, gave my village chief a good-natured grin before she started speaking.


    ¡°Your village chief probably doesn¡¯t want to look like he¡¯s favoring his own village, but this isn¡¯t a matter of favor. You put your life on the line for the sake of the islands, and saved dozens of lives during the fight. Your contributions in this fight are probably the highest after the village chiefs. Much of it was simply due to your rune ability being unique, and the Glowing Fish not being intelligent enough to compensate for your illusions. But the fact remains that you placed your life at risk to help other islanders, and you did exceptionally well. Is there a reward you want?¡±


    I felt a small grin tugging at my lips. I had been thinking about how to get a proper look at the strange fish core left by the glowing fish earlier, and now I had a direct line of access to it.


    ¡°I want the eighth fish core of the fish. The strange discolored fish core that glows a bit.¡±


    I saw my own village chief frowning, and a few of the other village chiefs looked confused.


    ¡°Why do you want it?¡± Asked the female village chief.


    ¡°A few reasons,¡± I said. ¡°First of all, I know the Glowing Fish is dead now, but when you looked at the body of the Glowing Fish while it was still alive, did it remind you of anything?¡±


    The female village chief frowned as she thought, before she slowly nodded. ¡°I suppose it did look kind of similar to the strange lights we see during storm season. Why do you mention - ah, I think I see where you¡¯re going with this. Are you thinking¡­?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°I think those strange lights we see during storm season are some sort of resource unique to the ocean. I think the Glowing Fish absorbed one, and then perhaps gained its odd Abilities as a result of devouring one of these strange storm lights. I can¡¯t be the only one that thought the fact that the fish used four rune abilities to be incredibly unusual, and I think the storm orb is the reason why it could do so. I¡¯m a few months away from forming my fifth rune, so I want to see if I can get an extra ability by forming my fifth rune while absorbing the fish core influenced by the storm light.¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking a lot about what to do if the outsiders return, or how to deal with other crises the islands could face in the future, and I don¡¯t think we can survive if we remain significantly weaker than the rest of the world. However, as all of you know, we don¡¯t have any metal deposits on our islands, which means we can¡¯t make bronze armor or weapons. The bones of the great fish can nearly match them, but there is a noticeable difference in equipment islanders have, compared to the rest of the world. And we also have a much lower population. So I was thinking that if the storm orbs can make people stronger somehow, perhaps the islands can develop in a new direction. If all of our warriors are stronger, it will make the Megailians less threatening if they ever return. But that requires a bit of experimentation. I want to be the first to try using the storm orb.¡±


    The female village chief frowned, as did my own village chief.


    ¡°Are you sure, little Miria? The glowing fish does look a lot like the Great Fish, but unlike regular great fish, it was also extremely violent. Regular Great Fish are relatively peaceful, while the Glowing Fish seemed to enjoy fighting and killing. If the same thing happens to you after absorbing the eighth core of the Glowing Fish¡­¡± said my village chief.


    ¡°The Great Fish aren¡¯t very intelligent, so they wouldn¡¯t have the Willpower to resist any bad influence the storm orb had on its thoughts. However, I¡¯m someone with a very strong will. I may not be the one with the strongest Willpower in our village, but I¡¯m near the top. And I am about to form a rune, as well. This makes me the ideal candidate to test the effects of the storm orb and see if we can gain anything from it. If we can, perhaps there¡¯s a way we can fish storm orbs out of the ocean during storm season, or something. But that would be a huge risk, so before doing that we should at least figure out if there¡¯s any merit to doing so in the first place.¡±


    I saw my own village chief frowning more deeply, instead of nodding in agreement, and a few of the other village chiefs seemed to have mixed opinions on my thoughts.


    ¡°Even if someone is to take such a risk, it should be an adult, not a child,¡± said one of the other village chiefs. ¡°You¡¯re still three years away from your final adulthood ceremony, right? It doesn¡¯t seem right for a child to take such a risk.¡±


    ¡°But most adults are at or near their maximum rune count already,¡± I said. ¡°By sixteen, most people are already either done forming runes, or close to their limit. If the storm orb has some sort of strange effect, I think it¡¯s better if the one absorbing the storm orb has extra absorption essence available, to deal with any emergencies, and I am willing to form my rune under the supervision of other people, in case I also gain violent tendencies and lose my mind. I think this is an important step for the villages as a whole, and I¡¯m willing to take this risk.¡±


    I could see a few village chiefs still frowning, as if they were thinking about objecting, but many of the village chiefs seemed swayed by my argument. My own village chief, however, looked the most concerned.


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    ¡°Are you sure you want to do this, little Miria? I¡¯ve watched you grow up, and I don¡¯t want you to die. You aren¡¯t responsible for taking this kind of risk¡­¡± said the village chief, frowning.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure. I have an exceptionally strong Willpower, and I¡¯m willing to take this risk,¡± I said firmly.


    The village chief frowned, but didn¡¯t object again. He gave my words serious thought. I could see that he still wanted to reject me, perhaps because he was afraid of me getting hurt.


    ¡°Let her do it if she wants to, Fritz. She may be young, but she¡¯s not that far away from being an adult. She has the right to decide how to live her life,¡± said one of the other village chiefs, as my village chief hesitated. ¡°Her arguments do hold a good amount of merit in them. And we also can¡¯t afford to dawdle around in hopes of finding another way. If she¡¯s about to form a rune already, has a strong Willpower, and is willing to take the risk, it would be silly to turn her down. So long as she is still willing to try when she starts forming her rune, I vote that she should be allowed to take the risk.¡±


    My village chief looked at me for a few more moments, before he sighed and nodded. ¡°Fine. But you¡¯re going to form your fifth rune while I personally watch over you, and with multiple healers nearby in case something goes wrong. And if anything starts going wrong during the process, you¡¯re to stop immediately and tell us what you¡¯re feeling. Providing information about possible mistakes and missteps to the villages is also a way to make us stronger, and if you can confirm that it¡¯s impossible to absorb a storm orb you can stop other people from making the same mistake. This can also help the villages grow stronger, so you don¡¯t need to feel obligated to push forward. And if you change your mind at any time, let me know. I¡¯ll find another volunteer; there¡¯s surely someone else in the islands willing to take the risk.¡±


    I tried my best to suppress a grin. I had not only gained access to the strange fish core, but I had permission to use it and experiment with it. I just needed to wait a few months for my fourth rune to finish stabilizing, and then I could get started on my fifth rune. And, at long last, I could start investigating the oddities of the Ocean.


    * * *


    The following day, we flew back to our own islands. With us, we carried the bodies of those who had fallen in battle; at least, those whose bodies could be recovered. As we glided through the air, I couldn¡¯t help but reflect on the total losses of the battle.


    In total, two of our boats had been completely destroyed by the Glowing Fish. one of them had been crushed by the tail of the fish, and one had been directly eaten. Apart from that, one boat had been blasted by lightning from the fish and had failed to respond properly, causing a few deaths on one of the ships, and a few other ships had suffered injuries from the violent winds, breakneck speeds, heat from the lightning, shrapnel from objects being tossed around at high speeds during the fight, and other miscellaneous injuries. Finally, two fishermen had also been injured by friendly fire during the chaos. Our village¡¯s losses were a fraction of the total losses from the fight, but we had still lost several people during the fight, and a few more had been permanently injured. Right after a day of wild celebration came a day of mourning.


    After the chieftain got back to land, he only waited long enough to notify the families of the deceased and gather the village together before we began the ritual to mourn the dead.


    People watched in silence with a solemn and depressed atmosphere. Many people of the village felt joy at the knowledge that the fish had been slain, and the threat of famine had been removed. However, many villagers were acquainted with one of the permanently injured or deceased, and so that happiness was mixed with sorrow.


    After a few minutes of silence, the chieftain slowly walked to the front of the crowd and began to speak.


    ¡°Let it be known that¡­ that those who gave their lives for the village did not do so in vain,¡± said the village chief, haltingly, and I could sense traces of grief in his voice today as he looked over the fallen.


    ¡°Those who died did so because they wanted their family and friends to live on. They wanted this village to continue to prosper, and they didn¡¯t want those they cherished to suffer and die of hunger. As village chieftain, I will do my best to follow their wishes through to the end, even after their deaths.


    ¡°To those who had a family member die during the fight, I will triple your fish core allocation for three years, to help you or your children form runes. I know¡­ that it¡¯s not enough to compensate for the loss of those who died during the fight. But I hope that at the very least, your lives can improve in the times to come, and I can promise you that the village will never forget the dead and gone,¡± said the village chief. ¡°Regardless of what the future holds, we will never forget that our survival today is, in part, due to those who were lost. Let them now return to the embrace of the ocean mother.¡±


    At the village chief¡¯s words, several people walked up to the bodies of the people who had died and began to tie strings of pearls and flowers to the wrists of the deceased. Then, a few fishing boats flew the bodies a ways away from the island, before dropping them into the ocean. At the sight of the bodies slowly being carried away by the waves, I heard some villagers choke back sobs as they watched their loved ones disappear for the last time.


    Finally, the village chief sighed.


    ¡°For those that were permanently injured, the village also will not forget your sacrifice. We will increase the fish and land beast cores allocated to you and your family based on need, and will also increase your food rations if you aren¡¯t able to work anymore. You braved danger and paid a huge price to protect this village, and we will never, ever forget that. Come to see me later and I will work out more specific arrangements with you.¡±


    I looked to the crowd, and saw a few men and women nod solemnly at the village chief after those words. Two of the men had no legs anymore, and their family members were helping to prop them up. A woman had the left side of her body mangled beyond recognition, and it was only due to her control of wind that she was able to maneuver her body around without assistance.


    ¡°Now, a few other things. The other village chieftains and I have decided that, by right, since our village was one of the bigger contributors to the fight, we will be allowed to take the unusual fish core from the glowing fish. This core has already been allocated to one of the members of this village, who contributed a great deal to the fight.¡± I saw several of the people who had participated in the fight, as well as their family members, glance at me before turning their attention back to the village chief. ¡°We are not sure what kind of effect this will have on rune formation, or if the fish core will have any strange effects on people nearby, so I will personally safeguard the strange fish core until then. Please keep an eye out for any abnormalities you notice, either in me, or the surroundings of my hut, and let me know immediately if you spot something. I will also do my best to ensure nothing harmful occurs, but having more eyes on a potential problem never hurts.¡± Finally, the Village Chief¡¯s voice dropped away, leaving the stillness of the scene as others looked at the calm waters of the ocean.


    The village chief sighed. ¡°May the ocean mother bless those who died, and take the souls of those who departed back into her embrace. And may our islands remain bountiful and prosperous for years to come, so that the sacrifices of the dead will not be in vain.¡±


    With his final words spoken, the village chief departed. Soon after, other members of the mass funeral began to depart, until finally, the beach was emptied out. The Island had survived its biggest crisis in memory, and we had achieved a victory that guaranteed our survival. However, we had also paid a heavy price. When most of the others had departed from the beach, I gave the ocean a final nod, and I wished the fallen good luck on their return to the river souls and their next lives. Then, I went to find my mother and father, and we left the beach without looking back.

 Chapter 47: Storm Orb

    After the hunt of the glowing fish, months passed. Life returned to normal within the village. Two months later, I stabilized my fourth rune, something that made me extremely excited. I had waited a long time to form my fifth rune, and I was finally ready.


    On top of my usual excitement to form a new rune, my fifth rune was going to be even more important than usual. This was because I finally had an opportunity to explore the mysteries of the ocean. Since I was going to use the unusual fish core from the glowing fish during my rune formation, I hoped something useful and unusual would occur during the rune formation process. If I was lucky, it might be something that would propel my personal power to a new height, despite my average rune count. And with any luck, it would be something the rest of the islands could also use, making us safer in the future.


    With a mixture of nervousness and excitement, I let Olav know that I would be gone from the boat until I finished my next rune, and then grabbed all of my resources that I had prepared for my fifth rune. Even though I was going to use the storm orb from the glowing fish as the ¡®primary resource¡¯ for my fifth rune, one fish core had nowhere near enough mana to form an entire rune. I hoped that I wouldn¡¯t dilute its effect too much by using other fish cores, but I needed my other fish cores nearby to make sure my rune formation was successful.


    After that, I went to the village chief and let him know that I was going to start my fifth rune. The village chief gave me a long, mournful look, before he sighed.


    ¡°Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? You don¡¯t have to try this if you don¡¯t want to, you know. You can definitely leave it to someone else.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± I said.


    The village chief simply sighed again, and then led me into his hut. A few hours later, a few healers from the village came to watch over me while I made my fifth rune, along with the village chief, who was prepared to kill me if I went berserk and started attacking my fellow villagers. I was relieved to know that the village chief was prepared to take this seriously; part of the reason I was willing to take this risk at all was because I knew the village chief would stop me if I went mad. I wanted to make the islands stronger, so having a backup plan never hurt.


    Then, I walked to the container holding the fish core, before I opened the container, pulled out the unusual core, and closed my eyes.


    As I touched the core, I felt that I could vaguely feel¡­ something unusual. Something very, very different from a regular fish core. If most fish cores were sort of like balls of light that I could consume without difficulty, this fish core was more like a storm contained in a sphere. The mana inside of it swirled and surged like the waves, crackling with violent energy. As I held the storm orb in my hand, a System notification popped up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Gain ownership of a [Minor Fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart]


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A System notification broke me out of my thoughts. I looked over the notification curiously.


    The System notification didn¡¯t refer to the storm orb as a storm orb, much to my surprise. Instead, it referred to the storm orb as a ¡®fragment of the ocean¡¯s heart.¡¯ This was a tidbit of information I hadn¡¯t expected to learn from a System notification. Apparently, a ¡®storm orb¡¯ wasn¡¯t as unique of a resource as I had first expected. It seemed like a storm orb was a component of something greater. Perhaps the ¡®Ocean¡¯s Heart¡¯ was the reason the ocean here was so unusual?


    After a few moments of thought, I put my questions aside. I couldn¡¯t answer them right now, and I needed to get working on my fifth rune.


    I turned my attention back to my fourth rune. Inside of my fourth rune, I once again saw an image of the waters outside of the island. Sunlight glittered on the surface of the waves, and I could see fish swimming around on the surface of the ocean, providing sustenance and life to the islands.


    This was the rune that let me convert water into illusions and healing. However, this rune was also a fragment of a complete ¡®painting¡¯ I had begun making when I created my first ability rune. I had started my fourth rune with the intention of making a complete painting of the ocean, and it was time to fill in more of the missing pieces of the painting and bring it closer to completion.


    Then, I started working on my fifth rune. My image of the surface of the waves was already complete, so it was time to dive deeper into my image of the ocean. I focused on what lay beneath the waves this time. I didn¡¯t know what the ¡®deeps¡¯ of the ocean looked like yet, but now I had some ideas about what lay underneath the ocean¡¯s surface. I thought back to the glowing fish that had terrorized the islands, as well as the sense of mystery I still held towards the ocean and its depths. The ability to teleport, the ¡®fragments of the Ocean¡¯s Heart¡­¡¯ they evoked a sense of terror, as well as a sense of wonder in me as I thought about the occasional monstrosity that surfaced from the depths of the ocean and wreaked havoc on the islands.


    Then, I began using absorption essence to start mapping out my image of the depths of the ocean, turning my guesses, inspirations, and ideas about the ocean into a rune, one drop of mana at a time. And at the same time, I began to absorb the ¡®fragment of the ocean¡¯s heart¡¯ that we had recovered from the corpse of the Glowing Fish, adding it to my fifth rune and using it to build the basis of what my future abilities would be.


    As I used my mana to map out my rune, a new image began to surface in my painting. The glittering sunlight remained bright and resplendent on my fourth rune, while below the surface of the ocean light began to fade away, replaced with an ever growing sense of dread. The darkness began to creep in, and shadows of great, mysterious beings that lay where the light never reached began to show up near the bottom of my painting, hinting at creatures that lurked beneath the waves. Eddies and swirls of ocean currents and water whirled about underneath the water, hiding shadows of greater creatures in between.


    And within my painting, mana from the core of the Glowing Fish warped the shape of my painting and my thoughts, creating something different. Distortions in the waves. Terror. Madness. Hints of things I couldn¡¯t quite see, and couldn¡¯t understand, but which lurked, ever present, in the darkness which had never seen the glittering sunlight above the waves.


    Mixed into my drawing, I also added in components of my memories of each storm season in this world. I drew orbs of light that were yet to be devoured by glowing fish, funneling water around them as they lit up the water in their surroundings like stars that had fallen into the sea. The ocean in my drawing seemed to swirl and rage, bending and buckling like the pillars of water that clawed their way towards the heavens with every storm, threatening to tear apart any who sought the mysteries of the ocean without being strong enough to learn the truth.


    Over the course of the next month, I returned to the village chief¡¯s hut each day to continue working on my rune. I slowly perfected this image under the watchful eyes of the village chief and the healers, slow turning my imagination into reality. Finally, I finished building my fifth rune.


    The moment the rune was complete, I realized something was strange. There was a sort of madness in my thoughts, a discoloration in the way I looked at the world. I couldn¡¯t fully understand what was different, but it was like there was¡­ something different in my surroundings. When I looked at the world, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw something that wasn¡¯t truly there.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Successfully condense your fifth rune


    Power: Utilize a fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart without going mad


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500, Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I frowned, barely taking a moment to confirm my new Achievement total. I had gone from 5,308 Achievement to 6,208 Achievement over the course of forming this rune. Then, I opened my Status Screen to see if it had more information on what was different this time. The first thing I noticed was that my Willpower had DROPPED a grade.


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    I felt a trace of unease as I scoured my Status Screen for any other differences.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Runes: 5 Successfully Condensed


    (+60 to all Physical Attributes)


    (Water Conversion - light and healing)


    (Shadow of the Waves - Teleportation, Madness of the Waves)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Teenage Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen. Your body is nearly grown up, and you no longer experience any Stat penalties due to your immature body..


    Due to absorption of a Damaged Fragment of the Heart of the Ocean, your body exerts a certain influence on its surroundings. Your eyes are forever changed from their original color, allowing you to see things you couldn¡¯t before.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. If you wish to exceed grade 6 you must purchase Stats.


    Organic Brain: A partially developed human brain that has yet to finish growing. Made primarily of physical matter, with slight bits of Absorption Essence mixed into a few key parts of the brain to allow for rudimentary absorption-type spellcasting and interaction.


    This brain has been influenced by the user¡¯s training regime of watching the waters of the Althala islands during storm season. Due to the mixture of unique Mana and careful observation of the water during Storm season, the brain is now slightly stronger than before.


    Willpower +10


    You have absorbed a damaged fragment of the Heart of the Ocean. As a result, your aggressive tendencies are amplified, permanently destroying part of your Willpower. In exchange, your mana pool, as well as all of your rune abilities, have been amplified, and you have unlocked abilities that are impossible to naturally form.


    Willpower -20, if you lose control of your thoughts you may snap into a state of heightened aggression. Effects of your Fifth rune are dramatically different than a regular ability rune.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I shivered, realizing that my Grade 7 Willpower had dropped from 140 to 120. I had lost a full Grade of Willpower, permanently sacrificing the advantage I had spent years watching storms in order to acquire in exchange for whatever benefit the ¡®fragment of the ocean¡¯s heart¡¯ gave me. However, I was also glad to realize I had gained multiple abilities from my fifth rune. This also confirmed that the reason the Glowing Fish had used so many different abilities during the fight was because of the storm orb.


    ¡°How is it? What happened?¡± Asked the village chief, who had been standing near me while I worked on my rune.


    I turned towards him, and felt a strange tug at my thoughts. For just a brief moment, I wanted to hurt him. To drown him in water and make him become one with the waves, devouring all that made him human and endlessly dragging him into the darkness¡­


    I snapped out of it almost immediately. My willpower was too high to be seriously influenced by this, even after I permanently lost a Grade of Willpower to form my fifth rune.


    The village chief, however, tightened his grip on his spear as he looked at me. ¡°Miria?¡± His voice shook, and he sounded both afraid and as if he were mustering up his courage.


    I finished shrugging off the strange desire to harm the village chief, and shook my head.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, village chief. I do feel slightly more inclined towards violence than before, but I can control it really easily. My willpower has always been good. But I can definitely see why the Glowing Fish began to rampage through the islands after absorbing this thing; anything with a weak will would definitely go on a murderous rampage after absorbing this thing. And the Great Fish have never been very smart. I don¡¯t think that villagers with lower Willpower should absorb these orbs, if we encounter any more of them. If they do, they might seriously hurt people they care about.¡± I said.


    ¡°But hunters are probably fine, and people with unusually strong Willpower should also be fine. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a problem to absorb these, it just needs to be done carefully.¡±


    The village chief frowned, before nodding.


    ¡°Your eyes have changed color. The pupils in your eyes are gone. And the color of your eyes has turned much¡­ darker. Before, your eyes were the same color as everyone else¡¯s, but now it¡¯s like¡­ when I look at your eyes, I get this eerie feeling that I¡¯m looking at the bottom of the ocean. It¡¯s¡­ not a bad color, but it¡¯s a bit unnerving,¡± said the village chief. I frowned, and then nodded as the village chief continued speaking.


    ¡°In any case, I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re still yourself. How strong is the influence of the storm orb?¡±


    As the healers and the village chief carefully observed me, I described everything I was feeling, from the odd sense of seeing things out of the corner of my eye to the occasional mild impulses to hurt people in my surroundings. The village chief, as well as the healers, nodded and frowned as I spoke, occasionally prodding me with new questions, but largely content to just listen as I described my experiences so far.


    Afterwards, the village chief and the healers led me out of the house, so that I could experiment with my abilities while they watched.


    The first thing I realized was that I could now easily control water in my surroundings.


    Previously, I could technically control water without converting it into light or healing, but my control was very, very weak. It was at the point where it was almost worthless, since I could barely control a blob of water the size of my head, and I couldn¡¯t move it very quickly. Now, however, I had a level of control and power equal to, or even exceeding, someone with a normal water control rune. Since this ability was already common in the village, I quickly took it in stride, before I focused on the more unique Abilities I had gained from my fifth rune.


    The next thing I realized was that my illusion ability was different from before. I had one new, unique ability I could add to my illusions - namely, I could directly make them create a special, weakened version of the Call of the Ocean. I could only create around 30 or 40% of the real Call of the Ocean¡¯s effects, but the fact that I could make my illusions now drive people insane or force them to drown themselves if their will was weak enough was¡­ both novel and slightly terrifying. I was more than a little glad the village chief had insisted that we test my abilities away from the village, or else a few children might have gone mad during my Ability Testing.


    My healing abilities hadn¡¯t changed at all. I realized that one of the two Abilities I had gained with my Fifth rune was an overhaul to my fourth rune. My fourth rune, originally, granted me the ability to convert water into light or healing. I had used this to make illusions and heal villagers.


    However, my fourth rune now granted me the ability to manipulate water itself, and the illusion ability could easily become several times scarier than before if I used it against humans now. I could still use the ¡®original¡¯ version of my illusion ability, but I could just as easily mimic or enhance the call of the ocean if the outsiders returned.


    However, the second ability I should have gotten from my rune, teleportation, was incredibly hard to use.


    After several hours of experimentation, I realized that the strange ¡®distortion¡¯ I was seeing out of the corner of my eye wasn¡¯t me seeing things, or an illusion.


    Instead, it was a kind of¡­ ripple in space itself. What I was seeing wasn¡¯t a figment of my imagination, but something like a distortion in reality that I could manipulate if I ¡®latched on¡¯ to a certain distortion in reality and then bent it to my will.


    This realization left me slightly frustrated, because seeing what I was supposed to be manipulating was incredibly difficult when using my rather mediocre human eyes.


    Apparently, the dozens of eyes the Great Fish of the ocean had were more useful than I thought. During the hunt of the Glowing Fish, my chief had made everyone aim towards the eyes of the Glowing Fish at some point in time, since he had realized its teleportation was dependent on its eyesight. However, as I reflected on the fight as a whole, and thought about how and when the Glowing Fish had teleported, I realized a few interesting facts about the fight. At some point in time, the glowing fish had started to miss its teleports, more and more often, and this seemed to correlate to the number of its eyes we had destroyed over the course of the fight. I was beginning to think that all the extra eyes of the Great Fish helped them see the ripples of ¡®space¡¯ around them, which was part of what helped the Glowing Fish teleport around during the fight. Since I only had two human eyes, it was much harder for me to figure out how to use my teleportation. If the fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart hadn¡¯t warped my eyes while I absorbed it, I might not have been able to use my new teleportation ability at all. Luckily, I could see these ¡®ripples¡¯ in space now; but I didn¡¯t know how to use them yet.


    I reported my findings to the village chief, and after some thought, he told me to keep working on it. Clearly, I would need a lot more practice if I wanted to teleport around like the Glowing Fish. After some thinking, I nodded and sighed. It didn¡¯t matter if I couldn¡¯t use the ability right now. I just needed to keep practicing until I could do it.


    With that, my initial testing of my fifth rune, as well as my analysis of the effects of a Storm Orb on rune formation, came to an end.

 Chapter 48: Villager Variance

    It took me a few months of practice before I finally learned how to teleport properly. It was very difficult to get used to seeing the ¡®ripples¡¯ in space out of the corners of my eyes and manipulating the space around me, but as I got more and more used to looking for spatial ripples and, I eventually figured out how to use my teleportation ability.


    The first thing I realized that was space wasn¡¯t very even. I had previously felt that the space around me was like a sheet of paper; flat, smooth, and uniform. However, space wasn¡¯t actually any of those things. Rather than a sheet of paper, space was more like a bowl of noodles. It was filled with cracks, gaps, and unevenness. My body itself seemed to exacerbate these cracks in reality now, allowing me to just barely peek through the gaps in space. This was the actual nature of teleportation. I couldn¡¯t just move myself from point A to point B at a whim. Instead, I needed to find a ¡®crack¡¯ in space nearby, and exploit it if I wanted to move somewhere. The space in this dimension was extremely distorted and uneven, meaning it was very easy to find a gap in space near my position. However, that might change in future dimensions.


    I also realized that the Glowing fish wasn¡¯t teleporting in the way I understood teleportation.


    In simple terms, teleportation didn¡¯t just let me disappear and reappear wherever I wanted to go. Instead, what I was doing was taking chunks of ¡®space¡¯ and altering what they connected to, making two places appear ¡®right next to each other¡¯ even though they were actually very far apart. Rather than teleporting, it would be more accurate to say I was making gates that connected to spots. I still needed to physically move through a gate I made if I wanted to ¡®teleport.¡¯ Of course, given my rune count, it was easy for me to move incredibly quickly, and so this didn¡¯t actually prove to be a problem. However, if I was completely unable to physically move, I wouldn¡¯t be able to teleport.


    Apart from that, due to my inferior eyes, my control over teleportation was also inferior to that of the Glowing Fish. While the Glowing Fish had been able to teleport extremely precisely during the beginning of the hunt, I usually had to settle for ¡®close enough¡¯ while teleporting around. I wasn¡¯t so far off that the ability was useless, but I was almost always at least a few centimeters off the mark.


    During the time I worked on mastering my teleportation abilities, I also got more and more used to the occasional impulse to attack the people around me. Such flashes of anger were¡­ disturbing for me, since I had no intention to harm my fellow villagers. Luckily, they were easy to manage, since my Willpower was high enough to cope with my occasional random flashes of anger. I didn¡¯t lash out at any of my fellow villagers, or hurt any of them. However, I occasionally had to break off a conversation and wait a few moments, until I got my thoughts back under control. It was easy to manage the influence of the ocean¡¯s heart with my grade 6 Willpower, but I suspected it would be too much for anyone with Grade 4 or below to retain their sense of self if they absorbed a storm orb. Even Grade 5 might be pushing it a little. I frequently reported everything I felt and saw to the village chief, who learned as much as he could about my condition. I wasn¡¯t sure if he intended to use the storm orbs at all, but I wanted to make sure he knew everything he could about the potential risks and rewards of doing so before storm season came.


    The most immediate impact of my unusual fifth rune came in the form of my spars with Felix and Sallia. Since my ¡®teleportation¡¯ worked by distorting reality and creating gates from one point to another, I didn¡¯t need to move my whole body through a gate when I was trying to make a tricky attack. Instead, I could just shove my sword into thin air, and my sword would suddenly appear near Felix or Sallia. Of course, I had a very hard time opening portals in exact locations. However, my swordsmanship was good enough that I could just barely compensate for these issues. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if I would reach the next grade of Swordsmanship before I died, and how much different my swordsmanship would look if I reached the next Grade. However, even without [Advanced] grade swordsmanship I could still make very strange and unpredictable attacks during a fight by teleporting the tip or edge of my blade around. And, just as easily, I could also teleport myself around once every so often, letting me dodge Felix¡¯s ranged element manipulation if I noticed it in time. I needed to wait eight seconds between each teleport, which was worse than the Glowing Fish, but I assumed that was another biological compatibility issue.


    Of course, this didn¡¯t mean I won 100% of the spars with Felix. I could blast Felix with water, teleport, and make illusions during our fights, but Felix could make his sword just as unpredictable as mine by manipulating bone and wood, and if he caught me in a bad position after I teleported somewhere he could usually restrain me with tree branches before poking me in the heart with his sword. I won about 80% of the fights we had, which was a stark contrast to my previous losing streak, but Felix could still eke out wins against me sometimes. My ability to attach the Call of the Ocean to my illusions made me basically undefeated against Sallia, because her Willpower was low. No matter how good she was at swordsmanship, she still needed a second or two to recover if I blasted her with a bunch of illusions that directly attacked her willpower. I was competent enough to exploit those weaknesses, making it hard for Sallia to win if I used all of my abilities during a spar.


    Four months after I formed my fifth rune, Felix began working on his sixth rune. A month later, he succeeded, giving him a rune that allowed him to manipulate bronze. This wasn¡¯t very useful against land beasts, because bronze tools and armor were too precious to waste on regular hunts. However, if the outsiders ever returned, it could play a devastating role in a future fight, allowing him turn someone¡¯s armor and weapons against him. It didn¡¯t change the outcome of our sparring sessions very much, but even if it was only useful in a few situations, I could see how helpful it might be in the future. However, Felix¡¯s sixth rune also presented us with a strange and unique insight into the nature of transmigrators, one that we hadn¡¯t considered before.


    ¡°I can probably only form one more rune after this,¡± said Felix, a few days after he had formed his sixth rune. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I have enough for the seventh rune, but after that most of the absorption essence I generate per day will be spent maintaining what I have. It¡¯ll be hard for me to form an eighth rune.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Asked Sallia. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, what? You can only form seven runes total? But you have grade 6 Absorption essence. That¡¯s the best grade you can have. Why is the total so low? Shouldn¡¯t you be able to match the village chief? Or at least match the best hunters of the village or something? The hunters of the village all have between 7 and 9 runes available. If you can only form seven that¡¯s¡­ barely at the bottom of the hunters.¡±


    I also frowned.


    ¡°I figured you would be able to match the best hunters in the village eventually,¡± I said. ¡°Having maximum grade absorption essence, at least in my mind, should mean that you would be able to match the strongest members of the village. Even if your innate talent for Absorption Essence is lower than Sallia¡¯s, that should still let you match the hunters of the village,¡± I said, trying to figure out what we were misunderstanding. Something was clearly wrong here.


    ¡°Maybe the villages have some sort of unique resource people groomed to be the next village chief consume, which boosts their Absorption essence?¡± I offered, after a bit of thinking. I had already seen weird and unique magic resources like the storm orb in the village, so it didn¡¯t seem very far-fetched to assume that hunters and the village chief had access to another weird resource.


    Sallia shook her head. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make sense. Even if the islanders have some sort of rare, hidden resource for village chiefs, it doesn¡¯t make sense for Felix to lag significantly behind the other hunters of the village. After all, there are plenty of 8 and 9 rune hunters here. And if that resource is common enough that every hunter in the village can use it, thus boosting their rune count, the resource wouldn¡¯t be secret. Out of the five or six hundred villagers alive right now, about 30 or 40 are hunters. That¡¯s a full 5% of the village. I doubt they could keep a resource that permanently increases absorption essence secret for several generations with so many people in on the secret. It would become well known sooner or later.¡±


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Felix, who was frowning, began squinting as he looked at something in midair. I wondered what he was doing, before Felix suddenly chuckled.


    ¡°I think I see the problem here. Pull up your Status Screen, and look at the description for your current vessel.¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Teenage Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen. Your body is nearly grown up, and you no longer experience any Stat penalties due to your immature body.


    Due to absorption of a Damaged Fragment of the Heart of the Ocean, your body exerts a certain influence on its surroundings. Your eyes are forever changed from their original color, allowing you to see things you couldn¡¯t before.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. If you wish to exceed grade 6 you must purchase Stats.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I stared at the last line of my vessel description again, before Sallia read it out loud.


    ¡°Due to the characteristics of a TRANSMIGRATOR, it is impossible for a physical vessel to have stats below 70 or above 130 without input from your soul. In other words, normal villagers don¡¯t have Stats explicitly stuck between those numbers. Only Transmigrators do. If we weren¡¯t attached to the Market, we might also have Stats way above or below 70 and 130 each time we were reborn. The reason our Stats have such a low level of variance is because we¡¯re part of the market,¡± said Sallia, thoughtfully.


    ¡°In that case, does that mean the hunters just have higher Absorption Essence grades than Felix?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Maybe. I¡¯m willing to bet Grade 6 and Grade 7 are the standard numbers for a Hunter in this village. Maybe talent plays a bigger and bigger role in maximum rune count, the further you go into this magic system,¡± Said Sallia. ¡°After all, I need less absorption essence to form a rune than other people, meaning that maintenance costs don¡¯t hit me as hard as everyone else when I try to form a new rune. If my assumption is correct, village chiefs probably have Grade 8 or 9 in Absorption essence. I¡¯m not sure what people with more than 12 runes would need, and my assumptions could be wrong, but that¡¯s my rough guess for rune totals right now. After all, it¡¯s impossible for village to form 11 runes with only grade 6 Absorption Essence, based on Felix¡¯s experiences and my understanding of the world we live in.¡± Sallia shrugged. ¡°Since village chief doesn¡¯t have a Status Screen, it¡¯s hard to say how correct my assumptions are. But clearly, the inhabitants of this world have a greater range of statistical variance than the three of us.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Felix frowned, before turning back towards Sallia. ¡°You know, now that I think about it, that makes a lot of sense. A lot of babies and children get sick and die before they grow up, but you survived. You only have Grade 3 Fortitude, right?¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°If you don¡¯t include my Runes, I have 74 Constitution. When I was young, I was actually pretty sickly. I felt like I had the flu for almost a full year before I got my first rune built. If I hadn¡¯t made my fourth rune faster, I might have died if I got a serious illness. My body wasn¡¯t that sturdy when I just got here. Wait¡­¡± Sallia nodded. ¡°I see. A lot of children DO get sick and die young, but I didn¡¯t, even though I rolled nearly the worst possible outcome for my Fortitude. In other words, the reason I didn¡¯t just die as a baby is because I can¡¯t roll below Grade 3. A baby with grade 2 Fortitude will almost inevitably die before turning four, but since I¡¯m a Transmigrator, I¡¯m unable to roll below 70 in a Stat, which kept me alive this time. Is that what you¡¯re thinking about?¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°That¡¯s what I was thinking, yes. Other villagers can easily roll below Grade 3, or above Grade 6 in a particular attribute. We can¡¯t, which makes us unable to become the ¡®best¡¯ in a given world without heavy investment. But we also can¡¯t get Stats so low we stop functioning. Without investing into our Stats, we will always remain somewhere around the average inhabitant of a world we live in.¡±


    I frowned. ¡°Is there an upper limit to non-Transmigrator stats, then? I mean, I do think your ideas make sense. I hadn¡¯t realized that Sallia¡¯s survival was so strange, but now that you point it out, she definitely seemed healthier than some babies despite her abysmal rolls. But I also haven¡¯t seen any six year olds running around with, say, Grade 9 Strength or something in the village. I mean, if a four year old with no runes had Grade 9 Strength, it would definitely be noticed. Even if his perception couldn¡¯t keep up with his physical stats, and lowered his practical Strength value, he would still be renowned for his weird strength. Low Perception can significantly reduce the benefits of more points in a Physical Stat, but it¡¯s not like having more points in a Stat is ever useless.¡±


    Felix also frowned.


    ¡°Maybe physical stats have less variance than Essence Stats? I mean, there are certain limits to what the laws of physics and your biology can support, especially before you start introducing magic into the mix. And I do think our ¡®original physical abilities¡¯ are kind of close to the strongest villagers. I don¡¯t think anyone here naturally has more than Grade 7 in a physical attribute. But by Sallia¡¯s estimation, we¡¯re probably multiple Grades lower than village chief in absorption essence. Perhaps the variance for some Stats is lower than for other stats?¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°And then perhaps Mental Stats can have a medium level of variance. It¡¯s normal for geniuses and people with incredibly strong willpower to be born, even here in the islands. If Felix¡¯s stories about his first world are accurate, people with high Intelligence are probably the ones who make major technological breakthroughs. And I know that Miria didn¡¯t have the highest Willpower in the village, even after she finished doing her storm-watching training. Grade 7 was considered pretty good, and Miria was known for having a decent Willpower¡­ but it wasn¡¯t the best in the village either. It was just known for being pretty good.¡±


    I frowned, and then nodded. ¡°So going off of our assumptions, Essence Stats have the most variance? After all, if Olav¡¯s memories are correct, the emperor of Megailia had some sort of absurd rune count. He was supposed to have like 15 or 16, I think? Either way, that implies his Absorption Essence Stat must be completely ridiculous.¡±


    ¡°In other words, every world we visit in the future isn¡¯t going to be easy for us if we only get a few Grades in a Stat,¡± said Felix, sighing. ¡°If non-Transmigrators have greater levels of variance, that means that in future worlds, there are going to be people stronger than us in most areas we¡¯re born in. At least, at first, until we invest a lot more Achievement into our Stats and Abilities. I had excellent rolls this life, and I¡¯m still barely at the bottom of the village hunters. I am barely in the top 5% of the village, and I¡¯m only competing with 500-600 people. The more people there are concentrated in an area, the more chance for variance there will be, meaning the strongest person in an area will also be more powerful the more people you have. Right now I¡¯m barely in the top 50 out of 600. Who knows how hard it will be to stand out in a city of, say, 10,000, or a nation of a few million. By that point, even with perfect rolls we might barely stand out if our Market-based Stats aren¡¯t high enough.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s only if we rely purely on rolls,¡± I said, shrugging. ¡°After this life we¡¯ll have Abilities backing us up. And those abilities will make it easier for us to acquire Achievement, helping us along. I notice the swordsmanship abilities, for example, offer big boosts to physical Stats after we train our swordsmanship back up every life. I imagine we¡¯ll have more and more ways to compensate the further we grow.¡±


    The three of us fell silent, thinking about the future as we watched the nearby village bustle about. Finally, after a few minutes passed by, Sallia spoke up again.


    ¡°It does feel a bit bad, knowing that we¡¯re going to struggle just to be ¡®above average¡¯ in the future, but I think it isn¡¯t just a bad thing. I probably would have died upon being born if I hadn¡¯t been part of the Market, judging by how badly my rolls went this life. And the fact that we have less variance also means that our progress will be more stable from life to life. We don¡¯t have to worry about being so bad in a Stat that we end up effectively crippled, even if Grade 3 feels pretty close. At the end of the day, we just need to work harder and live longer. Once we get old enough, we¡¯ll be able to match the strongest people even in high population worlds.¡±


    The three of us fell silent again, as we thought about the future. Then, I sighed, stood up, and dusted myself off. ¡°I think we¡¯ve learned everything we can from this conversation right now. We¡¯ve established that non-Transmigrators have greater Stat variance than we do, and we¡¯ve also guessed that Physical Stats probably have the least variance, while Essence Stats probably have the most variance. My brain hurts, and I want to train. I¡¯m pretty far away from learning [Advanced] Grade swordsmanship, but I¡¯ll never get there if I don¡¯t keep working on it. Are either of you willing to spar with me?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you just enjoying finally being the strongest of the three of us?¡± Asked Felix, chuckling as he picked up his sword. I felt my cheeks flush as Felix called me out. ¡°Since you spent most of this life being the weakest of the three of us, I think you¡¯re just enjoying being at the top for a bit. Let me show you that there¡¯s always a better Transmigrator, miss Mira.¡±


    Sallia snorted, before she also laughed.


    The three of us returned to our sparring for the rest of the day.

 Chapter 49: Preparations for the Deeps

    Two more years passed. Felix and I turned fifteen, and Sallia turned fourteen. Perhaps due to how hard it was to keep improving my weapon mastery, I didn¡¯t get any improvements to my Swordsmanship, Spearmanship, or Archery Skills. Sallia was still improving quickly, but according to her own assessment, she was still years away from reaching [Advanced] Grade Swordsmanship. Which probably meant Felix and I were at least a decade or two of hard training away from reaching the next Grade. This was a bit of a shame, since I wasn¡¯t sure if we would even live that long, but I kept working on my Swordsmanship with the others every day. Even if I didn¡¯t reach [Advanced] Grade Swordsmanship in this life, I would be able to carry my memories of my hard work with me to the next life, and that was still worth something.


    This also made me wonder just how difficult it actually was to reach the next grade of a weapon skill. According to Felix, there were only three hunters on the island renowned for being excellent with weapons. Two of them used Spears, and one used a bow. According to our guesses, these three people probably had [Advanced] grade weapon skills, but we were already on par with most Hunters in raw weapon mastery. This was probably because Hunters trained how to add their Abilities into their fights and deal with the terrifying abilities of land beasts, but I was still fascinated by how few people had actually reached [Advanced] Grade weapon mastery here.


    Apart from weapon skills, Felix and I continued to work on our runes. I could probably form my sixth rune within a few months, at latest, and Felix said he could probably form his seventh rune before he turned eighteen.


    Even though I didn¡¯t get any Achievement for mastering more weapon skills or forming runes, I still earned Achievement in other ways as the years passed. In particular, for two years in a row I got a rather interesting Achievement notification during Storm Season.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Play a [Moderate] role in increasing the Strength of the Islands by a [Moderate] amount


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +800


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Play a [Minor] role in increasing the Strength of the Islands by a [Moderate] amount


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The storm season after I absorbed a fragment of the ocean¡¯s heart, the Village Chief and a few other village chiefs decided to try something risky, which had never been done before.


    Since the village chief had observed the strange and powerful ability of Teleportation I had gained after absorbing the fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart, he decided the benefits of absorbing a few storm orbs was worth the permanent reduction to Willpower.


    Therefore, after discussions with the other village chiefs, during the next storm season several village chiefs, along with a few specialized fishermen, flew directly into the storms to retrieve a few storm orbs. They used a variety of Abilities to keep themselves safe during the retrieval attempt, especially water and wind manipulation, and nearly got crushed by the massive waves being flung around during their first attempt.


    However, all of the village chiefs and fishermen returned alive. The floatwood boat was damaged, but not to the point it couldn¡¯t be repaired. Two weeks later, they tried again, and this time they succeeded in retrieving a Fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart.


    After that, every week or two, a few village chiefs would work together to retrieve another storm orb. They managed to retrieve about seven during the season, divided amongst the three villages who worked together to take the orbs.


    The following year, after the renewal festival, the strongest hunters of the village who still had enough essence to form another rune were given tests on how effectively they could resist the Call of the Ocean. Of the six hunters who could almost completely ignore the call of the ocean, the two with the highest combat ability were given storm orbs, and the village chief paid me a few fish cores to get me to personally explain their use, as well as my experiences with absorbing a storm orb. For the next two months, I guided the two hunters through the process of forming a rune with the Storm Orb and mastering the use of their new abilities.


    The hunters didn¡¯t both form teleportation abilities, the way I had assumed they would. Instead, for his eighth rune, one hunter got the usual mental bonus for forming a rune, and then gained the ability to directly attack people¡¯s minds with his ability. He could directly try to knock out another party by using his new Ability, so long as the other party¡¯s Willpower was low enough. Meanwhile, the other hunter gained a weaker version of the lightning ability of the Glowing Fish. While the abilities each got from a storm orb were different, both proved extremely useful in managing landbeasts.


    The second year, far more village chiefs from other islands participated in the retrieval process. Interestingly enough, even though my innovation was spreading far wider, and creating a much bigger ripple effect, I got less Achievement the second year. It took me a while to realize that this was because even though the increase in the island¡¯s strength was greater, my overall role was much smaller now. While I pioneered the use of storm orbs as a method of increasing strength, the ones who did most of the work now were the village chiefs and fishermen who worked to retrieve the storm orbs. As a result, my contribution was lower and I got fewer overall rewards. I was a little sad about this at first, since I would have loved to just sit around and gain ridiculous amounts of Achievement, but I had already gained a massive amount of Achievement for what I had done so far. I had gained 400 Achievement for owning and then using a Storm Orb, and I had gained 1300 Achievement for pioneering the use of the Fragments of the Ocean¡¯s Heart. Even though I had hoped for more, I definitely couldn¡¯t say that the rewards for my work and the risks I had taken had been low.


    Of course, I still gained Achievement from other sources as well.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Successfully heal 50 humans with [Moderate] Injuries


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +250


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Naturally, I didn¡¯t stop healing villagers. I had burned through a good chunk of my fish cores during the fight with the Glowing Fish, and now that there wasn¡¯t any immediate danger to the village, I wanted to recover my stock. Right now, I felt that it was most reasonable to start exploring the ocean once I turned sixteen years old and passed my adulthood ceremony. At that point, the villagers wouldn¡¯t object to me risking my life anymore, because I would officially be an adult. And with some luck, I could also get the village chief to assist me somehow during the investigation. Free use of fish cores, for example, would drastically reduce the strain I would face while exploring the ocean, and if he gave me priority on healing and the assistance of a few specialized rune abilities, my exploration of the ocean might become far easier than it would be if I did everything on my own.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    And I did feel that I had a better chance of convincing the village chief to help me than before. I had already proven that there were strange and useful resources in the ocean by pioneering the use of Storm Orbs. If there was another useful resource or two laying around in the ocean, it might give the village the rest of the power we would need to resist external invasions in the future. We just needed someone to lead the way into the deeps - and I had build my rune abilities explicitly to make myself as effective at underwater exploration as I could. There was nobody on the island better positioned to explore the deeps than I was. I just needed to wait until I was an adult.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the 125th time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Finally, my hunts with the fishing boat continued. With the help of teleportation, as well as the ability to manipulate water, our boat become one of the more successful boats on the island. Most Great Fish had the ability to manipulate water, and this sometimes let them escape beneath the ocean once they were targeted for a hunt. My water control let me seriously weaken their control over the ocean, making it harder for them to escape, and after some practice, I also learned how to teleport our attacks towards the fish, allowing us to deal damage faster and reducing the amount of times we missed during each hunt. The amount of Achievement I got for killing Great Fish wasn¡¯t great compared to my other sources of income, but it was still useful to get as much Achievement as I possibly could.


    With all of the Achievement I gained over the past two years, my Achievement total increased from 6,208 Achievement to 8,258 Achievement. Since the Influence Achievement I had gotten for strengthening the village almost exclusively came from the aftereffects of killing the Glowing Fish, I noticed that the rewards for killing the Glowing Fish were simply massive. Of the 8,000 Achievement I had gained in this life, nearly 3,000 of it had come from killing the Glowing Fish. 1,200 of it had come from the initial hunt, and then I had gotten another 1,700 from handling the glowing orb after the fight. This let me know just how much bigger the income could be if I focused on major events, compared to just randomly hunting monsters and crafting items. By comparison, Felix and Sallia had earned much less Achievement than I had on this world, because their rune counts were too low to participate in the hunt and their Abilities weren¡¯t unusually effective against the Glowing Fish.


    Of course, I also wasn¡¯t under the illusion that things would go just as well next life. A lot of the reason I had done so well this time was because I had happened to form the illusion ability with my fourth rune, and it happened to counter the Glowing Fish. If the Glowing Fish had been a little smarter, or if I hadn¡¯t been working with the other villagers and village chiefs, I wouldn¡¯t have earned any of my Influence Achievement. It would be a miracle if such advantageous conditions appeared in my next life. However, with nearly 3,000 more Achievement, it would be much easier for me to increase my strength before my next life, which would help me stand out in the next world even if I wasn¡¯t so lucky. I was definitely realizing that standing out and being able to do weird and unusual things was the most important factor in earning Achievement, and the more Achievement I earned, the easier it would be to do weird and unusual things effectively.


    About halfway through my fifteenth year in this world, however, something I hadn¡¯t expected appeared. Something that sent thrills of terror down my spine, because it represented a threat I had always thought about, but which hadn¡¯t resurfaced for a long time.


    One day, after the fishing boat finished hunting down a Great Fish, the boat dipped dangerously close to the ocean. This wasn¡¯t completely unusual, since the boat would occasionally go up or down during a fight with a Great Fish. However, today, Olav squinted at the ocean after we finished killing the Great Fish.


    ¡°Does anyone else see that?¡± He said, after a few moments.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I immediately went on alert, scanning my surroundings as closely as possible. The Glowing Fish had shown us just how dangerous ¡®weird stuff¡¯ was when it came from the ocean. The last time I saw something ¡®odd¡¯ in the Ocean, it required a swarm of flying boats from the villages of the islands to kill. Olav seeing something strange was terrible news.


    However, as I scanned our surroundings, I couldn¡¯t see a thing. My father, Edel, and Claus also expressed their confusion.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see a thing. What are you talking about, Olav?¡± Asked Edel, still on alert.


    ¡°Down there. On the surface of the water. There¡¯s a really, really small¡­ thing. It looks kind of mixed in color. It¡¯s a white, but mixed with a little blue¡­¡± said Olav, pointing at something I couldn¡¯t see.


    ¡°Should we fly closer and take a look?¡± Asked my father, after hesitating for a few moments.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Olav hesitated, and I also got an uneasy feeling. If whatever Olav had spotted was dangerous, getting closer would make it hard to escape if something went wrong. However, after a few moments of hesitation, Olav nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s take a look.¡±


    We flew closer to the surface of the Ocean. As we got closer to the water, I also noticed what Olav was afraid of.


    On the surface of the ocean was a very, very strange fish. It was the size of my fist, and swam like it was drunk. However, oddest of all was the fact that it didn¡¯t look like it was made of organic matter. Instead, it reminded me of¡­


    ¡°Paper?¡± I said, after a few moments. Olav also frowned, although the other fishermen just looked confused. Curious, I looked at Olav for a moment. ¡°Do you mind if I bring it closer to us?¡±


    Olav nodded, and I created a gate in front of the paper fish. It didn¡¯t seem to notice, and quickly swam through my gate, before appearing almost right in front of our boat.


    ¡°It didn¡¯t avoid my teleportation,¡± I said. ¡°And it doesn¡¯t seem very intelligent, either.¡±


    Olav nodded, before he cut the tip of his finger. A drop of blood floated out of his body, before it suddenly tore into the paper fish. In a fraction of a second, the paper fish collapsed, turning into a sheet of paper.


    I was shocked. The strange creature had died, just like that? However, I quickly realized I hadn¡¯t gotten any Achievement for helping to kill something. I looked more closely at the paper fish, before realizing that it wasn¡¯t a ¡®creature shaped like a fish that had paper biology.¡¯ After the fish had ¡®died,¡¯ the fish had unravelled, revealing an ordinary sheet of paper.


    As I got a closer look at the sheet of paper, my heart clenched. The sheet of paper wasn¡¯t blank. Instead, it was filled with scribbles. I couldn¡¯t read, so I had no clue what was written on the paper, but I could definitely tell that the paper fish had writing on it.


    ¡°What is this thing?¡± I asked.


    Olav looked at the sheet of paper as well, before he frowned.


    ¡°It¡¯s writing. I¡¯ve heard it¡¯s very rare in the Megailian Empire, because only the elite know how to read, but there are a few people who can read and write. It¡¯s supposed to be one of the ways orders are transmitted from their king to the generals. I¡¯ve never heard of one taking the form of a fish and swimming around, so maybe it¡¯s a rune ability or something, but¡­¡± Olav¡¯s expression slowly turned white, and I had a sinking feeling in my heart.


    I didn¡¯t know how it had happened, or what Ability had been used. I might never know. However, if a paper fish carrying writing was wandering around our village, and Olav had barely spotted it out of the corner of his eye while we were hunting, other paper fish might have been wandering around our ocean for an unknown period of time already. And while nobody here could read, if the writing on these paper fish was Megailian¡­


    That would be very bad news.


    Our boat flew back to the island to inform the Village Chief what we had found immediately, and the islands all entered a state of high alert. Everybody vividly remembered the first fight with the Outsiders, and news that they might have returned immediately put the villages on edge. Some of the fishing boats from each village began to fly much farther away from the islands than usual, scouting our surroundings to see if the Outsiders had returned or not.


    Two weeks later, one of the fishing boats which had flown farther from the islands than usual reported seeing sails in the distance. The boats of the Outsiders seemed to fly the flag of Megailia. The boats were heading in completely the wrong direction, but their presence still confirmed my worst fears.


    The outsiders had returned.

 Chapter 50: Preparing for the Deeps

    After the presence of the outsiders was confirmed by the scout boats, I spent a few hours thinking while the islanders did their best to observe the outsiders without being seen. In total, the Outsiders seemed to have eight boats, five more ship than the three damaged ones they came in last time. Furthermore, these ships weren¡¯t damaged; they were perfectly intact this time.


    I didn¡¯t have many ways to contribute to the island and secure our home from external invaders on my own. The Outsiders clearly meant business, since they had brought eight warships this time. As far as we could observe, the massive sea creature which had demolished most of the first group wasn¡¯t attacking the outsiders, so they hadn¡¯t brought Astrellium with them this time.


    The fact that they weren¡¯t carrying Astrellium weapons with them meant they had probably somehow received word from the first group of Outsiders. I didn¡¯t know why they had taken so long to return, and I didn¡¯t know how much information they had gotten from the first group of Outsiders. However, if they had explicitly avoided carrying Astrellium with them, they probably knew we were in this area, and were back for a second attempt at attacking the island.


    Most people seemed to come to similar conclusions. Therefore, I decided to change my schedule. In a head-on battle, I couldn¡¯t contribute very much to the islands. I only had five runes, and my illusions weren¡¯t good enough to fool humans. This wasn¡¯t a situation I could solve with my own power. I didn¡¯t want the people of the islands or my friends to get hurt by the outsiders, but I couldn¡¯t directly protect them.


    Therefore, there was only one way I could think of to help protect the islands. I took my original schedule for when I wanted to explore the ocean, and I drastically changed the time I intended to start exploring. A few hours after the Megailian Fleet was sighted, I went up to the village chief and told him I was going to explore the Ocean¡¯s Depths.


    ¡°Why do you think that going into the depths of the ocean will help?¡± Asked the village chief as he stared at me. After I made my declaration, he had given me a baffled look.


    ¡°It¡¯s because of the storm orbs,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯ve already confirmed that there¡¯s one useful resource available in the Ocean. Since we¡¯ve already found one way to increase our power by using the resources of the Ocean, there might be another. After all, the ocean is huge. There must be all kinds of weird and unique objects and resources we haven¡¯t come across so far. So if I delve deeper into the ocean and brave the dangers there, there might be a way to make the islands stronger. Right now, the village has already suffered from two catastrophic fights in the past decade. The first fight was against the first wave of outsiders, and we also lost many good people and floatwood boats during the fight with the Glowing Fish. I know that we¡¯ve recovered a good amount of our previous strength, but we¡¯re still only a little stronger now than when we fought the glowing fish, and probably still weaker than when the first wave of outsiders appeared. And that¡¯s including the new Storm Orbs. Even with that, I don¡¯t know if we can win this battle right now. So I want to find a way to even the odds a little bit. And the ocean seems most likely to hold that opportunity,¡± I said.


    The village chief frowned, looking at me as he fell into thought. Now that I was older, he didn¡¯t seem quite as eager to dismiss the notion of me putting myself at risk anymore.


    ¡°You¡¯re making a lot of assumptions about special resources,but they may not exist. Your assumptions could be wrong.¡± He didn¡¯t seem like he was chiding me; he seemed more like he was genuinely curious to know what my thoughts were. This was encouraging.


    ¡°I know,¡± I said, looking the village chief in the eyes. ¡°I might be totally wrong about there being unused resources in the deeps. But I also think that if we continue as we are now, the Outsiders will probably win this fight. We don¡¯t know how strong they are this time, but they¡¯re definitely stronger than before. All of the villages working together might not be enough to overcome this crisis.¡±


    The village chief frowned, before he massaged his temples and sighed. ¡°We have no idea how strong the outsiders are, indeed. Based on Olav¡¯s words about the Megailian Empire, while not numerous, they have some number of people with thirteen to fifteen runes spread amongst their warriors. They also have a leader with sixteen to eighteen runes. We don¡¯t know what the thirteenth through fifteenth runes do, but we can definitely assume that they¡¯re dangerous. If they have numerous thirteen rune warriors, the village chiefs and I will need to outnumber them in order to win, and that will force us into a dangerous and time consuming battle. If this goes poorly, could be the end of the islands.¡± The village chief sighed. He was giving my words serious thought. I gave him another verbal push.


    ¡°In that case, it makes sense to gather more power, right? If the outsiders are really here for us, we need as many ways to fight back as possible. I think it¡¯s at least worth trying to find a way to survive by looking in the Ocean, even if it might be a fool¡¯s errand.¡±


    The village chief directed a questioning look at me. ¡°The ocean is filled with dangers, many of which we have no knowledge of. Monsters as dangerous as the glowing fish might lurk everywhere beneath the waves, and monstrous creatures like the great tentacle monster from years ago almost certainly still lie deep in the ocean. Also, humans can¡¯t breathe underwater. And moving will be difficult. Do you have ways to overcome these problems? I know you can heal flesh, teleport, control water, and make illusions, but while those abilities would certainly help you, I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s enough to let you survive whatever lurks in the deeps. Do you have a plan for all these problems?¡±


    ¡°I do,¡± I said, nodding. ¡°In fact, my ability to heal flesh also lets me heal the effects of drowning. It does take a good amount of mana to do it for a long period of time, but I already confirmed that I can keep myself alive without breathing the moment I formed my fourth rune.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯m sorry, what?¡± The village chief looked as if he were taken completely off guard this time, and I gave him a confident grin.


    ¡°Drowning doesn¡¯t kill someone instantly ¨C instead, it¡¯s a gradual process of the body dying, step by step, right? If that¡¯s the case, as long as I can heal myself fast enough, it¡¯s possible for me to survive drowning. I¡¯ve done some quick tests with Aria (Sallia) and Felix watching over me, and if I heal myself all the time, I replace the need to breathe with my healing Ability. I could originally only do so for fifteen minutes before running out of mana, at least when I had four runes, and I originally thought I would be able to sustain thirty minute intervals when I formed my sixth rune. Luckily, the Storm Orb seems to have increased my mana capacity more than a regular rune does, so even though I only have five runes I can still manage to function without air for thirty minutes. I¡¯m planning on bringing a bunch of fish cores with me as well, so that I can replenish my mana over and over again. With teleportation to keep me safe from monsters and healing to keep me from drowning, I can probably explore the ocean for between four and six hours at a time.¡± I paused. ¡°Though in truth, I¡¯ll probably return to the surface a little earlier than that, to give myself some extra time if I need it.¡±


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    The village chief looked at me like I had lost my mind for several seconds. The two of us just stood there, looking at each other, before the chieftain¡¯s baffled look was slowly replaced with a look of resigned acceptance.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been thinking about this for a while, haven¡¯t you?¡± The village chief frowned. ¡°No, you haven¡¯t just been thinking about this. Have you been planning to explore the Ocean before you even formed your fourth rune? Most villagers form runes based on abilities they think are useful for their day to day jobs, but for you to know all of interactions between your abilities and the ocean already¡­ now that I think about it, your Abilities seem like they¡¯re explicitly designed to help you survive underwater. Was that planned? When did you start thinking about exploring the Ocean?¡±


    ¡°When I saw a storm with master Olav, when I was six or seven years old!¡± I said cheerfully. ¡°When I saw it, I wanted to figure out why the Ocean was so strange, and I never forgot that dream.¡±


    The village chief looked at me, and then started laughing.


    ¡°Well I¡¯ll be. I never would have thought you were planning that far in advance. No wonder your abilities are so weird.¡± Then, after a few more moments of hesitation, he nodded. ¡°If you¡¯ve been planning to do this for almost a decade now, I guess I can¡¯t really stop you. You¡¯ll just try again when you officially become an adult anyway. If you¡¯re so determined to take the risk, why not make it count? I¡¯m going to regret this, but I¡¯ll agree to you exploring the Ocean. I¡¯ll even give you my support. If you run out of fish cores for mana and healing, I¡¯ll lend you some from my own personal stash. And I¡¯ll make sure the healers give you priority whenever you return to the surface, to make sure you¡¯re still all right. BUT,¡± He held up his hands. ¡°You must come back the moment you discover anything, or if you are in danger. Losing a villager won¡¯t help the village any, especially since you¡¯ve absorbed one of the storm orbs. You¡¯re as strong as a relatively powerful person with six runes already, and while that won¡¯t make a massive difference in the fight, it¡¯s definitely powerful enough to help contribute to the battle. Since we¡¯ll almost certainly fight the outsiders sooner or later, we¡¯ll need every fighter we can get, and that means you need to stay safe until then. Come back safely, all right? Also you are going to be the one to inform your parents ¨C I¡¯m not handling that burden.¡± He put his hands back down, before he looked at me again and sighed, sounding both amused and resigned. ¡°When were you planning on leaving?¡±


    ¡°I am planning on leaving within a day or two. The outsiders are heading in the wrong direction right now, so we have some time, but we don¡¯t know how long it will take them to find our islands. The paper fish Olav and I found two weeks ago indicates they already might know we¡¯re in the area, even if they don¡¯t have an exact location.¡±


    The village chief gave me a final look, as if trying to engrave me into his memories in case this was the last time he saw me. Finally, he nodded.


    ¡°Your choice is yours to make. Good luck. I pray that the Ocean Mother will watch over you and keep you safe.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, village chief.¡± I said. Then, I turned and left the village chief¡¯s hut. I needed to inform my parents and friends before I left ¨C and if anything, that conversation was going to be even harder than this one.


    * * *


    ¡°Miria, even if you¡¯re nearly an adult now, that doesn¡¯t mean you can just recklessly jump into situations that might kill you. Please, don¡¯t do this.¡± My father gave me a glare that mixed anger and a hint of worry.


    ¡°Father.¡± When I looked at my father now, all I could see was a worried parent. That brought me a sense of¡­ nostalgia. Even if I couldn¡¯t remember my original parents, I could still see my current father¡¯s face overlapping with another face I couldn¡¯t quite remember. I felt a small, muted pang of sadness, before I brushed it aside and focused on how to let my father see me off with a smile.


    ¡°I¡¯m the best suited for doing this. You¡¯ve seen what happened the first time the outsiders came. Now that they have come again, we need a way to protect ourselves, and my Abilities make me suited to look scour the ocean for a chance to survive. We need to be able to protect ourselves, and the Storm Orbs already indicate how much untapped potential the ocean holds. I want to do this, and I¡¯m the only one in the village who can do this. My Abilities are literally made for this.¡±


    My father stopped talking for a moment. Instead, he looked at my face, as if searching for something. I stared back at him, letting my determination bleed into my expression.


    My father sighed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to die, Miria. You¡¯re my daughter; I don¡¯t want to outlive you. It¡¯s an awful thing for a parent to outlive their child. And no one has ever returned from the ocean.¡±


    ¡°The village chief and some of the fishermen have entered the water and lived, though,¡± I said. ¡°They need to take breaks every now and then, to shrug off the effects of the Call of the Ocean, but it¡¯s clearly not impossible to do so.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s the village chief, sweetie. He has eleven runes. You only have five, and you even absorbed a storm orbs and lost some of your Willpower.¡±


    I sighed, before I gave my father a hug. ¡°I want to keep the village safe, because I don¡¯t want you, or mom, or Felix, or Aria (Sallia) to get hurt. I¡¯m decent at fighting, but I only have five runes. So I want to do my best to keep the village safe, in the only way I can think of that will let me help. Besides, if we don¡¯t win this fight, it¡¯s not like the outsiders will just ignore me. I don¡¯t know how they deal with captives in Megailia, but I doubt my ending would be good if they conquered the islands. I¡¯m not just taking a risk for the sake of taking a risk; this is also the best way I can think of to protect myself. I don¡¯t want to die, and I think this is the best chance of not just my survival, but the survival of everyone here.¡± I said.


    My father looked at my face again. On his face, I could see a mixture of hesitation, and a growing sense of¡­ acceptance? He sighed.


    ¡°Miria¡­my little girl,¡± he said, finally. He looked like he had a hard time forcing out the words, but in the end, he managed to say them. ¡°I don¡¯t want you to do this. But¡­ your argument makes sense. I¡¯ll respect your decision. But you need to come back home, all right?¡± He sounded like he was squeezing his words out, but he managed to say the words in the end.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do everything I can to come home,¡± I said, giving him another hug. He simply looked at me, his gaze now containing a mixture of acceptance and sadness as he looked at me. I did my best to look him directly in the eyes and keep hope in my heart. I would come back safe and successful ¨C and I would pay back the trust my father was trying his hardest to put into me.


    We spent the night as a family. I told my parents that I intended to leave in two days. My father said that he would inform Olav that he would be missing the next few days of fishing. We would spend the next three days together, spending time as a family and reveling in each other¡¯s presence, before I entered the deeps of ocean, where no one had ever returned from.


    In two days, I would see with my own eyes what lay under the surface of the ocean. I just hoped it wouldn¡¯t be the last thing I saw in this world.

 Chapter 51: The World Beneath the Waves (1)

    I spent the next few days with my friends and family. I did all that I could to prepare ¨C which wasn¡¯t much, considering how little we knew about what lay under the surface of the ocean. I wanted to say goodbye, in case I didn¡¯t return. My mother and father had uneasy expressions on their faces as I talked about what should happen in the case of my death, but seemed to acknowledge the necessity of being prepared in advance.


    During that time, the outsiders didn¡¯t keep sailing in the wrong direction. After another day of sailing the wrong way, they had stopped and started circling around. This made everyone even more certain that the outsiders were here for us; they just didn¡¯t know exactly where our islands were. Yet.


    On the final day, I spent a few hours with Arne, talking about the days when I had still been an apprentice under him and reminiscing about all I had learned under his guidance. I spent some time with the fishing boat and its members, reminiscing about the times I had spent under Olav learning to fly the boat, and the fish I had caught with Claus and Edel. Sallia, Felix and I also walked the beaches of the island, admiring the view of the island we had spent nearly a decade and a half living on.


    Finally, two days after I informed the village chief of my decision, I decided it was time. I took a deep breath, trying to suppress both my fear and my excitement, as I stared at the shore of the island. Beneath the waves of the ocean, I could feel the slight effects of the call of the ocean, making me want to step deeper into the waves and never return to the surface. Sallia, Felix, and my parents watched me, unflinching, as I stared at the ocean. I checked my fish core pouch one more time, making sure it was fastened securely and that the orbs wouldn¡¯t float away while I was underwater.


    I took one last look at my parents, as well as the village chief, Olav¡¯s crew, master Arne, and my friends. Everyone had come to see me off. Felix and Sallia both sighed, before they approached me. Felix put his hand on my shoulder, and looked me in the eyes. ¡°Stay safe, Miria. You better not leave me alone to solve Sallia¡¯s keyword Ability problem. I¡¯m still counting on your help for that. You¡¯re not the kind of friend who breaks her promises, right? So I¡¯ll be waiting for you to return.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best,¡± I said.


    Then Sallia gave me a hug, her rune-empowered arms squeezing me tightly enough for my ribs to make alarming creaking sounds. ¡°Don¡¯t leave me alone for the rest of this life. You¡¯re my best friend, and I don¡¯t want to live another few decades without you here.¡±


    I smiled, and gave her a tight squeeze. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to come back.¡±


    ¡°If you don¡¯t, when we get back to the Market I¡¯ll kick your ass and throw you to the skeletons,¡± she said, leaning closer and dropping her volume so that the non-transmigrators wouldn¡¯t hear her.


    I chuckled a bit at that.


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep it in mind. Whatever is down there can¡¯t be as scary as you, especially if I don¡¯t have an advantage in rune count.¡±


    ¡°You better keep it in mind.¡± Sallia gave me a small, nervous grin before she retreated. Her expression looked a bit forced, but she was doing her best to see me off with a smile.


    After Sallia and Felix withdrew, my father walked up to me and hugged me. He didn¡¯t say anything, but he hugged me tightly enough to give Sallia a run for her money. Finally, my mother leaned down and gave me a quick peck on the forehead.


    ¡°Stay safe. Return home alive, okay? You said you would return within six hours of entering the ocean, at most. So I¡¯ll make dinner for you tonight. Don¡¯t let it go to waste, and come back safe.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡±


    Finally, the village chief gave me a nod. ¡°I hope you find something beneath the waves,¡± said the village chief. ¡°But if you can¡¯t, come back immediately. The villages are still debating whether we should hope the outsiders don¡¯t find our village, or try to sink them before they find our islands. We¡¯ll probably come to a decision within a week at most, and if they start heading in the right direction we will probably initiate the fight. So find whatever you can as fast as you can, and then return safely or you will have taken this giant risk for nothing. Your safety comes first, little Miria.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep it in mind, chief.¡± I gave the village chief a respectful nod.


    I took one final look at my friends and family. The people I wanted to protect. Would they be safe while I was beneath the water? Would they worry about me while I was gone?


    Would I ever see them again? I knew I would see Sallia and Felix again, but if I died, I would never see my mother and father again. I didn¡¯t want my time in this world to end yet. I loved my time here. I enjoyed the days spent under the hot sun, flying through the air and searching for Great Fish to hunt. I loved spending time with the villagers, laughing and playing in the multicolored sands. Despite the madness-inducing ocean, the horrifying landbeasts, and the occasional creatures of the deep like the Glowing Fish, I was happy in this world.


    I took a deep breath, and then stopped thinking about my fears and worries. I stepped into the water.


    Then, utilizing both my power to manipulate water and my rune-enhanced muscles, I took another step into the ocean, and another. In seconds, I was submerged in the waves, before I started to swim deeper.


    I began to run out of oxygen as the water crushed me, devouring any remnants of warmth or oxygen in my body. The Call of the Ocean began to grow more and more intense as I swam deeper, and I heard crazed murmurings at the edge of my hearing start to fade in and out of existence, whispering of things I couldn¡¯t see or understand. I frowned. I had expected the Call of the Ocean to grow more intense once I was underwater, but the effect was much more severe than I had imagined. I closed my eyes for a moment, and I noticed that the Call of the Ocean didn¡¯t completely disappear this time. Normally, one was completely safe from the Call as long as they broke eye contact, but once I was beneath the water that seemed to be incorrect. Even with my eyes closed, the Call of the Ocean still exerted some influence on my mind, even if it was reduced in strength. I shivered, before I opened my eyes again. For a few moments, I wondered if it had been a mistake to absorb the Fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart. Even though it gave me an extra rune ability, making me much stronger, it had also eroded my Willpower, which was making it harder for me to resist the Call now. However, it was still manageable, if barely. I gritted my teeth.


    I might need to cut my adventure even shorter than expected. I probably couldn¡¯t last more than two hours under the enhanced Call of the Ocean, or I would never return to the surface. Since I would need to spend time traveling back to the surface and getting away from the ocean, my time in each exploration would be even more limited than I had expected.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Finished with my initial assessment of my new environment, I began to pour mana into my fourth rune. Water began to turn itself into healing, and after a few moments, my body stopped dying. I was instead kept in a state of constantly drowning, dying and healing myself over and over again as my lungs screamed for me to stop and return to the surface. I ignored the pain of drowning as I swam deeper, determined to make the most of the time I had.


    It took less than a minute for the next problem to surface. The water pressure was rapidly increasing. My rune-enhanced body was sufficient to deal with the water pressure at first, but soon, even with my grade 8 Fortitude, I was unable to ward off the crushing pressure. The cost of healing myself each second started to increase as water sought to grind my flesh and bones into dust, leeching away at my mana reserves. I was forced to concentrate extra healing on my eyes, trying to keep them from popping like grapes as the water tried to squeeze me into paste. Finally, the light began to fade, dimming as I sank beneath the monstrosity-infested waves of the ocean.


    Five minutes later, I stopped moving downwards and took a few minutes to process my surroundings, as well as my current condition. Since this was my first adventure into the ocean, I prioritized my safety over moving around; I needed to figure out what problems I would face in future explorations, and being too hasty might kill me. The water pressure, as well as the dimming light, was making it harder to see with my regular human vision. However, the distortions I often saw in the space around me were amplified the further I went underwater, providing me with a strange, distorted view of the world around me. Instead of color and depth, I saw shapes and energy, swirling around and through the cracks of reality that underpinned this world¡¯s existence. Each distortion didn¡¯t affect the world around it unless prodded, but with a single poke of my mana, it would easy to rip open a fissure in reality and teleport¡­


    For now, however, I didn¡¯t need to teleport anymore. Instead, I focused on the strange vision my Fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart provided me with. Since my regular eyes weren¡¯t able to cope with my current environment, I was suddenly thankful that the Fragment helped me see, even if I wasn¡¯t used to relying on my spatial vision alone. Since space was far more distorted beneath the surface, I began to suspect that exploration would have been impossible with some sort of access to spatial eyesight.


    After some debate, I spent several minutes without moving further into the ocean, acclimating myself to my new, warped method of sight. After some acclimation, I was able to see properly again.


    Around me was a vast tract of empty water. At least so far, the biggest dangers to me were the water pressure and drowning, and I was still handling those well enough. I took a moment to absorb one of my fish cores, since my mana had started to get too low for my comfort.


    Then, I took a moment to revel in the empty space, the sense of stillness and beauty found under the sea as. Just because this place was terrifying didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t also beautiful. Then, finally adjusted to using my sense for spatial distortions as a method of sight, I began swimming down again, keeping an eye on the underwater portion of our island so that I wouldn¡¯t get lost.


    At least, that was my intention. I had expected that the island would ultimately connect to the ocean¡¯s floor at some point in time, sort of like a mountain that was simply submerged in water.


    This assumption was wrong. The island looked like a giant cube made of stone and sand, jutting into the water like the sheer face of a cliff. And then, when I swam far enough below the island, it just¡­ ended.


    Directly underneath the submerged portion of the island was more ocean. Our island was floating on the surface of the ocean. It wasn¡¯t directly connected to the ocean floor at all. And I had no idea where the real ocean floor was.


    I swam a little underneath the island, reaching out my hand above me as I tried to figure out what kept the islands afloat. Why didn¡¯t they bob in the waves? What kept all of the islands from drifting apart from each other? As far as I knew, the islands all remained about the same distance from each other. Whatever our islands were, they were¡­ far more odd and unique than I had realized. It wasn¡¯t just the ocean that was weird; the islands themselves were also very different from what I had expected.


    When I touched the underside of the island, I felt like I was grasping something even harder than stone. It didn¡¯t feel quite like metal, but I had no idea what I was touching. I ran my hand along the bottom of the island a few more times, and confirmed that the texture remained rough and hard. The material was also rich in mana, so after some thinking, I decided it was probably a material with some sort of magical effect.


    Then, I inwardly sighed, and turned away. The strange material lining the bottom of our island was probably some sort of magical material, but it had a good chance of being what kept our island afloat as well. If I removed it, or messed with it too much, I might sink the island, dumping the village into the ocean. That would be a massive catastrophe, so I would need to look elsewhere for useful materials.


    I gave up and began swimming further down into the inky abyss.


    The water pressure continued to ramp up, getting stronger and stronger. When I could feel a horrifying pain beginning to assault my eyes and ears, I stopped again, trying to figure out if my healing would be able to keep up with any further increases in water pressure. I didn¡¯t want my eyes to pop and leave me blind for the rest of this life. But I hadn¡¯t found anything useful for the islanders yet. I didn¡¯t want to give up this quickly.


    Before I could sink further into my thoughts, however, with my distorted vision I saw something massive beneath me.


    It was so far away that I could barely see it in the murky light. However, my instincts were screaming at me that whatever I was seeing, it was far more dangerous than the Glowing Fish from years ago. I stopped moving, preparing to teleport upwards the moment it noticed me. I needed to be prepared to flee as fast as possible.


    The massive creature swam beneath me, either unaware or uncaring of my existence. As it passed by me, I was able to sense how large the creature was, even with my distorted and imperfect vision. It was probably almost a quarter of the size of the island I had lived on all my life. It had several limbs, though my vision wasn¡¯t precise enough to make out the number or details of each limb in detail. Each limb, however, was dozens of times larger than my house, and the way they twisted and turned in the water made me inexplicably think of a giant underwater spider.


    Luckily, it simply kept swimming by, quickly leaving my field of vision.


    After it passed by, I shivered, wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, before I did my best to calm down. I had known that this place would be dangerous. I snatched some mana from the ocean around me, taking a few minutes to refill my mana again, before I started swimming downwards. I was slower and more cautious now, making sure my body could take the punishment I was putting it through and that I retained a clear sense of where my island was.


    Ten minutes later, I came across something quite a bit more familiar to me; it was a school of fish.


    To be more precise, it was the same species of Great Fish we usually ate on the islands. Here, however, there weren¡¯t just a few dozen scattered across the entirety of the surface of the ocean.


    This school of fish contained hundreds, if not thousands of the Great Fish. Each of them was still as massive as the fish on the surface ¨C large enough that killing one could feed the island for days and provide us with almost all of the materials we needed to survive. However, here, I could see dozens of them swimming by every second as I watched, and the number passing me quickly surpassed hundreds.


    And they were all swimming as a single unit ¨C a large school of fish so massive that they nearly blotted out my ability to see anything else in the area. After noticing none of them were like the glowing fish, I relaxed. The Great Fish had never been very violent. I stopped for a moment to simply admire the view. It wasn¡¯t often I saw hundreds of mammoth-sized fish swim by.


    As I started to swim down again, however, alarm bells started ringing in my mind. I couldn¡¯t see it very well, but I was suddenly certain that far below me, a massive, multifaceted eye was looking straight at me.

 Chapter 52: The World Beneath the Waves (2)

    I froze, staring at the giant eye that lay deep in the ocean, before I saw it disappear just as suddenly as it had appeared.


    I stopped moving as I looked around, but I couldn¡¯t see the rest of the giant creature. The ocean seemed normal. Giant fish continued to swim around, disinterested in their surroundings. I simply kept scanning my surroundings, unwilling to move an inch.


    Where had it gone? Where was the rest of its body? I tensed, wondering if I had strayed too deep into the ocean.


    Before I had time to think further, I spotted something else. It was hard to notice, but at the edge of my vision, I could just barely make out something¡­ translucent. At first, I thought it was just a symptom of the weird, distorted vision I was forced to use beneath the ocean. However, I realized that I was looking at a physical object after a few more moments of observation. The way it moved in the ocean¡¯s currents felt almost natural, but its movements were slightly off. The giant translucent sheet was slowly drifting closer to the school of giant fish.


    The more I looked at it, the more its movements felt intentional to me. An ominous feeling started to appear in my stomach.


    The school of giant fish didn¡¯t seem to notice the strange translucent creature at all. They continued to swim around like a cloud of Great Fish, which were ignoring the world around them as they swam towards whatever destination they had in mind.


    Then, just beyond my view, I started to see something unique in the water far in the distance. It felt like space started breaking, as water suddenly surged towards a location in the distance. At the same time, the mana in the ocean currents slowly drifted towards the same spot. The water, mana, and broken space seemed to slowly come together, compressed into one spot, before the irregularity in the ocean¡¯s current and mana flow eased. However, it didn¡¯t disappear entirely; water and mana were still being dragged towards a certain point in the distance.


    I felt the corners of my frozen lips drift upwards. The abnormality in the ocean reminded me of other weird materials in this world, such as floatwood and Astrellium. I had been in the ocean for less than an hour, and I had already found another weird material. Was this something I could use for the islands?


    Before I could continue to analyze what was going on, one of the giant fish drifted a bit too close to the translucent creature. A sense of terror came over me as the translucent creature suddenly changed color, turning a bright red as the space around it rippled. It suddenly used an amount of mana I had never felt another living creature possess. Not even the glowing fish had been this horrifying. How many runes did this thing have? Finally, a massive row of teeth appeared from thin air, before they clamped down on the fish.


    The fish started thrashing, blood pouring out of its wounded side as it tried to escape, but the massive creature revealed its massive body. It serrated teeth hooked into the belly of the fish, and the blood pouring out of the fish¡¯s wounded side began forming drops of corrosive liquid before surging back into the body of the Great Fish. The other fish, alerted by the appearance of a predator, froze for a moment. My ominous feeling grew worse.


    Seconds later, the currents of the surrounding ocean began to twist and surge, rippling towards the bright red creature as parts of its body faded in and out of the weaknesses in space beneath the waves.


    I felt the ocean currents start to drag me around, and panic nearly overwhelmed me as I realized that I might get killed by the Great Fish in this area. I quickly began swimming upwards with all of my might, using teleportation and water manipulation to propel myself upwards as fast as I could. However, the tugging and twisting sensation as the entire ocean seemed to twist and tear at the creature was too much for my body to handle.


    And, even though I was only caught at the edge of the attack, the sudden violent surges of thousands of kilograms of water still tore at my body as well. With a snap, I felt the left side of my ribcage, along with my left arm, bend in a way they weren¡¯t supposed to bend, before several bones broke. I gasped in pain, but managed to push through it with my Willpower as I desperately healed the left half of my body. Thankfully, I wasn¡¯t the main target of the currents, so I was able to escape before being completely ripped apart by the ocean. I finally managed to teleport out of range of the attack, and gently used my right hand to probe my broken bones.


    My ribcage wasn¡¯t totally destroyed, which was probably the only reason I was still alive. My left arm had basically been fractured beyond recognition. I felt a dizzying amount of pain rip into my thoughts for a few moments, before I slowly pushed away the wave of dizziness. I could still function like this, but I wasn¡¯t going to be swimming anywhere anymore. I would need to use water currents to move, and I would need to be gentle or I might pass out from the pain.


    I turned back towards the bright red creature, trying to figure out what it was doing, and also trying to see what was happening with the strange object in the distance. As I observed it I realized that there wasn¡¯t an object moving mana in the distance; instead, it was more like an object was being created out of water and mana. I frowned. Were events like this common beneath the waves? How often did these strange objects form?


    Before I could think more, my attention was drawn back towards the translucent fish. The creature seemed aware that it was no match for the school of giant fish. Even though it probably had far more runes than each fish, there were far too many enemies for it to survive a proper fight with. As the dying Great Fish thrashed and wriggled in its mouth, the creature began madly fleeing towards the forming object in the distance. At the same time, the temperature of the water around both me and the Great Fish began to drop in temperature, causing me to start shivering again. My Fortitude was high enough that I could ignore smaller drops in temperature, even if it was unpleasant, but even with my healing runes, if this creature kept lowering the temperature, I would die. I poured more mana into strengthening my physique, uncaring as I absorbed another fish core, before the bright red creature finally moved far enough away that its freezing ability no longer affected the water surrounding me. I breathed another sigh of relief, even though it was swimming towards the weird object I had been eyeing.


    A few moments later, the creature¡¯s presence began to fade. As the Great Fish chased after it, it became harder and harder to detect, and its limbs seemed to become translucent once more. in moments, it faded into the water, before I felt space ripple slightly. The creature teleported, causing me to lose track of it.


    This thing could also teleport? I shivered. If it could teleport, it had probably also absorbed one of the Storm Orbs. Perhaps the reason we had never seen an incident like the ¡®Glowing Fish¡¯ in the years our village had lived on the island was because stronger creatures usually swallowed up the Storm Orbs. If there was one upside to creatures like the translucent creature, it was that it had never surfaced before now. Therefore, regardless of how violent it was, it had never attacked the villages.


    I shivered again, trying to ignore the overwhelming pain from my left side as I tried to locate the translucent creature. I finally noticed a few drifting and translucent limbs nearby, slowly making their way towards the strange object. The school of Great Fish seemed confused, having lost their target, but a few moments later, they started swimming away again.


    I was shocked that the relatively peaceful Great Fish could pose a threat to other creatures beneath the waves, but I realized I simply hadn¡¯t given them enough credit until now. The Great Fish were powerful creatures of the ocean that almost universally formed the ability to manipulate water, and had massive and powerful bodies even without their rune enhancements. They just weren¡¯t aggressive, which is why I had never thought of them as a threat before. However, they clearly worked in massive groups. Even if one fish was manageable, a few hundred certainly wasn¡¯t, especially if they coordinated their rune abilities.


    I cleared my thoughts, before I ignored the Great Fish. I swore to myself that I would just take a look at whatever weird material existed in the distance, and then I would flee back to land to get my bones healed. I wanted to bring at least a little bit of useful information back with me, and even if I was in no state to snatch the unique object now, I could learn something for my next attempt. I turned my attention back towards the translucent creature that was making its way towards the strange object in the distance. However, I kept an eye on every direction around me, making sure I could push myself through a teleportation gate the moment I saw something wrong. I still hadn¡¯t seen any traces of the creature attached to the massive eye I had seen just a minute or two ago. Its lack of presence, combined with the incredibly dangerous creatures in the area, made me extremely wary of dying at any moment.


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    Once the creature got closer to the object in the distance, the creature¡¯s presence flared up again and it started to turn bright red. For a moment, I felt a mounting horror as I thought that it had somehow detected me and was about to have a snack after eating the Great Fish. Instead, some sort of appendage crept out of the creature, creeping towards whatever object was still gently absorbing water and mana in the distance.


    Finally, the giant creature grabbed hold of the object before dragging it forward. I got my first clear look at it; it was a giant black pearl. As it moved closer to the giant red creature, its mana started to feel familiar. I felt¡­ a sort of resonance between my fifth rune and the object in the distance. It was like I was looking at something that, while not quite the same as the Storm Orb I had absorbed, was at least similar in nature.


    The System had called the Storm Orbs ¡®fragments of the Ocean¡¯s Heart.¡¯ Perhaps this was another kind of ¡®fragment?¡¯


    Moments after I saw the object, the Call of the Ocean suddenly became dozens of times more intense. I felt increasing waves of longing, desire, and every other emotion imaginable as I was nearly consumed by a need to be in front of the object. My Willpower started to crumble like a house of cards.


    I forgot every single reason I had to go back home. A part of my brain was screaming at me, telling me I needed to look away, but Grade 6 Willpower was no longer enough to control myself.


    I nearly threw away any shred of my rationality and tried to swim closer to the orb of energy, ignoring the extreme pain swimming caused me with my broken ribs and arm. Even if competing with the massive sea creature would definitely end with my death, I needed it. The orb was mine. Even if I died in the process, even if I had no chance, I had to get the orb.


    Before the creature could absorb the orb, a massive tentacle suddenly flew out from the depths of the ocean. It was massive, and as I saw it from the corner of my eye, the world itself spun with hazy, distorted flickers. For a brief moment, it broke my line of sight with the black pearl, and the screaming fragments of my mind finally reasserted themselves.


    I snapped out of it, my grade 6 Willpower barely saving my life as I overcame the madness that had temporarily drowned out my reason. As I struggled to wrench my eyes away from the black pearl, I watched the massive tentacle reach out towards the massive black pearl. At the same time, I began to throw even more mana into my body to heal myself, since I had stopped healing myself while I swam towards the black pearl with my broken arm and ribs. If I had been even a few seconds late, I would have died.


    Then, the pain in my body fading as I partially healed the torn muscles and flesh in my body, I absorbed another fish core and continued observing the black pearl and two giant sea monsters.


    The massive tentacle took the black pearl, but the bright red hunter wasn¡¯t willing to let go without a fight. The moment the tentacle drew near, it opened its maw again, before chomping down on the giant tentacle, while one of its other appendages kept dragging the black pearl towards its body.


    The tentacle suddenly writhed in pain, and I had a very bad premonition. I began pushing myself upwards with water manipulation, in order to be as far from the fight as possible.


    Dozens of giant red eyes open in the ocean below me. A howl resounded from the depths of the ocean, and I felt a familiar madness overtake my thoughts for a brief moment. This time, I understood more of what I saw; the creature¡¯s voice reminded me of the hazy, distorted flickers of reality I saw after absorbing the storm orb. Then, several dozen other tentacles from the massive creature erupted out of chunks of distorted space, surging towards the offending creature. My eyes widened as I finally recognized this thing.


    The massive eye I had seen earlier, and the dozens of massive tentacles all belonged to the creature who had demolished the fleet of the first wave of outsiders had returned. It was still here.


    Several tentacles wrapped around the stealthy creature, as well as the black pearl.


    Then, without even the ability to fight back, I saw the massive tentacles drag the creature and the black pearl towards the dozens of glowing eyes in the depths of the ocean. The creature madly tried to absorb the black pearl, and also tried to teleport away and freeze the creature¡¯s tentacles, but it wasn¡¯t even a proper fight. Its teleportation simply failed to work, and the ice didn¡¯t even injure the tentacles of the giant creature before it disappeared into the depths of the ocean. If I could breathe, I would have been gasping for breath.


    Suddenly, the incredibly powerful currents and my desperate struggle for survival ended, replaced with total silence in the area. The Great Fish had already fled from the area during the fight. I took a few minutes to recover, gently pushing myself upward with water manipulation while I closed my eyes, healed myself, and teleported upwards again whenever my teleportation was off cooldown.


    I had an incredibly bad headache now. The Call of the Ocean was about to split my head open, and I was struggling to resist it more and more.


    The Ocean wanted me to return to it. And I wanted to become one with the water, the life in my body slowly draining into the depths of the ocean as it choked the warmth and life out my corpse¡­


    Luckily, my Grade 6 Willpower was enough to keep hold of my sanity, if only just. However, the black pearl had nearly overwhelmed me when I had seen it. Finally, my eyes still closed and my left side still hurting, I emerged the ocean, and my mind began to recover from the damage of the Call of the Ocean. I wasn¡¯t next to the village, but I was at least close enough that I could see it. However, the piercing agony in my mind was far worse than the pain of my broken bones. I collapsed onto the sand of a beach before I started hacking water out of my lungs and dumping healing mana into my body. At the same time, a System notification appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Exploration: Explore the depths of the Al¡¯thala Islands and return to the surface alive


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 8,258.06 to 8,458.06 as I coughed water out of my lungs and tried to manage the pain in my mind and body. Meanwhile, as I started to get my mind back under control, I began to think.


    The fight between the two sea monsters revealed several things to me. First and foremost, the giant sea creature that had demolished the outsider fleet was still underneath the islands, and had never used anywhere near its full strength. I had no idea how strong that creature was, but I instinctively knew that it wasn¡¯t fightable. Not for all of the village chiefs working together. Maybe not even for the entire Megailian empire. That thing had to be way stronger than a human with sixteen runes. It hadn¡¯t even bothered to use a rune ability to wipe out the stealthy ocean creature, and the transparent creature had been helplessly dragged away to meet its fate the moment it got in the way of the ocean creature. I was incredibly thankful that it didn¡¯t attack the islands, even if I had no clue why it seemed afraid of them.


    Second, I was wary of the ¡®useful resources¡¯ that lay below the waves. Even if the Storm Orb had made me more powerful, it had also permanently damaged my Willpower as a cost. The strange object I had seen this time had nearly broken my Willpower just from seeing it. Even if the Call of the Ocean was much stronger while under the waves, I doubted anyone would be able to absorb that thing and remain sane. That meant the object was useless, and I needed to find something else to make the islands stronger. Nobody could absorb it, and so nobody could use it. My first trip into the ocean had given me some information I could relay to the islands, but was ultimately useless. And time was running out.


    I frowned, before I realized something and grinned.


    The strange orb was valuable enough for two powerful sea creatures to fight over it, one of which was the monstrosity that had destroyed part of the first outsider fleet. And just seeing the orb nearly broke my Willpower and drove me completely nuts on the spot.


    Who said the islands needed someone to absorb the orb? If we managed to get the orb out of the ocean and dumped it in the middle of the outsider fleet, half of the sailors would probably go mad on the spot before the giant sea monster destroyed the rest of the fleet. I wasn¡¯t sure if it would work, but a stealth-related rune ability MIGHT keep the orb hidden until we needed to sic the leviathan on the invaders.


    I cackled to myself, in between coughing out spurts of water.


    This definitely hadn¡¯t been the way I envisioned my plan working out, but if I could get ahold of a sea orb for long enough, I might be able to make something work. I just needed to figure out how to snatch a magic orb from a sea monster that could probably kill a human with sixteen runes in seconds, and then flee into the center of a fleet of hostile sailors who had explicitly come to kill us. All while possibly keeping alive another villager with a stealth related ability.

 Chapter 53: Planning the Great Pearl Heist

    I spent a few minutes resting in the sand, letting the piercing pain in my brain slowly fade away. Then, as the effects of the Call of the Ocean faded into the back of my mind, I made my way towards the village. Since my arm and some of my ribs were broken, every single step hurt, but I needed to make it to the village to get the healing process started as soon as possible.


    One of the first people I saw was the village chief, who was sitting at the edge of the village and looking out towards the ocean. I couldn¡¯t tell if he was watching for signs of the outsiders or waiting to see if I would appear. Perhaps a bit of both. When he saw me slowly making my way across the sand, he gave me a huge grin.


    ¡°You returned,¡± said the village chief. Then, he seemed to notice my meandering limp as I tried not to aggravate my injuries. He frowned. ¡°You¡¯re hurt.¡±


    ¡°Healers please. Bones broken. Ribs and arm. Left side,¡± I said.


    The village chief nodded, and left to fetch some healers for me. A few minutes later the village chief returned with three healers, as well as my parents, Sallia, and Felix. Two of the healers got to work restoring my arm and ribs, while the third healer grabbed a bucket of water, before he looked at my arm and frowned.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to make a small cut here. I need access to a wound to restore the blood you lost,¡± he said.


    Since I didn¡¯t object, he made a small nick with a knife, before he started converting the water in his bucket into blood and helping me recover from my injuries. Within a few minutes, my bones were reset, and the minute amounts of blood I had lost were also restored. It would take me another day or two for my bones to finish healing, since they were still a little fragile after being mended, but the pain from moving around was gone and I didn¡¯t have to be worried about my ribs piercing my organs and suddenly killing me anymore. I thanked the three healers, and the village chief paid them each two fish cores before they left.


    Before the village chief could say another word, my parents both hugged me, being gentle around my newly-healed bones, but otherwise more than happy to show me how much they had missed me and how worried they had been.


    ¡°You returned! I¡¯m so glad you returned!¡± said my mother, while my father gently smiled at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m back,¡± I said, grinning.


    ¡°What did you see in the ocean?¡± Asked Sallia, practically bouncing with excitement as she looked at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad that you returned safely,¡± said Felix.


    I smiled at the four of them. I hadn¡¯t been sure if I would return, so seeing everyone again made me feel incredibly happy.


    ¡°Did you find what you were looking for? Or something to help our other idea along?¡± whispered Felix, quietly enough that Sallia wouldn¡¯t be able to hear him.


    I frowned as Felix mentioned our plan to get Sallia a good keyword ability. I had hoped that I could find a resource in the ocean that would let Sallia beat a land beast, or help her do something impressive enough to get a keyword Ability. However, the only new resource I had found was the black pearl, and there was no way Sallia would be able to absorb that. She only had a Willpower of Grade 4. In other words, my intention of helping Sallia wouldn¡¯t come to fruition as a result of my ocean exploration.


    My frown deepened, as I tried to think of a way to turn Sallia¡¯s situation around. But I was still at a loss. While I was lost in my thoughts, the village chief seemed to take my silence as an opportunity to finally interject in our conversation. He strode forward, before gently ruffling my hair.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re back, little Miria,¡± said the village chief. ¡°Truly. I¡¯ve never heard of someone returning from the Ocean alive. They usually just disappear.¡± He looked at me, his eyes filled with a mixture of curiosity and hope? ¡°How did your exploration go? Did you find a resource to help the village during the fight?¡±


    I frowned, wondering where to start. I decided to introduce as much information as I could to the village chief. Even my first foray into the Ocean had nearly killed me several times, and I was fully aware that any journey into the ocean could be the end of my time in this world.


    ¡°I¡¯ll start by discussing what I witnessed in the ocean, as well as the dangers I found,¡± I said, giving the village chief a nod. ¡°That way, if anyone else goes into the ocean in the future, they know more about what to expect.


    ¡°The first thing to keep in mind is that the Call of the Ocean is much stronger inside of the ocean. Even if you close your eyes, you¡¯ll still experience a very heavy influence on your mind. At my level of Willpower, I could probably only last two or three hours at maximum, and I¡¯m above average in Willpower in the village. I imagine people who have a higher level of Willpower, such as the hunters who were picked to absorb Storm Orbs, could probably last a little longer. However, it¡¯s a good idea to limit their time inside of the ocean, even if someone with a similar ability set and desire to explore the ocean comes along in the future.¡±


    The village chief frowned as he nodded. ¡°I see. That certainly makes sense. Since the Ocean itself is what calls to us, while within its embrace the call would naturally grow stronger. I¡¯m glad that you¡¯ve always had such a strong will. If you didn¡¯t, you might just be another person who entered the Ocean and never returned. Hmm¡­ I recall that you also weren¡¯t very influenced by the Ocean before you absorbed the Storm Orb, right? In that case, I¡¯ll need to encourage villagers to be more proactive in training their minds during storm season, since many people don¡¯t think it¡¯s worth the risk.¡± He nodded to himself, before turning back towards me. ¡°Continue.¡±


    ¡°The biggest threat to any future explorers, assuming drowning and the Call are dealt with, is the darkness and the wildlife. The water of the ocean seems to absorb light; as a result, it rapidly gets much darker under the surface of the ocean. I was able to make do using the spatial vision granted to me by the Storm Orb I absorbed, but I know not everyone got that kind of vision. It might be safer if people with abilities that enhance hearing, or compensate for lack of sight, are the ones to explore the ocean in the future. While the Call of the Ocean is stronger underneath the waves, it¡¯s still much weaker if you close your eyes.¡±


    The village chief nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Abilities that enhance senses beyond eyesight aren¡¯t common, but they exist. And hunters get much better senses with every additional mental rune. How easy is it to hear in the ocean?¡±


    I frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t think that would be a reliable method of sensing one¡¯s surroundings while underwater. Are there any people who can¡­ just ¡®sense¡¯ things in their surroundings by using their runes?¡±


    The village chief nodded. ¡°There are plenty. It gets much easier if one has at least ten runes, because those enhance your previous runes and start to blend their abilities together in beneficial ways. However, there are also abilities that let people, say, use plants around them as their eyes and ears, or let people sense others around them in a certain radius.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°In that case, future exploration would best be done by people with abilities like that.¡±


    The village chief nodded again, frowning thoughtfully before he turned back towards me. ¡°Now, you say that the wildlife is also a threat? What is there beneath the waves? Are there dozens of Glowing Fish?¡±


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    ¡°I only saw three creatures so far during my exploration, but each of them was potentially a threat to my life. The first thing I saw was a school of Great Fish.¡±


    The village chief frowned, giving me a bewildered look. ¡°Great Fish? Are they a threat? You almost got killed by a great fish?¡± The look he gave me turned from a mixture of hope and respect to total confusion. ¡°Were they¡­ a special kind of Great Fish?¡±


    I felt my cheeks start to heat up, and I awkwardly chuckled. I had felt a similar way before raging ocean currents had nearly ripped me apart. ¡°The Great Fish are indeed not a threat on their own. However, when they work together, they coordinate with each other, which allows them to create massive currents of water. Most threatening is the fact that they know how to create points of space where different ocean currents crash into each other. In this case, rather than just water, it¡¯s more like two walls of stone slamming into each other directly on top of your body. I was only caught in the aftereffects of an attack, but I¡¯m still lucky to be alive. If I had been the focus of their attack, rather than a few broken bones I would have just been flattened into paste.¡± I saw my mother¡¯s eyes widen out of the corner of my eyes, but my father gently patted her shoulder, and she didn¡¯t end up saying anything while I continued reporting to the village chief.


    The village chief frowned, before nodding. ¡°I suppose I can see several of them working together as a problem. It is pretty ridiculous to think of the Great Fish being a threat, but I suppose the Glowing Fish was a warning about how dangerous a Great Fish can become in the right circumstances.¡±


    ¡°There were two other creatures that I saw while in the deeps. The first one was the giant sea monster that destroyed much of the first outsider fleet. Do you remember those giant tentacles that tore out of the ocean and towered over the islands?¡±


    The village chief¡¯s expression paled. ¡°It¡¯s still here?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Apparently, it¡¯s just¡­ relaxing under our islands. I¡¯m not quite sure why it doesn¡¯t bother us, although I¡¯m quite certain that if it wanted to, it could make our villages all disappear overnight. But luckily, it¡¯s not too interested in our existence.¡±


    The village chief frowned, as if trying to reassure himself that things were really fine with a giant sea monster several times larger than our island relaxing right underneath us. After a few minutes, he relaxed and nodded. ¡°If it¡¯s content to ignore us, I suppose it¡¯s not a problem.¡±


    I nodded, before continuing. ¡°The third creature I saw was transparent. It was hard to notice at first. It¡¯s some sort of stealthy ocean creature. The one I saw used ice, teleportation, and possibly invisibility? It wasn¡¯t a very fast swimmer, so as long as you notice it in advance it¡¯s probably not a huge threat. But it does actively hunt and ambush other creatures of the ocean, so it¡¯s important to keep an eye out for it.¡±


    The village chief frowned, and then nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll keep these creatures in mind in the future, and make sure the other villagers have some awareness of them as well. I doubt anyone is going to want to explore the ocean in the near future. But just in case, gathering as much information as possible for future generations might save the village someday. What about resources? Did you find something to help us fight the outsiders?¡±


    I waited for a moment, curious to see if I would get any influence Achievement for spreading information about the Ocean¡¯s creatures and environment. Sadly, I didn¡¯t get a reward for it. Perhaps the village chief needed to spread word about my findings before I got an Influence reward? After a few seconds of waiting, I shrugged, before moving on.


    ¡°I saw a very large black pearl; it was probably the size of my head,¡± I said. ¡°It distorted space around me, and also absorbed a great deal of mana. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s some sort of resource, similar to the Storm Orbs and floatwood of our village.¡± I saw the village chief start to get excited, and before I could say another word, he laughed giddily.


    ¡°Another one? Miria, you¡¯re really the favored child of the ocean mother. I can¡¯t believe you managed to pioneer the use of storm orbs, AND discover another resource.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a problem with it,¡± I said, before the village chief could get too excited. ¡°Two problems, in fact.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± The village chief¡¯s excitement started to die down, and he looked at me with a more nervous expression. The outsiders were clearly searching for the islands, and we still had no clue how strong they were. We probably only had a week or two before they found the islands.


    ¡°First, the orb has an incredible amplifying effect on the Call of the Ocean whenever someone looks at it,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know if anyone in the village can resist it, especially while they¡¯re already underwater. The only reason I lived after seeing it is because the great ocean monster broke my sight on it for a bit, which let me regain my senses. Otherwise I would have lost my mind during my exploration, and I never would have returned here. The bright side is that it¡¯s pretty dark in the ocean, and the pearl only works on line of sight, just like the ocean itself. So it won¡¯t be a problem until we get closer to the surface. But absorbing it is probably impossible.¡±


    I saw Felix frown, before taking a glance at Sallia out of the corner of his eye. I also felt the urge to wince a little bit. Since the new resource seemed to need Willpower to be absorbed, Sallia couldn¡¯t use it. I couldn¡¯t think of a way to help her get a Keyword ability.


    The village chief also frowned, although it was for a different reason. The problem of Willpower and the Call of the Ocean wasn¡¯t easy to resolve. Most hunters who had the Willpower to resist the impact of high-level resources like the Storm Orbs were also usually out of room for more runes, or only had enough essence for one or two more runes at most. If it was difficult to absorb a new resource without assistance from mental runes, the resource wouldn¡¯t be very useful for increasing the strength of the village.


    ¡°What¡¯s the second problem?¡± He asked.


    ¡°The really strong sea monster wants to hoard the black pearls for itself. While it doesn¡¯t react to storm orbs, it certainly seems to care about the black pearls. If it notices us taking one, it will probably kill us all.¡±


    The village chief turned pale as he imagined fighting the great ocean monster, before he shuddered.


    ¡°If that''s the case, there¡¯s nothing useful in the ocean, right? I¡¯m sorry that the risk you took didn¡¯t end up being useful. I know that you worked hard to do your best for the village, and you even took on a huge risk just to find a way to tip the odds in our favor. Rest assured that I¡¯ll still give you access to my fish cores, because I won¡¯t let your actions be for nothing. In fact, I think that you-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not saying that my exploration was totally useless, village chief,¡± I said, cutting him off before he could finish.


    The village chief seemed confused as he looked at me.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking that we might be able to hide the theft of a single black pearl from the great ocean monster for a bit, if we have the right rune abilities working together. It probably wouldn¡¯t be possible for us to permanently hide it, since we wouldn¡¯t be able to keep a Stealth rune ability applied every hour of the day. We don¡¯t have enough people with stealth rune abilities to keep up with the mana consumption that would require. But that doesn¡¯t mean we have no use for a black pearl, even if we can¡¯t absorb one. What do you think about using a Stealth Rune Ability to grab a black pearl, fleeing the depths of the ocean, and then dumping it into the middle of the outsider fleet? Half of them would go nuts on the spot, and then the ocean monster could destroy a couple ships before getting the pearl and leaving. It¡¯s definitely risky, but if it works¡­ we could single-handedly remove most of the weaker combatants from this fight, and maybe even destroy a few ships. The outsiders only have eight ships. If we can demolish most of their weaker combatants, our weaker combatants would be free to interfere with more important battlefields, which could tilt the whole battle in our favor¡­¡± I said, grinning.


    The village chief looked thoughtfully at me. Then, a few moments later, he frowned.


    ¡°It¡¯s a big risk, Miria. Are you sure you¡¯re willing to try again? If it fails, you would die, along with whoever you took with you in this attempt. I know that you don¡¯t have any stealth abilities, and the village doesn¡¯t have many stealth abilities either. The best I can think of is a rune user that makes things touching wood seem to disappear for a while. He¡¯s mostly a scout for the hunter group he¡¯s part of. I have no idea if that ability would fool the senses of the great sea monster long enough for you to reposition the orb. And there¡¯s no guarantee your plan will work, even if everything works out perfectly.¡±


    ¡°Absolutely,¡± I said. ¡°I know it¡¯s a big risk, and I won¡¯t force anyone to join my plan. But if the stealth ability user is willing to work with me, I¡¯m also willing to try to make this work.¡±


    The village chief frowned, before he sighed. ¡°In that case, we can give it a try. I¡¯ll let the hunter know what you¡¯re planning tonight, and if he accepts, I¡¯ll let you know. What are the specific details of your plan?¡±


    Thus, the village chief and I began discussing the detailed plan of the great pearl heist.

 Chapter 54: Return to the Deeps

    I spent a few days getting my injured bones healed up. During that time, the Outsiders continued searching the area. Two days after my return from the ocean, one of the outsider boats seemed to spot  the fishing boats keeping an eye on them from the skies, confirming that we were in this area. The fishing boat, luckily, was intelligent enough to realize they shouldn¡¯t lead the outsiders back to our islands, and so they had flown in a random direction for several hours before they escaped pursuit and returned. However, despite the attempt at misdirection, the outsiders were getting closer and closer to the islands. A few more paper fish had also appeared near the islands, making many islanders think they were being used as some sort of scout. The islanders eliminated them whenever we saw them, and the fishing boats around the islands also frequently destroyed the paper fish, but if the outsiders had some way to sense where each paper fish was destroyed they would home in on our islands soon.


    In the midst of this, information that I had brought back from the ocean started to circulate through the village.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Play a [Significant] role in helping the islanders understand the deeps of the Ocean


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 8,458.06 to 8,658.06 as the islanders started to learn about the dangers of the Ocean. It wasn¡¯t a huge increase, but it was nice to get a little more Achievement while I was resting up. I was getting quite close to 10,000 Achievement, which would let me upgrade every single Stat by one Grade when we got back to the Market. I wasn¡¯t sure how well the great Pearl Heist would go, but if it succeeded, I might get above 10,000 Achievement. I hoped I could get more than 10,000 Achievement in this world. If I could boost every Stat by one grade and then buy a useful Ability or two, the next world would be much easier. Of course, there was also a decent chance I would die during the great pearl heist; after all, I would be potentially pissing off the giant kraken that lived beneath the islands. If it noticed what I was trying to do and swatted me with a tentacle, I would instantly turn into paste. This entire operation was a gamble, but the Outsiders were too dangerous to fight right now. If they found the islands without the black pearl softening them up first, I didn¡¯t think the islands would survive the fight, which meant that we needed to make this operation work. Even if I was a Transmigrator, I still regarded the islands as my home, and I didn¡¯t want it to fall to external invasion.


    After three days passed, my ribs and arm were nearly healed. They still felt a little sore, and I suspected that they were still a little fragile as well, but I could work with this level of injury. And we were running out of time, so I didn¡¯t want to wait until my body fully recovered.


    During the time I had been injured, the village chief had assembled a small group of people to work with me on the great pearl heist. This group of people consisted of:


    Me, the only person who had ever gone into the ocean and lived to tell the tale (as well as the only person who could see easily underwater, knew what we were looking for, and had an ability set optimized to keep people alive while underwater.)


    A hunter named Erik, who could make things touching wood become invisible for a time was the second inclusion in the pearl heist. There were a few different options available for stealth-related abilities in the village, but most of them were centered around making the user invisible, instead of making an object invisible. While Erik¡¯s abilities were definitely a little more specific than I would have liked, as long as we could get a piece of wood to touch the black pearl we would be able to hide it from the great sea monster. Or at least, that was my hope.


    Since the black pearl would need to touch wood before we hid it, the underwater group naturally expanded to include Felix. While he only had six runes, he had a general wood manipulation ability that would make touching the black pearl with wood much, much easier. Felix, for his part, began properly training himself to make a variety of wood-related objects that could touch a black pearl, and then help us carry it away. As of now, Felix was able to quickly and effectively turn a block of wood into a wooden net, and then launch it at a specific area without much pause. As long as he kept applying his rune ability to the wood, it would remain as mobile as rope, meaning that as long as he had a rough idea where the target was we could take the pearl and run as fast as possible.


    The second to last participant was Olav¡¯s fishing crew. The idea right now was to get the pearl out of the ocean, fly it over the outsiders, and then just throw it at them, and then fly away. If things went well, the pearl would become visible again right as we turned around and started fleeing for our lives, since we would no longer be hiding it at that point, meaning the outsiders would see the black pearl, and so would the sea monster. This also meant that the mission would be far easier if we had an experienced flying  boat to pick us up the moment we exited the ocean, before flying us to where the outsiders were. There, a bunch of flying boats from the other islands would also be waiting. If our mission was successful, depending on the circumstances our village chief and a few other village chiefs planned to launch a follow-up attack on the outsiders and sink as many ships as they could. If they could drop a bunch of enemy soldiers into the insanity-inducing ocean, we might be able to destroy the outsider threat before they even saw our villages. Of course, the plans for a follow-up attack depended heavily on how aggressive the great ocean monster was, and how much damage it inflicted on the outsiders.


    To be honest, I wasn¡¯t thrilled about the inclusion of Olav¡¯s fishing crew on this mission. The Hunters were people that danced with death every day anyway, and the village chief and I had explicitly vetted all of the hunters to make sure anyone who participated in this mission was fully aware that it might end in death. Erik, the hunter with the stealth rune ability, hadn¡¯t minded the possibility of death in this mission, and had no living family to take care of. Felix and I also didn¡¯t care if we died; we were transmigrators, so we would return to the Market sooner or later anyway. However, even though I knew my father would also return to the ocean of souls if he died, to be reborn again, the idea that he might die soon as a result of my plan made me uncomfortable, and I didn¡¯t like the idea of leaving my mother behind. However, my father insisted that if I was willing to take the risk of participating in this plan, I couldn¡¯t stop him from being present to protect his daughter. And I was so critical to the plan that the entire operation would fall apart without me. Claus, Olav, and Edel seemed to share similar sentiments to my father, which touched my heart, but also made me nervous.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    The final participant of this operation was the most controversial of them all.


    Sallia.


    This inclusion had caused another huge argument, because no matter how one looked at it, Sallia was the least essential person on this mission. She had zero rune abilities, meaning that she couldn¡¯t contribute any supernatural abilities to this mission, and her Willpower was only Grade 4. This was hardly an impressive amount.


    However, Felix, Sallia and I managed to get her involved in this mission anyway, for a few specific reasons.


    The three of us knew each other very well, meaning that we could communicate with each other well, even if we couldn¡¯t see or hear each other. This would be especially important when we got near the outsiders, since the stealth ability user would need to hide our boat and its occupants from the outsiders if we didn¡¯t want to get blasted out of the sky by a hail of rune abilities. This also meant that we would need to keep talking to a minimum where possible, since people with seven or more runes had excellent hearing. The understanding the three of us shared would at least partially help mitigate this problem.


    However, the much more important factor was that Sallia apparently had made at least a small name for herself through her skill with weapons. It wasn¡¯t anything impressive in the village, since she didn¡¯t have the runes to back it up. But people did know that if no abilities were used, she would usually win in a fight due to her incredible combat instinct and mastery over weapons. Even if she hadn¡¯t reached the top of the island¡¯s weapon users, she was still known for being pretty good.


    This was especially valuable for this mission, where we would need to launch a pearl at an outsider ship without being able to see either each other or the pearl we were throwing. Felix and I managed to argue that Sallia¡¯s skill extended to throwing things as well, making Sallia the ideal candidate for getting the pearl off of our fishing boat and into the best spot to hurt the outsiders. Another factor in Sallia¡¯s inclusion was that, bluntly speaking, her death wouldn¡¯t matter much to the village. In a mission where all of the inhabitants might die, Sallia having the ability to fill a critical role while having minimal importance to the village was probably a major factor in why the village chief eventually agreed to include her.


    Of course, in truth, the reason Sallia was included was because Felix and I were desperately trying to find a chance for Sallia to get a keyword ability. Since Sallia¡¯s extreme talent was Absorption Essence, it would be far too much of a waste for Sallia to leave this world without an absorption-related Keyword ability. Felix and I had racked our brains for multiple years, trying to figure out a way to help Sallia get a keyword ability, but neither of us could ever figure out the most important step in our original idea of helping Sallia kill a landbeast on her own. Just giving her credit for something we did wouldn¡¯t work, since Achievement was given based on our actual accomplishments, not the public perception of them. Any steps we took to help Sallia would also dilute her chances of getting something useful out of the occasion, which left Felix and I at a loss. Sallia was just too weak to succeed in getting an absorption keyword ability on her own, but if we helped her, we would get the majority of the Achievement for the event, which would probably remove her chance to get a Keyword Ability. It was a difficult problem to solve.


    However, this was a chance. If Sallia was the one that threw the pearl, and managed to damage a lot of the outsiders, she probably wouldn¡¯t get the majority of the credit, since the operation was still based on me. However, she would probably get enough credit and Influence achievement to make her participation worthwhile, and if we were lucky, she would walk out of this with a keyword ability. Felix and I had decided it was worth a shot, and finally explained our thinking to Sallia. After learning about our idea, she looked more excited than I had seen her in years, and her eagerness to participate in this mission had skyrocketed. Her enthusiasm played a huge role in pressuring her parents to accept this, despite their hesitation.


    After that, I spent a few days teaching Felix and Erik the hunter a few signals I would be using while we were underwater. Of the three of us, I was the only one who could see in the dark, and since the three of us would be drowning the whole time, nobody would be able to talk. Therefore, I taught them several different ways I could tap on their arms while underwater, which would let us effectively communicate. I also decided that, when we found a black pearl, I would grab Felix¡¯s arm and point his fingers directly towards the orb, and then tap his arm a certain number of times to indicate distance so that he knew where to aim. It wasn¡¯t a perfect method of sharing information, but hopefully it would let us get the black pearl without issue.


    Finally, the time had come. Olav¡¯s boat, along with Sallia, began flying closer to the ocean than they would normally even think of, allowing them to receive us the moment the hunter or I returned to the surface. Meanwhile, I grabbed the hand of Felix and the hunter, to make sure they didn¡¯t get lost and to ensure I could heal them easily while they drowned. They seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if wondering what kind of lunacy they had agreed to take part in, before they took in deep breaths to steel their nerves. Then, Felix, Erik, and I all took a step into the ocean. And then another. After the seventh step into the ocean, the water closed over our heads, blocking us from the world of the villagers and plunging us into the deeps of the ocean.


    The world beneath the waves was as I remembered it to be. Silent. Dim. Unnerving. I began pouring mana into Felix and the stealth hunter, healing their body as I began to drag the three of us downward. Since I needed to heal three people instead of one, mana would be the limiting factor on how long we could look for a pearl before needing to return. Every second we spent underwater, my mana reserves would decrease.


    However, haste could easily get the three of us killed here. As I pushed the three of us downward using water currents and we kicked our legs awkwardly, I stopped every minute or two to survey our surroundings. I remained cautious, giving myself a few minutes to adjust as the light dimmed, and also waiting to see if either of them signaled that they were drowning. I assumed that my Ability would heal them the same way it healed me, but I had never tested that before, so if something went wrong, I needed to be prepared.


    Luckily, while Felix and the hunter both floundered and seemed to shudder once they lost the ability to breathe, it didn¡¯t take long for them to find their bearings. Both of them squeezed my hand, reassuring me that they were fine, if uncomfortable. Since things were going well, I kept swimming downwards, dragging my two companions along.


    The first hurdle had been crossed, and the three of us were indeed capable of swimming together and handling the lack of oxygen as a group. Now, all that remained was to locate a black pearl, get Felix to wrap it in wood, and then get the stealth hunter to hide the pearl before getting out of the ocean. If I could still breathe, I would have taken a deep breath to reassure myself. But here, in the darkness of the Ocean, there was nothing but the cold, deathly silence to greet me as I prepared for the next part of our grand pearl heist.

 Chapter 55: To Steal a Pearl (2)

    It took less than ten minutes for the first sign of danger to appear. I saw another of the strange, transparent creatures in the distance, slowly making its way through the ocean. I frowned, before I tightened my grip on Erik and Felix¡¯s arms and stopped moving. It wouldn¡¯t do for the creature to set its sights on us and chase us around. I only had enough mana to keep myself underwater for three or four hours, and that was if I was on my own. Since I was now healing three people, I only had enough mana for an hour and a little extra wiggle room, before we would need to return to the surface. Since I wanted to save at least twenty minutes to return to the surface, that only gave us twenty or thirty minutes to search. Fleeing from one of the transparent creatures would consume time and mana we couldn¡¯t afford to waste.


    However, luck wasn¡¯t on our side.


    As I sat there, eyeing the transparent creature and praying it wouldn¡¯t notice us, its movement suddenly halted. Then, ever so slowly, it started swimming towards us, bobbing so slowly and gently in the waves that I could have mistaken it for a piece of my imagination, if I didn¡¯t already know how dangerous this thing was.


    Mentally cursing, I wished I could ask Felix and Erik what their thoughts were. We could either give up for the day, or keep searching while hoping the transparent creature wouldn¡¯t catch up to us. However, we were underwater, so we couldn¡¯t talk to each other right now. And the other two couldn¡¯t even see what was happening. Which meant the decision of whether to continue or try again tomorrow, a decision that might kill the three of us if I made a mistake, lay solely in my hands.


    I glanced at the transparent creature again, and then felt my mana reserves. We still had more than twenty minutes left, after factoring in return time. But wandering around while the transparent creature chased us was far more dangerous than just hiding and waiting for a new black pearl to form.


    I gritted my teeth, and decided to keep going. Even though it was more dangerous this way, the outsiders could find our islands and attack any day now. We needed to find a black pearl as soon as possible. We didn¡¯t have time to wait for better conditions. I just hoped this wasn¡¯t the wrong decision.


    I began pushing us a little faster with my water control, hoping to lose the transparent creature, but it remained doggedly fixated on us, even though we were slowly pulling away from it. Since it wasn¡¯t using its teleportation ability, I refrained from using mine, since it was more expensive, and I was already worried about mana costs.


    Things continued like this for another ten minutes, with our group of three gradually pulling away and the transparent creature insistently trying to catch us. Suddenly, the water and mana in our surroundings start swirling, before they began getting pulled towards a specific spot in the distance. I felt the urge to sigh in relief, even though I couldn¡¯t breathe.


    Thank the ocean mother, another one started forming. Once I saw the mana start to pull towards a location in the distance, I avoided looking directly at it. I knew that my Willpower wasn¡¯t high enough to keep my mind safe if I saw a black pearl from my previous experience underwater. Instead, I looked downwards, trying to see if the great ocean monster had spotted the black pearl. Luckily, I couldn¡¯t see any of its eyes or tentacles yet, meaning we weren¡¯t competing with the king of the ocean for this black pearl.


    Since we weren¡¯t competing with the great ocean monster, I began swimming towards the location of the black pearl, while keeping my eyes away from the object in question. At the same time, I quickly slid my hands up to their elbows, before tapping the outside of their elbow four times. It was the signal to let them know I had found a black pearl, and we were closing in on it. I saw both of them nod at me once, and then they both gritted their teeth and began preparing. I grabbed their hands again, and began pushing us faster. I hoped that there weren¡¯t any other dangerous ocean creatures nearby; if there were, I wouldn¡¯t be able to fight back very well, because I needed to avoid looking at the black pearl or we would all die.


    Luckily, there didn¡¯t seem to be anything nearby, apart from the transparent creature that had been following us. We had enough of a head start that we should be able to steal the pearl and flee towards the surface with time to spare, even if it started teleporting after us. We got closer and closer to the spot all of the mana and water was rushing towards. Out of the corner of my eye, I could also see that the transparent fish was also swimming towards the black pearl. It had finally lost interest in us, but it was now chasing after our objective.


    I took a deep breath, and prayed that my guesses about distance and location were accurate. Since I couldn¡¯t see the black pearl without going insane, I was mostly guessing where it was and how close it was.


    Then, I grabbed Felix¡¯s arm, pointed his hand towards the spot where mana and water were converging, and tapped his shoulder twice to let him know it should be within 100 meters.


    The wooden block Felix was holding transformed into a net of wood, with a single strand of ¡®makeshift rope¡¯ wrapped around his arm. The rest of his wooden net flew towards the black pearl. Felix rubbed my wrist, letting me know he had hit something and caught it in his net.


    Praying we had netted a black pearl and not a monster, I grabbed Erik¡¯s hand and transferred it to the rope Felix had made out of wood, before tapping his thumb three times. His runes started glowing, and he squeezed my hand twice, to let me know something was cloaked successfully.


    I turned my gaze towards the black pearl, and saw a bright red, pissed off translucent monster right in front of us. Now that it had lost sight of the black pearl, it was enraged.


    I immediately blasted us with a jet of water, shoving us away from the creature as a hideous mouth materialized out of thin air and clamped down on our former location. It didn¡¯t catch any of us in the middle of its bite.


    However, it did catch Felix¡¯s wooden rope, before biting clean through it. With Felix¡¯s connection to the wood severed, the rest of his net stiffened, becoming ordinary, rigid wood. And, more importantly, Erik¡¯s stealth ability stopped working, exposing the black pearl to the ocean dwellers again. And this time, since I had thought it was safe, I also saw it.


    My mind began to bend and break, and the water began to corrode my thoughts. I wanted to swim closer to the black pearl, and become one with the ocean around me. I felt something coil around my waist, but I didn¡¯t care. Even if the transparent fish ate me, if I could touch the pearl it would be worth it. I let go of Felix and Erik¡¯s hands, and stopped healing them. They didn¡¯t matter.


    Just as I started propelling myself forward, intending to beat the translucent creature to the pearl and seize the pearl for myself¡­


    I was suddenly jerked backwards, my head stinging from the whiplash as I was swung around. My line of sight with the pearl was broken for a moment, giving me just enough time to tear my eyes away from the black pearl. I quickly searched for Felix and Erik, who were both drowning, and realized Felix had realized what had happened the moment the cord of wood was bitten off. He had used the remaining cord to wrap around my waist, and when I let go of both of them, he had immediately jerked me around in a last ditch attempt to keep us alive. I quickly began healing them again, and then looked in panic at the translucent fish.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Luckily, its gaze was now transfixed on the black pearl¡¯s location. However, during our brief moment of distraction, a new contender for the black pearl had come.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I also saw a golden, glowing worm that sent shivers of danger down my spine. Even though it was much smaller than the other creatures of the ocean, perhaps only twice my size, my senses started ringing with terror as I saw the worm wriggle towards the black pearl.


    The translucent fish, noticing its new competitor, began freezing the ocean near the golden worm, but the ice hissed and began melting the moment it got near the golden worm. At the same time, water around the golden worm quickly became murky.


    Was it using some sort of acid ability? I felt my fear grow deeper, as I wondered how far the acid from the glowing worm would spread before it lost effectiveness. Worse, I didn¡¯t know exactly where the black pearl was anymore. Now that it had finished forming, it wasn¡¯t drawing mana and water towards it as rapidly as before, making it harder to locate. And two ocean monsters were in the area, both of which could kill our group in ten seconds flat if something went wrong.


    The glowing worm straightened out for a moment, before its body suddenly jerked forward. It jetted towards the black pearl at an unbelievable speed, before half of its body left my field of vision. I saw it began to wrap itself around something, and I heard a strange hissing sound, before I saw more ice start to form near the golden worm. I heard two unearthly shrieks, and I saw the golden worm get batted away for just a moment. If I wanted to keep fighting for the black pearl, this was probably my last chance.


    Was this salvageable?


    I took a gamble, using my teleportation ability to reach towards where I thought the black pearl probably was. I had never been perfect when opening teleportation gates with my ability, but I prayed that just this one time, I could open the teleportation spot where I wanted it to be. Then, I reached out with my left hand and grabbed at the ocean, praying my luck was good.


    Something hard, wooden, and net-shaped appeared in my hand, and I quickly dragged it through the gate. At the same time, I heard a horrible hissing sound, and bright pain exploded across my left arm. Ignoring it, I moved the pearl near Erik, making sure not to look at the black pearl. There wasn¡¯t enough time to worry about the aftermath. I pushed the wooden net near his hand, and saw him wince, before he made the pearl invisible again.


    I looked up, to see my arm melting. Flesh was falling away from my skin, and blood was pouring out of my skin. I apologized to Erik in my mind, knowing his arm must also be melting, and grabbed Erik¡¯s good arm with my right hand. I moved it to my knee, which he grabbed, before I took another look at the two sea monsters.


    The translucent fish was now bright red, and was looking straight at me, and the glowing worm was pointed at me like an arrow. Both seemed pissed beyond belief. I swore in my head, before I threw as much mana as I could spare into water manipulation. Then I began jetting towards the surface as fast as I could.


    At the same time, water around me turned into two Miria-shaped illusions, before swimming in different, random directions. I hoped it would be enough.


    The golden worm jetted directly towards one of the illusions, before coiling around it and crushing it into fragments of light. For the moment, it was distracted. The translucent creature, however, swiveled its gaze directly towards me, before teleporting towards us.


    Desperate, I tried to blast the translucent fish away with a jet of water, but its teeth were too close. I felt my leg jerk, as part of Erik¡¯s body was caught in its jaws and he was nearly yanked off of me. Hee opened his mouth, and a soundless scream of horror echoed through the ocean.


    Erik¡¯s left leg, and a huge chunk of his stomach disappeared into the translucent fish¡¯s stomach. I began pouring more healing into his body, ignoring the shaking of my left arm as my skin and flesh continued to melt, and kept pushing us upwards. My teleportation finally came off of cooldown.


    The transparent creature was unsatisfied with its first bite, and eyed us again, before it started swimming towards us. The glowing worm finished wriggling, before it jetted towards us again. Seconds crawled by as I searched for a way to survive. The translucent creature teleported towards us again-


    And I immediately opened a gate and pushed us through it, perfectly dodging both attacks in the nick of time.


    The ocean¡¯s darkness started to disappear, replaced with sunlight from the surface. But we were too far away from the surface. I felt despair start to cloud my vision as I realized we weren¡¯t going to make it. The acid from the golden worm was still eating into my body, and Erik was seriously injured. We still had too much space to cover before we would be safe, and there was no way I could keep us alive long enough.


    The glowing worm chased after another illusion I made, sparing us from melting in a puddle of acid, but the transparent fish showed more intelligence. It began freezing the area around us, and I started panicking as my body temperature started to plummet.


    We couldn¡¯t die here. We had to make it to the surface, or everything we did would be for nothing. I didn¡¯t want us to die.


    I dropped my illusions, freeing up my mental faculties and allowing me to focus on other abilities. I started batting away the freezing water with water control, replacing the water around us with warmer water as I continued pushing us to the surface. The transparent creature teleported towards us again, and I teleported away right before we died.


    The glowing worm, seeing its chance, drilled towards us, and I felt another split of searing pain start to appear on the left side of my body as the murky water surround it touched part of my face. I used water manipulation to drive it away, but that left me open to the ice of the translucent fish.


    If this kept up, there would be no escape. I glanced around, before I found the only way out.


    I pushed us forward with another burst of speed, trying to open up space between us and the transparent fish. The golden worm kept swimming towards us again as I bore with the freezing temperature, feeling my body start to die. Then, a second before my teleportation ability came off cooldown, I stopped moving.


    The glowing worm, seeing its chance, swam towards us, and the transparent fish seemed pleasantly surprised that it didn¡¯t need to waste a teleportation to eat us. Its jaws appeared out of nowhere, rapidly closing in on us, at the exactly same time as the murky water of the golden warm started tearing into my flesh again¡­


    I teleported upwards at the last possible second.


    The acid from the glowing worm started to drill into the transparent fish instead, causing it to unleash an unearthly screeching sound as it finally experienced the golden worm¡¯s acid. It stopped focusing its ice power on us, and began freezing the glowing worm instead. This caused the glowing worm to also stop targeting us, and it began swimming towards the transparent fish. A hissing sound began to emerge as the two fought below us, and I took it as another opportunity to throw more mana into pushing us upwards. A few seconds later, the burning sensation on my face spread to my left eye, and my sight suddenly disappeared. Half of the world plunged into darkness, even as the shadow of the ocean started to fade away. I pushed us further and further towards the surface, praying the acid wouldn¡¯t reach my brain or spread any further. Luckily, the two ocean monsters fell for my ploy, and had started fighting each other. Without their constant attacks, I was no longer freezing to death.


    We pushed forward for several more minutes, the fight of monsters getting further and further away as we approached the surface of the ocean. My left arm started to look more like soup than an arm, and I could feel hot tears start to trickle out of my eyes as the pain got worse and worse. Luckily, the acid on my face wasn¡¯t spreading any further.


    Then, suddenly, we were suddenly above water. Gasping and coughing water out of my lungs, I used what mana I had left to create a giant shower of water. Felix, finally able to see again, used the broken wood rope he still had attached to his wrist to wave his cord of wood above the ocean¡¯s surface, and with my remaining good eye, I saw a wooden boat in the distance quickly start flying towards us. At the same time, I felt the burning pain on the left side of my body begin to fade, and heaved a sigh of relief. Whatever power had stuck to my body and seared my flesh away, it was reliant on water to function.


    Against all odds, we had managed to escape the ocean with a black pearl.

 Chapter 56: Ships and Monsters

    It took another ten seconds for the boat to reach us. In that time, Felix, Erik and I bobbed up and down in the ocean, taking a moment to hack some water out of our lungs and savor the feeling of being alive. Now that the adrenaline rush had started to fade away, the pain and exhaustion from our desperate flight in the Ocean started to kick in, but we had made it.


    Once the boat was close enough, I opened a gate beneath us, shoved us down a little, and teleported us directly onto the boat. Then, I took a look at Erik and Felix, to assess the damage they had taken.


    Erik¡¯s leg was gone, and so was a big part of his pelvis and stomach. I had healed his body fast enough that he hadn¡¯t died, but I had no clue if he would live for more than a day or two after this. Some of his intestines had to be missing, and I had no idea what that meant for him in the long run. Through sheer force of will, he was remaining conscious and keeping the pearl hidden, but that was basically all he was doing now. I shuddered as I looked at him, feeling a sense of horror as the consequences of my actions caught up to me. I had wanted to explore the ocean, but I hadn¡¯t wanted someone to die because of it.


    I took another, longer look at Erik, intending to apologize, even though it was nowhere near enough. As I opened my mouth, he laughed, a burbling, broken sound, as he looked me in the face.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t your fault, Miria. I got injured because I volunteered for this, and I volunteered because I want to protect my friends and the village I care about. Don¡¯t¡­ don¡¯t look down on my determination. And don¡¯t blame yourself for this,¡± he said, before letting out another broken laugh. he gestured towards his missing leg, as well as the minced remains of his stomach, before coughing. ¡°It¡¯s a lot worse for you. The left half of your face¡­ doesn¡¯t look so good anymore. Your mother was one of the prettiest women in the village, and now her daughter has become like this. Both of us suffered because we wanted to protect the people we care about. So don¡¯t blame yourself. If I didn¡¯t get hurt here, maybe I would get hurt or die fighting an Outsider, and maybe they would hurt some of my friends too. My injuries are my responsibility. Not yours.¡±


    I stopped, the pain in my head starting to clear up. It wasn¡¯t fully gone; I still couldn¡¯t help but wonder if I could have done something differently, or thought more quickly and saved Erik from his injury. But with the adrenaline of the fight, our successful mission, and the time I had spent training and thinking about this mission factored in, I realized I had done my best. I still felt some guilt, because Erik had gotten hurt while I was leading our group, but he was right. He was an adult who had volunteered to join us, and all of us had known from the very beginning this mission was risky.


    Seeing my face relax a little, Erik laughed again, although it sounded more like a burbling cough. ¡°You get it now. Nobody joined this mission thinking it would be perfectly safe, and we came anyway.¡± He didn¡¯t say anything else.


    After Erik finished talking, I realized he wasn¡¯t the only one. I still couldn¡¯t see out of my left eye, and I doubted that was going to change. My arm was much worse.


    The flesh and bones of my left arm were corroded beyond repair. My arm no longer resembled a human arm, so much as extremely chunky red soup. I didn¡¯t feel any pain from it when I moved it with my other arm, which was how I knew I was probably never getting my arm back. Even the nerves were completely destroyed. I couldn¡¯t move it at all. I shook my head. At least I was most familiar with one-handed swordsmanship. I could still fight, with or without my left arm.


    Finally, I took a look at Felix. Felix, unlike Erik and I, was practically unscathed, and was staring at me in shock.


    ¡°Your arm¡­ and your face¡­ both are pretty bad,¡± he said, visibly taking efforts to calm down as he looked at me.


    I hesitantly reached out to touch the left side of my face with good arm, and felt my coarse, scarred skin. The left half of my face was lumpier than it used to be. It didn¡¯t hurt, because I had healed my flesh as it melted, but it was definitely more distorted than before. I did my best to smile.


    ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. I knew what could happen,¡± I said, and as I said it, I started to understand Erik¡¯s words more. I had made my own decision to go into the deeps. It might have been risky, and if I had done things differently, I might not have ended up with a scarred face and a ruined left arm. But my decisions were my own, and I had done what I needed to in order to protect the village I had grown up in. My scars weren¡¯t just an ugly imperfection; they were a mark of honor.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said, turning to my father and Sallia. As I spoke, I realized that my voice was also messed up. It sounded more raspy than usual. I touched my throat, and realized some acid had gotten my throat as well, although I hadn¡¯t noticed it before. I was lucky it hadn¡¯t ruined my ability to breathe or killed me on the spot.


    My father, however, looked the most devastated.


    ¡°Miria. You¡­¡± he looked at me, and I could see tears glimmering in his eyes as he looked at my arm and my eye.


    ¡°Sorry, father. I tried to get out intact, but a new sea creature showed up,¡± I said, before laughing. ¡°But we succeeded. Nobody died, and I managed to get out alive, and with a black pearl. Sorry for worrying you,¡± I said, before I took a step closer and gave him a one-armed hug. I heard him sniffle, before he gently returned my hug, making sure not to disturb my ruined arm.


    ¡°You¡¯ve¡­ you¡¯ve done enough, Miria. No matter what you look like, or how weak you become, the village won¡¯t forget your sacrifice for everyone¡¯s safety. And if they do, I¡¯ll make them remember,¡± said Olav, gently ruffling my hair. ¡°And if this works, you might save dozens of lives with your actions.¡±


    Edel, and Claus also nodded, and I felt a surge of warmth in my heart. Even though I knew the village chief would look after me when we returned to the village, and the village had a strict policy of caring for those who got injured while protecting the village, having my friends, family, and co-workers reach out to me still made me feel happy. I was protecting the right people. My actions hadn¡¯t been in vain. However, we were also wasting time.


    ¡°Quickly. We need to get the pearl to the outsiders.¡± I said. ¡°Even with my fish cores, Erik¡¯s mana will run out sooner or later. We need to get the pearl to them before that happens¡±


    Olav and the other sailors nodded, and we began quickly flying towards the meeting spot with the village chiefs and hunters.


    Sallia and Felix, who had the least to do right now, were still looking at me with concern. Sallia gently reached out her hand partway towards my ruined face, before hesitating. ¡°Are you really okay?¡± She asked, more softly this time.


    I laughed. ¡°It¡¯s not so bad. There are plenty of scarred women in the village, right? Felix¡¯s mother is doing just fine for herself. It¡¯s just a shame my left arm is ruined. And I was really looking forward to being a knockout beauty in a few years. I guess I¡¯ll have to wait until next life.¡±


    Sallia also let out a rough, half-choked laugh, before she smiled and hugged my good arm.


    ¡°Even in this life, you¡¯re still my amazing, beautiful best friend,¡± she said. ¡°Including me in this mission was hard, and you and Felix have spent so much time and energy finding a way to get me a good keyword ability. I don¡¯t know if this will get me one, but I won¡¯t forget what you two have done. Both of you are the best people I could have had with me after my first life, and I¡¯m so¡­ so happy that you¡¯ve been with me all this time.¡± After that, she gave Felix another, lighter hug, before the three of us also lapsed into silence.


    The boat made good time towards where the village chiefs and hunters were waiting for us. During that time I took the opportunity to look at my System notifications I had been ignoring up until now.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist the locals in killing a transparent fish for the first time


    Influence: Steal a Greater Fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart from under the watchful eyes of Al¡¯thalus, the Slumbering Arms of the Ocean


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Wealth: Own a Greater Fragment of the Ocean¡¯s Heart


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +85, +700, +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I let out a chuckle. Adding nearly 1,300 Achievement to my total from this whole fiasco was pretty good. It put me at 9,941.06 Achievement. My miniature goal of getting to at least 10,000 Achievement would almost certainly be accomplished, as long as the rest of my plan worked out.


    I was also more than a little surprised to see that I got an assist for killing the transparent fish. It must have been killed by the worm. Perhaps me distracting it, reducing its mana, and running it in circles still counted as me contributing to the fight, even though it had been killed by another monster instead of a human? I hadn¡¯t realized I could get an assist if a monster got the kill.


    With my only remaining arm, I shrugged. It wasn¡¯t that big of a deal either way. With my body¡¯s current state, I probably wouldn¡¯t be doing any more adventuring into the deeps of the ocean, sadly. I was too badly injured to keep searching for what made this ocean so unique. I had uncovered some of the mystery of the deeps, but I had left many mysteries behind. I felt a sliver of regret at the thought, but I pushed it aside. I had done as well as I could, given our starting conditions in this world. To be honest, I was amazed I had gotten as far as I had, considering my average Stats and potential.


    Soon, we arrived at the meeting location with the village chiefs and the hunters. Most of them had a relaxed, bored look on their face as they waited in their respective boats, likely since they weren¡¯t sure if we would successfully secure the pearl today. However, my village chief¡¯s face warped when he saw me.


    ¡°Miria! Ocean Mother¡¯s grace, are you all right?¡± He asked, quickly flying off of his boat and speeding towards us. He alighted on our boat, before taking another step towards me; that¡¯s when he saw Erik.


    ¡°Erik? Is he¡­¡± The village chief turned towards me again. Erik, however, chuckled, despite the state of his body.


    ¡°We got it, chief. I¡¯m pretty badly injured. Don¡¯t let my injuries go to waste, all right?¡± The village chief looked at Erik, and then took another look at my ruined face, before he nodded. Instead of an expression of sorrow, the village chief¡¯s face became more and more determined as he looked at our injuries.


    ¡°I won¡¯t. When we get back to the village, both of you can retire. I¡¯ll look after you and your families for the rest of your lives. The village won¡¯t turn its back on those who got hurt protecting it.¡± The village chief paused for a moment, before looking at our boat, as well as Erik¡¯s hands. They were still clutching a wooden net, although both the net and its contents were hidden by Erik¡¯s stealth ability.


    ¡°Then we¡¯ll proceed with the plan.¡± The village chief turned towards the other boats, where the bored looking hunters and chiefs had begun preparing their weapons and armor. He raised his voice, so that the other boats could hear him. ¡°We¡¯re going to see how many of their boats we can sink and how many of their sailors we can kill before they reach our islands. Since Miria and her boat has seized a Black Pearl, we will first let the outsiders who see it go insane, and if things go well, the great ocean monster will then attack a few of their boats before retreating with the pearl. If we¡¯re lucky, we should be able to take out a bunch of their crew members before the fight even starts. Make sure to avoid looking at the black pearl, unless you have nine runes. And don¡¯t join the fight until the great ocean monster strikes; we don¡¯t want to get caught in the aftermath of its attacks, or Miria¡¯s plan might backfire. Understand?¡±


    The other hunters and village chiefs nodded, and I heard a few voices of assent in the background as well.


    Once everyone was ready, the boats began to fly towards the outsiders. Once they were close, the other boats stopped, while Erik made our boat and its inhabitants invisible for one final push.


    Our boat sped up, as the sailors gave the boat everything they had to speed up the flight of the boat. We needed to get everything done before Erik ran out of mana. Before we entered hearing range of the outsider boats, I whispered to the other crew members that I was taking the pearl, and to make sure not to look.


    Then, I grabbed the Black Pearl from Erik¡¯s hands, and handed it to Sallia. I felt her hands tighten around the wooden net, before we got ready.


    A few moments later, we reached one of the outsider¡¯s boats, and began floating a few hundred meters above it. Below us, I could see dozens of Megailian sailors, going about their duties as they worked to mess with the sails, observe their surroundings, and polish their weapons. It was time.


    ¡°Down with Megailia!¡± Yelled everyone in the boat, drawing a bunch of gazes directly towards us. At the same time, our boat flickered back into visibility, and Sallia lobbed the black pearl towards the boat. Since everyone was already prepared, we closed our eyes, making sure the madness of the pearl didn¡¯t influence us.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: You have driven several Megailian Sailors mad, contributing to the battle of the ocean by a [Minor] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: You have driven several Megailian Sailors mad, contributing to the battle of the ocean by a [Minor] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: You have driven several Megailian Sailors mad, contributing to the battle of the ocean by a [Minor] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I heard sailors start to scream as they lost their minds, and a few moments later, I started to hear splashing sounds as they jumped off of the decks of their ship and into the waters below. Despite all of that, I didn¡¯t open my eyes. Meanwhile, I felt our boat lurch upwards, before it started flying in a random direction. We needed to get as far away as possible from counterattacks if we wanted to live until the other boats reinforced us.


    A few moments later, I got my first new notification.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: You have assisted the locals in killing a human with between 7 and 9 runes


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +125


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The first outsider had died. I didn¡¯t know what killed him. Maybe he accidentally jumped into a weapon or got eaten by a sea monster. Either way, my plan was working even better than expected, after the struggle to get the black pearl out of the ocean.


    Then, I felt something slam into the boat, sending us in a random direction for a few moments before we stabilized. I frowned. The outsiders were firing abilities at us, even if a lot of them had already been taken out of the fight. If the great ocean monster didn¡¯t come soon, we would probably be barraged out of the sky.


    Our boat began to fly more erratically, zigging and zagging in random directions in a desperate attempt to throw off the aim of the Megailians. I clenched my teeth, keeping my eyes closed as I counted seconds and prayed for the great ocean monster to come.


    Moments later, I heard a call that nearly broke my mind, but that I had been waiting to hear. My perception of the world distorted, and I felt closer than ever to the secrets of space. I heard, rather than saw, something massive tear itself out of the ocean, and I heard a massive crunch in the distance.


    I grinned, opening my eyes, and saw two outsider boats turned into splinters in the blink of an eye. I had estimated the great ocean monster would destroy at least one boat if it came, but the fact it hit two out of eight was a pleasant surprise.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: You contributed to the battle of the ocean by a [Significant] amount


    Slaughter: You have assisted in killing 1 humans with 4-6 runes.


    Slaughter: You have assisted in killing 5 humans with 4-6 runes.


    Slaughter: You have assisted in killing 25 humans with 4-6 runes.


    Slaughter: You have assisted in killing 10 humans with 7-9 runes.


    Slaughter: You have assisted in killing 40 humans with 7-9 runes.


    Slaughter: You have assisted in killing 1 humans with 10-12 runes.


    Slaughter: You have assisted in killing 5 humans with 10-12 runes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +???, +40, +125, +220, + 200, +300, +400, +700


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement instantly increased to 11,926.06. However, before I could celebrate how effective my Ocean Pearl ploy had been, something else slammed into our boat.


    I looked beneath us, and saw our boat splitting in two, as a golden drop of blood drilled through the wood of the boat.


    Oh, crap.


    A barrage of wooden spikes ripped apart the front of the boat, and then a metal arrow tore through Olav¡¯s head. He didn¡¯t even have time to scream before he died. Meanwhile, the boat was thrown out of the sky, and began falling towards another of the boats. I briefly saw a man standing at the front of the boat, glaring at us with enraged eyes, before we slammed into the deck.


    Crunch.


    I heard one of Sallia¡¯s legs break as we slammed into the hard, wooden deck. Since I had two higher grades of Fortitude, my bones didn¡¯t break, but the pain from bruising still nearly made me pass out. I gasped in pain, before using my good arm to prop myself up, and look around.


    Sallia, Felix, Claus, my father and I had landed on one of the outsider boats. I had no clue where Edel and Erik went.


    Staring at us was a very, very pissed off crew of Megailian soldiers.

 Chapter 57: (Title is Spoiler)

    Before I had time to catch my bearings, I felt something pull at me, dragging me off my feet and pulling me towards the angry Megailian man standing at the front of the boat. I started, not understanding what was happening until I was in midair again. A few moments later, the unnatural pull on my body disappeared, causing me to crash back into the wooden deck of the ship. My left arm bent unnaturally, before it snapped on collision with the deck. Luckily, I didn¡¯t feel a thing from my ruined arm.


    I looked back up at the angry Megailian man, before shivering.


    He had thirteen runes. He had to be someone important. Maybe the commander. I had no clue what a thirteenth rune did, but I knew for sure it would be dangerous. Sallia, Felix and I were already injured and weak, and my father and Claus were the only others that landed on the boat. This wasn¡¯t a battle we could win even at full strength, and in our current state escape would be nearly impossible.


    The Megailian commander glared at me, and yelled something I didn¡¯t understand because of his heavy accent. The other Megailian troops nocked arrows, pointing some of them at me, and some at Sallia, Claus, Felix, and my father. I winced. I didn¡¯t want my father and Claus to die here, at least. I cared about them and wanted them to be safe.


    But I doubted any of us were coming out of this alive.


    The Megailian commander yelled something at me again, but his accent was too heavy for me to understand. This time, however, I did catch the world ¡®island,¡¯ despite his heavy accent.


    I frowned, but I took too long to respond. An arrow zipped out of an archer¡¯s bow and towards Claus. Claus, who was still shaking off the impact of being dragged out of the sky, seemed to realize the arrow was coming towards him, and his hands scrabbled along the wooden boards for a fraction of a second, before he found his spear. He threw it towards the archer, the bone spear enlarging itself the moment it left its hands -


    And some other bone-user took control of claus¡¯s spear, before it slammed itself into the deck of the ship. Claus¡¯s spear didn¡¯t deflect the arrow, or kill the archer.


    A moment later, the arrow sped up and turned green, before it ripped through Claus¡¯s head. He died with his eyes wide open.


    I sucked in a breath, before the Megailian commander yelled at me again. This time, I could finally make out part of what he was saying.


    ¡°Where are the islands? Allius tha pligusu perissuteru tos filus sou!¡± He yelled. I had no clue what his second sentence meant, but the archer who had killed Claus gestured threateningly with his bow, pointing towards Sallia.


    Sallia, who had broken a leg during the fall, was still moaning in pain as she tried to re-orient herself on the boat, but Felix and my father were glaring at the Megailians as they reached towards their own weapons. They were bruised and injured from the fall, but they had just seen Claus die.


    A moment later, out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted something small in the distance.


    It was a flying boat. The village chiefs had seen the great ocean monster finish destroying the ships of the outsiders, and had come to attack the Outsiders before they reorganized. But they would be too late to save us.


    I gave the Megalian commander a grim smile, doing my best to look weak and placate him, and reached for a little bit of water with my ability. In seconds, it turned into a giant map. Since the Megailian commander wanted to know where the islands were¡­


    I made a map from my vague memories of Earth, since that was completely irrelevant right now. The longer I could confuse them, the better.


    The Megailia turned towards the map I had created with my illusion, before snorting. He took a step closer to me, and then slapped me as hard as he could, the force nearly physically lifting me up and throwing me back towards the deck. My head slammed into the wood with an audible crack, and I saw stars for a moment.


    My father finally lost his temper. A gust of wind propelled him forward, and he raised his spear towards the Megailian commander. I immediately added the Call of the Ocean to my illusion, hoping it would distract a few Megailians and give my father a chance. The odds were terrible, but if we killed a thirteen rune commander here we could make the war much easier to win for the other islanders. This could be our final contribution to the battle.


    Sallia and Felix, seeing the fight start, leapt to join us. Sallia picked up her sword, and ignoring her broken leg, did her best to charge forward. Felix battered down the first wooden planks that tried to assail us, beating them down with his own rune abilities.


    However, there were too many Megailians here. The moment Sallia tried to charge, a bundle of ropes coiled around her, before tripping her. An arrow in midiar flew towards Felix before it quadrupled, then each arrow homed in on Felix¡¯s limbs. I teleported one arrow attacking Felix towards the Megailiain commander, allowing myself to get hit by an arrow to my stomach, and the Megailian commander¡¯s eyes widened in surprise as an arrow suddenly appeared right in front of him.


    But it didn¡¯t kill him.


    The arrow suddenly halted in midair as the Megailian commander¡¯s runes glowed. Some sort of pushing ability? Or the ability to harden the air?


    I had no idea.


    A moment later, the arrow dropped out of the air and clattered to the ground.


    A pulse of blue ice stopped my father, chopping off one of his legs just below the knee. He fell over, his charge halted. At the same time, I saw Sallia drop to the ground, struggling with ropes that were coiling around her like a python.


    The Megailian commander snorted contemptuously, before taking another few steps towards us. He was no longer focused only on me. Instead, he was eyeing Sallia. As the youngest of us, she probably looked the easiest to get information out of.


    ¡°Where are the islands?¡± He asked, again, even as Felix ignored the arrows in his body and tried to kill the commander with a splinter of airborne wood. A moment later, the splinter stopped in midair, before it turned around and sped into Felix¡¯s chest. Blood started pouring out of his chest as he stopped moving, clutching his new injury.


    Sallia shook her head, her mouth foaming as she struggled, but didn¡¯t say a word.


    The Megailian commander took one step closer-


    And Sallia suddenly sprang into action. With a level of dexterity and power her broken body shouldn¡¯t have possessed, she managed to fight her way out of the moving ropes for a moment and grip her sword again. Groaning with effort, she tried to kill the commander in a single moment of surprise.


    He snorted, and Sallia¡¯s body suddenly snapped backwards, completely deflecting her attack. Her sneak attack failed to accomplish anything.


    ¡°Fine then,¡± said the commander. He gestured towards one of his soldiers, who tossed him a sword.


    Then, with a single, casual movement, he caught the sword and beheaded Sallia.


    My cooldown for teleportation finally ended, a moment too late to save Sallia¡¯s life, and I stared at the Megailian commander with hate. I scanned our surroundings, before looking at Felix, who wasn¡¯t dead yet, and hoped he still had one more attack in him. Even if it probably wouldn¡¯t work, I wanted to kill the commander for hurting Sallia.


    Felix, who was wheezing and clutching his chest, saw me and seemed to realize my teleportation was ready.


    He stopped worrying about his impending death, and shot another splinter of wood out, making it zip towards one of the archers.


    Right as another plank tore itself off of the deck to block his attack, I teleported the wooden splinter right next to the Megailian commander¡¯s neck. My aim was a little off, but it was still close enough that it might kill him if I was lucky.


    For a single moment, I thought we had succeeded. A spray of blood ripped out of the commander¡¯s neck, and I felt a savage grin form on my lips.


    Then, one of the soldiers pointed at the Commander, and his runes glowed. The commander¡¯s injured neck quickly restored itself. I felt a growing sense of frustration as I realized we had failed. I saw an arrow kill my father, and took one last look at the distant boats of the islands.


    I hoped their raid on the outsiders would be successful, and that they avenged us properly.


    That was the last thing I thought before an arrow tore through my brain.


    I died.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have been detected to be (dead), and your soul is no longer housed inside of a physical vessel.


    You will be returned to the Market shortly.


    Warning: It has been detected that you are part of a large influence-based event, and have not yet collected your rewards. Once you exit a dimension, you may no longer connect to the dimensional laws of that world, meaning you will no longer be able to collect any Achievement from interacting with a certain world. Would you like to enter slumber mode for 20 Achievement? This will keep your soul safe from the corrosion of the ocean of souls for up to 1 year, and prevent you from exiting this dimension. This is advised to finish collecting rewards which are still pending.


    Warning: You have one or more friends still connected to your current dimension, even though you are dead. It is highly recommended that you enter slumber mode until all of you leave a dimension at the same time. Otherwise, it may be difficult to time your births and deaths in each world properly, which has been statistically proven to increase the chance of your group breaking up sometime within the next five centuries!


    Would you like to enter slumber mode for 20 Achievement? Each purchase lasts for up to one year.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Less than ten seconds later, before I even had time to process my surroundings in more detail, I saw another notification


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    All members of your registered group of friends have been detected to be dead.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I paused, taking a moment to consider my surroundings. I was in a situation I remembered quite clearly; I saw myself, as well as a stream of other, silver-colored souls starting to drift upwards. Just above us, I could see cracks in reality. And just beyond it lay a massive, endless ocean of black water. I tried to see where Sallia and Felix were, but I couldn¡¯t figure out which soul was which. I had no clue which souls belonged to my fellow transmigrators.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I decided to stick around in this dimension until the end of this battle. It would be a shame to lose the rest of my rewards for helping this battle come to its final conclusion, whatever it would be.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slumber mode activated. 20 Achievement deducted. Thank you for your purchase!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Darkness overtook me.


    An unknown amount of time later, I was jostled out of my slumber by two notifications.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the battle of the ocean by a [Major] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 3,600


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 11,926.06 to 15,526.06. More interesting was the second notification.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    After your action of stealing a greater fragment of the Ocean¡¯s heart and using it to inflict major damage on the Outsiders invading your homeland, as well as your contributions to the battle, you have formed the Keyword Ability ¡®Endless Hunger of the Ocean.¡¯


    It may be purchased after your death for 5,000 Achievement.


    This is currently a [Basic] Grade Ability, but like all keyword abilities, after being purchased it may be evolved depending on your actions in the future.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.)


    While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.


    Absorption essence may be spent to form ¡®runes,¡¯ a unique magical structure created partially within the brain and partially within the body.


    These runes have varied effects, mostly relating to strengthening the body and mind and allowing limited control over specific abilities. (This rune system is copied directly from the world you were just living in.) You will also recreate the relevant dimensional laws within your body.


    Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive something insane, you will collect Achievement as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.


    Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first time in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.


    Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only three abilities from this effect may be ¡®held¡¯ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one.


    Glut Penalty: 20


    Note: In order to use a magic system from another dimension, one must have three things:


    First, they must have access to the essence in question. It¡¯s impossible to use manifestation essence for spellcasting without manifestation essence, or use absorption essence type spellcasting without absorption essence.


    Second, one must have the biological ability to process said essence. Attempting to use unique magic systems without the right brain structure and body structure may result in injury or death to your current body.


    Third, one must have an ability that mimics the proper dimensional laws one wishes to use in order to cast spells. Trying to use a fire-related spell normally wouldn¡¯t work in a dimension where fire physically cannot exist, for example, and using binding essence to cast spells would normally fail if a dimension doesn¡¯t have any binding essence inside of it. With an Ability, one can make spells that cannot naturally exist in a given dimension.


    Some abilities do not grant all three of these things. Please read your ability descriptions carefully!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I read over the ability description, before I turned my attention back to the world below me.


    Did we win?


    I couldn¡¯t see anything anymore. I was wrapped in a cocoon of golden light, and I could see two other cocoons nearby. However, I couldn¡¯t see the islands or the ocean anymore. I couldn¡¯t even see the ocean of souls - it looked like we were stuck in between the ocean of souls and the dimension we had lived in for a decade and a half. I looked down, trying to spot our home, before realizing it was a lost cause.


    I had done my best to help the islands, but I would never know whether they survived the fight with the outsiders or not. I had no idea whether they fended off the invasion.


    And I would probably never know. I had gotten a bunch of Achievement for a [major] contribution to the battle, which hopefully meant we had won. But I would never know.


    I felt a small amount of sadness well up inside of me, before I accepted that I would never know the final outcome of the battle. I was dead. I just had to hope that my actions, and my wishes for a better future for the village and people I cared about, would come to pass. But now that I was dead I couldn¡¯t do anything anymore.


    Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the other two golden cocoons unraveling, releasing two other silvery souls. Those should be Felix and Sallia.


    While there were still things left I wanted to do, and things I wanted to know the answer to, it was the end. It was time to leave. I turned back towards my System notifications and exited slumber mode.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have accepted exiting slumber mode. You will return to the Market shortly.


    One life deducted. Four lives remain. Transportation has begun.


    Please remember that any Abilities available for purchase will only remain available for 72 hours after your return to the Market. Make any purchases you wish to keep within that time!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Death Statistics Report:


    Power:


    Successfully Condense your First Rune


    + 100 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Second Rune


    + 200 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Third Rune


    + 300 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Fourth Rune


    + 400 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Fifth Rune


    + 500 Achievement


    Absorb a Fragment of the Ocean''s Heart (and remain sane)


    + 200 Achievement


    Skill:


    Achieve [Basic] Grade one-handed Swordsmanship


    + 25 Achievement


    Achieve [Intermediate] Grade one-handed Swordsmanship


    + 150 Achievement


    Achieve [Basic] Grade Spearmanship


    + 25 Achievement


    Achieve [Basic] Grade Archery


    + 25 Achievement


    Slaughter:


    Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the first time.


    + 25 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the 10th time.


    + 120 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the 50th time.


    + 300 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the 125th time


    + 500 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in killing the Glowing Fish


    + 200 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in killing a Wolf of Writhing Mists (Land Beast) for the first time


    + 100 Achievement


    Kill a human with 4-6 Runes for the first time.


    + 75 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in killing a Transparent Fish for the First time


    + 85 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 4-6 Runes for the first time.


    + 40 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 4-6 Runes for the 5th time.


    + 125 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 4-6 Runes for the 25th time.


    + 220 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 7-9 Runes for the first time.


    + 125 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 7-9 Runes for the 10th time.


    + 200 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 7-9 Runes for the 40th time.


    + 300 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 10-12 Runes for the first time.


    + 400 Achievement


    Assist the Locals in Killing a human with 10-12 Runes for the 5th time.


    + 700 Achievement


    Influence:


    Pass your First Adulthood Ceremony


    + 50 Achievement


    Contributed to the defense of the Village by a [Negligible] amount.


    + 3 Achievement


    Save one boat from the Glowing Fish


    + 250 Achievement


    Contribute to the Battle of the Glowing Fish by a [Significant] amount.


    + 1,000 Achievement


    Contribute to the Power of the Islands by a [Moderate] Amount


    + 800 Achievement


    Contribute to the Power of the Islands by a [Minor] Amount


    + 500 Achievement


    Contribute to the Battle of the Oceans by a Major Amount


    + 3,600 Achievement


    Steal a Greater Fragment of the Ocean''s Heart from Al''thalus


    + 500 Achievement


    Wealth:


    Possess 50 Fish Cores at once


    + 50 Achievement


    Possess a Fragment of the Ocean''s Heart


    + 200 Achievement


    Posess a Greater Fragment of the Ocean''s Heart


    + 500 Achievement


    Crafting:


    Craft 1 [Basic] Grade tool


    +15 Achievement


    Craft 25 Basic Grade tools


    +40 Achievement


    Craft 100 Basic Grade tools


    + 100 Achievement


    Craft 250 Basic Grade tools


    + 200 Achievement


    Craft 1000 Basic Grade tools


    + 300 Achievement


    Craft 1 [Intermediate] Grade tool


    + 40 Achievement


    Exploration:


    Explore the Ocean of the Althala Islands and Live


    + 200 Achievement


    Family and Disciples:


    N/A


    Misc:


    First time Achievements:


    (Market-Produced Achievements cannot be repeated in subsequent lives. They are paid for by Eluxia and the Market, as a means to encourage new Transmigrators, and not linked to the dimensional laws of any world besides the market).


    Gain [Basic] Grade Mastery of a combat-related Skill for the first time


    +200 Achievement


    Gain [Intermediate] Grade Mastery of a combat-related Skill for the first time


    +500 Achievement


    Gain [Basic] Grade Mastery of a crafting-related Skill for the first time


    +200 Achievement


    Total at start of World: 135.06


    New Total: 15,546.06


    Taxes: N/A (Error - no tax skill detected. Please consult with your local city administrator for further details. Tax evasion is a capital offense, and trying to avoid paying may result in execution!)


    Equipment maintenance costs and other expenses:


    Friendship bracelet: -1.3 Achievement (Double check this number later).


    Purchased information on Abilities: -20 Achievement


    Purchased Slumber mode (1 year): -20 Achievement


    Final Total: 15,504.76


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 58: Volume 1 Epilogue- Stories of the Islands

    Fritz, leader of the village, looked at the destroyed boats in the distance before taking another look at his own people and sighed.


    The islanders had lost too much today.


    He thought back to Miria, the little child who he had watched grow up for the past decade, and sighed as he looked again at the outsider¡¯s ships. She was one of the first who had died in the battle. Lost before the main fleet had even arrived.


    Miria had been¡­ a bundle of joy to the village. And Aria (Sallia) had been a young girl who hadn¡¯t even reached adulthood yet. Felix had been one of the fledgeling hunters of the village. The three of them had died too young.


    When Miria had brought forth her idea to scour the deeps for a weapon to beat back the outsiders, he had hesitantly agreed, because he had been desperate for a way to improve the village¡¯s odds. But he couldn¡¯t help but wonder what kind of village needed to sacrifice its children for a chance of winning. He looked at the ships of the outsiders again, wishing the islanders had sunk the remaining three ships.


    They were turning around, now. Of the mighty fleet of eight massive ships that had sailed towards the islands, only three remained. The remaining Megailians would offer no further threat to the islands, for what remained of their fleet was fleeing from their waters. Even if the remaining three ships reached the islands, too many outsiders had died. They wouldn¡¯t win the battle against the islanders, even if they found their destination. So their commander had turned around and begun sailing back home. And the cost had been dozens of hunters and sailors, all returned to the Ocean Mother¡¯s embrace to force the outsiders back.


    Fritz hoped they never returned, but after they had come twice in the last decade, he knew that was probably a dime in hope. It might not be today. It might not even be this year, or this decade.


    But, much like the landbeasts, they would eventually return. And the Islands would be ready for them.


    The islanders had won this battle, but it had cost them far too much. He dreaded returning to the island and informing the families of the fallen that their loved ones had died. Miria¡¯s mother, Astra, had lost her husband and her child on the same day, leaving her alone. Aria (Sallia)¡¯s parents had lost their second child, the same way they had lost their first fourteen years ago. Felix¡¯s mother had lost her only reminder of her dead husband. Nearly thirty percent of the islanders who had come to raid the outsiders and force them away from the islands had died, even after Miria successfully destroyed two ships solely by using the black pearls and the great monster of the deeps.


    He sighed again, before shaking his head. The cost of this battle had been ruinous, and many islanders had lost their lives. The only thing he could do now was carry on as chief of the village, and make sure that if the outsiders returned during his lifetime, the village was able to beat them back again.


    * * *


    The king of Megailia read the report from the returning commander of the islander expedition, and felt rage bubble up in his body. And besides rage, he felt a slowly rising feeling of despair.


    They had lost. The last chance for Megailia had been lost.


    First, the war he had begun with the Lacanarians had ended poorly. For some reason, his troops, who won a war against the Lacanarians only thirty years ago, had failed to achieve the same results on the battlefield this time. Less than a decade ago, he had started a war with them, hoping to distract the nobles and general populace from his unpopular rule by achieving victory on the battlefield. After he won, he had intended to seize the treasury of Lacanaria, and use it to placate the populace and jump-start the economy. While Megailia had many internal problems right now, he felt that an injection of enough money would solve many of these problems. It would have stabilized his rule and allowed him to obtain the resources he needed to form his seventeenth rune. With seventeen runes and a history of successfully plundering their weaker neighbors, his throne would have been secured, and he would have had a solid base of support to keep ruling in the future.


    Unfortunately, Megailia had not won the war against Lacanaria. Instead of seizing the Lacanarian treasury, Megailia had lost dozens of ships, and in the peace talks following their defeat, the Lacanarians had instead drained the Megailian treasury dry and seized several Megailian towns and farms in the peace deal. Nearly a fifth of their land had been lost; and most of the land that had been taken was the farms and mines most removed from the forests of the land beasts. The already overstrained Megailian military was having a hard time keeping the rest of the country safe, now that they had lost so many supplies and so much land.


    The economy of Megailia was weaker than ever before, and its war strength had been at an all time low.


    In an attempt to rejuvenate the collapsing nation of Megailia, the king had ordered some of his remaining elite troops to invade a small and unimportant set of islands. The commander who had died there had used the paper fish rune ability to convey the existence of the islands to the capital of Megailia, in a desperate attempt to prevent his family from being executed for his failure on the battlefield.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Since the man had given the Megailian king a way to save the empire, he had left his children and his wife alive. After all, service to the empire needed to be rewarded. The rest of the families of the failed soldiers had been executed, as per the king¡¯s orders. Failure couldn¡¯t be tolerated, after all, and if the other soldiers thought that he was weak and willing to forgive failure, they would be less motivated to succeed in future battles. He hadn¡¯t been entirely certain if the message held any truth to it, but after losing the war with the Lacanarians, he had been desperate for any way to get Megailia back on track.


    The message had spoken of a land rich in pearls, and strange wood that could float in the air. The pearls could have been used to restock the Megailian treasury and save the empire from its economic crisis. The floating wood could have been used to restore some of the power of the military, and perhaps even create a new branch of weapons. The Lacanarians would never expect boats to fly during the next war, and seizing control of a large supply of floatwood would have been enough to ensure Megailia¡¯s future military dominance once Megalia recovered. The pearls could have made up for the catastrophic losses in the war and restore the Megailian treasury. It may not have perfectly fixed the damages to Megailia after losing the war against the Lacanarians, but it would have helped fill in the gaps and added something to the Megailian treasury, at least.


    Unfortunately, the invasion of the islands had also failed. Even with four thirteen-rune commanders leading the way, the soldiers and commanders spoke of a great sea monster that had torn two of the eight invading ships to shreds, and vicious attacks from the islanders followed in the wake of the beast. The ambush and the timing clearly weren¡¯t coincidental. Somehow, the damned island primitives had managed to tame the creature, or at least coordinate their attacks with it.


    The great sea monster¡¯s attack had already crushed the morale of most of the invading troops, and the massive attack from the islanders had sank three more ships, killed two thirteen rune commanders, and destroyed most of the food supplies for the invading troops. What remained of the invasion fleet had fled home afterwards, to beg for forgiveness for their failure.


    The Megailian emperor felt a growing headache as he realized that he had underestimated those misbegotten whelps of the islands. After losing more than half of the invasion fleet he scraped together from his decimated military, his empire was struggling to maintain its military and economy at all. A supposedly easy conquest had turned into another ruinous failure, right on the heels of the previous failure. He had lost several hundred troops on this expedition, and the empire could barely scrape together garrisons for its held cities now.


    He sighed, rubbing his temples as he felt his frustration rise further. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn''t think of a way to deal with the damn sea monster, even if he personally led his troops in another expedition against the islanders. Which meant the islands were also impossible to attack.


    There just didn¡¯t seem to be a way out of this mess.


    * * *


    The next decade was a time of tumult on the mainland. The Megailian empire, reeling from two consecutive military catastrophes, ultimately entered a state of decline. Its economy was nearly ruined from the failed war against the Lacanarians, and the failed invasion of the Al¡¯thala islands only a few years after the end of the Lacanarian-Megailian war sent the empire¡¯s military and economy even further into decline. The attempts of the Megailiain empire to reverse the decline of the empire, especially the countermeasures taken by the emperor himself, proved ineffective. Combined with the increasing aggressiveness of the empires of Megailia, as they realized the weakness of the remaining military of Megailia, the Megailian empire sank into a slow but irreversible decline as their weaker neighbors tore into the weakened city-state.


    Historians would alter claim that one of the reasons for Megailia¡¯s decline was due to its overemphasis on individual combat ability. Its insistence on placing those with higher rune counts in positions of command, ended up creating major distortions in its military command structure. Even though the seventh through ninth runes increase a commander¡¯s intelligence, and the tenth through twelfth runes boost the abilities of the previous nine runes, the thirteen through fifteenth runes had no impact whatsoever on one¡¯s ability to command troops. Since many of the Megailian commanders had thirteen or fourteen runes, this often meant that the most powerful individual fighters of Megailia were stuck in a command tent while potentially more competent commanders were barred from holding higher positions, due to their lacking Absorption Essence.


    The incompetence of the emperor exacerbated this issue. While he did not live to see the collapse of the empire he had ruled over, as that came decades later, the empire continuously grew weaker and weaker as a result of his paranoia, poor decisions, and cruelty towards his own citizens.


    The islands also faced a massive reduction in their combat ability following the battle of the ocean. Many of the young men and women who went on to fight the outsiders were the best and strongest of the islands, and many of them did not return after the fight.


    However, the Megailian empire did not return. Miria¡¯s innovations spread, as more and more islanders began to use Storm Orbs as a means of increasing their power to face a potential third invasion, but for reasons unknown to the islanders, the Megailians simply never showed up again.


    Many of the villages on the island shrank after the battle of the ocean, due to land beast attacks and the weakened hunter forces of each village, but the use of Storm Orbs gave the islands their own unique form of power as they slowly recovered. Even if the use of Storm Orbs was very limited, since hunters needed to be incredibly mentally resilient to absorb one, and the use of Black Pearls never caught on because people couldn¡¯t return to the deeps without a rune ability set like Miria¡¯s, her actions left a lasting impact on her former homeland.


    As for Sallia and Felix, their names quickly faded into obscurity, and even Miria was only really remembered for pioneering the use of Storm Orbs after a few generations passed. As generations passed, she became a popular folklore figure, known as ¡®Miria the pioneer,¡¯ for her willingness to take risks others weren¡¯t willing to in order to protect her homeland, and for pioneering the path to using a new resource. It was a small step forward for the islanders, and one that someone else might have stumbled onto eventually, with or without Miria.


    But while small, her impact extended far beyond her death.

 Volume 1 - unused scenes and changes from the first draft (not a chapter)

    This is just a ¡®deleted scenes and ideas¡¯ section from my original draft of the first world, versus how it ended up shaking out. Feel free to skip if you¡¯re not interested.


    The biggest reason the real version of the story diverges from this plotline is because of stat rolls. I generally write my original plotline assuming that everyone rolls about average - in this world, that would have implied everyone had about Grade 5 in Stats.


    Regarding the first plotline, and the land section and landbeasts of the islands:


    There is a certain kind of ¡®glowing tree¡¯ which is only accessible by moving further in to the forests. It can be absorbed once, and only once¡­ and it permanently increases absorption essence by UP TO one grade (usually it gives +12 to +13 if a normal person with average absorption grade uses it). This would have helped Fuel the monster Sallia was always meant to be, since she could have maximized this and went straight to Grade 6 if she started with an average Grade 5 stat roll. I originally figured that with Sallia¡¯s abnormal weapons talent, high speed rune formation, and close combat abilities she should have been exploring the Forests with the older hunters long before she actually reached seven runes, meaning she should have stumbled across this sap around the time she turned 12 or so? Maybe 10 or 11? I didn¡¯t flesh out exactly when it would happen, but I figure it should have been before the second outsider incursion, and possibly before the glowing fish - though the timing would have been a little dodgy on that one.


    This, naturally, could have given sallia the leg up she might have needed to help wreck the Glowing Fish, which I originally planned to give her a pretty good keyword ability. Since she didn¡¯t get it here, she ended up getting a weaker version in the final chapters of MaM volume 1. RIP Sallia.


    With her Achievements in the hunt of the glowing fish, and Miria¡¯s insistence on exploring the ocean, Miria and Sallia would have become two pretty well-known up and coming members of the island. Miria¡¯s reputation would have been a bit lower in this timeline, because Sallia would take the spotlight, but once Miria started her ocean exploration, Miria would have probably taken Sallia along too. My plans for Sallia¡¯s abilities are¡­ interesting, and I might still use some of the ideas for her rune abilities from my first draft of this world, so I won¡¯t say anything about them. But I expect her rune abilities would have let her somewhat keep up underwater.


    Once Miria and Sallia realized the islands were floating, they would have had the opportunity to make ANOTHER interesting discovery about the islands.


    The islands are, in fact, hollow. Right underneath the surface of the island, there is a giant cavity of air. Then, supporting to ¡®top¡¯ of the island is a giant tree. This tree is infested with giant ants, most of which are a lot more terrifying than the regular landbeasts¡­ but they also have some pretty unique resources down there. Specifically, mana-sap, which sort of¡­ accidentally keeps the island stable. I don¡¯t think Sallia and Miria would have been able to take full control of the tree unless Sallia rolled Grade 6 stats, but she probably could have taken some mana sap. This can be combined with Black Pearls to moderate its effects some, making it consume less willpower, and removing some of its benefits. It grants people troll-like regeneration if consumed with magic tree sap.


    If they seized full control of the tree, they would instead help the village move into the middle layer of the island, thus gaining the ability to make the island fly whenever the villagers throw enough mana at it.


    At its heart, the island is a real fantasy floating island. It just never got to achieve its final form. XD


    I figured flying the island over the outsiders would have been a pretty hilarious and satisfying way to kill them, and would cost far fewer casualties.


    From there, I figured the islands would enter a period of relative calm. Miria would have lost her left arm still during the second ocean exploration, but Sallia would have founded a swordsmanship school where she taught the young¡¯uns to be as good at fighting as her. Miria probably would have helped out - even with one arm, she could be a teaching assistant or something. One of Sallia¡¯s focuses is one-handed swordsmanship, after all.


    My plans were kind of vague, since I developed most of those ideas right after rolling up this planet, but that was my rough guess for what the conclusion could have looked like with normal or god-tier rolls for Sallia.


    And then Sallia¡¯s rolls ended up being in like, grade 3-4 for all of the important categories. And those plans went RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW. I do think this made her growth as a character far more interesting, and it might have been for the best that Sallia got so heavily nerfed by RNG here. But for those wondering what the original plotline was going to look like, that¡¯s a very rough summary of what I had planned. Obviously, some of those plans probably would have changed as I wrote the story. Some details, like how exactly Miria and co. discovered the hollow island, would have been expanded on, and I might have changed a few details of some magic resources (two saps seems like a bit much. Maybe a fruit would have been better for one of them?) But you get the idea.


    A few other modifications to the story itself that I find kind of interesting. These were in the first draft, but for various reasons got cut.


    Originally, floatwood had an intricate series of ¡®runes¡¯ added by people like Arne to help keep them aloft. This was eventually cut because during the first draft of the story, The four essences did not exist. Instead, everything was Qi and mana.


    I eventually cut Qi and replaced it with absorption essence, because ¡®xianxia¡¯ type stories have a lot of tropes associated with them that I have zero intention of adding to this story, and I didn¡¯t want people to either be put off by the idea of a xianxia story, or come to the story expecting a xianxia story. After all, apart from the name ¡®spiritual qi¡¯ I wasn¡¯t really pulling anything from the genre. When I started the second draft, I dropped that system and replaced it with the four essences, because I wanted to give the magic system a huge overhaul. I think I saw someone reference the ¡®cultivator roots¡¯ of spellcasters on the islands, and I started sweating because I thought I forgot to remove a reference to spiritual qi from the volume one magic System. XD


    Since ¡®absorption essence¡¯ is the closest replacement for spiritual energy in the current magic system of the multiverse and the islands, and this world didn¡¯t roll into any of the new two essences, everything was converted to runes and absorption essence. There are still a lot of similarities though.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    In the second draft, rather than directly interacting with mana, essences manipulated law energy, which then manipulated mana. This was distinctly different from dimensional laws, and name-wise it just ended up being confusing. I ended up not liking this. It felt overly complicated and clunky. So the four essences just directly interact with mana now. Absorption essence absorbs mana, strengthening the body, and the other three¡­ well, we¡¯ll get there in some other world.


    Personally, I feel that the magic system overhaul benefitted the story. The four essences create a much more interesting system of settings, magic systems, and worldbuilding throughout the multiverse, especially in some future worlds we haven¡¯t explored yet. It also gives me much more potential diversity and setup for each world, which I really like. Dividing magic into the four essences also forced me to rework a lot of the foundation of the magic system, and created a lot of fun ideas for worlds and settings I can use in various worlds as the main character and her friends start to get more acquainted with the multiverse. It was a big inspiration for refining the first five or six worlds.


    In the original version of the story, the Market was totally different. The story was originally set during the ¡®golden¡¯ age of the Market, and I was planning on having the main characters live through the downfall of the Market. But when I was planning the main characters return to the Market after the end of the islands world, I felt that something was¡­ lacking. The Market was too boring. It was hard to stage any meaningful conflict in the Market, and conflict is the ultimate driver of any story. The overarching plot felt like it wouldn¡¯t kick in for several worlds, and the leadup to that just didn¡¯t feel right to me when I wrote it. I started to wonder if it would feel like a sudden and abrupt tone shift when the ¡®main story¡¯ started to kick in, and I also wondered whether the Market was too dull when I couldn¡¯t find ways to make it an interesting set piece, despite the fact that the entire story started off with my wanted to write a story about a weird half-eldritch Market where the souls of the dead traded in basically everything one could imagine. The Market itself was my original inspiration for this story, after all. I didn¡¯t want it to take up the entire story, but I didn¡¯t want it to be dull, either.


    This led to the second draft of the story, where I scrapped the ¡®golden era¡¯ of the Market, all of the characters that existed in the Market for that draft besides Felix and Sallia, and redesigned the overarching plot. Now, the story takes place ¡®after the fall¡¯ of the Market. Personally, I think it makes the overarching plot feel better and more interesting, rather than there just being nothing before it suddenly kicks in after some number of worlds. Idk, I think the story could have still worked in its original form, but it would have been weaker in my opinion. Having the main characters have a problem they¡¯re consistently working towards interacting with and solving feels better from a reader perspective, or at least that has been my opinion when I read stories. Instead of just ¡®become stronger and wait for the plot to happen¡¯ I think ¡®everything is trying to kill you, get stronger to avoid getting spawncamped by an army of skeletons, giants, and liches¡¯ feels more interesting and fun. It also lets me showcase way more weird and broken advertisements for the Market, since Miria and co. are no longer led around by the original planning and Marketing systems of the market, which was designed to guide them around based on their interests. I find it much easier and more fun to write Market scenes in this draft of the story, at least.


    Originally, there were two chapters devoted to the onset of diseases brought about by the outsiders. However, given how easily the village resolved it and how little impact it had on the rest of the story, it ended up getting cut from the second draft. Everyone¡¯s Fortitude is just too high with the rune magic system for diseases to matter. XD


    Originally, there was a fourth transmigrator in the first arc of the story. But his personality overlapped a bit too much with Felix¡¯s. I originally put him on one of the other islands and introduced him around the hunt of the giant glowing fish, because I wanted to make a point about how distant transmigrators could be while still being ¡®geographically close¡¯ by the standards of the bracelet. But I eventually ended up cutting him. The fact he wasn¡¯t introduced for, like, the first half of the first major arc seriously hindered his ability to integrate into the rest of the group, which put him in a really awkward position from a narrative and storytelling perspective. Not to say that new permanent characters won¡¯t be introduced later - I just felt that this character didn¡¯t add enough to the story to be worth keeping around, especially since there are so many loose ends and pieces of information I already wanted to juggle and straighten out in the second draft of the first volume. He may show up later on in the story in a slightly revised form, though, so I won¡¯t say much else about who he is or what his hobbies are. After all, we may still meet him someday¡­


    There was also originally a chapter where Miria learns to swim, which I cut because I felt like the first volume was already a bit too long, and Miria originally got a brother around the time of the Glowing Fish attack. He got cut because I felt the story was already starting to get a little cluttered chapter wise, and he did absolutely nothing in the story. Also, Miria kind of died a little too soon after his birth. So he kind of existed only as a footnote. Shockingly, two year olds don¡¯t do much, and four year olds aren¡¯t much better. So he just¡­ kind of technically existed and got mentioned every now and then. Since his character served so little purpose (and because I kept forgetting his name) he got cut. Should¡¯ve had a better name, Laust! I blame you for this! Who named you? Why did you have such a hard to remember name? Me? No, I take no responsibility for this. It¡¯s your fault!


    Apart from that, there were originally 15 Stats instead of the current 10. There were 3 social stats, and there were 3 stats related to Cultivation and 3 stats related to manipulating Mana. I cut the Social Stats because they had too big of an influence on a character¡¯s personality, and I HATED writing that. If a random roll changes who Miria is as a person from world to world, I feel obligated to ¡®fudge¡¯ that roll, because I want to write a story about MIRIA, not whoever Miria becomes when her ¡®empathy¡¯ stat drops 40 points for no reason. I like it when RNG dictates a bit of how strong each character is, because it results in interesting situations I didn¡¯t foresee, like Sallia getting super-nerfed on the world I thought she would stomp everything on. But I hate Stats actually changing who someone is. So in draft 1 I fudged all the rolls for Social Stats!


    Then I realized that if I felt obligated to ¡®fudge¡¯ the rolls for a Stat I was randomly rolling, and if the Stat changed the personality of a character, I just didn¡¯t like the Stat existing at all. So Social Stats got cut, and the Spiritual Qi and Mana stats became Binding, Manifestation, Alteration, and Absorption Essence stats. Much cleaner this way in my opinion, and less annoying to deal with. And no more Stats that fundamentally change who a character is. Sallia with Grade 3 Willpower may have ¡®Ooh-Shiny¡¯ Syndrome turned up to the max, but she¡¯s still Sallia at her core. Miria with 70 Empathy vs. 120 is just a completely different person, and one I didn¡¯t enjoy writing.


    In the first draft, the outsiders were a few more generations removed from the islanders. So nobody knew wtf the other side was saying. I had some fun chapters written where Miria and her village chief play charades with the outsiders and people try to figure out wtf the other sid was talking about. I ended up cutting it because I felt like I was creating problems JUST for Miria to solve them, since she ends up learning part of the outsider language. but I realized she only had Grade 4 intelligence, and really, she shouldn¡¯t be doing much of any language learning with her garbage intelligence. Then the whole scene kind of fell apart, so it got cut, because the scene was much less entertaining when the village chief was the one playing charades with the outsiders in third person. I figured I might as well just get on with the story.


    I¡¯m still very fond of the idea of Miria playing charades with a group of people she can¡¯t communicate with. Maybe that will make its way back into the second volume. I have dreams.


    Finally, in draft 1 Transmigrators didn¡¯t receive notifications for when they unlocked new Abilities or earned Achievement. They would feel themselves earning Achievement, but would only get to see that at the end of a world, and would only get to see what abilities they unlocked then. I pretty quickly realized I wanted more Stat notifications. I like LitRPG¡¯s, and I like seeing System notifications sometimes. I don¡¯t want them to overwhelm the rest of the story, but a little bit of number in my story makes me happy, both as a reader and a writer. So the System is more aggressive with notifications in draft 2 and 3. Then, I started thinking that if the System was already adding notifications, the Market would DEFINITELY slip in some ads. You guys also know what the Market is like by now. And, well¡­ that¡¯s now how the System works. XD


    Anyway, that¡¯s all I have to say about the deleted parts and scenes of the story, and what-if scenarios. I hope those of you interested in the story had fun reading through my somewhat random list of changes from the first major draft to the third, final draft.

 Chapter 59: Return to the Market

    I floated in a sea of darkness, dragged through the endless void by a golden lasso of energy. Just like the first time I had died, I hurtled through dimension after dimension, feeling the shape of reality waver and remold itself over and over again with each dimension I passed through.


    However, unlike the first time I had died, I wasn¡¯t alone. Alongside me, two silver-colored blobs flew towards the Market with me. Sallia, Felix and I were returning to the Market as a group.


    Time passed. I couldn¡¯t figure out which blob was Sallia and which blob was Felix, since they had no distinct features in this form, and I didn¡¯t have any control over myself since I had no muscles. I couldn¡¯t help but think that this was quite frustrating. None of us could communicate with each other, or even move around, so we were stuck watching the scenery as time passed by.


    After an unknown period of time spent flying through the void, I saw the Market again. I breathed a sigh of relief at the thought that we could finally talk again soon. Spending what felt like forever staring into the endless void was starting to wear at my nerves. Soon, we arrived above a familiar city. Just like the first time we had arrived, the city was a giant pile of rubble, ruined buildings, and collapsed architecture.


    I wondered how long these ruins had stood here before we had arrived at the Market, before I saw a brief flash of golden light cover the other two silver blobs. Moments later, the blob on the left turned into Sallia, and the blob on the right turned into Felix. With a start, I realized that I also had a physical body again.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome newly Deceased!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have been detected to be (dead), and your soul was no longer housed inside of a physical vessel. You have been returned to the Market, and one life has been deducted to grant you a (basic) physical vessel.


    Four lives remain.


    Warning: Upon returning to the Market from another dimension, some of the ¡®dimensional laws¡¯ of your former world will remain attached to your soul. If you attempt to reincarnate before these dimensional laws are purified, you may experience severe injuries or death immediately after being born. The Market will automatically fix this problem, so long as you remain for at least 30 days. You may also pay a fee at a decontamination center to speed this process up. Or, if you have a Heroic Grade or above Ability, this time may be reduced, or removed entirely! Please consult an expert at a decontamination center for more details.


    Warning: Basic Physical vessels will begin to deteriorate within a few months. If you want a more permanent vessel, please buy or rent one. Otherwise, please enter a pool or river of reincarnation before deterioration occurs.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Shockingly, an advertisement didn¡¯t follow the previous message. I felt vaguely uncomfortable with this. Why wasn¡¯t the Market trying to sell me random garbage? That just felt wrong.


    I spent a few moments just wobbling around, before I finally readjusted myself to my new body. Being able to move again was strange after the huge amount of time spent drifting through the void. However, after a little bit of readjustment, I was able to walk again.


    I took a look at my body, feeling myself move, and realized that my body felt¡­ familiar.


    My hair was blonde now. I didn¡¯t remember what color my hair had been when I first came to the Market, but I was pretty sure I hadn¡¯t originally been blonde. My body was larger and taller than it had been when I was Miria, but the way my body moved, looked, and felt¡­


    It was as if I was still Miria. I couldn¡¯t see my own face, but when I touched my face it felt exactly the same as when I had been Miria. Just older.


    Mentally, even when I had been living in the Islands, I had never really considered myself to be a child. After all, I had lived over twenty years in my first life, and while my body did influence my mind some, I had always still thought of myself as being an adult pretending to be a child.


    The physical body the Market had given me reflected that. I was unmistakably somewhere in my early twenties again. However, almost every single aspect of my body looked like it had when I was Miria, just aged five or six years. The one and only thing I had carried over from my first life was my mental age.


    I took a moment to look at my Status Screen, now that we had returned to the market.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Basic Physical Body (Default Market Model ¨C Mass Produced Model 6,257-I), Mana Brain (Default Market Model ¨C Mass Produced Model 62-B)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Basic Physical body: + 5 grades (100 points) to all stats while you are inhabiting this physical vessel. Body will begin to deteriorate in a few months. Body has some leaks and cannot perfectly house a Transmigrator¡¯s soul. It is advised you find a replacement or reincarnate before problems occur.


    Mana Brain: Allows you to think. As this is comprised entirely of mana, it is possible to house this mana-brain inside of a soul, rather than being reliant upon a physical body to function.


    Warning: It is strongly advised that you keep your brain safe, and always have at least one brain or brain-equivalent functioning at all times. If your brain is damaged or destroyed, possible ramifications include losing the ability to think until a new brain is acquired and linked to your soul. Please keep this in mind at all times.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 2 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 0 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    0/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 0


    Abilities:


    Birth related Abilities: Gender Control


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 15,504.05


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 1/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1. Friendship Bracelet


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    3.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    4.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    5.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have abilities available for purchase! Please click this notification to examine them! They will expire in 71 hours and 30 minutes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I ignored the ability purchase list for now - I would look at them later.


    I turned to look at Sallia and Felix, curious to discuss this phenomenon with them, only to suppress a scream.


    Sallia¡¯s eyes were pure purple, with no whites or pupils. They looked like someone had jammed chunks of amethyst into her skull. I had grown so used to seeing her eyes look like mine that I had forgotten what her first body had looked like. Now, her face looked like a mixture of her first body and her body when she had lived as Aria on the islands. After a few deep breaths (which my Market-issued body had zero use for), I calmed down. Sallia still looked a lot like she had on the islands, and she was even quite attractive. However, she looked different from Sallia, the friend I had spent over a decade with on the islands, and the strange blend of familiar and unfamiliar facial features caught me off guard. But I knew that Sallia was still the same person, it was just that she looked different now. If anything, her now-red hair granted her a certain fiery look that hadn¡¯t been there when her hair was blonde, which matched her personality oddly well.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Felix¡¯s change was similar to Sallia¡¯s. I vaguely remembered that, when Sallia and I had met him in the Market, he had originally been incredibly bulky. He had resembled a humanoid bear, and had possessed a body that would make bodybuilders jealous. During our time together on the islands, his frame had been much smaller, since most of his strength had come from his runes instead of his body.


    After fifteen years, I had started to forget what he had originally looked like.


    His slim frame from our time in the islands remained the same, but his hair was black again. His eyes, however, remained blue, exactly the same color as the islanders. He was also reasonably attractive; his current body blended together all of the best features from his time on the islands and his first life. Since I had already gotten used to Sallia¡¯s sudden physical changes, Felix¡¯s body morphing caught me much less off-guard.


    My friends finished examining their own bodies at the same time I finished figuring out what was different about mine.


    Sallia chuckled. ¡°I have to say, Miria, you look exactly the same. Felix and I ended up with bodies that mix our first and second lives together, but if you walked back onto the islands right this second, I bet everyone in the village would recognize you.¡±


    Felix nodded, but he looked a fair bit more thoughtful than Sallia. ¡°I wonder what exactly determines the way our body looks when we return to the Market.¡±


    I frowned as well. ¡°I think it¡¯s based on our mental image of ourself. It takes our idea of what we should look like, and then grabs the closest mass-produced model available in the Market and sticks us inside of it? That¡¯s what makes the most sense to me, anyway.¡± Sallia simply nodded.


    ¡°That explains why my body doesn¡¯t move quite right, but it¡¯s still pretty close. But that¡¯s not important right now. The bigger question is¡­¡± Sallia frowned. ¡°What now? We¡¯ve returned to the Market, earlier than expected. What¡¯s on our to do list before our next life? We apparently need to wait 30 days before our next reincarnation, so we have some time.¡±


    ¡°First thing¡¯s first - did you get a Keyword ability to take the rune magic system with you?¡± I asked, turning to Sallia. This was one of my biggest concerns, since I desperately wanted Sallia to take a Keyword Ability with her. It would be far too much of a waste if she had found her essence that she was ¡®extremely talented¡¯ in and then failed to bring the magic System with her.


    She suddenly started grinning madly. ¡°I did! I got a really good one for throwing the black pearl at the outsiders during the final battle. It has 3 keywords, and one of them is absorption. I can bring the rune system to the next world, and I can create Absorption essence by practicing my swordsmanship. Thank you so much!¡± She leapt towards me and hugged me, and I felt a mad smile tug at my lips as well. Despite how insane some of our actions had been near the end of our time in the islands, they had paid off. Sallia had gotten a keyword ability that fit her.


    Though, I did wonder why Sallia¡¯s keyword ability fit her so incredibly well, despite the fact that she had thrown a black pearl to get the Ability. All of the Abilities I had gotten so far had been mostly based on what actions I took to generate the Ability. However, Sallia¡¯s Ability perfectly matched her interests and passions. I frowned.


    I had been wondering for a while why the Market made such a big fuss about people with extreme talents for one essence. Sallia was better than Felix and I at controlling Absorption essence, but it didn¡¯t seem like a huge deal. However, after hearing about Sallia¡¯s Keyword ability, I had a different guess. Perhaps it made it keyword abilities related to a certain essence fit the user better? It might even make it easier to upgrade, as well. I wasn¡¯t sure how hard upgrading an Ability was, but I was willing to bet it got harder the higher Grade the ability in question was. If people naturally had an easy time upgrading their Ability, so long as it was related to their talent, it would make much more sense for the Market to care about people with extreme Essence talents. I decided to keep this guess in mind, and mention it to Sallia and Felix later.


    Felix frowned thoughtfully. ¡°I think we should talk before we do anything. I have a few things I want to say, about our future, and I think we should do a bit of planning. First thing¡¯s first; how much Achievement do all of you have? I¡¯m sitting on around 7,000 right now. I have a bit less, but it¡¯s close enough.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m at a little over 15,000¡± I said.


    ¡°I have almost exactly 5,000¡± said Sallia, frowning. ¡°Why do you have so much more?¡±


    Felix shook his head. ¡°All right, that confirms one of the things I¡¯ve been thinking about. During the time we were drifting over the ocean of souls, I had a few ideas I wanted to share about how we should handle ability purchases and future lives. Miria¡¯s Achievement total just confirms some of my thoughts. Let¡¯s take over one of these houses first. There shouldn¡¯t be anything too dangerous inside of them, hopefully.¡±


    I nodded, and scanned the street we had appeared near. Sallia quickly spotted a small house with no windows, which would prevent any undead in the area from spotting us as long as we closed the door.


    The three of us quickly headed towards a middle-ages peasant hut, before popping open the door and preparing to run if something dangerous was inside. Right now, we had no possessions besides our friendship bracelets and the clothes on our back. Fighting a sword-wielding skeleton with my bare hands seemed like a bad idea.


    Luckily, nothing was inside. Despite the middle-ages peasant exterior, the inside of the house was neatly decorated with modern-age tv and computer monitors (all of which were broken), modern-era appliances (none of which had electricity, and probably hadn¡¯t for centuries), and an kitchen with cooking instruments and stoves I had never seen before and had no clue how to operate. There were only four rooms in the house, but all of them were far larger than the exterior of the house had led me to believe was possible, and were probably the result of some sort of spatial magic. For a brief moment, I missed my former eyes. The ability to see weaknesses and cracks in space would have probably made the Market even more interesting to observe, but sadly, my Spatial manipulation abilities were lost when I died.


    After the three of us searched the house and found nothing interesting besides a pile of corpses, we took over the dining room and sat down.


    ¡°All right, I wanted to do was go over what happened in the last world. What worked, what didn¡¯t work, and most importantly, how we should plan for the future,¡± said Felix. ¡°First of all, why did Miria end up with so much Achievement at the end of the first world?¡±


    He looked at me, and I frowned. ¡°Well, a lot of it was influencing the course of history on the islands, right? I mean, the assists from the outsiders we killed during the final battle got us around 2,000 Achievement, give or take a bit, but I also got almost 4,000 for influencing the final battle itself. And around a thousand for planning and pulling off the great pearl heist. And I also got a LOT from the glowing fish fight, and the storm orbs¡­¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°Exactly. As I¡¯m sure both of you remember, my Stats were the best out of ours at the start of the world. In most of the categories that ended up mattering, I surpassed Miria because I was luckier. Despite that fact, I ended up in second place as far as Achievement goes. Why is the case?¡±


    Sallia frowned, looking at Felix and then looking at me again. Now that she had lost a grade of Intelligence, she seemed to be having a hard time keeping up with high level thinking. I also frowned. I suddenly had an easier time thinking, now that my intelligence had increased from Grade 4 to Grade 5 after returning to the Market, but I had grown very used to feeling drunk all the time. Thinking was still surprisingly difficult, and I would need a few days to readjust. I had no idea where Felix was going with this.


    ¡°The answer, as far as I can tell, is that Miria started out with a GOAL while we were in the islands. An incredibly dangerous, insane goal that she spent a decade turning into a reality. And in the process of achieving that goal, she made a lot of other things change on the islands, which gave her a bunch of Influence Achievement. Some of this was luck, since the Glowing Fish being too stupid to ignore illusions was just a coincidence. However, a lot of this Achievement was inevitable, as long as Miria didn¡¯t die.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡± Asked Sallia.


    ¡°Well, take, for example, the storm orbs. The moment Miria decided she was going to explore the oceans, it was highly likely that she would stumble across some sort of weird magic resource there. With how bizarre and dangerous the ocean was, it was practically inevitable that something weird and dangerous was in the ocean, right? While she had a high chance of killing herself in the process, it was inevitable that she would either die or get a huge lump sum of Achievement from exploring the ocean and learning about it. Does that make sense?¡± Said Felix. Sallia and I both nodded.


    ¡°Then, when it came to the battle with the Outsiders, Miria¡¯s actions basically single-handedly gave EACH of us 2,000 Achievement. All because she explored an incredibly dangerous area and lived to tell the tale, bringing back precious information and resources.¡±


    ¡°So, what you¡¯re saying is that we should¡­ do really dangerous stunts every life, in hopes of being like Miria?¡± Asked Sallia.


    ¡°What I¡¯m saying is that we shouldn¡¯t be held back so much by societal expectations. Sallia, you didn¡¯t end up pursuing the life you wanted to, right? You would have much preferred to be one of the hunters. While it might have been inevitable that the village didn¡¯t think much of your fighting abilities, given your terrible Stats last life, there MIGHT have still been a way you could turn your dream into reality if we looked far enough. Meanwhile, I spent my entire life wishing I had become a craftsman, but since I was ¡®more suited¡¯ to being a hunter, I spent my life training to fight. I thought I was doing the right thing, and being intelligent about my future, since we would eventually return to the Market, and this is the easiest place to die several times in a row and become permanently dead. But at the end of the day, both of us ended up with far less Achievement than we could have, and ended up far less happy with our lives than Miria.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± I said. I was starting to see where Felix was going with this.


    ¡°I think that Miria¡¯s idea was the correct one. Rather than listening to what people tell us to do, and living unsatisfying and ordinary lives in future worlds, it¡¯s more important to set goals for ourselves. Even if those goals are insane, dangerous, and likely to get us killed. Because we¡¯re transmigrators; even if we die, we¡¯ll just reincarnate again. Since that¡¯s the case, doesn¡¯t it make sense to get as much as we can out of each life? We don¡¯t need to fear death the same way other people do. We should take full advantage of that fact.¡±


    Sallia nodded thoughtfully. ¡°Actually, you make a really good point. We don¡¯t need to be worried about the permanent consequences of death, as long as we have more lives. The question is how much Achievement we can farm per life. How much could we have even earned, if we didn¡¯t take part in Miria¡¯s plan? I had already exhausted most of the easy sources of Achievement I had access to on the Islands. Unless it was Influence Achievement, I probably could have only gotten another one or two thousand during the course of my entire lifetime from crafting, passing my second adulthood ceremony, and a few other miscellaneous sources of Achievement. Maybe I could have gotten more if I got to [Advanced] Swordsmanship, but it wouldn¡¯t have made a huge difference. Meanwhile, taking part in Miria¡¯s insane plan got me about three thousand Achievement and a keyword ability in a day. Even if it was the fruit of several years of planning on Miria¡¯s part, it matched my assumptions for how much I would have earned over the rest of my life.¡±


    I felt a strange thought start to bubble up. ¡°Does that mean we¡¯re never living to adulthood? I¡¯m going to be one hundred percent honest and say that the idea of exploring the ocean WAS a huge bonus to Achievement, but it¡¯s also what got us killed at the end. And¡­ that was kind of the expected outcome, honestly. Before me, nobody returned from the Ocean. And ocean exploration was close to suicidal, even after all of my preparation. If we go and explore the most dangerous areas of every world in the future, we¡¯re going to die young way more often than we live to old age.¡±


    Felix shrugged. ¡°Who cares if we never live to adulthood? Who cares if we never reach old age? We need strength to protect the people we care about in each life, and when we die we¡¯ll just reincarnate anyway. A short and interesting life is much better than a long life spent regretting not having the courage to live out our dreams, right?¡±


    I felt a strange smile start to form on my lips as I nodded. ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right. If I hadn¡¯t explored the ocean, I always would have wondered what lay beneath the surface. Even though I didn¡¯t get to see everything I was curious about, I at least got to see a lot of things I would have never seen if I didn¡¯t have the courage to step forward.¡±


    The three of us grinned at each other as I realized something.


    From now on, I wasn¡¯t going to be the only one pursuing my dreams in each world.

 Chapter 60: Abilities and Alcohol

    After the three of us finished talking about future life policies, I looked around the medieval peasant¡¯s hut we had taken over, before I looked back at my friends.


    ¡°Even if we¡¯re going to live future lives by taking huge risks, we still need to make plans.¡± I said. ¡°I think that starts with Abilities and ability planning. Just so that I know what you guys are planning to do, Felix, have you gained an Ability to use the rune System?¡±


    Felix shrugged, and then chuckled. ¡°Sadly, no. A bit ridiculous that I didn¡¯t end up with one, despite having the best Stats of the three of us, right? It¡¯s another part of what inspired me to talk about our lifestyles before this. I feel it¡¯s a bit embarrassing that I failed to capitalize on my advantages so much that even with the best Stats in the group, I ended up as the only one without a keyword ability. Though, to be honest, I¡¯m not sure if I would have ended up grabbing a keyword ability for the rune magic System, even if I had the option to. It¡¯s a little bit different from what I want, if I¡¯m being honest.¡±


    I nodded. Felix loved making tools most of all, and the rune magic system just wasn¡¯t built for tool creation. If Felix spent his future lives building tools whenever he could, he might never use the rune magic system again. Felix saving his Achievement and keyword slots for more tool-related Abilities made sense.


    ¡°Any plans on what to spend your Achievement on, then?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m debating whether I want to get one of the weapon abilities, or just buy Stats and wait for something I care about more to come around. I¡¯m leaning towards Stats.¡±


    I paused for a moment, wondering if that would be a problem, before I shrugged. Felix had learned enough about how to fight that he shouldn¡¯t be dead weight in the Market, and that was good enough. I didn¡¯t want to force my friend to buy Abilities he didn¡¯t want just to make the Market a little safer, especially since Sallia and I would both get major upgrades soon.


    ¡°Fair enough. If you want to buy Stats, Sallia and I can help us survive in the Market. Don¡¯t worry too much about it.¡± I turned towards Sallia.  ¡°I imagine you¡¯re taking the Rune System Ability?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely. There¡¯s no way I would give up a magic system and Keyword Ability so perfectly tailored to me,¡± said Sallia. ¡°It has the Sword, Absorption, and Training Keywords. They perfectly match what I want to do. How about you? You have an Ability you can buy that¡¯s related to the rune magic system, right?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I have two now, actually. I got one for organizing the great pearl heist. I haven¡¯t made up my mind about whether I¡¯m buying one of them, or neither of them. I¡¯m also somewhat debating buying a weapon ability, but I think I might either get Beginner Swordsmanship or just pass completely.¡± I stopped for a moment.


    ¡°You already talked about the Illusion/Water/Absorption Ability you got, and the Illusion Ability it could synergize with. What does your new option do?¡±


    I quickly described my second Keyword Ability to Sallia and Felix, both of whom looked thoughtful after learning the details.


    I paused. ¡°I haven¡¯t decided which one I want yet, if I want either of them. I¡¯m more drawn to the second Ability, overall. I do kind of like the idea of taking the rune magic system with me; I can tailor a few specific Abilities to whatever I want to accomplish in a certain life, and I think the ocean/madness Ability fits combat a little better than my other Keyword Ability. I don¡¯t hate the idea of using illusions to fight, but I prefer having a little more oomph during combat, you know? But I¡¯m still debating if I want the rune magic system at all.¡±


    Felix paused. ¡°Well, as far as I can tell, it seems like taking a magic system along costs 2 or 3 keywords, right? That seems to be about the average requirement to take an ability along?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Out of the three Abilities that carry Magic Systems with them, All three cost 2-3 Keyword Slots.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I think taking along the rune magic system makes sense for you, if you like it. In our first world, all three of us were pretty¡­ average, honestly. We weren¡¯t particularly outstanding in any respect, and you barely managed to squeak out an exceptional life by taking insane risks every step of the way. Even though it worked out, if you were stronger it would have been much easier for you to succeed. If we come across a world where your extreme affinity is present and you¡¯re too weak to get a keyword ability for it, it would be a huge waste. The rune magic system has a lot of combat potential, and while you aren¡¯t a fighter like Sallia, you don¡¯t seem to mind fighting either. And given your proclivity for exploring horrifying environments filled with monsters that want to eat you, you¡¯re probably going to be fighting a lot in the future.¡± Felix cracked a grin at me, and I chuckled. He wasn¡¯t wrong.


    ¡°You would still have 8 keyword slots after buying the second ability, and so you could buy your ¡®main¡¯ magic System and still have 5 slots left over for other synergistic abilities. And your rune magic ability could also synergize really well with whatever ability you pick up in the future as your main combat style, too. Boosting your physical and mental stats is never a bad thing, and while I have no idea what other magic systems might look like, if you focus your rune magic system around supporting your main combat system in the future, it should work out, right? The nice thing about the rune System is that it¡¯s versatile, and it lets you use a second kind of essence during fights. Which is basically doubling your mana during a fight. I think it combines well with most combat-oriented magic systems as long as you build it properly. And using it to throw madness at people will probably mess with other spellcasting.¡± Felix rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. ¡°Maybe in the future, you could use your rune magic as a sort of mental ability? Blast other people¡¯s thoughts into oblivion before using your primary ability to kill them before they recover? I think it¡¯s worth thinking about.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve convinced me. I really do like my second ability option, and I like the rune magic system as well. I¡¯ll start next world by using it as my primary combat system, and then I¡¯ll swap it to some sort of support System once I have my main abilities online, whatever those end up being. Thanks for the ideas.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡±


    I bought ¡°Endless Hunger of the Ocean.¡± Instantly, I dropped to 10,504 Achievement. Since I had no glut penalty left, I didn¡¯t buy beginner swordsmanship, but if I bought Stats within the next 71 hours, I could still pick up the ability.


    Before I had time to think more about my future plans, I realized my senses were changing. Suddenly, I felt a strange¡­ connection with the air around me.


    When I lived on the islands, I had the ability to sense mana in the air around me. I had lost track of its disappearance, due to the chaos of returning to the Market and nailing down plans for future lives, but I just realized that I had lost the ability to sense mana in the air around me when we had returned to the Market.


    The moment I purchased Endless Hunger of the Ocean, my ability to sense mana returned. I was connected to the world in a way I hadn¡¯t realized was missing until it returned to me.


    The Ability Description for Endless Hunger of the Ocean also changed slightly.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.)


    While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.


    Absorption essence may be spent to form ¡®runes,¡¯ a unique magical structure created partially within the brain and partially within the body.


    These runes have varied effects, mostly relating to strengthening the body and mind and allowing limited control over specific abilities. (This rune system is copied directly from the world you were just living in.) You will also recreate the relevant dimensional laws within your body.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive something insane, you will collect Achievement as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.


    Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first time in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.


    Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only three abilities from this effect may be ¡®held¡¯ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one. (Abilities are lost each Death)


    Abilities held:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Glut Penalty: 20


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There was now a little ¡®Abilities held¡¯ tab for Endless Hunger of the Ocean, letting me know I could ¡®ingest¡¯ three abilities. I didn¡¯t know what that looked like right now, but I hoped it would be useful in the future.


    With that, 20/20 of my available Glut cap was filled up. I spent a moment examining my new Status Screen, before I wished that I had a way to track exactly how much of my glut cap I had used up. Sure, I could roughly keep track of how much glut cap I had, but paying attention to everything sounded like it would be a pain in the future.


    Right as I thought that, a new System notification popped up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Tired of keeping track of Glut Cap? Do you want to just have an extra few numbers added to your Status Screen, forever saving you from the annoyance of needing to do math anytime you purchase a new ability?


    Don¡¯t hesitate! Buy the Glut Cap Tracker to your Status Screen for only 5 Achievement!


    *Does not take up an item slot, glut cap, or any other resource. It¡¯s just a setting modification.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I sighed.


    Was I surprised?


    No. I had a pretty good idea what the Market was like by now.


    Was I disappointed?


    Absolutely. This seemed like something that should have just been attached to my Status Screen by default. Still, it was convenient, and it was only 5 Achievement. With a sigh, I purchased the glut cap tracker.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 20/20


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Birth related Abilities: Body Control


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 10,499.01


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 1/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1.Friendship Bracelet


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    3.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    4.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    5.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Then, just out of curiosity, I tried reaching out to the mana in the air around me to form a rune. I wanted to see how it would differ from back on the islands, since this wasn¡¯t the origin world of the rune magic system. After a few moments spent sensing the air in the Market, I realized the Market was¡­ very strange.The Market¡¯s dimensional laws, as far as I could tell, weren¡¯t built to support any specific magic system. Instead, it seemed more like they were built to support every magic system. All at once. Which made sense, considering how many different magic systems must have been in use at the same time in the Market every day during its golden age. But it also made the Market very¡­ cluttered. It was hard to create runes because there was so much going on at the same time in the air around me; it was like having a tv blare loud static into my ears as I worked.


    Despite that, the rune magic System still worked. As I imagined sucking the mana in the air into my body through a funnel, absorption essence started worming into my body and trying to form a rune on my arm. I had 0 Runes again, so my body was trying to form my first rune. I smiled as I thought of that.


    It was almost like when I was four years old, and my parents had helped me form my first rune.


    I felt a pang of sadness, as I realized I wouldn¡¯t see either of them ever again, and that my father had died with us during the final battle with the outsiders. Then, I pushed the feeling down. I had already realized that every life, I would leave people behind. Even if it hurt, I needed to keep pushing forward.


    I looked at Sallia in order to distract myself from the thoughts of Olav, my parents, and the other people I had cared about on the islands that were gone from my life now. She was smiling ferociously, seemingly satisfied with the feeling of absorption essence returning to her body. Since Sallia had struggled so much during our first world, I was happy that she finally got some sort of victory out of everything she had struggled through. I felt the sadness in my heart ease a little bit.


    Even though leaving behind the people I loved sucked, at least I still had two people with me. One of whom was considerably happier than she had been during most of our time on the islands, if her grin was anything to go by.


    Sallia grinned at me and gave me a big thumbs up.


    ¡°My ability is working. I have 1,250 Achievement left, and I still have 2 glut cap remaining. I also bought beginner swordsmanship, and I¡¯ll pick up Intermediate some other life when I have more glut cap left. With my remaining Achievement, I figure I¡¯ll upgrade Absorption Essence to Grade 1, and then throw what I can into Willpower.¡± Sallia shuddered. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be stuck in Grade 3 for Willpower ever again. I¡¯m hoping killing some skeletons in the Market will push me up another 250 Achievement and I can finish putting 10 points into Willpower. I think that should be manageable before we reincarnate, right?¡±


    I nodded. Even if Skeletons didn¡¯t give much Achievement, and each building we looted didn¡¯t hold much Achievement either, getting 250 was pretty doable.


    Felix let us finish talking, before he finally spoke up again.


    ¡°Since that¡¯s settled, what¡¯s next?¡±


    ¡°I have a few other points of concern,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Even after an entire reincarnation, we still have no clue where or how to purchase lives. If we don¡¯t restock on those, we will permanently die sooner or later. We should try to figure out how to buy lives now. Before we run out of time.¡±


    I nodded, and so did Felix. So far, each of us had consumed one life. We had 4 left. I had been vaguely hoping that I would get the chance to purchase more lives after our previous life. However, no such option had appeared, even now that we had returned to the Market. That meant we needed to figure out how to buy lives, and how much they cost. Otherwise, we might end up dead because we didn¡¯t plan for the future properly. I also didn¡¯t know what we needed to do in order to buy lives. Did they come from cubes, like Soul Fragments and some Abilities? Did we need to earn them in worlds somehow? I had no clue. But we needed to figure out how to get lives sooner rather than later.


    ¡°I also want to buy Stats,¡± I said, after a moment. ¡°Maybe we should do that before we focus on lives? We¡¯ll probably run into various skeletons as we wander around. Might as well make sure we can fight or flee from the more dangerous ones, so finding a more run-down shop first is probably a good idea. The more powerful skeletons, like the spellcaster who forced us to reincarnate for the first time, don¡¯t seem to bother with poorer and weaker areas. And I still want a way to keep my name and possibly my physical appearance from life to life,¡± I said. ¡°I want to keep track of who I am, and I don¡¯t want to lose who I am from one life to the next. That starts with my name.¡± Felix grinned at me and then nodded.


    ¡°While I¡¯m less attached to my name than Miria is, I would also like to keep being Felix if I can. So, our to do list is, in order; buy Stats, find a way to keep our names and possibly physical appearances from life to life, then find a place to buy lives? I also want to find some items if we can. We have five item slots, and we¡¯re only usingone  right now. It feels like a waste. Do either of you have anything else to add to our to do list?¡± He asked.


    I paused for a moment, then chuckled as a stray thought occurred to me.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind finding some alcohol. I loved the village and the islands, but it has been fifteen years since I last had a drink. Nobody knew how to make alcohol back on the islands, and after our deaths from fighting the outsiders, I would kill for a drink. Either of you with me?¡±


    Sallia paused, then burst out laughing. ¡°Sounds fantastic. But can we get drunk with these bodies? We don¡¯t need to breathe, eat, or sleep while in the Market. Did they leave the ability to get drunk?¡±


    ¡°They better have,¡± I said.


    Felix chuckled. ¡°Sounds like a plan. After we get everything else on our to-do list squared away, let¡¯s have a drink to celebrate and unwind. The end of our time in the islands was painful, since we died and a lot of people we cared about returned to the ocean of souls with us. But it¡¯s also a new beginning. Let¡¯s have a toast to the other dead, and a toast to new beginnings once we find some booze.¡±


    Finally done purchasing Abilities and talking, we left the hut, and began slowly walking through the streets of the Market, searching for a low-level shop.

 April Fools (Not a real chapter)

    Note: this is an April Fools chapter. It''s not a real one.


    I stared at the sea of souls, preparing for my next reincarnation. I grabbed Sallia¡¯s hand in my left hand, and Felix¡¯s hand in my right, and the three of us jumped into the river of souls.


    Quickly, I felt the tug on my being, and moments later, the three of us began floating towards something in the distance. Moments later, I felt myself sink into something, and then everything went dark.


    It took another nine months for me to be reborn, but I had already come to expect this. When I was born, I took a look around me.


    My mother was a tall woman, with flowing green hair, and electricity-colored eyes. She-


    ¡°Huh?¡± I said, as something prodded me from behind. I struggled to turn my infantile body around, grateful that my species had at least some mobility as an infant, and when I looked back, the color of my mother¡¯s eyes and hair had been swapped. I felt confused.


    Was this some sort of¡­ new aspect of the species I had been reincarnated into?


    I looked around to see if I could find my father, curious, and noticed that he had fiery-red hair and, for some reason, a brown beard, which had a completely different color from the rest of his facial hair.


    I grinned, and reached out to play with my father¡¯s beard. That was a suitably childlike action, right?


    I felt something poke me from behind again?


    I whirled around, but couldn¡¯t see anyone. I felt incredibly baffled, but I looked back to my father¡­


    Stolen story; please report.


    And saw a giant eraser from the sky, as well as a couple pens and blobs of ink still dripping from far above as someone erased some of my father¡¯s details.


    And then replaced them. His beard was now red, the same color as the rest of his hair.


    ¡°Hey! I saw that!¡± I yelled at the sky.


    ¡°No you didn¡¯t,¡± said the voice from the sky, trying to sneakily erase a few drops of spilled brown beard that were left on the side of the room.


    ¡°If you¡¯re going to make edits while I¡¯m in the world, at least do it in spots where I¡¯m not looking. Goodness gracious, this is just sloppy!¡±


    ¡°I just didn¡¯t realize hair colors would matter when I started writing the scene, until I realized their bloodlines would interact! It¡¯s just a first draft! Leave me alone!¡±


    ¡°Why would hair colors matter?¡±


    ¡°Well, if your father has red hair, that implies he¡¯s from the court of autumn, but they¡¯re at war with the court of flowers,  and if your mother has green hair, it¡¯s obvious that such an act could never come to be! Such scandal!


    ¡°And, uhh¡­ your father¡¯s brown beard was just a mistake, okay? It should have been red. Ahem.¡±


    I rolled my eyes. ¡°Even so, you can¡¯t just swap things around mid-sentence. Do you know how confusing that makes things for us? Like-hold on a sec. Sallia! Felix!¡± I yelled, and Sallia and Felix appeared in puffs of smoke. ¡°Tell this person how confusing mid-sentence changes are!¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ they are pretty bad sometimes,¡± said Sallia, wincing. She was trying to be diplomatic, but I was having none of it.


    ¡°They¡¯re complete catastrophes! Backstories changing mid-chapter as you realize something conflicts with something else, people¡¯s physical details changing out of nowhere as you realize an age doesn¡¯t quite make sense¡­ it¡¯s a nightmare! When I last spoke with Olav, he literally changed hair colors in front of my eyes, like some sort of eldritch blob from beyond the stars. Then he suddenly aged like 20 years, and I needed to just go on pretending nothing happened! What the heck?¡±


    ¡°Sorry¡­¡±


    ¡°No, sorry doesn¡¯t cut it,¡± I said, snorting. ¡°You know what? I¡¯m gong on strike. Find a new main character! Let¡¯s go,¡± I said, gesturing towards Sallia and Felix.


    And then, the three of them stormed off the pa-

 Chapter 61: Branching Out

    As we continued walking through the Market, we kept a wary eye out for skeletons. After all, they could be an easy way to acquire some new weapons, and they were also a notable threat to us right now. Even if they were incredibly stupid, if a lot of them gathered together, we would have a hard time dealing with them. And right now our only weapons were pots and pans. Of course, if we found only a few skeletons, we could kill them and steal their weapons. A group of skeletons was a threat, but a lone skeleton or two was an opportunity.


    During our journey, we didn¡¯t find any undead for quite a while. Instead, we just kept walking. It took us about ten minutes to get out of the residential area, where we once again found large quantities of places selling entertainment items, such as alcohol and board games. Most of the environment was still scarred by magic and battle, just like the area we had arrived in during our first trip to the Market.


    Finally, after about ten minutes of walking, we found our first skeleton. Since we knew how easy to trick these things were, Sallia, Felix and I grabbed a few roof tiles from a nearby building and dispatched the skeleton from the roof. My roof tile clipped its shoulder, before Sallia killed it with her own roof tile.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of  your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +2, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As I got my notification, I frowned. Hadn¡¯t I already gotten a reward for assisting in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the first time?


    Then, as I double checked my notification, I grinned.


    While I had seen a few System messages already hinting that each reincarnation might reset some Achievement rewards, I was both surprised and pleased to find out that this applied to the Skeletons of the Market as well. It might not be much of a reward, but it was nice to see that we could replenish our Achievement by doing some actions over and over again. I wondered which other rewards reset every reincarnation. Could we get Achievement for forming runes every life? Could we get Achievement for retraining our weapon skills? If so, I would need to rethink how much I valued weapon Abilities. I would still probably hold off on buying them, since I wanted to leave some glut cap open for my main magic system in the future, but I might think about buying beginner swordsmanship again.


    After killing the skeleton, Sallia grinned and picked up its sword. She gave the weapon a few experimental swings, and frowned. And so did Felix and I.


    Even I could see the problem. Sallia¡¯s movements were far inferior to what they had been back on the islands. A big part of it was probably because she wasn¡¯t used to her current body. She had suddenly added four or five years to her age when she returned to the Market, and her physical features were also a blend of her first life and second life. While that wasn¡¯t a problem when it came to basic walking and movement, when it came to Sallia¡¯s carefully honed years of swordsmanship experience, it threw her abilities way off. She was a little weaker than beginner grade in swordsmanship right now, although I suspected with a few days of training, she could get back to Beginner Grade.


    ¡°Should we stop?¡± I asked Sallia. ¡°While the odds are low, if we run into skeletons, having you able to fight could make a big difference in how likely we are to survive. We can wait a few days if you need to retrain your swordsmanship or something.¡±


    ¡°I can still fight like this, ¡± said Sallia. ¡°Let¡¯s just be careful. I don¡¯t want to hold you up since you¡¯re about to buy a bunch of Stats, and you¡¯ll need some time to get adjusted to your new physical abilities after buying them. As long as we use the rooftop trick we should still be able to handle some groups of skeletons, as long as no spellcasters show up. And if spellcasters appear, we probably don¡¯t have a chance either way.¡±


    Felix paused, before he nodded. ¡°If you¡¯re all right with that, I guess we can push onwards. But don¡¯t strain yourself. Let¡¯s make sure we¡¯re as cautious as possible, so that we don¡¯t lose a life while in the Market. All right?¡±


    Sallia nodded, and after some hesitation, we continued moving forward. We only had a few months before our new bodies decayed, so if Sallia wanted to keep pushing forward, we needed to be careful about managing our time.


    After another twenty minutes of walking, we left the entertainment section of the Market. Quickly, I identified a much more interesting building. This one was called ¡°Basic Transmigrator¡¯s Kit; Stats, Abilities, and Items for those less than three worlds old!¡±


    It sounded exactly like what we were looking for. The shop was riddled with much more damage than the average shop in the Market, and had seven giant holes in the side of its walls. It was a little difficult to see inside, since there was a bunch of clutter and wreckage blocking each giant hole in the wall, but there were signs of battle everywhere around the shop.


    Oddly enough, there were no bodies nearby. Most houses and shops we had seen in the Market that went through battle had several copies of the same corpses littered around the site. This one, however, was devoid of corpses. Which probably meant they had all reanimated and had either left, or were waiting for unlucky transmigrators to get killed by them.


    In other words, it was perfect as a spot to farm a little Achievement and then buy our Stats.


    I looked at Sallia and Felix, and they nodded back at me, before we clambered up a nearby building. We spent a bit of time getting some roof tiles ready to throw, and then we started.


    I threw the first brick in front of the store, to draw out any undead lurking in the store. After that, I quickly reached towards our pile of ammunition, preparing to kill whatever ran out.


    Nothing happened.


    I frowned, and turned towards Felix and Sallia.


    ¡°No Skellies?¡± I said.


    Sallia shrugged. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re too far in to hear us properly?¡± She took a look around at the other ruined buildings in our area. Then, she threw a brick directly at the building. It smashed into the door, creating a much louder banging sound than my throw, which had landed just outside of the door.


    Once again, nothing happened.


    ¡°Maybe there aren¡¯t any skeletons inside?¡± Said Felix, after a moment of hesitation. ¡°The first time I was here, the skeletons all responded to sound whenever it appeared. If there aren¡¯t any skeletons responding, maybe we¡¯re already safe.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s try a few more times,¡± said Sallia. ¡°If nothing comes out, we¡¯ll keep a few tiles ready as ammunition and enter the store.¡±


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    After a few more bricks throw at the wall and several minutes of waiting, nothing happened. With some hesitation, the three of us clambered back down the side of the building, and then slowly approached the building. After cracking open the door, I peeked inside, half-expecting to see a giant horde of skeletons that had somehow ignored our attempts to lure them out.


    Inside of the building, I could see four rows of Cubes laid out in the store. The first three looked like they were devoted to Soul Fragments, and allowed customers to purchase any type of Soul fragment, all the way up to Tier 3. This was two tiers higher than the ¡®maximum¡¯ tier of soul fragments we could buy at the first store we had found. The row of cubes behind the soul fragment cubes were even better. They were Ability cubes. I wasn¡¯t close enough to read what kinds of abilities one could buy from them, but I could still see the sign advertising that the store sold most of the well known and sought after Abilities new Transmigrators wanted. Evidently, this store was much wealthier than the first store we had visited.


    Inside of the store, however, there was something very different from the undead I had come to expect.


    Sitting about halfway inside of the building was a tree root. Rather than an ordinary tree root, however, this tree root set my teeth on edge.


    The top half of the tree root looked normal, if rather large. It was covered in green moss and flowers. If I had seen it anywhere else, I might have thought it was an inviting place to sit down and take a rest while hiking through the woods.


    However, the bottom half of the tree root was instead covered in smears of blood-red mana, which glowed in the dim light of the store. It looked like the bottom half of the tree root had taken a dip in a pool of blood before resurfacing. Oddest of all, I couldn¡¯t see where the tree root came from. Tree roots were usually attached to trees; however, this one was not. Past a certain point, the root seemed to just¡­ vanish into thin air. The patch of air where the tree root came from gave me a familiar feeling. One that I had encountered many times before on the islands.


    It was as if there was a distortion in space near the body of the tree root. Even though I couldn¡¯t see the rest of the tree, I got the strangest feeling that I was looking at something massive that was hidden in a way my eyes just couldn¡¯t uncover. However, the feeling of dread it gave me was unmistakable.


    I stopped, and Sallia and Felix stopped as well.


    I looked cautiously at the tree branch.


    ¡°What is that?¡± I whispered, in case the tree branch could hear us. The tree branch didn¡¯t look like it was an undead creature at all. The skeletons, liches, and flesh giants we had seen in the Market so far were all distinctly undead in nature. But the tree branch we were looking at right now didn¡¯t resemble the undead at all. It looked like some sort of four-dimensional tree covered in blood. The top half was even covered in flowers and moss, which somehow made me even more nervous.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen something like that before,¡± said Sallia, nervously gripping her sword as she peeked through the door as well. ¡°Should we ignore it? It might not attack us.¡±


    ¡°I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe we should just-¡± before Felix could finish talking, the tree branch twitched.


    From the top of the tree branch, chunks of wood started peeling themselves away from the tree branch. Wooden cutouts of tree bark ripped themselves away from the rest of the root, before their bodies slowly started to ripple and distort. Moments later, they turned into strange, wooden butterflies. Despite being made entirely of wood, they still seemed alive. Their wings flapped gently in our direction¡­


    And inside the shop, the world tilted in a sickening direction, as space broke around the butterflies. I grabbed Sallia and Felix and started running for my life as the front of the store was shredded apart by a wave of spatial demolition, and the seven massive holes in the walls of the store became eight.


    By the slimmest of margins, I managed to flop out of the way of the attack before losing a limb or dying, throwing Sallia and Felix out of the way of the attack as well.


    The tree root wasn¡¯t done yet. With a crash, it ripped through the side of the store as if it were made of wet cardboard, before the tip of the root tried to poke at me. I got a very bad feeling that if the tree root touched me, I would lose a life immediately, but I couldn¡¯t dodge fast enough.


    I stared at the tree root, feeling helpless, but Sallia somehow managed to flip herself around and slice at the tip of the tree branch with her sword. The blade bounced off of the tree root, but Sallia still deflected the root, and instead of ripping through my body it swung over my head. I rolled out of the way before it crashed down onto the streets of the Market, ripping apart the pavement like it was made of mud.


    The tree root reeled back, and the wooden butterflies streamed out of the hole in the side of the store. Their wings began glowing¡­


    Felix threw his roof tile at a wooden butterfly. Before the roof tile connected, space cracked open in front of the tile Felix had thrown. The roof tile disappeared, teleported somewhere else. However, the butterflies seemed to react to the object closest to them, and so they sent the next wave of attacks towards the now-missing roof tile. Felix¡¯s actions bought us enough time to get back to our feet and start running again. The tree root seemed to ripple and disappear, suddenly folding itself back into thin air. I lost sight of it, but the three of us had already nearly died. We kept running straight back towards the entertainment zone, keeping an eye out for the strange tree root or more wooden butterflies.


    Thankfully, even though it had hidden itself from us, the tree root didn¡¯t seem to be able to go very far. Once we fled a certain distance away, it reappeared, thrashing wildly at us as it tried to reach us and kill us. The wooden butterflies also weren¡¯t able to move more than a certain distance away from the tree root. Which was a relief, because if they got another clean attack on us we would have died.


    Finally, realizing we weren¡¯t coming back to the shop, the tree root began to slowly slither back into the store, like a snake lying in wait. The wooden butterflies began to return to the tree root. Upon touching it, they somehow¡­ melded back into the wood they had come from, disappearing into the bark as if they had never existed in the first place. Meanwhile, three of us collapsed on the ground. We didn¡¯t need to breathe in these bodies, but after barely surviving our encounter with the strange tree root, all of us still heaved gasps of relief as we realized that we had survived.


    ¡°What the hell was that?¡± asked Sallia.


    I shuddered, thinking about the strange tree root, and the wooden butterflies that could use magic and bend space.


    ¡°That¡­¡± I said, ¡°Was not an undead creature.¡±


    ¡°Some sort of¡­ spatial creature? The tree root reminds me of some of the denizens of the islands,¡± said Felix, frowning. ¡°I think it was a little stronger than most land beasts. And we don¡¯t have an ocean nearby to conveniently get the tree root to drown itself.¡±


    I shivered. ¡°At least we don¡¯t need to fight it. We can find a different shop to buy things from. I don¡¯t think we can fight that thing yet.¡±


    Sallia sighed, before she frowned. ¡°You know, I¡¯m starting to notice a pattern. The poorer shops are often guarded by weaker enemies, like skeletons, while more important buildings, like the pool of reincarnation, are guarded by skeletal mages and flesh giants. Then, the shop we just entered was guarded by that strange tree root. Do you guys get the feeling that the hostile creatures of the Market congregate around places we find important? There are almost no undead laying around the residential area, but there are a few skeletons in the entertainment districts. Then, shops and important areas have more dangerous enemies, like spellcasters. I could overlook it a few times, but I¡¯m starting to wonder. Is this intentional?¡±


    I frowned. ¡°Maybe.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I do wonder if a civilization as powerful as the Market could really disappear from a natural disaster. If they were destroyed by an outside faction, that makes much more sense, at least to me.¡±


    ¡°A faction that uses undead and trees, perhaps?¡± I said, frowning. ¡°Or the undead could just be the result of a few Mages on their side, or a spell or something. Honestly, the tree root seemed several times more dangerous than the skeletons were. Considering how powerful average residents of the Market were supposed to be, I¡¯ve been wondering how the weak skeletons we¡¯ve encountered so far could have possibly destroyed the Market. That tree root and those butterflies¡­ they were much more dangerous. If the Market faced lots of creatures like that, I would have a much better idea how the Market fell. Of course, I could be wrong. I¡¯m just guessing right now, after all.¡±


    Sallia frowned. ¡°Either way, we can¡¯t let our guard down. If the market was destroyed by an external force, and they left behind things like the tree roots and the skeletons to guard the important bits of the Market, who knows what else is laying around? And more to the point, do you guys also think that the most important facilities will have the strongest guards?¡±


    ¡°Probably. Why?¡± I said.


    ¡°How strong are the guards are going to be in places where we can buy lives?¡±


    I paused. ¡°Shit.¡±

 Chapter 62: Alcohol

    After our chilling realization that buying lives might not be as easy as we first thought, our group regrouped in the entertainment district. Our spirits were much lower now that we finally realized how much danger we were actually in.


    ¡°We all have four lives left, right?¡± I asked, as we checked our surroundings for Skeletons.


    ¡°Yep,¡± said Sallia, and a moment later, Felix echoed her.


    ¡°In that case, the big question is what we need in order to get access to more lives. Right now, we don¡¯t know how strong the guard is for the equipment needed to purchase more lives, but I¡¯m willing to bet it¡¯ll be much stronger than the random skeletons we¡¯ve ran into so far,¡± I said.


    ¡°Well, we shouldn¡¯t have too hard of a time upgrading everything to Grade 1, at least,¡± said Sallia. ¡°The first shop during our first trip to the Market wasn¡¯t actually that hard to take over. There were less than a dozen undead in the shop, and none of them were particularly intelligent. I think we should start out by targeting a few weaker shops in the Market, then upgrading to our Stats to Grade 1 during the course of this life and maybe the next one. Along the way, we can still focus on grabbing items, like we were originally planning to. I think we shouldn¡¯t try to investigate whatever building lets us buy lives, even if we see it soon.We¡¯ll probably just lose a life scouting for information, and right now we need to keep as many lives as we can if we don¡¯t want anyone to permanently die. Once we have the more useful Stats at Grade 2 or 3, we should hopefully be able to survive scouting out the building, and then in another life or two we can make a solid plan. Then, we¡¯ll have two more worlds and two more lives to get what we need to make our plan possible, before we push forward and buy the lives we need. At least, that¡¯s my best idea right now.¡±


    Felix frowned, before nodding. ¡°I agree with your general plan, I think. If our assumption is correct, and whatever destroyed the Market is intentionally trying to sabotage the way forward for new Transmigrators, lives might be the best thing to safeguard. Transmigrators need Items, Soul Fragments, Abilities, Lives, and access to places to reincarnate if they want to grow stronger. But only Lives are fundamentally required to keep existing. And they also seem the hardest to get more of, since we have yet to find a place to buy them. If I was a hostile force trying to destroy the Market and make sure it stayed ruined, that would be what I would target, at least.¡±


    I frowned, trying to shrug off a wave of hopelessness. If I started to give up, I could destroy our morale. But the situation just felt incredibly frustrating. I didn¡¯t want either of my friends to permanently die, just like I didn¡¯t want to die. But the situation was suddenly very dangerous. ¡°How do we bypass the problem, then? The biggest issue we have is that we have no way to deal with whatever is guarding spots to purchase lives. We only have four lives left before we permanently die, so we don¡¯t actually have much time left. During that time, we need to get really strong. But strong enemies are also guarding better soul fragment spots, and we don¡¯t have much time in the Market before our bodies start to deteriorate. Magic Systems like the rune magic system take years to get back to full strength. And each time we visit the Market, we only have a few months before our bodies start to deteriorate. If we can¡¯t find bodies that are more stable, this problem will persist. I¡¯m just¡­ not seeing the way forward. Even if we get access to better keyword Abilities, having the glut penalty to hold them will be difficult. And having them won¡¯t help if they all need a bunch of time to train up, since we don¡¯t have much time because the crappy mass-produced bodies the Market provides us.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± said Sallia. ¡°But we still have ways to overcome our problems. First of all, we can still upgrade our Glut Cap to at least fifty, just by using Tier 1 Soul fragments. By doing so, we¡¯ll also improve our Stats, making it much easier to seize a shop with Tier 2 Soul Fragments for sale. And based on the Illusion Keyword Ability you got, which improves your keyword Ability to Basic Grade at the start of every life and makes it easier to advance further and further on the path of Illusion Abilities, past a certain point Abilities will also grant us some immediate power boosts at the start of every life. It¡¯s probably just a matter of how upgraded they are. If we upgrade our Abilities to a certain point, I think we should be able to knock down stronger enemies in the market, which will let us get access to better Soul Fragments, which will open up more room to boost our Abilities further. It¡¯s just a matter of getting there before we run out of lives.


    ¡°More importantly, while the Market being ruined presents us with a massive amount of danger, it also provides us with a lot of extra opportunities to earn Achievement that wouldn¡¯t normally be available. And that gives us a lot of unique opportunities. During the Marekt¡¯s golden age, we would have had to pay for items, for example,¡± said Sallia, grinning as she materialized her friendship bracelet on her wrist and pointed at it. ¡°However, now, we don¡¯t have to pay anything to buy items. We just need to find them first. Not to mention, killing whatever is guarding the stuff we need access to gives us Achievement as well. While skeletons don''t¡¯ give much of a reward, if we somehow dealt with that tree root I¡¯m willing to bet we would all get a few hundred Achievement, and maybe even a new Keyword Ability. And we can also loot stores for their Achievement, if they have any stored. It¡¯s just a matter of taking advantage of our time in the Market and in each life to grow as strong as possible. We just need to be careful about balancing risk and reward in each life, to make sure we only die if we get good keyword Abilities out of it.¡±


    I felt some of the fear in my heart disappear at Sallia¡¯s words. While our current situation was bad, it wasn¡¯t hopeless. In fact, it was also an opportunity in some sense. I felt the panic squeezing my heart was starting to dissipate, even if I was still worried about the future.


    My brain started whirring and creaking back into motion. As we had scampered back into the entertainment district, I had felt such a crippling sense of dread and defeat that thinking had been difficult. After all, our situation had felt hopeless. However, now that Sallia was outlining upsides to our situation, it was easier to think more clearly. My friends needed me to be strong. ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯m sorry. I shouldn¡¯t have panicked so quickly. Even if our situation isn¡¯t ideal, we have wriggle room. We can¡¯t give up so easily.¡±


    Sallia smiled at me, and then gave me a gentle hug. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You spent so much time on the islands comforting me and making me feel better. Now it¡¯s my turn,¡± she said, chuckling slightly.


    After a few moments, Felix cleared his throat, sounding more than a little awkward. ¡°Since we have our general plan worked out now, can we start by looking for a drink in the entertainment district? This area should have the weakest enemies, and after realizing how dangerous this is, I could really use some time to decompress a little. I think we have a good shot at surviving all of this, but I¡¯d like a few hours to process everything.¡±


    * * *


    Finding a store selling alcohol in the Market was very easy. It took us less than five minutes of walking to stumble across a store selling booze. It looked like it was some sort of grocery store, and advertised that it sold all kinds of foods and beverages, from ice cream, to alcohol, to foods I had never heard of before. Sallia was the only one of the three of us that was armed with a proper weapon, but we were still hopefully ready to take on whatever was inside of the store. Felix and I armed ourselves with roof tiles, and scrambled on top of the building to ambush whatever came out.


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    Meanwhile, Sallia kicked open the door, acting as bait and as a lookout for us.


    ¡°It¡¯s fightin¡¯ time, Skellies! Come here and die!¡± She yelled into the store, before immediately scrambling up the side of the building.


    I rubbed my forehead at how loud Sallia was. Even from the top of the roof, I could hear her.


    Which, admittedly, was the point. Sallia could draw any nearby unintelligent undead to the front of the store, where Felix and I could snipe them down and get a little Achievement out of the whole deal. But speaking so loudly in the ruined Market felt wrong to me, now that I knew how dangerous some of the residents were.


    Nearly twenty seconds passed before the first skeleton shambled out of the ruined liquor store. It held a spear in one of its hands.


    I killed it with a single roof tile.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of  your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a skeletal foot soldier for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +20, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I felt a shiver of joy run through my body as I got Achievement, but clamped down on the feeling. I did notice that the addictive feeling of getting more Achievement was weaker this time, possibly because my soul already had so much Achievement stored up. However, now that we were in the bodies given to us by the Market, the feeling of earning Achievement was once again distracting.


    While I was wrestling with the feeling of getting more achievement, Felix killed the second skeleton that left the store. This one was holding a sword. Then, after another minute of waiting, nothing else came out of the building.


    The three of us grinned at each other, and scampered back down the side of the building. Felix took the spear, and I took the sword, before we looked inside of the store.


    Inside was a baffling sight. Dozens of alcohol bottles had been smashed against the walls of the store. Some of them looked like they had been thrown against the wall for some reason. These bottles of alcohol were also mixed with other things, like food, old potato chips, and a few other random snack foods. Had the skeletons thrown them against the wall? Had the previous occupants thrown them at the skeletons? I had no idea.


    ¡°There¡¯s¡­ quite a few broken bottles of alcohol here,¡± said Felix, who sounded more than a little sad. ¡°Are there any left?¡±


    I was also a little depressed. After the bad news we had realized about buying lives in the Market, I had been looking forward to relaxing and having a night of drinking with my friends to tone down our stress a little bit. And I had been looking forward to my first drink in fifteen years. I started looking around the inside of the store, hoping to find a few snacks or bottles of alcohol intact, and Sallia and Felix started doing the same after a few minutes.


    ¡°There¡¯s still a few bottles left in the corner!¡± Yelled Sallia, after about two minutes of searching. ¡°And there¡¯s also a Stat Cube for Fortitude in the corner for some reason. It¡¯s only for tier one, but it¡¯s still useful for us right now. I have no idea why a liquor store is also selling Stats, but I¡¯m not going to question it right now.¡±


    I frowned. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s so that people can drink more without getting alcohol poisoning? Can our current bodies get alcohol poisoning?¡±


    Felix shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s as good a guess as any. I was planning on filling up on Grade 1 Fortitude as one of my Stats. Miria, I assume you were also planning to get Fortitude to Grade 1, since you mentioned getting everything as high as you could manage?¡±


    I nodded, and Felix and I quickly headed towards the Stat Cube. There, we bought 20 Tier 1 Soul Fragments for Fortitude. My Achievement went from 10,520.97 to 9,520.97, and I started consuming them. Thirty seconds later, my first soul Attribute reached grade 1.


    As my first Stat reached Grade 1, I felt something¡­ different. I had always noticed a certain change in my body when I raised my Fortitude by forming a rune back on the islands, but when I raised my Soul¡¯s Stats instead of just improving my current body, the feeling of growing and improving was several times more pronounced.


    I felt more complete when I improved my Fortitude from 19 to 20. It was like I had been hungry for my entire life, and had just eaten a delicious, filling meal. My soul felt¡­ stronger.


    And, perhaps most importantly, I could also feel like my soul had expanded a little bit. In addition to being stronger, it was like I could carry ever so slightly more weight without hurting myself. It only took me a few moments to realize this was what glut cap was. It was the¡­ size of my soul. The density of it. It was hard to put into words, but I could feel that my soul was more after I improved one of my Stats to Grade 1 for the first time. My glut cap increased from 20 to 22, giving me enough room for a Beginner-Grade weapon skill, if I wanted one. I had originally been planning on ignoring them. However, now that I knew just how dangerous our position was, I hesitated.


    Then, I bought the Beginner Grade Ability for Swordsmanship. Since I knew that I could probably get Achievement for reaching beginner grade in each weapon again in my next life, it didn¡¯t seem like a bad idea to invest in making the process of getting there easier and faster. And the 15 Stat points spread across my physical Abilities each life would certainly help me survive and gain more Achievement in the future. I had originally been planning to save more Achievement for an Ability that let me keep my name and physical appearance from life to life, and I was still definitely hoping to find an Ability or Item that let me do that, but I was feeling a little more urgency right now. We needed all the power we could get if we wanted to avoid permanent death.


    My Achievement dropped to 9,270.97, and another Ability was added to my Status Screen.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Basic One-handed Swordsmanship]


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    Anytime you train with one-handed Swords, your body will adjust itself and adapt itself to your previous knowledge of swordsmanship much more quickly and effectively. When reaching [Basic] Mastery of any one-handed Swordsmanship technique for the first time in each body, your body¡¯s Physical Attributes will permanently increase by 5. (Note - these stats are attached to your BODY. Not your soul. They will thus be lost whenever you die or swap bodies.)


    Glut Penalty: 2


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Immediately, my glut penalty went to 22/22. I didn¡¯t feel any immediate change when I added Swordsmanship to my abilities, but I hoped once I started training the influence of the Ability would be a little more obvious.


    Felix also finished purchasing his abilities, before we grinned at each other and looked at the crate of alcohol Sallia had found.


    It was time to relax with my friends and decompress for a few hours.

 Chapter 63: A Toast to the Fallen

    After Sallia, Felix and I found the crate of alcohol, we decided to only take a few bottles back with us. Since we had no magic storage available, we would need to manually carry everything ourselves, and there was no need to only bring alcohol back. We put the remaining alcohol back on the shelves of the store, freeing up some room in the crate. Then, we filled it up with some delicious-looking junk food. Luckily, the food all looked pretty intact, as long as the containers weren¡¯t broken. At first, I found this strange, but after a few moments, I realized that many Transmigrators would continuously head to new worlds before returning to the Market, and time probably kept passing in the Market when time passed in other dimensions. Since that was the case, people might buy food that they wanted to save for hundreds of years, so that they had something to munch on when they returned home. Given that fact, the Market¡¯s food preservation abilities being excellent wasn¡¯t particularly surprising.


    I had no clue what most of the snacks we found were, since many of them were made of unidentified ingredients, but I recognized a few as some sort of chocolate bar and some sort of cake. Sallia claimed one of the other foods we found resembled a certain kind of pastry from her first life that she was quite fond of, and Felix didn¡¯t recognize anything, but seemed eager to try the food we had found.


    Since Felix had the weakest combat ability right now, he volunteered to carry the crate while we headed towards the residential zone. Luckily, we didn¡¯t encounter any enemies along the way, making everyone¡¯s job easy.


    It took us several more minutes to return to the residential zone. It took us less than a minute to find a reasonably solid-looking modern house, which we then took over. There was a lone skeleton inside of the house, accompanied by eight copies of the corpse of a brown-haired woman. Sallia killed the Skeleton, before we confirmed there was nothing else useful in the house. We then closed the doors and windows, before stacking up some furniture behind the doors to make sure nothing could easily break in. None of us wanted to get ambushed halfway through our de-stressing party.


    Then, we sat together around the table in the dining room. We arranged the snacks around the table, before finding a couple glasses in one of the cupboards and pouring ourselves some drinks.


    I hesitated for a moment, looking at the amber-colored liquid in my glass. It smelled vaguely like plums and paint thinner. I suddenly had a better idea why Fortitude Soul Fragments were sold in the shop. Anyone drinking this stuff would want some Fortitude if they intended to drink a lot of this stuff. I glanced at Sallia, who shrugged and gave me a grin.


    ¡°Bottoms up,¡± she said.


    After taking a drink, I resisted the urge to gag.


    The alcohol burned my throat, and it felt like I had taken a drink of acid instead of alcohol for a moment. The fizzy, tingling sensation accompanying the alcohol wasn¡¯t something I had ever expected to feel from an alcoholic beverage. It was¡­ very odd.


    Sallia, having the lowest Fortitude, coughed a few times, while Felix and I frowned at each other.


    A few moments later, the incredibly powerful tingly sensation started to die down a little bit, and I could actually taste the drink as it faded. I grinned.


    The drink tasted kind of like roasted hazelnuts mixed with strawberries. The flavor was different than I was used to, but it was also rather tasty. As the bite of the initial drink withered away, I was more and more free to enjoy the pleasant aftertaste. Even though the Market¡¯s alcohol was strange, I couldn¡¯t say that it tasted bad.


    Sallia, meanwhile, started gagging, and as I watched her try to work her way through carbonated texture of the drink, I tried not to laugh.


    ¡°What the heck was that?¡± said Sallia, coughing out a few drops of liquid. ¡°The liquid was moving inside of my mouth! It was¡­ I don¡¯t know!¡± she said, trying not to yell.


    I lost my battle against my stomach, and started laughing.


    ¡°Hey!¡± Sallia glared at me, and Felix also started chuckling. He seemed startled by the carbonated texture of the drink, but due to his high Fortitude, he hadn¡¯t coughed it out the way Sallia had.


    ¡°How odd,¡± said Felix, controlling his chuckles as he looked at Sallia. ¡°The fizzy texture is very strange. I quite like it.¡±


    ¡°Try taking smaller sips, Sallia,¡± I said, controlling my urge to keep laughing. ¡°It¡¯s like a carbonated drink from my first world. I don¡¯t remember them that well, but I think you¡¯ll get used to them after a few tries. They¡¯re pretty tasty.¡±


    Sallia grumbled a few times, but she tried taking a much smaller sip of the beverage. She frowned again when she took a sip, before her expression slowly morphed into a grin after a few moments. ¡°You¡¯re right. It really does have a nice flavor, if you can get past the weird bubbly sensation.¡±


    With the three of us more acquainted with the drink, we began slowly drinking the alcohol away. Despite smelling kind of like paint thinner, the alcohol content felt surprisingly mild. I wondered if that was some sort of influence of our current bodies, or my Grade 6 Fortitude, or something else.


    That question was answered three minutes later, as Sallia¡¯s cheeks started flushing, and she gave us a grin.


    ¡°Just takes a bit to kick in,¡± she said, with the careful, measured sentences of someone trying not to slur their words. ¡°And we can definitely get drunk.¡±


    It took another two minutes before the drink started to kick in for Felix and I. I grinned.


    We could, indeed, get drunk in these bodies, even though we had no need for food, sleep, or breathing here. At least the previous society of the Market had done something right.


    * * *


    The next hour was a kind of pleasant haze as we slowly drank our alcohol. We were careful not to overdo it, since we needed to maintain some level of battle ability in case of an emergency. Despite that fact, the three of us ended up fairly tipsy as we slowly drank and chatted.


    About an hour, the three of us decided we shouldn¡¯t drink any more, just in case an emergency happened, so we sat down on the couch together to work our way through the pile of snacks we had found. Sallia gave the snacks a suspicious glance, as if she were wary of another surprise food like the fizzy alcohol. After a few moments of hesitation, I decided to pick first, so I grabbed a bar of what looked like chocolate and unwrapped it, before biting into the food.


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    I grinned again. ¡°It¡¯s really chocolate!¡± It had looked like chocolate, but I hadn¡¯t been sure if it was just a lookalike until I ate some. I broke off half of the chocolate bar, before offering the other half to Sallia. ¡°Try it! It¡¯s really tasty!¡±


    Sallia hesitated for a moment, giving the chocolate a wary glance, before accepting the other half of the chocolate bar. Based on the way her expression lit up after taking a bite, she also liked it.


    Felix grabbed another of the chocolate bars, and gave me an approving nod after chowing down. After that the three of us began testing other strange Market snacks. Many of them had odd, distinct flavors, but all of them tasted excellent once I got used to them.


    After we ran out of snacks to eat, we simply rested on the couch together and took comfort in each other¡¯s presence. Even though we usually didn¡¯t need to sleep in these bodies, it seemed that once we had some alcohol in our bodies, we would still feel tired. Which struck me as a very strange reaction, but given how strange the mass produced bodies of the Market were, I decided not to think about it too much.


    Then, unbidden, I thought of the world we had been in before we had returned, and I felt my eyes start to sting.


    ¡°Are you all right?¡± Asked Sallia, suddenly looking far more awake as she stared at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said, but I heard my voice crack a little bit. ¡°Just miss the islands.¡±


    Sallia nodded in understanding, before she shuffled a little closer to me and leaned against me. It wasn¡¯t quite a hug, but I appreciated it all the same.


    ¡°I miss everyone too,¡± said Felix, as a hint of bitterness crept into his voice. ¡°The people that died with us during the final fight¡­ I hope their next lives are happy.¡± He frowned. ¡°I hope they make it to the next life. It¡¯s uncommon, but I occasionally see souls collapse in the ocean of souls. Probably happens if they run out of Achievement before reincarnating, I think. Some of the System messages we¡¯ve seen hint that all souls get Achievement, even if it¡¯s not quite the same as in the Market. And I figure since the ocean drains Achievement every second, it¡¯s probably the end once you run out as the ocean stops eating your memories and starts eating you.¡±


    I thought of my father, and Olav, and Claus, before I nodded. My father had done his best to take care of me and make me happy during the time I had spent on the islands. Olav had been something like a grandfather to me. While Claus had likely done it out of a sense of obligation, due to the fact that he felt himself indebted to my father, he had also looked after me during many of the years we spent on the islands.


    All three of them, along with Edel and the hunter, had died with us during the fight with the outsiders. A few of them had landed in the ocean, rather than getting pulled onto the boat of the outsiders by the commander¡¯s ability, but I doubted their ending was any better than ours.


    ¡°I wish they had lived,¡± I said. ¡°But I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll make it to their next lives. All of us got a lot of Achievement near the end, during the fight with the outsiders. I¡¯m sure that¡¯s true for them as well.¡± I tried to shrug off the uncertainty I felt. I had no clue how much Achievement a ¡®normal¡¯ soul got per life, and while I hoped the other fishermen had made it to their next lives, I had no clue what reincarnating without the Market¡¯s assistance looked like.¡±


    Sallia wrapped me in a hug. ¡°They¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re waking up as babies right now and have happy families.¡±


    But they won¡¯t remember a thing, I thought, bitterly. I sighed. Before I could say anything else, or keep thinking about my worries and fears, Sallia¡¯s hug grew tighter.


    ¡°I won¡¯t pretend to have the same level of regret you two feel towards the islands,¡± said Sallia, her voice the least strained of the three of us. ¡°For a lot of the time I spent on the islands, I felt¡­ useless. I had low Absorption Essence, even though it¡¯s my extreme talent. And without enough essence, keeping up with everyone else was just so hard. No matter what I tried to do, it felt like I was stuck at the bottom of a well, searching for a way out, even though none existed. But despite the fact that I was useless in the last world, the village still took care of me and gave me a place to be helpful,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°I won¡¯t pretend I was happy on the islands. A lot of the time was just spent struggling with my own feelings, and that¡¯s an emotion I don¡¯t want to remember or experience ever again. But I will say that I still fondly remember the people of the islands, even if I hated a lot of the time there. Your father was a good man, and I wish his ending had been better. Same for Claus and Olav. I didn¡¯t know Edel very well, but she seemed like a brave woman,¡± said Sallia, before sighing. ¡°My parents are also people I¡¯ll miss, and I wish they didn¡¯t have to learn that I¡¯m dead. I remember they always talked about my older brother, and how he died before I was born. For them to lose another child must be awful for them. But I¡¯m also so happy, because I won¡¯t be useless next world.¡± I felt Sallia shiver for a moment, as I wrapped my arms around her as well. Her final words were much softer. ¡°I feel guilty for being happy that I get another chance at life. I know that my parents are probably devastated, and I¡¯m still so glad that I can move on and try again.¡±


    I gave Sallia a few comforting pats on the back.


    ¡°Sallia, you were never useless. But you don¡¯t have to feel bad for looking forward to being able to do what you love. You spent an entire lifetime denied from doing what you enjoyed, because your abilities didn¡¯t match up with your passions. You¡¯re allowed to feel happy about that.¡±


    Sallia closed her eyes and leaned closer to me. I heard a light sniffling sound, before I felt a few drops of water start to drip onto my shirt. I resisted the urge to laugh bitterly.


    My first drink in fifteen years, and I and both of my friends were crying. Felix looked like he felt left out, so I wriggled my other arm and then pulled him in. We could certainly use a group hug right about now.


    Felix also sighed softly as the three of us wrapped around each other.


    ¡°My mother was an excellent woman,¡± said Felix. ¡°She was always willing to stand up for the village and do what was right. You know, it wasn¡¯t just half of her face that was paralyzed. A good chunk of her body was stiff as well. Not to the point where it completely hindered her, but she lost a lot of mobility after getting hit by some kind of landbeast poison before I was born. I can¡¯t help but feel guilty for the fact that she¡¯s probably heard the news of my death by now, and I won¡¯t even be there to tell her I¡¯m sorry and that I love her.¡± He sighed again. ¡°She deserved better than learning about my death. I¡¯m not sorry for my actions that led up to my death, because I was one of the best choices for the pearl heist. But I wish she didn¡¯t have to go through the pain of losing me after losing my father before I was born.¡±


    The three of us took more comfort in each other¡¯s presence for a while, reminding ourselves that even though we had lost people we cared about from the islands, at least we still had each other. Still, the realization that our loved ones had surely learned of our deaths and had to deal with the consequences sucked.


    A few minutes later, I felt well enough to reach back towards the bottle of alcohol, and poured us a few very small quantities of the drink. Then, I handed the glasses to Felix and Sallia, and raised the cup.


    ¡°A toast to the fallen, and those left behind. May they find happiness in their next lives, and peace within the ocean of souls. And may those we left behind find comfort and move forward.¡±


    Sallia let out a choked half-laugh, before she raised her glass as well.


    ¡°A toast to the fallen.¡± Felix mimicked the action a moment later, and we raised our glasses one final time, clinked them together, and then downed the hazelnut and strawberry flavored fizzy alcohol.


    After drinking the rest of my half-full cup of alcohol, I felt drowsy enough to go to sleep.

 Chapter 64: Market Training

    The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I didn¡¯t have a hangover. I hadn¡¯t drank that much alcohol, but I had still been expecting at least a mild headache. Fortunately, the bodies built by the Market didn¡¯t seem built to feel aftereffects from imbibing too much alcohol. However, the strange leftover drowsiness my body was usually unable to feel left me feeling oddly twitchy. I sleepily rubbed my eyes, before I quietly stood up and brushed myself off.


    Then, I looked around the room, taking a look at Sallia, who was still sleeping, and then looking at at Felix, who was standing off to the side with his spear held. I suddenly realized that the three of us hadn¡¯t set a guard for the previous night, and felt a flash of panic as I looked at the door to the room. However, the door was still perfectly intact, as was the furniture we had used to block off hostile entry to the house.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s nothing there,¡± said Felix, grinning at me. ¡°Once I saw you and Sallia starting to close your eyes, I realized that our bodies react a little more strongly to alcohol than I thought. I did my best to stay awake and make sure we had a guard.¡±


    I flushed, realizing I should have thought about that. I had grown too used to the islands, where we were safe as long as we stayed in the village, and hadn¡¯t been as wary of the dangers of the Market as I should have been. Enemies were far more abundant here, and if Felix hadn¡¯t been paying attention, things could have ended much worse than they had.


    ¡°Thanks, Felix. I really appreciate you staying up and making sure we were safe,¡± I said.


    Felix shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m weaker than you and Sallia. I might as well do what I can for the two of you to make up for that.¡± He chuckled. ¡°Maybe that¡¯ll change when I get my Abilities and a little more Achievement behind me, but for now, I¡¯ll at least do what I can to still be useful, even with my lower combat abilities. Though, somehow, I doubt I¡¯ll ever match up to Sallia in fighting ability, no matter what abilities I end up with,¡±


    I glanced at Sallia, and also grinned. Trying to keep up with Sallia had only been possible in our previous world because Sallia was hampered by her terrible Stats. Now that she had an Ability to fix that, I doubted she would ever be as helpless in future worlds as she had been on the islands.


    Since Sallia was still asleep, I experimentally grabbed my sword and began giving it a few test swings. Since the Market was even more dangerous than we had originally thought, it would be stupid not to grab every advantage I could in combat ability. Sallia had been almost as strong as someone with Beginner Grade swordsmanship, even after losing her body and being forced to relearn her swordsmanship in the Market. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much my own combat abilities had degraded.


    After about ten minutes of swinging my sword around, I frowned.


    My abilities were worse than Sallia¡¯s, and not just by a little bit.


    When I had died, I had lost much more than just my physical body. My muscle memory was almost completely gone. I still had some of the snap judgment from my previous life, probably due to the fact I had spent over a decade training in swordsmanship, spearmanship, and archery. Dying wouldn¡¯t remove my memories of all the hard work I had put into learning to fight. However, while I still had my judgment and my knowledge of swordsmanship, without my muscle memory, and since my body had changed upon returning to the Market, it took me a lot more effort to emulate my previously natural fighting abilities. Previously, swinging a sword with perfect form had been nearly instinctive after Sallia drilled it into me through sparring session after sparring session. Now, I was like someone who had all of the theoretical knowledge I needed to swing a sword, but who hadn¡¯t practiced a day in her life. I had all the knowledge I needed to regain my previous level of skill, but I would need to train for quite a while if I wished to regain my previous swordsmanship abilities.


    Luckily, as I tried to swing the sword around, I felt {Basic One-Handed Swordsmanship} start to kick in. Knowledge from my previous life started to meld with my thoughts and my muscle memory as I practiced, and my body adapted to the correct stances and instincts I had in my previous life far more quickly than I had expected it to.


    At this rate, I could probably get back to Beginner grade Swordsmanship in a few weeks. Reaching Intermediate before our bodies collapsed was probably impossible, but I could definitely reach Beginner in a reasonable timeframe.


    As I was swinging around my sword, and Felix watched me with a more than slightly baffled expression, Sallia finally woke up. She took one look at the two of us, before she grinned.


    ¡°Training?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I was trying to see how long it would take me to pick up my old skills again. I figure it¡¯ll take me a few weeks?¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°I think I can get back to beginner grade in the same amount of time, more or less. I might also be able to re-condense my first rune.¡±


    Felix frowned. ¡°Huh. I didn¡¯t think of checking that. I suppose that¡¯ll be really useful to know, especially in future lives. Even if I don¡¯t have any Abilities to keep the rune magic system, I¡¯ll still need to retrain weapons every time we die again.¡± He shrugged, and gave his own spear a few experimental thrusts. He frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can get back to beginner grade as quickly as you two. Maybe a few months for me.¡±


    I frowned, looking at my sword, and then looking at Sallia and Felix. After a few moments, I shrugged.


    ¡°Here¡¯s what I think,¡± I said. ¡°The Market is incredibly dangerous right now, and we need every scrap of Achievement and combat ability we can get. How about we spend a month training in this area, to pick up some of our old skills, then finish hitting up the stores we need? That¡¯ll probably give us some Achievement for reaching certain skill thresholds again, and it¡¯ll hopefully make us strong enough that we¡¯ll be able to actively hunt some skeletons as well. Then, over the next month, we should get some items and finish filling out our Stats. Our bodies will start to decay in a few months, so I figure we spend one month training, one month looking for items, skeletons, and buying stuff, and then go reincarnate again. That should maximize the use of our time in the Market without causing us to accidentally lose another life here,¡± I said. ¡°We only have four, and we can¡¯t afford to waste any of them if we¡¯re going to get strong enough to buy some lives before we die.¡±


    Felix paused for a moment, before turning to Sallia. Sallia was looking at her sword, and she looked¡­ disappointed?


    ¡°Sounds like a good plan,¡± said Sallia, sighing.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked. ¡°You see sad.¡±


    ¡°I was a little frustrated over the way some things ended on the islands,¡± she said, and I couldn¡¯t help but think back to her parents. ¡°I was just thinking that smashing apart some skeletons sounded cathartic, but I guess training for a month first makes a lot more sense. Being safe is much more important than working out some anger,¡± she said.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    I chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll get the chance to dice up some skeletons in a month.¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± grumbled Sallia. ¡°But it¡¯s just not the same, you know? But we should prioritize our safety, even if I¡¯m unhappy about it. We can responsibly stab things in a month instead of now.¡±


    And just like that, our new round of training sessions began.


    * * *


    We spent four weeks retraining our abilities as much as we could. Because the house we had taken over didn¡¯t have enough space for drawn-out fights, the three of us also spent a lot of time on the streets just outside of the house, using them as a training field. One of us would keep watch on the area, in case any enemies showed up to interrupt our training, while the other two practiced. Luckily, skeletons and other enemies didn¡¯t seem to wander around the residential area very often.


    During our training, my soul consumed 30 Achievement in order to keep me alive. However, due to Sallia¡¯s help, my {Basic One Handed Swordsmanship}, and {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} restoring my access to rune magic, I ended up gaining more Achievement than I lost in that time.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of a one-handed swordsmanship technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +30


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Due to your {Basic One-Handed Swordsmanship} Ability, reaching Basic Grade in one-handed swordsmanship gives extra rewards


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength +5, Agility+5, Fortitude +5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Condense your first rune out of absorption essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +80


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I couldn¡¯t help but think the quantity of Achievement I got was a little strange this time. I distinctly remembered that I had originally gotten 100 Achievement for condensing my first rune while we had lived on the islands, instead of the 80 I got this time, and I also recalled getting 25 Achievement instead of 30 for reaching Basic Grade Swordsmanship on the islands. I took the System messages I got during training as a warning that I couldn¡¯t always rely on getting the same rewards for my actions in future lives, even if I didn¡¯t have a very good guess about ¡®why¡¯ these numbers changed besides the fact that dimensional laws were somehow related to Achievement, and they were different from world to world. However, I was still delighted to confirm that we could get Achievement for repeating some training-related actions each life. Getting permanent access to the rune system would also provide a small, but steady source of income from world to world as long as I had time to train my abilities back up each world.


    However, my Rune this time wasn¡¯t just different in how much Achievement it gave when I formed it. There were some other, important distinctions between how it worked when created from an Ability versus when I had gained access to runes on the islands.


    I quickly realized that even though I didn¡¯t need to be sitting in a tub of water to generate absorption essence, due to the fact that absorption essence already existed in the Market, I now got more Absorption Essence if I sat in a tub of water while condensing my rune. Which, in turn, helped me absorb more mana per day and create runes faster than before. I estimated that it increased my Absorption essence generation by about 30%. Which was pretty useful. However, I couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that in our next world, if Absorption Essence wasn¡¯t present, instead of getting absorption essence at 130% of the speed I had gained it on the islands, I would be stuck with ONLY 30% of my absorption essence generation. Something to think about later, if I couldn¡¯t find an item or another ability to make up for the difference. I would probably need to accept that I would have lower rune counts on future worlds where absorption essence didn¡¯t naturally exist, until my Absorption Essence Stat was high enough to make up for the difference.


    Sallia¡¯s Ability, by contrast, generated a LOT of absorption essence, letting me see just how important Keywords actually were.


    My keywords were ocean and madness. Apparently, we weren¡¯t close enough to the ocean of souls for my ¡®ocean¡¯ keyword to trigger, and nothing nearby had been driven insane, so neither of my keywords were active right now. This left me with an almost exact copy of the rune magic from the islands. Apart from the ability to steal extra, weird abilities from creatures I killed with water (an ability I had yet to use because drowning a skeleton or crushing it with water pressure seemed¡­ difficult, to say the least), my abilities were pretty similar to those of the islands. The only real difference was that I formed runes very slightly faster than before.


    Sallia, however, had the Absorption, Sword, and Training Keywords attached to her rune-related Ability.


    She generated a ridiculous amount of absorption essence by training her swordsmanship for a day, because she was absorbing mana, using a sword, and training. She was able to immediately tell when her keywords were active versus when they weren¡¯t, because the difference was massive. her absorption essence regeneration went up by a ridiculous amount whenever she had her keywords active, and the amount she could enhance her body by using her mana reserves increased dramatically when her keywords were active. Everything that her ability did suddenly became more when her keywords were active. I couldn¡¯t help but think it was a shame that Sallia¡¯s Ability was so¡­ basic right now. If Sallia¡¯s ability had any other effects, such as my ability to ¡®steal¡¯ Abilities by drowning stuff, she would probably become even more terrifying whenever her keywords were active.


    Not that she wasn¡¯t terrifying already.


    With the assistance of her three keywords, instead of taking a month to condense her first rune, Sallia took 5 days to condense her first rune.


    Then, just to rub in how incredibly powerful keywords were, Sallia stabilized her first rune in about eighteen days, then condensed a second rune before the month ended.


    It would take me a year to finish stabilizing my first rune, if I wasn¡¯t mistaken. It had taken Sallia less than 20 days. The difference was so staggering that I couldn¡¯t help but feel impressed. Activating keywords for an Ability mattered far more than I had expected it to.


    Felix, who had no keyword abilities, lagged behind the two of us considerably in training. Sallia was now unquestionably the strongest member of the group, followed by me, with Felix lagging far behind us in last place.


    We also trained our weapon abilities back up during our month of training. I realized my Basic One-handed Swordsmanship Ability was much better than I had given it credit for. Despite Sallia¡¯s freakish growth speed, the Ability allowed me to keep up with her swordsmanship training until we had both reached Basic Grade, where my Ability stopped boosting my growth, while Sallia just kept growing. However, for a very brief window of time, I was almost able to keep up with Sallia¡¯s freakish swordsmanship abilities, since we both had one rune and I had significantly higher Stats than her. Of course, once she condensed her second rune, she immediately outstripped my combat abilities and left me in the dust. However, I was more happy with my {Basic One Handed Swordsmanship} than I expected to be.


    Felix was almost back at beginner grade with his spear, but after some debate, we decided that we didn¡¯t have time to wait for him to regain more of his competence with the spear. We only had a few months in the Market before our body started to deteriorate, and we had already spent a month training. We needed to get moving before our bodies collapsed and we wasted a life in the Market. Besides, with Sallia¡¯s strength we should be able to take down most weaker enemies in the Market, even if we were nowhere close to being able to fight things like the tree root with wooden butterflies yet.


    Thus, the three of us moved out of the street we had taken over for the first time in a month.


    It was time to finish buying Stats, get some items, and then reincarnate again.

 Chapter 65: Shopping

    It took us another 3 hours to get back to the commercial district, and another half an hour to locate a suitable store. We ignored any store that looked too well off, since those were likely to be defended by bigger threats than some minor skeletons. We probably skipped several reasonable targets, but it was a small price to pay to make sure my friends were safe. Despite our many detours and abundance of caution, we still located a smaller, less impressive store without losing too much time.


    Our target this time was called ¡°The Drunken Worldwalker,¡± which originally made me think it was some sort of pub. However, the store¡¯s sign advertised that it sold cheap skills and lower tier soul fragments, which meant it was exactly the kind of store we were looking for.


    A further, quick glance through the windows of the ruined shop indicated that, while there were a good number of skeletons inside, there weren¡¯t any weirder enemies, as far as we could tell. Since the most dangerous thing we had encountered in the Market so far was a tree root, it was impossible to say what other strange enemies we might run into in the Market, but everything we could see at least seemed like it belonged in the shop.


    Sallia, Felix and I hesitated, discussing our plans for a while. I originally planned to just lure the skeletons out of the shop using roof tiles, but Sallia and Felix had a rather different idea. And eventually, they convinced me that only relying on roof tiles wasn¡¯t good for our long term growth.


    There were multiple purposes to our attack this time. Our most important objective was to, buy Stats for our next lives, of course. With more Stats, we would be safer and have an easier time earning future Keyword Abilities, influencing world events, and surviving the consequences of our reckless and foolhardy actions, and so we desperately needed as many Stats as possible. However, nearly as important as buying Stats was our need to prepare for the future. In four lives, we would need to fight an unknown enemy that was likely guarding the area where we could buy lives. Leading up to that fight, we would probably only have a month of training in the Market, and we would need to be as well equipped for that fight as possible if I didn¡¯t want to permanently lose any of my friends. We would need to have more familiarity with any oddities related to fighting inside the Market, and we would need as much hands-on combat experience as we could get ahold of before the fight as well. And if we were going to take bigger risks during fights in order to experiment and improve, the skeletons were the obvious enemy to take risks against. They were dumb, and easy to take countermeasures against if something went wrong.


    Which meant that we were going to properly fight the skeleton swarm this time. No tricks, no roof tiles, just a proper battle with our weapons against theirs. Of course, just in case, the three of us created a huge reserve of roof tiles on one of the nearby buildings that was particularly easy to access, so that we could resort to the rooftile trick if the fight went poorly. But we intended to win this fight using only our actual fighting abilities if we could help it.


    Sallia shuffled giddily, as if excited at the prospect of a good fight, while Felix anxiously hefted his spear. The three of us walked up to the side of the building¡­ and then, Sallia, who had taken the lead due to the fact that she was the strongest fighter, kicked the door open. It slammed into the wall with a loud whunk, and seven Skeletons turned in our direction.


    ¡°Come get some, skellies!¡± called Sallia, cheerily smiling at the skeletons as she stepped into the building. Immediately, she stepped towards one of the skeletons as her runes blazed with mana, and in a motion I couldn¡¯t quite see, instantly beheaded one of the skeletons.


    Three other skeletons turned towards Sallia, ignoring Felix and I. I resolved to keep an eye on Sallia, just in case, but she was probably in the least danger out of all of us in this fight.


    The nearest skeleton, which was holding a spear, whirled towards me. Slightly farther away, I saw a skeleton holding a shield and a saber also look in my direction, while Felix broke off towards the final skeleton.


    Since I had two enemies, I decided it was best to take the initiative before they grouped up. If I could kill one skeleton in advance, I would only be fighting one skeleton at a time, instead of two, I stepped into its personal space and grabbed its spear with my left hand. Then, I yanked the skeleton forward, before trying to behead it.


    The skeleton ducked, showing that unlike its more mindless brethren, this skeleton had at least some amount of combat skill.


    Before I had time to prepare for a more extended fight, I saw something flash towards me out of the corner of my eyes. I instinctively burned mana and ducked, as the saber skeleton tried to cut me across the ribs. Luckily, my reflexes were pretty good after training with Sallia for so long, so I neatly dodged the attack.


    The skeleton whose spear I was still holding yanked me towards it, and I was surprised by how strong the skeleton was. I didn¡¯t fight against its pull; instead, I burned mana and took another step towards the skeleton, before quickly beheading it. One skeleton dropped to the ground.


    The saber skeleton slammed its shield into the back of my head. I staggered, my grade seven Fortitude keeping me conscious as my head rang unpleasantly. I whirled around, and then rolled out of the way as the saber skeleton tried to cut me across the back.


    I gritted my teeth, taking a step away from the skeleton who had nearly cut me twice as I looked for an opening. Since this skeleton had a shield and combat instincts, I wouldn¡¯t be able to behead it as easily as the spear-wielding skeleton.


    While I was trying to figure out what to do, the skeleton took a step forward, before hacking down towards my head. I burned mana and dodged to the side, while deflecting its saber to the side with my sword. Then, I burned most of my mana and kicked the skeleton in the knee.


    The skeleton¡¯s fighting posture collapsed. I hadn¡¯t managed to shatter its knee, but I had certainly ruined its balance.


    As the skeleton flailed about on the floor, I stomped down on its knee again. This time, I managed to break it. Angry, the skeleton swiped at me, trying to get in a cut. I leaned slightly back, dodging the blow, and then stomped on the skeleton¡¯s shield-bearing hand. With its shield pinned down, its head was finally undefended. I killed it the same way I had killed the spear wielder; by beheading it.


    I took in a few deep breaths, just to comfort myself, before I thought back to the battle. A lot of my movements had felt proper, and I knew that I had practiced fighting a lot, but¡­


    I was surprised to realize that my actual combat experience with weapons was surprisingly low right now. Many of the fights I had been in on the islands just didn¡¯t call for my swordsmanship. The fight with the glowing fish, for example, had been mostly dependent on my magic abilities, and my exploration of the oceans had largely been the same. I didn¡¯t hate fighting with weapons; however, in most actual fights, I had relied a lot more on magical abilities than actual swordsmanship.


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel that it was much easier, tossing abilities at enemies while flying around, instead of needing to dodge, kick, and parry weapons flying towards me. Then, I shrugged. Even though I hadn¡¯t had much practical experience with weapons, I didn¡¯t think I did too badly.


    ¡°Not bad,¡± said Sallia, shrugging. I turned to the side, and realized that Sallia had already dealt with her four opponents and had been watching Felix and I. Felix still hadn¡¯t finished off his enemy, but he had the upper hand, and Sallia was still holding her weapon and ready to step in the moment something went wrong. ¡°I don¡¯t recall teaching you much about kicking during a fight, but you managed to weave it into the battle really well. And it made this fight much easier for you,¡± Sallia said, grinning.


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    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect it to hit me with its shield. Once it hit me with it, I started thinking about ways I could do something similar. I didn¡¯t have a shield, but I started thinking about my feet¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good thinking,¡± said Sallia. ¡°The shield thing probably isn¡¯t something the dumber skeletons would be able to accomplish. But the older skeletons seem a little smarter, and seem to have better combat instincts as well. Most people only think of shields as ways to block projectiles and incoming attacks, but anything in your environment can be a weapon if you¡¯re quick on your feet,¡± said Sallia, thoughtfully. ¡°In any case, there are things you could improve on, but I think your fight went pretty well, all things considered.¡±


    Before Sallia could continue speaking, Felix finally got an opportunity, and stabbed his own skeleton in the head, tearing through its skull. It stiffened for a moment, before it collapsed to the ground.


    I double checked our surroundings, and grinned when I confirmed that there was nothing else hostile in the area.


    ¡°We¡¯re good to go. Nothing else in the area to try to kill us,¡± I said.


    Felix also grinned, before taking a better look at the store. ¡°It¡¯s actually a little nicerthan the shop we found during our first visit to the Market,¡± he commented. ¡°Tier 1 Soul Fragments for every Attribute, and a few Abilities to go along with it,¡± he commented, as he started rifling through the area.


    A few moments later, Sallia and I joined him. A lot of the contents of the store were very poorly organized, unlike some of the other stores we had been in. While this store seemed to carry everything we needed, finding stuff was much more of a pain than usual.


    About a minute later, Felix found something.


    ¡°Miria, you¡¯ll love this one,¡± he said, grinning.


    I hurried over to his side, and then looked at an Ability cube Felix had found laying in the corner. I touched it, and a System notification appeared. After reading it, I started smiling so widely my cheeks hurt.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to create and absorb the Ability ¡®Identity?¡¯


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    The ¡®Identity¡¯ Ability will cost 100 Achievement and 1 Glut Penalty.


    Ability description: Upon being born, a certain burst of mixed imagery magic, identification magic, and suggestion magic will be mixed together to ¡®suggest¡¯ to your parents that they name you whatever name you desire.


    Note: This may not work if you reincarnate as a species with vastly different vocal chords, and if your name is COMPLETELY alien your name might be somewhat localized. However, these cases are rare, and you will usually keep your desire name in 97 out of 100 cases.


    In addition, the Ability will take a look at the way you currently look, and then try to tailor future bodies to look as similar to you as is reasonably possible. This is done by taking a look at the DNA (or whatever equivalent is used in your current dimension) and then intentionally remolding which traits are dominant/recessive in order to create a certain physical look.


    Note: If your current looks are completely impossible based on your mother and father¡¯s DNA, or if you reincarnate as a species with significant dominant features (e.g. horns, pointed ears, etc.) expect some changes. However, you will still look mostly like yourself from one life to another.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I grinned. The moment I had some glut penalty free, I knew what I was going to buy.


    A few minutes more of searching later, the three of us found the Soul Fragment cubes. I immediately headed towards them. I had plenty of Achievement to burn.


    I immediately started tossing Achievement into every single Soul Fragment Container I could find, except for the Fortitude Soul Fragment cube. I had bought 2 Agility during our last visit to the Market, and each Tier 1 Soul Fragment cost 50 Achievement. So I had 178 Soul Fragments to go before bringing everything to Grade 1.


    9,900 Achievement went down the drain. To top off my spending, I spent 1 Glut penalty and 100 Achievement to purchase Identity, making what was likely my final revision to my Status Screen until my next reincarnation. I would still try to get some items before our next life, but I doubted I would get the Achievement for any more heavy investment in my permanent Attributes or Abilities until we finished our next lives.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical (+1 Grade to all from Runes, +5 to all from Swordsmanship)


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 20 (+125)


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 20 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 20 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 20 (+125)


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 20 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 20 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 20 (+125)


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 20 (+100)


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 20 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 20 (+100)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 23/50


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Weapon Abilities:


    Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    (+5 Physical Attributes since Swordsmanship is at or above Beginner Grade right now)


    Birth related Abilities:


    Body Control (No Keywords) (No Glut Penalty)


    Identity (No Keywords) (1 Glut Penalty)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 348.81


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The store had a few other Ability cubes, which piqued my curiosity somewhat. Felix, Sallia and I took a look at the other three Abilities sold by the store, and for the first time, I got a glimpse of what a ¡®normal¡¯ Ability sold by the Market looked like.


    The first one we found, and the least relevant, was a beginner-grade Swordsmanship ability. It was an exact copy of the one I currently had, but instead of only costing 250 Achievement, it cost 750. Which was quite the markup. It was three times more expensive to buy it from the Market instead of buying it after a life.


    However, it was also very convenient to just be able to buy whatever abilities one needed, without having to earn it. We had worked for years to earn the right purchase swordsmanship abilities on the islands, whereas in the Market, even if there was a significant markup, one could just buy what they felt was useful anytime. During its golden age, I could imagine people putting together giant shopping lists of abilities that synergized with each other, and then filling out their glut penalty with a huge grocery list of synergistic abilities without needing to earn a single one. I was more than a little jealous.


    The other two abilities sold by the shop were more¡­ interesting. One of the two abilities made one more attractive in proportion to the amount of alcohol they had imbibed within the past 24 hours. Which was¡­ interesting, but didn¡¯t seem very useful. I didn¡¯t bother looking at the more specific details of the Ability, since I couldn¡¯t imagine why I would ever buy it.


    The final Ability might have been worth considering in the future, although I didn¡¯t have the ability to afford it now.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to create and absorb the Ability ¡® Beginner Grade Fire Resistance?¡¯


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    The ¡®Beginner Grade Fire Resistance¡¯ Ability will cost 1,500 Achievement and 4 Glut Penalty.


    Ability description: Grants you Beginner Grade resistance against all fire, flame, and heat-related injuries, both magical and physical in nature.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The description was short and simple. However, while I didn¡¯t have any specific need to resist fire in the future, the knowledge that the Market had resistance skills laying around was good to know. If I got more ocean and madness themed Abilities in the future, I wasn¡¯t sure if I would have any sort of innate resistance against my own Abilities. If I didn¡¯t, I would probably want some sort of resistance Ability to fix the problem.


    In any case, none of us wanted the Fire Resistance Ability now. I decided to keep it in mind for the future.


    With that done, our purchases were finished. It was time to loot the shop, before looking for an item store.

 Chapter 66: World Tiers

    ¡°What did you invest in?¡± I called out to Felix and Sallia as we looked through the shop. I had a reasonable idea what they had been planning on investing in, but it was good to double check, in case it factored into our planning in the next world somehow. I knew Felix had around 7,000 Achievement, and he hadn¡¯t bought any abilities this time, and Sallia had around 1,500 Achievement after buying her Keyword Ability. After forming her runes she should have been up to around 1,700, by my estimation.


    Felix shrugged. ¡°I ignored Strength, since it seemed like the least useful Stat for me right now. Strength is useful, don¡¯t get me wrong, but¡­¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°I wanted other things more. Instead, I got every mental attribute and the other two physical Attributes up to Grade 1. After that, I put 10 points into every Essence category. I figure that it changes my stat range on birth. Specifically, instead of having 70 to 130 in a Stat, I have 80 to 140. Which means I can¡¯t roll into Grade 3, no matter how unlucky I am. Based on how much Sallia struggled last world, having Grade 3 in an Attribute is¡­ crippling. So I wanted to avoid that. And no matter which magic System is present in the next world, I¡¯d like to have at least semi-decent Stats for interacting with it until I figure out which one I have extreme affinity for.¡± Felix paused. ¡°And I bought the Identity Ability too. I like my name. I do wonder how it¡¯s going to deal with my body shape, since I¡¯m not very attached to my current looks, but I guess I¡¯ll see next world,¡± said Felix.


    I nodded. Felix¡¯s words made sense. 10 points in an Attribute was actually an important break point, since it meant one would ALWAYS have at least Grade 4 in future worlds. While Sallia¡¯s feat of getting every Important Stat in Grade 3 was incredibly unlikely, 10 points in an Attribute negated the influence of bad luck by a considerable amount. And since Felix didn¡¯t know which Essence he had super compatibility with yet, investing evenly in all of them was reasonable.


    Sallia shrugged. ¡°I got 1 Grade into Absorption, since it¡¯s my extreme affinity, and half a grade into Willpower, since it¡¯s basically required if I don¡¯t want to struggle with training. I was able to compensate for my low Willpower on the islands, because watching storms bumped me up to Grade 4 Willpower, but¡­ at grade 3, trying to train is a nightmare. It¡¯s just too hard to concentrate. Apart from that, I invested a little bit of the Achievement I got from training in the Market, and I got Fortitude up to +3.¡± Sallis sighed. ¡°I put 1 point into every physical attribute the first time we were in the Market. I wish I had just gotten 3 points in Fortitude instead. I can¡¯t do anything with higher Agility or Strength if I get sick and die before turning 4. Hopefully I don¡¯t get unlucky this time,¡± Sallia said as she sighed. ¡°I also bought Identity. Getting called ¡®Aria¡¯ all the time when we were living on the islands was¡­ really frustrating. I really appreciated you two using my name, but I want my parents to use ¡®Sallia¡¯ and not ¡®Aria¡¯ as well next time.¡± I nodded. If I hadn¡¯t had enough Achievement to get everything to Grade 1, I would have prioritized buying the Identity Ability as well. It might not be a particularly smart action, since we were facing an  unknown threat and needed to grow as fast as possible if we wanted to live. But I also wanted to keep being¡­ me. And a name was the foundation of my identity. I had felt incredibly uncomfortable during my first visit to the Market, when I hadn¡¯t been able to remember my name. So even if it might not be ¡®optimal,¡¯ I didn¡¯t fault Sallia for buying Identity.


    As I got lost in my thoughts, I suddenly heard Felix cackle. ¡°I found something!¡± I was closer to Felix than Sallia, so I reached him first. I saw Felix standing over a little basin of liquid, which had previously been hidden under the counter. I touched it, and grinned.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement Detected. Currently (unowned). Would you like to absorb some of it? There is currently 130 Achievement in this storage unit.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I took one look at it, preparing to absorb a third of the Achievement¡­ and then I hesitated.


    Did I really need 43.33 Achievement? I already had 350 right now, and I had already bought all of the Stats I could in this store. The only thing we had left to do before reincarnating was getting some items, but those didn¡¯t cost Achievement. The store owners weren¡¯t exactly around to collect payments, after all.


    In other words, I had no immediate use for more Achievement.


    I looked at where Sallia had been rummaging through stuff in the shop. She was one of my two best friends. Right now, she had just gotten her most important Keyword Ability online, and she could definitely use another 7 Points in Fortitude to bring her up to 10.


    I looked at the cash register, and thought for a moment.


    I pressed my hand to the cash register.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to pay for your Items?


    There is currently no price calculation added to the Cash register. Please have whoever is manning the register enter the price for any physical items you are purchasing before trying to pay.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Error - no number entered


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I turned to Felix, and winked at him.


    He took a look at the container, and after thinking for a moment, winked back at me. I knew we were on the same page. I grinned. ¡°Don¡¯t sell me out,¡± I whispered.


    Felix grinned and typed in ¡®200¡¯ into the cash register.


    Then, I ¡®paid for my items,¡¯ tossing 200 Achievement into the pool of Achievement. Instead of 130 Achievement, there was now 330 Achievement waiting for Sallia to use. And my Achievement dropped from 348 to 148. Since Sallia probably had a bit of Achievement left over, that should be just enough to push her to +10 Fortitude.


    ¡°Hey Sallia! We found a bit of Achievement! We already took our share,¡± I said. ¡°The rest is yours! This store was surprisingly well off.¡± Sallia turned around, looking up from the pile of stuff she had been digging through, before grinning. ¡°Good! I found a couple of old records that are interesting. It has some pretty useful information on the Multiverse, and a few tidbits on stuff like Skill Grades. I¡¯m starting to realize the greater multiverse is a lot more¡­ interesting than I first thought. You guys can look through it while I get my share of Achievement,¡± she said cheerfully as she started walking towards us.


    After that, Sallia quickly ran over to the cash register and took a look at the small basin of Achievement. She looked at it for a moment, before she turned towards me and frowned.


    ¡°There¡¯s no way there was 330 Achievement when we got here. How much did you put in?¡±


    I felt my cheeks flush. ¡°It was¡­ all there when we got here?¡¯


    ¡°Miria, this store may have been a little more prosperous than The One Stop Shop for the Enterprising Transmigrator from our first market visit, but I seriously doubt they had 330 Achievement squirreled away. Most people in the Market seem to spend whatever they earn pretty quickly. How much did you put in?¡±


    ¡°She put in 200 Achievement,¡± said Felix. I glared at him. He betrayed me!


    Sallia sighed, before taking a step towards me and giving me a slightly crushing hug. ¡°I appreciate the gesture, and I¡¯ll take the extra 200 Achievement you¡¯re loaning me, Miria. I need whatever I can get right now.¡± Then, she released me from the hug, and rapped me on the head. ¡°But if you¡¯re going to give me something, tell me, okay? I may have struggled a lot during our first world, and life definitely sucked sometimes on the islands. But I¡¯m not made of glass either. If you do something for me, I want to know so that I can give you something equally amazing in the future.¡± She grinned at me. ¡°And after I got my Rune Ability, and especially now that I have Grade 1 Absorption Essence attached to my soul, I¡¯m not just a dead weight anymore. In the future, I¡¯ll be the one supporting you instead of you supporting me. Okay?¡±


    Then, with a relaxed grin, she absorbed the 330 Achievement, while I ruefully grinned. Maybe I hadn¡¯t been giving Sallia enough credit after we returned to the Market. Part of me still thought of her as the girl from the islands who struggled with her insecurities because she was too weak to do what she loved. And while I doubted Sallia had overcome that mindset as completely as she was pretending she had, perhaps I needed to give her a little more credit, and a little more space to grow on her own. It was a small reminder, but I realized I would need to treat her differently now that she was gaining a little confidence and a few Abilities to back up her actions.


    And I was excited to see where she would go in the future.


    After that, Felix and I went to look at the records Sallia had found. The paper was a bit different from the message log we had found during our first trip to the Market, but it was very interesting in a different way. Instead of a chat between two friends, it seemed to be a message log from a mentor and his apprentice talking about the nature of the Market and the Multiverse.


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Sel¡¯thub: Edwin, I¡¯ve noticed recently that your income for the past few lives has dropped. I try not to intrude too much into your life, because it¡¯s best if you find your own way forward. However, may I ask if something is wrong? Are you confused about something? I know the Market can be overwhelming at first, and you¡¯ve only had 4 lives to settle in so far, but if you need anything, please keep me informed. I brought you into the Market because I think you can succeed here.


    Edwin: I struggled a lot in the last two worlds, honestly. They were¡­ way harder than the first two worlds I was born on. The people and monsters were both much stronger. How do you deal with higher tier worlds?


    Sel¡¯thub: Ah, they were higher tier worlds? What Tier were they?


    Edwin: The Market notification I got for the first one said it was a Tier 7 world, and the next was a Tier 8. What exactly does that even mean?


    Sel¡¯thub: I had forgotten to explain world tiers to you.


    Selthub: All right, so you know how there are twenty total Tiers for Skills and Abilities, right? You start with Basic as the weakest Skill or Ability, then go to Intermediate, then Advanced, Expert, Master, Heroic, and so on and so forth, all the way up to Law-9 Grade?


    Edwin: Yeah. Why?


    Sel¡¯thub: Just like Abilities, Worlds have 20 Tiers, according to the standard Market Evaluation. Well, technically there are 21 Tiers: Tier 0 worlds, while rare, technically exist. Those worlds are usually just filled with cavemen on the brink of extinction from some random disease or an impending ice age or something, but they¡¯re quite rare.


    Selthub: Anyway, a world¡¯s ¡®Tier¡¯ is an evaluation of how much mana and essence the world generates per second, usually tied to how large the dimension was at the time of its creation. This directly influences how powerful magic, and to some extent, the powerful creatures, of a world are, although sometimes world might favor one specific ¡®overlord¡¯ quite a bit more than you would expect if you only looked at raw mana quantity. But it¡¯s still a good way to generally evaluate how strong a world is, at least when it comes to individual fighting ability, since it directly influences the Stats and Ability Grades of non-Transmigrators. A Tier 3 world, for example, might have soldiers with around Grade five and a half average Stats, and an Advanced Grade Skill or two as a normal member of an army, and the elite soldiers of a stronger nation might even have an Expert Grade Swordsmanship skill or something. While a Tier 1 world might not even have enough essence to support an ordinary spellcasting System, meaning whatever humanoids live there will be fairly weak. It¡¯s worth keeping in mind that Tier can be deceptive sometimes, since people in Tier 1 worlds might still have gunpowder or something to make themselves quite a bit stronger, but you can be sure there won¡¯t be much spellcasting happening there, at least.


    Edwin: So the Tier 7 and Tier 8 World I landed in were pretty strong?


    Selthub: Well, relative to your age, yes. Tier 7 and Tier 8 Worlds usually have a fair number of people with Heroic Grade skills running around, even if they aren¡¯t exactly everywhere. And they¡¯ll usually have a couple Epic Grade Skill-users too. Considering your current strength, that would be basically impossible for you to defeat unless you somehow got a spaceship and stuck it into one of your item slots while I wasn¡¯t paying attention. Which would probably even the odds quite a bit, but spaceships with proper weapons systems that work in all dimensions are a nightmare to manufacture, and I doubt you have the money for one. No offence.


    Edwin: If even a Tier 7 world was so difficult for me to succeed in, what does a Tier 20 world even look like?


    Sel¡¯thub: I¡¯ve reincarnated in a Tier 20 world exactly once out of my one hundred and eighteen lives. By my best estimation, the mid-sized powerhouses of that dimension might have something like Law-2 or Law-3 Grade Abilities and Grade 80 or Grade 90. At least, their Essence-related Stats might be Grade 80 or 90. Physical and Mental Stats have a lot less variance, although some magic Systems can boost Stats.


    Sel¡¯thub: Anyway, they were way beyond me. I have no clue what the bigshots of that world were like, because I was too much of a small fry to even see them. In those worlds, I strongly recommend you don¡¯t try to get any Influence Achievement. It¡¯s a lost cause unless you¡¯re ridiculously strong. And I¡¯ve been stuck on advancing my Legendary-Grade Abilities to Mythical for a long time now. I¡¯ve given up, which is why I have enough Achievement to sponsor new members of the Market like you. I managed to eke out an okay existence in that lifetime, but it was¡­ humbling.


    Sel¡¯thub: Anyway. The strength of a totally normal citizen usually doesn¡¯t change too much from dimension to dimension, but how much people can achieve at their best can change drastically, especially based on how many types of Essence are available and the quantity of each essence the world generates. A world where Absorption essence is so thick it literally forms rainclouds and falls out of the sky is very different from a world where absorption essence is only formed in small quantities inside people¡¯s bodies, for example.


    Selthub: So don¡¯t feel too bad that you got kicked around in a Tier 7 world. It¡¯s normal to struggle a bit with higher tier worlds when you¡¯re young, or if you can¡¯t find a way to keep advancing your Abilities. Even I still occasionally get stomped by whatever world I land in. It¡¯s unfortunate, but it¡¯s the way of the universe.


    Edwin: You also mentioned something about mana quantity. How does that tie into world Tier?


    Sel¡¯thub: Well, that goes into how dimensions are created.


    Sel¡¯thub: You see, at the heart of the multiverse, as far as anyone can tell, there¡¯s an absolutely massive glob of mana. It¡¯s probably the size of several million dimensions stitched together. Most people call it the Heart of the Multiverse, since it seems to have infinite mana and keeps creating more and more dimensions every second. It has been doing so since the dawn of time, and while nobody is quite sure how the Heart of the Universe actually works, everyone who¡¯s old enough and strong enough seems to agree that it¡¯s there, even if getting close enough to directly observe it is impossible.


    Sel¡¯thub: Every second, several smaller globs of mana flake off from the center of the multiverse. These dimensions are initially too unstable to sustain life, and will usually destroy anything they touch. Even for someone like Eluxia who has multiple Abilities at Grade Law-9, she would die on contact with a freshly created dimension. However, as time passes, these dimensions start to stabilize, becoming proper dimensions, instead of just embryos. Of course, for every one dimension that successfully stabilizes, another thousand or so simply melt down into globs of volatile mana and unstable laws of reality. Powerhouses of the Multiverse sometimes use those as crafting materials, although that¡¯s not the pointright now. As I was saying, the dimensional embryos that don¡¯t explode eventually become proper, life supporting dimensions. But not all of them have the same amount of mana, just like no two dimensions have exactly the same laws of physics or systems of magic available. The ones with more mana tend to have stronger magic systems. In addition, the inhabitants of dimensions with more mana have higher maximum potential, since their bodies are built to handle more essence, and thus, by extension, more mana.


    Sel¡¯thub: Luckily, dimensional embryos with more mana are also more volatile and prone to self-destructing before they stabilize. This makes higher Tier dimensions much more rare than low tier dimensions. Which is why most Transmigrator¡¯s don¡¯t see Tier 20 worlds very often. In higher tier worlds, most transmigrators get kicked around like they¡¯re random nobodies from small villages. Being part of the Market is an incredible blessing, since it frees us from the fears and losses others experience upon death. But we also lose a fair bit of our natural potential within a single lifetime as a cost. It¡¯s why we can never be born with more than 130 Stats in a single body without adding in Stats from our souls, and also why our Abilities can only be upgraded after our deaths, while non-Transmigrators sort of¡­ accidentally upgrade their Abilities in the process of existing. Though, they use Skills, not Abilities, which is why they lose them from life to life. And also why they don¡¯t need to deal with Glut Penalty. Being part of the Market is definitely worth it, since we don¡¯t lose everything after death, but it does mean we take a lot longer to get strong.


    Sel¡¯thub: Of course, we also get to keep our potential and strength even in much lower tier worlds, as a benefit to being part of the Market. There¡¯s nothing more fun than strolling around with Grade 30 Stats and Legendary-Grade Abilities in a Tier 1 world where even finding someone with Expert-Grade Skills is incredibly hard. Definitely a good way to relieve stress if you get a particularly bad reincarnation. At that point, you can pretty easily pass yourself off as a god and have some fun with the locals.


    Edwin: I see. Why do higher Tier worlds give more Achievement for doing the same thing?


    Sel¡¯thub: Well, Achievement is, more or less, the ¡®stuff¡¯ all souls collect whenever they interact with the mana of their dimension. Of course, the Market helps us process this Achievement into a slightly more usable form, and the ¡®Achievement¡¯ refined by the Market can be traded without harming the soul, but all souls collect a slightly different form of Achievement in much the same way we do. And since Achievement is essentially dimensional gloop earned by interacting with the local dimensional laws and mana, worlds that had more mana at the time of their creation will naturally have more mana cycling in and out of existence for Transmigrators to snatch up. This means higher Tier worlds are more dangerous, but have better rewards as well.


    Sel¡¯thub: Anyway, I think that¡¯s enough of a tangent for now. The point is, I wanted to know why your income had dropped recently. Getting unlucky and running into worlds that were too high Tier for you is a decent reason to have low income. Don¡¯t worry about it. If you check your bank account, I¡¯ve deposited an extra 500 Achievement for you to use as you see fit. Maybe throw a party and cheer yourself up. Find a nice girl or guy that fits your taste and take a few days off to relax, maybe. Or buy a few Stats or something. It¡¯s important to keep up morale after getting a bad run. I¡¯ll keep in touch with you if anything goes wrong, but I know you can succeed in the Market. You have the potential, you just need to keep pushing forward. I look forward to the day you advance your Keyword Abilities to Heroic Grade.


    That was the end of the messages.


    After reading the message log, I had a single thought.


    We had a long road ahead of us. I tried to remember the System messages I had seen when we first reincarnated on the islands. It had been a long time ago, but¡­ I seemed to recall a System message letting me know that we had reincarnated on a Tier 2 World? I had to wonder if our world was¡­ typical of a Tier 2 world. I did get the feeling that the ocean our island had been in was¡­ rather unique, so it might have been a bit higher Tier than the rest of the world. But even so, I couldn¡¯t help but think about what I had learned.


    There were, apparently, Tier 20 Worlds somewhere out there. I hoped that we didn¡¯t end up on one of them for a long while, if Sel¡¯thub¡¯s messages about their power level were to be believed. But ultimately, I didn¡¯t have any control over where we reincarnated, so I decided not to think about it. There wasn¡¯t much I could do either way right now except hope for the best. And hope that our next world was weak enough that we could still succeed there.


    As Felix and I read through the chat log, Sallia finished getting her Fortitude up to 10, meaning she would never have Grade 3 Fortitude again. Which meant we were done with this shop.


    It was time for our final stop before reincarnating.


    We had some items to find.

 Chapter 67: Items

    After leaving ¡®The Drunken Worldwalker,¡¯ it took us a few hours to find an item shop that suited our needs. Just like when we had found a shop to purchase Stats from, we ignored shops that looked like they were too wealthy, for fear of encountering defenders we couldn¡¯t defeat yet. However, any of the shops that looked like they had been rundown even before getting melted during the collapse of the Market were fair game. Our goal was to find a shop or two that looked like they had a decent stock of items left, but one that wouldn¡¯t be too high class or have strong defenders.


    Eventually, we found a shop that fit our needs. This one was named ¡®Basic Items for New Transmigrators.¡¯


    The three of us strode inside, and quickly dealt with the nine skeletons inside. They weren¡¯t anything special, so the three of us carefully controlled how many each of us killed so that everyone got the next skeleton kill reward, and snuck in an assist each as well.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the first time


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +60, +2 Achievement +0.01


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    62 Achievement wasn¡¯t much, but it was something. It brought my Achievement total back to 210. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much Achievement each Tier 2 Soul Fragment would cost. I knew the cost increased every single tier, but thus far, we didn¡¯t know how much the cost increased by. Which made planning for the aftermath of our next life difficult.


    The shop we had taken over still had physical items lying around, which made me happy. I had been half-convinced the shop would be looted of items, the way many of the other weaker shops had been. However, we found a good item stash during our first try.Several of the shelves were filled with strange looking items, and one entire wall was filled with Friendship bracelets. Finally, near the front of the store, 3 ¡®high quality¡¯ Items were stored, which looked significantly nicer than the rest of the things sold in the store.


    I almost dismissed the friendship bracelets as unimportant, since the three of us already had one and I wanted to get to other items. However, I noticed something rather interesting about these friendship bracelets before I stopped examining them.


    Some of the friendship bracelets had decorations on them. This was a rather different design from the friendship bracelets the three of us were currently wearing. The bracelets we currently had were rather simple loops of wooden twine. However, the bracelets I was currently looking at were made of metal, and had small decorations engraved on them.


    Perhaps they were upgraded Friendship bracelets? We were currently wearing {Simple Friendship Bracelets}. Since they had the term ¡®simple¡¯ in their names, there must be other versions available somewhere in the Market.


    I picked one up and inspected it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Simple Friendship Bracelet With Location Tracking


    Effects: Allows you to designate other people who have a FriendshipCorp bracelet as your ¡®friend.¡¯ Upon reincarnation, you will always be born in the same dimension as your friends, in fairly close geographical proximity to each other.


    You will be able to sense the rough direction your friends are relative to you.


    This item is ¡®regenerating,¡¯ and will be reconstructed every time you return to the Market. Note that this process activates automatically whenever a life is spent, and only works if this item is equipped to an item slot.


    Maintenance cost - 1.8 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I didn¡¯t hesitate at all before I swapped out my first friendship bracelet for the new one. Being able to tell where the others were would be helpful. It hadn¡¯t been a problem on the islands, where our parents had introduced us to each other as a way to help us make friends when we were young, but if we ended up reincarnating in a big city it might be hard to track down where Sallia and Felix had been born. In the worst case scenario, we might end up not even seeing each other for years as we wandered around the city, trying to figure out where the others were. I shivered at the thought.


    This wasn¡¯t a problem I had considered before, but now that I saw the location tracking bracelet, the potential problem seemed blindingly obvious. I quickly inspected the rest of the friendship bracelets, and found that they were either location-tracking or simple bracelets. The location tracking bracelets were, supposed to be sold for 100 Achievement each, and the simple bracelets were to be sold for 40 Achievement each.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder why the simple version of the friendship bracelet was sold at all. Without location tracking, wasn¡¯t it a huge risk to use the simple version? One might get stuck for an entire lifetime without their friends. Which sounded unbearable. Without my friends I would go nuts within a few lifetimes, since every other connection I could make with others would disappear every time I died. I would have no permanent bonds, no family to travel the nigh-infinite multiverse with. I shuddered in horror as the sheer awfulness of the idea wormed its way into my mind.


    What was the idea here? Sell the simple version to new transmigrators and just have them cross their fingers and hope for the best, and then dangle the prospect of no longer being alone in front of their faces and make them work for it? I actually felt ill at the idea. A life where I couldn¡¯t find Sallia and Felix would have been awful.


    I shivered, before turning my attention back to the rest of the low-quality items in the shop. I needed something to take my mind off of the idea of wandering alone in a foreign world without my closest friends for decades, before dying alone wondering where my friends were¡­


    My enthusiasm for checking out the new and weird items in the shop had dimmed a lot. I felt depressed now, even though the three of us had gotten lucky and been reincarnated in a fairly small village last life. Thankfully, we were safe from the awful fate of being alone now.


    I quickly made Sallia and Felix swap out their own bracelets and register each other with the new bracelets before we continued searching the shop. A few more minutes passed as we rifled through the shop counters. I was the only one that seemed horrified by the discovery of the location-tracking bracelets, though I wondered if Sallia and Felix simply hadn¡¯t pondered the implications of their existence.


    ¡°Miria, take a look at these!¡± said Sallia, as I wandered through my thoughts and mindlessly rummaged through rubble in search of items.


    I quickly made my way to Sallia¡¯s side, where I saw a large row of wooden swords. They had each cost 200 Achievement when the shop still sold items.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Two-Purpose Training Sword


    Effects:


    This item has two modes.


    If this sword is SHEATHED, it will be much harder to swing, applying a significant penalty to your physical Stats.


    In exchange, it will be much easier to train the Swordsmanship Skill, improving your growth rate by a moderate amount.


    While unsheathed, the sword will instead increase your Perception by 5 and function like a regular blade.


    Note: Training Effect will diminish greatly for Swordsmanship Skills at or above Expert Grade.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 7.2 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I felt a little more distracted now. This item was perfect for Sallia, and it would be pretty useful for me as well. Items that made it easier to train were quite useful, and this one was apparently useful up to Expert Grade. And having a sword that we could materialize and dematerialize at will would make acquiring and transporting weapons much easier in our next life, if we didn¡¯t have better weapons.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I eagerly equipped the item into one of my four remaining item slots, and Felix eventually grabbed one of the other training weapons that lay nearby - a training bow with very similar functions. Unlike the swords, this one had two kinds of arrow; training arrows and ¡®actual¡¯ arrows. It also came with a self-replenishing quiver, although one would need to wait 24 hours for the used arrows to replenish.


    When I gave Felix a curious look, he shrugged.


    ¡°Archery doesn¡¯t seem that great in the Market, since we run into skeletons, and trying to shoot them with a bow doesn¡¯t seem that productive. But in each life, odds are that we¡¯ll instead run into more fleshy enemies. I don¡¯t like fighting much, but Archery is more tolerable to me. If I get the drop on an enemy, I can attack it without it being able to attack me back. And you two are starting to specialize more in close combat, so I figure I should make sure we have some diversity, especially if we¡¯re planning on working harder to stick together during dangerous stunts in our next life,¡± he said.


    I grinned as we returned to our ¡®shopping.¡¯


    Another section of the cramped store was devoted to various clothes and armor, and also contained two of the three display items.


    One of the three display items was a simple-seeming monocle. I took a look at the price tag, since I was curious to know what it would have been worth if the Market was still intact. It cost 1000 Achievement.


    It enhanced the Perception of the user by 1 Grade, and also gave the user access to a rather specialized Ability that helped them analyze how to copy items that they were looking at. It was basically the perfect item for getting started as a craftsmen, since it helped one emulate the work of others and also helped them see problems in their own work as they got started.


    Naturall, Sallia and I immediately gave it to Felix after we read the item description. It was perfect for him.


    I got the other display item.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress


    Effects: Contained within this Dress is a small lake. It is both a dress and a lake at the same time, and can freely change between the two. However, at the root of its nature, it is both and neither.


    Self-cleaning.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 22.8 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The dress was¡­ interesting. Once I had equipped the dress, I realized it had two ¡®states¡¯ it could exist in. One was that of completely ordinary cloth, and the other was that of a small lake, wrapped around my body. However, it was fundamentally a ¡®lake¡¯ even when it was in ¡®cloth¡¯ form. It was sort of like someone had taken a literal lake, compressed it into a dress shape using dimensional magic, and then given the ¡®edges¡¯ of the lake the ability to change into cloth.


    This had two uses.


    First, the dress was incredibly resilient against damage, and was more effective than most armor at protecting its user. As a test, Sallia tried stabbing it with her actual sword, and the sword simply ended up stabbing into whatever dimension the ¡®lake¡¯ part of the dress was stored in. Even if she buried her sword elbow-deep in the dress, the tip of her sword didn¡¯t poke through the fabric, making it look like Sallia had gotten stuck halfway inside of a portal or something. I suspected that the dress would defend against most melee attacks, and would do a good job of stopping weaker ranged attacks as well.


    Sadly, after we realized how ¡®dimensional¡¯ the dress was, we tried storing other stuff inside of it, but apparently it could only store water.


    The second use of the dress was the fact that it partially triggered my Ocean keyword for my {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} Ability. The keyword wasn¡¯t fully activated, probably since the dress was a lake and not an ocean, but it did still work at partial efficiency. In other words, while wearing it I was continuously touching water and partially triggering my Ocean Ability, which would make it much easier to form runes in future worlds.


    This sold me on the dress, more than anything else.


    The dress could also shapeshift, at least to a limited degree. If I wanted it to become longer or shorter, it would do so, and it could even change color as long as it was some shade of blue or black. I could add in decorations and frills, or remove them if I concentrated on what shape I wanted the dress to become for a few minutes while touching the dress. However, it had certain limitations on how much its shape could change. The dress¡¯s original form was a sort of one-piece dress that covered my shoulders, but not my arms, and cut off at about my knees. I could get the dress to extend a little bit, but it wouldn¡¯t be enough to cover my entire body at once, meaning I would always have a few vulnerable bits of my body sticking out, especially my arms, legs, neck, and head. However, the dress did look quite nice, so I could probably wear it to most noble courts as long as one-piece dresses weren¡¯t totally different from the local fashion. If it was only a little bit different, I could just get the dress to shapeshift a little. I did wonder if the dress would at least resize itself based on my age; it would be rather awkward if I was four years old and the dress was still sized for a 20-year old.


    Sallia and Felix got more normal sets of armor instead. They were made of metal, covered their entire body, and also increased Fortitude by 20 while worn. In addition, Sallia got a set of weighted training clothes with a similar effect to the Training sword we had seen earlier, except it also counted as a ¡®special resource¡¯ that help one train their strength and dexterity by up to 1 Grade before it stopped being useful.


    The final ¡®highest quality in the shop¡¯ item was given to Sallia. It had a rather¡­ interesting effect.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Bowl of Ramen


    Effects:


    Every day, this bowl will refill itself with a reasonably nutritious bowl of soup, noodles, and some other ingredients.


    Eating all of the food in this bowl will give you some amount of improved Stats, spread across physical and mental Stats. (Note; it takes multiple meals to gain one Stat. This item has diminishing returns the more it is used within a given lifetime, and cannot improve your Stats more than one Grade.


    Soup¡¯s flavor can be changed at will, and is fairly high in calories and nutrients. Cannot entirely meet food needs for one day if one intends to be very physically active, but meets most of that need.


    Bowl is also incredibly sturdy. Can be used as a shield in a pinch!


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 14.1 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had to wonder who in the world was bored enough to create this item. And why in the world they had done it. But apparently, Sallia was now going to be carting around a magic ramen bowl that could permanently increase her stats, give her emergency provisions, and could function as a shield in an emergency. Apparently.


    The Market¡¯s items were sometimes quite¡­ unusual. But at least the item seemed useful, even if it was incredibly weird.


    Finally, we found a set of backpacks. These were nothing too exciting, but would definitely be useful if we needed to carry stuff around in the future.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Storage Pack


    Effects:


    Significantly larger on the inside than the outside. Has 5 cubic meters of dimensional storage inside.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 2.3 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This just seemed useful to have in general, I took one. While we hadn¡¯t had to travel around too much during our time in the islands, in future lives, we were planning to do things that seemed risky, but had high rewards. The risky but rewarding opportunities might be located right next to our home, the way the ocean had been right next to the islands, but that was unlikely. So having a dimensional backpack to carry stuff around would make keeping our supplies set up. I was the only one that took one because we figured one dimensional storage was probably enough for shorter trips.


    For Felix and I¡¯s final item, we ended up grabbing two pairs of nice, sturdy boots.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Sturdy Boots


    Effects:


    Keeps your feet protected. While feeling comfortable, they are as resistant to damage as decent-quality iron, and also offer some insulation against magical and weather-related effects.


    Note: Should be effectively able to let you stand in a pool of weak acid forever without harming your feet. However, stronger acids, as well as other environmental factors such as lava, will likely melt the boots within a few seconds. Be cautious.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 1.1 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The protection against things like acid and lava probably wouldn¡¯t be incredibly relevant to us, but it was nice to have if it did come up. It was the only other useful-seeming item we could find in the shop, and so Felix and I decided to equip it to our final item slot. There was no use in leaving it empty, after all. And if we were planning on potentially traveling a lot next life, having a pair of nice boots definitely wouldn¡¯t hurt.


    With that, all five of us had items picked out for the next world. I figured it was a good enough set of items to see us through our next life with much less difficulty and much greater convenience than our first lives. Except for the three high-quality items, I couldn¡¯t say that the rest of the items were terribly exciting, but they were at least useful. I decided to consider the higher-quality items in the shop examples of what the Market could do when it really tried to make nice items, while the rest was mostly junk for weaker Transmigrators.


    Finally, we looted 22 Achievement each from the cash register of the shop, bringing my total from 210 to 232.


    After that, we headed back into the Market to look for a place to reincarnate. We had a little less than a month before our bodies started to deteriorate, but there was a decent chance the next reincarnation spot would be defended, and we wanted to have as much time as possible to deal with the guards there.


    After dealing with whatever blocked the next reincarnation spot, it was time to start a new journey.

 Chapter 68: A New Journey

    It took us nearly three days to find another reincarnation spot. This was mostly because six hours into our journey, we ran into another, wealthier commercial district. It seemed that the commercial district wasn¡¯t just one ¡®zone¡¯ the way the residential and entertainment districts were. Instead, it seemed to be split into several sections, divided by wealth and the kinds of products sold. The new zone seemed to be selling much more interesting products than the poorer commercial zone we had been exploring up until now. The first building we saw was selling custom-made bodies, which might have given us a huge leg up over the strange creatures of the Market.


    Unfortunately, ever since the Market had been destroyed, wealthy areas were also inhabited by stronger enemies. The moment we crossed the border from the poorer commercial zone to the wealthier one, the air around us started vibrating.


    Sallia, Felix and I took one moment to process what was happening before we made a run for it. However, a wooden butterfly hidden on the side of a nearby building noticed us as we were fleeing, and started chasing after us. Unlike the wooden butterflies created by the strange tree root, this one didn¡¯t seem to have a range limitation, and it was determined to kill us after spotting us.


    Luckily, we dodged whatever was causing the air to shake, and we also successfully fled from the wooden butterfly, although Felix nearly lost a leg after tripping on a ruined wooden beam and nearly failing to dodge an attack. Fortunately, Sallia managed to pull him away before he actually lost a limb.


    We managed to get rid of it after about an hour of running, but by the time we escaped the pursuit of the wooden butterfly, we were completely lost.


    From there, we ended up aimlessly wandering around for several more hours. We avoided fights as best we could, dealt with single skeletons whenever we spotted them, and simply looked for a good place to reincarnate.


    Finally, we found another reincarnation spot. It was designed completely differently from the first one, and instead was decorated to resemble a space station, which was an aesthetic I hadn¡¯t seen used very often in the Market. However, most importantly, it had a floating billboard above it that advertised it as a reincarnation spot.


    ¡°Dreamcorp¡¯s reincarnation point! Just pay 2,000 Achievement to proceed to your next life! We guarantee that you¡¯ll end up in a world with a System of its own if you use our spot, and that the world¡¯s Tier will not exceed 10! Useful for newer Transmigrators, since worlds with Systems of their own can often allow you to exceed your original starting potential by several times if you are clever and resourceful!¡±


    I found the billboard pretty interesting for a few reasons. First, if I recall correctly, the Luxcorp Reincarnation spot that we had used the first time had only cost five Achievement, while this one demanded 2,000 Achievement. Which, honestly, seemed completely ridiculous. It was a crazy price to pay for access to a pool of reincarnation, and it was a full tenth of the Achievement Felix had earned during our past life. If we factored in the fact that Transmigrators normally paid 20% of their earnings to whoever added them into the Market, along with whatever price one needed to pay for actually buying another life, and whatever taxes the Market itself had collected when it still functioned, the price tag seemed even more absurd.


    Most interesting, however, was the fact that the billboard guaranteed we wouldn¡¯t end up in a world above Tier 10, and would guarantee that we would end up in a world with a System of its own.


    I had wondered for a while if ¡®targeted¡¯ reincarnation was possible. I had no idea if Transmigrators had any way to control what kind of world they landed in, and so far, the answer had seemed to be a resounding ¡®no.¡¯


    However, this reincarnation point directly contradicted this idea. Although the price tag was completely ridiculous, it did confirm that there were ways to control where you ended up, or at least hinted that it was possible to control a lot more of where one ended up than I had previous expected. After all, it was possible to manipulate what tier of world one reincarnated in and whether a System was present or not, it could also be possible to manipulate far more.


    In the future, if we found the right reincarnation spots, we might be able to get much more specific in what kind of worlds we ended up in, even if it might not be possible to do something as specific as reincarnating in one specific world over and over again.


    Of course, I could see why regular inhabitants of the Market might not want to bother with using this kind of reincarnation spot; after all, if more controlled reincarnations had been as prohibitively expensive as this one, it was definitely a service for the wealthy.


    I also found the fact that other Systems outside of the Market existed to be fascinating. I was 99% sure the System of the Market had been explicitly created in order to make life on the Market work as smoothly as possible, especially for the purposes of extracting wealth from its inhabitants. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if Systems in other worlds were also intentionally created, or if they could exist as ¡®naturally occurring¡¯ Systems. For now I had no idea, although if we found some relevant records in the Market later I might be able to learn more.


    For now, however, I put my thoughts about what kinds of worlds existed in the Multiverse aside and focused back on the reincarnation spot in front of us. It was appealing.


    After reading Sel¡¯thub¡¯s thoughts about Tier 20 Worlds, I had zero interest in being born in one until we were much stronger. Tier 10 would still be pretty difficult, but it would at least be less overwhelming than a Tier 20 world. And a System existing on whatever world we landed on would be helpful as well, if they let us overcome our mediocre starting Stats and advance upwards. In a sense, a world with a System of its own would be the ¡®fairest¡¯ starting point for us, since we wouldn¡¯t be limited by the fact that we were new Transmigrators who hadn¡¯t spent very much Achievement improving ourselves yet.


    However, this was also counterbalanced by the risk of trying to use this reincarnation spot. If our assumptions about wealthier areas having stronger enemies was correct, this area could be crushingly powerful compared to us. I did remember that the skeletal mage guarding the first pool of reincarnation we had encountered had been ¡®away¡¯ when we had first encountered it, but there was no guarantee that it would be the same story in this spot.


    ¡°Do we risk it?¡± I asked. ¡°This place does have some pretty appealing points. And if it has any Achievement left laying around, it could also be a huge amount. But if we get into a fight with whatever guards this place, it¡¯s probably going to instantly kill us, and we have no idea what we might run into. Thoughts?¡±


    Felix looked at the compound, and then chuckled. ¡°I do find the idea of targeted reincarnation interesting, but the benefit of only being able to be reborn in worlds at or below Tier 10 probably doesn¡¯t help us much. If the giant sea monster from our previous, Tier 2 world is any indication, Even a Tier 4 world can probably squish us. So the range of worlds we can reincarnate into that will demolish us doesn¡¯t really change very much, honestly¡±


    Sallia also nodded. ¡°I have no idea what to expect from a world with a System of its own, as well. And the guardian here is probably way out of our league. I don¡¯t think this is worth gambling a life on.¡± She turned to me. ¡°Miria, I know you like riskier paths with higher rewards and higher risks, but I just don¡¯t think this is worth trying yet. Maybe in a life or two, when we¡¯re a little sturdier and we can handle the threats of the Market better? But if we try right now, I just don¡¯t see us actually surviving the attempt, even if the rewards could be worth it.¡±


    I shrugged, before I also nodded. I was kind of interested in trying it, but if my friends thought the reward wasn¡¯t worth the risk, I wouldn¡¯t drag them along. ¡°All right. Then let¡¯s go before the guard here kills us.¡±


    As we were leaving, I saw a strange whirlpool of shadow slink its way into the building from somewhere nearby. My Madness keyword triggered for a brief moment, before we finished leaving the area. I wondered what the strange shadow had been, although I couldn¡¯t help but think it was probably a good thing I hadn¡¯t found out.


    It took another week before we found a more suitable reincarnation spot. This one was nearly a duplicate of the first spot we had found. It even had a similar advertisement.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°Luxcorp¡¯s reincarnation point! Just pay ten Achievement to proceed to your next life! Also contains lower tier soul fragment cubes for those who forgot to buy a few Stats! Pay a few Achievement and save yourself some walking!¡±


    Unlike the Greek temple decorations our first luxcorp reincarnation spot had used, this one was decorated like a simple wooden mansion. It had a garden outside, which still looked rather nice and well tended, even if hundreds of years had passed since it was last tended to. The doors were open and inviting.


    ¡°This looks like the right spot,¡± said Sallia.


    I nodded. ¡°Ten Achievement per reincarnation isn¡¯t too expensive, so the threat range should be similar to what we encountered during our first trip to the pool of reincarnation. Whatever guards this place shouldn¡¯t be too strong, hopefully.¡± I thought back to our first encounter with the skeleton Mage, right before our first reincarnation, before I frowned. ¡°Even the skeletal Mage we encountered the first time was pretty strong. I don¡¯t know if we could beat it in an upfront fight if we fought it again right now. Last time we mostly ran for our lives and got lucky.¡±


    ¡°Good point,¡± said Sallia, who was now also frowning. ¡°In fact, now that I think about it, we¡¯re incredibly lucky it wasn¡¯t around while we approached the pool of reincarnation the first time. If it hadn¡¯t been away, we would have died before we could get inside of the water, and would have lost a life. In fact, that¡¯s probably one of the critical ways new Transmigrators these days get strangled before they can start getting more powerful; they lose a life or two trying to reincarnate for the first time, get lucky, come back with two or three lives remaining, can¡¯t buy lives, and then get whittled down over one or two more worlds before they permanently die. We should consider reincarnating to be one of the most dangerous parts of each trip to the Market, honestly.¡±


    ¡°Could we use the fact that the first skeletal Mage was away for a while as a way to sneak by?¡± said Felix. ¡°If one of the skeletal Mages didn¡¯t guard its area 100% of the time, others might not guard their area all the time either. We might be able to exploit that.¡±


    It was as good a guess as any, so the three of us took over a nearby building that had a view of this particular reincarnation pool¡¯s entrance. And then, we settled down to wait.


    After three days of observation, we determined a few things.


    First, this area was guarded by four skeletal Mages. One Mage was always in the area, while the other three left once every day. Furthermore, each skeletal Mage commanded a small horde of skeletons and flesh giants.


    Every time the skeletal mages left, they returned within a few hours. And twice so far, they had returned with a new skeleton in their horde, making us think they were leaving to recruit each time. On a third occasion, one of the skeletal Mages even returned with a new Flesh giant.


    However, luckily, the skeletal Mages were fairly consistent in their timing. Each time they left, they didn¡¯t return for a few hours, leaving only one skeletal mage to guard in the area. It was also the same skeletal mage each time, which ensured the remaining guard was the weakest one. It still commanded a small horde of monsters, but it didn¡¯t add new ones to its horde, so it only commanded one flesh giant and fourteen normal skeletons. Which was still more than we could handle, but it was possible to get through it as long as we avoided an extended fight.


    Hopefully.


    The three of us eventually settled on a plan to exploit what we had observed.


    Sallia, who was currently the strongest out of the three of us, would first serve as a distraction, by charging the skeletal mage and killing whatever ranged lesser skeletons she could during her charge. Then, Felix and I would flee towards the pool of reincarnation, while Sallia caught up afterwards.


    It wasn¡¯t the most complex plan, but there was beauty in simplicity. And more importantly, it had at least a reasonable chance of working. As far as we remembered, the flesh giants weren¡¯t very fast, and only two of the fourteen skeletal foot soldiers had bows. Meaning that as long as Sallia killed the two of them, Felix and I would only need to worry about magic attacks as we ran towards the portal.


    Letting Sallia fight on her own didn¡¯t sit well with me, but right now, she was the strongest of the three of us. If anyone could pull this off without losing a life, it was her. So I put aside my pride and prayed that my friend wouldn¡¯t get hurt helping Felix and I escape to a pool of reincarnation.


    The next day, after the three skeletal mages left and we gave them some time to ensure they weren¡¯t nearby, we started our charge towards the pool of reincarnation.


    Sallia, without saying a word, simply charged towards the horde of skeletons. Before they noticed her, she beheaded one of the two skeletal archers, ending its potential as a threat.


    The skeletal Mage finally noticed Sallia and glared at her, shrieking in hatred. ¡°Filthy transmigrator! I knew more of your kind would come eventually! You vermin always return!¡± It yelled, pointing at Sallia.


    From its extended finger, a lance made of fire appeared, before flying towards the spot where Sallia was standing. Sallia deftly slid underneath the gout of flames, before beheading the other archer. There was now only one ranged enemy left, and Sallia probably wouldn¡¯t be able to kill it.


    After that, the remaining twelve skeletons and the flesh giant closed in on her, and I lost sight of Sallia.


    I felt a shiver of nerves as I hoped that Sallia wouldn¡¯t get hurt by the fight. But right now, I had to trust in her ability to survive.


    I gritted my teeth as Felix and I ran out of the building and charged past the fight.


    ¡°More of you!¡± shrieked the skeletal Mage. It had noticed us.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an arc of acid fly towards me.


    I burned mana and ducked underneath the attack, before Felix and I finished running towards the building and ducked inside.


    Then, we ran into a problem. There were three passageways into the building, and there was no indication which one was the correct path.


    ¡°Which way?¡± I hissed, turning to Felix and hoping he somehow knew the correct path forward.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know! Left!¡± Said Felix.


    His guess was as good as mine, so the two of us charged left.


    We sprinted down the hallway, where we ran into¡­ a room filled with cubes.


    ¡°Easy access Soul Fragments! Only a 5% markup for convenient placement!¡± claimed one of the signs. ¡°Tier 1 Soul fragments for only 52.5 Achievement, Tier 2 Soul Fragments for only 84 Achievement, and Tier 3 Soul Fragments for only 136.5 Achievement. You don¡¯t need to walk all the way back to a store if you want to finish loading up on Stats for your next life! If you don¡¯t have enough Achievement, take a loan from the Achievement bank located in the right corridor of the building!¡±


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I growled, looking at the rows of Soul Fragment Cubes. I would have welcomed seeing them earlier, but this was clearly the wrong room.


    Felix and I quickly turned around, sprinting back down the corridor¡­ before nearly slamming into Sallia, chased by a pack of angry skeletons, a flesh giant, and a skeletal mage.


    ¡°Which way?¡± asked Sallia, looking at us.


    I pointed directly towards the middle corridor, and Sallia nodded.


    Then, a burst of fire tore its way into my stomach. I blinked in shock, preparing myself for incredible pain, as the lance of fire¡­ was pulled into my dress, disappearing into whatever pocket dimension stored the lake inside. A moment later, I felt a scalding sensation on my stomach, as some amount of fire magic made its way onto my belly. However, it was just a minor burn.


    My new dress was better at keeping me alive than I had expected.


    ¡°Filthy transmigrator! Always using cheap tricks!¡± shrieked the skeletal mage, before shooting a blast of acid towards my completely unprotected legs instead.


    I burned mana and rolled to my left, dodging it.


    While I was distracted, the flesh giant grabbed my arm. With a roar, I was suddenly jerked upwards as the massive creature lifted me like a ragdoll. Then, the world spun as I was slammed into the floor.


    ¡°Fuck off!¡± Screamed Sallia, before she swung the sword she had taken from a skeleton directly into the flesh giant¡¯s arm.


    It got stuck before it even cut halfway through the creature¡¯s arm. However, it did cause it to involuntarily loosen its grip.


    I tried to thank Sallia, but the only sound I could make was a strange gargling sound. Something was wrong with either my throat or my lungs.


    ¡°Die!¡± Screeched the skeleton, pointing towards Sallia and firing another gout of flames at her.


    Sallia, who was trying to help me up, got caught unprotected by the gout of flames. The right half of her body lit up like molten metal, and my heart leapt into my throat as I wondered if Sallia had just died.


    A moment later, Felix shot an arrow at the skeletal mage. It bounced off of the creature¡¯s skull, causing its head to snap back but failing to kill it. However, even though this thing¡¯s skull was far sturdier than a regular skeleton¡¯s, hitting it with an arrow still caused it to lose control of its spell, and Sallia¡¯s unburned half twitched sporadically, letting us know she was still technically alive.


    Then, Felix grabbed the two of us and began quickly dragging us down the middle corridor, fleeing from the horde of skeletons and the flesh giant. Once my head stopped spinning from being slammed into the ground, I managed to get back to my feet, before I grabbed Sallia, burned mana, and flung both of us through the doorway at the end of the corridor.


    Inside of the next room was a pool of glowing green water. I didn¡¯t hesitate before I leapt into the pool, and a moment later, Felix landed next to us with a splash while the skeletal mage in the distance.


    Then, the world seemed to bend, and moments later we were back inside of the ocean of souls, heading towards our next lives.

 Chapter 69: Darkness

    Just like the first time we had entered a pool of reincarnation, the three of us quickly lost track of our surroundings. As our Market-given bodies collapsed, our souls drifted through an ocean of darkness for an unknown amount of time, connected by golden bands of light that kept us from drifting apart. Then, something started pulling us forward, and I found myself jerked around as we started to head towards a new location.


    A few moments later, I felt myself sink into something that resembled a warm, fuzzy cocoon. The golden threads connecting me to Sallia and Felix disappeared, and my mana-brain started collapsing into nothingness. After my brain collapsed, I fell asleep.


    The next thing I was aware of was a woman screaming in pain, and I felt something pushing me. Moments later, light flooded my vision, and out of instinct, I started crying.


    A few moments later, a woman wearing a strange white and pink dress picked me up, before smiling and saying something in a language I didn¡¯t recognize. I heard my mother laugh weakly, before the woman in the white and pink dress gently cleaned up my body. Then, the woman in the white and pink dress gently turned me around and handed me back to my mother. My mother looked exhausted, but she smiled at me and held me gently in her arms.


    I tried to muster up the energy to look at my status screen, or look around a little more, but I had forgotten how hard it was to concentrate as an infant. My brain just couldn¡¯t handle being aware of the world yet. Moments after I managed to give my mother a smile, I blacked out as my brain shut itself off.


    Just like my first life, the next few years were a series of disjointed images, headaches, and random scenes, as my body instinctively worked on autopilot through the first few years of my life. I occasionally saw my mother and father, smiling at me as they walked around. Sometimes, I saw images of confusing streets, which let me know that I was occasionally being carried around town, even if I wasn¡¯t really conscious enough to observe it. I didn¡¯t get a very good look at either of my parents, simply because the times I was fully conscious were few and far between.


    During some of the times I was aware, I often saw the same set of children, sitting near me or playing with me. I quickly realized that I wasn¡¯t an only child.


    By the time I turned five, I was finally able to retake full control of my body, and I had a little more time to process what I was looking at.


    Currently, I was staring at my mother¡¯s face and giggling, while my father was talking to one of my brothers a ways away.


    ¡°Can you say ¡®Mama,¡¯ Miria?¡± asked my mother, smiling at me as she rocked me back and forth.


    ¡°Mama!¡± I said, giving my mother a hug. My mother smiled at me.


    ¡°Orin! Your daughter said her first words! I¡¯m so glad that she¡¯s so bright! Talking before she even turns six!¡±


    Six? I wondered. A child talking before turning six was considered unusual? In my last life, talking at around the age of three or four had been pretty normal. Why was it suddenly unusual to talk before turning six?


    I wondered if I was some sort of human-adjacent species, instead of actually being human. A human child would definitely be speaking way before they turned six. My mother and father looked pretty normal, but that didn¡¯t mean that they were exactly the same, biologically, as a human¡­


    Now that my mother was distracted, I took a moment to pull up my Status Screen, wondering if it could shed some light on my species.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Infant¡¯s Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.


    Second Note - This Body has an extremely mixed bloodline. It appears that several of your ancestors either enjoyed taking baths in radiation, or that in your somewhat-recent ancestry your ancestors were the subject of some sort of genetic experimentation.


    Dominant species bloodlines:


    Lunenthyri: 30% (Normally 8%, but presence of this bloodline is increased due to the influence of your ¡®Identity¡¯ Ability


    Undenthyri: 50% (Normally 80%, but decreased due to the ¡®Identity¡¯ Ability


    Arlenthyri: 20% (Normally 12%, but increased due to the ¡®Identity¡¯ Ability


    Ortha: 0% (Nearly 1%, but rounded down).


    Immature Organic Brain: A vastly underdeveloped humanoid brain that has yet to finish maturing. Several parts of your brain are also wired to make Manifestation and Alteration type spellcasting possible. However, due to the influence of your ancestors, some types of magic may be easier than others.


    Until this brain finishes developing, it will be difficult to think clearly, leading to periods of time where you are ruled by survival instincts. Attempting to perform advanced thinking with an underdeveloped brain may result in severe headaches or loss of consciousness. This will not result in long term harm, but will be extremely unpleasant. To reduce this problem, it is recommended you purchase more Intelligence Stats to speed up the development of future brains.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+84)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+108)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+120)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+97)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (20+128)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+105)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (20+110)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+70)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+70)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+123)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 4


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 23/50


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Weapon Abilities:


    Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Birth related Abilities:


    Body Control (0 Glut Penalty)


    Identity (1 Glut Penalty)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 218.89


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 5/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1. Simple Friendship Bracelet with Location Tracking


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2. Sturdy Boots


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    3. Lake-Gazer''s Dress


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    4. Two-Purpose Training Sword


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    5. Storage Pack


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Total Maintenance cost (per life): 35.2


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I scanned my Screen for a moment, before I shrugged.


    Apparently, I was a mixture of multiple species. I had no clue what Lunenthyri, Undenthyri, Arlenthyri, or the Ortha were,  but apparently I had a lot of biological influence from the first three species, and a very minor amount of my ancestry traced back to the Ortha as well.


    My Stats were a bit more interesting. My physical Stats were nothing amazing, but they were passable. My Perception looked like it was going to be a much bigger problem than my physical Stats, though. I would likely end up with an unbalanced ratio of physical Stats and perception the moment I formed my first rune, so my physical stat rolls were surprisingly unimportant because Perception would weaken any physical Stats I had anyway.


    I hoped there were some special resources I could access that would help me improve my perception a little bit, since even boosting to grade 5 would be a big help. Perhaps I could borrow some soup from Sallia¡¯s magic noodle bowl later on? I would talk with her about it next time we met up.


    However, my Essence Stats were pretty good, which alleviated my disappointment at my poor Perception. Except for Binding Essence, which was terrible, the rest of my Essence Stats were solid.


    Hopefully Binding Essence wasn¡¯t the ¡®main¡¯ magic system of this world, or I feel very awkward. Though I could use my Absorption Essence stat regardless of this world¡¯s magic system, thanks to {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}.


    Having high Intelligence and low Perception was also surprisingly irritating. I noticed that I had a strong tendency to get lost in my thoughts; not because I was easily distractible, but because I didn¡¯t have as good of a ¡®feel¡¯ for what my body was doing or what my surroundings were like due to my low Perception, and at the exact same time, my mind was incredibly clear and capable of doing computations and calculations it normally wasn¡¯t able to handle. Which made me get lost in my thoughts quite easily. It was an odd experience.


    I took a moment to read through the other System notifications. And then, as I was scanning through my notifications, I felt my heart freeze.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations on Successfully Transmigrating!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Analyzing this world¡­ Analysis complete!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essences Present in this dimension: Manifestation, Alteration


    Estimated tier: 4 (according to the Market¡¯s standardized power evaluation scale)


    Special notes: It appears that this world was previously Tier 5, but due to a botched attempt at dimensional travel and corrosion from an outside dimension, this world¡¯s mana has been seriously weakened, lowering the amount of mana available and seriously weakening modern-day magic users. The other dimension still appears to be connected to this one, and is of unknown world tier.


    Keep in mind that ancient ruins and nations were likely much stronger than the present day, and the weapons and defenses present within them may reflect that. Be cautious of external invaders, if applicable.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Tier 4? Previously Tier 5? Botched dimensional travel? Corrosion from an outside dimension?


    What happened in this world¡¯s history?


    I definitely felt that a Tier 4 world was bad news right now. And whatever dimension we were apparently connected to might be even more threatening than a Tier 4 world. Even though a Tier 4 world was already more than we could probably handle.


    After reading the message log between Sel¡¯thub and Edwin, I was incredibly cautious of higher tier worlds. Even a Tier 2 World had been filled with terrifying monstrosities that could demolish the three of us. Just how much worse was a Tier 4 world going to be? And what did it even look like when a world was connected to another dimension?


    I had always known that when the three of us died and were reborn with the help of the Market, we were basically moving from one dimension to another. But this was the first time I had thought about crossing dimensions without dying first. I would need to sort out what that meant in the future, but first, I needed to figure out what was up with this dimension and its history.


    After a few moments of trying not to freak out, I managed to calm down. If this world was dangerous, Sallia, Felix and I would figure out how to deal with it once we got back together. At least for now, I didn¡¯t appear to be in any danger. My parents didn¡¯t look wary of their surroundings, and my mother was still playfully grinning at my father while my brothers made faces at each other. Even if this world was highly dangerous, right now I was safe.


    I quickly scanned the rest of my message log, making sure that I hadn¡¯t received notifications of Sallia or Felix¡¯s death, but I hadn¡¯t received any notification of their demise. In other words, they should be somewhere nearby.


    With my pressing System notifications dealt with, I took a closer look at my new home.


    The room we were in was well lit, but not by candles or any sort of lightning I recognized. Instead, some sort of glowing moss was stuffed into a variety of containers, most of which had holes strategically placed in them to let out light without letting the moss make a mess. This gave the entire room a soft blue glow. Even though I had never seen moss-lighting before, it was surprisingly beautiful.


    However, the room we were sitting in had a dirt floor. The walls were made of stone and wood, and were held together with metal nails; I couldn¡¯t tell whether they were iron or steel, but I was pretty sure it was one of the two. However, the dirt floor hinted at our family¡¯s weak financial situation.


    I also had three siblings that I could see. Two older brothers and a sister. My oldest brother looked like he was around twelve, but I hadn¡¯t figured out if my current species had some sort of longer lifespan or something. All three of my siblings wore patched clothes, which convinced me that we were, indeed, rather poor.


    However, at the very least, nobody looked like they were thin or malnourished. So I probably didn¡¯t have to worry about hunger.


    My mother and father were also a bit on the short side. They were probably a little under 145-ish centimeters tall. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was a species trait, or if they were unusually short for this world, but they were definitely below what I would consider normal adult height. And, now that I took a closer look, I also realized that their eyes, in particular, didn¡¯t look human. Instead, they looked kind of like the eyes of a lizard, which worked surprisingly well with the rest of their facial features.


    My father had six fingers on both hands, which threw me for a loop when I first noticed it. My mother had the regular four fingers and one thumb, and, with some relief, I realized that I also had four fingers and a thumb instead of six. To round it all off, both of my parents had dry-looking black hair, as did most of my siblings. My sister, however, had a much lighter-brown color of hair.


    By contrast, I had retained most of my physical characteristics from my time as Miria on the islands due to my ¡®Identity¡¯ Ability. I had the same glossy blonde hair I had grown used to, and when I checked a nearby bowl of water and looked at my reflection, my eyes were a solid blue color. My pupils did look a little bit more crescent shaped than I was used to, but for whatever reason, they also made it incredibly easy to see in the dimly-lit room.


    Furthermore, I realized that I was a little taller than my older sister, despite being at least a few years younger. Which probably meant I would become abnormally tall for my family as I grew up. I could see how my {Identity} Ability was intentionally looking at how I ¡®wanted¡¯ to look when I grew up, and using that to influence my appearance: I hadn¡¯t completely shaken off the unique physical characteristics of my current species, but I definitely looked a lot like¡­ well, like me. I looked pretty different from my time as ¡®Miria¡¯ on the islands, but I still looked close enough that people would recognize me. I wasn¡¯t so utterly different that it was impossible to recognize me, even if I looked like I had gotten a makeover.


    I turned towards my mother, who was still moving between my father and I while gushing over my first words. I wondered if it was possible to get a better look at the city outside. Seeing more of our environment could give me much more information about whatever the heck was going on in this world.


    ¡°Mama! Outside?¡± I asked, pointing to the door.


    My mother giggled, as she walked over to me and lifted me up before gently patting my head. ¡°We can go later tonight, sweetie. I¡¯ve been meaning to head to the tailor and buy some threads recently. Your older brother is just wearing through his clothes too quickly, and I need to patch his pants again¡­ And we can celebrate your first words, too! You even managed to say ¡®outside¡¯ as well! Can you say ¡®papa¡¯ to your father?¡± She asked, turning me towards my father.


    With a mental shrug, I grinned at my father. ¡°Papa!¡± I said, holding my pudgy arms out towards him for a hug. He smiled, picked me up from my mother¡¯s arms, and gave me a quick kiss on the top of my head before handing me back to my mother.


    My mother turned back towards my father as she gently held me. ¡°Dearest, do you want to come with me and bring the other children along? We could make it a little family outing. I got paid a decent amount for the last dress I made. We could have dinner at that little restaurant you like, in order to celebrate the day, and we can have some fun in town.¡±


    My father leaned towards my mother and gave her a quick peck on the lips. ¡°That sounds lovely, dear.¡±


    I grinned. This time I wouldn¡¯t be stuck indoors for years while a horrifying mind-devouring ocean squatted just outside of the door and waited to destroy my brain. And with some luck, maybe I would figure out more about this world. If I wanted to figure out what sort of goal to pursue this time, and if I wanted to avoid getting killed instantly by whatever horrors lurked in this dimension, I needed a good idea what this world looked like, and I could get a decent start right now.

 Chapter 70: Below the Surface

    My mother stepped out of the room, before she returned with a pink dress. The dress wasn¡¯t new, and I could tell that it was handed down from my older sister, based on the wear and tear at the edges. Most odd, the dress was clearly made for someone a little smaller than me. I wondered if it was a hand me down from my sister, since she was older, before frowning. The fact that I was taller than average for my age in this family might be a bit more of a problem than I thought.


    ¡°Miria, come over here. I¡¯ll help you put on your dress,¡± said my mother, smiling at me. ¡°You¡¯re still less than ten years old, so you need to wear pink whenever you¡¯re outside. I¡¯ll help you get it on.¡± I paused, wondering what my age had to do with the color of clothes, before I shrugged. Right now, I didn¡¯t understand the culture of this world very well. I also wondered if the reason my dress was too small was because people didn¡¯t wear pink after they turned ten. The midwife who had helped my mother give birth to me had been wearing pink, but perhaps there was some sort of other meaning to the color pink.


    Shrugging, I walked over to my mother, who helped me change into the pink dress. Since I was an adult mentally, someone helping me get changed felt a little embarrassing, but since I was only five years old, perhaps it made sense that my parents were helping me change.


    While I was getting dressed, my older sister barged into the room where my mother was helping me, before she stared curious at me.


    ¡°Mommy, can I wear a pink dress too?¡± she asked. I took a closer look at my older sister, and frowned. I would have guessed she was around six years old. Didn¡¯t my mother say that children below the age of ten wore pink? I had a bit of a hard time believing that she was ten, unless my species aged very differently than humans did.


    My mother shook her head. ¡°You¡¯ve turned eleven a week ago, sweetie. You¡¯re a little too old to wear pink now.¡±


    My sister pouted and pointed at me. ¡°That¡¯s not fair! Miria gets to wear pink! I want to wear pink too!¡±


    My mother smiled. ¡°If you still like wearing pink, you can learn to be a healer, Ellie. Healers get to wear pink all the time.¡±


    My sister, named Ellie, frowned. ¡°I want to wear pink now though.¡±


    My mother smiled, and kissed Ellie on her forehead. ¡°You can wear pink at home, sweetie. Don¡¯t worry, as long as you¡¯re not in a public space nobody will say anything about which color you wear.¡± My mother frowned. ¡°But you also need to be nice. Children can¡¯t wear pink after they turn eleven outside, and Miria is already wearing one of your old dresses. Don¡¯t you think she deserves to be happy wearing pink for the next five years as well?¡±


    My sister frowned, and gave my pink dress a longing look, before she sighed and turned away. She didn¡¯t seem happy about the conclusion of the conversation, but she didn¡¯t seem like she was going to kick up a fuss about it either.


    I couldn¡¯t help but think more about my mother¡¯s statement though. My sister was eleven? Clearly, my species aged pretty differently than humans did. I just didn¡¯t know how big the difference was.


    Eventually, my mother finished helping me into the pink dress, and I stepped back out of the room. My brothers, who were both wearing black, emerged from one of the other rooms of the house. They both gave me small nods, before they turned back towards each other and grinned, caught up in their own world. My mother gave my sister¡¯s blue dress a quick check while my father double-checked my brother¡¯s clothes, before my father opened the door for my mother and I.


    My mother held my hand as we walked out the front door, as if worried that I trip or get separated from her. I took a step forward, and got my first proper look at the world outside of our home.


    Far above our heads was a giant ceiling made of white and pink stone. I took one look at it, before I realized we lived in some sort of underground city. However, the underground wasn¡¯t dark, the way I had imagined it would be.


    Instead, glowing moss clung to nearly every surface in the city, as well as the ceiling. My eyes, which had incredible night vision, made it easy for me to pick out all of the details in our surroundings, even though the moss-light shouldn¡¯t have been enough to see everything clearly.


    Mushrooms sprouted from the stone floor, and even from the sides of some more derelict houses. Much like the moss, they were luminescent, giving the entire city a soft, beautiful blue glow. The entire cave that the city was located inside of was shaped kind of like a giant dome, although it wasn¡¯t quite as a perfect sphere. There were a variety of jagged surfaces on the walls and ceiling.


    Supporting the ceiling were several giant pillars, all made out of a strange, yellow and black stone. I could see strange symbols etched on each stone, although I couldn¡¯t tell if they were magical or religious in nature. The pillars were also covered in glowing moss, although the moss that grew on these stones glowed green instead of blue. The pillars looked¡­ almost perfect, as if they had grown out of the ceiling and cave floor to perfectly support the city ceiling. However, the fact that they were a completely different kind of rock from every other part of our surroundings made me assume that the pillars were magical in nature.


    Finally, to the north of the city, I could see a large stone fort, which had been constructed out of the same white stone as the pillars were. Just a bit further ahead of the fort, I could vaguely see pink grass in the distance, and I could even see sunlight. The pink grass took a bit of getting used to; I had never seen pink grass before now. It was my first time seeing such a strange color for normal flora in a dimension. I also wondered why we were living underground, when the surface was so clearly visible just a few hours of walking away from our current location. Was the surface dangerous or something? I shook my head. I could figure out more details about the surface later.


    I turned my attention back to the city, and tried to guess how many people lived here. I didn¡¯t know how many children the average family had, but if I assumed every family had around 2 or 3 children on average, this city probably had around 20,000 people living in it. Which was a huge leap upwards from the village of 600-700 people I had lived in on the islands. The population of all of the villages on the islands combined had probably been around 10,000. To have twice that number stuffed into a much smaller area made me feel¡­ surprisingly at home. I wondered if I had lived in some kind of densely-packed settlement in my first life.


    ¡°Are you getting distracted, Miria?¡± Asked my mother, smiling as she gently tugged my hand forward. ¡°We haven¡¯t gotten to the fun part yet! Let¡¯s get going.¡± She gave my wrist a gentle tug.


    I let my mother gently pull me ahead while my father corralled my more rambunctious brothers. While I had been taking in my first clear look at the city, they had been running around, laughing and getting into trouble.


    Meanwhile, my sister was hovering near my mother and I, although she occasionally looked around town and smiled at some of the other adults nearby. I got the feeling that she was a pretty outgoing kid.


    My two brothers slipped out of our sight for a moment, and my mother frowned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t run around, Jonathan! Ruman, don''t just follow your older brother around when he¡¯s running off, or I¡¯ll give both of your desserts to your father tonight, and make you watch him eat it! Apples are important for your bodies and cost more than we¡¯re usually willing to pay for a meal, but if watching your father eat some makes you behave I¡¯ll do it!¡±


    ¡°Yes, mom,¡± said my two brothers, who slipped back into view after my mother threatened them.


    ¡°Mama! Apple¡­ rare?¡± I asked, curious. Based on my mother¡¯s words, the special dessert of my brothers was apples. Which wasn¡¯t something I normally considered a special dessert, but maybe some crops were hard to get since we lived underground?


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    My mother nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not overwhelmingly expensive to import fruit from the surface here, since part of our settlement is on the surface. But surface settlements are still very rare, and Orukthyri raids sometimes burn the surface settlement to the ground and destroy production again. So don¡¯t take things like fresh fruit for granted, even if we¡¯re one of the few settlements that are partially on the surface. Okay, sweetie?¡± said my mother.


    I nodded, absently thinking over her words. Orukthyri? Three of the species I had bloodlines from were the Lunenthyri, Undenthyri, and Arlenthyri. I was beginning to think that ¡®Thyri¡¯ was some sort of specific term that was added to the end of most species names. Though, that did make me wonder why the Ortha, my fourth species bloodline, didn¡¯t have a name that ended in ¡®Thyri.¡¯


    Odd.


    Surface settlements being rare was also useful information. Perhaps the Orukthyri, whatever they were, was what made the surface dangerous? If raids from them were a common occurrence, it made sense that most of our settlement was below ground.


    ¡°Mama? Orukthyri? What?¡±


    ¡°Monsters, sweetie. Not true monsters, the way the Outsiders, Shifted, and the creatures of the Deep Shadow are, but they are more monstrous for what they once were.¡± My mother¡¯s expression became unnaturally grim, as she glared at the surface, which was just barely visible beyond the fort. ¡°We¡¯ll talk about them when you¡¯re older. It¡¯s not a topic appropriate for children. But never go outside of the city, sweetie. And never go to the surface. The Orukthyri are there, and unless you¡¯re a Witch or a Shaper, fighting one is nearly impossible without help.¡±


    Her hand tightened over mine, and I nodded.


    Witches and Shapers, huh. Most likely, those were the names of essence-users in this world. I filed this information away for later use.


    My father seemed to frown at my mother. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t mention the Orukthyri yet. Miria is too young. That kind of topic is best left for when she¡¯s a lot older.¡±


    One of my brothers gave the surface a longing look. ¡°The Orukthyri don¡¯t seem that scary. I¡¯m sure with some training, we can also take them,¡± he said, tugging on Ruman¡¯s hand. ¡°Swordmaster Galin says I have a lot of potential, and once I turn thirty he said I¡¯m welcome to apprentice under him and learn to fight.¡±


    My mother and father both whirled towards Jonathan, who had spoken, before my father shook his head. ¡°Jonathan, the Orukthyri are impossible to defeat for a normal warrior, and probably even for swordmaster Galin. The soldiers of the stone fort need a huge numerical advantage or good terrain to fight against them. If you want to be a soldier, I won¡¯t stand in your way. You''re getting older, and you have the right to choose how you live your life once you turn thirty. But don¡¯t underestimate the Orukthyri. Back when all of us lived under the rule of the Ortha, the Orukthyri were shaped specifically for war. All of the intelligence and magical potential that was stripped away from their subspecies has been exchanged for¡­ terrifying war potential. They are¡­ different. Twisted. If you ever fight one on your own, you will die. No matter how skilled of a warrior you are, they are stronger than we can be.¡± My father sighed, giving the surface a strangely longing look.


    Jonathan didn¡¯t quite seem to believe my father, but he let the statement pass without any comment.


    I nodded thoughtfully as I listened in to the conversation.


    Thirty years old was considered old enough to begin an apprenticeship in this world. That was pretty convincing evidence that my current species aged much more slowly than humans.


    I wondered how old my brother was.


    ¡°How old¡­ oldest person in town?¡± I asked, even more curious now.


    My father pursed his lips in thought. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, sweetie. I hear old lady Dobis turned 162 last year? She¡¯s the oldest person I know of, at least.¡± My father shrugged. ¡°She¡¯s pretty old, at least.¡±


    So the lifespan of my current species is probably around double the lifespan of an average person, I thought, nodding. I recalled that with really good medical care, living to eighty years old wasn¡¯t too unusual. If we had a couple people around 160 years old in this city, I could roughly assume that people aged half as quickly on this world. It might not be incredibly precise, but it seemed like a good enough estimate for easy math.


    With my immediate questions about longevity answered, I took more time to look at the people of the town we were traveling through the streets.


    The people of this town were¡­ a very mixed bunch.


    Some of them, like me, looked basically indistinguishable from regular humans. They had four fingers and a thumb on their hands, normal builds, ordinary hair colors, and some of them even had normal, human-shaped pupils and eyes.


    Some of them were only a little bit different, like my father. They would have an extra finger or toe, or gray or red-colored skin. Some of them were abnormally tall or short, and a few of them had glowing eyes. A few of them even had teeth like that of a shark, which nearly caused me to shriek in fear the first time one of them gave us a friendly smile. However, after I got used to it, I was able to start giving the other townsfolk friendly smiles back, even if their appearances unnerved me a little bit.


    All in all, the ¡®people¡¯ of this world were far more varied than I would have normally expected. No two people looked quite the same, and while everyone was relatively human shaped, there was a lot of smaller variance from one person to the next. The colors they wore were also very¡­ specific. Blacksmiths, for example, all wore gray and brown colors. More common laborers seemed to wear brown. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what every color combination meant, but I could tell that color-coding was something rather deeply embedded in the culture.


    As we passed through another street intersection, I saw a woman wearing a grand blue and white dress. Unlike most of the townsfolk, who wore somewhat simple clothes, this woman¡¯s dress was clearly tailored perfectly to fit her, and was adorned with all sorts of frills and extra designs. She looked like a noblewoman, or someone of high status.


    My parents, upon seeing her, bowed, and my brothers quickly followed suit.


    I stared at the woman, baffled, before I started trying to bow as well. Everyone else was doing it, so it must have some sort of meaning here, and I didn¡¯t need to slight a noble or something.


    However, my mother was clearly unhappy with my delayed reaction. She quickly wrapped an arm around my waist and helped me into a bowing posture.


    ¡°My apologies, Grand witch. My daughter is a newborn, as you can see,¡± said my mother, gesturing towards my pink clothing.


    The witch laughed gently, and her voice sounded like bells ringing in the breeze. There was a sort of¡­ odd quality to her sounds that I couldn¡¯t quite place my finger on.


    ¡°Do not worry. I will not begrudge a child for ignorance, much less one that isn¡¯t even ten years old yet.¡± The witch gave us a gentle smile. ¡°Good luck to you as well, little one,¡± she said, focusing entirely on me for a moment. Then, the grand witch continued walking down the street.


    My mother and father both gave the Grand Witch one more respectful nod as she left our line of sight.


    I pushed the encounter out of my thoughts. By how respectful my parents were, and how my mother referred to Witches, it seemed that the ability to use magic was quite rare in this world.


    Now that I thought about it, could I use magic here? If it was a rare ability, normally the odds would be against me. However¡­


    I checked the description for my current body again. Or at least, one very specific part of it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    If I had to guess, someone who wasn¡¯t talented with magic probably had Grade 0 in the relevant magic stats. However, Transmigrators had no way to ever roll below 70 in a given stat whenever we reincarnated.


    Did that mean that we had a 100% chance of being capable of using magic in a world we were born into, as long as the right essences were present and our bodies were biologically capable of supporting spellcasting? I didn¡¯t know if my body was biologically able to support manifestation and Alteration essence spellcasting, but I hoped I automatically had access to the spellcasting system. It would be a huge boon if Sallia, Felix and I were all capable of using magic as long as we had access to the right training and resources.


    I decided to check with Sallia and Felix once we met up, and see if they had figured anything out. If we had a 100% chance of being capable of magic in any given world we went to, that would be a huge advantage in worlds where magic was limited to a certain subset of the populace like this one. But right now, I hadn¡¯t even confirmed if I was able to use Manifestation and Alteration spellcasting, so I didn¡¯t want to get my hopes up before I confirmed my suspicion. I would need to do more investigation once I got older.


    I shook my head and pushed my thoughts to the side, as my family finally reached our destination.


    We had reached a building with a large sewing needle carved on a sign just outside of the door. Just underneath it were words I couldn¡¯t read, since I was illiterate right now. My mother, however, dove straight towards the shop, putting my thoughts of magic to the side.

 Chapter 71: The Ortha

    While my mother worked her way through the wares of the seamstress shop, I started to take stock of the rest of my situation. Since I had been in full control of my body for less than a day so far, it was still a bit hard for me to get used to moving around as a five year old.


    I wondered if Sallia and Felix were aware yet. I recalled that the System had mentioned something about Intelligence tying in to how long it took for my brain to properly house my soul again. If Sallia and Felix had rolled low, they might take another few years to properly wake up.


    I thought about that fact for a moment, not liking the idea of being alone for several years, before I sighed.


    If they took a few years to become aware again, there was nothing I could do about it. I would just have to make the best use of the time and wait until we met again.


    I concentrated on my Market items, especially my {Friendship Bracelet}, while simultaneously hiding my right hand behind my back. It took me a few moments to ¡®materialize¡¯ my friendship bracelet, which I quickly used to start tracking Sallia and Felix.


    Both of them seemed to be located somewhere to the east of my current location. I gathered that meant they were either in the center of the city, and had reincarnated as rich kids, or were on the eastern side of the city, which, as far as I could tell, was probably a middle-class area. neither was close enough for me to make contact yet, since my parents wouldn¡¯t let me out of their sight while I was this young. Since I was only two or three years old by the standards of our species, that was pretty understandable, if more than a little frustrating right now.


    I sighed, and dematerialized my friendship bracelet. It wasn¡¯t useful right now.


    Then, I started sensing my body¡¯s Absorption Essence reserves, trying to figure out if I could form runes yet. Sadly, I got the feeling that my body couldn¡¯t really handle absorption essence yet. My current body was maybe a tenth of the way to becoming compatible with Absorption Essence, probably due to baths my family had administered when I was a baby.


    I glanced around at my brothers, who were still making a ruckus, and then at my father and sister, who were now standing a little off to the side, before I materialized the {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress}. I made sure to materialize the dress under my current set of clothes, since my family would raise an eyebrow at a new dress appearing in thin air, and other people would frown at me wearing the wrong colors.


    My pink dress randomly swelled up in strange places as a new layer of cloth appeared on top of my body, before the lake dress resized itself to my current body. However, there were still bits of blue dress peeking out at weird locations on my body.


    I concentrated on shrinking the skirt of my lake dress, while also making the dress as thin as I could. The blue bits of dress poking out around my knees and neck quickly disappeared as my lake dress became thinner, lighter, and smaller, until it eventually turned into something like a set of underclothes.


    At the same time, {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} started to kick in again. Now that my body was in contact with ¡®a lake,¡¯ my body started automatically generating absorption essence again. And more importantly, my body also resumed the process of recreating itself, ensuring that I would eventually be able to use Absorption essence just like in my previous life.


    My other three items wouldn¡¯t be useful until the three of us set off on our own, and my swordsmanship Ability would take some time to get going, just like my runes. However, things were looking pretty good.


    I spent a moment thinking about how much more potential I had in this life. In my first life, I had been the epitome of average. There was nothing that gave me an advantage over the average villager besides my vague dreams of exploring the ocean.


    In this life, I had an extra magic system that lay totally outside of this world¡¯s understanding of magic, possible access to both of the available magic systems in this world, my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress} to defend me and help boost my potential, and about a decade of swordsmanship training behind me from our time on the islands. If I put enough hard work in, I could make much more out of this life than my last one.


    As I got lost in my thoughts, my mother finally came out of the tailoring store.


    ¡°All right dearest, I have everything I need,¡± said my mother, smiling at my father. ¡°Let¡¯s go get something to eat!¡±


    The six of us began making our way towards a smaller restaurant, located near one of the edges of the city. The building didn¡¯t look fancy, but it also looked a little nicer than our house and the clothes I was wearing. I took a look at my family¡¯s worn, patched clothing, as well as our relatively healthy frames, and nodded to myself. I could see why our family considered even a smaller restaurant like this one a luxury. I was also glad that, despite how worn our clothes were, and how rundown our house was, we weren¡¯t so impoverished that food was an issue. Since we could even afford occasional luxuries, while I wouldn¡¯t be living in a mansion anytime soon, I shouldn¡¯t have a hard time living to adulthood either. I could work with that.


    The six of us made our way inside the building, and I could see that the restaurant was structured kind of like a mixture of a bar room and a restaurant. There was also a second floor to the building, which I couldn¡¯t see. It looked like people in nicer clothes went to and from that area. However, the first floor of the building was instead structured like a more open bar, where people in more ragged clothes, like my family, came and went.


    I noticed, with some surprise, that our clothes actually weren¡¯t the worst looking in the room. There were plenty of people who had even more damaged clothing than ours, and even a few men and women who had opted to wear¡­ less. Though, even though they weren¡¯t wearing as much clothing, everyone still strictly adhered to the color-coding that this city seemed hellbent on following.


    Perhaps I¡¯m assuming too much based on clothes? I thought. It took me a few moments to realize that, if our entire species didn¡¯t have much access to the surface, we might not be able to manufacture cloth and thread very easily. In that case, perhaps wearing clothes that covered our entire body was a sign of being middle class, even if they were worn and patched clothes like ours.


    I didn¡¯t know much about the local economy, but it seemed that we might be less poor than I thought. We still weren¡¯t rich, but perhaps we were firmly in the lower end of the middle class?


    My mother and father quickly led the four of us to a table situated somewhat near the front of the room, in front of the bar. A couple men and women were sitting at the bar itself, chatting and laughing with each other while drinking alcohol from stone cups. They gave the area a pleasant, lived-in feeling.


    My two older brothers and my sister all got seats of their own, while my mother simply situated me on her lap. I resisted the urge to pout.


    A few moments later, my father finished double checking our table, and then nodded to my older brothers and sister. ¡°What do you guys want this time? I¡¯ll get the food for us.¡±


    Jonathan looked at a stone board near the bar, where a few pictures of food were crudely drawn. ¡°I¡¯ll take a mushroom sandwich with bits of fish,¡± he said. My sister frowned as well, before she smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll take a mushroom soup flavored with shredded shadowcrawler.¡±


    My mother paused, as if she were trying to figure out whether she should frown at my sister, before she sighed. ¡°I guess a little meat isn¡¯t a bad thing today. Jonathan, do you want a medium-sized spider to go with your meal?¡±


    I suddenly felt very uneasy about whatever I was about to eat. Spider was part of the menu? I did my best not to retch. The idea of eating an arachnid frightened me far more than it should have, given the other things I had seen during my time on the islands.


    Jonathan seemed to have a very different idea of what constituted tasty food. Upon hearing that he might get to eat some spider, he visibly brightened up and nodded.


    My mother looked at Ruman. ¡°Do you want some as well? The four of us can divide up one decently sized spider if you want some.¡±


    I dearly hoped that ¡®the four of us¡¯ didn¡¯t include me.


    Ruman eagerly grinned. ¡°Some spider sounds amazing, mom.¡±


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I looked over the menu, and to my delight, noticed something else present on it.


    Fish soup.


    I had spent years eating fish on the islands. I had been heartily sick of fish during my time there, but now¡­ I found myself craving the taste of fish. Sure, I had eaten almost nothing but fish on the islands, but¡­


    Despite the fact that the islands had been a place filled with murderous wildlife, an ocean that sought to devour me and drown me, and a variety of horrifying mind-devouring environmental effects and items¡­ the islands had also been  a place where I was happy. A place where I had people that I loved, and who loved me. A home that I would probably never see again.


    ¡°Fish soup,¡± I said. ¡°I want fish soup.¡±


    My mother looked at the menu for a moment, as if lost in thought, before she nodded. ¡°You can have a kid sized bowl, I suppose. Fish aren¡¯t too expensive, since the river has a decent fish population,¡± she said. ¡°But if you don¡¯t finish it, I won¡¯t give you any part of the apple for dessert, all right?¡±


    I nodded.


    My father quickly confirmed what everyone was going to eat, and then my father walked up to the bar to order the food. About ten minutes later, my father returned with our meals.


    My bowl of soup was noticeably smaller than everyone else¡¯s plate of food, but since I was quite young, I suppose that made sense. I happily started digging into my fish soup, and also gave the spider my mother, father, Ruman, and Jonathan were digging into a dubious glance. The spider was¡­ the size of me. The underground caverns we lived in were more horrifying than I thought.


    To dig for more information, and to take my mind off of the horrifying abomination my family was eating for dinner, I decided to ask if my mother could tell me any ¡®stories¡¯ about the past. I was tired of being lost and confused, and I wanted at least a general background on the world I was inhabiting. I had some guesses what the world looked like, but I wanted a more concrete idea of what kind of world I was inhabiting.


    ¡°Mama. Why we live underground?¡± I asked. I hoped that question would get me the information I wanted.


    My mother looked in the direction of the fort which guarded us from the surface, as if she could see through the walls of the restaurant, and sighed.


    ¡°That¡¯s a complicated story, Miria. Are you sure you want to hear it?¡± she said, in between mouthfuls of mushroom and spider.


    I nodded. ¡°I wanna know!¡±


    My mother chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re very talkative today. Just yesterday, you were struggling to say the word ¡®mama,¡¯ and now you¡¯re already forming semi-coherent sentences.¡± I winced, wondering if she had noticed something. Luckily, she simply sighed. ¡°All right. I can give you a little story to help you understand the world we live in. It¡¯s very general, but I can at least tell you a little.


    ¡°Once, we were all one species, known as the Ortha. This is the origin which all other intelligent species originate from.


    ¡°The Ortha, during the first era, built a glorious empire, which I don¡¯t know much about. Legend has it that it was an empire filled with wonders and magic. Then, at some point in the past, they used their extraordinary magic to tunnel into the core of the planet. Somehow, they broke gravity, creating new and powerful wonders each day by harvesting the magic and metals that sustains gravity for this planet.¡± Gravity comes from magic and metals? I resisted the urge to frown. That was¡­ very different from my understanding of gravity.


    ¡°Eventually, they made some sort of massive mistake with the gravity of their superstructures. This caused the center of the planet, along with the majority of the First Orthan empire, to drift off into the void that surrounds our planet. Most people assume they burned to death in the hot reaches of space, far away from the cooling comfort of the sun.¡±


    Hot space? Cold sun? The center of the planet is missing? I felt increasingly baffled, as I confirmed that the rules might be a little¡­ different here. Also, I had to wonder what our planet was shaped like, if the center of our planet was now missing. Was our planet just shaped like a donut now? Had the planet shrank? Had the core been replaced? I had so many questions about how physics worked in this world. The Islands world had been pretty similar to my first life as far as physics went, but I was suddenly aware of how different some dimensions could be from others.


    My mother, who didn¡¯t notice my strange mental tangent, continued speaking. ¡°From the ruins of the first Orthan empire rose the second Orthan empire; a society based purely around magical might. Normally, about one in ten people are born as a Witch or wizard, and one in a thousand is born as a Shaper. The Orthan empire used this roll of the dice to determine everything. A person without access to either form of magic was treated as a second class citizen by the spellcasters of the empire. Everything was determined by magical bloodline and magical might.


    ¡°Some of the more immoral Ortha started experimenting with bloodlines. Since most magic is passed down from parent to child, and lack of talent is also usually genetic, they started thinking about what other useful traits could be encoded in the traits parents pass to their children. They took some of the lower class citizens, and began experimenting on them. Eventually, they created a few slave races. The Thyrians.¡± My mother hesitated. ¡°the word ¡®Thyri¡¯ means ¡®born to¡¯ in old Orthan. So it was used to denote a slave race, with only one purpose in life.¡±


    ¡°Four Slave races were created from the lower classes of the Ortha race. The Orukthyri were those born to wage war upon other Orthans. Oruk is the word for ¡®war,¡¯ so the Orukthyri were ¡®born to war.¡¯ They have incredibly short lifespans, but they reproduce incredibly quickly. They are partially magic resistant, incredibly physically strong, and have incredibly thick skin and muscles, making it hard to penetrate their bodies with weaker spells, bludgeoning weapons, or swords.¡± My mother frowned. ¡°They are¡­ twisted, and they are not very intelligent. But they still have very basic societal structures in place. They organize themselves into war bands and roam the surface, destroying all they come across, and they far outmatch the other three remnant races. Though, Witches are still stronger, of course.¡±


    I wondered why shapers weren¡¯t mentioned as being stronger than Orukthyri. Maybe Shaping wasn¡¯t a combat oriented magic system? If so, Felix would probably have a field day learning how to be a shaper. I didn¡¯t know much about either magic system yet, but I hoped Felix would finally find a magic system that suited him.


    ¡°The other three slave races were the Undenthyri, those born to work the caves, the Lunenthyri, the household servants of the Ortha, and the Arlenthyri, the craftsmen of the Ortha, and those who built the equipment for the Orukthyri and the magically gifted Ortha.


    ¡°Then, several hundred years ago, some of the Ortha tried to cross from our¡­ dimension into another. Many other magically talented Orthans worked together, successfully breaching the gap between realities and creating a bridge to another world. This was a day that became known as the Dawn of the Black Sun.


    ¡°The moment the bridge between realities was formed, we realized that the horrors in other worlds can be a disaster of their own, rivaling even the dragons the old religions worshiped. During the Dawn of the Black Sun, a black star tore itself out of the rift between dimensions, a star that was hot instead of cold. Much of the inner ring of the planet baked under its heat. Worse, wherever enough black sunlight touched the surface of the earth, strange creatures known as Outsiders were born from the shadows cast by the evil star. They are even more powerful than an Orukthryi, at least in one to one combat, and they are hostile to everything and everyone.


    ¡°Most of the Ortha died on the day of the black sun, and most of the other slave races died along with them. The Undenthyri, mostly being located underground, had the highest survival rate, and the survivors fled to the underground tunnels and cities to take shelter with the Undenthyri. After several generations, basically everyone has a good amount of Undenthyri, Arlenthyri, and Lunenthyri blood, and it¡¯s pretty hard to distinguish who has which bloodline these days. Most people also have a little Ortha blood somewhere in the mix, from the few survivors that survived the Dawn of the Black Sun.¡± My mother frowned. ¡°However, nobody has Orukthyri blood. Orukthyri are violent creatures, and any children of the Orukthyri are as mad and violent as their parent. Any amount of Orukthyri blood turns one into a mindless war machine, forming warbands and rampaging across the surface of the world.


    ¡°Luckily, the Orukthyri have large frames, meaning they have a hard time fighting inside of the closed caves and passages of the underground cities. But surface settlements are still very vulnerable to Orukthyri attacks, which is why surface settlements are rare.¡±


    I nodded. If incredibly powerful monsters occasionally looted and burned down anything on the surface, I could definitely see why surface settlements were rare and surface products were expensive.


    ¡°How do we know what the surface looks like now?¡± I asked, curious enough that I forgot to copy the lisp of a young child I was trying to imitate.


    This time, Jonathan was the one to speak up. ¡°Adventurers! Some people go to the surface and look for old Ortha ruins, in order to scavenge old knowledge of magic and ancient artifacts! Since we¡¯re descended from servants, our ancestors didn¡¯t bring much magic knowledge with them. So adventurers go around trying to find old research notes on spellcasting and shaping, and then sell them to Witches and Shapers. I hear that some Witches and Wizards even join in the expeditions to the surface sometimes, to try to advance our knowledge of magic. It happens often.¡± Jonathan grinned, a sort dreamy expression appearing in his eyes as he talked about adventurers. ¡°Maybe if I get strong enough I¡¯ll try seeing the surface myself one day, instead of just gazing at it from the fort. If I could bring back knowledge of a seventh circle spell, I¡¯m sure the city council would even award me with a noble title of my own. It happened once already!¡±


    ¡°Jonathan!¡± Snapped my mother, glaring at him. ¡°Do not go to the surface. It¡¯s too dangerous.¡±


    Jonathan frowned, but didn¡¯t say anything. Apparently, this was an argument Jonathan and my mother had enough times that neither was willing to ruin the dinner by talking about it, but neither was willing to budge either. The table settled into a state of quiet, as I ruminated over what I had heard.


    However, there was one thought that was especially dominant in my mind. One that my mother would absolutely hate, but sounded exactly like what I would want to do as a long-term goal.


    Adventurers, huh? I could spend some time learning magic in this world, to see if I could become a shaper, a witch, or both. And then, after that, I could take to the surface with Sallia and Felix and see if we could find some old ruins. That sounded like exactly the kind of thing that would aware a huge amount of Achievement, and it sounded incredibly interesting as well¡­

 Chapter 72: Progress

    After a nice dinner of mushrooms, fish, and some giant spider, my family finished our dinner. We ended our meal with a few apples from the surface settlement as a dessert, before we made our way back home. My parents and siblings seemed eager to go to bed, so I dematerialized my Lake-Gazer¡¯s dress right after we walked through the door. My mother helped me swap out my clothes for pajamas, before my mother helped me take a bath and then my sister took one afterwards. Then, we all went to bed.


    As I lay next to my mother and thought about the day, I started thinking more about what I had heard throughout the day. First of all, I now knew that there were two major kinds of magic-user in this world: Witches/Wizards and Shapers. I suspected that Witches specialized in one of the two kinds of essence, and shapers probably specialized in the other kind.


    Apart from that, I had a better grasp of this world¡¯s history now. I didn¡¯t know very many specifics yet, but I had a general overview of what I needed to look out for in the future. Orukthyri and Outsiders plagued the surface of the world, and apparently there was a black sun in the center of our¡­ probably donut-shaped planet.


    I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around the last bit.


    Finally, I had a few short term and long term goals. Exploring the surface seemed like a decent long-term plan for farming Achievement, finding cool items and bits of history, and maybe advancing our social status in this world. If Sallia and Felix were also interested in joining me when I went to explore the surface, I figured we could probably get a good amount of Influence Achievement from exploring the surface and finding lost magical knowledge, if we got a little lucky. I remembered from Sel¡¯thub¡¯s description that Influence Achievement was the kind of Achievement which was influenced by world Tier, and this seemed like a potentially good way to take advantage of this world¡¯s high tier without getting slaughtered by incredibly powerful enemies as long as we picked our fights well. Of course, I would need to make sure that Sallia and Felix didn¡¯t have other plans first, but I felt that Sallia would love the idea of good fights with the Orukthyri, and ancient craftsmanship and spellcasting would probably interest Felix.


    Of course, before I could talk about future plans, I needed to meet up Sallia and Felix again. I sighed.


    It would probably take a while before I could make that happen. They were far enough away from our house that my parents wouldn¡¯t just let me wander towards them, since I was basically a toddler right now. I might need to wait until I turned ten or eleven before my parents even considered letting me out of their sight; and depending on this world¡¯s culture and how protective my parents were, I might be stuck in this area until I turned twenty. Which was incredibly weird to think about. On the islands, twenty was old enough to get married, and maybe already have a few children. Here, twenty years old might not even be the right age to wander too far away from my parents.


    I sighed. This¡­ might be an exercise in patience.


    As I thought about ages, I started wondering if this world had any formal education system, or way of testing for magical talent. If it did, odds were pretty good that I could meet Sallia and Felix either in school or as fellow magical apprentices, at least if my suspicions about how essence stats interacted with my body was correct. I hadn¡¯t confirmed anything yet, of course, but I really hoped that meeting Sallia and Felix again would happen as soon as possible. Being alone for years sounded awful.


    I hesitated for a moment. I knew my mother might already be asleep, but if she wasn¡¯t I hoped she could answer a few final questions.


    ¡°Mama?¡± I whispered, to see if my mother was still awake.


    ¡°Yes, sweetie?¡± My mother sounded drowsy, but she didn¡¯t sound like she had been asleep yet.


    ¡°Is there school or something near here? Is there a place I can make friends?¡± I asked.


    ¡°School doesn¡¯t start until you¡¯re older, sweetie. Then they¡¯ll test you for magical potential, and you can make friends there. If you¡¯re lucky, and you have magical potential, a Witch or a Wizard will take you as an apprentice. All children with a certain level of magical potential get an apprenticeship as part of the city¡¯s education system, and if not, everyone at least gets to learn how to read and write and do basic math, along with some basic history lessons. But you¡¯ll have to wait until you turn 12 to find out. Children younger than 12 who learn magic might  blow themselves up with a spell gone wrong, so nobody teaches them anything before then. And nobody even tests children before that point.¡±


    My curiosity was satisfied, and I nodded. In that case, I had eight years to work on my runes and bring my swordsmanship back up to par before I had a chance to interact with this world¡¯s magic systems. I didn¡¯t want to spend eight whole years away from Felix and Sallia, but at least I would probably see them again after the eight years were up. I sighed, before closing my eyes.


    Even if being alone for eight years sounded awful, I would make the best of them. On the Islands, I had died well before I had finished maximizing my potential, because circumstances had pushed me to take risks before I was ready. This time, I hoped that I would have enough time to maximize my potential, so that I wouldn¡¯t die so easily in this world.


    * * *


    The next eight years passed slowly. I didn¡¯t have Felix or Sallia to talk to, so the entire time I felt empty and lonely. During my time on the islands, I had often thought about how grateful I was that Sallia and Felix were present with me. To have them missing for so long felt¡­ maddening, and I didn¡¯t like it one bit. My parents and family weren¡¯t particularly eager to let me out of their sight during that time, since I was incredibly young by the standards of our species, so I spent most of each day with my mother as she sewed dresses and ordinary clothes and got to know my mother¡¯s friends. They weren¡¯t bad people, but they weren¡¯t Sallia and Felix.


    Apart from that, I got to know a lot more about this world¡¯s color culture. Apparently, most children didn¡¯t get to know other children their age until school, and spent most of their early years close to their family. Children who wore pink clothes often spent their entire days with one of their parents, until they got old enough to change to wearing other colors.


    Children above the age of ten were expected to wear some kind of color related to the profession they hoped to join in the future; however, one needed to mix their color with strips of gray color near the edges of their clothes, to show they weren¡¯t actually part of that profession.


    After learning this fact, I quickly started inquiring what blue and black clothes meant, where I learned that shade of blue mattered a lot. Light blue meant that one was a Witch or Wizard, and black meant that one had a profession close to death; so soldiers, adventurers, and graveyard keepers usually wore black. Dark blue usually meant one had a profession closely related to water; for example, the farmers who kept the mushroom caverns producing food wore a mixture of dark blue and brown. However, wearing light blue was frowned upon until one had their magical talent assessed.


    As a side note, there was one other color one needed to keep an eye out for in the city. That was the color white, which was the symbol of prestige and nobility. The more renowned their status, and the more powerful they or their family, the more white one wore. The overseer of the city wore pure white robes, and most of the Grand Witches had a great deal of white added to their clothing, based on their power and how much they had contributed to the city.


    Naturally, once I turned 10, I pretended to be interested in learning how to wield a sword and adventure around, as a ¡®means to protect myself.¡¯ My parents weren¡¯ thrilled that I was taking after Jonathan, who had gone off to apprentice under a Swordmaster, but my father grudgingly convinced my mother that children experimenting was normal. Thus, I had a proper excuse to wear my Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress everywhere, as long as I added in an appropriate amount of gray thread to my clothing.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I also learned a bit about why everyone was so obsessed with colors in this world.


    Unlike my previous world, where we had worshiped the ocean mother, the gods of this world were dragons.


    Very real, very well documented dragons that also lived underground, near our cities, and occasionally woke up and demanded tribute. Most dragons took naps that lasted centuries, and the dragon our city worshiped had been asleep for over a hundred years, but nobody knew when it would wake up next. The dragons of this world were rather intelligent, and didn¡¯t usually lay waste to human cities so long as they paid tribute on time. Surprisingly, living near a dragon also had benefits; they seemed to hate Outsiders just as much as Outsiders hated the native inhabitants of this world, so living next to a dragon kept us safe in exchange for needing to pay a massive tribute of gold every couple centuries.


    We also visited a church once a month, to pray to the local white-scaled dragon for blessings, which was why in our city white was associated with nobility and good luck. Every dragon had different colors for its scales, which shaped a big part of each city¡¯s color culture. This meant that every city in the underdark had a very different idea what color was associated with nobility. Merchants that traveled the underground passages between cities to trade often had to carry around multiple sets of clothing, so that they could match the correct colors of whatever city they were visiting. However, apart from the ¡®noble color,¡¯ of each city, many of the other colors were at least somewhat constant in what they meant, even if smaller details often varied a bit.


    Even though I felt lonely without Felix and Sallia to talk to, I didn¡¯t let the eight years of time I had go to waste. I worked on retraining as much of my skills from the Islands as I could. Since I couldn¡¯t engage with this world¡¯s magic systems until I turned twelve, I made sure to use every single moment of time I had to prepare for all of the adventures Sallia, Felix and I would have together once we became adults.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of a one-handed swordsmanship technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +20


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Due to your {Basic One-Handed Swordsmanship} Ability, reaching Basic Grade in one-handed swordsmanship gives extra rewards


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength +5, Agility+5, Fortitude +5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Intermediate] Mastery of a one-handed swordsmanship technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +130


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Once I reached Intermediate grade swordsmanship at around the age of seven, I started to notice the same gradual reduction in growth speed I had noticed during my previous life. However, my {Two Purpose Training Sword} and my previous experience training on the islands helped me reach my previous level of skill quickly. I wasn¡¯t anywhere close to {Advanced} grade swordsmanship yet, as far as I could tell, but I felt that I could probably get there within a few decades, if I lived that long. A distant goal, but one I wanted to reach if I could.


    Since I was claiming to be interested in swordsmanship and adventuring, my mother and father, grudgingly, let me practice in front of the house sometimes, although they never seemed entirely happy with it.


    Apart from swordsmanship, I worked on my runes. Trying to rebuild my runes was¡­ difficult in this world, given the lack of naturally occurring absorption essence. Without my body simply producing absorption essence every second, I had to explicitly be touching my dress or taking a bath to generatore more absorption essence.


    The biggest problem with creating new runes, apart from the period of adaptation being much longer than before, was the construction process of each rune.


    Anytime a rune was started but wasn¡¯t completed, it would slowly lose progress towards completion, every single second. In my previous world, this hadn¡¯t been much of a problem. One didn¡¯t lose a substantial amount of progress per day, and one could basically just power through it and keep making steady progress until the rune was complete.


    However, in this world, my body didn¡¯t produce absorption essence naturally, and I produced far less absorption essence per day to use on rune construction. This meant that the little amount of progress I lost actually became a huge annoyance, since my progress was already slow.


    I also discovered that, if I failed to pay the upkeep cost for one of my runes, the runes would start to cannibalize other runes in order to keep functioning, starting from the most recent rune I had formed. In other words, I needed to make sure I kept contact with water for at least a couple minutes every day, if I didn¡¯t want my runes to start destroying themselves.


    Luckily, this was pretty easy to manage. The amount of ¡®decay¡¯ experienced by my most recently formed rune was quite minor, and if I was wearing my dress, I still generated a good amount of absorption essence per second. However, all of these factors combined meant that my ¡®maximum¡¯ number of runes would be much lower on this world than it would have been on the Islands, even though my Absorption Essence Grade was pretty good this time.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Construct your first Absorption-Essence rune


    (note: this world does not have any support for runes or absorption essence in existence. Thus, rewards for rune-related magic systems and Absorption Essence-related Magic Systems are lowered)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +40


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Construct your second Absorption-Essence rune


    (note: this world does not have any support for runes or absorption essence in existence. Thus, rewards for rune-related magic systems and Absorption Essence-related Magic Systems are lowered)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +80


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Construct your third Absorption-Essence rune


    (note: this world does not have any support for runes or absorption essence in existence. Thus, rewards for rune-related magic systems and Absorption Essence-related Magic Systems are lowered)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +120


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With the 390 Achievement I earned from forming my runes and practicing my swordsmanship, I gone from 218.89 Achievement to 608.89. It wasn¡¯t an overwhelming amount of Achievement, but it was steady progress, at least. I couldn¡¯t help but wish that the ¡®increased achievement¡¯ rewards from higher tier worlds worked for all kinds of achievement, instead of merely for influence. However, at the very least, I was still making a decent amount of Achievement right now, which would make it easier to purchase better Stats when we returned to the Market. And I was also getting stronger, which would be critical if I actually wanted to gain some Influence Achievement and take advantage of the heightened rewards of a Tier 4 world.


    Despite my problems with rune formation, I still managed to form three runes during the eight years of training time. It would take a lot longer before I could form my fourth rune, but I was confident I could at least form a fourth rune and keep it stable. I strongly suspected I could get a fifth rune built as well, although six or more runes sounded a little dubious to me unless I managed to get some of my keywords consistently activated.


    I also had to be very cautious about where I placed my runes this time, since nobody had any knowledge of the rune-based magic system in this world. On the Islands, people who saw me strolling around with some glowing runes on my arms knew exactly what they meant, and would respect me more if I flaunted my runes.


    In this world, however, they would just see funny glowing tattoos. Tattoos weren¡¯t a problem, per se, and sometimes people wore tattoos for decorative purposes.


    However, tattoos were subject to the same rules about color culture that clothes were. My runes would appear to be a kind of white color until I formed my fourth rune, which would probably change the color to white-blue if I copied my old ¡®image¡¯ of the life-giving ocean for my rune abilities¡­ which would mean that I would be declaring that I was a noble or person of prestige. This, obviously, would go over poorly with the rest of the city.


    Therefore, after some thinking, I had placed all of my runes at the bottom of my feet, and only started forming runes after my family didn¡¯t have any points in time where they did things like help me get dressed. Socks and shoes were both pretty common in this world, so my runes were fairly well hidden there. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if there was some sort of ability or item that would help me disguise the runes more thoroughly in future worlds, in case I ran into similar problems in the future. I resolved to look into it whenever we returned to the Market.


    However, once I turned twelve, I started practically humming with excitement. Because it was finally time to go to this city¡¯s school, and also get tested for magical talent.


    And most importantly, it was time to see Sallia and Felix again.


    I couldn¡¯t wait.

 Chapter 73: Reunited

    I showed up to a meeting spot for children my age feeling incredibly excited, looking around the massive room as I hoped to spot Sallia and Felix before they spotted me. Each year, somewhere around a hundred and fifty to two hundred children turned twelve. All of us met in a large conference room to get tested for magical affinity, before we were separated into classes and apprenticeships. And unless someone had been born at a weird time, two of those children should be Sallia and Felix this year.


    I scanned the meeting room again, wondering if I was the first to arrive.


    From the corner of the room, in a place I had somehow failed to notice, I felt someone slam into me from the side, before someone started crushing me into a hug.


    ¡°MIRIA! It¡¯s been way too long!¡± said a female voice while my ribs creaked in protest.


    I turned around, and briefly materialized my friendship bracelet, even though I was pretty sure I knew who was hugging. The moment I finished confirming the identity of my attacker, I gave her a massive grin, and gave Sallia the tightest hug I could. The two of us quickly retreated to the side, to make sure we could keep an eye out for Felix and also avoid others eavesdropping on us.


    ¡°I missed you so much,¡± I said, as we finally released each other. ¡°How have you been? I wanted to see both of you earlier, but¡­¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°When you¡¯re not even old enough to swap out your pink clothes, parents get super strict about moving out of their sight. Mine were especially bad,¡± Sallia said as she winced. ¡°I really wanted to see you and Felix as well, but my parents never let me out of their sight for more than a couple minutes. I get it, but¡­¡± She sighed. ¡°Oh well. What matters is that we¡¯re together again.¡±


    I grinned. I was at least glad to have Sallia back. I took another look at her clothes, before realizing that she was still wearing pink clothes, with gray sewn in. ¡°Healing?¡±


    Sallia snorted. ¡°My parents, especially my mother, want me to become a healer, so they make me wear pink with gray sewn in. I do not appreciate it. If I had it my way, I¡¯d be wearing black and gray, like you,¡± she said, giving my black {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress} an appreciative nod.


    I winced. ¡°That sounds pretty irritating.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°Once I¡¯m forty they won¡¯t have much say in my life anymore, at least.¡± Sallia paused. ¡°In fact, I¡¯ll be fairly independent much earlier than that, if my suspicions about how our bodies interact with essence is correct. Do you¡­ also think our bodies naturally get affinity for whatever essences are available in a given world?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I imagine it needs to be genetically possible to be compatible with an essence, but¡­ While the slave races didn¡¯t have much magical potential compared to the Orthan, our species still clearly has the ability to give birth to witches and Shapers. So we should have the talent to become both, I think.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a shame it only works for essences present in a given world, or I wouldn¡¯t have wasted a few months building up my compatibility with Absorption Essence again. Oh well. I¡¯m really excited to see Felix soon. And the city will have 3 new apprentice Shapers today,¡± She grinned. ¡°That¡¯ll be a sight. There are only twenty six shapers in town right now, and on average only one is born every half a decade or so. Three in one year will be¡­ fun. A lot of doors will open up for us after this.¡±


    I grinned. ¡°I really hope we¡¯re correct about how essences works.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°Guess we¡¯ll find out today. Do you have any idea how the test works?¡±


    I shook my head.


    Sallia grinned. ¡°My family isn¡¯t quite nobility, but we have some connections with some important people. My mother is the physician for a Grand Wizard, so I¡¯ve learned a bit about the test beforehand. We¡¯re going to be tested with a few magic wands. They¡¯re designed to help anyone with magical talent funnel some mana into the end of the wand, which has the first-circle spell ¡®light¡¯ inscribed on it. So basically, just pick up the wand and channel essence into it.¡± Sallia frowned. ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure whether Wizards use Manifestation or Alteration Essence yet. I¡¯m guessing Wizards use Manifestation and Shapers use Alteration, but we¡¯ll have to make sure later.¡±


    I grinned. ¡°Thanks for the tips about the witch test. What about the shaping test?¡±


    ¡°Same thing, except it¡¯s a cube. If you channel Alteration Essence into the cube, it¡¯s designed to change color from blue to orange. Nothing exciting, but simple enough to check.¡±said Sallia.


    ¡°Interesting. Do you know if it¡¯s possible to be both a Witch and a Shaper?¡± My last worry was about compatibility. I didn¡¯t know if there was some sort of inherent issue in training as both a witch and a shaper. If there was, I would need to make a decision about which one to train.


    ¡°It¡¯s absolutely possible. Three of the current Shapers are also Witches. It¡¯s not common, but we can absolutely train as both without any issues.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s really exciting, then. I really hope Alteration or Manifestation is my extreme affinity, because once I can find mine-¡± Before I could finish, my {Friendship Bracelet} pinged at me, and I cut myself off mid-sentence to focus on the door again.


    Another boy crept into the room, his eyes darting around as he looked at each person carefully. I glanced at his wrist, and saw a {Friendship Bracelet}. I grinned again.


    ¡°Felix!¡± I said, quickly pouncing on him and giving him a huge hug. Sallia quickly followed me, and the three of us ended up in a group hug right next to the doorway. Then, a few moments later, we quickly shuffled back into the corner of the room so we could finish catching up.


    Felix laughed, giving both of us huge grins. ¡°I¡¯ve missed both of you so much. You have no idea how much I¡¯ve been looking forward to seeing you guys again.¡±


    I grinned. ¡°I missed you too. Being alone for twelve years was¡­ lonely.¡± I felt a small pang of frustration as I thought of the years spent without either of my friends to talk to, before I shook my head. We were together again now. ¡°We were talking about the odds of us being gifted in both Shaping and Witchcraft.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I strongly suspect we¡¯re guaranteed access to both magic systems. My parents are retired adventurers, and they¡¯ve already done a test at home to confirm that I have talent for being a Wizard, at least. They don¡¯t have the supplies for testing for Shaping ability, but if I¡¯m already compatible with one when the odds are only one in ten¡­¡±


    I grinned. ¡°We should be good to go, then!¡± Then, I chuckled. ¡°Come to think of it, on the Islands, you were the child of Vanessa, a retired hunter. Now you¡¯re the child of two retired adventurers. You¡¯ve somehow ended up with martially inclined parents twice in a row. You and Sallia really need to consider swapping parents next time.¡±


    Felix chuckled. ¡°That would definitely fit our personalities better, at least. Sallia, if you ever meet my parents I bet you guys will get along really well. But that¡¯s a discussion for later.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Any ideas which magic system uses which essence?¡±


    ¡°Shaping is related to Alteration essence. Witches and Wizards use Manifestation. Witches and Wizards use spells, which are divided into magic circles. Those are¡­ complicated, and I don¡¯t know much about them yet. I have no clue what shapers do, although I do know that they were the ones who created the slave races. Witches and Wizards seem more¡­ fighting-oriented,¡± said Felix. ¡°We¡¯ll have to wait to learn more about shaping though.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I guess we¡¯ll be finding out more after our tests.¡±


    Then, I paused. ¡°How are your stats, by the way?¡¯


    ¡°Let me go first,¡± said Sallia, who was grinning now. ¡°My rolls weren¡¯t amazing, but they were solid.¡± She shared her Status Screen with us.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (1+97)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (0+84)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+101)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (1+95)


    Grade 4


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (10+92)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (0+120)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: (10+87)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (0+104)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (0+101)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (0+126)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I frowned. ¡°Why are your physical Stats so low? Didn¡¯t you build your Runes yet? I was expecting them to be way higher.¡± I nodded. ¡°Though, your manifestation and Alteration Stats are both pretty good, and you didn''t lowroll anywhere important, once the rune magic system is factored in.¡±


    Sallia frowned. ¡°What are you talking about? I have five runes built - ah, I wonder if the Friendship bracelets only show our initial stats? A bit weird, but I guess we did just swap from one kind of Friendship bracelet to another.¡±


    I thought about it for a moment, before I nodded. ¡°I can actually see where you invested soul stats this time as well. Last time, I think I only got your total numbers?¡± I frowned. ¡°Although, the fact that it doesn¡¯t show any effects from runes is pretty annoying.¡±


    Sallia and Felix shrugged. ¡°Either way, my rolls aren¡¯t bad at all,¡± said Sallia. ¡°My physical Stats are a bit low, but I have five runes now, and I¡¯m pretty sure I can push to seven or so before I need to stop. Maybe even eight. So I¡¯ll have enough Perception to fuel my body¡¯s Stats just fine.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little jealous of Sallia¡¯s talent. Even though Sallia had an entire Grade less Absorption Essence than I did, her ending point for the rune magic system was much higher than mine. Even if Sallia¡¯s extreme affinity for Absorption Essence hadn¡¯t helped her much last world¡­ it obviously had insane benefits the moment one started taking the same magic system to new worlds. Still, although I felt jealous, I could feel a grin tugging at my lips. I was glad that Sallia was doing so well now that she had her most important keyword ability.


    ¡°I¡¯ve also gotten some helpful bonuses from my training suit and my ramen noodles,¡± said Sallia. ¡°My Intelligence is nearly back to Grade 5 just from eating soup every day, although my Willpower and Perception might need another decade of soup bowls to get to the next grade. My Physical Stats have all gotten a boost from my soup as well, and I¡¯ve made some decent progress with my training suit. So in practice, I had grade 5 in all physical and mental stats besides Intelligence, plus three grades to physical stats from runes. And two abilities. See if you can guess what they are?¡±


    I frowned, trying to think. I remembered that it had been rather difficult to figure out where Sallia was when I had entered the room, and the other children were rather conspicuously ignoring us.


    ¡°Some sort of Stealth ability?¡± I asked.


    Sallia nodded. ¡°Stealth and healing so far. Since my mother has no magical ability and she¡¯s still a healer to an important person, I figure that, at the very least, witches and wizards aren¡¯t great at healing. So I decided to pick up healing for my second rune ability. I can build my third any time, but I wanted to wait and see if there was anything we needed as a team, or if there was something I wanted that this world¡¯s magic systems can¡¯t do. So I¡¯m going to hold off on forming my sixth rune until I know what ability I want.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Makes sense. When I form my fourth rune, I¡¯ll probably need to think really hard about what we¡¯re lacking as a team. We¡¯ll talk more about rune abilities once we know more about this world¡¯s magic systems.¡±


    ¡°My turn?¡± asked Felix, once Sallia and I finished our discussion about rune abilities. ¡°My Stats are¡­ weird. Sallia, I might want to borrow your training suit later.¡±


    ¡°No problem,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Honestly, my Perception is a bit low to take advantage of my physical Stats right now, so I can lay off using my training suit until I finish forming my seventh rune, or until my Perception hits Grade 6.¡±


    ¡°Good. My physical abilities lag behind by a lot since I don¡¯t have the rune system,¡± said Felix. ¡°There¡¯s nothing modifying my Stats right now.¡± Then, Felix shared his Status Screen with both of us.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (0+110)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+117)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (10+74)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+81)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (20+129)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (10+101)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: (20+97)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+109)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (10+76)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (10+79)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked over his Status Screen and winced. His Essence Stats were¡­ abysmal. His Physical Stats were pretty bad as well, at least compared to what he could have rolled. However, his Mental Stats were all strangely high.


    ¡°I can¡¯t tell if your Stats are excellent, or trash,¡± I said.


    Felix nodded. ¡°I also had a hard time figuring out how to feel about this.¡±


    ¡°First thing¡¯s first. Felix,¡± said Sallia. ¡°You are going to eat from my noodle bowl for a few months. That should boost your Intelligence to Grade 7. You¡¯re only 3 points away, so it just seems like a huge shame not to give you priority over my magic noodle bowl for a while. Your Fortitude is also just three points off, so it¡¯s very easy to train it up.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that,¡± said Felix. ¡°It¡¯s a shame there¡¯s nothing we can do to boost my Essence Stats. I really hope I¡¯m not gifted in Alteration Essence, or my Stats will be very awkward.¡± he chuckled. ¡°At the very least, the Stats suit me quite well, in a sense. Mental Stats are pretty helpful for learning how to make items. The Stats suit me.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps a bit too well,¡± commented Sallia, grinning.


    I nodded. ¡°Honestly, Felix, in addition to Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl, you should probably use Sallia¡¯s training suit too. Your physical Stats are pretty far away from Grade 6, except for your Fortitude, but we have a lot of training time to use. It would be a shame not to make the most of it, and all of your Stats being at Grade 6 would make adventuring much easier.¡±


    ¡°Adventuring?¡± Sallia grinned. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re thinking the same thing I¡¯m thinking when it comes to earning Achievement.¡±


    Felix seemed to consider it for a moment, before shrugging. ¡°I was thinking more about trying to invent something amazing that gives humans an edge over the Orukthyri, maybe letting us reclaim some of the surface instead of small surface settlements. But I guess adventuring could tie into that. Finding old notes and learning more about magic would probably help with crafting, if we find the right notes or old relics and such.¡±


    Sallia seemed to think about it. ¡°You know, if we get that far, we could probably expand on the ¡®improving the status of the slave races¡¯ idea. I was a noble in my first life, and I know a thing or two about managing an estate. If we rack up enough wealth and influence, maybe we could found a town in the underdark or something?¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°It''s not a bad idea. It would probably be worth a lot of Achievement. Let¡¯s think more about that if we make it big as adventurers, though.


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± said Sallia. ¡°We¡¯ll consider it a stretch goal.¡±


    ¡°What about you, Miria?¡± Asked Felix. ¡°What do your Stats look like this time?¡±


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical (+65)


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+84)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+108)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+120)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+97)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (20+128)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+105)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (20+110)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+70)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+70)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+123)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°You really need to use my Training Suit too,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Even if you can¡¯t make the most of upgrading your Agility, since your Perception is trash, there¡¯s no shame in bumping it up a little. You¡¯re so close to Grade 9. Assuming you have at least 3 runes.¡±


    I frowned, realizing the {Friendship Bracelet} didn¡¯t include Ability modifiers either. ¡°You¡¯re forgetting my +5 to physical Stats from my Swordsmanship Ability. Which doesn¡¯t show up when I share my Status Screen, apparently,¡± I said. ¡°My Agility is already at Grade 9.¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Fair enough. I did forget that. Hmm¡­ wow, your Perception is really awful. But the rest of your Stats are amazing.¡±


    I grinned. ¡°Apart from my Perception, I¡¯m very happy with my rolls.¡± I paused. ¡°Though, I am hoping that this world¡¯s magic system either gives me a way to boost my Perception, or isn¡¯t too reliant on making use of my body. Even if my body is pretty strong, the low perception really hurts my close-range fighting abilities. And long range fighting abilities.¡± I frowned. ¡°Honestly, that one roll really hurts my fighting abilities in general.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°Once Felix gets his Intelligence and Fortitude to the next grade, you get the next use of my soup bowl. I can get Perception from runes, but you¡¯ll probably struggle to do the same, since your Ability doesn¡¯t fit you as well as mine fits me.¡±


    I smiled. ¡°I appreciate it. With Grade 5 Perception I¡¯ll be pretty darn strong for this world.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s all get strong enough to explore the wastes of the surface together!¡± Said Sallia, far more excited than I thought she would be about giving resources to Felix and I.


    It took me a moment to make the connection.


    On the islands, Sallia had struggled with feeling useless, and had been the weakest of the three of us. Now, in this world, she was currently stronger than Felix and I, and was in a position to help us out. While that might chance once we started training with this world¡¯s magic systems, right now, Sallia was incredibly well position to be the strongest member of our group. To Sallia, this probably counted as confirmation that she was finally useful, since it was a direct role reversal compared to our time on the islands. And she seemed thrilled about it.


    I gave Sallia another hug.


    ¡°What was that for?¡± she asked, briefly hugging me back.


    ¡°No reason,¡± I said, grinning.


    Before we could continue our conversation, an older woman walked into the classroom. ¡°Are you the children attending school this year?¡± The children fell silent, and I observed the woman¡¯s dress.


    Light blue, with a very small amount of white trim. She was a witch with a few accomplishments, but not many.


    The woman smiled at all of us. ¡°Good. Come with me. It¡¯s time to take your magic talent tests, and see if any of you have the potential to become a witch, wizard, or shaper.¡±

 Chapter 74: Manifestation Test

    The witch led everyone to another room. In the room were six wooden sticks, each of which was situated on a different table.


    The witch cleared her throat. ¡°As all of you have likely heard, we test your affinity for the two magic systems before you start school. This is to make sure that everyone is learning things relevant to them. Learning more than the basics about what a spell circle is and how to construct one won¡¯t do you any good if you can¡¯t use magic, after all. And there¡¯s also not much point in creating class rosters, only to rearrange them after the magic tests.


    ¡°Those of you that have a talent for either form of magic will come with me after this test is over, so that you can find a master who will take you as their apprentice. Magic training is usually done in a more individualized manner. All of the witches and wizards looking for apprentices will come to pick students once the tests are over. Those of you who don¡¯t have any talent for magic will go to the ordinary classes.¡±


    Some of the children nodded to show their understanding, and after a bit of thought, the witch gestured towards the front row of children. This set of children included Felix, Sallia, and I, who had been standing together near the front. ¡°You six, you will be the first ones to take the magic test. You have fifteen minutes. I want each of you to walk to one of those tables and pick up the wooden wand. Then, I want you to wait for my next set of instructions. The wands will make it fairly easy for you to use manifestation essence, if you have any in your body, but I will still walk you through you first attempt. Failing the test while having talent for magic is uncommon, but it does occasionally happen. If you listen to my instructions, all of us can avoid a large amount of annoying paperwork and rescheduling later, okay?¡±


    I nodded, and glanced eagerly at Sallia and Felix. The three of us quickly walked up to three adjacent tables and then picked up a wand.


    I noticed, with some curiosity, that the wooden wand wasn¡¯t actually a solid wand of wood. Instead, it was completely hollow in the middle. I could even look through the wand, as if it were some sort of telescope, and in the middle of the wand, I could faintly see some strange indents in the wood that were lined with some kind of light-blue stone.


    ¡°Now, you¡¯re not going to be doing any complex spellcasting here. The wand will do all of the actual spellcasting for you, so relax. Now, while holding the wand in your hand, you should be able to feel the wand¡­ calling for something, for lack of a better term. It is very faint, but anyone with manifestation essence will pick up this sensation more strongly. We use extra thysium for these wands, to make it as easy as possible to channel essence into them, so all you really need to do is give the wands what they want. Most students find it helpful to close their eyes. Now, I want you to visualize a giant pool of glowing water in your mind. Then, you should be able to feel the wand ¡®asking¡¯ for some water. Just use your mind to open up a little passageway in your mind, letting some of your glowing water flow out of your mind and into the wand.¡±


    I did as the witch instructed, visualizing my manifestation essence as a kind of giant pool of water somewhere in my mind. Since I already had experience using and visualizing absorption essence, it wasn¡¯t too hard for me to do something similar with a different kind of essence.


    As I visualized my pool of essence, I noticed how different the two essences ¡®felt¡¯ to each other. I had never had a point of comparison before, so I had never really studied the characteristics of absorption essence before.


    But now that I could directly compare it with manifestation essence, I realize that absorption essence felt¡­ hungry, for lack of a better term. It would consume mana, as if mana was a kind of food that absorption essence desperately wanted to eat. As I observed this, I realized that the nature of a rune from the islands magic system was to ¡®eat¡¯ mana, digesting it within my body and making it part of me. That was why my body grew stronger and more magical every time I made a new rune. Each rune differed in what exactly it did, but every single one was the product of me ¡®eating¡¯ and digesting mana. I resisted the urge to chuckle to myself.


    That was probably why the Market called it ¡®absorption¡¯ essence, in fact. I had a strong suspicion that any absorption essence-based magic system would, at its heart, absorb and devour mana to strengthen the user. The exact details would probably differ from one world to the next; perhaps some worlds would have something similar to runes, while some might ¡®absorb¡¯ mana in a different way. However, the core nature of absorption essence was to absorb mana and then do something with it.


    In comparison, manifestation essence was more confusing. It felt almost like I was trying to create something out of thin air when I used the essence. However, I didn¡¯t know what to create, or how to turn my essence into an actual ¡®creation.¡¯ I guessed that I was supposed to ¡®manifest¡¯ something using manifestation essence, but I had no clue how.


    Luckily, I didn¡¯t need to figure out how to ¡®manifest¡¯ something right now. That was probably why the wands were here; all I had to do was toss it some manifestation essence, and it did the rest of the work on its own. I quickly scanned my thoughts, found the ¡®tug¡¯ that the wand was exerting on my mind, and gave it a little bit of my manifestation essence.


    I opened my eyes, and found the wooden wand in front of me lighting up like a small chunk of glowing moss. I grinned, and checked the other children.


    Sallia and Felix also had their wands lit up, and one of the other children, a girl with four eyes and pink hair, also had her wand lit up in front of her.


    The other two children still had their eyes closed, although there was a tint of desperation on their faces as they searched for any manifestation essence in their mind.


    The witch seemed delighted that four of us had made our wands light up, and gave us warm smiles before gesturing for us to put down our wands and stand by the side of the room. However, she calmly continued to guide the two boys still taking their manifestation essence tests, giving them different instructions, visualization techniques, and guidance.


    Six minutes later, one of the two boys managed to light his wand up. He opened his eyes, and seemed incredibly happy as the witch gave him a warm smile. Then, he set down his wand and came to stand near us.


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    The final six minutes of the test stretched on and on, as the final boy tried and failed to make his wand light up. Finally, the witch sighed.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, boy, but it looks like you don¡¯t have the talent.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡­¡± The boy looked like he was about to cry.


    The witch leaned over to him, and gently patted his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, even if you aren¡¯t magically talented, that¡¯s no reason to cry. You can always work hard and become excellent in another field of study, even without magic. Just because you aren¡¯t magically talented doesn¡¯t mean you have no hope of succeeding in life. You just need to work hard in a different way. Besides, we haven¡¯t done the Shaper test yet.¡±


    The boy sniffled a few times, before he walked over to the other side of the room and sat down, before burying his head in his hands.


    The witch cleared her throat, before nodding to the next group of children. ¡°All right, you six standing near the front. It¡¯s your turn now.¡±


    The witch began guiding them through the same process the first group had just completed, while Sallia, Felix and I grinned at each other.


    If all 3 of us were gifted in Manifestation Essence¡­


    We were almost certainly compatible with Alteration too. The odds of all three of us being magically gifted with one kind of essence just seemed too low, unless the odds were rigged from the start.


    At the same time, I gave Felix a glance out of the corner of my eye, curious to see if he had any signs of an unusual reaction to Manifestation Essence..


    When Sallia used absorption essence, she claimed that it was very easy to manipulate for her. While other people lost a good amount of essence and mana when trying to extract mana from their surroundings, Sallia lost nothing.


    I wasn¡¯t quite sure what ¡®extreme talent¡¯ would look like when it came to manifestation mana, but maybe Felix had some sort of unusual reaction when trying to do the test? I was hoping that Felix and I could find our ¡®extreme affinities¡¯ soon.


    Felix caught my glance, and thought for a moment, before shaking his head.


    I shrugged, feeling a little disappointed, but I nodded. I didn¡¯t think Manifestation was my extreme affinity either, unless I was missing something. The essence wasn¡¯t hard to use, because I had practiced using absorption essence, but it didn¡¯t obey me the way Sallia¡¯s absorption essence obeyed her.


    In that case, Felix and I were either talented in Alteration or Binding.


    The three of us couldn¡¯t talk, but I found myself practically burning with anticipation as I thought about talking with Sallia and Felix again. I wanted to see what they knew about manifestation essence in this world. Even if it wasn¡¯t either my or Felix¡¯s primary essence type, exploring a new magic system sounded incredibly interesting. Right now, the only thing I knew about the manifestation magic system of this world was the fact that it was structured around ¡®magic circles,¡¯ but I had no context for what magic circles meant or how they worked. I was pretty sure more magic circles meant the spell was stronger, but that was the extent of my knowledge.


    Just as I was debating trying to whisper with Sallia and Felix, to get more information about Manifestation Essence magic, the witch started the third round of tests, and I sighed.


    Even if I was excited, I shouldn¡¯t talk right now. I didn¡¯t want to distract the other kids who were taking the test. This was a defining moment in their lives, after all. It wouldn¡¯t be fair for me to potentially distract them, even if I wanted to talk with my friends.


    Time ticked on, while the witch went through one round of tests after another. Finally, the last round of children finished their manifestation Essence test, and the witch gave the future wizards and witches of the town appreciative glances.


    ¡°Twenty-six this year. Not bad at all,¡± said the witch, grinning. ¡°Usually we get 15 or 16. Pretty good year.¡±


    The witch absently rubbed a small patch of white cloth on her dress, perhaps as a symbol of good luck, and then gave us all smiles. ¡°Before we go to the next test, do any of you have any questions? Not about the nature of magic - after all, your masters will tell you more about that once they accept you as their apprentices. But do you have any questions about what your lives will look like in the future, or anything of that sort?¡±


    I paused for a moment, before I raised my hand.


    ¡°Yes, little girl?¡± Asked the Witch, giving me a kind smile.


    ¡°Will we be starting our apprenticeships early? My brother didn¡¯t start his apprenticeship under a sword master until he was 30 years old.¡±


    The witch nodded. ¡°We like to start magical training as soon as a child is old enough to use magic responsibly. Twelve years old is deemed about as young as we can start teaching children. Any younger and they might accidentally blow themselves up while doing an experiment they shouldn¡¯t. Therefore, you¡¯ll be starting your apprenticeship immediately after this. It just takes the place of the school you would have otherwise attended, though.¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Are we all going to be apart from each other once we start learning under our magic teachers?¡± Asked Sallia, giving me and Felix anxious looks.


    The witch seemed to catch her glance, and grinned. ¡°Did you already find a few friends, young lady? It¡¯s good to see the new generation of spellcasters getting along so well.¡± The witch chuckled. ¡°A magic teacher is expected to provide room and board for their apprentices, so you¡¯ll live in close contact with your teacher for five days each week. However, if you have the same master, you¡¯ll be living in the same quarters. And even if you don¡¯t end up with the same master, the city has ensured that all magical apprentices spend at least four hours a day interacting with each other in a building center in the city. The city overseer claims that it¡¯s the best way to keep rivalry between spellcasters to a minimum. After all, children who play together have more time to form bonds with each other and grow up to be good friends.¡± The witch chuckled. ¡°At least, that¡¯s what the overseer and older spellcasters claim. Personally, I think it¡¯s because most spellcasters still want time to themselves, to experiment with new spells, and so they pressured the city lord into taking everyone¡¯s apprentices out of their hair for a while. But you¡¯ll still see your friends every day, regardless of whether you have the same master or not.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s shoulders relaxed as the tension drained out of her, and I smiled a little. I was glad that I would still have time to spend with Sallia and Felix every day.


    ¡°What happens if we have both the talent for being a Shaper AND a Witch?¡± It was the pink haired girl with four eyes who spoke up this time, her eyes shining with hope and curiosity. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder what particular combination of bloodlines had given her two eyes on her temples in addition to her regular two eyes. She had a bright, friendly expression and a cheery smile as she spoke.


    The witch chuckled. ¡°If you end up with both the potential to be a shaper and a witch, you¡¯ll have two masters. You¡¯ll need to study a lot harder in that case. Shaping is¡­ odd, and requires far more practice to use correctly.¡±


    After the little girl spoke up, a few other questions about things such as time with families, food, weekends, and so on were asked by other children. I realized that I would basically be spending each weekday with my magic teacher, and then I would return to my family for weekends before going back to my master each week.


    As the witch clarified the answers to the children¡¯s questions, and the magically untalented shuffled along behind us, we reached another room, where I assumed we would take the Alteration test. I grinned. I couldn¡¯t wait to see what Alteration Magic was like.

 Chapter 75: Shaping and Alteration

    The witch led everyone to another room. In this room, several blue cubes were set up on a row of tables, stretching from one end of the room to the other. And standing inside of the room was a man in pink, white, and dark-gray robes.


    I quietly wondered if the pink on the man¡¯s robes meant he worked as a midwife. If so, did that mean shapers had some sort of healing related abilities? Or did the man just have an interest in helping mothers give birth? Or did the pink mean something else in this context?


    The dark-gray, at least, was easy to figure out. It was probably the color for shapers.  Since a Witch had watched over our manifestation essence test, it seemed reasonable that a Shaper would watch over our alteration essence tests. I did find the fact that shapers wore dark-colored robes interesting, since that tended to be associated with warriors and adventurers, but decided to ask about it later.


    The witch gave us all a final smile, interrupting my inspection of the shaper. ¡°Good luck. It¡¯s rare to have talent as both a witch and a shaper, but it sometimes happens. Maybe you¡¯ll get lucky. I¡¯ll see you after your tests!¡± Then, she turned around, and addressed the other children who hadn¡¯t been found to have talent as a spellcaster. ¡°Good luck to all of you as well. If you¡¯re found to be a shaper, it¡¯ll be a great honor. But if you don¡¯t have the talent, you can still be an exceptional person in the future, so don¡¯t feel too sad if you don¡¯t have any magical talent. I hope you do well on your shaping tests!¡± Then, she started heading away from our group.


    The Shaper gave us all curious looks, noting the group of us at the front who had been found to have manifestation essence talent, before nodding. ¡°Twenty six this year for the witches and wizards, eh? Pretty good intake this year.¡± He cleared his throat, before speaking more loudly this time. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve finished the test for spellcasting talent, you will be given the test to determine whether you have talent as a shaper,¡± he said, giving the group of children a cursory glance. ¡°I don¡¯t know if any of you will pass the test; it¡¯s honestly uncommon for anyone to pass the manifestation essence test. But I hope all of you will do your best. First, please find a table with a cube on it and sit down.¡±


    I moved closer to Sallia and Felix, so that the three of us could sit next to each other. I also made a mental note to keep an eye on the shaper. I wanted to see the look on the shaper¡¯s face when all three of us passed his test. It might have been childish to get excited about the man¡¯s reaction, but I thought it would be fun to see how he reacted to all three of us having shaping talent.


    As the three of us sat down on tables bordering each other, I could see that laying right next to each blue cube was a small bottle of orange paint. The bottle was open, and there was a paintbrush laying next to it. I gazed at the bottle of orange paint, baffled.


    I remembered that Felix had mentioned that the objective of the shaper test was to make a blue cube turn orange, but I couldn¡¯t figure out why they were giving us paint. Were we just supposed to paint the cube? Maybe the paint was special and only Shapers could use it, or something?


    I looked at the paint, trying to figure out if there was something magical about it. However, it appeared to be completely ordinary orange paint. It was probably made from one of the colored mosses of the nearby caverns, and didn¡¯t look like it had been made with very much care, either. It honestly looked like someone had slapped it together as fast as possible, dumped it in a bottle, and then shoved it on the table without thinking much about it. This made me feel even more confused. Was I missing something here?


    I gave the Shaper a confused look. He simply gestured for us to sit down, ignoring me as he made sure everyone was sitting at their own table.


    ¡°All right, so the first thing I want all of you to keep in mind is that the Shaper test is harder than the Spellcasting Test. There¡¯s even some debate that the reason we find so few Shapers in the population is because our testing methods are flawed. I don¡¯t know if this is true, but I can see why people would believe that. While it¡¯s rare for a spellcaster to fail the manifestation test, it occasionally happens, and the kid with magic talent usually gets discovered a year or two later when they accidentally construct a few symbols on their own and create the world¡¯s most undirected and inefficient spell. It¡¯s not common, but it happens sometimes.


    ¡°For shaping, it¡¯s much more common for shapers to fail the test and then show up later on. So pay careful attention to my words, and try to follow my instructions; but at the same time, know that shaping is a finicky art, and what works for one shaper may not work for another. Witches and Wizards can use the exact same spell model to create the exact same spell, over and over again once they learn how to do something. This is why it¡¯s usually easy to find spellcasters with a test; most spellcasters react the same way if you give them a wand and a visualization method, and so it¡¯s pretty easy to find spellcasters. Shaping is much less¡­ precise. And that means sometimes, you need to get creative if you feel something isn¡¯t working for you. If you feel that my instructions are almost working for you, but don¡¯t quite fit, feel free to do your own thing and try something different. Experiment with visualization methods, try new things, do weird stuff. There¡¯s a reason you¡¯re given 15 minutes for the magic test and three hours for shaping test, and it¡¯s because one has a lot more quirks to its use. Does that make sense?¡±


    Most of the children nodded.


    ¡°Good. Now, since the shaping test can¡¯t just be automated with items, the way caster tests are, we¡¯ll need to go into some basic shaping theory for the test.¡± I perked up. I was very curious about new magic systems. Especially since this had a one in two chance of being my extreme affinity.


    ¡°Shaping, in and of itself, is the art of taking reality as it could be and then making it so¡­ within reason. For example, what is the difference between the blue cube you have sitting in front of you and an orange cube?¡±


    I paused, wondering if this was a trick question, and Felix raised his hand. ¡°They¡¯re different colors?¡±


    ¡°Good. Very simple answer, and it¡¯s the one I¡¯m looking for right now. They¡¯re different colors. What might you do if you wanted to change those colors?¡±


    I raised my hand, and after the teacher pointed at me, I picked up the jar of orange paint. ¡°We could just paint it, right?¡±


    The man grinned. ¡°Exactly! The simplest way to change the color of the cube would be to pick up a paintbrush and then paint the cube orange.¡± His smile widened. ¡°Now, shaping is the art of doing the same thing, but entirely using magic. Shaping is, fundamentally, the art of shaping the world around you. There are a lot of limitations to that, some of which are due to knowledge being lost during the dawn of the black sun and some due to the nature of shaping itself. However, at its heart, shaping is about changing the world around us, hopping from one possible shape of the world to another.¡± He chuckled. ¡°At least, that¡¯s the current most popular being of scholarly theory.


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    ¡°Now, what I want you to do is focus on how similar the blue cube currently is to the orange cube. With just a few simple actions, it would be really easy to change it from a blue cube to an orange cube, right? So all we need to do is use alteration essence to skip the step of actually painting the cube, and make the end result into reality instantly. Modern Shaping theory states that, starting from our current point in time, countless potential ¡®futures¡¯ are continuously being generated, based on actions we could potentially be taking, and whatever actions we¡¯re most likely to take. Kind of like a cloud of infinite different ideas and possible paths we can choose, as well as all of the people, animals, and monsters around us. What I want you to do is reach into one of those possible futures, one where you pick up your little jar of orange paint¡­ and then bring the painted cube from that future into the present.¡±


    I frowned. It was a little hard to wrap my head around what the man wanted me to do, but it sounded kind of like shaping was¡­ rather more unique than I thought it was.


    However, I did as he suggested, imagining my blue cube being painted orange in some potential future, and then trying to fuse that cube with reality.


    As I did, I almost immediately accessed a new reservoir of energy inside of me. I immediately realized that this was alteration essence.


    And manipulating it was so¡­ easy.


    I knew how hard it was for me to use other essences. I had a lot of practice using absorption essence, after all, and I had a rough idea how to use manifestation essence. Using either essence was kind of like going to a well, drawing water out with the power of my own hard work, and then retrieving the water and moving it back home for use. I knew how to do it, and it wasn¡¯t hard, per se. But it wasn¡¯t easy either; it was still a lot of labor and thinking to make either essence work.


    By contrast, Alteration Essence was like turning on a faucet and just having water pour out of a pipe. The difference was so utterly and completely ridiculous that I wondered how I had ever functioned, using other essences all this time.


    At the same time, I got the feeling that the man¡¯s explanation of how Alteration Essence worked wasn¡¯t quite right. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on why, exactly, but his explanation of ¡®potential futures¡¯ just didn¡¯t sit right with me. It felt a little bit off, although I couldn¡¯t quite figure out why yet. I decided to focus on finishing my test first.


    I imagined transposing another image of a cube on top of the cube in front of me. Instead of imagining the cube as blue, I imagined it being orange. I felt my Alteration essence reach for the nearby jar of orange paint, and connect it to the cube. Then, the orange paint in the jar grew¡­ dimmer, turning from orange paint into gray paint. At the same time, my cube immediately turned bright orange.


    I looked at my jar of now nearly colorless paint, and then glanced at the shaper¡¯s dark-gray clothes again. I had a better idea why shapers were associated with gray now.


    ¡°I see that although I haven¡¯t finished my explanation yet, you¡¯ve¡­ already succeeded,¡± said the shaper, breaking me out of my thoughts. I gave the man a wide eyed look, and he chuckled as he stood a few tables away from me. The previous gloominess in his posture seemed to have melted away. ¡°To think we have another shaper-witch this year. This year really is exceptional!¡± He seemed far more energetic than he had at the start of the test, and I could see him practically vibrating with excitement. He had stopped his explanation mid-sentence to gush over my success.


    I took a look at Sallia and Felix, and saw an unspoken question in their eyes.


    I grinned, and nodded.


    After using Absorption and Manifestation Essence, the comparison was like night and day.


    Alteration Essence was my extreme affinity.


    I wondered what I could do with this magic system, but did my best to tamp down on my rising excitement. The warnings from the witch about blowing ourselves up with magic was still fresh on my mind, and I should probably wait until I knew more about Alteration magic before I started experimenting on my own. I didn¡¯t want to mess up and kill myself before I had a chance to get started in this world.


    The shaper was still giving me a huge grin as he finally made his way to my table, inspected the jar of gray paint, and grinned. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m glad to see another shaper join our little community, young lady. Rest assured, I¡¯m sure the other will be just as excited as I am to get to know you. I¡¯ve never heard of anyone passing the test in under two minutes before!¡± he chuckled. ¡°For the longest time, Nelson has been boasting that he only took eight minutes to complete his test. You just beat his record by a whole six minutes.¡± Then, the shaper coughed a few times, before he seemed to remember that the other children were still here. He turned to me, as if I was now more interesting than the rest of the children he was supposed to be testing. ¡°If you want to, see if you can remove the orange color from the cube and put it back in the bottle. You shouldn¡¯t be able to hurt yourself if you¡¯re just doing that much, and it¡¯ll be good practice for the future. We haven¡¯t taught you how to start building an affinity yet, but some basic shaping practice is always useful for whatever you decide to learn later.¡± He paused, giving me a grim look. ¡°But don¡¯t do anything else, okay? You might hurt yourself if you do. I¡¯m going to continue the shaping test now, but call me if you have any questions.¡±


    I decided to do as he suggested, and he returned to focusing on the other children. However, I kept one eye focused on the man, excited to see how he would react once Sallia and Felix unlocked their shaping as well. Meanwhile, I focused on the cube again, and tried to remove the orange color and return it to the jar of gray paint. I had a much harder time with returning the cube to its original state, and part of it was because my visualization method - imagining ¡®possible futures¡¯ and then making one a reality, just felt wrong to me.


    As I worked at it, I finally realized why the explanation about ¡®possible futures¡¯ felt weird.


    So far, absorption essence had been all about absorbing mana. It devoured the mana in my surroundings and made it part of my body. Manifestation Essence was manifesting¡­ something. I assumed it had something to do with the magic symbols.


    Why did it seem like alteration essence wasn¡¯t ¡®altering¡¯ things very much? Instead, it felt almost like I was trying to manifest an alternate timeline or something, at least the way I was currently being told to visualize it. It just felt incredibly odd and clunky.


    I thought about the dawn of the black sun, and the massive destruction it had caused. Perhaps most of the knowledge of alteration had been lost during the chaos? Shapers were incredibly rare, after all, so it was much easier for their notes and teaching methods to get lost during an already chaotic time period. If that was the case, perhaps shapers had tried to use manifestation essence theory to restart their own magic system, leading to our current, incredibly odd system for using shaping essence. Of course, I didn¡¯t know much about Alteration Essence, and the man had mentioned ¡®building an affinity¡¯ or something. Clearly, there was a lot about Shaping essence I still needed to learn, before I started seeing if I could change the system. Still¡­


    I definitely knew what research notes I wanted to find the most now, whenever the three of us started adventuring through the wastes above ground. Kick-starting a new branch of alteration essence spellcasting would probably be worth a huge amount of Achievement, and it would probably get me a good keyword ability to go along with it.

 Chapter 76: Four

    Finally, as I mused to myself about the nature of Alteration Essence, I heard the shaper¡¯s voice rise in surprise, cutting me out of my thoughts.


    ¡°Two?¡± said the shaper. ¡°There are two students who passed the test this year?¡± I grinned , focusing all of my attention back on him. I could see him standing over Sallia¡¯s table, grinning from ear to ear. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it! This year is really exceptional!¡± He looked at Sallia, before swiveling his gaze back towards me, and then grinning. ¡°You two are friends, right? Sit next to each other and wait for the test to end. You can talk if you want to, but keep your voices down, or it wouldn¡¯t be fair to the other children.¡± I resisted the urge to point out that the man was getting pretty excited and distractible whenever someone passed the test, and that probably wasn¡¯t helping the other kids concentrate. Regardless of my thoughts, the man continued grinning as he hovered near our table. ¡°If you talk, maybe exchange ideas about alteration and paint? It¡¯s just a very simple exercise, meant to test whether you have any potential at all, but practicing basic things will still help you improve. Maybe if you exchange some ideas you¡¯ll figure out how to get the orange back onto the paint instead of the cube.¡± I glanced at my orange cube, as well as my jar of gray paint, before shrugging. Even though Alteration was my extreme affinity, I still hadn¡¯t succeeded in making the paint orange again, although I did think I was getting close. But I wanted to talk to Sallia more right now.


    I grinned, and Sallia quickly hopped over to my table as the teacher focused his attention back on the other kids. He seemed almost eager to continue now, unlike the nearly resigned tone and expression he had when we first arrived.


    ¡°So your affinity is Alteration?¡± whispered Sallia, grinning from ear to ear as she looked at me.


    I nodded.


    ¡°It¡¯s just so¡­ easy to do something if it¡¯s your extreme affinity,¡± I said, taking another moment to process the surprise I had felt when manipulating alteration essence. ¡°It¡¯s completely different from messing with an essence you aren¡¯t as talented in. I never knew how much easier it was to manipulate an essence with talent.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°After trying to use alteration essence, I¡¯ve finally learned how annoying it is to try to do use a magic system without an extreme affinity. I thought things were bad on the islands when my Stats were terrible, but goodness gracious.¡± Sallia snorted. ¡°This is a huge pain in the neck as well, although in a very different way.¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°What do you make of Alteration magic?¡± I asked, curious to know if Sallia had observed the same feeling of ¡®wrongness¡¯ I had when trying to use shaping.


    Sallia frowned. ¡°It¡¯s really hard to imagine ¡®alternate timelines¡¯ and then manifest parts of them as reality. I do also wonder how that works, in practice. Do alternate timelines actually exist, or are they purely in our imagination?¡± Sallia shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking over the existential implications of this magic system for a while, and I have to admit I¡¯m pretty baffled. I have no clue what to make of it.¡± I chuckled. I hadn¡¯t thought about the meaning of the visualization method for alteration, but Sallia did raise an interesting question. Did alternate timelines exist? If so, were they limited to some dimensions, or did all of them have some sort of ¡®cloud of possible futures¡¯ that technically existed? I kind of wondered if the Market had any sort of research on the subject, although it would probably be a nightmare to locate now that the Market was ruined. I decided to see if we could find any information on time and space whenever we returned to the Market.


    ¡°I¡¯ve also been experimenting a little bit, and I¡¯ve noticed something,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°The mana pool for each kind of essence is completely different. You know how every single rune from the island magic system also works as a storage for some amount of mana, and we can use that to temporarily boost our physical abilities or activate our fourth through sixth runes?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Well, as it turns out, the mana storage granted by all of my ¡®absorption essence¡¯ spellcasting can¡¯t be used for alteration, or vice-versa. Every single magic System has its own, completely unique storage. And each of those seems to be some mixture of the essence in question and the mana it interacts with.¡± Sallia shrugged. ¡°Which is a bit of a shame, honestly. I was hoping I could turn all of the random mana floating around in my body into spells once we get manifestation essence figured out. I don¡¯t know what manifestation essence can do in this world, but I¡¯m actually pretty curious to mess with it. Alteration Essence feels a little more finicky to me, so I might focus less on it. We¡¯ll see if I change my mind, though. Anyway.¡±


    I grinned. I hadn¡¯t actually thought to test how different magic systems interacted with mana, so I was glad that Sallia had tested it out for me. Once we ventured above ground, information like this could save our lives.


    ¡°How about you, Miria? Any tips from the extreme essence user?¡± Asked Sallia, giving me a little nudge and a grin. ¡°Right now Alteration Essence is pretty hard for me to use, but if you have an extreme affinity for it, maybe you have some insights that can make it easier to understand?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I don¡¯t know if this is in my head or not, but I think the visualization method for using alteration essence is wrong. The idea that we¡¯re reaching into alternate timelines or something and then manifesting parts of those timelines in reality is just¡­ weird to me. It doesn¡¯t feel right. I don¡¯t know if alternate timelines exist at all, and they could, but that doesn¡¯t really fit the idea of alteration, you know? So far, Absorption Essence lets you absorb mana and add it to your body, and while I haven¡¯t gotten a good grasp of manifestation essence yet, it sounds like it manifests stuff, right? Alteration Essence, as it was described to us¡­ feels like it¡¯s trying to manifest alternate timelines. Which isn¡¯t really in-theme with the name of the essence. I could be overthinking things, but I imagine the Market named it ¡®Alteration¡¯ essence for a reason.¡±


    Sallia frowned. ¡°Huh. All right. What¡¯s the correct way to visualize this magic system then?¡±


    ¡°I have no idea.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s frown grew deeper. ¡°I guess that means we know what kind of research and knowledge we¡¯re looking for once we go above ground, at least. Still, it would have been nice if we had access to that information now. It might stunt your growth a bit if you only grow up learning to use your primary magic system incorrectly. We need to make sure you get a keyword ability that matches you before we leave, after all.¡±


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    I nodded. ¡°Once I get a grasp on what ways I can hurt myself, and what I need to be cautious of, I¡¯ll experiment some.¡± I paused. ¡°Do you not get the sense that the timeline visualization method is wrong?¡±


    Sallia shrugged. ¡°Honestly? It just feels like a visualization method to me.¡± she frowned. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s another aspect of having an extreme affinity for an essence? When I was using absorption essence, I always had really good instincts for the ¡®best¡¯ way to use every single drop of essence I had available. It¡¯s what lets me avoid wasting mana when I make runes. Perhaps this is another way ¡®good instincts¡¯ manifest themselves?¡±


    ¡°Seems reasonable to me,¡± I said. ¡°If that''s the case, I¡¯ll try to rely on my instincts a bit more and see how it goes. But I¡¯ll still listen to the safety precautions for shapers first. I don¡¯t want to accidentally kill myself in a magic experiment, after all.¡± Sallia nodded, grinning.


    A few moments later, the shaper in charge of our test began laughing madly. ¡°Three! This year is really exceptional!¡± I turned back towards him, and saw him standing over Felix¡¯s table.


    Just like Sallia and I, Felix¡¯s cube was now bright orange.


    ¡°Sit with the girls, lad. I¡¯ll get your names after the test is over. All three of you are casters and shapers.¡± The man laughed a few times, sounding nearly giddy with excitement. ¡°I¡¯m going to be able to brag for years about running this year¡¯s test.¡± I was pretty sure I wasn¡¯t supposed to hear the last part, but I did chuckle as I heard it.


    After that, Felix quickly joined our table. Sallia and I quickly glanced at him.


    ¡°Extreme affinity?¡± I asked. I was pretty sure I already knew what the answer was, since it had taken him so long to finish his test, but I still felt it was worth asking. Just in case.


    ¡°Nope,¡± said Felix, sighing. ¡°I do not have an extreme affinity for manifestation or Alteration Essence.¡± I sighed, and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. At least now we know what your extreme affinity is. Since it¡¯s not any of the three we¡¯ve encountered so far, we know for sure it¡¯s Binding.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I wonder what Binding Essence actually does. The name makes me think of ropes and knots, and keeping prisoners. I hope it¡¯s not that basic.¡±


    ¡°It could be related to making magic items,¡± said Sallia as she closed her eyes in thought. ¡°Binding mana to an item or something. I could see it making sense.¡±


    Felix seemed to brighten up considerably at the thought. ¡°Really? That sounds much more interesting.¡±


    ¡°It could also be related to binding mana to people, as well,¡± I said. ¡°Or it could do both, depending on the local rules. It¡¯s hard to say what is or isn¡¯t possible, since we just don¡¯t know much about the multiverse as a whole yet.¡± I grinned. ¡°Honestly, depending on what dimension we live in, anything is probably possible. I hope the next world we go to has Binding Essence though. All three of us would have our primary magic system at that point, and we would have two lives left to upgrade them before we fight to buy more lives.¡±


    ¡°Be careful not to get too overconfident, Miria,¡± said Felix. ¡°We haven¡¯t gotten you a keyword Ability for Alteration yet. Don¡¯t get overconfident and accidentally get killed because of it. We need to stay cautious until we succeed.¡±


    I nodded, properly chastised. We still had a lot of hard work in front of us before I got my keyword ability.


    ¡°Any idea what ¡®affinities¡¯ are?¡± I said. ¡°The Shaper mentioned something about affinities earlier. It¡¯s probably related to shaping somehow.¡±


    ¡°Nope,¡± said Felix. ¡°My parents don¡¯t know much about shapers. They¡¯re too rare. Everyone has stories about what they might be able to do, but my parents have no clue which ones are true and which ones aren¡¯t. So I have no reliable information.¡±


    ¡°Oh well,¡± I said, sighing. ¡°I guess we¡¯ll find out sooner or late-¡±


    ¡°Four? Amazing, amazing!¡± said the shaper. ¡°The white dragon has truly blessed us this year!¡±


    Huh? I whirled around, completely baffled, as I saw the shaper¡­ standing over the desk of another girl. She had pink hair, and four eyes. I vaguely recognized her as one of the people who had been more vocal earlier today, and she was also one of the kids who had passed the spellcaster test.


    I resisted the urge to chuckle. This year would have been truly exceptional for the town, with or without the three of us. However, with the addition of the pink-haired girl, the town had just received four new children who were talented in both spellcasting and shaping. Previously, the number of townsfolk who had talent in both magic systems had been three. In one year, we had just gone from three witch-shapers to seven. Even if none of us were trained yet, that was still incredible.


    Granted, without Sallia, Felix and I rigging the odds in our favor, the number would have gone from three to four instead. Which still sounded like a pretty luck year. However, when the number of shaper-witches doubled in a single year, it did look pretty weird.


    ¡°Sit with the other three! I¡¯m sure the four of you have all sorts of things to talk about!¡± said the shaper, now brimming with enthusiasm.


    The little girl with pink hair and four eyes quickly hopped up and ran over to our table, before giving us a huge smile.


    ¡°Hi! I¡¯m Anise! Let¡¯s be friends!¡± She said.


    I hesitated for a moment.


    On the islands, the three of us had been our own group. We were always together, and we were much closer to each other than with other children. Sure, the three of us weren¡¯t mean to other children, but we didn¡¯t interact with them much, either. After all, we were mentally much older than them, and we had experienced traveling to the Market. It made it feel pretty natural for the three of us to stick together.


    On the other hand, the kids on the islands had mostly formed their own little circles as well. It wasn¡¯t unusual for a group of two to five children to form their own little circle of friends and then ignore the other children for the most part. It was just considered the normal way children of the islands grouped together.


    Adding a fourth person to our trio felt weird. But at the same time, Anise did genuinely seem excited to get to know us, and I didn¡¯t want to hurt her feelings. Her smile looked genuine when she talked to us, and since we were shaper-spellcasters, I imagined we would interact with each other a lot in the future.


    But the idea of getting close to someone, growing to care for someone, and then losing them¡­


    I thought of my mother and father from my first life. I would never see them again. Olav, the fishermen who had taught me to fly a boat, was dead. Claus, my father¡¯s friend who had worked the same boat as me, had died during the final battle with the outsiders. The village chief, who I had fond memories of, was lost to me forever.


    Did I want to keep forming connections with people, even though I knew I would lose them?


    On the other hand, could I possibly live without forming connections?


    I thought of my three siblings in this life, as well as my parents. My parents clearly loved me, and loved the rest of my siblings as well. I had nothing but good feelings towards them. My older brother, Jonathan, loved his swordsmanship, and kind of reminded me of Sallia. He was a bit rambunctious, but as he got older, he was starting to mature, and he was becoming a fine young man. He liked looking out for me, and I also cared about him. My other older brother, Ruman, still had a sort of hero-worship attitude towards Jonathan, but he was nice enough when he wasn¡¯t following Jonathan like a shadow. My sister, Laura, was a little bratty sometimes, but she also clearly showed me that she loved me sometimes, even if she was annoying the rest of the time.


    I couldn¡¯t live without making connections. I would still put my foot down in a few places; I didn¡¯t want a husband or kids until I could take them back to the Market with me. But I would inevitably make friends that I would lose at the end of each world, and I needed to accept that.


    Before I realized what I was doing, I gave her a big smile of my own. ¡°Hi Anise! I¡¯m Miria! Nice to meet you! I¡¯d love to be friends!¡±

 Chapter 77: Spellcasters and Shapers (1)

    Anise smiled even more widely as I shook her hand, and then she gave Sallia and Felix blinding grins of their own.


    ¡°What about you two?¡± asked Anise. ¡°Will you also be my friends? What are your names?¡±


    Sallia was the firs to speak. ¡°I¡¯m Sallia. I want to be an adventurer when I grow up!¡± Anise looked at Sallia¡¯s pink dress, before frowning. ¡°Why are you wearing pink then?¡±


    ¡°My parents made me,¡± said Sallia, making a bitter expression.


    ¡°Oh. I hope you can be an adventurer anyway. Becoming a healer when you don¡¯t want to be one wouldn¡¯t be fair.¡± said Anise, making a face, before her eyes lit up. ¡°Now that you can learn magic, you¡¯ll be able to change their minds pretty easily! Instead of a healer, being a shaper-witch is much better! You can be a super witch with me!¡±


    I resisted the urge to chuckle. Anise¡¯s face was incredibly expressive, and she seemed to be positively full of energy when she spoke of being a super witch. It seemed like this was a long-cherished dream of hers.


    While I mused to myself, Felix spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m Felix,¡± said Felix, extending his hand towards Anise.


    Anise looked at Felix with a heavily guarded expression. ¡°Boys are dangerous,¡± she said confidently. ¡°My mama said if I talk to boys too much, I¡¯ll turn into a bad girl when I grow up. I want to be a super witch, so I can¡¯t be a bad girl.¡±


    I resisted the urge to laugh as Felix¡¯s eye twitched, before he sighed, and chuckled. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s one way to look at things,¡± he said, choking back a few more chuckles. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever heard quite that justification before for why a child should avoid boys, but it¡¯s sort of logical.¡± He turned towards Anise, and gave her a solemn nod, punctuated by a grin. ¡°Your mother is telling the truth, Anise.¡±


    Anise looked at Felix suspiciously, as if wondering why he had validated the idea that she shouldn¡¯t talk to him, before nodding. ¡°I knew mama wouldn¡¯t lie to me.¡±


    I finally lost my fight to hold in my laughter, and started giggling uncontrollably, while Felix gave me an amused glance from the corner of his eyes. Sallia just snorted.


    Anise gave Felix a more dubious expression, before she slowly nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to you sometimes anyway, but only a little bit. I need to become a super witch, after all.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m delighted, Miss Anise,¡± said Felix dryly. I absently wondered how long it would Anise to break that rule. Since she was physically and mentally about the equivalent of a six year old right now, she probably wouldn¡¯t break away from her mother¡¯s words very easily. However, in a decade or two¡­


    I was broken out of my thoughts by the shaper, who had started speaking again. As the four of us had been talking, the shaper had continued to lead the test. Sadly, nobody else had passed.


    ¡°So four of us passed the test this year, huh? I¡¯m surprised that there are so many. This is one of the best years in the past couple decades for apprentice intake.¡±


    I grinned to myself. I was also pretty surprised. I had known that Sallia, Felix and I would pass, but a fourth person passing definitely caught me off guard.


    I took one last look at my cube. I had managed to lighten the orange color by a bit, likely as a result of my extreme affinity boosting my instincts for alteration essence. However, I still hadn¡¯t successfully turned the cube blue again. I shrugged, and put the cube down. I had plenty of time to work on my new magic system.


    The shaper, now finished administrating the test, moved closer to the four of us and gave us a big, excited smile, as if he had found a sack of gold while walking down the street.


    ¡°I¡¯m so very glad that there are a lot of you this year. The others will be so excited as well. Four new shapers in a single year! Come on; let¡¯s go find your magic teachers!¡± The man quickly led the group of magically talented children out of the hall, leading us towards another building. I noticed that another adult came to lead the other children away, presumably assigning them classrooms and teachers for their year. I quickly lost sight of them.


    After a minute of walking, the magically talented children arrived at our destination. The shaper quickly pushed open the door, holding it open for us as he gave the four of us one last grin, and then a quick glance at the spellcaster children to make sure he hadn¡¯t forgotten anyone.


    While he examined the group one final time, I looked through the doors to see what was waiting for us. I saw a large gathering of people wearing shaper colors, witch colors, and splashes of white. Everyone had at least a few threads of white on their clothing, but the quantity was usually quite low. However, there were a few exceptions.


    The most interesting person that I noticed was an old man, standing near the back of the room, who was wearing the colors of both a wizard and a shaper, which made me grin a bit. So one of the wizard-shapers had come to take apprentices too. I hoped that he was here for all four of us; if we were all apprentices under one person, it would make it very easy to train with Sallia, Felix, and Anise.


    Finally, my eyes latched onto another woman I recognized. She was the witch who had overseen our first test. She was standing off to the side, and was examining our group just like the shaper. Finally, she gave us all a relaxed, cheerful smile, before beckoning towards us. ¡°Come this way, children! I¡¯ll give you a quick introduction before the casters and shapers start their presentations.


    ¡°So, the way this works is very simple. One by one, each shaper, caster, and shaper-caster will walk to the center of the room and give you a quick presentation. This presentation will detail their background, as well as their specialties in magic. After that, you will tell me who you are interested in taking as a teacher. I will take a quick description of who you are to the caster or shaper in question, and they will tell me who they¡¯re interested in potentially taking as an apprentice. If both of you are interested in each other, I¡¯ll arrange a meeting for you, and once everyone has a teacher, we¡¯ll finish up for the day and you can go home to your families and tell them about your success in passing one of the magic tests! Then, in a day or two your teacher will pick you up and start teaching you. Does that sound good?¡±


    I heard several of the children mutter a chorus of ¡°yep¡¯s¡± and ¡°uh-huh¡¯s,¡± and the witch gave us satisfied grins.


    Then, the witch turned specifically to Sallia, Felix, Anise and I.


    The witch gently smiled at me. ¡°For shaping, there are a few more things you¡¯ll want to pay attention to. For shaping, you¡¯re going to be growing an attunement later on. Do you remember how ¡®basic¡¯ shaping is about taking a possible future and making it a reality now? Attunement is¡­ different. Instead of turning a potential future into a reality, you instead take something and directly turn it into something you¡¯re attuned to. For example, a fire-attuned shaper might convert wood directly into flames, even if there¡¯s no nearby future that involves the wood catching on fire. Or they might turn air into water, or something else entirely. If possible, it¡¯s best to either learn from a shaper with a similar attunement to the one you want to form, or with someone who¡¯s comfortable teaching a wide variety of attunements. There¡¯s one person in particular I suspect all four of you will end up learning under, but that¡¯s still dependent on whether you¡¯re interested in learning under him, and whether he¡¯s interested in teaching you. So pay attention!¡±


    ¡°All right. Thank you for the explanation, miss witch!¡± I said. The witch gave me an even broader smile, before she patted my head. ¡°All right, that¡¯s about it for my quick explanation. If you¡¯re interested in a teacher, after they give their presentation just let me know before the next potential teacher starts talking, all right? I¡¯ll write down who¡¯s interested in who, and we¡¯ll arrange the meetings afterwards. And don¡¯t worry - everyone here has a certain minimum level of competence. We don¡¯t let people who aren¡¯t good at what they do teach children. Casters are required to have at least the ability to cast one fifth circle spell and a few fourth circle spells, and there are a lot of other requirements as well. So no matter who you pick, they¡¯re guaranteed to be a good spellcaster or shaper.¡±


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    The witch gave all twenty-six of the magic students a final grin, before she turned towards the casters and shapers who had assembled to look for students.


    ¡°We¡¯re ready! You guys can start now!¡±


    A few seconds passed, as the small group of casters and shapers quickly conferred among themselves and cleared out a spot in the center of the room. Meanwhile, the witch quickly waved us back a little bit, where I noticed a row of seats had been set up for us to sit down if we wanted to stop standing up. Then, the first presentation started.


    ¡°I am Callum,¡± said the first spellcaster. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man that looked like he had spent several years honing his physical ability in addition to his magic. ¡°I mostly specialize in body-strengthening spells. I can cast two fifth circle and seven fourth circle spells, two of which I personally discovered when my team and I ventured into the wastes above. I am also quite proficient in using spears, and I have some proficiency in archery as well. If you¡¯re interested in exploring the wastes and body strengthening, contact me after this and we can talk. I¡¯m willing to accept up to three apprentices.¡± After that, the man sat back down. His introduction had been brief and to the point, but it actually made me feel a little tempted. I started seriously considering Callum as a master; if he was a former adventurer, he had a lot of experiences I would find useful, and I was certainly interested in improving my melee abilities as well. I was much more focused on swordsmanship than spearmanship, but I certainly wouldn¡¯t mind brushing up on my archery. I intended to mostly focus on alteration, since that was my extreme affinity, but if there were no better options, Callum wouldn¡¯t make a bad teacher. I hesitated for a moment, before I tapped the witch on the side. ¡°If I don¡¯t find any better fits, I might be interested in learning under Callum,¡± I said.


    ¡°I¡¯ll put you down as a ¡®maybe¡¯ then,¡± said the witch. ¡°Let me know if you¡¯re still interested in arranging a meeting with him later, little Miria.¡±


    ¡°Okay. Thank you!¡± I said, as I sat back down. A few other children, emboldened now that I had made the first move, also went up and added their names to the witch¡¯s first list, including Sallia, before everyone finished making their moves. The witch paused for a moment, making sure that no other children were hesitating, before she beckoned towards the crowd of shapers and casters.


    ¡°We¡¯re ready for the next one!¡± She said. Another woman made her way to the center of the room.


    ¡°I am Claudia,¡± said the next spellcaster. She was a woman with a very slim physique and green hair, and formed a stark contrast with Callum¡¯s robust physique. ¡°I specialize in war spells, especially fire and ice spells. I can form a decent third-circle fireball in only two and a half seconds, and I hold the current record for fastest fireball formation in the city. I can¡¯t claim any expertise in adventuring above ground, but I have fought denizens of the darkness multiple times and kept our food and metal caverns safe against several incursions from the darkness. While I may not seem to fit some of you as well as someone like Callum, I would like to remind you that how quickly you can form a spell is crucial to surviving as a spellcaster in a combat situation. Forming your spells a second or two faster could make the difference between you killing an orukthyri you¡¯re fighting, and getting grabbed and crushed by them. And, of course, I also know a fifth circle spell called ¡®Greater frost lance,¡¯ and a few fourth circle spells that specialize in controlling or killing large clusters of enemies. I¡¯m willing to accept only one student, but I promise that whoever I accept as a student will get a lot of care and attention. I hope at least a few of you are interested!¡± Said the witch, giving us a perky grin.


    I was suddenly tempted by Claudia¡¯s offer as well. Faster spellcasting was certainly useful, and I definitely understood that being able to get spells out faster would be crucial if I wanted to survive long-term. However, in my heart, I knew Claudia wasn¡¯t the right fit for me. I wanted to focus mostly on Alteration, and while manifestation essence would have its place in my future, I doubted it would take a central role. Truthfully, Callum didn¡¯t really fit either. But both of them were still competent and experienced spellcasters that had their own unique specialties and abilities to teach. I respected that.


    The next spellcaster made his offer, discussing his specialties as well. He was specialized in controlling the flow of water, and kept the river clean and the mushroom caverns producing as much food as possible. I was less tempted to learn from him, but he still got a fair number of potential students arrange for a meeting with him through the witch in front of us. Then, after him, there was another spellcaster. And then another.


    Eight spellcasters announced that they were potentially interested in taking in a student, before we finally reached the shapers. The three shapers, naturally, weren¡¯t interested in taking in a spellcaster for a student. They were only here for four people.


    Us.


    ¡°I have a fire attunement,¡± said the first shaper. ¡°I would be considered a combat shaper, I suppose. My specialty is converting things into fire, and reaching into potential futures where things are alight. As you may have already noticed from your shaping test, futures get easier to bring into our own reality if they¡¯re ¡®close¡¯ to the ¡®real timeline¡¯ we live in. For example, turning the cube on your desk from blue to orange gets easier or harder based on how close or far away the jar of paint is, and whether or not you have a paint brush nearby. This is because if the jar of paint is right next to the cube, it¡¯s very easy to just grab the cube and paint it orange. Similarly, there are lots of tricks you can keep in mind that make it easier or harder to alter your environment, allowing you to make your shaping cheaper and more efficient. I am only an expert in fire; I have no other real specialties, since I¡¯ve devoted my life to one specific field of study. But I am excellent at it. If any of you intend to form a fire attunement, talk to me. I know that all four of you this year are shaper-casters, but the two of us can still learn a lot together, and even though I¡¯m more specialized than the old geezer over there, specializing has its upsides,¡± he said, jerking a thumb towards the shaper-caster I could see in the background.


    I hesitated for a moment, before shaking my head. I was interested in combat, but fire wasn¡¯t the right fit for me. I would much prefer to deal with healing, illusions, madness, or death. I wanted to activate the keywords for my Ability with shaping, if possible, and fire just wouldn¡¯t synergize with that idea very well.


    The man gave the four of us a look, as if hoping someone would step up and express interest. Hesitantly, Sallia walked up and quietly tapped the witch on the shoulder. The witch smiled at Sallia, and quickly wrote her name down.


    Then, after a few moments, the next shaper started her own presentation.


    ¡°I¡¯m Ella. I specialize in mental states,¡± she said, giving us a calm look. ¡°Specifically, I can manifest thoughts and feelings as realities, which gives me a lot of utility in fights. I know a fair bit about swordsmanship as well, so I usually give enemies crippling headaches or knock them out before stabbing them. It¡¯s a very effective fighting method. I also have a fair bit of experience adventuring out into the wastelands, and I¡¯ve successfully raided two old spellcaster compounds when I was younger. If any of you are interested in mental states and fighting with bladed weapons, talk to me afterwards. I¡¯m willing to take up to two students.¡±


    I was actually quite interested in Ella. She could serve as an excellent teacher for me, if I wanted to focus exclusively on my alteration. However, I was still sorely tempted by the idea of being taught by another caster-shaper. I added her to my list anyway.


    The next three shapers didn¡¯t have specialties that the three of us were interested in. Anise, however, found some interest in the man that specialized in healing; he was the shaper who had administered our shaping test. At least I finally figured out why he was wearing pink.


    Finally, the old shaper-wizard stood up.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be brief, since I¡¯m sure the four of you are eager to start getting to know us on a more personal level,¡± said the shaper-wizard, chuckling. ¡°My name is Lauren. I¡¯ve taught the other two shaper-spellcasters alive in the city right now, and while I personally specialize in stone attunement, I have pretty good familiarity with how to teach most attunements. All four of you have potential as both a shaper and a caster, and I¡¯m the only one here who can maximize your potential for both, and help you bring both magic systems together. There are a lot of tips and tricks for using your shaping to boost your spellcasting, for example, that the others here simply won¡¯t be able to teach you because they have never experienced it themselves. I¡¯m also a pretty good teacher, if I do say so myself. I¡¯m willing to take all four of you, if you¡¯re interested. Of course, that¡¯s also assuming I feel we¡¯re a good fit for each other. Talk to me after this,¡± he said, giving all four of us a final nod.


    Naturally, the four of us let the witch know we wanted to meet him after this. She chuckled as she wrote all four of our names down.


    After that, the first part of the the mentor choosing ceremony was over. I quickly asked the witch to cross out several of the candidates I had originally been interested in, but later realized didn¡¯t quite fit me, before I looked over the list of remaining candidates.


    I had two people I could potentially take as a teacher, since I had removed all of the spellcasting specialists from my list of meetings after more consideration. My first choice was Lauren; he made a very compelling argument for why he would be the best teacher for us. Then, after that, the shaper who specialized in mental states was my second pick.


    It was time to figure out who I would be taking as a teacher.

 Chapter 78: Spellcasters and Shapers (2)

    It took several minutes for the Witch to begin arranging meetings between potential students and teachers. She already had a list of who was interested in who, but everyone still needed to roughly agree on the schedule of when to meet each person. So she hopped from one teacher to the next, giving them a list of which students or teachers were interested in each other, double checking that no one was booked for the same time slot, and okaying it with everyone. I did see her speed increase several times as she moved from one person to the next, and absently wondered if she was using some sort of speed enhancing spell, but right now I just didn¡¯t know enough about magic to confirm it. Either way, about half an hour later, everyone had a schedule they could agree on.


    Sallie, Felix, Anise and I broke apart, since all four of us had found at least one potential teacher who interested us besides Lauren. Sallia, Felix and I were still largely leaning towards him, because he seemed like the best option for maximizing our potential in this world. However, that didn¡¯t mean we were going to ignore any other potential teachers, even if Lauren seemed to make the most sense. For Sallia and Felix, in particular, they seemed interested in a few teachers. Sallia, for example, was rather interested in Callum¡¯s teaching style, even if she admitted that she would probably end up going with Lauren.


    Anise also went her own way. From what I could see, as I headed to my own meeting with Ellen, Anise was focused on manifestation essence teachers. Perhaps it was due to her desire to be a ¡®super witch¡¯? I shrugged to myself as I walked into a small side room, and then sat down on a table across from Ella. She spent a few moments studying me. She had a slight grin on her face, but she spent some time just examining me, taking in my build, the way I sat down, and seemingly everything she could glean from my actions.


    Finally, she spoke.


    ¡°Your name is Miria, right? Nice to meet you!¡± said Ella. Her tone was neither enthusiastic nor unenthusiastic. It sounded measured and calm. However, she did give me a very slight grin, to let me know that she was glad to see me here. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re at least considering me, even if you might not stick with me. May I ask why you¡¯re considering me? After learning that all of the potential shapers this year are shaper-casters, I figured I had probably already lost to Lauren. I might as well know what advantages I have here, so that I can talk more about them.¡± Her grin turned a little more mischievous, and I got the feeling that she wasn¡¯t necessarily as calm and collected as she was portraying herself to be. I felt my lips also twist upwards a little bit at her words.


    ¡°Your attunement is pretty close to the one I want to form,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m thinking maybe I¡¯ll go into either the ocean, or madness. It¡¯ll be a good way to support Sallia and Felix when we go later. And your life experiences also sound quite valuable to me.¡±


    ¡°Go? You said that you, Sallia, and Felix are going to go somewhere?¡± Ella paused for a moment. ¡°I recall that Sallia and Felix are two of the other shaper children, right? Are the three of you planning something?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°The three of us are planning on eventually becoming adventurers and going on a journey to the surface. You have experience as an adventurer, which would obviously be of great help to us. And while I don¡¯t really know what an attunement is yet, I want my attunement to be something that helps our group..¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± said Ella, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. ¡°You say that you don¡¯t know what an attunement is, but you want to go into ocean or madness? Hmm¡­ odd. May I ask why?¡±


    ¡°I just feel like it fits me,¡± I said. I didn¡¯t really know how to explain that I wanted to activate the Keywords for my Ability. However, I did also quite like the mental image I had used for my fourth through sixth runes on the islands. If I could make my attunement give me similar abilities, I would probably be able to use them well, and I was more than a little interested in seeing what happened if I dropped images of eldritch abominations from the deep into this world as well.


    Ella paused, before chuckling. ¡°Fair enough, I suppose. If you end up becoming my student, we can talk a bit more about what attunement you want to form and how to grow it.¡± She paused, before shrugging. ¡°But I think that¡¯s a discussion for another day. It¡¯s a very in-depth subject, and a lot of the more complicated details are easier to understand if you actually have an attunement. Right now, you¡¯re completely unattuned, which makes it harder to relate some experiences to you. Well¡­¡± Ella paused again, before shrugging. ¡°Let me tell you a bit about myself, first. As I already mentioned, I¡¯ve raided two spellcasting compounds, and I¡¯ve spent a fair number of my younger years journeying through the wastes above. Obviously, I survived, and I was part of one of the groups that found supplementary materials on how to form an attunement, which is one of the cornerstones of shaping today. While there¡¯s always a little luck involved in surviving above ground, there¡¯s a lot more skill involved. If you want to become an adventurer, I¡¯m probably one of the shapers with the most experience in the city. So I can definitely help you there.¡± Ella seemed to think for a moment.


    ¡°You know, actually, I¡¯d also like to say something about your potential as a spellcaster. I can easily get some learning materials for spellcasting ready for you, if you become my apprentice. I won¡¯t have the hands-on experience of using it, obviously, but if you want to teach yourself, I can certainly get you some books. And I have enough influence in the city to get a couple casters to sit down and teach you some lessons from time to time as well. They won¡¯t formally be your teachers, but you can rest assured that if you take me as your teacher, you won¡¯t totally waste your potential as a spellcaster, either. You won¡¯t get teaching from me on how to make your two spellcasting systems synergize with each other, since I have no idea how to make them work together, but you will still be a competent spellcaster and an excellent shaper at the end of my tutelage.¡±


    That actually made me think more carefully about Ella¡¯s offer. I still mostly leaned towards Lauren, but if she could find ways to get me training as a spellcaster as well, I would be wasting far less of my potential than I thought I would under her teaching. Furthermore, her experience as an adventurer would definitely be valuable, and her attunement was pretty similar to the one I wanted.


    ¡°What can you tell me about attunement and spellcasting?¡± I asked. I had rough ideas how this world¡¯s magic system worked, but my understanding was pretty shallow so far. If Ella helped me understand how each system actually worked, I would have an easier time deciding who I wanted to learn from, when the time came to make a final choice.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Ella stared at the table for a moment, pursing her lips in thought, before she sighed.


    ¡°So, for spellcasting, there are three things you need to cast a spell. First, you need essence to power the spell. No essence, no spellcasting.¡± I nodded. That was quite easy to understand.


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    ¡°Next, you need to know the spell you¡¯re casting. While I haven¡¯t ever used the spellcasting magic system, I know that their magic system is kind of like putting together math equations using magic symbols. If you put together the same set of symbols in exactly the same way, the same spell will form, every single time.


    ¡°However, their spellcasting system is very¡­ mathematical. If you mess up while putting together a spell, you can just as easily fling a fireball towards your face instead of whatever enemy you¡¯re trying to target. This tends to be rather bad for one¡¯s health, so until someone really knows what they¡¯re doing it¡¯s generally better to stick to spells other people have already discovered and used before. That way you know the spell is safe and won¡¯t melt your arm or turn you into charcoal. After all, nobody is like an Orukthyri these days; us sane remnants of the Ortha all have unfortunately fragile bodies. So spellcasters can¡¯t survive messing up a big spell at a critical time.


    ¡°Finally, spellcasters need spell circles inside of their mind to let them cast spells. I¡¯m not really sure what this looks like, but I know they aren¡¯t that hard to form, and most casters usually form four or five circles of magic within their mind within their first month or two of learning. This is what lets them turn their magic symbols into actual spells, although I can¡¯t say I know the details beyond that. Well, I can also tell you that more magic circles used in the construction of a spell makes the spell stronger, but I bet literally everyone in town could tell you that much,¡± said Ella, grinning again.


    I chuckled. More magic circles being equal to a stronger spell was something I had learned without even really trying, and I was still considered a child in this world.


    ¡°How about shaping? Spellcasting requires magic symbols, essence, and spell circles, but what about shaping? Is there anything fancy associated with attunement, or the way we reach into alternate timelines and bring elements of those timelines into our own?¡± I asked, quietly deciding not to poke at my thoughts on this visualization system yet. There would be time for that later.


    Ella¡¯s eyes shone for a moment. ¡°The requirements to make our magic system work is where shapers get a huge advantage over spellcasters, at least when it comes to using our attunement. You see, shaping is actually divided into two major subtypes of spellcasting. First, we can do the alternate-timeline manipulation. This is ¡®general¡¯ shaping, and allows us to do almost anything. However, it¡¯s also heavily environmentally dependent. The exact same action can vary wildly in how much mana it costs, based on how similar an action is to our current circumstances. For example, you know how in the shaping test, we provide you with a jar of orange paint and a paintbrush, right? Well, if you move the jar of orange paint farther away from the blue cube, the cost of making the blue cube turn orange will start to increase, based on the distance between the two. And if you take away the paintbrush, the cube will either turn partially orange and partially blue, or will eat much more essence before turning orange.


    ¡°Attunement is different. It¡¯s one of the old shaping systems, and existed even before the Dawn of the Black Sun. It¡¯s much more efficient, but takes a lot more training to use properly. Instead of screwing around with magic symbols like a spellcaster, or reaching into alternate timelines, we just¡­ pick an object nearby and change what it is. Of course, in exchange for that increase in speed, we need to spend lots of time building up an attunement to a certain element or idea of our choice first. It usually takes a long time to build up. For the sake of simplicity, we also tend to rank attunements on a similar scale to spell circles. I would be a ¡®fifth circle¡¯ mental state shaper. Even though shaping has literally nothing to do with magic circles. It¡¯s just such an easy ranking system to use that everyone uses it, because it¡¯s so simple and easy to reference. ¡± Ella paused.


    ¡°Shaping also has a lot more noncombat utility than spellcasting, since our attunements are much more¡­ freeform than spellcasting. Comes with the fact that we don¡¯t need to be afraid of turning ourselves into charcoal when we try new stuff, you see.¡± I nodded.


    ¡°Two of the most well known shapers in the city, for example, don¡¯t do combat at all; instead, they just directly turn rocks into gold. It takes them a while, but it¡¯s best to have a good gold reserve prepared just in case the white dragon wakes up and gets hungry. If we don¡¯t have a snack ready for it, it might get grumpy and start eating our houses instead, and we can¡¯t have that. Besides, if we wanted to ask for a blessing, it¡¯s naturally best to offer something in return first.¡± Ella chuckled. ¡°By contrast, while it¡¯s probably technically possible to turn stone into gold with the spellcasting system, nobody has figured out how to do it yet. So far, there has been a new spell created recently that lets spellcasters turn a very specifically shaped kind of container of stone into water, which can help if the river ever starts running low. However, if the container is too differently shaped from what the spell is designed for, the spell will instead turn the rocks into partially liquified rocks, making them very¡­ messy. There are a lot of weird eccentricities in how spells work if you don¡¯t make them correctly, and shaping doesn¡¯t have that problem. As long as you have enough mana, anything around you can be altered to fit your attunement.¡±


    Since Ella had mentioned that attunements were one of the old methods of using alteration essence, from before the Dawn of the Black Sun, I got the feeling that it was closer to the correct way of using alteration essence. I decided to pay extra close attention to whatever my teacher said, whenever we got to the part about attunements and shaping. I decided to summarize Ella¡¯s good points one more time.


    ¡°So basically, your knowledge is mostly centered on adventuring and mental attacks?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I¡¯d say those are my main upsides when compared to having Lauren as a teacher,¡± said Ella, grinning at me. ¡°Not sure if that¡¯s enough to take away one of his potential students, but think fondly of me either way, all right? I hope you at least give me a proper consideration.¡±


    I grinned. ¡°Believe me, I¡¯m very tempted. But I¡¯ll still see what Lauren has to say as well. I haven¡¯t made up my mind yet, after all.¡±


    Ella shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s about what I expected. Let the witch running this year¡¯s meet and greet know when you make up your mind, and hopefully I¡¯ll see you again soon.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for your time, Ella,¡± I said, giving her a quick curtsy before I shuffled out of the room.


    I left my meeting with Ellen with a far more positive view of potential tutelage under the woman. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that there was potential synergy between alteration and manifestation spellcasting systems, I would have probably felt that she was the best possible teacher I could have asked for. Of course, the fact that there were ways to combine alteration and manifestation essence and have them improve each other also meant that Lauren had a huge leg up as a potential teacher. However, I would also need to see what he specialized in, and how well I thought he would fit me.


    When I walked into Lauren¡¯s room, I realized he had opted for all four of us to see him at once. Which wasn¡¯t really traditional, but given how much white thread he had sewn into his clothing, he was probably able to break a few rules and get away with it. I gave Sallia and Felix grins, and then gave Anise a smile as well, before I sat down next to my friends.


    ¡°Did the four of you enjoy speaking with the other shapers and spellcasters?¡± Asked Lauren.


    I nodded.


    He smiled. ¡°Good. The other shapers and spellcasters of our town are good people, and if we don¡¯t fit each other well, they are excellent potential teachers. Even if they won¡¯t be aware of how to make shaping and spellcasting work together, you will still grow into exceptional men and women of the city if you learn under them. However, you didn¡¯t come here to listen to me praise my competition,¡± said the old man, chuckling. ¡°I think it¡¯s best if students ask the questions, especially since by now you should have a rough idea what you¡¯re looking for in a teacher. Ask away!¡±

 Chapter 79: Spellcasters and Shapers (3)

    I looked at Lauren for a few moments, considering what my first question should be, before I spoke.


    ¡°Is there a way to combine shaping and spellcasting? Ella mentioned that having the two work together was possible, but she didn¡¯t know any details. What kind of possibilities would I be learning if I become your apprentice?¡±


    Lauren gave me a curious look. ¡°Well aren¡¯t you a perceptive little one. It¡¯s unusual for a kid your age to try so hard to learn about specific details. They tend to start thinking more about those in a decade or two. Most children are more excited to imagine all of the cool things they¡¯ll be able to do in the future, and don¡¯t worry much about the details.¡±


    I tried not to glance at Anise the super witch, but for a brief moment, I definitely felt my eyes slide in her direction.


    Lauren seemed to see my eyes twitch towards her for a moment. He chuckled, and gave Anise a fond smile. Even though she hadn¡¯t spoken yet, it seemed that Lauren had some basic information on us already. And Anise had made her intention of becoming a super witch very clear, it was hard not to link his comment about typical children and Anise¡¯s attitude.


    ¡°Anyway, the basics of combining shaping and spellcasting aren¡¯t too difficult to learn. Normally, a spell used by a spellcaster is like math. If you use the same magic symbols and sub-symbols, put them in the same positions, and don¡¯t make any mistakes, you¡¯ll get the exact same result every single time. However, general shaping lets you reach into an alternate timeline. What if, after launching a fireball at something, you replaced five or six fire symbols in the third circle of the spell with force symbols?


    ¡°Normally, this would cause the fireball to completely lose stability, and if you try to cast the spell this way it will implode before exiting your body. Which has the small, unfortunate side effect of leaving you dead, or at least in seriously need of medical attention. However, if it happens right next to an opponent¡¯s body, on the other hand¡­¡± Laurne grinned. ¡°Well, in that case, it turns out to be exceptionally effective at getting rid of some denizens of the darkness which have softer bodies and better fire resistance. And you can do a lot of other things to your own spells, as well. You can cause your spells to change direction in midair, making them home in on enemies. You can suddenly overload a spell by tossing in a bunch of extra alteration essence, making it much stronger right before it hits an opponent. Really, you can do a lot of tricky and unusual things to your spells that give them far more utility, and which a normal spellcaster would never be able to do. Of course, learning to do this without hurting yourself is very difficult, and making every drop of essence from both of your mana pools count is very hard. It takes a lot of practice to build your shaping into a proper support for your spellcasting.¡±


    I nodded thoughtfully. Lauren¡¯s ability to adjust spells in midair wasn¡¯t exactly what I had in mind when I had heard of him using alteration essence and manifestation essence to synergize with each other. However, I could certainly see the appeal. That being said, it also sounded as if he was mostly using alteration essence as a support system for his manifestation spellcasting. Which wasn¡¯t really what I wanted. I was hoping to use alteration as my primary method of fighting, since it was my extreme affinity.


    Then, I had another thought.


    ¡°What happens if you use shaping to change the symbols in another spellcaster¡¯s spell?¡± I asked.


    Lauren¡¯s grin widened. ¡°It depends on how you use your shaping essence, really. If you mess up, you could detonate the spell in a way that was far more dangerous than whatever the spell was originally trying to do. However, if you know the spell well enough, and know how to alter the magic symbols¡­ you can nearly outright negate some spells, or even turn them back on their casters! There are only a few magic sub-symbols in each spell that tell the spell what direction to go, for example. If you delete all of them and replace them with the right magic symbols, you can send them right back at the spellcaster! Of course, a more experienced spellcaster might leave extra, hidden sub-symbols in their spell, turning the art of counterspelling into a tricky and dangerous affair if you make a mistake, or don¡¯t know what you¡¯re doing. Which is part of the reason I consider it an advanced technique. However, it¡¯s my specialty. And it¡¯s much harder to teach regular shapers, since most of them don¡¯t learn too much about regular spellcasting beyond the idea that more magic circles means stronger spell.¡±


    I wondered if counterspelling was enough to tip the odds back in Lauren¡¯s favor. Being able to swap around what an opponent¡¯s spell did certainly sounded appealing, and I could see all sorts of interesting applications. As I thought, Lauren continued to speak.


    ¡°Of course, as I already said, counterspelling is a rather advanced technique, so I would require you to spend a long time under my mentorship before I taught it to you. If you mess up, you can really hurt yourself by accidentally strengthening an opponent¡¯s spell instead of weakening or negating it. But I would say it¡¯s one of the better techniques I have available.¡±


    I could see Sallia and Felix thinking over Lauren¡¯s words. I was definitely thinking about all of the possibilities actual counterspelling could open up for me, if I learned Lauren¡¯s techniques well enough to use them in practical situations.


    However, I was also thinking about what Ella had to offer. While she wouldn¡¯t be able to teach me spellcasting, I wouldn¡¯t need to be afraid of wholly wasting my potential as a spellcaster under her either.


    Sallia beat me to the next question.


    ¡°What life experiences do you have?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°I don¡¯t know if we¡¯ve mentioned this yet, but Miria, Felix and I were planning on eventually going into the wastes and adventuring for a while once we get older. A lot of the other teachers have hands-on experience venturing to the surface, and that means they can teach us a lot about what to be cautious of. Some of the other teachers have experience fighting creatures that live deeper underground and occasionally attack our caverns. Do you have any experience fighting or adventuring that we should be aware of?¡±


    Lauren stroked his beard in thought, before giving the three of us a curious look.¡°There are many children who dream of being adventurers when they grow up. I can certainly see the appeal, although I do hope you make sure to train seriously if that¡¯s what you want to do.¡± I supposed that him attempting to make us train harder was better than outright berating us for wanting to go to the surface.


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    ¡°I have two things I am proud of that I have accomplished with my life,¡± said Lauren, giving his beard another affectionate stroke. ¡°First, in my younger days I helped conquer three new caverns from the denizens of the darkness, bringing them under control of our town. One of them is particularly rich in iron, and has greatly improved our city¡¯s tool-making abilities. This is also where I got to practice many of my counterspelling abilities. Creatures of the darkness usually only know a few spells, and their spellcasting is more¡­ instinctual than ours. But many of them still know a couple spells that they can use in a fight, and cast them much faster than a human spellcaster does. So I have a bit of experience fighting.


    ¡°Then, there is my second major life experience. I¡¯ve taught, in total, thirty-one spellcasters, shapers, and caster-shapers over the course of my life. I have a great deal of experience as a teacher, and I have been teaching apprentices for seventy years now. I have never taken in four students at once before, but most of my students are relatively successful in the city at whatever profession they choose to pursue. A few have even gone to the surface and returned to tell the tale, and if you want to learn more about the dangers of the surface, I can call in some of my former students to give you a few lessons and stories. I¡¯m on good terms with most of them, and plenty of them wouldn¡¯t mind giving you training for a few months, if that¡¯s what you desire.¡± Lauren said as he grinned.


    Lauren had made another pretty good point. If he was really able to leverage a strong network of connections, he would have an easier time finding specialized teachers to help us learn specific skills. Ella clearly also had some connections, but based on Lauren¡¯s words I expected his social network was probably larger.


    Felix seemed to perk up. ¡°So you can get specialists to help us learn anything? Including item crafting and manipulation?¡±


    ¡°I thought you said that the three of you were planning on adventuring to the surface?¡± Said Lauren, giving Sallia a curious look.


    Felix answered instead of Sallia. ¡°We¡¯re still planning on going to the surface as a team. I want to see if there are any lost item creation techniques that we could draw upon from the surface. But I would still like to at least understand the basics first. Otherwise, I might not even understand item creation well enough to interpret whatever we find on the surface.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that makes sense,¡± said Lauren. ¡°Good on you for working to build up your foundations before moving on to the more complicated things. Well, if you want to learn about making magic items, such as the wands we use for the spellcasting test, I can certainly arrange for lessons on that as well. I am on good terms with a few craftsmen who make wands, and while I admit that my knowledge on the subject is lacking, I can certainly make sure that you have a good grasp of the subject by the time you exit my tutelage, so long as you work hard.¡±


    Anise took this moment to interject.


    ¡°Are you able to make me a super witch?¡± She asked enthusiastically.


    Lauren¡¯s smile grew much kindlier as he turned towards Anise and chuckled. ¡°I can do that too. I know a sixth circle spell, and if you have enough mana to use it, I don¡¯t mind teaching it to you. It¡¯s a spell focused on protecting yourself from harm. It¡¯s a good spell for any spellcaster to have access to, honestly. My sixth-circle spell can even block a cave in for a few hours, which should be long enough for you or someone else to fish yourself out of the mess. Combined with my knowledge of how to use shaping to support and improve your spellcasting, you can probably become one of the best spellcasters in the city, if you work hard and have a big enough essence pool.¡± Anise seemed positively radiant at the prospect of becoming an amazing witch, and I had to work hard to avoid grinning. Anise was a very excitable girl.


    I still didn¡¯t know quite how common or rare sixth circle spells were, but I was starting to get a rough idea. It seemed like fifth circle spells weren¡¯t actually that common; instead, they were used by the elites of the city. Such as those qualified to teach the next generation of spellcasters. Sixth circle spells seemed to be quite rare, if even someone like Lauren only knew one. I didn¡¯t know if the city had access to any seventh circle spells, but unless I was seriously mistaken, they were probably very rare and only known by a few spellcasters in the city. Lauren might know one, but if he did, it clearly wasn¡¯t on the table for us if we became his apprentices. Perhaps we would need to perform some sort of meritorious action for the city or something if we wanted to see it?


    I shrugged. Right now, I didn¡¯t even know if a seventh circle spell existed in the city. I would have to look more into it later.


    After that, the discussion between us started to focus on nailing down more specifics. I had a rough idea of what Lauren offered now; it was the ability to use shaping to command my own spells and mess with other spellcasters. Considering the fact that spellcasters were incredibly common in this world, that wasn¡¯t a bad thing at all. In fact, if I were only thinking about this life, I probably would have taken Lauren up on his offer. Being able to counter the most common magic system in the world and actively sabotage it seemed amazing.


    The problem was that I wasn¡¯t thinking about just this life. I wanted to be prepared for the next life, and the ones after that. Which meant that rather than focusing on countering a specific kind of magic, I should focus on making myself as strong as possible, especially when it came to my alteration magic. I wanted to make it as likely as possible that I took an alteration keyword ability with me when I died. I might end up taking a manifestation essence ability as well, if I felt it was a good fit for me, but it definitely wasn¡¯t my focus.


    Using Alteration to enhance my manifestation magic was certainly an interesting skill, and one I wouldn¡¯t mind picking up. But it didn¡¯t fit my needs very well, either. Maybe I could still pick it up through Sallia and Felix later, but I wanted to learn more about attunements and general shaping before I messed with counterspelling. And given how weak the understanding of most present-day shapers was, I might actually end up moving further ahead if I followed my instincts. I got the feeling that Ella would have a more relaxed stance towards any experimentation I did with magic, which would make things much easier for me in the long run. And, of course, her attunement closely matched what I wanted to do in the future as well. Besides, I would be able to talk with Sallia and Felix about what they were learning for four hours every day. So I would still have people to talk to about spellcasting. The three of us would help each other and learn from each other, just like last life.


    Knowing that I would miss the chance to be apprentices with my friends kind of stung. I would have loved to learn magic with them, and I had been looking forward to being apprentices under the same master with them. But I wasn¡¯t going to abandon a good path to growing stronger just to spend a little more of this lifetime with them. After all, we still had a deadline we were racing against. If we weren¡¯t strong enough to fight things in the Market, we would permanently die in four lives.


    Even if it sucked, I would lose some time with my friends if it meant they wouldn¡¯t die afterwards. I wanted them to be safe and happy more than anything else in the world, and even if it made me a little sad, I needed to work hard to keep them safe.


    As the group walked out of the meeting with Lauren, I stopped for just a moment to speak with the witch who was in charge of running this meet and greet.


    ¡°Please let Ella know that I wish for her to teach me,¡± I said.


    The witch gave me a curious look, but the smile never left her lips as she jotted down my name under Ella¡¯s list of confirmed apprentices.

 Chapter 80: Family

    After signing up for learning under Ella, the witch in charge of running the entire meet and greet disappeared for a few moments to make a final confirmation with Ella. Less than a minute later, she returned and confirmed that Ella was more than happy to accept me as an apprentice. She would pick me up from my home tomorrow, in the evening, giving me time to tell my family the good news, and then intended to get to know my parents and siblings a little before bringing me to my new sleeping quarters. I gave the witch the details about where I lived, along with a few polite words of thanks for her help. After that, I walked outside of the testing site, to find my mother patiently fiddling with a half-knitted children¡¯s dress while she patiently waited for me.


    When I walked out, she gave me an eager grin.


    ¡°Good news, sweetie?¡± She asked.


    I gave my mother a smile. ¡°Good news, but let¡¯s wait until we¡¯re home. I don¡¯t want to repeat myself.¡±


    My mother¡¯s grin widened, and I could see her eagerness and anticipation start to build up, but she still nodded. ¡°All right, sweetie. Let¡¯s go home and hear the good news, then.¡±


    My mother seemed to practically bounce on her feet as we walked down the streets toward my house, and I could see the occasional townsfolk giving my mother and me a knowing look.


    Seeing a parent beside themself in excitement on the day of magic testing, while walking a young child home, seemed to be a universally acknowledged sign of a future witch or shaper. I saw plenty of people give me small, acknowledging nods before they returned to their day to day business. I hadn¡¯t done anything for the city yet, meaning I was just a witch and didn¡¯t have any sort of noble rank, but most people didn¡¯t see the harm in showing normal witches a bit of respect as well. I gave the townsfolk friendly smiles and waves as we walked along. Since they were making an effort to be polite, I felt it was only reasonable to be nice back to them.


    When my mother and I walked through the door, to my surprise, Jonathan was the first one to greet me. He was usually out of the house on weekdays to learn under his own master, so I was a little surprised to see him home.


    ¡°Little sis!¡± said Jonathan. He gave my mother a quick hug, before taking a step towards me, and then picking me up giving me a crushing hug as well.


    Then, he winced, and put me down. ¡°Goodness gracious little sis, you¡¯re quite sturdy. Your big brother can¡¯t keep up. Maybe you should be the master swordsman instead,¡± he said, chuckling. I couldn¡¯t help but reflect on how much of a difference there truly was between aa transmigrator with grade 9 Fortitude and a regular human being in this world, especially in terms of physical ability. Jonathan was considered fairly exceptional for his physical abilities and potential as a swordsman, and he had maybe grade 7 in his physical stats. Even though I was suffering under major penalties for being a child right now, my body was still sturdier and stronger than his. And the difference would increase dramatically once my body finished developing.


    ¡°How¡¯d it go? Did you end up as a witch?¡± he asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.


    I decided to have a little fun, so I gave him a disappointed look. ¡°No.¡± My mother gave me a confused look, before she seemed to connect the dots, and I heard her chuckle under her breath. Since I hadn¡¯t told my mother what my test results were yet, she must have assumed I was a shaper, and then correctly realized I was pulling a little prank.


    Jonathan¡¯s gaze turned a little softer, and he gave me a soothing pat on the head, instead.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Even if you didn¡¯t end up as a witch, you can still do amazing things in the world. Just look at me!¡± he said, grinning. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. If you¡¯re looking for a master to have an apprenticeship under, I can beg my master to take you in too. Considering how strong and sturdy your body is when you¡¯re only twelve, by the time you turn thirty or so I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll have exceptional talent as a swordsman! Or if you want to learn a craft instead, I can try to get something for you, even if you can¡¯t find one on your own! I¡¯m sure there are plenty of places in the city where you can excel, and I¡¯ll definitely help you with that!¡±


    I felt the urge to laugh bubble up in my stomach. I felt the corners of my lips start to curl up, and decided my prank had gone on long enough.


    ¡°I¡¯m a shaper-witch, Jonathan! I¡¯m not a witch at all!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s.. wait, you succeeded?¡± Jonathan¡¯s comforting smile turned into a twisted grin as he looked at me. ¡°You little gremlin! You had me all worked up for a moment, too! I can¡¯t believe you pulled that on me!¡± Instead of giving me a comforting pat on the head, he decided it was high time he gave me a noogie, as I tried to squirm my way out of his arms. Jonathan started laughing, letting me go, and a moment later, I joined him. ¡°That¡¯s great news, little sis! I¡¯m glad you passed. Not that I think you wouldn¡¯t succeed even without magic, but there are only a few shaper-spellcasters in the entire city! Since you¡¯ve been wearing black for a few years, I assume you want to be an adventurer or a combatant of some kind?¡± Jonathan seemed to consider his words for a moment, before nodding to himself. ¡°If you¡¯re a shaper-witch, you¡¯ll definitely have plenty of ways to improve your combat skills.¡± He gave me a teasing glare. ¡°Maybe soon you¡¯ll have no time for your weak older brother, as you journey into the wastelands, slaying Orukthyri left and right and becoming a little legend.¡±


    I chuckled, and gave Jonathan a squeeze on his ribs as well. My mother, who was still standing off to the side, seemed to be having a small fit from excitement after I had said I was a shaper-witch.


    ¡°Even if I become stronger, I¡¯ll still remember my roots,¡± I said, releasing him. Then, I took a few moments to think


    ¡°Although my friends and I are thinking about exploring the surface once we get older, but we¡¯ll see what happens when the time comes,¡± I said, knowing full well that we would be exploring the surface unless something catastrophic happened.


    My mother¡¯s expression of excitement froze, turning into a frown as she stared intently at me.


    Jonathan, seeing my mother¡¯s stormy expression, winced. ¡°Ermm¡­¡±


    My mother glared at Jonathan. ¡°Now look what you¡¯ve done! If you didn¡¯t always go around talking about going to the surface and fighting Orukthyri, Miria wouldn¡¯t have worn black for a few years! Now she¡¯s still talking about going to the surface, and she¡¯s a shaper-witch!¡±


    Jonathan started sending me pleading looks for the corner of his eyes, and I resisted the urge to sigh as I stepped in.


    ¡°Mama, I wanted to explore the world, with or without Jonathan¡¯s words. I would have ended up aiming to become an adventurer with or without his input; in fact, it isn¡¯t unusual for shapers and witches to go to the surface and look for old research,¡± I said. ¡°Too much was lost when the second Orthan empire fell, and so collecting old knowledge is critical if one wants to make a difference in the city¡¯s knowledge of spellcasting.¡± And if one wants to collect a silly amount of Achievement, I mused to myself.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    My mother scowled, turning towards me. ¡°Now listen here, Miria. I¡¯ve let you wear black for a few years, but the surface is dangerous. Even if you¡¯re a shaper witch, orukthyri are still a major threat. They were literally built for war with other shaper-spellcasters, and whatever the Orthans did to enhance their war-slaves, it¡¯s lost to time now. If you think going to the surface is a good idea, I¡¯ll need to have a talk with your teacher about your future-¡±


    I seriously doubted my mother would convince a competent and experienced shaper, but my mother¡¯s words did make me realize that I should probably leave this conversation to my teacher and my mother, instead. Since I was six years old, (at least, if I compared my age to a human child), I seriously doubted any argument I made would get through to my mother, so it was best to let an adult make them instead.


    Thus, I quietly tuned out my mother¡¯s rambling for a minute or two, until I heard a door creak open. My mother stopped grumbling at me, and turned to see who had interrupted her tongue-lashing session.


    I saw Ruman make his way into the room, before giving me a curious glance. ¡°Judging by the fuss you guys are making, I gather you did something silly, little sis?¡± He said, giving me a curious look. Then, almost as an afterthought, he looked me up and down. ¡°Did you pass either test?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Both of them. My teacher is coming tomorrow to meet my family and pick me up,¡± I said.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad for you,¡± said Ruman, his gaze measured and steady. My mother seemed more distracted my Ruman¡¯s entrance, which made me happy. I also gave Ruman another glance.


    Over the years, Ruman was the sibling that had changed his attitude the most. I still remembered that when he was younger, he had been practically attached to Jonathan as a third arm, and had seemed almost as excited about swords and fighting as Jonathan. However, as he grew older, Ruman had started to favor more scholarly pursuits, and now he was developing into a proper bookworm instead of the little kid who had hero-worshiped his brother for years. He had gained an apprenticeship with one of the merchants who owned a few smaller metal caverns, and worked as an accountant in exchange for teaching and knowledge. He was thin and reedy now, unlike my tall and muscular oldest brother.


    I quickly made my way towards Ruman, before the two of us hugged each other, and Ruman gave me a warm smile. ¡°I hope she didn¡¯t chew you out too badly,¡± he whispered in my ear, and I giggled.


    So he had done it on purpose.


    Finally, as I was pulling away from Ruman, I heard a slightly bratty voice from an older girl sound out.


    ¡°Miria! You came back!¡± said my sister, who appeared from out of her doorway. ¡°Did you end up with magic?¡±


    I nodded, and grinned. ¡°I am now a caster-shaper, Laura. Behold, my future unmatched magical prowess!¡± I waved my arms around a little bit, pretending to shoot a spell off. Of course, I avoided putting any actual essence into my ¡®spellcasting.¡¯ The events of the day had made it abundantly clear that there were dozens of ways to blow myself up if I messed up while using magic, and I didn¡¯t intend to put myself at risk for no reason if I could help it.


    Laura rolled her eyes and snorted. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you were actually lucky enough to get both. Only a couple in the city. Now there¡¯s one more, I guess.¡± She sighed, making an exaggerated eye roll to let me know what she thought of my ¡®luck¡¯ with magic, and then walked over to me and gave me a brief hug.


    ¡°Congratulations, little sis. But just for the record, if I had awakened magic, I would have been a better spellcaster and a better shaper than you,¡± she said. Her tone contained a faint, buried feeling of bitterness.


    Laura had wanted to awaken magic more than any of my other siblings, and when she had returned with no talent found, she had been devastated for a week. Still, she had sort of gotten over it. At the very least, she could genuinely congratulate me, even if there was still a hint of buried longing in her voice.


    I tightened Laura¡¯s hug before stepping away.


    ¡°So what brings you home, Jonathan?¡± I asked, giving my oldest brother a curious look. He was the one I had least expected to see here, given how busy his schedule was. My mother also gave Jonathan a curious look, which I noticed from the corner of my eye. Apparently, she hadn¡¯t been expecting him home today.


    ¡°I came back just to see your results, of course!¡± said Jonathan. ¡°How can I train easily today, knowing that your results were going to come out? It¡¯s not like one of my siblings gets to undergo their magic test every day! So I asked my master for some time off for two days. To celebrate you becoming a spellcaster, of course!¡±


    And to comfort me if I ended up not being talented, I thought. It seemed that Laura¡¯s meltdown after learning she had no magical talent had remained firmly imprinted in Jonathan¡¯s mind, and so he had explicitly set aside time this year to make the best of whatever situation I found myself in.


    I felt a little warmth in my heart when I thought of the fact that several members of my family had set aside for my magic test. Even Ruman, who was just starting out his apprenticeship, had made time to be home today, just for me.


    ¡°Your father will be home in a few hours, Miria,¡± said my mother, grinning as she seemed to recover from the shock of realizing I still wanted to be an adventurer. However, her smile had an edge to it now, and I suddenly found myself wishing my master was coming tonight instead of tomorrow. However, she seemed willing to put aside the topic for now, which I was more than happy to do. ¡°Since you ended up as a spellcaster, do you want to choose where we eat tonight? Having a spellcaster in the family is cause for celebration.¡±


    I smiled. I expected that we probably would have gone out to eat at a nicer restaurant tonight either way. The reason simply changed from ¡®cheering Miria up because she was untalented¡¯ to ¡®celebrating Miria¡¯s magical talent.¡¯ But one way or another, we would have eaten out tonight.


    ¡°So, what kind of master did you end up taking?¡± asked Ruman. ¡°I¡¯m a little less familiar with how apprenticeship works for spellcasters, since none of us ended up talented, but¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s close to how Jonathan¡¯s apprenticeship works, except for the fact that I¡¯m much younger,¡± I said. ¡°So I¡¯ll be gone for most weekdays, unless there¡¯s some sort of special ceremony or holiday or something. And I¡¯ll return on weekends.¡±


    I saw my mother quietly nod from the background. ¡°A bit different from school then,¡± she commented. ¡°I¡¯ll let your father know that we shouldn¡¯t expect to see much of you during weekdays. Does your master provide room and board?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s going to be in charge of my living situation whenever I¡¯m with her. But I¡¯ll still be around on weekends, so I¡¯ll still see all of you a lot,¡± I said, grinning.


    My mother seemed a bit relieved at that statement.


    ¡°Do we get a chance to meet your master?¡± asked my mother.


    I nodded. ¡°She¡¯ll be coming by to pick me up tomorrow night and start teaching me. I imagine that she¡¯ll also take some time to introduce herself, get to know you, and so on. It would seem strange if she didn¡¯t, at least,¡± I said.


    ¡°Good, good. I¡¯ll make sure your father takes some time off tomorrow so that we can get to know your teacher,¡± said my mother.


    After that, the more intense questioning session started to break down into a more relaxed family gathering. We passed time amiably chatting until my father returned home, and then the six of us went out to dinner at a restaurant I preferred. Since my time on the islands, I had a distinct fondness for fish, and while my family couldn¡¯t afford to go to one of the fancier fish restaurants, we could still afford to go to a few of the more middle-class ones.


    When we returned, I went to sleep for the night. However, I couldn¡¯t help but think about the meeting between my teacher and my parents that would start tomorrow. I was hoping that I could finally convince my mother to get off my back about adventuring. While I was just a child right now, I didn¡¯t intend to abandon my dreams of exploring the surface just because my mother was worried about the danger, even if I could sympathize with her worries as well.


    Since spellcasters and shapers had much easier times surviving on the surface, I hoped my teacher could finally lay my mother¡¯s worries to rest. However, while my mother and father loved me, they also weren¡¯t prone to taking my opinions very seriously. I was equivalent to a six year old in this world, after all. And the three of us needed Achievement and Abilities if we wanted to live. I wouldn¡¯t put that aside for anything.


    Hopefully by tomorrow, this issue could be put to rest.

 Chapter 81: Family (2)

    ¡°And that¡¯s why it¡¯s critical that young witches and shapers eventually go to the surface from time to time. Restraining bright young minds with the potential to recover lost knowledge is just foolish,¡± said Ella, giving my mother a barely restrained glare.


    I stifled the urge to groan. True to my fears, my mother and my teacher were not getting along well. In fact, I was under the impression that they were barely a few more provocative words away from beating each other to death in the living room.


    Well, my mother would be the one getting beaten to death. My mother was a seamstress who, as far as I knew, had never held a weapon in her life, while my teacher was a competent adventurer who specialized in using shaping in combat. I doubted it would be much of a fight.


    ¡°But encouraging a mere twelve year old to explore the wastelands is just madness! Children should be free to make their own choices, but only when they¡¯re old enough to understand what they¡¯re getting into! Until then, they should be given neutral information so that they don¡¯t form a positive view of throwing their lives away on the surface!¡± Snapped my mother.. Despite facing down one of the few shapers in the city, she wasn¡¯t backing down, much to my unpleasant surprise. My mother nearly had a fit whenever Jonathan occasionally mentioned his admiration of adventurers that went to the surface, and if anything, she seemed even more upset when I mentioned it. ¡°You can¡¯t seriously think that portraying an adventure to the surface in a positive light won¡¯t have a bad influence on her thinking, especially when she¡¯s as young as she is!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s her life, and her choice,¡± said my teacher flatly. ¡°If she wishes to explore the surface when she¡¯s older, it¡¯s not like you or I am going to physically tie her down and prevent her from leaving. If she wants to explore the surface when she gets older, I will give her the tools and knowledge she needs to have the best chance of returning alive. If she changes her mind halfway through, she can at least pass down the information to her own students in the future. And she¡¯ll have be a competent shaper either way. I intend to make sure that she has every drop of strength and every piece of knowledge I can drill into her skull by the time she leaves my tutelage. If you forcibly keep her ignorant of the surface and she still ends up going, her survival odds will only be worse as a result.¡±


    My mother glared at Ella, as if she were going to say something else, but my father gently touched my mother¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°Dear, maybe it¡¯s best if we calm down for a minute and assess her words,¡± he said, softly. I shot my father a grateful look, though I wasn¡¯t sure if he saw it. Heedless of my grateful glance, he continued speaking to my mother. ¡°Besides, I think Miria has wanted to go to the surface with or without the influence of her teacher. If we can¡¯t get her to change her plans, we should instead make sure she has the best odds of surviving she can get.


    ¡°Miria is only twelve right now, so she might very well change her mind as she grows up. But if she doesn''t, do you really want her to get herself killed because you stopped her from learning what she needs to know in order to survive? Besides, being inspired by a dream can do wonderful things for a person¡¯s motivation. If you stop Miria from moving forward, she might not ever reach her full potential.¡±


    ¡°But she¡¯s only a child. She doesn¡¯t know what she wants in life yet. And if she spends all of this time learning combat shaping and spellcasting, what if she doesn¡¯t have the skill set needed to swap to a less dangerous path later on? Besides, learning under a former adventurer definitely won¡¯t discourage her from learning more about adventuring and fighting. If Miria learns under this teacher, how can we convince her to change her mind?¡± My mother said, her voice starting to crack. For a moment, it sounded like she was on the verge of breaking down.


    My father gently caressed my mother¡¯s head, and she took a few moments to compose herself. The two moved a little further away, and my father began gently murmuring in my mother¡¯s ear.


    Finally, my mother sighed, and pulled herself back to her feet. She gave Ella a bitter glare, before giving me a more appraising look. Finally, she sighed. ¡°Miria, is this really what you want?¡±


    ¡°Ever since I saw the fort that separates us from the surface, I¡¯ve wanted to see what lies beyond it,¡± I said. I made sure to leave out any influence other people might have had on my interests, since I didn¡¯t want my mother to point fingers at anyone besides me if I got myself killed in a few decades.


    Besides, in my first life, the first thing I had done after learning about the incredibly dangerous ocean was decide that I wanted to explore it.


    The fact that I was fully aware that I would get more lives in the future was definitely reducing my aversion to risks by quite a bit, and I was starting to realize that it showed in my behavior. I cleared my thoughts, before I began speaking again. It wouldn¡¯t do to space out while I was trying to convince my mother. ¡°Even if I change my mind later, I want to become as good as I can right now. That way, in the future I can have the freedom to choose.¡±


    My mother didn¡¯t seem happy with my answer, but she gave Ella another glance, before finally snorting. ¡°Fine. But every single time you come home, I¡¯ll try to convince you that it¡¯s a stupid idea to go to the surface.¡±


    ¡°Then every time I come home, I¡¯ll remind you of the fact that I¡¯m determined to go,¡± I said, grimacing. It sounded like my mother might hold a bit of a stubborn stance for the next few years over my decision. However, she was far less confrontational about it now than she had been at the start of the conversation. I felt I could get my point through in a few years.


    My mother¡¯s shoulders seemed to deflate a little, but finally, she nodded.


    Since my mother was done arguing my teacher, my father finally made his way over to Ella and offering her an extended hand. ¡°My apologies, shaper Ella. Thank you for being willing to teach my daughter, and, erm¡­ sorry.¡±


    Ella rolled her eyes, but seemed to relax. She reached out her hand towards my father¡¯s, and gave him a somewhat awkward handshake. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ve heard that some other casters and shapers also have a hard time convincing the parents of their prospective students that their child¡¯s career choice is perfectly valid. It comes with teaching magic users, I suppose,¡± she said, sighing.


    ¡°Now, I do apologize, but I don¡¯t think I got your name. You¡¯re¡­?¡±


    ¡°Ajax,¡± said my father, giving Ella a more formal smile.


    ¡°Mister Ajax, then,¡± said Ella, as her expression finally seemed to ease completely. ¡°I take it you have no problems with me teaching your daughter how to fight and operate as a shaper?¡±


    My father winced and eyed my mother from the corner of his eye, before he shook his head. ¡°I have no problems at all with that, miss Ella. And again, thank you for teaching my daughter. I appreciate your willingness to work with her to make sure she stays as safe as possible in the future.¡±


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Ella gave my father a more relaxed smile this time.


    With the biggest problem headed off, the conversation quickly became more relaxed. My mother was still stiff and unwilling to fully participate in the conversation, and she still shot me a stormy look from time to time, but it was more manageable than before, at least. This was probably the best I would get for a while.


    Eventually, Ella excused us from the conversation, and then told me to get my stuff. I didn¡¯t have many possessions, but I quickly grabbed everything I didn¡¯t want to spend an hour or two walking back home to access, such as my clothes and other daily necessities. Then, Ella bade my parents farewell and began leading me to my new living quarters.


    * * *


    The two of us walked through the outer districts of the city, before we eventually arrived in the central district. As we strolled through the city streets, I couldn¡¯t help but notice how much nicer the buildings got once we entered the central district of the city. The buildings went from relatively undecorated and simple huts of stone to multicolored domiciles engraved with carvings of the white dragon.


    ¡°Very colorful,¡± I remarked, more than a little curious. I would have expected the color-coding people used for their clothes to have also influenced how they decorated their houses. However, unless I was seriously mistaken, the amount of white I was seeing on people¡¯s houses would be completely inappropriate if that was the case. Not to mention, most people¡¯s houses were riots of color. I seriously doubted that every single person in the central district had dozens of different jobs, so there was clearly some sort of different rule being used here.


    ¡°Is that a comment, or a criticism?¡± Said Ella, chuckling.


    I was startled out of my thoughts. Usually, adults didn¡¯t pick up on more nuanced statements I made, since they expected me to be a child and never looked for a deeper meaning in any of my words. However, Ella seemed to pick up on my subtle confusion, which made me a little glad I had chosen her as my teacher. Even if I technically was a child right now, being treated as someone who wasn¡¯t old enough or mature enough to make my own decisions by my mother was frustrating.


    ¡°I was wondering if the way houses are colored here follows the same rules as people¡¯s clothes,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of white here. And a lot of different colors.¡±


    Ella chuckled. ¡°Not many kids would pick up on that. You¡¯re pretty observant. Which is good. Being perceptive is sometimes a matter of life and death if you really intend to go to the wastelands above later.¡±


    I winced, thinking of my Grade 4 Perception. The only reason I had noticed the weird colors was because I found the cultures that Sallia, Felix and I had encountered to be interesting, and so I paid close attention to them.


    ¡°The houses here aren¡¯t bound by the same rules as clothes, as you probably guessed. People take the decoration of their house as a method of showing their artistic creativity and expressing their dreams, hopes, and aspirations for the future. Of course, the number of white dragons one can display in decorating their house is restricted by the same rules as the number of white threads one can add to their clothing. However, since houses are shared by families, they tend to have much more white on them than any one person¡¯s clothing ever will. For example, the overseer¡¯s daughter is a spellcaster, so she¡¯s allowed to wear a little white in her dress, and the overseer himself is also allowed to wear pure white, which means that the number of white dragons they can use when decorating their house is the sum of their honorable acts and status, rather than just reflecting the head of the family or somesuch. There are plenty of other families with honorable wives and husbands pooling together their ¡®honor¡¯ and creating extremely decorative houses as well.¡± I grinned, happy to learn a new aspect of the city I lived in, and Ella gave me an appreciative glance from the corner of her eye. Then, she beckoned me forward. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s hurry up and get to my house. I¡¯ll show you to your sleeping quarters. I didn¡¯t know if I would get an apprentice this year, but I keep a few apprentice rooms ready every year since the year I started looking for a student. You¡¯ll be the first person to actually inhabit a room though.¡±


    After about ten more minutes of walking, we arrived at a two-story tall house. Much like the symbols I could see on the pillars supporting the roof of our city cavern, her house was littered with strange glowing symbols on the sides of the house.


    I gave the symbols a more curious look. I had no idea what they meant, and they didn¡¯t seem to be related to attunement or general shaping. However, now that I knew what to look for, I realized that they were using alteration essence. Not very much, but it was definitely noticeable.


    Noticing my glance, Ella pointed at one of the runes. ¡°Curious?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°They¡¯re magic, you know,¡± she said, cackling. ¡°Took me forever to figure out that the runes weren¡¯t just decorative, but eventually, I realized that they were actually using magic. Just like the columns that support the city ceiling! These runes help shape the air around my house, keeping the air fresh and clean, and also making the area slightly more resilient against erosion from rain. As for how they work¡­ nobody has any idea. It¡¯s one of the lost arts of shaping, and I tossed the bricks I used to build my house at a few of the more scholarly shapers for seven or eight years for them to study. They couldn¡¯t figure out how the magic abilities of a brick actually work, so eventually, I took them back and used them to build my house.¡± Ella shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m still hoping another shaper discovers how to make magic items someday. It seems like such a useful field of study, but sadly, nobody knows how to make it work right now. Anyway, the fresh air is quite nice. Makes me wonder if the surface had nice fresh air like this as well, before the collapse of the second Orthan empire.¡±


    I took in a deep breath of the air around Ella¡¯s house, and felt a bit of appreciation rise up in my heart. The fresh air truly was quite nice; the air on the islands had always smelt of salt and the ocean, which I found quite comforting, but the smell of our city in this world was a little bit more metallic and damp smelling. It wasn¡¯t the worst smell in the world, but fresh air was a luxury I hadn¡¯t realized was missing until I encountered it again.


    ¡°Come in,¡± said Ella, leading me into her house.


    Inside of her house, I could see that she had two stories to her house. Each floor had six rooms in it, making the house a veritable mansion compared to my family¡¯s house, where we had seven rooms in total.


    The house I had spent most of my life in was much smaller. We had one kitchen/living room/dining room, and then each of us siblings got one room each, except for my parents, who shared a room. Finally, in a small out of the way room we had our bathroom.


    Ella had three rooms filled from floor to ceiling with books, along with a few comfortable places to sit down and read. Each of these rooms was nearly as large as the three or four of our bedrooms combined. Then, she had one kitchen, a dining room, and a large chamber I couldn¡¯t figure out the use of on the top floor. Perhaps it was a training room? I imagined Ella would introduce it to me when it became relevant.


    The bottom floor had three bedrooms, only one of which seemed occupied, a bathroom, and two storage rooms filled from corner to corner with old equipment, weapons, and random objects.


    Seeing my interest in the storage rooms, Ella cackled. ¡°The bricks for my house aren¡¯t the only thing I¡¯ve brought back from trips to the surface. I¡¯ve found plenty of magic items that we¡¯ve never managed to figure out how to make. The best we can do is stuff like witch wands, but those don¡¯t really count, since they¡¯re just external spell circles.


    ¡°Of course, I do know what all the items here do, even if nobody has any idea how to make more of them. I wouldn¡¯t want to be near an unidentified magic item, in case it was a magic explosive or something.¡± Ella chuckled as she gave the weapons in the storage room a second glance. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll teach you how to use weapons later. It¡¯s a good idea to pick up one weapon as a fallback option, in case your shaping or your spellcasting can¡¯t keep you safe. I recommend sword or dagger, but we¡¯ll figure out what you¡¯re good with later.¡±


    I thought about my {Two-Purpose Training Sword}, as well as my intermediate-grade swordsmanship, and resisted the urge to grin. I wondered what Ella would think once I showed her my swordsmanship.


    ¡°We¡¯ll focus on weapons later, though. They¡¯re a much lower priority than shaping and spellcasting. Put your stuff in one of the unclaimed rooms, and after that, I¡¯ll get you started on your attunement. And I¡¯ll also have a friend of mine stop by tonight to give you your first lesson on spellcasting. No time like the present to get working on your magic, after all!¡± Said Ella, cheerfully.


    I became much more excited once she mentioned learning to use my alteration essence properly, so I quickly headed to my room and dropped my stuff off, before reporting back to Ella for my first proper magic lesson.

 Chapter 82: Attunement

    ¡°So far, you¡¯ve only been exposed to Alteration magic by reaching into possible futures, right? I believe I¡¯ve given you a very light amount of information about how attunements work, but it was quite shallow. Before I really get into details, do you have any other knowledge of shaping?¡± asked Ella, giving me a curious look as she found a comfortable place to sit. I looked around the empty chamber on the top floor of Ella¡¯s house, thinking about my answer as I tried to find a place for me to sit.


    Ella seemed to notice what I was looking for, and waved her hand at the ground near my feet. A chair that I vaguely remembered being stored downstairs in a storage room suddenly appeared right next to me. I gave Ella a grateful smile, and she gave me a friendly wink as I sat down.


    I focused on Ella¡¯s question, before I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m basically clueless about what shaping does, apart from the timeline trick and the fact that attunements let you turn stuff into whatever you¡¯re attuned with.¡±


    Ella fell into thought as she processed my answer. ¡°That¡¯s probably a good thing, honestly. I¡¯ve heard from the other shapers that plenty of new apprentices come in with the idea that a shaper is basically a spellcaster, which is fundamentally wrong. Sadly, since there aren¡¯t many shapers in the city, kids don¡¯t really get much exposure to our abilities, which means they don¡¯t know what to expect.¡± Ella snorted. ¡°Completely ridiculous. Spellcasters and shapers are as different as mathematicians and artists. They have very little in common beyond the fact that both use mana, much like how mathematicians and artists both use paper and ink. That¡¯s about it as far as similarities go.¡±


    Ella frowned. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ you should already have a rough idea how timeline manipulation works, and I¡¯ll teach you more in depth about it later. But right now, I want to focus on attunements. Do you mind if I use my mind-related attunement on you? It¡¯s impossible to get precise enough to read someone¡¯s thoughts, or do anything that invades your privacy like that, but I can inspire unnatural fluctuations in mood, in addition to ¡®touching¡¯ your thoughts, if that makes sense. My headache-related ability is basically like sticking my finger into your thoughts and stirring them as violently as I can, but what I want to do here is just let you experience the lightest ¡®touch¡¯ I can manage. I think it¡¯ll help you build a better idea of what an attunement feels like, which will be helpful for you. If possible, I¡¯d like to help you form your attunement today, and then I can start teaching you how to improve it later.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°All right. Just try to be alert, and I¡¯ll ¡®touch¡¯ your thoughts a little bit.¡±


    Ella started to gain a sort of hazy expression, as she stared at my face with a mixture of sleepiness and concentration. A few moments passed, and then I felt something at the edge of my mind. It felt sort of like someone blowing the dust off of a countertop¡­ in my thoughts. I also got the feeling that I could swat the ¡®touch¡¯ away using my Willpower, if I wanted to. Since I knew it was Ella, I decided not to resist the external influence, and I felt the sense of someone ¡®touching¡¯ my mind deepen for a moment. It was an incredibly strange experience, and felt very different from the mind-crushing pull of the ocean from my previous world.


    ¡°I feel it,¡± I said.


    ¡°Good,¡± said Ella, grinning as the feeling withdrew from my mind. ¡°This is what my mental attunement feels like. Every single attunement will feel differently, because every single attunement is different. However, at the very least, try to remember the feeling of my mana as it made contact with you. Did you get any sensation of the mana behind what I was doing?¡±


    I tried to remember if I had sensed the mana behind Ella¡¯s attunement, and I was surprised to realize that I had. It had been subtle, but if I trawled back through my memories, I could distinctly sort out the sensation of the alteration essence when she used her attunement on me, and also sort out the mana as well. It was as if her alteration essence was a weaver, knitting the mana in its surroundings into an incredibly specific shape.


    ¡°I think that your altera¡­ ah, I mean¡­ your shaping ability was¡­ shaping the mana in its surroundings, right? It was essentially making the mana in its area fit a certain pattern. And the reason you were able to do so was because you had a really strong image of what that ¡®pattern¡¯ was? I imagine that¡¯s what an attunement is, at its core.¡±


    ¡°Pretty close. An attunement isn¡¯t just a mental image. You¡¯re literally taking some of the shaping essence in your body, and remolding it to fit a certain shape or image. That way, you have a ¡®reference¡¯ when you try to shape your surroundings. When you remold your surroundings using general shaping, you¡¯re using an alternate timeline as a very clumsy reference image to tell the mana in your surroundings, as well as reality itself, what shape it needs to take. However, there is only one ¡®real¡¯ timeline that we live in, and every other timeline is more of a¡­ vague, shadowy ¡®could have been¡¯ timeline that splits off from the real world we live in. If that makes sense. Attunement-based shaping is where you create that image inside of your essence instead, and then force reality to bend to your will.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± I said. ¡°So it¡¯s all about having a good mental image of what¡¯s there, and what I want to change?¡±


    I was starting to get a suspicion about why the ¡®alternate timeline¡¯ explanation rubbed me the wrong way. I didn¡¯t know if my idea was correct or not, so I would keep quiet and experiment some on my own, but I had a sneaking suspicion that ¡®alternate timelines¡¯ either didn¡¯t exist, or were completely unneeded for general shaping. One could probably get the same, or better, results using a mental image for general shaping that didn¡¯t include alternate timeline at all.


    Of course, I had no idea if this was correct or not, so I decided to stay quiet for now. I could test things on my own later.


    Heedless of my internal thoughts, Ella continued with her explanation.


    ¡°Yes, attunement shaping is all about what image you form. This is why shaping can be excellent for fighting, or it can also be terrible for fighting. General shaping, the art of reaching into other timelines to bring aspects of them into our world, is incredibly inconsistent, since the nature of general shaping is so dependent on its environment. However, your attunement is easy to form, and is completely unrelated to your environment. Which makes it several times easier to use in battle, but only if you have an attunement that¡¯s actually useful in combat.


    ¡°Now, what I want you to do is start focusing on a mental image of what kind of attunement you want. You¡¯ll need to have a clear understanding of it, and the better you understand it, the easier it will be for you to use your attunement.¡± Her tone took on a note of warning.


    ¡°Furthermore, don¡¯t try to use a substance that you don¡¯t want to interact with. A big part of growing your attunement is interacting with whatever you based your attunement on. Since I chose to use orthanoid minds as the basis for my attunement, I spent quite a bit of time interacting with people, getting to know them and how they think because it was what suited me the best. I spent time getting people¡¯s permission to ¡®touch¡¯ their thoughts, and even give people mild headaches, in order to better increase my attunement. I even managed to experiment some on a few Orukthyri minds, when I got trapped during one of my journeys to the surface and needed a way to escape. Whatever you base your attunement on, if you want to improve it, you will need to interact with the substance or idea you based your attunement on.


    ¡°I know you wanted to use either the ocean or madness as the basis for your ability. If you haven¡¯t changed your mind, you will need to either interact with mad people, or the ocean. There is an asylum in a nearby cavern, which would let you interact with mad people. If you want to interact with the ocean, that would be much harder, but you can probably do something with the town¡¯s river, even if it won¡¯t be perfect.


    ¡°Then, once you¡¯ve chosen your image, start to condense your shaping essence into a copy of that image. The more detailed it is, the easier it will be to use in the future.¡±


    I gleaned down at my lake-gazer¡¯s dress, wondering if it counted as an ¡®ocean¡¯ for the purposes of my attunement. Then, I chuckled to myself.


    In a way, an attunement was kind of like a keyword, as far as I could tell. At least, that was my assumption based on how I was interpreting Ella¡¯s words. Whenever I interacted with the image I formed my attunement, it would improve, giving me a stronger and more reliable tool for fighting in the future. Similarly, whenever I got in contact with the ¡®idea¡¯ a keyword was based on, it would temporarily power up, boosting my ability as long as I was near the relevant keyword.


    Part of me wondered if Eluxia, or whoever had designed the keyword abilities of the Market, had taken inspiration from a magic system like this one while designing everything. It was hard to say what had happened in the Market before its fall, but it was hard not to notice certain similarities.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    At the same time, I had a sudden, random thought.


    What would happen if I used the ocean from my previous life as my ¡®attunement?¡¯


    In my previous world, the laws of physics had been completely different. The way magic worked, the technology of the people who had lived on the islands, the creatures of the ocean¡­ all of them had, at best, only been loosely similar to this world.


    What would happen if I just¡­ used the ocean from the islands as my ¡®mental image¡¯ for my attunement? I already had experience using it as the image for my runes, after all, and I was pretty sure I could reshape the mental image a bit and recycle it.


    Some part of my enhanced instincts related to alteration essence started¡­ tugging at me. It was the most clearly I had ever felt my ¡®extreme affinity¡¯ giving me a sort of¡­ innate, instinctive understanding of what I was trying to do. I was distinctly certain that my idea was possible. Even without the help of the Market¡¯s System, I would be able to force the laws of physics and reality in this world to temporarily take a completely different form by using my alteration essence.


    The nature of alteration essence was to alter. It could alter not just mana, but even the laws of reality itself.


    However, the laws of physics and reality, unsurprisingly, were quite resistant to change. I would probably need hundreds of times my current alteration essence storage if I wanted to actually change the laws of reality, even temporarily. However, if I got strong enough, I was fairly certain it was even possible to permanently alter the laws of reality in small, specific ways, creating little areas where gravity, matter, and physics all worked completely differently from the rest of the world.


    However, if I did that I would be fighting against the laws of this dimension every single time I tried to change them. If I formed my attunement based on the ocean from the islands, I would have an incredibly hard time using my alteration essence right now, even with my near-perfect instincts for how alteration worked and my Grade 7 Alteration Essence stat. I would also have a much harder time growing my attunement, since I would be completely unable to interact with the ocean from the islands here. I would be able to make contact with the city river, but that was only a poor imitation of the ocean my attunement would be based off of.


    However, I did file away the fact that it was possible to use the laws of a completely different dimension as a basis for my shaping, even if there were several practical issues I would need to overcome first.


    Then, I started focusing on the image of water itself. We didn¡¯t have access to any oceans unless we went to the surface, and I wanted to be as strong as possible before we went to the wastes. But we did have quite a large river that flowed right next to our town. Water wasn¡¯t exactly what I wanted, but it would serve us well during our journey to the surface when we got older¡­


    As I tried to form an image of water, however, a burst of inspiration struck me.


    Instead of just using water, what if I used the ocean of souls itself as inspiration for my attunement?


    I wasn¡¯t quite sure how the physicality of dimensions and the ocean of souls worked, but since new souls entered this dimension as newborn babies all the time, it stood to reason that it was ¡®close¡¯ to me in some way, shape, or form. Even if I didn¡¯t fully understand how it worked, it should be good enough to do something with it.


    Furthermore, this image would be usable in every dimension we were born into in the future. If my theory about the ocean of souls touching every dimension was correct, that meant that I wouldn¡¯t need to change my attunement from one world to the next. In the Market, my attunement would be, if anything, stronger, since the Market was continuously sailing on top of the ocean of souls. I would be able to spend 3 worlds after this one practicing my attunement, figuring out how to use it, and then be able to use almost the exact same skill set when we went to fight for our lives. If I could get this to work properly, it was too good of an idea to pass up.


    I only hesitated for a few seconds before I made my final choice.


    I started forming an image in my head, much like I had done when I formed my fourth rune, back on the islands.


    I imagined a giant, twisting ocean, carrying all of the souls of every dimension in the multiverse from one world to the next. I visualized the way geometry twisted from one dimension to the next, and the way the ocean of souls was somehow able to maintain itself, even as alternate forces of reality sought to rip it apart. I thought of the oblivion brought about by the ocean of souls, the way the water of the ocean of souls seemed to wear away at one¡¯s thoughts and memories until nothing but a newborn soul remained. Achievement protected souls themselves from being ground to pieces by the Ocean of Souls, but souls unconnected to the Market quickly ran out of Achievement before their memories were drowned in the endless waters between worlds.


    I thought of the way that the Market managed to free itself from the darkness of the ocean of souls, sailing across the top of the waves in a galaxy-sized pirate ship. I thought of how the ocean of souls didn¡¯t just destroy memories and souls that it came into contact with; instead, it also ferried souls to their next destination like a kindly grandmother, giving one the gift of rebirth in addition to the curse of oblivion.


    The ocean of souls wasn¡¯t just a hostile force that brought souls into oblivion as they tried to go from one world to the next. It was also the reason that rebirth was possible at all. Without access to the ocean of souls, children that were about to be born would have no way to get a soul, which would basically kill them the moment they were born.


    Much like the ocean in my first life, the ocean of souls wasn¡¯t just a hostile force of death and decaying memories. It was also a source of new life; without it, babies wouldn¡¯t be born, and life in most dimensions would ultimately fall apart.


    I repressed the urge to chuckle as I realized that my mental image for the ocean of the islands and my image for the ocean of souls bore strong similarities to each other. Perhaps the ¡®ocean¡¯ keyword was a more fitting keyword for me than I had realized?


    Then, I stopped fighting my urge to laugh, and burst out into wild laughter.


    So what if I used a similar mental image from one life to the next? In my previous life, by virtue of my mental image I had managed to create a unique ability set that let me overcome the limitations of my average starting stats at birth. Not perfectly; I had died as a consequence of exploring the deep ocean, after all.


    However, I had done the best I could to give the villages a fighting chance. I had no idea if they had survived the fight with the outsiders, but I had given them every possible fighting chance. I had also farmed huge amounts of Achievement in the process, and managed to get Sallia a keyword ability related to her extreme affinity.


    If it worked once, I had no problem using something similar again. We had lives to claim back at the Market, after all. I needed to be as strong as possible to make sure my friends and I didn¡¯t die permanently.


    I felt my image of the ocean of souls start to resonate with the mana around me, and a chunk of the alteration essence in my body started to cement itself into a certain shape. I realized that the essence was taking on the shape of the ocean of souls; furthermore, I would never be able to use that chunk of alteration essence for general shaping ever again. It was permanently altered to fit the image of the ocean of souls.


    But that wasn¡¯t a big deal. I had lost less than five percent of my total alteration essence reserve. It wasn¡¯t a big enough loss to do more than annoy me a bit.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Basic] level attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +250


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I grinned as my Achievement went from 608.89 to 858.89, but dismissed the notification right afterwards. I wanted to figure out how my attunement worked.


    I felt that I could now manifest a very, very small part of the ocean of souls in my surroundings in a very real, physical way. It would be easiest to convert a drop of water into a drop of water from the ocean of souls, but I could even convert something like air, or even lava, into water from the ocean of souls if I threw enough alteration essence at it. I vaguely remembered Ella saying that environment shouldn¡¯t play a role in essence costs when it came to an attunement, but considering how weird my attunement was, it made sense that it would have a few other oddities. I put that question aside, because I had noticed something far more interesting.


    I could see something¡­ silver-colored inside of my body. It was mostly stuck near my brain, which I obviously couldn¡¯t see, but I could see bits and pieces of it tethered throughout the rest of my body as well.


    What the heck is that? I wondered, panicking for a moment, and the silvery blob started wriggling madly. Then, I realized I had seen it before.


    Twice, in fact.


    I was looking at my soul.


    Forming a connection with the ocean of souls hadn¡¯t just allowed me to manifest parts of the ocean of souls in my surroundings. I had also, apparently, gained a very limited ability to see souls themselves.


    I took a look at Ella, who was still watching me in anticipation, and sure enough, I could see her soul as well, although it was much harder for me to observe since it wasn¡¯t mine. I could see a silvery blob stuck inside of her brain, with much smaller tendrils of white-silver spread throughout the rest of her body. it occasionally moved and bobbed from one second to the next.


    My attunement had come with a rather unexpected ability as an add-on. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what the use of ¡®manifesting the ocean of souls¡¯ was in practical terms right now, but I was absolutely certain that learning how souls worked would give me a lot of insight into how the Market actually worked in the first place. And surely manifesting the ocean of souls itself would give me all sorts of strange and unusual abilities. I just needed to discover what they were.


    I grinned to myself.


    My first steps into the magic of this world were off to an excellent start.

 Chapter 83: Extinguish

    ¡°I take it you succeeded already?¡± said Ella, a few moments after I started grinning to myself and looking at her soul.


    ¡°I got my attunement!¡± I said happily.


    Ella chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m quite impressed. I honestly thought that you finishing today was a bit unlikely. I wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if you took up to a week to form your attunement, although it¡¯s obviously better to form it quickly so that we can move on. I heard that you broke the record for fastest to change your cube¡¯s color during the test too?¡± Ella¡¯s eyes actually seemed to glitter as she looked at me.


    ¡°I might have gotten an unexpectedly good deal when I picked you up as an apprentice, Miria. Your talent in shaping is truly something to behold. I myself took three days to get my attunement built.¡±


    I felt my smile widen at Ella¡¯s praise, and I noticed Ella¡¯s soul bobbing around excitedly inside of her brain. Even if Ella was trying to only sound mildly impressed, I was pretty sure she was far more excited than she let on.


    I was becoming increasingly certain that people¡¯s souls moved more in response to strong emotions, which meant that I could get some idea what people were feeling based on context and observation now. It was another minor unexpected benefit of my new attunement.


    ¡°What did you form your attunement based on? You said you were thinking about madness and the ocean. What did you settle on?¡±


    ¡°The ocean,¡± I said. ¡°However, the ocean I based my attunement off of is¡­ a bit different than one might expect. It¡¯s also closely related to life and death. I was thinking about how we need water to live, and how we can also drown in the water.¡± Even though I couldn¡¯t directly say that my attunement was based on the ocean of souls, Ella had mentioned that I needed to interact with whatever my attunement was based off of if I wanted to develop it and make it stronger. I was pretty sure life and death would work well with my image of the ocean of souls, and as long as I also exposed myself to actual water I could probably piece together the interactions I needed to improve my attunement substantially. I hadn¡¯t figured out where the ocean of souls itself was yet, or how it worked, and so I needed to provide my teacher with as much information as possible so that she could help me grow.


    Ella nodded. ¡°Good, good. Either ocean or madness would have worked for you, but interacting with the asylum is a bit of a miserable experience. It¡¯s much less of a headache to take a dip in the river than to interact with the asylum if you want to build up your attunement. As for the life and death part¡­ I¡¯ve never heard of an attunement that encompasses so many things at once. But there¡¯s a lot of information we lost during the fall of the second Orthan empire, so perhaps I¡¯m simply ignorant. I can find ways for you to interact with newborn children and attend the funerals of those who pass of old age. Do you think that would be helpful for your attunement?¡±


    ¡°I think so?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll try it out, and we¡¯ll adapt if it doesn¡¯t work,¡± said Ella, bulldozing forward like a runaway train. ¡°Now, what does using your attunement actually look like? Once I get a feeling for how you use your attunement, I might have some other ideas that you could use to grow your attunement,¡± she said, giving me an excited grin.


    I saw no reason not to oblige her. First, I used general shaping to imagine one of the bowls I had seen in Ella¡¯s dining room, and quickly used ¡®timeline alteration¡¯ to move it into my hands. I was still pretty sure that the entire general shaping system was wildly inefficient and questionable, but I intended to use it a little longer before I started changing it.


    Then, I used general shaping to transport a small pebble I had seen outside of the house into the middle of the bowl.


    Finally, I started converting the stone into water, one drop at a time. Watching the stone¡­ melt into water from the ocean of souls was a strange experience, since it almost looked like the stone was melting, even though I was distinctly aware of the fact that it wasn¡¯t. As the water from the ocean of souls started to build up, I could feel a mild connection between me and the water I had created.


    I quickly noticed that the water didn¡¯t react to inorganic things at all. Even though the ocean of souls had a nasty habit of melting souls it came in contact with, it just sat in the middle of bowl doing nothing.


    ¡°Is it drinkable?¡± asked Ella, giving my water a curious glance. ¡°You mentioned the water was somewhat attuned to the ideas of life and death. What happens if you drink the water?¡±


    ¡°Definitely don¡¯t drink it,¡± I said. ¡°This water is more mixed with the idea of death, so if you drink it, I don¡¯t know exactly what would happen, but it would probably involve horrific pain or possible death.¡±


    Ella laughed. ¡°Fair enough. Do you think it¡¯ll react to the presence of life itself?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know,¡± I said.


    ¡°For now, let¡¯s assume it will. You need to make sure to dispose of it properly after making it. It would be bad if someone else stumbled across it. I¡¯ll teach you which companies cater to hazardous material disposal later. There are some special caverns the city uses to get rid of waste products. I¡¯ll help you get used to the process of dealing with it. Later on, let¡¯s test how it reacts to other things, all right?¡±


    ¡°That sounds good. Thank you,¡± I said.


    Ella happily nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. You¡¯re my apprentice. This kind of thing is what I¡¯m here for. Even if it doesn¡¯t react with life now, learning to handle hazardous materials will still be useful if the water changes as your attunement grows. So I want to make sure you have this nailed down.¡±


    After that, Ella quickly wrote a letter, before it disappeared, presumably moved to some other part of the city. About half an hour later, a couple people came over to deal with the bowl of hazardous water. They also gave me some information on how to contact them myself in the future, although I couldn¡¯t send a letter halfway across the city yet because I didn¡¯t have enough practice moving objects out of my sight. However, I vowed that would be one of the first things I worked on; the ability to send objects from one corner of the world to another would be incredibly useful in the future.


    Then, Ella set me loose to experiment with my new abilities on my own, though I was pretty sure she was still keeping an eye on me using her shaping somehow. I could sense a faint prickling sensation at the edge of my skin, as I realized that I could feel her using very small amounts of alteration to sense the area around her in a way I didn¡¯t quite understand. Just another thing I needed to learn and master.


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


    I decided to go into the small chunk of property just outside Ella¡¯s front door, since it had access to a few plants I wanted to run some experiments on.


    Once I saw a patch of glowmoss, I took a moment to admire it. I had never really thought about it before, but now that I could see souls, I was distinctly aware of the fact that even plants had some form of soul. In fact, basically everything alive had a soul; it seemed to be the very thing that distinguished things that were alive from things like stone.


    However, the souls of the patch of glowing moss in front of Ella¡¯s house were incredibly different from the souls I recognized.


    Based on Sallia, Felix and I, as well as occasional random passerby on the street, all humanoid souls were close to indistinguishable from each other. They were silver-shaped blobs that resided in the brain, with a few bits and pieces of the soul scattered throughout the rest of the body. I found it interesting that Orthanoids and Humans had indistinguishable souls, which probably indicated that on the level of souls there wasn¡¯t much difference between the two species at all.


    However, the patch of moss had a much smaller, green-colored soul. It was completely and utterly different from a human/orthan soul. I kind of got the impression that the moss soul would be destroyed the moment it returned to the ocean of souls, probably since moss had no real way to get Achievement. Which made me wonder where plant souls came from. If most plant souls couldn¡¯t survive the process of returning to the ocean, where did their souls come from? Did they get new ones somehow, or did they have their own separate ocean of souls?


    I knew far too little about how interdimensional geography worked, and thinking about it was starting to make my head spin. I had too many questions, and not enough answers.


    So I decided not to think about it. If any place had the answers to my questions, it was probably the Market. I just needed to find the right information sources. For now, I had magic ocean water to test. So I tried splashing the patch of moss with some ocean water.


    The result was¡­ interesting.


    The moment the glowmoss patch made contact with the ocean water, the soul of the patch of moss started to shrivel up, collapsing under the influence of the ocean water as the ocean of souls corroded the thoughts, memories, and very existence of the moss soul.


    However, the ocean of souls water also dissipated as it made contact with the moss, slowly turning back into regular water. It seemed that since I was creating water from the ocean of souls, it could only do a certain amount of soul-eroding before my alteration essence ran out, leaving behind completely ordinary ocean water afterwards. This was also quite different from how most alteration attunements worked, since changes made with alteration were permanent. This left me scratching my head for a while, but I chalked it up to another oddity of my attunement for now. Since my attunement was already unusual in a variety of different ways, one more oddity was to be expected.


    The patch of moss eventually died, before its green soul slowly peeled away from its body. I watched in curiosity as the soul seemed to float in midair for a couple of seconds, as if not knowing what to do, before something started to pull at it. The moss soul started to drift away, moving faster and faster before it zoomed into the distance.


    I shrugged, and decided to change the target of my next experiment. The water of the ocean of souls had a corrosive effect on souls it touched, but it was very slow. If I was going to use it in combat, I needed something that dealt damage much more quickly. Therefore, I quickly found a few insects crawling up the side of Ella¡¯s house.


    I decided to try something rather¡­ unusual. It wasn¡¯t something I was sure would work, but I wanted to see just how far I could take my idea of ¡®alteration¡¯ and how much I could push the boundaries of this spellcasting system.


    Thus, I tried visualizing life itself, in addition to the souls I saw in the world around me. Specifically, I tried imagining them as if every single ¡®life¡¯ in the world around me was a candle.


    I had heard plenty of people refer to life using candle and fire-related imagery. Those that were weak were said to be like candles on the verge of guttering out, their life flickering as it tried to burn for just a little longer. I had heard people refer to exceptional people as raging bonfires, casting light onto their surroundings as they strove for greatness.


    None of these people meant it literally, of course. Comparing life to fire was just a metaphor people used sometimes.


    However, alteration was all about visualizing something, and then making reality bend to your visualization. I intended to see if I could make this interpretation of life as a flame¡­ a little more literal.


    After all, the best way to put out a candle was to drown it in water. And since I had access to magic based on the ocean of souls, I was exceptionally good at controlling water.


    I squinted at the insect, feeling my concentration start to reach a new height as I tried to bend my alteration essence to my will.


    And because of my extreme affinity, my alteration essence was more than happy to oblige. Instead of fighting me as I tried to visualize the insect¡¯s life as a small, fragile candle flame, it took to my image like ink on a canvas.


    I could suddenly see another image overlaying the insect and its tiny dark-gray soul. In addition to its body and its soul, I could see a faint flame resting on top of its limbs.


    I pointed at it, trying to put out the candle of its life with my soul-ocean water, and after I felt my brain struggle to enforce my will, a single droplet of soul-ocean water appeared a few centimeters above the insect. Then, it crashed down onto the insect.


    This time, the water from the ocean of souls didn¡¯t impact the insect¡¯s soul at all. It directly attacked the candle I had visualized.


    The insect died. It didn¡¯t die of anything in particular; the life in its body simply sputtered out. One moment, the insect¡¯s soul was tethered to its brain like any other creature. The next moment, it was just dead. The body died instantaneously, severing the connection between the two. The insect¡¯s soul was quickly dragged away, just like the soul of the glowmoss patch.


    I felt a surge of triumph as I realized that my new idea worked. Not perfectly; I had chewed through an absolutely ridiculous amount of alteration essence in my body, and I was also pretty sure that a stronger creature would have a more powerful ¡®flame,¡¯ making them harder to extinguish. However, even if my newly created attack was clunky right now, I could definitely make it faster, cheaper, and more effective with practice. A lot of the alteration essence I used had been wasted because I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to turn my imagination into reality. Worse, I had fumbled a bit during the process of extinguishing the insect¡¯s life, and had nearly missed the creature with my drop of water. However, the more I practiced, the easier and faster I would get, and the less difficult it would be to use in a practical combat scenario.


    I grinned.


    For the first time in both of my lives so far, I had a proper method of attack. I wasn¡¯t just stuck tossing around illusions and healing anymore, or tricking stronger creatures into attacking for me. I wasn¡¯t relying on a weapon anymore. I finally had a proper magic attack.


    I could now just kill things purely using my alteration essence. And better yet, I could probably use this attack no matter which world we ended up in.


    I didn¡¯t know how effective it would be against the skeletons and wooden butterflies we had seen in the Market yet, but I guessed that with the right method of visualization and some practice, I could probably make my new attack work on them too. After all, Alteration was about visualization.


    I decided on a new name for my ability. It was based on extinguishing the ¡®candles¡¯ of life in my surroundings. Thus, it deserved a fitting name for my first ¡®spell.¡¯


    ¡°Henceforth, I shall call this the ¡®extinguish,¡¯ spell,¡± I said, grinning to myself. Sallia and Felix might make fun of the name, but I felt that I deserved to be proud of what I had achieved using my extreme affinity and my practice.

 Chapter 84: Spellcasting

    Chapter 84: Spellcasting - Markets and Multiverses


    After figuring out how to use ¡®extinguish,¡¯ I spent several minutes making the attack more and more effective, more and more mine. The attack was still very rough and unpolished, and it was still incredibly difficult to pull off, but I knew with time it would become a combat-ready spell if I just practiced enough. And I was determined to squeeze in as much practice as I could, because I was excited to make this spell work.


    However, unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have unlimited alteration essence. After practicing for several minutes, I was tapped out, which meant my practice came to an end. Which made me grind my teeth in impatience; now that I had finally mastered a technique wholly my own, I wanted to practice it as much as possible.


    Luckily, I had something to distract me from my impatience.


    When I had accepted Ella as my teacher, she had promised me that she wouldn¡¯t let my talent as a spellcaster go to waste. She had promised that she would leverage her connections to get me some books to study, and some teachers, to make sure I was still a competent spellcaster at the end of my apprenticeship.


    Ella had already arranged for a spellcasting teacher for the afternoon, and by the time I ran out of alteration essence, it was already lunchtime. Ella made our lunch herself, tossing together a couple different kinds of mushrooms and fish, which she had apparently learned was my favorite food, and then chatted with me about inane and unimportant topics. It seemed she wanted to take a little bit of time letting me warm up to her more before really getting to know me, which I appreciated. We didn¡¯t talk about anything important, but I was definitely feeling better and better about taking Ella as my teacher. I didn¡¯t think many masters would cook lunch for their apprentice and then sit down and chat with them while eating, almost like a second mother or father. Then again, maybe this was standard practice in the city.


    Before I knew it, it was past lunchtime, and my spellcasting teacher had come for my first lesson.


    A wizened old man, with a magnificent brown beard came into the house, before he sat down in Ella¡¯s practice chamber across from me. He gave me a polite grin as he inspected me. I, for my part, gave the man a curious stare as I waited for him to break the silence.


    Finally, the wizard nodded. ¡°You have a lot of patience for a kid. That¡¯s good. Learning to cast spells requires a lot of patience, especially when trying out a new spell. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard this before, but it¡¯s worth repeating, because it¡¯s so vital for a caster to keep in mind. If you mess up while casting a spell, you could very easily kill yourself. Especially with higher circle spells. So being patient and willing to wait and listen is a good quality in spellcasters that want to live to old age,¡± he said, finally giving me a grin.


    I didn¡¯t know if I was supposed to say anything, so I simply nodded.


    The old man¡¯s smile deepened even further, and this time, he held out his wizened hand for me to shake. ¡°I¡¯m Matthias, but you can just call me Matt. I¡¯ll be the one who teaches you spellcasting, when I have time. Ella mentioned she would probably get a few other spellcasters she has good relations with to fill in the gaps if I¡¯m busy or not around, but I¡¯m going to be responsible for most of your spellcasting education. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Miria.¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you as well, Matthias. Thank you for coming all of this way and spending time teaching me spellcasting. I really appreciate it,¡± I said.


    He gave me an odd look, and I wondered if I had sounded too mature for a normal twelve year old. I should probably try harder to mimic Anise. Perhaps I should have discussed becoming a super witch with Matt?


    His curious gaze lingered on me for a few more moments, before he chuckled.


    ¡°Quite mature for your age, aren¡¯t you? No matter. That makes this even easier. Personally, I think it¡¯s best to start with definitions, since they lay an important foundation for the rest of your spellcasting education. Can you tell me what a magic circle is?¡±


    I frowned. ¡°It¡¯s what determines the power and rank of a spell?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s correct, but that¡¯s not the full story,¡± he said. ¡°Here, I brought a diagram to help you visualize everything. When I was learning spellcasting, this was what made the most sense to me.¡±


    After that, the wizard handed me a piece of paper, with several circles inscribed on it. Starting from the center of the paper, every circle was enclosed by a larger one, making the piece of paper look extremely similar to a target one might use for archery.


    ¡°This is the most common representation of what magic circles look like. And most importantly, understanding this circle is critical to how we cast spells,¡± said Matt. ¡°Do you see the smallest circle, in the center of the page? That represents the first circle of magic. The circle around it represents the second circle of magic, and so on. First circle spells, obviously, are where I¡¯m going to start your education. A first circle spell contains exactly one magic symbol. No more, no less.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± I asked.


    Matt nodded. ¡°So, what you need to keep in mind, first of all, is that any magic symbol is a manifestation a certain force, brought into reality with mana and magic symbols. For example, fire. If you spend hours analyzing candles, fires, and so on, eventually, you will ¡®understand¡¯ fire well enough to create fire magic symbols. From there, you can use fire magic symbols when creating spells. If you study ¡®force¡¯ long enough, you will naturally come to understand the symbol for force. And so on and so forth.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean that everyone can only use magic symbols for ideas they have studied?¡± I asked. I had always assumed that people could just copy the symbols from another spellcaster¡¯s spells to recreate the same spell, over and over again. Learning that spellcasters might be more limited than I thought was a bit surprising, but made sense, now that I thought about it. It made it more important for people to specialize in a few specific directions when it came to spellcasting.


    ¡°Yes. Every single spellcaster needs to ¡®relearn¡¯ how to make magic symbols related to the spells they want to cast. You can¡¯t just copy the shape of a magic symbol when trying to make a spell and hope that it somehow works. Instead, you need to genuinely understand a certain force well enough that you can manifest that force properly. Otherwise you can¡¯t infuse understanding and intent into your magic symbols, which is the difference between a real magic symbol and a fancy glowing picture.¡±


    ¡°Does your own understanding of that force play a role in how the symbol works?¡± I asked, thinking of how runes and my attunement adapted themselves to how I personally understood the ocean. If Sallia tried to recreate my runes or my attunement, she would probably create a completely different ability, because absorption and alteration were heavily influenced by the understanding of the user.


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    Matt, however, shook his head. ¡°Magic symbols, much like math, are very strict in how they work. They aren¡¯t like shaping, where your understanding can alter the specifics of how an attunement works. There is only one right answer when it comes to making a fire magic symbol. You need to infuse your magic symbol with the correct understanding of fire, or a fire magic symbol just won¡¯t work. Every force has one correct symbol,¡± he said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it will be very obvious when you learn a symbol properly. There¡¯s a feeling that¡¯s hard to describe, but it¡¯s impossible to miss or mistake for something else. You¡¯ll know it when you feel it.¡±


    It took me a moment to realize why my understanding wouldn¡¯t influence the effects of certain magic symbols, but after a few moments of thought, I had a theory.


    While in this world, people who used manifestation essence were called spellcasters, the Market explicitly labeled their essence manifestation. And, as I had come to realize, the names the Market used for essences were rather¡­ on the nose. Manifestation meant to manifest, which could mean to show, or demonstrate. It didn¡¯t create something from nothing; instead, it called out an ephemeral image of something that already existed. In other words, one needed to ¡®understand¡¯ a force of the world that was already there, and then ¡®manifest¡¯ it somehow through magic symbols and circles, copying it perfectly before commanding it and reshaping it into a spell. This left Manifestation with a much more limited room for adapting to the user¡¯s understanding of the world.


    Or at least, that was what made sense to me. I would see if the Market had any further information on this later.


    ¡°I see,¡± I said, a few more pieces about how the multiverse at large worked clicking into place in my mind.


    ¡°Now, a fire magic symbol on its own, stuck inside of the smallest magic circle one can form, will just create a ball of fire a few centimeters above the back of your right hand. There, it will hover in place until its mana runs out, and then it will disappear. This is not particularly useful. This brings us to the second part of spellcasting. Sub-symbols,¡± said Matt. ¡°This is a magic symbol that one doesn¡¯t need any special understanding to make. And it also does absolutely nothing on its own. Instead, it tells other magic symbols how to interact with each other, and how to interact with the world around them as well. For example, one of the magic sub-symbols can be added onto a fire symbol, to tell the magic fire to form in front of one¡¯s palm, instead. Another magic symbol can be used to tell the fire to launch itself forward, which turns our previous useless glob of flame into a small magic heat projectile. You can also modify dozens of other things, like telling a magic symbol to spend its mana more slowly and, in exchange, last longer. Or you can make a magic symbol do the exact opposite, spending all of its mana in a flash of heat before disappearing moments later. Does that make sense?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Good. Sub-symbols are a critical component of spellcasting, and later on, I¡¯m going to make you learn all one-hundred and twenty-seven known sub-symbols and how to add them to a magic symbol properly.¡±


    I resisted the urge to groan. Suddenly, I was reminded of the rote memorization one might encounter when trying to learn a new language, though the exact details of when I had first encountered this were too fuzzy for me to latch onto.


    ¡°That brings us to the final aspect of a spell. That is a spell¡¯s circle.¡±


    I perked up, feeling a thrill of excitement as I heard about spell circles. I had already figured out that spells with more circles were more powerful. While I intended to mostly stick with oceans as my focus in magical abilities, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a few backup options, especially now that I had a good, innovative way to use my primary essence in direct combat. Since it was incredibly mana intensive right now, being able to throw around fireballs or something sounded like a good backup option.


    ¡°Every single spell has a certain ¡®circle¡¯ associated with it. A higher circle spell, naturally, is stronger.


    ¡°But I¡¯m sure you already know that. What matters is how it relates to this diagram,¡± said my teacher, tapping the archery target shaped diagram again. ¡°You see, spells are called ¡®first¡¯ or ¡®second¡¯ circle spells explicitly because one needs to construct magic circles inside of their mind, and then fill them with magic symbols when they wish to cast a spell. The construction of a magic circle is permanent, but not very difficult or dangerous. I¡¯ll get to that later. What I want you to keep in mind for now is how a spell¡¯s circle related to the number of runes it has, and thus, its mana cost,¡± said Matt.


    I took a closer look at the paper Matt had shown me as a way to visualize spell circles, and for the first time, I noticed that inside of every circle, there was also a symbol attached to it. I was pretty sure it was a number.


    Unfortunately, I hadn¡¯t learned to read yet. Meaning I had absolutely no clue what they meant. I needed to remind Ella to teach me to read. Not being able to read was already starting to drive me nuts.


    Unaware of my irritation, Matt simply continued. ¡°Do you see the numbers in each circle? Those represent how many symbols fit inside every single spell circle. And it also represents the mana cost for each circle of a spell.


    ¡°So, you can see how the first circle has a 1 written inside of it, right? That¡¯s because one, and only one magic symbol can fit inside of the first circle of magic.


    ¡°The same applies to the next circle of magic. The second circle of magic can fit four magic symbols inside of it. Which means that a second circle spell costs five magic symbol¡¯s worth of essence to create. One magic symbol to fill the first circle up, and then four magic symbols to fill up the second magic circle as well. Then, a third circle spell adds another sixteen magic symbols, meaning a third circle spell always costs 21 magic symbol¡¯s worth of mana. And so on and so forth, with every new magic circle having four times the number of magic symbols, up to infinity. Well, theoretically. One would be hard pressed to find anyone that can cast, say, a tenth circle spell, even if they searched the entire underground. It¡¯s just too much mana.¡± Matt guffawed. ¡°Still, fourth circle spells are a common dividing line for the truly elite spellcasters in the city, since most spellcasters never learn the specific combination of magic symbols needed to make a fourth circle spell without blowing their limbs off or killing themselves, and with the number of magic symbols and runes involved in a fourth circle spell, it¡¯s very easy to make a mistake. Fifth circle spellcasters are the best of the best, although even the spellcasters who can use fourth circle spells are quite exceptional and rare. I hear the overseer can cast eighth circle spells, although I have no idea whether that¡¯s true. But I know he can cast seventh circle spells, and that¡¯s already enough mana to make a man die of jealousy. An ordinary mage only has enough mana for making about 200 or so magic symbols in one day. Most regular mages use third circle spells for most of their more regular spellcasting, since that¡¯s about the right level for a spell to pack a severe punch and overwhelm an Orukthyri¡¯s defense against magic and seriously injure them. Since even a regular spellcaster can throw out somewhere between eight and twelve third-circle spells a day, spellcasters serve as a vital component of the city¡¯s defenses against the creatures of the dark and the Orukthyri.¡±


    I was happy to finally learn about concrete essence costs and magic requirements. At the same time, I wondered how many magic symbols Sallia, Felix and I could form each day. If we could nail down exactly how many magic symbols each of us could make in 24 hours, we could get a rough idea how the math behind grades actually worked. I had been wondering for a while how all of this math worked behind the scenes, and this provided me with a rough plan for figuring it out.


    I also wanted to know how we stacked up against a ¡®regular¡¯ mage in this world, and how strong regular mages were compared to other monsters in this world. it would provide good context for how strong we as a species were in this dangerous Tier-4 world, and how strong a tier 4 world really was. Thus far, I had lived inside of the safety of the city, where monster attacks were unheard of and most people lived peaceful, day to day lives. However, I needed to eventually figure out how strong Sallia, Felix and I were compared to the rest of the world. Otherwise, we would never figure out how far we could push ourselves while exploring the wastes above.


    Luckily, after my first spellcasting lesson ended, I would be able to see Sallia and Felix again. I couldn¡¯t help but grin at the thought of boasting about my ¡®extinguish¡¯ spell, and showing Sallia and Felix how far I had already come.

 Chapter 85: Attunements - Markets and Multiverses

    After the basic introduction to how the spellcasting system as a whole worked, Matt got me started on forming magic circles, which needed to be created inside of the mind before one  could cast any spells at all. Apart from that, he also gave me some basic exercises to work on to help familiarize myself with fire. I was to spend several hours a day observing a candle flame, and observing fire in other related environments. I suspected that I would also benefit from seeing any other form of fire, and I could probably take the same methodology and apply it to any other magic symbol I wanted to familiarize myself with. Fire was a good start, but force and water would be just as useful in the future, and after I formed those, there were numerous other magic symbols I would also want to learn. However, at least for now, I was just focused on making a magic circle and learning my first symbol.


    I didn¡¯t manage to form my first magic circle in one session, unlike my incredibly fast successes with alteration essence. But I thought I could still form my first magic circle within a week.


    Which made me think about how useful the spellcasting system could be in future worlds, compared to the rune magic system. For runes, I needed to wait for my body to acclimate itself to each new rune before forming another one. Trying to form several in a row would seriously damage my body and hurt me. This put a massive limitation on the rune magic system; one needed quite a bit of time to get it working. Sallia managed to largely avoid this problem, since her extreme affinity for the essence made the acclimation period much shorter. However, I didn¡¯t have this advantage, which significantly reduced how useful the rune magic system was for me.


    By contrast, the spell circles of the spellcasting system didn¡¯t need any acclimation period. One could be done forming them in a month or so, if one was particularly fast. This meant that spellcasting required much less setup time before I regained mastery over the magic system.


    Of course, there were also notable downsides. As far as I could tell, spellcasters of this world didn¡¯t get any stat bonuses at all. Shapers seemed like they could get some Stat bonuses if someone figured out how Orukthyri were made, but I had no idea if we would get that information before dying and leaving this world. Meanwhile, runes had the massive upside of giving us 3 extra grades in all our physical and mental Attributes once we had 9 runes, making us faster, stronger, and harder to ambush. The rune system had massive upsides in addition to its massive downside.


    As I thought about these problems and tried to figure out what I wanted in the future, my learning session with Matt finally ended. My master congratulated me for a productive first day, before she took me to another building in the city, where all of the children who were magically gifted could meet up with each other and socialize.


    Including Sallia, Felix, and Anise.


    ¡°Miria!¡± Said Sallia, the moment she saw me. It had only been a few days since we last saw each other, but she immediately tackle-hugged me the moment she saw me.


    ¡°I learned to do magic! I¡¯m getting close to being a super witch!¡± Said Anise, who had been tagging along behind Sallia.


    Felix was still a little bit behind the other two, but when he heard Anise¡¯s words and saw how enthusiastic the girl was, he seemed to be trying very hard to resist the urge to burst out laughing. I had a sneaking suspicion that when Anise got older, she would never, ever live down her enthusiasm for being a super witch. I felt my lips quirk upwards at the thought. Even if I fully intended to tease her mercilessly in a few years, it was also fun seeing what a real child looked like. Sallia, Felix and I had largely forgotten what it was like to think like a child, since the three of us were essentially adults crammed into children¡¯s bodies. Something about Anise managed to brighten up my day, even if I was pretty sure she would die of embarrassment when she was older and remembered this.


    ¡°That¡¯s great to hear, Anise,¡± I said. ¡°Are you enjoying learning so far?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m learning lots! Mister Lauren is really good at teaching me how to do spellcasting, and while I haven¡¯t learned any magic symbols yet, I¡¯ve decided to work on a symbol for stone first! Mister Lauren says that the best way to survive as a spellcaster is to learn some good second-circle spells to keep you safe during fights and keep opponents from killing you, and then blast them down with a third or fourth circle spell once you¡¯ve stopped them from hurting you. And stone is really good at hardening skin and tripping opponents in the caves!¡± said Anise, her four eyes blinking and glittering like jewels as she talked about magic.


    ¡°Is that so?¡± I said, giving Anise a lighter hug, before giving Felix a hug of his own. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll become a super witch in no time! You just need to practice lots and do your best to learn!¡±


    ¡°Mm-hmm!¡± said Anise, nodding happily.


    ¡°How¡¯s Lauren as a teacher?¡± I asked Sallia and Felix after Anise finished gushing.


    Sallia frowned. ¡°He kind of reminds me of my tutors when I was a¡­ special person, long ago. He¡¯s very¡­ structured in how he teaches. He has a certain way he thinks is optimal when it comes to teaching and learning, and he wants us to follow those ideas. Which isn¡¯t a bad thing. But it¡¯s also very rigid. I think it¡¯s a good way to learn how to excel in this world, since he¡¯s so specialized in counterspelling and improving his spellcasting with shaping. But it also doesn¡¯t really lend itself to the skills we¡¯ll need in future¡­ areas we visit,¡± said Sallia, taking some effort to mind her words around Anise. Even if it was unlikely that any adults would take Anise seriously if she told them that we always talked about being from other worlds, or the Market, there was no reason to tempt fate. I made a small reminder to myself to also mind my words around the excitable young girl.


    ¡°It¡¯s a really good thing that you got a different teacher. If you had learned under Lauren, it would have been a waste,¡± said Sallia, finishing up her thoughts as I thought about Anise¡¯s presence in our group.


    Felix nodded. ¡°As for the man¡¯s personality itself¡­ he¡¯s fine. A bit strict, since he¡¯s very set on what he thinks is ideal, as Sallia mentioned. But I would say he¡¯s a little more flexible than Sallia makes him out to be. When I was asking him about my attunement, and how to use it for shaping tools, he didn¡¯t try to force me to learn specifically how to combine spells and shaping essence, the way I was afraid he might. Which is good, honestly. I won¡¯t have my passion buried under his teaching methods, which I¡¯m grateful for.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± said Sallia, giving Felix a curious glance. ¡°I didn¡¯t really get that impression. In my first¡­ set of experiences, I had a really strict teacher that used to hit my hands with a ruler whenever I messed up a question. He was responsible for teaching me religion and history. He was awful about mistakes. I got a similar kind of impression from Lauren as a teacher.¡±


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    ¡°I get the impression that he¡¯s pretty strict about how shaping and spellcasting synergize, but I think it¡¯s mostly limited to that field of study. It¡¯s his field of expertise, and I think he¡¯s extremely proud of it. But I also get the impression he¡¯s just average in the field of regular shaping; he¡¯s mostly a wizard that uses shaping on the side, rather than a specialist in both fields.¡±


    ¡°Well, attunements are pretty centered around your personal understanding,¡± I interjected. ¡°It¡¯s good that he¡¯s only strict about his field of expertise; in that field of study, at least, he¡¯s probably earned the right to claim that his method is the best one, since as far as I know nobody else in the city is really specialized in changing how spells work on the fly.¡±


    Sallia nodded, after thinking for a few moments. ¡°I suppose you have a good point, Felix. He¡¯s pretty strict when it comes to spellcasting, but he was much more open when he was teaching us how shaping works. I just wanted to see if I could try out a few new things when it came to magic symbols. It feels so weird that manifestation doesn¡¯t use our understanding of an idea, while shaping and runes work entirely off of our interpretation of something.¡±


    Felix snorted. ¡°You haven¡¯t even learned one symbol yet. Leave the wacky experimentation until you at least kind of know what you¡¯re doing. There are way too many ways for spells to blow up in your face if you mess them up. And even if you¡¯re much stronger than most people, you can still hurt yourself if you mess up. Miria and I would both be really sad if you hurt yourself, you know?¡±


    Sallia¡¯s expression shifted a bit, as she looked at Felix and I, before she sighed. ¡°Fine. But I still want to mess with things once I get a solid idea what I¡¯m doing.¡±


    ¡°As long as it¡¯s only after you figure out spellcasting,¡± I said, giving Sallia another hug.


    Then, I gave Sallia, Anise, and Felix curious glances. I thought about my first day with alteration essence, and my attunement, and grinned.


    ¡°So, what attunements are you guys going for?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Right now, I¡¯m thinking I want to do something with flesh, or maybe bones.¡± said Sallia. ¡°I figure that since I¡¯m best with melee weapons, and I have a really strong body already, I could probably strengthen my body even further with some sort of body-related attunement. Turning my body into hardened flesh and bone in the middle of a fight should probably combine really well with my, uh¡­ special spells,¡± said Sallia, glancing at her feet, where I knew she had also stuck her runic tattoos.


    I nodded. ¡°That could work really well with strengthening your body, yeah. I can see how it would work. How about your third¡­ special spell?¡±


    ¡°Well, I already have healing and stealth. I¡¯m thinking that I¡¯ll do either flesh or bones with my attunement, and then whichever one I don¡¯t form an attunement around, I¡¯ll turn into my third special spell. Healing myself with shadows, hiding myself and my weapons with shadows, and then strengthening my body by layering my special spells on top of an attunement and regular spells should make me incredibly hard to fight. Combine that with a few long-range abilities from spellcasting and a little bit of counterspelling, and I think I¡¯ll be a nightmare to fight. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to fight an Orukthyri after layering everything together!¡± Sallia said, grinning at the thought. ¡°I don¡¯t really know how strong they are as a species, but hopefully I can match them with everything concentrated towards my physical abilities.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going into metal,¡± said Felix. ¡°Since this city has a pretty robust blacksmithing community, I figure it¡¯s a good way to train my tool-making abilities for the future. And metal conversion and manipulation will obviously work really well with tool creation. Don¡¯t worry; I¡¯ll still develop some proper combat spells to help during fights, as well. I¡¯ll probably have a low number of maximum magic symbols per day, but I should be able to manage at least a couple third-circle spells every day. And I¡¯ll have archery, too. Even if I¡¯ll definitely struggle with fighting, I won¡¯t be useless in a fight. And, of course, long-term I¡¯m hoping to rediscover how to make magic items, since Lauren mentioned them a few times. We¡¯ll have to look into that later though.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m doing magic symbols for my attunement!¡± Said Anise, and I widened my eyes in surprise. I hadn¡¯t¡­. actually realized that was possible, honestly. It was a very clever use of the shaping magic system. ¡°I want to be a super witch!¡± She frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll work until I can make magic symbols, though. So even if I make my attunement tomorrow, I¡¯ll probably need to wait before I can use it. But once I have both magic symbols and my attunement, I¡¯m going to be the strongest witch in the city!¡±


    I chuckled.


    ¡°How about you? It¡¯s your big affinity, after all,¡± said Sallia, grinning at me. She seemed to know that I was eager to talk about my own shaping experiences, and she seemed more than happy to bring up the topic for me.


    ¡°I¡¯ve already formed my attunement. Look at this,¡± I said, before I pointed out a patch of moss.


    ¡°Extinguish!¡± I said, incredibly dramatically, before visualizing the life of the moss as a small, flickering candle. A moment later, a single droplet of water formed near my finger, before flicking through the air like a raindrop of death. A moment later, my drop of water hit the moss.


    Instantly, the moss died. I giggled, incredibly satisfied with seeing my ability work again.


    Sallia and Felix¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°What did you make for your attunement? Is that¡­ death or something?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°That¡¯s really cool!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the ocean!¡± I said, grinning. ¡°I figured I should stick with my ocean theme, since it helps me activate my other stuff.¡±


    ¡°The ocean? What does the ocean have to do with¡­. ah. Drowning? I can actually see how the ocean and death relate to each other quite a bit,¡± said Felix, his initial surprise being replaced by curiosity.


    ¡°Take a closer look at the water,¡± said Sallia, as she took a closer look at the patch of dead moss. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice it at first either, but it¡¯s not a normal ocean.¡±


    Felix inspected the drop of water lying on top of the moss for a moment, and then his eyes grew as wide as saucers. ¡°Did you¡­¡±


    I grinned madly. ¡°Yes.¡±


    Felix started cackling. ¡°I guess we know who¡¯s responsible for long range sniping when we get to the surface. To actually turn that into a weapon¡­ and it just¡­ instantly kills things, too. How much essence does it cost?¡±


    I winced. ¡°Right now, the cost is completely absurd. It¡¯s prohibitively expensive. But a lot of that is just because I don¡¯t have much practice yet. It¡¯ll be usable when I get better with it. I¡¯m hoping that later, I can just dump a cloud of rain on an Orukthyri warband and kill them instantly. We¡¯ll see how far I can take this ability though. I¡¯ll need to practice much more.¡±


    Sallia looked at the drop of water again curiously. ¡°I wonder if I can do something similar with my special affinity? Suddenly, I wonder if I¡¯m severely underutilizing my extreme affinity.¡± Then, she sighed, and chuckled. ¡°Something to think about for my final¡­ special spell, I guess. Either way, when we journey to the surface we¡¯ll be unstoppable together.¡±


    I grinned, and then wrapped the two of them in a hug. ¡°As a team, we¡¯ll make sure to send the Orukthyri running for the hills and scour the surface for ancient spells and item crafting information.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s eyes glinted. ¡°Together.¡±


    Anise gave the three of us curious, slightly hopeful glances, and I chuckled and wrapped her into the group hug. ¡°You can come too, if you decide you want to when you¡¯re older. It¡¯ll be the four of us against the surface. But only if you really want to, all right?¡± Unlike the three of us, Anise was actually a kid. I didn¡¯t want her to throw away her life, but I also didn¡¯t want to restrict her freedom to choose her own path. We would just have to see what she wanted in a few decades.


    Anise¡¯s eyes brightened up, and she nodded enthusiastically.

 Chapter 86: Times Tracks

    Years passed by.


    I spent a great deal of that time working with my teacher to improve my attunement, allowing me to improve my Extinguish spell, and also improving how effectively I used my attunement for other things.


    I figured out how to do a second spell, in addition to extinguish. Rather than putting out the candle of life by using my image of an ocean, I also learned how to use my image of the life-giving waters of the ocean of souls to replenish the strength of a body, which worked as a kind of healing and anti-fatigue spell. It was pretty expensive, just like extinguish, but it was good to know that when our group went to the wastes above, we would have two healers in the group in case something went wrong. My image of the ocean of souls lent itself to destruction much more effectively than healing, but the fact that I could do both gave me a lot of flexibility.


    After creating my healing spell, I decided not to create any new moves with my attunement until I got both of my attunement abilities up to the point where they were effective in combat. I could probably do much more with my image of the ocean of souls, but I felt that it was a better idea to just keep practicing and improving extinguish and rebirth until I had mastered them. It was better to have a few incredibly effective spells, instead of a lot of useless spells, after all.


    And extinguish got much better after years of practice. I hadn¡¯t tested it on anything larger than a few insects and plants yet, but I had gone from chewing through nearly a twentieth of my essence just to kill a finger-sized spider to being able to wipe out smaller insects and plants with practically no effort or essence cost. I was reasonably certain the spell was going to be usable by the time we explored the wastes in the future.


    Apart from learning how to use my attunement, I also worked on improving my attunement itself. With the help of my teacher, I was present for almost every birth and every death in the city, and I spent several days a month near the city river to get ¡®in touch¡¯ with my image of the ocean. And, of course, my dress ensured that I was almost always touching a lake. My attunement improved by leaps and bounds, making it faster and easier for me to convert things in my surroundings, and making both of my best spells cheaper and faster to activate with every single advancement. The amount of alteration essence my attunement permanently tied up increased as well, but it was still easily less than 10% of my entire reserve, and the benefits I got from improving my attunement far outweighed the cost.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form an [Intermediate] level attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form an [Advanced] level attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +750


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had, apparently, improved my attunement twice during the years of my training. It seemed harder to distinguish the grades of attunement, as compared to something like swordsmanship, but I was still able to notice a difference from one grade to the next in how easy and cheap it was to use spells related to my attunement. And also important was the Achievement for improving: my Achievement had gone from 858 Achievement to 2108 Achievement, which was already enough to move one of my Stats to Grade 2 and have a small amount of Achievement left over.


    By the time I turned twenty, the equivalent of a human ten-year old child, I was much better than most of the children in the city. I was even comparable to some of the weaker adult shapers in the city, both in terms of general shaping and in terms of my attunement. However, I was still notably behind Ella¡¯s level of expertise, which made me rather curious. On the islands, there hadn¡¯t been many people with advanced-grade weapon skills; such people had been the cream of the crop, and some of the best hunters on the island. However, here, the average grade of people¡¯s Skills seemed to be much higher.


    Through careful observation of how mana and souls interacted with each other, I started to get a better idea why and how people in higher tier worlds ended up with higher average Skill grades. The amount of mana available in this world, as well as the quantity of essence in the air around us, was much higher than it had been on the islands. I had known that this was what differentiated lower tier worlds from higher tier ones, but I hadn¡¯t known why this made people stronger.


    It seemed that all human bodies naturally ¡®ate¡¯ a good chunk of mana from their surroundings whenever someone trained, even if they didn¡¯t have absorption essence. The process was quite a bit different from absorbing it with absorption essence, of course, but it seemed like all humanoid bodies naturally used some amount of mana as ¡®fuel,¡¯ burning it whenever someone tried to do¡­ well, anything. And if they improved their skills by a certain amount in a training session, the mana they burned would leave behind some residue in their bodies. This, as far as I could tell, was what a Skill was. The leftover mana residue was a sort of echo of their training, and served to improve their body and their skills.


    And, much like the ¡®Abilities¡¯ of Transmigrators, these Skills seemed to have extra beneficials effects on the people of the world. For example, minor stat improvements, enhanced reflexes, and so on. As transmigrators, we only got Stat boosts when we activated our Abilities or used special resources. However, to normal residents of a world, it seemed like Stats were slightly easier to improve, since some Skills, such as swordsmanship, would mildly improve their bodies as they increased in strength.


    At least, that was my current understanding of the subject. It had taken me a while to notice the oddities in the way people ¡®burned¡¯ mana to improve their skills, and observe the small differences in people¡¯s strength and speed as they slowly grew through training. When I observed another child train their swordsmanship, I observed that they didn¡¯t get as many stats as I had when I activated my {Beginner-Grade Swordsmanship} Ability. I had gotten five points in every stat, while the child I had been observing only seemed to get three or four. However, unlike transmigrators, natives of a world didn¡¯t need to buy abilities in between lives to benefit from improving their skills. The native inhabitants had both upsides and downsides to not being part of the market.


    As Transmigrators, the process our bodies used to improve looked¡­ quite different. Instead of our bodies burning the mana in our surroundings and using that as fuel to leave skill-residue in our bodies, our souls did everything. Our souls treated our bodies like cheap and unimportant clothes that could be discarded at any time, and greedily gobbled up any mana-residue available the moment it was present in our bodies. And sadly, souls didn¡¯t seem to process ¡®extra¡¯ mana anywhere near as well as our physical bodies could. Which was probably why transmigrators didn¡¯t benefit from the mana-rich environment of higher tier worlds anywhere near as much as the natives did.


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    I wondered if there was a way to improve this process, but right now I knew too little about souls to be comfortable messing with them. After all, souls were the fundamental core of a transmigrator, and if I messed up, the three of us might end up crippled or dead after this life. However, I did find the process of observing everything using my soul-sight interesting, and even though I wasn¡¯t willing to experiment with our souls, I was still learning little bits and pieces of how the Market worked by observing how our souls different from regular souls.


    Apart from training my attunement, I also worked on my swordsmanship with Sallia and Felix. I wasn¡¯t exactly great at using melee weapons, and I fell far behind many of the soldiers of this world who could take advantage of our mana-rich environment, but I still wanted to have some competence in melee combat in case I couldn¡¯t extinguish an enemy or blow them up with a fireball.


    Sadly, I couldn¡¯t advance my swordsmanship to advanced grade yet. My natural talent for swordsmanship was rather lacking, and frankly, it would still take quite a while before I reached advanced grade swordsmanship. Since most of the soldiers of this world seemed to have advanced grade swordsmanship, this put me at a major disadvantage in most sword fights, during the times my teacher set me up with a soldier for the day to fight.


    A problem which Sallia did not share.


    Since the four of us met up every day after our magic lessons to play and hang out, Sallia started helping Felix and I squeeze in some extra practice in swordsmanship, on days when we were up for it.


    And after Sallia reached Advanced Grade swordsmanship, even if Felix, Anise and I all worked together, she handily thrashed the three of us every single time. Even in a one on three scenario, Sallia¡¯s rune-enhanced body, strength and perception enhancing rune abilities, flesh attunement, and body strengthening spells layered on top of each other made Sallia close to invincible in a melee fight. Her raw physical stats, exceptional swordsmanship talent, and rune-enhanced Perception were overwhelming, and she was nearly impossible to win against. Not that Felix and I expected anything less. It was amazing to see Sallia finally become the monstrous melee fighter she was always meant to be.


    Anise seemed to get a little more frustrated by Sallia¡¯s nigh-invincibility, but she was also easy to distract with a conversation about magic, which caused her to perk right up and forget her frustrations with Sallia¡¯s swordsmanship training.


    Anise was the best of the four of us at raw spellcasting. Her magic-symbol attunement made counterspelling and changing spells on the fly much easier for her, and whenever one of the teachers were supervising us and let us use magic, she always wowed the three of us with her progress as a spellcaster.


    I had only learned the magic symbols for water, fire and force so far. I was at least able to cast up to second-circle spells relatively quickly and competently, but I was definitely treating Manifestation magic as a backup for when I ran out of alteration essence. Alteration was simply far easier to fight with, at least in my hands. I had still learned a few second circle spells, though. I could now create a small spike of fire, create a bubble of hot steam, lift up an object and move it towards me, and fling an object away from me by using magic. Spellcasting didn¡¯t come to me as easily as alteration, but I still had a decent grasp of the subject for my age, even if I wasn¡¯t particularly outstanding. Part of the issue was my manifestation essence pool. After some testing, I had discovered that I could make 156 magic symbols in a day before I ran out of essence. Which was close to the average of 200, but was definitely a bit on the smaller side. Sallia could do 151, and Felix could do 106 Symbols per day. It seemed like we were a bit below average as far as raw essence quantity went, perhaps as a consequence of this being a higher tier world. It was a bit of a shame, but the three of us still managed to make the most out of our limited essence pools and learn everything we could for the future.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Become a First-circle spellcaster


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +150


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Become a Second-circle spellcaster


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Finally, my runes had come along quite nicely during the eight years of training time. I had formed my fourth rune. After some hesitation, I had ended up forming a similar fourth rune ability to the one I had formed in my previous life. However, even though I had used the same mental image, and had focused on the life-giving surface of the ocean, just like before, the ability I had formed was a bit different from the ability I formed last time.


    Instead of the ability to create illusions and healing out of water, I had instead formed the ability to create a whirlpool of illusory, madness-inducing water around me with my fourth rune. This water took strongly after the ocean water of my previous life; it directly attacked people¡¯s willpower, and tried to devour their thoughts and make them jump into my little whirlpool whenever I activated it.


    Of course, unlike the ocean of my previous life, I couldn¡¯t form a large enough whirlpool of water to drown people. I just couldn¡¯t create quite enough water, although the whirlpool became deadly in its own way if I swapped out some of the madness-inducing water for ocean of souls water mid-ability use. My whirlpool of madness did allow me to set up nicely for an extinguish though, and also made it incredibly easy to stab opponents in the face with a sword while they were dazed. Sallia and Felix had higher Willpower in this life, so it wasn¡¯t easy to trip them up for more than a fraction of a second by using madness-inducing ocean water, but that was still enough time for me to take advantage of their distraction during a training bout. And activating my whirlpool also triggered my madness keyword, which improved my essence regeneration and sped up how quickly my body adapted to my fourth rune. At twenty years old, I was getting quite close to forming my fifth rune, although I would probably need another few months before my body finished adjusting to my fourth rune.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Construct your Fourth Absorption-Essence rune


    (note: this world does not have any support for runes or absorption essence in existence. Thus, rewards for rune-related magic systems and Absorption Essence-related Magic Systems are lowered)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +160


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With the 160 Achievement from my fourth rune, as well as the 450 Achievement for becoming a second-circle spellcaster, I had a total of 2,718.89 Achievement ready for when we next returned to the market.


    I resisted the urge to grin as I counted over my Achievement, before I thought over the next week and cackled to myself.


    Since Sallia, Felix, Anise and I had all expressed some interest in learning to adventure and fight monsters, and had remained consistent for the past eight years, Lauren and Ella had eventually decided that now that we were old enough to fight our first monsters in one of the nearby caverns. We would be going out as a group of four, to learn how to fight together while our masters kept us safe if something went wrong.


    And I was also rather excited to finally test out how the sub-Ability creation of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} worked. I hadn¡¯t actually killed a strong enough creature with water yet, meaning I hadn¡¯t actually figured out how sub-ability creation worked, but I was eager to get some fighting done with my friends, and to finally test out the ability I had bought decades ago.

 Chapter 87: First Time Outside the City

    On the day that Ella and Lauren agreed to bring us to our first fights, Ella led me to one of the exits to the city¡¯s primary cavern. I started carefully examining the exit tunnels to the city. This was my first time getting a good look at the edges of our city¡¯s cavern, since I had never had a reason to look at the tunnels that led to other caverns or cities before.


    Much like the city itself, the stone corridors leading out of the city were lined with glowing moss, making it easy to see everything. However, I could also see that not all tunnels leading out of the city had the same telltale smoothness of our cavern ceiling. In other words, unlike the roof of the city, some of these exits could actually collapse and cave in. In fact, a few of the more neglected-looking tunnels had caved in, although those also looked like they had been abandoned for decades already. Many of the other non-magical tunnels had support beams practically everywhere.


    Seeing my interest, Ella gave me a grin.


    ¡°Are you interested in the other cities and the tunnels of the underdark? The more well-maintained tunnels connect directly to some of the other cities that lay beneath the surface, although some cities are more isolated from the main tunnels. In the days of the second Orthan empire, there was even a network of ¡®ground eaters¡¯ that let people quickly move down the more established tunnels at incredibly fast speeds. Of course, we haven¡¯t seen a working ground-eaters near our city in a couple decades, since the wealthier cities control most of them now.¡± She pursed her lips into a very light frown for a moment, before she sighed. ¡°I admit, I¡¯ve never actually seen one. I¡¯ve heard merchants talk about them from time to time, though.¡±


    I wondered what these ¡®ground eaters¡¯ actually looked like. Perhaps, if we ever got the opportunity, Felix could look into them? My curiosity was piqued, but not enough for me to go out of my way to investigate Orthan transportation networks.


    ¡°How many underground cities are there?¡± I asked, after a few moments of struggling with my curiosity.


    ¡°You know, I¡¯m honestly not sure. I know there were a lot of them during the peak period of the second Orthan empire. There were hundreds of them, maybe even thousands, since the magic items used to make mushroom production easy are pretty common. I imagine they aren¡¯t that hard to produce, if we could just figure out how to make magic items in the first place,¡± said Ella, biting back an undercurrent of annoyance in her voice. She took in a deep breath, before shaking her head. ¡°Anyway, the second Orthan empire had a great deal of underground cities set up. But a lot of cities have fallen in the aftermath of the dawn of the black sun. Outsiders, Denizens of the dark, and Orukthyri raids have managed to swallow up huge numbers of cities, although the orthan remnant races have started pushing them back recently. Orukthyri in particular are too big to fight well underground, so cities taken by them are easy to reclaim if the city is built well. And there are still a lot of cities we maintain contact with. I know of at least twenty that we regularly trade with. Of course, there are also plenty of cities that we¡¯ve lost contact with, or only occasionally get traders from, since the route to and from those cities might have been taken over by monsters or caved in. The underdark isn¡¯t as dangerous as the surface, but it can still easily kill an unprepared explorer,¡± said Ella. ¡°So it¡¯s hard to say how many cities remain. Probably several hundred, scattered across the planet in small pockets and the occasional isolated city.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s a lot more than I was expecting.¡± I had honestly envisioned less than a hundred cities in total existing underground, at absolute most. Hearing that there had been hundreds at one point was more than slightly shocking.


    Before I had time to say anything else, Lauren arrived, with Sallia, Felix, and Anise following him.


    The three of them quickly sped towards me the moment they saw me, and I gave everyone a hug as my teacher and Lauren greeted each other.


    ¡°Lauren,¡± said Ella, giving Lauren a nod of respect. ¡°It has been a while since I last spoke with you. How have you been?¡±


    ¡°Quite well,¡± said Lauren, giving Ella a respectful nod as well. ¡°You know me these days. I prefer to sit back and let the new generations make all of the interesting discoveries and exciting changes to the world. I¡¯ve grown too old to do it myself these days,¡± he said, with a dry chuckle. ¡°I thought that I would be relaxing in my home and enjoying myself, but instead my apprentices are running me ragged as usual.¡±


    Ella gave me a glance from the corner of her eye, and she gave Lauren a sympathetic nod. ¡°I know what you mean. Miria has me running in circles to try to get the arrangements for her attunement set up whenever she tries something new. I can¡¯t even imagine how much more work it would take to set up for three different attunements, and spellcasting lessons for all of them. It must be difficult to manage.¡± She gave him a cheeky grin. ¡°Luckily I was smart enough to only accept one apprentice.¡±


    Lauren actually laughed this time, instead of simply chuckling.¡°They¡¯re a handful, but teaching the next generation is also rewarding,¡± said Lauren. ¡°On the other hand, maybe in the future I¡¯ll limit how many apprentices I take on at once as well. Three apprentices at once is quite a lot to manage.¡±


    The two teachers continued to chat with each other for a bit, while I gave Sallia, Felix, and Anise more careful inspections.


    I noticed that Felix and Sallia weren¡¯t using their market armor and boots, and they were also using odd weapons I didn¡¯t recognize. Instead of using their Market items, they were wearing decently-made metal equipment. It took me a moment to realize why they might have changed out their equipment, but¡­


    ¡°Felix, did you use your attunement to make these?¡± I asked, after a few more moments of inspection.


    ¡°I did!¡± He said, his eyes lighting up. ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing really hard with blacksmithing and metal forging! I got to intermediate grade blacksmithing recently, and I can make pretty good equipment on my own now! It¡¯s not quite as good as the equipment we could get from a master blacksmith or¡­ well¡­¡± he glanced at my dress for a moment, which was currently disguised as a relatively ordinary blue and black spellcaster-adventurer¡¯s dress, and I nodded. The items of the Market were way beyond our current understanding, so it made sense that Felix had no way to replicate them yet. However, the armor Felix had made was only a little inferior to what I had seen some of the lower quality blacksmiths of this world make. They were definitely not bad, even if they weren¡¯t amazing.


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    ¡°However, I¡¯ve only been learning for eight years,¡± he said. Felix didn¡¯t seem to notice, but he had a goofy grin as he talked about creating items. ¡°I think I can get to advanced grade by the time we finish our apprenticeship. And that should be good enough that I¡¯ll have some idea what I¡¯m looking at when we find stuff on the surface later.¡±


    I grinned as well. Seeing Felix so happy and excited for the future made me also feel really happy and excited. Unlike in our first life, both Sallia and Felix seemed excited about what the future held. And that made me happy that they had come so far this time.


    After that, Felix also handed me a sword of his own creation, and asked me to give him some feedback on how the weapon felt. I would still probably stick with my {Two-Purpose Training Sword} for any dangerous combat encounters we had, since I was pretty used to the weapon by now, and it was also higher quality than Felix¡¯s items. But I promised I would use Felix¡¯s weapon in less dangerous skirmishes and give him advice so he could improve.


    As Felix finished gushing about his progress as a blacksmith and craftsmen, our teachers finished chatting with each other.


    ¡°All right, we¡¯ve already gone over everything a few times. Are you three ready?¡± Asked Lauren, scanning Sallia, Felix, and Anise to make sure everything was set up.


    ¡°We¡¯re good!¡± Said Anise, who was practically squirming in excitement.


    ¡°Are you ready, Miria? Any last minute things you forgot?¡± Asked Ella, giving me a final check.


    ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± I said.


    Ella¡¯s smile turned more gentle. ¡°Good. Lauren, do you want to lead the way?¡±


    Lauren nodded, and quickly stepped into one of the more well-maintained passages out of our city¡¯s central cavern. The rest of us quickly followed him, our shoes tapping on the smooth, hard stone of the tunnel.


    ¡°This is one of the roads that used to lead to an inhabited city beneath the surface,¡± said Lauren, his tone taking on the tone one might use during a lecture. ¡°It has enough magic pillars to make cave-ins basically impossible, which is one of the reasons we chose this passage today. Remember, cave-ins aren¡¯t common, but they¡¯re one of the deadliest things you can encounter beneath the surface of the earth. No matter how well you can swing a sword or launch a fireball, it won¡¯t help you if the ceiling falls on you and flattens or suffocates you. Which is why there are a few unique, slightly unorthodox spells I recommend picking up if you ever intend to seriously explore the underdark, although if you intend to focus on the surface and only travel the more well-maintained tunnels while below ground, you can largely ignore them¡­¡± Lauren started to discuss spells, cave ins, and things to keep in mind as we slowly walked down the tunnel. I did my best to listen to him, but I was distracted when I caught sight of an odd, distinct glow from one of the side tunnels.


    I whirled around, trying to figure out what was glowing, and why.


    At the end of the passage, I could see a giant, glowing pool of water in the distance. I could see occasional dark shapes moving underneath the surface of the water, which I assumed were fish.


    I also saw several men and women standing near the edge of the glowing pool of water, holding fishing equipment.


    Seeing my curiosity, Lauren broke off from his speech about cave-in safety. ¡°Are you interested in this fish stream, Miria?¡±


    I nodded. My favorite food was fish, after all.


    Lauren smiled warmly. ¡°There are a lot of ways that water gets to the city, and a lot of different sources of fish, as well. The easiest one to access is the river that runs right by the edge of the city, but there are plenty of little caverns like this one that have access to part of a river as well.¡±


    ¡°Why is the water glowing?¡± I asked.


    ¡°This pond, in particular, is part of a magic fishery that was being built by the Orthan empire at one point. However, it was never completed. The Orthans were added lights on to the bottom of the artificial lake for¡­ some reason.¡± Lauren shrugged. ¡°Nobody has quite figured out why. Some shapers who study items claim it was going to help certain kinds of moss and algae grow, making the pond self-sufficient. Others claim that it somehow purifies the water. Either way, several of the lights that should have been at the bottom of the lake are missing, but the lake is somehow self-sustaining and quite pure. But it glows. Either way, the fish are safe to eat and taste delicious, so we still use it.¡±


    I nodded in curiosity, and Lauren resumed his speech about cave-in safety and spells. However, I got distracted again when I noticed another odd passageway. At the end of it, I could see mushrooms growing at a pace visible to the naked eye. Men and women in brown clothes were carefully harvesting mushrooms and placing them in baskets, before moving to another area. A new mushroom would grow every five or six minutes, before another person would swing by and harvest it.


    ¡°That¡¯s where we get our mushrooms. One of the main food staples of the city,¡± said Lauren, breaking off his lecture to grin at me.


    I nodded. I started to wonder how common magic items had been before the fall of the second empire. It seemed like they had been available practically everywhere. And nowadays, we couldn¡¯t even make a single one, despite all of the examples of magic items laying around in our surroundings. I couldn¡¯t help but glance at Felix, and I could see a hint of frustration in his eyes as he glanced at the magic items in our surroundings. I suspected he was thinking of the same thing. I was sure he would have loved to have been able to study directly under a master item craftsman, but sadly, the craft hadn¡¯t been restored yet. I sighed.


    Even if we didn¡¯t know how to make magic items yet, I promised myself that we would find something for Felix when we went to the surface.


    We continued making our way through the tunnels, with Lauren giving us little tidbits of information about how the caverns were built, what the city used each cavern for, and other such facts, mixed in with more notes about spellcasting and cave safety.


    After a few hours of walking, we reached our destination.


    At the end of the tunnel, there lay a giant cavern. it was easily seven or eight times the size of the already massive caverns we had passed by during our travels. I could see passages to several other underground roads in the distance, which made me think that the cavern had once been a sort of intersection of roads.


    However, now, a giant wall cut off direct access to the other underground roads. Oddly enough, I could see the wall slowly sinking into the earth, as spellcasters quickly created new additions to the ever-sinking wall.


    And just beyond the wall, occasional swarms and clusters of strange creatures I couldn¡¯t identify crawled out of the other passageways and rushed towards the wall. Soldiers, especially archers and other spellcasters, continuously blasted and shot down these creatures, ensuring that they never reached the wall or the mages working to maintain the second line of defense.


    We had reached the edge of our city¡¯s territory, and the beginning of the territory of the denizens of the underdark.

 Chapter 88: Border Cavern

    After Sallia reached the cavern, she looked at the chaotic battlefield, and felt a slight grin tug at her lips as her hand tightened around Felix¡¯s sword. She felt a thrill of anticipation run through her body as she looked at the scene in front of her.


    Finally, a real battle. After spending twenty years in this world, Sallia hadn¡¯t been allowed to take part in a real fight once. She had only ever done practice fights with her friends and the instructors her teacher found for her.


    But this was a real battle. The very thing she had yearned to participate in during her first life, when she had tried to become a magic knight.


    She reached for the manifestation essence in her body, an essence familiar to her from her first life, and yet so very different in this world, and rapidly formed a series of second circle spells, centered on her own body. In moments, her muscles and bones grew stronger and her grip on her sword became steadier. However, instead of just launching herself into the battle, as Sallia longed to do, she looked at her friends to make sure they were ready to join as well.


    Miria looked rather curious about the entire mess, all things considered. Sallia couldn¡¯t help but think that even though Miria didn¡¯t share her love of fighting, she certainly didn¡¯t shy away from it, either.


    Felix looked strangely¡­ uninterested in the scene of the denizens of the dark who were assaulting the area. Sallia found this strange for a moment, before she realized he had probably seen similar scenes during his time as a hunter on the islands plenty of times.


    Unlike the three Transmigrators, Anise looked scared as she watched the chaotic fight. Sallia watched as Miria moved a few steps closer to Anise, and quietly patted her on the shoulder, calming the other girl down, and felt a smile pull at her lips.


    She was glad to see that her best friend was so willing to help Anise steady her nerves here.


    Finally, Sallia glanced at Lauren who was¡­ looking at her and shaking is head. Sallia frowned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t go yet. The soldiers know you¡¯re coming today, but you should still introduce yourself before joining the fight,¡± said Lauren. ¡°Otherwise one might fire a spell at you by mistake, and we don¡¯t want that.¡±


    Sallia deflated, and wished she had saved the twenty magic symbols she had just spent boosting herself for the fight. Four second-circle spells wasn¡¯t crushingly expensive, but it also wasn¡¯t as if Sallia was happy wasting a bunch of spells.


    ¡°Can I really not join the fight at all?¡± Sallia asked.


    ¡°Just relax, Sallia,¡± said Lauren. ¡°I know you want to join, but we¡¯ll wait until this wave of monsters ends first. Besides, I want to make sure you have some proper safety precautions before joining the battle, and for that I want to talk with the person in charge of this cavern today. He¡¯s an old friend of mine.¡±


    Sallia sighed.


    ¡°Is this sort of battle common?¡± asked Miria, drawing Sallia¡¯s attention away from her disappointment.


    ¡°It¡¯s unusual for so many denizens of the deep to crop up at once, but this is still pretty average for a border cavern,¡± Lauren said. ¡°Normally, several groups of denizens will show up a day, at semi-random times, and try to attack the passageway. Then, there¡¯ll be nothing new for a couple hours, before another battle occurs. This group seems especially large, which is a little unlucky, but on a bad day you can get practically nonstop waves of monsters crashing against the walls. This isn¡¯t the worst I¡¯ve seen, though it¡¯s pretty bad for this particular cavern.¡±


    Lauren continued to calmly discuss the nature of border caverns, and Sallia could see Anise calming down more as Lauren spoke. The way Lauren discussed this situation, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, seemed to be doing wonders for Anise¡¯s nerves, even if it just made Sallia want to jump into the fight more.


    She felt Miria¡¯s light touch on her arm, and realized that her friend had snuck up on her after Anise had calmed down.


    ¡°Just relax. You¡¯ll get your chance soon,¡± said Miria, grinning, and Sallia slowly released her grip on her sword as she slid it back into her sheath.


    Soon, the wave of monsters came to an end, and the soldiers started to quickly drag the corpses to the side, clean off their weapons, and relax. Sallia noticed that all of the soldiers maintained a certain level of combat readiness; however, they were clearly snatching some time to rest now that they weren¡¯t under attack. At the same time, Sallia noticed that the stone wall had stopped collapsing into the ground, and was now stable again. Perhaps it had been influenced by some sort of spell used by the monsters before now?


    Before Sallia could think more about the wall, Lauren and Ella strode towards the group of soldiers, and from the group of soldiers, an older man with a grizzled beard and a relaxed posture came to greet the two teachers.


    ¡°Greetings, Mack!¡± said Lauren, giving the man a friendly grin.


    ¡°Hey Lauren! And good day to you, Grand Shaper Ella,¡± said Mack, giving both teachers respectful greetings. However, Sallia noticed that the man was much more casual with Lauren. Clearly, the two were close enough that they weren¡¯t terribly hung up on formality. ¡°Nice to see you again. Are these four the kids I¡¯m taking care of today?¡± asked Mack, gesturing towards Sallia and her friends.


    ¡°They are,¡± said Lauren, giving Mack a nod. ¡°Those three are mine, and the last one is Miria, apprentice of Grand Shaper Ella. Miria and Anise are both specialized in long range combat, while Sallia is a bit more melee focused. Felix is a bit more of a craftsman, but he has some skill in archery and swordsmanship, and he can hold his own,¡± said Lauren, pointing out each of the children as he named them and discussed their abilities.


    Mack turned to Sallia and gave her a more curious look. ¡°Swordsman shaper-caster, eh? Those are pretty rare. Good to see weapons aren¡¯t being entirely neglected even by spellcasters,¡± he said, grinning at her. ¡°Nothing like getting into the thick of things with a blade.¡±


    Sallia felt a smile tug at her lips. Since Lauren was a more traditional spellcaster, who was used to sitting at the back of a fight and lobbing spells at enemies, it was a little harder for Sallia to learn from him, since he didn¡¯t specialize in the kind of combat Sallia did. Of course, Lauren was more than willing to help her find teachers and spells that suited her, and his counterspelling technique would be incredibly useful in the right circumstances. However, it was nice to meet someone else who admired the beauty of raw physical combat. When Sallia looked at Mack, she felt as if she had found a kindred spirit.


    ¡°All right, for the four of you, I think it would be best if all of you work together, since you know each other and I¡¯m told you¡¯re friends who train together often. However, I¡¯m not putting four greenhorns up against denizens of the dark without any precautions, so you get two babysitters today¡± said Mack, giving them an affable grin that let them know he wasn¡¯t insulting them by saying they needed babysitters. Sallia still wished that she could just be allowed to jump into the fight, but she understood that probably wouldn¡¯t be happening for another decade or two.


    Mack gestured towards one of the spellcasters who had been taking a break by the side. ¡°Hey, Lucas! The kids are here. You ready?¡± He asked.


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    Lucas seemed to pause for a moment, giving Sallia and the others a glance, before he grimaced and got back to his feet. ¡°Yup. I¡¯m in. Today has been a bit rough on all of us since they keep coming, but I can still watch over four little ones.¡±


    Mack grinned, before turning back towards Sallia and the others. ¡°All right, this is Lucas. He¡¯s specialized in defensive spells, but he knows a bit of offense as well. He¡¯s your first babysitter, and I¡¯m your other safety precaution. I¡¯ll work as a spearman and take down any enemies you mess up against during a fight, and Lucas will make sure no one gets hurt. Apart from that, I¡¯m sure your teachers will also intervene if something goes wrong.¡±


    ¡°Of course we will,¡± said Ella. Then, she turned to Miria, and gave her a fond smile. ¡°Of course, try your best not to force us to act. If any of the four of us need to intervene, you guys messed up. Take this as a practice run for going to the surface later,¡± she said.


    Miria nodded, and then smiled at Ella. ¡°Thank you, teacher Ella! We¡¯ll keep that in mind and do our best to stay safe, so that you and teacher Lauren can take a break,¡± she said.


    Ella chuckled when Miria casually mentioned taking a break, as if she found the notion that she and Lauren were just relaxing at the side of the fight absurd, but she nodded.


    After the introductions were finished, the group of four children and two babysitters settled down to wait for the next wave. Sallia kept one hand on her sword, but otherwise tried to mimic the soldiers around her and relax a little bit. Even if her nerves and anticipation were killing her, she knew that wasting stamina before a fight would be silly.


    The next wave of monsters took fifteen minutes to come. Sallia nearly leapt to her feet when she saw the next wave of monsters. There were nineteen giant spiders crawling out of one of the passageways to another cavern. Each spider was as tall as Sallia was, and as wide as three or four adults standing together.  Mack frowned at the sight.


    ¡°Really unlucky today,¡± he said, grumbling as the other soldiers began to form up and prepared for another fight.


    Sallia quickly reapplied her spells, and then glanced at Miria, Anise, and Felix. Since this was their first time actually fighting as a team, rather than three on one or as part of a training fight, Sallia decided to see how they reacted to the battle first. Especially since Anise could be a wildcard; unlike the three Transmigrators, Anise had no combat experience at all. And since Sallia was the only pure-melee fighter in their team, she needed to wait for the enemy to get closer before attacking.


    ¡°I¡¯ll start off, since I have the longest range,¡± said Felix, as a volley of arrows soared out from the soldiers stationed in the cavern. A moment later, Felix sent his own arrow sailing at the monsters, and managed to nick the leg of one of the monsters before another soldier finished it off with an arrow through the eye. Three spiders out of the nineteen dropped.


    ¡°They¡¯re almost in range for me,¡± said Anise, looking nervous at the same time as she watched the wave of sixteen giant spiders rush towards the soldiers. The group of monsters was over a third of the way across the cavern, and since the monsters were spiders, they could probably climb the wall and get to the soldiers on top.


    ¡°I call the one on the left,¡± said Miria, pointing at one of the spiders which was a little isolated from the rest of the group. Sallia felt a large amount of Alteration essence twist the world in a way it simply wasn¡¯t to work, and for a brief moment, she felt as though she had been dunked into the ocean of souls again.


    Then, the spider on the left staggered, nearly collapsing on the spot. Anise, seeming to take Miria¡¯s attack as her cue, flung a fireball at one of the other spiders¡­ only to completely miss. The fireball exploded a few meters away from the creature, singeing a few of its legs, but not inflicting much damage. Felix shot it in the eye with an arrow, and it went down.


    Miria frowned, looking at the spider she had targeted. It was staggering drunkenly on its feet, almost dead but still kicking. ¡°Not dead even after I hit it. I think I need to get used to hitting stronger targets,¡± she remarked as she raised her hand and pointed at the spider again. ¡°Extinguish,¡± she whispered.


    The spider died.


    The nine remaining giant spiders reached the wall, and began scuttling upwards. The archers and spellcasters stepped away from the edge of the wall, to make sure they stayed safe. Anise didn¡¯t notice, so Sallia gently tapped her on the shoulder and then pulled her away from the edge of the wall. It was her turn now. Sallia felt adrenaline start to course through her veins as she madly grinned. Finally.


    Two spiders crawled over the edge of the wall, their eyes glittering with hunger and madness as they eyed the group of children. Out of the corner of her eye, Sallia saw Mack and Lucas staring intensely at the spiders, but they didn¡¯t make a move yet.


    Sallia cloaked herself with her stealth rune ability, and then stepped towards the spider closest to her.


    The spider seemed to be aware of her rough position, despite her stealth ability. It whirled in her general direction and hissed, before spitting a stream of green liquid at Sallia and completely missing.


    Perhaps she had given it too much credit.


    Sallia rammed her sword into the eye of the spider she was fighting, and it screeched and reeled back. Sallia struggled to keep hold of Felix¡¯s sword for a moment, and frowned.


    The grip needs to be rougher so that it¡¯s easier to grip, she thought as she regained control of the blade. She would mention it to Felix later.


    The spider, now aware of her position, leapt towards her, its fangs dripping with venom.


    The other spider started to move towards her friends, before it suddenly staggered. Miria was already working on extinguishing it.


    Sallia spun to the side, dodged a slash from two of the spider¡¯s bladelike limbs, and lopped one of the limbs off, causing the spider to reel back and screech in pain. Sallia burned a little mana, boosting her perception, and the spider¡¯s movements seemed to be caught in slow motion as Sallia quickly found the best way to finish the spider off.


    She ducked underneath the spider¡¯s second attempt to swipe at her, cut out another eye, and then rammed her blade into the underside of the spider¡¯s mouth as it recoiled in pain. her blade pierced through the spider¡¯s brain, killing it instantly. Sallia felt a trickle of Achievement worm its way into her soul, but didn¡¯t look at her System notifications as she turned towards the other spider to make sure Miria and the others had it under control.


    Felix pegged the spider with another arrow, bursting one of its eyes. Then, since it was already nearly dead from Miria¡¯s attack, Anise had no trouble finishing it off with a fireball to the head. Sallia turned towards the other part of the wall, to see if the soldiers were having trouble. However, she was greeted with the sight of three spiders in the process of dying, and four spider corpses. The soldiers had the situation completely under control.


    Salla grinned to herself. While Anise had missed her first spell, Miria and Felix had done well in the fight, and Sallia felt that they were working together reasonably well. The three of them could still probably use some practice working as a team, since Sallia usually fought against everyone else instead of working with them. But for a first fight, it hadn¡¯t gone too poorly. Then, she settled down and observed the process of the native soldiers fighting for a moment. She was curious to see how she stacked up against the more seasoned veterans of this world.


    After observing the spider she had fought, as well as the strength of the regular soldiers, Sallia realized that even with only one extra magic system, the gap between her and regular soldiers was already starting to show. Even though this was a tier 4 world, the orthan descendents were one of the weaker species now, and Sallia felt that the average soldier here might even be weaker than the hunters of the islands. And right now, Sallia felt that she could easily go toe to toe with a hunter from the islands. Sallia¡¯s extra stats, vastly improved perception, and ability to spend both absorption essence and manifestation essence to boost her physical and mental stats to the next level made her a force to be reckoned with. She hadn¡¯t even needed to use her attunement in the fight, because she hadn¡¯t felt like she was in danger at any point.


    Miria was also a force to be reckoned with. Extinguish was honestly terrifying, and Sallia was willing to bet it would swing most smaller fights in Miria¡¯s favor, even if its essence consumption was rather high. Felix still lacked some offensive power, and Anise needed to work on her aim, but the group as a whole already stacked up pretty well against regular soldiers.


    She couldn¡¯t help but wonder what the stronger creatures of this world looked like as she headed back towards her group of friends. She knew that Miria had finally killed a creature using water for the first time, and she was very curious to know what rewards Miria had gotten from her Ability.


    However, as she strode towards her friend, she heard a rumbling sound in the distance, and then another wave of denizens of the darkness appeared. Sallia couldn¡¯t see them very well, but she was eager for another fight. Sallia felt adrenaline start to course through her veins as she saw Mack start to frown in confusion, and Ella and Lauren suddenly lurched to their feet and rushed to the edge of the wall. They hadn¡¯t reacted like that to the wave of spiders.


    Was there something wrong with this wave of monsters?

 Chapter 89: Orukthyri (1)

    I took another look at the dead spiders on the wall, and grinned to myself as I scrolled through my System notifications. I had two of them that I cared about.


    First, I had gotten my first kill of an {Acid-Drinker}, which gave me a small but noticeable Achievement bump.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill an Acid-Drinker for the First time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    100 Achievement wasn¡¯t too shabby for the first kill of a creature. With this addition to my Achievement, I had gone from 2,718 Achievement to 2,818. For a fight that wasn¡¯t too dangerous, I was quite happy with the results.


    The second System notification related to my Keyword Ability. And since it was my first time seeing how this actually worked, I was both excited and happy to see it in play for the first time. I double checked my keyword ability first, since it had been twenty years since I had gained the ability, and I had never actually activated the last part of the ability up until now.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Basic Grade)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.)


    Glut Penalty: 20


    While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.


    Absorption essence may be spent to form ¡®runes,¡¯ a unique magical structure created partially within the brain and partially within the body.


    These runes have varied effects, mostly relating to strengthening the body and mind and allowing limited control over specific abilities. (This rune system is copied directly from the world you were just living in.) You will also recreate the relevant dimensional laws within your body.


    Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive something insane, you will collect Achievement as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.


    Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first time in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.


    Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form skills. Only three skillsfrom this effect may be ¡®held¡¯ at once. You may delete a copied skill from this Ability at any time to replace it with a new one.


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I grinned to myself. I hadn¡¯t been sure what kind of ¡®skill¡¯ my ability would generate whenever I killed a new creature with water. Now, I finally had an answer.


    And while the reward didn¡¯t push me into a completely new dimension of power, it was definitely useful.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Acid Drinker for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Acid and poison control: You gain understanding of Acid, Poison, and force magic symbols as long as this skill is active.


    You gain Basic-grade poison and acid resistance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Since my skill said I could swap my equipped skills around anytime, I saw no reason not to add the skill to my ¡®held¡¯ Skills from {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. I felt something change inside of my brain, and a new wave of knowledge integrated into my thoughts.


    In ten seconds, I learned two magic symbols, a feat which might have otherwise taken me three or four years. The poison and acid magic symbols, which I had never studied before, were suddenly as familiar to me as the three magic symbols I already knew. Of course, I didn¡¯t know any acid or poison spells yet, so the symbols were useless. However, half of the work for learning any acid or poison spells had just been done in an instant. Sadly, the Skill seemed to do absolutely nothing for my knowledge of force magic symbols, likely because I already knew that magic symbol.


    The ease with which {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} granted me new abilities made me suddenly eager to see how far the Ability would go in the future. I had been starting to wonder how long I would keep using {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, since I had noticed the difficulties I faced when using rune magic in a new world. However, the ability to ¡®steal¡¯ spells and abilities from monsters gave me hope for the Ability¡¯s future. Perhaps I should focus on evolving the Ability towards the direction of ¡®stealing¡¯ in the future? My knowledge of how Ability evolutions worked was kind of patchy right now, but I knew that they could change drastically every time they evolved, based on how they were used.


    As I was about to tell Sallia and Felix about my new skill, and discuss what that meant for all of our futures, I heard something in the distance. There was a faint roaring sound, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ella and Lauren turn pale.


    A moment later, I saw a new denizen of the darkness in the distance. I couldn¡¯t see it very well, because it was far away and my eyesight was terrible in this life, but a bad feeling started to well up inside of my stomach.


    ¡°Orukthyri! How the hell did it get in the tunnels?¡± yelled Ella, as the other soldiers around us started to turn pale.


    Orukthyri?


    I felt a tremor in my heart, although I wasn¡¯t sure whether it was from fear or excitement, and then glanced at Sallia, Felix, and Anise.


    Anise, upon hearing Ella¡¯s words, had started to turn white with fear. Instead of looking for a way to fight, she immediately started looking at Lauren, as if hoping he would protect us.


    Lauren, however, was also starting to frown.


    ¡°If a few Orukthyri got into the tunnels, there are two options,¡± he called out, both to Ella and to the soldiers. ¡°Either they¡¯re smaller than their kin, which will probably mean they¡¯re weaker. Or they¡¯re some sort of variant Orukthyri. They might be more spell resistant than usual, be stronger, or have spellcasting or shaping abilities. Keep an eye out for magic and adapt as needed.¡±


    The soldiers trembled at Lauren¡¯s mention of ¡®varient¡¯ Orukthyri, but the presence of two shapers and multiple trainee shaper-casters seemed to steady their nerves somewhat. They looked at us as if using our presence to reassure themselves, and then gripped their weapons more firmly as they glared at the Orukthyri who were charging towards the wall.


    A few moments later, I finally got my first good look at the Orukthyri.


    It looked like someone had taken a human and cross-bred it with a boulder. The creature faintly resembled a human, much like the other Orthan descendants, but the resemblance was incredibly faint. Its skin was coarse and gray. Its frame was massive, perhaps two and a half meters tall. Its eyes glowed a hateful orange color in the darkness of the caverns. Its teeth were sharp and serrated. In its monstrously large hands, it held an uprooted tree as a sort of makeshift club.


    Behind it were four more Orukthyri, all holding tree-clubs of their own. I wondered how they had gotten tree-clubs into the caverns, but right now, I had bigger problems to worry about.


    The moment it saw us, the Orukthyri in the lead grinned, before it stopped moving.


    And then, I felt it start manipulating manifestation essence.


    ¡°Caster!¡± Yelled Lauren, turning pale as he reached out his hand towards the caster Orukthyri.


    I took another glance at the soldiers on the wall, and saw them turn pale at the mention of an Orukthyri caster. The archers sent out a shower of arrows towards the Orukthyri caster, but due to the range, and the thickness of the creature¡¯s skin and flesh, many of the arrows only gave the creature flesh wounds, or failed to penetrate its skin. The creature didn¡¯t seem to notice the archers at all, and simply continued building up its spell.


    I frowned, and prepared for an actual fight. The caster felt like it was creating a tier 3 spell. If it landed, many people would die.


    The orukthyri caster quickly formed a crude fireball, before launching it at the wall. It lacked much of the refinement a well-made fireball had, but the sight of a two and a half meter tall partially invulnerable giant throwing magic at us was intimidating enough that it didn¡¯t matter.


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    Luckily, Lauren seized control of the spell by replacing several of the magic symbols on the fly. The fireball, which had been flying towards the wall, suddenly flew to the side instead, nearly hitting one of the Orukthyri before exploding in midair and hitting nothing.


    I immediately focused on the caster, and tried to extinguish the Orukthyri caster¡¯s life. That thing was too dangerous to leave alone.


    However, the moment I visualized its candle of life, I realized that this thing was much stronger than the spiders we had just exterminated. If I had to guess, this thing¡¯s Fortitude was probably around grade 11 or 12. Furthermore, the thing felt¡­ hard to influence, for lack of a better term. Trying to manipulate its existence using alteration essence felt much more difficult than influencing other creatures.


    ¡°It¡¯s especially magic resistant!¡± I called out, frowning. If the Orukthyri were also highly magic resistant, that would make them several times more dangerous than other creatures would be. After all, spellcasting and shaping was our primary method of fighting right now.


    Then, I proceeded to attack the spellcaster. We needed that thing dead, and I just had to hope that my attack would still be at least somewhat effective, even through the massive magic resistance of the creature. I spent the majority of my essence trying to extinguish the creature¡¯s candle of life in one giant blast of water.


    The Orukthyri staggered, caught completely off guard by my bizarre attack that struck at the very core of its existence. I saw the creature¡¯s candle of life flicker madly for a moment, desperately fighting off my attack. And then it stood upright and glared at me. Its life force was weakened, and its movements were sluggish. But it was still very much alive and kicking.


    ¡°Crap,¡± I said.


    Then, Lauren and two army spellcasters launched fireballs at the Orukthyri caster. They didn¡¯t waste the window of opportunity I bought them. Ella narrowed her eyes and glared at the caster, and the creature stopped glaring at me and doubled over in pain, ensuring the creature couldn¡¯t defend itself.


    Two fireballs crashed into the spellcaster¡¯s body, singeing it and injuring it. Lauren¡¯s fireball blasted out one of the spellcaster¡¯s eyes, nearly killing it. However, somehow the damn creature was still alive. It roared in pain, pointed at the two military spellcasters, and tried to throw another fireball at them. However, Lauren immediately redirected the fireball towards another Orukthyri, forcing one of the warriors to dodge the sudden friendly fire.


    The Orukthyri warriors decided they were done sitting around and waiting. They charged the wall.


    The archers and Felix started taking potshots at the warriors, realizing that if they reached the walls and attacked our spellcasters, we were all going to die under the attack of the Orukthyri spellcaster. However, the creatures had incredibly resilient bodies, and the arrows just didn¡¯t do enough damage to kill them.


    I hesitated, wondering if I could somehow finish off the spellcaster, before realizing I didn¡¯t have enough alteration essence to launch another extinguish at the spellcaster, and my spellcasting abilities weren¡¯t sufficient to help attack the spellcaster anymore. Ella and Lauren would need to finish the fight with the spellcaster without my help. However, I could still help distract the warriors and buy more time. The warriors could probably climb the wall and kill our spellcasters quickly if they were undistracted, but if we could stop them from interfering, our side would hopefully win the spellcaster war.


    I look at Sallia, and I saw that she was preparing to jump off the wall and attack the Orukthyri. Perhaps she was thinking that it was best to make sure our fight took place as far away from our spellcasters as possible? She glanced at me, and then her eyes darted towards one of the Orukthyri again.


    ¡°Together?¡± I asked, as I pulled out my Market sword.


    Sallia grinned at me. ¡°Together,¡± she said.


    Felix and Anise were starting to join the other soldiers in shooting arrows and spells at one of the approaching Orukthyri, so Sallia and I decided to aim for a different target. Then, the two of us jumped off the wall.


    We crashed to the stone ground with thuds, our rune-enhanced physiques easily absorbing the shock of landing where a normal soldier¡¯s bones would have shattered on impact.


    Then, I immediately activated my rune ability. The air around me started to liquify and swirl around me, before it started turning into a whirlpool of madness-inducing water. Both of my keywords activated, for all the good it did me, and more importantly, water alteration started to become easier if I used it on my immediate surroundings.


    Sallia distanced herself from me, making sure not to get caught in my whirlpool, and the two of us charged at the nearest Orukthyri.


    The giant boulder-like creature roared in challenge as it saw us springing towards it. Perhaps it saw our approach as a challenge to it. It redirected its charge away from the wall and towards us instead.


    Then, as it locked eyes with me¡­ its gaze fell upon my whirlpool instead. It started to grin madly, and ignored Sallia completely.


    I felt a twinge of surprise at the sight. Despite the creature¡¯s resistance to shaping and spellcasting, it didn¡¯t seem to have any resistance against absorption essence at all.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I also saw one of the other Orukthyri glance at my whirlpool and divert its charge towards us.


    Suddenly, I wished the Orukthyri were more resistant to absorption abilities. Fighting two Orutkhyri at once would be very hard for us. However, at least we were properly distracting the two creatures.


    Now we just needed to survive. Or, better yet, kill our opponents.


    The first Orukthyri quickly reached us. It tried to swing its knock Sallia out of the way with its tree club, barely even registering her presence as she moved to ambush it. However, Sallia leapt over the tree, and then rammed her sword into the Orukthyri¡¯s massive neck. Clearly, she was trying to kill the creature on the spot while it was distracted.


    Sallia¡¯s muscle attunement got to work, trying to rip apart the Orukthyri¡¯s arteries apart using raw magic. However, the creature¡¯s magic resistance made it a tough target.


    For a brief moment, its massive body sped up by several times. In that time, it grabbed Sallia and threw her towards the wall like a human cannonball.


    Sallia spun through the air before crashing into the wall. Stone and bones both cracked, and I prayed that my friend wasn¡¯t dead. I used the time to stab the Orukthyri in the armpit, trying to distract it so that Sallia had time to recover and heal. At the same time, my mind spun as I tried to assess the creature¡¯s power.


    This thing was stronger than Sallia, despite her runes and physique enhancing spells and attunements. And it had survived a direct stab to the throat as well. I felt a growing realization gnawing at my mind.


    This was what I needed to expect from a tier 4 world. An unreasonably powerful creature that could crush Sallia and I working together. I spun away from the creature as it tried to crush me with its massive tree club, before I pushed more absorption essence into my water whirlpool. It was the only ability that had proven effective so far, and I wanted to keep the creature away from Sallia while she recovered.


    While the creature was distracted, I used a steam ball spell to try to boil the creature¡¯s eyes out. The creature simply waved its hand through the steam, causing the manifestation essence in my spell to disperse. The creature¡¯s magic resistance was far more troublesome than I had thought. Second circle spells couldn¡¯t even hurt it.


    Suddenly, a massive hand surrounded me, clamping down on my waist. I realized with horror that I had lost track of the second Orukthyri. Much like the first one, it had suddenly sped up for a moment, and was prepared to kill me. The second Orukthyri¡¯s mouth opened wide as it tried to lift me up.


    And then its hand sank into my dress, accomplishing absolutely nothing.


    The creature¡¯s eyes widened in confusion. I took the opportunity to cut into its wrist, and it yanked its hand back. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t manage to cut anything off. I only inflicted a superficial wound.


    This thing¡¯s fortitude was way too high.


    I got a desperate idea. I was in way over my head, and the fact both Orukthyri were nearly immune to my attacks and could suddenly speed up was making that fact very clear to me. However, the second Orukthyri was in contact with my madness-inducing water, and its willpower seemed quite low.


    I converted more of the air into madness water using general shaping, pushing my rune ability well beyond its natural limits by using my alteration essence. Then, I used general shaping to toss my rune ability to the side, creating a floating ball of madness-inducing water. I hoped the creatures would just stroll up to the water and drown themselves, since I couldn¡¯t find another way to harm them.


    The two Orukthyri chased after the floating ball of water for a moment, grinning like lunatics.


    This lasted for about ten seconds, before they finally snapped out of it.


    I swore as I realized they were already starting to realize the water was a trick. These things weren¡¯t very smart, but they were much, much smarter than the creatures I had fought before.


    I quickly separated my ball of madness water into a giant stream of bubbles, before I began spreading them in our area. The Orukthyri didn¡¯t seem very distracted anymore, but they still swatted at some of the stray water bubbles.


    The moment the nearest Orukthyri swatted its third bubble of water, I turned it into ocean of souls water, causing it to yelp in pain as its hand burned on contact with the ocean.


    However, it didn¡¯t seem very injured; just pissed off. Luckily, the other Orukthyri seemed more cautious of the water bubbles now, and actively avoided touching them. It stared at me, as if considering how to reach me through the field of madness-inducing bubbles.


    I sscuttled backwards, trying to think of a way to survive.


    As if to mock my attempts to stay alive, the second Orukthyri finally gave up and charged at me. I converted more of the bubbles into ocean of souls water, causing it to wince in pain as it sprinted towards me, but it ignored the minor damage I was inflicting on it. I started to panic.


    Rune enhancements or not, if I got hit by that thing and wasn¡¯t protected by my dress, I would die. Grade nine Fortitude was nowhere near enough to survive a direct hit from these things.


    I heard soldiers scream in the distance, and realized that the other two Orukthyri had reached the walls and was slaughtering the soldiers. I hoped the soldiers had a solution, because I had no way to help them. I saw spellcasters flinging spells at the creatures out of the corner of my eyes, but the Orukthyri on top of the walls were dodging out of the way, and the best casters were trying to taking down the distant Orukthyri caster.


    The second Orukthyri speed up again, but even if I couldn¡¯t see it, I knew it was coming. The moment its figure disappeared from my sight, I rolled out of the way, and just barely managed to dodge. Then, I saw Sallia ram her sword into the back of its knee. The muscles in its leg twisted like snakes trying to burst out of its leg, and the creature screamed in pain. It dropped to its knees and tried to punch Sallia. I didn¡¯t miss the window of opportunity she had brought me, and stabbed the creature in the eye. I did my first noticeable damage to the creature as one of its two eyes turned into gray goop. However, I didn¡¯t manage to hit the brain and kill it.


    It punched me, and part of its fist hit a part of my body that wasn¡¯t protected by my dress. I flew backwards like a rag doll before bouncing off of the stone floor of the cavern. I groaned in pain before struggling to my feet. I looked back towards the place Sallia and I had been fighting the Orukthyri, and got my first good look at Sallia.


    Sallia¡¯s right arm dangled limply to the side, and she was holding her sword in her left hand now. There was blood everywhere on her right arm, although it didn¡¯t look like it had been destroyed.


    The two Orukthyri had their eyes locked firmly on Sallia now, apparently having forgotten about me since I had been knocked away from the fight. I felt icy fear start to creep its way across my spine as I realized that none of my other spells would be strong enough to matter here, and Sallia and I were seriously outclassed by these giant creatures. And the damn things were trying to hurt my friend.


    I clenched my sword more tightly as I tried to shake off my fear.


    Were we going to die here?

 Chapter 90: Orukthyri (2)

    I looked at the two Orukthyri, feeling desperation starting to claw at my chest.


    Sallia and I were both injured. Sallia¡¯s arm was broken, and after getting punched in the arm and flung around like a rag doll, I wasn¡¯t feeling very good either. I was incredibly lucky that I was wearing my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress}, or I might have also broken a few bones. However, I was badly bruised now, even considering my inhumanly sturdy body. These two creatures felt impossible to fight right now.


    I spared a moment to glance at the walls, and saw the soldiers of the cavern swarming the two Orukthyri that Sallia and I had failed to distract. The two Orukthyri were almost overwhelming the soldiers, but through sheer force of numbers, they were still injuring the creature. Every soldier exchanged their lives to get in a few cuts, and other soldiers were physically leaping on the creature¡¯s arms and legs and trying to drag them down. The Orukthyri on the walls were inflicting heavy casualties, but they would probably fall soon.


    Unfortunately, since the soldiers were barely winning their fight, they were in no position to help Sallia and I. Worse, if we lost control of our two Orukthyri, the position on the walls would come crashing down in seconds.


    I glanced at the Orukthyri spellcaster, and saw that part of its face was charred and injured. It looked like we were slowly winning the battle against the spellcaster as well. But Sallia and I might lose control of our fight long before the other two battles came to a conclusion. In other words, if nothing changed, we might all die here. Lauren, Ella, and the spellcaster soldiers couldn¡¯t help us: they were tied up fighting the caster or the other Orukthyri. My mind raced for a solution, but I couldn¡¯t find one. I didn¡¯t know how to stabilize our battle, and once Sallia and I lost, the entire battle would tilt in favor of the Orukthyri.


    I felt a helpless laugh bubble up in my stomach as I realized we might be about to die. These things were just too sturdy. They were incredibly hard to kill. And since they were even more resistant to magic than normal Orukthyri, it seemed that third circle spells were unable to do much against them.


    Luckily, I wasn¡¯t the only one who could come up with ideas.


    ¡°Miria! Can you hold off these two for a bit?¡± Asked Sallia, eyeing the caster in the distance. I wondered what Sallia had seen that I hadn¡¯t. But I trusted my friend. If she had a way to get us out of this mess, I would do whatever I needed to. I wouldn¡¯t let my friends get hurt in this fight as long as I was still alive.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best!¡± I said, as I gritted my teeth. I wished I could give her a stronger affirmative answer, but I honestly wasn¡¯t sure if I could hold down the two Orukthyri. But if Sallia needed me to keep them pinned down for a while, even if I died doing it, I would stop them for as long as I could.


    Sallia seemed to see my determination in my eyes, and she hesitated for a moment. Then, she gritted her teeth.


    ¡°Look after yourself first. But do your best.¡± Then, she paused for a moment. ¡°We¡¯re a team. Don¡¯t die before me, or I¡¯ll definitely have some words with you.¡±


    Still, despite her obvious worry, Sallia decided to trust me. She activated everything. I watched as she threw out spells, her rune abilities, and her attunements. In addition, she burned a massive amount of mana to strengthen her body and perception: I realized that she would run out of mana in less than a minute at this rate. She was going all out.


    Then, she started sprinting towards the spellcaster. The less injured Orukthyri seemed to realize what she was doing, and tried to run between her and the spellcaster. Apparently, the Orukthyri were smart enough to realize that the battlefield was in a precarious balance, and if Sallia succeeded she would overthrow that balance. I needed to distract it.


    I blasted the less injured Orukthyri with a bunch of soul-ocean water, causing it to wince in pain and narrow its eyes towards me.


    At least these things were easy to distract.


    The creature snarled, and then charged at me. However, the other, one-eyed Orukthyri¡¯s single eye locked on to Sallia. I needed to distract it as well, if I wanted Sallia¡¯s plan to work.


    I hesitated for a moment, before I wondered if I could use general shaping to reduce the magic resistance of the Orukthyri a little bit. I kicked myself for not thinking of this solution earlier.


    If I could deal enough damage to the one-eyed Orukthyri, I might be able to remove it from the fight, or at least cripple it enough that I could handle both Orukthyri at once. If I failed, I wasn¡¯t sure if I could handle both Orukthyri at once.


    I focused on the one-eyed Orukthyri concentrating on Sallia, and demanded that its body lose some of its magic resistance. It wasn¡¯t too hard to imagine; after all, as far as I knew, most Orukthyri would be seriously injured by a third circle spell. These things were abnormally magic resistant, but I could easily imagine their magic resistance being at the level of a normal Orukthyri.


    Forcing the creature¡¯s magic resistance to disappear for even a few seconds turned out to be remarkably difficult. I felt alteration essence drain out of me like water gushing out of a broken faucet.


    ¡°Anise! Felix! Hit that one¡¯s other eye!¡± I yelled, praying that someone had a third-circle spell they could spare. I knew Anise could cast a few third-circle spells, and I prayed that her accuracy was good this time.


    To my surprise, it was Lauren who took advantage of the creature¡¯s distraction. He was paying more attention to our battle than I had given him credit for, and the moment Sallia started sprinting towards the spellcaster, he seemed to have realized what we were trying to do. A fireball crashed into our side¡¯s soldiers, nearly disrupting their attempts to swarm the two Orukthyri warriors on the wall. However, using the time the other soldiers bought with their lives, Lauren launched a massive ice lance directly into the other eye of Sallia¡¯s Orukthyri.


    Since I had temporarily dropped the creature¡¯s magic resistance back to the level of a normal Orukhyri, the third-circle ice lance tore through its eye, blinding it. The creature roared in pain, before flailing around like a drunk chicken. It smashed its tree-club into the nearby cavern walls, but it didn¡¯t seem to know where we were. As long as we stayed out of its area, one Orukthyri had been taken out of the fight.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    The other Orukthyri was nearly upon me now. I tensed my body, worried that it¡¯s speed would suddenly increase again. Luckily, it didn¡¯t seem able to speed up rapidly right now. It simply tried to slap the top of my head, an action that would probably shatter my skull like rotten fruit if I got hit directly.


    I rolled out of the way, and then nicked its finger with my sword. I was out of alteration essence, so I had to hope this thing forgot about Sallia and stayed focused on me. If it focused on Sallia again, we were probably all dead.


    It swung its tree club at me, trying to hit the areas not protected by my dress.


    I ducked underneath the branches of the tree, and felt a few of the branches catch me in the neck, leaving bloody scratches on my skin. However, most of the branches splashed into my dress and then came out the other side, accomplishing absolutely nothing. I retaliated by cutting at its finger again, leaving a small but deep wound in its skin.


    It grumbled at me, but I could tell that after failing to kill me for so long, and since I couldn¡¯t do much damage to it, its attention was starting to wane. Its eyes spun around the battlefield again, and settled on Sallia.


    I got desperate. Nothing was going to hurt my friends while I had anything to say about it.


    So I did some very stupid.


    Since the Orukthyri had deemed me a nonthreat, it wasn¡¯t even looking in my direction right now. So I jumped onto its back and desperately started climbing upwards. If it continued to ignore me, I would stab it in the eye and make it pay attention to me again!


    Jumping on its back got the Orukthyri¡¯s attention again. Immediately, reached towards its back and tried to grab me. I dropped about half a meter, dodging its grab, and then stabbed it in the back of its hand.


    This pissed the creature off even more, and after a moment, it came up with a different method of dealing with me. Instead of trying to grab me, it simply opted to fall on its back in order to crush me.


    I realized what was happening just fast enough to position my sword between the Orukthyri and the floor.


    Crunch.


    Both of my legs broke, and several bones in my right arm shattered under the weight of the creature.


    However, the Orukthyri also howled in agony. I had managed to use the ground and my wrist to brace my sword, and when the Orukthyri had fallen on me, it had also fallen directly onto the tip of my blade.


    My strength was nowhere near enough to drive the sword into the Orukthyri¡¯s skin. However, the Orukthyri could certainly hurt itself by falling directly onto a sword, especially given its massive weight. And the Market¡¯s sword was several times sturdier than a regular sword, so it could handle plenty of abuse without breaking.


    The Orukthryi whimpered and sprang to its feet, nearly yanking my arm off as it leapt away from me and my sword.


    And then, it started coughing as blood oozed out of the massive wound in its back. As I felt dizzying waves of pain threaten to knock me unconscious, I grinned.


    I had hit its lungs.


    Which was lucky, because I was on the verge of passing out. My broken arm and broken legs hurt so badly I was barely able to stay conscious. However, the Orukthyri was now doubled over in pain, hacking its lifeblood onto the cavern floor. One of the two nearby Orukthyri was blind, and by a mixture of luck and willingness to nearly die myself, the other was probably going to die soon.


    Sallia was safe. I smiled at that thought, even though my broken limbs hurt so much I felt like I would die.


    From the corner of my eye, I saw Sallia launch herself into the air. Ella must have noticed Sallia¡¯s desperate ploy, and the caster once again doubled over in pain for a moment, distracting it while Sallia wielded her sword with her uninjured arm. As the caster was recovering from its sudden headache, Sallia rammed her sword through one of the creature¡¯s eyes, and the muscles in its face started to squirm around.


    The creature screeched in agony and angrily swiped at Sallia, trying to kill her. But despite her broken bones and severe bruising, Sallia still managed to dodge the creature.


    And most importantly, the creature was now so distracted it wasn¡¯t worried about throwing spells at the soldiers on the walls. Which meant Lauren could take the time to build a bigger spell, instead of defending us from the spellcaster¡¯s magic.


    Lauren wasted no time capitalizing on the time Sallia had bought. He spent several seconds putting together a much larger spell, before a fourth-circle beam of light tore into the creature¡¯s injured eye. Since I had already seriously weakened its life force at the start of the fight, its already insufficient resistance was completely unable to handle Lauren¡¯s spell. The creature collapsed.


    Since the caster¡¯s soul hadn¡¯t finished leaving its body yet, I added a final drop of water to it just to make sure {Endless Hunger} activated. I wasn¡¯t quite sure if the Ability worked off of last hits or not, but I wanted to make sure I got a new skill.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing an Orukthyri Third or Fourth Circle variant Spellcaster for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Orukthyri variant Spellcaster for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Crude Manifestation Essence: Your Manifestation Essence Stat is increased by 10 points. You learn the third circle spell crude fireball, as well as the prerequisite magic symbols (fire, force, wind). (This spell is notably inferior to more developed forms of the same spell)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I laughed, a painful burbling sound as spikes of agony lanced down my broken limbs.


    I had two broken legs and a broken arm, but we had broken the stalemate on the battlefield. There were only two Orukthyri still in fighting condition. I looked at the Orukthyri near me that wasn¡¯t quite dead yet, and used the last of my alteration essence to form a final droplet of water from the ocean of souls.


    Its life was already on the verge of guttering out, so I extinguished it. I wanted to make sure its death counted for {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, and I didn¡¯t remember whether I had used water magic against this creature yet.


    Its life force was extinguished. It died.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill an Orukthyri variant Warrior for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Orukthyri variant warrior for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Exceptional Magic Resistance: You gain a major amount of resistance to shaping and spellcasting. Your physical Stats are all increased by 8.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With the two kills, my Achievement went from 2,818 to 4,518. And I immediately equipped the two new skills, since I had no reason not to.


    I took one last look at the battlefield and smiled as I watched Lauren and Ella turn their attention to the last two Orukthyri at the wall. With the battlefield under control, we wouldn¡¯t have any difficulty cleaning up the last two Orukthyri.


    And then I passed out. Now that adrenaline wasn¡¯t keeping me awake, the pain from breaking three of my limbs was too much for me to handle.

 Chapter 91: Echoes of the Deep

    When I woke up, I could barely see straight. My body felt like¡­ well, like an Orukthyri had fallen on me and crushed several of my bones. Even the parts of my body that weren¡¯t broken felt like one giant bruise. The only thing I could see clearly were the System notifications I hadn¡¯t addressed yet - apparently, I had gotten more while I was asleep.


    Before I could check on them, I felt someone jerk my broken arm around, and my eyes started watering in pain.


    I gasped, sucking in breath to scream, before I realized my arm hurt less than before. Someone gently stroked my head, and I finally realized I was safe.


    ¡°Sorry, I know it hurts. But don¡¯t move: I need to finish setting your bones,¡± said Sallia, and the last vestiges of panic disappeared from my thoughts. I blinked a few times, and the cavern snapped back into focus.


    I was laying on a cot of some kind. I had been moved to the side of the cavern, but in the distance, I could still see the Orutkhyri corpses on the floor of the cavern. Since nobody had even cleaned them up, I hadn¡¯t been asleep for long. I slowly turned my head towards Sallia, wary of any lances of agony as I moved my broken body around, but thankfully, I didn¡¯t hurt myself while moving.


    I gave Sallia a cautious look, and frowned. Sallia¡¯s arm was still broken. And instead of getting medical treatment for it, for some reason she had dragged me a little to the side of the cavern and opted to set my bones.


    ¡°You should get medical treatment for yourself, instead of helping me,¡± I said. ¡°You rely on your arms a lot, and if something happens to your arm that permanently affects your abilities, it will be catastrophic.¡± My Extinguish spell didn¡¯t really need my physical body to be in its prime to work, while Sallia¡¯s swordsmanship would basically stop functioning if her body was permanently injured. Therefore, in the case of injuries that weren¡¯t life-threatening, Sallia should prioritize her own treatment before mine. And while I was in a whole lot of pain, I wasn¡¯t going to die anytime soon. Though I probably wasn¡¯t going to walk anywhere in the near future.


    ¡°Your injuries are much worse, Miria. You have three broken limbs! Your arm looked like something that was shoved into a meat grinder! Your legs are much cleaner breaks, but they still look really painful! You did way more than you needed to!¡±


    ¡°The second Orukthyri looked like it was focusing on you. The blinded Orukthyri was just squirming around, but I didn¡¯t want the second one to get in your way,¡± I said.


    Sallia shuddered, taking in a deep breath, before she sighed. ¡°I guess they were more intelligent than I thought. Sorry, I shouldn¡¯t have asked you to keep them distracted. I just didn¡¯t know what else to do, and if the stalemate continued, we seemed like we were going to lose. If I had been faster¡­¡±


    ¡°I am the one who decided I needed to kill the warrior,¡± I said. ¡°So don¡¯t get angry at yourself. While the soldiers and Lauren were slowly getting an advantage over their sides of the fight, if we lost our battle the whole battlefield might have come crashing down. You found a way to break the stalemate, and the four of us are alive. You killed an Orutkhyri caster and saved the fort. You did amazing.¡±


    I paused, wincing a bit. I felt my voice start to grow a little less focused, as I remembered something unpleasant. I glanced around, to make sure nobody but Sallia heard this, because I didn¡¯t want anyone else to hear what I was going to say next. After confirming we were alone, I swallowed a lump in my throat and continued speaking.


    ¡°Besides, I was panicking for a few moments during the fight. I didn¡¯t know what to do. I wasn¡¯t sure how we could win, or even how we could survive. You still found a way to keep the four of us alive, and kept this cavern from collapsing. You¡¯re way behind me on purchases from the Market this life, and you were still the one that saved the two of us. I may have three broken limbs right now, but I¡¯ll heal up sooner or later. You did great.¡± I felt a fond smile tug at my lips as I looked at my friend, although I also felt a little embarrassed. On the islands, I had known how to win every fight I had gotten into. Sure, the fight with the creatures of the ocean and the glowing fish had been brutal, and the creatures I had fought both times were much stronger than me. However, this time, not only had I felt completely overwhelmed by the creature I was fighting against, but I hadn¡¯t had any idea how to turn the tables. Which was embarrassing: in the future, I needed to find ways to improve my reaction speed and my wits in dangerous situations.


    ¡°You were the MVP of this fight. Don¡¯t forget that.¡±


    I felt Sallia relax a little bit, and then she slowly nodded. ¡°Let me¡­ let me finish resetting your arm and your legs,¡± she said, but her voice sounded a little scratchy.


    After that, a few more minutes of agonizing pain followed as Sallia quickly set all of my bones. Everything still felt like I had been run over by a truck, but the pain was at least less blinding now. While Sallia liked to complain about her parents originally forcing her to learn about medicine, right now I was thankful that Sallia knew what she was doing.


    ¡°I¡¯m out of absorption essence, so I can¡¯t heal much today,¡± said Sallia, after she finished setting my bones. ¡°Tomorrow, though, I¡¯ll help mend your flesh. I can¡¯t heal bones, but I imagine your Fortitude help a lot with healing. And you also have your healing ability you created from your attunement, so hopefully you¡¯re back on your feet soon.¡±


    I nodded. I hadn¡¯t actually practiced the healing side of my attunement anywhere near as much as I had explored the killing side of my attunement, but I could definitely speed up the healing of my bones a little bit. Unfortunately, magical healing in this world wasn¡¯t very developed as a whole, so I would still probably need a week or so before I finished healing up. I sighed, but decided to take this as good practice for my healing abilities.


    After that, Sallia finally started working on jerking her own bones back into place, and I finally observed the rest of my waiting System notifications.


    It seemed that after the fight had ended, I had finally gotten the rest of my rewards.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing an Orukthyri variant warrior for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +90


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This was probably an assist for the Orukthyri I had blinded.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the battle of the border cavern by a [Major] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 1,500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I widened my eyes in surprise when I saw that I got 1,500 Achievement for this battle.


    Thus far, I hadn¡¯t really seen many differences in the amount of Achievement I got between the Tier 2 world of the Islands and our current Tier 4 world. After all, a higher tier tended to mostly have better rewards for influence Achievement, and the other categories of income didn¡¯t really change much from one world to the next.


    However, this battle put into perspective just how much richer a Tier 4 world¡¯s rewards could be, as long as we were strong enough to actually impact events.


    On the islands, I had gotten 3,600 Achievement for single-handedly engineering the destruction of a quarter of an invasion fleet. And that invasion fleet had been large enough and powerful enough to potential destroy the entire civilization of the islands. A civilization of only 10,000 people or so, which was rather small compared to a proper nation, but it was still nothing to sneeze at.


    It could even be said that the battle against the invading fleet was a major historical moment And as one of the larger influences on that battle, I only got 3,600 Achievement.


    Here, I got 1,500 Influence Achievement for stopping an Orukthyri raid on the city. The city would never have fallen to four Orukthyri warriors and one spellcaster. The border cavern was the first line of defense against monstrous incursions from the outside, but some of the other caverns had fallback defense forces, and the city had an entire army waiting to reinforce any border caverns once they fell. At absolute worst, this Orukthyri band we had fought would have slaughtered a few dozen civilians in outlying caverns before the army arrived and crushed them.


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    And yet, despite how insignificant the battle against the Orukthyri was compared to the historical battle of the islands, I had still gotten such a huge reward for the fight.


    I whistled to myself. Even though Tier 4 worlds were incredibly dangerous, the rewards were also exceptional. The creatures that lived in this world were also stronger, so I got more Slaughter Achievement per fight, and the Influence Achievement I got for the battle was much richer as well.


    The trick was actually being strong enough to survive interacting with the planet. The Orukthyri were nothing special in this world: one of the biggest obstacles to reclaiming the surface wasn¡¯t just the incredible might of each Orukthyri, but the fact that they bred incredibly quickly. It took an Orukthyri baby around five years to grow into an adult, and Orukthyri never lived longer than 14 or 15 years. Since the Orukthyri we had just fought were only a little stronger than average, it gave me a new perspective on just how incredibly dangerous the surface actually was.


    After settling my thoughts, I looked over my final System notification. One that made me feel delighted.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    After your action of stripping away the magical resistance of an Orukthyri, Creating and using a new ability that is significantly different from the magic system of your current world, and your contributions to the battle, you have formed the Keyword Ability ¡®Echoes of the Deep.¡¯


    It may be purchased after your death for 4,000 Achievement.


    This is currently a [Basic] Grade Ability, but like all keyword abilities, after being purchased it may be evolved depending on your actions in the future.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Alteration, Ocean, Death, Duality (4 Keywords.)


    So long as you are dimensionally adjacent to the ocean of souls, or in contact with any body of water, your body will generate Alteration Essence. Furthermore, any brain and body you are inhabiting in will support alteration-type spellcasting the moment your soul takes over the body.


    You retain access to this world¡¯s shaping magic system in its entirety.


    You gain access to an innate connection to the duality of life and death, and may at any time choose which to embody. Swapping between being an embodiment of life and death will take several minutes of concentration.


    If you are embodying ¡®life,¡¯ healing spells you use will be cheaper and stronger. Your body will naturally regenerate more quickly and perfectly, drastically reducing the risk of permanent injuries. Sunlight will generate extra alteration essence for you. Your Fortitude will be improved by 1 grade while embodying life. You will be able to breathe underwater.


    If you are embodying ¡®Death,¡¯ the ¡®extinguish¡¯ ability you have created will become drastically enhanced if you have access to it. You may attack the lifeforce of any creature you are physically touching without needing a spell or ability to use as a medium: your touch itself will attack life using any essence you have available, if you will it. Making direct eye contact with a creature will allow you to inflict fear upon the other creature.


    Glut Penalty: 25


    Note: In order to use a magic system from another dimension, one must have three things:


    First, they must have access to the essence in question. It¡¯s impossible to use manifestation essence for spellcasting without manifestation essence, or use absorption essence type spellcasting without absorption essence.


    Second, one must have the biological ability to process said essence. Attempting to use unique magic systems without the right brain structure and body structure may result in injury or death to your current body.


    Third, one must have an ability that mimics the proper dimensional laws one wishes to use in order to cast spells. Trying to use a fire-related spell normally wouldn¡¯t work in a dimension where fire physically cannot exist, for example, and using binding essence to cast spells would normally fail if a dimension doesn¡¯t have any binding essence inside of it. With an Ability, one can make spells that cannot naturally exist in a given dimension.


    Some abilities do not grant all three of these things. Please read your ability descriptions carefully!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My new Keyword Ability was¡­ complicated. It would require me to always be embodying either life or death at all points in time, which meant that I would need to always think about what ¡®mode¡¯ was the best in a given situation. Since it would take several minutes to swap, I wouldn¡¯t be able to change in the middle of combat.


    However, I was already pretty sure I would be buying this skill if nothing better came along. It let me use shaping in future worlds, which was incredibly important for me, and it also allowed me to do a lot of things that I found incredibly useful or interesting. Being able to embody life or death in a limited way seemed useful, and I was also willing to bet it had huge growth potential once I evolved the ability a few times. And the keywords appealed to me as well: Alteration and Ocean would probably almost always be turned on, and while I hadn¡¯t experimented with Duality or Death keywords, I was willing to bet that duality would activate as long a I had swapped from life to death recently. Meaning the ability relied only on itself to keep that keyword active.


    Even though the ability was a little odd, I thought it was an decent ability to help me grow stronger in the future, if I didn''t get a better option.


    I grinned to myself.


    I had expected forming a Keyword Ability to take much longer. However, I was happy to see that I had already gotten what I wanted.


    I took one final look at my Status Screen, to see how much I had improved as a result of the fight, and to check what I had gained over years of training.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Child¡¯s Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.


    (Bloodline notes hidden - focus on your Status Screen to see your bloodline breakdown).


    Through years of usage of two separate items from the Market, your physical and mental stats have been improved by notable amounts. These improvements are noted in your Stats breakdown.


    Immature Organic Brain: An underdeveloped humanoid brain that has yet to finish maturing. Several parts of your brain are also wired to make Manifestation and Alteration type spellcasting possible. Due to the influence of your ancestors, some types of magic may be easier than others.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical (+73)


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+96)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+113)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+120)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+104)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (20+131)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+115)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (20+120)


    Grade 10


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+78)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+70)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+123)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 23/50


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Weapon Abilities:


    Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Birth related Abilities:


    Body Control (0 Glut Penalty)


    Identity (1 Glut Penalty)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 6,108.89


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Body-related Abilities


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Magic Systems:


    Runes: 4 (3 Physical, 1 whirlpool ability)


    Attunement: Advanced Grade (Ocean of Souls)


    Spellcasting: Second Circle (4 second-circle spells known)


    Symbols Known: Water, Fire, Force


    (Endless Hunger): Acid, Wind, Poison


    Skills and Temporary Abilities:


    Skills:


    Swordsmanship (Intermediate Grade)


    Held Abilities (Endless Hunger of the Ocean):


    1. +8 to all Phys. Stats and boosted magic resistance (Exceptional Magic Resistance)


    2. +10 Manifestation Stat, Crude Fireball spell, wind symbol (Crude Manifestation Essence)


    3. Acid and Poison symbols known, Acid and poison resistance (Acid and Poison control)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Thanks to Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl, my Perception was almost fixed. I had also gained a good amount of progress in my other Stats thanks to Sallia¡¯s items, although Felix was the one who used Sallia¡¯s training suit the most, since his physical stats were quite lacking. Once I finished fixing my terrible Perception, we would shift noodle bowl priority entirely to Felix to try to boost his physical stats to match Sallia and I. However, even though I felt awful since I had so many broken bones right now, I was still happy to see my progress.


    Despite how painful and scary the fight with the Orukthyri had been, I couldn¡¯t say that the fight hadn¡¯t also been insanely rewarding.

 Chapter 92: Casualties

    The soldiers took a few hours to deal with the dead and wounded while Sallia and I sat in the corner and talked. Once the more serious injuries and potentially fatal injuries of the soldiers were dealt with, a doctor came by and double checked Sallia¡¯s work. He gave Sallia a few compliments for properly setting my bones and keeping me company, before he wrapped my bones and sternly forbade me from walking or doing strenuous activity for at least three weeks. Then, he checked Sallia¡¯s broken arm and wrapped it up as well.


    I winced at the idea of sitting around for three weeks. With my Fortitude at Grade 10, I would likely heal much faster than that. However, while the soldiers seemed to realize that Sallia was rather good at strengthening her body using her attunement, they seemed to think that my abnormal performance during the battle was due to Sallia boosting me during the fight, either with spellcasting or shaping. At least, that was the impression I got from the doctor when he treated me.


    Which caused me to chuckle a bit. Sallia could theoretically strengthen other people with her attunement, but she wasn¡¯t very good at it yet. And her spells got notably weaker when she used them on other people, since she hadn¡¯t memorized the sub-symbols to target her enhancement spells on other people yet, either. Sallia seemed horribly embarrassed by the idea that she had been boosting me during the fight, since she knew that I had done everything on my own with the help of my runes.


    Luckily, even though she seemed horribly embarrassed, Sallia also seemed to realize it was a good excuse for how abnormally strong our bodies were. In any case, having a strong body was pretty unusual since Orthanoids were usually physically weak, but since Sallia knew body-enhancing spells it wasn¡¯t too hard to explain why we could jump off of a wall without getting injured.


    After the doctor left, Felix came over, bearing a handmade stretcher. The ones in the fort were all a little large for me, so Felix had made a smaller one and then adjusted the handholds to make it easier for people  to carry me around without accidentally jostling me too much.


    I appreciated the effort Felix had gone through to make my time a little more comfortable, even if not walking for an extended period of time was going to suck. Sallia and Felix did their best to take my mind off of being temporarily crippled, joking and telling me random stories I was sure they made up on the spot. Anise joined in as well, once the doctor had made sure she wasn¡¯t hurt during the fight, and the four of us chatted and waited for the adults to finish dealing with the other injured of the fort.


    Eventually, Lauren, and Ella came and told us it was time to go. They gave Felix¡¯s stretcher dubious looks, but after testing it, they gave Felix an approving nod, before they picked me up. Meanwhile, the six of us traveled to the entrance of the cavern, where we waited for the other soldiers to join us.


    Ella and Lauren spoke in hushed voices, and since my Perception was still terrible, I couldn¡¯t eavesdrop on them. However, I noticed that both of them wore grim expressions, which made me a little nervous.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked Ella. ¡°Is there a problem?¡±


    Ella hesitated for a moment, as if wondering whether she should really share this information with children. Then, she sighed, before nodding. ¡°There might be a problem. While there are occasional Orukthyri that slip into the tunnels beneath the earth, they¡¯re pretty rare. For four warriors and a caster show up at once might mean a full warband has managed to get into the underdark somehow. If that¡¯s the case, it would be a huge problem.¡±


    I also frowned once Ella said that. The five Orukthyri we had faced at the border cavern had been incredibly powerful, and had given a fairly large garrison of troops trouble during a fight. We had somewhere between thirty and forty combatants at the border cavern, and several soldiers had died or been injured during a fight with only five enemies. How dangerous would a full warband be?


    ¡°How big is an Orukthyri warband?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Anywhere between fifty and five-hundred Orukthyri,¡± said Lauren, who was also frowning.


    I gasped, trying to imagine what a warband of five hundred Orukthyri would look like.


    Our city had around twenty thousand residents, and most of those were noncombatants. There were a little over a thousand soldiers who guarded the city, and they were spread out across all of the border caverns of the city and the fort guarding the entrance to the surface.


    If five hundred Orukthyri fought with the thousand or so soldiers of the city in an open battle.


    It would be a crushing defeat for us. The thousand or so soldiers of the city had no chance of winning against an army of five hundred Orukthyri, even if some of those Orukthyri were children and noncombatants.


    Suddenly, I felt very nervous. If a full-size warband had settled inside of one of the ruined cities beneath the earth, unless we got help from some of our neighboring cities, this might be the end of the city. And while the cities traded with each other, I didn¡¯t know if they would be willing to lend us aid if worst came to worst. This wasn¡¯t the islands, where the village chiefs all had mental runes enhancing their intelligence and every village had a few cousins on an island they saw every so often. The cities of this world were fairly isolated from each other.


    I very much hoped that Ella was wrong about an Orukthyri warband being present in the caves. Or, if she was correct, that the Orukthyri warband was on the smaller side. A warband of 50 didn¡¯t seem like it was impossible for the city to manage, as long as terrain was carefully prepared beforehand.


    Then, I frowned.


    Could terrain be prepared underground?


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    For the tunnels that weren¡¯t reinforced with magic items, it didn¡¯t seem too hard to just collapse the tunnels on the Orukthyri. Terrifying as the creatures may be, they weren¡¯t terribly bright, and luring them into a tunnel and then collapsing it on top of them would probably kill them.


    However, the main tunnels that led from one place to another were heavily reinforced with shaping-related magic items. Even if we tried to collapse a main tunnel on top of them, we would probably fail. But if we lured them into a side cavern and then dropped the ceiling on them, perhaps we could emerge from this crisis relatively unscathed.


    A lot of it came down to where the Orukthyri warband was located. If they had taken over an abandoned city, luring them into a side cavern and collapsing it would be very difficult. But if they were located in a small cavern that wasn¡¯t magically reinforced¡­


    While I was lost in my thoughts, the other soldiers arrived, and a group of thirteen started traveling back towards the city. As we were walking, Ella looked at me lying on the stretcher again, and then winced.


    ¡°God. Miria¡¯s mother is going to skin me alive,¡± she said, wincing.


    Lauren looked at me, and his eyes widened in realization, before he chuckled. ¡°At least nobody died. It doesn¡¯t look like she¡¯ll take more than a week or two to recover. Three at most. You¡¯ll survive getting chewed out by a civilian.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯ll be pleasant, though,¡± said Ella with a grimace. ¡°Even if I have a higher status than her, since her daughter got injured under my watch, I can¡¯t really say anything back.¡± Ella made an even more unpleasant face. ¡°Besides, it¡¯s not like I can¡¯t sympathize with her at all. I just think that she¡¯s too overprotective and she should let Miria make her own decisions. but at the end of the day, Miria was still injured under my protection this time.¡±


    ¡°Teacher, I made my own decisions during the fight. Five variant Orukthyri coming to attack the border cavern was impossible to predict in advance, so you don¡¯t have to feel guilty about it. I simply did what I thought was best to keep the other soldiers and myself alive long-term,¡± I said.


    Ella frowned, but nodded. ¡°I suppose, Miria. But the fact remains that right now you¡¯re only twenty years old. Until you turn at least thirty five or forty years old, your parents and I are responsible for keeping you safe. And even if I couldn¡¯t have predicted the Orukthyri raid, or the fact that you would be injured, the fact remains that you were badly hurt under my protection. At the end of the day, nothing I say will change that fact.¡±


    The six of us fell into silence after Ella¡¯s statement, and the group of soldiers didn¡¯t seem too interested in speaking much either. After all, while several soldiers had only been injured by the Orukthyri, several soldiers had also died during the fight. Thus, the entire procession walked on in solemn silence until we reached the city.


    When we returned home, the soldiers and spellcasters who were officially part of the army went to report what had happened to the overseer, request reinforcements for the border cavern, and make future arrangements.


    Since Lauren, Ella, and the four of us weren¡¯t part of the army, the six of us made our way to Ella¡¯s house. Felix, Anise and Sallia were still tagging along behind me, and Lauren was still helping carry me. We reached Ella¡¯s house, before she hesitated in front of the door.


    Ella gave me a couple glances out of the corner of her eye, before she sighed. ¡°All right, let¡¯s get this over with¡± Her face looked a little frustrated, but after gritting her teeth, she still gently hoisted me up again. ¡°Let¡¯s go see Miria¡¯s family and let them know what happened.¡±


    * * *


    My mother, predictably, was quite unhappy. I had three limbs broken during my first proper encounter with denizens of the deep. However, although my mother was frustratingly protective, she wasn¡¯t as enraged as I had worried she would be. When Ella and I discussed my role in the entire encounter, especially the fact that the entire situation had been unusual and I had actively placed myself in danger, she was more forgiving of the fact that my first proper combat outing caused me to return in a stretcher with three broken limbs.


    However, she did give me the stink eye from the corner of her eyes several times. I had the distinct feeling that she was going to still going to chew me out for putting myself in harm¡¯s way. However, my mother seemed to acknowledge that circumstances really had spiraled out of everyone¡¯s control, and at that my actions had potentially saved the lives of several soldiers. At the very least, the fact that I had saved a few lives during the fight and hadn¡¯t gotten hurt for no reason seemed to mollify her a little.


    After that, Ella offered to let me take a couple days off while I recuperated. I declined, since I didn¡¯t want to waste any training time. Even if I felt the odds of the city getting overrun by the Orukthyri were low, I wanted to be kept in the loop just in case. I wasn¡¯t sure if I could make some sort of crucial last-minute contribution to a potential fight with the Orukthyri, but I wanted to be kept in the loop so that I could keep an eye out for opportunities, or signs of impending catastrophe.


    Other cities in the dark had fallen before, and while I hoped this city wouldn¡¯t collapse as a result of an Orukthyri warband, my hopes had no ability to alter reality. I needed to seize every second I could to train and improve my abilities, just in case everything went horribly wrong soon. Thus, I opted to keep training with Ella, although I abandoned my swordsmanship practice until I could walk again.


    Ella spent the next few days delicately tiptoeing around any physical activity that required me to move around. Sallia and Felix came to visit me every day, and Sallia would secretly heal my muscles and flesh using her healing rune ability every time she saw me and we could get a few minutes of privacy. Since Felix knew that Sallia wanted to heal me, he often helped distract the adults so that they didn¡¯t notice how¡­ unusual Sallia¡¯s healing method was.


    I also asked Ella about using my general shaping to try to alter my bones into being intact, but she quickly stopped me from following that idea through.


    Apparently, unless one had very good knowledge of how bones, muscles, etc. worked, trying to shape people¡¯s bodies into being healthy usually broke stuff inside of people, killing or crippling them afterwards.


    Luckily, the healing spell created by my attunement was perfectly fine to use, even if it was a huge essence hog and needed a lot of fine-tuning. Even though it wasn¡¯t a terribly efficient spell yet, I used it whenever I could to enhance my healing speed. Coupled with my Grade 10 Fortitude, it only took me two days for my bones to be somewhat intact again, although they still felt a little delicate. However, I was guessing that within another day or two, I would be fully healed. The doctor had mentioned I would need three weeks to fully heal, but after two days I was already mostly finished healing.


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel that magic healing was truly miraculous.


    In the meantime, the city¡¯s first scouting parties returned from investigating the potential Orukthyri warband.


    I didn¡¯t think much of this at first, and simply waited for Ella to give me information about what the scouts had found. However, my indifference changed when I heard that Jonathan, my oldest brother, had volunteered to be one of the scouts. He had returned alive, but he was injured.

 Chapter 93: Warband

    I looked at my oldest brother, who was lying on a cot in the corner of a doctor¡¯s office, and frowned.


    Jonathan was unconscious, but one of his arms was so badly mangled that it made even my injuries after the Orukthyri fight look light. I looked at the doctor who was attending to the injured scouts in the tent.


    ¡°Will there be any permanent impact on his arm? And is his life in danger?¡± I asked, as Sallia and Felix inspected Jonathan¡¯s wounds in more detail.


    ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any threat to his life. He got back in time for us to treat any potential risk of infection. However, his grip strength might be affected in his right arm after this. Or his arm might not work at all. It¡¯s hard to say right now. I wouldn¡¯t get your hopes up about your brother making a perfect recovery, little miss.¡± said the doctor, giving Jonathan and I a sympathetic look. ¡°But at the very least he¡¯ll live.¡±


    My frown deepened. I looked at Jonathan, wondering if my healing spell would help at all. So far, my healing spell seemed to help with muscle fatigue and speed up the natural process of recovery in the body. However, I didn¡¯t know if I could fix the potential for permanent limb damage. Healing Jonathan right now might even have the opposite effect of what I was hoping: it might permanently ¡®heal¡¯ his arm into a crippled state if I didn¡¯t know how to set his bone properly. However, while my arms and legs had been broken during the fight with the Orukthyri, my abnormally resilient body had seriously mitigated the damage I took during the fight. Even though my bones had broken, they hadn¡¯t shattered. Jonathan¡¯s arm had been partially pulpified. Even if I wanted to set the bones in his arm, I had no idea where to even start. And clearly, the doctor didn¡¯t either.


    Sallia gently patted my shoulder and shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t think your healing ability is strong enough yet, Miria.¡±


    I gritted my teeth, looking at the possibly ruined arm of my brother, and nodded. I had been practicing my healing spell a lot when I used it on myself recently, but it was still much weaker than my extinguish spell. I suddenly realized that perhaps I needed to expand on the mental image I was using for my healing spell. Thus far, my healing spell was usable, but anytime I ran into a serious injury, I felt the major shortcomings of my healing abilities.


    At the very least, I hadn¡¯t formed my fifth rune yet, although I was almost ready to start forming it. Even if Jonathan¡¯s arm healed in a crippled fashion, perhaps I could find a way to fix it with a new rune ability? It was worth thinking about, at least. I decided to hold off on forming my fifth rune until I knew more.


    I looked at my brother¡¯s arm again, wondering if there was anything I could actually do for him right now. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t think of anything.


    It took a few more minutes for my mother and the rest of my family to arrive. Ruman and Laura were particularly noisy, and made exclamations of surprise and horror when they saw Jonathan¡¯s arm. Although Ruman held it in better, being nearly an adult now, Laura wasn¡¯t too much older than me, and wasn¡¯t used to seeing bloody and mangled limbs.


    Seeing noisy children invade the medical tent, the doctor glared at all of us, and Laura stopped making noises. However, Laura wasn¡¯t the only one who was surprised by Jonathan¡¯s state, even if she was the most vocal about it.


    My mother, upon seeing my injured brother, turned white moments after entering the tent. My father looked physically sick as he stared at Jonathan¡¯s arm, before he took a few deep breaths. Then, he gently put an arm around my mother, while Ruman and Laura joined Sallia and Felix in inspecting Jonathan while he slept.


    I couldn¡¯t help but think about Jonathan¡¯s dreams of coming an adventurer. He wasn¡¯t dead now, but if his arm was permanently crippled, he might need to give up on his dream of becoming an adventurer. With only one good arm, he would probably be dead weight in any adventuring group. His dream of journeying to the surface had already been difficult beforehand, since most adventurers that returned alive were spellcasters or shapers. But with only one good arm, his dream became almost impossible to realize. The thought that my brother might have to give up his dreams made me inexplicably upset, and I couldn¡¯t help but be reminded of Sallia and Felix during our last life.


    ¡°Is he going to be all right?¡± asked my father, speaking more softly than my big sister as he stared at Jonathan¡¯s sleeping form.


    ¡°There should be no threat to his life,¡± repeated the doctor. ¡°He might still retain some use of his arm as well, although it will be weaker than before even if it does heal. Don¡¯t expect much from his right arm when he wakes up. And I have no idea what his mental state will be like, of course. But again, there is no threat to his life. And where there¡¯s life, there¡¯s hope.¡±


    ¡°When will he wake up?¡± asked my father, who hadn¡¯t taken his eyes off of Jonathan. While my mother was the most vocal about being worried when Jonathan and I talked about wanting to fight and adventure, I suddenly realized that my father was no less worried. He just didn¡¯t express it as vocally as she did.


    ¡°Probably within a few days. I imagine he got flung around a bit during a fight with an Orukthyri. Based on what I¡¯ve heard, he¡¯s lucky he escaped alive.¡±


    I felt a small glimmer of hatred at the thought of Jonathan getting flung around like a rag doll during a fight. When Sallia and I had fought in close-quarters combat against the Orukthyri, we had barely escaped permanent injuries, and our bodies were incredibly sturdy by this world¡¯s standards. We were weaker than the Orukthyri, but while we were much weaker, most Orthanoids were completely overwhelmed by the Orukthyri. The idea of my oldest brother getting flung around like a rag doll made me want to go and massacre the warband that had taken up residence near us.


    I looked at my healing arm and legs, and frowned.


    When I was well enough to fight again, there would be a reckoning for the Orukthyri, if I had any ability to contribute to the upcoming battle against them. I knew that it wasn¡¯t the Orukthyri¡¯s fault that they had been twisted into the creatures they were now. But I still hated what they had done to my brother and Sallia.


    My family sat around for a while longer, while my mother and father drilled the doctor for information about Jonathan¡¯s injuries and Laura and Ruman mostly sat to the side, dazedly staring at Jonathan.


    The doctor didn¡¯t seem to know much about the actual fight where Jonathan had gotten injured: all he knew was that the fight had been particularly bad, and Jonathan had been thrown into a wall at full force by an Orukthyri before the scouts managed to escape the fight.


    After questioning the doctor, my family and I, as well as Sallia and Felix, who had accompanied me, simply sat in silence as we watched Jonathan fitfully twitch in his sleep. Whenever he moved too much, the doctor would come over and pour a little muscle-relaxant into his mouth. This stopped Jonathan from stirring or moving around too much, meaning our family was essentially just staring at him.


    My mother didn¡¯t take this opportunity to say ¡®I told you so,¡¯ or express her concern over my lifestyle choices, although I had expected her to. However, occasionally, she turned her worried gaze away from Jonathan, and towards me. I could tell that she was thinking about the fact that I had come home in a stretcher just a few days ago.


    It was as if when she looked at Jonathan¡¯s crippled arm, she was thinking about my future, as well. I couldn¡¯t refute that idea, since it was entirely possible that I would die or get maimed during our adventures on the surface in the future. If I lived that long, at least. However, if I sat around doing nothing, the three of us would permanently die, so I needed to keep moving forward, even if it was terrifying. So I opted not to say anything at all. I didn¡¯t want to get into an argument right now.


    Eventually, Sallia, Felix and I left. I wanted to get a better idea what the scouts had found.


    * * *


    After visiting Jonathan, I went to find Lauren and Ella. Since I wanted to hear about what kind of situation the city was facing, I needed to get news from one of my teachers. While they weren¡¯t officially part of the military, I knew that Lauren had a pretty good social network, and my teacher had at least some connections in the city. I would have asked Jonathan directly what he had seen, but since he wasn¡¯t conscious right now, I would need to ask my teachers instead.


    I found both of them discussing things with each other not too far away from Ella¡¯s house. The two seemed to have grown closer after the fight at the border cavern, and after carrying me back to the city on a stretcher, they had made greater efforts to get to know each other. I waited until they weren¡¯t speaking, before I walked up to them.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Teacher Lauren, or teacher Ella, do you have any updates on the Orukthyri threat?¡± I asked.


    Ella simply shook her head, but Lauren gave me a curious look.


    ¡°Why do you want to know?¡± He asked. ¡°The city does usually require that adult shapers and spellcasters move to defend the city in cases where the city is facing destruction or war, but those laws haven¡¯t actually been invoked in a long time. And even if they were invoked right now, you aren¡¯t old enough to be drafted into the army. You¡¯ve already done more than enough. You managed to turn the battle at the fort around, and that¡¯s already far beyond what anyone expects of you. You don¡¯t need to think about this until you¡¯re older.¡±


    ¡°My brother was hurt by an Orukthyri,¡± I said. ¡°And I want to see if there¡¯s anything I can do to help the city and keep us safe from the potential threat. If the city falls to an Orukthyri invasion, I¡¯ll die too. So I might as well keep myself in the loop and see if there¡¯s anywhere I can help out.¡± At the very least, my madness-inducing water had some effect on the Orukthyri until they adapted to it. While I couldn¡¯t control a large battlefield on my own, I wouldn¡¯t be useless in a fight. And after seeing my brother and Sallia get hurt by the Orukthyri, I wanted to get rid of these creatures.


    ¡°So you want to take revenge against the Orukthyri?¡± Asked Lauren, giving me a more probing look.


    I paused for a moment, before I nodded. ¡°I do. And I also want to know what the state of the city is like, in case something goes horribly wrong. I don¡¯t want to be blindsided by my brother getting hurt. I didn¡¯t even know he had volunteered for a scouting mission until I heard that he was in a medical center.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to dissuade Jonathan from pursuing his goals, since it was his right to choose his path in life. However, I didn¡¯t want him to die without me knowing he was in danger, either.


    Lauren seemed to think for a few full minutes. We stood at the side of the street, locked into an awkward silence as Lauren considered my words and Ella gave the two of us curious glances. However, she didn¡¯t seem to have anything to contribute to the conversation. Even if Ella also had some connections in the city, I realized that her connections might be even thinner than I had imagined.


    Finally, Lauren sighed.


    ¡°Very well. Ella, do you mind if I take your apprentice to get up-to-date information on the Orukthyri?¡±


    Ella shook her head. ¡°My apprentice is free to choose her own path in life. I won¡¯t restrict her actions. And I don¡¯t have the connections to get up to date information. I¡¯ll probably just get turned around, since most members of the military are already busy. I know your social network is more robust, so maybe you can actually get some useful information.¡±


    Lauren nodded. ¡°In that case, Miria, I¡¯ll take you with me to get some updates on the warband. But don¡¯t do anything silly like try to take revenge on your own. I¡¯ll ask someone to find ways you can help without putting you in an impossible position. Even if you want to help and want to get revenge against the Orukthyri, if you die without accomplishing anything it would be a waste. Come with me,¡± he said.


    Lauren quickly left Ella¡¯s house, and I followed after him. We walked further and further into the center of the city. I dully noticed that the houses had more and more white paint on them as we got closer to the center of the city, and they were decorated with more and more dragon symbols.


    Eventually, we came to a large building that was almost entirely white, red, and black. The color of adventurers, violence, and nobility.


    Lauren quickly led me into the building. At the front of the building, a busy-looking man was filling out paperwork. When Lauren came in, he stopped for a moment, and gave Lauren a respectful nod.


    ¡°Do you know where Nells is?¡± Asked Lauren. ¡°If he¡¯s free, tell him that Lauren is here to see him.¡±


    ¡°Scout Leader Nells is currently discussing things with the leader of the surface fort and the general, but I believe they¡¯ll be finished talking in a few hours,¡± said the receptionist.


    Lauren simply nodded, and took a seat with me at the corner of the room while the receptionist returned to his paperwork. Two hours later, the receptionist glanced at the clock, left his desk for a few minutes, and then returned to the room.


    ¡°Nells can see you now,¡± he said.


    The two of us were led into another office room, where a bald man was sitting behind a desk. If he were a human, he would have been in his late forties, meaning he was probably around ninety years old. He has a rather muscular build, and I noticed that there was a fair amount of white thread woven into his clothing.


    ¡°Great Shaper-caster Lauren. I heard you wanted to see me. Normally I would love to share a drink with you, but you¡¯ve caught me at a pretty bad time. What brings you here?¡±


    ¡°This little lady wants to know about the Orukthyri warband. And she also expressed some interest in helping out, if there¡¯s a spot for her,¡± said Lauren. ¡°I would also appreciate an update on recent news.¡±


    Nells gave me a curious look, before he sighed. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like the scouting reports about monsters are secret. Not sure how useful a kid would be in a fight, though. Does she have any useful skills?¡±


    ¡°Possibly. She performed pretty well during the skirmish at the border fort.¡±


    ¡°Ah, is she one of those two kids?¡± Asked Nells, giving me a much more interested look.


    Lauren nodded. ¡°She and my apprentice Sallia are the two who performed well during the fight.¡±


    Nells gave me a much more amicable grin.


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯m more than happy to share. The Orukthyri warband seems to have taken over one of the ruined cities nearby. We¡¯re still not sure how they got into the underdark, but at this point, it doesn¡¯t really matter. What¡¯s important is that they have several routes towards our city, and a few of those are primary tunnels. Meaning we can¡¯t just collapse all of the entrances to the city and call it a day, unfortunately.¡±


    I frowned. While I fully intended to get even with the Orukthyri, for the city as a whole it was undeniably best if we could just collapse the passageways between us and the warband. However, based on Nell¡¯s words, that wasn¡¯t an option here.


    ¡°The warband seems to be about 150-200 strong. Some of them were out attacking smaller caverns at most points in time, so we didn¡¯t get a perfect count, but 150-200 total Orukthyri is a reasonable estimate. Over half of those will be combatants, so we should expect at least 100 enemies in a combat-ready state.¡±


    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lauren also start frowning. Even the lowest estimate of 100 combatants was dangerous, and we might have to face more than 100 enemies. There might be heavy casualties among the soldiers and spellcasters who took part in the battle. And there was a risk of the city losing the fight.


    At least it wasn¡¯t as bad as it could have been, though. If the warband had 500 members and we couldn¡¯t collapse the tunnels between us and the enemy, the Overseer probably would have started evacuating the city. As it currently stood, we had a chance.


    ¡°Is there any possibility of luring the Orukthyri into a side cavern and collapsing it on top of them?¡± I asked. Even if it was impossible to trap the main tunnels, trapping the side tunnels was still possible.


    ¡°Probably not. This warband seems even dumber than most Orukthyri, perhaps as a price for their exceptional magic resistance. However, they seem to have a certain preference for sticking to larger caverns and tunnels, and those tend to be the ones that are reinforced. We did manage to collapse a few caverns on top of them, but after we dropped a dozen or so, they¡¯ve wisened up to the tactic. We probably got twenty of them, but that still leaves a massive problem.¡± Nells sighed. ¡°Honestly, we were lucky it even worked as many time as as it did. Setting up a cavern to collapse at just the right time is very difficult.¡±


    I frowned even more. My best idea for how to deal with the Orukthyri was gone, just like that. Then, I brightened up as I realized something.


    ¡°What if I could lure a few Orukthyri into a cavern that¡¯s primed to collapse?¡± I asked.


    ¡°How? They¡¯re aggressive, but now that they¡¯re used to us collapsing caverns on them, they won¡¯t pursue lone targets into small caverns anymore. Do you have an idea?¡±


    Without a word, I walked to the side, and summoned a small whirlpool of madness water using my fourth rune.


    Nells gave the whirlpool a curious look. I could see a very, very subtle desire start to enter his eyes as he stared at my whirlpool of water. A desire that I remembered very well from my first life.


    It was the desire to sink into the water, and never return. However, Nells seemed to have decent control over his emotions, and so he wasn¡¯t very affected by the water. But he could clearly tell what my madness water did. ¡°Is this your attunement?¡±


    ¡°Part of it. I can do a few different things with my attunement, and this is one of them,¡± I said.


    Nells gave the water a more calculative glance. ¡°Are you sure it will work against the Orukthyri?¡±


    ¡°It worked against the ones at the border cavern, at least for a bit. They got used to it pretty quickly, and then it stopped working against them. But it can still drag them around for a little bit before they become immune to it.¡±


    ¡°How far can you move it? How long can it last? Are there any other variables associated with using this attunement?¡±


    I started explaining how I had used my ¡®attunement¡¯ during the fight with the Orukthyri. I also took the opportunity to promote Sallia¡¯s exceptional fighting abilities, since I knew that Sallia would hate to be left out of a fight. I didn¡¯t mention Felix, since I felt he wouldn¡¯t want to come along, and he also was a little weak in this world. If he decided he wanted to join us, Sallia and I could find a way to squeeze him into our group later, but I would ask him for his opinion first.


    After I finished explaining, Nells seemed thoughtful.


    ¡°That might be useful. Let me think about it. I¡¯ll get back to you and Sallia tomorrow morning, if Sallia is also interested in helping. We might be able to work something out.¡± He paused, and gave my arms and legs a more considering look, before he grinned. ¡°And an extra day or two should also give you time for your bones to heal up a little more, since I notice that you¡¯re being rather careful about where you put your weight right now. I¡¯m quite surprised that you¡¯ve recovered this much in only a couple days of healing, but you¡¯re clearly still a little injured. I¡¯ll also work out a remuneration for your help. Even if you¡¯re still a kid, it wouldn¡¯t be fair for you to work for free,¡± he said.


    I nodded. It was all that I had hoped for from this meeting.


    Lauren thanked Nells for his time, and I went to go meet Sallia and Felix to discuss our plans.

 Chapter 94: Caves

    After my conversation with scout commander Nells, I waited for two days. During that time, my bones finished healing up, thanks to my high Fortitude and my healing ability derived from my attunement. I had to admit, Fortitude was an incredibly useful stat to improve no matter what I ended up doing in the future. Not only did it make it much harder to get sick, and not only did it toughen up my body and make me harder to hurt, but the accelerated healing speed was something to marvel at. Anytime I got hurt in the future, I would be able to feel the effects of my high Fortitude, boosting me along and making the situation better for me.


    And considering the fact that I planned on routinely taking massive risks in order to generate more Achievement from one life to the next, I got the feeling I would be getting injured a lot. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much Fortitude I would have needed to shrug off the acid that had melted my arm during the second exploration of the ocean in my previous life. I doubted another few grades would have let me keep my arm, but perhaps five more grades would have been enough to emerge from the acid cloud with only serious injuries? Perhaps I would have needed seven? Perhaps I would have needed even less than that. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder whether, at a high enough Fortitude, I could simply sit in a cloud of acid and ignore it completely.


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel eager to see what higher and higher Grades in my stats would do as we reincarnated over and over again. I just hoped we would live long enough to see that possible future.


    On the third day after our conversation, Nells sent a scout to let me know he was ready to see me again, if I had finished healing. He had talked it over with Ella and Lauren, as well as a few other scouts. After much consideration, Sallia and I had a group of scouts who were willing to let us tag along. Even though we were still children, as shaper-casters who had proven they had the ability to fight against the Orukthyri on somewhat even terms, the city was willing to give us a chance to fight, even though we were children. I suspected that if the city were less worried, the overseer would never have allowed us to help the military. However, a large warband of Orukthyri was a possible extinction event for the city, and so they were willing to grab anyone who was willing to help right now.


    Sallia and I met up shortly afterwards, before we started heading to the military command center in the city again. Anise hadn¡¯t wanted to fight, after the experience with fighting the Orukthyri at the border cavern. She seemed to have been more than a little terrified by the fight, and since she was a real child, I didn¡¯t blame her. Felix felt that he couldn¡¯t contribute much to the battlefield right now, since he only knew second-circle spells, and the Orukthyri had proven largely immune to anything below the fourth circle. I felt both of them had good reasons to be absent, so I encouraged both of them to rest easy and not feel guilty. Sallia, of course, was excited to get into a good fight, and I wanted Achievement and to keep the city safe.


    A couple hours later, Sallia and I met the scouting team. The scouting team had six members, plus the two of us. One of the scouts, a woman who appeared to be the leader of the group, gave us a quick, curt nod.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to see the two of you,¡± she said, giving Sallia and I quick glances. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that you two did quite well during a skirmish at the border cavern. Some of the other scouting teams were leery of taking some kids along, but I figure you¡¯ve already proven you have the guts to help out. And we really need help.¡± the woman smiled grimly for a moment, before she sighed. ¡°So, quick question. Do you know what hit and run tactics are?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t they when you try to attack only groups of enemies that are smaller and weaker than yours, kill them quickly, and then flee before their main force arrives? And then repeat over and over again?¡± said Sallia, but the way she phrased it made it sound more like a question than a confident answer to the woman¡¯s question.


    The scout smiled. ¡°Good! I thought I would need to explain a lot more. What we¡¯re planning on doing is hit and run tactics, because we have no way of winning against more than one or two Orukthyri in a pitched battle. We plan to take advantage of Miria¡¯s ability that she demonstrated a while ago. The main idea is just to weaken the Orukthyri warband a bit before the big fight happens. The Orukthyri breed fast, but they also need a whole lot of food to grow so quickly. And since they aren¡¯t built for surviving underground, their digestive tracts don¡¯t play as well with a diet of mushrooms. Which means they¡¯ll hunt down the local denizens of the darkness first, then get more aggressive as they run out of food. We still have a small window of time to drop their numbers a little before the final battle starts. We want to kill as many as we can with traps. With your magic, we should be able to use a couple final cave-in traps that didn¡¯t get used already, and hopefully we can drop another couple Orukthyri before things go to hell,¡± she said.


    ¡°What about me?¡± Asked Sallia.


    ¡°I hear that you¡¯re a body-enhancing specialist, right?¡±


    Sallia nodded.


    ¡°In that case, if you can apply body boosts to us during an emergency, we¡¯d appreciate that. But the most important thing to do is to help us keep the Orukthyri in the traps and all of our members outside of the traps before we spring them. Even if you aren¡¯t as strong as an Orukthyri, I¡¯ve heard you can at least stall them for a bit. I hope you don¡¯t get a chance to fight today, since that would mean things have gone horribly wrong, but based on what I¡¯ve heard of your physique and swordsmanship skills, you could make surviving much easier if an Orukthyri manages to escape being buried alive. Can you do it?¡±


    Sallia nodded eagerly. ¡°Absolutely! Although, I might not be able to apply the body-enhancements to you guys. While I¡¯ve practiced with Miria, since your bones and muscles are different than those of a child¡¯s, I¡¯m not sure if my spells would work perfectly. In the worst case scenario, it might just be a waste of essence.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± Said the scout, frowning. Then, she sighed. ¡°Fair enough. Give it a shot if it seems like it¡¯s necessary, but focus more on being an emergency plan and don¡¯t worry about boosting us. And make sure Miria don¡¯t fall behind, since both of you are pretty short.¡± She gave the two of us a humorous grin. ¡°And try not to get into a melee fight if possible. If it happens, it happens, but it¡¯s a last resort.¡± She gave Sallia a careful look, and while Sallia looked a little disappointed, she nodded. I tried not to chuckle as I looked at Sallia¡¯s expression.


    Stolen story; please report.


    Then I thought back to the fight Sallia and I had with the Orukthyri at the border cavern, and grimaced.


    I wasn¡¯t eager to re-enact a fight that had left Sallia with a broken arm and me with two broken legs and a broken arm. It had been a small miracle that none of our limbs were shattered badly enough that they healed improperly. In the worst case scenario, I could probably extinguish one Orukthyri if needed. But I would very much prefer it if we could just kill Orukthyri by dropping caves on their heads. It would be several times easier that way, even if Sallia might wish for a proper fight instead.


    After the scout leader¡¯s introduction, the scout leader asked for a demonstration of our abilities to make sure she knew how to cope with us. I demonstrated the rune ability I would be using to lure Orukthyri into the trapped caves, and Sallia demonstrated how strong, fast, and tough she was. I noticed that Sallia didn¡¯t actually waste any mana during the demonstration: she kept all of her actual essence ready for a potential fight. However, even though Sallia was only relying on her natural physique right now, the scouts seemed quite impressed by how strong Sallia was. Even though both of us were still suffering from major stat penalties, due to the fact that we were children, Sallia¡¯s stats were solidly in Grade 8 before she applied a single spell to her body. She was already a fair bit stronger than a regular adult, and I suspected that once she finished growing up, she could probably fight Orukthyri in single combat and win as long as she had her spells and attunements running.


    Then, after Sallia and I finished our demonstrations, the scouts quickly explained their plans, and our roles in a fight. We spent several minutes learning how to handle emergencies, as well as getting to know the shooting abilities and movement speeds of the scouts.


    Once everyone had a decent grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the others in the group, we set off.


    The scouts moved much faster than Ella and Lauren had, much to my amusement. They had a certain¡­ rhythm to how they walked that allowed them to eat ground with every stride, and I could tell that they had spent long hours training their stamina. Sallia and I kept up with them easily, since our stats were much higher than theirs.


    We spent over a day traveling through the tunnels under the earth. The scouts frequently stopped at certain caverns, showing the two of us symbols scouts etched into the less stable tunnels that we could use to find our way back to the city if we got separated from the group for some reason. Then, once we started getting closer to the ruined city, the scouts showed us some of the prepared caverns that had already been used. They showed us the small supports that just barely kept the tunnels stable, and how to bring it all crashing down by crushing a few crystals that would burn through the tunnel¡¯s supports in a few seconds.


    When I saw the magic crystals, I felt that it was a shame Felix hadn¡¯t come with us. Even if he wasn¡¯t big on fighting, he would have loved to see a new magic item, even if these seemed relatively complex and hard to understand.


    I got the feeling the scouts didn¡¯t want to show us how to start the cave-ins, in case we did something dumb and dropped the roof on our heads, but after considering the fact that the scouts in charge of dropping the prepared caverns might get injured or something, they had grudgingly showed us how to drop the roofs in case of an emergency.


    Despite the constant delays, eventually, we eventually started approaching the ruined city the Orukthyri had taken over.


    The scouts led us through a fairly complex set of passageways as we approached the city. After several minutes of walking, we reached the end of the tunnel we had been walking through.


    Our tunnel was well out of the way of the main paths in and out of the city,  which was probably why the scouts were willing to use it to check up on the Orukthyri. Our view of the ruined city wasn¡¯t great, and we could only see about a third of the cavern. However, most importantly, unless the Orukthyri were paying very close attention, they couldn¡¯t see us, either.


    With our safety at least somewhat guaranteed, I got my first glimpse of the ruined city the Orukthyri had taken over.


    There were around 20 or 30 Orukthyri visible to me in the slice of cavern I could observe. However, it was likely there were far greater numbers of them out of view. Many of them had parts of ripped up trees which they wielded as clubs. The sight made me wince.


    Wood was rather expensive in the underdark. I wasn¡¯t obsessed with money, but seeing such an expensive material ruined to make clubs still made my heart hurt a little bit. If every single Orukthyri had a club or part of a tree ripped up¡­


    I snorted. At least this conflict would pay for itself, if we won. The soldiers would be able to expect hefty bonuses after the fight ended.


    Apart from the Orukthyri clubs, the ruined city itself took me by surprise. There were ruined buildings made of stone and wood everywhere. The passage of time and the marks of abandonment had left the buildings as carcasses of the once massive city. The cavern this city was house in was notably larger than ours, and likely could have housed 50,000 people at its peak. Oddly enough, a few of the buildings seemed to be magically enhanced, meaning that they were still perfectly intact, despite the other buildings being ruined beyond repair.


    The Orukthyri hadn¡¯t bothered replacing any of the destroyed buildings. Instead, they had brought simple tents into the ruined city. Many of the tents were patchy, and had large holes in them, but I could see why the Orukthyri were so dangerous. Even if they didn¡¯t have all of the intellect needed to maximize their use of tents, the fact that they knew how to use tents and create makeshift weapons meant that they knew how to use tools. That already made them incredibly scary. They were much stronger than us, and even if their tool usage was clearly inferior, a strong, somewhat intelligent enemy was always dangerous.


    Several of the tents in the cavern that I could see were empty, indicating that many of the Orukthyri were missing right now. Of the Orukthyri in the main city, several were children, though there were plenty of warriors prepared to defend the children if we tried to attack them.


    We observed the camp for a few minutes, making sure that nothing was amiss. At least for now, the Orukthyri had enough food that they weren¡¯t too aggressive in looking for ways to reach our city. Which was lucky: it gave us a little more time to whittle down their numbers. If the Orukthyri started marching towards the city, we would need to flee as fast as possible and hope that we stayed ahead of the horde. But it looked like we had at least a little time left.


    I swallowed nervously, eyeing the massive encampment of hostile monstrous creatures, before the head scout gave me a reassuring nod, and gestured towards Sallia and I, then motioned towards the camp of Orukthyri.


    It was time to get started.

 Chapter 95: Hunt

    We spent a few hours looking for a proper Orukthyri group to target. We needed a group that wasn¡¯t too large, broke away from the main group in the cavern, and was also heading on one of the routes where they would be willing to chase us down, while still having a low enough ceiling that it would be possible for a weaker person to stay ahead of them. Most importantly of all, the group would also need to be traveling a route that was near one of the trapped caverns, since only a certain number of caverns had been rigged to collapse. The scout leader made it extremely clear that preserving our lives was more important than succeeding: if we didn¡¯t find an opportunity after looking for a day or two, we would simply be forced to return to the city empty-handed.


    After sitting in the area and watching for several hours, we eventually found a good target. It was composed of two adults, which was a small enough group that we could still handle a potential emergency using extinguish and Sallia¡¯s physical combat abilities. If we got lucky during our time here, we could wipe out this small hunting party, and then hit another two or three groups before we were forced to withdraw.


    Of course, that was if everything went perfectly, which was highly unlikely. But in our best-case scenario, we could wipe out maybe 10 Orukthyri before any major fight happened, which would shave down the number of enemy combatants by a huge margin. The Orukthyri warband was much smaller in number than the city¡¯s army, so if we cut down 10 enemy combatants it would hurt them much more than if we lost a scouting team of eight people. I felt a small surge of excitement well up in my chest at the thought of potentially farming a large number of achievement and keeping the city safe with our actions here.


    Then I took a few deep breaths, trying to suppress my excitement. We had locked on to a target, but we hadn¡¯t accomplished anything else yet. I needed to be careful until the moment we actually finished our task.


    As I thought about the potential ramifications of our attack on the Orukthyri, our group kept stalking our target group.


    We spent several minutes carefully walking through the dim light of the glowmoss, straining our eyes to pick up any sounds of other Orukthyri hunting parties that might interfere with our mission. The size of the Orukthyri ensured that they wouldn¡¯t fit in several of the smaller tunnels, meaning that the directions they could walk were highly limited in most areas. This made it very easy for us to follow the hunting party, despite being well out of sight of the creatures.


    The lead scout flashed us a grin that I felt myself returning.


    At least so far, the main tunnel was heading directly towards one of the trapped caverns. With any luck, we could dispatch this group nearly risk-free before moving on to our next target. Our group slightly increased our pace, hoping to intercept the Orukthyri right as they passed by the trapped cavern.


    Unfortunately, things didn¡¯t quite go as planned. Partway through their hunting trip, the Orukthyri took a turn that ensured that they were no longer heading directly towards the trapped cavern, and were now heading in a slightly different direction. I frowned.


    The further away the Orukthyri were from the trapped cavern, the harder it would be to safely pull off the trap. I glanced at the scouting leader, wondering if she was going to adjust the plan somehow, but she glanced at me and shook her head, before gesturing towards the path the Orukthyri had taken.


    It seemed that we would keep going. I hoped the scout leader had a plan to pull this off safely, but I didn¡¯t say anything as we kept moving. In the worst case scenario, I felt that Sallia and I could deal with a group of two Orukthyri, although it would be somewhat risky. With six scouts backing us up, we could probably manage it with minimal casualties.


    About an hour later, we were close enough to the Orukthyri that we could hear them. Their occasional grunts, snuffles, and snorts were easy to notice in the otherwise silent tunnels. Our scout leader made a few gestures towards us, telling us to slow down our movements and make extra sure that we didn¡¯t make any loud noises. I made sure that I was making as little noise as possible, although I didn¡¯t have any special stealth skills or abilities to mitigate my presence.


    The head scout quickly glanced at me, and then quickly pulled out a piece of paper before she quickly sketched a few words on it. I glanced at it, and realized it was a very rough sketch of the main tunnels. The main tunnels were shaped kind of like a giant Y, with the main orukthyri cavern being placed at the bottom of the Y. We were currently on the left branch of the Y, and the trapped cavern we were trying to lure the Orukthyri towards was on the right branch of the Y. There were also several hastily sketched out smaller passageways that led from one main tunnel to another, but the Orukthyri wouldn¡¯t enter any of those, because they wouldn¡¯t fit inside.


    Despite the massive detour the Orukthyri had taken, we were still somewhat close to the trapped area. We could reach the trapped cavern within about an hour and a half of walking, even if we walked slowly and stealthily.


    At the bottom of the map, the head scout had written another set of words.


    You guys head to the trapped area and prepare to drag the Orukthyri in when they get close enough. I¡¯ll lure them towards the area. Miria, do you have any restrictions that would prevent this plan from succeeding?


    I felt some admiration for the woman after reading her note.


    Being bait was, obviously, the most dangerous part of the plan. Even though the Orukthyri would have a hard time reaching their top speed in the tunnels, they were much faster than a regular Orthanoid in regular circumstances. Being bait and trying to duck and weave through the tunnels for perhaps half an hour of running and dodging required a massive amount of courage. It did seem unlikely that the Orukthyri would chase her into the side caverns, if she got desperate, but it would place the success or failure of the plan squarely on her shoulders, and she was still undertaking a massive amount of risk to her personal safety.


    That required a good amount of courage.


    I passed the note to Sallia who quickly scanned it, before she gave the scout leader a small nod of respect. Then, she passed on the note to the next scout, who passed it on until everyone had read the note.


    I saw a few of the other scouts nodding in agreement, and after a moment of hesitation, I nodded too. The scout leader¡¯s plan was reasonable enough. If she was confident in being able to lead the Orukthyri towards the cavern without getting caught and killed, this plan would work. The Orukthyri would keep chasing her as long as she stuck to the main tunnels, and once they were close to me, my madness-inducing water would temporarily remove any wariness they had towards trapped caverns. In theory, this plan could work perfectly.


    The seven of us began quickly moving back towards the branching main tunnel, before we started heading along the other pathway. We made better time this time, since we didn¡¯t have to worry about being stealthy once we were farther away from the Orukthyri hunting party. We jogged to our destination, before we settled down to wait in tense silence.


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    Minutes ticked by, as we waited for the scout leader to come back. And waited. And waited.


    I started to feel like the worst part of this mission was the waiting. I had no idea if the scout leader had messed up and gotten eaten by the Ourkthyri, or if something else had gone wrong. We were just stuck sitting around and hoping nothing had gone wrong.


    Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sallia start to turn pale. She looked into the distance. I perked up, realizing that the scout leader must be returning. Then, I realized that Sallia¡¯s expression didn¡¯t look quite right.


    I frowned, trying to figure out why Sallia¡¯s expression was so odd.


    Then, I finally heard what she was listening to, and I resisted the urge to swear.


    In the distance, coming from the ruined city, I could hear another group of Orukthyri coming our way.


    If the scout leader was fleeing from one group of Orukthyri and ran straight into another group, then she would almost certainly die. Instead of springing a trap on the Orukthyri, she would get surrounded by Orukthyri, caught, and eaten.


    I saw the other scouts looking into the distance with grim expressions.


    We needed to do something.


    I looked at Sallia. and then, praying that the oncoming Orukthyri wouldn¡¯t hear us, I took the risk of whispering to Sallia.


    ¡°How many?¡±


    Sallia closed her eyes for a moment, and then held up 3 fingers.


    Another hunting party, this time composed of three enemies. That was too much for Sallia and I to handle in a head-on confrontation, even with the backup of the scouts. It was better than being cornered by an entire army or something, but with the scout leader possibly sandwiched between two enemy groups and Sallia and I being unable to handle one of the groups, it was still a bad situation..


    ¡°What do we do?¡± whispered one of the other scouts. ¡°If the leader gets trapped between two groups like this, she¡¯ll die.¡±


    I looked at Sallia, and for the briefest moment, I saw her pale expression start to recede as Sallai fell into thought. Then, a manic grin started to form around her lips.


    ¡°We¡¯ll lure this group of three into the trapped cavern, then you guys drop it on top of them,¡± said Sallia. ¡°After that, Miria and I will fight the two that the leader is luring over while you guys support us,¡± said Sallia. ¡°It¡¯ll be risky, but I think it¡¯s possible that we¡¯ll be able to off both groups. We won¡¯t be able to continue afterwards, which means we won¡¯t hit our best-case scenario kill count of ten. But dropping five Orukthyri before the big fight is still helpful, and we might be able to hunt more tomorrow.¡±


    I finally realized why Sallia was now wearing a manic grin. She was excited about the upcoming fight. I sighed, but after thinking over the situation, it did seem like the most reasonable plan.


    I could definitely kill one Orukthyri with extinguish, and while an Orukthyri was stronger than Sallia and I, the height of this tunnel was much lower than the ceiling of the border cavern we had previously fought in. That would seriously limit the movement of the Orukthyri. There was at least a decent chance we could win against a single Orukthyri in these conditions. And in the worst case scenario, it probably wouldn¡¯t chase us into the smaller side caverns.


    These weren¡¯t bad conditions for a fight.


    I saw a few of the other scouts frowning, and one of them even opened his mouth, as if he wanted to refuse. However, I shook my head at him before he could say anything.


    ¡°It¡¯s the best chance we have,¡± I whispered. ¡°It¡¯s either this, or we sacrifice someone to the Orukthyri to lead one of the groups away. I think it¡¯s our best chance to keep everyone alive.¡±


    I saw a few of the scouts close their mouths as they seriously considered Sallia¡¯s suggestion. After several pregnant seconds, the first scout nodded, followed by a few more nods. They were willing to give it a try.


    So, after a few moments of hesitation, Sallia stepped out of the cavern we were huddled into, and two other scouts, armed with dissolving crystals, moved towards the trapped cavern. I quickly moved right next to the entrance of the trapped cavern as well, so that I could immediately drag them into the cavern when they appeared. The other scouts started moving into the side tunnels, making sure that the Orukthyri wouldn¡¯t see them and get distracted, but ensuring they were close enough to offer us some support if things went wrong.


    It only took Sallia a few minutes to return, with the Orukthyri hunting party clumsily chasing after her. Their massive frames didn¡¯t fit properly within the tunnels, but despite that fact, they were making good time. However, Sallia¡¯s stats, coupled with her smaller figure, let her easily stay ahead of them.


    On top of that, the Orukthyri would occasionally pause and scan their surroundings. They were clearly wary of trapped caverns, and were being cautious about accidentally straying out of the main tunnels.


    Sallia flashed a grin at one of the Orukthyri, before she ran right next to me. The Orukthyri Sallia had grinned at now looked distinctly uncomfortable, as if realizing that something had gone horribly wrong. It warily glanced around, as if wondering where the trap was.


    I also grinned at them, before immediately activating my rune ability. Madness-inducing water swirled around me, before I used alteration essence to transfer the location of my whirlpool and placed it directly in the middle of the cavern.


    For a few seconds, the three Orukthyri lost their mind, and chased the whirlpool of water. They completely stopped worrying about traps and Sallia, and the two of us watched happily as they ignored us and rushed into the cavern.


    The two scouts quickly jammed their crystals into the side of the cavern before activating it. In moments, the roof of the cavern destabilized itself, before imploding. Several tons of falling rock collapsed on top of the three Orukthyri, burying them in several tons of stone. I saw a few massive boulders bounce out of the cavern, before falling onto the ¡®main tunnel,¡¯ where they immediately started liquifying and sinking into the road, as if they had been thrown into a vat of incredibly powerful acid. I grimaced as I watched the old tunnels ¡®clean themselves up,¡¯ absently wondering how they managed to distinguish what should be ¡®melted¡¯ and what should be kept around. If we could just make the roads identify the Orukthyri as ¡®debris,¡¯ the entire tribe of Orukthyri would melt in a minute or two.


    I sighed, and put away my wishful thinking. If it were possible to control the roads, I had no doubt someone would have done it hundreds of years ago. I refocused my attention on the Orukthyri. As I listened to them grunt and squeal in pain, I grinned to myself.


    I doubted the Orukthyri would live for long.


    However, the rumbling sound of a cavern collapsing very, very loudly announced our presence to the surrounding caves. I waited for the rumbling to stop, before looking at Sallia. She had the highest Perception right now, so if something else was coming our way, she would be the first to notice.


    However, a few moments later, I heard a blood curdling screech in the far, far distance. It sounded like an unholy choir of drowning babies wailing while someone hit a basket of cats with a metal baseball bat, it and it sounded nowhere near where the Orukthyri cavern had originally been.


    A few moments later, I saw Sallia¡¯s eyes widen as her gaze swiveled towards the direction the leader was supposed to be coming from.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± said Sallia.


    I glanced in the direction the unholy screeching sound had come from, and then looked at the direction the scout leader was supposed to be coming from, and swore as well.


    Instead of the leader being sandwiched between two hostile forces, our group of seven was now sandwiched between two hostile forces. And I had the distinct feeling that whatever had made that horrible screeching sound wouldn¡¯t be quite as afraid of trapped caverns as the Orukthyri were.


    Which was a huge problem, because we had no other trapped caverns nearby.

 Chapter 96: What lurks in the shadows of our minds

    The seven of us took one final look in the direction that the unearthly screech had come from, and for just a moment, I swore that I could see something out of the corner of my eyes. I whirled towards it, trying to figure out what I had seen, but I couldn¡¯t make out anything unusual.


    ¡°Any idea what the heck that sound was?¡± I asked one of the scouts, sweeping my eyes across the cavern over and over again as I tried to spot anything at all.


    ¡°I have absolutely no idea,¡± he said, trembling. ¡°But it sounds bad.¡±


    So we had no information at all.


    I decided that, whatever I had seen from the corner of my eye, I would prefer to not interact with it at all. It hadn¡¯t interacted with us yet, so maybe it was a different cave critter than the one that made the unearthly screeching sound?


    ¡°Let¡¯s charge towards the scout leader, then flee into some of the side passages,¡± I said. ¡°Forget the two Orukthyri, let¡¯s just get out of here and hope they don¡¯t follow us. If they do, Sallia and I will figure out how to fight them, but if we¡¯re lucky, whatever made that sound will focus on the Orukthyri and-¡±


    For a moment, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye again. I whirled towards it, already prepared to hit it with an extinguish, but there was nothing there.


    Then, I felt something. And then the tunnel suddenly winked out of existence.


    The caves, the other people that had been near me, the glowmoss¡­ it just disappeared, as if someone had flicked off a light switch and turned off reality. The entirety of the cavern I had been standing in just disappeared, leaving me floating in a vast expanse of nothingness.


    It reminded me of my introduction to the Market. I panicked, wondering if I had somehow died without even seeing what had killed me, but couldn¡¯t find a system prompt letting me know I had died. My Status Screen appeared as normal, but the entire physical world was just¡­ gone.


    What was happening? Why was everything dark?


    Then, I felt something ticking at the edge of my thoughts. It was the same feeling I got when I had forgotten something, but it was at the tip of my tongue.


    As I focused on that sensation, the feeling grew stronger. Instead of feeling like I had just forgotten something, it started to feel as if someone was pouring water directly onto my thoughts.


    Then it stated to hurt.


    It was as if someone had dribbled a few drops of acid directly into my mind.


    I finally guessed what was happening. Something was launching some sort of mental attack on me. That was the best reason I could think of for why my brain hurt and why the world had suddenly disappeared in front of my eyes.


    Even as I realized that something was influencing my mind, I felt something spreading through my thoughts, like a sticky contaminant that slowed down my mind. It was as if the acid in my thoughts was partially made of glue.


    I tried to think of how to fix this, but my thoughts just felt so¡­ slow¡­.


    Finally, I realized I could try to kill whatever was attacking me using extinguish. I concentrated on the Ocean of Souls, and tried to find any ¡®candles of life¡¯ in my surroundings.


    I quickly realized that there were several orange and red souls that were near me. However, I couldn¡¯t make out where, exactly, the strange souls were located: it was as if they were holographic projections of a soul, rather than real souls. Something about them seemed wrong in a way I had never observed before.


    But even if I couldn¡¯t quite locate them, I had a good enough idea where they were located to blast them with extinguish.


    With barely any resistance, one candle of life winked out of existence..


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a thought worm for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +2


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Thought Worm for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    What Lurks in the Shadows of our Mind: Any mental attacks you use against another creature are enhanced by a very, very small amount, so long as the mental attack is transmitted via sound.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Thought worms?


    I finally understood what was happening.


    I quickly focused on the rest of the tiny orange-red flames of life and extinguished them. I couldn¡¯t launch spells very quickly, but with every single thought worm that died, I felt my mind clearing up as the strange creatures infesting my thoughts died out.


    Each individual worm was very weak. The biggest problem was that attacking them was very difficult, and I had no AOE spells that could wipe out the entire group at once. However, now that I knew how to deal with the problem, I quickly set to saving myself.


    I spent an unknown amount of time hosing down the tide of tiny souls at the edge of my vision, until with a sudden shudder, I felt my vision return and the last worm died.


    I looked around, and realized I had fallen on the cavern floor at some point. I felt blood stuck to my mouth and the sides of my face. I quickly wiped the blood away from my eyes, and looked at the other scouts.


    The other scouts were flopping around like drunkards on the floor of the tunnel, and blood was pouring out of their eyes, noses, and ears. Even as I watched, two of them finally collapsed and stopped moving, before their body started to turn black. Underneath their skin, I could see illusory squirming worms, swimming through their skin and flesh as though it was water as the thought worms feasted on the dead scouts.


    The scouts were very clearly dead.


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    A few moments later, I heard another two horrifying, mind-numbing shrieks emanate from the thought worms that had been dragged away from their prey, and I felt two somethings slide into my thoughts again. I quickly killed off the two new thought worms that had appeared in my mind.


    Then, I shuddered in disgust, and immediately blasted the corpses with a steam ball spell to exterminate the thought worms. It was with great relief that I saw the squirming worms inside of the dead bodies writhe in pain before they curled up, and another few System notifications confirmed their deaths. Then, my eyes widened in horror.


    Sallia.


    I quickly ran forward a few steps, and found Sallia writhing and bleeding on the floor, just like the scouts. Sallia¡¯s higher mental stats were keeping her alive for now, but she wouldn¡¯t survive for long. She didn¡¯t have a way to kill these things, since her build was so focused on physical combat.


    I quickly looked in my surroundings, trying to find the same tide of tiny souls corroding my mind that I had found when I was under attack. However, I couldn¡¯t find anything. It was as if Sallia was being attacked by nothing, and had flopped on the ground and started dying for no reason at all.


    I swore, before I got an idea.


    The primary concept of my fourth rune ability was to draw in the minds of other living creatures, driving them mad in the process. These creatures seemed to be some sort of sound-based creature that lived inside of thoughts.


    Perhaps I could use alteration essence to modify my rune ability, and make it devour the thought worms instead?


    I hated trying to modify an ability on the fly with Sallia¡¯s life at stake, but it was my best idea to keep her alive. I didn¡¯t want Sallia to die here.


    I quickly created another madness-inducing whirlpool with my fourth rune ability, before I started shaping it into another ability entirely. Instead of just making creatures who saw the water want to get closer to the whirlpool, I wanted something different. I wanted my whirlpool to drag in the thoughts of other creatures in my surroundings. Especially the thoughts of worms.


    Because my mental image of what I wanted wasn¡¯t precise enough, I felt huge quantities of alteration essence drain away. In moments, I went from nearly full of Absorption essence to nearly empty. But in the middle of the whirlpool of water, several orange-red souls appeared. However, there still weren''t any physical creatures in the water: it was as if illusions of worms were stuck inside of the whirlpool.


    But that was good enough for me.


    I immediately started blasting them with what little remained of my manifestation essence, killing the thought-worms with balls of steam. Whether their bodies were illusory or not, it seemed that once their bodies were exposed they could die just like any other creature.


    Sallia¡¯s violent thrashing and bleeding started to calm down, but I spent an extra few seconds extracting the last few thought worms from her mind.


    Then, I turned to see the three surviving scouts¡­ only to confirm that two were very dead, and one scout was very close to dying. I quickly wiped out the worms from the two dead scouts, before they could start another invasion of my thoughts. Then I rushed over to the final living scout, still holding on to the whirlpool of thoughtworm-eating water, and quickly dragged the creepy little monsters out of his body before killing them off with another second circle spell. I was down 15 magic symbols, but I still had one hundred and fifty one magic symbols left, after the extra symbols given by the Orukthyri Skill. At least within grade six, one point in the manifestation essence stat seemed to directly translate to one extra magic symbol per day, though I had no idea how the math changed at other Grades.


    Then, I finally had time to check my System notifications, now that everyone was dead or saved.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a thought worm for the 5th time, 10th time, 25th time, 70th time, 250th time, and 700th hundredth time.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +4, +6, +10, +15, + 25, +50


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


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    I ignored the Market ads, and shuddered. I had gained 112 total Achievement from removing the thought maggots, bringing my total up to 6,220.89 Achievement. And it had not been even close to worth it. This was the weirdest and most disturbing creature I remembered fighting so far.


    I looked at the one surviving scout, and at Sallia, both of whom were alive but unconscious.


    I sighed, shaking my head. At the very least, the Orukthyri that had been chasing after the scout leader were probably dead as well. Though I imagined the scout leader had gone with them.


    In theory, trading five scouts for five Orukthyri was probably a great deal for the city as a whole. Each Orukthyri could defeat far more than one human in a head on fight, so dealing with Orukthyri like this would make it much easier for the city to survive the oncoming fight.


    However, looking at the scout who was nearly dead, Sallia who wasn¡¯t even awake, and then thinking about the six dead scouts, it sure didn¡¯t feel like we had achieved a victory, no matter what the numbers said. Of the eight people who had set out for this expedition, only three would return alive. And I had no idea if there were any permanent effects of nearly getting eaten by the thought worms. I hoped not, because if Sallia was permanently crippled or became a vegetable after this, I would be heartbroken.


    I sighed, shaking my head as I grabbed Sallia and the scout. They didn¡¯t react when I dragged them into a side cavern. I couldn¡¯t move both of them while they were asleep, so I needed to wait for someone to wake up before we could start heading back towards the city. I doubted we were in any shape to continue our original plan.


    Then, I went to check on the scout leader and the two Orukthyri she had been dragging towards our position. Even though she was probably dead, I still hoped that she was fine, no matter how bad the odds were.


    As I got closer, I froze.


    I heard snuffling and snorting sounds coming from further down the tunnel. It only took me a few moments to make out the sound of grotesque chewing and crunching.


    The Orukthyri didn¡¯t seem to have even noticed the strange thought-worms. Perhaps their magical resistance helped them ignore the disgusting little creatures.


    But the scout leader enjoyed no such protection. Based on the chewing sounds I could hear from further ahead, she was already quite dead.


    I bitterly laughed to myself, before I slowly and carefully retreated towards where I had left Sallia and the scout. Then, I hid and hoped nothing else found us. I was out of alteration essence and only knew second circle spells. And no matter what I tried, I couldn¡¯t wake up Sallia and the scout.


    We were in no shape for a fight, so all I could do was leave the Orukthyri to their meal, while I huddled in the darkness and prayed that nothing came to finish us off.

 Chapter 97: Darkness

    The next few hours were spent in tense silence. I tore some strips of cloth from one of the dead scouts, and used that to plug everyone¡¯s ears. We couldn¡¯t handle another wave of thought worms right now, but I could prevent the next wave from slipping into our thoughts in the first place. At least, if my earplugs actually worked. Eyeing my craftsmanship, I felt some doubt about whether they would stop everyone¡¯s hearing in the first place, but they were better than nothing, at least. Then, I laid with my head flat against the ground, hoping that I would somehow notice the vibrations of the cave floor if the Orukthyri noticed us and came to kill us too.


    Once my alteration essence reserves had recovered enough to fend off another wave of thought worms, I unplugged my ears to keep track of our surroundings. We couldn¡¯t afford to be surprised by anything right now. Which meant I needed to risk exposing my mind to another wave of attacks.


    I jumped at nearly every sound, half-expecting another wave of orange-red souls to invade my thoughts with every single clunk that echoed through the caves. Every single enemy we met right now could be the end of us. Sallia and the Scout weren¡¯t even conscious, and I barely had enough alteration essence to fend off the weakest monsters we could encounter. And while I had plenty of manifestation essence left, I only knew second-circle spells. Those would be nowhere near enough to win a fight with a truly dangerous enemy.


    Finally, after agonizing hours spent waiting and hoping for the best, Sallia started to stir. I felt a wave of relief crash over me. Sallia was okay.


    ¡°Sallia!¡± I whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.


    ¡°Mmra?¡± She slurred, mumbling as she seemed to try, and fail, to sit up.


    ¡°Whm¡­ wrng,¡± said Sallia, slurring her words as she flopped over. I started to feel a little nervous.


    Was there something wrong with her?


    I reached for my alteration essence and squeezed out a healing spell, removing almost all of the essence I had regenerated in the past few hours in order to throw a healing spell at Sallia.


    As the healing spell washed over her body, Sallia seemed to perk up a little more. The floppy, disjointed movements her limbs had been making started to organize themselves, and she slowly sat up. While she wasn¡¯t exactly coordinated now, she was at least in better condition than she had been before.


    ¡°My head hurts,¡± said Sallia, wincing as she slowly and carefully worked to enunciate her words. ¡°Stop shaking me.¡± I immediately stopped shaking her, and Sallia groaned, reaching up to touch her forehead.


    ¡°God-Emperor¡¯s beard, what happened?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°My memories are hazy. Did we get really drunk last night? How much did I drink?¡± Then, she frowned. ¡°No, that¡¯s not right.¡± She opened her eyes and carefully inspected herself, feeling her legs and arms, before shaking her head. ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯m young right now. We were in the tunnels¡­¡±


    ¡°Something called a thought worm attacked us,¡± I said. ¡°It used¡­ some sort of mental attack. But it lived inside of our thoughts, I think. It was¡­ weird.¡±


    Sallia groaned in acknowledgement. ¡°No wonder my head hurts. Did you deal with them?¡±


    I nodded. Then, realizing Sallia might not be able to recognize visual cues right now, I whispered ¡°Yeah. I extinguished them all. There were¡­ a lot of them, but my rune ability and alteration essence took care of them.¡±


    Sallia winced. ¡°Thanks for saving me, then. Fuck.¡± She swore. ¡°Mental attacks. I thought with my improved mental stats, they wouldn¡¯t be an issue for me this life. I guess in the future I need to start devoting a rune ability or two to fending those off. Or buy an Ability for it.¡± Then, she sighed. ¡°Is there only one scout left?¡± She asked as she scanned the cave.


    ¡°Just one scout. He¡¯s still unconscious.¡± I hesitated for a moment, thinking of the sound of the Orukthyri chewing when I had tried to track down the Scout leader. ¡°The Orukthyri weren¡¯t harmed by the thought worms. I think their magic resistance kept them from getting killed by them. They¡¯re still around, but they¡¯re¡­ eating the scout leader. Who died from the thought worms, I think.¡±


    Sallia paused. ¡°Gods,¡± she muttered. ¡°Good thing the scouts taught us how to get back to the city before we came here.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Otherwise we would probably wander through these tunnels until we starved to death. I can make water, but I seriously doubt your ramen noodle bowl would be enough to keep us going.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°How are our supplies looking?¡±


    ¡°None of the supply bags from the scouts were damaged, apart from the one the scout leader had,¡± I said. ¡°We have enough food and water to last a month. If we can carry everything.¡± Then, I paused, thinking about my {Storage Pack}. Thus far, it hadn¡¯t seen much use, but it looked like it was finally going to start pulling its weight. ¡°I can probably fit everything important in my bag, actually,¡± I said.


    ¡°I¡¯m very glad you brought that,¡± said Sallia. Then, she tried to stand up¡­


    And crushed to the ground, like a bird with no wings trying to fly. ¡°My head is spinning when I try to stand up,¡± said Sallia, and a note of fear started to enter her voice. ¡°Feels like there¡¯s something wrong with my brain. It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s not sending information to my legs the way it should.¡±


    I frowned, before I leaned down and pinched her knee. ¡°Did you feel anything?¡±


    Sallia looked a little relieved. ¡°I still feel something. Maybe I just need another couple hours to finish shaking off whatever those creatures did to my body?¡± Sallia shuddered. ¡°How about you? Do you have any issues?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine,¡± I said. I realized that the magic resistance Skill I had copied from the Orukthyri was much better than I had given it credit for. Even if my version of the skill was several times weaker, it was probably the reason I was just shaken by the attack, rather than simply falling to the ground before dying, the way most of the scouts had.


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear,¡± said Sallia. ¡°How is your fighting strength right now?¡±


    ¡°On the weaker side. I have about half my absorption essence left, and most of my Manifestation. but I have almost no alteration left after healing you, which means no extinguishes.¡±


    Sallia grimaced. ¡°In that case, I guess we¡¯ll have to-¡±


    Our conversation was cut off when I heard something loud start to walk down a nearby tunnel, its heavy, echoing footsteps causing the ground to rumble in protest each time they took a step forward.


    Sallia and I stopped talking and sat in perfect silence, hoping that whatever was walking nearby didn¡¯t notice us. Then, Sallia¡¯s eyes widened, before she leaned over the scout and clamped one hand over his mouth. I assumed it was just in case he made noise in his sleep at the worst possible time.


    Slowly, the footsteps crept closer and closer to us. I took a deep breath, my heart hammering in my chest, as I materialized my {Two-Purpose Training Sword} and prepared to unsheathe it for a final last-ditch attempt to live. I prepared to die¡­


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    Before the footsteps moved right past the cavern and moved into the distance. I heard a few snorts as the footsteps crept past, confirming that the creature must have been an Orukthyri. Luckily, it hadn¡¯t noticed us. If we fought an Orukthyri right now, we would die.


    We waited for a few more minutes, listening to its footsteps slowly fade into the distance, before we looked at each other and the scout again.


    ¡°We can¡¯t stay here,¡± said Sallia. ¡°It¡¯s too close to the Orukthyri cavern. We should flee further.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Can you walk yet?¡±


    Sallia tried standing up, and although she was wobbly, she didn¡¯t come crashing back to the ground this time. She shuffled over to the cave wall and leaned against it as she furrowed her brows in concentration.  ¡°Not well, but I can at least move myself. But I¡¯ll be slow. Still, moving a little further away from the Orukthyri cavern is probably a good idea, so that none of their other hunting parties stumble across us when we go to sleep tonight. Can you carry this guy?¡±


    I hefted the man across my back, making sure not to accidentally dump him in my dress and drown him. Since he was much larger than me, I was forced to carry him like a sack of potatoes, and it was hard to stop his feet from dragging across the floor. Luckily, even though it was difficult to grip him properly, he wasn¡¯t too hard to carry because of my high strength.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± I said after I finished rearranging the scout.


    We began making our way through the tunnels.


    We had been cautious the first time we traveled through this area, as a group. But now that we only had three living group members, and none of us were in fighting condition, we had to stop every single time we heard a noise. Every single indication that there might be a monster nearby meant that we had to hide and hope for the best. We were just too weak right now.


    Perhaps we¡¯re just too weak for a Tier 4 world, I thought idly to myself. Every single fight we had gotten into had been a dangerous dance with death. And that was with Orukthyri, who were somewhere around the middle of this world¡¯s food chain. I suspected that if I fought with a dragon, or one of the nightmares at the top of this world¡¯s food chain, I would probably die instantly.


    As time passed, Sallia¡¯s body began to recover, making it easier for her to keep up with me. Soon, she no longer needed to lean against the cavern walls to move. I debated tossing another healing spell her way, but Sallia insisted I keep some alteration essence ready in case we ran into another threat that couldn¡¯t be fought using normal means.


    It took several more hours of slow, cautious travel for the scout to wake up.


    ¡°Whazzamulp?¡± Asked the scout. I tried to figure out what he was saying, before I gave up and settled on a basic report of the situation.


    ¡°The rest of the scout team died,¡± I said.


    ¡°Dmmmm?¡± The scout seemed shocked. ¡°Mmmm¡­Hmmmmm¡­Dmmmmmmo,¡± the scout slurred out of his mouth. He seemed increasingly frustrated as he tried and failed to communicate.


    ¡°Do you remember the sound we heard right before you blacked out?¡± The scout slowly nodded. ¡°That was some sort of mental attack. I don¡¯t know what it was, but there was some sort of¡­ worm that invaded everyone¡¯s thoughts after the screech. It nearly devoured our minds. But luckily, my attunement was able to deal with them. So after I realized what was happening, I wiped them out. But I was too slow to save the other scouts: a lot of them died before I finished fighting off the attack on my own mind.¡±


    The scout¡¯s eyes widened in a mixture of shock and horror. ¡°Uuuump! Uuuuuup!¡± He wrestled with his uncooperative tongue, trying to force out words that he simply couldn¡¯t form. I winced.


    I had rescued Sallia before focusing on the other scouts. As a result, the surviving scout seemed to have taken an even heavier dose of damage than Sallia. I once again considered tossing some healing his way, before sighing.


    I really wished I could generate alteration essence faster.


    The scout continued trying to force out incoherent noises and sounds for a few minutes, before he finally gave up with a strangled gurgle of frustration. I was pretty sure he was trying to communicate something to me, something that might be important.


    However, I needed to save my alteration essence.


    I felt bad for the scout, but while he was trying to say something, he didn¡¯t look too frightened or terrified. If he had looked like he had realized something was about to kill us, I would have healed him in a heartbeat to see if we could run away in time. However, even as I watched, he seemed to resign himself to the fact that he couldn¡¯t quite move his mouth the way he wanted to yet, and simply settled down to grumble in irritation.


    I nodded to myself. Whatever the scout had realized, it didn¡¯t seem urgent, at least. It could wait until we set up camp for the night.


    Sallia looked at the scout, and seemed to come the same conclusion as me. A few moments later, she squatted down, near the scout¡¯s head, and addressed him directly.


    ¡°Is it urgent? Miria might be able to spare a healing spell for you, but that will also leave us vulnerable to an attack. Make one sound if it¡¯s urgent, and two sounds if it can wait for you to heal naturally.¡±


    ¡°Mmm mm.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°All right, let¡¯s keep moving.¡±


    Several more hours passed as we worked our way through the darkness. Then, Sallia froze.


    ¡°Stop. I hear something,¡± said Sallia. I froze, and the scout tensed up as well.


    ¡°Sounds like it has¡­ a lot of legs. But it sounds much heavier than the acid drinkers,¡± said Sallia, frowning.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to fight anything we¡¯ve never seen before. Especially when we¡¯re this weak.¡±


    Sallia looked a little disappointed, but after looking at her own unsteady body, she sighed and nodded. ¡°Fair. Let¡¯s go that way,¡± she said, and pointed down another side passage.


    I immediately followed Sallia¡¯s suggested direction, moving us deeper into a side passage as we waited for whatever creature was nearby to move on.


    Several tense minutes passed as something moved past us, its skitters cutting through the silence like a knife cutting through hot butter. Meanwhile, just like before, we huddled in the darkness.


    Finally, it passed by us.


    Sallia made us wait a few more minutes, before she nodded at me. ¡°Gone. We can move now.¡±


    Our journey resumed.


    Finally, with a few more interruptions, we reached a cavern that looked like a good place to spend the night. There were three entrances, meaning we had a way out if something found us, and the entrances were small enough that most larger underdark creatures wouldn¡¯t be able to follow us in. Best of all, it also had a few marks on the wall that let us know where we were relative to our own city, meaning we would be able to easily orient ourselves when we woke up in the morning.


    I gently set the scout down, and he worked his jaw a few times. Then, seemingly delighted, he grinned, and started slowly and carefully enunciating every single word he spoke.


    ¡°Can you understand me?¡± He asked. His speech wasn¡¯t entirely clear. However, with a little thinking, I could make out what he was saying now. I nodded.


    ¡°Good. The thought worms you killed were outsiders.¡±


    I paused. ¡°Outsiders? You mean the creatures from the other dimension?¡±


    The scout nodded. ¡°The ones that came with the black sun. Things from our own dimension are very¡­ physical in nature. Anything that seems more¡­ odd tends to be from the same dimension as the black sun.¡±


    I frowned, before I slowly nodded.


    All of the denizens of the underdark we had seen so far had been pretty normal-seeming monsters. The thought worms had been very different. Their biology had no physical components at all, which made them incredibly difficult for Sallia to deal with. If my attunement hadn¡¯t been able to affect them, they would have killed our entire group.


    ¡°Are all creatures from the other dimension like that?¡± I asked.


    The scout seemed to try to shrug: his shoulders awkwardly rolled around as he tried and failed to move. ¡°I think so. I have no idea why that¡¯s the case. You would need to ask a scholar. But sometimes, a few scouts survive an encounter with an outsider and return to the city alive. It happens maybe once every couple decades.¡± Then, the scout paused. ¡°Speaking of other scouts. I know you said that almost everyone is dead. But am I really the only one left?¡±


    ¡°The others are dead,¡± I said, nodding. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    The scout¡¯s eyes widened, and for a moment, a look of grief appeared on his face. It sounded as if for a brief moment, he was choking back a sob, and then he nodded.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get back to the city. We at least killed three Orukthyri. For the city, at least, it¡¯s a victory. The scout leader would be proud of the fact that this mission killed three Orukthyri at the cost of only five people. And we can also report everything we saw. The white dragon might intervene if outsiders are too close to the city, if it wakes up on time. We can hope, at least.¡± The man¡¯s slurred speech became even harder to understand as he spoke, and he sniffled a few times.


    With that final thought, the three of us set up a watch rotation and went to sleep. With any luck, we would return intact.

 Chapter 98: White Dragon

    After resting for the night, I had recovered enough alteration essence to toss some more healing at both Sallia and the Scout. This, combined with a night¡¯s rest, put the scout back to a point where he could walk unaided, and even jog a little. He still couldn¡¯t quite reach the ground-eating pace he had set when we traveled to the Orukthyri cavern, but he was at least able to move quickly. Sallia, due to her vastly higher Fortitude, was nearly fully healed after I threw some alteration essence at her. She was probably at 90% of her normal strength, and in a day or so she would be fully recovered.


    We traveled for a few hours, before we heard another Orukthyri.


    Sallia and I looked at each other, and after a few furtive nods, settled on a quick course of action.


    We could only hear one Orukthyri right now, and we had come here to thin out the horde a bit before the big fight. Sallia was nearly fully recovered, and I had most of my Alteration Essence. I had estimated that I could kill one Orukthyri with just extinguish, as long as I was at full alteration essence. This was an opportunity to make our trip a little more worthwhile.


    We quickly gestured for the scout to hide, and then hid in one of the side caverns.


    The moment the Orukthyr walked by us, I resisted the urge to grin.


    It was hobbling. It had clearly ran into something stronger than it was in the underdark. No wonder it was alone: its partner might have been killed by whatever this Orukthyri had run into.


    A lone, injured Orukthyri was definitely a winnable fight.


    I blasted it with an Extinguish, obliterating most of its life force in a fraction of a second. The creature wobbled, and then collapsed face-first on the tunnel floor.


    Sallia sprang forward and began stabbing at its neck moments later. The thick skin and muscles of its neck, which would normally make cutting through its neck a nightmarishly difficult task, seemed soft and weak after I had blasted away most of its life force.


    Unlike our previous two encounters with Orukthyri, for the first time, Sallia and I got an easy win against the blasted creatures.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing an Orukthyri variant warrior for the fifth time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +250


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I felt a small sliver of relief worm its way into my stomach.


    Orukthyri were incredibly dangerous, but a large part of the reason they were so terrifying was because they traveled in groups and were organized.


    At the very least, in a one on one fight, I could demolish an Orukthyri as long as I had enough alteration essence. It was a small realization, but it helped stem some of the numb horror I had started to feel in the past few days.


    The Orukthyri were very strong, and Tier 4 worlds were terrifying. However, if we picked our fights carefully and managed our surroundings well, perhaps there was still a chance for us to thrive in this world. We just needed to be intelligent and careful.


    With this influx of Achievement, I was also pushed from 6,220.89 Achievement to 6,450.89 Achievement. Which was still rather low for this world: honestly, I was growing increasingly worried about my income. However, for now, I put that aside. There wasn¡¯t much I could do to boost my Achievement right now. I didn¡¯t have any bright ideas for how to influence the upcoming conflict with the Orukthyri in any meaningful way. My only plan had been to ambush a few Orukthyri with collapsing caverns and extinguishes, but we were running out of time. We had killed 4 Orukthyri this time, and that would have to be enough. We only had a week left, at absolute most, before the horde starting going for the city, according to the scout reports Nells had shared with us before we left. It was best to be back in the city by that time.


    With any luck, news of creatures from outside would provoke the white dragon into annihilating the Orukthyri for us. It was a slim hope, but it was the city¡¯s best chance to get out of this calamity without suffering huge casualties. And I would probably get at least a little Achievement for bringing the news back, which would also be nice.


    The next day and a half passed largely without incident. We hid from most unknown creatures we heard, because we had no idea what the strength of each new enemy was, and while the odds were slim, we held news that might bring the aid of the white dragon. The scout felt that it was too risky to pick any fights we could avoid during that time, and I honestly felt that he had a point.


    When we returned to the city, I got another small notification.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Play a [Major] role in the scout raid on the Orukthyri base


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Since no Orthanoid lives besides those of the scouts had been at stake this time, and the Orukthyri we had killed didn¡¯t make a huge difference either way, the rewards weren¡¯t that high. However, 300 Achievement was still better than no Achievement, so I decided to take what I could get. The 300 Achievement boosted me from 6,450.89 Achievement to 6,750.89 Achievement, which was enough to buy the alteration keyword ability and still have a little left over to boost some stats.


    I finished scanning my achievement notification, and glanced at Sallia, who I saw was also staring into space. I decided to give her a moment to look over her System notifications.


    I glanced at the scout, and saw that he was staring at the city. There was a certain lost expression on his face. I sighed.


    When we had left this city, we had been a group of eight people, determined to do what we could before the Orukthyri onslaught reached the city. We had done our part. Four Orukthyri had been slain before the final battle started.


    However, five scouts had also died in the process.


    I wished that I had been able to save more of the scouts. But right now, in the multiverse, I was still a small fry. I barely had the ability to protect myself, much less keep others safe.


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    ¡°Let¡¯s go to the military office and report,¡± said the scout, when he noticed me looking at him. His voice sounded hoarse, as if the realization that the other scouts were never coming home was finally hitting him. I felt a lump appear in my throat for a moment as well.


    I didn¡¯t know the scouts who had died. But they had been good people. The scout leader had been willing to take the most dangerous position in this entire mission, and she had died because of that. She had been an admirable leader. She deserved better than what she got.


    I swallowed down the lump in my throat, and followed after the scout as we started moving through the city.


    I took in the sight of people, bustling about in their day to day lives. However, there was a certain edge to the air that hadn¡¯t been there a week ago. People knew of the Orukthyri threat now, and people¡¯s responses varied wildly. Some people were lining up near soldiers, asking to be given weapons to defend their homes. Others were packing up, preparing to flee to one of the other cities in the underdark. Others were decked out in symbols of the white dragon, and tried to lead random passerby on the streets in prayer. I listened to one of them for a moment, wondering what they were doing, and realized they were  hoping that with enough prayers, the white dragon would awaken and save us from the coming battle.


    I felt a small, grim chuckle bubble up in my stomach, before I suppressed it. It even pushed back the bitterness of losing the five scouts.


    In a very strange way, the three of us were trying to do the exact same thing as the pious dragon worshippers on the streets. We were bringing words back to the city, in hopes it would make the white dragon save us from a bloody and painful fight that we might lose.


    At least so far, nobody had seen any signs of the creature awakening.


    The scout quickly led us back to the military building in the center of the city. After a few minutes of waiting at the desk, we met with  scout leader Nells. We reported everything we had seen during the excursion to the Orukthyri cavern, and Nells adopted a thoughtful look when we mentioned running into thought worms.


    Then, slowly, he nodded. ¡°You did well, although the loss of five brave scouts is a tragedy to be mourned as well.¡± He sighed. ¡°If the city still stands after the battle with the Orukthyri, I will give the families of the fallen the highest honors. They deserve nothing less. Now, about the creatures from outside,¡± he said, giving me a curious look. ¡°You¡¯re sure about them¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am,¡± I said. ¡°They were creatures with no physical body, which existed purely within our thoughts. They¡­ infected our minds and then started devouring us. Luckily, my attunement let me see them and kill them, or else our entire group would have died there.¡±


    Nells pushed himself up from his chair, and gestured for the three of us to rise. ¡°In that case, I think that it would be best if you reported this to the white dragon. It is asleep, but dragons harbor particular dislike for the creatures that originate from outside of this world. We have a great deal of gold to tribute, and while the outsiders clearly weren¡¯t close enough to wake the dragon from its slumber, it is still worth begging for aid. Perhaps it will save us from the upcoming battle.¡± Nells quickly led us to a storage area, where he retrieved a large black bag.


    He grunted as he tried to lift it up. Then, seeming a bit embarrassed, he turned to Sallia. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but could you lift this for me?¡±


    Sallia quickly grabbed the bag, giving it an experiment tug. ¡°What¡¯s inside?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Gold.¡± Said Nells. ¡°It¡¯s best to bring snacks when dealing with dragons. Most merchants from other cities, as well as our historical records, agree that they¡¯re quite grumpy when they¡¯re hungry.¡±


    Hungry? I blinked.


    Did dragons eat gold? That was¡­ different than what I had imagined.


    There, we encountered an elaborate metal gate. Nells quickly reached for a key in his pocket, before unlocking the gate and swinging it open. Seeing my curious look, he grinned for a moment.


    ¡°It¡¯s to keep any kids who don¡¯t know any better out,¡± he said. ¡°The gate is also a lot sturdier than some of the other gates for other tunnels. We don¡¯t want to bother the great white dragon with unimportant things, after all.¡±


    I nodded, growing increasingly curious. It seemed that I was about to see the white dragon firsthand.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how strong the creature would be, and what it would look like. I had seen depictions of the white dragon everywhere in the city, since it was the god our city worshipped, but I had never seen the real thing before.


    After scout leader Nells opened the gate, we spent another half hour walking, before we finally came upon a large cavern. Nestled near the bottom of the cavern, on a small bed of rusty metal, lay a large white serpent.


    It was a bit different from what I had imagined.


    Its body glimmered with light that nearly caused it to illuminate the cavern. Its body was pure white, as I had imagined, and its body was also covered in gleaming scales.


    However, its scales seemed to be made entirely out of metal. And it wasn¡¯t just its scales: its eyes also seemed to be made out of metal. I had a sneaking suspicion that its entire body, including its internal organs, was made out of pure metal. Rather than a dragon, this creature was more like a snake-shaped metal elemental. The dragon was also a little smaller than I had imagined. It was still quite a bit larger than me, but I guessed that if it opened its jaws all the way, it would only be two Mirias tall.


    Out of curiosity, I focused on my soul vision for a bit, to see if I could find anything unusual about its soul, and also tried to observe its ¡®candle of life.¡¯


    This thing was decked out in a completely absurd amount of mana. If other humans absorbed little splotches of mana when they improved their skills, it looked almost like the white dragon had simply devoured its body weight in mana. And its candle of life also looked like a forest fire. Even if I had ten times my current alteration essence, I wouldn¡¯t be able to extinguish this thing. It was much stronger than me, and it showed.


    Before I had time for further observation, Nells gave the giant metal dragon a respectful bow.


    ¡°One of the descendants of the Ortha greets the white dragon,¡± he said respectfully.


    I glanced at Sallia, and then the two of us followed suit. ¡°Another descendent of the Ortha greets the white dragon,¡± we echoed.


    The creature didn¡¯t respond, or give any indication that it had heard us.


    Nells slowly and carefully walked forward, before gesturing for Sallia to follow him. She moved closer, and he quickly reached into the bag Sallia was carrying. He pulled a metal bar of gold out of the bag, and then placed it right in front of the white dragon¡¯s face.


    Its body twitched a little bit, and then its tongue snaked out of its mouth. Without a word, it wrapped around the golden bar and dragged it into its mouth.


    I heard a few grinding sounds, and then the dragon¡¯s jaw stopped moving.


    He turned to Sallia and I. ¡°Speak of what you observed in your journey. Especially focus on the creatures from outside this world. Then, leave a tribute of gold near the white dragon¡¯s mouth, so that it may enjoy a snack. It is important to thank it for taking time to listen to us, after all.¡±


    Sallia nodded. The three of us recounted our journey yet again, placing special emphasis on the encounter with the thought worms, before each depositing a hunk of gold near the white dragon¡¯s mouth. It moved to eat each brick of gold, but didn¡¯t show any other signs of responding.


    Nells had us wait around for perhaps half an hour, hoping for some kind of response, but the white dragon didn¡¯t deign to move after hearing our tale. Apart from eating the gold we had brought, it didn¡¯t show any signs of being awake at all. Absently, I wondered if the dragon was still asleep: perhaps it was simply able to munch on things in its slumber?


    Finally, after a great deal of waiting around, Nells sighed, and began leading us out of the cavern.


    The white dragon had not awakened. We were on our own.

 Chapter 99: Horde (1)

    With the final hope of outside intervention extinguished, the four of us made our way back to the city in silence. I could practically feel Scout Leader Nells¡¯s frustration radiating out of him, but I didn¡¯t know what I could say to make him feel better. Frankly, I was also disappointed. I knew that many cities relied on their patron deities in times of need, at least when they were awake, and the territoriality of dragons when encountering outsiders was a crucial reason why cities beneath the earth could survive.


    Unfortunately, the outside creatures hadn¡¯t wandered close enough to annoy the white dragon. And the creature evidently didn¡¯t care if we were annihilated by the Orukthyri. However, I had no time to rail against our city¡¯s unreliable god. Since we couldn¡¯t rely on the white dragon to help us, we needed to find a way to stand up for ourselves instead.


    After returning to the city, Sallia and I met up with our respective masters, as well as Anise and Felix. Everyone seemed glad that the two of us had returned alive, especially when we talked about what we had encountered during our time hunting Orukthyri.


    Anise, in particular, seemed terrified of the idea of thought worms, and shivered in horror when I mentioned that they had wiped out a huge chunk of the scouting force. Seeing Anise¡¯s discomfort, I glossed over the rest of that part of the story, since I didn¡¯t want to give her nightmares. However, I saw Felix giving me curious looks out of the corner of my eye, so I promised myself I would discuss the strange creatures more with him later. It seemed that Felix was beginning to develop an interest in strange biologies, in addition to crafting.


    After Sallia and I told our tale of the excursion to the fallen city, Lauren and Ella seemed thoughtful for several minutes, before they began discussing the odds of the city surviving the final confrontation.


    Lauren remained optimistic about the city¡¯s odds. As long as the warband was on the smaller side, the city¡¯s soldiers shouldn¡¯t collapse, and the first several skirmishes had definitely favored the city¡¯s forces far more than the Orukthyri¡¯s forces. In the fight at the border cavern, less than a dozen soldiers had died to drop four Orukthyri warriors and one caster. In most other skirmishes, things had generally gone our way, thinning out the Orukthyri numbers while the city experienced relatively less painful casualties. Lauren seemed more worried about what state the city would be in after the battle. Even if the battle seemed to favor the city, the aftermath would be a nightmare of dead and injured soldiers trying to defend a huge number of border caverns. He felt that it was likely we would need to abandon some of the outer caverns and shrink the city¡¯s territory until we recovered, which might mean supplies would drop much lower than usual. In the worst case scenario, directly after the Orukthyri horde, we might face a famine if we lost too many food caverns.


    Ella, my own mentor, was a bit more worried about the fight itself. She felt that, given the unusual magic resistance of the Orukthyri, a head on battle might end in our loss. These Orukthyri might be dumber than the average Orukthyri, but their improved magic resistance also made them a nightmare for us to fight. The biggest advantage Orthanoids had over the Orukthyri were our higher numbers of trained spellcasters, and the fact that a normal spellcaster who could only cast third circle spells was usually able to seriously injure an Orukthyri with a spell. Unfortunately, these Orukthyri were almost immune to third circle spells, the overwhelming majority of the city¡¯s spellcasters immediately became useless in combat. Not many Mages could handle the mind-numbing amount of runes they needed to picture and control at once in order to cast a fourth-circle spell, even if they theoretically had the mana reserves for it. That meant we were working with a rather limited amount of spellcasting for the fight. If the Orukthyri stuck to the main tunnels, the terrain advantage we usually enjoyed when fighting Orukthyri would also be reduced significantly, since no matter how we tried to manipulate the tunnels before the fight, they would either resist our manipulation, or quickly remove any ¡®blockages¡¯ we added to the tunnels.


    My mentor seemed very worried about the fight, and I didn¡¯t blame her. I hoped that the city would win, and I believed we had a chance. However, there was also a definite chance things would go horribly wrong here.


    If things went poorly, this could very well be the end of my time in this world. I thought of the surface that I still hadn¡¯t even seen yet, and felt a tremor of nervousness.


    Would all of my plans to see this world¡¯s surface go up in smoke, just like this?


    I sighed, but turned back to the city.


    I would do my best to defend the city. I had parents and siblings here who I didn¡¯t want to see get hurt, and Ella and Lauren were also fine people. Scout Leader Nells seemed like a decent person, although I didn¡¯t know him too well. And the scout leader and the other scouts had died trying to keep this city safe. That counted for something.


    I wanted this city to survive the approaching horde, and I would work to make it happen.


    I just hoped it would be enough. I wasn¡¯t sure if we had the ability to win this battle against the Orukthyri, and honestly, no matter what I tried, I wasn¡¯t sure if this city would still be standing in a week or two. I couldn¡¯t think of a way to turn the tables in our favor beyond what I had already done. I didn¡¯t have a brilliant plan like during our time on the islands. There was no massive sea monster I could lure into attacking the Orukthyri and solving our problem for us.


    All we had were the Orthanoids working to keep the city safe.


    I just hoped that would be enough.


    * * *


    A week passed by. In that time, I worked on refining my alteration manipulation as much as I could. I finally put some of my older ideas about refining shaping into practice by tossing out the need for ¡®alternate timelines¡¯ altogether. As far as I could tell, at its heart, Alteration was simply about altering. Using alternate timelines was a decent visualization method.


    However, during the fight with the thought worms, in a moment of desperation, I had managed to alter the way my rune ability worked. And during that moment of desperation, I hadn¡¯t used any sort of ¡®alternate timeline¡¯ visualization. I had simply imagined what I needed, and then forced my rune ability to respond.


    This had been the incident that propelled me forward, helping me ¡®fix¡¯ the little bits of the alternate timeline visualization method that had always bothered me. I had realized that what I was doing, at heart, was imagining reality as it could be, and then imposing my will on reality. Imagining an ¡®alternate timeline¡¯ where reality was slightly different from the present¡­ wasn¡¯t that removed from proper use of alteration essence. It was just ever-so slightly less efficient than the ¡®proper¡¯ method of using shaping.


    During my week of experimentation, I realized that the biggest difference between using alternate timeline visualization and ¡®reality as it could be¡¯ visualization was the possibility range.


    Using alternate visualizations as a method of altering the world around me was, in practice, actually much easier than what I was trying to do. It took the components of reality that already existed around me and then slightly rearranged it. It was like taking a jigsaw puzzle and then swapping two pieces that had similar shapes to each other. The final picture created by the jigsaw puzzle would be slightly different than before, but if the pieces were similar enough to each other, it was easy to make everything fit together.


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    However, while that was certainly an easy method of using alteration essence to shape the world around me, it wasn¡¯t everything shaping could do.


    Instead, if one got creative, one could take a jar of paint and then recolor some pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. No amount of alternate timelines would have let me reshape the way my rune ability worked on the fly. Instead, what I had done was take my rune ability and command it to work in a completely different way.


    I wondered if I could take this idea and expand it further. For example, what if I changed something bigger? Like turning rocks into salt? Or permanently changing some part of my body to make myself stronger?


    I was unwilling to try the second, since I would probably lose some limbs if I messed up, but as it turned out, turning a rock into salt, water, or basically anything else I could think of using my new visualization method was possible. And it was much easier than trying to use some convoluted set of ¡®alternate timelines¡¯ to change the world around me. Though the essence cost was quite ridiculous, making it impractical for most purposes, it still let me know what I could do with shaping.


    It was also much harder to create the right mental image using my new shaping system. I suspected that if I didn¡¯t have an innate affinity for alteration essence, this would take several years of training to get the visualization method down, and it also required a certain amount of¡­ creativity.


    I also noticed that there was a slight difference in essence cost. My new visualization method was slightly more efficient. It wasn¡¯t a big difference, but I save perhaps five or six percent of my essence with this method.


    However, when I tried explaining my new visualization method to Sallia and Felix, they had a hard time wrapping their heads around it. For me, alteration was now about defining the world as it could be. Like a painter using the world as one¡¯s canvas and alteration essence as one¡¯s paint.


    However, Sallia and Felix had a hard time getting it to work, and so, ultimately, it remained unique to me for now.


    Apart from working on my shaping, I experimented with the crude fireball spell I had stolen from the Orukthyri spellcaster. True to its name, the crude fireball spell I had stolen from the Orukthyri caster was rather inefficient and crude. However, it did work. And just like every other time I had cast a higher-circle spell for the first time, I got some Achievement out of it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Become a Third-circle spellcaster


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +450


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Which boosted my Achievement from about 6,750 to about 7,200 Achievement. Since I was very much worried about dying within the next week, every extra little bit of Achievement meant that I was a little less worried. At the very least, if I died, I would have my keyword ability and enough Achievement to buy it, along with a couple stats.


    Apart from experimenting with my magic systems, I spent some relaxing.


    Specifically, I spent time with my mother and father, as well as my siblings. When Jonathan awoke, I spent some time sitting by his cot and talking to him as well. Jonathan¡¯s arm was healing, but according to the doctor, he would never hold a sword again. He was barely able to hold a spoon.


    His dreams of exploring the surface and becoming a swordsman were over.


    At least, in theory.


    Jonathan, instead of giving up, began desperately trying to regain the strength in his arm he had lost. With the help of my healing ability, his arm recovered rapidly, and then he began trying to run his arm through exercise after exercise to regain some of the grip strength he had lost. And shockingly, he was getting some results. His grip strength was improving, and after three days of desperate arm exercises and healing, he could grip a spoon and eat with it again. Which was impressive, considering how bad of a state his arm had been in after getting hurt.


    I wasn¡¯t sure if it would be enough, in the end. But there was a chance, and I dearly hoped that he could overcome this issue. Of course, if we lived through the final battle, I would create a rune ability to help fix the permanent damage. But the more work he did, the easier it would be to help him recover. I had never tried healing permanent damage before, and I honestly had no clue what I was doing. So the more work Jonathan did, the better the odds he had of actually regaining his arm someday.


    Finally, a week had passed since Sallia and I returned to the city.


    The Orukthyri horde approached. Within eight hours, the final battle would begin.


    Since I had gotten permission from Scout Leader Nells and the army, I was allowed to join in the defense of the army against the Orukthyri horde. With some luck, I could snipe a spellcaster and then seriously a few Orukthyri using my shaping abilities during the fight. My whirlpool might also distract a few Orukthyri at critical moments during the fight. It was a long shot, but in theory, I might swing a few corners of the battlefield in our favor by helping out. It was all I could do.


    Half an hour later, I found myself sitting next to some soldiers in one of the main tunnels, waiting for the Orukthyri horde to arrive. The scouts had already confirmed that they were coming. The only question was how many hours they had left.


    We sat, resting and waiting for the enemy to come upon us, when a scout ran to one of the leaders from one of the side tunnels.


    The scout said something I couldn¡¯t quite make out, since my Perception was still, sadly, stuck in Grade 4.


    The commander grimaced, and ordered all of the soldiers to rise up as one. I realized the time had come. The enemy was nearly upon us.


    I did a final analysis of the troops we had available, and the terrain of the battlefield.


    There were about a thousand trained soldiers on our side, all fitted with well-made steel armor and weapons. Along with that, we had around two hundred volunteers who were tacked on to part of the army. These were far less well trained than the other soldiers, and also had much less useful equipment. However, about a week ago, a small surge of citizens had asked to join the soldiers in defending their home. These two hundred were the ones deemed to be more helpful than a hindrance on the battlefield by the army leaders.


    Apart from that, we had about seventy fourth circle spellcasters on our side, and a few fifth circle spellcasters as well. Due to how incredibly difficult it was to construct all 85 runes one needed for a fourth circle spell inside of one¡¯s mind at once, it was actually quite rare for a spellcaster to reach fourth circle, even if one had the essence reserves needed to theoretically cast fourth circle spells.


    Most third circle spellcasters in the city had no real way to contribute to the fight, although those that had muscle-enhancing spells had tossed some boosts onto the soldiers on the front lines before leaving.


    Finally, Lauren and a few sixth circle spellcasters were in the group, and I had heard that the Overseer would participate as well, although I couldn¡¯t see him from my position.


    The tunnel we were guarding was wide enough for about ten Orukthyri to stand side by side, and, unfortunately, tall enough for the Orukthyri to stand at full height and swing weapons around.


    I resisted the urge to curse the long-dead Ortha, who had made this tunnel so pointlessly tall and large, and made it so incredibly difficult to tamper with the terrain. There was no reason at all to bother doing so, and because of the damn magic keeping us from changing this tunnel¡¯s shape, we couldn¡¯t fix the tunnel into some terrain more suitable for us to fight in. If we had been able to just dig some pits or collapse the tunnel, this fight wouldn¡¯t have needed to occur at all.


    Then, I heard distant rumbling and snorting sounds, and gave the armor I was wearing over my dress one more look. Since my dress didn¡¯t cover my entire body, I had opted for some lighter metal armor to protect me from any stray bits of projectiles that might get flung my way. Felix had managed to whip together some decent quality armor for me using his attunement and his budding skills as a craftsman, and it was certainly better than nothing.


    I steadied myself, and then glanced at Sallia, Felix, and Anise, all of whom had come to help as well.


    I looked into the distance one final time, and, in the far distance, saw the first Orukthyri round one of the bends of the tunnel. It was too far away to hit with any spells or arrows, but it was a sign.


    The Orukthyri horde had come.

 Chapter 100: Horde (2)

    The first Orukthyri charged towards our lines, like a runaway train bent on bulldozing our military. I looked at the creature, and gritted my teeth, before opting to do¡­ nothing.


    Extinguishing a non-spellcaster Orukthyri was a waste. I needed to save my energy for the real problems.


    A few moments later, I saw arrows start to whistle towards the creature. Unfortunately, its thick skin and muscles stopped it from getting seriously injured by most of the arrows. However, I saw one arrow sink into its eyeball, causing the creature to wince in pain. Amazingly enough, even a fully powered arrow shot wasn¡¯t enough to pierce through the Orukthyri¡¯s eyeball: however, it had definitely hurt the creature, even if it hadn¡¯t taken out its eye. A moment later, it yanked the arrow out of its eye, and whirled towards the archer in question, glaring at him in hate. The Orukthyri now looked distinctly pissed off as it charged towards the archer.


    Moments later, another nine Orukthyri rounded the bend and charged forward. They quickly caught up with the first Orukthyri, and joined together right before they hit the front lines.


    The front lines braced themselves for impact as best they could. Soldiers raised their shields and braced their spears, preparing to meet the first charge of the enemy.


    The first group of Orukthyri crashed into the front lines like billion-ton wrecking balls, and I saw a few soldiers literally fly through the air like broken kites. They slammed into the walls and ceiling of the cave, dying or breaking bones on impact. However, after crashing into the soldiers, the Orukthyri lost a lot of their momentum. The Soldiers started to swarm the Orukthyri like ants, trying to cut at the sinews, bones, and joints of the creatures in a desperate attempt to bring them down.


    I saw one Orukthyri go down a few moments later. However, the soldiers paid dearly for every single Orukthyri they managed to drag down. Every single Orukthyri was several times stronger than a normal orthanoid soldier, and trying to wrestle them to the ground usually cost several soldiers their lives.


    I winced as I looked at the dead and dying soldiers, but I couldn¡¯t heal such serious injuries, and I needed to save my essence.


    I did wonder why we were positioned so far away from the cave bend. If we were positioned next to it, the Orukthyri would have less room to build up their momentum before hitting our lines. Was this a mistake, or was there some other meaning behind our positioning?


    Before I had time to think further, another group of Orukthyri emerged from around the tunnel bend. This time, it was a group of twelve. I grimaced.


    The front lines were already devolving into a chaotic melee, with soldiers desperately working to support each other while the Orukthyri tried to reach the back lines and swat down the annoying, if not particularly dangerous, archers. The spellcasters were still well protected, although most of them hadn¡¯t finished casting their first spell yet.


    A few moments later, a few faster fourth-circle spellcasters finally completed their first spells, causing a volley of spells to fly through the air. Two of the Orukthyri went down: however, several of the other Orukthyri who had been targeted used the strange ability of the Orukthyri to burst out with unprecedented speed, managing to dodge out of the way of the oncoming spells.


    I winced.


    Most fourth-circle spellcasters had enough essence for between one and three fourth circle spells per day. We couldn¡¯t afford misses, but the Orukthyri¡¯s ability to practically remove all of their momentum and slide in the opposite direction, coupled with their wave tactic, gave them just enough room to dodge.


    Then, I frowned.


    The way one of the Orukthyri had dodged struck me as ever so slightly off, although I couldn¡¯t quite tell why.


    I decided to follow up the attack, and created a crude fireball, before launching it at the strange Orukthyri, hoping I could get a lucky hit on its eyes. Third circle spells weren¡¯t able to harm these Orukthyri very much, but a direct hit to the eyes might still hurt them a bit. And I couldn¡¯t do much with my manifestation essence this fight anyway, so wasting some wasn¡¯t a big deal if it didn¡¯t work.


    The creature managed to dodge my fireball, and this time, I noticed the way its body seemed to be far more acrobatic than the other Orukthyri. Was it another variant of some sort? I scowled.


    21 magic symbols wasted.


    The ten Orukthyri crashed into the front lines. Our soldiers, which had just started to wrestle away the upper hand from the Orukthyri, were once again sent flying as the Orukthyri literally ripped them apart with their bare hands. I noticed the acrobatic Orukthyri at the back seemed less eager to join the fighting, and wondered what it was doing. I frowned.


    My teacher had told me that there was some sort of plan, and that I should just focus on dealing with the spellcasters when they showed up until I ran out of essence. However, I was starting to get nervous. The front lines already looked like they were struggling, and we had only seen around twenty Orukthyri so far. When the rest of the horde arrived, would our front lines simply crumple like tin cans? I could see dozens of soldiers already dying, and we had only dropped a few Orukthyri so far.


    I swallowed my impatience and hoped the overseer and military leaders knew what they were doing.


    Anise looked at the situation of the soldiers trying to desperately drag down the Orukthyri warriors, and seemed to search for a target. One of the Orukthyri let out a fearsome bellow, and Anise took aim directly at it before firing a beam of red energy at it. It reached out its hand to swat away the third-circle spell, but Anise made the beam of energy swerve around its hand. Then, the spell sank right into its mouth.


    The creature¡¯s war cry abruptly cut off into a gargled grunt of pain. At the same time, the smell of cooked meat wafted out of the creature¡¯s mouth. One of its hands clutched at its throat, and it gasped. Then, it rasped out a war cry, grabbed another soldier, and tried to throw him at Anise like a javelin.


    Sallia immediately grabbed Anise and rolled away with her, leaving the soldier to crash into the ground and splatter on impact. Anise¡¯s eyes widened in horror, but Sallia simply helped her up and then focused on the battle again. Now wasn¡¯t the time to worry about Anise¡¯s mental state: we needed to keep her alive first.


    The Orukthyri that had thrown a soldier had turned into a target. Several soldiers worked together, and managed to hold down the creature¡¯s flailing arms and legs, sinking their weapons into its arms and legs like tiny pocket knives. Many of their attacks simply skidded off of its skin, or barely sank into its flesh before getting stuck, but every so often, a soldier managed to get in a deeper cut.


    Then a few soldiers jumped onto its face and began sinking their weapons into its eyes and mouth over and over again. The creature roared in fury and struggled, successfully snapping its jaw forward and biting into one of the soldiers, who started screaming in fear.


    It crunched down, and the man stopped screaming.


    I felt the urge to extinguish the damn thing that had nearly hurt Anise start to rise up in my chest, even though it would probably die in moments anyway.


    I gritted my teeth and created a few madness-inducing water bubbles near its face, distracting it for a moment. The creature seemed fascinated by the bubbles for a few seconds, opening up enough time for someone else to land a third-circle spell on one of its eyes and singe its eyeball as well. The creature shrieked in pain, but its moment of distraction cost it dearly, as a soldier finally got a good hit on one of its eyes. It shrieked in pain, and tried to wriggle free, but even with the absurd strength of the Orukthyri, lifting nearly half a dozen soldiers who were pinning down each limb was impossible for it. Like ants swarming over a piece of discarded food, the Orukthyri slowly drowned in the army, even as its comrades ripped into the nearby soldiers.


    Before I could celebrate our minor victories, my heart leapt to my throat as another group of Orukthyri rounded the bend in the cave. This group was comprised of about 20 Orukthyri. I glanced at our front lines, and saw that another few Orukthyri had dropped. However, around 15 Orukthyri were still entangled with our troops. I didn¡¯t think that the front lines would be able to handle another charge right now, but the Orukthyri were coming whether our soldiers were ready or not.


    The new group charged our front lines, and I tried to create a few madness bubbles to distract some of them and slow down their charge. For a brief moment, a few slowed down, but several of them seemed oddly unresponsive to the bubbles of madness.


    However, the other Orukthyri seemed to have noticed that some of the group were slowed down, and slowed down themselves. It was as if the creatures were intent on keeping a formation while charging. I felt uneasy at the thought that our enemies had at least some understanding of military tactics, however weak their understanding might be.


    Luckily, our spellcasters didn¡¯t miss this opportunity, and a volley of spells blitzed through the air and towards the slowed down group of Orukthyri warriors.


    Several of them screeched in pain, before collapsing to the ground and dying. A few others contorted their bodies in strange ways, allowing them to dodge the spells by mixing their ridiculously fast bursts of speed and their strangely acrobatic physiques.


    I frowned.


    The first Orukthyri that had been oddly acrobating had also been a bit strange. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what was wrong, but alarm bells were ringing in my mind, even if I couldn¡¯t quite piece together what was bothering me yet.


    The Orukthyri that had been distracted by my madness bubbles recovered, and together with the surviving acrobatic Orukthyri, they rushed towards our front lines.


    Moments later, the new group of Orukthyri slammed into the front lines. The front lines, which had already been reeling from the impact of the first two groups of Orukthyri, collapsed completely. The next rank of soldiers quickly advanced to fill in the gaps as the front lines turned into chaotic strings of soldiers trying to surround and pin down the massive creatures.


    I felt a little bit more worried when I saw this. The tight, confined space of the tunnel meant that our soldiers were having a hard time surrounding the Orukthyri, and it was completely impossible for the soldiers to create opportunities to kill the massive creatures. I had originally thought that the confined tunnel would benefit our side, but it actually seemed to be the opposite, given the massive stat difference. Confining how many routes of attack each side had simply meant that our troops were locked in a fight where they were fighting the Orukthyri at what the Orukthyri excelled at: frontal assaults and head-on clashes.


    I also noticed, with some confusion, that the acrobatic Orukthyri were simply sitting in the back. They looked like they were ready to join the fray at any moment, but they weren¡¯t actually doing much yet.


    What was happening?


    Something about this felt familiar to me. But before I could finish connecting the dots in my mind, I saw another wave of fourth-circle spells crash into the Orukthyri who were tied up by our soldiers, along with one fifth-circle spell. Four Orukthyri dropped dead as beams of light ripped through their skulls, and the fifth-circle spell made parts of a few Orukthyri arms start to turn into a strange mud-like substance. The Orukthyri stopped fighting for a moment and watched, horrified, as parts of their body simply melted before falling off of their bodies. They howled in rage, and threw themselves into the fight with renewed vigor and fewer limbs. However, with only one arm, their fighting effectiveness was much lower, and our soldiers seemed to be slowly weakening and taking down some of the more tired and injured Orukthyri at the front.


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    I glanced at our spellcasters, and noticed that several of our spellcasters were starting to look exhausted. We had fired three volleys of spells at the Orukthyri so far, and while not every spellcaster had flung a spell into every volley, we were certainly down quite a few spells already. Did we have enough to make it through the fight?


    I glanced at Lauren, a sixth circle spellcaster, and the two sixth-circle spellcasters standing near him, and relaxed a bit.


    Surely we had enough essence to make it through the fight. Even though the acrobatic Orukthyri were a problem, as long as there weren¡¯t too many of them, it wouldn¡¯t be a big issue to just whittle them down after the easier targets were taken care of.


    Another group of thirty Orukthyri rounded the bend, before charging the front lines. With a meaty thunk, a few of the more well positioned reinforcements impacted our struggling front lines, even as more spells started to tear down some of the attackers. The blood of our soldiers started to paint the walls and floor red as more and more of us fell. The fourth circle spellcasters, who seemed to have been waiting for this moment, immediately started letting loose with their spells, blasting into the midst of the massive army of Orukthyri.


    I heard several Orukthyri scream, and then drop to the ground dead. Several of our spellcasters looked to be out of mana, but they had satisfied grins on their faces as they watched the Orukthyri drop. Even if a few more acrobatic Orukthyri were mixed into the group and had managed to dodge, we should have accounted for about half of the horde now, and we still had Lauren, the Overseer, and a few higher-circle Mages ready to take action at any time. They had much bigger essence pools than regular spellcasters, and could probably see the rest of the fight through using a few higher circle spells if it came down to it.


    From behind the bend in the tunnels, a new Orukthyri stepped out, flanked by about twenty Orukthyri. Unlike the previous groups, this group didn¡¯t charge directly forward. Instead, the first Orukthyri raised its arms, and I felt manifestation essence start to build up around it.


    My first target. I could finally do something. The front lines were already starting to collapse. They wouldn¡¯t survive a spell bombardment right now.


    So I removed the threat.


    Extinguish.


    I pointed a single finger at the spellcaster, and a singular drop of water materialized above its head. A fraction of a second later, the drop of water splashed the head of the spellcaster, and it dropped dead on the spot.


    Almost half of my alteration essence disappeared, but I had finally done something useful for the fight. I felt some of the tension in my body start to disappear now that I wasn¡¯t stuck waiting around anymore.


    I took a moment to scan the other twenty Orukthyri who had been guarding the spellcaster, and frowned.


    Something seemed weird about some of these Orukthyri. Their candles of life were¡­ odd. It was hard to tell exactly what was wrong with them, because my Perception was so terrible, but I was pretty sure something was weird with some of them. A few of the Orukthyri looked quite normal, but¡­


    Before I could focus more on what was bugging me, another group of twenty Orukthyri rounded the bend. Five or six of them were dressed the same way as the spellcasting Orukthyri, although I couldn¡¯t sense manifestation essence in all of them.


    What was going on?


    Either way, several more spellcasters had joined the fray.


    Several of our spellcasters started using their remaining mana to throw spells at the Orukthyri spellcaster group in the back. By now, we should have seen most of the horde. It was time to let loose with the rest of our spells and get rid of the Orukthyri before they managed to get the upper hand in this fight.


    However, I frowned as I looked at the ground.


    Were there fewer bodies on the tunnel floor than before? And why did so many Orukthyri in this group seem to have strange ¡®candles of life?¡¯ I was getting an increasingly bad feeling in my stomach, but I was also out of a big chunk of my Alteration Essence. Killing even one Orukthyri was incredibly expensive, and I didn¡¯t have enough to instantly kill another Orukthyri.


    I frowned, and out of curiosity, tried hitting one of the ¡®weird¡¯ candles of life with an extinguish.


    The Orukthyri stared at me for a moment, as if shocked, and then dropped dead, despite how little alteration essence I had put into my attack. Were these Orukthyri with strange candles of life exceptionally vulnerable to shaping? The uneasy feeling in my stomach was only getting worse, despite how easy it seemed to deal with this new group. Not to mention, it was incredibly weird that it had taken a moment for that Orukthyri to die.


    I spent a moment trying to figure out what I was seeing, but the chaos of the battlefield waited for no one.


    While I sitting around trying to figure out what was wrong with this whole scenario, new Orukthyri Spellcasters started to use second-circle and third circle spells to clear out our soldiers. Whenever a group of soldiers was nearly about to bring down one of the Orukthyri in the front lines, they would get hit by a fire dart or a fireball and die. I could tell that the Orukthyri spells were¡­ misshapen compared to our own. They lacked a proper understanding of how to optimize the spell, but they were still able to make spells that worked, even if there were some wasted magic symbols and some strange additional sub-symbols. And the Orukthyri casters clearly understood the overall battlefield well enough to contribute effectively to the fight.


    Worse, the Orukthyri guarding the spellcasters had brought large tree branches or rocks, and they threw them at our soldiers as well. Combined with the ludicrous arm strength of the Orukthyri, our soldiers began to rapidly die as they fought both ranged and melee enemies. The Orukthyri didn¡¯t need to worry about friendly fire, because their bodies were much sturdier than ours.


    I noticed that the number of missiles sent by the group of Orukthyri at the back seemed to be lower than it should have been. Several of the Orukthyri were at the front, miming throwing rocks and tree branches, but a lot of them weren¡¯t actually contributing much to the fight. However, they were incredibly acrobatic: whenever our spellcasters sent a spell their way, there was a good chance that they would dodge it using their incredibly unusual acrobatic talent.


    However, the ones that got hit died without exception. As if the rock-hard skin most Orukthyri boasted was just an illusion.


    An illusion¡­


    I started to feel sick to my stomach, as I finally realized what was wrong with the ¡®acrobatic¡¯ Orukthyri. However, it was too late.


    Before I could say anything, I heard that voice resound through the cavern, oddly loud in the overwhelming chaos.


    ¡°That should be the overwhelming majority of the horde. As expected, the dumb creatures truly lost almost any semblance of critical thinking when the Ortha warped their bodies centuries ago.¡± the person who was talking seemed almost amused. ¡°Well, it¡¯s time to end this.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re illusions! Wait!¡± I yelled, but unlike the strange voice, my voice didn¡¯t carry in the crowd. It was totally lost in the screams of dying men and the sound of steel and Orukthyri crashing into each other, as well as the occasional wet splat as a soldier was flung into the walls or towards the back lines.


    I felt a prickle of manifestation essence surface from behind me. However, unlike previous chunks of manifestation essence, this one was massive. It beggared my imagination, making me feel like I had a giant sun behind my back.


    I turned around, and saw that a small, raised platform had been made out of shaping magic at some point. On the raised platform stood a dignified looking older man who wore pure white robes. There was only one person in the city who wore pure white. The Overseer.


    He was flanked by nearly twenty soldiers, all of whom also had threads of white sewn onto parts of their armor. Standing next to him were another five people, who I realized were spellcasters of the fifth circle. Lauren and the two Sixth circle spellcasters hadn¡¯t opted to stand on the platform with him, but even fifth circle spellcasters were very rare in the city.


    I saw several other soldiers glance at the overseer, and realized he was somehow projecting his voice into the noisy cavern during the fight, wasting magic symbols to evaporate a bunch of nothing.


    Desperately, I tried warping the way my voice carried through the air with my alteration essence.


    ¡°They¡¯re illusions!¡± I yelled, but my voice was distorted beyond recognition. Somehow, I had messed up.


    Meanwhile, I felt the Overseer building up more and more magic symbols. It was a dizzying amount.


    Was he preparing a seventh circle spell?


    I saw several other casters start hurling fourth-circle spells at the Orukthyri casters, some of them likely using up the last of their essence to do so. A few of the spells missed, since the targets were so much further away, but one spellcaster was killed, and another seriously injured by the scattered spells. I felt a sudden, crushing certainly in my chest.


    It was too late.


    I felt the overseer¡¯s spell click into place, like a key sliding into a lock.


    I looked back, and realized that the overseer had finished constructing his spell.


    A fully built seventh circle spell sprang into existence. From behind the army, a ball of light rose like a fake sun ascending into the sky. It illuminated the walls and ceiling of the cave, and I winced, shielding my eyes.


    Many of the soldiers copied me. To the side, I noticed Anise close all four of her eyes and put her hands over them to prevent the fake sun from burning her retinas, a half-baked third-circle spell falling apart mid-cast.


    Then, the ball of light started shedding layers of energy. waves of light tore out of the ball, like streams of deadly confetti. Each stream of illumination that tore out of the fake sun zeroed in one one of the Orukthyri, before ripping through them like the judgment of a god falling upon the world. A few of the Orukthyri in the group guarding the spellcasters managed to dodge the spray of energy beams, since they were further away, but most of the nearby Orukthyri were caught in the Overseer¡¯s spell.


    In seconds, the group of Orukthyri in the cavern was reduced to three surviving Orukthyri. In the Orukthyri back lines, there was one half-dead spellcaster, one honor guard, and one Orukthyri who, by some miracle, had survived despite being caught in the front lines.


    Apart from that, there were forty-two real Orukthyri corpses in the cave.


    A moment later, about seventy Orukthyri ¡®corpses¡¯ got up and gave us a creepy grin, before they faded into thin air like illusions.


    After all, they were illusions.


    How had illusions created candles of life? How had the Orukthyri managed to coordinate the illusions so well, to look like they were real Orukthyri? Even if there had clearly been something wrong, even I hadn¡¯t spotted anything the first few times I observed them?


    I realized, with crushing certainty, that these questions didn¡¯t matter anymore.


    We had been tricked. The Orukthyri had used a few waves of cannon fodder mixed in with illusions to trick our spellcasters into wasting a huge proportion of our essence, and their main troops weren¡¯t even in the cavern at all. Now a lot of our spellcasting essence was gone, and the Overseer had already fired off his big spell.


    From around the bend in the cave, another group of eighty Orukthyri appeared.


    Unlike the previous clusters of Orukthyri, these ones moved as a group. A careful, well trained, intelligent group of Orukthyri. And some of them were armed with logs, boulders, and other massive missiles, taking full advantage of the ridiculous arm strength of the Orukthyri. Woven into the group of Orukthyri throwers were more spellcasters. I counted eleven of them.


    I felt something else in the air. Something I hadn¡¯t noticed the Orukthyri use before now.


    Shaping Essence.


    The illusions disappeared.


    I looked at the overseer, and I saw his face harden as he realized that he had been tricked. He had grown overconfident and complacent, and now we were in a terrible situation. There had been several real Orukthyri mixed into the bait, causing several of our soldiers to get killed by the charging creatures, and blinding the army to the oddity of some of the Orukthyri hanging around in the back. It was hard to track a few Orukthyri acting strange when men were screaming, dying, and fighting to the death, after all, and nobody had noticed how a few of the arrows and spells moved through most of the Orukthyri back lines until it was too late. Just enough Orukthyri had been sprinkled into the illusion to convince us it was real, and once the ¡®entire¡¯ Orukthyri army had appeared, we had been more than willing to toss our spells and essence into killing them¡­ only to accomplish nothing.


    The real main force of the Orukthyri grinned at us, giving us the same wicked smile as the ¡®corpses¡¯ from earlier. And then they charged, while the Orukthyri in the back raised their ridiculously large missiles and began throwing them at our already exhausted spellcasters and archers.


    I looked at the overseer, hoping that he was able to unleash another seventh circle spell. He was supposed to be an eighth circle spellcaster, right? That should mean he had at least two or three more seventh circle spells in him.


    However, as I watched the blood drain from his face, I realized that he might not have been entirely truthful when he spread rumors through the city that he was an eighth circle spellcaster. In fact, he might not have another spell left in him at all.


    The main force of the warband had arrived. And we were completely unprepared for it.

 Chapter 101: Horde (3)

    The new wave of real Orukthyri tore through our disorganized front lines like lightning splitting a tree. I winced as I heard the meaty crunch of our soldiers dying. The front lines had already been a disorganized mess as they had worked to surround the Orukthyri and drag them to the ground, and our soldiers hadn¡¯t been given any time at all to regroup. While the soldiers were doing their best to hold down the new threat and protect the spellcasters, they were struggling with this new group of more well-trained and organized Orukthyri. They were taking far more casualties per second than before, which was already causing the second rank of troops to become dangerously depopulated.


    Worse, a few spellcasters had died to Orukthyri ranged enemies as well. Many spellcasters had emptied out their reserves on the wave of illusions, and plenty of others were down a spell or two, making it hard to protect themselves and kill the invaders. Boulders and massive logs whizzed through the air, and while our casters were quickly hiding behind the shields of nearby soldiers, the Orukthyri had temporarily thrown our ranged support into disarray.


    ¡°There! Do you see him?¡± Asked Sallia, pointing at something behind the Orukthyri throwers and breaking me out of my shock.


    Had Sallia noticed something? I eyed our exhausted spellcasters, and felt a sliver of hope return to my heart. Even though things looked bad, perhaps there was still a way to turn this around.


    I scanned the Orukthyri ranks and noticed that, standing a bit behind the new Orukthyri throwers and spellcasters was another Orukthyri. Unlike the other Orukthyri, who strongly resembled humanoid boulders, this Orukthyri was much smaller and slimmer. He was almost the same size as an adult Orthanoid, and had blue skin instead of chalk-gray skin. He held a large wooden staff in place of a warbow. It looked more like a walking stick than a proper weapon. However, far more dangerous was the gleam of intelligence in its eyes. It occasionally barked orders at the throwers and spellcasters, causing the warband to display a level of coordination Orukthyri shouldn¡¯t have been capable of. Each barrage of boulders and spells targeted spots where our troops were managing to gather together and coordinate again, frying any attempts at making our front line effective as anything other than meat shields.


    ¡°I think he¡¯s their commander,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Or at the very least, he¡¯s important. If we can kill him, maybe we can swing the battle back in our favor,¡± she said. Truthfully, Sallia didn¡¯t sound that confident. It seemed as if the commander had been the one that created the illusion, but¡­ he was probably nearly out of alteration essence now. His illusions wouldn¡¯t be able to play another big role in the battle.


    Even if his personal strength wasn¡¯t very high, he was still the one giving orders to the other Orukthyri. Perhaps killing him could give us a chance. Our spellcasters were nearly exhausted, but they still had some magic left.


    It was a chance. A slim one, but a chance.


    I checked my alteration reserves, and cursed. I had less than a quarter of my essence left: nowhere near enough to kill the commander with an extinguish. I wished I had realized that the Orukthyri had a commander, and saved a proper extinguish for it. However, it was too late. I didn¡¯t have enough alteration essence left to instantly kill it.


    Then, I saw Sallia grinning at me, and felt a flash of realization.


    I may not have enough alteration essence left to extinguish the commander, but I wasn¡¯t fighting alone.


    On my own, I couldn¡¯t make a difference. But Sallia had access to stealth from her fourth rune ability, and could supercharge her physical abilities using her sixth rune ability, her attunement, and her spells. She definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to fight for long: but she might be able to deliver a swift assassination and retreat safely. I could help by hitting it with an extinguish right beforehand.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can kill this thing. I plan to sneak my way over. After that, can the three of you coordinate with me and hit it with everything you can muster?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°If Miria extinguishes it with the rest of her shaping essence, it should be weakened enough that the other attacks will get through its skin. Then Felix and Anise can hit it with a few distractions, and then I¡¯ll try to finish it off. Can you do it?¡±


    Felix paused for a moment, looking at the commander, and then nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best. I only have an intermediate weapon skill, though. So I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll be able to hit a weak point.¡±


    ¡°Just do your best,¡± said Sallia. ¡°What about you, Anise?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to distract it!¡± said Anise, who had a strange mixture of fear and excitement in her voice as she looked at the Orukthyri leader. ¡°I can at least hit it with a few third circle spells!¡±


    ¡°Stay safe!¡± Said Sallia. ¡°I don¡¯t want you guys to get hurt.¡±


    Then, she ducked to the side, and with a surge of absorption essence, her body seemed to blend into the shadows of the cave wall. After a few moments, I completely lost track of her.


    I grinned. With how chaotic the battlefield was, it was very easy to lose track of where one person was. If anyone could kill the Orukthyri commander in the middle of his own troops, it would be her.


    I shuffled closer to Anise and Felix. Now that Sallia was gone, defending my friends was up to me. Luckily, as long as I was standing in front of my friends, I could use my dress to protect them.


    Then, I glanced towards the front lines again, and winced.


    Things were not looking good for the front lines. This group of Orukthyri was much smarter than the last batch. They weren¡¯t just charging blindly. Instead, they had fallen into a formation. Ten Orukthyri stood side by side, filling up an entire row of the cave. They were carefully retreating whenever our soldiers got too close to them, and advancing whenever our soldiers retreated. This kept them just out of reach of our soldiers, making it hard for our soldiers to drag them down and swarm them. Instead of allowing our soldiers to leverage their numbers, they were simply smashing the front line over and over again with their tree-clubs. Due to the massive arm strength of the Orukthyri, the soldiers were quickly dying.


    A scattered volley of fourth-circle spells hammered the Orukthyri troop wall, dropping several of them, but there were too many Orukthyri. Worse, some of the Orukthyri were smart enough to use their trees as shields. Even if that usually destroyed their tree club, the Orukthyri were almost as terrifying with just their bare fists. And many of our spellcasters were already exhausted.


    More missiles rained on our back line, and I noticed that our spells were getting more and more sparse. Our final fourth-circle spellcasters were running out of essence.


    I looked at the Overseer, hoping that he had another seventh-circle spell up his sleeves. Wasn¡¯t it rumored that he was an eighth circle spellcaster? That should mean he had another two or three seventh circle spells up his sleeve. If he used just one more copy of that giant sun spell, we could remove the Orukthyri front lines and peel away the older ones. But he seemed just as worried as I felt, although it looked like he was desperately trying to coax his face into an impassive mask. However, he wasn¡¯t doing a very good job of it.


    Lauren yelled something I couldn¡¯t quite make out, before he dodged to the side of the cave. But even though I couldn¡¯t hear what Lauren had said, I did feel him start to gather manifestation essence, stringing together magic symbols like a precise machine.


    In raw speed, I suspected that Lauren was actually faster than the overseer. I felt a glimmer of hope again.


    We still had at least a few casters who could use sixth circle spells. Thus far, our sixth circle spellcasters hadn¡¯t done much: it had mostly been the fifth and fourth circle spellcasters tossing volley after volley of spells into the Orukthyri front lines. Even though most of our spellcasters were exhausted, maybe if Sallia eliminated the Orukthyri general and then we followed up with a volley of sixth-circle spells, there was still a chance.


    It would still be incredibly difficult. Without the support of most of our fourth-circle spellcasters, I doubted a few sixth-circle spells would change the course of the battle. But it was all the hope I had left.


    Out of the corners of my eye, I saw several of the Orukthyri spellcasters look at Lauren, and then yell something at the Orukthyri commander. The commander barked out an order, and several of the ranged Orukthyri focused on Lauren moments later. Lauren paled, and dove to the side, before he swapped to casting a fifth circle spell I recognized.


    Our few remaining spellcasters realized that they didn¡¯t have enough mana to change the outcome of the battle. They barely had any essence left, and things were desperate. The few of them that still mana left tossed a few fourth-circle spells in front of Lauren, buying him just enough time to raise his own fifth-circle shield spell.


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    Immediately afterward, the other two sixth circle spellcasters moved next to Lauren. Even if three spellcasters probably couldn¡¯t change the course of the battle, it was the last hope we had.


    Then, Lauren and the two spellcasters began building their own spells. They didn¡¯t look at the trembling fifth-circle spell protecting them, as if they were trying not to think about how thin the wall separating them from death truly was.


    Meanwhile, the front lines continued to collapse like a house of cards.


    The Orukthyri seemed to find a weakness, and gleefully charged into the the second rank of soldiers. Like a dam collapsing, the front lines seemed to fold into layers of screams and crashes. Most of our spellcasters were well and truly out of essence now, and there wasn¡¯t much they could do anymore. Like a flood, the Orukthyri ripped apart the second rank and started flooding into the third, before they started to reform their formation. The Orukthyri warriors were getting closer.


    Meanwhile, the Orukthyri throwers and spellcasters were almost solely focused on our spellcasters now. Our front lines stood no chance of surviving on their own, so the throwers and spellcasters were just focused on taking down the last spellcasters that still seemed to be active. In this case, Lauren and the other two sixth-circle spellcasters.


    They were nearly through the shields, and I felt my anxiety deepen. Things looked very bad, and if Lauren and the other two didn¡¯t finish their spells soon, they would die.


    Moments later, Lauren completed his spell. Immediately, a large film of force spread throughout the area, and the Orukthyri warrior charge stopped dead in its tracks. About a third of the Orukthyri warriors had stopped: however, all of the frozen Orukthyri warriors were in the front of their group. With them blocking the way, the other Orukthyri couldn¡¯t get to the fight, causing the entire front line to get stuck.


    The boulders and spells sent by the Orukthyri ranged units clattered off of the film of magic energy. Right now, their ranged units could barely interfere with the fight, and our soldiers had a window of time where the Orukthyri warriors could barely move.


    ¡°The spell won¡¯t hold for long! Make the most of the time you have!¡± Yelled Lauren, and I could hear echoes of strain in his voice. However, I could also hear a sense of pride.


    Even though Lauren¡¯s spell was mostly geared towards self-defence, it was could buy time for the other two spellcasters to finish their spells, and it might buy our warriors time to kill a few Orukthyri.


    However, I could see that the manifestation Essence in Lauren¡¯s spell was being rapidly depleted. It was a spell meant to hold off one or two major threats while the spellcaster escaped, or hold off a cave in until the user was rescued.


    It was not meant to stop nearly forty magic-resistant Orukthyri dead in the middle of a charge while another thirty spellcasters and throwers hammered at the spell from afar.


    Still, at least for now, it was holding out.


    I glanced at the Orukthyri back line again, hoping to see Sallia. If she could assassinate the Orukthyri commander right now, maybe we could bluff the Orukthyri into retreating.


    I felt a bit of impatience rise up, and after a moment of hesitation, I tossed a Crude Fireball at the eyeball of one of the Orukthyri in the front lines. Since they were fighting to move under Lauren¡¯s spell, killing them would help his spell last longer. And as they were frozen, hitting their weak points wasn¡¯t that hard.


    My spell dug into the Orukthyri¡¯s eyes, and it screeched in pain. Anise quickly added a few of her own spells. Even though she only had access to third circle spells, when the Orukthyri was a sitting duck, hitting its weak points was easier. Several archers picked up on what we were doing, and started shooting into the eyes of the same Orukthyri, or targeting a few others. While their accuracy wasn¡¯t perfect, at least a few arrows managed to scratch the Orukthyri¡¯s eyes instead of bouncing off of their skin. Anise followed up with three fireballs, and finally, our target¡¯s eye started to deform under the constant attacks. I glanced at the Orukthyri front line, and, seeing that they were still stuck, I quickly ran forward. I took the opportunity to burn a huge amount of absorption essence, temporarily strengthening my body to its limit, and then stabbed it right in its ruined eye.


    Since its rock-hard skin was already on the brink of collapse, I found that my blade didn¡¯t struggle to sink into its skin. It felt almost as easy as cutting into regular human flesh, and my blade quickly sank all the way through its eye and into its brain.


    The Orukthyri died.


    I debated hitting another Orukthyri, but decided to keep the rest of my essence in case of an emergency. I had burned through nearly a third of my absorption essence with that attack, and I didn¡¯t want to be distracted when Sallia made her move.


    One of the other two sixth-circle spellcasters finished their spells, and a beam of blue light launched itself towards the Orukthyri spellcasters, before hitting the tunnel floor and exploding. Ice spikes sprayed in every direction, cutting through Orukthyri spellcasters and throwers like they were soggy paper.


    Perhaps seven Orukthyri throwers and casters were killed by the spell, and another few were injured. However, the injured Orukthyri quickly got back up, ignoring their wounds.


    I started to feel my tension ratchet up again. Killing seven Orukthyri with one spell was good, but it was also one of our last spells for the fight. And it had done nowhere near enough to win the battle for us. There were still too many Orukthyri left.


    Before I could think more about that, I saw something flicker just behind the Orukthyri lines. I saw Sallia materialize out of thin air, and she locked eyes with me from across the battlefield. I grinned and nodded.


    She sprang towards the Orukthyri leader, wielding her Market-made sword.


    I spent all of my alteration essence, and felt my head start to pound as I suddenly ran out of my primary essence.


    A drop of water appeared right above the Orukthyri commander, before hitting its head. Extinguish immediately robbed nearly a third of its life force.


    It didn¡¯t die on the spot. However, its body wobbled, and it very nearly faceplanted into the ground. Its commanding grunts stopped ringing through the cavern, and the commander looked weak for a moment.


    Seeing their chance, Felix and Anise sent twin attacks at the Orukthyri leader. Felix¡¯s arrow wasn¡¯t quite on-target, but Anise¡¯s fireball slammed directly into one of the Orukthyri Commander¡¯s eyes. The creature winced in pain, and blinked a few times.


    Ella seemed to have noticed what was happening, and she also turned her attention towards the Orukthyri leader. It doubled over for a moment, lost in a haze of pain as she pressured its mind with her attunement.


    Felix¡¯s arrow bounced off of its cheek a moment later, giving it the equivalent of a papercut.


    And then Sallia¡¯s sword sank its neck. Unlike the other times Sallia had tried stabbing an Orukthyri, this thing was already seriously weakened by my and Ella¡¯s attack, and Anise¡¯s fireball had fully dragged its attention towards us. Sallia¡¯s sword sank into its neck, ripping into arteries and muscles.


    The Orukthyri leader seemed shocked, and held its hands up to its neck. It gurgled wetly, and then, ignoring its fatal injuries, suddenly flickered. For a moment, its movement sped up, well beyond what I could track, and then I completely lost sight of it.


    Sallia¡¯s eyes widened as she was tossed into a cave wall by a dying Orukthyri commander, and I heard a few things snap. Sallia gasped in pain, before she activated her absorption essence rune and disappeared.


    The Orukthyri commander was still gasping in pain, and it looked like it might die soon. However, it didn¡¯t seem worried about its impending death. Its eyes scanned over our soldiers, and a savage rage seemed to set its eyes alight.


    It pointed at the overseer and gurgled wetly a few times. However, its commands weren¡¯t getting through very well. Its throat was just too damaged to enunciate its words clearly. None of the other Orukthyri seemed to be able to make out what it was saying.


    But it didn¡¯t matter.


    Another Orukthyri hit Lauren¡¯s already nearly-depleted spell with a boulder, followed up by a final wave of massive boulders and spells.


    Lauren¡¯s spell collapsed. The throwers and spellcasters immediately seized the opportunity, killing all three spellcasters, including the sixth-circle spellcaster that hadn¡¯t completed their spell yet.


    My eyes widened as Lauren turned into splattered gore in front of my eyes.


    With a cracking sound, the Orukthyri on the front lines finished ripping into the third rank of soldiers. I felt a desperate sob build up in my throat.


    It didn¡¯t matter anymore. Even if the commander died right now, it wouldn¡¯t change a thing. Over half of the trained Orukthyri were left, and all we had left were a bunch of exhausted troops and spellcasters. Even if the third sixth-circle spellcaster had finished his spell, it probably wouldn¡¯t have changed anything.


    We had no way to turn the battle around. We probably hadn¡¯t had a chance the moment the overseer wasted his seventh-circle spell to kill a bunch of illusions.


    Another wave of boulders and spells fell upon the area the Overseer had been overseeing the battle.


    Moments later, I smelled burning Orthanoid. The Overseer and his retinue of exhausted spellcasters died too.


    From a few meters away, I saw Ella¡¯s eyes widen as she took in the corpse of Lauren and the two sixth-circle spellcasters.


    She glanced at our front lines, who were still desperately trying to hold back the remaining Orukthyri warriors, and then looked at the relatively healthy Orukthyri backlines, and then looked at our devastated spellcasters. There weren¡¯t many left alive, and almost nobody had any essence left.


    It took a few moments before the first spellcaster on our side turned around and started running. Morale collapsed.


    Sallia reappeared right next to me. Her arm was broken, but she looked better than I had feared


    ¡°Sallia! Grab Anise! Miria, grab Felix! We¡¯re running!¡± Barked Ella, before she helped haul Anise to her feet. I hadn¡¯t even noticed when Anise had been knocked down.


    I immediately picked up Felix, using my powerful body to shoulder his weight, and Sallia picked up Anise with her good arm.


    Then, we began running towards the city, fleeing the approaching Orukthyri horde.


    We had lost the battle.

 Chapter 102: Horde (4)

    Felix watched as the front lines began to crumble, before Miria picked him and began running. Due to her strength, Felix doubted that Miria was seriously struggling with his weight or his movements, but just in case, he did his best not to wriggle around too much. He didn¡¯t want to put more strain on Miria if he could avoid it, and he was also afraid of being dropped.


    However, he felt his heart start to sink as they really ran away from the battle. Even though he had known it was coming the moment Miria picked him up, a part of him had been hoping for a miracle. Some crazy idea to turn everything around, or another city intervening, or¡­ something.


    On the islands, when he had hunted with the hunters, they had always succeeded in killing the landbeasts. Sometimes that success came at a price, but they had always won, with the help of the madness-inducing ocean.


    What went wrong this time? Why were the Orukthyri starting to push through the front lines and kill the soldiers behind them?


    Felix felt his thoughts and memories swirling around his mind as Miria fled with him through the tunnels, right behind Sallia and Anise.


    His thoughts kept returning to one critical question, over and over again.


    How could this be happening?


    Felix thought back to battle, and felt a mixture of shock and sadness as he thought of the battle lost. However, now that he truly sorted through the details of the city¡¯s military, he started to see why this battle had ended in a loss.


    The tunnel that the city had fought in wasn¡¯t very suited towards the Orthanoid soldiers as a battlefield. Normally, a tight, enclosed space was advantageous for the defenders of a city or area, because they could prepare a great deal of traps to deal with the attacking force by forcing them into a killing field. However, the damnable Orthan tunnels removed ¡®blockages¡¯ in the tunnels, making that a fruitless endeavor. Because of that, instead of an advantage, the tight, enclosed spaces of the tunnels had instead become a disadvantage. The best way the Orthanoid soldiers had to fight against the Orukthyri was by swarming and enveloping them. And in a tight, enclosed tunnel, doing so was nightmarishly difficult. And since narrow, confined spaces also restricted how many soldiers could interact with a battlefield at once, the battlefield was actually quite suited for the Orukthyri warriors, who had high quality soldiers and low quantity.


    More importantly, however, was the fact that the city¡¯s army was used to fighting warfare in a very specific way. The soldiers bought time for the spellcasters, and the spellcasters blasted down everything while hiding behind a shield wall. Most denizens of the dark weren¡¯t bright enough to explicitly take out the spellcasters, and so the soldiers worked hard to present just enough of a threat to distract enemies while the spellcasters did the heavy lifting. However, the Orukthyri were at least intelligent enough to figure out where the threat was and use ranged weapons to remove it.


    Not to mention, a lot of key mechanical knowledge was missing form this world. People only invented things to solve problems they faced, which was why a lot of key inventions in his former homeworld had been invented. In his first life, people had invented cannons to take down massive city walls, once catapults and trebuchets proved insufficient. However, in this world, spellcasters had generally been dominant enough in warfare that there had never been a ¡®need¡¯ for complicated mechanical contraptions before the Orthan empire fell apart. And in this era, there were no city walls that people tended to attack, meaning that when the city actually needed them, there were no mechanical traps or pieces of equipment they could fall back on once the spellcasters proved useless against the Orukthyri.


    Once the city¡¯s army was forced into a situation where most of the city¡¯s spellcasters were taken out of the picture by the Orukthyri¡¯s magic resistance, and where their tactics of holding off an enemy in a narrow space and waiting for the spellcasters to win the battle fell apart¡­


    The army also fell apart.


    Not that it mattered now.


    Miria came to a stop, and Felix was brought out of his thoughts as Miria quickly set him upright. He was no longer being carried like a sack of potatoes, which was nice. He quickly glanced around the area, making sure that there weren¡¯t any denizens of the dark or Orukthyri attacking the area. He doubted any of the denizens of the dark would reach the city this quickly, but they would come sooner or later. After all, there wasn¡¯t a coordinated army to push them back anymore.


    What mattered for now was escaping before they arrived. Luckily, most of the Orukthyri horde had been killed by the army, so they wouldn¡¯t be able to quickly annihilate the city. It might take several minutes, or even a few hours, for the Orukthyri to really finish butchering the population. Even if each Orukthyri was close to invincible now, with the only threatening spellcasters out of essence, they could only kill so many people per minute. That meant everyone had much more time to escape the massive creatures.


    Felix noticed a few system notifications pop up, but blinked them away. Now wasn¡¯t the time.


    ¡°How fast can your family members move?¡± Asked Ella, turning towards Felix and the others. ¡°If they can move fast, get them to grab any valuables and then get back here within ten minutes. We have four shapers-casters, so any city we come to will definitely take us in. We¡¯ll head overland for one of the other entrances to the underdark: I know the surface settlement had contact with a few other entrances, and some of them are close to other cities. I have a rough idea what we¡¯re looking for, so we just need to-¡±


    Bang!


    Felix heard something crash in the distance, and he saw some civilians start turning towards the tunnel entrance where the soldiers were fleeing from the Orukthyri. They had come faster than he expected.


    ¡°Move!¡± Yelled Ella. The group quickly broke apart, scattering towards their houses.


    Felix noticed that their group wasn¡¯t the only one moving. Some civilians started booking it, moving as fast as they could as they started preparing to flee as the realization that the army had lost started to set in. Meanwhile, other civilians simply stood, staring at the caves in a stunned silence as everything they knew started to come crashing down.


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    He grimaced, feeling a strange mixture of guilt and sadness. The Orukthyri survivors might have been few, but there were still enough to kill many of the surviving residents of the city. And the denizens of the dark that came afterwards would force many of the survivors into even more desperate circumstances. If he had just been a little stronger, a little more active in his last life, maybe he could have gotten a Keyword ability and done more during the battle.


    But would it even have mattered?


    Felix thought of the items he had been learning how to make, and the combat abilities he had managed to display while fighting the Orukthyri horde. He laughed bitterly.


    He loved making items the most. The intricacy of messing with a blueprint, the feeling of creating something new from raw materials¡­ they were things that made him feel happy. However, the multiverse wasn¡¯t such a kind place that he could simply make items and be safe.


    He was starting to realize that now. In his first life, he had learned how to fight, and he had kept at least a minimum level of fighting abilities in this life as well. However, he needed to be able to do a little more, clearly. Perhaps there was a way to turn item-crafting into a form of combat ability? For the first time, Felix found himself dearly wishing that he could not only perform adequately during a fight, but that he would excel at it. He didn¡¯t want to experience something like this ever again.


    He stumbled through the city streets, moving as quickly as he could. He wished that his physical abilities were better: he had boosted them a little bit during his training using Sallia¡¯s items, but they were nowhere near the monstrous stamina and speed Sallia and Miria had with the help of their runes.


    He moved faster, quickly reaching the home he shared with his parents, and knocked on the door.


    ¡°Mom! Dad! We need to go!¡± He yelled.


    He opened the door, and saw that his mother and father were already halfway done packing, thankfully.


    ¡°Felix! I¡¯m glad you¡¯re safe!¡± Said his father, dropping the clothes he had been stuffing into a backpack and rushing over to hug Felix. ¡°Grab your clothes and a few days of food and water. Did any of your friends¡­¡±


    ¡°My friends are safe¡­¡± Felix felt bile rise up in his throat as he thought of Lauren, who had been splattered by a rock. ¡°My master is dead.¡±


    ¡°Lauren is gone?¡± His mother gave Felix a look of pure shock for a moment, before it turned into a harder frown. ¡°Then we really need to get moving. Did Miria¡¯s teacher live?¡±


    Felix nodded.


    ¡°Then we¡¯ll follow her. Neither your father nor I are quite as good at spellcasting as we used to be since we put our adventuring days behind us, and we always had low essence pools. But we can still manage a few third circle spells a day. Having a shaper could make travelling quite safe. Is she waiting for us?¡±


    Felix nodded.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s get packed within a few minutes and go.¡±


    The three quickly rolled up all of the belongings they needed to survive, including food, water, and some other daily necessities, before heading back into the city.


    It seemed that more people had started to realize things had gone horribly wrong in the time Felix and his family had packed up their belongings. People were fleeing like headless chickens, heading towards seemingly random tunnel exits and heading into the darkness. Felix wondered how many of them would reach another town.


    He felt dark thoughts rise up again, before he forcibly pushed them down and sped up. Now wasn¡¯t the time.


    His mother and father kept pace with him, and soon, they arrived at the place where Ella was waiting.


    Miria had a strangely hollow look on her face.


    Felix felt a surge of worry. He wasn¡¯t used to seeing Miria look like this. She was always excited, or happy, or interested, but he realized that perhaps he was taking Miria¡¯s mental state for granted. She was always the sunshine of their little group, and seeing her so hurt made Felix realize how much he relied on the positivity she brought to the group. Seeing one of his friends look like this felt awful. Sallia didn¡¯t look much better, but she had better control over her facial expressions.


    ¡°Are you all right?¡± he asked both of them.


    ¡°My family already left,¡± said Miria. ¡°I think I missed them by a few minutes. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever see them again, or if they¡¯re safe¡­¡± Felix suddenly had a better idea why Miria looked so devastated. She was the one that had emotionally invested the most into her family in this world, while he and Sallia were a little less connected to their parents.


    Sallia immediately gave Mirai a hug, and Felix noticed that Sallia¡¯s family was also conspicuously absent. He decided not to ask.


    He sighed, and then turned towards Anise.


    At the very least, Anise¡¯s parents were there. They looked a little shell-shocked, much like Anise, but they still had food and clothes packed up for the journey. Anise seemed the most baffled out of everyone here, almost as if she were just going through the motions. Felix made a mental note to check up on her later, but there wasn¡¯t enough time right now.


    Ella glanced at everyone, before nodding. ¡°We can talk later. We need to move. Follow me.¡±


    After that, Ella quickly moved into the distance, heading towards the Fort that guarded the city from the surface.


    Ella quickly led the group through the abandoned fort, navigating easily through a few halls, before reaching the mechanism that opened the gate.


    ¡°Miria! Sallia! Move this with me!¡± she yelled.


    The two darted forward, and Sallia grimaced as she used her bruised arm to crank open the gate with Miria. Due to their incredible strength, however, the gate opened quickly.


    It only took a minute to widen it enough that everyone could slip through. The group of four parents, four children, and Ella moved through the gate, right as Felix heard people in the city start to scream in fear in the distance.


    The Orukthyri had probably made it into the city.


    Ella didn¡¯t bother opening the gate any more, now that everyone could pass through. The group slipped through the gates and stepped into the passageway beyond the fort.


    Then, they spent nearly ten minutes jogging through tunnels. Ella was obviously familiar with this route already, and led us from one inconveniently small passage to the next.


    Despite Felix¡¯s growing numbness to the situation, he occasionally took a look at Miria and Sallia¡¯s faces, to see if they were holding up well. He wasn¡¯t very good at managing emotions, but he seemed like the most emotionally stable group member right now. If he needed to step up and look after the others, he would.


    Miria had a strangely numb expression. She wasn¡¯t very excited, even though the group was finally going to the surface. He knew that she had been dreaming about exploring the surface for years now. For Miria to see this and not be excited felt¡­ wrong. But given the circumstances, it made sense.


    He pushed down a bit of embarrassment, and then moved over to Miria to give her a hug. Even though Felix was never a particularly physical person, given how often Miria doled out hugs, she obviously liked hugging people. And right now, she clearly needed one.


    After several minutes of travel, the group emerged from the caves.


    And for the first time, they saw the surface of the world.

 Chapter 103: The Surface

    I looked at the sunlight filtering in through the dusty clouds in the sky, and felt a strange mixture of awe and horror as I looked at the surface for the very first time in this life.


    When I had heard of the ¡®surface settlement,¡¯ I had been expecting some sort of relatively ordinary middle ages village. I hadn¡¯t really known what the surface of this world would look like except from Ella¡¯s stories, but I had imagined an ordinary village, perhaps guarded by soldiers and attacked by monsters from time to time.


    Instead, the first thing I noticed was that the surface settlement consisted of about one hundred tents, clustered in the area near the cave entrance. I assumed that they were near the entrance to the underdark so that the surface settlement could flee underground if Outsiders or Orukthyri came to attack the settlement. There were plenty of people going about their business here, likely because they hadn¡¯t heard of the settlement getting overrun yet. In town, people had noticed the soldiers starting to run away after a few minutes, but it looked like we were the first group to flee towards the surface. Which, luckily, meant the Orukthyri would probably pursue other groups besides ours.


    The second thing I noticed were the colors. The grass and trees on the surface were pink, which was completely different from the green leaves and grass I was used to.


    However, the rest of the landscape was an ashy gray color. Apart from some blacker soil near the trees and grass, most of the soil looked more like dust than something a plant would grow in. It also smelled¡­ burnt. The entire world smelled vaguely like charcoal on the surface, which was something I hadn¡¯t expected. The acrid smell made me feel uneasy, as if someone had used a fire spell recently and missed.


    To the side of the little camp of tents, I could see a few fields of well-tended crops, which were likely the source of the few luxury foods the nobility and wealthier members of the city occasionally ate. The quantity of crops growing was larger than I had expected, but I could also tell that there weren¡¯t any magic items speeding up the growth of the surface crops. Which naturally meant that the output would be much lower compared to mushroom production.


    However, most unique was the sky.


    The planet was donut shaped. When I looked up at the sky, I could see the other side of the planet. If I considered the planet to be shaped like a donut, or a ring, our settlement was apparently situated on the ridge of the ring, between the outer and inner rings of the planet.


    In the distance, I could see our sun. It was a giant, ice-blue star that glowed softly in the distance. Coming into contact with it made my body feel strangely cool, rather than the heat I was used to sunlight carrying.


    In the center of the ring-shaped planet, there was a massive black dot hovering in space. It seemed to drink in all of the light of the cold blue sun in the distance, as if it wished to devour the whole world. The darkness emitted by the small star in the center of the planet made me feel weak and fragile, as if merely coming in contact with it was making me sick, and looking at it felt wrong. The world didn¡¯t seem to have a moon, at least as far as I could tell.


    The other celestial bodies were just as bizarre as the ring-shaped planet. I was used to the sky having a soft, blue color. However, in this world, it had a sort of clotted, orange color that reminded me of a sunset from one of my previous worlds. It surrounded the planet in a perfectly spherical shape, even though the planet was donut-shaped. I had no idea why or how the atmosphere worked here.


    It was one of the strangest sights I had seen so far, beating even the total chaos of the world beneath the waves back on the islands.


    Overall, the sky and terrain of this world was so utterly alien that it shocked me out of the depression I had been feeling about not knowing if my family was all right.


    I found myself wondering how space worked here, and why the sunlight was cold instead of hot. Was the sun also magical in nature, or was it created by some bizarre aspect of this world¡¯s physics? What about space itself? If the sun was cooling me down, where was the heat of the planet¡¯s surface coming from? Why did the soil smell like charcoal? Why was the grass pink?


    I had so many questions that I stopped moving and simply stared, stunned at the alien world that existed outside of the caverns.


    I was brought out of my thoughts when Ella yelled at the tent city. ¡°Orukthyri have attacked the city, and it has fallen. The Orukthyri might enter this area soon!¡± Then, without waiting to see the responses of the surface dwellers, she quickly led us forward.


    I saw a few of the people near the tents look at us, shocked by Ella¡¯s words, before they ducked into their tents and started packing things up. Ella¡¯s clothing had such a large amount of white thread sewn in that it was obvious she was important. That, combined with the fact that we were clearly fleeing, convinced most people to start packing and move without much hesitation. Ella didn¡¯t stick around to help people evacuate as we moved past the tent city.


    We quickly made our way past the fields of surface crops, making good time as we traveled past the field. The further away we got from the tent city, the more wild the area became. Ella started to move more slowly, constantly scanning our surroundings for threats. Felix¡¯s parents were doing the same, which made me also start focusing on the area with greater caution. I used my soul-sight to check our surroundings for any strange entities, since I had no idea what threats might be present. Luckily, we didn¡¯t run into anything unusual.


    Finally, after an hour of travel, Ella spoke again. ¡°We should be far enough away that the Orukthyri won¡¯t bother tracking us down,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯re a pretty small group, and they have better food sources elsewhere.¡± Then, she turned towards Felix¡¯s parents. ¡°Now that we¡¯re out of immediate danger, let¡¯s talk. You two are retired adventurers?¡±


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    Felix¡¯s parents nodded. ¡°We were never great spellcasters, but we were at least good enough to survive some adventuring. We¡¯re mostly focused on staying hidden, though. We can apply stealth abilities to other people, so if we need to hide from something big and scary, let us know. We can handle that kind of thing. Also, we have some detection spells that we¡¯re decent with, although the spells are somewhat limited in what they can detect. We usually get around this by layering several detection spells on top of each other, but it¡¯s a bit mana intensive to keep it up all the time¡­¡± said Felix¡¯s mother.


    Ella nodded. ¡°Your skillset sounds very useful. Getting into pointless fights is how a lot of adventurers die, and knowing where hostile creatures are and being able to sneak around them is one of the best defenses. How much experience do you have with surviving on the surface overall?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve only raided one facility. We spent about eight months on our adventure, but we couldn¡¯t find many old research facilities in that time. Of the three we found, two had already been explored, so there wasn¡¯t much of note inside. The third one we found seems to have been the base of a spellcaster, although he was only an apprentice.¡± Felix¡¯s mother grinned bitterly. ¡°Well, apprentice for his time period, at least. He was a fifth circle mage, we think. He didn¡¯t leave behind much of use, but there was a fair amount of precious metals and some wand materials, which sold for quite a bit once we returned. After that, we retired, settled down, and had Felix together. That was a few decades ago, so we might be a bit rusty.¡±


    Ella faintly grinned. ¡°That¡¯s a pretty good ending for most adventurers. Well, if you survived eight months in the wilderness, you¡¯re definitely a valuable addition to the group. Finding clean food and water can be difficult if you don¡¯t know what you¡¯re doing, and we only have about a week¡¯s worth of supplies.¡±


    I absently touched my dimensional backpack, and was happy to realize there were still a fair amount of supplies available inside of it. I had never dropped the scout¡¯s supplies after we returned from trying to raid the Orukthyri a while ago, a fact I was now thankful for, and I also had a fair amount of extra food and water I had grabbed from my home after seeing nobody around. I probably had three or four more days of food and water laying in my pack. Sallia also had her noodle bowl, which would replenish once per day automatically, although between the nine of us, I doubted one extra meal a day would make a large difference in our supplies. However, I suddenly had a headache when I tried to figure out how to explain where the supplies were coming from. I had never mentioned much about Market items so far, and I had always played off the effects of my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress} as part of my attunement. Since I was known to have a slightly unusual attunement, nobody had ever raised an eyebrow, but there was no way I could pretend that spatial manipulation was related to my attunement. It was way too different to make sense.


    I sighed, and decided to just push ahead. If I just stated I had extra supplies stored in my bag, and claimed it was because I had a storage pack, maybe nobody would question it?


    ¡°We have more supplies than that,¡± I said. ¡°I have about three extra days worth of food and water in my bag, as well as a few miscellaneous medical supplies like bandages and disenfectant. It¡¯s a storage pack.


    ¡°Oh, a dimensional bag?¡± Asked Ella, giving my pack a curious look. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen one of those in a while. The group leader of my previous adventuring party had one. How did you get one? They¡¯re quite rare and expensive, since nobody knows how to make them, and they weren¡¯t that common even before the dawn of the black sun.¡±


    I paused, trying to figure out the answer to that question, before I winced. ¡°Uhh¡­¡± I paused. ¡°It was a gift from scout leader Nells.¡± I did my best to sound as confident as possible.


    Ella looked at my backpack, and then frowned, before sighing and shaking her head. I had no idea what to make of that.


    ¡°Whatever, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter right now. Anyway, that means we have almost two weeks of supplies. And with Felix¡¯s parents, we also have a pretty good idea how to find food and water, which will be very important if we run into an emergency. A lot of the water and plants that have been more heavily affected by the black sun tend to be poisonous or have bizarre effects on those who carelessly consume them. Purifying or avoiding the more dangerous plants is very important if we wish to survive. Our food and water situation looks fine for now. How about you two? What are your skills?¡± asked Ella, turning towards Anise¡¯s parents. ¡°I¡¯ll admit, I don¡¯t know as much about you guys. What do you do?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re just ordinary mushroom harvesters,¡± said Anise¡¯s father, and her mother quickly nodded.


    ¡°When Anise showed signs of being a supe- a Witch, we were really excited,¡± added Anise¡¯s mother. ¡°I used to tell Anise lots of bedtime stories about witches and shapers, and she was really excited when she realized she could do the same thing in the future¡­¡±


    I suddenly realized where Anise¡¯s obsession with super-witches came from.


    Ella simply nodded again. ¡°Perfectly understandable. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll do my best to keep everyone safe until we get to our destination. Now, about our destination¡­¡± she frowned. ¡°There are a few cities we can head towards that have entrances to the surface. But I¡¯m currently planning on heading to Silver city. It¡¯s about a week away, assuming we don¡¯t run into any major delays, and it used to have massive silver deposits before they were mined out. The dragon there has silver scales, which is a little different from the white dragon, but the color culture won¡¯t be too different, so it¡¯ll be easy to adjust to life there. I know a few merchants from that city who occasionally traded with ours, so I would have a pretty easy time verifying my identity. And it¡¯s not too far away, which means we won¡¯t have to spend too long on the surface. Does anyone have any other suggestions, or do you guys agree with my planned destination?¡±


    Felix¡¯s parents thought for a moment, before nodding. ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± said his mother. ¡°I haven¡¯t interacted much with Silver city, but I¡¯ve heard the Overseer there is rather competent at managing the city¡¯s bureaucracy and army. He¡¯s¡­ also rumored to be able to cast eighth circle spells,¡± she said, frowning.


    Felix¡¯s father snorted. ¡°Our own overseer was also rumored to be able to cast eighth circle spells, but look how that ended. If he could cast a proper eighth circle spell the city wouldn¡¯t have ended up like this. Bastard was just boasting, and it ended up with the entire city in a crisis waiting for a spell that never came. I doubt the new overseer will be any different. He can probably just barely squeak out a seventh circle spell if he claims he can cast eighth circle spells.¡±


    Ella thoughtfully nodded. ¡°Either way, seventh circle is still pretty strong. Heck, even a sixth circle mage with a higher than average mana reserve can keep a city safe from most threats.¡±


    ¡°True enough,¡± said Felix¡¯s father, his disgust dying down somewhat. ¡°Even with third circle magic, my wife and I managed to survive traveling the surface for quite a while before retiring, getting married, and having Felix. I suppose a seventh circle spellcaster is respectable enough.¡±


    ¡°All right, since nobody objects, we¡¯ll confirm our destination,¡± said Ella. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get moving. Along the way, I¡¯ll teach the kids some of the stuff you need to watch out for on the surface. It¡¯s easier with visuals to back up my words, and it¡¯s definitely critical to make sure our survival odds are as high as possible.¡±


    With that, the group got moving again.

 Chapter 104: The Surface (2)

    After Ella finished talking, she motioned for our group to start moving again. Now that we weren¡¯t in immediate danger and we had moved far enough away from the Orukthyri to be safe, I finally had time to look over my System notifications.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill an Orukthyri Spellcaster for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing an Orukthyri Shaper-commander for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +600


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the battle of the Tunnel by a [Minor] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 800


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked over my System notifications, and had a strangely mixed set of feelings as I scanned them.


    My Achievement had increased from 7,200.89 to 10,100.89. And I had gotten decent rewards for participating in the battle, at least when one took into account the fact that we had lost. I did notice that the battle was worth quite a bit less than usual. Perhaps it was because my actions ultimately didn¡¯t matter much? With or without my help, we would have still lost the battle, so in a strange way, it made sense that I didn¡¯t get much Achievement for it.


    As I looked over my rewards for the battle, I couldn¡¯t really feel happy, even though I was usually pleased to see my Achievement increase. As I looked over the System notifications, I thought about my missing parents and siblings, and about the fact that hundreds of civilians in the city were either being eaten, or fleeing for their lives. More might die of hunger or thirst as they made their way to another city, and more might get lost in the tunnels, never to reach another city¡­


    Sure, some would certainly survive. It had taken several hours to really process what had happened, and when we had just been escaping from the city, my adrenaline had kept me moving. However, during the past six hours, I had nothing to focus on except for my thoughts and keeping track of our surroundings.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if there was more I could have done. Perhaps there had been some way to swing the battle in our favor. Some method of getting Stats and Abilities that I could have employed in our previous world, even. I just kept thinking that there must have been some way to change the outcome of the battle, if I had just done better, and I felt guilty about that, even if I couldn¡¯t really figure out what I should have done differently.


    I sighed again, and shook my head, trying to comfort myself. I had done everything I reasonably could have done. I had prepared for future worlds while on the islands, and had walked away with a huge amount of Achievement and a new keyword ability. I had spent years honing my weapon skills. I hadn¡¯t been lazy or prepared poorly. And in this world, I had taken my shaping and spellcasting studies as quickly as I could. I had focused more on my attunement than my spellcasting, but I felt that was by far the most reasonable decision, given my talents. I had never slacked off during my training, and I had done my best to contribute to the battle against the Orukthyri at every chance I had.


    And yet, it hadn¡¯t been enough.


    Tier 4 worlds were harsh. And right now, the three of us were just too weak to easily change major events on our own.


    I hoped that next time, we would reincarnate somewhere easier. Another Tier 2 world would be better. Preferably in an area that wasn¡¯t quite as¡­ bizarre as the islands had been in our previous life. From what I could see of a Tier 4 world, the islands had probably been closer to a Tier 3 world than a Tier 2 world as far as strength of the surrounding creatures went, and the strange environment meant that it was quite a bit more dangerous than it had any right to be. Olav¡¯s discussions about his time outside of the islands, as well as the creatures I had seen in this world, made me seriously consider whether strange mana imbalances on a certain planet could cause areas to be ¡®higher tier¡¯ than the rest of the world. A world¡¯s Tier was apparently decided by how much mana was present on the planet. However, as far as I could tell, this was an evaluation for the world as a whole. If 90% of a Tier 2 planet¡¯s mana was concentrated on one area, and the rest of the world only had 10% of the world¡¯s mana, it would still be a Tier 2 world, as far as I knew.


    Of course, I was just guessing right now, but I felt my reasoning made sense. From what I had observed about how Skills worked, the biggest reason people were stronger in higher-Tier dimensions was because more mana made it easier to train and improve Skills.


    As we started to move again, I started wondering what kind of world would be best to land in next time.


    It would be best if we could help Felix get his magic system online. Since his affinity was Binding, it would be best if the world was at least Tier 2, and had access to binding essence¡­


    And, most likely, it would be best if the world was on the lower end, tech-wise. The less people lived in the world, and the less organized the militaries of the world were, the more of a difference the three of us could make in fights. And most importantly, the less people lived in a world, the fewer ¡®outliers¡¯ there would be in that world. Which naturally meant that we would have a bigger relative advantage compared to the other people of a given planet.


    Of course, a world that was too technologically underdeveloped would also be a problem, since that might mean the magic system was undeveloped as well. I wanted Felix to have the best resources available for his magic system. I didn¡¯t know what the right balance was between a world that was developed enough for Felix to have access to good resources, but undeveloped enough that we could actually make a difference in the world.


    As I was pondering where I hoped we would be born next, the group had continued moving forward. Ella set an even slower and more careful pace than before, while Felix¡¯s parents occasionally paused to toss out a few sensing spells.


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    We spent another six hours walking, before I started to realize something interesting. Due to the strange ring shape of the planet, the cycle of day and night wasn¡¯t very pronounced. I could clearly see that the planet was rotating as time passed, and that did occasionally cause parts of the sun to get obscured by other parts of the ring. However, it didn¡¯t seem like we ever got a ¡®completely¡¯ dark section of each day. Instead, there were small intervals of light and darkness scattered throughout the day, happening every couple of hours. However, periods of darkness were still bright enough to easily see in, and much briefer than a ¡®true¡¯ night time.


    ¡°-ed.¡± yelled Felix¡¯s parents.


    I frowned, realizing I had gotten caught up in my thoughts. That didn¡¯t usually happen.


    Why was I having such a hard time focusing? My thoughts had wandered from one topic to another much more than usual, even given my high Intelligence and low Perception.


    Seeing my confusion, Felix¡¯s father spoke again. ¡°Weird creature up ahead.¡± Felix¡¯s father said, keeping his voice down as he stared at something in the distance.


    I frowned, and looked at it with my soulsight. I couldn¡¯t quite make out what I was supposed to be seeing, but now that Felix¡¯s father had called my attention to it, I could almost see a bright yellow soul moving in the distance¡­


    I looked down at my hands, and realized they were shaking.


    My breathing was getting faster and faster, and my vision was getting blurry. I forced myself to stop and take a deep breath, before I looked again.


    It was a little easier to see this time. I had a hard time making out the yellow soul, but apparently, that was because I had been hyperventilating, instead of because of my poor perception.


    I reached towards my alteration essence, and nearly fumbled while trying to take control of it. I tried again, and this time I was able to seize control of my essence.


    What was wrong with me right now? I shuddered, and focused on the creature again.


    Nearly eight hours had passed since the battle with the Orukthyri, and even if I hadn¡¯t had a full day of rest to recover all of my essence, I was at least in fighting condition again.


    I prepared to extinguish something, and stared at the creature moving towards us. I felt sweat start to build up around my fingers. My hands were shaking again.


    Finally, I realized what was wrong. I heard a small, hollow chuckle escape my lips.


    Had losing the city done that much damage to my self esteem? I was scared. I didn¡¯t want to fail again. I didn¡¯t want Anise and her parents to die here, or Ella. Lauren was already gone, and I had no idea what had happened to my parents. I had been pushing away my thoughts by thinking about future reincarnations, and Felix¡¯s magic system, and a bunch of other things¡­


    But at heart¡­ I was just scared now.


    I shoved down my anxiety. I couldn¡¯t afford to make any mistakes here. I wanted Anise, Ella, and everyone¡¯s parents to stay safe here. I wanted to live longer. If we died this early in this world, we might truly fail to buy more lives in the future.


    I needed to fight well, not panic the moment I realized another fight was coming.


    I eyed Sallia, and realized that she also looked nervous. She wasn¡¯t as shaky as I was, but she didn¡¯t have the confident stride and eagerness I usually associated with her before a battle.


    Seeing Sallia also scared finally forced me back into focus.


    I wouldn¡¯t let anything hurt my friends as long as I was alive. I squinted into the distance again, and finally identified the enemy.


    What appeared in front of us was a giant plant. It appeared to be a plant, at least. Its limbs were bright pink, much like the sparse patches of grass in the landscape around us, and its skin had a certain plantlike texture that was easy to distinguish, even from a distance. Furthermore, a large part of its body looked as if it were rooted in the ground.


    However, some of its roots were slowly pulling the creature towards us. It was slow enough that it was hard to spot, if I wasn¡¯t explicitly paying attention to it. However, since I knew it was there, it was easy to notice that every second, it moved slightly closer to us.


    ¡°Sleeplurk,¡± said Ella, and I noticed the tension in her shoulders start to bleed away. She turned towards Anise, Sallia, Felix and I. ¡°Now, this is one of the things you need to keep an eye out for while on the surface. It¡¯s a rather dangerous creature¡­ but ONLY if you don¡¯t pay attention. They¡¯re called sleeplurks because they like to creep up on you while you¡¯re sleeping. Do you see the little needles at the edge of its leaves?¡±


    Sallia squinted at the creature and nodded, although it was too far away for me to see.


    ¡°Those are poisonous. If you get stung by them, you¡¯ll enter a pretty deep sleep¡­ and the plant will then wrap you up. Its roots will slowly dig into your body, and the plant will then digest you over the course of about three days. But as long as you¡¯re paying attention, they¡¯re very easy to deal with, because they¡¯re one of the slowest creatures in the wastes.¡± said Ella.


    I nodded, feeling some of the tension bleed away from me as well. An easy creature to deal with. Nothing like the Orukthyri who had destroyed the city. ¡°Are they dangerous at all, as long as you notice them?¡±


    ¡°Not really. Their body is a bit resilient against some surprising elements, like fire spells, but they¡¯re very weak to ice spells. Of course, this creature counters my attunement pretty well. Its mind is too dissimilar to mine for my attunement to work. But even a second-circle spell can drop it instantly.¡±


    I nodded, and then hit it with an extinguish. It died instantly.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a sleeplurk for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +35


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 10,100.89 to 10,135.89. It was a small increase, but it was still useful. More importantly, I also got a new Skill for killing something with water for the first time.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Sleeplurk for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Camouflage: You become slightly harder to spot, so long as you¡¯re moving slowly.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I took a look at the new Skill, before dismissing it. I didn¡¯t think it was more useful to me than any of my other current skills. If I could use the Skill while moving quickly, I may have dropped my {Acid and Poison Control} skill for it, but if I needed to move at a glacial pace to make the Skill work, it just wasn¡¯t worth it.


    Then, I felt a strange sense of relief.


    I realized that I had started to worry that every single fight in this world would be like the battle against the Orukthyri. A battle that seemed nightmarishly hard to win, and was fraught with danger and fear. However, it was easy to forget that, at least one on one, I could extinguish an Orukthyri rather easily. And Sallia and I could handle 2-3 Orukthyri with at least some margin of safety.


    I felt some of the stress I had been feeling for the past eight hours start to bleed away.


    Even though we were in a Tier 4 world, and even though the city had just fallen¡­ maybe things weren¡¯t as bad as they seemed. It was important to keep in mind that we were still weaklings in this world, since Orthanoids were so much weaker than the proper powerhouses of this dimension, but it also wasn¡¯t a bad idea to keep in mind that things weren¡¯t as bad as they seemed. Even though we were rather mediocre by this world¡¯s standards, there were still places where we could survive and thrive. We just needed to be cautious, avoid stupid risks, and move forward.

 Chapter 105: Old Stories

    After the ¡®battle¡¯ ended with a single attack, Felix¡¯s parents hit the creature with an extra second-circle spell, just to make sure it was dead.


    After that, Ella and Anise¡¯s father spent a few minutes working together to harvest the sleep-inducing needles of the plant monster. Ella felt it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to have them laying around, just in case we needed them in the future.


    Of course, the needles wouldn¡¯t be too useful against something like the Orukthyri, since they had incredibly resilient bodies and strong vitality. However, there were plenty of less sturdy monsters in the wastes as well, and if we ran into one of those monsters, having some sleeping poison might allow us to get around them without wasting any essence. The reminder that the Orukthyri weren¡¯t at the bottom of the food chain was reassuring to me.


    At the back of my mind, I also realized something interesting. If there were lots of weak creatures on the surface in addition to the strong creatures, this might be an unexpectedly good place to harvest Slaughter Achievement. From the islands world, I remembered my two biggest Achievement categories being Slaughter and Influence. Every single enemy had diminishing returns the more of a certain species I killed, so an area with lots of different enemies was the best place to harvest Slaughter Achievement. Not to mention, {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} only got a new skill the first time I killed a new enemy. The surface was a good area for me to hunt for resources I needed, even if it might be harder to gain Influence Achievement out here and death potentially lurked around every patch of pink grass, or burnt patch of soil.


    Our group walked for another four hours that day, before we settled down to sleep for the night. Due to the lack of distinct nighttime, it was a bit hard to get to sleep, but I adjusted well enough to the light after tossing and turning for about an hour. I was used to the soft glow of glowmoss in the underground caverns, and while I was still able to eventually get to sleep, the light was surprisingly irritating.


    The next morning, I felt a little bleary, but I quickly realized that I wasn¡¯t the only one that had struggled to adapt to the surface light.


    Ella and Felix¡¯s parents, since they were previously adventurers, didn¡¯t seem to have slept too poorly. They looked a little sleepier than usual, but they didn¡¯t seem distracted.


    Anise and her parents, on the other hand, looked like they wanted to crawl back into bed as they shuffled around the camp like zombies. Anise in particular looked like she was basically still asleep. I chuckled to myself as I stuffed my blankets and my tent into my backpack, and decided to help Anise. I didn¡¯t want her to feel bad for holding up the rest of the group, and since her parents were also struggling, they weren¡¯t in a position to help her.


    ¡°How¡¯s my favorite super witch?¡± I asked gently, as Anise fumbled about and tried to roll up her blankets. I grabbed one corner of her tent and started rolling it up. In the future it would be important for her to learn how to do it on her own, but this wasn¡¯t the time for that.


    Anise looked a little bitter for a moment, and then her expression eased up a bit.


    ¡°Sorry, Miria. I just¡­ a lot of people died. I can¡¯t¡­I don¡¯t¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­¡± she said, worrying at her lips as she stared into space for a moment. I started to wonder if Anise had spent all of the previous day in shock, much the way I had until I killed the sleeplurk.


    I sighed, and then gave Anise a hug. She quickly wrapped her arms around me and buried her head into my shoulder. I pulled Anise a little tighter, and patted her back a few times.


    ¡°There there. It¡¯s okay,¡± I said as she made strange whimpering sounds. I swore for a moment that I could feel my dress soaking up extra liquid. I tried not to think about my own family, but, unbidden, thoughts of them returned as I hugged Anise and watched her cry.


    My mother was cautious and clever, and my father was relatively strong. I hadn¡¯t managed to heal Jonathan¡¯s arm at all, but maybe he could swing a sword decently with his left arm? I didn¡¯t think that Ruman or Laura would be much help in defending the others as they moved into the underdark. I thought of strange monsters, surrounding them and eating them¡­ and then shook my head.


    They were fine. They would be fine.


    I gritted my teeth and repeated that to myself over and over again. After a few minutes, I even believed it. I had no way to find my family or help them right now, so there was no point in worrying about it until we reached Silver City. Once we got there, I would ask around. Surely there would be a few merchants who traveled from place to place. If I asked some of them for help, I didn¡¯t think it would be impossible to meet again. Just as long as they had survived, and managed to reach one of the other cities, there would be a way to meet again.


    A few more minutes passed before Anise regained control of her emotions. She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes, and then shivered. ¡°Sorry, Miria. I¡¯ve just¡­ yesterday was a bad day. I know that it must be even worse for you and Sallia, since neither of you can find your families. I don¡¯t have the right to be upset. I still have my parents, but I just¡­¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to apologize for being sad,¡± I said. ¡°Me being sad doesn¡¯t take away your right to be sad. A lot of things changed yesterday, and being stressed out, shocked, or afraid is a natural result of that. ¡®Someone else has it worse¡¯ isn¡¯t a good response to grief, because there is always someone who has it worse. There are no wrong emotions. Feel what you feel, and use those emotions as fuel to grow and improve in the future.¡±


    Anise sniffled again, and then broke away from my hug. ¡°Why are you so grown up?¡± she asked, looking me in the eyes. Her eyes were still red, but I saw determination and focus in her gaze in addition to sadness.


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    ¡°Hmm?¡± I asked, baffled.


    What was she talking about?


    ¡°You¡¯re always so¡­ different from other kids. It¡¯s like you¡¯re an adult sometimes. You¡¯re really nice, like the best adults, and you take me seriously and don¡¯t talk down to me, the same way some adults do. But you act weirdly. You¡¯re way too mature for your age. Sallia and Felix, too. I thought it might be normal, and maybe I was just immature for my age, but a lot of the other kids my age are like me. Why are the three of you different? I can tell that all three of you are also sad, but you didn¡¯t¡­¡± Anise sniffled again. ¡°Didn¡¯t start crying or whining or anything. Yesterday, I just couldn¡¯t do anything. Once the city started to fall, I just kept staring at the Orukthyri and the city, and realizing that we had lost. And I just couldn¡¯t move. If you guys hadn¡¯t picked me up and carried me out of the cavern, I don¡¯t think I would have been able to leave. I would have just stood there, feeling stunned, until an Orukthyri ate me. But you three were so good at putting everything behind you and moving forward, even though you and Sallia can¡¯t even find your parents. It¡¯s like¡­ it¡¯s like you appreciate them being there, but you don¡¯t need your parents the way other kids need parents. Or something,¡± said Anise, sniffling again. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just don¡¯t understand why I¡¯m so much worse than you guys.¡±


    I wrapped Anise in another hug. ¡°Sweetie, you don¡¯t have to apologize for being sad, or upset. And you especially don¡¯t have to apologize for not behaving optimally during one of the worst days of your life.


    Everyone¡¯s personality is different.¡± I chuckled dryly. ¡°Maybe Sallia, Felix and I just have different personalities because we¡¯re weird. You don¡¯t need to try to compare yourself to others. Growing at a different pace is fine. You want to be a super witch, right? Just keep striving towards that, and I¡¯m sure everything else will fall into place along the way. I¡¯ve always thought that having a big dream in your heart and the willingness to move forward is the best way to grow and improve,¡± I said, feeling a bizarre urge to giggle as I thought about the absurdity of the situation. Anise was comparing herself to three people who had lived multiple lifetimes already.


    Anise sniffled, but nodded. She broke away from my hug again, and the two of us finished packing up Anise¡¯s tent in a strange but comfortable silence. At the same time, I found myself thinking more about the future.


    Anise was much more perceptive than I had given her credit for. She hadn¡¯t been able to figure out why the three of us behaved oddly, but she had picked up on how strange the three of us sometimes were. We had been careful to never talk about the Market with Anise, or our previous lives, but we did sometimes refer to the islands while talking about things that had happened ¡®in the past,¡¯ even if we never mentioned anything that was too jarringly different from this world.


    Did I need to work on hiding this?


    I frowned, lost in thought for a moment. I felt¡­ surprisingly resistant to the idea.


    Anyone who knew a lot about transmigrators might be able to pick up on the fact that I was a transmigrator, if they had every single fact about my life laid out in front of them. However, frankly, the odds of that happening were quite low. Not to mention, no two humans were exactly the same. Being precocious as a child wasn¡¯t anywhere near as uncommon as most people thought. Every random village in the world probably had a good number of children with strange personalities and odd behavior that went on to become at least a little successful, and I doubted being an odd child would raise many red flags. In fact, trying to appear too ¡®normal¡¯ might end up seeming far more suspicious.


    After all, I wasn¡¯t very good at subterfuge. I didn¡¯t think I had the skills needed to pull off an elaborate ¡®disguise¡¯ every single lifetime. And I didn¡¯t want to do that, either. Even if I wouldn¡¯t go around screaming that I was a transmigrator at the top of my lungs, I wanted to be honest about who I was and how I felt with the people I cared about. In this lifetime and my last one, I had hidden the fact that I was a transmigrator: however, apart from that, not one moment of my time with them had been faked. I wanted to be able to honestly and openly return love given to me by my parents and siblings, so long as they were decent people.


    I shook my head. If some people, like Anise, picked up on the fact that I was a bit strange, then so be it. I wasn¡¯t going to go through an elaborate game of deception every life. I would keep some childlike behaviors when I was younger in every new lifetime, to make sure I didn¡¯t completely seem like an adult in the body of a child, but I would otherwise be myself.


    I sighed.


    ¡°You know, Anise, change is a constant in life, and there¡¯s no such thing as a lifetime free of struggles. There¡¯s no shame in being surprised or sad when things change. Just acknowledge that you¡¯re sad, take some time to adjust, and then move forward again.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± She asked, curious. ¡°Like what? I couldn¡¯t imagine much besides the city while we were living in the city. I eventually knew that we might go to the surface, but I didn¡¯t really know what that would look like, and so I had a hard time imagining it. Even now, nothing really feels¡­ real to me. I keep thinking that I¡¯m dreaming. I have a hard time imagining something even more different than this.¡±


    I nodded, thinking over Anise¡¯s words, and then grinned to myself. I had a good idea for something to take Anise¡¯s mind off of things, and also introduce a little bit of how very different things could be in the Multiverse.


    ¡°Let me tell you a story. It¡¯s about¡­¡± I paused for a moment, trying to make up a name, and then quickly found one. ¡°Morum, the great explorer of the ocean. He lived in a land far from here, where giant fish were the primary source of food. There, they didn¡¯t have very much in the way of mushrooms or agriculture, and so instead, he hunted giant fish, on flying wooden boats. One day, he decided that he yearned to explore the depths of the ocean, and so he created an attunement to let him breathe underwater¡­¡± I started telling Anise a (slightly edited) version of my exploration of the depths of the ocean. I wanted to tell Anise a little bit more about myself, since I felt that she was almost as precious to me as Sallia and Felix.


    Besides, Anise seemed to love stories, so I figured a story about exploring the depths of the ocean would distract her a little bit as we packed up for the morning. The scenery of the ocean was bizarre enough and unique enough that it held Anise¡¯s attention, bringing her thoughts away from the death and sadness we had been through over the past day.


    And as I told Anise stories about the depths of the ocean, I started to feel a little lighter. I realized that I had always felt, just a little bit, like I was lying to Anise when I spoke with her. Being a little more honest about my past, even in a very limited way, made me happy.


    It was with slightly lighter hearts that the two of us finished packing up, before we ate a light breakfast with the others.

 Chapter 106: Creatures of the Wastes

    The next two days were spent on the move. The group moved slowly and cautiously, avoiding fights with anything that Ella deemed too dangerous to mess with. This meant that we often ended up waiting for a while, or detouring around a certain area if Ella deemed it necessary.


    However, that didn¡¯t mean we avoided all fights. There were a few weaker creatures in the wastelands as well, which we ended up killing to clear out spots to camp for the night.


    Naturally, I did my best to snag those kills for myself. Since the fights were especially easy, Sallia, Felix and I worked together to make sure that we all got either a kill or an assist for every new creature we came across. One of us would strike a painful but nonlethal blow against the creature, then back off and let another get in enough damage to qualify for an ¡®assist,¡¯ and let someone else get the kill after that. Sallia and Felix specifically left the first kill of each new species to me, to make sure that I got new Skills from each kill using {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}.


    I promised myself that once we returned to the Market, I would share some of the Achievement for each kill with them. Letting me get the first kill maximized our group¡¯s improvement per fight, but it also meant that Sallia and Felix were losing some Achievement, and I wanted to make sure that they still got the fair amount of Achievement when we got to the next round of purchases.


    The first creature we ended up killing was one that we ran across while setting up camp for the second day. Sallia spotted it in the distance, and Ella identified it as a dasher.


    It looked like a very lean wolf. Unlike real wolves, however, it didn¡¯t hunt in packs, and its above average dexterity and incredible bite strength were nowhere near enough to make it a real threat. A single extinguish dropped it to near-dead, and then Sallia and Felix both poked it with a weapon before I finished it off. The others seemed baffled about our strange ritual for killing such a minor threat, but the three of us were happy increasing our Achievement from each kill. Since this fight wasn¡¯t dangerous, it wasn¡¯t a problem to mess around and boost our Achievement a little. And since someone getting an ¡®assist¡¯ for a kill didn¡¯t seem to reduce the reward the primary contributor got for the first kill, we felt that trying to make sure everyone got an assist made sense when we could afford to do it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Dasher for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +25


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Dasher for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Charge: Increase your Agility by 10 for 10 seconds. Consumes a massive amount of stamina. Can only be activated once per day


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I ended up swapping out {Acid and Poison Control} for {Charge} after unlocking the skill. I was currently sitting at 197 Agility, which was three points below reaching the next grade. While my Perception was too low to keep up with my physical abilities, thus imposing a rather hefty penalty on how effectively I could use any boosts to my Strength and Dexterity stats, it wasn¡¯t like there was no benefit to improving my physical body at all. The benefits were just significantly reduced. Being able to temporarily push myself up a grade in an Attribute was nothing to sneeze at in the middle of a fight, and the ability reminded me of the way some Orukthyri would suddenly speed up for a few seconds and randomly kill a soldier during fights. The fact that it only worked for 10 seconds and could only be used once per day was unfortunate. However, I felt it was still more useful than the Basic-Grade acid and poison resistance from {Acid and Poison Control}. There weren¡¯t many creatures that fought using poison or acid in this world, and so both resistances were rather situational, while a generic physical boost was useful against all enemies.


    The next creature we came across was one we stumbled across while crossing a river. Ella stated that it was called a poisonlurk. As we were checking how deep the river was, we found a few of them swimming through the stagnant black water. They looked kind of like glowing green piranhas. Ella took it as another opportunity for the four of us to get used to fighting and dealing with weaker creatures in the wasteland, so we had Anise target one of the bright green fish, while the three of us went through the process of getting everyone a kill and an Assist for the creatures. Since the poisonlurks were close-range threats, blasting them with ranged spells was was an easy way to kill them without the danger of getting hurt.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a poisonlurk for the first time, assist in killing a poisonlurk for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +40, +3


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured poisonlurk for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Underwater poisons: You gain the ability to breathe underwater. If you bite a creature while underwater, whatever you bite will be poisoned.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The two kills and one assist brought my Achievement from 10,135.89 Achievement to 10,168.89 Achievement. Honestly, the gains were rather pitiful, but considering how many fights we ended up avoiding or fleeing from, it seemed quite reasonable, especially considering the fact that we had only spent two days in the wastes.


    I didn¡¯t see much use for the skill I got from the poisonlurks, unlike {Charge}. It would have been incredibly useful on the islands, but frankly, there wasn¡¯t much water around this area. I had no real need for the ability to breathe underwater, and I didn¡¯t really bite creatures during fights either. I did keep in mind that it might be useful if we ran into a lake or something, but I didn¡¯t think I would get much use out of the skill, especially since I would lose the Skills whenever I died again.


    During that time, Ella also taught everyone a little bit more about the tainted food and water of the surface.


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    Apparently, if any pool of water existed on the surface, or if any organic matter existed on the surface, it would eventually start to turn a dark color, similar to the black sun that lay in the center of the planet. This indicated that there was something deeply wrong with the water or food, and that consuming it would make us sick. Anything that was exposed to the black sun would eventually start to become increasingly polluted.


    However, while consuming polluted food or water would make us sick, it wasn¡¯t impossible to purify. It was just a complicated process to treat the food or water.


    For the water, one started by freezing it. This would cause the darker chunks of matter inside of the water to slowly harden up, turning into little globs of darkness. The black globs were then manually scooped out and disposed of, before the water was boiled. After being treated like this, the water would be safe to drink.


    Of course, food needed to go through a similar process. However, due to the fact that food was solid instead of liquid, the black chunks of frozen matter didn¡¯t stand out quite as much. Which meant that one needed to carefully mince up the food, search through the food chunks for any suspicious-looking spots of black matter, and then thoroughly cook it afterwards to ensure no black globs were consumed in a meal. Messing up would cause someone to start growing black pustules on their skin. If more dark globs were consumed before the body fought off the effects of the black sun, the pustules would break open and bleed. From here, there was a good chance the patient would grow increasingly sick if they weren¡¯t sheltered from the black sun and given time to rest.


    Near the end of the third day, I noticed a rather unusual soul in the distance. It was much brighter than others, making it easier to spot even with my sub-par eyesight.


    ¡°I see something,¡± I said, frowning.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Asked Ella, immediately stopping and going on alert.


    ¡°It¡¯s over there. Pretty far away from us, but bright,¡± I said. I frowned, straining my ears as I tried to figure out what was happening in the distance. Now that I was more alert, I was starting to realize that I could just barely make out some sounds¡­


    Sallia frowned far more deeply as we cautiously waited. With our entire group frozen, the background noise of our movement was no longer present, making it easier to hear. Finally, she shook her head. ¡°I hear fighting.¡±


    I felt my heart start to race.


    There was fighting in the distance?


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder who or what was able to fight against the massive blob of life-force. The fact that I could see it from so far away meant that it must be very strong. It wasn¡¯t anywhere close to the power of the dragon I had seen, but it outclassed the Orukthyri by leaps and bounds.


    Ella sighed. ¡°We¡¯ll get a little closer and see what¡¯s going on. If there are other orthanoids fighting it, maybe we can save them, if it doesn¡¯t seem likely to bite us in the ass later. But we only intervene if it looks safe, and we look after ourselves first.¡± Ella paused. ¡°Also, any info?¡± She asked, turning towards Felix¡¯s parents.


    ¡°We¡¯re almost out of mana for the day,¡± said Felix¡¯s father with a grimace.


    Ella sighed, and then nodded.


    I checked my essence reserves. I could spare an extinguish or two, and a few crude fireballs would probably help too. Sallia would love a proper fight, and the three of us could always use more Achievement and opportunities to earn new keyword Abilities.


    Our group slowly and carefully crept closer, making sure to stay hidden and walk slowly.


    As we got closer, I could finally make out some of the details of the fight in the distance. For example, I could see the dozens of smaller souls locked in combat with the giant soul.


    I could just barely make out a one-sided massacre¡­ of the Orukthyri.


    They were desperately trying to kill some sort of giant white furry creature. It looked kind of like a giant fuzzy caterpillar, although it had six limbs and was perhaps eight meters tall when it stood on its hind legs. As I watched, a group of Orukthyri spellcasters tried lobbing a round of spells at the creature. Unlike the Orukthyri, the creature didn¡¯t seem magic-resistant. It screeched in pain when the round of spells hit it¡­ but the actual damage seemed negligible. The creature was too resilient to be injured by a small round of spells. I could see that its candle of life was barely damaged when it got hit by the round of attacks.


    Then, the creature retaliated. It breathed at the Orukthyri, and a cloud of green vapor spread through the battlefield. Perhaps eight Orukthyri began screeching and melting, as if they were snowballs thrown into a volcano. Another group of Orukthyri tried to seize advantage of the creature¡¯s distraction, hopping onto its back and attempting to climb up. However, the creature tucked its arms and legs in, and then started rolling around, squashing the Orukthyri on its back. Most of the Orukthyri survived being squished between the creature and the ground due to their incredible life force, but several snapping sounds confirmed that they broke a few bones each. They squealed in pain, before doggedly climbing to their feet.


    They did not live much longer, though. The creature simply breathed more green vapors onto the Orukthyri, and then another group of a dozen Orukthyri started melting.


    Then, I looked more closely at the battlefield. I could see over a hundred Orukthyri¡­ puddles on the battlefield. Combined with the twenty or so I could see dying in front of us, and the hundred and fifty or so Orukthyri I could see still futilely trying to fell the massive fuzzy white caterpillar, I realized that this fat creature was handily wiping out an entire warband of Orukthyri on its own. And it wasn¡¯t as strong as a dragon was, based on soul size.


    I shivered.


    I had heard that the Orukthyri were nowhere near the top of the food chain. However, this was the first time I had understood that fact so clearly. The Orukthyri didn¡¯t seem to be accomplishing much as they threw their lives at the fat giant acid-breathing caterpillar.


    Ella tapped my shoulder, and I realized that I had been staring at the battle instead of running.


    As a group, we quickly retreated from the area, and then hid in a nearby crack in the ground. For almost half an hour, the dying squeals of Orukthyri sounded throughout the area as I watched their souls disappear one by one. Then, eventually, there were no living Orukthyri, and I started to hear distant slurping sounds.


    After the creature finished its meal, it left, either unaware or uncaring of our presence. Since it was a decent spot to camp, and we didn¡¯t see anything nearby, Ella decided that we would set up camp there for the day.


    I was simply glad that we had escaped from the creature, although the fight I had seen served as a stark reminder that this was a Tier 4 world. Things were much more dangerous here than they were on the islands. Luckily, the creature hadn¡¯t found us. Much like some of the other apex predators that Felix¡¯s parents had spotted and steered clear of during our travels, we simply had to dodge all of the powerhouses of the surface until we got back underground.


    I went to sleep, at least somewhat comforted by the thought that we still had excellent mobility as a group, and when Sallia, Felix and I came to the surface in the future, we would be older, stronger, and more prepared.


    When I woke up the next morning, Felix, Anise, and Anise¡¯s parents were coughing and sweating, and their skin seemed unusually dark. They were so sick they could barely move.

 Chapter 107: Illness

    I looked at Anise, Felix, and Anise¡¯s parents, all of whom were semi-conscious and in no condition to move. I frowned.


    To be honest, I had nearly forgotten that diseases existed. My runes enhanced my Fortitude to the point where I would basically never get sick from regular diseases, and in our previous world, Sallia and Felix had been in the same situation. In this world, Sallia and I were still effectively immune to disease, and Felix and Anise had dodged anything worse than a cold in years. Seeing people I cared about semi-comatose from illness caught me completely off guard.


    The fact that their skin was turning a bit dark was probably a sign that the black sun was adversely affecting them, but the illness of the black sun didn¡¯t cause coughing and sweating.


    My best guess was that exposure to the black sun weakened people¡¯s immune system, in addition to whatever other damage long-term exposure to the black sun caused to the body. We had done our best to take precautions against the black sun, covering up our bodies as we moved from one place to the next and spending some time out of the sun each day. However, almost everything on the surface was tainted by the black sun: the soil, the air, the scraggly patches of grass that sometimes decorated the wastes, and everything else we interacted with on a daily basis. It was basically impossible to avoid exposure to the black sun.


    And since everyone¡¯s immune system was compromised by the black sun, it probably made it easier for normal diseases to slip in and start causing damage.


    I frowned, feeling a little nervous.


    ¡°Ella? What do we do?¡± I asked, eyeing the patients. At the same time, I tried tossing a bit of healing absorption essence at Anise, since she looked the sickest.


    It did seem to help a little bit. Some of the black tint in Anise¡¯s skin disappeared, and I was pretty sure her coughing got a bit less violent. However, whatever the black sun had done to Anise¡¯s body also made it harder to put it back together correctly. It felt like my healing ability was trying to push through gel as it worked to fix Anise¡¯s body: it wasn¡¯t enough to stop it from working, but enough to slow it down and weaken it.


    If I spent all of my alteration essence for the day, I could probably make Anise somewhat healthy again. However, then I would be missing my strongest combat ability. And most importantly, we still wouldn¡¯t be mobile, since we would still have four patients afterward.


    I felt a gnawing frustration grow in my heart. My healing ability that I had derived from my attunement just never seemed good enough. Extinguish had come into its own as an incredible combat ability, even though it was a little expensive, and could kill or seriously weaken most enemies we could plausibly fight. However, the healing side of my attunement was greatly lacking in comparison. It hadn¡¯t been able to treat Jonathan¡¯s shattered arm, and now it couldn¡¯t treat Anise, Felix, and the parents either.


    Once we reached Silver City, I felt that I needed to redesign the healing aspect of my attunement. My current healing ability was okay, but I needed something to match how useful Extinguish was. But we needed to reach Silver City first.


    Ella dragged my attention away from my lackluster healing abilities when she sighed.


    ¡°Fuck. I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d been exposed to enough of the black sun yet to have any real problems. Usually takes at least a week or two for people to start getting sick.¡± Ella sighed. ¡°All we can do is shack up and wait a bit. I was hoping to be in Silver City before anything happened, but if we wait for a few days, they should get better. Most creatures that roam the wastes don¡¯t bother checking small caves like this one, so it¡¯s pretty normal for adventuring groups to spend time in hidey holes like this while looking for old mage towers and labs. The problem is mostly supplies.¡±


    I nodded, and checked my backpack. ¡°Sallia and I have stronger bodies, so it¡¯s harder for us to get sick, and we can look for a few supplies.¡±


    Ella frowned, looking closely at the two of us, and seemed to think about it. I decided to push her a bit.


    ¡°How are our supplies looking overall?¡±


    ¡°We still have about seven days of food and water,¡± said Ella, who was thoughtfully looking at us. At my question, she also quickly started sorting through our food and water. ¡°We¡¯ve restocked a bit as we moved, but we¡¯ve mostly spent our time traveling. If they recover in three days, we should still be fine. Based on my map, we should be around four days away from Silver City. But that¡¯s only if nothing else goes wrong. I was really hoping we would have a little more leeway, since that would give us time to hide for a day or two if we ran into something like the devourer we saw yesterday. We still have enough supplies to wait three days and still make it, but¡­¡±


    I nodded. ¡°We need a bit more in case of emergencies?¡± I could understand that. There was no guarantee that we wouldn¡¯t run into other problems before reaching Silver City, and having some reserve supplies would make things less dangerous for us.


    Ella sighed, and nodded. ¡°We passed a stream about half a day back the way we came from, but that¡¯s too far away to scavenge safely. And I¡¯m not sure if there are any other big water sources nearby.¡±


    I paused, thinking about my abilities, and frowned. ¡°I¡¯ve learned to create a steam ball or a small ice dart using magic so far. I can probably modify ice dart enough to avoid shooting it after creating it, so we just need a way to collect it and melt it a bit. Would that work for water?¡±


    Ella paused, and then looked thoughtful. After a few moments of thinking, she nodded. ¡°That would work. We wouldn¡¯t even need to purify it. No taint from the black sun at all. Bit of a waste of spellcasting essence, but since you don¡¯t know any of the more specific spells for gathering water from the air and condensing it, it¡¯ll do in a pinch. How much water can you get per spell?¡±


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    I shrugged. ¡°Let me try modifying the spell a bit,¡± I said, and got to work. I mentally pictured the five magic symbols that comprised an ice dart spell. The center of the spell was filled with one magic symbol, and the second circle of the spell was filled with four magic symbols. Each magic symbol was further modified by several sub-symbols, each of which looked tiny in comparison to the five major magic symbols. I started using my mind to look over the sub-symbols, which told the spell what to do with each magic symbol. I quickly started removing anything that told the spell to move in any direction, and after a minute of concentrating, I grinned. ¡°I think I have something that could work,¡± I said.


    ¡°Will the spell be safe?¡± asked Ella. ¡°I know that spellcasters can accidentally blow off their limbs or turn themselves into charcoal with a badly made spell. I don¡¯t want you to hurt yourself just to give us a little extra safety margin. Food and water would be nice, but it¡¯s definitely not that urgent.¡±


    ¡°I doubt it¡¯ll be as dangerous for Sallia and I to experiment,¡± I said. This was something I had been thinking about even before we fled the city. ¡°You know how sturdy Sallia and I are. Even if I mess up, I doubt the spell will do much more than bruise a bit if I get it wrong,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s a reason Orukthyri still manage to learn spellcasting, and it isn¡¯t because they¡¯re particularly intelligent. They just don¡¯t face much of a consequence for messing up, so as long as they luck into learning a magic symbol or two, they can mash their magic symbols together until something works. Constructing a magic circle is pretty fast and easy, so it¡¯s not that hard to imagine them figuring it out via trial and error.¡± I paused. ¡°At least, that¡¯s my guess for how Orukthyri learn spells. I could be wrong, but it¡¯s what makes sense to me.¡±


    Ella paused, and then nodded. ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought about that before, but you¡¯re right. I had never wondered why the Orukthyri could cast spells before today, even though they aren¡¯t too bright. Even if the older Orukthyri help the younger Orukthyri learn, they should still mess up a bit. The Orukthyri lost a lot of their intelligence after whatever the Ortha did to them.¡± She cleared her throat. ¡°Anyway. Here,¡± she said, rifling through her bag for a moment before she found one of the metal canteens we used to store water. ¡°Try¡­ actually, point your palm at the cave wall first. Let¡¯s see if you can cast the spell without harming our surroundings, and then if the spell works, toss some icicles in. We can let them melt for a bit and replenish a bit of water that way.¡±


    I tried out my modified spell, and was pleased to see that nothing went out of control or exploded. An icicle about a quarter of the size of my arm formed in the middle of my palm, before it simply sat there, doing nothing.


    Ella grinned. ¡°Good job, kid. Five magic symbols for that, right? Second circle?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, second circle.¡±


    ¡°All right. Make around twenty. That¡¯ll definitely help stretch our supplies a bit, and still leave you with your shaping essence and a little fallback spellcasting essence if a fight breaks out.¡± I quickly obliged, forming nineteen more icicles and tossing them into a few water containers. It would take a while for them to melt, but clean water wouldn¡¯t hurt to have.


    ¡°Now, about food¡­¡± said Ella, thoughtfully.


    Then, she sighed.


    ¡°I hate to say it, but if Felix, Anise, and her parents are sick this quickly, maybe this area is particularly influenced by the black sun. Maybe it was just extra sunny for the past few days, or the black sun is corroding our world and thus its effects are getting stronger over time. I have no idea. I¡¯m a fighter, not a researcher. Either way, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea for me and Felix¡¯s parents to go out, because our bodies aren¡¯t as strong. I don¡¯t like the idea of you two going out alone, but you made a good point earlier. You¡¯re both very physically strong, and you¡¯re much less susceptible to the black sun. Especially if Sallia uses her spells to boost your strength¡­¡± Ella paused, frowning. ¡°You can explore a bit and look for food. But don¡¯t stray too far from our cave. Stay nearby, so that if you yell, I can run out and help you. And don¡¯t stay out for more than a few hours. Having a strong body reduces the influence of the black sun, but it¡¯s still not a good idea to expose yourself to it for long periods of time, especially if four of us already got sick. Prioritize your safety over getting food. Do I make myself clear?¡±


    I looked at Sallia, and she actually started grinning. I nodded. ¡°Sounds good.¡±


    Ella looked a little worried, but she sighed. ¡°Remember. Take care of yourselves first. We still theoretically have enough food and water to make it to Silver City, since most cases of black sun poisoning only last 2-3 days. What I¡¯m asking you to do is get enough supplies to give us some more leeway if you can do so safely. But be safe. Okay?¡±


    Sallia and I nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll stay within a few hours. We¡¯ll look for any animals to hunt that are edible. Any advice on what we can eat that won¡¯t make us sick?¡±


    ¡°For monsters, most aren¡¯t edible, since they¡¯ve suffered from too much exposure to the black sun. Don¡¯t bother trying to eat them. It¡¯s best to stick to plants that dig deep into the ground, honestly. Stay away from mushrooms: I know you¡¯re used to them, but on the surface, some of them are poisonous. Look for hungry roots, groundnuts, and cave berries. You can identify cave berries since they have a somewhat bright color, and tend to stick in cracks where they can hide from the black sun. Hungry Roots have little tufts of orange leaves that stick out above ground, and tend to be in areas that smell more like charcoal. Groundnuts very rarely grow in patches of pink grass.¡± Ella started describing the plants she wanted us to keep an eye out for, as well as where they might grow and what to watch out for while scavenging. ¡°And remember, don¡¯t eat anything until I look it over. I don¡¯t want you poisoning yourself. Okay?¡±


    I nodded.


    Ella hesitated a gain, before she sighed and nodded. ¡°All right, go ahead. Stay safe, and run back if you run into a creature you can¡¯t handle. Scream if you¡¯re in an emergency, and don¡¯t move very far away.¡±


    With that, Sallia and I left Ella and Felix¡¯s parents to care for the four sick people, and we scampered off to search for food and (possibly) water.


    We spent a few hours trawling through the area, keeping our noses to the ground as we checked every nook and cranny for the vegetables and water Ella mentioned. We moved slowly, for fear of getting ambushed by a dangerous enemy and dying. We found a few groundnuts and hungry roots, although we didn¡¯t find any cave berries.


    We also ran into a couple sleeplurks and quickly dispatched them, earning me my first assist, and 2 Achievement.


    After about three hours of searching, we found something else of interest.


    Sallia was the first one to pick something up.


    ¡°I hear something,¡± she said, pausing.


    I immediately froze and listened, straining my terrible hearing to figure out what Sallia was picking up. It took almost another minute, but eventually, I noticed some interesting souls nearby.


    Much like Orthanoid souls, they were silver-colored, and were moving somewhat near us. I pointed out the direction for Sallia, and she used her stealth rune ability to disappear.


    A few minutes later, she reappeared.


    ¡°People,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s another group of people.¡±

 Chapter 108: Cube

    ¡°How many people are there?¡± I whispered to Sallia.


    ¡°Seven,¡± she said.


    I took another look at the batch of silver-colored souls, and relaxed a little.


    The Orukthyri had incredibly large, difficult to destroy ¡®candles of life,¡¯ which made killing them very difficult. Their resistance to magic amplified their already massive life force, which ultimately meant that I had to spend a huge amount of shaping essence just to kill one Orukthyri. This was the reason I could only kill one and a half Orukthyri with my entire pool of alteration essence. They were simply too resilient to damage compared to regular creatures with less absurd levels of life force.


    However, the ¡®candles of life¡¯ I could see in front of me were much weaker. I could probably extinguish the entire group on my own if I had enough time. Even if I took into account the fact that members of the group would attack me and distract me, I had no doubt that I would at least be able to kill four or five members of the group if a fight broke out. Sallia would easily stomp two or three people if they got close to her. In other words, the other group of people wasn¡¯t able to kill us, unless they had some sort of unique attunement similar to my ocean of souls abilities.


    Of course, I had no intention of attacking them unless they attacked first. Unless they tried to hurt me or my friends first, I was more than happy to get along with anyone we met. But if we didn¡¯t have the ability to defend ourselves against them, I would opt against making contact with them. There was always a chance the other party would try to kill or rob us, and I didn¡¯t want to make contact with a group that we couldn¡¯t fight back against because I wanted to stay as safe as possible. However, since the other group was fightable, we could talk to them.


    Sallia waited with me as I watched the silver souls keep moving past us, as I hesitated. Was there a reason to make contact with them? I hesitated for a few more moments, before I decided it wasn¡¯t a bad idea. They might have news that we would find useful if they had recently come from another city in the underdark, and they might also have some medicine we could give to the sick members of our group. Some medicine in addition to my healing ability would give us the best results.


    ¡°Is there anything or anyone else nearby, besides that group? I think I want to talk to them and trade news and medicine, if they¡¯re willing,¡± I said..


    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything else in the area. We should be good to go,¡± said Sallia.


    The two of us started creeping forward. I had to admit, I was a little curious to know what brought this group of people into the wastes. Was it a group of adventurers? Travelers? Someone fleeing for the destruction of their own city? I hoped it wasn¡¯t another group of refugees: if it was, they might not have any medicine either.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I asked. I made my voice loud enough that it was easy for the other group to hear me.


    The seven silver-colored souls stopped moving.


    ¡°Hello?¡± called out a different voice. It was a man who sounded a little on the older side: I estimated he was probably in his early eighties, the human equivalent of being forty or so. ¡°Is someone there?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re over here,¡± I said, lowering my voice a little bit. ¡°We won¡¯t attack if you won¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°May I know who I¡¯m speaking to? You sound quite young,¡± said the man.


    ¡°I¡¯m Miria. May I ask why you¡¯re in the wastelands?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re adventurers. What about you?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re traveling from one city to another, since our city got invaded.¡± I paused. ¡°Do you have any medicine?¡± I asked. ¡°If so, we¡¯d be willing to trade news and some food and water.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how much the other party would value whatever medicine they might be carrying, but there was no harm in at least trying to trade. If we got our sick people up and moving faster, that would save us a day or two of waiting, which would reduce the strain on our food reserves anyway. Or they might have a healing-related attunement, if there were any shapers in the group.


    ¡°We have something that could work. What specifically are you looking for medicine for?¡±


    ¡°Fevers and coughing. It seems to be mixed with black sun exposure, amplifying the effects of the illness.¡± I said. I also started reaching for my alteration essence, just in case the other party took this as an opportunity to attack us. Luckily, even after hearing we had sick people nearby, they didn¡¯t seem intent on making any hostile moves towards us.


    ¡°Oof. That sounds rough. The black sun has been getting worse and worse for the past few years, and it¡¯s especially bad this year. We should have something that can help with the symptoms you described. How much food and water are you willing to trade? And do you have anything else you can throw into the deal?¡±


    I relaxed a little more. I didn¡¯t completely let my guard down, but I had a good feeling about this group of people.


    ¡°We have a few extra day¡¯s worth of food and water that we¡¯d be willing to exchange, as well as a map of this area. I imagine you already have a map, but by comparing the two, you can get a clearer image of this area. It was created by my teacher, a former adventurer, and so it should still have a good amount of useful information in it. We can also share some news about the underdark that might interest you, especially relating to the city we came from.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± the voice paused for a moment, considering my offer. ¡°I¡¯ll admit, I¡¯m not too keen on adventuring past this point, which would be the biggest reason I would be interested in your map. We¡¯re planning on heading back to our city and retiring. We already know the route back home, so I doubt the map will be of much value to us. I wouldn¡¯t mind an update on the underdark, though. You mentioned fleeing from your city? I doubt it¡¯s anything too relevant to us, but there¡¯s no harm in checking. How about one and a half day¡¯s worth of decently-sized meals for the seven of us, and a similar amount of water? I¡¯d also like the information about the underdark. In exchange, we¡¯ll use our healing item on the sick people? If you have any precious metals, we¡¯d prefer to exchange for that, but we are running low on supplies.¡±


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    I thought about it, and then nodded. ¡°We don¡¯t have any precious metals with us, but the food and water sound reasonable.¡± If anything, the other side was undercharging us. Since they had mentioned a healing ¡®item,¡¯ rather than medicine, I suspected that they were offering use of something magical. Which was probably why they were offering us use for such a low price: it wouldn¡¯t damage the magic item any. Magic items in this world seemed firmly built to repair themselves no matter what happened to them.


    ¡°All right. We¡¯re heading over to you. Don¡¯t attack us,¡± said the man, and the seven silver souls started making their way towards us. I kept my alteration essence ready, but I was pretty sure that the adventurers weren¡¯t going to attack us at this point. They seemed to be trading in good faith.


    About a minute later, I saw five men and two women emerge from the underbrush. They were all in their thirties or forties, and had a grizzled look to them. They also smelled rather¡­ ripe.


    I suddenly realized it had been several days since I last had a bath, and tried not to think about what I smelled like.


    ¡°Well? Where are the supplies and sick people?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re back at the cave we¡¯re taking shelter in,¡± I said.


    ¡°Then lead the way, kids,¡± said the oldest man in the group, who seemed to be the leader of their party. I also noticed that the group of people was highly alert, scanning our surroundings at all times, either for monsters or humans. I nodded to myself. They were keeping their guard up as well.


    Sallia and I began moving back towards the cave. After we reached the area where everyone was located, I paused for a moment. ¡°Ella! We found some guests. We¡¯re trading medicine for some food, water, and information!¡± I called out.


    I didn¡¯t hear anything for a few seconds. Then, Ella nodded. ¡°Okay!¡±


    After that, I quickly led them inside the cave. Ella quickly listened to the trade deal I had hashed out, before she nodded. ¡°That¡¯s fine with me too. How about we exchange news, then you use the medicine, and then we give you the water and food?¡±


    The man paused. ¡°Give us half the food and water upfront, then half later.¡±


    Ella nodded. She quickly divided out about a day and a half of our rations, then gave half of the pile of supplies to the man.


    ¡°Now, for the news. Our home city recently fell to an Orukthyri warband. There seem to have been around 200 of them, originally, and about thirty warriors seem to have broken through the front lines before we fled. Our spellcasters were either out of mana, or unable to use high enough circle spells to damage them, and these orukthyri were highly magic resistant¡­¡± Ella began describing the battle, and our narrow loss against the creatures. The adventurers took Ella¡¯s words in stride, thinking over it, before they nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯s quite close to our home city. The information you provided us was quite valuable. Thank you.¡± Then, he pulled something out of his backpack.


    When I saw it, I froze.


    I¡­ recognized the feeling from the item he had pulled out.


    It was clearly a magic item. It looked like a cube. However, I could feel that within the cube, there was something very familiar to me.


    It felt like it was related to the ocean of souls. It wasn¡¯t exactly the same as the ¡®concept¡¯ of the ocean of souls my attunement was based on. However, it was very, very close.


    Most importantly, it was clearly derived from the ocean of souls.


    This was shocking to me.


    Someone else from this dimension had made contact with the ocean of souls?


    Was it another transmigrator? Had one of the natives of this world somehow made contact with the ocean of souls on their own? If so, how?


    Truthfully, while I knew that we were somehow connected to the ocean of souls, I didn¡¯t really understand how dimensions worked on a macro scale. I knew that the laws of reality could change some from one dimension to the next, and they were all connected to the ocean of souls, but I wasn¡¯t really sure how everything worked together. So if one of the natives had made contact with the ocean of souls, it would potentially mean that we could find important information about how the multiverse as a whole worked if we could track down the source of the cube.


    Questions swirled around in my mind, and I found myself staring at the cube in fascination.


    As I stared at the cube, the man took a small patch of white paint from the backpack. There didn¡¯t seem to be anything special about the paint, but the man quickly used general shaping to transfer the white color from the paint to the cube.


    The cube rippled, and I felt something about the concept of the ocean of souls within the cube change.


    Then, the man quickly pressed the cube against the chest of Anise¡¯s father.


    I could see the little black tint in his skin start to weaken, and then little globs of black goop started to push out of his body. At the same time, his complexion started to improve. The sweating and coughing he had been suffering from since this morning started to weaken. A few minutes later, instead of looking incredibly ill, Anise¡¯s father just looked like he had recovered from a mild cold. He blearily opened his eyes and frowned.


    ¡°My head hurts,¡± he mumbled, absently rubbing at his head.


    ¡°Other than that, are you okay?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°Yeah. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m in great shape for moving, but I just feel a little exhausted now.¡±


    I could certainly see the improvement in his body, so I relaxed. With the effectiveness of the magic cube verified, I stopped concentrating on Anise¡¯s father and turned back towards the Cube. I didn¡¯t want to miss a second of its use.


    Something from the ocean of souls had been used to heal. In addition to the questions swirling around my thoughts, I was now also thinking about something else: perhaps I could derive inspiration from this to make a better healing-related ability. My current healing ability was incredibly lackluster. But since the cube had the same origin as my attunement, I could probably learn something from it if I paid attention.


    Moments later, the man pressed the white cube against Anise¡¯s mother. And then Anise, and finally Felix. All while I watched, trying to figure out everything I could about what was happening, and how to copy it.


    The way the cube worked was fundamentally different from what I had been doing to heal so far, but it felt more¡­ right. However, frustratingly enough, I couldn¡¯t figure out the core of what was happening. I didn¡¯t have a good enough method to observe the cube and figure out how its healing worked. I had a couple of random guesses and ideas, but I wasn¡¯t sure if any of them were correct.


    I frowned. I decided to experiment more once we got to Silver City. I felt like I had seen something familiar to me. I just couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on what. If I tried experimenting some, I felt like I could still improve or completely replace my current healing ability.


    Anise, Felix, and Anise¡¯s parents no longer looked like they were sick at all, just a little weak. I didn¡¯t even throw any healing at them: there was just no point. They were clearly healthy. Ella finished the transaction with the adventurer, and the other party quickly left afterwards.


    Anise, Felix, and her parents were still a bit tired out from their recovery, so we decided to wait until tomorrow before we got moving again. I sat down to think about what I had seen.

 Chapter 109: Chasm

    After the group of adventurers left, I spent several hours thinking about what I had seen.


    I still wasn¡¯t sure what the origin of the cube was. However, I was certain that it was related to the ocean of souls.


    I sighed.


    I was suddenly very interested in trading for the cube itself, but unfortunately, our group didn¡¯t have anything that we could have possibly used to trade for the cube. I wasn¡¯t willing to attack innocent people to steal their stuff, and I had nothing worth trading for the cube. Thus, I could only watch as the cube left with the party of adventurers.


    Perhaps there was another way to see the cube in the future, apart from trading for it? Perhaps once I was a little older, I could work on getting a reputation for investigating magic items. If people knew I was trying to make magic items, I would have a pretty good reason to investigate the cube. Since the party of adventurers had mentioned their home city was close to our former home city, I could probably track down the cube if I asked some traveling merchants to keep an eye out for it. And if Felix got some hints about how to create magic items, perhaps we could actually succeed in replicating the healing cube if we worked together. That would net us a huge amount of Achievement if we succeeded, and give me a lot of inspiration on how to use my attunement and improve it for future lives.


    I shook my head, chasing off my daydreams. Right now we were nowhere near the level of influence and knowledge we needed to successfully bring magic-item crafting back to this world. I decided to think about it later. At the very least, if the adventurers stumbled across a cube related to the ocean of souls while exploring the surface, it meant that there were some places in the world where I could learn more. This dimension had been seriously weakened when someone tried to manipulate dimensions, and the cube let me know that there were locations in the world where clues about this attempt were left behind. I just needed to find them.


    As I quietly thought about the future and made plans, Sallia got herself ready for another trip outside of the cave. Then, the two of us set out to search for more supplies. This time, we stumbled across a strange, shambling creature that looked kind of like a person: however, it had no face or solid body. Instead, its entire body looked more like a distinct patch of¡­ nothingness. It was almost like a clump of distorted air, but something about the light in the area tipped Sallia off that there was something wrong.


    It took a little observation for us to realize that the strange creature was drawing light, air, and everything around it into itself, almost like a very miniature black hole. And it was moving towards us. It was also very much alive, since I could see its soul.


    It had more lifeforce than the average Orukthyri. Luckily, unlike the Orukthyri, it was alone, and since our group members were healed, I didn¡¯t need to save any alteration essence. I had to spend almost the entirety of my alteration essence killing it, but luckily, extinguish quickly brought it down. I felt lucky that the creature didn¡¯t have any magic resistance: if it had any amount of magic resistance at all, my alteration essence pool wouldn¡¯t have been big enough to kill it, and I wasn¡¯t sure if Sallia could even hurt this thing.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill an empty shadow for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +150


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 10,168.89 to 10,318.89. More importantly, I got a new skill out of it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured an empty shadow for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Emptiness: On contact with oxygen, the black sun, or organic matter, you may begin to ¡®empty¡¯ whatever you come in contact with, stripping the meaning of its existence away from it and turning it into alteration essence. Your alteration Stat is increased by 9 points. (Note: this ability takes some focus to use, so it may be difficult to maintain if you are distracted).


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The ¡®Charge¡¯ skill I had just acquired was immediately tossed out the window. Since Alteration was my primary combat attribute, I intended to boost it as high as it could possibly go. If I got another Alteration ability, I might even pump myself up another grade.


    My alteration stat increased from 143 to 152 after taking the skill, which gave me a little more essence to fling around extinguishes in the future. However, since I hadn¡¯t reached a new grade, the difference wasn¡¯t too big. However, I quickly noticed how useful the ¡®devouring¡¯ ability was. I hadn¡¯t noticed the effects of the black sun on my body, since my Perception stat was terrible and the influence of the black sun was quite subtle. However, once I started actively stripping away the ¡®meaning¡¯ of the light from the black sun and using it to fuel my own alteration magic, I immediately felt lighter. As if I had been wading through shallow water before, and now I was moving on dry land again. The recovery speed of my alteration essence also increased significantly: before, I needed about a full day to recover all of my alteration essence. Now, I could probably recover in about 10 hours now, as long as I was using the ¡®Emptiness¡¯ Skill. Of course, I couldn¡¯t maintain it while asleep, but the new Skill was still a massive boost to my regeneration speed, and would probably let me use around double the amount of alteration essence per day.


    Apart from stumbling across the empty shadow, Sallia and I didn¡¯t run into anything else while we gathered food and water. We ended up finding several handfuls of groundnuts and hungry roots for food, which was enough to supplement our supplies. I had been hoping to find more, but right now any extra food we could find would help stretch our supplies a little further.


    We had a slightly more lavish dinner than usual, to celebrate our sick group members getting better and to help them get their strength back quickly. Since they were recovering well, we decided to let the sick party members rest for the night, and then set out the next day.


    * * *


    The next two days of our journey to Silver City were fairly uneventful. After our sick members got better, they were able to move easily again, so we started making good time during our travels. However, considering how easily some of our group members had fallen sick during the journey, Ella made us take more breaks than before. We spent more time each day hiding in caves, taking shelter from the sun. Sallia and I thus searched for more food each night, since it was becoming increasingly obvious that our supplies were getting stretched to the limit. Luckily, thanks to Felix¡¯s parents, we avoided any creatures that Ella thought might hurt us: which, on the surface, was most creatures we ran across.


    About halfway through the third day after the illness was cured, Felix¡¯s parents suddenly stopped, before they frowned.


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    ¡°Something weird is ahead of us. Stop for a bit.¡±


    We immediately froze.


    The two continued frowning, and I saw them start to cast more spells to improve their senses.


    ¡°In the distance, I can vaguely see the outline of a giant ravine filled with black mist, but it¡¯s very hard to make out,¡± said Felix''s mother. ¡°I think the black mist itself is alive, if my spells are giving me correct information. The black mist is also moving around. I think it has some sort of stealth or illusion related spell or ability, which is why it¡¯s so hard for me to see it, even after I used two third circle spells and a second circle spell to supplement my senses and detect life in our surroundings. I¡¯m not sure if it has any other abilities, but it makes me nervous.¡±


    I strained my eyes, trying to get a good look, but I couldn¡¯t see whatever was ahead of us at all. I felt a surge of irritation as I thought about how poor my eyesight was this life. Having low Perception was far more frustrating than I had given it credit for being, and I still needed quite a few meals from Sallia¡¯s Ramen bowl before I finally corrected my terrible perception stat.


    ¡°Has it seen us?¡± asked Ella.


    ¡°I have no idea,¡± said Felix¡¯s father. ¡°I do notice a few other creatures walking around near the black mist, and it doesn¡¯t seem to be reacting to them. But most of them end up walking off the edge of the ravine and plummeting to their deaths, so it might be doing something to their mind. Or the creature might not feel a need to respond, since they¡¯re already about to die. I wish I had a few more spells that could give me better information right now¡­¡± said Felix¡¯s father, grimacing.


    ¡°Even if you had more magic symbols, they might not help,¡± said Ella. ¡°Our spells usually don¡¯t quite know what to make of creatures from outside the world, since their biology is so alien compared to ours.¡± Ella sighed. ¡°But that¡¯s not the point right now. Do you see any ways that we might cross over the ravine, or any hints that trying to cross might be dangerous?¡±


    Felix¡¯s father simply shrugged. ¡°Every animal or creature I see near the ravine dies afterwards. I don¡¯t see any bridges across the ravine, or anything we could use to cross over it.¡±


    Ella frowned, before turning towards¡­ me. ¡°Miria. If it comes down to it, do you think you could build a bridge using your general shaping? Or use your fireball spell to clear up the mist and make it disappear? I don¡¯t know if the black mist can be killed or burned away, but it might be worth trying.¡±


    I frowned, looking at the chalky, charcoal-scented dirt and chunks of stone near us, and felt a bit frustrated.


    ¡°If I know exactly where the ravine is, I could probably fashion some sort of reasonably sturdy bridge across the ravine. But I don¡¯t know how long the bridge would need to be, and the fact that I can¡¯t see what I¡¯m doing is a big problem. As for fireball...¡± I tried forming a fireball spell, and then lobbed it at the black mist.


    Nothing happened. The mist didn¡¯t seem to get hurt or react in any way, and whatever illusion the black mist was using to block my perception meant I almost immediately lost sight of it. I could still see something in the ground in front of us. However, due to my poor Perception and the nature of the creature in front of us, I had a hard time figuring out what was real and what wasn¡¯t. All I knew for sure was that I could no longer clearly tell where the fireball was a few seconds after launching it.


    I turned towards Felix¡¯s father. He was the only one of us that had managed to see anything so far.


    ¡°Nothing happened,¡± reported Felix¡¯s father.


    I felt a bit disappointed. Clearly, fireballing the darkness wouldn¡¯t work here.


    Ella nodded. ¡°So we don¡¯t have any good offensive spells to kill it, at least. But Miria might be able to build a bridge. Good to know that we have a backup plan, then. How about your deadly drop of water trick?¡±


    I tried examining the body of the creature using my soul-sight, hoping the creature could be killed as easily as the thought worms we had run into during the Orukthyri-culling trip with the scouts. If I could just extinguish the black fog creature, that would save us a lot of time and effort.


    For the first time, I got a pretty good idea where the creature was. I could now see a large gray-white soul hiding inside of the ground in front of us. Even though I couldn¡¯t see the creature or the ravine with my normal vision, it was a relief to finally know where the threat lay.


    However, the black fog was much different than the thought worms. Every single tendril of mist, every single puff of fog in its body seemed to contain part of its soul. Most creatures had condensed blobs of soul that I could target by visualizing it as a ¡®candle¡¯ of life, but this creature seemed more like a cloud instead of a candle. Its life force was simply too dispersed for me to extinguish it with one clean spell: it was an issue in how extinguish targeted creatures.


    I had never seen anything like it before. I noted the issue down, so that I could work on fixing it later. But for now, at least, I couldn¡¯t kill the fog with extinguish.


    ¡°It won¡¯t work here. The way its life force is spread out means that I can¡¯t hit it with a good extinguish, and trying to wipe out every single droplet of life force in this creature might take weeks,¡± I said. ¡°And that¡¯s assuming it doesn¡¯t regenerate.¡±


    Ella nodded.


    ¡°Very creepy. I don¡¯t think my attunement will be useful here, either,¡± she said. ¡°All right, let¡¯s see if we can just walk around this thing. I don¡¯t like the idea of getting any closer to it than necessary. but if need be, Miria can try building a bridge across the ravine and then we can try crossing it. But that¡¯s our last resort: I think walking around it or finding another solution is a much better idea.¡±


    Anise nodded. Her parents looked very creeped out by the illusory ravine, and Anise didn¡¯t look much better. I gave her a quick consoling hug, and then nodded.


    We started walking in another direction. I occasionally used my soul-sight to check on the location of the ravine, but no matter how far we walked, we never seemed to move away from the ravine. Even if we tried walking directly away from the ravine, we always ran into another patch of ravine sooner or later. I began to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.


    ¡°Just how big is this thing?¡± muttered Sallia, as she looked at another patch of the illusory ravine that lay in front of us.


    ¡°Wait¡­¡± Ella frowned. ¡°Does this area look familiar to you guys?¡±


    I looked around, before I also started frowning. ¡°It does.¡±


    ¡°Are we traveling in circles?¡± asked Felix. ¡°Did we¡­ get turned around somehow?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s as simple as that,¡± I said.


    Felix sighed. ¡°I was just hoping that I was wrong.¡±


    Ella grimaced. ¡°I think we¡¯ve been in this spot before, around an hour ago.¡± She shuddered. ¡°We¡¯re already in range of whatever this thing is doing to us. It¡¯s not as simple as illusions¡­¡± She took a few steps closer to the ravine, before shaking her head. ¡°Since we can¡¯t walk away from this thing, we need to figure out what the black fog creature is doing, and how to either cancel it or kill the creature entirely. Otherwise, we¡¯ll starve to death here. We only have a day and a half of food and water. Miria, is there any chance you¡¯ll figure out how to make your spell work before we starve to death?¡±


    ¡°No. It might take weeks of experimentation to revise the ability enough that it works here. We don¡¯t have that kind of time.¡±


    Ella sighed, and sat down. ¡°All right, the easiest solutions won¡¯t work, and we can¡¯t just walk away. It isn¡¯t directly attacking us, but we can¡¯t leave. Hmm¡­¡±


    Ella sat down, and began to think. I saw the corners of her lips tighten, and the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach grew worse.


    Most of the time we had been in the wastes, Ella had presented herself as very confident and relaxed, even in the wastes. It had done wonders for the morale of the group, and it had made it much easier to keep everyone moving and energetic.


    But for the first time, even if she was trying to hide it, Ella looked worried.

 Chapter 110: Chasm (2)

    We spent a few minutes simply staring at the illusory ravine, lost in thought. None of us had a great idea for how to immediately kill the strange creature, and directly building a bridge across the ravine felt dangerous as well. Seeing Ella¡¯s worried expression made me feel very worried, because I was starting to wonder if this was an insurmountable problem. If we died only a day or two away from the Silver City, I would feel incredibly frustrated when we returned to the Market. I had all sorts of new and interesting Skills I was excited to try, and I had just gotten a hint about how to further develop my magic system. If I died before getting to see any of my ideas through, I would lose a huge amount of potential progress, which might cause us to die when we tried to buy more lives in the future. And Ella, Anise, Felix¡¯s parents, and Ansie¡¯s parents weren¡¯t connected to the Market. Dying meant saying goodbye to all of them.


    I wasn¡¯t ready for that. I had opened up my heart and truly started treating Anise as a friend I cherished as much as Felix and Sallia. I didn¡¯t want to lose her yet.


    In fact, I didn¡¯t want to lose her at all if I could help it. But I knew that some partings were inevitable. I wanted that day to be as far away as possible, though.


    ¡°Maybe we could try grabbing a less dangerous creature and forcing it to cross the bridge first?¡± said Sallia. ¡°If we test the crossing using another animal first, we have a much better idea of figuring out how exactly the black mist works. The biggest problem right now is that we don¡¯t know what the black mist does. It seems to have a way of forcing us to return to it when we try to leave,  but there are a lot of ways it could do that. Seeing it work on another animal could help us.¡±


    Ella seemed to brighten up as she nodded. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. Let¡¯s do it. Collin, you mentioned seeing a few creatures nearby when we were first investigating the creature. Do you see any now?¡±


    Felix¡¯s father nodded. ¡°There¡¯s one a few minutes in that direction. It looks like a dasher, so if we end up fighting it, it won¡¯t be too hard to deal with.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go,¡± said Ella.


    When we reached the creature, even from a distance it was obvious that there was something wrong with it. Its eyes had a strange orange tint stuck to some parts of its eye, making it look like it had an eye infection. It also glowed, making it very very noticeable. It didn¡¯t seem particularly responsive to our group, unlike most other creatures we had encountered in the wastes. It simply stared at the empty spot where the ravine was located, as if it were searching for something that it was unable to find.


    Ella frowned, before she scanned our group.


    ¡°I just noticed it, but everyone but Miria and Sallia also have a little bit of an orange tint to their eyes as well,¡± she said.


    I double checked the rest of our group, and realized that Anise, Felix, and their parents were indeed starting to develop a very light orange color attached to their eyes. It was very subtle right now, but I was pretty sure it hadn¡¯t been there when we arrived near the black fog.


    I tried tossing a healing ability at Felix, just to see if it did anything to ¡®heal¡¯ the orange color, but the strange orange buildup on his eyes didn¡¯t disappear at all.


    ¡°I think the orange color in the dasher¡¯s eyes is related to whatever the black fog is doing,¡± I said.


    ¡°I think so too. Hmm¡­ Sallia, could you subdue the dasher without killing it? I want to get a closer look, and you¡¯re the sturdiest out of all of us,¡± said Ella.


    ¡°Absolutely,¡± said Sallia, as she raised her sword. She didn¡¯t even bother unsheathing it before sprinting towards the dasher.


    The dasher hadn¡¯t reacted to our presence until now, and had mostly seemed focused on the area where the black fog was located. However, as Sallia drew closer, it finally roused itself out of its delirious state and growled at her.


    Sallia activated a few second circle spells, immediately boosting her speed by an exceptional amount, and then burned absorption essence and used her attunement to boost her speed even more. A moment later, she completely disappeared from my field of vision, before reappearing right behind the dasher. I heard a loud banging sound.


    Then, the dasher flew through the air like a softball for several seconds, before hitting the ground and rolling several times. Sallia flashed a grin at me, and I felt a smile tug at my lips as well.


    Even though she wasn¡¯t quite strong enough to defeat Orukthyri on her own, and had some major weaknesses that she hadn¡¯t corrected yet¡­ Sallia was becoming quite the competent fighter. As we went through more lives, got more Stats and Abilities, and grew more experienced, I had no doubt that Sallia would correct all of the issues she was currently experiencing and become someone truly terrifying. In the right circumstances, she was already nightmarishly strong.


    ¡°Did you shatter its skull?¡± Ella asked, and I blinked, before glancing at the creature again. I hadn¡¯t seen where Sallia had hit it, but I suddenly wondered if I should prepare a heal for the dasher.


    ¡°It¡¯s still alive,¡± said Sallia as I glanced at the unconscious creature. ¡°Though it''s going to have a massive bruise on its head in a few minutes.¡±


    ¡°Can it still walk properly?¡± Felix asked. ¡°If we can¡¯t get it to walk across the bridge, we might not learn much. If you gave it a concussion¡­¡±


    ¡°Have some confidence in me, Felix!¡± said Sallia. ¡°I hit it exactly hard enough to knock it out without killing it or crippling it!¡± She flashed a grin at Felix, and Felix sighed, before nodding.


    Ella¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ good enough, I suppose. Anyway.¡± Ella carefully ripped off a piece of the sleeve of her shirt, before she used it as a makeshift glove. Then, she forced the unconscious dasher to open its eyes, before carefully looking at the creature.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± she said. ¡°Anise, could you come over here for a moment?¡±


    Anise quickly ran up to Ella, and Ella looked at Anise¡¯s eyes as well.


    Ella sighed. ¡°I can definitely confirm that the strange orange coloration from this creature¡¯s eyes is also present in Anise¡¯s eyes. I don¡¯t know what the orange color means, but I doubt it¡¯s good news. Sallia, Miria, could you come over here? I want to give your eyes a more careful inspection.¡±


    We both quickly moved over to Ella, and she spent a few minutes looking at our eyes as well. ¡°There actually a very small amount of orange coloration in your eyes, but it¡¯s very, very minor. You two also failed to escape the area, hmm¡­ Since you two have really strong bodies, and the rest of us seem to have more of the orange color in our eyes, it seems like having a strong body helps you resist the orange coloration, whatever that is. But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a perfect defense.¡± Ella trailed off as she stared into space, as if losing herself in thought.


    Then, she seemed to perk up. ¡°Well, we still have time before it gets critical, I think. The fact that this color is building up in the creature¡¯s eyes makes me think that a big part of the fog¡¯s ability is related to vision.¡± She grinned, and a lot of the worry and frustration that had been building up seemed to flow away from her body. ¡°Miria, can you make that strange whirlpool of water again? The one that seems to mess with people¡¯s minds?¡±


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    I immediately created a whirlpool of madness-inducing water using my absorption rune.


    Then, I saw a little patch of black fog appear in the corner of my eye. I accidentally lost control of my whirlpool of water in surprise, causing the rune ability to collapse.


    ¡°I saw the fog for a bit. Even though I don¡¯t have any spells enhancing my eyesight, I still saw something.¡±


    ¡°I saw a little more clearly too. Fantastic,¡± said Ella. She grinned. ¡°So whatever the black fog is doing to our mind, it¡¯s susceptible to disruption if we distract ourselves with something else first. Alternatively, we might need to specifically disrupt our vision. It¡¯s hard to say whether it¡¯s tied to the mental effects of your whirlpool or the visual effect. But either way, we can do something with this.¡± She turned towards me. ¡°Do you think you can turn the whirlpool into bubbles, build a bridge, and then maintain the bubbles at the edges of our vision while we cross? I will help with the bridge. If you can do it, we¡¯ll test it with the dasher and see how it goes.¡±


    I thought about it for a moment, before I nodded. ¡°I can do it.¡±


    The two of us got to work. Felix¡¯s father and mother pointed out where the black fog and ravine was located, and I used that information to build a bridge from our side of the ravine to the other side, one chunk of stone at a time. At the same time, Ella started to help me out, stabilizing each chunk of the bridge and ensuring I didn¡¯t leave any holes or other problems behind.


    After that, we quickly woke the dasher up by shaking it around, and then I immediately distracted it with my whirlpool of madness-inducing water. I quickly formed a screen of bubbles, surrounding both sides of the bridge, meticulously blocking off the sightline the dasher had with the black fog. Since the black fog¡¯s ability was vision related, totally cutting it off didn¡¯t seem like a bad idea.


    As more and more bubbles of madness water filled my own vision, I felt the illusion of ordinary ground in front of us start to peel away, revealing the ravine filled with sinister black fog that lay in front of us. I shivered.


    Even with my ridiculously sturdy body, there was no way I would survive the drop. And that wasn¡¯t including the fact that the black fog would probably dissolve me or something horrific once I made contact with it.


    ¡°Well? Go on?¡± said Sallia, nudging the dasher.


    Now that the creature could see the fog-filled ravine, it seemed very nervous. However, its willpower wasn¡¯t that great, and since I had concentrated most of the bubbles directly in front of it, it was inevitably drawn forward as it tried to become one with the water I had created.


    We watched in anticipation as the creature stepped forward. Occasionally, it started to veer towards one side of the bridge or the other, but as long as I was careful about where I placed the bubbles, I managed to keep it on the bridge.


    When the dasher was two thirds of the way across the bridge, the black fog finally reacted. The mist transformed into a hollow-looking pair of human eyes, before it glared at the dasher.


    The dasher¡¯s eyes widened, and it snapped out of the daze my bubbles and the black mist had put it under.


    It started running for its life.


    Towards the end of the bridge, it stumbled for a few moments, and seemed to hit one of its legs on the bridge. It limped for a moment, before it desperately leapt to the other side of the bridge and kept running, dragging its bruised leg behind it. It didn¡¯t stop as it fled into the distance.


    The black eyes turned towards us, and I felt very uneasy. However, the black eyes didn¡¯t do anything else: they simply stared at us for a few moments, before they receded back into the mist.


    I felt uneasy.


    Was it waiting for us? Had it given up on us?


    What was it doing?


    Sitting around and waiting wasn¡¯t a good plan, since the strange orange coloration on our eyes would start to build up if we spent a long time here. I suspected that once our eyes became orange enough, we would die, even though I hadn¡¯t confirmed this yet. However, crossing while a possibly sapient creature us and planned the best time to attack also seemed like a bad idea.


    Ella glanced at the black fog and shuddered, before she sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s wait for a bit. Miria and I could use a day or so to recuperate our shaping essence. Let¡¯s set up camp and hope it forgets about us.¡±


    Then, she leaned closer to me, and began whispering. ¡°In one hour, run as fast as you can. We don¡¯t have great options here, so pray that we all make it to the other side. Don¡¯t assume a running position or anything else beforehand. Just go. I don¡¯t know if that creature ¡®sees ¡®in the same way we do, or speaks our language, but make sure to give it as few hints as possible.¡±


    I nodded.


    This felt dangerous.


    Very dangerous.


    But waiting too long meant certain death, and the creature was already aware of us. I doubted it would become any less aware of us if we waited a day.


    I went through the motions of setting up my tent, relaxing a bit, and preparing to rest. If the creature was able to understand what we were doing, perhaps it would let its guard down once it saw us setting up tents? We were only a day or two away from Silver City now. If we could make it past this obstacle and didn¡¯t run into anything else, we might not need our tents anymore. Losing them would suck, but it wouldn¡¯t be the end of the world. Dying would be much worse.


    We spent about an hour ¡®sleeping,¡¯ but I felt uneasy the whole time. As if something were watching us.


    Waiting.


    Still, an hour later, all of us dashed out of our tents and started sprinting for our lives. We didn¡¯t have time to grab our tents, although my backpack meant we could still carry our food and water easily.


    We ran.


    As I pushed past each step on my bridge, I watched our surroundings anxiously, waiting for the eyes to reappear.


    And a third of the way across the bridge, the black, foggy eyes reappeared in the middle of the ravine.


    Watching us.


    I felt a stab of horror in my mind and froze up, as I felt something brush against my skin. It felt like a cold, clammy caress, worming its way inside of my skin, and looking deeper and deeper into my bones. Suddenly, I felt cold in my legs, like I had been dunked into a pool of icy water. I heard someone gasp and wheeze nearby, and I heard Felix yelp in pain.


    A piercing headache brought me back to my senses, and I realized that Ella had hit me with her attunement to get me moving again. My legs still felt like they were made of ice instead of flesh, but I could think clearly again.


    I realized things were bad, and immediately slammed a bunch of my alteration essence into my mind-altering water bubbles. In a fit of inspiration, I cranked up the power of their mind-altering abilities as much as I could, and tried to make them focus explicitly on the creature.


    And it worked. The creature¡¯s attention was drawn away from us.


    But something was wrong with my legs. I could barely move them.


    ¡°Help! Legs won¡¯t move!¡± I yelled.


    Sallia immediately doubled back and grabbed me by the shoulders, before dragging me forward.


    While the creature was distracted, we managed to get to the other side of the bridge. As we touched ground on the other side of the ravine, I felt something change, and the feeling of being watched vanished. However, we didn¡¯t stop. Sallia carried me for several extra meters, as we ran to get away from the strange chasm filled with black fog.


    After we got a little further away from the ravine, we finally slowed down.


    I breathed a sigh of relief.


    Nobody had died during our flight across the bridge.


    However, a spike of pain in my legs made me look down.


    The skin of my legs, especially the exposed bits of leg between the hem of my dress and my {Sturdy Boots} was slightly gray. It looked¡­ wrong.


    At the same time, I heard Felix¡¯s father start coughing.


    ¡°Something is wrong with-¡± Felix¡¯s father started coughing. ¡°My lungs. They¡¯re cold. They hurt.¡± He gasped.


    Felix also started to clutch at one of his eyes. He wasn¡¯t moaning in pain the same way his father was, but I could clearly tell that something was wrong.


    Ella¡¯s left arm looked distinctly gray now. She was gritting her teeth and refusing to make a sound, but I could tell she was in pain.


    Anise¡¯s mouth and nose looked gray. She was the most panicked of the group, and was continuously prodding at her mouth and nose. Her eyes and lips were scrunched up, and I got the distinct impression that she was trying not to cry from pain.


    Something was horribly wrong with our bodies.

 Chapter 111: Fog and Blood

    After we finally had a few moments to take a break away from the fog creature, we sat down to assess what was wrong with our bodies.


    I winced, as I saw the strip of flesh between my knee and my calves now had a somewhat stony appearance. It was as if my bones were made of ice now, and the pain was bad enough that it made me want to slam my head into the ground over and over again until I blacked out. It wasn¡¯t quite as bad as when I broke both three limbs, but it was close. I gasped, and then turned towards Felix and Sallia.


    If my legs hurt this bad, how bad was Felix¡¯s eye?


    Had Sallia gotten hurt?


    What about Anise?


    I felt incredibly scared that they might die from whatever the fog creature had done to us.


    Anise looked like she was only a step away from writhing in pain, and she was gently patting at her nose and mouth as her eyes teared up. Anise was still a child, and it looked like the pain was too much for her to bear. The fact that she hadn¡¯t started bawling was already a testament to her willpower.


    Felix wasn¡¯t doing much better. He was simply clutching at his injured eye and taking shallow, desperate breaths as he tried not to collapse in pain.


    A few moments later, Felix¡¯s father collapsed to the floor, coughing as his lungs rebelled against him. I quickly realized that was the most serious injury, and started reaching towards my alteration essence. Perhaps a healing spell could fix this.


    I tried to take a step closer to Felix¡¯s father, but I stumbled and tripped, before flopping onto the ground.


    My legs weren¡¯t handling weight quite as well as they should. The pain wasn¡¯t getting worse, but it certainly wasn¡¯t getting better either. I gasped, and, through sheer force of will, managed to stand up and start slowly walking my way towards Felix¡¯s father. His face was turning more and more pale as he tried to breathe and his lungs didn¡¯t let him. Every single step I took felt like it took years, but finally, I reached him and slammed a healing ability directly into his body.


    For a brief moment, Felix¡¯s father seemed to feel a sense of relief. His shallow breathing started to correct itself, and the pain in his face started to recede. I relaxed a little bit. It seemed like my healing ability was still able to fix the injuries we had suffered. Now that Felix¡¯s father wasn¡¯t dying, I tossed a little alteration essence towards my legs to make it easier to walk, and then started making my way towards Anise. Felix could tolerate pain better than her, and since her nose and mouth were both gray, I was worried that she might have breathing issues.


    However, before I finished making my way towards Anise, I heard Felix¡¯s father start coughing again from behind me. A few moments later, the pain in my legs returned.


    The bad feeling in the pit of my stomach grew worse.


    ¡°It¡­ hurts¡­ Lungs¡­¡± he said, gasping as I returned to his side and jammed another healing spell into his body. I didn¡¯t know what else to do.


    His facial expression improved again. But only for a few breaths. As I sat anxiously by his side, I could already see that he was in pain again a few seconds after I started healing him.


    My healing spell wasn¡¯t enough to fix the problem.


    I swapped to my soul sight, and tried to find the ¡®life force¡¯ of the gray mist so that I could


    ¡°Mirrrra. Hurrrt.¡± said Anise, slurring her words as if she was drunk. She started slowly walking to me, tears trickling down her cheeks as she tried not to claw at her mouth.


    Felix wasn¡¯t making his way towards me, but I could see that he was still wincing in pain and clutching his injured eye.


    Felix finally seemed to regain his focus, and turned towards Sallia. ¡°One of my eyes hurts a lot. And I can¡¯t see out of it. Sallia, is my eye ruined? Can your rune ability fix it?¡±


    Sallia leaned closer to Felix, looking at his eye as she got her own healing ability from her runes ready. She tried healing Felix, and for a little bit, it worked. But soon, the pained expression in Felix¡¯s face returned. Sallia grimaced.


    ¡°There¡¯s¡­ something inside of Felix¡¯s eye. I can just barely see it, but I can¡¯t tell what it is. It¡¯s almost like his flesh has blended with the fog creature. Or something. I can heal the damage it¡¯s causing, but unless the fog is removed, it¡¯ll keep ruining my healing attempts. So we need to deal with that if we want these healing abilities to do anything,¡± she said.


    I resisted the urge to gasp in pain as I put too much pressure on my legs, and then managed to nod. At least I understood why my healing wasn¡¯t working anymore.  I was successfully healing the damage, but afterwards, whatever was left inside of our bodies was immediately recreating the damage.


    In that case, I just needed to kill the fog. I swapped to my soul sight, and looked for the life force of the mist inside Felix¡¯s father¡¯s lungs. If there was a living thing inside of his lungs, I just needed to extinguish it and then heal him.


    However, when I looked at Felix¡¯s father¡­ I saw something strange. Instead of a glowing candle of life, like I had been expecting to see, there was a strange patch of¡­ nothingness in his chest. His soul, his life force¡­ it looked as if there was nothing at all where his lungs should be.


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    I had no idea what to make of that, and I felt myself start to panic as I realized I had no idea what to do. Whatever this creature was doing to attack Felix¡¯s father, I didn¡¯t know how to fix it, and he was dying.


    I gazed at Felix¡¯s father, and felt a greater surge of fear.


    If something was continuously destroying his lungs, would he die? I had nowhere near enough alteration essence to heal him every thirty seconds: the amount of essence that would require was mind-boggling to the current me. And even with my new Skill, I couldn¡¯t regenerate essence fast enough to keep healing him forever. If I didn¡¯t know how to solve the root of the problem, he would die sooner or later.


    Sallia was also looking at Felix¡¯s father with undisguised horror, and Ella was also starting to look worried again. I finally remembered that Ella¡¯s arm was also gray, but she was handling her injury a lot better than Anise, Felix, and Felix¡¯s father.


    Felix gazed at his father for a few seconds, with concern in his eyes. Felix¡¯s father looked at Sallia and I desperately.


    ¡°Is there-¡± Felix¡¯s father started violently coughing again, and I saw a little blood come out. I poured another healing spell into his lungs, helping him breathe again. ¡°-anything you can do?¡± He asked, finally finishing his sentence.


    I tried to think about any solutions I had. I could try to fix his body with general shaping, but healing with general shaping was a lost art. While I could try, it would probably fail.


    I turned towards Ella, but she shook her head. It seemed she didn¡¯t have any ideas either.


    I didn¡¯t know how to extract the fog from his lungs, but without working lungs, Felix¡¯s father would die. And Sallia¡¯s rune ability didn¡¯t seem able to remove the fog either.


    Felix¡¯s father seemed to lose himself in his thoughts for a few moments, broken up by increasingly severe coughing. I fired another healing spell at him, and for a moment, he looked relieved.


    ¡°I can try to heal you, but I probably won¡¯t succeed. And failing will kill you,¡± said Ella, after a few moments. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s wrong with your body, or how to fix it. But¡­ maybe I can try something. I know that healing should be possible using general shaping, but it¡¯s a lost art. I¡¯ll probably fail. Miria, how long can you keep him alive?¡±


    ¡°Half an hour, maybe?¡± I said. I could probably heal Felix¡¯s father around 12 or 13 more times, and each healing seemed to keep Felix¡¯s father alive for another minute or two. I would also regenerate a little bit of alteration essence during that time, especially if I used my new Skill {Emptiness} to speed up my regeneration as much as possible. After that, Felix¡¯s father would probably die as blood filled his lungs.


    ¡°Say any final words you have. Then Miria and I will try to keep you alive and get your lungs working again.¡±


    Felix¡¯s father froze for a moment, before he steeled his gaze. His eyes became resolute.


    He hugged his wife, and planted a deep kiss on her lips. She looked at him, and kissed him back.


    Felix¡¯s father smiled gently at her.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never regretted marrying you, Amelia. Not for a moment, and not for a single thing would I change it. It was one of the best decisions of my li-.¡± He winced as he coughed, and then planted one final kiss on her lips. I hurled another healing ability at him, trying to ignore the pain in my own legs.


    Then, he turned towards Felix, and gave Felix a hug and a kiss on the forehead. ¡°I love you too, Felix. You¡¯re my son, and I-¡± he started coughing again. Talking seemed to aggravate his wound even more. Or perhaps my healing spell wasn¡¯t removing the fluid in his lungs properly. I got even more worried, and tried to reach my hand out to cover his mouth. Him talking seemed to be a bad idea. However, Felix¡¯s father shook his head, and pushed my hand away.


    ¡°-I¡¯m proud of you. You have so many things ahead of you. If I die now, make me proud. Okay?¡± Another fit of coughing interrupted whatever else he wanted to say, but he still managed to ruffle Felix¡¯s hair.


    Felix¡¯s eyes started to tear up, and he nodded.


    Then, Felix¡¯s father stepped towards Ella. ¡°Do what you can. Please look after my family if I don¡¯t make it.¡±


    Ella nodded mutely, and turned towards me.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to try using general shaping to lean into an alternate timeline where his lungs never got infected by the strange fog. It¡¯s the best guess I have for how healing would work using general shaping. If he starts coughing or something seems wrong, immediately heal his lungs.¡±


    I nodded.


    Then, the two of us got to work. Ella did her very best to try to make up a realistic healing method for healing Collin, and I threw healing at him and prayed that he would survive.


    Several minutes passed, as we desperately tried to keep Felix¡¯s father alive. I kept healing him and healing him, spending every single second I could absorbing the air around us in order to make up for the alteration essence I was spending. However, it was nowhere near enough to replace how much essence I was spending. I was losing alteration essence faster than an engine that had been sliced in half with a chainsaw.


    Meanwhile, Ella placed her hands on Collin¡¯s chest and tried to heal him. I could see that she was trying to reconstruct his lungs using general shaping, but something felt wrong about what she was doing. I knew in my heart that Ella¡¯s healing wouldn¡¯t work, but I had no idea how to fix it.


    About seven minutes in, Ella¡¯s eyes widened, and Collin started coughing more and more severely. His eyes widened in pain, and he started gasping like a fish out of water.


    I threw a healing spell at him, but nothing happened this time. His coughing didn¡¯t stop. Whatever Ella had done had made it worse, instead of better. My healing ability didn¡¯t even recognize Collin¡¯s collapsing lungs as a ¡®problem¡¯ anymore, and so my healing spell was just ignoring it completely.


    I threw another healing spell at him, hoping I was just misunderstanding what was happening. Once again, my healing spell simply flowed through his body and did nothing whatsoever.


    Before I could try again, Ella shook her head.


    ¡°I messed up.¡± She laughed, hollowly. ¡°I guess that¡¯s to be expected. I¡¯m out of essence, too. I¡¯m¡­¡± she shook her head.


    Felix¡¯s father started to cough more and more violently, as Ella nearly drooped to the ground. Still, she managed to support her body and turn back towards Felix¡¯s father. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said.


    Felix¡¯s father was coughing more and more violently, but he still managed to convey a nod towards Ella and I. I could see a great deal of pain in his eyes, but there was also a final, lingering note of acceptance.


    He reached out his hand towards his wife and held her hand, one final time. She started crying, but held his hand firmly and tightly. As if even if the world ended, she would keep her grip on his hand.


    As if nothing else mattered to her.


    For one final moment, the two looked at each other. Rather than pain, their eyes were filled with love.


    A few moments later, he stopped breathing as he closed his eyes forever.


    Even in his final moments, he never let go of his wife¡¯s hand.

 Chapter 112: Silver City

    After Felix¡¯s father died, we made  a few quick prayers to the white dragon. I was a little surprised that Ella and Anise¡¯s parents were still willing to pray to the white dragon, considering its rather lackluster support during the Orukthyri attack. However, deep-seated habits seemed difficult to shake.


    After that, Felix cremated his father¡¯s body with a few fire spells.


    We spent an hour or two letting Felix and his mother take some time to themselves. This world didn¡¯t seem to have any sort of complicated burial rituals: instead, Felix and his mother Amelia talked about the good memories they had shared with Collin before he died. After each speech, we drank a small glass of water, since we didn¡¯t have alcohol.


    We spent a few more hours mourning before we started moving again.


    As we walked, I started to realize that there were some lingering issues left over from the encounter with the fog creature.


    The patch of gray skin I had between my knee and about halfway down my calves now felt like ice, and it hurt when I moved. My legs didn¡¯t handle weight anywhere near as well as they used to. I could still run, jump, and walk, but each step put me in pain. If I pushed my body to my limits, I would start to feel a crippling pain in my legs. It wasn¡¯t as noticeable when I wasn¡¯t walking or running, but it was definitely noticeable whenever I tried to move quickly.


    I could tell that my speed had dropped a lot too. I could previously operate at well above the level of humanity, and easily outrun even trained couriers. I had been reduced to only being a little faster than a courier now that my legs were messed up. My speed enhancements were still excellent for helping to surpass orthanoid creatures, since their bodies weren¡¯t much different from a regular human body. However, if I fought against even a middle-tier creature like an Orukthyri warrior in my current state, my injured legs would probably get me killed. Even trying to flee if one caught sight of me would be much harder now. It wasn¡¯t a crippling injury, but it was definitely a major weakness I now had to overcome.


    And unfortunately, I was the best off of the five people who had gotten harmed by the creature. After all, even if my legs hurt, I could still use them.


    Felix was perhaps the worst off in the group. One of Felix¡¯s eyes was now completely blind, and the pain he was in seemed to be nearly debilitating, even with his Grade 7 Willpower boosting his pain tolerance. A few times, he looked as if he were contemplating prying his own eye out of its socket, just to make the pain go away, and he spent most of his father¡¯s funeral clutching his eye in pain. The only real upside was that he had only lost one eye, instead of both. If his eye didn¡¯t heal properly, it might even impact his future as a craftsman: after all, having two eyes was critical for depth perception, and while Felix might be able to make do with one eye, it was far from ideal.


    Anise looked like she had stuck her face into a vat of gray paint and gotten it smudged all over her face. She sounded like she was drunk when she tried to talk now. Her voice was slurred, and it sounded like she was trying not to cry sometimes when she spoke. Even Felix and I were having a hard time coping with the pain in our limbs, and Anise was a real child, instead of an adult in a child¡¯s body. She had much lower pain tolerance than the two of us. Since her injuries only seemed to flare up when she tried to talk or chew, during Collin¡¯s funeral, Anise quickly learned to move her mouth and nose as little as possible. Every time we drank a glass of water in honor of the fallen, she slowly tipped the liquid in the glass into her throat, moving her lips as little as possible to reduce the amount of pain she experienced. When I saw Anise clutching her jaw in pain every time she tried to talk, I felt a stab of pain in my own heart as well. In human years, Anise was just ten years old. Seeing a cheerful, sometimes ridiculous girl I considered a friend clutching her jaw in pain felt awful.


    Ella¡¯s arm looked almost like a charred tree stump after it had been struck by lightning. In addition to the unnerving gray color all of our injuries shared, her arm had a pale, waxy color to it. She was totally unable to move her injured arm, and even though she was trying to put up a strong front, I could tell that she was in a lot of pain. She started to twitch and shiver whenever something brushed against her arm, and even the others were starting to notice just how bad Ella¡¯s arm was after our brush with the fog creature.


    I spent most of the first day hoping that these issues were temporary. Even if the four injured were in a lot of pain, if they were just temporary wounds, they weren¡¯t too bad. I still didn¡¯t know exactly what was left inside of our injuries, keeping them from healing, but I hoped that our bodies would kill it off after some time. However, the pain throbbing in my legs was, if anything, getting worse as we traveled through the wastes. I wasn¡¯t sure if I was imagining it, but I swore that the gray patch of skin on my legs was getting slightly darker in color as we walked. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was because my injury was worsening because I was putting my legs under a lot of strain, or if I was just imagining things.


    As I observed the gray patch of skin, I started to get a bad feeling in my stomach. I was hoping that the injuries weren¡¯t permanent, but¡­ what if they were? I had never truly dealt with a permanent injury before. I had lost my arm near the end of my life on the islands, but less than a day had passed before I died after losing my arm. On returning to the Market, my arm had been completely restored, and so I had largely forgotten about the matter. After all, the injury had lasted less than 24 hours: there hadn¡¯t been any time where I truly needed to contemplate the loss of one of my limbs and adapt to my new reality.


    This time, I wasn¡¯t in any immediate danger of dying. It might be the first time I really had to cope with a long-term disability. The idea of being crippled was a nauseating one. I was very used to the incredible strain I could put my body under with my high Fortitude stat, and my entire dream in this world was to explore the surface with my friends when I got older. Even if the surface was horrifying, for most of my childhood, I had been hopeful that we would eventually return triumphant and make people¡¯s lives in this world better - and get a lot of Achievement while doing so. Suddenly losing access to my incredibly strong physical body made me feel vulnerable in a way I hadn¡¯t felt before. And the prospect of losing one of my major advantages in this world had a good chance of getting me killed.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    For now, there wasn¡¯t much I could do but hope that I was wrong. Perhaps I was just imagining things. In the worst case scenario, perhaps I could fix whatever damage had been done to us using my fifth absorption rune. After all, I had been very close to ready to form my fifth rune for quite a while. I sensed that I would probably be able to start forming my next rune ability in a day or two, meaning I could probably start right after we got to Silver City.


    The first night after we got injured, Anise crawled into my tent a few hours after everyone else fell asleep, and then hugged me while crying. I was surprised to see her at first, but since she seemed to be in pain, I stroked her back for a few hours before she finally fell asleep. It was obvious that she wasn¡¯t handling her injuries well. Seeing that just made me feel worse about the whole encounter. Even if we had escaped and survived, the fog creature had left scars on both our bodies and our minds.


    The final day of our journey started off with me cautiously looking after Anise, making sure that she could handle moving around. If she couldn¡¯t tolerate the pain, I used a little bit of alteration essence to provide some relief, no matter how temporary it might be and no matter how much my brain told me that I needed to save my essence for a possible fight. Seeing Anise and Felix in pain made it very hard for me to concentrate.


    We had a light meal that morning, because our food rations were basically gone. We had enough food for a very light lunch, but after that, anything we wanted to eat would need to be foraged first. We spent the morning hungry, with our stomachs rumbling. Luckily, we at least had water to drink, thanks to our ability to create water using spells.


    Meanwhile, Felix¡¯s mother used her spells to scout the area as usual while we moved. With only one Mage scouting instead of two, Amelia needed to be far more cautious about where and when she spent her essence. We had a dangerous moment about halfway through the day where we nearly ran face-first into a warband of Orukthyri, and were only saved by Sallia¡¯s rune-enhanced hearing at the last minute. We were forced to hide for almost an hour before the Orukthyri passed by our area, leaving us sweating at the thought of what could have been our last day alive on this planet.


    Luckily, we survived, and we didn¡¯t run into anything else before finally reaching Silver City.


    ¡°Halt! Who goes there?¡± called a voice from inside of the tunnel nearly the moment we set foot inside of it.


    ¡°We are injured and weary travelers from another city,¡± said Ella.


    ¡°Are you Adventurers?¡± asked the voice.


    ¡°Refugees,¡± said Ella, who grimaced as she spoke the word ¡®refugee.¡¯ ¡°We have four shaper-casters in our group, as well as one shaper and one caster.¡±


    ¡°Six magic-users in total? And five shapers?¡± The man in the tunnel asked. ¡°Do you expect me to believe that?¡±


    ¡°I expect -¡± Ella sounded as if she were on the verge of losing her temper for a moment, before she took a deep breath. She gritted her teeth, and in the next moment, her voice became much more polite.¡°We can prove it by using general shaping in front of you, if you let us.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Fine. How are your injuries?¡±


    ¡°They seem painful, but not debilitating,¡± said Ella, frowning as she spoke.


    ¡°How big is your group?¡±


    ¡°Eight people.¡±


    ¡°Fine. You can come in. But you better believe that if you¡¯re just boasting about having shapers in your group, we¡¯ll toss you back out into the wastes. We don¡¯t need braggarts to come in and waste our resources.¡±


    I frowned as we started to walk forward again. I didn¡¯t necessarily feel great about the guard of Silver City, at least. But I hoped it wasn¡¯t indicative of the treatment we would receive inside the city as well. Perhaps this guard was just particularly ill tempered. Still, I felt a little bit of Ella¡¯s frustration as she gritted her teeth and walked forward.


    We continued walking down the tunnel, and my vision of the sky quickly disappeared, replaced with the oddly comforting sight of gray stone above our heads. I hadn¡¯t realized it until now, but every moment we had spent under the orange sky and black sun, I had been on edge, expecting a dangerous creature to pop out of our surroundings and try to kill us. Even if I liked exploring interesting places, spending over a week traveling through dangerous lands while knowing that a single mistake might kill us was still very stressful.


    A few minutes of walking later, we saw the person who had been speaking with us. They wore several strips of silver thread sewn into their clothing, and had the familiar blue color sewn into their shirt, showing that they were a spellcaster. Standing behind him were a few other guards and one other spellcaster, as well as a shaper who had his ear pressed against the floor of the tunnel. The shaper sat up for a moment, and gave us a friendly nod. Unlike the spellcaster, he didn¡¯t seem overtly rude, which was a relief. Perhaps the vocal spellcaster was the exception here.


    The spellcaster guard quickly took a look at us, frowning as he saw the patches of dirt on our clothes, as well as the colors hidden under layers of grime. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at my dress, and I realized that, unlike everyone else¡¯s clothing, my dress was still spotlessly clean. It was heavily contrasted by the patches of dust on my skin that I had acquired over the last week spent traveling.


    ¡°At least one of you is dressed properly,¡± he said, before shaking his head. ¡°Now, you said you had five shapers in your party? Well? Prove it.¡±


    This person seemed unpleasant to deal with, so I decided to just get this over with as quickly as possible. In any case, the other guards and the shaper didn¡¯t seem quite so rude, and I doubted any city would turn away five shapers looking for a new home. I quickly grabbed my backpack, as well as a bottle of water, and swapped the color of the two, before handing it to Sallia. She quickly swapped the color back, before passing it on.


    The rude spellcaster had a sour look on his face as he realized that we hadn¡¯t been lying, and the other spellcaster softly chuckled, before elbowing one of the nearby guards. They both glanced at the rude spellcaster, and I got the distinct impression that he wasn¡¯t very well liked.


    The spellcaster opened his mouth, looking as if he had just sucked on a lemon, but before he could speak, the shaper who had one ear on the ground gave us another warm grin.


    ¡°Welcome to the city, refugees! You can register for a place of residence at the ministry of war on the street behind the fort. It¡¯s the building with silver borders and red colors splashed across the front. You can¡¯t miss it. The clerk at the counter is pretty friendly, unlike some people.¡±


    The rude spellcaster glared at the shaper, who simply ignored him.


    My impression of the city improved a bit. One of the guards opened the gates for us, and we finally stepped past the fort and into the city.


    After days of walking through the wastes, encountering incomprehensible creatures, and after the death of Felix¡¯s father, we had made it to Silver City with the rest of our party alive.

 Chapter 113: Silver City (2)

    It only took us a minute or two of walking to reach the Ministry of War after passing through the fort. Inside of the building was a man who was shuffling through a rather intimidating pile of paperwork. He gave us a distinctly bored look as we walked in, before turning back towards his paperwork.


    ¡°Refugees?¡± He asked, not even bothering to look up. I shifted uneasily.


    ¡°We¡¯re refugees, yes. We have six spellcasters or shapers in our group,¡± said Ella, gesturing towards Anise, Felix, Sallia and I. ¡°The kids aren¡¯t done with their training yet.¡±


    I wondered why Ella was so determined to mention that we hadn¡¯t finished our training, before I realized that some of the strongest defenders of the city fleeing probably didn¡¯t look great, even if we had only fled once we were out of essence and the overseer was dead, making the situation basically hopeless. On the other hand, if four of our six magic users were children, from an outside perspective it made much more sense. Children wouldn¡¯t usually be expected to help defend a city, because they were more likely to cause disruptions than actually help.


    The clerk gave us another scan, and this time, his eyes grew much warmer when he looked at our group. In particular, his eyes lit up when he saw Felix, Sallia, Anise and I. I wasn¡¯t sure whether he just liked kids or whether he appreciated the fact that we were magic-users. Or perhaps he appreciated both things?


    ¡°Four kids and four adults, huh.¡± he gave the four of us more appraising looks, and then smiled at us. ¡°So two adults are magic users and all four kids are magic users?¡±


    Ella nodded. ¡°Me and her, are the adult magic users,¡± she said, pointing at herself and Amelia. ¡°I¡¯m a shaper, and she¡¯s a witch. The four kids are all shaper-casters.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mean to doubt your words, but shapers are pretty rare, and shaper casters are incredibly rare.¡± he turned towards us, and gave us sunny smiles. ¡°Can you kids do some shaping and some spellcasting for me? Just something basic, so that I can verify your magical talents?¡±


    I nodded, and quickly used general shaping to repaint the floor of the room from a chalky gray color to a bright red one, borrowing some of the paint from the building¡¯s exterior walls.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been working on my general shaping, but I still have a lot of work to do with my attunement,¡± I said. Then, I quickly followed up by making a basic tier two spell. A moment later, an empty bottle of ink flew off of his desk and fell into my hand.


    He gave me an even warmer grin. ¡°That¡¯s pretty impressive, little lady. How old are you this year?¡±


    ¡°Twenty years old, but I turn twenty one soon,¡± I said.


    ¡°You¡¯re pretty good at magic for only being twenty,¡± he said. ¡°Was that a second circle spell?¡± I nodded. ¡°Not bad. Do you know any third circle spells?¡±


    ¡°Just one,¡± I said. ¡°I can do fireball, but I haven¡¯t learned any others yet. It¡¯s really hard for me to wrap my head around all of the magic symbols I need to put together at once, so I avoid messing with them too much.¡±


    ¡°A third circle spell at only twenty. Pretty decent,¡± he said, pulling over a new sheet of paper and quickly marking a few things down. ¡°You said you know fireball? What about your attunement? What does it do?¡±


    ¡°I can kill denizens of the underdark really easily as long as they¡¯re below a certain level of strength, and I can also heal,¡± I said.


    ¡°I see. Very interesting. And one third circle spell...¡± The clerk trailed off as he kept scribbling notes into his form, before finally, he stopped and turned towards Sallia. ¡°What about you, young lady? Can you also demonstrate a spell and some sort of shaping? General or related to your attunement is fine.¡±


    ¡°I specialize in strengthening my body. Would it be fine to display a few feats of physical strength, and then some general shaping?¡±


    ¡°That works for me,¡± said the clerk with an amiable grin as he got out a fresh form.


    After that, Sallia demonstrated her abilities, followed by Felix. Last, Ella and Amelia also demonstrated their own ability to use magic, while the Clerk happily wrote down our information.


    ¡°Not bad at all. How did you guys end up here? I imagine most cities would have been happy to hold on to you guys, seeing as you¡¯re talented shaper-casters¡­¡±


    Ella took this opportunity to start recounting how we had ended up here, starting from the time we had found some extra Orukthyri warriors in the cavern we were getting our first kills in, and then describing the loss of our home city. The clerk seemed surprised at first, but once we mentioned that our city had fallen, his eyes shone with a glimmer of recognition. Then, Ella detailed our journey through the wastes, as well as the encounter that had led to us losing Felix¡¯s father.


    ¡°Our news has been a little spotty recently, but I¡¯ve heard some vague rumors of a city about a week or two away falling. I guess the rumors were true. Your reports about the state of the surface are more troubling, though¡­ you say you ran into a strange chasm, and that it managed to kill one of you and wound four more just by looking at you?¡± Asked the clerk, seeming both curious and unnerved. He glanced at my shins, especially noting the gray coloration between my knee and my boots, and then looked at the strange gray color on Anise¡¯s mouth and nose.


    Felix¡¯s mother opted not to answer, while Ella simply nodded.


    ¡°I see. The surface truly does seem to be getting more and more dangerous these days¡­¡± said the clerk with a sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t remember there being quite so many strange monsters out in the world. Even a decade or two ago, the adventurers that returned to the city usually had stories about a few dangerous encounters, but running into so many dangerous situations in only a week on the surface¡­ that is most disturbing. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come?¡± he shook his head and sighed.


    ¡°Is the surface getting more dangerous as time passes?¡± I asked, as I also started to feel worried. I was planning to explore the surface more thoroughly in the future. If it was getting more and more dangerous as time passed, that would be bad news for the group, since it would still be a decade or two before we could explore on our own.


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    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said the clerk. ¡°It might be getting more dangerous, or it might just be that you guys were particularly unlucky. But adventuring return less often than they used to these days. Of course, that¡¯s not necessarily an indicator that the surface is getting more dangerous. After all, there are plenty of other reasons adventurers wouldn¡¯t return to the city. Perhaps they want to find a new home because they don¡¯t like the city¡¯s overseer. Perhaps they got lost and ended up returning to another city. Perhaps they found a surface settlement and decided to settle down there¡­. Well, if there are actually any independent surface settlements. I¡¯ve heard a few stories about from drunk adventurers, but I¡¯m not actually sure if they were telling the truth or just pulling my leg.¡± Then, the clerk sighed. ¡°Honestly, though, I think times are getting worse. But that¡¯s a problem for someone like the overseer to handle. I¡¯m just a clerk.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± I said. I thought back to the fact that many of the weaker members of our party had been infected by the black sun far more quickly than Ella had predicted they would be. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if that was truly a sign of the deepening influence of the black sun on this world, or something of the sort. Outsiders were much weirder than the monsters native to this world, and that also made them much more dangerous, because it was harder to plan around their abilities.


    It seemed that this world¡¯s troubles were getting worse, rather than better. I couldn¡¯t help but think of the black star that hung in the sky like a gaping maw, devouring all hope for the future of this world¡¯s inhabitants, and shivered.


    As I sank into my thoughts, ruminating on the possibility of an ever-diminishing future filled with despair and death, Ella and the clerk began talking about our own situation again. After a few minutes of listening to Ella¡¯s story, the clerk nodded.


    ¡°Since you said a couple merchants that pass through here regularly could help identify you, we¡¯ll wait for that before we fully integrate you into the city. Don¡¯t want anyone with a shady history joining the city, even if they¡¯re shaper casters. Not that I¡¯m suspecting you, ma¡¯am. It¡¯s just our standard routine. But you can at least sit in one of the buildings near the fort for a few weeks while we wait. I¡¯ll also see if we can get any healers over. Maybe we can get your injuries healed up. I bet your arm really hurts, and these kids are probably in a lot of pain as well. I can¡¯t promise that our city can do anything about it, but I¡¯ll at least arrange a few doctors to take a look and see if they can figure something out.¡±


    Ella nodded. Her eyes held a certain amount of hope and expectation, but I could also tell that she wasn¡¯t actually expecting for this city¡¯s healers to be able to treat our injuries.


    The clerk gave us instructions for how to find our new building, and after that, we quickly headed out.


    As we walked through the streets, I took a few minutes to look at the city. It looked much like our old city: in fact, now that I was looking more closely at our new home, I realized that there were some common design patterns shared between our old city and our new one. Both had neat, grid-based street patterns, which had been slowly added on over the years after the second Orthan empire fell, and the color culture in this city was close to the color culture of our previous home.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if or when we¡¯ll find either of your parents,¡± said Ella, breaking me out of my thoughts. ¡°So for now, I¡¯ll take care of the two of you, and I¡¯ll ask my merchant contacts to keep an eye out for both of your families once I get in contact with them again. They only travel to nearby cities, so if your families somehow ended up several cities away we might not get any word about them. But it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to track them down if nothing abnormal happened during their journey,¡± said Ella, grimacing. For a moment, I saw a flash of worry flicker across Ella¡¯s face, and felt a similar bit of worry in my own heart. My parents were just regular people. I had no idea if they had managed to safely navigate through the tunnels and reach another city. Sallia¡¯s parents faced a similar issue: they weren¡¯t really strong enough to deal with even the weakest creatures of the underdark. Both underground and overland travel were incredibly dangerous if one wasn¡¯t strong enough to defend oneself, and regular orthanoids had no guarantee of arriving at a new city safely. Even if both of our families had left our old city safely, there was a good chance they had been killed and eaten en route to somewhere else.


    I shook my head, trying to brush off my negative thoughts. There was nothing I could do for my family right now, but I desperately hoped that they had made it to safety and we could reunite in the future.


    I turned towards Sallia, and I saw a similar amount of worry on her own face. I hesitated for a moment, then, ignoring the pain in my legs, I waddled my way over to her and gave her a hug. I wasn¡¯t sure whether it was to comfort her or me.


    * * *


    The next few days were spent in recovery. Amelia still hadn¡¯t fully recovered from the death of her husband yet, and Felix was also in a pretty bad mood. Most worryingly, our injuries were getting worse over time, not better. As time passed, they were slowly turning darker and darker, and the stabs of icy pain I felt in my legs were getting worse and worse. My healing spells seemed to somewhat stave off the worsening of our injuries, but it did nothing at all to fully heal us. And I only had so much alteration essence per day. I was growing very worried about our injuries, although I didn¡¯t have a good idea for how to treat them yet. Even more odd, some of the muscles around my legs seemed to be¡­ shrinking. It was very subtle, and I wasn¡¯t sure if I was imagining things. However, when I spoke with Sallia about our injuries, she confirmed my observations. With her rune-enhanced eyesight, it was easy for Sallia to see things I might miss, and Sallia claimed that there was definitely a problem with the injuries everyone had sustained.


    This made me even more worried.


    I spent most of my time trying to figure out what was wrong with our injuries. I couldn¡¯t kill whatever was lurking in our wounds with extinguish, because I couldn¡¯t see a candle of life or a soul to target. I didn¡¯t understand why this was the case, but however the fog creature had evaded my abilities, it had completely shut down my easiest solution to start healing us.


    After two days, the doctors and a shaper specialized in healing muscle damage and enhancing muscles showed up at our new place of residence, in order to take a look at us and see what could be done about our injuries.


    The doctors were left totally baffled by our injuries. They didn¡¯t seem to have any idea what had even caused our wounds, and had no idea how to deal with whatever was inside of our wounds and causing them to get worse and worse over time.


    The muscle expert was even more confused.


    ¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on with your injuries,¡± he said, frowning as he looked over my legs. ¡°They¡¯re turning more and more gray, and I can tell that something is wrong with them. However, I can¡¯t heal them. It also feels like¡­ I don¡¯t know. It feels like your legs aren''t here at all when I try to interact with them using my shaping. I don¡¯t know how that¡¯s possible, but it seems to be what¡¯s happening. And because my attunement can¡¯t lock on to your leg muscles, I can¡¯t do much to help them.¡±


    The man¡¯s words led me to a rather unfortunate realization.


    Our wounds were not going to get better on their own.


    However, the man¡¯s words, at the very least, sparked a bit of inspiration in me. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what was happening to our injuries, but I at least had one idea for how the fog creature could evade my extinguish ability and make the muscle-attunement man¡¯s magic believe that there was ¡®nothing¡¯ where my legs were supposed to be. I was making a bit of a blind guess, but I had no better options if I wanted to save my legs, Felix¡¯s eye, Ella¡¯s arm, and Anise¡¯s mouth and nose. I needed to move fast to fix the problem, and for that, I needed to flesh out my fifth rune and reconstruct the healing component of my attunement.


    It was time to finally flesh out my healing abilities. I just hoped I wouldn¡¯t be too late.

 Chapter 114: Healing

    I had always felt that healing was a major part of my potential abilities. When I had envisioned my ¡®image¡¯ of the ocean in my first life, I had pictured the life-giving surface of the ocean as a critical facet of the ocean, just as I had envisioned the madness-inducing depths of the ocean as another facet of the ocean. Both abilities were like two sides of a coin: different, and yet ultimately both had the same origin.


    However, in this life, I had neglected my healing abilities so far. Extinguish had become an incredibly powerful part of my toolkit, and one I found to be incredibly reliable in combat. However, it was also very limited in what it did. If I had found a good concept to base the healing half of my attunement around, perhaps I wouldn¡¯t have had to watch Felix¡¯s father die.


    Right now, I deeply felt how far behind my abilities were: and I also felt just how far behind my sensory abilities were. This wasn¡¯t just a matter of my low perception: right now, something magical was happening to hurt my friends and I. And I wasn¡¯t quite sure what it was.


    Luckily, I at least had a very rough guess. The muscle-expert who had come to heal us had given me some mild inspiration on what might be happening, at least. Right now, I knew two things about our injuries so far.


    First, I knew that something had been left behind in our injuries as a result of the fog creature¡¯s strange gaze-based attack. Sallia was just barely able to see it with her rune-enhanced perception, and she said that it almost seemed as if our flesh and the fog from the fog creature had mixed together somehow.


    Second, I knew that the doctors in the city couldn¡¯t figure out what was causing our injuries to remain. They had taken a look at our injuries, but seemed completely baffled by them. Sallia claimed that what was happening inside of our wounds was hard to spot, even with her rune-enhanced eyesight. She had to really look closely to spot anything wrong. So whatever was happening, it was very small in scale. The muscle expert claimed that our limbs didn¡¯t appear to be present at all, even when he was physically touching my injured legs, which made our injuries even more strange.


    After putting these two things together, I had two theories. One, the fog had somehow turned parts of our body into parts of its body in some way, shape, or form. Perhaps the reason that our bodies weren¡¯t responding to treatment was because the way our bodies ¡®thought¡¯ of themselves was being fundamentally twisted by the fog creature. Ella had already said that the spells of this world had trouble dealing with creatures from outside this dimension, because their biology was fundamentally different from ours. Perhaps the reason the muscle expert¡¯s attunement claimed that our legs weren¡¯t present at all was because our bodies weren¡¯t ¡®normal¡¯ enough for him to detect our bodies anymore.


    My second idea was that the fog monster  had planted some kind of egg in our body, similar to a parasite. Anytime I healed an injury, perhaps the eggs in our wounds simply consumed all of the healed flesh and blood, immediately injuring us again. If that was the case, perhaps the eggs had some sort of way to resist shaping.


    However, when I tried using my soul-sight to get a better idea of what was happening inside of our injuries, I couldn¡¯t find a soul in our wounds. Even if our injuries were filled with shaping-resistant parasites, I felt that it would be weird for them to perfectly evade my soul-sight. it wasn¡¯t impossible, of course, but it at least seemed unlikely to me. Thus, I decided that the best way to ¡®fix¡¯ our bodies was to reverse whatever process the fog creature had started. If our bodies were being warped into some alien, incomprehensible kind of biology, I needed a way to halt that process with my fifth rune ability.


    Of course, just in case, I still tried boiling and disinfecting my wounds. I didn¡¯t really think it would work, but just in case there were parasites in our legs that could be cooked out of our flesh, it seemed dumb not to at least try it. Sadly, it yielded no results, meaning I was back to trying to figure out how to stop our biology from being changed against our will.


    It was on the fourth day after we arrived at the city that Sallia had a good idea.


    ¡°I think you might be thinking about it the wrong way,¡± she said.


    I stopped staring at my legs, and turned towards her. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked, rubbing at my eyes. Ever since I had started trying to figure out what rune ability I needed to form to heal everyone, I hadn¡¯t been sleeping very well. Anise spent every other night sleeping in my room. During the night, she sometimes spent several minutes moaning in pain, and every time I saw her hurting, I would get up and start trying to think about how to heal everyone.


    ¡°I mean, so far, we¡¯ve been treating the creature as some sort of weird illusion-based creature that has a few weird abilities, right?¡± said Sallia. ¡°Like, it had the ability to stop us from seeing it and the chasm, and it had the ability to make us somehow end up walking right back to the chasm whenever we tried to leave, and it also had the ability to hurt us by looking at us and then keep hurting us, even though we already left it back on the surface. However, I¡¯ve recently started wondering if we¡¯re thinking about it entirely the wrong way. What if all of these abilities are somehow derived from one core ability?¡±


    I frowned. ¡°What would the core ability be?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about that, and I think the fog¡¯s ability might be related to space, or perhaps how we conceptualize space,¡± said Sallia.


    Felix frowned. ¡°How does that work?¡±


    ¡°Well, keep in mind, the first outside creature we saw was ¡®thought¡¯ worms, right?¡± said Sallia.


    My frown deepened. ¡°All right, yeah. And?¡±


    ¡°Well, I noticed this after Miria described what happened during that fight. The thought worms weren¡¯t inside of our brains. As far as I know, our brains are where our thoughts happen. But the thought worms weren¡¯t inside of our brains, they were inside of our THOUGHTS. That is to say, they seem to follow a rule kind of similar to Miria¡¯s extinguish - they utilize a conceptualization of magic that is pretty different from how this dimension works, and then, by using a mixture of their biology and their magic system, they force us to work off of their rules for a bit. The outside dimension that this world is connected to seems to rely a lot more on concepts than concrete physics and biology. So I was wondering if maybe the creature had some sort of way of playing with how space works when we interact with it.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Felix¡¯s good eye seemed to light up. ¡°Actually, that might make sense. If so, I can see why our injured body parts don¡¯t seem to be ¡®here¡¯ when the muscle expert was trying to heal us. Perhaps, in some way, part of our limbs was left behind in the chasm? Or something like that?¡± Felix frowned. ¡°Or perhaps parts of its body are currently teleported inside of our bodies, and it¡¯s digesting us slowly while we can¡¯t fight back against it? Or eating us from a distance, snatching parts of our body away and eating them bit by bit?¡±


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I felt a shiver of excitement.


    ¡°No, I think that the fog might be doing something similar to a ¡®voodoo doll,¡¯ or something similar, except related to the concept of space.¡±


    ¡°Voodoo doll?¡± asked Felix, giving me a blank look.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­¡± I ran into another patch of missing memories from my first life, but I pushed on. even if my memories were a little hazy, I still remembered enough to use the idea for my purposes. ¡°A voodoo doll is kind of like when you take something conceptually ¡®linked¡¯ to someone else, and then make a doll that looks kind of like them. And then, if you stab it with a pin or needle, the person the voodoo doll is attached to gets injured! Or something like that.¡± I winced. ¡°My memories are pretty fuzzy, honestly. But I think the general idea is still correct. Maybe the creature has created some sort of ¡®duplicate¡¯ of our bodies that somehow affects our bodies from a distance, and that¡¯s how it¡¯s hurting us.¡±


    ¡°I see. Conceptually linked together¡­¡± Felix trailed off. ¡°In that case, perhaps the creature looking at us as we crossed the bridge was critical for it forming a ¡®link¡¯ between parts of our bodies and whatever it¡¯s using in place of a voodoo doll? In that case, your high Fortitude probably isn¡¯t actually stopping the process at all. Perhaps, instead, it¡¯s helping your body resist injuries.¡± Felix gave me a weak smile. ¡°Either way, if it messes with space on some strange, conceptual level, creating things like voodoo dolls, the best way to cut it off is to use a rune ability to cut off spatial manipulation. But that wouldn¡¯t really be a great ability, since it¡¯s so specific, and¡­¡±


    I shook my head, stopping Felix before he could finish his words.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care. Unless you have a better idea for an ability that could heal everyone and fix the problem right now, I¡¯m going to make disconnecting spatial manipulation my fifth rune ability. I don¡¯t want to see Anise crying herself to sleep every night anymore, and I doubt having a blind eye makes you happy, either. And I still need to rebuild my healing ability after I figure out how to mess with space, meaning I have a lot of work to do. I want to get started as soon as possible.¡±


    Sallia thought about it for a moment, before she sighed. ¡°There might be a better way to prevent the creature from attacking us over and over again without even needing to see us, but I don¡¯t have a better idea right now, at least. And Anise is taking the damage to her face and the constant pain¡­ pretty poorly.¡± said Sallia. ¡°Honestly, Ella seems a bit down as well. Having one arm instead of two isn¡¯t doing wonders for her sense of pride and self-esteem. And Felix¡¯s growth as a craftsman would be much slower if his eye remains ruined like this.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true, but I don¡¯t want Miria to form a rune that she might regret for the rest of this life because she couldn¡¯t spend another day or two thinking about a better ability that can still solve our problems, and might have more utility in the future,¡± said Felix.


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind,¡± I said. ¡°I really don¡¯t have any better ideas, at least at the moment. And if I wait a few days, my legs might become permanently crippled in that time, or Felix¡¯s eye might get too damaged to be healed¡­ I don¡¯t take risks when it comes to the people I care about.¡±


    Felix sighed, but after a few moments of thought, he finally nodded.


    Thus, I got to work forming my fifth rune ability.


    {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} normally only generated absorption essence when I was in contact with water, and the more keywords that were active, the more absorption essence it would generate.


    So I had someone build me a little wooden tub and some ropes that would just barely keep me above water if I were sitting in the middle of a river. I had Sallia help keep me afloat, so that I could wholeheartedly concentrate on my rune formation. I found a spot near the only insane asylum in the city, and then dunked myself in the river while wearing my dress, in order to activate the Ocean and Madness keywords as much as possible.


    Meanwhile, I focused on my fifth rune.


    In my previous life, I had focused on a concept of the ocean of that world, with my fourth rune focusing on the healing aspects of the surface of the ocean, and my fifth rune focusing on the mysteries and strangeness of the ocean underneath.


    This time, I focused on the spatial aspects of the ocean.


    I envisioned the way several creatures from the deeps of our previous life had manipulated space. The glowing fish had frequently teleported around the battlefield as we fought it. The giant fish that we hunted had always seemed just a bit off, geometrically speaking. And the ¡®fragment of the Ocean¡¯s heart¡¯ that I had absorbed in that world had also given me the ability to see and interact with space, giving me a limited but incredibly useful teleportation ability.


    Even if I didn¡¯t have any fragments of the ocean¡¯s heart this time, I actually understood how space worked, at least a little bit. And I wasn¡¯t trying to do anything as complicated as see space and then bend it to my will, allowing me to teleport around.


    I just wanted to break off any manipulation of space around me, protecting me and my friends from the fog creature¡¯s long-range attacks.


    With these conditions, I was able to form my fifth rune in only two weeks.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Construct your fifth Absorption-Essence rune


    (note: this world does not have any support for runes or absorption essence in existence. Thus, rewards for rune-related magic systems and Absorption Essence-related Magic Systems are lowered)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 10,318 Achievement to 10,518 Achievement. However, I was far more interested in the results of my rune ability.


    After all, it was impossible to perfectly control the result of a rune ability. On the islands, rune abilities had usually be themed after whatever the user was trying to create: however, there was usually a bunch of minor changes between the intended power and the power that was actually formed.


    And then, I let out a breath of relief.


    My luck had been rotten for the past month, so I had half-expected to fail again. However, I was lucky.


    My rune ability let me taste spatial manipulation in the air around me, and remove it. It was a very weird way to sense things. However, using my new rune ability, I was able to clearly tell that there was some amount of spatial distortion happening near my wounded legs. Even if I wasn¡¯t quite sure how the ¡®link¡¯ between my legs and the fog creature worked, I didn¡¯t need to perfectly understand what was happening.


    All I needed to do was cut it off.


    So I used the other half of my fifth rune ability, and brought my mouth as close as I could to the spatial distortion. Then, I ¡®bit¡¯ on strange, half-spatial and half-conceptual tether that stretched across the surface of this planet, linking my body to the fog creature.


    Immediately, the icy pain that had plagued my body for almost a month disappeared. I quickly used my attunement to throw some healing essence at my body, and I was relieved to see that, at the very least, the gray color in my skin was gone. I could tell that some amount of permanent damage had probably happened: after all, a strange monster had ¡®digested¡¯ my legs for nearly half a month. However, at least the constant, mind-numbing pain and gray discoloration were gone, and without the interference of the fog creature, other healing abilities would at least have a chance to fully restore our limbs.


    I had succeeded. My fifth rune did everything I needed it to do. After weeks of nightmarish pain and fear that my friends might live the rest of their lives crippled and in agony, I had formed half of the solution. I still needed to rebuild my attunement healing ability, but I had at least stopped the creature from continuing to hurt us.


    I signaled to Sallia to start pulling me out of the river, before I saw an unusual System notification appear. One I had never seen before, although I knew that it existed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have accomplished something exceptional with {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, and have acquired a significant amount of Achievement using the ability¡¯s aid.


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean is able to be evolved.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    For the first time, I had unlocked an Ability evolution.

 Chapter 115: Ability Evolution

    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean is able to be evolved. You have (3) options for upgrades. If you would like to unlock other options, it is recommended that you use this ability in new and interesting ways and acquire large quantities of Achievement using the Ability before you die.


    Note: Ability evolutions must be purchased within 72 hours of returning to the Market after death. If you fail to purchase any available ability evolution within this time period, you will forfeit this chance for evolution, and will need to earn an Ability evolution in another life.


    The current text of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} is written below.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean:


    Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.)


    Glut Penalty: 20


    While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.


    Absorption essence may be spent to form ¡®runes,¡¯ a unique magical structure created partially within the brain and partially within the body.


    These runes have varied effects, mostly relating to strengthening the body and mind and allowing limited control over specific abilities. (This rune system is copied directly from the world you were previously living in.) You will also recreate the relevant dimensional laws within your body.


    Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive something insane, you will collect Achievement as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.


    Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first time in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.


    Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only three abilities from this effect may be ¡®held¡¯ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one.


    Held Abilities:


    1. +8 to all Phys. Stats and boosted magic resistance (Exceptional Magic Resistance)


    2. +10 Manifestation Stat, Crude Fireball spell, wind symbol (Crude Manifestation Essence)


    3.  +9 Alteration, you may absorb the black sun/organic matter/oxygen to convert into alteration essence (Emptiness)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Available evolution paths: 3


    (Note: All currently available evolution paths will change your ability from [Basic] Grade to [Intermediate] Grade unless they state otherwise.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Direction 1: Weakness correction


    Cost: 8,000 Achievement


    Glut penalty: 20 -> 30


    You have often used the runes formed by {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} to make up for your innately weak body, to great advantage, and have accomplished exceptional things using your powerful body. However, your low mental stats are frequently a weakness that you struggle to overcome.


    Effects:


    This Evolution direction will merge the effects of runes 1-3 and runes 7-9, making your first 3 runes give +20 to your physical stats AND +20 to all of your mental stats.  Your seventh and above runes will act as if they were 3 runes higher, meaning that you will, in essence, compress the early runes of this magic system together, advancing faster and farther with the same amount of time and absorption essence.


    In addition, you will no longer be penalized for trying to form a number of runes significantly higher than what your body can ¡®naturally¡¯ maintain at certain grades of your Absorption stat, making it much easier to form huge numbers of runes if you have the talent, time, and essence regeneration for it.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Direction 2: Spatial manipulation


    Cost: 10,000 Achievement


    Glut penalty: 20 -> 40


    Twice now, you have used your runes to interact with the power of space. Once, in your first life, you did so with the help of outside resources, gaining a glimpse into the fragmented space of that world and how to manipulate it. In this life, even without the help of a special resource, you have managed to interact with the underlying principles of spatial manipulation, proving that even without special resources, you have the ability to evolve in this direction.


    Effects:


    The original effects of the first 9 runes in this magic system will be completely altered.


    The first three runes, instead of enhancing your physique, will now grant you +20 to your mental stats AND an ability. This ability MUST be related to space, and use the ocean or water as a medium. You will have significantly enhanced control over what ability is formed here.


    The fourth through sixth runes will now fundamentally alter one sensory organ, providing +10 Perception per level, and also giving you improved vision when trying to see space. Additionally, each rune will provide you with a significantly increased ability to resist external spatial manipulation targeted towards you or the area directly around you.


    The seventh through ninth runes will now grant +10 to each physical Stat and begin attuning your body to the power of space, allowing your body to innately interact with the idea of space, regardless of which dimension you are in. This will replace the standard fusion and condensing boosts that runes 10 through 12 would give you, and give benefits such as decreased wind resistance, the ability to teleport without reliance upon rune abilities at all, and increased ability to sense space using your skin.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    In addition, every keyword activated within the past week and every rune you have condensed will also give you a moderately increased ability to control madness, as well as madness-adjacent magic such as illusions and mental attacks.


    After condensing your tenth rune and above, you will continue following the boosts of the original rune System, as if you had just formed your thirteenth rune.


    In addition, you will no longer be penalized for trying to form a number of runes significantly higher than what your body can ¡®naturally¡¯ maintain at certain grades of your Absorption stat, making it much easier to form huge numbers of runes if you have the talent, time, and essence regeneration for it and diminishing how limiting the Absorption Essence stat is.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Direction 3: Skill copying


    Cost: 4,500 Achievement


    Glut penalty: 20 -> 25


    You seem to derive a great deal of strength from the Skills you absorb using this Skill. This will push this skill in the direction of granting auxiliary, supplementary skills.


    Effects:


    The 3 skill slots provided by this ability will be expanded to 7, and it will be slightly easier to absorb and gain new skills than before. Skills will also be slightly improved.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked over the three ¡®evolution paths,¡¯ feeling a bit of curiosity as I did so.


    Currently, it seemed that I had three major directions I could take while upgrading {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. First, I could correct the major weaknesses of the ability, or I could focus the ability in a more spatially oriented direction, or I focus the ability on copying more skills from monsters I fought and killed using powers like extinguish.


    I thought carefully about each option.


    The ¡®Skill¡¯ direction was interesting. It more than doubled my skill slots, and it was also extremely cheap in comparison to the other options. I wouldn¡¯t need to worry as much about how to divide out my Achievement in the future when purchasing things in the Market, which was certainly a relief.


    However, it also seemed like the weakest evolution to me.


    The other two ability evolutions would continuously get stronger the more Absorption Essence I had, because compressing the abilities of multiple runes into the first few runes would also save me quite a bit of absorption essence normally spent on upkeep. This meant that I would advance further into the rune System with the same amount of absorption essence, which would significantly increase my strength in future lives. Moreover, without the help of the rune magic system, my stats would return to being rather average in every world I reincarnated into, until I invested far more Achievement into myself.


    Furthermore, even though the three Skills I had gathered with {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} in this world were very useful, it also wasn¡¯t guaranteed that I would find good Skills in future worlds. After all, for my skill slots from {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} to be useful, I first needed to find relatively powerful monsters and kill them with water. If there were no powerful monsters in a given world, or if the monsters were too strong for me to fight, my skill slots would be quite useless, since I needed to kill something to activate them. My skill slots were an incredibly powerful tool: but they were also very dependent on my environment, and didn¡¯t help me in situations where I was already struggling to get by in a given world.


    I decided that it wasn¡¯t a bad option, but I probably wouldn¡¯t take it. The other two options simply seemed far more appealing.


    Next, I thought about the Weakness Correction direction.


    When it came to my runes, they offered me something that, at least in this world, had proven incredibly valuable: a way to strengthen my body. Creatures like the Orukthyri were several times more powerful than the average Orthanoid in this world. In terms of physical strength, it wasn¡¯t difficult for an Orukthyri to outmatch ten or more trained soldiers, which was the primary reason the creatures had such an advantage over Orthanoid soldiers. The difference between somebody with grade 12 and grade 5 in a stat wasn¡¯t small: it was probably around an order of magnitude plus some change, based on my experiences fighting Orukthyri in close combat. If I was stuck with the same frail body as everyone else in this life, I didn¡¯t know whether our group would have survived the journey to this city. My strong body had been a blessing that had evened up the difference between me and some of the more common creatures in the middle of the food chain.


    However, my limited Perception stat, in particular, was a huge weakness right now. My physical stats were well below what they could be, since my ability to perceive and control my own body seriously weakened me.


    The Weakness Correction option for evolution basically solved this problem. It didn¡¯t do anything more exciting than correcting my weaknesses and saving me the upkeep cost of maintaining runes 7 through 9 in the future. However, it was, in a sense, a huge leap forward.


    On the other hand, the Spatial Manipulation direction was the most expensive and most interesting evolution path of all.


    In this world and the previous one, being able to manipulate space had made a huge difference when it came to combat abilities. The ability to be attacked from dozens of kilometers away had proved nearly crippling for our group in the wastes, because the fog creature had been able to attack us without us being aware of what it was doing or how to protect ourselves.


    I didn¡¯t want to be on the receiving end of such long-range, frustrating attacks in the future. The spatial direction would help me resolve this problem, and create lots of other unique and interesting abilities such as teleportation. It would even allow me to enhance my mental attributes early on, AND give me the ability to interact with magic related to madness, illusions, and mental attacks as a free ¡®add on¡¯ for each rune I built. My first three runes in future lives would give me access to spatial abilities, madness abilities, and mental stats. All three things would be incredibly valuable going forward.


    However, it also totally removed the physical enhancements I was used to getting. I would need to reach the seventh rune to strengthen my body, and I would only get 10 points in each stat instead of 20. This would drastically reduce my strength in direct physical combat. It also meant that I would potentially need to wary of diseases again. So far, I hadn¡¯t really worried about getting sick, because my incredibly high Fortitude made me essentially immune to diseases. If I lost access to the 60 points of Fortitude my first three runes gave me, I might need to be wary of getting sick until I invested more in Fortitude.


    This evolution direction would definitely resolve some of my weaknesses and enhance my strengths. However, being healthy might become a problem again until my absorption essence stat increased significantly. And my close-range physical abilities would also suffer as a result of taking this evolution direction.  I would basically be cut off from physical enhancements, potentially for several lifetimes.


    During my first fights against the Orukthyri, Sallia and I had discovered a rather unpleasant fact.


    The Orukthyri had incredibly thick, hard to pierce skin. Coupled with their incredibly high Fortitude, our strongest attacks were often only enough to inflict surface wounds on the Orukthyri. Part of this issue could be attributed to our young bodies: we hadn¡¯t finished growing up yet, and so we still experienced a stat penalty because our bodies weren¡¯t grown.


    However, if I traded away all of my physical stat boosts, I might run into this problem even more often in the future. While there might be ways to make up for this using spatial abilities, I hadn¡¯t experimented enough with spatial manipulation to know for certain what I could do with it. It was hard to say what benefits this evolution direction might offer me in the future.


    I thought about it for a moment, but ultimately, at least for now, I felt like the spatial enhancement direction made the most sense for me, despite its weaknesses.


    After all, Sallia was already part of our group, and she was able to handle most direct physical confrontations. She simply lacked the means to deal with ¡®weird¡¯ powers and long-ranged attacks right now. Until her abilities evolved and she got more ways to address this weakness, I felt that it made sense for me to step in and fill that role. If I worked as the back-rank fighter, Sallia took over the front rank, and Felix built us items while filling other roles on a case-by-case basis, I felt that our group would be at least reasonably balanced.


    I nodded to myself. My plans might change by the time we died, since my friends might also get new abilities or ability evolutions, but at least for now, I was leaning towards the spatial manipulation route.


    As I was thinking about my ability evolution, Sallia finished pulling me out of the river.


    ¡°Did it work? Did you find a way to stop whatever the fog monster is doing to everyone?¡± She asked.


    I nodded, grinning. ¡°I also got my first ability evolution. I¡¯ll tell you about the results later, but first, let¡¯s go fix everyone¡¯s injuries. I can¡¯t deal with the long-term damage yet, but I can at least stop it from getting worse.¡±


    Sallia smiled, relieved, and gave me a quick hug. Then, the two of us started making our way back to the house we shared with the others.

 Chapter 116: Healing (2)

    After I finished scanning my ability evolutions, Sallia and I returned to our house. I could worry more about my ability evolutions later. What I wanted to do right now was stop everyone¡¯s injuries from getting worse.


    We found Anise first. She was sitting at the dining table with Ella, trying to eat breakfast. Because her jaw was still affected by the fog creature, she was having a hard time chewing.


    I winced when I saw her. She had gotten thinner.


    ¡°Anise, wait for a second,¡± I said. ¡°I found a way to heal your mouth and nose. I just need you to be patient for a few seconds, all right?¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Anise said, as her eyes grew horribly bright and excited.


    I nodded. ¡°Hold still, all right?¡±


    Anise immediately froze, before she sat still and waited for me to start healing her.


    Then, I made my way towards her¡­ and bit the air in front of her face, using my teeth to shred apart the spatial contortion.


    Ella gave me a blank look. She watched me ¡®bite¡¯ the air in front of Anise¡¯s face over and over again. For a moment, I felt as if Ella was considering whether or not I had gone insane.


    Luckily, as Ella gave me an increasingly baffled look, Anise¡¯s flesh around her lips and nose began to slowly lose its off-gray color, and its slightly foggy appearance started to retreat as well.


    At the same time, Anise broke into a stiff grin. She touched her nose and mouth, and her grin slowly started to become a little bit more natural. The skin and flesh around her mouth still looked withered, like a plant that hadn¡¯t seen rain in months, but it no longer looked like it was slowly turning into fog, and based on Ansie¡¯s reaction, the pain was gone. ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt anymore!¡± Then, she winced, and touched her lips and nose. ¡°Much.¡±


    Due to receiving constant erosion for two weeks, Anise¡¯s lips and nose still looked as if they had gotten frostbite, been thrown into a pit of acid, and then left there for two weeks. The muscles and skin were both atrophied and shrunken. It would be a miracle if there was no long-term damage at all after what our bodies had been through. I used a little bit of alteration essence to heal her a little bit. Even if I had no real way to fix the long-term damage she had taken yet, I could at least reduce the pain she felt as much as possible.


    Anise¡¯s smile widened. Then, she leaned over the table and hugged me. ¡°Thanks, Miria! You¡¯re the best!¡±


    I returned her hug and smiled, before I turned towards Ella. ¡°Are you ready? I can at least help your arm recover a bit, even if I can¡¯t instantly fix all of the long-term damage.¡±


    Ella gave me a curious look. ¡°Might I ask what exactly you did? As far as I can tell, you just bit the air in front of Anise for some reason, and then the gray color near her mouth and nose started to recede. I¡¯m not really sure what happened besides that, though.¡±


    ¡°Sallia, Felix and I were talking, and we realized that the fog monster was somehow attacking us from a distance. It was probably ignoring the distance issues due to some sort of special attunement, or something of the sort,¡± I said, shrugging. Honestly, I wasn¡¯t quite sure how outsiders worked, or even if they were using a magic system at all. ¡°Either way, I figure that the fog monster was probably literally digesting us from afar, bit by bit. I spent a while thinking about how to deal with it, and eventually, I managed to use my general shaping to ¡®cut off¡¯ the connection between the creature and whatever part of our body it was attacking.¡± Naturally, I couldn¡¯t talk about absorption essence with Ella, so I pretended it was related to general shaping instead.


    Ella thought about it for a moment, and then sighed. ¡°You¡¯ve truly come a long way as a shaper. I can¡¯t help but wonder if it¡¯s a shame that you were born with the talent of both a shaper and a spellcaster¡­¡± she laughed ruefully. ¡°If you spent all of your time thinking about how to advance as a shaper, perhaps you would single-handedly remold the way shapers think about interacting with the world.¡± She sighed, and then glanced at her ruined arm. ¡°All right, do it. Let¡¯s see if I can get my arm working again.¡±


    I quickly bit into the spatial connection near Ella¡¯s arm, and quickly shredded the connection into nothing.


    The gray color in Ella¡¯s arm started to recede. However, much like with Anise¡¯s face, the shrunken, withered muscles in her arm didn¡¯t recover.


    Ella sighed in relief. ¡°At least it doesn¡¯t hurt anymore.¡± Then, she stared at her arm, and grunted in effort.


    Nothing happened.


    Ella furrowed her brows in concentration, trying harder and harder to do something¡­ and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her elbow bend very slightly. However, the movement was very faint. If I hadn¡¯t been paying close attention, I probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed her movement at all.


    Ella looked at her arm and sighed. ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll try calling the muscle expert again. You say that you think the creature was digesting us from afar?¡± I nodded. Ella sighed again. ¡°Well, if the damage has reached my bones, maybe the muscle expert won¡¯t be able to fix my arm. But it¡¯s worth a shot, at least. Shapers that can heal are pretty rare, so I¡¯ll see what I can get and hope for the best. Perhaps I can regain use of my arm soon.¡± She sounded a bit dispirited, and I could easily imagine why. The method I had offered removed the connection between her arm and the creature that had been attacking us from all the way back in its chasm.


    However, it did nothing to regenerate the muscle tissue and bones that had been subjected to constant corrosion for more than two weeks. After Ella¡¯s arm had been ¡®digested¡¯ for over two weeks, it was incredibly unlikely that repairing some muscles would give her full mobility back in her arm. Sure, it would help, but Ella would probably still be crippled for the rest of her life at this rate.


    I looked at Anise and Ella, both of whom still had clear signs of muscle damage on their body, and sighed.


    I still needed to figure out how to heal their bodies. But at least I had removed the pain and stopped the problem from getting worse. That was a start. I didn¡¯t want to say I was going to cure them yet, though. I didn¡¯t want to get their hopes up in case I failed.


    Then, I quickly found Felix, and severed the spatial connection between his eye and the fog creature.


    Felix sighed in relief as the pain in his eye disappeared.


    ¡°Thanks, Mir. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do without you,¡± he said. Then, he frowned. ¡°I still can¡¯t really see out of my eye. Maybe vision will come back over the course of the next few days?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m still working on rebuilding the healing half of my attunement,¡± I said. ¡°Hopefully, it¡¯ll be much more effective once I¡¯m done. The muscle guy will probably come back soon as well, so maybe he can do something. His specialty is muscles, but maybe our eyes have a lot of muscles in them?¡±


    Felix gave me a hopeful look. ¡°You¡¯re working on rebuilding the healing half of your attunement? What are you thinking of doing?¡± I noticed that he completely ignored the fact that the muscle healer was going to come back. Apparently, he held little hope that the muscle healer would be able to fix his face.


    ¡°Right now, I¡¯m thinking about that cube that we saw while we were traveling the wastes,¡± I said. ¡°It was also at least partially based on the ocean of souls, so I want to try using it as inspiration. However, since I don¡¯t have the cube anymore, it¡¯s hard to use it as more than a rough reference point. I¡¯m not quite sure how to translate that into a full reconstruction of the ability¡­¡±


    Felix nodded thoughtfully. ¡°To be honest, I¡¯m not sure how you would fix it. Attunements are really personal, and so it¡¯s hard to offer any ideas, because your attunement is too different from mine. Any ideas I offer might be more of a hindrance than a help. But I know you, and I know you¡¯ll figure it out.¡± He smiled at me. ¡°You¡¯re not somebody that gives up when it comes to people you care about. And I know you¡¯ll succeed sooner or later.¡±


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I nodded, and gave Felix a hug. He patted me on the back a few times.


    After that, I retreated to my room to think.


    The first half of the healing process was completed. With everyone free from crippling pain, and the complications that would arise if their bodies kept being corroded nonstop, I had done at least half of what I needed to.


    However, there was still much to do. I wanted to get Ella full use of her arm back, and give Felix full use of his eye back. My legs were also much weaker than before, and Anise¡¯s jaw and nose looked pretty messed up. By sheer luck, Anise didn¡¯t seem to have any problems breathing right now, but I still felt that healing her face would be a good idea to prevent any strange medical complications in the future.


    But what was missing from my healing ability? This had been bothering me for a while. I knew that there was something missing from the healing part of my attunement, but I wasn¡¯t really sure what.


    Was there something I had overlooked while creating my healing ability?


    Was there some sort of foundational issue in the way I healed people?


    I frowned, losing myself in thought for several minutes as I simply sat in my room.


    I thought back to the cube. Much like my attunement, it relied on the concept of the ocean of souls as the source of its power.


    Ocean of souls¡­ Ocean of souls¡­


    Ocean¡­


    Suddenly, I realized what was wrong with my healing ability.


    When I had been constructing my two primary abilities, I had focused on the concepts of life and death, both of which were fundamentally related to the ocean of souls. Extinguish was related to the way the ocean of souls took away souls after death, returning them to the cycle of reincarnation. However, it was also important to remember that Extinguish used water as a medium for the entire ability to work. I was using the ocean of souls and its relationship with death to fuel the entire spell: however, it was still, ultimately, directly tied to water and oceans. The way extinguish worked was to create a ¡®conceptual¡¯ drop of water and then attach it to the body of whatever I was trying to kill. Without the drop of conceptual water making contact with my enemy, the rest of my ability would do absolutely nothing.


    Meanwhile, my current healing ability that was derived from my attunement was mostly related to the way I conceptualized the ocean of souls bringing new life into newborn infants, by allowing souls to find and reincarnate inside of children.


    However, in the creation of my healing ability, I had neglected a rather important key aspect of the way my attunement worked.


    Both life and death were ultimately derived from the OCEAN of souls. That is, my abilities may be quite different from simple water manipulation, but both of them were ultimately derived from water and the ocean. I had used water and candles of life as the entire spellcasting method for extinguish, but water wasn¡¯t really present in my healing spell at all. It was, at best, used in some minor component of how I visualized the spell. It was basically just an attempt at creating a regular, run of the mill healing spell using my concept of life.


    I realized where the problem was.


    I thought back to the cube, and wondered if it was somehow related to water as well. Perhaps there was water inside of the cube? Or perhaps the wet paint applied to the outside of the cube somehow caused the cube¡¯s healing ability to connect itself with the concept of water?


    I wished I could see the cube be used to heal someone again, so that I could verify how this worked, but sadly, I didn¡¯t have access to the healing cube anymore.


    However, I still started thinking about how healing worked again.


    I wanted to be able to breathe ¡®new life¡¯ into our damaged and atrophied muscles and bones, wiping away the serious, permanent damage that our bodies had gone through under the attacks of the fog creature. I wanted everyone¡¯s bodies to be in perfect, working condition afterwards. For that, I needed to use my attunement. Not just the concept of life, but the concept of life derived from the ocean of souls.


    I spent several hours imagining how my attunement should work, and trying to figure out how that mapped to a new healing ability. One that was better, had more potential, and was more powerful than before.


    I first tried visualizing my new ability in a way similar to how I had visualized ¡®extinguish.¡¯ Just like one drop of water could bring death to a person by extinguishing their candle of life, perhaps one drop of water could revive someone¡¯s candle of life by feeding them a soul?


    However, I quickly realized that wasn¡¯t the right direction for visualizing this spell. I got the strong feeling that what I was currently visualizing was even worse than my original healing spell, and might even backfire and harm people I was trying to help. I immediately backed off, and lost myself in thought again.


    That was clearly the wrong direction. But what was the right direction?


    I lost myself even further in my half-awake trance, until I stumbled upon a new idea.


    A normal, steady stream of water was critical for all life to grow. This was the fundamental requirement for most life to keep existing: Orthanoids and Orukthyri needed to drink water to stay alive, and plants needed steady streams of water to grow big and strong. Of all the creatures I had encountered so far, only the creatures that came from the dimension of the black sun seemed to escape this fundamental need.


    Similarly, dimensions were also somehow related to the ocean of souls, even if I didn¡¯t know the correct way to visualize how this relationship worked. However, I started to think about how everything that was alive was in some way connected to water and the ocean. Even this dimension.


    I felt a stab of pain in my head, and realized I was overreaching. Touching on how dimensions worked was way beyond my current abilities. I focused again on plants and smaller forms of life.


    I also started thinking, once again, about how the ocean of souls brought souls of the dead around the multiverse, allowing souls to occasionally find new bodies and breathe new life into infants.


    I felt my ability start to form as my mental image solidified.


    I quickly ran out of the house, ignoring Sallia¡¯s attempt to start a conversation, and filled up a small tub of water from the nearby river, then rushed back into the house.


    Then, I ran back into my room and stepped into the tub of water. I wanted something a little more controlled than my lake-dress for this experiment.


    I looked at my disfigured legs, before I brought my image of the ocean of souls and the way it brought ¡®new life¡¯ to things to mind again.


    Just as the ocean of water took life away, it also gave new life to bodies and souls near it.


    Both human and Orthanoid souls looked like silver blobs of light to my soul-sight, so I visualized ¡®life¡¯ as a silvery blob of light, lazily wandering through the ocean of souls until it made contact with a new body and breathed life into it.


    I visualized the way a body needed a soul to truly ¡®live,¡¯ just like a body without a soul was just a coma patient that would never wake up.


    I thought about the way plants needed water, and the way water sustained life in every single creature native to this dimension.


    And as my legs sat, submerged in a tub of water, I saw a small little blob of silver-white light condense near the bottom of the tub of water. If I wasn¡¯t looking carefully, I might have mistaken the silvery blob of light for a soul. However, I didn¡¯t currently have my soul-sight active. Instinctively, I knew what the silvery light was.


    It was life.


    The silvery blob of light wandered closer and closer to my damaged legs, before it made contact with my skin.


    And then, all of the silver light was suddenly sucked into my body, like a ship caught in a whirlpool.


    All of a sudden, massive amounts of water in the tub started to sink into my legs. I felt my crippling injuries start to heal.


    And then I realized that I had lost a massive amount of alteration essence, and quickly shut off my new ability.


    I stared at my legs, and grinned.


    The previously atrophied and damaged muscles, skin, and bones hadn¡¯t been fully healed. However, they looked better than before.


    My new healing ability had been successfully created.


    I decided to call this new spell-like use of my alteration essence ¡®renewal,¡¯ because I was essentially breathing new life into whatever my ability made contact with. I felt that my ability could do a lot of strange, interesting things with the ability, beyond just healing people¡¯s long term injuries.


    I suspected that, if I had a ludicrous amount of essence to throw away and the right adjustments were made to my mental image, I might even be able to do something like return the dead to life, if they had only died a few seconds ago. Of course, there was no way I would have enough essence to do that by the end of this life: it seemed incredibly expensive. And even if I vastly improved the ability, I would probably never be able to revive someone if their soul had found a new home already.


    My legs weren¡¯t healed yet: I had probably only resolved about a tenth of my permanent injuries. Just like how extinguish had been cripplingly inefficient when I first learned how to do it, this spell was also horrendously inefficient right now.


    However, my new healing ability met my expectations.


    As long as I learned to use it more effectively, I was pretty sure I could heal almost any injury. Even regrowing limbs, the way a plant grew from a tiny seed into a massive crop, was probably possible if I had the patient submerge themself in water and had enough alteration essence to support it.


    I had finally figured out how to properly heal my friends with my attunement.


    I grinned to myself, as two new System notifications popped up.

 Chapter 117: Healing (3)

    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Acquire [Basic] mastery of Ocean¡¯s Duality magic


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Getting 500 Achievement was nice, since it brought my total from 10,518 to 11,018. However, that wasn¡¯t the most important System notification. Much more interesting was the second notification I saw.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained the concept of Ocean¡¯s Duality magic to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [The Cycle of the Ocean] as an ability, for the cost of 2,000 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    All life and death related abilities, especially those formed in relation to the Ocean, will be slightly enhanced.


    Training the Ocean¡¯s Duality Skill to basic grade in the future will become significantly easier and faster.


    Upon reaching Basic grade in Ocean¡¯s Duality for the first time in each life, you will receive the following benefits:


    The sunlight that glitters off the surface of the ocean is one of the fundamental components of your magic. This allows you to regenerate from most serious or even disfiguring injuries while exposed to sunlight, albeit at a very slow pace. In addition, while exposed to sunlight, you will slowly generate small quantities of all four types of Essence. Finally, your mind will be better equipped to manage multiple things at once, making it significantly easier to use illusions or mental attacks in battle while still controlling your body effectively. (Multitasking ability will scale based on your Intelligence Stat).


    Your connection with the crushing depths of the ocean will also become one of the fundamental components of your magic. While utilizing any magic related to fear, death, or madness, so long as you inflict any amount of mental or physical damage upon an enemy, you will also apply a small amount of ¡®crushing pressure¡¯ to that enemy, weakening both their physical and mental abilities by squeezing both their mind and their body with traces of the deeps of the ocean. (this is applied as a percentage of the damage you deal. This may be turned off at will).


    Glut Penalty: 7


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I blinked in surprise, seeing a System notification I had never seen before pop up.


    To be honest, I had started to assume that there were no Skill levels for magic at all. After all, I hadn¡¯t gotten a single skill grade in anything like ¡®healing¡¯ or ¡®illusions,¡¯ no matter how much I trained my illusions back on the islands. As of yet, none of the three of us had seen a notification about a grade for skills related to magical concepts. I had started to assume that magic just didn¡¯t have skills the way weapons and crafting did.


    Clearly, this assumption was incorrect.


    The fact that it took us so long to see our first mention of magic grades, however, made me wonder just how much more difficult it was to form a magic-related skill than a physical one.


    When it came to the ocean, I had two lifetimes worth of experience messing with it, my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress} to put me in contact with a ¡®mini-ocean¡¯ at all times of the day, and I was currently using my extreme affinity to directly interact with the concept of ocean magic.


    Despite all of the things working in my favor to help me learn how to use ocean magic, it took me over a decade and a half of work in this life just to get to [Basic] grade.


    Just how difficult was it to reach this point normally? I knew that the three of us didn¡¯t really benefit from the increased mana concentration of this world the way the native residents did, but even so, I doubted people hitting [Basic] Grade in any magic related skill was common. The idea that [Basic] grade skills might be restricted to incredibly competent, powerful existences in this world made me feel very strange.


    I sighed, and shook my head. I dismissed my System notification. I had a hard time figuring out if I wanted to purchase this new ability. Assuming I wanted to buy the spatial evolution for {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} and then buy {Echoes of the Deep}, I needed 14,000 Achievement and 45 Glut penalty available. Currently, I had a little under 11,000 Achievement, and 27 Glut available, meaning that just purchasing those two things would be rather difficult for me. I needed to earn a fair bit more Achievement before we returned to the Market, and then buy more stats before I could own the two Abilities.


    I decided that {Ocean¡¯s Duality Magic} probably wasn¡¯t a very big priority compared to my other two purchases, and decisively ignored it for now. I would think about it if I had a bunch of Achievement left over when we got back to the Market.


    Then, I stopped worrying about the future, and headed towards Sallia and Felix. Even though I probably wasn¡¯t going to be buying my new ability, I wanted to start healing Felix, and I wanted to let them know what I had seen, at least.


    I grabbed a fresh tub of water, before I found Sallia and brought her with me. We arrived at Felix¡¯s door a moment later, and after I knocked a few times he opened the door and let us in.


    ¡°I got a new healing ability. I need you to dunk your head into a tub of water for a bit, and then I can get started on permanently healing your eye,¡± I said, as I walked into his room and set down the tub of water.


    ¡°Got it,¡± said Felix, and immediately dunked his entire head and most of his shoulders into the tub of water before I could say another word.


    ¡°Ah¡­. I don¡¯t need you to dunk your ENTIRE head into water, Felix,¡± I said. ¡°Just up to the damaged eye and a little extra. Keep your mouth above water so you can breathe.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± said Felix as he moved part of his face back above the water. ¡°Sorry, I should have waited for you to finish talking.¡±


    I grinned, and felt a bit warm inside.


    It was hard to find friends who trusted me so much that they immediately shoved their head into a tub of water without questions when I asked them to. Even if it had been a little silly, it also showed me just how much Felix trusted me, and that made me feel good.


    ¡°I¡¯ll probably need several days to finish treating everything,¡± I said. ¡°Sorry, my alteration reserves just aren¡¯t that fast at recovering yet, and right now my healing ability is a seriously unoptimized mess. It¡¯ll get better, but for now it¡¯s still pretty weirdly specific and expensive.¡±


    Felix shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t care. We have over a century left before we start really encountering old age in this world, and we won¡¯t even be adults for another ten or twenty years. I can lose a month or two working on my crafting. Even if it isn¡¯t ideal, it¡¯s not a real issue.¡±


    I nodded, and got to work.


    Just like when I had been testing my new ability, a blob of silvery light appeared near the bottom of the bucket of water. Then, it began to very slowly float towards Felix.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    I stared at the lackadaisical blob of silvery light, and wondered if there was a way I could speed it up. I concentrated, and instead of just imagining the currents of the ocean of souls bringing a new soul into a body, I also pictured Felix¡¯s body actively drawing in the ¡®soul,¡¯ or in this case, the ¡®life¡¯ that existed inside of the water.


    I felt my alteration essence drain away more quickly, but the blob of silvery light also sped up considerably. In less than a second, it sank into Felix¡¯s eye. Felix¡¯s damaged flesh started to suck in water. Then, his ruined eye started to change: little threads of flesh and muscle around his eye cavity started to flesh themselves out, reverting some of the damage his body had suffered over the past few weeks.


    And then I ran out of alteration essence.


    Felix eyed me for a moment longer, before he seemed to realize I couldn¡¯t do anything else right now. He pulled his head back out of the tub of water, touched his eye, and let out a breath of relief. ¡°That feels good.¡± Then, he gently touched the ruined side of his face, and grinned. ¡°I can see out of both eyes again. My bad eye is still incredibly blurry, as if I¡¯m trying to look through a really foggy window pane. However, I can at least see a little bit out of it.¡±


    I grinned as well.


    Felix¡¯s words confirmed that my ability would be useful. It would take several days worth of my alteration essence, but it was a feasible way to treat everyone¡¯s injuries. I would probably need to spend a month or two finishing up the healing process, but spending a month healing everyone was far better than everyone being permanently crippled. I was incredibly happy that I had worked out how to use my new spell, and that it seemed to have so much more potential than before.


    ¡°I¡¯ll heal everyone a little bit per day, until I finish treating everyone¡¯s injuries,¡± I said. Then, I paused, and glanced at Felix. ¡°Actually, do you think it might be better to focus on one person at a time?¡±


    Felix glanced at my legs. Even though they weren¡¯t gray anymore, they still looked clearly withered and shrunken. ¡°I think you should heal yourself first, honestly. Don¡¯t you want your legs to not hurt anymore?¡±


    ¡°I mean, I do, but I also have a pretty high Fortitude. I took the least damage out of everyone here, so I don¡¯t mind waiting a little longer to get my legs treated.¡±


    ¡°In that case, why not focus on Anise first?¡± said Sallia. ¡°Ella, Felix, and you are all adults, even if you and Felix have rather young bodies. You can handle pain a lot better than Anise. Since everyone will get healed within a month or two, why not let Anise get healed first?¡±


    Felix nodded, and I nodded too. Sallia¡¯s words made sense. I also felt that Anise was the most vulnerable of us, so healing her first made sense.


    ¡°So anyway, what about your ability evolution, Miria? You mentioned it, but we were mostly focused on healing.¡±


    ¡°So, I ended up getting access to an ability evolution. I have three potential paths that I can take¡­¡± I started detailing what I had seen for my ability evolution paths, while Sallia and Felix nodded along.


    After hearing my description, though, Sallia also frowned.


    ¡°That actually reminds me¡­ I also got an Ability evolution during the battle against the Orukthyri. I meant to discuss it with the two of you, but with everything happening, I got distracted and forgot to mention it.¡±


    ¡°Really? So both of us ended up getting ability evolutions,¡± I said. ¡°What were your options?¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ so for my own ability evolutions, I got three paths as well. One of them doubles down on the physical enhancements from my runes, and also gives me +20 Perception per rune for my first three runes. But it doesn¡¯t change anything else. The second makes me significantly faster at regenerating absorption essence while holding a sword in my hand and lets me ¡®save¡¯ several sword slashes as a sort of¡­ energy attack, meaning I would finally have some ranged options from my swordsmanship, and I would also have a way to attack several times at once if I needed a trump card. The final one allows me to compress the first nine runes together, much like how Miria¡¯s weakness correction lets her combine the first three and seventh through ninth runes together. I¡¯m leaning towards compressing the first nine runes together myself: I think it¡¯s just the best and most balanced growth path. If I go in that direction, and Miria pairs goes for spatial manipulation, we would have a fairly balanced group,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Miria could handle long ranged attacks and magic, as well as weirder things like spatial magic. She can also handle our healing, meaning I wouldn¡¯t need to think about that in the future and could focus on stabbing things..¡± Sallia suddenly seemed very happy. ¡°I personally really like the idea of Miria focusing on Spatial manipulation so that our group is more balanced in the future. I imagine we¡¯re going to be fighting together a lot. Getting abilities that synergize with each other and cover the weaknesses of the others is going to be very useful moving forward.¡± Sallia shrugged.


    ¡°My healing ability in this life is honestly too specific. It can close up wounds and stem bleeding really effectively, and treat some other wounds that happened recently, such as burns and stuff. I was mostly focused on quick treatments in the middle of a fight. But I¡¯m definitely seeing why that¡¯s problematic now.¡± she sighed. I have a lot to think about when it comes to how I build my rune abilities next life.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ going back to the topic of evolution directions, I feel like both of you are discounting the potential of the Skill evolution path,¡± said Felix. ¡°I think that Miria¡¯s points about its weaknesses are valid. However, it also has some strengths. Specifically, when we go to fight for lives in the Market eventually, we¡¯re probably not going to have much time to train in the Market first. Our bodies in the Market only last a few months before they start to decay, and it takes a long time to build up lots of runes. This means we¡¯re going to be working with stunted versions of our builds during what might very well be the hardest fight of our existences. The skill evolution path definitely has a lot of weaknesses, and doesn¡¯t fundamentally transform Miria¡¯s abilities, but it also doesn¡¯t need any training to build up. As long as you extinguish something, you immediately get its ability, and that means that you can raise the ability back up immediately upon returning to the Market.¡±


    ¡°But she still needs something to kill,¡± said Sallia. ¡°So far, we¡¯ve found lots of skeletons and the strange wooden butterflies in the Market, but I have no idea if either of those can be killed with extinguish. After all, Miria basically forces things to have a ¡®candle of life¡¯ and then puts it out, but do undead even have a candle of life in the first place? After all, they¡¯re dead.¡±


    Felix fell into thought. ¡°I have no idea.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I think I can still force the ability to work, but that¡¯s also just an assumption right now. It¡¯s worth testing before making a final decision, but right now, even if I can extinguish skeletons and wooden butterflies, I still lean towards space being the best choice. We still have three lives left, meaning I can focus a bit more on long-term growth than the fight for more lives. The spatial direction seems to be the best for enhancing my abilities in future lives, at least in my opinion.¡±


    The three of us continued debating for several hours, until, to my surprise, someone knocked on the door.


    I poked my head out, and I was surprised to see Ella, Anise, and the muscle expert again.


    ¡°He came earlier than I thought he would,¡± said Ella. ¡°Are you free? If so, he could also take a look at your legs and Felix¡¯s eye. Even if the odds aren¡¯t great, it¡¯s worth a shot.¡± She glanced at her arm, which no longer caused her pain, but still looked as stiff and dead as a branch of dried out wood.


    I immediately nodded. ¡°I found a way to make my attunement heal the more permanent injuries, but the muscle expert and I can work out a better treatment plan together.¡±


    ¡°You worked out a way to make your attunement heal permanent injuries?¡± asked Ella. She sounded very hopeful. I grinned at her.


    ¡°Felix can see out of his eye again. He says it¡¯s super blurry, but I ran out of shaping essence before I could heal his eye. I figure it¡¯ll take a month or two to finish healing up everyone¡¯s injuries, but the muscle expert might be able to help cut that time down.¡±


    Ella looked decidedly more enthusiastic than before. The five of us walked into the room where the muscle expert was waiting, along with Anise¡¯s parents and Felix¡¯s mother.


    After that, the muscle guy looked over my attempts to heal Felix¡¯s eye, as well as my own legs, before he nodded. ¡°I can help some with Miria¡¯s legs and Ella¡¯s arm, but I really don¡¯t think I can do much for Felix¡¯s eye. Anise¡­ I can probably help somewhat. But since Miria says that she can also deal with permanent injuries¡­¡± he grinned. ¡°I can deal with some of the more muscle-related injuries, and you can do the other stuff, right?¡± He said, turning towards me. I nodded. ¡°Can you demonstrate how your healing ability works?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m out of shaping essence for the day, but I can at least describe what happened when I tried using it¡­¡± I said, before I started explaining how my healing ability worked. Felix and Sallia added to my explanation from time to time, while the muscle expert nodded along.


    ¡°Interesting. Based on that description, I think that we can deal with all of the permanent injuries within a few weeks. I think it would be best if we started each treatment session by having me repair what muscles I can interact with, followed by Miria dealing with any minor issues I can¡¯t heal¡­¡± the man started launching into a more in-depth plan of what muscles he would start treating in each of our injuries, where I could heal things afterwards, and what his schedule would look like.


    After he finished explaining, at my, Sallia, and Felix¡¯s insistence, he started healing Anise¡¯s face. Now that the connection with the fog creature was cut off, his ability didn¡¯t run into any issues as he started healing her desiccated muscles and skin. Ella thanked him, and he promised to return tomorrow.


    I smiled.


    We still hadn¡¯t located my family or Sallia¡¯s family, and a bad feeling in my stomach told me that maybe we would never hear of them again. Felix¡¯s father was buried in the wastes, and nothing we did would ever bring him back.


    But at the very least, we had staved off most of the other impacts of the fall of our home and the journey across the wastes.


    All we had to do now was keep growing and getting stronger, so that the next time we went to the wastes, we weren¡¯t caught as unaware as we had been this time.

 Chapter 118: Growing Up

    After I created my new and improved healing spell, time passed.


    I spent about two and a half weeks healing everyone¡¯s injuries, starting with Anise. After Anise¡¯s face was healed, I divided my essence equally between Felix and Ella to heal their injuries, and then finally healed my own legs. The muscle healer was able to help reconstruct everyone¡¯s deteriorated muscles much more quickly than I would have been able to manage on my own, which saved me a great deal of time, and I was able to gain some inspiration from watching him heal everyone¡¯s muscles as well, which would make my healing cheaper and easier in the future. My healing was a lot slower and more expensive than the muscle expert¡¯s, but it also did a much more ¡®perfect¡¯ job, ensuring that there were no long-lasting issues left behind, and also allowed me to heal things like bones and nerves that the muscle healer couldn¡¯t really address.


    Sallia¡¯s healing didn¡¯t see much use during the time we worked on recovering, but she was more than happy to help everyone run through exercises to get them used to using their limbs again. Even though she didn¡¯t end up being much help during the healing process, she ended up being very useful during the recovery process. After all, I was able to heal all of the physical damage left behind on everyone¡¯s body, but people would naturally start to develop different habits for moving after being unable to use their limbs properly for over three weeks. Sallia decided to help everyone get ¡®back into shape¡¯ and train us out of whatever bad habits we picked up during the time we were injured.


    As it turned out, the one that needed to do the most work to get used to moving again was me. I had unconsciously started to adopt a much slower and more awkward pace when I walked or ran, in order to reduce the pain I felt in my legs as much as possible. This was something Sallia forced me to fix.


    Once I had completed Ella and Felix¡¯s healing, I also got a rather nice Achievement bonus.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Heal 3 permanent, crippling injuries


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +150


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This brought my Achievement from 11,018 Achievement to 11,168 Achievement. I was still short of the amount of Achievement I needed before I died, since I was almost 3,000 Achievement and 18 Glut Penalty short of the two major abilities I wanted to purchase. Since Stats gave three points of Glut penalty when going from grade 1 to grade 2, I had to max out six new stats if I wanted to keep my new Ability AND evolve my absorption essence Ability. Each Stat cost 1600 Achievement to max out¡­ which meant I was a whopping 12,000 or so Achievement short. I needed to double my Achievement before I died.


    In other words, I might need to give up on either my Evolution or what I planned to be my primary magic system. Both options made me feel very unhappy, but I hoped I could somehow scrape together what I needed before we returned to the Market. At the very least, I intended to make use of my training time to put together some more Achievement before we returned to the wastes above.


    Apart from realizing how woefully inadequate my Achievement reserves were, as I worked on healing my friends, I learned a great deal about how to control my new healing ability. It was still ridiculously expensive for each drop of healing I wrung out of the ability, but with every single day that passed, I felt my control over the spell getting better and better, and I optimized more of the spell by learning more about both the Orthanoid body structure and the way my spell itself worked. It would take quite a long time for it to reach the same level of energy-efficiency I had trained Extinguish up to, but the spell clearly had far more potential than my original healing spell. To my own surprise, however, I realized that my old healing spell did still have some uses. Even if its potential was dozens of times lower, and it had no way at all to interact with permanent injuries, it was still quite a bit more useful in the heat of combat.


    More time passed. Months started to turn into years.


    Ella maintained close contact with her merchant friends, and kept an eye out for my family and Sallia¡¯s parents. However, no word came of them, no matter how much anyone looked. At one point, Ella even left the city to search for them, taking me along and bringing several experienced trackers, but we were unable to find any sign of them at all.


    At first, I hoped that perhaps they had simply gotten lost, or hadn¡¯t reached a nearby city yet.


    Eventually, I started to accept that I was never going to see them again. They had likely been eaten by monsters in between one city and the next, and I would probably never learn how or where they died. I felt a little empty when I thought of the fact that I finally had a way to cure Jonathan¡¯s arm, and restore his dream of being a great swordsman and adventurer.


    I finally had a way to heal an injury, but the person I wanted to heal was gone. And I was probably never going to see my family again. This knowledge created a small, persistent ache in my heart. I had lost my mother and father from the Islands, and I would never see them again. Now, I had another family I loved and longed to see again. And just like my parents on the islands, and the people I could barely remember from my first life, they were gone to me forever.


    Every single time I died, I would leave behind a family that I loved, and possibly a group of friends as well. Like Anise. That knowledge hurt me more than anything, but I did my best to keep moving forward. Even if it hurt, I needed to keep moving. Still, I paid careful attention to news about the survivors of our old city.


    My parents weren¡¯t the only ones who never made it to a new city after fleeing into the tunnels. Not many people had escaped the city after its fall. Of the original population, which had been just shy of 20,000 people, Perhaps 8,000 had made it to nearby cities to start new lives. Many of the remainder fell to monsters in the tunnels, or the Orukthyri invasion, or got lost in the tunnels and died of hunger or thirst. Many scouts and soldiers who patrolled the tunnels spent a few years finding corpses during their travels.


    However, years passed, and gradually, the fall of our old city stopped being a topic of conversation and interest. Cities in the underdark fell sometimes, but life continued on for the cities that remained.


    One of the cities about two weeks of travel away became renowned for their new, incredible ¡®healing cube,¡¯ a magic item said to be able to heal dozens of people per day so long as one fed it paint. Apparently, a group of adventurers had brought it back from a dangerous location on the surface. Rumor had it that the group had only made their way past the first few layers of defense before finding the cube and returning to the city with it, inspiring a new wave of adventurers who hoped to find more from the ruins.


    I was still a little interested in getting ahold of the cube for research purposes, just to see if I could cross-reference the way the cube worked with my own healing spell. I felt that it would probably give me a lot of inspiration for how to make other spells from my attunement, and might help me revise a few details about how my healing spell worked. However, I didn¡¯t really have the qualifications to borrow the cube right now, or even spend some time investigating it. Just traveling there would be difficult, and there was no reason for the overseer of that city to lend the most important magic item in the city to a random stranger.


    I decided that if we succeeded in recovering some artifacts from the wastes during our next journey to the surface, I would try to find something I could use as collateral to investigate the cube more, but I suspected it would be difficult to succeed.


    Day after day, the eight of us who had survived the journey to Silver City began to build a new life. Anise¡¯s parents found new jobs as mushroom farmers. Felix¡¯s mother instead ended up spending quite a bit of time with the military, and started teaching their scouts some of the less magical tricks to moving around the surface that she had learned during her time as an adventurer. Ella didn¡¯t opt to farm or join the military: instead, she managed to work out a deal with the city where she would be compensated for continuing to teach Sallia, Felix, Anise, and me, which kept our group together, while also ensuring we had a bit of loyalty towards our new city. The city also made sure to get us a second, entirely spell-oriented teacher to ensure we didn¡¯t waste our potential as spellcasters. The teacher was named Vance, and was a stern but fair man. He was able to use a few fifth-circle spells, and specialized in stealth and scouting, much like Felix¡¯s mother.


    Felix found a third teacher on his own time, although this teacher was entirely nonmagical. He wanted to continue learning how to smith and create items, and while his metal-attuned shaping certainly helped him create items, he still needed to know how to make a regular item before he could speed it up with his attunement. Despite Vance¡¯s best efforts, Felix¡¯s spellcasting started to lag behind his shaping abilities, but his item creation reached a point where it was indistinguishable from an experienced craftsman¡¯s. After a decade, Felix completed his apprenticeship as a blacksmith. With the permission of his former master, he worked as a blacksmith part of the day, and spent the rest of the day learning how to use shaping and cast spells. Some of the incredibly bulky build he had when I first met him in the Market returned, although he still remained much slimmer than before. His muscles were well defined, but not bulky or bearlike.


    He seemed to be having the time of his life learning how to make new items and improving his skill as a blacksmith, and Sallia and I were happy for him. He had no idea how to create magic items, unfortunately, but I suspected that it was impossible to do so without some research notes or hints about how the old Orthans had made the massive magic items in  the first place. They had managed to create roadways that showed no signs of wear and tear, obstruction, or degradation, even after hundreds of years, and despite centuries of attempts, nobody had managed to replicate their work yet.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Felix¡¯s hard work didn¡¯t go to waste. After he forged his 100th item using his attunement, he got access to a new keyword ability. Much like {Echos of the Deep}, it let him retain access to the shaping spellcasting system, although it also restricted what attunements he could form. If he took the ability, he would never be able to form an attunement besides Metal, and it had no other bonuses. However, it also only had one keyword, which was Creation. That meant it wouldn¡¯t take up much ¡®space¡¯ in his build, since he would still have nine keywords free for a binding magic system that he liked and some supplementary abilities. Felix seemed very excited about it, and I was glad that Felix was guaranteed to have a magic system in the next world.


    Sallia continued to refine her swordsmanship, and just barely reached [Expert] grade swordsmanship. Unfortunately, all three of her rune abilities and her attunement had already been filled up before we ventured into the wastes for the first time, meaning Sallia didn¡¯t have any open slots to correct the weakness she had. She was still unable to interact with ¡®strange¡¯ attacks. Sallia simply sighed, and said that she would keep in mind the issues she had run into in this world next life. There wasn¡¯t much else we could do about this issue anymore, unfortunately.


    Apart from that, Sallia and I started using our healing abilities to rack up money and influence in the city. People who could heal with magic were pretty rare in this world, so Sallia and I healing people often was both a way to accumulate money and a way to make sure the city valued us and felt that their assistance to Ella wasn¡¯t wasted. Sallia¡¯s runes were mostly built to heal recent injuries, so she helped people who had just returned after getting hurt by denizens of the darkness most of the time. I spent a lot longer with each of my patients, since my ability was less energy-efficient, but I treated injuries that had been around for much longer.


    In addition to racking up wealth and some social power, we also got a decent amount of Achievement from our hard work.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Heal 12 permanent, crippling injuries


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +400


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Heal 30 permanent, crippling injuries


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +600


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Heal 100 permanent, crippling injuries


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +750


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Become the owner of 5 bars of (almost) pure gold


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Slightly increase the strength of Silver City


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +400


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The extra 2,350 Achievement I got from healing people and racking up wealth brought me from 11,168 Achievement to 13,518 Achievement. I could heal about one crippling injury every couple weeks to a month, depending on how difficult the injury was to treat. I probably healed somewhere between 100 and 200 injuries during the decade and a half that followed our flight to Silver City, but apparently I had yet to hit the next break point for Achievement rewards.


    Naturally, Anise and I also focused on our training, although the direction we took was quite different from Felix and Sallia. While Sallia focused on her swordsmanship and treated everything else as secondary, Anise spent most of her time on spellcasting, and I started to split my time between spellcasting and shaping again.


    Anise became a fourth-circle spellcaster, the only member of our group who was actually able to cast fourth circle spells. Her shaping was starting to lag behind a little bit, but she was still able to modify her own spells on the fly extremely proficiently, and was truly shaping up to be a talented little super-witch. Sadly, her mana reserves weren¡¯t quite high enough to let her cast fifth circle spells. Unless one was a transmigrator, magical talent was usually at least somewhat linked to one¡¯s parents, and both of Anise¡¯s parents were completely and utterly untalented in either spellcasting or shaping. And while Anise¡¯s magic reserves did seem to have expanded some as a result of some mixture of skills she had acquired while growing up, she was still far away from the minimum magic symbols per day she needed.


    I, myself, saw two very notable breakpoints as I trained.


    First, I managed to reach [Expert] grade with my attunement.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form an [Expert] level attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With that, my Achievement went from 13,518 Achievement to 14,518 Achievement.


    I had been at [Advanced] grade before the Orukthyri battle, and another decade and a half proved just long enough for me to slide into the next grade. However, after reaching [Expert] Grade, I felt as if I had hit a wall of sorts. My innate talent in manipulating alteration essence was still making it much easier to move forward, but I was still¡­ missing something if I wanted to move to [Master] Grade. I got the feeling that [Master] Grade was somehow special. It was like the final step before a much bigger step. It was the preparation for something different.


    My instincts were quite vague, so I didn¡¯t really know what to make of my feelings. But at the very least, I was pretty sure that I needed something more than just time to reach [Master] grade. For now, all I could do was keep an eye out for some way to move to the next step, and try to keep my skills sharp.


    Finally, I had fully and properly stepped into the third circle of spellcasting, along with Sallia and Felix. The three of us trailed notably behind Anise, but at the very least, we had hit the point where we could call ourselves capable, fully grown spellcasters. I knew several useful third circle spells, and Felix and Sallia could also cast their own kinds of spells. I had eventually opted to take a more offensive and support role as a spellcaster, and learned a bunch of scouting spells from Felix¡¯s mother, as well as several useful offensive spells such as proper fireballs and ice lances. Sallia ended up focusing more on her muscle enhancements, but also made sure to pick up several offensive spells and a few utility spells. Even if a lot of her offensive third-circle spells overlapped with mine, both of us felt that it wasn¡¯t a bad idea for us to be able to launch a volley of offensive spells at the start of every fight before it turned into a melee. Felix ended up learning scouting spells from his mother, but also learned a few spells that could help shield us from certain kinds of elemental attacks, such as fire and acid. Combined with the ability to mess with spells in midair that he had learned from Lauren, Felix was basically an anti-wizard specialist now, on top of his archery and item-crafting.


    Finally, Felix and I finished extracting all of the benefits we could from Sallia¡¯s training armor and ramen bowl. The day that I finished raising my Perception stat to Grade 5, I felt a sense of¡­ completeness I hadn¡¯t realized I was missing before. My eyesight got better. My taste buds got sharper. Picking out smells and identifying them got easier, and my sense of touch and hearing also improved. Most importantly, my ability to control my body improved, meaning I could use more of my physical stats. I still hadn¡¯t managed to make full use of my Strength and Agility, since they were way ahead of my Perception, but I was at least closer than before.


    My stat block looked much nicer after all of the training, hard work, and use of Sallia¡¯s magic items.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical (+73)


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+108)


    Grade 10


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+120)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+120)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+120)


    Grade 10


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (20+140)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+105+10)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (20+129)


    Grade 11


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+80)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+70)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+123+9)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Before I knew it, I had turned 35. Most people started an apprenticeship at about 30 and ended it at about 40, making them officially adults. However, Ella felt that the four of us were ready at the age of 35, and it was generally up to a master¡¯s discretion when their students were finished with their apprenticeships. Physically speaking, I would say that we resembled a human who was between the age of 19 and 20, meaning we had basically finished physically maturing as well.


    To Sallia, Felix, and I, that meant one thing.


    It was time to return to the surface. We wanted to see if we could find the palace where the adventurers had found the healing cube, and see if we could find any hints about why that cube had seemed connected to the river of souls, and possibly, the wider multiverse. We wanted to see if we could find enough bargaining power to study the cube. Most importantly, however, we had exhausted most of the sources of easy Achievement we could get access to by remaining in Silver city. Sallia and I could get some more Achievement by healing people, but many of our Skills had hit bottlenecks, and training an entirely new skill would still take several months just to get a little bit of Achievement. Our knowledge of the wider multiverse was still much too shallow, and the palace might hold important hints that we could use in the future.


    If we could successfully raid an old research lab, we would be able to get a huge amount of Influence Achievement, and possibly have a way to turn our discovery into a large network of connections that we could use to farm even more influence Achievement.


    We just needed to find the place where the cube had been seized and then successfully raid it ourselves to get both Achievement, and answers.

 Chapter 119: Leaving

    ¡°Are you sure you want to come with us?¡± I asked Anise, for the third time.


    Honestly, I felt worried. Unlike Sallia and Felix, Anise wasn¡¯t a part of the Market. In other words, after she died, she would return to the ocean of souls, where her soul would try to search for rebirth. In that time, her memories would likely be lost, and much of her sense of self would disappear. Death wasn¡¯t completely the end for her, since her actual consciousness would be reborn, but it was still close to losing everything.


    And if Anise died while following us into the wastes on the surface, I would be sad. I didn¡¯t want to think that my actions would get a friend killed. For Sallia and Felix, I wasn¡¯t too worried if they died: after all, we had accomplished most of the ¡®easy¡¯ stuff that we could do on this world, and any action we took to get more Achievement and gather more strength would require taking some risks. Even if going back to the surface was reasonably likely to get us killed, it was also the best way I could think of to secure our long-term existence. Therefore, I didn¡¯t mind putting Sallia and Felix in danger from tagging along with me.


    But Anise was different. I wanted to think that after Sallia, Felix and I left this world, Anise would still be happily living on, becoming the best witch she could and working to live a happy life.


    I didn¡¯t like the idea that she might die along with us if our journey into the wastes ended up killing us. Sallia, Felix and I had decided to look into those unusual ruins that the other group of adventurers had found the healing cube in. Even a well-trained, experienced group of adventurers had barely managed to make their way past the outer defenses of the area before being driven out.


    Currently, I felt it was a coin toss on whether the three of us would return or not.


    However, heedless of my internal conflict, Anise nodded enthusiastically.


    ¡°I¡¯m absolutely certain I want to come with you guys. You¡¯ve been there for me my entire life, and I don¡¯t know what I would do without the three of you. If you three are going into the wastes again, I¡¯m going with you,¡± said Anise. Her four eyes glowed with determination, although I could also see a hint of tension in her posture as well.


    She was scared, but she still wanted to come with us.


    I felt a little warmth in my heart, but I also felt even more worried than before. Was it a good idea to let Anise come with us? Was it a bad idea?


    I thought back to my mother in this life. I had always been worried that she would be overly controlling, and prevent me from doing the things I needed to do for my own long-term growth and survival. It wasn¡¯t entirely my mother¡¯s fault, since she didn¡¯t have all of the context related to what I was thinking and what I wanted to do. However, it was also an undeniable fact that my mother had worried me for a while, since I hadn¡¯t been sure how to convince her that I needed to go to the surface eventually. I had spent much of my early years in this life thinking about how to manage my mother¡¯s worries and convince her not to hinder me.


    Did I really want to emulate her behavior, when I had found it very troublesome when I was on the receiving end?


    However, my situation was also quite special. I was part of the Market, and had plenty of lives to experiment and try risky things. Anise did not have several lives where she could keep her memories and some of her Abilities intact from one life to the next. And she also wasn¡¯t attached to a massive timer that was quietly ticking towards her permanent, final death, unlike Sallia, Felix, and me.


    I spent a few minutes frowning, trying to figure out what I should do. Two different ideals for how I should treat my friends warred within me.


    And eventually, I reached out and hugged Anise.


    ¡°Good to have you on board, Anise.¡± I said. Every single word felt as if it stung me a little bit, but eventually, I decided that bringing Anise with us was the best option.


    Anise¡¯s eyes lit up with excitement.


    Even if I was worried that she would die, I also felt that trying to forbid her from coming along might result in something even more dangerous happening, like Anise trying to follow us from behind.


    However, the biggest reason that I decided to take Anise with us was because of my parents. I was pretty sure they were dead, since there had been no sign of them for over a decade. It was almost entirely certain that they had been lost in the tunnels somewhere, never to be found. Perhaps they had been eaten by a monster, or starved to death in the tunnels, or got killed by the Orukthyri as they tried to flee. But I had no way of knowing for sure. I would probably never know what happened to them. And not knowing their fate hurt. When I was going to sleep, I would wonder if Ruman or Jonathan was still alive somewhere, hoping that I would stumble across them and heal them. Or I would think about my parents, and wonder if they had died in horrifically painful ways, wondering if I would show up and save them. Sometimes, I would even think about my bratty older sister, and wonder if she was somehow alive, getting thirstier and thirstier as she wandered the tunnels forever¡­


    Each of them haunted my dreams and nightmares.


    At the end of the day, I had no way of knowing for sure what had happened to them. All I was left with, and all I would have for the rest of my life, was my imagination. I would never have an answer.


    I didn¡¯t want Anise to feel the same way about the three of us. The four of us had spent most of this lifetime together as a group of four. I considered Anise the most important friend I had that wasn¡¯t part of our group of transmigrators, and Anise didn¡¯t seem close to any other groups of children apart from us. In other words, we were her best friends in this world.


    If we disappeared, Anise would definitely be sad. If she received confirmation that we died, she might spend the rest of her life wondering if she might have been able to do something about it. If she didn¡¯t receive confirmation that we had died, she would spend the rest of her life wondering, the same way I wondered if my family was alive and well somewhere.


    As a transmigrator, my values about life, death, and emotions were probably a little messed up. I didn¡¯t know if a regular person would consider my actions good or bad. But I wanted to respect the decisions of the people around me, and I didn¡¯t want Anise to spend the rest of her life wondering. So even though I was hesitant to let Anise walk into danger with the rest of us, I eventually decided that she could come too.


    I sighed, pulling myself out of my thoughts, and turned back towards Anise.


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    ¡°All right, the four of us will be leaving in a week or two. During the waiting period, spend some time with your parents. If we¡¯re unlucky, you might not be coming back, so you should spend some good time with them just in case. Apart from that, pack for a journey. We¡¯re going to be going a little light on water, since our entire group is comprised of spellcasters, so it¡¯s not too hard to get more water. And Sallia and I can take care of healing, so we don¡¯t really need to bring much medicine with us. However, we still need food and tents, and especially ways to block the black sunlight from making contact with our bodies¡­¡± I started listing the more specific supplies that Sallia, Felix and I agreed on while Anise nodded.


    After that, we split up to spend our final week in Silver City before our departure.


    * * *


    A week flew by. The four of us spent some time with our families, if we had any family members. Felix spent the last week of our time in Silver City almost entirely with his mother, getting in some quality family time. Sallia and I had no word of our original families, but we spent our time with Ella. We went to nicer restaurants in the city, eating everything nice we could. We listened to a few bards playing music at a tavern, had our first drinks of alcohol as official ¡®adults¡¯ in this world, and did everything else we could think of that sounded fun. Anise, of course, got her parents to take some time off of their mushroom picking job, and spent some time with them.


    After that, we divided up the money we had saved up over the years. We put some aside to buy the best equipment we could think of, especially since it was possible to get access to some magic items in the city. Then, with the rest of the money, we set aside a good amount of savings for, Felix¡¯s mother, Ella, and Anise¡¯s parents. It wasn¡¯t enough to make them incredibly wealthy, but it was definitely enough money for everyone to live comfortably for several years, at least.


    I liked to think that we were going to come back, and that the wealth I set aside for everyone wouldn¡¯t end up mattering. But adventuring in the wastes was dangerous. In our first journey across the wastes, we had lost Felix¡¯s father to a creature I had no idea how to fight back against at the time, and that had been under the umbrella of Ella¡¯s protection and Felix¡¯s parents scouting for us.


    Finally, we got to purchasing magic items. Sallia, Felix, and I already had weapons and armor from our Market item slots, which saved us a great deal of money. We also had our {Sturdy Boots}, which would hopefully keep us from getting impacted by minor terrain issues. However, the tents we had used during our first journey across the wastes had deteriorated over the past decade and a half of disuse, and we also needed a great deal of food. After stocking up on rations and tents, we realized that we had quite a bit of money left, so Sallia ultimately ended up purchasing a magic item called a Crystal wand. It was a wand capable of casting the fourth circle spell: diamond skin.


    Of course, it was a magic wand, meaning it wasn¡¯t really a proper magic item. Unlike the ancient magic items of old, it didn¡¯t repair itself, and had no way of supplying itself with energy: anything the wand did would be taken from our own magic reserves, and it could also break if it got bent too much or exposed to dangerous attacks. However, since Sallia, felix and I couldn¡¯t cast fourth circle spells, but had the essence reserves for them, we decided that the wand would supplement our party well. Sallia ended up carrying it, since ¡®Diamond Skin¡¯ would bring her defensive abilities up significantly, and coupled with her incredible Fortitude Stat, she would probably be able to shrug off the attacks from many monsters in the wastes.


    With what remained of our money, we got Anise kitted out, since she had no access to Market items, unlike the rest of us. She would have to actually carry her items, instead of just dematerializing them, but we had done our best to make sure she wasn¡¯t underequipped compared to the rest of the group.


    ¡°Are you four really going to go?¡± asked Ella, on the day we were supposed to leave.


    I hesitated, and then nodded.


    ¡°Even after Felix¡¯s father died on the surface, and you nearly lost access to your legs?¡± Ella gave me and Sallia questioning looks. ¡°We have a decent life here. I can find a new set of students to teach, and you and Sallia are well liked in the city. Two healers provides the city with a lot of medical options that most cities don¡¯t have, especially since Miria has an easy time healing long-term injuries. You should be fine on money, right?¡±


    ¡°We have a pretty good amount of money tucked away,¡± said Sallia. She left out the part where we had put aside most of our money for her, as well as Felix¡¯s mother and Anise¡¯s parents. I didn¡¯t want Ella to worry about us even more, and if she knew that we were making plans for our potential deaths, I felt she would be even more worried.


    ¡°Then why?¡± asked Ella. ¡°The surface is dangerous. You aren¡¯t poor, the way I was when I went to the surface, and your attunement gives you completely different options.¡±


    I thought about the future worlds we would go to, and hesitated. I didn¡¯t know how to explain why we were going to the surface. Sallia, however, had her own response.


    ¡°It¡¯s because of the black sun, and our home,¡± said Sallia. For a moment, she looked into the distance, and sighed. ¡°Our species is dying, Ella. It¡¯s not fast, and it¡¯s not immediately obvious, but our species is dying.¡±


    Ella stopped talking, and glanced at the tunnels in the distance. They were far away from the fort we were standing near, but it was still possible to see them in the distance. Unblockable. Indestructible. Ancient.


    And connections to a hostile world of monsters.


    ¡°Every century or so, another city falls,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I checked the historical records, and while cities are occasionally reclaimed, it¡¯s much less common. We don¡¯t know how to make magic items, our spellcasters can only dream of the old days where spellcasters considered fifth-circle wizards and witches apprentices, and we can¡¯t even modify our own living spaces, because the second Orthan empire made it basically impossible for us to mess with the caves we live in. If nothing ever happens, I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s a future for our species at all. It may not come today, or even in a century, but if nothing changes, sooner or later there won¡¯t be any Orthanoids left.¡±


    Ella paused, looking at Sallia and I incredulously.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if magic items can change things, but I think it¡¯s the best path forward our species has. If we can just rediscover how to make real magic items¡­ maybe there¡¯s hope?¡± said Sallia, shrugging.


    Ella laughed bitterly. ¡°You¡¯re thinking a lot more about this than I did when I became an adventurer. I just wanted to eat, and in the back of my mind, I had thoughts about glory, and becoming someone respected and important¡­ fine.¡± She sighed. Then, she hugged Sallia and I.


    ¡°Go out into the wastes. But come back to my side afterwards. I¡¯ve taken care of both of you for long enough that you¡¯re practically my daughters. I don¡¯t want to spend the rest of my life wondering if you made it back okay. I¡¯m too old to go back to the surface these days, but the two of you better not leave me alone in my old age.¡± she cracked a grin at us, although she seemed to be forcing herself. Then, she stepped closer to Sallia and I, and hugged us both.


    I hugged her back fiercely, and felt my eyes grow a little hot. Even though I knew that going into the wastes was the best option for us, leaving Ella behind felt bittersweet.


    Then, Ella placed a small trinket into my hand. It was a small stone carving of a creature that looked kind of like an eight-legged dog with two heads. It had a foolish grin on its face.


    I glanced at it quizzically, wondering what it was.


    ¡°It¡¯s a lucky charm,¡± said Ella. ¡°My mother said it¡¯s a carving of a pet that used to be popular before the Dawn of the Black Sun. It watched over me during my adventures in the wastes. Now it¡¯s time for it to watch over you.¡±


    I looked at the carving of an animal, and then leapt up and gave Ella another, tighter hug.


    ¡°Make sure to bring it back to me,¡± said Ella, launching as she hugged me back.


    I nodded.


    Then, the two of us left. A few minutes of walking later, we met up with Felix and Anise.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡± I asked Anise, Felix, and Sallia.


    Anise shuffled nervously, and then tugged at her new armor, and then nodded.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go.¡±


    And so, we took our first steps back into the wastes, after over a decade and a half of training and preparing.


    It was hard to say whether we would come back as heroes, ushering in a new era of magic items and ideas, or if we would never return at all.

 Chapter 120: The Black Sun

    When we stepped back onto the surface, I couldn¡¯t help but wince.


    The first time we had set foot in the wastes, over a decade and a half ago, I had noticed how strange everything was. The pink grass, the smell of charcoal, the ring-shaped planet¡­ All of those things had distracted me, causing me to focus on them as I tried to devour everything I was seeing for the first time.


    However, upon returning to the surface, my first thought was different.


    This was because, when I looked at the black sun that hung in the sky like a hungry mouth, I realized something.


    Was the black sun¡­ bigger?


    It was hard to see, but I could have sworn the black sun was a little bit bigger than last time we had been on the surface. It wasn¡¯t a huge difference, but I was pretty sure I wasn¡¯t just seeing things.


    I turned towards Sallia.


    ¡°Hey, Sallia. Does the black sun look bigger than before?¡±


    ¡°Now that you mention it¡­ maybe?¡± Sallia also looked up at the black sun and squinted her eyes. Anise and Felix followed suit, and also glanced at the black sun.


    ¡°It does seem to be a little bigger than before,¡± said Anise, also squinting as she glanced at the black sun. She grimaced, and then looked at the rest of the surface. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, perhaps we should be more mindful of the time we spend exposed to the sun. I remember that when we were traveling to Silver City, teacher Ella estimated that it would take us a week to get sick from black sun poisoning, but it only took us three or four days instead. I imagine that the time we can spend exposed to the black sun without getting sick is even shorter now.¡±


    I blinked in surprise. Anise¡¯s comment made a lot of sense, but I wasn¡¯t used to Anise making good suggestions.


    Then, I felt a smile tug at my lips.


    Anise had been slowly growing up in front of my very eyes. I could still remember the days she went on and on about how she wanted to be a super witch, and how she had always made me chuckle. Now, she was all grown up. Even though Anise¡¯s love for spellcasting had never died down, she was old enough to make good suggestions and understand the world around her far more than ever before.


    ¡°I agree,¡± said Sallia. ¡°The black sun isn¡¯t something we want to take chances with. If the black sun is larger than before, its effects might be stronger as well. If we get sick, it might be very hard to deal with afterward.¡± Sallia glanced at me and nodded. ¡°Even if Miria¡¯s healing is better than before, we should still avoid wasting her essence if we can.¡±


    She paused for a moment, and then looked at the wastes around us. ¡°Also, we should take extra steps to make sure that we don¡¯t walk into any outsiders: their abilities are all very weird, and I think we would be better off if we didn¡¯t end up tangling with them. Whether or not we have a way to survive after an encounter with outsiders seems to be mostly related to how quickly Miria can figure out a solution, and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to put our lives on the line like that.¡±


    I paused for a moment, before I realized that Sallia was right. The two outsiders I could think of that we had encountered so far were the thought worms and the fog, and I had been the one to deal with both creatures. The strange, difficult to comprehend biology of Outside creatures often meant that only a few specific kinds of spells were useful against them. Rather than mess around trying to figure out what worked and what didn¡¯t, it was usually much faster and easier to just extinguish them, or remove them using alteration essence.


    Despite the fact that Shaping required a lot more creativity and quick thinking to use in a fight, it was also much better at coping with unusual enemies and situations.


    ¡°Perhaps what we should do is spend a day out in the black sun, and then a day taking shelter?¡± said Felix. ¡°With the help of Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl and Miria¡¯s dimensional pack, we have a good amount of food. And with only four people to support, our supplies won¡¯t drain anywhere near as quickly as they did last time. We should have a comfortable three or four weeks of supplies, assuming Miria and Sallia are able to forage.¡±


    ¡°Sallia and I might be able to forage, but it should probably be sporadic from Sallia,¡± I said. ¡°After all, our strong Fortitude makes both of us much more resistant to the effects of the black sun. However, it¡¯s not perfect. I have {Emptiness} to deal with the effects of the black sunlight, but Sallia should still take breaks from time to time.¡±


    Sallia shuffled uncomfortably. ¡°Would you be all right doing that? I don¡¯t want you to get hurt while foraging, and it¡¯s much safer with a friend or two to keep watch while you look for food.¡±


    I hesitated, before nodding. ¡°I can manage. But I¡¯ll stick near camp when it comes up.¡±


    Sallia still looked uncomfortable, but eventually, she nodded. ¡°All right.¡±


    After we finished figuring out how to manage our traveling system, we started walking again. We only had a rough idea where we were heading: after all, the location of the ruins where the cube had been found weren¡¯t certain. However, based on the direction the adventurers had been heading when we met them, as well as some rumors floating around the underdark, gave us at least a general direction to follow.


    However, as we started moving away from the tunnel that led to Silver City, I couldn¡¯t help but think about this world and its future.


    I had already realized that the Orthanoids of this planet weren¡¯t exactly in a great position. Unlike most species, we were forced to live in underground cities, afraid of returning to the surface. Even in the underdark, most of the creatures were stronger than us, requiring extensive, well-maintained networks of soldiers and magic users to keep civilians inside of cities safe.


    In some distant corner of my mind, I had expected that things would improve over time. After all, spellcasters and shapers were always actively working to expand their knowledge base, either by raiding lost labs and research facilities, and also through doing their own experimentation.


    However¡­ what if things weren¡¯t getting better over time? What if the Orthanoid species as a whole was declining further and further as time passed, and our species was just a long-forgotten relic of a previous era?


    I couldn¡¯t help but think back to Sallia¡¯s words when we had been parting from Ella. At the time, Sallia had talked about how she felt that the Orthanoids of this world were slowly dying, as more and more cities fell and fewer and fewer cities were reclaimed. At the time, I had wondered if Sallia was correct.


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    The fact that the black sun seemed larger than before seemed to validate Sallia¡¯s opinion.


    The black sun wasn¡¯t from this dimension. It getting bigger seemed to imply that the ¡®other dimension¡¯ we were connected to was getting more and more connected to our world over time. In other words, outsiders, the most dangerous enemy in this world, were also growing more and more populous with every passing year.


    Perhaps in a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of years, there would be no more Orthanoids on this dying planet at all. The adventurers, spellcasters, and shapers might simply be the last gasps of our dying species, struggling to squeak out a new place in the world for us as the world changed around us.


    I shook my head, trying to push off such grim thoughts. However, my mood plummeted as I observed our surroundings.


    ¡°Sallia, when you were talking to Ella, were you telling the truth? Is this world getting harder and harder to survive in?¡± I asked, whispering to her as we walked.


    ¡°To the best of my knowledge, yes. of course, the history books I had access to were written by historians in Silver City, so it¡¯s also possible that this region is getting worse and other regions are doing fine. I imagine that information gets hard to verify once it related to cities farther away. But everything I said to Ella should be correct,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Why? Does it bother you?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ does,¡± I said. ¡°I know that everyone will probably just get thrown back into the ocean of souls anyway, but it seems¡­ I don¡¯t know, sad. This world dying seems like a shame to me.¡±


    Sallia smiled, and then hugged me.


    ¡°It means that even though we¡¯ve reincarnated twice now, you haven¡¯t lost your heart,¡± she said. ¡°Sometimes, I also find myself wondering what really matters and what doesn¡¯t. Since everyone just reincarnates anyway, does dying really matter? Is it a bad thing to kill someone? After all, they¡¯ll just be reborn. Even if some people get absorbed by the ocean in between lives, most don¡¯t. You and Felix keep me grounded. Losing friends is sad. I want to stay with both of you as long as possible, and remembering that is what keeps me human,¡± said Sallia.


    I felt surprised, but warm as I hugged her back. Sallia had never talked about her thoughts on life and death. I felt glad that Sallia wasn¡¯t losing who she was, despite how odd our perspective on life and death had become after joining the Market. Being part of the Market would naturally change how we viewed some things: after all, once we died and were reborn several times, it was entirely possible that we wouldn¡¯t view death as something particularly noteworthy.


    So I was glad we had each other to stay sane.


    Then, I wondered if there was a way to ¡®fix¡¯ this world. Right now, it felt as if the world was slowly spiralling out of control. The Orthanoids were slowly declining, the black sun was getting larger, outside creatures were probably becoming more populous¡­ In all, this world felt liked it was slowly fading away.


    Then, I sighed.


    Even if I didn¡¯t want the humanoid creatures of this world to go extinct, I had no clue how to fix it. I didn¡¯t lack the will to help. However, I lacked the ability. I had no clue how the black sun had even come about. I would just have to hope that someone found a solution in the future, unless I got a bright idea or found something relevant.


    I put my thoughts away, and the four of us continued moving through the wastes.


    * * *


    For the rest of the day, we didn¡¯t encounter much of note. Which, in itself, was actually rather unusual. During our journey to Silver City, we had run into odd creatures several times a day, and while we avoided most encounters, that wasn¡¯t because there weren¡¯t any monsters roaming around: it was simply because Felix¡¯s parents were exceptionally proficient scouts, and most creatures we saw were too strong for us to fight.


    This time, however, the surface was oddly¡­ quiet. There were still occasional mammoths that shook the earth with each step, and creatures of ash and nightmare that trawled through the soil and made the world shiver in fear at their passing. However, we ran into them infrequently, and we had more than enough forewarning to avoid them each time.


    And near the end of the day, instead of running into a giant creature we had no hopes of fighting, we found a corpse near the area we were thinking of camping.


    It had been a massive creature at one point. It had likely had a wingspan nearly a quarter the size of Silver City, and its skin was made of bright yellow feathers. Its all too human mouth and lips glinted with a metallic gray color, making me wonder if it had some distant dragon ancestry. It looked as though, at one point, it had been an incredibly dangerous creature. It was impossible to tell if it had any access to magic when it had been alive, but I imagined that it had once been a ruler of the skies.


    And now it lay dead on the ground. I had absolutely no idea what had killed it. There was no crater or disturbance in the area, to indicate it had fallen out of the sky and crashed onto the earth. There were no cuts or burn marks on its body, to indicate it had been killed in a fight. It simply looked as though the creature had landed, and then died in its sleep. Scavengers hadn¡¯t even begun picking at its flesh, even though it had clearly been here for a while. The creature¡¯s flesh was beginning to rot, and yet nothing had dared to consume it.


    ¡°I wonder if it¡¯s the black sun,¡± said Sallia, as she glanced at the massive corpse. ¡°If the creature got sick from black sun, and tried to land and rest for a while, it might have just never gotten healthy enough to fly again.¡±


    I glanced up at the black sun again, and shuddered.


    The creature could have died from some strange outsider power. However, if it had been killed by the black sun, it was confirmation that the black sun was getting more dangerous. After all, if this creature hadn¡¯t been able to handle a little black sunlight, it would have gone extinct centuries ago. If the black sun had been its cause of death, it meant that the black sun was getting much stronger than before.


    I tried to think about our journey to Silver City. I didn¡¯t remember our group stumbling across any unusual corpses like this during our first foray into the wastes. In other words, creatures like this dying of seemingly no cause was either the result of something in this area, or the growth of the black sun.


    Felix turned towards Anise. ¡°Should we return to the city?¡± He asked. Even though he was looking at Anise, I could tell that he was asking me.


    I sighed, and then shook my head.


    If the black sun was truly getting bigger, then adventuring would only get harder in the future. We had more to lose the longer we waited. However, I glanced at Anise.


    I cared about Anise. I didn¡¯t want her to die. But if we didn¡¯t do anything, Sallia, Felix and I wouldn¡¯t earn enough Achievement to grow stronger. And then, in a few more lifetimes, we would die. Permanently.


    I hated this feeling. This¡­ indecision. The idea that I had to choose which group of friends I wanted to keep safe. If Anise wasn¡¯t with us, I wouldn¡¯t feel conflicted about pushing forward. But I also didn¡¯t want to try to control Anise.


    I gritted my teeth. ¡°We¡¯ll be extra cautious about the black sunlight, but if we want to change anything, we need to keep going.¡± Felix glanced at Anise, and then sighed, and nodded.


    Anise, surprisingly, spoke up. ¡°I agree. If the black sun is really getting bigger, this is our last chance to go to the surface safely,¡± she said. ¡°If we do it in the future, it¡¯ll only get more dangerous. We should push forward now.¡±


    Sallia looked a little surprised at Anise¡¯s words. She grinned, and gently tapped Anise¡¯s shoulder a few times.


    Anise looked a little nervous as she glanced at the black sun and the wastelands, but she also seemed determined to keep going.


    The four of us decided to move a little further away before setting up camp. Just because the black sun had likely killed the massive creature didn¡¯t mean we knew for sure it had died from the black sun. It was best to move out of the area, just in case something dangerous lived there. I hadn¡¯t forgotten the lesson learned from the fog monster.


    Finally, we found a suitable spot to camp. Before going to sleep, I carefully rubbed the good luck charm Ella had given me. It felt warm and comforting.


    My dreams that night were filled with the image of an ever-expanding giant sun, swallowing down more and more of this world, before it grew large enough to swallow the entire world.

 Chapter 121: Of Markets...

    We spent the next three days traveling through the wastes, making sure to take shelter for a day after each day of traveling to make sure nobody got sick. We didn¡¯t run into very many living creatures: whatever the black sun was doing, it seemed to have killed off a lot of the local wildlife.


    Of course, we still ran into a few strange creatures during our travels, even if most of what we found was already dead. The only living creature we saw ended up turning into Achievement for everyone.


    It was a nearly-dead creature that seemed to be made entirely of flames. I had absolutely no idea how its biology worked at all, but it was clearly suffering from the effects of the black sun. When it saw us, it turned towards us and tried to shriek at us, before its voice turned into a croak of agony.


    Sallia and Felix flung a few minor spells at it to get assists, before I finished it off with an extinguish. With how close to dead the creature seemed, it was practically a mercy killing at this point. The poor creature looked like a patient who had been fighting a losing battle with a terminal illness for almost a decade, and since it displayed aggression towards us, I was more than happy to finish it off.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a Flare Eater for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The amount of Achievement the creature was worth, even for an assist, was actually quite high. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much Achievement it would have been worth if the black sun hadn¡¯t taken most of it for the kill. And I also couldn¡¯t help but wonder how hard it would have been to fight at full strength. Anything that gave 300 Achievement for an assist couldn¡¯t be easy prey.


    Either way, the extra 300 Achievement boosted me from 14,518 Achievement to 14,818 Achievement. A nice bit of extra Achievement pushing me towards my goal. And, since I had struck the finishing blow against the creature using water, I also got a new skill out of it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Flare Eater for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Desolate Heart of Flames: While this skill exists, your heart will be made of fire instead of flesh and blood.


    This heart of flames will give you a massive boost to all flame-related abilities, equivalent to adding an [Advanced] grade flame magic Ability to you. In addition, your heart become highly resistant to physical attacks that have yet to reach a certain level of conceptual identity.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    To be honest, at first glance, I was tempted to ignore the skill. Even though adding an [Advanced] grade ability to my skills from {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} was tempting, it was a bit of a waste to boost flame-related abilities. After all, I was pretty invested in being an ocean mage. My strongest attack was extinguish, and my two different healing abilities were related to water and life. Almost everything I got out of my primary essence had nothing to do with fire, and so boosting flame-related abilities meant nothing to me.


    However, even though my strongest abilities were related to my identity as an ocean-based shaper, I still had a few fire related abilities. Specifically, I had learned how to cast a proper third-circle fireball spell quite some time ago, and it was one of my better offensive spells. Even if I didn¡¯t use spells very often, since they tended to be far inferior to using an extinguish to solve my problems, it was still useful to have a backup magic system to fall back on once I ran out of alteration essence.


    The fact that my heart would become resistant to physical attacks below a certain level of ¡®conceptual identity¡¯ was also interesting. I had no idea what a ¡®certain level of conceptual identity¡¯ actually meant, which made it hard to gauge the value of that part of the skill: however, it still probably made it harder to kill me by targeting my heart with physical attacks, even if I wasn¡¯t quite sure how it worked behind the scenes. Perhaps physical attacks could overcome a lot of issues if they reached a certain grade, or something? That was my best guess for what ¡®conceptual identity¡¯ meant. At the very least, it meant that Sallia had somewhere she could continue developing without abandoning her role as a swordswoman, which made me happy.


    In any case, the boost to my fireball spell still seemed useful to me, so I dropped {Crude Manifestation Essence}, which I had originally gained from killing an Orukthyri spellcaster. I had learned a better fireball spell than the one granted to me by the skill, and I had also learned the wind magic symbol on my own - meaning I had no real need for the skill anymore. Sure, the skill also gave me 10 points of manifestation essence, and 10 points of manifestation were still useful: they seemed to give me a little less than ten extra magic symbols per day, which let me cast two extra second-circle spells. However, I didn¡¯t feel like two second-circle spells really made that big of a difference in my overall combat strength, and while I tried to help, the party wasn¡¯t really relying on me for scouting, which was the other thing I spent most of my manifestation essence on. Therefore, boosting my fireball spell just seemed more valuable overall.


    On our fourth day in the wastes, I was awoken by someone shaking my shoulder.


    ¡°Wake up. Something weird is moving,¡± said Sallia.


    I blinked myself awake, shaking off the sleepy fog in my mind, and noticed that Felix and Anise had already left the cavern we were taking shelter in. Once I was up, Sallia quickly led me outside to join the others.


    Outside of the cave was a jungle slowly crawling across the wasteland. It wasn¡¯t a walking jungle, nor did it have any sort of limbs. It was just¡­ a giant patch of greenery, moving across the area at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was wide enough that it would probably take less than ten seconds to cross if we speedwalked, and nearly perfectly circular in shape. Furthermore, it wasn¡¯t as if the jungle was crawling forward, like a real, living creature.


    Instead, at the front of the jungle, new flowers and patches of moss would continuously bloom out of the dead, charcoal-scented dirt, growing in a matter of seconds before reaching maturity. And at the back of the circle of plants, plants would die as they were left behind.


    I blinked in confusion, wondering if I was half-asleep and imagining things. However, even after I blinked and rubbed my eyes, the circle of plants didn¡¯t disappear.


    It smelled very strongly of salt for some reason, which confused me even more. I had no idea why the crawling patch of plants would smell like salt at all. I wondered whether it was some sort of monster.


    I took a look at it using my soul-sight, but I saw absolutely nothing. At least as far as my soul-sight was concerned, the strange tide of plants was a completely ordinary patch of dirt. Which was even more unusual - even moss and spiders had souls, and as far as I had observed, every other living thing in the world had a soul. Even the creatures from outside this dimension had souls, although they were usually quite strange. For a giant swathe of green moss and flowers to have no souls at all struck me as incredibly eerie.


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    However, when I looked at the tide of plants in the distance, I got a strange feeling.


    It was my Ocean keyword increasing how much it was activated. It was faint, and was still nowhere near ¡®fully¡¯ activated, despite the fact that I was wearing my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress} and standing near another minor activator of my keyword. But I could still feel the rate at which my body produced absorption essence, as well as my fourth and fifth runes, starting to strengthen themselves bit by bit, like pictures brought under a magnifying glass.


    I blinked.


    Ocean? What connection did the giant tide of plants have with an ocean?


    ¡°What is this thing?¡± asked Anise, shivering as she shied away from the strange tide of plants. It looked like Anise was trying to hide behind a rock and avoid direct sight of the plant tide.


    When I saw Anise shrink away from the tide of plants, I thought of the fog monster that we had run into during our flight to Silver City. It had managed to kill Felix¡¯s father and nearly permanently cripple us just from seeing us. It was hard to say whether the plant tide had a similar ability. And unlike the gray fog, I couldn¡¯t see any soul at all, which potentially made this tide of plants even more dangerous, because Extinguish would do nothing at all to it.


    However, the strange feeling in my heart intensified as I looked at the patch of moving jungle.


    Although my first reaction had been fear, as I looked at the tide of plants more, I started to feel less worried. At the very least, the moving jungle didn¡¯t seem to be alive, meaning it wasn¡¯t a monster. And the fact that it was triggering my ocean keyword, however faintly, made me feel more at ease around it.


    ¡°Is it alive?¡± asked Sallia, turning towards me.


    ¡°It has no soul. And for some reason, it¡¯s activating my ocean keyword, albeit very faintly¡± I said.


    ¡°Ocean keyword?¡± asked Felix. ¡°Weird. I can¡¯t figure out how it¡¯s related to an ocean at all. Maybe it¡¯s because it smells like salt?¡±


    ¡°None of the other salt I¡¯ve encountered has triggered my ocean keyword,¡± I said.


    Felix paused, and then nodded. ¡°Good point. Hmm¡­It isn''t reacting to our presence, either. Even though it¡¯s getting closer and closer to us, I still haven¡¯t noticed the tide of plants change directions to move towards us, unlike most monsters we¡¯ve encountered. I¡¯m wondering if maybe it¡¯s some sort of natural occurrence, sort of like the tides of the ocean or gravity?¡± However, I also noticed that Felix was starting to relax.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem hostile.¡±


    Sallia slowly nodded, as well. ¡°I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s safe, but at least it¡¯s much less dangerous than the other things we¡¯ve seen in this world. And it¡¯s not moving very quickly, either - if this thing started chasing me, I could probably outwalk it, even if I only had one leg. and was asleep half of the time. Though it¡¯s pretty weird, so we shouldn¡¯t relax completely. But I agree with Felix - it might be some sort of natural occurrence.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite interesting,¡± said Felix, frowning. ¡°I mean, I can understand how things like tidal waves work, and my first world had at least some understanding of gravity. However, I have a really hard time understanding how this patch of plants works. I wonder if there¡¯s anything I can learn from studying it¡­¡±


    I nodded. ¡°My first world had a good understanding of most natural phenomena, I think. I don¡¯t remember it very well, but I know that we had nothing like this, at least.¡±


    ¡°First world?¡± Asked Anise.


    I froze, completely losing focus on the moving patch of plants.


    Anise was giving us a strange, half-suspicious, half-curious look as she edged a little closer to us.


    I had actually forgotten that Anise didn¡¯t know about the Market or our life on the islands. Since there weren¡¯t any adults around, and I treated Anise as a precious friend, I had simply¡­ forgotten that I was supposed to not talk about the Market near her.


    Sallia rolled her eyes. ¡°She meant¡­ stories that we¡¯ve heard about, Anise. Stories from¡­ the past.¡± It was a terrible excuse, and it didn¡¯t even make much sense, but I started nodding frantically, and Felix joined in a moment later.


    Anise¡¯s eyes narrowed as she looked at the three of us, and I started to feel incredibly guilty.


    ¡°If you guys don¡¯t want to talk about it, that¡¯s fine. I know the three of you have something you¡¯re not telling me¡­¡± she sounded sad. ¡°You always make weird references to things when you think I¡¯m not paying attention, and the three of you acted really mature, even when we were all young. When I was¡­¡± her cheeks started to turn red. ¡°Even when I was talking about how I wanted to be a super witch, the three of you were always making plans about how to go to the surface and how to prepare. And a lot of those preparations feel like they would be made by adults, rather than just being stuff kids would say. And¡­¡± Anise shook her head. ¡°There are a lot of things that never really made sense. But you can keep your secrets.¡±


    I felt even guiltier. I gave Anise as tight of a hug as I could, and she squeaked in surprise.


    ¡°Anise, it¡¯s not that we don¡¯t want to tell you everything about ourselves¡­¡± I said, feeling a huge wave of impulsiveness nearly crush any reservations I had about telling people about the Market.


    Seeing people I cared about in pain hurt. And not telling Anise was hard, especially since part of the reason we were trying to find the facility where the healing cube had come from was related to our knowledge of the dimensions outside of this one.


    ¡°The reason we can¡¯t talk about it is that some of the things we¡¯ve gone through are just¡­ unbelievable,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯re hard to understand, and we don¡¯t know if there¡¯s some sort of problem that will emerge if we tell you, or if you won¡¯t believe us, or¡­¡± I trailed off.


    Trying explain how Sallia and I were using another magic system that didn¡¯t belong in this dimension at all would probably be inadvisable. After all, this world that was slowly being corroded by an outside dimension, and it was up to debate if the orthanoid species would still exist in a few centuries because of the black sun. Plenty of this world¡¯s problems could be directly traced to ¡®other dimensions,¡¯ and anyone who knew the history of this world would be quick to point out just how badly messing with other dimensions had mangled this dimension beyond recognition.


    Admitting that we were using a magic system from outside of this dimension seemed like a terrible idea in that context. If Anise ever let anything slip, the three of us, and Anise, might all die. And while a part of me wanted to tell Anise everything about ourselves, a part of me didn¡¯t want to put such a huge secret on the shoulders of Anise. By human standards, she was eighteen or nineteen years old, which seemed far too young to be forced to keep a secret that might get her friends killed. But I also wanted to be honest with Anise. I treated her like a trusted friend, and not telling her the full truth about me felt terrible.


    ¡°I still want to know,¡± said Anise, looking at me directly in my eyes.


    I paused again.


    Was it really a good idea not to tell Anise?


    As I was hesitating, Sallia touched Anise¡¯s hair, and then gently stroked it. Then, she looked at me.


    ¡°Miria, if we¡¯re really bringing Anise into our circle of friends¡­ maybe it¡¯s not a bad idea to tell her during our exploration?¡± She said. ¡°I don¡¯t really know if it¡¯s a great idea, but at the same time¡­ Anise has been through a lot with us, and I can definitely see that you want to sing like a canary,¡± she said, as the corners of her lips quirked up in a half-grin. ¡°We could take this as a¡­ trial run of sorts. To see how telling people we trust about us goes in the future.¡±


    Felix chuckled. ¡°Miria, you¡¯re pretty bad at keeping secrets. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen this side of you before.¡± Then, he gave me a quick hug. ¡°I don¡¯t hate the idea of telling Anise either. We¡¯ve been through a lot together. But how about we deal with the weird plant swarm first? Even if it¡¯s not moving that fast, we should still figure out what we¡¯re doing about it, and then talk afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Promise?¡± asked Anise, giving us a huge, bright smile. ¡°Will you really tell me more?¡±


    I felt my last specks of resistance crumble away like soggy cardboard. I smiled too. I felt like my chest was exceptionally light today.


    ¡°Promise. Let¡¯s deal with the weird plant swarm, and then we¡¯ll talk about the ocean of souls and the Market,¡± I said.

 Chapter 122: ... And Plants

    The plant tide continued to move forward. Plants continued to bloom and die every second, in a  nearly-perfect circle.


    Felix stared at the circle of moving plants as if he wished to devour it with his eyes, before he turned back towards me.


    ¡°Miria, does the plant circle have any dimensional nonsense going on inside of it or around it?¡± he asked.


    I frowned, and worked on ¡®tasting¡¯ the dimensional space around us. A few moments later, I nodded. ¡°Just a bit. The flavor is very light, but it¡¯s definitely messing with space somehow. It feels almost as if the circle of plants is¡­ richer? Deeper?¡± I frowned, not quite knowing how to interpret what I was tasting. I hadn¡¯t had many opportunities to test messing with space and dimensions, and so trying to understand what my rune ability was telling me was surprisingly difficult.


    Felix nodded again, pursing his lips in thought.


    ¡°Do you guys mind if I test something?¡± He asked. ¡°Be prepared to run away if it goes poorly, but I think this thing really isn¡¯t alive. And if it¡¯s that¡¯s the case, since the patch of plants is so perfectly circular, I was wondering if maybe there was some sort of unique item in the center. It could be useful.¡±


    ¡°Are you planning on walking inside of it?¡± I asked, starting to feel worried. Even if the circle of plants wasn¡¯t alive, it certainly didn¡¯t seem safe.


    ¡°No, I have a different idea. But first, I want to toss a few things into the moving jungle and see what happens,¡± said Felix.


    ¡°Ah, that makes sense,¡± said Sallia. ¡°If we need to run, I¡¯ll pick up Anise. Miria, can you grab Felix? The two of us can run much faster than they can.¡±


    Anise looked at Sallia and I in curiosity, her eyes widening.


    ¡°Absolutely,¡± I said.


    ¡°Do you two run really fast normally?¡± asked Anise. Now that the three of us had admitted something was wrong with us, and we had promised to tell her about it, Anise seemed excited to finally get answers. I didn¡¯t realize how much she had picked up on some of our other ¡®odd behavior.¡¯ There were plenty of things that seemed to make sense about our group if one wasn¡¯t paying careful attention, but if there was anyone positioned to realize things were weird, it was Anise. And apparently, she had pieced together the fact that Sallia and I were much physically stronger than we should be.


    ¡°Sallia and I are pretty strong, Anise,¡± I said, patting her head. ¡°We¡¯ll talk more soon, but Sallia and I are¡­ in excellent shape, I suppose.¡± I felt my lips curl into a grin.


    Now that we were going to tell Anise the truth, I couldn¡¯t quell the excitement I felt.


    Felix waited a few more moments, to make sure I was properly focused again, and then materialized one of his boots from the Market before tossing it at the circle of greenery. It plopped onto the edge of the pool of plants.


    The boot seemed to sink into the tide of plants, almost as if it had sunk into mud. It made a strange squelching noise, and sank much further into the ground than it should have. I finally realized why I could taste a bit of dimensional manipulation happening around the circle of plants: it seemed that the greenery was somehow bending space a bit, making everything inside of the circle of plants deeper than it should be.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± said Felix. ¡°Well, nothing is happening to the boot, so at the very least, the plants aren¡¯t highly acidic or hot or anything,¡± said Felix, grinning. Then, he tossed a clump of dirt into the tide of plants.


    Unlike the boot, the dirt clod seemed to slowly dissolve as it came in contact with the circle of plants, accompanied by a faint cracking sound. In moments, green moss started to sprout inside of the clod of dirt, before shredding the clod of dirt to pieces. In seconds, it was swallowed by the tide of plants.


    Anise looked at Felix¡¯s boot with unabashed curiosity, and then looked at the clod of dirt that had broken into pieces. ¡°What¡¯s that boot made of? Is it special?¡± she asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s special,¡± I said, grinning. ¡°It¡¯s pretty sturdy compared to a normal boot, and very convenient to carry around.¡± Then, I thought about it for a moment, before I turned towards Felix. ¡°Should we try with something else? The way the boot is fine might not mean much - after all, it¡¯s from the Market.¡±


    Felix thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. ¡°Anise, could you shoot an icicle spell into the pool of plants? I want to see something.¡±


    Anise immediately materialized a second-circle icicle spell, and then fired it into the circle of plants. It sank into the dimensional layer surrounding the plants, but didn¡¯t start sprouting moss and flowers, the way the clod of dirt had.


    Felix watched the icicle for a few moments, before he quickly grabbed a few groundnuts I had foraged yesterday and tossed them into the pool of acid. Unlike the clod of dirt, the groundnuts very visibly reacted to the crawling patch of plants: in moments, moss and flowers bloomed inside of the groundnuts, quickly causing the nuts to crack open and start falling apart. Within a minute, it completely collapsed. Just like the clod of dirt.


    ¡°I think that whatever is inside of the circle of plants makes moss and flowers grow incredibly quickly,¡± said Felix. ¡°And it tries to use whatever is nearby as fertilizer. But maybe there¡¯s some sort of issue with the ¡®life¡¯ created by the plant pool, so it doesn¡¯t have a soul and dies right afterwards?¡±


    Sallia shrugged. ¡°Makes sense to me, and I don¡¯t have a better guess, at least. I think we¡¯ve also confirmed that it¡¯s not somehow hiding from Miria¡¯s soul sight. It really doesn¡¯t seem to be alive. With how much we¡¯ve messed with it, if it was alive and cared about our existence, it definitely would have reacted by now. Worst case scenario, we can just move on and we should be safe.¡±


    Felix grinned. ¡°We could, but I¡¯m still thinking that we could get something useful out of this. We¡¯re lacking good weapons for our exploration, right? Depending on how strong this thing is, we could toss it at a group of Orukthyri or something and maybe wipe them out. It seems worth a shot. It just depends on if there¡¯s really an object that¡¯s causing this pool of plants to exist, and if it does exist, whether we can safely carry it around.¡±


    ¡°I could dematerialize my dimensional backpack,¡± I said. ¡°That should make it safe to carry around, although we would need to move out everything inside the backpack first. Just in case.¡±


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    Sallia nodded, and then squinted at the pool of plants. ¡°Let me see if I can find anything that looks like a core.¡± I felt Sallia start burning a huge amount of absorption essence, before a moment later, she grinned. ¡°Yeah, I can see one. It¡¯s a giant green plant-orb. Looks a lot like a giant ball of leaves, so I didn¡¯t notice it at first, but it¡¯s definitely there. Miria, get some water ready in case we need to heal someone in a pinch, and start moving all of the supplies in your backpack to our other packs. I¡¯ll keep my own rune healing ability ready as well.¡±


    I quickly emptied my dimensional pack, and then the two of us prepared to heal Felix if an emergency cropped up. Meanwhile, Felix started grabbing a few spare changes of clothes he had brought along for himself¡­ and then started cutting them into strips using Sallia¡¯s sword. He then used his metal attunement to warp a few spare strips of metal he had brought along, to make his attunement useful, and after fiddling with his attunement and the strips of cloth he had made, he fashioned a bizarre giant fishing hook.


    ¡°Sallia, can you do the honors?¡± he asked, handing the giant fishing hook to Sallia. ¡°Hook the plant core and bring it out.¡±


    Sallia grinned, and then squinted at the giant ball of plant matter that she could see in the distance. She started whirling the giant fish hook around, preparing to haul in the giant plant core. For a moment, she looked like some cross of a cowgirl and a demented fisherwoman.


    She tossed out the hook¡­ and missed.


    ¡°Need to work on your aim a bit,¡± Felix said, chuckling. Sallia gently swatted at him, and they both chuckled as he ducked out of the way.


    Then, Sallia returned to focusing on the pool of green. She threw the giant fishing hook again, and this time, she managed to hit the plant core.


    She started reeling it in. As the plant core moved closer to us, the giant pool of plants started following the ball of plants. However, I also noticed that the circle of plants was getting smaller as the ball of plants was moved around.


    ¡°Do I keep moving it?¡± asked Sallia, glancing at Felix. ¡°If your theory is correct, it might try to make plants sprout in our bodies or something.¡±


    Felix paused. ¡°Miria, give me your dimensional bag. Sallia, hand me the rope. I¡¯m going to move a little further away so that you guys don¡¯t get hurt if this goes horribly wrong. Then I¡¯m going to try stuffing the ball into Miria¡¯s dimensional pack to see if that disables it. After that, Miria and you will heal me to remove any plants that sprout in my body or anything else crazy that happens. I think that should work.¡± I hesitated for a moment, before I nodded. My current healing ability was good at fixing almost any physical problem in someone¡¯s body, and I had gotten better at using my healing ability. I was confident that I could heal Felix as long as he wasn¡¯t dead.


    Sallia and I tossed our equipment at Felix, who moved several meters away from us, before he finished pulling the ball of plant matter towards him.


    The circle of blooming and dying moss and flowers simply couldn¡¯t catch up to the plant ball as it was yanked away, and the entire circle of plants died a moment later. I also noticed several plants suddenly launched upwards, and felt the tidbits of dimensional manipulation I had tasted earlier disappear. Whatever the ball of plants had been doing, it was now turned off. The only thing that was left was a giant ball of plants. As it came near Felix, I noticed that his skin started to turn green. A few moments later, Felix grabbed it and finished stuffed it into my backpack. I chuckled.


    ¡°You have a few flowers blooming in your ears,¡± I said, as I opened one of our larger water containers and got him to dunk his head in it. I started healing him, and a few moments later, I was relieved to see his skin start to return to its regular color, and the plant sprouts in his ears and eyes started to disappear.


    Once I finished, Felix grinned, and wrung some of the water out of his hair.


    ¡°It worked!¡± he said. And then his grin widened. ¡°I got a bunch of Achievement for owning it, too!¡±


    Anise glanced at us when Felix mentioned Achievement, but didn¡¯t say anything. However, the expectant look in her eyes grew more pronounced.


    ¡°What¡¯s it called?¡± asked Sallia.


    ¡°A green lake core,¡± he said, shrugging. ¡°A bit of a weird name, but¡­ huh?¡±


    Felix paused, frowning as he focused on the air in front of him, where a System notification had probably appeared.


    ¡°Anything interesting?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yeah¡­ it says it¡¯s a material for creating several items, and then it gave me an ad for a company that wants to buy it,¡± he said, giving the System notification a deep frown. ¡°So many ads.¡±


    ¡°That sounds about right for the Market,¡± said Sallia dryly. ¡°Anytime you exist, you must see ads.¡±


    Felix sighed. ¡°Well, I can apparently bring it back to the Market and try to craft something with it, if we don¡¯t find a use for it out here. I didn¡¯t really expect there to be materials we could take from random worlds back to the Market like this. I guess all the items that are present in the Market are made from something though.¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°Does it cost anything to transport?¡±


    Felix sighed. ¡°Twenty Achievement for each item transported, but honestly, that¡¯s pretty cheap. The ad claims that this material should be worth around 200 Achievement, so if the corporations were still around, I could make a nice profit by bringing it back.¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°Not that there¡¯s anyone to buy it anymore. Oh well. Anyway, Miria, do you mind keeping it in your dimensional pack for now? I need the plant core to be near my body or the transportation won¡¯t work. I¡¯m pretty sure your backpack should be good enough.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine leaving it inside my backpack,¡± I said.


    ¡°Say, where do you think the green lake core came from?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°I don¡¯t remember this world having any materials that sort of¡­ magically mess with their area like this.¡±


    That brought my good mood crashing down.


    I thought of the black sun again.


    When we had first arrived on this planet, I had gotten a message from the Market¡¯s System that stated this world was connected to another dimension. It was common knowledge in this world that an alternate dimension was where the outside creatures originated, and that the black sun also originated from there. The creatures from that world all seemed to have incredibly strange and difficult to understand biology, almost as if they were concepts brought to life, instead of flesh and blood creatures. Meanwhile, the creatures born in this dimension seemed much more normal.


    The strange, moving ¡®pool¡¯ of plants didn¡¯t really seem to conform to the local laws of physics. It felt much more like something that would come from an outsider. Really, the only thing unique about this crawling pool of plants was the fact that it hadn¡¯t tried to kill us, unlike everything else we had encountered that came from the world of the black sun. I felt like something as weird as this pool of plants would have at least made it into a few adventurer¡¯s stories, but I had never heard of anything like it.


    Which probably meant that nobody had encountered anything like the ¡®green lake core¡¯ before. If it really came from the world of the black sun, it meant that our dimension was collapsing faster than I had thought.


    As I thought about it, I felt even more depressed.


    Perhaps this world really was doomed. If strange occurrences like this were getting more and more commonplace, then our world was getting more and more like the world of the black sun. I had no idea if our biology and organs would even work if our world got terraformed enough by the black sun, or what would happen to our bodies¡­


    Maybe there was some way to send the black sun to its home dimension, or cut off its connection to this world? I had no idea if it was possible, but it was my best guess about how to fix all of this. Otherwise, this world really seemed screwed.


    ¡°Now that you finished capturing the core of plants¡­¡± said Anise, breaking me out of my depressing thoughts. She was looking at me with upturned eyes. ¡°Can you tell me everything? I really want to know.¡±


    I felt some of the sorrow in my thoughts disappear.


    Even if this world was doomed, I could at least make one of my friends happy. It was nowhere near enough to completely fix my mood, but it was definitely a start.


    ¡°Anise, let me tell you about the Market,¡± I said, grinning.

 Chapter 123: The Truth

    ¡°Well, Anise, I should probably start with the afterlife,¡± I said, as I sat down and motioned for her to do the same. ¡°What do you think happens after people die?¡±


    Anise paused, as if taken aback by my statement. ¡°Is this relevant?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s very relevant. I know it sounds random, but I promise I¡¯m going somewhere with this,¡± I said.


    ¡°Well¡­ the church of the white dragon said that after death, the white dragon will swallow our souls and then spit them out in its sleep, allowing us to be reborn. If we do good deeds, we¡¯ll be reincarnated as an Orthanoid again, and if we do bad deeds, we might get reincarnated as something like an Orukthyri or monster instead,¡± said Anise, thoughtfully. ¡°The church of the silver dragon says almost the same thing. Since you¡¯re asking me abou this, I imagine you have a different answer?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°As far as I have observed, the normal process of a person dying is that their soul gets sucked into a giant ocean, which the three of us call the ocean of souls. From there, if nothing interferes, they will reincarnate somewhere in the multiverse¡­ as long as their soul survives the journey. Which dimension they¡¯ll be reborn in is random, and the laws of physics and reality can differ greatly from one dimension to the next. In one life, you might be born as the daughter of a noble, and in the next, you might be a beggar in the streets. Of course, that¡¯s only if you reach your next destination, which doesn¡¯t seem to be a given. In order to survive the journey, your soul needs to be protected by something called Achievement, which people earn by interacting with the world around them, growing their skills and power, and killing things,¡± I said. ¡°Well, as far as we¡¯ve observed so far, at least.¡±


    Anise blinked. ¡°I¡¯ve heard you guys mention Achievement a few times. What is it?¡±


    I paused.


    What was Achievement?


    I suddenly realized that, while I had a pretty good understanding of how to earn Achievement, I had no idea what it was.


    ¡°I personally suspect that Achievement is some kind of crafting material that people naturally harvest from dimensions they live inside of when certain conditions are met,¡± said Felix, taking over when he noticed I was struggling to come up with an answer. ¡°Achievement¡¯s primary purpose seems to be some sort of ¡®shield¡¯ that protects the soul from the ocean of souls in between lives. Of course, we also use it as a currency, and it¡¯s also useful for a lot of other things, like crafting. As for why Achievement is useful as a crafting material, or what it actually is¡­¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°Right now, we don¡¯t know. But either way, it¡¯s good to have more of it.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s not the main point,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Honestly, we¡¯re still figuring things out ourselves. Anyway, when you die you go to the ocean of souls and get reborn. If you don¡¯t have enough Achievement to keep your soul intact you permanently die. But what¡¯s important is that after we died¡­ we didn¡¯t just get reborn.¡±


    Our conversation was winding back towards topics I was more familiar with, so I nodded.


    ¡°When I first died, it was around¡­. fifty years ago? It¡¯s hard to say, since day length and calendars aren¡¯t quite the same from one world to the next, but it should have been around fifty years ago,¡± I said.


    Anise blinked. ¡°Wait, only fifty years ago? But we¡¯re all thirty-five right now. Doesn¡¯t that mean you aren¡¯t much older than you appear? Some really late bloomers don¡¯t even finish their apprenticeship at the age of fifty, although it¡¯s pretty rare¡­¡±


    I felt a bit embarrassed, and scratched my head. ¡°We didn¡¯t make it to adulthood last time. Some things happened, and we died.¡±


    ¡°It was because we got caught up in a war,¡± said Sallia. ¡°And there were a lot of ocean monsters involved in our death as well.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that makes sense,¡± said Anise, nodding. ¡°Were your deaths painful? You mentioned dimensions earlier, so I imagine that¡­ wait, Ocean monsters? Murom the great!¡± Anise suddenly said, shifting backwards a little bit so that she could observe all three of us at once. ¡°Are you one of you Murom the great? Miria told me a lot of bedtime stories about the great explorer Murom the great, and I always just thought they were just stories she made up. Were those stories actually real?¡±


    ¡°Kind of?¡± I said. ¡°The first few stories I told you about Murom the Great were almost word for word things I personally experienced in our previous world. We lived on a giant group of islands, and underneath  the water, there were indeed a bunch of sea monsters. So you can basically regard the first five or six stories I told you about Murom the great as almost completely factual, although I did adjust a few things. The magic system was different there, and there were no attunements. There also weren¡¯t any dragons on the islands, so we actually worshiped the ocean mother. There was no dragon festival there¡­ But you regard everything was mostly true.¡±  I paused. ¡°Later on, I ran out of ideas, but you seemed really into the bedtime stories of Murom the Great. So I just started making stuff up afterwards. Those stories are completely fictional.¡±


    Anise froze, and her eyes widened. ¡°So you¡¯re the real Murom the great?¡± Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked at me. I chuckled.


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    ¡°Close enough.¡± I said.


    Before Anise could go any further into the bedtime stories I had been telling her for yeras, I decided to push on with the important points.


    ¡°Anyway, the reason we can reincarnate with our memories intact from one life to the next is because, after dying, we ran into something called The Market. Instead of leaving us to reincarnate like usual, we ended up getting dragged inside of a strange, incredibly large series of cities, all situated atop a giant wooden ship. There, we got chased around by skeletons, before I ended up meeting with Sallia and Felix¡­¡± I started to narrate our original experiences in the Market, leaving nothing out. A lot of my memories were a little fuzzy, considering how much time had passed, but I was still able to remember most of the major details. Sallia and Felix helped me fill in any big pieces of information I missed.


    During our narration, Anise didn¡¯t say anything, simply continuing to listen.


    When we were done introducing the Market and our guesses and information about how the Market, the System, and reincarnation worked, Anise nodded slowly.


    ¡°I see. So that¡¯s the biggest reason you three want to go into the wastes so much?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°It¡¯s getting pretty hard to hit new breakpoints for earning Achievement in the city, and I seriously doubt that we¡¯ll end up with enough Achievement to survive long-term if we keep sitting around in Silver City. We¡¯ve already done almost everything we can to farm Achievement in Silver city, so we need to move on and find new things to focus on.¡± I shrugged. ¡°The wastes are a good opportunity to earn more, even if they¡¯re also dangerous.¡±


    ¡°What about some new weapon skills? Or crafting skills?¡± said Anise. ¡°You mentioned that they give some Achievement when you reach certain breakpoints.¡±


    ¡°I mean, there are still a few weapon Skills I could probably pick up, and some crafting knowledge and such, but¡­ I would be spending months, or even years, to earn a few hundred Achievement at most. Compared to that, if this expedition to the wastes is successful, we can probably come back with a huge amount of money and influence. If we manage to reverse the terraforming of the black sun, we could probably get tens of thousands of Achievement, although I suspect that¡¯s a pipe dream for us. But if we can figure out how to make magic items, which is our more realistic goal, we can still get a huge amount of Achievement. I imagine we¡¯d be earning upwards of a thousand Achievement a year, and that might be a massive underestimation. If we return to the Market with a huge amount of Achievement, we¡¯ll hopefully be safe enough to truly survive in the future.¡± Then, I hesitated, and decided to see if Anise still wanted to come with us. After all, Sallia, Felix and I all had very good reasons to be on the surface, but Anise was mostly tagging along. ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean that you have to come along with us. We¡¯re working to get more Achievement, but that doesn¡¯t have anything to do with you, so if you want to go back¡­¡±


    Anise stubbornly shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t care why you three are so desperate to come to the wastes. I know that you want Achievement, but¡­ I still don¡¯t want you guys to be here without me. It sounds like in a few lifetimes, you¡¯ll need every drop of Achievement you can get if you don¡¯t want to permanently die. And you¡¯re my best friends. I don¡¯t want you to get hurt, now, or three lifetimes from now. What I want to ask is something else¡­ is there a way I could join the Market?¡± She looked at us, with a mixture of hope and resignation on her face.


    I sighed, and then hugged Anise.


    ¡°I wish there was. I would have done anything to bring you with us,¡± I said, looking her in the eyes. ¡°We don¡¯t know how to add people to the Market yet, though. We were added because we had extreme talents in an affinity.¡±


    ¡°So I just need to get really good at manifestation essence or alteration essene?¡± asked Anise.


    I blinked. ¡°Maybe?¡± Truthfully, the three of us had no idea how ¡®extreme talent in an affinity¡¯ came to be. It was possible that it was something a soul had or didn¡¯t have the moment it was created. But it was also plausible that an ¡®extreme talent¡¯ could be earned. We had no idea.


    Anise grinned. ¡°Then I¡¯ll do my best to earn Achievement and get good at manifestation essence with the three of you. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll succeed, but¡­ if I do manage to get into the Market, we won¡¯t ever have to say goodbye, right?¡±


    I felt a hint of hope swell up in my chest.


    I had been thinking about how we would need to leave Anise behind sooner or later for years. I had decided to get closer to her, knowing full well that it would hurt to say goodbye, because something in me just couldn¡¯t bear to be mean to the cheerful little girl who once proudly proclaimed that she was going to be a super-witch.


    But if Anise could come with us, I would do almost anything to make that happen.


    I hugged Anise more tightly, and she patted me on the back a few times.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best, and if I fail, I¡¯ll just have to accept the outcome. But I want to try everything I can, so that we don¡¯t have to say goodbye,¡± said Anise.


    I felt myself start to smile so widely I worried that my cheeks would cramp as I nodded like a bobblehead.


    I didn¡¯t know if Anise could succeed, but¡­ if she could¡­


    If Anise could come with us, I would be happy to see our group of three become a group of four.


    ¡°The three of you are stuck with me until you return to Silver City. Got it?¡±


    I smiled and nodded.


    Then, right as I released Anise from our hug, she looked me in the eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you finally told me. I¡¯ve spent a lot of my life wondering if maybe I¡¯m just immature for my age, or why you three were so mature for kids¡­¡± she chuckled. ¡°I guess it¡¯s because you were only sort of kids, and you were sort of adults as well. But no matter what, the three of you have looked after me since we first met. You¡¯re my family, and I care about you. I won¡¯t tell anyone else about your past, and I¡¯ll do my best to keep up with you. Let¡¯s do our best to make it to the Market together, and live very, very long lives.¡±


    I felt a warm feeling in my chest. I gently patted Anise¡¯s head, and then gave her another crushing hug.


    It was a slim hope, but it was a hope I was more than willing to cling onto. I didn¡¯t want to say goodbye to Anise at all. Anise was already very good at spellcasting. If there was a way to earn ¡®extreme affinities,¡¯ and Anise managed it, I would do everything I could to make that happen.

 Chapter 124: Ruined Palace

    After we had our talk with Anise, the three of us continued traveling.


    Now that the surface seemed depopulated, we ran into fewer monsters than ever before. The black sun posed the biggest problem for our travels: we had to spend every other day resting. While I was immune to the effects of the black sun, due to the {Emptiness} skill I had picked up from {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, and even got to refill my alteration essence faster while exposed to it, nobody else was immune to the black sun. And every day we had to spend waiting for the others to recover from the influence of the black sun, our food reserves went down.


    Of course, I foraged where I could, sometimes with Sallia, and sometimes on my own. I could usually at least help us keep our food reserves from dropping to nothing. However, I was keenly aware of the fact that we might have a hard time returning if we didn¡¯t find any food in the ruins we explored. After all, we would need to spend some time exploring the ruins themselves, and it wasn¡¯t like we would stop needing food and water on the way back. If we factored in the couple of weeks most people had before they starved to death, my foraging, and Sallia¡¯s ramen bowl, I estimated we could last about a month and a half total for the entire journey. Of course, it would be better if the journey was shorter. The shorter it was, the less risk there was of starvation.


    However, the problem was that traveling around the wastes, trying to find a ruin, took time. And whatever was killing off massive chunks of the surface wildlife also seemed to be doing a number on the plants: apart from the moving patch of green that we had stumbled upon during our first day on the surface, it was hard to find other plants outside of caves sheltered from the black sun. I strongly suspected that the ¡®plants¡¯ generated by Felix¡¯s weird plant core would probably try to grow a mold colony in our stomach or something, but it was an option for a last resort. However, I dearly hoped that we never needed to try it, because none of us felt great about the stuff produced by the plant core.


    Of course, it wasn¡¯t all bad. On days that we were forced to simply wait, we told Anise more detailed stories about our adventures so far. Felix told Anise all about his original world, and Sallia filled Anise in about her original life as a noblewoman who wanted to be a magic knight. My memories of my own first world were still incredibly hazy, comprised mostly of spotty mechanical knowledge, but I had plenty of stories from the islands that I could retell to her. Now that I no longer needed to ¡®patch up¡¯ the stories of ¡®Murom the Great¡¯ and make them understandable to people used to this world¡¯s magic system and culture, I had a lot of fun telling Anise about how the rune magic system worked, what I had done with my runes last life, and about what Sallia and I were doing with our runes in this life.


    Anise also spent a great deal of time practicing. None of us had any idea how to ¡®earn¡¯ an extreme affinity for an essence, if it was actually possible to do so, but that certainly didn¡¯t stop us from making every suggestion we could think of to try to help Anise get there. I talked with Anise about the way I had observed Skills working for regular people, Sallia and Felix tried to figure out how Anise might try new and bizarre ways of thinking about Manifestation Essence based on the way she used her mixture of magic systems, and all three of us helped Anise train.


    Unfortunately, there weren¡¯t many results. Anise had always been a rather talented spellcaster. There was a reason she was a fourth-circle spellcaster and the three of us were still third-circle spellcasters, after all. Our suggestions sometimes gave Anise new ideas to try, since she wasn¡¯t quite used to thinking of manifestation essence as¡­ well, MANIFESTATION essence, instead of spellcasting essence. However, as far as I could tell, Anise¡¯s actual strength wasn¡¯t improving, and I hadn¡¯t seen her form any new skills or get more mana when I examined her using my soul sight.


    I tried not to feel hopeless when I saw Anise growing at the same speed as ever, but it was difficult. I really liked Anise. I didn¡¯t want to say goodbye to her. I wanted her to join our group forever. The idea of losing her hurt. But at the same time, I needed to come to terms with the idea that she might not come with us when we returned to the Market. I just hoped she did anyway, because hoping seemed to be the only practical thing I could do.


    Over a week and a half passed as we traveled through the wastes. We started out by locating where we had run into the adventuring party on the surface, and then we started heading in the direction we had roughly seen them come from. We also tried our best to guess where they might have made turns and directional changes along their journey, based on geographical barriers such as mountains and rivers that we ran into, but we were using more guesswork than educated guess most of the time. After all, it had been over a decade since we first ran into the adventurers. It would be a miracle if we could track their journey using Felix¡¯s half-forgotten tracking skills from the islands at this point.


    However, we were determined to at least find something on this journey. It may not be the ruin we were looking for, but if we went back to Silver City empty-handed, it would be a huge waste of time. And with the black sun growing ever stronger, time was something this planet as a whole was probably short on.


    Of course, we would still return once we started really getting low on food. I was determined to find at least some sort of ancient ruin with useful information inside of it, but not so determined I would get my friends killed over it. I wanted to either find a way to slow down this world¡¯s collapse, or reverse it entirely, but if it were easy, someone would have done it a long time ago. Everyone staying safe was the most important thing.


    At the beginning of day 15 in the wastes, I felt something¡­ interesting in the distance.


    It was incredibly faint, but I could distinctly feel that it was familiar to me.


    It was incredibly distant, and way to the side of our current planned path. However, I felt almost as if that strange feeling was calling to me.


    ¡°I feel something weird,¡± I said, tensing as I activated my soul sight. I knew just how strange some outsider creatures could be, and a ¡®weird desire to head in a random direction¡¯ definitely didn¡¯t fill me with confidence. My immediate thought was that I might be getting influenced by some sort of mental attack, even if I could barely make out the effects.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°What do you feel?¡± asked Anise, blinking in curiosity as she also scanned our surroundings. I noticed that she had started putting together a fourth circle spell, although she hadn¡¯t put the finishing touches on it yet.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ not sure,¡± I said. ¡°I feel almost like I¡¯m pulled in a certain direction, but I¡¯m not really sure why. It¡¯s almost like something is calling for me, or as if I have some familiarity with something in the distance. But I can¡¯t really put my finger on anything more concrete than that.¡±


    Sallia frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t feel anything,¡± she said, shuffling around as she tried a few different postures, as if trying to see if that somehow influenced whether she felt the strange pull or not.


    Felix also shrugged. ¡°I feel absolutely nothing. Hmm¡­ is it related to your keyword?¡±


    After a moment, I realized what he meant. If Anise, Sallia, and Felix didn¡¯t feel anything when they were interacting with the strange thing in the distance, but I did, there were a few possibilities. If it was an outside creature, maybe it only had the ability to influence one person at a time. However, if it was only able to target one person, and I only felt a very minor tug, the creature probably wasn¡¯t very strong. In that case, it was probably just free Achievement. I wouldn¡¯t mind dropping a few weaker creatures when I had the opportunity to do so in order to get more Achievement and possibly getting a useful Skill.


    Of course, the other possibility was that my keywords were somehow resonating with an idea. For example, if there was an actual ¡®ocean¡¯ in the distance, I had no idea how my keywords would react. I hadn¡¯t felt any sort of ¡®pull¡¯ or ¡®connection¡¯ to other bodies of water, or insane asylums, but perhaps that was just because the connection hadn¡¯t been strong enough in the past? Sallia didn¡¯t remember feeling any sort of unique connection to ¡®swords¡¯ ¡®training¡¯ or ¡®absorption,¡¯ but that was because Sallia was already excellent at ¡®connecting¡¯ to her sword. I doubted that her sword-related Ability was the best example of how one might normally react to a keyword. And since there was a lot we didn¡¯t know about keywords, I felt Felix¡¯s guess was at least plausible.


    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, we could try checking it out,¡± said Sallia, after thinking for a few moments. ¡°I don¡¯t mind killing off a few weaker outsider creatures. Doing so could get us a little Achievement, and if we¡¯re really desperate, we could probably eat a little meat before getting sick, too.¡±


    Felix and Anise also nodded.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s start heading in that direction,¡± I said, after some hesitation. As long as it wasn¡¯t a powerful enemy, there might be some value in seeing an ocean in this world. There would probably be new and interesting creatures that lived there, and it might also be more shielded from the black sun. If it was a weak outsider creature, it was easy Achievement. Either way, it was beneficial for us.


    And so, the four of us started heading in the direction I sensed calling for me.


    After a day of walking, I started to realize that we were wrong. What I was sensing wasn¡¯t something like a keyword resonating with my abilities.


    Instead, it was something more fundamental. To be precise, it was something that Sallia, Felix, and I had interacted with several times already - in fact, we saw it every time we were born or died, and I had even formed an attunement with it in this life.


    It was the ocean of souls.


    I blinked.


    I had noticed that I could sense other objects and ideas connected to the ocean of souls when we had used the healing cube, over a decade ago. However, somehow, it hadn¡¯t occurred to me that I would probably be able to sense whatever actual facility had manufactured the cube as well, as long as it was a facility deeply connected to the ocean of souls.


    I also started to feel increasingly thankful that I could sense the facility when we got within range of it. We had been going in almost entirely the wrong direction earlier, and probably would have been forced to return to Silver City empty-handed if we had kept going in our original direction. However, now that I knew exactly where our destination was and how far away it was, I felt relieved. We should have enough time and supplies to make it there and back, if just barely. We could always lose some days exploring the facility in the worst-case scenario.


    Along the way, Felix also made careful maps of our travels in order to ensure that we didn¡¯t get lost on the way back.


    After another three days of walking, the influence of the ocean of souls started to get so strong that it was nearly unbearable. I could feel its connection with me getting deeper and deeper by the second, and I also started to sense something¡­ other.


    It wasn¡¯t the ocean of souls, but for some reason, it reminded me of the ocean of souls. However, even though it was similar to the ocean of souls, it was also entirely different. It felt strangely foul in my mind, as if it was stale, or twisted.


    Or as if it was something completely alien to my senses. Something that my mind was fundamentally unable to comprehend, and which was so utterly different from me that it might as well have been an entirely different set of laws of reality.


    It wasn¡¯t something I had ever clearly felt before now, but once I came in contact with a massive source of the strange, alien energy, I realized that I had spent most of my life feeling it, to some extent. It was present everywhere, although it was most noticeable on the surface and least noticeable in our underground cities.


    It was the dimension the black sun and the outsiders came from.


    The facility we were walking towards wasn¡¯t just connected to the ocean of souls, it was also connected to the black sun. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if that was a coincidence, or if it spoke to some deep nature about how dimensions worked or something. It was hard to say. But I was also a bit glad.


    If we got really lucky, and things went very well, we might be able to actually do something about my worries for the future of this world.


    It took us another day of walking before we found our destination.


    Sallia was the first to spot it, since her runes enhanced her eyesight so much. She helped the rest of us keep an eye out for it as we started getting closer and closer, until eventually, all of us spotted what we were looking for.


    In the distance, a giant, ruined palace lay like the bones of a giant. It had clearly once been mighty, and had likely been a mixture of pure white stone and golden carvings and engravings, highlighting the opulence and power the facility had once held. It was surrounded by miles upon miles of ruined fields, smaller facilities, and rubble. The taste of twisted dimensional space grew thicker and thicker the closer we got, until I was half-sure that it wasn¡¯t some fake, illusory sensation created by my fifth rune¡¯s ability. It was real, like lead on my tongue, weighing me down and making me vividly aware of every single speck of distorted space in our surroundings.


    I realized that I had been foolish to think that a dimensional facility related to the ocean of souls would be simple. What we were trying to raid wasn¡¯t just a regular facility: it was practically a ruined palace, surrounded by several smaller facilities. It was practically a small city on its own. And in the center of the ruined palace, I could sense something there.


    A direct connection to the ocean of souls, fully present in reality, even though none of us were dead.

 Chapter 125: Into the Abyss

    The ruined palace and its outskirts grew closer by the hour as we continued traveling. It took two more hours for me to be able to make out the finer details of the buildings in the distance, and also helped me understand just how massive the building we were heading towards truly was. The ruined palace still had spires and walls that stretched towards the sky like fingers of steel clawing towards the heavens. Or, instead of reaching towards the heavens, perhaps they were reaching towards something¡­ else.


    After all, with every step we took, I could feel my connection with the ocean of souls getting stronger. The taste of spatial manipulation grew ever thicker. Something was still happening at the palace.


    As we walked, I couldn¡¯t help but think about what my connection to the ocean of souls meant here. While it was imperfect, I had managed to grow my attunement in this world by using knockoff versions of the ocean of souls. I spent time with those who had just passed away, or with women who were about to give birth, in order to simulate life and death, two critical components of the ocean of souls. I spent time swimming in the city¡¯s river to improve my connection with the ocean. I occasionally tried to observe the souls of various plants and animals as they returned to and from the ocean, in order to get a better grasp on what souls were and how they worked. I had spent a great deal of time working on my attunement in this world.


    However, none of these were perfectly connected to my attunement.


    Now, I knew for the first time that what I was feeling wasn¡¯t just some shoddy, half-built knockoff. It was my attunement¡¯s source. Its origin. I knew that nobody else in recent time had built an attunement around the ocean of souls, because it wasn¡¯t something understood very well by the people of this dimension. So I had no idea whether there was any sort of possible evolution for my attunement that I could find here. I had gotten stuck on Expert-grade for my attunement for a long time, and I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to move forward.


    I wondered if maybe there was a way to advance it further, if I just headed further inside. If so, we would have a critical clue for how to proceed further in future worlds.


    Just as I felt my hopes for the future start to flare up, Felix frowned and stopped moving.


    ¡°Stop,¡± he said. ¡°I feel that something¡¯s wrong, even if I can¡¯t quite pinpoint what it is.¡±


    I immediately froze and started scanning our surroundings, activating my soul-sight to see if I could spot something amiss.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see any souls,¡± I said.


    Sallia nodded. ¡°However, even so, I also get the feeling that something is wrong. Let¡¯s back up a bit and think,¡± she said.


    The four of us quickly started backing away. Even if I didn¡¯t see anything, I trusted my friends.


    A few moments later, Sallia finally spotted something. ¡°Part of the ground is bothering me,¡± she said, pointing to a small pockmark in the landscape. ¡°Do you see that? It doesn¡¯t look like it was naturally formed.¡±


    I frowned, and then took a closer look at what Sallia was looking at.


    The ground was filled with very slight depressions. Almost as if they were pockmarks. They were very shallow, but there was no living plant life at all within the pockmark. Even though there wasn¡¯t much plant life on the rest of the surface, either, there was usually at least a bit of stray plant life laying around. For there to just be nothing was¡­ unusual.


    Inside of the little pockmark in the landscape, there was a small chunk of white stone at the bottom. It looked charred, as if it had just come out of an oven, and it glowed a faint green and white color in the darkness.


    Sallia frowned.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what this thing is,¡± she said.


    Anise nodded. ¡°It has a lot of spellcasting¡­ erm¡­ manifestation? essence in it,¡± she said, her words pausing slightly as she tried to wrap her head around the term ¡®manifestation essence.¡¯ Ever since we had told Anise about the Market, she had been trying to integrate herself more into our conversations, and I could tell that she was starting to get used to our terminology.


    To be honest, it was a relief to have told Anise about the Market. Sallia and I didn¡¯t have to edge our way around talking about keywords and attunements anymore, and we also didn¡¯t have to worry about messing up and referring to a Market term in the presence of Anise - after all, she knew everything now, so there was nothing to hide from her. Of course, we still needed to keep an eye on our words once we returned to Silver City: but at least when it was just the four of us, we could talk openly about everything.


    ¡°Does it feel like it has any other kinds of essence mixed into it?¡± asked Anise, turning towards Sallia and I. ¡°I can¡¯t feel any¡­ Alteration essence, but Miria is the most sensitive towards it, right?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t feel any alteration, but I¡¯m having a harder time finding the manifestation essence, too.¡±


    Sallia shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t feel any absorption essence, and I can also just barely make out the manifestation essence.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t feel any binding essence inside of it, but that might just be because I don¡¯t know what to look for,¡± said Felix as he pulled out his {Craftsman¡¯s Monocle} and put it on. ¡°After all, I¡¯ve never encountered binding essence before.¡± Then, Felix frowned. ¡°However, the way the rock is constructed kind of reminds me of magic wands. Do you see the way there are magic symbols etched into the outside of the rock in blue granite? It¡¯s a bit faint and hard to make out, but even without getting closer, I think you guys should be able to spot it¡­¡± Felix looked increasingly fascinated as he looked closer and closer at the rock. ¡°I wish¡­ darn.¡± Felix sighed. ¡°Even though my monocle helps me learn how to copy magic items I analyze, I just don¡¯t know enough to even know where to start.¡±


    I squinted, and after focusing on the rock, I was also able to barely make out a few blue scribbles etched into the outside of the rock. However, I had ability to pick out the magic symbols on the outside of the rock. It was too hard for me to see.


    I felt a small pang of jealousy as I looked at Felix¡¯s {Craftsman¡¯s} monocle, as well as his Grade 7 natural perception once he had finished using Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl. Even though my eyesight was average now, compared to Sallia¡¯s seventh rune and Felix¡¯s incredibly high Perception I still felt as if I was half-blind compared to the rest of the group sometimes.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°So is it some sort of wand?¡± asked Sallia, distracting me from my low Perception. ¡°Hmm¡­ the weirdest thing is that there¡¯s actually manifestation essence inside of the rock, even though it¡¯s hard to spot. I know that wands can¡¯t hold or use any sort of magical essence of their own - instead, they¡¯re entirely powered by their user. One of the big magical mysteries of the old days is how magic artifacts and superstructures like the giant cities beneath the earth can repair and maintain themselves without any input of new energy. Maybe these rocks are similar?¡±


    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, we should be extra careful,¡± I said, glancing at the little pockmark in the landscape. The more I looked at it, the more it resembled a tiny crater. ¡°I get the feeling that the little white rock isn¡¯t an item we can use, so much as a trap of some sort. Otherwise, I feel like the plant life wouldn¡¯t be missing, and it wouldn¡¯t just be laying out here.¡±


    Felix paused, and then nodded. ¡°Do you want to try hitting it with something from a range? We could try poking it with something and see if it reacts. I doubt I could learn anything just from watching a magic item activate from afar, but¡­ maybe it could work?¡± Felix grins a bit. ¡°I can¡¯t sense any magic reserves from magical items like the underground cities, but I can at least feel an essence reserve here. It¡¯s a slim chance, but with my monocle, maybe I could figure something out.¡±


    I glanced at Sallia, who grinned. ¡°That could work. If we ever manage to get magical item creation working, I imagine we would be rolling in Achievement. I would be surprised if we didn¡¯t get at least ten thousand Achievement from it - and we could get a lot more, depending on how much of a role we personally play in spreading the rediscovery of magic items.¡±


    ¡°Is ten thousand Achievement a lot?¡± asked Anise, looking curious.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s a fair bit more than we currently have to work with,¡± I said, absently pulling up my Status screen and checking my 14,818 Achievement. ¡°For context, I¡¯m doing pretty well in this life so far, and I have 14,818 Achievement. I don¡¯t quite remember how much I got from our last world, since it has been over three decades and my memory is a little patchy. But it should have been around 15,000, I think?¡± I said. ¡°Ten thousand wouldn¡¯t quite double the amount of Achievement I have so far, but it would be close. And the purchases I had in mind for when we return to the Market cost around 24,000 Achievement all together.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°I¡¯m sitting at around the same amount. Ten thousand isn¡¯t a crazy amount of Achievement, but it¡¯s excellent if we can get 10,000 Achievement from doing one thing. And although my purchasing needs for next life aren¡¯t quite so extensive as Miria¡¯s right now, more Achievement is always a good thing..¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Is that so?¡± asked Anise, looking thoughtful.


    While she was thinking, Felix squinted more and more carefully at the rock filled with manifestation essence. Then, he glanced at Anise.


    ¡°Would you be willing to help me watch what happens? It would be pretty amazing to be a super-witch who rediscovers how magic items work?¡±


    Anise¡¯s eye violently twitched. ¡°I was only twenty! Give me a break!¡± She said, twitching. ¡°All three of you were grown-ups before you were even born in this world, but don¡¯t tell me none of you have your own embarrassing stories from the past.¡±


    ¡°As a super witch, you should work to become immune to embarrassment!¡± I said.


    Anise buried her head into her hands, and I tried not to laugh.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s back up a little more and set off the rock,¡± said Felix. ¡°Since this little pockmark in the landscape is limited in size, I imagine that we¡¯ll be safe if we¡¯re outside of it, but¡­ just in case, Sallia, make sure to materialize your armor. And Miria, maybe tuck your arms and legs more into your dress and stand in front? Your dress is probably the best piece of armor we have access to right now. And let¡¯s get as far away as we can without sacrificing our accuracy.¡±


    We quickly rearranged ourselves, making sure that if we had miscalculated how dangerous this thing was, we would be as safe as possible.


    Then, Felix tossed a small clod of dirt at the magic rock.


    The clod of dirt bumped into the magic rock, and I felt a bunch of manifestation essence suddenly contract inside of the rock.


    Then, the rock glowed white, almost as if it were about to turn into molten slag. A moment later, it started to float in midair, before it detonated.


    A ball of fire and heat suddenly rinsed the surrounding area, turning much of the pink plant life into charcoal as the wave of pure heat incinerated them. The ball of fire grew wider and wider, seeming as if it were going to wash away everything¡­ and then stopped slightly past the edges of the pockmark in the landscape. The fire didn¡¯t seem to disturb the dirt much: it had been moved around a little bit, but whatever spell the explosive rock was using, it was almost entirely concentrated on generating heat instead of force.


    A few moments later, the flames disappeared, and the rock dropped back to the dirt. It wasn¡¯t quite empty of manifestation essence, but it was less than halfway full now. I could also feel the manifestation essence much more clearly now. Previously, I had only been able to sense the rock once it started activating, likely due to my average Perception. However, even though it was a good thing that I could observe the rock more carefully now, I also felt uneasy.


    If the rock was easier to detect the less manifestation essence it had, it was obvious that it had some sort of shielding mechanism on it. If that was the case, we needed to be especially careful as we moved towards the city, or we might find ourselves caught in a fireball and return to the Market early.


    ¡°Did you figure anything out?¡± asked Anise.


    ¡°Well, not much,¡± said Felix. ¡°I know that, at least for a second, the item was behaving just like a wand. It was channeling magic through one, specific spell, which was literally engraved into it. However, I have no idea how the rock is storing power. I also don¡¯t know how it¡¯s disguising the manifestation essence inside of it,¡± said Felix, frowning. A moment later, he hesitated, and tried tossing another clod of dirt at the explosive rock.


    And the item ignited once again, once again setting the area on fire, before burning itself to a crisp.


    Leaving us with no materials to research.


    ¡°Damn. I thought that would work,¡± said Felix, grimacing. ¡°I was really hoping to get a better look at that rock. If I could just get a glimpse of how it stored power¡­¡± Felix sighed longingly, before shaking his head. ¡°Oh well. I guess if it was that easy, someone would have discovered how to make magic items long ago.¡±


    I sighed as well. If Felix figured out how to make magic items, we would have accomplished our biggest goal here. While I still wanted to figure out more about the Multiverse and my attunement, right now, we needed Achievement far more. And the amount of Achievement we could get for rediscovering how to make magic items was just far too tempting, and anything else we got would basically just be icing on the cake.


    ¡°Let¡¯s keep going,¡± I said, giving the mysterious craters in our surroundings a more wary look. ¡°We need to keep an eye out for mechanical and magical traps as well, but most importantly, we need to actually get into some of the facilities. If that adventuring team stopped after only making it past the first few layers of defenses, I imagine there¡¯s a lot of good stuff in here. We just need to get enough to make our trip worth it, and then go back before we get greedy and die.¡±


    Sallia and Anise swallowed nervously, looking at the burned chunks of plant matter and ashes of the magic rock, before they nodded. Felix grinned.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s keep moving,¡± he said cheerily. ¡°I¡¯ll take the lead this time, but Sallia, would you be prepared to rescue me if something goes horribly wrong? I have pretty good eyesight right now, and I don¡¯t need to burn any essence to keep my senses excellent.¡±


    Sallia nodded, and our group shifted positions to better accommodate our new lineup. Then, we continued walking towards the facilities that were now only a few hours away.

 Chapter 126: Dimensional Habitat Facility

    The four of us continued walking, making our way around more and more small scorched patches of land as we continued to walk. However, we remained wary every single step of the way. Now that we knew that the fireball rocks were laying in wait, disguised, and we couldn¡¯t reliably detect them, I felt my heart beat faster with every single step one of us took forward. While the patches of scorched earth were sometimes present to warn us of the fireball rocks, there were plenty of times when they simply weren¡¯t there, as well. Felix was able to catch them by using his high Perception stat and his monocle, but I was always very nervous.


    Felix and Anise, especially, were vulnerable to a fireball suddenly consuming them and sending them back into the ocean of souls, and so I watched them like a hawk as I hoped they didn¡¯t misstep. If they did, I needed to be ready to throw my entire pool of alteration essence at the fireball, buying Sallia as much time as possible to rescue anyone who triggered a trap by accident.


    Felix continued to lead our group, since his perception was the best, and Sallia walked right behind him since she could grab him and drag him away if something went catastrophically wrong. Anise and I brought up the rear, since I would also be fast enough to keep Anise safe if something happened, and because my Perception was lower than Sallia¡¯s, meaning I had much slower reaction times.


    Felix didn¡¯t make a mistake for over an hour. We were much closer to the nearest outlying facility than before - it would probably only take another hour to reach it. We were making good time.


    And then, out of nowhere, I felt a bunch of manifestation essence start to coil around itself, coming from where Felix and Sallia were walking.


    ¡°Shi-!¡± said Felix.


    ¡°Felix!¡± Sallia immediately burned a huge amount of absorption essence and grabbed him, before fleeing as fast as possible.


    And then, a ball of shimmering flames began to expand from the dirt Felix had just disturbed, warping the air with its heat as it tried to consume him.


    Sallia dragged behind her like a broken kite as she fled for her life. The ball of flame advanced forward, consuming everything in its surroundings, and for a moment, my heart leapt into my throat as I thought that Felix and Sallia were about to get overtaken by the wall of flames.


    Hurriedly, I grabbed hold of as much Alteration essence as I could, and forced myself to imagine the range of the ball of fire compressing into as small of an area as possible. Sallia and Felix were very close to the edge of the ball of fire, but they weren¡¯t quite out of range.


    Please don¡¯t get hurt, please don¡¯t get hurt, my mind screamed as I forced all the essence I could into controlling the ball of fire.


    And for just a second, the ball of fire halted, failing to expand.


    That second provided just enough time for Sallia to finish dragging Felix most of the way out of the way of the ball of fire, before, with a snap, the ball of flames finished expanding into the air.


    Felix shrieked and clutched at his hand, before the ball of fire winked out of existence. The two of them collapsed to the ground, panting.


    ¡°Are you hurt?¡± I yelled at them.


    Sallia immediately dematerialized her armor and checked over herself, before she started checking Felix.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. I was a little further away, since I was carrying Felix, and my stats are higher, so it¡¯s harder to hurt me. But Felix¡¯s right hand got a bit melted. He needs healing,¡± said Sallia, shuddering. Her voice carried a strange mixture of fear and calmness - almost as if her training as a noblewoman in her first life and her fear and panic were warring inside of her mind. ¡°A lot of his skin is blistered from the heat, but it doesn¡¯t look anywhere near fatal.¡± A few moments later, I felt her start pouring some more absorption essence into her healing rune, and Felix¡¯s burn wounds started to stabilize. She shivered, and glanced at the rock that had nearly killed Felix.


    ¡°We should be safe in this spot. Miria, thanks for halting the fire for a moment - otherwise Felix and I might not have made it. How much alteration essence do you have left?¡±


    ¡°I used a lot, but I still have around half, I think?¡±


    ¡°Do you have enough to spare for some healing?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely,¡± I said. As I spoke with Sallia, I started to feel my gut-wrenching anxiety in my stomach start to fade away.


    It was close, but we survived. Still, I felt frustrated.


    Just a single mistake was nearly enough to send our group toppling over the edge of the abyss. I didn¡¯t want to see any of my friends die. This time, we were all still alive, and as long as I was safe, any injuries we sustained were only temporary. But what if we messed up again?


    I quickly made my way over to Felix, followed by Anise, and inspected Felix¡¯s injury. Two of his fingers had been literally melted into ash - about half of each finger had simply disappeared. The rest of his skin was bright red, and felt almost like I could cook my skin when I touched his hand. Sallia was anxiously hovering by his side while throwing absorption essence into his burn wounds.


    I shuddered, and immediately started pouring cold water onto his hand. Anise immediately began summoning blocks of ice and stuffing them into Felix¡¯s hands, working to cool his skin down as much as possible while I started making every drop of water in contact with Felix heal him. I didn¡¯t worry about his missing fingers yet: I could heal those later. Right now, I wanted to keep the rest of his hand functional.


    Felix, whose breath was coming out in ragged gasps of pain, started to stabilize, until finally, he managed to draw in a full, proper breath.


    ¡°Well, shit. Guess that serves me right for getting complacent. I dodged a bunch of them earlier, but I guess I still missed one,¡± Felix said, nearly croaking in pain. ¡°Oh well. Just a minor injury. Hurts like crazy though. Lucky I rolled Grade 7 in Willpower this time, or I would be unconscious now. Fuck!¡± He said.


    However, his voice was growing firmer as he swore, and the skin around his melted fingers was beginning to mend. I felt even more relieved as I poured healing into him.


    Felix was going to be just fine.


    A few minutes passed, as Felix creatively cussed out the Orthans and their magic traps. Meanwhile, Anise continued to cool down Felix¡¯s hand and Sallia continued to apply emergency treatment, while I tried to get his hand working again. Finally, after I spent most of my alteration essence pool and Sallia and Anise¡¯s abilities became largely useless, Felix regained the ability to flex his fingers a bit. It was obvious his right hand was still stiff, but it could move.


    ¡°Well, now I feel like an idiot. Miria, after this, can you and Anise make a bunch of mud? I think if we made a decently sized mud ball and then roll it in front of us, we can trigger traps like this one without nearly dying.¡± said Felix, after spending a few minutes recuperating.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Sallia blinked for a few moments, and then swore. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. Why didn¡¯t you think of that earlier?¡±


    ¡°Because I just really wanted to see what having my fingers melted off felt like,¡± said Felix dryly. ¡°It¡¯s because I just thought of it now. I kept thinking that it would be really neat to see how these things were constructed, and thinking about what traps might be in the facility itself, and just¡­ didn¡¯t think of any tools we could use to make our lives easier.¡± Felix sighed. ¡°I know that¡¯s kind of my job in the group, so I¡¯m really sorry. I¡¯ll try to think faster next time.¡±


    I started to comfort him, and then stopped.


    I wanted my friends to feel better, but would it be worse for them in the long run if I tried to shield them from every mistake? If I didn¡¯t give them the space to grow that they needed?


    In the end, I gave Felix a hug, but didn¡¯t say anything to him. Felix just patted me on the back a few times with his good arm and then snorted.


    ¡°Next time, maybe I¡¯ll remember how much this fucking hurt and do better,¡± he said, chuckling.


    ¡°I know you can do better in the future. All of my friends are awesome,¡± I said, feeling a slight grin tug at my lips. Now that Felix wasn¡¯t in any real danger, I felt a lot better about the situation. ¡°Just like Sallia in her first life. She also struggled, and now she can almost wrestle an Orukthyri by herself and win. You didn¡¯t get many opportunities to grow last world, and this world, we haven¡¯t been exposed to many scenarios where you could put your talents to practical use outside of a shop. This time you messed up, but next time, I know you¡¯ll succeed.¡±


    Felix smiled brightly at me, and the pain and momentary depression disappeared from his face. I realized that he was going to be fine, so I turned to Anise.


    ¡°Well, Anise? Wanna help me make a mud boulder?¡± I asked.


    She grinned at me, and the two of us got to work.


    About ten minutes later, we started rolling a small, one-meter high ball of mud in front of our group to help test for traps. Sallia continuously shoved it ahead of her and Felix, trying to steer it clear of any traps Felix had already seen, and then our group would catch up to it, drag it back a bit, and then roll it forward again. I realized that we had accidentally stepped over a lot of traps that Felix had missed - with the mud boulder method, we were finding a lot more fire rocks than before. Luckily, none of them actually hurt a member of our group.


    Finally, we reached the first facility. It looked quite simple in comparison to the massive ruined palace that was still visible in the distance. This facility looked like it was made out of something kind of similar to iron, although not quite the same. It was a squat building, perhaps a quarter of the size of an overseer¡¯s mansion. It probably had around twenty larger rooms in it in total, not including a basement.


    The writing above the door was written in a somewhat odd dialect of Orthanoid writing, and it took me a few moments to puzzle out what it said.


    Dimensional Habitat Facility


    I wondered what the practical use of a Dimensional Habitat Facility was. Was it for training soldiers in environments they might find in other dimensions? I tried to picture the Orukthyri drilling inside of a training facility, but the only image I could bring up was the monstrous creatures eating dead soldiers as we fled from them.


    ¡°Maybe they were trying to test how creatures could survive in different environments?¡± said Sallia, as if she had recognized my confusion.


    I paused, turning her words over and over again in my mind, and then nodded. That made much more sense to me.


    ¡°Or they could have been trying to modify the Orukthyri to better fight in other dimensions,¡± said Felix. ¡°I mean, all Orthanoid species were originally Ortha, before a bunch of modification turned the Orthanoids into a bunch of different species. If they managed to create five different subspecies, it¡¯s obvious they had a pretty good understanding of how to manipulate biology using magic. I imagine that they would probably want to develop new breeds of Orukthyri for different environments, assuming they went into other dimensions frequently.¡±


    ¡°Did they go into other dimensions frequently?¡± I asked, glancing at the palace in the distance. I could feel the taint from the black sun, beating down on me from overhead, and I could also feel my connection to the Ocean of Souls, stronger than it had ever been before. My runes were strengthening my body more than ever before, nearly pushing me up an extra grade just from the power of my Keywords being activated, and my absorption essence was regenerating faster than ever before. I could probably refill my absorption essence in a mere eight or nine hours right now, instead of the 24 hours I usually needed.


    However, even though I could feel the black sun and my connection to the ocean of souls, I hadn¡¯t heard about the second Orthan empire experimenting with other dimensions before the day of the black sun.


    ¡°I mean, the dimension of the black sun might not have been the first attempt to cross from one dimension to another,¡± said Felix. ¡°It might have just been the first successful one, or might have been the famous incident that ended the era of dimensional travel, or something. As far as I know, while we have decent records of some parts of life during the second Orthan empire, a lot of historical records are pretty spotty because of how much was destroyed during the dawn of the black sun. Who knows what information we¡¯re missing?¡±


    ¡°So we should be ready for absolutely anything to exist within the facility?¡± I said, starting to feel a little more nervous. ¡°If this is a dimensional habitat facility, and it¡¯s built to replicate any dimension the Orthans might have come into contact with, we have no way at all of predicting what might be inside.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I¡¯ve never thought about this before, but¡­ how does stuff hold together from one dimension to the next?¡±


    ¡°Hold together?¡±


    ¡°Well, the way the laws of physics change from one dimension to the next can vary pretty wildly. The biology of creatures from the dimension of the black sun doesn¡¯t really match up with stuff from this dimension in any meaningful way - it¡¯s almost like their dimension is some sort of¡­ plane of ideas, or something. I don¡¯t know, but either way, they¡¯re very strange and different. And in Felix¡¯s first world, it was a well-known scientific theory that space was cold and the sun was hot, while in this world, the sun is cold and space is hot. Suppose the laws of gravity change ever so slightly from one dimension to the next¡­ how do organs like hearts and stuff keep functioning? After all, our organs and bodies are very delicate pieces of machinery built to work under a very specific set of circumstances. I imagine most life would just implode as it tries to transition from one dimension¡¯s laws of reality to another.¡±


    I thought about it, before I nodded. That actually made a lot of sense.


    Anise also thought about Sallia¡¯s question, before shrugging. ¡°I never thought about that before.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a really good question,¡± said Felix, nodding thoughtfully.


    ¡°So maybe there¡¯s nothing dangerous in the facility, since it might be an attempt to create areas where life forms they captured can live and be studied without imploding?¡± said Sallia. ¡°Or alternately, the facility is a place where the Ortha tried to simulate different laws of reality to see what was needed to survive in them. Maybe they were trying to create a new breed of Orukthyri to invade the dimension of the black sun, or something.¡±


    ¡°Do we want to hit it up?¡± asked Felix. ¡°If we step into an area that simulates some really wacky laws of reality and then implode, that would be very dangerous.¡±


    I paused, and then nodded. ¡°I think it¡¯s worth looking at. I imagine it won¡¯t be too hard to notice spots where the laws of gravity are wildly different, as long as we¡¯re careful. And if we could see how the Ortha simulated other dimensions, I might get a lot of inspiration for how to improve my Alteration essence Keyword Ability, even though I haven¡¯t bought it yet. And I think that the dangers should be¡­ lesser than in other facilities, or at least that¡¯s my current assumption. We might also find some more weird materials, like the one Felix found. Those would be excellent discoveries,¡± I said. ¡°If we just stumbled onto a huge variety of that kind of material, the three of us could probably have enough Achievement to take a bath in it when we get back. It could be really rewarding.¡±


    ¡°Sounds reasonable to me,¡± said Felix. ¡°Who¡¯s going first? Sallia or Miria?¡±


    I hesitated, before I grinned. ¡°Let me go first - I might be able to respond fast enough to heal myself if something goes terribly wrong and my biology starts to crumple like a tin can or something. I¡¯ll make sure I¡¯m ready to heal myself at a moment¡¯s notice.¡±


    Then, I gently pushed on the door to the Dimensional Habitat Facility and took my first step inside.

 Chapter 127: Dimensional Habitat Facility (2)

    My first impression of the building was that the interior was bland. There was a giant desk in front, littered with papers that had long since started crumbling to dust. The decorations in the room were minimal, and the only furniture pieces were a few rotten chairs scattered around the room. It was a surprisingly spartan and simple interior.


    Luckily, even though the room had almost nothing useful in it, there was a well-preserved map of the building that lay just behind the counter. Unlike the other papers in the room, the map had been encased in some kind of clear substance that faintly resembled glass. Drawn on the map were six massive rooms and some hallways connecting them. This was quite a bit lower than my original expectation of a 20+ room building. It appeared that I had simply underestimated how large each room was: the six ¡®testing fields¡¯ listed on the map were incredibly massive.


    The rooms were labeled ¡®Field B-1,¡¯ ¡®Field B-2,¡¯ and so on.


    I looked over the map, and then looked at the three hallways that led out of the room, before I turned back to my friends.


    ¡°Which way are we heading first?¡± I asked.


    Sallia studied the map for a moment, before she shrugged. ¡°The papers here are all ruined, so we can¡¯t get any information from them. And the map doesn¡¯t have any indicators of what each room was. How about we just go to room B-1 first, and then work our way up around the building?  And if we find any items that could give Wealth Achievement, we give them to Felix and then store them in Miria¡¯s backpack for safekeeping?¡±


    I paused for a moment, looking at Felix. He tried to trace over one of the rooms on the map with his two half-destroyed fingers, and then frowned as he looked at his hand. He sighed, and nodded. ¡°Sounds good to me. But I don¡¯t want every item. Let''s just rotate who gets each one. I got the plant core, so Miria should get the next one, then Sallia, and then Anise. And if we get a huge amount of one type of item, we divide it up equally? I can always make items out of the materials we find if or when we get back to Silver City.¡±


    Anise seemed a bit startled when we included her, but then she smiled happily.


    ¡°Sounds good,¡± said Sallia, after a few moments of thought.


    We then started walking to Field B-2. We were extremely careful as we walked through the hallways, but we didn¡¯t encounter our first issue until we were halfway through the otherwise empty corridor.


    There, we ran into a simple metal door with no handles. It looked exceptionally thick and sturdy, which made me feel more than slightly irritated. It wasn¡¯t alive, so I couldn¡¯t extinguish it, and I couldn¡¯t see anything like a doorknob that would let us open it. And since I had spent a big amount of Alteration Essence stabilizing Felix¡¯s hand, I wasn¡¯t willing to throw more alteration essence at the door unless we had no better option.


    ¡°I can try opening it,¡± said Felix, giving the door a wary look as he started looking more closely at the door. ¡°Be prepared to heal me if something goes horribly wrong, though. It could be trapped.¡±


    Sallia and I immediately nodded, and started preparing whatever healing spells we could.


    Felix took a few steps closer to the door, while keeping a careful eye on the floor and walls around him. ¡°I think that patch of floor is shaped a bit oddly. It¡¯s a bit¡­ bumpy,¡± he said, after a few steps. He pointed at a small patch of metal flooring that was right in front of the door. ¡°It could be a pressure plate or something. Or it could be the right way to open the door. It¡¯s hard to say right now.¡±


    ¡°Does your attunement work?¡± I asked.


    Felix nodded. ¡°The door itself is somehow able to block my attunement, so I can¡¯t mess with it. But the steel plate doesn¡¯t have as much resistance when I try poking at it. But it feels like the plate is shielded from my senses. And what I can see is really complicated. Give me a few minutes. And move back, in case I trigger something that explodes in our face.¡±


    Anise, Sallia, and I took a few steps back, letting Felix use his attunement to fiddle with the metal plate for a few minutes. Felix occasionally asked for our help testing something, such as putting a clod of dirt or a rock onto the metal plate, but otherwise said very little as he stared at the metal plate in the floor. Sallia and I waited in tense silence, holding on to our healing abilities as we prayed that Felix knew what he was doing.


    Eventually, Felix grinned.


    ¡°All right, I think I was too cautious. It¡¯s not a trap,¡± he said. ¡°Instead, it¡¯s some kind of authorization plate, or something of the sort. It¡¯s incredibly difficult to interact with the metal plate, but once I actually managed to get past the parts that were ¡®shielded¡¯ from my senses, I found a switch located inside of the metal plate. It seems like it¡¯s explicitly made to only activate if someone is standing on top of it. I can also tell that it¡¯s connected to the door, and doesn¡¯t seem connected to anything else. I¡¯m going to try standing on the plate and flipping the switch, since I don¡¯t see anything that might be dangerous.¡±


    I kept some water ready to throw at Felix, just in case he was wrong and needed a healing spell, and I felt Sallia keep her absorption essence ready for a healing ability as well. Then, we waited as Felix stepped onto the metal plate and flicked the switch.


    ¡°User @#$KL@#@#. Error detected - cannot connect to user database. Welcome, guest @*#$.¡± A cheery robotic voice rang out from our surroundings, scaring the crap out of all four of us. I rapidly scanned the area with my soul-sight, but didn¡¯t see a thing, and Sallia went as far as firing some healing at Felix while materializing her sword and jerkily scanning the area several times.


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


    Despite our concern, the only thing that moved in our surroundings was the massive metal door, which opened with a cheery ka-chunk. Nothing else happened.


    ¡°Is¡­ that it?¡± asked Sallia, slowly lowering her sword.


    Anise let out a nervous chuckle and dismissed the magic symbols she had nearly activated.


    ¡°I guess we can go in,¡± said Felix. The four of us took our first steps past the door, and made our way into the first massive dimensional habitat room.


    The room was subdivided into several smaller chambers, each of which was separated by an incredibly thick metal wall. The walls for each smaller chamber seemed to be impossible to manipulate or interact with using any kind of essence, and also felt very¡­ weird. The taste of spatial and dimensional manipulation was incredibly strong when I got near the walls, and I got the sense that they were much more than they seemed to be. However, when I tried touching a metal wall with my hand, it just felt like regular iron. Most strange of all, however, was the fact that even though the walls were clearly made of some sort of metal, they were perfectly see-through. There were even several chunks of the wall that seemed incredibly thin, and looked almost like windows. These were the only parts of the chamber I could interact with using Alteration Essence: unlike the walls of the chamber, these ¡®windows¡¯ let my magical senses poke through them easily.


    I scanned the dozen or so sub chambers in the room, before focusing on the one closest to us. Inside of it, I could tell that gravity was different. I was used to gravity always pulling people down, towards the ground.


    However, the first chamber was clearly an artificial gravity chamber of some sort. There was a large ring of rocks stuck resting on the ceiling inside of the chamber, and I could see that all sides of the chamber were laced with a metal that had a color somewhere between copper and gold.


    Most interesting, however, was what the Alteration essence was doing inside of the chamber. The alteration essence hung inside of the chamber like a cloud of gaseous jello. It neither moved nor dissipated, and simply hung there, unmoving. Its movement, or lack thereof, wasn¡¯t the important part, though.


    My understanding of Alteration essence was probably better than the understanding of many shapers, since I had figured out how to ditch the ¡®alternate timeline¡¯ nonsense and use a less restrictive mental image for my shaping. However, it was far from perfect. My good talent in Alteration essence couldn¡¯t miraculously bestow me with knowledge of everything the essence could possibly do: it just gave me a better idea of what to do if I tried something weird out.


    And as far as I could tell, the alteration essence inside of the chamber wasn¡¯t changing anything as simple as ¡®swapping around color¡¯ or ¡®changing the way one of my runes worked¡¯ for a bit.


    I wasn¡¯t quite sure how it was doing so, but as I looked at the chamber, I was pretty sure that the alteration essence inside of it was warping the laws of reality.


    It was hard to get a better idea of what I was feeling, since my magical senses could only give me so much information. But whatever was going on inside of that chamber was like nothing I had ever tried doing with alteration essence before. It was so bizarre and outside of what I was used to seeing alteration essence do that I couldn¡¯t even really understand what I was looking at. I just knew that things were different in that chamber.


    ¡°Any idea what¡¯s happening?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°I see that the chamber is weird, and I can tell it¡¯s filled with alteration essence, but that¡¯s about all I can figure out.¡±


    Felix continued to study the chamber, an expression of rapt fascination on his face. However, he shook his head.


    ¡°I have no idea. It definitely doesn¡¯t feel as if it¡¯s regular shaping, but I can¡¯t really sense much else. It¡¯s definitely not an attunement, and it¡¯s not general shaping¡­¡± Felix¡¯s eyes glittered with curiosity as he stared at the chamber, before he grinned at me. I grinned back.


    Right now, this world had two major abilities that shapers knew how to use. General shaping and attunement. If we discovered a third way to use alteration essence, that would probably get us as much Achievement as discovering how to make magic items. And I would also be able to take the knowledge of how to use the alteration system in different ways with me when we left this world, which was even more important than earning Achievement.


    Anise simply glanced at the chamber a few more times, and then shrugged. ¡°I get the feeling that the alteration essence is somehow warping something I can¡¯t see. But that¡¯s all I can tell. You seem better at figuring out what¡¯s going on,¡± she said, nodding at Felix and me.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s altering the laws of reality, or physics, or gravity. Something along those lines,¡± I said. ¡°Probably. But not just by applying magic to weaken or strengthen gravity, or anything like that.¡± I said. ¡°I get the feeling that the chamber itself is messing with how gravity works on a fundamental level. It isn¡¯t just making gravity stronger, or weaker, it¡¯s literally changing what creates gravity and why. The entirety of how the laws of physics work behind the scenes has been turned off and swapped out with another set of rules inside of this chamber,¡± I said. My voice grew in confidence with every word as I probed the chamber with my magical senses. There was still a distinct possibility that I was wrong, or misunderstanding what was happening.


    But I was pretty sure I was correct.


    This use of shaping pushed my ideas for what alteration essence could do in a totally new direction.


    Altering the laws of physics and reality. Even if it was probably incredibly expensive and hard to do, it was an idea that made me really think about what alteration essence was.


    Alteration essence altered the world. It didn¡¯t just warp the way my absorption runes worked, or allow me to swap out the magic symbols in a spell mid-cast. At its core, alteration essence was about warping the fabric of reality to suit my needs.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder what would happen if I was incredibly powerful, and simply swapped out the rules for how ¡®gravity¡¯ worked on something as large as a planet. Would the entire planet simply fall apart? Would the entire world simply never have gravity again, leaving everything in a sort of artificially made low-gravity chamber?


    What if I didn¡¯t like a particular magic system, or wanted to add a new essence to a certain world?


    It seemed like a totally crazy idea, and I doubted it was anywhere near possible even now, but¡­


    What if it was actually possible to do something crazy like change around how physics worked for an entire planet, or even an entire dimension once I got strong enough?


    The gravity chamber was one of the weirdest things I had seen so far, but it also got me thinking a lot about what the pinnacle of an alteration essence user was.


    And I really liked what I was imagining.

 Chapter 128: Dimensional Habitat Facility (3)

    After investigating the gravity chamber for a while longer, I couldn¡¯t come up with an idea for how it actually worked. Despite the massive ambitions I had started to harbor for the final direction of alteration magic, there was something I was missing about how to use alteration magic to alter the laws of reality.


    The chamber itself was also difficult to figure out.


    Even though I knew the laws of gravity were somehow different inside of the chamber, we couldn¡¯t quite figure out what was changed. It wasn¡¯t as simple as gravity being ¡®reversed¡¯ inside of the chamber, which had been our original guess. Even though there was still a ring of rocks stuck to the ceiling inside of the gravity chamber, other items we tried tossing it would randomly get stuck to the walls, to the bands of copper-gold metal in the sides of the chamber, and would sometimes even hover in midair for seemingly no reason. Where we tossed the clods of dirt and rocks didn¡¯t seem to make a difference. Anytime we tossed anything into the chamber, the item would simply determine that some random spot was ¡®down¡¯ and then fall towards it forever. And nobody could figure out how this point was chosen, or how the chamber worked. The only breakthrough we had was when I finally realized that the bands of metal on the sides of the chamber were subtly changing the way the alteration essence inside of the chamber was situated every few seconds.


    So, ultimately, we ended up using Sallia¡¯s sword and her exceptional physical strength to pry the strange metal off of the sides of the room. Since we couldn¡¯t figure out what the chamber was supposed to do, and how the bands of metal on the sides of the chamber worked, we decided that we might as well grab the metal and move on. It was probably valuable, after all.  After claiming our own chunks of metal, we got a pleasant surprise.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Own the equivalent of 3 bars of pure Gravitite


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 14,818 to 15,018 in an instant. I looked at Sallia and Felix, who were also grinning, and felt a little relief. We didn¡¯t get any pop-up offering to bring the Gravitite metal back to the Market, which was a shame since Felix might have been able to do something with it. However, it was still a nice discovery. More Achievement was always nice.


    After ripping the metal out of the chamber, all of the random trash and debris we had thrown into the chamber fell off of the sides of the chamber and clattered onto the ground. I could still tell that something was weird about how gravity worked inside of the room, but it was obvious that the metal also played a huge role in messing with gravity.


    Sallia gave the metal we had procured a curious look, and tried poking the metal with her pinky finger.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t do anything weird if you touch it,¡± she said. ¡°It just feels like regular metal. We can try experimenting with it a bit.¡±


    After seeing Sallia mess with the metal, and seeing the gravity chamber ¡®turn off¡¯ after losing the metal, I also tried poking it with my pinky finger. Sure enough, it just felt like a regular bar of metal once it was outside of the chamber. I tried feeding it a bit of alteration essence to the bar of metal, to see if it did anything interesting outside of the chamber.


    For a brief moment after I fed it my alteration essence, the bar seemed like a greedy black hole, and devoured every single speck of energy I had fed it.


    And then, interestingly enough, I felt my hand get tugged towards the chunk of metal. It was as if, for a brief moment, the bar of metal had become down and my entire body had started to fall towards it.


    Then, the bar of metal ran out of alteration essence, and the gravitational pull disappeared.


    It was an incredibly strange sensation.


    ¡°The bars themselves can do gravity manipulation?¡± asked Felix, having seen my experiment.


    ¡°That seems to be the case,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe the changed laws of reality inside of that chamber somehow mess with how the bars of metal work? It doesn¡¯t seem like the bar of metal can do anything except pull stuff towards it when it¡¯s powered by essence. But all of the stuff we threw into the chamber ended up going in weird directions, and almost none of the objects were pulled directly towards the slabs of metal.¡±


    Felix nodded thoughtfully, and started feeding the chunk of copper-gold metal some alteration essence. Just like when I had tried it, his chunk of gravitite began subtly pulling us towards it. Then, he tried the same thing with manifestation essence, and got a similar result.


    ¡°It can use either essence,¡± he said, after a few moments. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem to differentiate between which essence is being used at all. It just needs essence to work. More importantly, it also has a pretty strict upper limit to how much energy it can absorb at once. If you try to feed it too much essence, it¡¯ll just waste the excess,¡± he said. Then, he grinned. ¡°There are some pretty useful applications for this that I can think of, although a lot of them will take some time to make. But for example, if one makes a sword out of this metal, and then feeds it some essence while they swing it towards an enemy, I imagine it could throw a hostile creature off during the fight. If they suddenly start ¡®falling¡¯ towards one of our swords in the middle of a fight, it could give us a very useful advantage. And I¡¯m sure there are other ways to use it too.¡± Felix said, his eyes shining with excitement. ¡°Let me try it. Sallia, hand me your sword. I¡¯ll try adding a layer of Gravitite to the edge. If we¡¯re lucky, maybe we can even take it back to the Market!¡± Sallia handed him her sword. A few moments later, I saw the copper-gold metal start to bend and deform, warping piece by piece as Felix adjusted its shape using his metal attunement.


    At the same time, Felix tried to mess with the shape of Sallia¡¯s sword. However, it seemed that the Market-made item was far more resilient to being changed than the metal we had found.


    Felix grunted with effort, glaring at Sallia¡¯s sword, but continued fiddling with it. I could feel alteration essence pouring out of him, and I suspected he had used over half of his alteration essence to try to manipulate Sallia¡¯s weapon.


    After a few minutes of concentration, Felix managed to add a few strips of the new copper-gold metal to Sallia¡¯s sword.


    ¡°I think it worked! Try it!¡± He said.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Sallia gave Felix¡¯s new creation a curious glance, and then tried pointing the tip of her blade at a nearby chair. She dumped a small amount of manifestation essence into the newly added strips of metal, and a moment later, the chair started falling towards her sword. Sallia stopped powering the blade, and casually swung her sword at it.


    The chair was neatly sliced in half.


    Sallia gave the blade a few more experimental swings, and then gave Felix a big thumbs up.


    ¡°I like it!¡± she said. ¡°Thanks, Felix! I¡¯ll have to practice with it, but I really like it!¡± she said, and gave him a quick hug.


    Felix¡¯s grin widened, and I also felt pretty happy. This was the first time that Felix had created an item that was useful in and of itself. Previously, we had tried out plenty of Felix¡¯s other items: after all, it wasn¡¯t a big deal to give Felix some feedback on how his swords and armor felt if we used them during a training session. However, at least until now, the Market items we had available were simply better than Felix¡¯s items. Felix hadn¡¯t been useless as a combatant, thanks to his spellcasting. However, this was the first time Felix had taken a step down the path he truly wanted to take: the path of a craftsman.


    And I could see that Felix realized it too. His grin grew wider and wider, and brighter and brighter, until I wondered if he was trying to become this world¡¯s third sun.


    ¡°Congratulations, Felix,¡± I said, and gave him a huge hug. I didn¡¯t say anything more, because there was nothing else I needed to say.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been a huge help in watching me grow and improve,¡± he said, as he hugged me back. ¡°All three of you,¡± he said, before hugging Sallia and Anise as well.


    We spent a few more minutes celebrating. Felix promised to modify my sword later, once he had more essence ready. After that, we continued exploring the room.


    The other sub-chambers of the room all seemed to be testing chambers different gravity configurations. And all of them also had more Gravitite inside of them, which made me feel very excited. We could definitely get a lot more Achievement in this room after we claimed ownership of all the random metal laying around.


    But before dismantling them, we spent some time trying to figure out what each chamber had originally been used for. I hadn¡¯t figured out how to ¡®alter¡¯ the laws of reality yet, and I was really hoping that observing these chambers in detail would give me the inspiration I was missing. Some of the testing chambers seemed pretty basic, such as one chamber that seemed devoted to figuring out exactly how much gravitite was needed to counteract the gravity pulling us towards the planet. However, some of the chambers we found were even weirder than the first chamber.


    One of the chambers, for example, was dedicated to making objects fall forever. At least, that was our best guess about what the chamber was supposed to do. After dropping one of Felix¡¯s boots into the chamber as a test, the boot simply continued to ¡®fall¡¯ in circles, somehow never actually hitting any particular part of the walls or the ground. It was almost as if the ¡®direction¡¯ gravity made things fall in changed depending on where within the chamber an object was.


    None of us could figure out why in the world the old Orthans had bothered trying to make a chamber for that, but we were more than happy to steal the gravitite inside of the chamber.


    The other chambers all seemed to have similar ideas in mind. They were all dedicated to testing some aspect of gravity and how it worked, as well as messing with Gravitite. We looted every single speck of metal we could get our hands on.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Own the equivalent of 12 bars of pure Gravitite


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +400


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Which brought my Achievement to 15,418 total out of the 24,000 or so that I needed.


    600 Achievement for the first chamber we investigated in this massive complex of facilities wasn¡¯t bad at all. After we had seen the massive field of traps outside of the facility, I was keenly aware of how dangerous this place could be. However, the rewards were equally excellent, and made it easier to justify pushing ahead more.


    We quickly moved to room B-2 afterwards.


    Much like the first room, chamber B-2 was organized as a massive set of sub-rooms, each of which seemed devoted to testing some particular aspect of the world.


    However, as I looked at each chamber, I started to realize that this area was clearly devoted to a completely different dimension than the first room. Within each chamber of the firstroom, as far as we could tell, the laws of reality hadn¡¯t been too different from those of the world we currently lived in. Chemicals probably worked in mostly the same way, air seemed similar, and I was willing to bet that on an atomic level, things were probably at least similar to the rest of this world. Apart from gravity, the first room had been fairly normal.


    However, the chambers in the second major room were hard to wrap my head around.


    For some reason, inside of each chamber that we investigated, the world itself seemed¡­


    Silent.


    Frozen.


    Dead.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what law of reality had been changed in each chamber, until I tried throwing a clod of dirt into one of the chambers to see what happened.


    Then, to my surprise, the clod of dirt froze the moment it crossed the threshold of the first chamber. It was as if it had suddenly run into the world¡¯s most sticky patch of air.


    The rest of the clod of dirt crumbled, and quickly turned into a spray of dirt and dust. However, anytime a piece of dirt or debris made contact with the chamber in front of us, it also stopped moving.


    ¡°I think that the chamber is missing¡­ time?¡± said Felix. ¡°Maybe? It looks like anything that goes into the chambers of this room just get frozen in time. At least, that¡¯s my best guess. I could be totally wrong though.¡±


    I gave the chamber a closer look, and then tried tossing a few more things at it, just to see what happened. After a few tries, I was convinced that Felix was probably right. The chamber in front of us seemed to just freeze whatever it came in contact with. It didn¡¯t seem to matter what I threw at it - no matter what, the moment it crossed the threshold of the chamber, it would simply freeze. Even Felix¡¯s market boot got stuck at the threshold of the chamber. Luckily, he could simply dematerialize it and rematerialize it again. Whatever the strange dimensional chamber in front of us was doing, it couldn¡¯t disable the Market¡¯s item features. However, apart from Market items, retrieving other items from the still and dead dimensional chambers in front of us was practically impossible.


    The three of us looked around, to see if we could find any loot similar to the gold-bronze metal from the first chamber or any research notes that had survived to the present day. Sadly, the second chamber was rather lacking in useful items that we could claim ownership of. Although an area frozen in time was interesting to look at, I doubted we would learn anything just by watching the chamber for an extended period of time, and I still couldn¡¯t figure out how to manipulate the laws of reality using alteration essence. Any research notes that had been present had long crumbled to dust. We were also quite a bit more worried about messing with the chambers in this room, since if we froze ourselves in time somehow, we would probably just stop moving or thinking until this world ended. And given how bad things seemed to be on the surface right now, I seriously doubted that would take more than a few decades.


    After inspecting various timestopped chambers, we started heading to Chamber B-3. Felix deactivated another authorization roadblock on the way, and we didn¡¯t encounter any other obstacles. However, Chamber B-3 was different from the first two chambers.


    Much like the first two chambers, it was filled with various sub-chambers, all of which were structured similarly to the other rooms.


    However, in the first sub-chamber we looked at, we found a creature was imprisoned inside of it.

 Chapter 129: Dimensional Habitat Facility (4)

    In the middle of the first dimensional sub-chamber, a massive creature was chained to a table.


    The thing had mouth, or any discernible head. It looked like somebody had chopped a fish in half, taken the lower part of the fish, and then grafted it to the top half of a plant. The plant half of the creature strongly resembled a stickman, except that instead of sticks, its upper body was made of thick, green vines, tangled around each other in order to form a rough approximation of a humanoid chest and arms. It seemed to have a pair of eyes attached to its right arm, although I had no idea how any of its biology worked at all.


    It was the strangest biological creature I had ever seen, excluding the outsiders that came from the dimension of the black sun.


    Even more bizarre was the fact that the creature was still alive.


    The second Orthan empire had collapsed hundreds of years ago, and it didn¡¯t seem that this place had been disturbed much since then. While Outsiders might pass through this place from time to time, the dusty halls and unactivated traps in the building certainly suggested that nothing had come to feed this creature recently.


    In other words, this creature had somehow been chained to a table for centuries. It had never escaped, and had never been given food or water. Despite that fact it was alive. Absently, I wondered if the creature simply had no natural limit to its lifespan at all, and whether it simply didn¡¯t need food or water. It was hard to guess what was and wasn¡¯t possible in the wider multiverse, after all.


    When it saw us, it seemed frightened. It started making strange, shrieking sounds and rattling at its chains, but it was unable to move around. All it accomplished was making some rather loud clattering sounds.


    I felt a wave of pity for the creature. If I had been locked up in a dark room for hundreds of years with no food or water, I would have been desperate for something to talk to. However, this creature¡¯s first reaction upon seeing an Orthanoid creature was to start screaming and thrashing. It was obvious that it had suffered a lot before the second Orthan empire collapsed, and it hadn¡¯t forgotten what had been done to it in the following centuries.


    I also wondered how intelligent the creature was, and whether it was still sane after all these years.


    I checked the creature with my soul-sight, and confirmed that the creature had a soul. It was a distinctly green-blue color, and looked different from the souls that the other Orthanoids I had seen had. However, the difference was surprisingly small. Its soul looked nowhere near as alien as the souls of the outsiders, at least. If it weren¡¯t for its distinct color and slightly odd shape, I would have easily believed that it had a similar soul to Sallia, Felix, Anise, and me.


    ¡°Not again! Please, not again!¡± A voice shrieked inside of my mind, and I blinked in surprise. The creature¡¯s words didn¡¯t sound like words at all - instead, it was more like the creature was sending concepts at me through some sort of telepathic communication. It was hard to translate its thoughts into exact words, but I could still feel the distinct tang of fear in its thoughts. I was able to confirm that the creature was truly terrified of us.


    I also had no idea how it was communicating with us. I couldn¡¯t sense any alteration, manifestation, or absorption essence from the creature, so it was either using binding essence, or it was using something else entirely to communicate with us.


    However, how it was communicating with us wasn¡¯t what mattered to me.


    What mattered was that the creature had communicated with us.


    I felt far more sick when I realized that this intelligent creature, capable of communicating and thinking and feeling, had been locked up in this lab for hundreds of years collecting dust. It had been bad enough when I thought the creature was more like an animal. Now that I knew it was intelligent enough to communicate with us, I felt even more disgusted by the scene in front of us.


    I looked at Sallia, Felix, and Anise, and I saw similar looks of surprise and horror on their faces. Clearly, the creature hadn¡¯t just communicated with me: everyone in our group had received the same mental communication.


    I immediately stopped looking at the creature using my soul-sight, and concentrated on the creature¡¯s nonexistent face.


    ¡°Can you communicate with us?¡± I asked, yelling as loudly as I could into the sub-chamber.


    ¡°Not again! Please not again!¡± the creature shrieked again, ignoring my words. I couldn¡¯t tell if we needed to use some sort of mental communication with it, or if it had somehow lost its mind before we stumbled across it, or if it just didn¡¯t speak our language. All of those options seemed logical. However, the fact that it could communicate with us and we couldn¡¯t say anything back was very troublesome.


    Felix frowned, and stared at the air in front of him.


    ¡°I¡­ feel something,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s not like alteration essence, manifestation essence, or absorption essence, but it¡¯s something similar. But also very different¡­¡± he shook his head, and then looked at the creature. His expression became a mixture of pity and frustration.


    I sighed, and patted Felix¡¯s arm.


    I had hoped that Felix¡¯s first interaction with binding essence would be special somehow. That it would fill him with wonder and excitement, and make him feel even more driven to learn how to use his primary essence and grow. Instead, his first encounter with what appeared to be binding essence was in the middle of this horrific situation. Not only that, but Felix¡¯s current body probably had zero compatibility with binding essence, and we had no Ability that would let him remold his body to become compatible with binding essence. I had previously thought that Sallia¡¯s introduction to her core magic System had been bad, because of how much emotional pain she had gone through in our first world. But Felix¡¯s introduction to his main essence was even worse.


    ¡°Can you understand anything we¡¯re saying?¡± I asked again, hoping that it would somehow understand if I just kept trying to communicate with it. If it¡¯s mind had been lost before we got here, perhaps certain keywords could trigger a response?  ¡°We can set you free, if you don¡¯t attack us.¡± I said. If there was a safe way to release it, I didn¡¯t mind helping the creature before we moved on.


    ¡°Not again! Please not again!¡± Screeched the creature into my mind, as if it were completely and utterly unaware of my words.


    I sighed.


    My attempts at communication were going very poorly.


    The creature was probably using some form of binding essence to communicate, and I had no access whatsoever to binding essence right now.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Miria, do you have any ideas for how to talk to it?¡± asked Anise. She had a rather sad expression as she looked at the chained up creature.


    ¡°I¡¯m thinking about it,¡± I said, trying to see if there were any notes that had survived that might tell us how to talk to the creature.


    But just like in the previous two rooms, the notes in this room had been written down on pieces of paper. And none of that paper had been preserved through the centuries as anything more than dust.


    If the old Orthans had discovered a way to communicate with the creature, they hadn¡¯t left any hints behind.


    I turned towards Felix and Sallia, hoping one of them had an idea.


    Sallia rubbed her forehead in thought, and Felix kept looking around the room, as if hoping to find a solution to the problem.


    Then, I got an idea.


    Even though I had no access to binding essence, and I had no idea what principles were used for telepathic communication, that didn¡¯t mean it was impossible to communicate.


    I looked at the two small black dots on the right side of the creature¡¯s body. I hoped the black dots were eyes, or my idea wouldn¡¯t work.


    Then, I used my absorption essence to create a few madness-inducing bubbles. Before the creature saw them, I used alteration essence to change the nature of the mental influence my water bubbles exerted upon other creatures.


    Instead of causing a creature to desire to join with the water and lose themself inside of it, I warped my bubbles to communicate a feeling of peace, friendliness, and clarity. It was a bit difficult for me to change my runes so drastically, from causing madness to causing mental peace, but it still only took me a few moments.


    Then, with my alterations complete, I floated my water bubbles into the creature¡¯s field of vision.


    The creature¡¯s screeching calmed down considerably, although it seemed rather confused by my attempt to communicate. However I was glad that the creature didn¡¯t seem as terrified as before. Nobody moved while we let the creature adapt to my ¡®peace¡¯ bubbles.


    After a few minutes of us standing around waiting, it stopped shrieking completely.


    No cutting? Not hurt? Asked the creature.


    I amplified the feeling of peace inside of my communication bubbles, and at the same time, I felt myself starting to relax.


    I hadn¡¯t been sure if my little trick would work, but it seemed that I could at least communicate basic ideas and emotions with the chained up creature. I was probably communicating with it in the same way a baby or toddler would, and just ¡®shouting¡¯ basic emotions at it. But I seriously doubted I was going to get any more precise thoughts across to the creature right now, given the fact that I barely knew what I was doing.


    Not hurt. Please free! The creature¡¯s fear seemed to dissipate, and its shrieking turned into a plea for freedom instead.


    I turned to the others, just to make sure they were okay with my decision before I tried anything else.


    ¡°I¡¯m happy to break its chains and set it free t. Does anyone object?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Not in the slightest,¡± said Felix.


    ¡°The sooner we can set this thing free, the better,¡± said Sallia. ¡°But I think we should check to make sure it won¡¯t attack us after we set it free first. Just in case. I have no idea how strong this thing is, and getting a promise that it won¡¯t hurt us seems like a reasonable condition for releasing it.¡±


    Anise looked at Sallia thoughtfully, and then nodded. ¡°I didn¡¯t think of that, but I agree with Sallia,¡± she said.


    I did my best to communicate the feeling of inquiry, or questioning with my emotion-bubbles. Then, I tried to embed a feeling of peace into my emotional bubbles as well.


    Peace? Why question not hurt? Cut and hurt? HURT! The creature¡¯s mental communication seemed to turn back into an incoherent mess of terrified sobbing, and I winced.


    Clearly, my communication attempt hadn¡¯t worked, and instead, the creature was afraid of us again. I felt very bad.


    Still, I tried again. Instead of just relying on babbling emotions and vague ideas at the other party, I turned to Anise.


    ¡°Anise, can you perform a lightshow with me?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Lightshow? What¡¯s a lightshow?¡± said Anise.


    ¡°What I want to do is create an image, made entirely out of light. We don¡¯t have any understanding of the magic symbol for light, and  it¡¯s really hard to communicate with the creature by babbling emotions at it. I figure maybe we can add some visual aids and help it figure out what we¡¯re asking.¡± I sighed, and glanced at the creature¡¯s odd biology again. ¡°I really hope its eyes are designed to do things like see the world in color¡­¡±


    Anise thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. ¡°As long as I have a flat surface to concentrate my spell on, I can create a picture made out of light. Does that work?¡±


    ¡°Perfect,¡± I said.


    After that, Anise and I got to work. Anise constructed a sort of collage of projector slide images onto the wall directly in front of the creature¡¯s eyes, showing images of us releasing it, and then followed up by showing images of the creature attacking us or waddling out of its cage. Meanwhile, I babbled emotions like ¡®friendship¡¯ ¡®peace¡¯ ¡®violence?¡¯ and ¡®agreement¡¯ at the other party at the appropriate times, in hopes that some of our communication attempts were getting through.


    No hurt. If free, friend. Please let go home, sent the creature, after nearly ten minutes of failed communication.


    That was good enough for me.


    Now, the problem was how to actually free the creature.


    I didn¡¯t mind losing a little bit of my hand experimenting, so I started out by sticking the tip of my pinky finger through one of the windows in the dimensional chamber into the room where the creature was held.


    Immediately, I felt as if I had somehow stuck my finger into water. The way air worked, the way air pressure worked, and possibly, even the way atoms and molecules were joined together at the atomic level were different inside of the chamber. I couldn¡¯t pinpoint how, and I had no idea what exactly was different. But I knew for sure that the dimensional laws inside of the chamber had dimensional laws unlike those I was used to.


    And my finger did not like it.


    It felt like I had stuck my finger into a vat of ice. It also felt like my finger was boiling.


    I have absolutely no idea why either of these things were happening, but it was clear that the laws of reality inside of the dimensional subchamber did not agree with my biology.


    I hissed in pain, and decided that in a few seconds, I was going to pull out my finger if it didn¡¯t explode. I wanted to test the effects of the chamber on my flesh, but I also preferred not to need to regrow my finger later.


    Fortunately, the effects didn¡¯t get much worse. Even though my finger was definitely in a lot of pain, it wasn¡¯t unbearable.


    A few seconds later, I pulled my finger out. It was now slightly blue.


    ¡°Did it hurt?¡± asked Sallia, as she looked at my finger and winced.


    I nodded.


    ¡°Give me your finger.¡±


    I obediently gave Sallia access to my hand, and she inspected my pinky finger for a few seconds before I felt some absorption essence start to seep into my injury.


    I breathed a sigh of relief, and the blue discoloration on my skin quickly faded away.


    ¡°All right, my healing ability can mitigate the issues created by the dimensional laws in that chamber. I¡¯m going to go in, cut that creature free, and then run back. If something goes wrong, use the gravitite to pull me out or attack the creature with magic, if needed,¡± said Sallia. I quickly materialized my dimensional backpack and pulled out a massive chunk of gravitite, before we all got ready.


    Then, she leapt through one of the windows, ran up to the creature, and used her Market sword to slice apart the chains holding the creature down. Luckily, whatever its chains were made of were not resistant to my Market-sword, and she was able to slice through them like they were butter. She quickly returned to the window and leapt back outside of the chamber, and I breathed a sigh of relief.


    Sallia was safe, and the strange creature was free.

 Chapter 130: Dimensional Habitat Facility (5)

    Thank you, sent the creature. Its previous terror was starting to fade, and it no longer seemed like it would pass out from fear.


    I babbled a few ¡®friendly/peaceful¡¯ thoughts at it as Sallia retreated back out of the room. Meanwhile, the creature wobbled out of its restraints¡­ and then promptly collapsed onto the floor.


    Name is Sekundyrr. Many thanks for freeing me, sent the creature as it remained faceplanted onto the floor. What is name of you? Have name?


    I frowned, trying to figure out how to translate my name into any sort of mental babble that the creature would understand.


    I tried tying the concept of my name to one of the water bubbles, but quickly realized that it was a bit too complex for me to manage using general shaping and my rune ability. Despite several attempts, I failed to communicate anything beyond incoherent emotions and nonsense.


    Unfortunately, right now, my options were still quite limited when it came to doing mental communication.


    I sighed, and turned back to Sekundyrr. ¡°My name is Miria,¡± I called out, just in case the creature understood what I was saying.


    The creature didn¡¯t respond at all. I glanced at the creature that was still lying on the floor, and couldn¡¯t find anything resembling ears. I also recalled that Sekundyrr hadn¡¯t responded to any of the other sounds we made earlier, and shook my head.


    I was pretty sure that Sekundyrr was deaf.


    I decided that I would just have to ignore its request that we share our names for now. Instead, I focused on the fact that Sekundyrr was still faceplanted on the ground.


    Concern/worry? Hurt/pain? I sent at Sekundyrr, making sure to float my water bubbles closer to it so that it could actually see them. I glanced at the creature, wondering if lying on the ground was somehow relevant to its biology. It was very hard to tell what was or wasn¡¯t normal for Sekundyrr¡¯s species.


    Okay. Wobbly. Legs cramping, sent the creature. No name? You talk poor. Like baby babbling. Not smart? asked the creature, giving me a dubious look.


    Sallia looked at me and chuckled. I snorted and refused to look at her.


    My intelligence was above average in this life!


    Before I could ferociously tickle Sallia into realizing how great my intelligence was, Sekundyrr¡¯s torso of vines and plant matter expanded, growing several new appendages, and then quickly stabilized themselves by using the surrounding area as handholds to push the creature up.


    ¡°I suddenly feel a bit silly for worrying that it might attack us,¡± said Sallia, focused on the creature again. ¡°It can barely even walk.¡± She glanced at the several vine-appendages the creature had grown. ¡°Though I admit, Sekundyrr does look kind of scary like this.¡±


    Felix and Anise wordlessly nodded, also studying our new acquaintance¡¯s dozens of new limbs.


    ¡°If I had more alteration essence laying around, I would have probably healed it up a bit,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how my alteration essence works with muscle deterioration, and this might have been a good opportunity to see how my healing interacts with other species, too. I could have probably learned a lot.¡± Then, I sighed, and glanced at Felix¡¯s two fingers that were still half-burned off, and shook my head.


    Even though I felt bad for the creature, my friends had priority. I would heal them before I even thought about healing an alien creature that could attack us at any moment, even if Sekundyrr seemed all right. And right now, I needed to keep my remaining alteration essence ready for fighting.


    Thank. Bring home? Asked the creature, wobbling around as it slowly crawled its way across its former prison cell.


    I had no idea how to send Sekundyrr home, but if we found a portal to its home dimension or something, I would be happy to send it back. I had no idea how to communicate that idea, though, so for now, I just nodded and babbled ¡®good/hope¡¯ at the creature.


    Much like Sallia, Sekundyrr crawled out of one of the window-like openings in the room, before flopping out of the window and then collapsing onto the floor again.


    Concern/worry? I sent again. Although the creature had somehow survived centuries without any food or water, its body seemed to be in poor condition.


    The creature froze moments after it exited its prison cell, and I could hear a strange, rasping sound coming from it arms and legs. I frowned.


    The creature hadn¡¯t responded to my previous babbling.


    Concern/worry? I sent at the creature again.


    The creature still didn¡¯t respond.


    I started to get very worried.


    When I had stuck my pinky into the room where the creature was held, it had started to hurt and turn blue within seconds. This clearly implied that the laws of reality within the room were somehow harmful to my body. If some law of reality was different in our dimension, such as the way atoms bonded to each other or the way mana and biology interacted with each other, it was entirely possible that being outside of its prison cell would literally kill the creature.


    Concern/alarm/worry I sent at the creature, hoping it would respond.


    The creature started to violently squirm, and shuddered like a leaf in a storm.


    I hurriedly grabbed the creature and shoved it back into its prison cell, where the creature stopped shaking.


    Hurts, sent the creature, and I could feel a crushing psychic impression of pain imprinted into its message. I let the sensations embodied in its thoughts wash over me, and for a moment, I could feel the sensation of every cell in my body heating up, as if they were on fire. It was as if my blood was boiling and my entire body was about to turn into a raging bonfire, consuming even my soul in a horrendous explosion of heat and pain.


    Thank you. Can¡¯t¡­ can¡¯t leave cell? Sent the creature, and I could detect a note of extreme horror and sorrow in the creature¡¯s words.


    The creature had likely been trapped alone in this facility for centuries. Eventually, the four of us had come along and freed it from its bonds, letting it freely walk around its prison cell¡­ but in the end, its freedom was more of a cruel joke than a reality. It had been able to taste its freedom for less than a minute before it realized that its prison cell was the only thing keeping it alive.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    It was a minor miracle that the creature didn¡¯t go mad from frustration and despair on the spot.


    Finally, the creature sent the mental equivalent of a sigh.


    Cannot walk outside. Your friend walk inside cell. How?


    I glanced at Sallia.


    ¡°Does your healing rune¡­ work on this creature?¡± I asked.


    Sallia thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged.


    ¡°I have absolutely no idea. We can try, if Sekundyrr is willing.¡±


    Heal/happy/walk? I sent, hoping that the creature could somehow interpret what Sallia and I were proposing. The creature looked at the water bubbles I had floated near its face, and then its two eyes looked at me from inside of its cell.


    Even though Sekundyrr had no facial features besides eyes, I still got the distinct impression that was completely and utterly baffled by my attempt at communicating.


    Anise quickly realized I was having a hard time communicating, so she once again jumped in and started projecting pictures onto the floor near Sekundyrr¡¯s eyes. She showed magic light streaming out of Sallia¡¯s hands repairing various injuries, and then showed an image of Sallia shooting light at Sekundyrr while carrying Sekundyrr around outside of its cell. It was a bit rough, but I hoped Sekundyrr understood what we were trying to communicate.


    Walk. Hope heal. Try. If fail, not your fault. Thank you. sent Sekundyrr, sending a confused mixture of gratitude, sadness, and joy at me.


    Sallia leapt into Sekundyrr¡¯s room and picked it up, before lifting it like a sack of potatoes and dragging it out the door. At the same time, she started pouring absorption essence into the creature. She stopped moments later.


    Healthy/heal? I sent at the creature, hoping it understood what I meant.


    Not hurt! Sent Sekundyrr. Thank you much! Can leave!


    ¡°How bad is the essence consumption to keep Sekundyrr alive outside of its cell?¡± I asked Sallia.


    She paused, closing her eyes for a few moments to concentrate. ¡°It¡¯s not great, but it¡¯s not bad, either. I could probably keep this up for ten hours, I think? The biggest problem would be sleeping and fighting. I can¡¯t really do either if I need to hover around Sekundyrr to keep it healthy. And I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to just rely on just you to fight all of our battles for us,¡± said Sallia. ¡°After all, your essence consumption is atrocious, even if you have exceptional lethality when you use extinguish.¡±


    I nodded, and then sighed. ¡°Maybe we should just leave Sekundyrr in its prison until or unless we find a way to return it home?¡± I said, after hesitating. Freeing Sekundyrr and then just leaving it in its prison cell felt¡­ awful, but I didn¡¯t know what else to do. If we found a way to send it home, that would be ideal, of course, but what if we didn¡¯t? On the other hand, what if we died while we were exploring? If we freed Sekundyrr only to get it killed right afterwards, I felt like that would be even worse than just leaving it inside of its cell.


    Felix, meanwhile, started probing the insides of Sekundyrr¡¯s cell using his alteration essence, before he sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t see any rare materials or any ways to take the dimensional laws inside of the cell with us. So there¡¯s no easy way to fix this problem.¡±


    We started trying to explain our problem to Sekundyrr as best we could, but the creature was understandably upset at the idea of being left in its cage. We did, at the very least, eventually work out a better communication method with Sekundyrr, by having it repeat what it thought we were saying back to us whenever we said something.


    Finally, after a great deal of very rough communication, we agreed to take Sekundyrr around with us while we explored the dimensional facility.


    I personally felt it was too dangerous. Sekundyrr also acknowledged that it might die during this journey¡­ and it seemed all right with that. Even if Sallia was forced to drop it on the floor in order to defend herself during a fight, Sekundyrr claimed that it wouldn¡¯t mind, even if that caused it to die.


    Apparently, the creature found the prospect of spending another day inside of its cell intolerable, now that freedom was so close. However limited its actions were, and however reliant it was on Sallia¡¯s help to keep moving around, Sekundyrr didn¡¯t want to stay stuck in its cell. To be honest, I didn¡¯t blame it at all. Sallia indicated she was fine with it too, although she intended to move Sekundyrr back to its cell whenever she was running low on absorption essence or needed to sleep.


    The five of us started slowly walking through the rest of room four. We found several other creatures imprisoned inside of various dimensional cells, many of which Sekundyrr was able to identify for us. Most of them were long dead, and Sekundyrr noted that those creatures needed things like food and water to live, while his own species (and several of the ones that were imprisoned) had no such needs, and also didn¡¯t really have any effective limit on their lifespan. Apparently, so long as Sekundyrr wasn¡¯t killed, it wouldn¡¯t die of anything like disease or old age.


    Sekundyrr was also happy to single out which creatures were hostile or territorial, and I was happy to remove those creatures using extinguish after my friends weakened it a bit to get assists.


    The first hostile creature we came across was a plant that was rooted in the soil, but the top half looked like it had grown into a bear. Its bear half snapped and snarled at us, and so Sallia, Felix, and Anise blasted it with some spells and arrows before letting me finish it off with an extinguish, since I was the only one that had an ability like {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} right now.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Voltenthus for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +115


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Voltenthus for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength of the forest: Increase your Strength by 10 whenever you are surrounded by plants.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The creature died instantly when I hit it with a rather low-powered extinguish. Its vitality was nowhere near as hard to snuff out as creatures such as the Orukthyri, and my attunement was also expert grade now. I found wiping out weaker creatures like this relatively easy.


    My Achievement went from 15,418 to 15,533, which was a nice boost. The Skill {Strength of the Forest} seemed quite useless, so I didn¡¯t even think about picking it up. It was simply worse than all of the skills I had right now.


    Then, in another cell, we found a creature that looked like a human-sized wooden figurine that was shaped vaguely like a human screaming. This creature was the most creepy one we had seen so far from Sekundyrr¡¯s dimension: it looked almost like a voodoo doll, rather than a living creature.


    However, the moment it saw us, it started trying to establish some sort of connection between us. Moments after we saw it, my limbs felt uncharacteristically heavy, as if they had been weighed down by lead, and it became harder to breathe with each passing second. It felt like something was squeezing my lungs. I saw Sallia¡¯s arms sag, before she started putting more strength into her grip.


    Anise started making unpleasant coughing sounds.


    I immediately realized the creature was somehow interacting with me using binding essence, and before anyone could say anything, blasted it with a full-power extinguish, eating up most of the rest of my alteration essence. I didn¡¯t know what the creature was doing, but if it was able to make it harder and harder for me to breathe when my Fortitude was grade 11, it clearly needed to die before it killed Felix or Anise.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a silent puppet for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This brought my Achievement up to 15,833.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Silent Puppet for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    A curse upon the world: Increase your binding essence stat by 13, and make it easier to bind heaviness and organic matter together.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The skill description for {Curse Upon the World} baffled me. I had no idea what ¡®binding heaviness and organic matter together¡¯ meant, beyond what I could guess from the word choice used. I had no idea what that meant in concrete terms. Felix seemed very interested in the word choice for the Skill when I told him about it, which was something, but I mostly left baffled.


    The skill {A Curse upon the World} was also rather useless to me, so I didn¡¯t even bother thinking about equipping it. I had no use for my binding essence stat right now.


    That was the only other living creature we found in room three. We also found several piles of ruined research notes, but we couldn¡¯t make out anything useful from those. There didn¡¯t seem to be any special resources present in the room, which left us with nothing else to interact with.


    Silently, we started heading towards room 4 of the Dimensional Habitat Facility.

 Chapter 131: Dimensional Habitat Facility (6)

    A few minutes later, the five of us arrived at the fourth major room. I had to admit, Sallia lugging around Sekundyrr as we walked through the hallways of the facility was a rather absurd sight. However, Sekundyrr seemed incredibly excited to move around a little bit, even if he could only do so while being carried around like a sack of potatoes by Sallia.


    The fourth room reminded me of the second room. There was no life inside of the room. In fact, as far as I could tell, there was nothing at all inside of each of the sub-chambers of the room. I looked at them for almost a full minute, trying to figure out what was even being tested in this room, before I gave up and looked at Felix.


    ¡°Any ideas what this room is for?¡± I asked. ¡°I can feel the laws of reality being distorted inside of each sub-chamber, but I¡¯m not sure how.¡±


    Felix also shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know either. I wish-¡± he stopped mid-sentence, and then grinned and pointed at something.


    I looked at the spot he was pointing at, and then blinked in surprise.


    In the first three rooms, whatever research notes had originally been made by the researchers had long been lost. Time had slowly caused all of the notes to deteriorate, until they were basically just piles of dust. By room four, I hadn¡¯t even bothered looking at the research notes in the room, because I had assumed they would also be so deteriorated that they were just garbage. I had been fully prepared to guess the purpose of the room through trial and error.


    However, in this room, there was a single pile of preserved notes. Unlike the other chambers, these papers had clearly been made of a different material. This paper had a distinctive gold tint to it, and was also significantly thicker than the papers we had found in other rooms. This material had also allowed the papers to remain relatively undamaged by the ravages of time and neglect.


    I quickly walked over to the research notes, and then very carefully picked up the first document I could see. I kept the tiny dregs of alteration essence left in my body ready as well, just in case the notes started falling apart after I picked them up.


    Luckily, the notes held together just fine under my careful movements. The script was a little hard to read, since writing styles and some rules about grammar and language had changed a little over the centuries. However it was still possible to read the old research notes, even if it took me a little time to decipher what each word meant.


    I quickly angled the papers so that Sallia, Felix, and Anise could also read the papers, and began to scan the documents.


    19th of Dwarium


    Test 17:


    We have finally found that a mixture of gravitite and paper mixed together in a ratio of 1:23, along with a small amount of Elethyrr sap, allows us to create a type of paper that does not explode if one of the room four dimensional chambers goes out of control. This will hopefully reduce the number of accidents in the future.


    Gravitite itself seems to be oddly compatible with the dimensional attributes of dimension four, far more than our own dimension¡¯s Gravinium and Gravinium extract. We are uncertain why: researcher Bethel believes that it is because the way atoms bond to each other in dimension one, including gravtitie, is based entirely on the atomic interactions between essences, but doesn¡¯t seem to distinguish between types of essence. Since dimension four is overloaded with large quantities of all four essences, perhaps the unique nature of gravitite allows it to survive exposure to dimension four¡¯s laws.


    I believe that her idea makes sense, but further testing is required.


    I nodded as I scanned the document. It was clearly some kind of research journal. The idea of papers exploding when exposed to dimension four¡¯s laws made me chuckle a little bit, although it also made me wonder if I was lucky that nothing had exploded while we messed with the sub-chambers of each room. Perhaps it was a good idea to tone our experimentation down a little bit.


    22nd of Dwarium


    Organic Undenthyri Sub-experiment.


    Another expedition from dimension four has returned. The seventeenth experimental breed of Undenthyri seems to have suffered a great deal of damage during the expedition: apparently, anytime they remain within the dimension for more than five days total, their organs begin to fall apart.


    I have taken several of their children and begun modifying their organs, to see if there is a more stable composition I can create. I tried to slightly nudge the dimensional laws that their livers and hearts ran off of, with the idea of creating an inheritable trait that was more suited to mining dimension four. Thus far, I have yet to succeed in finding a more stable composition: most of the children died shortly after testing. I suspect that if I hyperspecialize their organs, their livers and hearts start to fail upon contact with our own dimension¡¯s laws. More testing is needed to verify this assumption.


    Perhaps I should have begun with an Orukthyri baseline instead. The Orukthyri are quite difficult to breed with the other slaves because they have a strong tendency to eat their partners rather than produce more test subjects. However, I could still take one of the half-Orukthyri and see if they are more capable of holding themselves together in dimension four. Perhaps if we can find a way to make the Orukthyri genes less dominant, we can create a better mining species.


    I grimaced after reading the next entry.


    The casual way that the researcher mentioned trying and failing to modify the heats and livers of Undenthyri children made me feel sick. Life under the Ortha had clearly been more than a little horrifying.


    The dawn of the black sun had unquestionably been a catastrophe for this world as a whole, but I couldn¡¯t say it was a bad thing that the second Orthan empire had disappeared into history.


    23rd of Dwarium


    Update on Undenthyri Subj-experiment.


    The half-Orukthyri half-Undenthyri slaves exploded immediately upon contact with dimension four. It is unknown why.


    Clearly, my next attempts at modification were not successful.


    29th of Dwarium


    Test 18:


    After more tinkering, I have finally managed to replicate the conditions of dimension four inside of one of our sub-chamber testing facilities! I started out by taking one of the massive insectoid creatures that we found drifting between stars in that sub-dimension and then dissecting its organs, to use as further experimental data. After stuffing the creature¡¯s brain inside of one of the sub-chambers of room four, I finally managed to use it to examine the unique energy systems of that dimension. From there, I believe I have perfectly replicated the conditions of dimension four.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    With this, the costs of further experiments should be drastically reduced. It will be much easier to test organ and genetic modifications in the future, so long as nothing goes wrong.


    Dimension four has too many unique and useful resources, but retraining Undenthyri mining teams every week is simply too expensive. Finding a way to optimize a slave race subspecies for further mining use is critical if we wish to extract resources efficiently.


    31st of Dwarium


    New organic sub-experiment


    Placed one of the insectoid creatures from dimension four into our dimensional sub-chamber. Tests show that the creature is living well, exactly as if it were living in its original dimension. We can detect no other abnormalities.


    34th of Dwarium


    Item crafting test


    The first attempts at creating artifacts using the unique environment we copied in dimension four have failed. We originally expected that since atomic bonds seem to be made of pure mana in that dimension, we would be able to create a rather interesting set of equipment for the Orukthyri, and had some hopes that the artifacts may even survive exposure to other dimensional conditions.


    Sadly, the first four attempts at creating a set of swords resulted in explosions. It seems that any of the metals we have found from other dimensions are unable to stick together after being exposed to dimension four¡¯s environment. Apart from gravitite, but that is far too expensive to use for mere Orukthyri weapons and armor.


    It seems that we may be restricted to mining in dimension four, if the dimensional laws are as hostile to other types of matter as they seem to be. How unfortunate.


    39th of Dwarium


    Plans for future experiments


    The dimension scouting team has found another dimension near us. This one seems quite a bit more unusual than even dimension four and the unstable laws of dimension five. They claim that it is likely a plane with an exceptionally high amount of mana inside of it.


    If we can harvest the newly found dimension for energy, perhaps we can power all sorts of wondrous items and raise our civilization to an entirely new level.


    The first Orthan empire somehow accessed the sea of stars, which lies far beyond our planet¡¯s surface, and floated into space with almost a quarter of the planet¡¯s mass. Perhaps they, too, had begun exploring the dimensions that lie outside of our home dimension before they launched themselves into space.


    And since we are much superior to the ancients in intellect, bravery, and courage, we will surely succeed where they failed in the past.


    41st of Dwarium


    The first testing chamber for dimension six has been created. The laws of reality in that dimension are very distinct, and also quite unusual. One of the scepters personally created the sub-chamber, so it should be quite accurate.


    The fact that the black scepter personally took action is testament to just how unique dimension six is. Her dimensional replication spells are known to be quite exceptional, but she does not usually bother taking action for less important tests like this.


    42nd of Dwarium


    Dimension six materials test


    I have taken a small sample of blood from a creature of dimension six and placed it inside of a dimension six testing chamber, to see how it held together.


    The results are fascinating.


    The drops of blood that we placed inside of the testing chamber did nothing for several hours. Then, they came to life. We are uncertain exactly how this works, since most exploration and attempts at harvesting resources from dimension six have failed. The dimensional laws of dimension six don¡¯t seem to have anything to do with life, making the entire situation even more unusual.


    As far as we can tell so far, Dimension six appears to be some sort of¡­ plane of ¡®ideas,¡¯ for lack of a better term. Physical space barely exists, although the dimensional laws related to time seem to have stabilized fairly well in that dimension.


    Every single object in existence in dimension six is, in some way, shape, or form, alive. Even the space between the stars in that dimension seems to be observing our exploration teams, according to the few survivors that managed to return.


    The black scepter has ordered us to try placing some weapons and armor inside of the testing chamber for dimension six later, to see if they naturally improve after exposure to the environment of dimension six.


    It is a most fascinating dimension. When we succeed in subjugating the dimension, the resources we harvest from it will surely be exceptional.


    Past that point, the research notes were cut off. However, the research notes were quite interesting in what they revealed.


    I strongly suspected that ¡®dimension six¡¯ was the home of the black sun. It simply fit too well with my own assumptions about the dimension, which was that it was a ¡®plane of ideas¡¯ of some sort. Furthermore, many of the pieces of paper that lay underneath the research notes I had found were blank, indicating that the writer had originally intended to fill them out with more notes at some point.


    In other words, something had probably happened to the author of these notes shortly after this dimension had connected to dimension six.


    While it could have been a coincidence, it just lined up very well with my understanding of history and the home dimension of the black sun.


    ¡°Well, we should be extra careful when we enter the sixth room in this facility,¡± said Felix. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s the origin of the black sun, and so it might be filled with more weird monsters. Though I also admit that I¡¯m quite curious to see what¡¯s actually inside of room six. Perhaps we can get a large amount of Achievement inside of that room, if we are careful¡­¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s finish looking over this room and then look at room five, first,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s discuss what we¡¯re doing about room six afterwards.¡±


    The four of us nodded, and then started slowly working our way through room four to see if we could find anything valuable.


    Anise eventually found a kind of stone that was floating in midair in one of the dimensional chambers, which we only examined for a few moments before we stuffed it into my dimensional pack.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Own 1 kilogram of prismium


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I was very surprised to realize that this random-looking rock was vastly more valuable than the Gravitite and plant core that we had found so far. It single-handedly boosted my Achievement from  15,833 to 16,833. Which was a very sizable increase in Achievement: my overall goal of around 24,000 Achievement was getting closer and closer with every room we explored.


    Apart from that, Anise found some strange corpses near the edge of one of the sub-chambers. They looked almost like giant flies. Each one was about the size of my head.


    I suspected these were the insects the research notes had discussed, which were the original inhabitants of dimension four.


    Apart from that, we didn¡¯t find anything else.


    Before leaving the room, Felix decided to mess with the Prismium and see if he could figure out what it was useful for. It wasn¡¯t made of metal, so he couldn¡¯t use his attunement to warp it, but it was still another potential tool available to us if we could figure out what it did.


    After taking it out of my dimensional backpack, the Prismium immediately began to float again.


    That was all we could figure out, unfortunately.


    It didn¡¯t react to any essence we had, unlike Gravitite. It wasn¡¯t particularly hard, and Sallia accidentally nicked a bit of the Prismium with her sword while gently poking it. As far as we could tell, the Prismium was just a magically floating rock. The only other weird thing we could figure out was that the Prismium didn¡¯t seem to need any energy input to keep floating. Which was odd, but didn¡¯t seem to justify its incredible Achievement reward at all.


    Eventually, we gave up and kept moving. There were only two rooms left in the dimensional habitat facility.

 Chapter 132: Dimensional Habitat Facility (7)

    The fifth room was creepy.


    Not in the same way I imagined the dimension of the black sun was, where, according to the research notes we had found, everything was alive in some fashion. Instead, it was like we had walked into a furnace.


    Every single sub-chamber of the fifth room was filled with light and heat. Unlike the other four chambers, the chambers in room five didn¡¯t have any sort of alteration-essence induced changes in the laws of reality at all. Instead, every single sub-chamber was reinforced to a completely ridiculous extent. Whatever metal the sub-chamber walls were made of were probably capable of withstanding a force equivalent to hundreds of Sallias hitting them as hard as they could. And by my estimation, right now, ten to twenty Sallias could probably rip apart iron with their bare hands.


    Even more bizarre, however, was what lay inside of the sub-chambers.


    The previous sub-chambers had obviously been testing facilities of some sort. The first room had been filled with gravity-testing chambers, the second room had been filled with chambers related to testing some aspect of time, the third room was devoted to housing and imprisoning various life forms, and room four related to miscellaneous organic and material tests.


    However, what was contained inside the sub-chambers of room six were giant clumps of light, heat, and mana.


    There was no physical matter to speak of. There weren¡¯t even any laws of reality to speak of. As far as I could tell, it was almost like each glob of light, heat, and mana was just¡­ pure, compacted energy and chaos.


    And each was also incredibly hot.


    The walls were clearly designed to keep the heat inside of each sub-chamber from affecting the rest of the chamber. The floors also like magic items built to cool down people walking on them, and there were dozens of layers of alteration essence-based heat shields surrounding each chamber. There were even a few layers of Prismarium, which made me think that perhaps the material was somehow related to absorbing heat.


    It was also clear that the floors and heat-shields weren¡¯t quite doing their job. It was hot.


    ¡°What in the world is this?¡± asked Sallia, glancing at the globs of light and heat.


    Very hot. Unpleasant, sent Sekundyrr. Anise nodded in agreement.


    Felix grabbed a clod of dirt, and then tried pushing it past some of the layers of shielding.


    The layers of magical shielding didn¡¯t seem to restrict physical objects from passing through, so the clod of dirt simply rolled forward. It even rolled through the Prismium layers, which made me feel quite confused. Did the strange rock somehow turn into a gas when it was ¡®activated¡¯ or something? And how were we supposed to turn it on?


    My questions and confusion about Prismium disappeared when, after passing through the fourth heat-shield, the clod of dirt started to glow orange.


    After passing through the fifth heat-shield, it started to look strangely liquified.


    After passing through the seventh heat-shield, the clod of dirt burned with a peculiar black-green flame.


    And after passing through the eighth heat-shield, the clod of dirt turned directly into molten slag and stopped moving entirely.


    I blinked.


    I had been thinking that the heat-shields simply weren¡¯t doing their job, but maybe they were doing their job quite well. It was just that whatever the globs of mana, light, and heat were, they were way hotter than I thought they were.


    I looked around, hoping to find some research notes. I couldn¡¯t find any paper notes laying around the facility: however, I did find a metal plaque engraved with the words ¡®Fragment of an unborn dimension - part 1¡¯ placed in front of the first chamber.


    Most of the other metal chambers had similar metal plaques placed near them.


    ¡°It seems that they¡¯re literally components of an unborn dimension,¡± I said, feeling a strange mixture of wonder and bafflement. ¡°But why?¡±


    ¡°I think they were trying to use it as a crafting material,¡± said Felix, as his eyes started to shine. ¡°I remember reading something about that in the Market, at least. It was¡­ that record of a conversation we stumbled onto last time, I think?¡± said Felix. ¡°My memory is a little fuzzy, but I remember the conversation we found discussing something about most newborn dimensions imploding, and turning into unstable globs of supermana. or something like that. And how they were amazing crafting materials.¡±


    Felix looked around the room, and a few moments later, he picked up an object that looked like a giant metal pair of tongs. He studied it carefully, and messed with it a few times, before he nodded. ¡°Maybe they used this thing to try to extract bits of the unborn dimension without extracting the whole thing?¡± he said, shrugging. ¡°I mean, I¡¯m going purely off of guesswork here, but it at least seems reasonable to me.¡±


    ¡°A crafting material?¡± said Sallia, her eyes widening. ¡°I suddenly have a lot more respect for whoever tried to turn something like this into a sword or something,¡± she said, glancing at the blob of superhot mana-plasma. ¡°I can¡¯t help but imagine most people just melting into tiny flecks of ash the moment they put it on a forge. And trying to figure out how to melt down an unborn dimension must be nightmarishly difficult.¡±


    I tried analyzing the ¡®unborn dimension¡¯ using my magical senses, and was forced to retract them a moment later. Just looking at the dimension had given me a highly unpleasant barrage of different ¡®understandings¡¯ of the same thing, which led to a massive headache. However, I could at least understand a little bit more about what I was looking at.


    What I had seen before pulling my magical senses away was¡­ complex.


    As we had worked our way through the facility and investigated more and more things related to other dimensions, I had started to get a better understanding of how dimensional laws worked. Normally, dimensions had certain laws that dictated how things worked inside of them. For example, a dimension might have a certain set of laws that ensured that ¡®all objects create gravity based on their mass,¡¯ or ¡®Gravity is only created when Gravitite is fed a certain amount of essence.¡¯ Every single dimension had laws that dictated how reality worked, and some dimensions were capable of sustaining life, while some weren¡¯t.


    However, every single room we had investigated so far had dimensional laws that were, at the very least, coherent. While I may not have been able to investigate in-depth what those laws were, I had at least been able to sense that they were there and didn¡¯t directly contradict each other.


    The ¡®unborn dimension¡¯ was very different.


    It felt like it had dozens of different laws about how some principles of reality worked. And several of those principles were the polar opposites each other.


    My magical senses felt as if they were trying to tell me that gravity and heat were the same thing, and also weren¡¯t the same thing. Time flowed at ten times the same rate inside of the ¡®unborn dimension,¡¯ and also flowed at half the speed of our current time rate. It was like heat was light, but light was actually water, which was actually cold.


    The way that reality itself worked was unstable inside of the glob of mana, so instead of becoming a fully built dimension, the whole thing had just imploded into a contradictory mass of conflicting laws of reality, all held together by a completely ridiculous amount of mana.


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    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much of the unborn dimension was even stored in this room. Dimensions were massive, after all. Was this even a trillionth of a percent of the full unborn dimension? What would it look like if someone took an entire unborn dimension and tried to turn that into some sort of magic item? The tiny fragments in these rooms already made me feel like I was boiling alive.


    Felix tried taking the massive set of tongs and moving it closer to the glob of mana, but the tongs started to melt as they got past the first few layers of heat shields. Felix frowned, and then shook his head.


    ¡°It¡¯s been neglected for too long,¡± he said, shaking his head as he looked at the tongs. ¡°Or I¡¯m mistaken in what they were supposed to do. I don¡¯t think we have any way to safely extract even a few drops of the unborn dimension. Shame. I imagine we could probably get a crazy amount of Achievement for owning it, but¡­ I don¡¯t see any way at all we can access it.¡±


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s for the best. We have no good way to cool it down,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°Maybe Miria could cool it down with her ocean magic?¡± asked Anise.


    I experimentally sent out a wisp of alteration essence at the unborn dimension, just to see if I could cool it down, and then shook my head.


    ¡°I think it would probably take a few thousand years to get it to a temperature that wouldn¡¯t melt us on contact with it,¡± I said. ¡°There is no way I can cool it down on any practical timescale at all.¡±


    Anise looked a bit disappointed, but she nodded.


    The five of us kicked around the room for a while longer, observing the various chunks of ¡®unborn dimension¡¯ that were stored in the room. But we couldn¡¯t think of any way to take advantage of the unborn dimension chunks, at least without turning ourselves into subatomic ash. Eventually, we gave up.


    After that, we decided to take a break for several hours before moving on to the sixth room. We already knew it might be dangerous in the sixth room, and I was running low on alteration essence. Felix¡¯s fingers were also still partially missing.


    We apologized to Sekundyrr, and explained why we needed to return it to an environment it could survive in without our assistance. Sekundyrr seemed grumpy, and asked that we at least put it in a different cell than the one it had spent the last several centuries in.


    We agreed, and then camped out in room three a short distance away from Sekundyrr. Even if we had to return it to a prison cell for a while, we could at least let whoever was on watch duty chat with it for a while.


    When we woke up in the morning, everyone was fairly recharged. I took advantage of my significantly replenished alteration essence reserves and restored our group¡¯s various physical ailments, such as Felix¡¯s fingers. After we waited for my alteration essence to replenish again, we were ready to go. We left Sekundyrr behind, since this wasn¡¯t just a bit dangerous - there was a good chance we would be walking into a battlefield, if something had gone wrong.


    It was time to enter the final room.


    The room related to dimension six.


    The home of the black sun.


    When we stepped into the final room of the dimensional habitat facility, I felt as if something was watching me.


    Not just one thing, in fact. It was almost like the walls themselves were alive, peering at me from the corners of my eyes and preparing to attack me the moment I turned my back on them.


    Anise shivered.


    ¡°I do not like this room,¡± she said.


    Sallia nodded wordlessly, and pulled out her weapon.


    I looked around, trying to figure out whether the walls were really alive and watching me. It wasn¡¯t something I would have originally been wary of, but after the research notes we had found in room four, I was very aware of the potential for random objects to attack me after being exposed to dimension six¡¯s dimensional laws.


    I didn¡¯t see anything, so after a moment, I swapped to my soul-sight.


    The walls were not alive, thankfully. However, plenty of other things in the room were alive.


    The first thing I noticed was that space itself was alive. Inside of each sub-chamber, a yawning black void animated by a soul seemed to be staring straight at us. And there were also a few other miscellaneous souls scattered throughout each sub-chamber. A few drops of blood floating inside of one of the chambers was alive, and each drop of blood had grown to the size of my fist. In another sub-chamber, a pen, the ink inside of it, and a stack of papers were glaring at us as if they wanted to rip our bodies apart and investigate our organs.


    Almost every single sub-chamber had its own share of strange, dangerous-looking life forms.


    ¡°Each sub-chamber is filled with souls,¡± I said, after a few moments. Then, I frowned.


    I felt the voids in each sub-chamber start to mess with space somehow. The flavor of dimensional manipulation polluted my tongue like cloying acid, sweet and bitter and disgusting all at once. The air in front of us seemed to ripple, faintly enough that I could barely see it.


    I opened my mouth and started tasting the air around us in greater detail, before decisively clamping my jaws shut near Sallia¡¯s neck.


    A string of broken space collapsed apart, like a bubble popping. Several strands of broken space fell to the floor, where I stopped tasting them. For a moment, I thought I had shut off the creature¡¯s attack.


    Then, my eyes widened as I saw a new pitch-black soul appear on the floor in front of us. It was noodle shaped, and much weaker than the previous attack. But it was clearly alive.


    ¡°Get out of the room!¡± I said, nearly growling, before I chewed up a few more spatial attacks targeting our group.


    Everyone else nodded, and we immediately retreated back towards room 5. However, I could still feel tendrils of spatial manipulation reaching towards us as we moved away. I quickly used my fifth rune ability to bite them all to shreds, but little broken fragments of space seemed to stick around even after I cut off each attack.


    Sallia laughed bitterly. ¡°The Orthans¡­ really had no clue what they were doing when they explored the Multiverse. Even though they were very successful in exploring their first five dimensions, their holding cells don¡¯t even work for the stuff from the sixth dimension. The fact that the stuff inside hasn¡¯t left already seems to be because they didn¡¯t feel like it¡±


    ¡°Are you doing all right, Miria?¡± asked Anise.


    I nodded, although I kept using my teeth to shred apart spatial probes and attempts to connect with our bodies. The shredded bits of space were starting to gain souls of their own, and I didn¡¯t have enough alteration essence to kill everything. I thought about it for a moment, before I turned towards Sallia¡¯s sword. ¡°Try the gravitite!¡± I said in between chomps. I had no idea whether the gravitite would allow Sallia¡¯s sword to cut through the little sentient strings of broken space, but we needed to deal with them before they attacked us.


    Sallia experimentally tried slicing at the air in front of her, directly slicing into one of the air ripples while powering her sword with some essence.


    Nothing happened.


    Before Sallia could curse, Anise formed a fourth-circle spell I had never seen before. It used two magic symbols I didn¡¯t recognize, in addition to several other components, such as stone, transform, light, and speed. As I used my fifth rune ability to hold off the encroaching chunks of broken space, Anise finished forming all 85 magic symbols for a standard fourth-circle spell in just a few seconds.


    A black beam of light shot out of Anise¡¯s hands, before touching the air in front of her. And then, everything seemed to slow down, as if it had been locked in place.


    Including the strange, noodle-shaped spatial distortions that were somehow alive.


    Anise gave me a cheeky grin.


    I immediately started spraying extinguishes at the creatures, doing my best to off a few of them. I ignored my System notifications - I could deal with them later. After a moment of hesitation, Felix grinned.


    ¡°Miria, give me some Gravitite! A lot of it!¡± He said.


    I immediately tossed him a huge hunk of Gravitite.


    He flooded the gravitite with mana, making it pull and tear at everything in the room.


    And then, he threw the Gravitite directly towards one of the fragments of an unborn dimension.


    All of the spatial noodle creatures were dragged through a few layers of heat shields, where they were promptly melted into nothing. Since they were just living spatial distortions, their body weight was practically nothing, and whatever the Gravitite was made of, it was able to influence even the conceptual creatures of dimension six.


    ¡°I got kill notificiations. We should have dealt with them successfully,¡± said Felix, after a few moments. He grinned.


    ¡°Nice job!¡± I said, trying to taste the air around us for any further spatial distortions. At the same time, I flashed a grin at Felix and Anise. It was nice to see them doing their own amazing things.


    Luckily, it seemed like the living chunks of void inside of room six had exhausted themselves. If we wanted to kill them, now would probably be the idea chance, but I was rather afraid of the other strange creatures in the room launching their own attacks at us.


    ¡°The living bits of empty space probably aren¡¯t the only dangers in that room. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a good idea to explore room six at all,¡± Sallia said.


    I nodded.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just grab Sekundyrr and go,¡± said Anise.


    Everyone else nodded, and we quickly picked up Sekundyrr and started running towards the entrance of the building.


    We had probably gotten everything we could out of the Dimensional Habitat Facility. We needed to go deeper into the city now. We still hadn¡¯t found a way to cut off this dimension¡¯s connection to the world of the black sun, or a way to revive the use of magic items. So we needed to go deeper, until we succeeded or perished.

 Chapter 133: Empty

    After we exited the building, we took a few moments to rest. The fight against the strange void creatures from room six hadn¡¯t been the most dangerous fight we had ever been in: in fact, the hostile creatures hadn¡¯t even had a chance to attack before Felix killed them all. However, fighting creatures that couldn¡¯t be hurt by physical attacks and were extremely hard to track had still put a fair bit of mental pressure on us, so we took a few moments to center our minds again.


    After that, I finally checked my System notifications.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a voidless for the first time, fifth time


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a voidless for the first time, fifth time, fifteenth time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100, +200, +15, + 30, +50


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased by 395, going from 16,833 to 17,228. I had honestly expected the little noodle-shaped remnants of living void to be worth a bit more, but I supposed it wasn¡¯t too bad of a harvest either way. Perhaps their offensive abilities were weaker than expected, and that was why their Achievement reward was a bit on the lower side?


    Either way, the final rewards from the Dimensional Facility weren¡¯t bad at all. When we had walked into the dimensional habitat facility, I had only had 14,818 Achievement. Even though the dimensional facility had been dangerous in the final room, the building had provided us with rich rewards. The wide variety of unique materials, all of which were magical or powerful, meant that it was surprisingly easy to get Wealth Achievement inside of the building. Getting around 2500 Achievement in about a day was a bigger income boost than any of the previous boosts we had received in this world. I was extremely happy with the results.


    Just as I was looking over my Achievement total in satisfaction, I got another System notification.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Help one Palanthyrre escape its imprisonment


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased to 17,328. I glanced at the building we had just left, and felt a moment of confusion before I shrugged.


    Honestly, I hadn¡¯t expected to get any reward at all for helping Sekundyrr. I had just felt it was the right thing to do. But getting an Achievement reward was nice, if a bit baffling. Right now, our group had no practical method of keeping Sekundyrr with us long-term. After all, Sekundyrr still needed healing to stay alive outside of its cage, meaning that we would need to return it to its cell anytime we went to sleep or Sallia needed a break.


    The fact that we got Achievement despite these massive unresolved issues was more than a little strange, honestly. But I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails out of the odd notification, so after confirming Sallia and Felix also got the same reward, we simply decided to move on.


    Outside. It¡¯s beautiful¡­ sent Sekundyrr as we started walking again. I blinked, and stopped.


    I stared at the ragged wasteland that had been mostly exterminated by the rays of the black sun, the distant corpses of creatures that had once inhabited this world, and the partially ruined palace in the distance. There were still a few resilient patches of pink plants and foliage in the distance, which was basically the only thing I genuinely found beautiful in the world right now. Most of this world looked like it was a warzone. Sekundyrr¡¯s assertion that the world was beautiful also struck me as strange.


    Then, I shook my head.


    Even if it looked quite ugly to me, perhaps Sekundyrr¡¯s civilization had different aesthetic standards. Or maybe it had just been cooped up in its cell for so long that any change of scenery was beautiful in its eyes. It was hard to say. At least Sekundyrr felt good about its environment right now.


    Then, I stopped, and squinted at the sky.


    Was the black sun bigger than before? Or was it just my imagination?


    ¡°Does the black sun look different to you guys?¡± I asked.


    Felix, Sallia, and Anise looked at the black sun, before they also frowned.


    ¡°It definitely looks just a little bit bigger than before,¡± said Sallia, after concentrating for a few moments.


    ¡°Whatever it¡¯s doing, it¡¯s speeding up,¡± said Felix, shaking his head.


    Anise didn¡¯t say anything, but the four of us stewed in our realization for a moment.


    The black sun had gotten ever so slightly bigger between our flight to Silver City and our return to the wastes. That had already been worrisome, but at least it had taken over a decade.


    Then, as we travelled through the wastes, instead of finding hordes of monsters to kill, we found a wasteland filled with dead or dying natives of this world. We hadn¡¯t stumbled across many Outside creatures, but we had seen an object from the dimension of the black sun, which nobody else had ever witnessed before.


    Now, the black sun had grown noticeably larger in the day we had spent inside the Dimensional Habitat Facility.


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    I had a sneaking suspicion that the black sun was getting very close to finishing whatever it was doing to this planet. And that realization made my gut churn with anxiety.


    Perhaps even finding a way to restore item creation to the world wouldn¡¯t be enough to give this world a fighting chance at surviving anymore. I had originally imagined that cities might find a way to create walls that could fend off the incursion of the black sun, or something like that. This, combined with other inventions in the future, could at least give the people of this world a fighting chance at reversing whatever the black sun was doing. It would be a slim hope, but there would be some sort of hope for the future of this world. However, when I looked at the black sun now, I started wondering if it was too late for item creation to combat the influence of the black sun. In fact, I started wondering if there was any hope for this world at all.


    ¡°I see three buildings that are nearby,¡± said Sallia, breaking me out of my thoughts as she pointed out three specks in the distance. ¡°I think that one says ¡®species breeding facility,¡¯ so I imagine it¡¯s quite useless to us. Unless there¡¯s another Sekundyrr inside, but that seems unlikely. The second building is called¡­¡± Sallia squinted, and then shook her head. ¡°I think the sign is on the other side of the building. I don¡¯t see one anywhere. I have no idea what¡¯s inside of it. The third building is called equipment production facility C.¡± Sallia said. She glanced at Felix.


    I glanced at Felix.


    Anise stared straight at Felix.


    Felix looked at the three of us. ¡°Why are you looking at me like that? I do want to check out equipment production facility C, but if the three of you want to check out the mystery facility, we can do that too. I¡¯ll abide by the group decision.¡± he said. He still looked a little excited, but didn¡¯t push us to go to the equipment production facility, even if I could definitely tell he wanted to go there.


    I chuckled. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the equipment production facility and see if we can get some more Wealth Achievement. I do honestly think it sounds like a promising building, I just wanted to mess with you a bit,¡± I said.


    Felix gave me a look filled with great, overwhelming tolerance, and snorted, before grinning.


    ¡°All right, since that¡¯s the case, let¡¯s head to the production facility.¡± he said.


    Our group began slowly making our way through the magical minefield again, using balls of mud and Sallia and Felix¡¯s exceptional senses to test the area around us for any fireball traps or other dangers. However, this time, we also kept Sekundyrr in the back of the group, to make sure that it didn¡¯t get burned to ashes by a trap. This also meant that Sallia wasn¡¯t at the front of our group, unlike usual, but we didn¡¯t really have a hard time picking up the slack now that we knew what we needed to watch out for.


    Especially since we didn¡¯t run into any mines after getting about halfway to the next building.


    This initially struck us as very strange. After all, we had run into a great deal of fireball traps during most of our journey through this area. To suddenly find a patch of land where there were no fireball traps present at all was very unusual. We initially thought that perhaps the traps in this area were simply disguised better, or perhaps there was a new kind of trap present.


    This turned out to be incorrect. After some searching, we found a few traps that had run out of manifestation essence stuck inside of their own little scorched areas. The fireball traps were clearly present in this area, just like the previous area: they had simply all been activated already.


    The fact that we had run into so many active fireball traps at first was probably more bad luck than anything else.


    At the same time, it did make me wonder if other creatures or adventurers had already combed through this area. A bunch of fireball traps being active meant that we had to wade through a dangerous area, but it also meant that the area was probably unharvested. Since other people were aware of the existence of this area, due to the extremely well-known nature of the healing cube a few cities away from Silver City, it was natural that someone would have gotten lucky and found this facility. They simply wouldn¡¯t have ransacked all of it - after all, people can only carry so much at once, even with spatial storage equipment.


    True to my fears, when we entered the production facility, it was obvious someone had already broken in. The door looked like it had been partially melted by some sort of fire or heat-related spell.


    There were several holes on the walls, where it looked like items such as maps or shelves might have once been nailed to the wall, but had since been removed.


    After we tried investigating one of the two doorways that led out from the reception room, we found that the security doors in both hallways had been melted into slag, leaving Orthanoid-sized holes in each barrier that we could easily pass through.


    We moved through the destroyed doors, hoping that perhaps we could find something useful in this building that the first adventuring party had missed.


    In the first room, we found a bunch of empty shelves. There was nothing else in the room except for dust.


    ¡°They were quite thorough,¡± I said, trying not to feel disappointed. I glanced at Felix, who had a stoic expression on his face, and then sighed.


    I had been hoping that somewhere in this building, there would be records about how to manufacture magic items. Even if I wasn¡¯t sure if it could save this world from the black sun anymore, I still really wanted to figure out how to make magic items using alteration essence. That would be something both Felix and I would desperately want to use in the future. And if there was any building where I thought we might finally learn how to make magic items, it was a building called the ¡®equipment production facility.¡¯ Unfortunately, it really looked like there was nothing left in this building for us to find. Whatever was here had been taken away a long time ago.


    ¡°I doubt that one group has taken away everything in the building,¡± said Sallia. ¡°There must have been a lot of things originally stored here, and I doubt one group could carry it all out in one trip. Either this building has been ransacked multiple times, or there¡¯s still stuff left in it.¡±


    ¡°The same group could have hit the building over and over again, though,¡± said Anise, after thinking for a moment. ¡°If I knew there was a basically undefended building in a highly dangerous but profitable area, I would definitely hit the building up multiple times, and then retire when I was done looting the building. Most of the dangers in this area seem to come from outside creatures and the fireball traps. The people who raided this area clearly dealt with the fireball traps already, since we were having a hard time even finding a fireball trap near this building. And outside creatures aren¡¯t exactly common, even if they aren¡¯t rare, either.¡±


    I thought about it, and then nodded.


    ¡°We can still try looking through the building,¡± said Felix. ¡°Might as well at least double check.¡±


    We moved out of the first room, and started moving from one room to the next. It wasn¡¯t until the seventeenth room that we finally found something interesting.


    ¡°This door is still intact,¡± said Sallia, giving the door a curious look. ¡°the other doors were melted into slag, but this one is still standing.¡±

 Chapter 134: Cage

    The four of us felt very excited when we found a door that hadn¡¯t been turned into melted slag. We had spent most of our time in this building finding empty room after empty room, so the idea that there might actually be something to take in the next room was exciting.


    But we also didn¡¯t get sloppy. We carefully investigated the area, looking for traps, and I used my soul-vision to investigate the room behind the door. Only after confirming that we couldn¡¯t find any threats did we start investigating the door itself. We couldn¡¯t find any ¡®opening¡¯ mechanism, the way the doors of the dimensional habitat facility had been opened with some sort of scanner, leaving us a bit baffled about how to open the door.


    We also realized, after some testing, that these doors weren¡¯t anywhere near as sturdy as the doors of the dimensional habitat facility. They were made of metal, but were much thinner. Perhaps it was because they didn¡¯t need to potentially contain an escape attempt from extradimensional creatures, the Orthans hadn¡¯t reinforced them as much?


    Unfortunately, the walls were still made out of metal. Even though they weren¡¯t as thick and sturdy as the walls of the Dimensional Habitat Facility, Sallia was still unable to punch them down - something we confirmed after Sallia spent a few minutes trying to simply remove the wall using her fists. While Sallia was capable of denting the wall, she couldn¡¯t break it very easily, and she also had a hard time hitting the wall while also holding onto Sekundyrr and healing him.


    Eventually, Anise and Felix took turns hammering the wall with spells, while Felix also used his attunement of metal to widen the hole in the wall. After bombarding the door for over an hour, they finally made a hole large enough for the four of us (and Sekundyrr) to step through.


    We found ourselves staring at a row of¡­ cages.


    They looked like pet cages. If the Orthans had lived in a society where owning pets was normal, and where food and other resources were more abundant, I wouldn¡¯t have thought much of the cages at all.


    But as far as I knew, the Mages of the second Orthan empire hadn¡¯t really owned pets. Most people of the time had either been slaves, and thus didn¡¯t have the resources or time to take care of pets, or powerful mages who were more interested in studying magic than having any sort of ethical compass whatsoever. So I had no idea why there were a bunch of pet cages in the equipment manufacturing facility.


    Surprisingly, however, it was Sekundyrr who knew what the cages were used for.


    Breathing cages. Sekundyrr transmitted two different emotions - a mixture of anticipation, and disgust.


    I looked at Sekundyrr, baffled, and the others did the same. Anise started preparing to create a light show and ask Sekundyrr what he was talking about, but before she could get started, Sekundyrr continued.


    These cages let live outside without dying. Whatever goes wrong in my body when I contact the world is removed if inside. I didn¡¯t know at first. Now, I can¡¯t go anywhere without Red-haired girl healing me. Realize. Cages keep safe outside cell.


    I blinked, and then looked at the cages again.


    An image of Sekundyrr being dragged away from its home dimension in a ¡®pet cage¡¯ appeared in my mind.


    I hadn¡¯t thought much about how the Orthans transported creatures that were unable to survive outside of their home dimension into this dimension. But it was obvious some method of transportation had to be used. After all, Sekundyrr started dying almost the moment it wasn¡¯t being healed by Sallia. While it was possible that the Orthans had some sort of healing attunement that let them transport creatures safely, it would definitely make transporting creatures from one dimension to another a very difficult logistical affair. Shaping didn¡¯t seem to lend itself to healing very well if one didn¡¯t understand the structure of the body they were healing, and it was naturally very time consuming and difficult to understand the biological structures of a creature from an entirely different dimension. Especially if their laws of physics were completely different from our own, meaning that one basically had to relearn how reality worked every single time a new dimension was contacted.


    The solution appeared to be these ¡®pet cages.¡¯ I looked at the cages more carefully, and saw that many of them were labeled with numbers, such as ¡®1¡¯ and ¡®3.¡¯ None of the intact cages had a number higher than ¡®5,¡¯ although there were a few broken cages with the number ¡®6¡¯ written on them.


    The Orthans had clearly made cages that matched the environment of a certain dimension, and then used them to transport creatures back to this dimension without the creatures dying in the process.


    I did wonder whether all of the cages had actually been used, since some dimensions didn¡¯t seem to have ever had living inhabitants. The unborn dimension, for example, had certainly never had any sort of living creature inside of it, since all of its dimensional laws were total nonsense. But ultimately, it didn¡¯t matter much. What mattered was that we had finally found a better way to transport Sekundyrr around without tying up Sallia¡¯s absorption essence and one of her hands.


    I looked around for a moment, then grabbed a cage with the number 3 attached to it. Sekundyrr sent out the mental equivalent of a sigh, and then helped open the cage before crawling inside of it.


    Sallia removed her hand from Sekundyrr, to see if the cages still worked after all these centuries of neglect. Luckily, much like the underground cities and tunnels, these cages didn¡¯t seem to have deteriorated with time. Sekundyrr waited a few moments, before sending us the mental equivalent of a thumbs up.


    Sallia picked up the cage, and our group continued moving.


    I felt bad for Sekundyrr, but at the same time, it was definitely a relief that transporting Sekundyrr was now much easier. I was willing to help Sekundyrr escape, and I did hope that we could find a way to return it to its home dimension. But I also wanted to prioritize keeping our group as strong as possible in case we ran into other hostile creatures.


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    Then, we continued exploring the facility.


    Unfortunately, we couldn¡¯t find much else of use. We found one room that was filled with strange, broken suits, which Felix guessed was meant to keep Orthanoids alive in other dimensions (although it was hard to be sure), and another room filled with some sort of rotten food. None of us could figure out what it had originally been, and frankly, a single whiff of the sickly-sweet odor and mold that had built up for centuries was enough to dissuade me from getting any closer to the mysterious goop.


    The other rooms we found were already emptied. There were a few rooms that looked like they might have had manufacturing facilities at one point - unfortunately, those had definitely been searched and completely emptied, just like most of the other rooms in the facility. I started to suspect that the three rooms we had found intact weren¡¯t left behind because we were lucky - the previous group must have found a map of the facility, broken into the rooms that had valuable items in them, and completely ignored the rest of the facility. The only reason we got any use out of the abandoned rooms at all was because we were carting Sekundyrr around with us.


    After finding nothing else of value in the facility, we left, and started heading towards the mystery building. We planned to hit it up before heading into the ruined palace and seeing if we could somehow cut off this world¡¯s connection to the dimension of the black sun. It was unlikely to work, but¡­ if we could do it, it would be a huge amount of Achievement. And it was probably also necessary if this world was to survive more than a few more decades. Based on what we had seen while making our way through the Wastes earlier, I seriously doubted this world was going to last long if nothing was done about the black sun.


    Much like the area around the Equipment Production Facility, the area around the unknown building was cleared of traps, so we didn¡¯t hold much hope for the contents of the building. And that concern was justified when we discovered that the name of the mystery building was ¡®Farm 3,¡¯ which hardly inspired confidence in its contents. A farm that hadn¡¯t been maintained in centuries was probably just a plot of weeds at this point.


    Just for the sake of being thorough, we still decided to check it out. We did need more food, even if I seriously doubted there was any inside of the building.


    Sadly, my suspicions turned out to be correct. Farm 3¡¯ was filled with several patches of dirt, none of which had a single plant growing in them. It was basically a building with nothing inside, and it felt like nothing so much as a huge waste of time.


    By the time we finished searching Basic Farm 3, we were all tired, since we had explored two mostly empty facilities today. Instead of finding useful items, we had spent several hours on guard against traps and had found nothing interesting whatsoever. We decided to rest for the day. We helped Sekundyrr, so that it could get out of its cage for a while and stretch its legs. Sallia and I took turns healing it while it moved around. Then, we set up a watch order and turned in for the day.


    The next day, we started moving directly towards the palace. After about an hour of travel, we started running into fireball traps again, indicating that this area hadn¡¯t been cleared out yet. From that point onwards, our movement slowed down as we made extra sure that we didn¡¯t trip anything we couldn¡¯t handle. Something that proved to be very important, because Felix and Sallia started noticing new, weird traps as we got closer and closer to the ruined palace.


    The first new trap we noticed was picked up by one of the mud balls that we were rolling in front of us. Rather than triggering a giant ball of ridiculously hot fire, like usual, a ball of lightning erupted from the rock we had triggered, which greedily licked the area around it with tendrils of lightning for several seconds before it deactivated itself.


    This was our first warning that fireball traps weren¡¯t the only thing we would encounter here.


    After that, we ran into some sort of acid trap, which melted the ball of mud we had been rolling in front of us to find traps and forced us to take some time to make a new one. Felix almost got some acid on him as well, which caused us to start putting a much greater distance between ourselves and the ball of mud we used to find traps. After wading through the acid trap area, we ran into a  pitfall trap, of all things.


    Which, once again, forced us to make a new ball of mud.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder just why the Orthans had placed so many traps around the ruined palace. Had the traps been set up after the black sun had come to this world, or had the Orthans actually had the wisdom to realize something might go horribly wrong while exploring other dimensions, and made some sort of preparation to guard the area? Or did they just expect that only slaves would be traveling on the ground, or something? Given how many other things the second Orthan empire had accomplished, it genuinely wouldn¡¯t surprise me if they had some sort of flight spell that was commonly used by the Mages of their society.


    Luckily, with Sallia and Felix¡¯s eyesight and our trusty ball of dirt and mud to test the area for traps, we managed to reach the palace walls unscathed, even if it took much longer than anticipated. It wasn¡¯t particularly hard to get into the palace itself: there were giant gaping holes in the wall. I had no idea whether they were the result of some sort of spell, erosion from the black sun, or something else entirely. Regardless, the palace wall looked more like swiss cheese than a proper wall at this point. It was a miracle the whole thing was still holding itself together and hadn¡¯t just collapsed in on itself.


    We snuck through one of the gaps in the wall, and then got our first good look at the palace. from the inside.


    I had expected many things inside of the palace. Particularly, I had expected some sort of ruins that were once filled with opulence and decadence. I had imagined silk tapestries and valuable vases and ornaments decorating the interior.


    The inside of the palace wasn¡¯t anywhere near as luxurious as I had expected it to be. The first thing we saw after crawling through the hole in the wall was a giant row of metal stakes, all driven into the ground. Each of them was covered in alteration essence, and I got the same feeling from them that I had gotten from the rooms in the dimensional habitat facility.


    While I didn¡¯t know exactly what was being changed, I knew that the laws of reality were somewhat different in the air immediately surrounding each metal stake. I got the feeling that the laws related to energy, or perhaps essence, were being changed somehow, but I couldn¡¯t get any more information than that. I still hadn¡¯t figured out how to mess with dimensional laws using alteration essence, and whatever was being done here was a level above normal dimensional alteration, so it was impossible for me to figure out what was going on beyond the very basics.


    The alteration-essence filled metal stakes lined the sides of the hallway we found ourselves in, with a metal stake driven into the ground right next to the wall about two meters apart from each other. They were connected by a thick metal cord that was wrapped around the top of each metal stake. The metal cord had started to fall apart over the centuries, fraying and collapsing as though it were made of twine instead of thick iron.


    The rest of the hallway was more in line with my expectations. It had clearly been a nice carpet at some point in the past, even if it was rotted and decayed now. There were a few decorations on the walls that looked like they had been paintings at one point.


    However, most notable of all was the taste of space being disrupted in the area. It lay in the palace like a thick, suffocating blanket laying on my tongue. As we took our first steps into the palace, I became absolutely certain of my earlier guesses.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure now. Whatever is connecting us to the dimension of the black sun is in this building,¡± I said.

 Chapter 135: Palace

    ¡°Are you completely sure that it¡¯s somewhere in this building?¡± asked Felix, after a few moments.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± I said.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s look for it. If we can break off the connection between the two dimensions, this world can survive. And we¡¯ll be rolling in Achievement afterwards,¡± said Felix..


    At Felix¡¯s words, Anise paused for a moment. She looked nervous, although she also nodded afterwards.


    ¡°Are you worried, Anise?¡± I asked. ¡°If you are-¡±


    Before I could finish talking, Anise violently shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid to move forward. I¡¯m just worried that something powerful might come through the connection between our dimension and the black sun¡¯s dimension, and that we¡¯ll be in danger afterwards. I don¡¯t want to slow you guys down, though,¡± she said. Then, she glanced through the hole in the palace wall that we had crawled through, and sighed. ¡°Besides, I don¡¯t think this world is going to last much longer if we don¡¯t do anything,¡± she said. ¡°Nothing has stopped us so far, but I¡¯m worried about something happening at the last second, such as a monster popping out.¡±


    I glanced around the ruined palace, and then paused to sample the heavy, cloying taste of space being manipulated. Then I nodded.


    If there was any place creatures from outside this dimension were likely to show up, this Palace was it.


    ¡°Let¡¯s make sure to stay cautious and keep an eye on our surroundings,¡± I said. The others nodded.


    The four of us started moving again. The hallway went in two directions, but unfortunately, my spatial-manipulation sense weren¡¯t precise enough to give me a more specific idea which direction we needed to go. So we just chose a direction and started walking. I kept my soul-sight ready so that we would be forewarned if something was around the corner, and Sallia took the lead. Even though Anise didn¡¯t have Sallia¡¯s ridiculous arm strength, she also didn¡¯t need to use her hands for battle, so she ended up carrying Sekundyrr and staying in the middle of our group, right next to me.


    Felix stayed at the back, since his senses were also excellent, much like Sallia¡¯s, and thus he had a good chance of discovering ambushes if Sallia and I missed something.


    The palace hallways didn¡¯t change after nearly twenty minutes of walking. There were no rooms to the side, no research materials scattered throughout the hallways¡­ there was nothing in our surroundings except for the stakes and the occasional moldy painting, to let us know that we were, in fact, making progress.


    At least, I was pretty sure we were making progress. Twenty minutes of walking should have normally let us cover quite a bit of distance, so the fact that our surroundings hadn¡¯t changed much made me extremely sure that some sort of spatial manipulation was happening inside this building. I didn¡¯t know why the old Orthans had decided that the best use of spatial manipulation was to construct a giant never ending hallway, but it was very much annoying to walk through.


    Then, in the distance, I saw something with my soul sight. It was a giant glob of mana wrapped around a soul. In my soul-sight, the soul, and the candle of life it was attached to, were both so massive that I wouldn¡¯t be able to extinguish them even with ten times my alteration essence reserve. And it was oddly familiar.


    ¡°Stop,¡± I whispered, grabbing Anise¡¯s arm as Sallia and Felix froze. I stared at the odd, massive soul in the distance and tried to figure out where I had seen a similar soul in the past. It took me several seconds, but eventually, I remembered what the giant soul looked like.


    ¡°Dragon,¡± I said. In the distance was a giant dragon¡¯s soul. It wasn¡¯t moving at all, which baffled me.


    It was common knowledge that dragons hated outsiders. Even if the White Dragon from our home city had been too lazy to help us fend off the Orukthyri invasion, I was confident it would have helped if the Orukthyri had been outsiders instead. This was because every single historical record was very explicit about just how much dragons hated outsiders in their territory.


    However, this dragon just looked like it was asleep. This palace was right next to whatever connected us to the dimension of the black sun, and I had no doubt that outsiders were at least somewhat more common here than in other parts of the world. Since that was the case¡­ why was the dragon still here? Shouldn¡¯t it have moved somewhere else?


    Not to mention, there wasn¡¯t much that a dragon could eat here. After we had escaped to Silver City, I had looked up what people knew about dragons. Apart from being inconsistent about helping their ¡®subjects¡¯, being worshiped as gods, and spending most of their time asleep, it was a well-known fact that all dragons needed to eat metal and had no other major components to their diet, except for mana. There wasn¡¯t much metal available in this area though, besides the metal stakes and cables. But a dragon eating at the metal stakes and cables over the centuries should have left tears in the metal stakes that looked more like bite marks, rather than resembling unraveling twine.


    ¡°There¡¯s a dragon here?¡± asked Sallia, sounding just as confused as I felt.


    Felix and Anise also gave me blank looks, as if they were asking me whether I was sure.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why it¡¯s here either, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯s a dragon. It¡¯s over there, through that wall,¡± I said, pointing forward and a bit to the left of the direction we had been walking towards.


    ¡°I think the bigger question is whether it¡¯s hostile or not,¡± said Anise. ¡°I mean, normally, I would expect dragons to be a neutral or slightly helpful entity, depending on whether or not they¡¯re asleep,¡± she said. ¡°The worst most dragons would do is nothing. But I also have no idea whether this dragon is normal, or a guard hired by the Orthans that just hasn¡¯t woken up since the empire was destroyed, or what..¡±


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    Why stop? Sent Sekundyrr, as we pondered Anise¡¯s words in silence. I sense other creature in that direction. Other mind. Cannot bind to my own mind to communicate.  Creature is asleep. Have not tried to wake it to talk. Maybe creature test subject? Can free. Help. Like Sekundyrr!


    I blinked.


    That was a distinct possibility. While dragons might be one of the strongest species of the world right now, during the heyday of the second Orthan empire, dragons hadn¡¯t really been able to match the stronger Orthan spellcasters, according to most history books. Considering how little respect the Orthans had for any life besides their own, it actually made perfect sense that they might capture a dragon and use it as a test subject.


    After realizing that the dragon might be held here against its will, I thought about the reward we had gotten from freeing Sekundyrr. If we could help a dragon escape, that had to be way more valuable than helping a member of Sekundyrr¡¯s species escape. It would be a nice Achievement boost. Right?


    ¡°So¡­ free the dragon, get a nice Achievement bonus, and maybe get some information about what was happening in this facility? I mean, assuming the dragon doesn¡¯t try to murder us.¡± I said. ¡°Alternately, we could just avoid the dragon altogether. After all, if it tries to kill us I¡¯m not sure if there¡¯s much we can do about it. But it could be a helpful ally and a big Achievement boost if things don¡¯t go horribly wrong.¡±


    Sallia thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged.


    ¡°No risk no reward, right? I think it¡¯s at least worth checking out. If it turns out to be dangerous, Miria, how much of its life force do you think you can remove with an extinguish?¡±


    ¡°Dragons have much stronger vitality compared to Orukthyri. I might be able to shave off around 7-8% of its life force with a full-powered extinguish, but I would have no chance at all of killing it. And considering how much it outclasses me, I doubt removing that much life force would really weaken it much.


    ¡°Instead of thinking about killing it if things go wrong, we¡¯re probably better off thinking of ways to slow it down and run away. But I can¡¯t think of a good way to use general shaping to slow it down. I have no idea how strong its mind is, so I¡¯m not sure how useful madness bubbles would be. And there¡¯s no way I can use a spell to stop it if it wants to eat us.¡±


    ¡°It might be hard to delay it with any magic system, honestly,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Dragons are supposed to be one of the strongest creatures in the world right now. I have a hard time imagining that they¡¯re so easy to fend off, even if all of us get very clever in how we use our spells and other magic systems. Since dragons sleep a lot, they might not have an easy time resisting any sort of magically induced sleep, though. Maybe if you turn your madness bubbles into sleeping bubbles, it would let us flee if needed?¡±


    I thought about it, and felt that Sallia¡¯s words made sense. I turned towards Felix and Anise. ¡°You two have any other ideas? If you guys want to dodge the dragon and avoid it, now is the time to speak.¡±


    Anise, oddly enough, looked pretty eager. ¡°I think it might be a good idea to set the dragon free. After all, since they hate outsiders and we¡¯re right next to the dimension of the black sun, freeing the dragon could give us a powerful ally to keep outside creatures away from us.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m okay with seeing if we can befriend it and free it,¡± said Felix.


    I nodded, and started testing how to make my whirlpool of madness water from my fourth rune ability turn into a series of sleeping bubbles. Due to my innate talent in manipulating alteration essence, It only took me a minute or two to get an ¡®ideal¡¯ sleeping bubble, although I did accidentally make Sallia and Anise drowsy a few times during my experimentation, and I also accidentally knocked Sekundyrr unconscious. I made a wake-up water bubble after another few minutes of experimentation, thus refreshing Sallia and Anise. And the same wake-up bubble completely failed to help Sekundyrr at all, because Sekundyrr¡¯s eyes were closed while it was asleep.


    It took a few minutes for it to wake up on its own.


    The empty hallways continued on for nearly ten more minutes of walking. However, the dragon¡¯s soul grew closer and closer with each step.


    Eventually, we reached the spot where the dragon¡¯s soul was located.


    And then, I felt slightly confused.


    There was no door, or window, or any other way for us to access the dragon.


    I was now sure that we were standing right next to the dragon. It was just behind the wall on our left. If the wall weren¡¯t present, I could probably touch it if I walked just a few steps forward.


    However, I couldn¡¯t see any way to access the creature.


    ¡°It¡¯s right behind the wall,¡± I said. ¡°But I don¡¯t see a way to access it.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s stored in some sort of pocket dimension, or something like that?¡± suggested Felix. ¡°Or maybe there¡¯s some sort of hidden room?¡±


    The four of us decided to look for a ¡®hidden room¡¯ first, and began examining the area much more carefully. However, we couldn¡¯t find anything.


    Eventually, Sallia tried stabbing the wall with her sword a few times, which, unfortunately, accomplished nothing.


    That is, until Sallia put some manifestation essence into her sword. Then, the gravitite in her sword activated, and the stones in the wall started to dig themselves out of the wall and float towards her.


    I frowned, and looked at Sallia¡¯s sword. The magic gravity created by her sword was in no way, shape, or form strong enough to drag around the massive bricks of stone that made up the interior palace wall. Since that was the case, why had her sword managed to move the wall around?


    Before I could resolve my confusion, a second layer of the wall was peeled away, and I felt a very small amount of the taste of spatial manipulation slip away.


    On the other side of the wall lay a dragon, sleeping. Its scales were a pure crimson color, akin to the color of rubies, and its metallic body was sleek as polished steel. And it was chained to a research table, much like Sekundyrr had been.


    However, while Sekundyrr had seemed incredibly pleased to see us, the dragon didn¡¯t even stir. Despite our presence, it was fast asleep.


    The chains binding the dragon were made of a stone material that I recognized, although it took me a moment to figure out what it was. It was Prismium, the stone we hadn¡¯t figured out the use for after discovering it in the Dimensional Habitat facility. After we had seen it used as a heat-shield, we had assumed the stone could somehow be used to absorb heat, but when we had tried using fire spells near it, nothing had happened, causing us to give up on using the stone for the time being.


    We stared at the dragon for a few moments, before Felix softly snorted.


    After being abducted and used as a test subject, the first thing the bloody dragon had decided to do was take a nap for a couple centuries. Typical.


    Just as I was about to ask my friends if we still wanted to free it, the dragon stirred fitfully, and then opened its eyes and stared right at me.


    For the first time in this life, I had come in contact with an awakened dragon.

 Chapter 136: Palace (2)

    ¡°Orthanoids?¡± asked the dragon, in heavily accented old Orthan. Its voice was gravelly, and sounded kind of like boulders slowly being ground against each other. I wondered how its body produce the sounds.


    I also noticed that it spoke Orthanoid, and quite fluently. The pronunciation the dragon used for several syllables was very different from the modern pronunciation of the Orthanoid language, so it took me a few seconds to parse what the creature had said. However, it was very clearly speaking in distinct Orthanoid.


    ¡°Umm¡­ yes,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯re Orthanoids.¡±


    ¡°One of the slave races, I see,¡± said the dragon. ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting anyone to be present when I awakened. How long have I been asleep for? And why is the air so foul?¡±


    The dragon sniffed the air around it, and then wrinkled its nose in pure, unadulterated disgust.


    I blinked. Before, we had discussed all sorts of reasons why the dragon might not have left this place, since it had no direct access to metal and this area was tainted with the presence of outside creatures.


    However, I hadn¡¯t thought of the idea that the dragon simply¡­ hadn¡¯t woken up since the dawn of the black sun.


    Had it just been napping here since then? Had the outsiders in this region simply never found the dragon, causing them to continuously ignore each other?


    The idea seemed absurd, but if I hadn¡¯t had access to soul-sight, it was entirely possible that we would have simply never known that a dragon was here at all. And in that case, we would have never bothered opening up its cell¡­


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how long you¡¯ve been asleep, uh¡­¡± I tried to think about what I was supposed to call the dragon. I had always referred to the silver dragon and white dragon as ¡®silver dragon¡¯ and ¡®white dragon.¡¯ Until now, it hadn¡¯t occurred to me that they might have individual names, or specific cultural requirements I needed to pay attention to. I had always treated dragons as incredibly powerful monsters or wild animals, rather than treating them as a species with their own culture and ideas.


    Something which was now proving incredibly inconvenient. I suddenly felt a bit bad when I realized that I hadn¡¯t been treating dragons as individuals, even though they were known to be sentient and sapient. When I saw other Orthanoids, I had no trouble thinking of them as individuals with their own personality and ideas, but whenever I thought of dragons, the bitterness and resentment I held towards the white dragon had been somewhat transferred to their entire species. Even if I didn¡¯t like the white dragon, it wasn¡¯t fair of me to blame the entire species for my problem with one individual.


    Before my awkward silence could stretch out any further, Felix simply made a very slight crouching motion with his body. It looked almost like a bow, but rather than bending his waist and making his body resemble a ninety degree angle, the angle of Felix¡¯s body was much smoother. In a very strange way, his movement almost resembled a snake¡¯s body as he leaned forward and gave the dragon a respectful nod.


    ¡°It is an honor to behold you, dragon whose scales resemble rubies.¡±


    ¡°Oh, somebody knows proper courtesy,¡± said the dragon, sounding a bit amused. ¡°I also behold you, Orthanoid. I would give you a more distinct and proper name, but I admit, I cannot tell apart your species very well. You all look very similar. Anyway, you may refer to me as the red dragon, rather than dragon whose scales resemble rubies. Do you have a name you would like me to use? I am given to understand your species is quite particular about names.¡± I was surprised by how relaxed the dragon seemed, despite the fact that it was chained to a table and seemed totally unable to move.


    ¡°You may call me Felix, and these are my companions, Miria, Sallia, and Anise,¡± he said, introducing each of us in turn. ¡°And that is Sekundyrr,¡± he said, gesturing at the cage.


    At least one of us had been paying attention to dragon culture. Even if I really felt like it should have been me that did that, and not Felix.


    ¡°Ah, a¡­ fish-plant creature of some sort,¡± said the dragon, grimacing. Its mood seemed to take a downturn as it looked at Sekundyrr, which was still in its cage.


    Greetings, sent Sekundyrr when it saw the dragon staring at it. Are you also test subject? These Orthanoids nice! Help escape!


    ¡°The fish-plant can talk? It is escaping? Ah¡­ is that what it is?¡± asked the Dragon, giving us a much more relaxed look. It was hard to make out any expression at all from its metallic face, but when I concentrated on it, I was able to at least make out when its eye ridges furrowed and stretched, and guess what its mood was based on how its eyes moved.


    I also realized that the dragon might be much more concerned about its predicament than it pretended to be. It had seemed wary of us once it saw Sekundyrr locked in a cage, but once it realized we were helping Sekundyrr escape, it relaxed its guard against us again. Perhaps it simply didn¡¯t want us to know whether it was nervous or not?


    ¡°In that case, I suppose it¡¯s fine,¡± said the dragon. ¡°Now, tell me, Felix, what exactly has gone wrong with the air here?¡± asked the dragon. ¡°It smells positively foul. And I cannot help but shake the feeling that the air itself is trying to eat me, however strange that feeling is. I quite hate it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s probably because we¡¯re near the origin point of the black sun,¡± said Felix, smoothly taking over negotiations. ¡°May I ask the red dragon what the last thing it remembers is?¡±


    ¡°The last I recall, several Orthans attacked me while I was making a nest. I had been pursuing the dragon of green scales for several decades, and she had just agreed to share a cave with me. I had gone to prepare everything and make sure it was perfect, then some Orthans broke into the cave and imprisoned me. I was very upset, so when I heard they wanted to test how my mind reacted to some spells, I simply went to sleep. Hmph. Show them for capturing and imprisoning me,¡± said the dragon. ¡°I intended to wake up when there was a way to escape. Since I don¡¯t see any Orthans around, I assume that they went and blew themselves up doing something way beyond their abilities? Based on your facial expressions, I shall assume that is correct.¡± The dragon¡¯s lips curled into an odd, spine-chilling grin. ¡°Good. Now tell me, how much time has passed? Has the dragon of green scales shared a cave with anyone else?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t know much about the dragon of green scales. Sorry,¡± I said.


    ¡°A shame,¡± said the red dragon. ¡°I shall need to seek her out and see if she is still interested in me later, I suppose. I hope she had not found someone else.¡±


    ¡°What might be more relevant to you is that the time that has passed since you came here,¡± said Felix, before the dragon could dwell on the dragon of green scales. ¡°The time that has passed is¡­ likely much longer than you expected. Several centuries since you went to sleep, at least.¡±


    ¡°Several centuries?¡± The red dragon¡¯s eyes bulged in shock. ¡°Why so long? Shouldn¡¯t it have only been a few decades? I did not think it would take that long for an opportunity to escape. Perhaps I was too strict in setting up when and how I would wake up?¡± The dragon frowned.


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    Felix shrugged. ¡°We don¡¯t know why you slept so long, either. The Orthans blew themselves up a long time ago. Centuries ago, to be precise. As for why you never woke up¡­ it¡¯s hard to guess.¡±


    The dragon thought about it for a few moments, and slowly, the expression of surprise on its metallic face faded away.


    ¡°Oh well. I suppose it¡¯s not a big deal if I slept for a little longer than expected, as long as the dragon of green scales hasn¡¯t found someone else,¡± said the dragon. It rolled its eyes several times, reminding me of a wheel spinning round and round. I had no idea what the action was supposed to represent, although it was likely meant to correspond to some sort of facial expression.


    ¡°Anyway, I see that you¡¯re carrying around the Palanthyrre creature. In a cage, for some reason. May I ask why?¡±


    ¡°We freed Sekundyrr, the fish-plant creature, a while ago,¡± said Felix. ¡°But unfortunately, it¡¯s unable to survive outside of its cage. We¡¯re keeping it in the cage because it¡¯s a localized space that lets the creature live inside without killing it.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I suppose that makes sense,¡± said the dragon. ¡°I had heard that some sea creatures die if they leave the water for long. While I have never seen such a strange creature before, since it somewhat resembles the fish I had heard about in the past, I suppose it might also need water to survive.¡±


    I paused, and decided not to say anything. It seemed the dragon wasn¡¯t particularly aware of ¡®other dimensions,¡¯ and explaining Sekundyrr¡¯s origin seemed like a conversation I didn¡¯t want to have.


    ¡°As for your final question,¡± said Felix, ¡°the air smells foul to you because we¡¯re very close to the black sun.¡±


    ¡°Black sun?¡± asked the red dragon.


    ¡°As far as we know, several hundred years ago, the Orthans made contact with several other places,¡± said Anise. ¡°One of them was the origin of the black sun, and after coming into to contact with it, the Orthan civilization was destroyed¡­¡± Anise seemed more comfortable now that the dragon hadn¡¯t taken any overtly hostile actions. She started filling the dragon in on the history of our world, starting from what we knew about the end of the second Orthan empire. The red dragon didn¡¯t speak while Anise talked, although its eyes occasionally rolled around. After Anise finished speaking, the dragon¡¯s eyes spun around a few times, before it grunted something unintelligible.


    ¡°If all outside creatures smell like this, I can see why other members of my kind hate them,¡± said the red dragon. ¡°How about you release me, and I will help the four¡­ five of you sever the connection with the origin place of the black sun? I am not quite sure what a ¡®dimension¡¯ is, but I can certainly feel space being manipulated in this area. I might be able to help with that, and rid this area of its foul odor.¡±


    I paused. ¡°Can you promise not to attack us after we release you? We had nothing to do with your imprisonment here¡­¡±


    The dragon rolled its eyes. ¡°Why make me promise? Words have no binding effect on me, so it¡¯s not like there is any meaning to a promise I make.¡± The dragon made a strange chuffing sound, which I assumed was laughter. ¡°Well, if it makes you feel better, I suppose. It must be hard to behold a creature as magnificent as me and not feel at least a little ashamed and afraid of your own inferior biology. Very well. For what it¡¯s worth, I promise that I will take no hostile actions against any of you, so long as you do not take any hostile action against me first. And if you can help me get in contact with the dragon of green scales, I will give you a handsome reward. Orthanoids like valuable rocks, right? I should have some red ones left in one of my caves, so long as they are still intact. I can give you a few of them.¡±


    ¡°Good enough for me,¡± I said, although I remained ready to create a sleeping bubble if the dragon went haywire.


    Since we had at least a tentative promise that the dragon wouldn¡¯t harm us, and it seemed possible to communicate with the creature, I turned towards the Prismium chains that kept the dragon imprisoned. I turned towards Sallia. ¡°Sallia, do you want to do it?¡±


    ¡°Actually, could you let me try?¡± asked Anise.


    The three of us turned towards Anise, giving her a baffled look.


    She shuffled, a little bit nervously, and then leaned closer to us. She started whispering softly.


    ¡°Well, I was thinking about how Achievement and skills work, right? I was wondering what specifically I would need to do if I wanted to get an extreme affinity. I don¡¯t want to get left behind after you die, so I was thinking about it¡­ and we get Achievement every time we do something ¡®impressive,¡¯ right? Regardless of whether we¡¯re connected to the Market¡¯s System or not?¡±


    ¡°As far as we know, yes,¡± I whispered, nodding.


    ¡°Well, in that case, I was wondering if doing impressive things using one particular type of Essence might ¡®upgrade¡¯ your talent in that essence. I know it¡¯s a bit of a long shot, but I don¡¯t have any better ideas for how to upgrade my affinity. My talent with manifestation essence is already really good, but I have no idea if it¡¯s at the level of an ¡®extreme affinity¡¯ or not. And I don¡¯t know how good my talent with manifestation essence needs to be for the Market to pick up my soul after I die. So I was thinking about how impressive it should be to free a dragon using only manifestation essence¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah, I get it,¡± I said. I turned towards Sallia and Felix, to see if they objected. However, both of them were grinning.


    ¡°It¡¯s worth a shot,¡± said Felix. ¡°Let¡¯s do a little bit to help out, so that we can at least get a smaller Influence Achievement reward. But let¡¯s let Anise do almost everything. There are several different chains keeping the dragon in place, right? How about the three of us destroy one each, and Anise blows up the rest?¡±


    Anise smiled radiantly, and the four of us moved towards some of the chains keeping the dragon in place.


    I started out by trying to stab them using my own market-made sword, just to test the durability of the Prismium, but I found that the sword simply phased through the chains as though they didn¡¯t exist.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked, baffled.


    I tried touching the chain again. My hands phased through it as if it didn¡¯t exist.


    I looked at the others, and they were having the same problem. I tried touching the part of the chain that held the dragon down, but my hand simply passed through the prismium as if it didn¡¯t exist, before I accidentally touched one of the metal plates that made up the dragon¡¯s body.


    The dragon snorted.


    ¡°It¡¯s some kind of odd material,¡± said the dragon, shrugging. ¡°It feels very solid to me, but your hands pass through it. Perhaps if you feed it some essence, you will be able to interact with it?¡±


    ¡°We tried using shaping and spellcasting essence when we first encountered the rock,¡± I said, frowning. ¡°We couldn¡¯t figure out how to make it work. We did see it used to contain heat, though.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps try heating it up or cooling it a lot?¡± asked the dragon.


    I shrugged. We had already tried both, but perhaps we simply hadn¡¯t heated or cooled it enough to make a difference? If that didn¡¯t work, I might be able to just ¡®shape¡¯ the chains into being solid again - while we couldn¡¯t figure out how to actually ¡®activate¡¯ prismium, I didn¡¯t think that it was impossible to force it into a certain shape using my current skills as a shaper. However, before trying anything, I wanted to give Anise a chance to figure out the solution.


    Anise nodded, and stepped back. ¡°I can try messing with temperature. The first chunks of Prismium we found being used were able to contain the heat of an unborn dimension, so the materials might interact with extreme temperatures. Hmm¡­ don¡¯t disturb me, I need to modify a spell,¡± she said.


    Then, she fell into a trance and began staring into space. I could feel little bits of manifestation essence moving around her, but every single manipulation of essence was very subtle. I got the feeling that Anise was messing with the subrunes to a particular spell, although I couldn¡¯t figure out anything more specific than that.


    The four of us, along with the dragon, found comfortable positions to wait and then fell silent.


    Half an hour later, Anise finished modifying the spell. ¡°Miria, Sallia¡­ be prepared to heal me if I messed up and the spell misfires,¡± she said. Then, she pointed her finger at one of the chains keeping the dragon shackled down, and then the chain started to get colder and colder. The spell was very well-controlled and directed - none of the rest of the room changed temperature at all, making me think that Anise had somehow told the spell to compress itself onto the chain and not spread throughout the room.


    The chain continued to get colder and colder, and after a solid five minutes of waiting, Anise tried poking the chain.


    Instead of phasing through the chain as if it were an illusion, Anise¡¯s hand touched the prismium. She grinned.


    ¡°Sallia, hand me your sword!¡±


    Sallia immediately handed Anise her sword, and Anise slashed at the stone chains. The market-made sword bounced off the chain, accomplishing nothing.


    Anise frowned, and then fueled the gravitite in the sword with a little bit of alteration essence.


    This time, the chain was cut clean through, and the four of us, as well as the dragon, let our relieved sighs.


    We had found a way to free the dragon. And hopefully, a way to bring Anise with us in the future.

 Chapter 137: Palace (3)

    The next five hours were a mind-numbing blur of repetition. Anise¡¯s freezing spell was rather slow, and she took a small break after each cast to think about ways to optimize the spell, given her limited manifestation reserves and the large quantity of chains we needed to deal with. Her ¡®freeze the Prismium chain¡¯ spell went through a few different iterations, but the general course of action remained the same. Anise would slowly freeze each chain of Prismium until it reached the point of being ¡®physical¡¯ again. Then, she would borrow Sallia¡¯s sword, activate the gravitite using her alteration essence, and break the chain. Every single chain took about two third-circle spells to remove, meaning it cost 42 magic symbols to destroy each chain, and without being frozen, none of Anise¡¯s attempts to destroy the chains worked.


    The fact that each chain cost 42 magic symbols to break meant that Anise ran out of manifestation essence long before she ran out of chains. The four of us told the dragon we would need to return later, since Anise was exhausted. Then, we moved away from the dragon, in order to discuss whether there was a way to make this process a little faster. The dragon was wrapped up in several chains - I estimated that there were around 20 left, which meant that we would be stuck here for five days, if we broke four chains a day. The dragon might be able to free itself once we broke enough chains, but either way, we were still going to be stuck here for a while.


    ¡°Do we have any ideas for how to improve this process?¡± I asked. ¡°Or anything we should do differently?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any ideas for making the process faster,¡± said Sallia, grimacing. ¡°I can¡¯t learn new spells as quickly as Anise can. And a couple of the magic symbols she used to make the spell are ones that I don¡¯t have - I have no compression magic symbol, in particular.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a shame, but I don¡¯t think we have a good way to speed things up. At least, not that I can think of right now.¡±


    I sighed, but nodded. It was hard to think of ways to improve the process, especially if we were still trying to leave Anise the overwhelming majority of the Achievement and rewards for freeing the dragon.


    However, despite that fact, after we spent a while trying to optimize the process of freeing the dragon, Sallia turned her attention towards a different subject.


    ¡°Could I break an extra chain or two on my own?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°I mean, I don¡¯t have the compression magic rune, but I think if I just blast a chain with ice spell after ice spell on the last day, I can still probably freeze a single prismium chain enough to break it. Of course, it would be best to do it on the last day or two, so that the dragon doesn¡¯t wonder why we aren¡¯t freeing it faster.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked, feeling a bit confused. I had thought we were planning to let Anise do everything, to maximize her odds of joining us in the Market. I mean, I still think we should all at least use Sallia¡¯s sword to break a chain once, so that we get some participation Achievement, but if you do too much, Anise¡¯s odds of joining us permanently might get worse. An extra chain is probably fine, but what¡¯s the reason you want more participation?¡±


    ¡°Well, I was thinking about how Abilities work. I¡¯m already resolved to upgrade my primary ability after I die - after all, it¡¯s my primary combat ability, and I doubt that¡¯s going to change in the future. No matter what I end up doing, it¡¯s always going to be based around absorption essence. But I¡¯ve also been thinking about what our ¡®optimal builds¡¯ would look like, and I¡¯ve started to realize that, at least early on, our Abilities run into major roadblocks if we don¡¯t have a supporting magic system.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡± said Felix.


    ¡°Well, for example, Miria. Your ¡®primary ability¡¯ is alteration, right? That¡¯s your primary magic system that you¡¯ll be using in the future?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°And you¡¯re planning on using a mix of alteration and absorption in the future, I presume?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s my current plan. I might swap out if I find something vastly better, but at the very least, I don¡¯t think this world¡¯s manifestation essence magic system is for me. It doesn¡¯t really cover any of my weaknesses the way absorption does, and I find it kind of hard to use effectively. In most of our fights, I¡¯ve basically relied on mental attacks from the rune magic system and then either extinguished enemies, or altered those mental attacks to provide support. And that feels right to me. And I also have healing spells that can deal with more long-lasting injuries from my attunement. That¡¯s more or less what I envision myself doing for our group in the future - providing magical support and helping drastically weaken strong enemies. Right now, absorption and alteration work really well together to do those things, and I often end up struggling to find a use for my manifestation essence outside of logistical stuff. Which is nice, but frankly, it¡¯s not something worth spending any keywords or Achievement on. We can find items to solve logistical needs.¡±


    Sallia nodded.


    ¡°I agree, you use the two really well together. It fits the way you fight, and the fact that the rune magic system has a few abilities that are very quick and easy to use means that you have plenty of time to ¡®alter¡¯ them if you need to mess with what they do.


    ¡°But ever since we started talking about Anise joining us, and during our journey through the wastes, I¡¯ve started thinking about what I should be doing long-term as well. Specifically, I¡¯ve been thinking about my full build.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to invest too many keywords into secondary magic systems - instead, I think it¡¯s best to have two magic systems as your ¡®primary¡¯ magic systems, and then focus on finding other keyword abilities that support those two magic systems. That¡¯s my current idea, at least. For you, your ¡®full build¡¯ looks like it¡¯ll be a mix of absorption and alteration. I think I want to try combining absorption and manifestation, then find some abilities to back both up,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°I see,¡± I said, thinking about Sallia¡¯s words.


    ¡°Manifestation?¡± Felix said. ¡°Why manifestation? Miria just noted that she was having a hard time using it in combat. And I really agree with Miria - alteration and absorption seem to work well together. Absorption has extremely easy to use and efficient abilities, but those abilities are incredibly limited in how they work and what they do. Alteration lets you cheat a little bit and change the rules for how your ability works, letting you fix the major drawback of the absorption system. And it also gives you an attunement for an extra ¡®fourth¡¯ ability rune, in a sense.¡°


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°It¡¯s because Miria and I do different things,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Right now, Miria is mostly trying to pivot towards becoming a strong back-line fighter, right? Something of a ¡®classic mage?¡¯¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Well, alteration and absorption work really well together for that, and there¡¯s probably some combination of ability evolutions that would make alteration and absorption fit what I want to do as well. No matter what happens, I want to keep being our front-line fighter. However, I¡¯ve been thinking. My greatest strength right now is that I¡¯m excellent at melee combat, and my biggest weaknesses are that I don¡¯t really have good ranged attacks, and I don¡¯t have good ways to deal with ¡®weird¡¯ attacks, such as spatial manipulation and whatnot.¡±


    ¡°I suppose?¡± said Anise. ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a big problem, though. You¡¯re really strong on your own, and the four of us are stronger together. Even if you struggle to handle spatial attacks, Miria is definitely going to be able to handle them after her ability evolution. And if¡­ when I end up joining you, Miria and I could reasonably focus on ¡®classic mage roles¡¯ and weird attacks, while Felix makes items and you fight on the front lines. Why branch into manifestation instead of alteration?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about what my absorption essence will be doing AFTER I evolve it, and I think that manifestation essence combines REALLY WELL with what my ability will be doing in the future,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°After all, the biggest limitation on this world¡¯s version of a manifestation essence spellcasting system is that it¡¯s hard to learn new magic symbols, and that it¡¯s hard to construct spells on the fly. Constructing spells, especially massive fourth circle and above spells, requires a huge amount of Intelligence - it¡¯s the primary stat that seems to influence spellcasting speed, as well as the maximum number of magic symbols one can reasonably control at once,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°Is it?¡± I said. To be honest, I had never experimented closely with what stats impacted spellcasting speed - likely because, unlike Sallia, I had never formed my seventh rune, meaning I had no easy way to manipulate my mental stats in this life. Sallia could just flood her seventh rune with absorption essence and give her mental stats a boost, but I could only boost my physical stats.


    ¡°It is,¡± confirmed Sallia. ¡°If I dump a bunch of absorption essence into my seventh rune, it becomes easier and faster to cast third circle spells, and I can almost cast fourth circle spells. If I had the ability to form an eighth rune, I could probably do fourth circle spells, but sadly, it¡¯s not to be in this life. But in the future, my ability evolution for absorption essence will combine my first nine runes into the first three, meaning that I will very quickly get a +3 grade bonus to all of my physical and mental Stats. And then, with that +3 grade bonus, it will be easier and faster to learn new magic symbols and use them in chaotic battles.


    ¡°Combined with the fact that manifestation essence seems to simply pluck local laws of reality and use them in specific, limited ways to cast spells, I figure there must be ways to deal with ¡®unusual¡¯ attacks in the magic system, somewhere. Perhaps one needs to learn a ¡®soul¡¯ magic symbol to deal with soul attacks, for example, or a ¡®space¡¯ magic symbol to deal with spatial attacks. But it should be possible to create them, I think. And the other biggest appeal of the spellcasting system is that it¡¯s very easy to take spells from one world to the next quickly. When I¡¯m growing up, my primary magic system leaves me very vulnerable, because absorption runes take a lot of time to build. However, the spellcasting magic system is different - one only needs the appropriate amount of magic circles formed inside of their head, which takes a day or two each, and knowledge of the appropriate spells and magic symbols to cast spells - something I don¡¯t lose from one life to the next. I can have my entire spellcasting system online about a week after I regain control of my body each life, although it will take longer to get all of my mental boosts online. And this magic system also combines very well with my swordsmanship - I can use it to boost my muscles and the strength of my body, as I¡¯ve been doing for most of this time.


    ¡°Finally, manifestation essence is excellent at providing long-range attack options, which I currently lack. While I don¡¯t currently know any spells beyond third circle, I can still remember how devastating the Overseer¡¯s attack was before we were forced to abandon our home city. Someday, I should be able to create similar attacks on my own


    ¡°The only real weakness I can think of is the fact that I would need to study new spells and figure them out on my own, as well as learn new magic symbols, and experimenting with new spells can cause misfires and hurt the user. My body is much sturdier and stronger than a regular person¡¯s, meaning this drawback is mitigated by my other magic system, and I¡¯ve already talked about how my mental stat boosts should help me learn new symbols.


    ¡°Overall, I think manifestation essence is a good combination with my desired role in the party and my own individual combat abilities and weaknesses.¡± Said Sallia.


    I mulled over Sallias thoughts, and I could see Felix doing the same. Anise didn¡¯t look like she understood every facet of Sallia¡¯s explanation, possibly because she had never actually used the rune magic system for herself. However, she still seemed to like Sallia¡¯s arguments - although maybe that was just because she would have someone to talk about spells with in the future, if she joined us permanently.


    ¡°I can see your reasoning,¡± said Felix, finally. ¡°I¡¯m not really sure how I feel about your statement that it¡¯s ¡®optimal¡¯ to have two magic systems - I just don¡¯t know enough. I suspect that one can make do with as few or as many magic systems as they want to, as long as their build is set up a certain way.¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°But you make a good argument for why manifestation would blend well with your ability set in the future. If there is such a thing as a space magic symbol, or a soul magic symbol, at least. Otherwise, you might need to compensate for very specific weaknesses of manifestation essence using your absorption essence.¡±


    Sallia nodded, and grinned before turning towards me.


    ¡°What do you think, Miria?¡±


    ¡°I can see it as well,¡± I said, smiling at her. ¡°So I take it you wanted to break a few of the dragon¡¯s chains specifically to boost the odds of getting a manifestation keyword ability?¡±


    Sallia grinned. ¡°Freeing a dragon using a certain kind of magic does seem pretty impressive, don¡¯t you think? I Imagine it¡¯ll be worth a lot of Achievement. And I¡¯ve done a lot of other things using manifestation essence too, so my odds are good.¡±


    ¡°Do you have the glut penalty to absorb both abilities?¡±


    Sallia winced. ¡°Nowhere close, at least not yet. I¡¯m using 21 of my 22 glut penalty maximum, and I have a little more Achievement than I need to finish upgrading all of my Stats to Grade 1 and then buy my next ability evolution. I¡¯ll have 4 Glut penalty left over after that, plus some Stat purchases. But I¡¯m hoping I¡¯ll have some more Achievement to spare before we die. In any case, I think it¡¯s at least best to plan for how to maximize our gains in this life, even if it¡¯s not guaranteed that those plans will work out, right?¡±


    ¡°I suppose,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s do our best to get the Achievement we need by the end of this life!¡±


    Sallia and Felix grinned at me, and Anise looked both nervous and hopeful.


    After we finished talking, we returned to the dragon and requested that it help watch over us while we waited and slept. Sleeping in full view of the black sun was a terrible idea, and exploring the palace filled with unknown dangers while one of our group members was totally tapped out on her primary combat resource was also a poor choice. So, we began the process of completely freeing the dragon.

 Chapter 138: Palace (4)

    The next three days were spent working on freeing the dragon. I did wonder if it was possible to use general shaping to make chains ¡®solid¡¯ and use that to cut them in half, thus using alteration essence and not manifestation essence. However, since the entire point of giving Anise most of the credit for freeing the dragon was to hopefully upgrade her manifestation essence affinity, so it was ultimately irrelevant.


    The biggest reason I ended up thinking about it anyway was our dwindling food supply. When we had first set off on the expedition, I had originally hoped to find a bunch of plants by foraging, thus alleviating some of our food needs, and that had helped. However, with the increasing strength of the black sun and the death of much of the surface life of this world, as well as the fact that we were spending a significantly larger portion of our time than expected breaking the red dragon¡¯s chains without exploring further, our food crisis was becoming more and more noticeable and problematic with each day. After all, it seemed like it was getting harder and harder to forage for food, especially in the area directly around the palace since it was filled with magical mines and traps.


    Thus, the second day of working on freeing the red dragon, we started to come to the uncomfortable realization that we really didn¡¯t have enough food to make our plans successful. We either needed to start cutting back on food supply, which would leave us hungry and weakened in the future, or find a way to compensate for the food supply. We spent almost an hour trying to figure out what to do, even bringing Sekundyrr into the conversation by combining my abilities and Anise¡¯s lights to see if it had any suggestions. We held the conversation right next to the dragon as well, in hopes that it might have an idea what fleshy, non-metallic creatures like us might be able to use for food in the area.


    The dragon didn¡¯t have any good ideas, having been imprisoned in a small cell for the past couple centuries. Sekundyrr, however, recommended that we eat some of the creatures that we had killed in the Dimensional Habitat Facility. Even if they were effectively carnivorous plants, they still had flesh - and there a good chance that they weren¡¯t influenced by the dimension of the black sun. They also had a slight tendency to implode upon contact with the laws of our dimension, but we could always have someone try eating a bit and see what happened first. Just because it wasn¡¯t able to maintain its structure in our dimension didn¡¯t necessarily mean that it was poisonous, and we had Sallia and my healing abilities to keep a test subject fairly safe during some quick experimentation.


    So on day two, after Anise ran out of mana and broke four more chains, we went back to the Dimensional Habitat Facility to check if Sekundyrr¡¯s suggestion was feasible.


    Luckily, it didn¡¯t seem like the creatures we had killed in room 3 had been particularly tainted by the black sun, and also hadn¡¯t been influenced by the weird dimensional laws of room six. Which was a relief - if the destroyed remains of the monsters we had fought had come back to life as some sort of carnivorous plant zombie, we would have had to fight and kill the creatures again, and there was no telling whether we would win or what state the corpses would have been in afterwards.


    Sallia volunteered to be the guinea pig for our first attempt at eating a creature from Sekundyrr¡¯s home dimension. Ultimately, we found that, while the plant monsters decomposed into strange mush after being exposed to our dimension¡¯s atmosphere for about half an hour, it was still edible. Sallia was fine a day after eating it, and so we ended up using what corpses we could find as food. The plant mush tasted rather¡­ odd, but at the very least, it kept our food supplies much healthier. I estimated that there was about a week¡¯s worth of food available from the corpses of the plant monsters, which gave us enough time to free the dragon and still have a little extra wriggle room.


    Day by day passed as we worked on destroying the chains on the dragon¡¯s body. Sallia started joining in once Anise destroyed the twelfth chain, and confirmed that she could indeed shatter a chain on her own if she unloaded about five third-circle spells at it first. It was nowhere near as efficient as Anise¡¯s 2-spells per chain, but it was good enough to hopefully get Sallia a new manifestation essence keyword ability, brining the dragon down to nine remaining chains.


    The next day, we broke through seven chains. Anise broke four, Sallia broke one, and Felix and I copied Sallia¡¯s actions to break one chain each on our own. With two chains left, the creature smiled at us, and began squirming around. Its body had previously been tethered to the table so securely that the creature couldn¡¯t move at all, but after most of its chains were destroyed, the dragon could finally move quite freely on its own.


    The creature wiggled around a little bit, glancing at the two remaining chains on its body, and its grin widened further.


    ¡°I can feel my control over my spellcasting essence returning to me,¡± said the creature, grinning broadly. ¡°It is such a relief to have access to my spells again.¡±


    Then, the dragon began manipulating an absolutely massive amount of manifestation essence.


    Far more than I had seen used in the recent past. Far more than I could ever hope to use in this life.


    If the amount of alteration essence I had in my body could be compared to a small stream, the dragon¡¯s mana was equivalent to a small lake. It glanced at the final chains holding it down, and I felt the manifestation essence quickly form itself into a spell I had never seen or heard of before. I did, however, have a rough idea how much manifestation essence was contained in the spell.


    It was a seventh circle spell. It had to be. I had seen the overseer of our hometown use a seventh circle spell before, and the dragon was manipulating about the same amount of essence. But it didn¡¯t feel like this was the dragon¡¯s limit, though, unlike our former overseer.


    Our overseer had barely managed to squeak out a single seventh-circle spell before dying during the battle against the Orukthyri. The red dragon was manipulating the same amount of mana because it seemed to think that was sufficient for the task - I knew with certainty that it could do much more than this. It hadn¡¯t even used up a tenth of its total mana reserves.


    In that moment, I realized that there was a reason dragons were considered gods on this world. And I also realized just how powerful the former Orthans of this world had been. They had managed to subdue and capture this creature, which seemed utterly impossible to fight in my eyes.


    A small spurt of ice clawed its way out of the dragon¡¯s mouth, before landing on the two final prismium chains. They froze over, then collapsed utterly and completely. Moments later, most of the prismium chains in the room, as well as the table the dragon had been strapped to, followed suit.


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    Not a single change in temperature was felt by me. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that I could feel manifestation essence being manipulated, I might have thought that the table and the half-destroyed chains had simply decided to implode all at once for no reason at all.


    ¡°Ahhh¡­ freedom at last. That feels wonderful,¡± said the dragon, its massive teeth widening into a massive grin.


    After a moment of stunned awe, I activated my soul-sight. I didn¡¯t think the dragon would turn on us, and if it did, using my bubbles of sleep would be far more likely to do something than trying to extinguish the dragon¡¯s ridiculously oversized soul.


    No, I was hoping to see something else, even though I had no idea if it would be visible to me at all.


    As we freed the dragon, I saw a System notification pop up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Play a minor role in helping one Dragon escape its imprisonment


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 17,328 to 18,328. However, I completely ignored the Achievement and the muted feeling of joy it created as it settled into my soul.


    Instead, I focused entirely on Anise¡¯s soul, hoping to see something. A sign that maybe, just maybe, Anise might be coming with us. I wasn¡¯t ready to say goodbye to her once we left this world. Not now, not ever.


    And I saw something change in Anise¡¯s soul. It was very, very faint, and if I hadn¡¯t been paying as much attention to her, I might have missed it entirely.


    But even though it was hard to notice, I was pretty sure that her soul had become ever so slightly brighter. It wasn¡¯t by much - if previously, Anise¡¯s soul was as bright as a little lantern, now, it was like someone had added a firefly¡¯s worth of light to it. It was so faint that I wasn¡¯t even completely convinced that it existed. It didn¡¯t look like a skill settling into her body. Instead, it looked almost like Anise had flicked a switch inside of her soul, and it had just become ever-so-slightly brighter.


    But something had changed, even if I could barely see it.


    I smiled, and reached over to give Anise a quick hug. It wasn¡¯t a declaration that she would definitely be coming with us, when we went to the Market again.


    But if I wasn¡¯t mistaken about what I had just witnessed and what it meant, it was proof that people could upgrade their attunements at least a little bit from one life to the next. I couldn¡¯t remember any of my lives before my life on ¡®Earth,¡¯ and the details of my life on ¡®Earth¡¯ were incredibly patchy. But I finally had a good idea why I apparently had an incredible talent for manipulating alteration essence.


    Apparently, in one or more of my previous lives, I had been very good at messing with alteration essence. I had no idea if the one, single action from Anise had brought up her talent in manipulating manifestation essence to the point where it was considered an ¡®extreme¡¯ affinity. I didn¡¯t know if the Market would sense her and bring her along with us. But I was now pretty sure that affinity for an essence could grow. And that meant there was a real chance to bring Anise with us.


    ¡°Thank you very much, little Orthanoids,¡± said the dragon, turning its attention back towards us. ¡°I appreciate the help. Now, as promised, let¡¯s go and figure out the source of this taint in the air.¡±


    ¡°Can we wait for Anise to recover?¡± I asked, trying not to sound too demanding. The dragon seemed agreeable enough, and hadn¡¯t suddenly turned on us the moment we freed it, which meant there was a good chance it intended to honor its earlier statements. However, I still didn¡¯t want to annoy the creature. But waiting for Anise to recover her manifestation essence was also a good idea. ¡°She¡¯s a bit tired from helping you get free.¡±


    The dragon paused, giving us a curious look, before it sighed. ¡°Very well, little Orthanoids. We can wait a little bit. I will naturally protect you anyway, so it¡¯s quite meaningless. But I suppose even if your abilities are measly, it must be comforting to be able to help yourselves as well.¡± the dragon glanced at the chains and table that it seemed to have obliterated for no reason at all besides pure spite, and its eyes rolled in strange directions. ¡°I find that I can sympathize with that idea far more than before, given my recent experiences. How long will it take the pink-haired girl to recover? You usually wait about a day, yes?¡±


    ¡°A day should be more than enough. Thank you,¡± I said, before the four of us settled down to rest and eat some more weird plant porridge.


    ¡°I never did get used to the need flesh creatures have for eating such weird food,¡± said the dragon, shaking its head as it looked at our strange plant porridge. ¡°So odd. Say, do any of you have any gold on you, or other metals? I could do with a snack myself.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I frowned, and then opened my backpack to check. I found several bars of gravitite. A thought occurred to me.


    Could dragons eat gravitite? Also, I had gotten an Achievement reward for ¡®owning¡¯ a certain amount of Gravitite. What happened if, after gaining that Achievement, I lost ownership of that gravitite? I hadn¡¯t ever seen the System deduct Achievement we had earned, at least not unless we paid for maintenance for our equipment or bought something.


    I found myself very curious.


    ¡°Are you able to eat this?¡± I asked, pulling out one bar of gravitite.


    The dragon looked at it, and gave it a cautious sniff. ¡°It smells delicious,¡± it said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what metal it is, though. I can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever seen it before. What metal is this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s called gravitite,¡± I said. ¡°We found a bunch of it in one of the other facilities near here. It seems to be a type of metal found in another dimension, although we¡¯re not quite sure how that would interact with your body if you ate it.¡±


    The dragon thought for a moment, and then rolled its eyes around in their sockets a few times, making them look kind of like disco balls. ¡°I can try a little nibble and see if it upsets my stomach, I suppose. So long as I wait a few hours, I should know if it will be harmful to eat or not.¡±


    I handed over the gravitite, and the dragon delicately shredded off a piece of gravitite about the size of a coin, before swallowing it.


    ¡°Delicious! This is even tastier than gold!¡± said the dragon enthusiastically, before it completely ignored its earlier statement about waiting a few hours as it immediately devoured the metal whole.


    ¡°Do you have any more?¡± asked the dragon after a moment. It looked almost like a puppy begging for food.


    I gave it two more bars of gravitite¡­ dropping my total number of ¡®owned¡¯ Gravitite bars below 12. I had gotten 2 Achievement rewards for owning gravitite: the first reward for owning 3, and the second for owning 12 bars of gravitite. If the dragon ate these two bars of gravitite, I should, theoretically, lose my Achievement reward.


    The dragon nommed the two bars of Gravitite. My achievement remained completely unaffected, even though I no longer owned twelve bars of Gravitite.


    Interesting.


    There was something I was missing about how wealth achievement worked: some facet of how Achievement as a whole worked, perhaps. I seemed to recall seeing a System notification somewhere mention that Achievements were connected to local dimensional laws, although I couldn¡¯t for the life of me remember where I had seen it before. Once we got back to the Market, I would look into that.


    But for now, at least, I had more important matters to deal with.


    The dragon was free. It was time to plan how we were going to find the origin of our connection to the world of the black sun and cut it off. We had a dragon on our side now.


    I just hoped it would be enough.

 Chapter 139: Palace (5)

    Before we went to sleep for the day, Anise scooted over to me and stared at me.


    ¡°I feel like my control of manifestation essence is a little better than before,¡± she whispered. Even though she didn¡¯t say anything, I could practically feel her excitement and nervousness radiating off of her.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Felix and Sallia looking at me nervously as well. Felix and Sallia knew exactly what was at stake here. Now that the three of us had included Anise in our circle of friends, nobody wanted to lose her when we died. I was the only one who could see souls, and I had already mentioned that I had observed people gaining Skills before using my soul-sight, and how it seemed to improve their stats. I could feel a nervous mix of anticipation and fear settling over the spot we were using as a camp.


    And I grinned.


    ¡°I saw Anise¡¯s soul change a little bit,¡± I said. ¡°I think her aptitude improved.¡±


    Sallia and Felix also smiled, before Felix stopped smiling and frowned. ¡°Will that be enough?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said, feeling a bit of my own excitement dissipate. ¡°Since it¡¯s obvious that your aptitude towards an essence can improve, I don¡¯t know exactly what the Market wants before it automatically brings someone into the Market. What exactly does ¡®extreme affinity¡¯ mean? Is it the absolute maximum possible affinity one can ever achieve, or is it just some sort of break point? I know Anise improved a bit, but now that you mention it¡­ I¡¯m not sure if that guarantees she¡¯ll come with us,¡± I said. I started worrying again.


    What if Anise hadn¡¯t managed to reach the point where the Market would automatically include her? What if even after all of this work, Anise just disappeared into the river of souls? What if she became just another memory of somebody I had once cared about and would never see again?


    Anise, Felix and Sallia also fell into silence as we realized that we still had no idea whether we would see Anise after this world. Eventually, Sallia sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s just hope this is enough, but let¡¯s keep pushing. If Anise can help us shut down the portal between this world and the black sun using her manifestation essence, that would probably get her to the Market if she isn¡¯t already going to show up with us, right?¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I think that makes sense. After that¡­¡± Felix glanced at his wrist, where his friendship bracelet would be located if it was currently materialized. Then, he shrugged. ¡°Anise, we don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll show up in the Market together. I want to see you after this life, and we still have time to improve your affinity if this doesn¡¯t go horribly wrong. If you do get to the Market, try to get a friendship bracelet and add us to your friends list, so that we can reincarnate together. We¡¯ll keep an eye on our friendship bracelets - even though we haven¡¯t ever tried adding somebody from far away before, hopefully it¡¯ll work. And there are a few other things you should know about the Market¡­¡± Felix started outlining a quick plan for what we could do to meet up after joining the Market, if Anise ended up in a different Nursery, or a different part of the city than we did. After all, our arrival point was almost completely random when we returned to the Market, and while our friendship bracelets seemed to ensure that we ended up in the same spot, Anise didn¡¯t have a friendship bracelet. Most of Felix¡¯s plan boiled down to ¡®try to get a friendship bracelet, be cautious of the skeletons and other monsters, and hopefully this works and we¡¯ll meet up when we next reincarnate. If we end up in the same city, we can meet up earlier and plan together. We¡¯ll try to find you, but bet on our next reincarnation being our meeting point.¡¯


    It wasn¡¯t guaranteed to be useful information, but I desperately hoped that we would get the chance to see Anise again in the Market. I hoped that Felix¡¯s plan would get put into use.


    It wasn¡¯t guaranteed, but Anise had already been incredibly talented in using manifestation essence when she was born. Hopefully, freeing the dragon had pushed her over the edge, if she hadn¡¯t already been at that point.


    After that, the four of us went to sleep.


    The next day, Anise had recovered enough of her manifestation essence to keep going. The dragon woke up a few hours after we did, and the group got moving again.


    We started walking through the ruined palace, looking for the link that connected us to the dimension of the black sun.


    It took us about ten seconds to realize that the dragon was faster than us.


    Much faster.


    It didn¡¯t move the way I had expected a dragon might - despite my images of a massive serpent flying through the sky on massive wings, the red dragon looked more like it was tunneling through air and space.


    Every few seconds, I would get a slightly stronger taste of spatial manipulation, and the dragon would disappear and reappear a few steps forward. Apart from that, it slithered almost like a normal snake.


    At least, if the snake was almost twice my height and several dozen times my length.


    By some miracle the red dragon still fit in the halls of the ruined palace, although it was a bit of a squeeze. We ended up trailing a bit behind it, to make sure it had room to fit.


    I also noticed that the dragon was simply crushing the metal spikes as we walked past. It even occasionally stopped to take a bite out of them.


    ¡°Is it safe to eat those?¡± I asked. I could still see that there was some sort of dimensional law being influenced by the metal spikes, and so I had been wary of messing with them for fear that they might suddenly explode or something.


    ¡°It¡¯s safe for me,¡± said the dragon. Even though I couldn¡¯t see its face, since it was facing away from us, I could hear the smile in its voice. ¡°It is actually quite tasty. However, it would probably kill you if you touched them. I can tell that the old Orthans did something very interesting with the metal spikes - it seems like the laws inside them have been modified to let them hold way more energy than they were supposed to. At least, that¡¯s my understanding - I mostly specialize in spells, admittedly. So my understanding of shaping is much weaker.


    ¡°Luckily, the energy that was being stored has mostly disappeared. It was either used or leaked out over the centuries. Either way, it¡¯s no longer relevant,¡± said the dragon.


    I paused.


    ¡°Wait a minute¡­ these items have dimensional laws that are explicitly manipulating them to create unique effects?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Indeed,¡± said the dragon.


    I paused, and thought about what that meant.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Did that mean that EVERY magic item was somehow related to manipulating the laws of our dimension?


    If every single magic item was created by manipulating dimensional laws to make the item do something, I could certainly see why people would fail to recreate them. I had inspected several examples of using alteration essence to manipulate dimensional laws, and I was still completely baffled by them.


    It was hard to say if my guess was accurate or not, but it was at least a hypothesis about how magic items worked. If we survived this, I decided it might be a good idea to return to the place where we had found Sekundyrr¡¯s cage and steal a few more cages for research. Although I had no idea how the Orthans could have possibly manufactured anything like the tunnels and cities that we lived in if it they had literally warped the laws of reality to grant the cities and tunnels magical effects. Maybe it wasn¡¯t a time consuming and difficult process, or there was a way to make it faster?


    I shrugged, and tried not to let my mind wander off. Meanwhile, unlike me, someone else had been paying more attention to the implications of the dragon¡¯s words.


    ¡°You said the power in these metal stakes might have been used. In that case, were these cords used to transfer power?¡± asked Felix, giving the metal stakes a curious glance. ¡°Could that have been used to fuel the attempts to travel from one dimension to another? I mean, even if most of the magic items we¡¯ve seen run off of no maintenance forever, I imagine that creating them still probably takes a fair bit of energy. If we assume that a portal to another dimension is the same¡­¡±


    The dragon nodded. ¡°That is what I believe,¡± it said. ¡°I struggle to understand how anything like the travel to other dimensions you¡¯ve mentioned could possibly be accomplished without massive quantities of shaping and spellcasting essence. Probably both. These must have been ways to power up the creation of the portal, if the old Orthans didn¡¯t do something completely outside of my understanding.¡± It¡¯s body squirmed a bit, and I could hear its voice take on a somewhat irritated tone. ¡°Though, given their other actions, it¡¯s hard to figure out what they might or might not have done. Come to think of it, I wonder where they got all of the essence to fill up these containers¡­¡±


    I glanced at the dragon, and then thought about the fact that we had found it unconscious and strapped to a table. It hadn¡¯t woken up when it was supposed to, almost as if something had been siphoning away its stamina¡­


    I decided not to share my suspicion with the dragon, but I strongly suspected that at least some of the energy that opened the portal had been ¡®donated¡¯ by the red dragon. And perhaps there were other similar cells inside of the walls, which had once contained other prisoners that were used as batteries.


    I decided to scan our area with soul-sight more often, just in case there were any other prisoners we could rescue. However, I didn¡¯t see any evidence of anything else. Most creatures couldn¡¯t survive centuries without food and water, after all.


    We continued traveling for another ten minutes, before, for the first time, I noticed a fork in the passage. Given how long we had been traveling in one direction without leaving the building or seeing any turns at all, seeing a fork in the road managed to catch me totally off guard.


    In front of us, there were two paths that branched out from our current location. If we wanted to go forward, we needed to choose whether we were going left or right.


    I glanced out of one of the holes in the wall, and blinked in surprise when I realized that we were now significantly above the ground, despite the corridor that we had traveled through being entirely straight and not going upwards at all.


    Space inside of this palace was even more strange than I had thought.


    The dragon stopped at the junction, and seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then, it started moving left.


    ¡°I think this is the right way. It tastes more foul in this direction, at least,¡± said the dragon. ¡°There may also be outside creatures here.¡±


    The four of us continued jogging behind the dragon.


    About twenty minutes later, Anise and Felix started to run out of breath. After all, unlike Sallia and I, they didn¡¯t have the physical stats to simply jog nonstop for extended periods of time. In particular, their Fortitude was much lower than mine and Sallia¡¯s.


    Sallia and I picked them up, and I also grabbed Sekundyrr¡¯s cage with my other hand. Then we kept moving.


    Forty minutes of jogging later, we found our first hints of outsiders.


    The metal stakes on the side of the hallway were normally quite dead - they were simply metal stakes with wires strewn between them. However, these metal stakes were different.


    They had souls.


    Starting from a certain point in the hallway, every single metal stake had a soul. And the moment the dragon grew closer, they opened their eyes and stared at the dragon.


    And us.


    I felt manifestation essence start to build up near the dragon, and decided to kill-steal a creature to see if it had a useful skill for me to use. I hit one of the metal stakes with an extinguish.


    However, unlike other creatures the metal stake didn¡¯t die from my extinguish. Its life force flickered, but didn¡¯t quite go out.


    All of the souls in the metal stakes turned towards me, and I felt alteration essence start to build up in the hallway.


    And then, before the little souls finished whatever they were planning, the dragon finished assembling its spell.


    I saw a single beam of light spring into existence in front of us. It was dazzling. It was as bright as the sun. It caused my eyes to hurt as light ripped into the hallway.


    A moment later, as I blinked tears out of my eyes, I realized that the metal stakes were gone.


    The souls in the hallway were gone.


    The hallway was gone. The wall had turned into some sort of¡­ glassy substance. The ceiling was now crystal. The floor was intact, so at least the dragon hadn¡¯t destroyed our walking area. However, the rest of the hallway seemed to have been transmuted into random glass-like substances.


    It took me a few more moments to realize how much essence the dragon had pumped into the spell.


    The dragon has used a freaking eighth circle spell.


    I looked at the dragon.


    It didn¡¯t even seem winded. The red dragon had used an eighth-circle spell to wipe out a single hallway, using an attack that I didn¡¯t understand and that made Astrellium from the islands look like a toddler¡¯s toy, and it seemed ready to fire another one at a moment¡¯s notice.


    The dragon grinned at me.


    ¡°I see that you¡¯ve formed an attunement. Something related to death? And life? Quite a clever attunement, actually. Not the best I¡¯ve ever seen, but in the upper tier of attunements, at least. However, these creatures seemed to be chunks of shaping essence brought to life - if you want to kill them using shaping essence, you should probably overcharge the spell a bit. Maybe make it about three times as strong as usual? That way you can punch through their resistance and kill them anyway.¡±


    I nodded. I was used to specifically measuring how much life force a creature had and then applying exactly enough alteration essence to kill it with one extinguish. I hadn¡¯t run into any creatures that were resistant to my extinguishes yet. However, it was also obvious that sooner or later, I would need to get better at dealing with creatures that weren¡¯t quite so helpless against my strongest attack.


    Anise, however, was focused on something else.


    ¡°That was amazing! What circle of spell can you cast?¡± She said, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the dragon and wriggled around in my arms. I quietly set her down.


    The dragon chuckled. ¡°I can do up to tenth circle spells, although I only know a few tenth circle spells. They are quite time-consuming to create, after all, and I don¡¯t really see the need to reach for more. I have the essence to just barely cast eleventh circle spells, but I don¡¯t seem to have the talent for it.¡± The dragon seemed to puff itself up, and I realized that the dragon might really enjoy it when people stroked its ego a bit. I filed that information away in case we needed to use it later.


    The group continued onwards. The corridor went on for about another twenty minutes of jogging - and every single inch of it had been glassed by the dragon¡¯s eighth-circle spell. A difficult corridor that probably would have taken us days to slowly clear out if we had been on our own had been destroyed by a single spell that took about four seconds to cast.


    We found ourselves at another turn, and the dragon simply kept following its nose and removing any obstacles in our way using huge spells that annihilated everything in their wake.


    Until finally, after five hours of running, we found ourselves in front of a thick, metal door. The taste of spatial manipulation was so heavy that it nearly drowned out my ability to taste the air around us. And the dragon¡¯s expression of disgust grew deeper and deeper as we grew closer to the door.


    We had finally reached our destination.

 Chapter 140: Portal

    As we stepped closer to the metal door, I could feel something thrumming, just on the other side of the door.


    I closed my eyes and listened to the beating of the alteration essence in the air. Unlike most other alteration essence I had seen manipulating the laws of reality, which simply hung in the air like a dead cloud, the pustule of spatial energy on the other side of the door sounded like a second heartbeat.


    It was terrifying. It was beautiful. It was hard for me to understand in any meaningful way. But the pulsing of alteration essence had a certain strange allure to it, in addition to the rising fear I felt.


    I looked at the dragon, and for a moment, I thought I saw the dragon twitch slightly. It was a very subtle movement, and one that would be hard to detect if I hadn¡¯t been paying close attention. I wondered if the dragon was twitching in fear or anticipation, and hoped that it was anticipation.


    If even the dragon couldn¡¯t win here, we were completely screwed. After seeing the dragon casually demolish several hallways with eighth-circle spells, I realized that the four of us were basically supporting roles here. If we were even needed at all.


    On top of my increasing nervousness as we grew closer to our destination, I was increasingly uncertain what else lay on the other side of the door. The pulses of alteration essence were so engulfing and massive that it was hard to focus on anything else at all. And somehow, the door was blocking everything besides the beating alteration essence. I had no clue what was inside of the room - I couldn¡¯t see any souls, but I also couldn¡¯t see a lack of souls, either. It was simply blocked from my sight, somehow.  On the other side of the door, there could be dozens of hostile outsiders stuck and waiting to kill us, or guard dragons, or basically anything else I could imagine. And I had no way of warning the group about any of it.


    I suspected that the alteration essence from inside of the room was blocked too - it was simply so massive that, despite being blocked, huge amounts of alteration essence were still leaking out of the room.


    Once we opened the door, there would be no turning back, either. Whatever was in the room wasn¡¯t currently aware of us, but I seriously doubted that would remain the case once we opened the door.


    I took a deep breath to steady myself, and looked at my friends, Sekundyrr, and the dragon.


    If we could shut down the connection to the world of the black sun, we could save this world. If we figured out how it worked, and could find Sekundyrr¡¯s home, we could return it to its former life.


    We just needed to win against whatever was in this room.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said the dragon, after a few moments of hesitation. It leaned forward, and chomped on the door.


    The door, being made of metal, disappeared down the dragon¡¯s gullet within the span of a few seconds.


    I looked inside of the room, activating my soul sight again as I looked for threats.


    Inside of the room was a massive soul, surrounded by dozens of smaller souls.


    The biggest soul in the room was nearly the size of the dragon¡¯s, and the smaller souls were all almost as large as ours.


    The room was alive. The air inside of the room was alive. The specks of dust were alive. The stacks of research notes, the pens near them, and the ink that had long since dried inside of the inkwells were alive.


    And in the center of the massive room, there was a single, black scepter. Cords of metal connected it to the walls, and floating on top of it was a hole in reality. On the other side of that window, I could see something I had never seen before - the ocean of souls.


    We were looking directly at a giant, narrow corridor that passed directly through the ocean of souls. I had no idea how the black staff had managed to make the ocean that literally traversed reality move aside, but somehow, the black scepter was keeping the ocean of at bay.


    On the other side of the ocean of souls, I saw another dimension.


    And inside of that dimension, there was a soul.


    One, singular soul.


    It was only one soul, but it was such a large soul that it made every single other soul I had ever seen in the course of my life seem tiny in comparison.


    The size seemed millions of times stronger than the dragon. Hundreds of millions, even. It wasn¡¯t staring at us, and didn¡¯t seem aware of us at all - it simply existed, encompassing the entirety of the other world.


    A deep, echoing terror inside of my mind told me exactly what I was looking at, as if words and meaning was being forced directly into my mind.


    I suddenly knew that I was looking at the void between stars.


    The living, walking embodiment of the void between every single world, every single star, every single speck of reality in the other dimension was simply sitting on the other side of the portal, completely indifferent to the little window in reality that the black scepter had created..


    I had seen the research notes in the Dimensional Habitat Facility, and they had noted that almost everything exposed to the atmosphere in dimension 6 would come to life after a while. I had known that, but I hadn¡¯t realized that the void on the other side of the portal would be ONE SINGLE CREATURE. In my head, I had imagined dimension six to be filled with various chunks of living, walking space, perhaps fighting each other for food or drifting through the void as planets and their immediate surroundings also splintered into smaller, recognizably sized entities that fought or ignored each other.


    That was dead wrong.


    The void between stars wasn¡¯t made up of hundreds of thousands of smaller living chunks of void.


    Every single centimeter of space between stars was one massive entity.


    Even our entire planet was barely a speck of dust in comparison. The life force required to extinguish the thing was so ludicrous that I couldn¡¯t imagine ever extinguishing it. Even if I had ten thousand times my current essence reserves, the creature probably wouldn¡¯t even notice a full-powered attack from me.


    The chime of the system brought me out of my daze.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Exploration: Find the connection between the world you were born in and another world for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Analyzing new world¡­ Analysis complete!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essences Present in this dimension: Alteration


    Estimated tier: 16 (according to the Market¡¯s standardized power evaluation scale)


    Special notes: The world you are currently near is much higher tier than your current world. If you do not have advanced equipment or combat power, or a very technologically advanced civilization backing you up to make up for the difference in combat power, it is advised that you close the portal. Contact between different dimensions is occasionally peaceful, but war is very common.


    The physics of the world you are currently near seem to be totally at odds with the laws of physics your current body is built to handle. It seems to be a sort of ¡®plane of ideas,¡¯ where concepts like space and physical matter only existed in specific, limited forms. It is advised that you proceed with caution, because your biology will almost certainly collapse instantly upon touching the laws of the other dimension unless you have Heroic or higher grade Abilities to negate this effect.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    TIER 16?!!!!


    ¡°Fuck,¡± said Felix, staring at the patch of air in front of him as he presumably read through his own System notifications.


    I felt something strange start to happen to my body a few moments later.


    I realized that my bones were¡­ alive. Not just my bones. My skin, my flesh, my blood, my organs¡­ every single piece of me was rapidly awakening as completely foreign life and souls sprung into existence inside of my body.


    My Fortitude stat and my Willpower stat fought to keep my body under my control. It was the most overt feeling of my attributes that I had ever gotten - normally, I could see the effect of stats like Strength as they made my body stronger, but I had never before felt an attribute actively resisting something quite so vividly.


    I looked at Anise, Sallia, and Felix, and realized that they were choking in horror as miniature souls sprung up all across their body, like a wildfire in slow motion.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    I tried to bite down on the connection between our world and the black sun¡¯s world, panicking as I tried to keep the bodies of my friends under control. I failed to sink my teeth into anything at all - I clearly hadn¡¯t bitten on quite the right thing.


    Anise started to scream in agony.


    The creatures inside of the room finally noticed our presence, and started turning towards us. I felt prickles of fear and danger crawl across my spine as I realized that we might very well be screwed.


    The dragon roared, an expression of rage and frustration, and then fired a quick seventh-circle spell into the room to buy itself time to form a higher tier spell. Most of the smaller souls in the room died on the spot, winking out of existence like little lights.


    I immediately started altering my fifth rune ability, trying to boost it as much as I possibly could by overcharging it with every drop of alteration and absorption essence I had in my body.


    Then, I turned towards the dragon.


    ¡°Throw me towards the portal!¡± I screamed, ignoring the giant soul present in the room where the air had come to life. I prayed that this would be enough.


    The dragon¡¯s tail wrapped around me and tossed me towards the portal like a slingshot, just gently enough that I wouldn¡¯t splatter on impact with the wall.


    First, I reached towards the black scepter. My first idea was simply to rip the black scepter away, hopefully ending all of this.


    I collided with the black scepter and realized it was hopeless. The black scepter was rooted into the ground like a billion-ton asteroid.


    I tried reaching into the black scepter and flooding it with alteration essence, trying to force it to shut off whatever it was doing.


    It felt like I had slammed like alteration essence into a steel wall. Nothing budged at all - I was way too weak to force the scepter to shut down.


    I focused more on my fifth rune. It was my last idea. I powered up my spatial manipulation-deleting bite a little more, forcing my ability to lock on to the connection between this dimension and the other one, and then bit down as hard as I possibly could.


    It felt like I had bitten down on a diamond. I wasn¡¯t even close to breaking it - I hadn¡¯t even dented the connection at all.


    The black scepter started looking at me, the soul inside of it starting to glow with manifestation essence. I realized that I was about to die, and turned towards the dragon, praying that it had a way to save us.


    The dragon finished its eighth circle spell, and the air inside of the room suddenly died. I felt a strange sense of suffocation as the air was plucked out of my lungs.


    Sallia appeared out of thin air and swung her gravitite-empowered sword at the black scepter, as if trying to distract it. Even if she couldn¡¯t see souls, she must have felt the manifestation essence building up inside of the item and tried to help me.


    The gravitite sword bounced off of the black scepter and did nothing whatsoever.


    Then, I felt something settle on me.


    It was the weight of eyes.


    Thousands upon thousands of eyes, looking at me like the tiny, insignificant creature that I was. Every single star in the sky of the other dimension, every single planet, every single piece of physical matter, all opened their eyes and looked at me at the same time. I could feel my Fortitude and Willpower stats instantly lose their battle to keep control of my collapsing flesh. My bones started ripping themselves out of my flesh, fleeing as my blood started corroding my internal organs. My brain started trying to free itself from my skull, and every pound of flesh on my body started to unravel and flee.


    But that didn¡¯t matter, because they were looking at me.


    THEYWERELOOKINGATMETHEYWERELOOKINGATMETHEYWERELOOKINGATMETHEYWERELOOKINGAT-


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have been detected to be (dead), and your soul is no longer housed inside of a physical vessel.


    You will be returned to the Market shortly.


    Warning: It has been detected that you are part of a potentially large influence-based event, and have not yet collected your rewards. Once you exit a dimension, you may no longer connect to the dimensional laws of that world, meaning you will no longer be able to collect any Achievement from interacting with a certain world. Would you like to enter slumber mode for 20 Achievement? This will keep your soul safe from the corrosion of the ocean of souls for up to 1 year, and prevent you from exiting this dimension. This is advised to finish collecting rewards which are still pending.


    Warning: You have one or more friends still connected to your current dimension, even though you are dead. It is highly recommended that you enter slumber mode until all of you leave a dimension at the same time. Otherwise, it may be difficult to time your births and deaths in each world properly, which has been statistically proven to increase the chance of your group breaking up sometime within the next five centuries!


    Would you like to enter slumber mode for 20 Achievement? Each purchase lasts for up to one year.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Before I could read the System notification, another System notification came.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    All members of your registered group of friends have been detected to be dead.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Contributed to the attack on the portal between worlds by an [Extremely Negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement + 0.0


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I died.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Death Statistics Report:


    Power:


    Successfully Condense your First Rune


    + 40 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Second Rune


    + 80 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Third Rune


    + 120 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Fourth Rune


    + 160 Achievement


    Successfully Condense your Fifth Rune


    + 200 Achievement


    [Basic] level attunement:


    + 250 Achievement


    [Intermediate] level attunement:


    + 500 Achievement


    [Advanced] level attunement:


    + 750 Achievement


    [Expert] level attunement:


    + 1000 Achievement


    First circle spellcaster


    + 150 Achievement


    Second circle spellcaster


    + 300 Achievement


    Third circle spellcaster


    + 450 Achievement


    Skill:


    Achieve [Basic] Grade one-handed Swordsmanship


    + 20 Achievement


    Achieve [Intermediate] Grade one-handed Swordsmanship


    + 130 Achievement


    Achieve [Basic] Grade mastery of Ocean''s Duality Magic


    + 500 Achievement


    Slaughter:


    Kill an Acid Drinker for the First time


    + 100 Achievement


    Kill a Voltenthus for the First time


    + 115 Achievement


    Kill a Silent Puppet for the First time


    + 300 Achievement


    Assist in Killing an Orukthyri Third or fourth Circle variant for the first time


    + 500 Achievement


    Kill an Orukthyri Third or fourth Circle variant for the first time


    + 1500 Achievement


    Assist in killing an Orukthyri Warrior (Variant) for the first time


    + 90 Achievement


    Assist in killing an Orukthyri Warrior (Variant) for the fifth time


    + 250 Achievement


    Kill an Orukthyri Warrior (Variant) for the first time


    + 1,200 Achievement


    Assist in killing an Orukthyri Shaper-Commander for the first time


    + 600 Achievement


    Kill a Sleeplurk for the first time


    + 35 Achievement


    Kill a Dasher for the first time


    + 25 Achievement


    Kill a Poisonlurk for the first time


    + 40 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Sleeplurk for the first time


    + 3 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Flare Eater for the first time


    + 300 Achievement


    Kill an empty shadow for the first time


    + 150 Achievement


    Kill a Thought Worm for the first time


    + 2 Achievement


    Kill a Thought Worm for the fifth time


    + 4 Achievement


    Kill a Thought Worm for the tenth time


    + 6 Achievement


    Kill a Thought Worm for the 25th time


    + 10 Achievement


    Kill a Thought Worm for the 70th time


    + 15 Achievement


    Kill a Thought Worm for the 250th time


    + 25 Achievement


    Kill a Thought Worm for the 700th time


    + 50 Achievement


    Kill a Voidless for the 1st time


    + 100 Achievement


    Kill a Voidless for the 5th time


    + 200 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Voidless for the 1st time


    + 15 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Voidless for the 5th time


    + 30 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Voidless for the 15th time


    + 50 Achievement


    Influence:


    Contribute to the battle of the border cavern by a major amount


    + 1500 Achievement


    Play a [Major] role in the scout raid on the Orukthyri base


    + 300 Achievement


    Contribute to the battle of the tunnel by a minor amount


    + 800 Achievement


    Heal 3 Permanent, crippling injuries


    + 150 Achievement


    Heal 12 Permanent, crippling injuries


    + 400 Achievement


    Heal 30 Permanent, crippling injuries


    + 600 Achievement


    Heal 100 Permanent, crippling injuries


    + 750 Achievement


    Slightly Increase the Strength of Silver City


    + 400 Achievement


    Help 1 Palanthyrre escape its imprisonment


    + 100 Achievement


    Help 1 Dragon Escape its imprisonment


    + 1,000 Achievement


    Wealth:


    Become the Owner of 5 bars of (almost) pure gold


    + 200 Achievement


    Become the Owner of 3 bars of Gravitite


    + 200 Achievement


    Become the Owner of 12 bars of Gravitite


    + 400 Achievement


    Become the Owner of 1 kg of Prismium


    + 1000 Achievement


    Crafting:


    N/A


    Exploration:


    Find the connection between your home dimension and a new dimension for the first time


    Achievement +1,000


    Family and Disciples:


    N/A


    Misc:


    First time Achievements:


    (Market-Produced Achievements cannot be repeated in subsequent lives. They are paid for by Eluxia and the Market, as a means to encourage new Transmigrators, and not linked to the dimensional laws of any world besides the market).


    Total at start of World: 218.89


    New Total:19,383.89


    Taxes: N/A (Error - no tax skill detected. Please consult with your local city administrator for further details. Tax evasion is a capital offense, and trying to avoid paying may result in execution!)


    Equipment maintenance costs and other expenses:


    Friendship bracelet w/Location tracking: -1.8 Achievement


    Two-Purpose Training Sword: -7.2 Achievement


    Lake-Gazer''s Dress: -22.8 Achievement


    Storage Pack: -2.3 Achievement


    Sturdy Boots: -1.1 Achievement


    Final Total: 19,348.69


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 141: The Ones Left Behind

    Ella looked at the entrance to the city, wondering when Miria, Sallia, and her friends would return home.


    It had been almost two months now. She was starting to get a little worried. Surely they would have come back by now? Why weren¡¯t they returning?


    She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.


    They were fine.


    Miria and Sallia were two of the strongest girls she had ever seen. When their parents had disappeared after the Orukthyri attack, she had raised them as if they were her own daughters. She hadn¡¯t raised them to be weak. She had taught them everything she knew about adventuring. She had given them every single tool she possibly could to let them live during their journeys in the wastes. Miria had one of the most absurd attunements she had ever seen, and Sallia was probably the best swordsman in the city once her absurdly strong body was taken into account.


    She had even given Miria her good luck charm, the carving of an eight-legged pet that used to be popular before the dawn of the black sun.


    They had every single tool they could possibly need to survive in the wasteland.


    She wasn¡¯t sure where Miria and her friends were right now. She didn¡¯t know exactly what adventures they were having.


    But in her heart of hearts, she knew that they would be fine.


    They had to be.


    * * *


    Anise¡¯s parents had a bad feeling in their hearts.


    It had started out small, but it was growing bigger every day.


    It had been four months since Anise and her friends had left Silver City to journey to the surface. The two of them weren¡¯t entirely happy with Anise¡¯s decision, but at the same time, they understood Anise¡¯s dream.


    It was to become a super-witch.


    Even though Anise had long grown out of the phase where she loudly proclaimed her dream of becoming a super witch to everyone whenever she had the opportunity to, it hadn¡¯t changed Anise¡¯s underlying hopes and dreams. Even if Anise tended to get embarrassed when one mentioned the word ¡®super-witch¡¯ to her these days, she still loved spellcasting more than almost anything else in the world.


    Unfortunately, Anise was held back by her low spellcasting essence pool and lack of spells.


    They had no idea if there was a ¡®cure¡¯ for lack of spellcasting essence on the surface. It would probably be very hard to find, even if it did exist. But at the very least, Anise could find old spells, study them, and pursue her dreams that way.


    But it had been four months since they journeyed to the surface, and the two were getting very worried.


    They should have come back by now.


    After three months, Felix¡¯s mother, Ella, and Anise¡¯s parents had all received deposits of gold that Miria and Sallia had left behind before leaving. It had been enough to take care of the two for several years, if they lived frugally.


    But it couldn¡¯t replace the growing, gnawing fear in their stomachs. At first, it had been easy to pretend that something had just come up during the journey. Perhaps Anise and her friends had gotten lost and were searching for the tunnel entrance to Silver City again. Or maybe they had gotten misdirected, and entered a different city somehow - after all, plenty of cities in the underdark had entrances that led to the surface. Otherwise it would have made it harder to ship metals out of the underdark and back to the cities of the old Orthan.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    However, as the months continued to pass by, even the hope that Anise and her friends would return soon was starting to fade away.


    Even though they still hoped that Anise would be fine, and that their little girl would come back with stories of her amazing adventures with her friends and her magic if they just waited a little longer¡­


    They were starting to accept the truth.


    Anise was never coming home. And not only would they never know how their little girl died, they would probably never even see her corpse.


    All that was left was the empty void in their hearts where their precious little girl had once been.


    * * *


    Time passed.


    In a certain room in a ruined palace, the corpses of three girls, one boy, a dragon, and a Palanthyrre that had been trapped in a cage slowly reorganized themselves into a new set of defenders for a portal.


    There were no signs of any other adventurers successfully making their way into the room.


    Years slipped by, and the encroachment of the black sun became worse and worse over time. The progress that the black sun was making also seemed to accelerate with each passing year - first, all life on the surface died off. Then, adventurers who tried to make their way to the surface started dying off almost immediately upon exposure to the black sun.


    Trade between cities became more and more difficult to accomplish. Apparently, the tunnels between cities simply weren¡¯t as well shielded as the cities themselves. This posed increasingly noticeable problems for traveling merchants, as they started to get sick anytime they tried to move from one city to another. Similarly, people started to get sick even if they only spent a few hours picking mushrooms in the mushroom caverns, making it harder to acquire food.


    Even the city that had acquired the healing cube started to struggle to maintain its population as it became harder to harvest food safely.


    Then, the core parts of the cities started to become less safe as well.


    People in the cities started to get sick. Adventurers who had retired from the surface recognized the symptoms of the buildup from exposure to the black sun.


    This was when panic started to truly set in. The black sun was not present in the underdark, and people were still getting sick from it, even if they hid in their homes. Combined with the increasing difficulty of harvesting food, things started to become truly dire for the surviving Orthanoids. Some people stayed in their homes, hoping that whatever had gone wrong with their cities would fix itself before they perished, while some people desperately dove deeper and deeper into the caves in hopes that it would keep them safe.


    It didn¡¯t.


    About ten years after Miria and her friends died, most of the Orthanoid population, as well as most of the planet, had gone extinct from the myriad problems caused by the encroachment of the black sun.


    At least, the native life of the planet had mostly disappeared.


    However, the planet wasn¡¯t devoid of all life. Strange things started to happen on the planet, although almost nothing was left to witness it.


    Rocks started to come alive, opening their newborn eyes and beholding a world devoid of pink plants or native life.


    The corpses of Orthanoids started to split apart and animate themselves, as bones, blood, muscles, and sinews grew life of their own and left the bodies of their former owners.


    Finally, as new life sprung up in the rotting carcass of what had once been a proud Tier 5 world, something woke up.


    Far above the continent filled with newborn life, a single, black sun floated in the center of the ring-shaped world.


    At least, those who were unaware of what it truly was might believe it was a black sun.


    However, for the first time since arriving in this world, the black sun sleepily opened its eye and blinked.


    It beheld the ruined, dying world beneath its gaze. The laws of reality surrounding this planet had basically been replaced with the laws of its home dimension. And it couldn¡¯t sense any other life in this dimension, meaning that there was no point in spreading further into the vast reaches of space.


    Then, it blinked once more, and disappeared.

 Chapter 142: Four

    When I came to, I was floating in a sea of darkness again. As usual, a golden lasso of energy was dragging me along, pulling me towards a distant destination. It took me a few seconds to reorient myself and process the fact that I had truly died again, before I mentally sighed.


    Frankly, given the creature we had been fighting against, dying wasn¡¯t particularly surprising. I couldn¡¯t think of anything I could have done to win that fight - it had seemed so massive and overpowering that the moment it made a move, my body had collapsed like a house of cards caught in a hurricane. I couldn¡¯t think of anything I had done differently, except for having way more Stats and better Abilities before reincarnating.


    I put aside my thoughts about the end of my last life, and started focusing on something else.


    The last time I had died, while we all floated in the ocean of souls, I had been able to confirm the existence of Sallia and Felix. Even though there really wasn¡¯t much to distinguish our souls apart from each other after we died, I had at least been able to watch as the Market pulled us back towards it. Now, I wanted to confirm how many souls were traveling with me this time.


    I looked around, and quickly found two silver-colored blobs of light - and then promptly ignored them. As much as I cared about my friends, right now I needed to confirm the fate of a different friend. The first two silver blobs of light were probably Sallia and Felix.


    I searched around, but couldn¡¯t see a fourth silver blob of light.


    Icy chills started to claw their way down my nonexistent stomach.


    There were only three of us. Where was Anise? Had the Market not pulled her in? Had I been wrong? What if Anise simply hadn¡¯t reached whatever benchmark the Market had for recruiting new people? Or worse, what if Anise hadn¡¯t actually upgraded her affinity for manifestation essence at all? It was entirely possible that I had witnessed something totally different, the time I had thought I saw Anise¡¯s soul improve. I didn¡¯t know very much about souls, after all.


    I started to sink deeper and deeper in a pit of icy despair. Was Anise¡­ really gone?


    I wasn¡¯t ready to say goodbye to her yet. I didn¡¯t want her to disappear.


    Just as I felt despair start to crush my thoughts, I saw a fourth lasso of light rip its way out of the ocean of souls, quite a distance behind us.


    Despair turned to joy. If I had feet, I would have jumped up and started dancing from sheer joy.


    Anise wasn¡¯t gone. There was a fourth soul coming back with us! And I was very much hopeful that it was Anise. But why had it taken so long for her golden lasso of energy to appear?


    I spent several moments working my way through my memories, until finally, I remembered that during my first visit to the Market, I had spent several minutes floating in the ocean of souls. I had needed to manually activate a sort of ¡®compass¡¯ in my soul before the Market pulled me towards it. Maybe Anise had taken a few extra minutes to figure out how to use the energy lasso. Or maybe the Market had spent a few minutes evaluating her before deciding to take her in.


    Either way, it wasn¡¯t that important to me. My mind was filled with only thought, repeating itself over and over again.


    Anise was coming back with us!


    * * *


    My excitement grew somewhat weaker as hours turned to days and we continued flying through the inky void. As much as I was excited about the fact that Anise was probably coming with us, I had plenty of time to wonder how she would adapt to the Market, and whether any of our planning and suggestions for Anise would work. Felix had told Anise to get a friendship bracelet as soon as possible, so that we would be able to meet up with her once we reincarnated. Given how massive the nursery was, it seemed unlikely that we would reincarnate next to each other. But what if Anise got hurt by a skeleton or ran into a more dangerous creature? Or what if she reincarnated into a different nursery, and the creatures there were more dangerous than the skeletons in our nursery?


    Or what if we couldn¡¯t add each other as friends using our Friendship bracelets? If that was the case, we might never see each other again. Even if I would be happier knowing that Anise at least had a chance to see us again, I wasn¡¯t ready to spend lifetime after lifetime searching for her in the nursery yet. I would probably go mad with worry if that happened.


    Excitement and worry warred within my nonexistent brain for days as we zipped through space.


    Until finally, I could see the Market again. Now that I was worried about Anise again, I kept whatever I was using to see firmly trained on the distant fourth band of energy, hoping to engrave wherever Anise landed into my mind and make it that much easier to meet up with her later. If she landed close enough to us, I wanted to stage a rescue operation with Felix and Sallia. Even if Anise would probably be fine, I wouldn¡¯t feel assured until I saw her with my own eyes.


    Soon, we arrived at the Market.


    I was dragged below the flying islands that hovered over our nursery, but I didn¡¯t take my eyes off of Anise¡¯s lass of energy for even a second.


    Until finally, I was pulled below the skyscrapers of the city, and my view of Anise¡¯s energy lasso was blocked.


    A few moments later, I landed on a street. There was a momentary feeling of pressure and discomfort, as mana swarmed around me and built a new body.


    Then, the message I had seen twice already came up again.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome newly Deceased!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have been detected to be (dead), and your soul was no longer housed inside of a physical vessel. You have been returned to the Market, and one life has been deducted to grant you a (basic) physical vessel.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Three lives remain.


    Warning: Upon returning to the Market from another dimension, some of the ¡®dimensional laws¡¯ of your former world will remain attached to your soul. If you attempt to reincarnate before these dimensional laws are purified, you may experience severe injuries or death immediately after being born. The Market will automatically fix this problem, so long as you remain for at least 30 days. You may also pay a fee at a decontamination center to speed this process up. Or, if you have a Heroic Grade or above Ability, this time may be reduced, or removed entirely! Please consult an expert at a decontamination center for more details.


    Warning: Basic Physical vessels will begin to deteriorate within a few months. If you want a more permanent vessel, please buy or rent one. Otherwise, please enter a pool or river of reincarnation before deterioration occurs.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I inspected my new body for a moment, before frowning.


    I was¡­ a bit shorter than I remembered being.


    The change in height wasn¡¯t very substantial, but I could definitely tell that my height had dropped a bit compared to last time I had returned to the Market.


    Why had that happened?


    As far as I knew, every time I died, the Market would simply take my mental image of myself, find whatever mass-produced body was ¡®closest¡¯ to my image of myself, and then stick my soul inside of the new container.


    This implied that my mental image of myself was now shorter than before. By a few centimeters, if I wasn¡¯t mistaken.


    How odd.


    I examined the rest of my body, just to make sure nothing else was weird. However, as far as I could tell, everything else was normal. My hair was still golden-blonde, my arms and legs all felt like they were about the right length, there weren¡¯t any new scars or blemishes on my skin, and nothing else felt unusual. The only real oddity was the fact that I didn¡¯t feel tired or hungry, and didn¡¯t need to breathe - but that was quite normal for bodies constructed by the Market.


    Then, I noticed that I was physically a bit younger than last time, as well. Last time I had been in the Market, I was somewhere in my early twenties. Now, I looked to be around nineteen or twenty, instead of around 23. My physical body when I had died had been about equivalent to an eighteen or nineteen year old¡¯s body if I had been human, and in our first life, I had died at around sixteen years old.


    It seemed that dying before reaching adulthood over and over again was mentally influencing my perception of my own age in unexpected ways.


    Before I could sink further into my musings, Sallia and Felix were plopped onto the ground next to me.


    I opened my mouth to speak to them again, to see if either of them had a better idea where Anise had landed. I knew that she had been heading somewhere south of us, but I had no idea how close or far away she was. Sallia and Felix might be able to at least confirm whether or not she had landed in the same nursery as us. If she hadn¡¯t, there was no point at all in trying to stage a rescue.


    But before I could speak, I saw something strange appear far above the city.


    Why now? I thought, mentally cursing to myself. At any other time, I would have been ecstatic to get more hints about the fall of the Market. But not while it might put us or Anise in danger.


    Unfortunately, the multiverse didn¡¯t care about my hopes or plans.


    Far above the Market, so far away that I could barely see what was happening, the sky broke and bled. Golden-white tethers of energy fell out of the sky like raindrops, condensing in midair before dissolving and falling towards the wooden planks of the Market.


    A moment later, I saw a hulking shadow appear above those golden-white tethers of energy. It was massive, incomprehensible¡­ and yet also, somehow compact. It wasn¡¯t humanoid - its appendages looked almost completely alien to me. It looked almost like the giant tentacle of a long-forgotten leviathan of the deep, but also seemed to be far more tree-shaped than any vine-like than a normal creature¡¯s tentacles. Strange, fungal growths covered the tentacle, both blooming and decaying at the same time.


    When I looked at it, I felt a full-blown migraine rapidly develop inside of my mind. Whatever I was looking at, my soul wasn¡¯t strong enough to understand. And trying to look at it hurt.


    The massive tentacle reached closer and closer to the Market, and as it did so, more golden light fell like drops of splintered realities, colliding and dividing every second as their infinite potential collapsed into nothingness.


    Was the Market about to be destroyed?


    I felt a sudden burst of panic. We needed the Market right now. We had no idea how to keep reincarnating without it. If the Market collapsed now, I would lose all three of my friends, and maybe even myself. I would be changed, just like I had after I died. Even if my soul would keep going from one life to the next, I didn¡¯t want to lose all of my memories about who I was.


    As I despaired again, from somewhere on the Market, a beam of orange light flew directly into the tentacle I could barely glimpse with my all-too-fragile mind. The massive tentacle reeled back after it was impacted by the orange beam of light, and then seemed to disappear from sight, making me wonder if I had imagined the whole thing.


    What was that? What had just happened?


    The golden lassos of light that had taken us to the Market suddenly seemed tiny, in comparison to the golden raindrops I had seen falling from the sky in the distance. I had previously thought they were quite impressive, but for a fight to be visible even on the other side of a pirate-themed ship the size of the Milky Way¡­


    How large was the tentacle? How big were the chunks of golden light that had fallen from the sky?


    And who had been fighting on the other end of the Market? And why? Had the invaders come to finish off the Market, and were being opposed by other Survivors of the Market like us? Were there multiple factions that had invaded the Market, and were now fighting over the spoils of war? Was a new faction entirely trying to salvage the wreckage of the Market, and had been knocked away by some sort of automated defenses left over from the Market?


    I had no way to know. I simply didn¡¯t know much about the Multiverse as a whole, outside of the Market.


    I spent a few moments thinking over questions I had no way at all to answer, before I realized that in all of the chaos, I had almost forgotten Anise! She was way more important than the long-lost secrets of the Market, or whatever was happening in the distance.


    I searched the sky, desperate to find any traces of her golden energy lasso. I had lost sight of it, but maybe I could find it again? It might not be blocked by skyscrapers and buildings if I searched carefully enough.


    After a few hushed moments of frantic searching, I saw the golden lasso of light in the distance. I immediately did my best to memorize exactly where it was going, and focused every single one of my senses on it, trying to figure out exactly where Anise was going to be deposited.


    I looked at Sallia and Felix, who were also looking at the lasso of golden energy that had just barely been visible in the distance. They turned towards me, giving me a thoughtful look, but I stared directly at the last evidence of Ansie¡¯s survival I had seen. It looked like she had probably landed in the same nursery as us. Otherwise, her lasso of light shouldn¡¯t have dipped low enough for me to see it again through all of the clutter in the sky.


    And that meant we had a friend to meet up with.

 Post Volume 2 - Deleted Scenes, Notes, and Interesting Tidbits

    If you¡¯re reading this, I imagine you also read the deleted scenes for volume 1. You know the drill. These are all changes I made to the draft based on what-ifs and ideas I had that either got cut from the story, or that Miria and co. never got to see but could have potentially found if their stats were better.


    Ahem.


    First, a few interesting thoughts.


    I spent a long time trying to figure out whether I wanted to give Miria Alteration or Manifestation as her big talent, once I did the essence rework in draft 2. I was actually leaning towards making Miria a little witch in future worlds as well, but I just couldn¡¯t figure out how to structure the ability set I want her to generally be using around manifestation essence without breaking some rules. Even in draft one, I had the image of Miria using extinguishes and healing everywhere, (or, well, that¡¯s what I envisioned the start of her ability tree to look like before improving. You know what I mean).


    Anyway, ultimately, I decided to switch Miria from manifestation to Alteration, even though I really think that both could have fit her. The attunement section of how alteration magic from World 2 can work just felt like it matched my image of her much better, and so she¡¯s now an Alteration/Absorption mage.


    Which is a shame, because I do actually quite like the manifestation essence system used in this world. I didn¡¯t get to explore all of the details behind what makes it work, but there are actually a lot of interesting and unique corner cases and unique magic components I would have introduced to the System if I had a whole novel to flesh it out instead of a single volume of MaM. Normally, Markets and Multiverses is where I put story ideas that I can¡¯t figure out how to fully flesh out. I have like 20 different ideas for ¡®settings¡¯ for worlds that I want to use at some point, and frankly, for some of them I just have no idea what the rest of the story would look like. Mostly because I can¡¯t think of either a plotline or a character for those worlds. The first world of Markets and Multiverses was basically an idea I had where I said ¡®what if there were lots of giant fish, flying boats, and a weird eldritch cthulu and giant magic pearl of doom chilling below some knockoff fantasy islands?¡¯ and kind of just went with it.


    The second world was a bit more inspired by a few pieces of media I liked. The two biggest influences were Fallout and Anbennar, although there were a lot of other, smaller influences that also fed into the world and the plotline.


    Markets and Multiverses is often where I put ideas because Miria¡¯s story has an overarching plotline and characters pre-built for those worlds. Meaning I just kind of need to make some adjustments to old ideas to make them fit the rules for the multiverse that I¡¯ve established for the story. Not too difficult in most cases - the Multiverse in this story has a LOT of room for stuff that contradicts how things work in other worlds, due to how dimensional laws form and how they work.


    Anyway, if I write a magic-based non-LitRPG in the future, I expect I will probably recycle and flesh out parts of this magic system again. Or maybe even if it IS a LitRPG. Not sure if that¡¯ll actually be what happens, but I do really think it¡¯s an interesting system if you dig more into it than Miria and company did. This volume was already kinda long though, so extending it further just to develop a magic system that only Sallia will be using in the future seemed silly.


    Anyway, alternate timelines and deleted scenes.


    1. If Miria¡¯s Perception were higher when she encountered the thought worms, she would have been able to spot the souls of the creatures much more quickly. This, in turn, would have let her kill them much faster, and thus save most of her scout force. If the only casualty of the thought worm attack was the scout leader, I think it¡¯s reasonably likely that the scouting force would have continued on for a while, and probably downed another 5-8 Orukthyri, roughly? It wouldn¡¯t have quite changed the overall battle, but it certainly would have gotten Miria pretty big achievement, and a rather nice Keyword ability. Considering the number of  Orukthyri I calculated were left at the end of the fight, I think if Sallia also had excellent rolls, I might have changed the outcome of the city battle. However, Sallia¡¯s mental stats started out kind of average, which meant that, while her mental stats got pretty good after her 7th rune buff, it wasn¡¯t quite at the point where I felt she could plausibly shrug off the thought worm attack. her Willpower/Intelligence (both defend against Thought worms) wasn¡¯t quite there¡­


    But if she had started out with relatively high grade 6 rolls in those, Miria and Sallia might have turned around the fight with the Orukthyri. It was an alternate timeline I considered, but their mental stats that they lowballed were important at exactly the wrong time for them XD.


    2. I was originally planning on having Miria, Sallia, and Felix escape into the wastelands alone (or possibly with Anise - I hadn¡¯t figured out if she was reasonably likely to live through that section of the story or not yet, for reasons that will be discussed in change 4).


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    However, Miria and Sallia both had rather excellent overall rolls, meaning the first fight with the Orukthyri and the Orukthyri culling expedition were significantly less disastrous than I had planned on them being. Because of this, Ella wasn¡¯t injured during the fight with the outpost Orukthyri, the way I had originally planned, and so she ended up living through the main fight as well.


    3. Since I anticipated Ella and everyone¡¯s families dying during the Orukthyri fight, I expected the three would go into the wasteland with little to no preparation, and thus would never find Silver City. This would have resulted in Miria not learning how to properly control the healing side of her ability until next life (probably - I haven¡¯t rolled her stats for that life yet, and if they were truly horrendous maybe it would get delayed further?). However, since Sallia and Miria got rather good stats, they ended up delaying their encounter with the palace by quite a bit¡­ and they both benefitted rather significantly from that delay.


    4. Anise was literally never planned to be an important character at all. In the author¡¯s notes I had written for myself about how I intended to plan some future worlds and stuff, I originally planned to introduce the fourth permanent member of the cast in the third world. He was meant to hit it off with Felix, and the group would end up sort of befriending him because of that, before he ended up surprising the group by being a permanent member of the cast. And then they would say ¡®ah, amazing! So there are new people that join the Market sometimes!¡¯ and then that would start some other chains of events that I originally planned to kick off in the Market section of volume 4¡­


    Apparently we¡¯re speeding that up a bit, because Anise.


    Anise¡­ was literally originally intended to ask a question and then fade from the story. I don¡¯t remember how much her original lines got changed from one draft of her original character introduction to the next, but originally, she didn¡¯t even get a name. She was there so that Miria could think ¡®oh, you know, the way genetics work is kind of interesting in this dimension, and the way our abilities interact with that is also pretty weird!¡¯ which is something I intend to loop back to in the third world.


    However, once I gave Anise a line, I thought ¡®huh. Since I already gave her one line, I guess I can give her a second here. It makes more sense than introducing another character, only to ditch them afterwards.¡¯


    And then, since I gave her a second line, I decided it didn¡¯t hurt to give her a proper personality, since by now she had shown up twice. It¡¯s only fair, after all¡­


    And then I just kept giving her more and more lines. I ended up really enjoying writing her, so she just¡­ somehow accidentally¡¯d her way into being a major side character? Which was 100% unexpected by me at the start of the volume, but by the time she showed up in a third chapter, I knew she was here to stay for a while. This wasn¡¯t a change produced by stat rolls: it was just something that happened that I thought was amusing. Anise is surprisingly fun to write! After all, she¡¯s a super witch!


    :D


    I will note that, at least in some sense, keeping Anise around might have been incorrect. When I started writing Markets and Multiverses, I had a few different themes for the story in mind.


    Like, eight, in fact. Which is probably too many. I¡¯ve come to realize that more themes is not better, and I probably should have trimmed that down, but whatever. It¡¯s too late now!


    But one of the themes I was writing about for the story was how hard it is to lose someone you love.


    And so, Anise dying permanently would have tied in to that theme pretty well, but I wrote her more and more, and I was originally planning on introducing a new permanent character next world¡­


    Well, ultimately, Anise ended up staying.


    Don¡¯t trust me in the future, though! There is very much still the possibility that major characters in the future won¡¯t be sticking around in the story. Ella is very permanently gone from the cast, as is Olav from world 1. While Anise did end up with a fair bit more screen time than either of those two characters, sometimes, parting with those you care about is just part of how the Market and the Multiverse works. Even if there ARE things that can mitigate that if you¡¯re wealthy enough (much like almost everything in the Market, if it CAN be sold someone somewhere is selling it).


    5. Felix and Magic Items: To be honest, I was originally expecting Felix to figure out how to make magic items in this world, somewhere around the time the group explored the Dimensional Habitat Facility. I didn¡¯t think he would get the chance to revolutionize the world, on account of the rather¡­ depressing ending to this world. But I did think that Felix would originally discover how to make magic items by the end of this.


    He rolled rather low on Alteration, though, which is what most magic items are based around. With less alteration essence to experiment with while growing up, he ended up less proficient in using it and messing with it than he would have with ¡®perfectly normal¡¯ stats - in this case, that would have been Tier 5. It does mess him up a little bit for next world, but for this world¡¯s plotline, it¡¯s actually a rather minor difference. After all, there wasn¡¯t really a set of rolls that could have made Miria and company succeed in saving this world, or at least not one that I could think of.


    Sometimes, the Multiverse is brutal, and when a tiny tier 5 dimension pokes its nose into a tier 16 dimension and wakes up something that it really, really shouldn¡¯t have messed with¡­ well, that¡¯s just going to end pretty poorly no matter what, you know?


    Anyway.


    Less changes this time because nobody got totally screwed over by their RNG.

 Chapter 143: First Purchases

    Before we left, I pulled up my Status Screen and took another look at it. It had been a while since I had taken a look at the version of the screen I had access to in the market, and there was a purchase I needed to make.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 23/50


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Weapon Abilities:


    Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Birth related Abilities:


    Body Control (0 Glut Penalty)


    Identity (1 Glut Penalty)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 19,348.69


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 5/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1. Simple Friendship Bracelet with Location Tracking


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2. Sturdy Boots


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    3. Lake-Gazer''s Dress


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    4. Two-Purpose Training Sword


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    5. Storage Pack


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Total Maintenance cost (per life): 35.2


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I didn¡¯t bother looking at the tab of my Status Screen that noted my current body and brain. They hadn¡¯t really changed much from the first two times I had been at the Market - only the serial number for my body was different.


    Apart from looking at my Status Screen, however, I also pulled up the list of Abilities I had that I could purchase.


    There were only two purchases that interested me: my ability evolution for my first keyword ability, and the keyword ability that gave me access to the shaping magic system.


    I sighed. I hadn¡¯t quite gotten the Achievement I needed to afford both. And between evolving my absorption essence abilities and getting access to my primary magic system, which I had an extreme talent for and had done a whole lot of planning for, the choice was obvious. I needed access to a good alteration magic system, and the one from our previous world did almost everything I needed my primary magic system to do.


    I pulled up the detailed information about the shaping magic system Ability.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    After your action of stripping away the magical resistance of an Orukthyri, Creating and using a new ability that is significantly different from the magic system of your current world, and your contributions to the battle, you have formed the Keyword Ability ¡®Echoes of the Deep.¡¯


    It may be purchased after your death for 4,000 Achievement.


    This is currently a [Basic] Grade Ability, but like all keyword abilities, after being purchased it may be evolved depending on your actions in the future.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Alteration, Ocean, Death, Duality (4 Keywords.)


    So long as you are dimensionally adjacent to the ocean of souls, or in contact with any body of water, your body will generate Alteration Essence. Furthermore, any brain and body you are inhabiting will support alteration-type spellcasting the moment your soul takes over the body.


    You retain access to your previous world¡¯s shaping magic system in its entirety.


    You gain access to an innate connection to the duality of life and death, and may at any time choose which to embody. Swapping between being an embodiment of life and death will take several minutes of concentration.


    If you are embodying ¡®life,¡¯ healing spells will be cheaper and stronger. Your body will naturally regenerate more quickly and without any long term scars or permanent injuries. Sunlight will generate extra alteration essence for you. Your Fortitude will be improved by 1 grade while embodying life. You will be able to breathe underwater.


    If you are embodying ¡®Death,¡¯ the ¡®extinguish¡¯ ability you have created will become drastically enhanced if you have access to it. You may attack the lifeforce of any creature you are physically touching without needing a spell or ability to use as a medium. (This attack¡¯s cost may be paid using any essence, and will only trigger if you try to activate it). Making direct eye contact with a creature will allow you to inflict fear upon them.


    Glut Penalty: 25


    Note: In order to use a magic system from another dimension, one must have three things:


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    First, they must have access to the essence in question. It¡¯s impossible to use manifestation essence for spellcasting without manifestation essence, or use absorption essence type spellcasting without absorption essence.


    Second, one must have the biological ability to process said essence. Attempting to use unique magic systems without the right brain structure and body structure may result in injury or death to your current body.


    Third, one must have an ability that mimics the proper dimensional laws one wishes to use in order to cast spells. Trying to use a fire-related spell normally wouldn¡¯t work in a dimension where fire physically cannot exist, for example, and using binding essence to cast spells would normally fail if a dimension doesn¡¯t have any binding essence inside of it. With an Ability, one can make spells that cannot naturally exist in a given dimension.


    Some abilities do not grant all three of these things. Please read your ability descriptions carefully!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I spent a few more moments looking over the ability, making sure I hadn¡¯t missed anything critical about what the Ability did or how it worked. Then, I purchased it.


    My Glut penalty immediately shot up to 48/50, leaving me with a measly two glut penalty left to work with.


    And much more importantly, I felt something integrate itself with my soul. A few seconds later, I felt my ability to use alteration essence return to me. It felt like coming home after a long day: comforting and soothing.


    That wasn¡¯t all. I felt a strange sense of¡­ duality settle over my mind and body after buying the skill. It felt as if I was connected to both life and death at the same time, but the two were competing for dominance in my mind. It wasn¡¯t harmful to me, just¡­ distracting. I needed to choose which one to use if I wanted my ¡®embodiment¡¯ of life or death to do anything useful.


    I weighed my options for a moment.


    The Market didn¡¯t have much sunlight, so the sunlight-related bonuses of embodying life were useless here. Some of the other bonuses would make me far more resilient against harm than I would normally be, but¡­ I didn¡¯t think that they were that important right now. The only threats in the area were skeletons, and at this point I doubted they could pose a serious threat to us.


    Death seemed slightly more useful if we ran into an emergency situation, since it would let me activate ¡®extinguish¡¯ by touching something, even though I hadn¡¯t rebuilt my affinity yet. So I chose to embody death, and felt a strange, cold weight settle onto my thoughts. I felt slightly colder now. It didn¡¯t quite interfere with my emotions, or my thoughts, but I could feel a certain weight to my actions that hadn¡¯t existed before. As if every step I took mattered more than it had moments ago. Especially if those footsteps brought me - or anything else - closer to death.


    The feeling was very new, and also incredibly strange. I tried poking at the strange new feeling for a few moments, to figure out what the strange new weight on my mind went, but couldn¡¯t figure anything out. I decided to mess with it more later.


    I started working on building my basic attunement back up, instead. Part of what made extinguish so useful was the fact that it was a nearly instantaneous ranged attack, after all. Luckily, over half of ¡®attunement¡¯ stemmed from my understanding of the subject. There was still some legwork I needed to go through before I rebuilt my basic grade attunement, and since basic attunements struggled to convert essence effectively, I would be wasting a lot of essence with every extinguish until I upgraded my attunement a bit. However, it should be good enough for dropping weaker creatures of the Market.


    Besides, in my first life, it had only taken me the better part of a couple hours to form a basic attunement. It would be even faster this time.


    I found myself smiling, before I shook my head.


    ¡°All right, I bought my Ability,¡± I said. ¡°Now let¡¯s go find Anise!¡±


    ¡°Hold it Miria,¡± said Felix. ¡°Anise is pretty far away from us. It¡¯ll probably take a week or more of travel to reach her, even if we book it. I¡¯m pretty sure she landed somewhere in this nursery, based on the last glimpse of her energy lasso. But she¡¯s still pretty far away from us, and we might have a hard time tracking her down.¡±


    ¡°So? All the more reason to get started now, right?¡± I said. ¡°Anise is waiting for us!¡±


    ¡°Miria, I know you¡¯re excited, but we need to buy some soul fragments first,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I don¡¯t actually have the glut penalty to buy my ability evolution yet. And I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t have the glut penalty for your ability evolution either.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± I said, deflating a bit. Then, I frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t have the Achievement left to buy my Ability evolution. I needed like¡­ 5,000 more, I think?¡± I said, before I pulled up the Ability Evolution I had wanted.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Direction 2: Spatial manipulation


    Cost: 10,000 Achievement


    Glut penalty: 20 -> 40


    Twice now, you have used your runes to interact with the power of space. Once, in your first life, you did so with the help of outside resources, gaining a glimpse into the fragmented space of that world and how to manipulate it. In this life, even without the help of a special resource, you have managed to interact with the underlying principles of spatial manipulation, proving that even without special resources, you have the ability to evolve in this direction.


    Effects:


    The original effects of the first 9 runes in this magic system will be completely altered.


    The first three runes, instead of enhancing your physique, will now grant you +20 to your mental stats AND an ability. This ability MUST be related to space, and use the ocean or water as a medium. You will have significantly enhanced control over what ability is formed here.


    The fourth through sixth runes will now fundamentally alter one sensory organ, providing +10 Perception per level, and also giving you improved vision when trying to see space. Additionally, each rune will provide you with a significantly increased ability to resist external spatial manipulation targeted towards you or the area directly around you.


    The seventh through ninth runes will now grant +10 to each physical Stat and begin attuning your body to the power of space, allowing your body to innately interact with the idea of space, regardless of which dimension you are in. This will replace the standard fusion and condensing boosts that runes 10 through 12 would give you, and give benefits such as decreased wind resistance, the ability to teleport without reliance upon rune abilities at all, and increased ability to sense space using your skin.


    In addition, every keyword activated within the past week and every rune you have condensed will also give you a moderately increased ability to control madness, as well as madness-adjacent magic such as illusions and mental attacks.


    After condensing your tenth rune and above, you will continue following the boosts of the original rune System, as if you had just formed your thirteenth rune.


    In addition, you will no longer be penalized for trying to form a number of runes significantly higher than what your body can ¡®naturally¡¯ maintain at certain grades of your Absorption stat, making it much easier to form huge numbers of runes if you have the talent, time, and essence regeneration for it and diminishing how limiting the Absorption Essence stat is.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    In total, I was 18 Glut penalty short of buying the ability upgrade I wanted. Each Stat I brought to the peak of Tier II would give me 3 glut cap each, meaning I needed to boost six categories.


    Each category cost 1,600 Achievement to max out, meaning I needed 9,600 Achievement to max out six categories and make room for the glut penalty I needed, and then needed 10,000 Achievement to actually buy the Ability evolution. I needed 19,600 Achievement.


    And after paying for my new Ability {Echoes of the Deep}, I only had 15,348.


    Could I get 4,300 Achievement in the Market in the 72 hours I had before I lost access to the Abilities I had gained in the world?


    I thought about it for a moment, sighed, and then shook my head.


    I seriously doubted it.


    ¡°I¡¯m 4,300 Achievement short of buying the upgrade I wanted, which isn¡¯t quite 5,000 Achievement,¡± I said. ¡°But I doubt I can get there in time. I¡¯ll just evolve it after our next life. It¡¯s a bit of a shame, but not that big of a deal.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you some Achievement,¡± said Felix, cutting me off before I could finish talking.


    I blinked at him.


    ¡°What?¡± he said, giving me a mischievous grin. ¡°You gave Sallia 200 Achievement last time we were in the Market using the cash register trick. You¡¯re not the only one that cares about your friends, you know?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you need it for yourself?¡± I asked.


    Felix snorted.


    ¡°We¡¯re a team, Miria. And this time, I only have one ability to purchase. It cost 15 Glut penalty and 3000 Achievement - and I have a glut cap of 30 right now. I exited last world with around 13,000 Achievement. It might not be quite as impressive as your 19,000, but I can give you 4,000 and still push all of my Stats to +20.¡±


    I hesitated for a moment, and then nodded.


    ¡°Thank you very much,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll make it up to you next time.¡±


    Felix grinned. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about it. If you have the Achievement in the future, great. Feel free to pay me back. If you don¡¯t, just make sure that you¡¯re strong enough for when we need to buy more lives. We¡¯re a team. More than that, we¡¯re friends. We work together.¡±


    Then, he hesitated again, and turned towards Sallia. ¡°What about you? What¡¯s your Glut penalty and Achievement situation looking like?¡±


    Sallia frowned.


    ¡°I have about 19,000 Achievement. My Ability Evolution seems a bit more optimized than Miria¡¯s, so I only need 30 glut penalty total for the upgrade. But I also walked out of last life with only 22 Glut penalty cap, and I¡¯m using 1 glut penalty for Identity. So I¡¯m 9 glut short of what I need. My Manifestation Keyword Ability is also way out of range, if I wanted to buy that as well - it wants 20 Glut. If I want to buy both abilities, I need 51 total glut penalty, plus 12,000 Achievement to actually buy the new Abilities. Let me do some math¡­¡± Sallia paused. ¡°I need 7,900 Achievement to get all of my Stats up to +20, then I need an extra 1,600 to bump one stat up to the next grade. That¡¯ll push my glut cap to where it needs to be.  So in total, I need 21,500 Achievement, and I¡¯m 2,500 short.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you 2,500 Achievement then,¡± said Felix.


    Sallia shuffled, looking torn between accepting and turning Felix down. Then, she sighed, and then gave Felix a hug. ¡°Thank you.¡± She gave him a radiant smile, and Felix grinned back at both of us.


    ¡°As Miria always says, we¡¯re a team, right? And not only are we a team, we¡¯re a family. Besides, I¡¯ll still have around 4,500 Achievement to upgrade my Stats after buying my Ability. And I had +10 in all of my magic stats before we started this life. I¡¯ll just bump strength and my four magic stats to +20 and then figure out what I¡¯m doing with the rest.¡±


    I hesitated for a moment, and then, once Sallia stopped hugging Felix, I gave Felix the most bone-crushing hug I could manage with my vastly diminished post-death strength.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said again.


    Felix just rolled his eyes and smiled at me. ¡°Let¡¯s go find a shop and buy the stats we need. Then, let¡¯s go find Anise.¡±

 Chapter 144: Shopping and Multiverses

    The three of us left the area, heading roughly in the direction we had seen Anise¡¯s lasso. I was somewhat hopeful that she would simply find a way to connect to our friendship bracelets at any moment now, since that would make it much easier to find her - and would also confirm that the giant tentacle hadn¡¯t destroyed her soul or something. I had no idea if that was even possible, but seeing the massive creature attack the Market apart had made me very nervous, especially since we had very recently been killed by another giant creature.


    We ignored the nearby houses as we walked towards the commercial district. Normally, I would have been happy to relax with Felix and Sallia and spend a day or two drinking and letting off some stress before starting to mess with the Market again, because we could really use a break after getting horrifically murdered. But we didn¡¯t have time to waste right now.


    Once we reached the commercial district, it didn¡¯t take us long to locate a few shops that sold soul fragments. They were guarded by skeletons, of course - but at this point, Skeletons weren¡¯t much of a concern for us anymore. I also quickly realized that skeletons had almost no magical defenses, unlike other living creatures.


    This made clearing them out even easier than expected. I simply forced part of their neck to fracture by altering the state of their bones, and then Sallia or Felix delivered a quick punch to finish them off. Messing with the skeletal structure of enemy creatures might not have been a particularly useful technique against anything other than skeletons, but it made our current fights incredibly easy and wasn¡¯t that expensive to use.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of  your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a skeletal foot soldier for the first time, Kill a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time, Assist in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +20, Achievement +60, Achievement +2, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As usual, I got rewards for killing a skeleton for the first few times since my last death, pushing my Achievement from 15,348 Achievement to 15,430. The boost was rather negligible, but every bit of Achievement helped, at least.


    We cleared out three or four shops before we found a shop that had Tier 2 Soul Fragment machines available. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, since the shop ONLY sold soul fragments, the skeletons hadn¡¯t been replaced with any stronger enemies, making it easy to clear out.


    It took less than a minute after entering to shop to make it safe for us. Then, I looked over my total Achievement gains as Sallia and Felix started checking the shop for extra useful items laying around.


    During the course of our shop raids, we still made sure to raid the cash register of shop,which had netted us a total of about 750 Achievement, most of which came from the Tier 2 soul fragment store. This was then split three ways, getting me to 15,428 to 15,678 Achievement.


    Frankly, the more we raided shops, the more I was starting to starting to notice that shops were rather low on liquid cash. Even if stores only charged some sort of minor percentage fee for using things like soul fragment cubes, or prioritized making their money by tacking on extra fees for using skill cubes¡­ I still didn¡¯t understand why the cash reserves for so many buildings was so devoid of currency. If they were completely empty, I would have just assumed that another group cleaned them out, but there was no reason for a group to leave a small amount of easily accessed Achievement if they were cleaning out a shop. I had no idea what was going on - but I was beginning to suspect that we weren¡¯t just getting unlucky when it came to searching for extras in the Market.


    But for now, we had other things to focus on. Like buying things and then saving Anise.


    Once we found the shop that sold Tier 2 Soul Fragments, Felix quickly used a cash register to deposited a huge amount of Achievement into it. I grabbed 4,000 and Sallia grabbed 2,500, leaving everyone with enough Achievement to buy what they needed.


    Afterward, I bought several soul fragments, pushing several of my stats and giving me the glut penalty I needed to buy the upgrade for my absorption ability. Then, I took a deep breath, and upgraded my Absorption Essence ability.


    Immediately after upgrading my ability, I could feel it. Something deep inside of my soul wriggled and pulsed, churning like a blender as parts of my Ability were rearranged and improved.


    Then, after a few minutes of uncomfortable stomach-churning, I felt the changes happening in my soul settle down. I cautiously searched my mind for anything similar to the extra ¡®weight¡¯ I had felt once I started embodying death, but I couldn¡¯t feel anything similar.


    I still wasn¡¯t quite sure what the peculiar feeling of weight was, so I decided to think about it later.


    Instead, I took a look at my new Status Screen.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    6/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 68/68


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (40 Glut Penalty) (Intermediate Grade)


    Echoes of the Deep (Ocean, Death, Duality, Alteration) (Basic Grade) (25 Glut Penalty)


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Weapon Abilities:


    Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Birth related Abilities:


    Body Control (0 Glut Penalty)


    Identity (1 Glut Penalty)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 78.64


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 5/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1. Simple Friendship Bracelet with Location Tracking


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2. Sturdy Boots


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    3. Lake-Gazer''s Dress


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    4. Two-Purpose Training Sword


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    5. Storage Pack


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Total Maintenance cost (per life): 35.2


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The last time we had been in the Market, we had mostly prioritized magical stats over mental stats, and prioritized mental stats over physical stats. Especially Sallia and I - we had simply felt that mental stats made it easier to train earlier and more efficiently in each new life, which helped us strengthen ourselves and improve our safety more quickly. Meanwhile, magic stats determined our upper limit when using a certain magic system, and thus far, magic seemed to be the greatest factor in the upper limit of our potential in a new world.


    Sallia had stuck with that line of thought while purchasing her Stats, probably because the evolution of her keyword ability hadn¡¯t changed what she wanted from her stat distribution yet. Her absorption essence was obviously still the most useful stat for her to raise, and I doubted that would change in the near future.


    However, I had decided to change my previous priorities, given the evolution of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. Previously, the rune magic system had given me +20 Physical stats for my first 3 runes, then new abilities for runes 4-6, and then +20 to my mental stats for runes 7-9.


    Now, I instead got +20 to my mental stats from Runes 1-3, along with an ¡®extra¡¯ mental ability and new space-related abilities. Then I got +10 MORE Perception for runes 4-6, along with more modifications to my sensory organs. Finally, at runes 7-9 I would get +10 to each physical stat and some boosts to my body.


    While I wasn¡¯t sure what the improvements to my sensory organs and body would look like, my Ability definitely changed things. I would no longer have easy access to massive physical attribute boosts immediately after I started training. Instead, I would now have massive mental boosts, and my body would only be slightly stronger than a regular person¡¯s if I rolled poorly or we got born in a higher tier dimension. For that reason, I decided to focus on my physical stats for now - while having massive physical stats without the mental attributes to back it up had proven a major disadvantage last life, I assumed having massive mental stats without the physical body to back it up would prove just as unbalanced..


    Then, after finishing my own shopping spree, I asked Sallia and Felix what their stats looked like now. Sallia had purchased all of her relevant stat upgrades, pushing her to +1 grade in every stat, except for Absorption, which she pushed to +2 grades, or +40 points.


    Felix, who only had 3,800 or so Achievement remaining after he had given some to Sallia and I, then killed skeletons with us and looting shops with us, decided to finish boosting all of his essence stats to +20 and boost his strength stat to +20, giving him an all around +1 grade to every attribute. Last time we had been in the Market, he had purchased +10 for each magic stat, ensuring that he would never end up with Grade 3 stats in any magic category - but he hadn¡¯t had quite enough Achievement to finish upgrading his magic stats to +20. Now, Felix had everything boosted - which would prove a small, but useful, boon in our next life.


    After our shopping Spree, Felix had 1 keyword slot occupied, 34 unused glut penalty, and +20 in all of his stats, as well as access to the shaping magic system. Sallia now had 2 unused glut penalty and 6 keyword slots occupied, as well as access to the absorption and manifestation magic systems. I had access to shaping and absorption, 6 keyword slots used, and no glut penalty at all free.


    With that, I was satisfied. We had purchased everything we needed, and while we were pretty darn low on Achievement, I felt that we would almost certainly have a much easier time finding and saving Anise now.


    The three of us finished checking over the shop, but ignored most of the records of the old Market that we would have normally paid attention to - we could do that, and loot more shops, after we rescued Anise.


    ¡°Let¡¯s start moving,¡± said Felix.


    The three of us set off. Since we didn¡¯t need to sleep, eat, drink, or breathe, we simply started sprinting towards the last location we had seen Anise¡¯s tether at, with no intention of stopping for anything.


    * * *


    As we ran through the streets of the Market, I started trying to reform my attunement. The skeletons of the Market were no longer able to keep up with our group, now that all of us had grade 6 Agility.


    Thus, while I had to stay somewhat focused on the world around me, I had a surprising amount of leeway to focus on rebuilding my Attunement.


    I told Sallia and Felix what I wanted to do, and the two of them agreed to keep an eye on our surroundings for me while we sprinted forward. Sallia occasionally physically picked me up and dragged me away, if I got too close to a shop we were trying to avoid because Sallia thought it had dangerous guardians. However, by and large, I was able to keep up with everyone else¡¯s mad dash towards Anise and rebuild my basic attunement at the same time.


    It took me about an hour to reform my attunement. If I hadn¡¯t been sprinting nonstop, I could have reformed it in even less time.


    I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to rebuild my attunement. It would still take a fair amount of time to strengthen it all of the way back up to [Expert] Grade. However, it was obviously pretty easy to form a basic version of it - and I was willing to bet that getting it to intermediate grade could be done in a few weeks. Getting it to [Advanced] and beyond would be slower, but I was pretty sure I could get my entire attunement back online in less than five years in any new world we came across.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Basic] Grade attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It was very nice that it was so easy to use my new magic System. Even at [Basic] grade, my attunement was quite potent.


    After that, Sallia started reforming her first rune, and then her magic circles from her manifestation essence system, since she felt that they had a good chance of being immediately useful and were much faster to rebuild than runes. Then, Felix worked to reform his attunement as we ran.


    After that, I started working on forming my first rune, on the off-hand chance that I actually got it online before we reached Anise¡¯s location. Teleportation might prove incredibly useful if Anise found herself in a dangerous situation and we needed to run away.


    The run itself was boring. We tried to stick to residential areas while running, where the skeletons were the only monster and there was nothing particularly important to catch our attention. When it was unavoidable, we ran through commercial districts instead.


    Once, and only once, we caught sight of a different kind of district in the distance. I couldn¡¯t see any visible monsters, but something about it made my skin crawl, letting me know that we weren¡¯t ready to explore it yet.


    We avoided that area. Luckily, we didn¡¯t see many areas that were totally off-limits for us, meaning we didn¡¯t have to re-route our mad sprint very often.


    Finally, after six days of running, I felt something tug at my friendship bracelet.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Transmigrator Anise would like to add you as a friend to her friendshipcorp list.


    Would you like to add Anise to your friend¡¯s list?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Yes/No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The moment I got the notification, I sagged with relief.


    I didn¡¯t know exactly what had stalled Anise so long. I didn''t know exactly what her situation was, and she still wasn¡¯t in front of me. I couldn¡¯t see if she was all right yet, or give her a hug.


    But regardless of how or why it had happened, Anise had gotten her bearings in the Market, acquired a friendship bracelet, and figured out how to remotely add friends.


    She was safe.


    And now, the tracking function of my friendship bracelet was also working.


    I grinned.

 Chapter 145: Finding Anise

    With location tracking turned on, we finally had an idea where we were supposed to be going.


    As it turned out, we had gotten slightly off-track while trying to head towards Anise. Luckily, we hadn¡¯t overshot her, so correcting our direction was quite easy.


    As I started steering us to the left, I turned to look at Sallia and Felix, and grinned.


    ¡°Did you guys also get messages from Anise?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yup,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Let¡¯s go find her!¡±


    The three of us kept running.


    Another two days passed, as we followed our location tracking to a building that looked entirely abandoned.


    I felt confused.


    The front door of the building was open, and we couldn¡¯t see anyone inside of the building.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I asked, pulling out my weapon as I slowed down and started moving towards the door. If a skeleton had cornered Anise, it was best to draw it towards me and keep it away from Anise. I was confident that the three of us could deal with the threats present in residential areas, at least.


    Just as I was preparing for a fight, I heard someone call out.


    ¡°Up here!¡± came a voice from above us.


    I looked up.


    ¡°Anise?¡± I asked, hope and a small nervous pit of energy in my stomach warring with each other. I was still afraid that this was some cruel prank of the multiverse. That maybe, somehow, Anise had died five times before we had arrived, thus meaning that she wouldn¡¯t return to the Market once we reincarnated again. Or maybe Anise herself hadn¡¯t made it to the Market, and some totally random person who shared a name with her had somehow joined the Market and added us as friends by accident.


    Those fears were completely absurd, of course. The odds of someone who just happened to be named Anise also somehow adding the three of us as friends by accident was astronomically low. But I was so afraid of Anise dying that my brain kept coming up with reasons why I shouldn¡¯t get my hopes up.


    ¡°Miria?¡± came the voice of a girl from the rooftop. She poked her head over the side of the building.


    There, just like in our last world, was a girl with pink hair and four eyes. Two eyes were positioned normally, and the other two were situated on her temples. She looked to be about eighteen or nineteen, and was a bit on the shorter side.


    She looked just like she had in our previous life.


    Given the fact that the Market took our image of ourself and found a matching body, I supposed that made sense. Sallia, Felix and I all had self-images that were partially shaped by our previous world, but also had some traits that were different from our bodies in our last life. Sallia seemed very attached to her monochromatic eyes, for example.


    Meanwhile, Anise only remembered our last world, so her self-image was entirely the same as when she had died.


    When she saw the three of us, she laughed, and quickly climbed down the roof and landed on the street in front of us.


    I felt my shoulders sag in relief. I felt my eyes prickle and blur, and realized that I was crying


    It was Anise. It was really Anise.


    I pushed my body to its limits as I moved towards her and then enfolded her in a hug. A moment later, Felix and Sallia joined us.


    ¡°I¡¯m so glad I got to see you again!¡± said Anise, her voice giddy with excitement. ¡°It took me forever to figure out how to make the Market pull me in, and finding a friendship bracelet also took a long time. I was afraid to move out of the residential area, since you guys said that they were the safest areas in the Market. And almost none of the houses had any items stashed away. Then, when I finally got a bracelet and tried to add you guys remotely, my friendship bracelet made me jump through a bunch of hoops to make a ¡®remote-registration account.¡¯ I had a really hard time figuring out what that meant,¡± she said, her words tumbling out of her mouth in a nervous babble. Then, she stepped back, and looked at Sallia and Felix.


    ¡°Oh! You two look a little different than you did before.¡±


    Sallia grinned. ¡°We have the {Identity} Abilities that make our bodies closely resemble what we think we should look like, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be exact. It just tweaks our genetics and works within the parameters of what¡¯s actually possible. Or at least that¡¯s my understanding, based on the ability description. Last life, my red hair was apparently fine, but my eyes needed to have things like pupils and whites. Very weird,¡± she said, chuckling. ¡°I much prefer the monochromatic violet look for my eyes.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I¡¯m still experimenting a bit with how I want my body to look in the future. In my very first life, before I came to the Market, I had really large muscles and a massive frame. I¡¯ve been shrinking a bit every life since then. It just¡­ doesn¡¯t feel right to have my body be so much larger than it needs to be. I think I prefer having a bit more of a bookish, slender body,¡± he said. ¡°Easier to manipulate tools and such. And it doesn¡¯t seem to actually change my strength, since that¡¯s handled entirely by my [Strength] stat. I think I¡¯m going to keep a little bit of muscle on my arms though - not because it¡¯s useful, but because I like having a little bit of visible muscle on me.¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°I just think it looks nice.¡±


    Anise nodded sagely, before turning towards me and grinning. ¡°You look almost exactly the same. Just a few tweaks.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve never really felt comfortable with my body or name changing much. I like my current identity, and I don¡¯t want to lose it.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± said Anise, before giving me another hug. ¡°I¡¯m just so glad to see you again!¡±


    The four of us decided that we didn¡¯t need to be in the street anymore, so we decided to head back to the rooftop that Anise had commandeered. There, we saw a pile of snacks and some fruit juices stockpiled in the corner, which gave me pause.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°You guys can have some if you want,¡± said Anise, shyly. ¡°The snacks taste kind of stale, and it took me a lot of effort to figure out they were food containers, but¡­ it¡¯ll keep you alive.¡±


    Alive? I blinked.


    ¡°Anise, why would you need to eat food in the Market? Wait, do you need to eat or drink to stay alive?¡± I asked, now thoroughly confused. I had thought that not needing food, sleep, water, or oxygen was a pretty universal trait for the Market¡¯s bodies. Was I wrong?


    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you?¡± asked Anise, also seemingly confused.


    ¡°Erm¡­ well, at least for the three of us, we¡¯ve determined that our bodies never get tired, or hungry, or thirsty while in the Market. Breathing is also entirely optional - although you do need some air if you want to talk.¡±


    Anise blinked in surprise, and then held her breath.


    The four of us waited for several minutes, until Anise finally let out her breath. ¡°You¡¯re right. I don¡¯t need to breathe. I thought that maybe adrenaline was just keeping me up, or something, and that¡¯s why I wasn¡¯t sleeping, but¡­¡±


    I resisted the urge to laugh, and hugged Anise again.


    Maybe our instructions on how to handle the Market was less all-encompassing than I had hoped. Or maybe she had forgotten a few things during her transit to the Market - I had lost almost all of my memories of my first life, and it was hard to say if Anise had lost a few bits and pieces of her past life. But that wasn¡¯t what I focused on.


    We were together again.


    And that was what mattered to me.


    * * *


    Anise felt very silly.


    She hadn¡¯t tried holding her breath until just now, and had eaten food and drank juice that had probably started tasting weird thousands of years ago. It was only once Miria pointed out that one didn¡¯t need to breathe in the Market that Anise realized she had maybe been wasting her time by scavenging supplies in the Market.


    Luckily, even if they had forgotten that particular piece of advice, the rest of their information had been incredibly useful. Knowing exactly how easy it was to trick the skeletons, for example, had saved her life a few times. She had entered the Market right next to a small group of skeletons, and only the fact that she had known it might happen had kept her alive as she ran for her life.


    ¡°How much Achievement do you have?¡± asked Sallia, her eyes alight with curiosity.


    Anise paused for a moment, to check her Status Screen.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Basic Physical Body (Default Market Model ¨C Mass Produced Model 9188-T12), Mana Brain (Default Market Model ¨C Mass Produced Model 62-B)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Basic Physical body: + 5 grades (100 points) to all stats while you are inhabiting this physical vessel. Body will begin to deteriorate in a few months. Body has some leaks and cannot perfectly house a Transmigrator¡¯s soul. It is advised you find a replacement or reincarnate before problems occur.


    Mana Brain: Allows you to think. As this is comprised entirely of mana, it is possible to house this mana-brain inside of a soul, rather than being reliant upon a physical body to function.


    Warning: It is strongly advised that you keep your brain safe, and always have at least one brain or brain-equivalent functioning at all times. If your brain is damaged or destroyed, possible ramifications include losing the ability to think until a new brain is acquired and linked to your soul. Please keep this in mind at all times.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: 0 (+100)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    0/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut Penalty: 0


    Abilities:


    Birth Abilities: Body Control


    Achievement Abilities: Taxes


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Remaining Achievement: 11,102.79


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 1/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1: Simple Friendship Bracelet


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°I have a little over 11,000,¡± said Anise.


    ¡°Over 11,000?¡± asked Miria, letting Anise go as she looked at her in surprise. ¡°So much? The first time we got to the Market, none of us had even 1,000 Achievement to scrape together.¡±


    Sallia and Felix nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t think we even had 1,000 Achievement combined,¡± said Felix, wincing.


    Anise shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know why.¡±


    The others thought about it for a moment, before Miria frowned. ¡°Maybe she got picked up by the Market sooner than we did? We¡¯ve never figured out how exactly the Market adds people to its System, but I imagine it takes some amount of time. If the ocean of souls naturally strips away Achievement anytime a soul is inside of it¡­ maybe Anise just got affected by this less?¡±


    Sallia and Felix shrugged.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a better idea why, at least,¡± said Felix. Then, he turned back towards Anise. ¡°Did you have any Abilities you could purchase when you came to the Market?¡±


    Anise shook her head. ¡°I didn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°What about your message when you just joined the Market? What did it say?¡± asked Sallia.


    ¡°It said I had an extreme affinity for one of the four essences, and that I had been given some lives as a provision for new Transmigrators. And then it gave me a lot of strange blue boxes that seemed to be trying to sell me things,¡± said Anise.


    Miria¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°That¡¯s the Market all right,¡± she said, before snorting. ¡°Never a moment without a stupid advertisement. Well, at the very least, you starting out with more Achievement means you can get some better baseline stats, even if you can¡¯t just buy the Manifestation magic system. That¡¯s really a huge shame, since I think you would have been amazing with the manifestation magic system. Maybe you can¡¯t get Abilities at all before you join the Market,¡± she said with a sigh. Then, Miria shook her head. Anise felt a trickle of warmth in her heart. Even after she died, Miria was still looking out for her.


    As Anise thought to herself, Miria continued speaking. ¡°But we can always find another way for you to be a super-witch later. For now, I think we should take a day to relax, and mourn those we left behind. Then, we can get Anise kitted out with items and stats, and after that, I¡¯m thinking maybe we can try raiding a higher-level store? They probably have more Achievement laying around, and we could all use a cash infusion. Maybe we can try an item store, to upgrade our equipment. If we could find a library, or someplace they stored information, that would be even better¡­¡± Miria trailed off as she got lost in thought.


    Meanwhile, Sallia and Felix smirked at her when Miria mentioned super-witch.


    Anise felt a flush of embarrassment, and a small sense of horror start to gnaw at the warmth she had felt just moments ago.


    It finally dawned on her that her slightly delusional dream of being the greatest witch in the world would haunt her for all eternity now that she was stuck with her new group of friends.

 Chapter 146: A moment of Peace

    After finding Anise, the four of us spent a few hours preparing to raid some nearby stores for alcohol, snacks, and other supplies we needed to take a day off. We had just died pretty horrific deaths, and then spent days running through the Market to catch up to Anise. All of us could use some time to unwind.


    As we got ready for the food raids, Felix got a bit more familiar with his attunement, Sallia managed to finish building her first rune, which gave her a small dollop of Achievement, and with some difficulty, I also managed to build my first rune, much to my surprise.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Condense your first rune out of absorption essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +80


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I didn¡¯t even bother counting my new Achievement. For now, whatever I got was Felix¡¯s. I wasn¡¯t sure if we could do it, but if possible, I hoped he could get up to grade 2 of Binding essence before we left the Market. Sure, the odds were high that the next world we reincarnated in wouldn¡¯t have any binding essence in it - but it was good to have it ready as soon as possible, just in case.


    I was surprised by how quickly I managed to form my first rune. Apparently, Grade 7 Absorption Essence, combined with my ability evolution, played a larger role in improving my rune formation speed than I had thought. I had never before managed to form a rune in only a week and a bit of change: that was really more Sallia¡¯s thing. I wondered if this was the new ¡®normal¡¯ for me after only a single ability evolution. If so, I was certainly looking forward to how much faster I could get through the growing and training period we went through at the start of each life. It didn¡¯t seem like the cost of maintaining my first rune had changed at all, but the cost and difficulty of forming each rune had certainly gone down quite a bit.


    Sallia¡¯s first rune also gave us a little more information about how her Ability worked now. Based on the word choice, we had assumed that Sallia¡¯s first rune would give her +60 to all of her physical stats. However, it appeared that this wasn¡¯t the case - instead, it gave her +20 to her physical stats, +20 to her mental stats, and one ability. It was like she had formed her first rune, fourth rune, and seventh rune all at once, instead of just condensing all of her early runes together.


    For her first ability, Sallia opted for the ability to manipulate bones. There were a lot of them laying around in the Market, and skeletons were also made of bones, which Sallia figured she could use to just rip apart skeletons with almost no effort. And, hopefully, that would also extend to skeleton Mages - they had proven a major pain in the neck the last two times we were in the Market, and having easy ways to remove them would be very welcome. And if we fought something like a wooden butterfly, it would still be easy to find ammunition sources in our surroundings.


    The three of us had vaguely been thinking about trying to raid a few higher-level stores after we finished relaxing a bit, so I decided to build my first rune to counter the wooden butterflies. Therefore, my rune ability was built to snuff out any spatial distortions near me. I needed to channel the ability through some sort of water first, meaning I needed to push it through my dress - but with my ability, I could now create a giant ¡®no spatial manipulation¡¯ wave and toss it around with minimal essence costs.


    Immediately after creating the ability, I had a very weird new sense added to my body, in addition to my more normal senses like sight, smell, etc.


    Suddenly, I could feel any spatial manipulation happening near me. Or, perhaps more accurate, I could feel any spatial manipulation happening near water around me.


    Luckily, this included my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress}. Meaning that I had a nearly perfect 360 degree surveillance on spatial manipulation in my surroundings, as well as the ability to immediately snuff it out.


    With decent positioning, I could still totally shut down the abilities of any future wooden butterflies we encountered. With any luck, they wouldn¡¯t have other tricks up their sleeves to make our lives difficult.


    Apart from that, I also felt another, slightly strange ability that was far more recognizable than before. It took me a bit of scrolling through my ability to figure out what exactly it was.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    In addition, every keyword activated within the past week and every rune you have condensed will also give you a moderately increased ability to control madness, as well as madness-adjacent magic such as illusions and mental attacks.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I realized that in addition to the ability granted to me by my rune, I now had access to a small pseudo-mental attack. It was actually surprisingly similar to the whirlpool of madness that I had used in the world of the black sun. However, unlike the whirlpool, this ability didn¡¯t need its targets to see it first. Instead, it seemed to form some sort of spatial connection between my rune and the target, and then just directly pump mental attacks into whatever I wanted to hurt.


    Even if it was very weak with only one rune and two keywords active, it was also exceedingly difficult to dodge.


    Of course, it was almost certainly useless against some of the resident creatures of the Market as well. Skeletons didn¡¯t have brains, so there was nothing there I could try to drive insane. But in future worlds I would definitely find uses for it.


    After that, the four of us quickly raided another soul fragment store, letting Anise buy a +20 to all of her Stats and looting another 92 Achievement. Anise got a small cut, because she wasn¡¯t indebted to Felix like Sallia and I were - but 75% of the store¡¯s Achievement went to Felix, along with the Achievement I had earned from making my first rune.


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    Then, we hit up some shops that were more focused on entertainment. We found a shop selling booze, another shop selling snacks, and luckiest of all, a working TV with some shows in an abandoned electronics store.


    We carted it all back to a house, cleared out the skeletons nearby, and then settled down to relax for a day or so.


    Anise, Sallia, and Felix had never actually seen a television before, and I only had vague memories of how to get it to work. It took us some fiddling with it to figure out how to power the blasted thing and make it turn on - apparently, there was a spot near the back of the TV where one could just directly toss in random essences to recharge the battery. The on/off switch was, for some reason, a carrot-shaped lever neatly folded into the side of the device. Luckily, figuring out how to get the TV to use the TV shows we had found were much easier - each TV show was contained in a small box the size of my palm, and I just needed to make the carrot-lever scan each DvD like a bar code to get the whole thing to work.


    Halfway through, I was interrupted by a ¡®useful¡¯ advertisement.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Tired of needing to manually scan entertainment boxes into your TV? Do you want direct access to thousands of shows, all at your fingertips?


    Buy telebox! The best entertainment service of all, delivered straight to your TV!


    Only 25 Achievement a month.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I sighed, and closed the annoying advertisement.


    Then I redirected my attention back towards getting the TV set up, before taking out the drinks and snacks we had scavenged from the nearby stores.


    Anise ended up not being too interested in alcohol. She claimed that she hated the idea of having something influence her mind. I made sure to keep chatting with her and making her feel welcome, even if she wasn¡¯t drinking with the rest of us. I personally still enjoyed a bit of alcohol when we had time to spare, but my friends were free to make their own choices in the matter, and I didn¡¯t want Anise to feel left out.


    The TV show was interesting, if rather strange. It was a show about a squid and a rabbit going on adventures throughout the multiverse, all while ¡®archiving¡¯ their adventures. Each record the two made of their adventures was hilariously wrong and inaccurate, and the show leaned into that to turn it into a recurring pun. I was pretty sure it was a kid¡¯s show, which made me wonder how many people in the Market were actually kids.


    Overall, it was surprisingly entertaining, even though I could tell that I wasn¡¯t the target audience for the show.


    Felix and Anise seemed fascinated more by the TV itself than the show, while Sallia was happier laughing along with the plot.


    After we finished several episodes of the show, Sallia and Felix started to get tired since there was a decent amount of alcohol in their system. Felix had watched over Sallia and I last time we had returned to the Market, so I had consciously restrained my drinking to ensure that I didn¡¯t end up feeling tired. Felix and Sallia deserved to take a break, and I could keep watch for a while.


    Once Sallia and Felix were asleep, Anise looked at me thoughtfully.


    ¡°So Miria, what are we planning for the future?¡± She asked, as Sallia started to snore in the background.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked. ¡°Are you asking about what we¡¯re planning to do for the rest of our time in the Market?¡±


    ¡°No. Well¡­ yes, that too, but I mean¡­ how does this work?¡± asked Anise. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m just¡­ the past week has been a lot of time dodging skeletons, since I figured I should wait for you guys to arrive. And then you guys showed up and totally demolished all of the skeletons that I was having a hard time hiding from. I didn¡¯t get to keep my spellcasting abilities from last life, and I¡¯m just-¡±


    ¡°Relax,¡± I said, and pulled Anise into a hug.


    We stood there for a moment, before I gave Anise a small pat on the head.


    ¡°Look,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry that you don¡¯t have a magic system. We care about you because you¡¯re Anise. Even if you never pick up a single ability for the rest of your life, you¡¯ll still be one of my best friends. So don¡¯t feel bad. We¡¯re going to keep reincarnating over and over again. Whenever you find a magic system that you feel happy using, we¡¯ll make sure to rig the odds as much as we can so that you get a keyword ability for it. It may not be the same spellcasting system you used before, but you can still become an amazing spellcaster once we find a good magic system for you.¡±


    ¡°But what are our plans?¡± asked Anise, stressing the last word. ¡°What are we doing in the Market? What are our plans for the next few days? I just¡­¡± she sighed. ¡°I want something to focus on for a while.¡± She sounded a bit choked up at the last words, and it wasn¡¯t hard for me to guess why.


    All of us had left someone behind in the last world.


    And the hurt of losing people we cared about didn¡¯t get any better the second time. I could feel little holes in my heart where Ella and my family had once lived. I was never going to see them again, just like I would never see my father or mother from my first life ever again. I would never fly a boat with Olav again, I would never see the surface with Ella again¡­


    I sighed, and focused on Anise¡¯s question. Suddenly, I wanted something else to focus on for a while as well.


    ¡°Right now, we were thinking about raiding a higher-tier shop in the Market,¡± I said. ¡°And we could also really use more information about the Market and the Multiverse as well. The last world was fully capable of traversing the Multiverse using the local magic system, and I¡¯m starting to think that while it¡¯s probably rare for a world to explore the wider multiverse, it¡¯s not a bad idea to know how to open or close portals to other worlds. Just in case we run into a similar situation in the future. I¡¯ve always wanted to find and raid a library in the Market, to get more information - but we¡¯ve just never managed to find one. At least, not yet. I¡¯m thinking that after today, we¡¯ll spend a few weeks training up our abilities, and then we¡¯ll start breaking down doors and looking for items for all of us. And then, with new items and some more Achievement, hopefully we¡¯ll find a library.¡±


    Anise nodded. She looked like she was focusing on my words.


    She was focusing way too much on my words, as if she needed to use them to distract her from her thoughts.


    I sat down on the couch that we had borrowed, and rested for a moment.


    After a few moments, Anise scooted closer to me, and we sat there for a while. We didn¡¯t say a word, but we took comfort in each other¡¯s presence, as well as the distant sounds of Sallia and Felix tossing and turning in their sleep in the other rooms of the house.


    Even if we had lost people along the way, at least the four of us had each other.


    It would never plug the holes in my heart where I had left behind two families, but it was something to hold on to.

 Chapter 147: Preparing

    By the time Sallia and Felix were awake again, Anise and I had started to recover from our poor moods. Sallia and Felix both glanced at us, and seemed to realize what we had been thinking about, before they opted not to say anything. Instead, all four of us exchanged a few hugs and had a quiet breakfast, taking comfort in each other¡¯s company. Finally, around midday, we started preparing for our future raids in the Market.


    Sallia and I, in particular, needed time to rebuild our runes. I also needed time to rebuild my attunement, as did Felix.


    Sallia, interestingly enough, could rebuild her magic circles incredibly quickly. She had built four magic circles during our sprint towards Anise¡¯s location. She had spent a bit more time than she perhaps should have focused on her manifestation magic system over her runes, in order to experiment with the new, Keyword-based version of the magic system, and now wanted to catch her runes back up.


    It was good to know that Sallia¡¯s manifestation essence setup was working exactly the way she had hoped it would. One of the bigger reasons to take manifestation essence had been the fact that it took almost no time to rebuild spell circles, and spells would theoretically work no matter which world we went to. Sallia could rebuilt four magic circles, a rune, and part of another rune inside of a week, meaning that she wouldn¡¯t be vulnerable to attack for very long once she regained control of her body.


    The spells Sallia was using weren¡¯t 100% effective, possibly because they were based on laws of reality that weren¡¯t entirely present within the Market: however, they were still close to full efficiency.


    We spent two weeks building up our abilities and training, working to make our future raids as fast as possible. I also did a great deal of experimentation on how my soul-sight worked in the Market.


    The first thing I discovered for certain was that skeletons didn¡¯t have souls. I had already started to notice something odd about the way skeleton souls and candles of life worked while we were running towards Anise, but now I could actually sit down and confirm that skeletons weren¡¯t just hiding their souls somehow - they simply didn¡¯t have one at all.


    The implications of this interested all of us.


    First, I started wondering if the reason skeletons didn¡¯t resist being altered was because they had no souls. I tried teaching Felix my trick for breaking skeleton spines instantly, and Felix managed to pick it up after only a few hours, indicating that anyone with a decent alteration essence magic system could probably off skeletons pretty fast.


    I had already realized that the skeletons probably hadn¡¯t played much of a part in the fall of the Market, given how weak they seemed compared to us when we were only two worlds old. However, this just cemented that idea. There was no way these skeletons were anything more than cannon fodder against the Market - in fact, I started to wonder if they were even strong enough to be qualified cannon fodder.


    Felix started talking about experiments we could run in the future, to see if there were other creatures without souls who we could mess with.


    Sallia and Anise, however, were more curious about how something could exist without having a soul. After all, so far, I hadn¡¯t seen anything without a soul that was even reasonably ¡®alive.¡¯ Even moss and spiders had souls. Since that was the case, why did these skeletons in particular not have souls?


    It was decidedly odd.


    For now, we filed that away as ¡®potentially some weird but unimportant quirk of a magic system we don¡¯t understand, and potentially a clue about the downfall of the Market,¡¯ and decided to get back to that idea later. After all, there wasn¡¯t much we could do about it right now. We were so weak compared to the Market at its peak that we would probably get instantly annihilated if we poked too deeply at the mystery. The strange living void of space that had killed us last life was probably about what we should expect the stronger enemies of the Market to look like, and right now, I would consider it a miracle if we lived more than a second against something like that.


    Apart from that, during some scouting I confirmed that not every creature that resided within the Market had no soul.


    At one point in time, I caught another glimpse of some wooden butterflies, all of which had small souls stapled on to their bodies. For the sake of experimentation, I tried using some alteration essence to simply twist their bodies into splinters, and failed miserably. I could see its body twist a little bit, but just like other living creatures, it actively resisted my attempts to manipulate it.


    After that, I had to run for my life as a giant swarm of butterflies nearly ripped space apart to kill me. Luckily, my rune ability successfully shut down most of their attacks, and I was able to dodge the rest.


    For now, I decided to assume that all creatures with souls had some resistance to being altered, and decided not poke at the wooden butterflies or other strong creatures of the Market until everyone was ready.


    Felix managed to bring his attunement back up to basic, which allowed him to start messing with our weapons again pretty successfully. Unfortunately, the Gravitite modification to Sallia¡¯s sword had been ¡®healed¡¯ by the Market upon our return, so Felix started trying to improve Sallia¡¯s sword and my sword using other random metal components we found in the Market. Most of his attempts weren¡¯t very successful, but Felix did successfully make Anise a shield and a sword, meaning our entire party was armed. He also tried to play with the plant core that we had grabbed during our last life, and claimed to be learning a lot from it. However, he wasn¡¯t at the point where he could make anything useful out of it yet. I suspected that he needed a more specialized magic system to properly craft items in the Market, but since he seemed happy and claimed to be learning a lot from his experiments, I was glad that he was getting something out of the material he had paid 20 Achievement to bring back to the Market with us.


    Meanwhile, Sallia successfully built her first three runes, making her incredibly strong, fast, and quick-witted compared to the rest of us.


    Sallia now had grade 9 for all of her physical and mental stats, making her movements so fast I had no hope of physically keeping up with her during spars. It seemed that now and in the future, in purely physical fights I could expect to get trounced by Sallia every single time.


    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Apart from that, Sallia picked up the ability to manipulate wood, and the ability to lock down space with her two new rune abilities. Her spatial lockdown ability was a bit more specific than mine - while I could just send out blasts of anti-spatial magic, so long as they traveled through water first, Sallia¡¯s anti-spatial magic ability was more based on thickening up the space in our area, preventing it from happening in the first place.


    Together, the two of us could create a relatively large space where hostile spatial manipulation just didn¡¯t work. We hoped that would let us clear out the wooden butterflies fairly easily, since they hadn¡¯t displayed any abilities besides spatial manipulation. Of course, we had no idea what other nonsense we would run into in the Market - but at the very least, the wooden butterflies were probably worth a fair amount of Achievement, which would help us grow stronger for the fight we were really worried about.


    Interestingly enough, even though I had no hope of keeping up with Sallia¡¯s physical movements during training spars, I could still see her movements just fine, unlike Felix and Anise. My body was simply unable to keep up with Sallia¡¯s movements. A large part of the reason I could still mentally track her movements was because I had formed my second rune, and gotten my Willpower to grade 9 and the rest of my mental stats to grade 8. I was also beginning to appreciate just how much Sallia¡¯s high mental stats complemented her high physical stats. The Orukthyri had stronger bodies and faster potential speeds than Sallia, and had sometimes just disappeared completely from my vision during fights. However, because their minds weren¡¯t able to keep up with their body¡¯s speed, the Orukthyri had seriously struggled to control their speeds, and thus couldn¡¯t make very effective use of this ability. Even though Sallia¡¯s movements were technically slower, they were much more deliberate and dangerous during spars.


    Sallia wasn¡¯t the only one who managed to form more runes. Since the total cost of forming new runes had dropped drastically, I also managed to form a second rune.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Condense your second rune out of absorption essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +160


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    For my second rune, I decided it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to have the ability to teleport myself around. Frankly, teleportation was a massively useful utility and combat skill. I had teleportation during my first life, and it had been incredibly useful. During my second life, I had been forced to focus on other abilities - but that didn¡¯t mean that I had forgotten how insanely useful being able to just pop around on the battlefield had been. As long as the creatures of the Market didn¡¯t have a way to stop me from teleporting, I could just teleport away from attacks, as long as I reacted in time. I also needed to be touching water to rend space apart and move myself around, but with my dress I was always touching water anyway.


    I was beginning to appreciate my intention of pivoting from being an all-rounder to a ¡®mage¡¯ type build more and more. Teleportation was able to make me invulnerable to most physical attacks on its own if my [Perception] was high enough. Perception also let me spot sneak attacks more quickly, and helped my eyesight. Even though I hadn¡¯t originally thought about it, I was becoming an incredibly good scout as I improved my ¡®mage¡¯ build.


    Teleportation and Perception were a combination that made me incredibly annoying to deal with on a battlefield, even according to Sallia. Being able to not get used as a sandbag by Sallia whenever we enabled ability use during our spars was the greatest affirmation that my build had potential in it, especially since in a real fight I would naturally sprinkle in extinguishes left and right. An untouchable mage teleporting around and killing enemies with drops of water sounded terrifying to fight against.


    Of course, that didn¡¯t mean I abandoned my swordsmanship entirely.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of a one-handed swordsmanship technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +30


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Due to your {Basic One-Handed Swordsmanship} Ability, reaching Basic Grade in one-handed swordsmanship gives extra rewards


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength +5, Agility+5, Fortitude +5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Admittedly, I stopped training my swordsmanship the moment it reached [Basic] Grade. I just didn¡¯t see a point in training it further. Having a little stat bump was nice, but it didn¡¯t seem that important to me overall.


    If we came across a Skill Center and I could figure out how removing abilities worked, there was a decent chance that I would remove my swordsmanship skill the next time I needed some free glut penalty. It was something to think about. But for now, I would enjoy my extra 15 stats.


    Finally, I worked on my attunement.


    In three total weeks, I managed to push it to [Intermediate] again.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Intermediate] Grade attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Every single time I pushed my attunement forward, I could feel my extinguishes improve by leaps and bounds. It was a bit of a relief to know that my strongest weapon was online again.


    It was also a relief to get 390 Achievement just from doing some training in the Market. I sometimes forgot how quickly and easily Achievement could come at the beginning of a new life, just from retraining all of my Skills. Even if the gains started to drop off insanely quickly, the fact that I had managed to get 390 Achievement in the Market just from training was honestly a testament to just how efficient some training and power related Achievement boosts could be. I had exited our last world with a little under 20,000 Achievement after 35 years. I had just gotten around 2% of that total in 3 weeks.


    Finally, Sallia helped me kidnap some skeletons to experiment with extinguish on, for the final part of our two weeks of training.


    I wanted to have my strongest ability online, and the first thing I needed to do was figure out how to adapt it to fighting against creatures like the skeletons. Even if Felix and I could wipe out basic skeletons incredibly easily, we had no idea whether skeleton mages had souls or not. And I also wanted to learn how to adapt my extinguishes better so that I could use it against other, stronger creatures.


    Of course, using extinguish to remove the ¡®flame of life¡¯ from a creature that was undead was a challenge. However, after a great deal of experimentation and warping the way I visualized my ability, I stopped imagining the candles of ¡®life¡¯ I was attacking as being related to life itself. Instead, I made the idea a little bit more nebulous. Instead of just life, I started working to wipe out a mixture of life and energy when I wanted to hit something that wasn¡¯t properly alive. I was reasonably sure that it would work against more powerful skeletons, such as the skeleton casters. And it would probably also do something against robots and golems, if we ever ran into those creatures in the future. Using extinguish to blast away energy, instead of just life force, definitely lost a huge amount of energy efficiency - after all, it wasn¡¯t quite what my attunement was built to do. But it was good enough for now. I could think about how to improve it more next life or when I ran into circumstances that my current version of extinguish couldn¡¯t handle.


    Once I finished rebuilding my attunement to intermediate grade, the four of us decided it was time to get to raiding the Market.

 Chapter 148: The Root of Things

    Since we only had two to three months in the Market before our bodies started to decay, we wasted no time searching for a target. Taking one day to settle our emotions was already stretching the ¡®optimal¡¯ way to make use of our time, but I didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to become so utterly locked into our fear of the future that we never spent any time settling our emotions and spending time with each other. But one day of rest and a few weeks of training was enough. Now that we were settled and ready to fight again, we needed to start improving our gear and searching for a library.


    We decided to start by hitting up an easy store, just to get Anise a few easy kills and assists, as well as some basic gear. The skeletons were particularly fragile now that Sallia and I could crush them in moments, so cleaning up the seven or so skeletons inside of the building was basically just a matter of spotting the enemy and then breaking their arms and legs, before Anise or Felix finished them off.


    As we rounded up the skeletons in the first store and massacred them all, I got the reward for five Skeleton Assists, before immediately handing the Achievement off to Felix, along with my share of 19 Achievement from the store¡¯s cash register.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +5, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had paid about 500 of my 4,000 Achievement debt to Felix at this point. I planned to give him another 4,000 Achievement, at least, before calling it even, because Felix had lent me Achievement in my time of need. I wanted to give him back a little bit more than he had lent me, if possible. Fair was fair, and I wanted Felix to have a build he was happy with the moment it was possible. Hopefully, that would be the next life, if we got lucky and hit a binding essence planet.


    After that, we got Anise a decent set of starting equipment. It was nothing special - this shop, unfortunately, didn¡¯t have any outstanding items like my dress, Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl, or Felix¡¯s monocle. However, at the very least, Anise now had a proper weapon like the rest of us. Specifically, we found her a pair of shortswords, a suit of armor, a spatial backpack, and a better friendship bracelet that gave her access to location tracking. Since the shortsword pair only counted as one item, this left her with one free item slot open. I had no idea why two Anise¡¯s shortswords only took up one item slot, while two swords normally took up two item slots. This made me wonder what exactly an item slot was in the first place, but I had no idea how to even begin answering that question right now.


    Anise noted she planned to ditch the dual-wielding swords as soon as possible, because she didn¡¯t like them much. But until now, she had only been borrowing weapons from us for training purposes. Having any weapon of her own was better than no weapon.


    With my share and Sallia¡¯s share, Felix did have enough Achievement to finish maxing out his Binding Essence Stat, so the four of us quickly hit up another shop. Felix pushed his Binding Stat up to +40, leaving him with around 400 Achievement left over. If we raided enough stores, it might be possible for Felix to also push his Alteration stat up to +30, or even +40, but that would have to wait for a while.


    After that, it was time to do something I had really been looking forward to.


    Sallia and I had pretty explicitly built our runes and attunements to counter spatial manipulation. After all, last time we had been in the Market, the wooden butterflies had handily crushed us and sent us fleeing for our lives. The only reason we hadn¡¯t lost a life in the Market was because the creatures were limited by range.


    Now, the four of us were hoping that we could knock down a bunch of wooden butterflies and the tree root they lived on: and potentially raid a shop that had much more valuable items inside of it. Doing so would give us a good amount of Slaughter Achievement, and would also prepare us well for future fights in the Market. If the fight was successful enough, we might even be able to harvest a good amount of Achievement during our time in the Market, which might let us pump our Stats to even greater heights before our next life. While stats didn¡¯t single-handedly determine how well we did in a specific life, they certainly helped a lot.


    We spent several hours scouting out shops until we found a good target.


    The three of us also tried to convince Anise to hide and wait for the end of the battle, since she simply didn¡¯t have any abilities or items that would let her survive the fight with the butterflies.


    Anise, however, strongly objected to this. While Anise might have a hard time helping with the more difficult parts of a battle with the wooden butterflies, she had a rather interesting argument that I hadn¡¯t considered.


    ¡°What do you think the Market itself is, Miria?¡± she asked, glaring at me after I suggested that she sit out the fight and be prepared to run if something went horribly wrong.


    ¡°The Market is¡­ the Market?¡± I said. I wasn¡¯t sure what answer she was looking for.


    ¡°What I¡¯m trying to say is that the Market itself is probably a dimension, as well,¡± said Anise, giving me a look. ¡°I mean, apart from the fact that the way the Market doesn¡¯t seem to have been that worried about birth rates, and instead works off of artificial bodies and souls¡­ it seems to fit most other descriptions of a ¡®dimension.¡¯ Or at least, that¡¯s my assumption right now. So I¡¯m thinking maybe it¡¯s possible to get a keyword ability just by doing stuff in the Market, even without going to another world first.¡±


    ¡°Huh. That¡¯s¡­ an interesting idea,¡± said Felix, giving Anise an appraising look. ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought of that. I mean, the odds of getting to a keyword ability when we only have a few months in the Market seem pretty low, but¡­ maybe it¡¯s worth a shot?¡±


    Felix, Sallia and I thought about it for a few minutes, before eventually, Sallia nodded.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s worth letting her try. Miria and I should be able to mitigate the risks a fair bit, and if Anise can get any useful keyword that would be a huge boost. I mean, I doubt it¡¯ll be a magic system, but maybe she could get a support based keyword ability? It¡¯s something to think about, although I have no idea if it would actually work or not.¡±


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    I didn¡¯t like the idea of Anise being in danger with us when she had no keyword abilities at all, but I had to acknowledge that she and Sallia made a decent point. Maybe Anise could pick up a more support-oriented keyword ability that would fit her build once she finished it. If so, the next world could be much easier for all of us - and also help Anise catch up with the rest of us. Even if it was unlikely to work, as long as Sallia and I did the majority of the work during the fight it was something worth trying.


    Thus, Ansie was placed at the back of the group, after she swapped weapons with Felix. Anise was now wielding Felix¡¯s bow, and Felix was now wielding Anise¡¯s dual blades. Since Anise was very fragile compared to the rest of us, we all agreed that she should be furthest away from the front line.


    Felix was also placed in the back of our formation, since he only had one ability that would be useful for the fight, while Sallia and I were both firmly in the front, since our builds were explicitly tuned to win this fight. I found it endlessly amusing that despite wanting to pivot to a more ¡®mage¡¯ esque role in the group, I was still at the front of the group with Sallia right now.


    Then, the four of us started searching for a good target. It took us a few hours to find a shop that looked beatable, and also looked like it had promising rewards. As far as I could tell, the store was filled with two kinds of souls: ones that strongly resembled the souls of the wooden butterflies, and one much larger soul that resembled a giant tree root.


    The store name was ¡°Books and Items for the Amazing Swordsman!¡± Which sounded like it would be right up Sallia¡¯s alley. Not to mention, if the store had books, we might finally figure something out about how and why the Market had collapsed - or, at the very least, we might get some good information about the multiverse and how to improve our builds. Since we had so little information about our situation beyond what we had discovered through trial and error, any new information we could acquire might be what kept us alive in the future.


    After settling on a target, the four of us took a few minutes to scout out the area and make sure nothing dangerous would interrupt us if we had to flee from the store. Then, Sallia kicked open the door.


    Just like the last time we had entered a higher level shop, I saw a giant tree root coiled around the innards of the shop. The top half of the tree root was covered in moss and flowers, and the bottom half of the tree root was covered with blood-red smears of mana. The tree root didn¡¯t seem to be attached to anything - it was almost as if the part of the root that should connect to the main tree had simply cut off in midair.


    Unlike last time, I immediately realized that there was a massive amount of spatial manipulation happening right where the tree root cut off. It was attached to something - and that something was ginormous.


    I felt an ominous sense of dread as I tried to follow the spatial contortion at the base of the tree root. It was almost like I was looking at the living universe that had killed us at the end of our last life. However, it felt¡­ distant.


    If I had to put into words what I felt, it was almost like whatever the tree root was attached to, it simply wasn¡¯t paying attention to us.


    I felt a few moments of crushing anxiety, as I realized that whatever the tree root was attached to could probably kill us just by looking in our general direction. At the same time, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if every single tree root we had seen in the Market was attached to some giant creature in the distance.


    At the very least, it wasn¡¯t looking at us now.


    ¡°The tree root is attached to something much more dangerous,¡± I hissed. ¡°What do we do? Do we still fight? If its main body attacks us, we¡¯re just dead.¡±


    Sallia remained silent for a few moments, staring at the same chunk of dislocated space that I was looking at. Finally, she shuddered, and then turned back towards the tree root. ¡°I feel like it¡¯s not looking at us,¡± said Sallia. ¡°And the fact that it¡¯s connected to something greater could mean that your spatial disabling pulse will just shut off the connection between the root and the main body, killing the root instantly and also removing any way for the main body to attack us?¡±


    I sighed, and then chuckled. ¡°That¡¯s pretty optimistic.¡±


    ¡°But we also need to find a way to fight against the defenders of better soul fragments, or we will have a very hard time growing as quickly as we need to in the future,¡± said Felix. ¡°We only have three lives left to outgrow whatever is defending the spots we need to buy lives at. If we¡¯re too scared to even try to win this kind of fight, should we just roll over and wait to die? I don¡¯t see us outgrowing the main body of this tree root in the next three worlds, so we need to hope that it doesn¡¯t care about one tiny tree root in the middle of nowhere, I think. I vote that we still fight, and see if we can make the main body ignore us, or turn the spatially distorted biology of the creature and turn it into an advantage for us.¡±


    Anise thought about it for a moment, before she turned towards me. ¡°I think I agree with Felix. I have less experience than all of you, but if we turn back now, we¡¯ll lose when we need to win the most anyway.¡±


    I shuddered as I looked back at the tree root, but nodded.


    ¡°Fight it is.¡±


    Sallia poured a bit of absorption essence into her first rune, and I felt space lock down around us. Just as the top of the tree root began to tremble, I tried firing a pulse of spatial manipulation disabling essence at the base of the tree root. Just to see if I could cut off its connection to the main body.


    The pulse of essence I shot at the tree root did absolutely nothing, which didn¡¯t really surprise me. The main body was way too powerful to be bothered by my attack. Luckily, even after blatantly trying to attack the main body, it didn¡¯t seem to notice me or respond in any way. It looked like we might be able to get away with this fight.


    As I thought about possible retaliation from the main body, chunks of tree bark and wood began flaking off of the tree root, before spinning themselves into the wooden butterflies we had seen last time.


    I raised my hand towards one of the butterflies, and fired an extinguish at it. With two and a half of my keywords active, my essence pool was much larger than it should be for my Grade - the extinguish only ate about 1% of my alteration essence for a single extinguish. A drop of water materialized right above the wooden butterfly.


    It splattered onto the wooden butterfly, and the creature¡¯s candle of life disappeared instantly. It dropped dead.


    I grinned. The creature wasn¡¯t resistant to alteration essence at all.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Butterfly of the Dreaming Void for the First Time


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +50, Achievement +0.05


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Butterfly of the Dreaming Void for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Being of Bound Wood:


    Manifestation Stat increased by +10. Your limbs gain as much resistance against physical damage as a thick plank of wood.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I immediately accepted the new ability, since I had lost all of my previous skills upon death.


    And as I did so, twenty-three wooden butterflies flapped their wings at us, causing Sallia¡¯s stabilized space to bend like a spoon in the middle of a hydraulic press. The massive root shimmered and then disappeared, and through my spatial senses, I felt the air around us start to narrow and shrink as the tree root started moving in ways that most definitely didn¡¯t conform to Euclidean geometry.


    The fight for the store had begun.

 Chapter 149: The Root of Things (2)

    Chapter 149: The Root of Things (2) - Markets and Multiverses


    The first thing we needed to deal with was locating the tree root. If we didn¡¯t keep track of it, it might pop out of space and assassinate one of us at the worst possible moment.


    I spent a few moments trying to locate the tree root using my spatial sense, and after a moment, managed to locate a distortion in space creeping up behind me. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that the spatial distortion was so big, I would have missed it.


    Clearly, the weak spatial sense my second rune gave me wasn¡¯t very good, since I was having a hard time detecting even the blatant manipulation of the tree root. I swapped to using my soul-sight, and got a much clearer view of the giant tree root soul tunneling through a hidden layer of space as if it were a fish in water. I grimaced, and then fired a pulse of anti-spatial manipulation directly towards the tree root to knock it out of the twisted space it had hidden itself within.


    I saw the soul of the giant tree root get jostled for a moment, before a massive tree root seemed to get jostled in midair. A fraction of a second later, a tree root appeared, floating in midair. Instead of being stunned, it oriented itself towards me again, and tried to rip through my spine.


    I dodged, not trusting my dress to protect me.


    As I dodged to the side, twenty-four wooden butterflies tried to blast into Sallia¡¯s locked-down space again. One more wooden butterfly than there had been a moment ago.


    Sallia¡¯s locked-down space bent and warped even further, like a tin can being crushed by the pressure of the ocean. Sallia fought to keep control of it, and I fired another pulse of anti-spatial magic at the wooden butterflies to remove some of their attacks, and the tree root tunneled into midair again.


    A fraction of a second later, I saw another wooden butterfly peel out of midair and join its siblings, just as my anti-space pulse evaporated the spatial distortion attacks of the butterflies.


    I felt the urge to curse.


    I suddenly realized that Sallia and I had never managed to stress-test our spatial manipulation blocking abilities. I had simply assumed that they would hold up perfectly when we fought for real.


    It was evident that this was not the case. As my ability punched through the spatial blasts of the wooden butterflies, it got weaker and weaker, until whiffing away as it tore through the ninth rippling patch of spatially-broken air.


    My stronger pulses of anti-spatial manipulation could shut down nine butterfly attacks, but it only had so much essence before it would fizzle out. And we had way more than nine enemies to deal with.


    Worse, the butterflies were still being continuously born. I hadn¡¯t realized it before, since I could see several butterfly souls before we entered the building, but it was almost like the tree root was simply creating more butterflies out of nothing. Every couple seconds, a new butterfly tore itself free from the tree root. I could tell that some kind of essence was being used to fuel the whole process, but I doubted we could outlast the tree root.


    This was much, much more dangerous than we had expected it to be. We needed to end this battle as fast as we could, all while hoping the main body of the tree root didn¡¯t notice pay attention to us.


    Anise started firing arrows at the wooden butterflies, and on her third shot, managed to hit one of them. The wooden butterfly shuddered for a moment, and the arrow ripped open a hole in its wing before it fell to the ground. However, she was missing most of her shots because the little creatures were both small and agile.


    Felix sent a spray of metal shrapnel into the creatures, dropping another three of them.


    21 butterflies left.


    Sallia and I took one look at the fight, and decided that the butterflies had to go. If we had to fight them and keep track of the dimension-crawling tree root, we would get overwhelmed. We had to get rid of more of them before Sallia¡¯s spatial-lockdown collapsed. If it fell apart, the tree root would definitely take advantage of our moment of weakness and kill one of us.


    Sallia tossed a few spells at herself using manifestation essence, and suddenly, her speed became far, far higher than before. She burned absorption essence to boost her speed even further, and then sped forward at a speed I could barely track with my eyes.


    Sallia seemed to reappear in the middle of the wooden butterflies, and three of them collapsed out of midiar after she cut them apart. Immediately, Sallia grabbed ahold of their corpses with her rune ability and turned them into a storm of wooden shrapnel that was tossed directly at the remaining butterflies. Felix immediately threw in a few larger spikes of metal to help down the creatures, and the butterflies started to fall.


    I suddenly lost sight of the tree root, and realized that it had figured out how to hide itself from my soul sight. I felt a prickling sense of danger to my left, and fired another blast of anti-spatial manipulation at it out of pure instinct.


    My combat instincts saved me from getting beheaded as the tree root was once again knocked out of its sub-dimension.


    As I prepared to throw an extinguish at it, the blood-red mana on the underside of the tree root glowed like a furnace. I felt something inside of my body twist.


    I gasped in pain as I saw something red and white erupt from my skin, and for a horrifying moment, I thought my bones and blood were ripping their way out of my body, just like when we had been killed by the living galaxy of our previous life.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I immediately slammed a huge renewal burst into my body with every drop of alteration essence I could muster at once, trying to heal my body and stop it from collapsing.


    If I died, the rest of the group would be helpless against the sneak attacks of the roots. I couldn¡¯t die here.


    As I was preoccupied keeping myself alive, I saw one of the metal swords on a nearby shop shelf to ripple and shatter apart. Felix was doing something while Sallia finished off the butterflies.


    The tree root didn¡¯t sit around and wait for us, though. Its body flashed with more and more essence as it tried to rip my body apart from inside, and it tore towards me.


    With my body already on the verge of collapse, I couldn¡¯t dodge out of the way, and none of my abilities could block it.


    So I teleported several meters to the left. The tree root immediately disappeared back into its strange sub-dimension trick, just as Sallia finished killing the last of the wooden butterflies and rejoined us. Mercifully, I felt the horrendous, wrenching pain in my body start to subside as the tree root flickered out of reality again. Clearly, the tree root couldn¡¯t keep up whatever attack it had been using on me and hide in its sub-dimension at the same time. Which was probably the only reason I was still alive.


    But I had lost track of the creature again.


    I looked at Sallia, hoping that she had finished up dealing with the wooden butterflies, and was relieved to see that there were only four left. Sallia was now stuck dodging spatial distortions though, because her spatial lockdown had collapsed under the pressure of the wooden butterflies .


    As I watched, a fifth butterfly popped into existence, which Anise managed to take down with an arrow moments later.


    ¡°Miria, can you flood the area with a pulse of anti-spatial essence?¡± asked Sallia, as she cut down the last four butterflies with a thin wire of rune-controlled wood.


    I gasped in pain, as I tried to force my body to recover, but I nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t have enough essence to do it more than twice, since I can¡¯t pinpoint a target. Make it count.¡±


    Sallia nodded.


    I fired a blast of anti-spatial manipulation at the entire room. The tree root popped out of the air right behind Sallia, whose eyes immediately widened. She threw herself to the side as Felix launched a giant spike of metal at the creature, which ripped into the side of it like a giant metal nail.


    The tree root did not like that. As Sallia tried to cut into it and Anise missed it with an arrow, the tree root suddenly glowed.


    I felt as if space all around us suddenly flattened and thinned out and realized with horror that Sallia¡¯s spatial lockdown was still recovering.


    I flung myself to the ground, hoping to dodge whatever came next, but it wasn¡¯t enough.


    I felt pain tear its way through my legs as I suddenly found myself flying through the air.


    Time seemed to slow down for a moment, as I looked beneath me.


    There, I saw my legs and part of my dress laying on the ground. The tree root had cut through my thighs and my dress as if they were made of paper mache.


    As I flew through the air, the tree root suddenly turned red again. I felt as if a mountain had fallen on me. Things inside of my body started to try to rip their way outside of my body, aggravating my already severe wounds.


    I slammed into the ground and grunted in pain. Glowing light started to pour out of my wounds, and I hurriedly clamped down on the bleeding stumps of my leg with a bit of healing.


    Then, I threw an extinguish at the tree root with almost half of my alteration essence, which caused the creature to seize up for a moment. Sallia took advantage of that to form a much larger sword, made entirely out of bones and wood, and hacked directly into the giant tree root with it. The tree root tried to fly away, but refused to pop back into its sub-dimension. It seemed determined to kill me before hunting down the others. Sallia¡¯s attack hit it and managed to cut a huge portion of the way into the tree root, before it got stuck. Felix took both of his blades and rammed them into the side of the tree root, perfectly ripping into Sallia¡¯s cut, and Anise continued to pepper the tree root with arrows.


    My extinguish had weakened it, but nowhere near enough to kill it yet.


    The tree root writhed in pain, almost like a giant wooden worm, and shed a small fountain of golden sap.


    I had a terrible premonition that the golden sap was not good, and immediately tried shape the golden sap into random bits of water before they hit the ground.


    I got almost two thirds of the drops of golden liquid before the rest made contact with the store floor.


    The golden ichor that had touched the ground started to warp and transform, turning into giant viney tendrils that drilled their way through the floor of the former Market store. I could see spines and thorns, and a strange sweet smell started to pervade the air around us. At the same time, I saw a horribly twisted soul spring into existence inside of each of the giant thorny tendrils. They looked almost like miniature versions of the tree root we were fighting.


    ¡°Don¡¯t breathe anymore!¡± I yelled, before holding my breath. Whatever the sweet smell was, it was bad news.


    A few more wooden butterflies puffed into existence in the air near the wooden branch, and Sallia¡¯s locked-down space shattered again as they pelted it with a few more spatial distortions.


    Anise shot down the butterflies, but the tree root wasn¡¯t done with us. After shedding golden ichor, it seemed to have recovered a little bit. It oriented itself towards me again, and shot a beam of brown energy directly towards my head.


    I tried to teleport out of the way, but felt my teleportation spell get stuck as the tree root somehow messed with my rune ability. I shoved myself out of the way with my arms, grunting in pain as it disturbed my leg stumps. The brown beam hit the floor behind me, which started to transform into wood the moment it was hit.


    I fired another heavy extinguish at the creature, leaving only a tenth of my keyword-enhanced alteration essence pool behind to keep myself alive. The creature writhed in pain for a moment, and Sallia took advantage of the opening to bring down another bone and wood wire sword onto the creature in the exact same spot as before, finally cutting the damned root in half. The root finally dropped to the ground, dead.


    I got another System notification, but couldn¡¯t look at it, because we still weren¡¯t done yet.


    The spiny plans created by the golden ichor of the creature warped their way around Anise and Felix, and then started rotating. The giant thorns and spines ripped into their bodies like chainsaws, causing them to scream in pain before Sallia flickered again.


    I felt a ridiculous amount of absorption essence disappear from Sallia¡¯s body, and for a brief moment, I had the strangest sensation that somebody had turned the gravity off in our area.


    The corpse of the tree root suddenly distorted and flickered, before it turned into a third giant wire-sword, and then quickly cut apart the roots of the giant vines that were killing Felix and Anise.


    I used most of my remaining essence to drop two more exinguishes on the vines, killing them before they finished ripping apart Felix and Anise. Then, I collapsed onto the ground, my stump-legs continuing to bleed light as I saw Felix and Anise drop to the floor, gasping and bleeding light from the massive puncture wounds and rips in their face and torso.


    That was the last thing I saw before I passed out.

 Chapter 150: Books

    I woke up with a groan, and almost immediately afterwards, felt a perplexing mixture of dizziness and pain across my body. In a flash, I remembered the fight with the tree root, and reached towards my legs.


    Just like before, they were cut off into stumps at about the middle of my thighs. There were strips of cloth wound tightly around my stumps, which, oddly enough, seemed to be preventing my body from leaking more light into the atmosphere. Even though our bodies don¡¯t have anything like blood, apparently the light we lost after getting wounded was still close enough to blood that we could treat blood loss and ¡®light¡¯ loss as if they were the same thing.


    As I tried to touch the stumps of my leg, I also noticed that my arms were covered in a  mixture of itchy red and white spots on my skin, although they were starting to fade away.


    I resisted the urge to scratch at my skin, and looked around.


    We were just outside of the store. Anise and Felix were leaned against a nearby wall, while Sallia had opted to set me up a little further away from the front of the store.


    ¡°You¡¯re up,¡± said Sallia, before giving me a hug. ¡°I think the sweet-smelling powder in the store was some sort of knockout poison. It seems to work on skin contact, and it¡¯s also what causes the itchy white and red spots. But it¡¯s healing pretty fast.¡±


    I took a closer look, and saw that Sallia also had some red and white spots on her skin, although they were very faint.


    I sent a little pulse of renewal through my body to see if it tried to heal any poisonous substances, and noticed some of the lingering grogginess in my head quickly disappear, almost as if I had just drunk a shot of coffee. However, I didn¡¯t feel anything else change, and felt a breath of relief.


    Whatever the poison had done, it didn¡¯t seem like it was fatal or potentially fatal.


    Then, I crawled a little closer to Anise and Felix, to make sure they were okay.


    Anise and Felix were both still unconscious, and looked like they had taken a much worse blast of the itchy sleeping powder than Sallia and I had. They also had several nearly fatal-looking puncture holes and cuts  in their body, which had all been patched up in much the same way as Sallia had patched up my legs.


    ¡°These look bad,¡± I said, grimacing.


    I took a closer look at my essence reserves, to get an idea how much time passed. I was still mostly empty, so I concluded that I had probably been asleep for an hour or two.


    ¡°Anything else happen in the shop?¡± I asked Sallia.


    ¡°No. The main body of the tree root didn¡¯t pay attention to us a single time during or after the fight, and nothing else came up to the shop after the three of you fell unconscious. I just moved us away from the sleeping powder to let it dissipate a bit.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± I said. ¡°Did you find my legs anywhere?¡±


    ¡°They got disintegrated,¡± said Sallia. ¡°There was basically just a few gibbets of meat left. I know your regeneration is great, but honestly, I think you¡¯ll need to regrow them from scratch.¡±


    I winced. Regrowing them from scratch would take way longer.


    However, that could wait a while. My wounds didn¡¯t seem to be getting any worse, and Anise and Felix¡¯s wounds were much more horrific than mine. Some of the tears in their face and body looked like they would have cut open their hearts and lungs. I didn¡¯t have much alteration essence, since I had used almost all of my reserves during the fight and only regenerated for an hour or two, but I could at least help deal with their worst injuries a little bit. ¡°Can you soak them in water?¡± I asked.


    Sallia immediately scooped out a few cups of water from my dress, much to my amusement, and then splashed it on Felix and Anise. I dumped what little alteration essence I had into my two prone friends.


    The deepest parts of the puncture wounds closed a little bit, leaving them less horrific and deadly-looking. However, once I ran out of alteration essence, I couldn¡¯t keep using renewal. I was thankful that the spell worked perfectly even after leaving our previous world behind, but since I only had an intermediate grade attunement right now, there was a huge decrease in the quality and efficiency of the healing spell. Luckily, it didn¡¯t seem like the two were really on the verge of dying, because if they were moments away from death, there would have been absolutely nothing I could have done about it right now.


    I sighed, and Sallia looked a bit depressed as well.


    ¡°This fight could have gone better,¡± I said, after a few moments. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a complete disaster, since I think Anise and Felix will pull through their injuries just fine. But the fact that nobody died was more luck than skill. I don¡¯t like that fact.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°At least the Achievement reward was pretty good,¡± she said.


    I blinked, and realized I had actually forgotten to look at my System notifications.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Root of Worlds for the First Time, Assist in killing a Butterfly of the Dreaming Void for the first time, Assist in killing a Butterfly of the Dreaming Void for the third time, Assist in killing a vine of sorrow


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500, Achievement +5, Achievement +8, Achievement +80, Achievement +0.57


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Vine of Sorrow for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Embrace of slumber:


    Your body begins to slowly build up a kind of toxin that has a sweet smell. You may release this as a large cloud of dust at any time. This toxin will seep into the skin and cause mild poisoning, irritation, drowsiness, and possibly render enemies unconscious if their body or mind is weak enough.


    This poison is partially magical in nature.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I equipped the new skill, since I had two empty skill slots. I was a bit sad to see that I hadn¡¯t gotten a skill for helping to kill the root of worlds, but I didn¡¯t have time to figure out how or why I had only gotten one skill instead of two.


    I instead tried to figure out whether 500 Achievement was actually a good reward or not. It actually felt a bit lackluster compared to how hard that fight had been - the swarm of butterflies and the damn root had nearly killed us. Even though Sallia and I had explicitly built ourselves to counter the enemies of this fight, we had still nearly died.


    Luckily, there were other rewards for the fight. All of the contents of the shop were ours, which was the biggest reason we had set out to kill the vine.


    Also, Sallia¡¯s wire-blade made of wood had been incredibly impressive during the fight, and had ended up being most of the reason we had won. I hadn¡¯t seen her use it before. Perhaps she had just figured out how to do it during the fight?


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Either way, it would definitely be a helpful new ability for the future.


    I took one last look at Anise and Felix, and realized there wasn¡¯t much I could do for them right now.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go take a look at the shop,¡± I said, trying to force myself to grin. Even though the fight had felt terrifying and nearly disastrous, being positive was important. And we had goodies to look forward to. ¡°Can you carry me?¡±


    Sallia nodded, and picked me up before making her way back into the shop. I noticed that the sweet smell was gone.


    Most of the items in the shop had survived the fight completely intact, which showed just how excellent the durability of items produced in the Market truly were.


    ¡°While we wait for Anise and Felix to wake up, do you want to look at items?¡± I asked, grinning at Sallia. ¡°And look for the books that are supposed to be here?¡±


    She grinned as well, and nodded.


    Even though the fight had been nightmarishly hard, we had finally gotten access to a place where books were stored. It had taken three trips to the Market and two worlds, but we could finally read up on parts of how the Market actually worked, and then replace a bunch of items.


    I really hoped that the books in this store would be useful. I didn¡¯t think that we had it in us to raid another tree root during this visit to the Market. The enemies we had encountered here were a bit stronger than we were prepared to take on right now. It would be much better to come back with another Ability evolution, and preferably some more stats, too. Even though I had the ability to teleport away, if I couldn¡¯t see an attack in time, I had no way to react to it. And our offensive abilities had barely managed to work their way through the tree root. I also didn¡¯t know how the tree had messed with my attempt at teleportation at the end of our last fight, but it was clear that finding more ways to counter enemy abilities was something I needed to focus on in the future.


    I found myself thinking about ways to use spatial manipulation to deal more damage and counter enemy abilities as Sallia picked me up and carried me around the room, before we spotted a small crate of books in a corner of the shop.


    The crate of books had a rather odd title. One that made me feel very, very excited about what we might have discovered. Something that even took my attention away from the other potential rewards in the shop, even blowing the thought of the cash register we hadn¡¯t raided yet out of my mind.


    ¡°Living Grimoire - The Talking Database you need to reach Heroic grade and understand the four essences! Only 300 Achievement each!¡±


    We ignored the price completely as we grabbed one of the books, and I temporarily unequipped my adventurer¡¯s boots before equipping one of the grimoires into an item slot. I didn¡¯t bother looking at its maintenance cost - I was going to ditch it before I reincarnated again anyway.


    A few moments later, the book I had equipped floated above my hand, before it shook itself off.


    ¡°Welcome to the Market, new Transmigrator! How may I assist you in improving your Abilities? ¡± asked the book, completely ignoring our surroundings.


    ¡°Umm¡­ hello?¡± I asked. ¡°How do I¡­ operate you?¡±


    ¡°Hello, new Transmigrator! To ¡®operate¡¯ me, you merely need to input questions, either spoken vocally, or sent to me via mental connection if you have any abilities or items that grant you some form of mental communication. Either way works!¡± chirped the book happily.


    ¡°Are you¡­ alive?¡± asked Sallia, looking at the odd book with curiosity.


    The book did not respond to Sallia¡¯s question in any way, shape, or form. It simply kept floating in midair right in front of my face.


    ¡°Did it break?¡± I asked Sallia, confused. These things were pretty old. Maybe it had stopped working at some point?


    ¡°Battery life for this grimoire is at nearly full energy capacity, and no internal damage is detected! This grimoire is in perfect condition!¡± chirped the book.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t - ah, do you only respond to my questions?¡± I said.


    ¡°Grimoire will only respond to the questions of whoever currently has the book equipped!¡± chirped the book. ¡°This grimoire is only aware of the user, and has no awareness of any other individuals in the area, any environmental hazards, or anything else that exists in the world around it!¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± I said. ¡°Interesting. So you can¡¯t see anything around us at all?¡±I asked, gesturing towards the dead giant tree root, and shredded wooden confetti, and the ruined giant vine things.


    ¡°This book has no eyes, ears, or other senses that detect the outside world!¡± chirped the book.


    ¡°Can you ask it if it¡¯s alive?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°I¡¯m suddenly curious.¡±


    ¡°Are you alive?¡± I asked the book.


    ¡°Not in the slightest! I am a repository of information, with a relatively clever artificial intelligence to allow me to draw from my database and answer any question within my means. I can also interpret questions that you ask me. That being said, my language interpretation is not always perfect, so if I do not respond to a question, please rephrase it so that I can understand it!¡± said the book.


    I nodded thoughtfully. Basically, the book was an advanced chatbot hooked up to a specific database. I could work with that.


    ¡°In that case¡­ can you tell me why the Market collapsed?¡± I asked. I knew it was a longshot, especially since the book was called the ¡®Living Grimoire - The Talking Database you need to reach Heroic grade and understand the four essences.¡¯ It definitely didn¡¯t seem like it was related to recording history. But it was worth trying, even if it was unlikely to succeed.


    Sadly, the book said nothing.


    ¡°Why did the Market fall?¡± I asked.


    The book still said nothing.


    I tried several variations of the question, but the book remained completely silent. Eventually, I confirmed that the knowledge of the Market¡¯s collapse simply wasn¡¯t present in the book¡¯s knowledge base, meaning it couldn¡¯t answer questions. Which made me more than a little bit disappointed.


    However, that didn¡¯t mean that the book didn¡¯t know anything useful.


    ¡°How do we upgrade our affinities for essences?¡± was one of the first questions Sallia had me ask the book after we failed to learn how or why the Market collapsed. It also didn¡¯t seem directly related to the book¡¯s knowledge base, but it was at least tangentially related. And it was something I was very interested in knowing.


    ¡°Anytime any living being manages to push a skill to heroic grade or higher, their affinity for any related essences will naturally increase. Sometimes one can also get a smaller boost to their affinity by doing something impressive with a certain essence, although that less common and tends to be much inferior. Every single improvement of the related skills past Heroic Grade will make their affinity for a certain essence improve substantially. This is permanent, and even if a soul is not part of the Market, they will retain their improved affinity for an essence from one life to the next,¡± said the book.


    ¡°How high of an affinity for an essence does one need for the Market to automatically recruit them?¡±


    ¡°One needs to have an affinity for an essence equivalent to what one normally gets by pushing their affinity to Law-0 Grade. Or, alternatively, by pushing their affinity to Heroic grade in one life after another until they eventually grind their way up to the same point. This, however, takes much longer and has a higher chance of permanently dying in between lives. After all, sometimes people just don¡¯t earn much Achievement before dying, and without the Market to keep them alive, if their Achievement is too low they get shredded to pieces by the ocean of souls before they can reincarnate.¡±


    I turned towards Sallia, and she turned towards me, and we grinned.


    I finally had a better idea what an ¡®extreme affinity¡¯ was, at least. That was one question finally answered.


    ¡°What benefits does affinity with a specific essence grant you?¡± I asked, after some more thinking.


    ¡°An affinity for an essence does several things. First, it makes it easier to gain and upgrade keyword abilities related to that essence. For example, if normally one might need to kill a creature with heroic-grade skills to get an amazing keyword ability for using alteration essence, someone with an extreme affinity might only need to kill a creature with master grade skills. The barrier of entry is much lower. Furthermore, one needs to pay less glut penalty and Achievement for the same keyword ability, although this gets much more pronounced at higher grades of abilities. Finally, they will have excellent instincts for how to use said essence, meaning that they¡¯ll tend to push up to the great barrier between master and heroic grade abilities much more easily, and have an easier time pushing further and further.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± I said, nodding and frowning. ¡°What do you mean by ¡®great barrier?¡¯¡±


    ¡°There are three major barriers in Ability growth, each of which makes every single ability upgrade afterwards much, much harder to achieve. The first great barrier is the barrier between Master grade abilities and Heroic grade abilities, and it is also the great barrier this grimoire is focused on.¡±


    I see, I said, nodding.


    Just as Sallia and I were about to launch into another stream of questions about how to actually advance to heroic grade in our abilities, I heard Felix groan, and then saw him start to struggle to his feet out of the corner of my eye.


    One of the two injured was awake again.

 Chapter 151: Souls and Achievement

    ¡°I feel quite woozy,¡± said Felix, as he clawed his way back to a standing position. He winced as he stood up, and nearly collapsed for a moment, before he managed to support himself against the wall. Then, he paused for a moment, and looked at the air in front of him, before he nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t have a notification that I died, so at least we didn¡¯t lose a life.¡± Then, he frowned, and a flicker of fear passed through his face as he turned towards Sallia and I. ¡°Neither of you died, right?¡±


    ¡°Nope,¡± I said. ¡°Just missing my legs. I¡¯ll have to grow them back later. But no deaths.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear,¡± said Felix, heaving a sigh of relief. A few moments later, Anise groaned, before she also started to open her eyes.


    ¡°My face and chest hurt,¡± she said as she grimaced. She looked at Felix, and then glanced at Sallia and I. ¡°Is everyone ok?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re fine,¡± I said. Then, I glanced at my two missing legs. ¡°Well, at the very least, we can recover pretty easily.¡±


    Anise nodded as she wobbled to her feet. ¡°Good enough. What happened? I feel very woozy.¡±


    ¡°Sleeping poison of some sort. It¡¯ll wear off soon enough,¡± Sallia said.


    Anise nodded again, as Felix actually chuckled.


    ¡°Well¡­ at least we won. And the Achievement rewards aren¡¯t bad at all,¡± said Felix. ¡°What about the shop itself? Anything good inside?¡±


    ¡°We were just getting through that,¡± said Sallia. ¡°We found a book that details what¡¯s required to get stuff into Heroic grade. It also has a fair amount of other miscellaneous information.¡±


    ¡°Oh? We finally have a good idea what heroic grade looks like?¡± said Felix.


    ¡°Well¡­ not yet. We haven¡¯t gotten to that question. But we now know exactly what extreme affinities do, and how to raise them,¡± I said, before Sallia and I quickly outlined what we had learned so far from the book.


    After that, Felix looked at the floating book in my hand, and then looked at the rest of the shop with stars in his eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go look for good items. I¡¯m really interested in seeing what better Market items look like. How about you two question the book some more, and we exchange information after I pull together a pile of items we might want to equip?¡±


    I thought about it for a moment. ¡°Sounds good to me. I¡¯m not particularly mobile right now, so I¡¯d appreciate it if you bring the items to me,¡± I said, gesturing towards my missing legs. Then, I turned towards Anise. ¡°Do you want to question the book with us, or search with Felix?¡±


    Anise thought about it for a moment, before she shrugged. ¡°I want to look for new items too. Right now I don¡¯t have any particularly special items, and I admit, I¡¯m kind of excited to see what proper Market items do. And I also just don¡¯t have as much background information as you guys do, yet, so I would have a hard time knowing what questions to ask.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± I said.


    Anise and Felix quickly made their way over to the cash register first, where they divided out the Achievement inside. Apparently, this shop had about 1,000 Achievement in the cash register - meaning that, after I dumped my Achievement from the battle into it as well, I had 3,000 Achievement left to pay off, if I included the little extra I wanted to leave for Felix.


    Then, Felix and Anise went from one shelf to another to start finding items that looked useful, while Sallia and I returned to the book to keep questioning it.


    ¡°So, how does one cross the ¡®Great Barrier¡¯ between Master grade and Heroic grade?¡± I asked the book.


    ¡°The biggest difference between Master Grade and Heroic Grade is comprehension of the laws of reality. You see, before reaching Master grade, one doesn¡¯t have to have any intimate understanding of the laws of reality itself. To push into Master grade, one needs a glimpse of the laws of reality. Then, to push forward to Heroic Grade, one needs to imprint that law of reality directly into their body. This allows the user to internalize a few local laws of reality. For example, pushing into Heroic Grade with a swordsmanship ability will also ¡®solidify¡¯ the way gravity and your body interact with each other, as well as the way your muscles work and the way your bones and muscles are attached to each other. Your body and soul will thus gain some resistance to being acted upon by other, more problematic laws of reality.¡±


    I blinked.


    Resisting the laws of reality with just my body?


    I had never thought about that before. However, I thought about how the set of laws of reality we had encountered in the world of the black sun had basically caused my body to implode, as well as the way my body seemed to simply fall apart when exposed to the laws of reality Sekundyrr had lived within. I immediately realized that having some way to survive conflicting laws of reality was basically a necessity for anyone who wanted to explore new dimensions without dying or wearing very special equipment.


    If Heroic Grade could allow one to properly resist these forces, that was certainly food for thought. It also provided greater insight into my last life. I had gotten stuck when trying to improve from Expert Grade to Master Grade, and had no idea why I couldn¡¯t improve further. Apparently, the issue was that I needed some sort of special insight into the way my attunement interacted with the laws of reality.


    That was certainly valuable information.


    ¡°Is there any other way to resist problematic laws of reality?¡± I asked.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°There are plenty. Some items, such as special suits, can hold together your biology from one dimension to another, and sometimes laws of reality from other dimensions simply won¡¯t be destructive enough to kill you. Your Fortitude Stat also helps keep your body together, even when the laws of physics say that it shouldn¡¯t. You can also use some magic systems to keep your body together. However, Heroic Grade is the most stable way of interacting with conflicting laws of reality, since you won¡¯t be stuck either trying to maintain a spell every moment of the day or praying that your dimension suit doesn¡¯t break down.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± I said, trailing off into thought again.


    I thought about it a bit more, and realized something interesting. Pushing through the great barrier between master and heroic grade granted pretty significant benefits to people trying to explore other dimensions. And I imagined that pushing through a ¡®great barrier¡¯ would also cause the power of an Ability to skyrocket. If that was the case, did the other two ¡®great barriers¡¯ also give major boosts to the ability when passing through them?


    ¡°What do the other two great barriers give you?¡± I asked.


    ¡°The great barrier between Primordial grade and Law-0 grade gives you the ability to influence your surroundings and warp the laws of reality to suit your needs. Some transmigrators call this a ¡®domain,¡¯ although that¡¯s not an official name. The barrier between Law-6 and Law-7 Grade gives you the ability to handle mana nearly directly.¡±


    ¡°Handle mana directly?¡± I asked. Hadn¡¯t we already been handling mana? I had assumed that mana and essences were nearly interchangeable with each other.


    ¡°Normally, there are five supernatural energies in the multiverse: mana, and the four essences. Mana itself is something of a universal energy - it exists no matter what in every dimension. In fact, it¡¯s what the laws of reality in any given dimension are made from. However, without the help of one of the four essences, it¡¯s both imperceivable and nearly impossible to handle directly. It¡¯s sort of like invisible molten lava - you can¡¯t see it, and even if you could, touching it would just melt your hand off. Normally, people instead use a magic system fueled by an essence to interact with mana. In this analogy, they work kind of like containers and molds that let you manipulate mana without touching it directly.


    ¡°Law-7 grade gives you the ability to somewhat push past this limitation, letting you handle mana with the equivalent of very thin gloves.¡±


    ¡°So essences are basically switches that let us mess with mana,¡± said Sallia, thoughtfully.


    ¡°What the heck?¡± yelled Felix, a moment later, distracting me from my interactions with the book.


    Sallia stood up, and I tried and failed to stand up with my two missing legs, before Sallia hoisted me up and started carrying me. I put away the book for now -we could keep questioning it later. If Felix had found something interesting or dangerous, we needed to be there.


    We found Felix and Anise looking at something on one of the shelves of the store.


    It was a pair of human eyes.


    ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± I stared at the pair of human eyes, lost for words.


    ¡°Are those human?¡± Asked Sallia, looking distinctly grossed out.


    ¡°They¡¯re items. Take a look at them,¡± said Felix, wincing.


    I took a closer look, and an item description appeared in front of my eyes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes (Biology-independent edition).


    Effects:


    To install this item, you must rip out your eyes and replace them with these eyes instead. (They will heal the injuries around your eyes upon being installed, so do not worry about damage incurred during the eye removal process).


    Once installed, these eyes will grant you two distinct abilities.


    First, you will gain the ability to use shadows in your surroundings as extra pairs of eyes, allowing you to gaze into and gaze from all dark places within a certain range of you. (This will also make learning magic related to shadows and darkness significantly easier). You will gain some measure of control over these shadows. (especially useful for stealth - do note that this item does not give you the ability to turn shadows into any kind of energy or make them tangible). (This requires essence to activate).


    Second, this will grant you a certain measure of control over plants in your area, allowing you to spend essences to manipulate them, improve their growth rate, or cause them to wither and weaken. (This requires essence input to work. Any essence is fine).


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 51.3 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I looked at the item, and then looked at Anise.


    Currently, Anise was the weakest member of our group. Unlike the rest of us, she didn¡¯t have access to a single magic system at all.


    This pair of eyes wasn¡¯t a particularly powerful ¡®magic System,¡¯ but it would at least somewhat correct the imbalance in the group. It wouldn¡¯t make Anise as strong as the rest of us, but it was something that would be helpful to her.


    Of course, the biggest worry was whether or not Anise would be able to get them to work in the first place. The three of us had ways to generate Essence on our own, making essence-generation a non-issue. Meanwhile, if we ended up in a world that didn¡¯t have a magic system of its own, Ansie wouldn¡¯t have any essence to make the plant ability of the eyes work at all.


    I sighed, and then shrugged. ¡°Anise, do you want it?¡± I asked.


    Anise looked at the eyes, and then shuddered. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯d prefer if I didn¡¯t need to tear out my eyes to make it work, but I can see why it would help me,¡± she said, wincing. ¡°I can take it.¡±


    ¡°If you take them, next life, I¡¯ll figure out a way to make the eyes switching process easier on you,¡± I said, thinking about ways to knock Anise unconscious. I could probably come up with something using Alteration essence if I really put my mind to it. I already had the ability to blast creatures with madness due to my ability evolution. And I already had some experience altering mental effects to turn them into knockout abilities. Removing your own eyeball sounded quite gruesome, but if I knocked Anise out and then did everything for her, it would be much less hard on Anise.


    Ansie winced again, but nodded. She turned towards Sallia and Felix. ¡°Do either of you want them?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m actually kind of interested in the ¡®seeing through shadows¡¯ bit, since it would make me really good at scouting if Miria isn¡¯t around. but it¡¯s not that important to me,¡± said Sallia. ¡°And you kind of need something to help you stand out and earn Achievement in our next world. This isn¡¯t an amazing ability, but it¡¯s better than nothing.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t think of why I would want it,¡± said Felix, after a few moments. ¡°Doesn¡¯t really do anything for me.¡±


    ¡°All right,¡± said Anise, taking a deep breath as she looked at the pair of eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll take it. Miria, I know I should work through being squeamish in the future, but¡­ I hope you help me swap my eyes out, at least until I get the hang of it myself,¡± she said, setting her jaw with determination as she grabbed the pair of eyes. A moment later, they disappeared as Anise equipped them into one of her item slots.


    ¡°All right, what else do you guys want?¡± asked Felix, redirecting our attention towards a pile of swords, along with a few weird items.


    It was time to swap out our gear.

 Chapter 152: Harvest

    Anise¡¯s new eyes were far from the only new, useful items in the shop that Felix and Anise had found.


    The next item that caught my eye was a kind of elegant looking robe. It looked sort of like something that a wandering swordsman might wear while going on a journey - it was light and easy to move in, but also classy enough that one could comfortably wear it without being out of place in a nicer establishment.


    Of course, looks could be deceptive. The description for the item made would have made me very interested in the item, if I didn¡¯t already have my dress.


    <table>


    <tbody>


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    <td>


    Item: Robe of the Wandering Swordsman


    Effects:


    This Robe has two abilities:


    First, while practicing swordsmanship and wearing this robe, your training will be much, much easier and faster. This robe can be used up to Expert Grade, and will provide a very slight boost while trying to push a swordsmanship-related skill through to Master Grade (emphasis on slight).


    Second, once per lifetime, the person who is bonded with this robe may declare that they are going on a journey. Based on how far they travel and how many things they do during that journey, as well as how diligently they practice their swordsmanship and kill enemies, once they declare that their journey is at an end (usually by returning to the starting point) they will receive a major boost to all physical stats, and all mental stats except intelligence.


    This item is also exceptionally durable, contrary to its looks, and also provides some measure of defense against weaker weapons.


    Journeys may not exceed three years in length.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 72.3 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After reading the item description, I immediately looked at Sallia. Felix and Anise also did the same.


    Sallia grinned. ¡°If you guys don¡¯t mind, I¡¯d be happy to take it. I love it. I¡¯ll probably be losing a bit of defense compared to my armor, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that big of a problem. Although we should stress-test it later, if you guys are willing to help me. I would appreciate knowing what I need to dodge and what I can just ignore before we go to the next world.¡±


    Since nobody objected, Sallia immediately swapped out the set of iron armor she had equipped, and after hesitating a moment, she also unequipped the training armor that she had found during our last journey to the Market.


    The training armor that could increase all three physical stats by up to 1 grade was given to Anise for now, who simply ditched her previous weapons that she didn¡¯t like. The combat armor that Sallia had been using up until this point was simply dumped on the ground. We didn¡¯t need it for anything, so it could sit here for some other lucky resident of the Market to stumble across in a few decades or centuries.


    The next item also looked appealing to me, although unlike the {Robe of the Wandering Swordsman}, it didn¡¯t conflict with items I already had. Despite its name, it was shaped almost exactly like a foldable umbrella - the kind where one could push a button and cause the umbrella to expand into a proper umbrella, or retract it into something that looked more like a fluffy walking stick. The only real notable difference was the wicked, razor-sharp tip of the umbrella, which looked like it would fit a spear more than an umbrella.


    <table>


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    <td>


    Item: Breath of the Storm


    Effects:


    This Umbrella can expand and retract as desired by the user (mental command)


    While the umbrella is expanded, the umbrella becomes exceptionally sturdy and can be used as a shield. It also grants the wearer a very slight amount of control over the air around them. So long as the wearer is strong enough to support themself, they can use this slight amount of air control to use the umbrella as a flying device. (Be warned - this does NOT make your body weight any easier for you to hang on to).


    While the umbrella is retracted, it can be used as either a rapier or a walking cane (you may slightly adjust its shape as desired while in a retracted form). The umbrella will also provide some control over water or improve your control over water while in a retracted state, although this is very weak.


    For a very high amount of essence input, a lightning bolt may be fired out the tip of this umbrella.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 47.8 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Even though the item was a bit weak, I found the obvious connections to storms and the ocean rather interesting. It was nowhere near the massively powerful build-defining item that my lake-gazer¡¯s dress was (at least, when combined with the rest of my abilities). However, it was a sword, and a shield at the same time, and it let me fly, and shoot lightning bolts, and enhance my water magic a little bit. It wasn¡¯t particularly good at any of those five functions, but I found the versatility to be appealing. And even if it was a rather mediocre sword, shield, and magic item, it was still much better than my current {Two-Purpose Sword}.


    I could definitely see why this store was guarded by a much more powerful enemy. Even the more random and weird items like this one were simply filled with useful abilities. It was just a shame that this shop was focused on swords and didn¡¯t have too many other kinds of items - if it hadn¡¯t been for the fact that the shop carried books as well, we would have chosen a different shop as our target. But even the ¡®swords¡¯ here were very useful.


    Sallia and Felix weren¡¯t interested in the umbrella - after all, Sallia¡¯s swordsmanship style was much more defined than my own, and she didn¡¯t seem to like the idea of swapping to a more piercing focused style of swordsmanship that fit a rapier. Sallia¡¯s swordsmanship seemed to rely heavily on slashes and ways to make use of her superhuman strength, while I was more focused on spellcasting. Meanwhile, Felix just didn¡¯t seem to care much about what weapon he was using, as long as he had some kind of weapon as a backup for emergencies.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    That left Anise and I.


    I did want the umbrella, but¡­ I looked at Anise, and then sighed. ¡°Anise, do you want it?¡± I asked.


    ¡°There¡¯s another sword I want more later in the pile,¡± she said. ¡°I pulled this one aside because I thought it would fit you.¡±


    I smiled, and gave Anise a quick hug before I swapped out my old sword for the {Breath of the Storm}.


    After that we kept going through the pile.


    Felix grabbed a new sword as well, and the effects for that sword caused me to raise an eyebrow.


    <table>


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    <td>


    Item: Swordbreaker


    Effects:


    While wielding this sword, the wielder gains a sense for what metals are nearby, as well as any structural weaknesses any nearby metallic objects have.


    Wielder also gains a moderate ability to manipulate metal, or a moderate improvement on any metal-manipulating abilities they already have.


    Sword is exceptionally durable and hard to weaken.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 11.2 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I was pretty sure that it was a sword originally meant to find weak points in the armor and weapons of other people, and then start breaking down their items mid-fight. However, it was also a surprisingly useful sword for crafting, as long as it was equipped.


    I had a rather strange mental image of Felix randomly holding a sword in one hand and a smithing hammer in another for a moment, before I snorted softly. The image was certainly amusing.


    Next up was the item Anise had chosen for herself.


    <table>


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    <td>


    Item: Sword of the Lost Phoenix''s Embers


    Effects:


    While wielding this sword, it is significantly easier to learn fire-related abilities and Skills up to Advanced Grade.


    The Wielder of this sword gains a slight ability to command embers and flames in their surroundings (essence input is required to activate this ability).


    Once per lifetime, the wielder of this sword may stab themself in the heart using this sword. If they do so, instead of dying, they will activate ¡®last stand of the phoenix,¡¯ which will increase all attributes by 2 grades for 1 hour. All of their fire related abilities will be improved up to Intermediate Grade (including the pseudo-ability to control fire and embers granted by this sword). All wounds in their body will regenerate extremely quickly, and they will be able to survive a much greater level of damage than their biology should allow.


    After this effect wears off, the user will fall unconscious for 24 hours. They will also suffer backlash based on the amount of damage they took while super-regeneration was active. Backlash may be lethal. Use with caution.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 81.6 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The sword basically single-handedly gave Anise a magic system, at least for one hour per life. That wasn¡¯t anywhere near an ideal time scale for her to have, but as of right now, Anise was the weakest member of our group because she didn¡¯t have an extra magic system of her own. Even if this was a very weak version of a magic system, from the item¡¯s description it sounded like for 1 hour a lifetime Anise could become utterly terrifying on the battlefield. Which could let her rack up a huge amount of Influence Achievement and Slaughter Achievement if she used it well. It was an excellent item for Anise to use at a critical moment, and would hopefully help her catch up to the rest of the group.


    Finally, Felix had set aside a few swords that he felt Sallia might like. Sallia spent a while hmming and hawing over two of the options, as she tried to make up her mind, but eventually, she settled on a longer one-handed sword that looked as if it was made purely of glass.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Mirror¡¯s Edge


    Effects:


    Wielder gains the ability to ¡®hide¡¯ within mirrors and reflections, becoming very difficult to sense for creatures or people without specialized skillsets. While hiding within a mirror, wielder may not change their ¡®exit point¡¯ at all - the wielder will always exit the mirror at exactly the same spot they entered the mirror.


    They must be touching a mirror or reflection to activate this skill. Destruction of the mirror or object used to make a reflection will result in the wearer being forced back out of the mirror.


    This sword may absorb rays of light and darkness, and store them for later. Upon mental command from the user, stored rays of light and darkness may be summoned to harm enemies (these will be equivalent to light or darkness based elemental attacks from a manifestation magic system).


    Once per day, this sword may reflect a magic attack, so long as the attack is below a certain threshold of power.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 76.1 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The ability to hide inside of mirrors wasn¡¯t really that amazing for Sallia - she wasn¡¯t really that focused on hiding, and the ¡®hide in a mirror¡¯ ability of the sword was highly restrictive and hard to use.


    However, the other two abilities were amazing. Being able to blast enemies with rays of light and darkness magic would give Sallia a quick and easy way to get ranged attacks, giving her more time to buff herself or rain extra spells on enemies through her manifestation magic system. And the ability to reflect magic attacks gave Sallia the ability to deal with powerful magic attacks. We would need to stress-test how big of a magic attack the sword could actually reflect, but the ability to just randomly throw an enemy¡¯s strongest attack back in their face once per battle seemed incredibly powerful. And with Sallia¡¯s ridiculously good sense for combat and timing, she would probably make excellent use of the ability.


    Finally, the four of us found a new type of friendship bracelet in the shop. It let us talk to each other over distances, sort of like a phone. It lost the ability to track locations, but the four of us ultimately decided it was a worthwhile tradeoff. We could always just talk to each other and meet up near landmarks in the future - after all, our friendship bracelets still guaranteed that we would reincarnate near each other. The maintenance cost was also notably higher than before, now costing 7 Achievement per life instead of 1.8. But that was still so cheap that none of us would really feel the sting of paying for it in the future, so it wasn¡¯t a big deal. And being able to communicate with each other over a distance was a huge boost to how well we could coordinate with each other and work as a team.


    Most of the other items in the shop were also swords, and most of them were simply inferior to what we had already found. We didn¡¯t end up getting any other new items from the store.


    At the end of our shopping spree, my item list hadn¡¯t undergone any earth-shattering changes, but it had notably improved.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 5/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1. Simple Friendship Bracelet with Distance Chatting (7 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2. Sturdy Boots (1.1 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    3. Lake-Gazer''s Dress (22.8 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    4. Breath of the Storm (47.8 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    5. Storage Pack (2.3 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Total Maintenance cost (per life): 81


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Finally, we were done shopping in this store.


    It was time to finish questioning the book and see what final bits of information we could extract from it.

 Chapter 153: Books Final Information

    I was ready to resummon the book once we were done swapping out items. This time, Felix wasn¡¯t distracted, so instead of just Sallia and I, all four of us crowded around the book to listen to it and see what other information we could dig up about the Market, the past, and how we should proceed forward. I quickly caught Felix and Anise up on what Sallia and I had learned already, before I resummoned the book and we continued questioning it.


    ¡°So, I believe I last asked you about mana and switches¡­¡± I said, trying to pick up the conversation with the book where I had left off.


    ¡°This book has no awareness of any events that happened more than fifteen minutes ago!¡± chirped the book cheerily.


    I sighed. This book¡¯s limitations were rather frustrating to navigate.


    ¡°How exactly do essences and mana interact with each other?¡± said Felix. ¡°I think you should try asking that instead. Also, I want to know if the book knows of any way to see how old our souls are, since I think it would be interesting to know how many lives we¡¯ve had and just don¡¯t remember before we joined the Market. Also, I want to know how souls are born. Since souls occasionally die in between reincarnations, but the multiverse is apparently expanding, there must be some mechanism that keeps creating more souls. If I had awareness of that, we might get some interesting insight into the Market and its mechanics. Also, I want to know about any other major multiversal factions, since those would be really good to keep in mind. If the Market was able to move between one world and another, and the old Orthans from the world of the black sun were able to cross dimensions, there must have been other factions that managed to do the same. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there are giant interdimensional empires floating around in the Multiverse somewhere and we just haven¡¯t encountered them yet. Also¡­¡±


    Felix started slinging out ideas for useful information, a great deal of which Sallia and I hadn¡¯t thought of yet. This turned the questioning session of the book into a strange question and answer session, since I needed Felix to run through his list of questions again before feeding those questions into the book.


    The first thing we confirmed was that the book had no awareness of the greater multiverse. Anything that happened outside of the Market simply wasn¡¯t programmed into its database, meaning we still had no information on what the greater multiversal factions looked like. No matter how I rephrased the question, it simply didn¡¯t have an answer for us.


    It also had no way to tell us how old we were. As far as we knew, we could have been ¡®born¡¯ five lives ago, or five hundred. The book failed to respond when I tried asking it about other places to check the age of our souls, no matter how I tried to rephrase the question. Even though this had been one of the less important questions Felix had brought up, it was still a bit disappointing that the book had no information on the subject.


    The book also didn¡¯t know what the ¡®most common¡¯ ways of crossing from one dimension to another were, or the best way to farm Achievement, or what training methods would guarantee that we reached Heroic Grade with our abilities. The book DID have a lot of useful tips for how to push from Master to Heroic Grade, at least.


    It also had some tips on how to move from Expert to Master grade, although this information was much less detailed.


    I still filed most of that information away for later. We would need to cross the first great barrier eventually, and although the book couldn¡¯t help us get up to the wall of the first great Barrier, it was explicitly built to help people pass through it. A lot of the book¡¯s advice was related to how to internalize a law of reality. It contained useful insights such as ¡®some parts of a given dimension are more distorted or bent towards a specific idea than others - so environment can help a lot,¡¯ as well as what types of environment we should keep an eye out for. It also mentioned that some dimensions were easier to train in than others. Apparently, during the golden age of the Market, there had been some dimensions explicitly kept as ¡®gardens¡¯ by larger corporations, where the laws of reality and the entire society of a planet were maintained to make some specific type of skill very easy to train and improve. Many Transmigrators would use specific reincarnation pools to ensure that they reincarnated in that world and then push through the barrier to Heroic grade; and those reincarnation pools often had even more specific sub-pools that let one choose what kind of family they would be born into, among other things.


    This was immediately followed by nearly twenty minutes of advertisements for various garden worlds we could use to push through to Heroic Grade, depending on what ability we were trying to shove through the great barrier. Even Anise¡¯s eyes started to glaze over during the long-winded advertisements. Which was miraculous, because so far Anise seemed pretty fascinated by the weird and miraculous aspects of the Market.


    After the very long commercial break,, there were two final things we learned from the book.


    The first was the biology of souls. Even though the book didn¡¯t explicitly have data related to how souls were born, it did have useful information about how souls were structured, which was information I accidentally stumbled onto while trying to rephrase my question.


    Souls basically had four layers to them.


    The first layer, and the layer of the soul that got subjected to wear and tear most often, was the layer where Achievement was stored. Most souls didn¡¯t store Achievement quite as efficiently as a soul from the Market, making it rather prone to deterioration. The Market actually did a sort of quick surgery on our souls the moment we got integrated. This made our souls store Achievement in a form that was less prone to deterioration. It was kind of like the difference between raw beef and frozen, perfectly preserved jerky. Normally, souls actually leaked Achievement quite quickly when they weren¡¯t in the middle of a life, but after the Market changed the way we processed and stored Achievement, it became far more resilient against corrosion from the ocean of souls or damage from not being housed inside of a proper body. It also allowed souls to easily remove Achievement, making it suitable as a form of currency.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    This layer of the soul was also the first line of defense against both hostile soul magic and the ocean of souls.


    Sadly, the book didn¡¯t have any information on what Achievement actually was, or how it was made.


    The second layer of the soul was where memories were stored. This layer of the soul was rather easy to damage, which was why most souls lost their memories from one life to the next. The first layer of the soul tended to get damaged while in between lives, and unless one had a totally ridiculous amount of Achievement, the first layer of the soul usually failed to protect the second layer of the soul perfectly, even if the soul in question had a lot of Achievement. This soul damage created little holes in people¡¯s first line of defense against the ocean of souls, and through those little gaps, the ocean of souls leaked into the soul and erased people¡¯s memories. While this layer of the soul was easy to damage, it was also very large. This meant that most soul damage from the ocean of souls erased Achievement and memories, but didn¡¯t reach the third and fourth layer of the soul very often.


    The third layer of the soul was basically where people¡¯s ¡®soul to brain¡¯ interface was. Without the third layer of the soul, even if one successfully reincarnated, they would probably be a vegetable, or would have serious issues controlling their new body. The third layer of the soul contained a bunch of ways for souls to interface with the brain, allowing them to do things like think, walk, and breathe.


    The fourth and final layer of the soul was where the ¡®self¡¯ was. It was the least understood aspect of the soul, and it was also what made people¡­ themselves, for lack of a better description.


    The fourth layer of the soul was also where affinities for an essence were stored. The Market had tried (and failed) to manually improve people¡¯s affinity for essence through a very wide variety of ways, although there had been no successful attempts in all of the time the Market had existed.


    The second thing we learned was about the ¡®specialties¡¯ of the four essences. I had asked this question mostly to get a better grasp on what the four essences actually were. Instead of the information I wanted, I ended up getting a rather surprising bit of information back.


    ¡°Regarding the four essences, naturally, every single essence has millions of different magic systems that can be created around them. These magic systems tend to be a mix of the local laws of reality, and whatever system the natives of a dimension build to use those laws. It¡¯s not unusual for a magic system in a given world to look totally different from the magic system in another world, and it¡¯s also common for magic systems to do something completely different from the ¡®specialty¡¯ of an essence. That being said, each essence still tends to be good at one thing in particular, even if one doesn¡¯t have to focus on it.


    ¡°Absorption essence tends to be most used by warriors and people who fight with weapons or their fists, usually backed up by very light specific, contained abilities such as laser vision, super strength, flight, or other miscellaneous abilities. These abilities tend to be very easy to activate and highly specific in what they do, but also very limited in how they can expand.¡±


    I blinked, and looked at Sallia.


    She definitely fit the bill for being a warrior who fought with physical objects. However, I was pretty sure laser vision, super strength, and flight were all characteristics of¡­ something I vaguely remembered hearing about a lot in my first life. I tried to remember what it had been, but my memories of my first life were just too fuzzy. Still, for some reason I kept thinking of people flying around in capes¡­


    ¡°Manifestation essence tends to lend itself more towards squishy ranged fighters who rely on their thoughts and pure essence as their main weapon,¡± said the book. ¡°The most normal manifestation essence user is someone who is relatively physically weak and has excellent long-ranged and mid-ranged abilities, as well as a lot of different spells they have learned, the ability to create new spells with enough study, and a need to study the world around them if they want to expand what they can manifest using their magic system. Of course, there is still plenty of variance from one magic system to another - some manifestation essence users instead do things like try to predict the future, or use telepathy, or toss objects around.¡±


    I glanced at Anise. She fit the image of a classical ¡®manifestation essence¡¯ user pretty heavily. However, I also noticed that I was explicitly trying to fit myself into a pretty similar set of characteristics. Perhaps my ¡®new direction¡¯ was a mistake?


    Before I could get lost in my thoughts, the talking book continued on.


    ¡°Binding Essence users are rather unique. The major characteristic of binding essence is that it can bind ideas and physical objects together, depending on how the magic system works. Binding Essence users are far more reliant on the laws of reality related to their magic system, while other essence users tend to have a little bit more freedom. They can specialize in anything from cursing people by binding bad things to other people, to enchanting items, to binding useful abilities to themself or others and working as a support mage. Of course, Binding can also be someone who has bonded with a specific item and become a knockoff absorption essence user, or a community that has bonded with one item and created something like a communal ¡®divine artifact¡­¡¯ really, binding essence can go in a lot of different directions.¡± said the book.


    I saw Felix perk up a bit at the mention of enchanting objects and divine artifacts. The moment the book mentioned it, I had a pretty good idea what kind of magic system Felix would be aiming for in the future.


    ¡°Finally, there is Alteration essence,¡± said the book. ¡°Alteration essence tends to specialize in changing things, though what exactly gets changed varies a lot from one magic system to another. Alteration Essence magic systems tend to specialize in illusions, tricks, shapeshifting, and dimensional terraforming.¡±


    I blinked, and thought about my own magic system.


    I had briefly used illusion magic when I was on the islands world, but I had effectively abandoned most of that ability set. And I had done that entirely using absorption essence. Currently I wasn¡¯t that good at illusions.


    I wasn¡¯t really very good at tricking people either. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what a trickery based magic system would even look like.


    I hadn¡¯t even thought about shapeshifting before, although now that the book mentioned it, I could certainly see that the shaping System from the world of the black sun could do shapeshifting and dimensional terraforming. The Orutkhyri had been humanoid at one point, and after the old Orthans had modified them, they weren¡¯t even really intelligent anymore. That was effectively a type of extreme shapeshifting.


    I had none of the abilities my essence specialized in, and had a lot of characteristics usually limited to manifestation magic systems. I was specialized in long-range attacks such as extinguish, as well as healing spells. At least, right now.


    I didn¡¯t think it was a bad idea to go in my own direction. However, the book¡¯s notes about what alteration essence usually specialized in still gave me some ideas.


    Perhaps there were lots of ways to use my main essence that I hadn¡¯t tapped into yet?

 Chapter 154: Searching

    After that, we spent several more minutes questioning the book. However, we couldn¡¯t find any more useful information, no matter how many other questions we asked. We did get several rather useless advertisements, but there wasn¡¯t anything of particular note within those advertisements.


    Finally, Felix sighed.


    ¡°I guess that¡¯s all we¡¯re going to get out of the book,¡± he said. ¡°I really thought that we could learn a lot more, but I suppose that¡¯s just how things go sometimes.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not the end of the world,¡± I said, after a few moments of thought. ¡°I mean, I was hoping for more information too, but at least we properly nailed down what I was doing wrong last world while trying to reach Master Grade. I¡¯ve been trying to puzzle that one out for a while. This will make it much easier to grab some more Skill and Power Achievement in future lives, and advance our abilities further.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a loss. We still got a lot from the book.¡±


    Anise looked over the book for a few more moments, before she shrugged and grinned. ¡°From what you guys told me about the Market, I think it¡¯s a good thing that we finally learned some more about the way the Market works and the way Skills and Abilities work. It sounded like you were struggling to nail down a lot of details before now, after all.¡±


    I nodded. Then, I decisively ditched the talking book and re-equipped my {Sturdy Boots}. The fact that I had no feet made equipping the boots rather¡­ interesting. They could currently provide me with absolutely zero benefit whatsoever, but if I didn¡¯t find something to replace them with before we reincarnated again, they would be useful.


    ¡°I believe that we accomplished most of our major goals now, right? What now?¡± asked Felix


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I looked at my missing legs. ¡°I don¡¯t think we should attack another high-level item store like this one until the next time we come to the Market.¡±


    ¡°Well obviously,¡± said Felix, rolling his eyes. ¡°We were barely able to make it through this fight with no injuries. If anything, we probably should have waited another life before tackling this store. Even if we got rewarded for taking a risk by getting excellent items, it¡¯s definitely not time to push forward again yet. But do we want to hit up smaller shops?¡±


    I looked back at my missing legs, and then thought about the weak skeletons that guarded most lower level shops.


    Missing my legs would make it a little bit more difficult for me to survive future fights, but if we were only fighting the regular skeletons¡­ did it matter?


    They were basically just cannon fodder at this point. I could probably down dozens of normal skeletons by myself, even if I had no legs. And Sallia and Felix could basically do the same. We should probably avoid getting into massive battles with them, because something could go wrong, but we could certainly take care of small groups of skeletons pretty easily.


    And we only had around five weeks left in the Market before our bodies started to deteriorate. We needed to make the best use of our time that we could. Healing my legs would probably take quite a while, and I didn¡¯t think it was a good idea for us to simply waste all of that time.


    ¡°I think we should hit up a few more really weak item stores,¡± I said. ¡°The skeletons that will be defending those stores don¡¯t really pose a threat to us anymore, and we could still use a few more new items. I¡¯m happy with my dress, umbrella, and friendship bracelet, but I¡¯d be happy to replace the rest. Looting more cash registers would also be helpful.¡±


    Sallia thought about it for a few moments, before she also nodded. ¡°I can trash normal skeletons in melee combat at this point, and Felix can do the bone manipulation trick super easily. Though, Miria, I think that you should stay out of the fighting unless necessary though. Just focus on regrowing your legs. How long do you think it¡¯ll take to restore those, anyway?¡±


    I paused, looking at my missing legs. I hadn¡¯t actually tried regrowing lost limbs before. I knew that I could do it, but I had no idea what kind of time frame I was looking at - especially considering that I was only working with an intermediate grade attunement. This would make my healing far less efficient than it had been during our time in the world of the black sun.


    ¡°Maybe a few weeks?¡± I said, doubtfully. ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure.¡±


    ¡°How about we start raiding weaker stores, and if Miria heals up her legs faster, we start hitting slightly stronger stores again?¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± said Felix. ¡°Let¡¯s wait for our essences to replenish, and then get to raiding.¡±


    And with that, we started to slowly and carefully pick off weaker stores in our area for supplies.


    * * *


    About three weeks passed. During that time, we hit up about three stores a day - which was a comfortable pace for us, especially once we took into account the essence needed to clear out the streets we passed through before finding a good target. Not all of the streets of the Market were empty, and while we stuck to lower level areas, we still occasionally ran into a few skeletal archers and swordsmen wandering around from time to time.


    True to our earlier plans, I didn¡¯t end up killing any monsters during that time. I kept my essence ready for an emergency, but we didn¡¯t run into any emergency situations that required my intervention. Therefore, every day, I simply spent all of the essence I regenerated in order to heal up my legs as much as possible.


    Each store that we raided had a cash register. However, a few of them were empty, making me think that perhaps we weren¡¯t the only group of transmigrators traveling to and from the Market these days. However, at least so far, we hadn¡¯t run into any other groups, although we did decide to remain wary of potentially hostile transmigrator groups wandering around the area. Making more friends would be ideal, but even if I hoped we would get along with anyone new that we met, I knew that friendship wasn¡¯t always possible.


    Most cash registers seemed to have somewhere between 80 and 120 Achievement inside of them, and seemed to average about 90. In total, we found around 4500 Achievement during the three weeks of raiding. My share of 1,150 Achievement, naturally, went straight into Felix¡¯s Status Screen, leaving me with a debt of about 1,900 Achievement left.


    Meanwhile, since Sallia had gotten the actual kill for the giant tree root instead of just the assist, and because she had borrowed significantly less from Felix, she completely finished paying off her debt, and even gave Felix a little bonus just like I was planning to do. And, to my surprise, she also gave Felix 300 Achievement to pay part of MY debt. Even though I had completely forgotten the 200 Achievement I had given to her last time we were in the Market, she had not. Just like with her own debt, she seemed to consider it important that she give me a bonus as thanks for lending her some Achievement.


    Stolen story; please report.


    After that, Sallia still had a fair bit of leftover Achievement, which she ended up spending to boost her Manifestation to +30 and leaving her with around 200 Achievement left.


    Meaning that I ended up with a total debt of 1,100, plus a bonus of 500 to thank Felix for lending me some Achievement in the first place.


    Felix, using the 5,000 Achievement or so he had gotten from his own shares of each cash register, Sallia¡¯s payments, my payments, and some miscellaneous rewards for clearing out skeletons, decided to boost his Willpower, Intelligence, and Fortitude to +40, leaving him with 5/10 stats pushed to Grade 7. He spent a long time debating whether Intelligence or Perception was more useful, since perception would let him observe and copy item-making techniques that were hard to observe, while intelligence would make it easier for him to learn things from a master and make connections with other things he had already learned. He ultimately decided to push for Intelligence for now.


    Anise also picked up the {Identity} Ability, and ended up pushing her Manifestation Stat to +40 in hopes that she would immediately find a use for it. It was a bit of a hopeful investment, since she was currently behind in everything and it was hard to say what essences our next world would contain, but the girl was dedicated to becoming a super witch. Even though she got embarrassed whenever I teased her about all of the things she had said when she was ten.


    Even though she got embarrassed, she never actually stopped pursuing her dream of being an amazing spellcaster - and while all three of us occasionally poked fun at her more silly statements in the past, we were careful never to actually discourage her from pursuing her dream, and even encouraged her to find the path that worked best for her. It was important to find a balance between teasing one¡¯s friends and encouraging them, after all.


    Finally, while raiding item shops, we found a few more useful items. Many of the item shops that we raided weren¡¯t particularly outstanding, and didn¡¯t have anything noteworthy. However, there were at least a few good items scattered amongst the less useful items, which let us make a few final item swaps before our next reincarnation.


    First, and perhaps most surprising, Anise actually found a pair of gauntlets that she liked.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Gauntlets of Manifestation


    Effects:


    While worn, the user can generate a very small amount of manifestation essence (equal to about 5% of their maximum reserve per day) so long as they are exposed to sunlight for at least six hours a day. If the user''s body is not biologically compatible with manifestation essence, the gauntlets will slowly remodel the arms until compatibility is created. (May take several years).


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 7.3 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This didn¡¯t really seem like a particularly amazing item on its own, but paired with another item we found, it allowed Anise to create a very weak version of a proper manifestation magic System.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Finger of Magic Missiles


    Effects:


    To use this item, you must replace your original finger with it.


    You may spend manifestation essence to cast the spell ¡®minor magic missile¡¯ while this item is your finger (creates the dimensional laws required to make the spell work).


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 11.1 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    In total, this meant that Anise¡¯s items were: Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes, Friendship Bracelet, Phoenix Sword, her new gauntlets, and her finger of magic missiles. The last two items weren¡¯t particularly outstanding, and Anise was a bit squeamish at the idea of replacing both her eyes and one of her fingers with Market items - but the lure of accessing spellcasting, even in a very limited way, proved far too much of a temptation for Anise to ignore. Not to mention, Anise hoped that if she did something impressive with her magic missiles in the next life, she might get a keyword ability for it even if we didn¡¯t end up in a world with manifestation essence in it. I hoped it ended up working out for her, and quietly promised myself that I would keep an eye out for opportunities for Anise.


    I myself found a rather interesting set of tarot cards, which I decided to replace my boots with because I didn¡¯t really like my boots. They were nothing special, and I doubted I would keep them for long, but they seemed neat to try using for a world or two and see how I felt about them.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Cursed Tarot Cards


    Effects:


    May only target one entity at a time. After a target dies or you decide to lift the curse, this deck of tarot cards will enter a five year cooldown period.


    Draw three tarot cards while focusing on intended target. At inconvenient times, these curses will erupt and attempt to inconvenience or harm the target.


    Example curses include: The fool (makes target less intelligent at a crucial moment), The Hanged Man (makes target feel notable pain, especially around their neck, for several minutes), and many other similar curses.


    Considerably less effective against users who can resist or interact with curses. This item uses binding essence to work, and may be noticeable to other binding essence spellcasters if their spellcasting system is similar enough.


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 13.8 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The deck of tarot cards wasn¡¯t really very strong, and it had at lot of drawbacks, but the deck seemed at least somewhat useful. I doubted they would do much to a major threat, but depending on how the tarot deck worked, I was hoping that maybe I could just toss a few curses at a problematic enemy before we fought them in the future. If I didn¡¯t end up liking the item, I could just ditch it next time we came to the Market, and it still seemed more useful to me than my boots, at least.


    Sallia didn¡¯t end up finding anything she liked, which made sense. She was already pretty close to kitted out, with her new robe, her sword, her friendship bracelet, and her noodle bowl. The only item she had that wasn¡¯t outstanding was her pair of boots.


    Felix ended up finding one more item he was fond of as well.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Endless Origami Kit


    Effects:


    Provides an endless amount of lightly magically infused paper that the user can use for other spellcasting purposes. (Paper will naturally restock itself without any resource input, at a rate of about ? of the kit¡¯s full capacity per day).


    This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn¡¯t completely destroyed.


    Maintenance cost - 9.2 Achievement per life


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Origami wasn¡¯t exactly the first thing I thought of when I thought of Felix, but a kit of neverending crafting supplies seemed pretty reasonable for him to take, even if it wasn¡¯t really that amazing of an item.


    In total, this mean that Felix¡¯s items were his friendship bracelet, the origami kit, his craftsmen¡¯s monocle, his new sword, and the training armor that Anise had ended up discarding for her new items.


    With all five of us kitted out and only two weeks left at most before our bodies started to deteriorate, and with my legs finally restored, we decided it was time to start working on finding a place to reincarnate. Even though we could farm about 1,500 Achievement each week in the Market while waiting, if our bodies collapsed and we were forced to waste a life reviving, it would be a terrible trade. And every single pool of reincarnation had also proven that it would be defended by powerful enemies, meaning we wanted some time to devise a battle plan and prepare for the encounter.


    It was nearly time for a new journey again.

 Chapter 155: Pools of Reincarnation

    We spent the next five days searching for pools of reincarnation. In total, we found four different pools of reincarnation. Three of them were just copies of the same pool we had been using up to this point: the very low entry fee, low quality reincarnation pools that gave us no particular control over our next life at all. They were the cheapest reincarnation pools, and also the least well defended. Despite that fact, up until this point, we had barely survived sprinting towards the reincarnation pool at full speed while being bombarded by spells, because during our last two reincarnations, we had no real way to deal with the skeletal mages that defended each pool.


    However, Sallia and I were much stronger than we had been last time we came to the Market. Even though one of my rune abilities was tied to shutting down the attacks of the wooden butterflies, which was quite useless against skeletal mages and flesh giants, I had the ability to teleport, break down weaker skeletons using little jolts of alteration essence, and extinguish stronger enemies to either debuff them or totally kill them in seconds. Furthermore, now that my legs had been restored, I was at least competent enough in melee combat that I could contend with the regular skeletons, and probably overwhelm the skeletal spellcasters as long as I used my new weapon well and blocked spells at the right time.


    Sallia was also far more terrifying than before: she could control bone and wood to create another copy of that devastating wave of shrapnel and wood, and it seemed likely that she could cut down even a flesh giant with it. Her manifestation spells were mostly focused around supporting herself, but with her massive advantage in runes and enough mental stats to keep up with her physical abilities, I was willing to bet that she could outmatch the flesh giants in terms of strength and speed. The two of us combined were probably able to take down the normal defenders of a pool of reincarnation pretty easily, especially with Felix and Anise supporting us.


    However, the fourth pool of reincarnation that we had found gave us another option. Unlike the first three pools of reincarnation, the fourth pool of reincarnation gave us at least a little bit of control over the next world we landed in.


    ¡°Teleod¡¯s Emporium: Reincarnation point 19,421 (Humanoid body-type X-14 Nursery edition)! Just pay 300 Achievement to proceed to your next life! Reincarnation point is built to ensure that any users will end up in a world with Binding Essence present. Extremely useful for those who either need to develop a binding essence keyword, or for those who want to experiment a bit with a different magic system.


    ¡°Those who sign up with Teleod¡¯s Emporium as an item crafter or as part of customer service will not need to pay for entry: as an employee benefit, they may simply use the reincarnation pool as desired. Those who are interested in signing up with Teleod¡¯s Emporium but don¡¯t have a binding essence-related magic system, please talk with a recruiter so that we can make a contract that suits your needs.


    ¡°Start your career as a binding essence transmigrator today!¡±


    Seeing the pool of reincarnation brought to mind the other pool of reincarnation that we had seen the previous time in the Market. That time, we had seen a pool of reincarnation that guaranteed that we would reincarnate in a world that was Tier 10 or below, and had a System of its own. It had been defended by some kind of ridiculously powerful nightmare creature, and had a cost of 2,000 Achievement to use when there were still people around to collect payment for it.


    This reincarnation pool was a lot more interesting than the last one we had found. After all, Felix and Anise both needed keyword abilities to get their magic systems in order. Felix needed a binding magic system, and Anise needed a manifestation magic system. And the sooner we got everyone their magic systems, the better, since they still needed time to develop their keyword abilities before we fought for more lives. We only had 3 lives left, and while we weren¡¯t quite running out of time yet, we needed to make every life and every second count.


    However, using a more specific reincarnation pool also came with risks. Namely, the risk that we would get killed by the defenders of the reincarnation pool. The monsters that inhabited the Market tended to group up around areas that used to contain a lot of Achievement, and stronger monsters were also located in places where more Achievement and better items were held. There was a massive difference between a nearly free reincarnation pool and a pool that cost 400 Achievement per use.


    After we found Teleod¡¯s reincarnation pool, we returned to a nearby building, to make a choice on whether we wanted to try for Teleod¡¯s reincarnation pool or simply bulldoze through the defenders of a regular reincarnation pool and use that.


    ¡°I vote that we go for it,¡± I said, kicking off the discussion. ¡°I think that in the long run, it¡¯s much riskier not to fight for the reincarnation point now. Felix needs to get access to a primary magic system that fits him, and this guarantees that he can get one next life. Given that his extreme affinity will make it easy for him to get a keyword ability, odds are pretty good that he walks away with a keyword ability if we use this pool. And it¡¯s on the lower end for reincarnation pool fees: I still remember that last life, we ran into a reincarnation pool that was charging 2,000 Achievement per use. In comparison, this doesn¡¯t seem too bad.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Sallia, wincing a bit. ¡°I mean, that¡¯s a good point, but at the same time, it¡¯s a question of how well we can handle the dangers associated with using the pool. In the weaker reincarnation pools, the skeletal mages and flesh giants are the strongest defenders of the area. In this pool of reincarnation, they¡¯re used as outer guards, and we have no idea what the strongest defenders of the pool will look like. If we manage to use the pool, it¡¯ll obviously be a huge boost to Felix¡¯s strength for the future. However, there¡¯s also a good chance that this goes horribly wrong.¡± She gestured towards my restored legs, as well as my partially sliced up dress that hadn¡¯t restored itself. ¡°Miria almost got killed the last time we took a big risk in the Market. And Felix and Anise were both very nearly carved up and turned into smears of flesh during that fight, and were only saved because Miria managed to pull off her extinguish on time and finish off the plant monsters. Are we really ready for this? And will waiting one more life ruin things for us?¡±


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    Felix frowned, and gave the massive sign in the distance a longing look. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can provide good advice in this situation. I¡¯m too attached to the outcome. I¡¯ll abide by whatever the group decides makes the most sense,¡± he finally said, after several seconds.


    Anise gave Felix an assessing look, before finally she looked in the distance again.


    ¡°I think we should go for it,¡± she finally said. ¡°I know that it¡¯s a little risky, but if we don¡¯t take any risks, we probably won¡¯t be strong enough to buy more lives in the future. If we had another five lives, I think waiting would be the correct choice. But we don¡¯t have that luxury,¡± she said, sighing. ¡°I may be new to all of this, but I can still see how bad our overall situation is. We need to take steps to prepare for the future and get as much preparation time as we possibly can. The sooner we get started, the easier it will be for us to earn more Achievement in the future and grow stronger. Also, if we end up in a world without either binding or manifestation essence next life, Felix and I will lag considerably behind you two. That might create a critical weakness, not just in the final fight to buy lives in the future, but also in future worlds, if Felix and I die early or something. Ideally, all four of us will survive as long as possible in each world - but even though I know you and Miria would never let us die intentionally, you two also can¡¯t be by our side every moment of the day. And we also need ways to earn Achievement and get new Abilities on our own.¡±


    Sallia spent nearly a minute mulling over Anise¡¯s words, before she turned towards me. ¡°Miria, what do you think about Anise¡¯s argument? I know you were also in favor of attacking, but do you think Ansie¡¯s reasoning is valid?¡±


    I spent several seconds thinking about it. I wanted to give Sallia¡¯s concerns as much weight as I possibly could. Eventually, I nodded.


    ¡°I think Anise¡¯s argument is solid, and closely mirror my thoughts on why we should attack the more expensive pool of reincarnation,¡± I said. ¡°We just can¡¯t miss this opportunity. Otherwise, we¡¯ll have to waste a fair amount of time next market visit finding a similar pool of reincarnation, and Felix will lose a life that he could be using to evolve his ability and grow.¡±


    Sallia sighed, and then nodded. ¡°All right then. Let¡¯s go for the binding essence pool.¡±


    Felix¡¯s eyes lit up, and Anise grinned and cheered.


    ¡°But,¡± said Sallia, raising her voice to make sure we could hear her clearly. ¡°I think we should scout it out for a few days first. Miria¡¯s soul sight could give us a better idea of what we might be facing, and give us the chance to back out if we see something too scary. If we fight something as strong as a Dragon from the world of the black sun, we¡¯ll get flattened almost immediately. We need to manage the threat of the creatures we face.¡±


    I nodded as I tried not to grin.


    With any luck, Felix would get his magic System as early as next life!


    * * *


    We spent the next three days scoping out the pool of reincarnation, trying to get a feel for how much resistance we would face. In our past two lives, we had gotten into pools of reincarnation by sprinting past the defenders and hoping for the best - and I still vividly remembered that the first time we had reincarnated, I had nearly been melted by an acid spell before Sallia got us into the pool. The sprint to a pool of reincarnation has worked for us twice, but both times, they were very dangerous sprints through spell bombardment and enemies that we couldn¡¯t fight, hunting us down. Even if it had worked so far, one mishap could have permanently dropped a life from us and completely screwed over all of our long-term plans.


    This time, the idea was to actually fight our way through, thus clearing out the defenders, harvesting a final batch of Achievement, and hopefully ensuring that in the future we didn¡¯t need to sprint through storms of hostile spells. Fighting our way through squads of cannon fodder backed by spells might be less dangerous than hoping to not get hit, oddly enough.


    Sallia and I ended up being the two biggest components of the scouting force. My soul-sight proved especially handy for getting a grasp on larger threats, numbers, and troop distribution, especially for troops that were hidden behind walls. Sallia, meanwhile, had very good eyesight, and could use that to get a better grasp on weapons and items that might not be covered by my soul sight.


    I got the impression that there were probably around 17 flesh giants and spellcasters patrolling the building, along with about 100 skeletal warriors and archers. All of the spellcasters and flesh giants had souls, but they were much smaller than the soul of the tree root, meaning we could expect much easier fights against them. The skeletal warriors and archers weren¡¯t really threats anymore - Felix and I could just drop them with quick bursts of alteration essence, so they would only slow us down a bit at worst.


    Deeper inside of the compound, there was also a pair of larger souls. They were still nowhere near the size of the tree root, but they were probably still dangerous to us, especially if they fought with the other skeletal mages and flesh giants to back them up.


    Interestingly enough, seeing the souls of the creatures inside was enough for me to activate my tarot deck. I ended up drawing Strength, the Chariot, and Justice. I had no idea what those three cards did, but I hoped the curses laid upon the soul of the creature I was targeting would be helpful. The creatures didn¡¯t seem to notice or resist my attempts to curse them, so for now I assumed it would do something when we needed it.


    The most troublesome obstacle was the fact that the skeletal mages were intelligent, meaning that we couldn¡¯t simply pick off defenders from a distance. If we did that, the mages would certainly notice, group together, and not give us any opportunities to whittle them down more until our bodies deteriorated and we wasted a life. However, after we finished scouting, we still felt that the fight was winnable, if a bit tricky.


    Therefore, we started preparing for a proper fight to reincarnate. A fight where, instead of running away, we properly secured the reincarnation point for ourselves.

 Chapter 156: Fight

    The four of us sat in an alleyway, just two buildings away from the patrol route of a group of the enemy. We sat there, hidden just behind a set of rusty metal crates as we waited for our prey to appear.


    We had decided that if we wanted to get through this fight without any fatalities, we needed to be fast. Sallia had talked a lot about ¡®defeat in detail,¡¯ which was apparently the military theory that you needed to group up on lots of small groups of enemies and then kill them all before they bunch up and form an unbeatable threat. At least, that was my rough understanding of it after Sallia¡¯s explanation.


    So the first part of our plan was to wait until the first group of skeletal mages and flesh giants were far enough away from reinforcements that we had time to wipe them out, and then we were going to quickly ambush them before their allies could support them. Each group was 3-4 Felsh giants and Mages, and 20-30 regular skeletons.


    Less than a minute later, through my soul-sense, I noticed that the second group of nearby souls had rounded a corner, meaning they were over a minute of travel away from our targets. We waited several more seconds, allowing our targets to appear¡­ until finally, they rounded another corner, leaving them right next to our ambush.


    We rushed out, sprinting through the alleyway, and then appeared right behind the group of skeletons. They started turning around, meaning we had likely made a sound that tipped them off, but it was too late.


    I immediately fired an extinguish into the face of the spellcasters, causing it to buckle down in shock and pain. Sallia immediately followed up with a wave of wood, slicing apart the skeletal mage and marking our first kill against a skeleton mage ever.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a lesser skeletal Mage for the first time,


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100, Achievement +0.01


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The two flesh giants roared, and in the distance, I saw eight other souls in the distance start moving towards us. We had a minute and a half before the other spellcasters and giants arrived.


    Anise started peppering one of the flesh giants with magic missiles, blasting away chunks of flesh near its knees, while Felix started killing the lesser skeletons with quick bone snaps. I tossed another extinguish at the second flesh giant, hitting it with a hard enough blast that nearly died on the spot. Sallia immediately followed up by sprinting over to the flesh giant, before taking a flying leap into the air, extending her sword using bone shrapnel from the spellcaster, and then beheading the flesh giant. It was so weakened by my extinguish that its flesh barely offered resistance before it collapsed, dead.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a flesh giant for the first time,


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +85, Achievement +0.01


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The creature keeled over, and Sallia quickly followed up by ramming her weapon into the neck of the second flesh giant. It was already besieged by Anise¡¯s quick attacks, and I immediately followed up Sallia¡¯s attack by teleporting on top of its neck and stabbing it with my umbrella. The creature groaned in pain, and tried to grab me. However, I had already teleported away and gave it another stab to the back of the knee.


    Sallia reformed her bonewave, and then finished beheading the creature.


    The remaining skeletons simply weren¡¯t a threat to us, so we quickly tore through them as we started heading towards the next group. Hopefully, we could intercept them before they met with the other group of patrolling enemies.


    Meanwhile, in the distance, I saw one of the two massive souls stir. They didn¡¯t look like they were active yet, but they were obviously stirring. The final patrolling group of mages and flesh giants didn¡¯t seem to have noticed us yet, but I expected that would come soon.


    The two nearby groups of skeletal mages and flesh giants, along with their accompanying foot soldiers,  merged into one, and I groaned.


    We hadn¡¯t intercepted them in time.


    Four casters and four giants. This was going to be much harder than the first group.


    I tossed another extinguish at one of the spellcasters in the distance, turning up the amount of essence I poured into the spell to kill the creature instead of injuring it. A huge amount of alteration essence dropped away, leaving me at around 60% of my maximum alteration essence, and the spellcaster dropped dead on the spot.


    ¡°Three casters and four giants incoming!¡± I said. Felix nodded, and pulled out some of the metal we had scavenged for him. It almost immediately began warping itself into a large executioner¡¯s axe, before it floated above the entrance to the alleyway we had taken over.


    Seconds later, two flesh giants lumbered around the corner, and charged straight towards us. Their hollow eyes gleamed with hollow rage as they saw the corpses of their fallen brethren.


    I glanced at Felix¡¯s executioner¡¯s axe, and noticed it wasn¡¯t moving. Clearly, he was saving it for the spellcasters.


    Good.


    I glanced anxiously at Sallia as she sprinted towards the flesh giants, and also extended my umbrella into shield form. If Sallia needed help, I was ready to teleport to her side and shield her.


    However, Sallia proved to be able to take care of herself.


    The first two flesh giants tried to punch Sallia, but Sallia now had Grade 9 in Dexterity and Perception. She was much faster than she had been last time we were in the Market. She seemed to dance out of the way of the creature¡¯s attacks, allowing both punches to miss her by mere centimeters, and then slid back into range and viciously chopped at the knee of one of the flesh giants with a wave of bone and wood.


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    The creature groaned in pain as Sallia¡¯s sword dug through almost half of its limb. Before Sallia had time to follow up on her attack, the other two flesh giants and one of the skeletal Mages rounded the corner, this time accompanied by a large horde of skeletal foot soldiers and archers. Felix¡¯s executioner axe dropped.


    I had hoped that the spellcaster would get crushed into splinters by the weighty blade, but unfortunately,  one of the flesh giants saw what was happening, and raised its arm above its head. The blade sheared through its arm, and then got stuck about halfway through the creature¡¯s face.


    Sadly, that wasn¡¯t enough to kill it. It roared in pain, grabbed the now uncontrolled executioner¡¯s blade, and then threw it at Anise as hard as it could.


    Anise didn¡¯t react in time.


    I teleported in front of her with my umbrella extended as a shield, and grunted in pain as the heavy chunk of metal collided with my umbrella. I stumbled backwards several steps.


    As much as these things weren¡¯t very magically gifted, their strength was nothing to scoff at.


    The two other spellcasters rounded the corner, along with the final remnants of the skeletal horde, and immediately joined the first skeleton in preparing spells.


    I immediately threw another extinguish at the skeleton closest to finishing its spell, killing it instantly, and then grimaced.


    Down to 40% of my essence pool. I had been hoping to save it all for the two souls in the center of the building. Instead, I had used over half to keep this battle under control.


    True to my fears, one of the two souls quickly left the building and started heading towards us. The final group of skeletal mages and flesh giants was also starting to move towards us. Only one of the giant souls in the distance was staying behind to guard the pool.


    We had to hurry up.


    The other two skeletal mages finished their spells, and a bolt of fire and a splash of green liquid zipped through the air. One targeted me, and the other targeted Felix.


    I saw Felix unravel the firebolt heading towards him, and I used the wind power my umbrella gave me access to in order to blow away the splash of green liquid. As I did, I felt absorption essence drain away from me, fueling the incredibly inefficient umbrella.


    This thing was a huge essence hog.


    Most of the green liquid splashed against my umbrella, but a few drops splattered onto my skin. I felt acid start to eat through my arms, before my Fortitude pushed through the magic acid and forced the spell to collapse in on itself.


    I snapped the umbrella shut and fired a bolt of lightning at the acid-wielding mage, feeling almost a third of my absorption essence disappear in an instant.


    This umbrella was so inefficient.


    The skeletal mage dodged out of the way, and I resisted the urge to curse.


    I glanced at Sallia¡¯s battle against the four flesh giants, and felt even more frustrated.


    Sallia could clearly handle two flesh giants, but four was too much for her. She was stalling them, but she wasn¡¯t sneaking in hits of her own anymore. She was barely managing to keep herself from getting hurt.


    Anise was firing magic missiles at the flesh giant that Sallia had nearly de-legged with her first blow, but Anise¡¯s spells were taking too long to rip through the weakened muscles of the creature. Magic missile just wasn¡¯t a good enough spell for this fight. Felix was also anxiously glancing at the fight and trying to keep the flesh giants busy with the now horribly dented and banged up executioner¡¯s axe that he had retaken control of. The skeletal horde was nearly caught up with the flesh giants, and while they weren¡¯t a threat on their own, they would become a massive problem for Sallia when she was already struggling to handle the flesh giants.


    Meanwhile, in the distance, the final patrol group and one of the giant souls was creeping closer to us. The only piece of good luck was the fact that the giant soul heading towards us was the one I had cursed.


    But in a minute or two, we would be fighting another powerful creature and a final group of four patrolling mages and flesh giants.


    We needed to deal with these things now.


    I saw the two skeletal mages building up new spells, and decided to take a chance.


    I teleported right next to one of them and stabbed it in the face with my umbrella. I wanted to keep as much alteration essence laying around as I could, but I could spend absorption a little bit more freely.


    The sharpened spike at the tip of my umbrella punched through the skull of the mage as if it were made of wet tissue paper, propelled by my grade 7 strength. And at the same time, the instincts I had honed over two lifetimes of fighting kicked in, and I shifted my position.


    Just in time.


    I felt a flash of pain from my left shoulder as a firebolt ripped into my flesh and bone, nearly completely destroying my left arm.


    I immediately whirled around and plunged the umbrella into the face of the other skeletal Mage, killing it on the spot.


    I didn¡¯t really need my left arm much right now anyway.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a lesser skeletal Mage for the first time,


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +650, Achievement +0.01


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I felt a breath of relief. At the very least, the spellcasters were down.


    I turned around and saw Sallia take a bad slash from a skeleton, moments before it fell apart as Felix ripped it to shreds. Sallia grunted in pain, but quickly readjusted herself to keep dodging the larger flesh giants. Glowing light leaked out of her stomach, but it looked like she could keep fighting for a while. Meanwhile, Anise finally finished blasting off the leg of the injured flesh giant, leaving two majorly injured flesh giants, two completely healthy flesh giants, and around thirty skeletons to deal with.


    I decided that we didn¡¯t have time to waste conserving resources, and tossed another extinguish at the flesh giant which Felix had chopped into with his executioner¡¯s axe. It was already weakened, so I was able to drop it with the extinguish at the cost of losing another 25% of my alteration essence. I was down to 15%, but the flesh giant died.


    Sallia immediately regained her footing in her fight, and no longer looked like she was being pressured. The skeletal archers and warriors were now the biggest concern - they were grouping up around Sallia and taking aim at Anise, and they needed to die before one of them got in a lucky strike and hurt one of my friends again.


    I got to work dropping the skeletal archers who were aiming at Anise, and saw a few magic missiles crash into the heads of the other archers and foot soldiers as Anise turned her attention to mopping up the cannon fodder with me. Anise and I quickly dismantled the archers before they could interfere with the battle any more, while Felix started using the heavily dented executioner¡¯s blade as a shield to help Sallia fend off the flesh giants.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Killed a skeletal foot soldier for the first time, Fifth time


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +20, Achievement +60, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I breathed a sigh of relief, as Anise and I finished wiping out the weaker skeletons, and then turned to check up on the souls that were approaching us.


    I swore as the first massive soul rounded the bend, and I came face to face with some sort of massive bone spider. Strings of tendons and flesh squirmed around its unnatural, spindly legs, and hundreds of pitch-black eyes looked at me from all of its legs and the dozens of holes on its face. It looked like a spider from a child¡¯s nightmare. It stood nearly four meters tall, and its eyes were fixated on me.


    The enemy reinforcements had arrived.

 Chapter 157: Fight (2)

    The massive spider loomed above the street before me, like some sort of bone and flesh abomination, and I glanced back at the ongoing fight between my friends and the flesh giants.


    We had yet to kill off three of the flesh giants, and most of the skeletal warriors and archers had been downed. We were still a minute away from cleaning up the first wave of enemies, but the second wave of enemies had already arrived. We had no more time.


    Could we run away?


    I looked at the massive spider that seemed to zip forward, and my heart clenched.


    We wouldn¡¯t be outrunning this thing anytime soon.


    I growled at the creature. Even with full essence, I probably couldn¡¯t extinguish this thing. Its life force was too high for me to manage a kill without reaching advanced grade or higher for my attunement. The only relief was that its life force was still much weaker than the tree root¡¯s life force. It probably wouldn¡¯t whip out new abilities one after another during the fight.


    I glanced at my three friends again, and confirmed that they were winning the fight against the flesh giants. I gritted my teeth, and sprinted towards the bone and tendon spider.


    I was going to keep this thing busy until my friends could help me kill it. I doubted I could down this thing, but I could at least hold it off.


    I just needed to survive while poking it in the limbs several times.


    The bone spider sprinted towards me like a train made of bones and hate. Its speed was nearly too much for me to track, even with my higher perception - there seemed to be some sort of blur to its motions that made it harder for me to see it.


    At least its limbs didn¡¯t look anywhere near as strong as those of the flesh giant.


    It seemed fast, but weak.


    The blur around its limbs that made it hard to track suddenly became stronger, and I withdrew backwards.


    Before I could process what was happening, I saw the spider¡¯s limb inside of my dress, its massive limbs and face only a meter away from my own.


    If it had been able to cut through my dress, I would have died before I even realized what was happening.


    But my dress could block it.


    I felt a mad grin tug at my lips, even though the creature was hard to see and hard to track with my eyes.


    I could teleport, and my dress could keep me safe. I could do this..


    The spider dragged its limb out of my dress and then leapt towards me, trying to rip my head off with its razor sharp, bony mandibles.


    Sine there was no way my muscles could keep up with the thing¡¯s speed, I teleported a few meters to the left, and then tried to stab one of its bony limbs with my umbrella.


    The spider immediately pulled its legs out of the way, neatly dodging my attack, and then spat a glob of green acid at me.


    I teleported on top of the creature, again. Before I could try to stab it, the creature bucked, sending me sailing into the air as I tried to orient myself.


    While I was still in midair, I suddenly realized the spider was sailing towards me. The damn thing could jump!


    I teleported away, narrowly avoiding getting torn into ribbons, and ended up on the street behind the spider.


    I cursed.


    The biggest problem with fighting this thing was  that my reactions just weren¡¯t fast enough. I couldn¡¯t land a hit. I could barely keep up with its actions, even with my teleportation. And whatever was making its limbs hard to see, it was a massive pain in the neck.


    The bone spider landed on the street, pseudo-concrete and buildings collapsing under the sheer weight of the spider¡¯s body. I grimaced, and teleported closer again.


    If I kept teleporting around, I would run out of absorption essence sooner or later. I was already down to about half of my absorption pool. I needed to at least slow this thing down. If I could just destroy a leg or two, I would have no problem holding it off until the others finished up their fight.


    My physical abilities clearly weren¡¯t enough. So I pointed my umbrella at one of the spider¡¯s limbs, and unleashed a lightning bolt at one of its legs, chewing through half of my remaining absorption essence. At the same time, I prepared to alter the trajectory of the lightning in midair using the umbrella - I didn¡¯t doubt for a second that this thing could dodge a magic lightning bolt.


    For a moment, the spider looked like it was about to slide past my attack, and I saw its limbs start to blur and blend into their surroundings. I prepared to move the lightning bolt, and prayed that I would hit my target - and then, I felt the tarot deck I had equipped start to burn, almost as if I had a heater connected to my item slot, instead of a deck of cards. Instinctively, I knew what had just happened.


    The Chariot card had come into effect.


    Suddenly, the overwhelmingly fast spider slowed down, as if someone had hit the ¡®slow motion¡¯ button on the entire fight. The spider looked like it was wading through molasses now. Its blurry limbs suddenly became easily visible again.


    I felt my tarot deck burn again, and instinctively knew the Strength card had just activated.


    Right before my lightning bolt struck.


    My lightning bolt ripped into the creature¡¯s bones, turning one of the legs into a splintered mess of bones and sinew. My lightning bolt cut all the way through the first leg and ripped into a second leg, although it didn¡¯t completely annihilate the limb.


    I finally had time to observe what the strength card had done. The creature seemed weaker. Its bones were softer than before - Strength seemed to have reduced the spider¡¯s defenses and made its body weaker.


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    I blinked.


    I had originally thought that the Tarot deck had a ridiculously long cooldown¡­ but right now, it was also proving just how potent its curses were. The creature that probably outclassed me by at least three grades in Agility now looked like a drunken snail.


    The Tarot deck might have a five year cooldown between uses, but it was clearly strong enough to be useful despite that drawback.


    I teleported onto the top of the spider again, and this time, it didn¡¯t have the speed or strength it needed to throw me off of it. I quickly took my umbrella, and stabbed into the now soft bones of its injured leg, and managed to shear it off after a few stabs. I felt the urge to cackle.


    I hadn¡¯t given my tarot deck anywhere near enough credit.


    A few moments later, I felt another feeling of heat radiate out from the tarot deck that was attached to my soul.


    The Chariot would be ending soon.


    I quickly took the opportunity to stab one of its legs one last time, chipping the softened bones a bit, and then teleported away.


    The spider reeled in surprise as it found two of its legs had been destroyed nearly instantly, at least from its perspective.


    It shrieked in rage, and then started to slide to the left. I had taken off the two front legs on its left side, and the creature seemed to be struggling to keep its balance now.


    Just as I was feeling satisfied with myself, a fireball ripped through the air and disappeared into my dress, drawing my attention to the left.


    The last two spellcasters and flesh giants in the area had reinforced the enemy while I was distracted. There were only a few skeletal minions with them - their squad seemed to be smaller than the last three, thankfully.


    I glanced back at my friends. They had felled two of the flesh giants, and were a couple seconds away from killing the last one. Their fight had basically ended.


    I gritted my teeth, and turned back towards the now six-legged bone spider.


    We could do this.


    ¡°Enemy reinforcements here! Help me!¡± I yelled as I started dropping the few skeletal archers and warriors.


    I felt that we could handle this, but there was no freaking way I could handle the spider, two spellcasters, and two flesh giants at the same time. My essence reserves wouldn¡¯t last that long, and my reflexes weren¡¯t good enough to keep me alive against the spider and two spellcasters, either.


    From the corner of my eye, I saw the last flesh giant from the last wave drop dead as Sallia decapitated it with a bone wave. The moment it collapsed, Sallia started charging to my side.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on with the spider? It slowed down a lot partway through your fight,¡± asked Sallia, and I let out a sigh of relief.


    Sallia had noticed the Spider¡¯s crippling slowness. Even though my three friends had been caught up in their own fight, Sallia had been watching to make sure she could step in if I got into a situation I couldn¡¯t handle.


    ¡°It¡¯s fast, but weak for its size. The Tarot deck¡¯s curses hit it really hard. Chariot is spent, strength makes it weaker and squishier. Justice hasn''t been activated yet,¡± I said.


    ¡°Got it. Leave the spider to me. You get the casters, but stay safe. You spent a lot of essence already!¡± said Sallia.


    A moment later, Sallia sprinted towards the spider. The creature had finally adjusted to its missing legs, and let out another ear-breaking screech. Sallia immediately sent a wood and bone wave at its legs, which the creature nimbly dodged, and then Sallia was in its face a second later. The massive legs and overwhelming speed that I could barely deal with were far more manageable for her, and while the fight was nearly fast enough that I couldn¡¯t track it, I could certainly see Sallia blocking the spider¡¯s bladelike limbs with her sword as the two tangled in a blur of limbs, blades, and shards of wood and bone.


    Sallia looked like she was doing fine. I grinned, and teleported towards the spellcasters. The flesh giants immediately whirled around, breaking off their charge to try to protect the spellcasters - which gave Anise and Felix enough time to start spraying the spellcasters with magic missiles and metal fragments. One of the spellcasters got clipped in the head by a magic missile and nearly collapsed, while I stabbed the other with my umbrella.


    I felt something from the side.


    I whirled around, opening my umbrella to meet the spell of the other spellcaster¡­


    At least, I tried to open my umbrella.


    Unfortunately, my left arm was still paste.


    A fireball crashed into my torso. Most of it was caught by my dress, but the rim of it spilled over my dress and crashed into my neck, causing me to gasp in pain as scorching heat and force ripped into my neck and collarbone. I felt burning heat in my throat¡­ before my lungs and throat stopped working entirely.


    I tried to suck in a deep breath, failed to, and started panicking, dropping my umbrella as I clawed at my burnt throat with my one good arm.


    I saw Sallia¡¯s eyes widen in the distance, and she immediately threw her sword like a javelin, tearing into the one remaining spellcaster¡¯s head and killing it. Sallia took a bad hit from the spider, and her wandering swordsman¡¯s robe fell apart like soggy paper, allowing the spider to drive its limb through her stomach and impale her, planting her into the ground.


    I felt a wave of panic surge through me, driving away my thoughts of my own ruined neck as I prepared to throw everything at the spider.


    I felt my tarot deck heat up again, and suddenly, a massive injury appeared in the middle of the spider¡¯s stomach, as well. It didn¡¯t heal Sallia or protect her, but it reflected the exact same damage the spider had done to her.


    It was the Justice card. Apparently, it created some sort of reflected damage effect. The spider reeled in pain, its spearlike limb loosing as it thrashed and writhed in pain.


    For just a moment, the spider was distracted, giving Sallia time to dematerialize her sword, rematerialize it in her hand, and chop off the leg pinning her to the ground. The spider shrieked again, before it backed up, stumbled, and spewed a splash of green liquid at Sallia - which she reflected with her sword¡¯s ability, sending the splash of acid right back at the spider. It landed on the creature¡¯s face. Anise and Felix slammed a few magic missiles and metal shards into the creature¡¯s head, finally dropping it as Sallia coughed and retched blood onto the street and I tried to breathe through my ruined through.


    I couldn¡¯t breathe, I couldn¡¯t breathe, I couldn¡¯t-


    ¡°Miria! It¡¯s the Market! You¡¯re fine!¡± yelled Felix.


    I paused, looked at the dead skeletal mages near me, and tried to curse. The only sound that came out of my ruined throat was a warbling coughing sound, but I was ashamed to realize Felix was right.


    I was panicking over nothing. Breathing didn¡¯t matter here.


    I eyed the two flesh giants, who seemed confused by the sudden turn of events. Both spellcasters that they were supposed to protect were dead, and the giant spider was also dead. Before they could react, I teleported away from the two flesh giants, returned my umbrella to my hand, and sent a lightning bolt into the face of one of the two remaining flesh giants, chewing through almost every last drop of absorption essence.


    Sallia lifted herself up, pointed her sword at the flesh giant I had hit, and cut it down with a wave of wood and bone, before Felix finished off the last flesh giant using the horribly beaten up executioner¡¯s axe he had started out the battle with.


    I looked at my friends, and then myself, trying to assess what had happened.


    Sallia¡¯s injury was bad, and might have been worrying - if we weren¡¯t in the Market. I was pretty sure she had lost a few parts of her intestine, but in the Market, most of our organs didn¡¯t actually seem that necessary apart from our brain. My injuries were also bad, but since I didn¡¯t need to breathe they weren¡¯t that big of a deal. I would get a new throat when we reincarnated anyway.


    Anise and Felix were uninjured. The only remaining enemy was the final bone spider, which was still guarding the pool of reincarnation in the distance.


    I felt a grin start to form on my burnt lips.


    It was too late for it to reinforce its friends, and there were no other threats nearby. We could just wait for my alteration essence to recover and then I could extinguish the final spider with no threat to us.


    We still had to finish off the final bone spider, but it shouldn¡¯t be a threat to us. We had won.

 Chapter 158: Pool

    With the two flesh giants killed, I finally took a moment to look over the final System notifications I had gotten during the course of the fight. Some of the more complex notifications, such as skills, I simply hadn¡¯t had time to process in the heat of the moment.


    First up was the kill notification for the bone spider.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a warden of bone


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +230, Achievement +0.04


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    In total, this put me at 1242, Achievement - or, if I factored in the last bits of debt to Felix and the extra I wanted to give him, I was left with -358 Achievement. Honestly, I was surprised that I had come so close to paying off a debt of nearly 4,000 Achievement in only two months. The Market may be filled with dangers, but it was also an incredibly efficient place to farm Achievement once we knew what we were doing. After extinguishing the final giant spider, I would probably be debt free.


    I had also, apparently, gotten some Skills I could take from some of my kills. Most notably, I had extinguished a skeletal mage during the fight, which had gotten me a kill against the creature and a new Skill. Amusingly enough, I hadn¡¯t actually gotten a kill on one of the skeletal foot soldiers, the flesh giant, or the spider using water, meaning I hadn¡¯t gotten any Skills from them. Even though I had wiped out massive numbers of skeletal foot soldiers. Either way, I doubted it mattered much. We were about to reincarnate, after all. Not much reason to worry about our in-Market abilities until next time.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured a skeletal mage for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Magically capable:


    You gain the ability to use minor spells with manifestation essence (this skill creates the laws of reality needed to fuel acid spray and torchblast. It does NOT provide biological compatibility for these spells, or a reserve of manifestation essence).


    Manifestation Stat increased by +7.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked at the skill, before I shrugged and added it to {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. It was totally irrelevant - I didn¡¯t have the other things I needed to make use of the skill, and we were going to reincarnate very soon, so the Skill was utterly meaningless. But just in case something went wrong, there was no harm in having it equipped, even if it would be lost the moment we entered the pool of reincarnation again.


    I turned to look at my friends again. Sallia¡¯s stomach wound was horrific, and if we were in regular bodies, it probably would have been lethal.


    I went ahead and splashed her injury with a bit of water from my dress, before I gave her a little blast of renewal, spending all of the alteration essence I had left, to help close up the wound a bit. It wasn¡¯t much, since I didn¡¯t have much essence to spend right now, but I wanted to make sure that Sallia didn¡¯t die before we reincarnated. It would make things take an extra hour or two, but we had time for that.


    Sallia gave me a grateful nod, and I tried to smile at her, before wincing in pain.


    My severely burned face did not appreciate being stretched that way.


    I tried not to wince in pain, and then turned my attention back to the final soul squatting in the distance. Despite the fact that we had murdered most of its friends, it hadn¡¯t moved - apparently, it was still trying to prevent anyone from sneaking into the pool of reincarnation while the rest of the defenders were occupied. I had to say, the giant bone spiders were much more diligent about patrolling their area than the bone mages and flesh giants had been. This was surprisingly helpful for us, since I was pretty sure one more bone spider at the wrong time would have caused us to die during the fight.


    Since it wasn¡¯t rushing over to attack us, the plan I had been thinking of earlier would probably work fine. We could just sit around and wait for my alteration essence to recover, before killing the bone spider in an ambush. I had needed to be careful about conserving my essence during the previous fight, since we had expected a large swarm of enemies to attack us. However, if there was just one enemy, I was more than happy to just blast it to near death using a long range extinguish, and then have everyone else bombard it with attacks afterwards. The creature would probably be half-dead from my extinguish and easy prey for everyone else. I just needed to regenerate a bit. There was no reason to give the creature a chance to fight back.


    I turned towards Felix, and tried to talk - only to once again run into serious pain as my attempts at talking aggravated my ruined throat.


    Not being able to talk was so limiting!


    ¡°Are you¡­ well, not all right¡­¡± said Anise, turning towards me and looking at my missing arm, burn scars, and minor acid wounds. ¡°But are you in imminent danger of dying? Do you need anything?¡±


    I gave her a thumbs up with my one remaining arm, before I pointed at my throat and tried to make a 1-armed X.


    ¡°Just talking?¡± asked Anise. ¡°Are you trying to say that everything besides talking is fine?¡± I gave her another thumbs up. Anise paused for a moment, and then turned towards Sallia. ¡°Sallia, how are your injuries?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll live,¡± said Sallia, wincing. ¡°Hurts like crazy, but nothing serious, I think. Miria, are you sure you¡¯re fine?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Got it. 1 sec - Felix, can you make anything like a pen out of your steel manipulation? I know you have that endless origami tool kit now, so if you could just lend Miria a few pages to write on¡­¡±


    I brightened up at the thought, and Felix quickly gave me something that resembled a knife more than a pen.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have any ink, so feel free to just stab out words and letters into the paper,¡± he said, giving me an apologetic grin. ¡°It¡¯ll have to do.¡±


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    It¡¯s more than enough, I wrote. I think I can pay off the rest of my debt to you really soon! Do you think we can sit around and wait for a while?


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Sallia. ¡°We still have a couple days before we start running into deterioration, I think? Why do you ask?¡±


    I figure we should just extinguish the final spider from afar, I said. No reason to give the spider more chances to hurt us. Just killing it before it has a chance to react is best. I hit it with an extinguish and drop it to half-dead, and then you follow up with one of those shrapnel waves you like? And then Felix and Anise toss in some attacks as well?


    ¡°Oh, good. We¡¯re on the same page,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I¡¯m going to be honest, if we fight another one of these things head on, I¡¯m not confident I would be able to manage it. If it had all of its legs and no curses attached to it, it just moves too fast for me to easily manage. I can keep up, but it¡¯s hard, and its eight limbs are really frustrating to deal with.¡±


    Felix and Anise also nodded. ¡°So we just sit around and wait for Miria to regenerate some essence?¡± asked Anise.


    Felix nodded.


    Also, if I get kill credit for the spider, I can pay off the rest of the loan you gave me, Felix! I wrote. That way you can spend it on a few final upgrades for you.


    Felix thought about it, before slowly nodding.


    ¡°You owe me¡­ what, 1,200 Achievement?¡± he said.


    Yeah. I¡¯m going to give you a little extra as thanks for loaning me some in the first place, too.


    ¡°Miria, you don¡¯t have to.¡±


    I want to, I wrote. Right now, Sallia and I have a big advantage. I want you two to catch up. For Anise - Right, Anise, did you get a keyword ability from the fight? We haven¡¯t verified whether we can get Keyword abilities in the Market, so I¡¯m very curious.


    ¡°I did!¡± said Anise. ¡°Not a good one though. It amplifies the strength of force-based magic projectiles I create by a moderate amount at basic grade. It¡¯s cheap, and it only takes up one keyword slot for ¡®force,¡¯ but¡­ I don¡¯t know if I want to specialize in force-based magic projectiles in the future. I¡¯d prefer a different keyword. Also, the fact that it only ¡®moderately¡¯ improves them makes me think it won¡¯t really be that useful next world, either. And it doesn¡¯t actually give me a magic system of my own to use - it just enhances the items I have equipped right now.¡± said Anise. ¡°But it does prove that we can get keyword abilities in the Market, even if this one isn¡¯t that impressive.¡±


    I paused, and thought about Anise¡¯s words.


    It was good to keep in mind that we could, with absolute certainty, get keyword abilities from the Market. It may not be relevant to me right now, since I was already at the cap of my glut penalty, but I could definitely see that being relevant in the future.


    I also looked at Anise. Was it¡­ really a good idea to pass up an opportunity for a keyword ability right now? We only had three lifetimes left, at most, before we needed to fight for more lives. If Anise took this ability, she would have a lot more time to work with.


    Then, I shook my head.


    If the ability was too useless, even if it was evolved several times, it would probably just be an Achievement sink without useful results.


    With that out of the way, we settled down to rest for several hours. Since I was the most injured injured, and Sallia was also resting and keeping her stomach injury from getting worse, Felix kept watch for any new threats wandering into the area. Interestingly enough, there were a few new Skeletons that started heading towards the reincarnation pool now that we had wiped away the defenders. There seemed to be some sort of instinct drawing them towards the area, now that it was left undefended. I had no idea how the skeletons knew the area needed to be defended, but it was certainly food for thought.


    Luckily, they were all just normal foot soldiers, so Felix wiped them out pretty easily. Though I did suspect that if we waited around for long enough, more mages and flesh giants would show up.


    Finally, I had recovered enough essence for my extinguish.


    We headed closer to the pool of reincarnation, alert for a problem or trap the whole way, but¡­ there was nothing. After the massive fight to kill off the other skeletal creatures, it seemed almost anticlimactic to remove the final skeletal spider this way. However, up until the point where I launched an extinguish, breaking down almost half of its life force, and everyone else immediately followed up with their own ranged attacks, the creature didn¡¯t even notice our presence. Under the sudden barrage of magical attacks, the creature simply died instantly.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a warden of bone


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,700, Achievement +0.01


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With that, my debt to Felix was now fully paid off. We quickly borrowed an (unfortunately empty) cash register near the entrance, and I quickly paid Felix for the Acheivement I had borrowed, as well as the extra bit that I wanted to give him.


    I was left with 1,342 Achievement, and no more debt!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured a Warden of Bone for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Limbs like Blades:


    At the cost of a small amount of essence, your limbs will become hard to visually track and will become as sharp and sturdy as swords.


    +20 to Agility


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I was pretty impressed with the ability, although it was largely irrelevant right now. I still equipped it for a bit, and was gratified to feel my speed and how well I could control my body suddenly improve by an entire grade.


    Since it seemed like a shame not to give Felix the opportunity to spend his Achievement, we made our way to one of the nearest shops we had already cleared out, before Felix used the Achievement he himself had earned from the fight, as well as the rest of my debt, to push his other two mental stats up to +40. Sallia finished moving her manifestation essence from +30 to +40 as well, and then pushed her Willpower up to +30.


    Anise bumped her Willpower up to +30 after Sallia described the struggle of being born with below grade 5 Willpower.


    I myself spent 800 of my Achievement to boost my Perception to +30 instead of +20. Since the role I wanted in the party was highly reliant on my perception stat allowing me to react quickly and use my abilities on time, I figured that it was a good idea to invest further in the stat, even though I already had several boosts to it. The fight against the spider had opened my eyes to just how deadly extreme speed could be if I didn¡¯t have a good way to handle it.


    I dropped back to 542 Achievement as a result.


    After that, we were done. During the time we spent hitting up a shop one final time, we had started to feel little bits of decay latch on to the edges of our temporary bodies and start eating them away. It was the first time we had ever experienced decay, and I suspected that the amount of damage and healing we had sustained had caused some sort of issue in our temporary containers.


    Either way, it didn¡¯t matter. We were ready to leave.


    The four of us headed back to the pool of reincarnation, encountering no issues along the way, and then hopped into the reincarnation pool that we had secured for ourselves, for once not being chased by an angry army.


    It was time to start a new journey.

 Chapter 159: Another Day, Another Life

    Just like the first two times we had jumped into a pool of reincarnation, I quickly found myself ejected into the ocean of souls, along with my friends.


    Unlike the first two times, when we had used more standard pools, this time I felt as if there was a massive hand holding me and controlling my destination as I drifted through the ocean of souls. It wasn¡¯t anything overly complex - however, anytime the four of us started to get ¡®sucked in¡¯ by a compatible body, the massive invisible hand would stop us for a moment, do something with essence that I couldn¡¯t make out, and then pull us along, preventing us from reincarnating in that spot.


    I quickly guessed that this invisible hand holding on to us was how the pool of reincarnation controlled where we reincarnated. It had a certain set of requirements for wherever we ended up, and it would scan our destination anytime we were about to reincarnate. If the body we were about to reincarnate into didn¡¯t fit the requirements set up by the pool of reincarnation we were using, the reincarnation process would be canceled and we would move on.


    At least, that was my guess about how the whole process worked.


    On the third world we were about to reincarnate in, the hand seemed satisfied, so we stopped bouncing from one world to another in the ocean of souls. A few moments later, I felt myself sink into a new body, and then everything went black.


    A few moments later, I heard a woman screaming, and something was pushing me.


    I tried to get an image of my mother and father, but it was hard to focus on anything. I always forgot how hard it was to focus on my surroundings before my brain developed a bit.


    Without even a proper look at my parents, I fell unconscious again.


    The next few years were¡­ blurry. Even more blurry than usual. I had a hard time tracking what was happening, although the few times I was awake, I kept seeing slightly moldy wood that was the color of urine.


    I also saw a woman sometimes, often wearing very¡­ revealing clothing. And I never saw anyone who seemed likely to be my father¡­.


    Around the time I turned 4, my brain finally adapted enough that I was able to fully remain conscious and process my surroundings again.


    The first thing I did was check my Status Screen. Getting an idea what my stats were like was the first step to adapting to this life and this dimension. My first status screen, which showed my brain and my body, was mostly standard, but had a small line that concerned me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Current Vessel: Infant¡¯s Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ¡®alive.¡¯ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen.


    Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.


    Second note - currently suffering from minor malnourishment. If you do not find a way to correct your nutrient deficiency, you may suffer from stat penalties!


    Immature Organic Brain: A vastly underdeveloped humanoid brain that has yet to finish maturing. Several parts of your brain are also wired to make Binding and Absorption type spellcasting possible.


    Until this brain finishes developing, it will be difficult to think clearly, leading to periods of time where you are ruled by survival instincts. Attempting to perform advanced thinking with an underdeveloped brain may result in severe headaches or loss of consciousness. This will not result in long term harm, but will be extremely unpleasant. To reduce this problem, it is recommended you purchase more Intelligence Stats to speed up the development of future brains.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The line about malnourishment made me nervous. It was the first time I had ever seen it. In my first life, the village had more food than it could realistically use, and in the second life, the town had produced enough mushrooms, fish, and surface products that food wasn¡¯t too hard to come by. Was I born into the middle of a famine or something? Either way, I clearly needed to do something about my food situation.


    After that, I turned my attention to the rest of my stats.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (40+124)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+88)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+82)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (40+90)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+99)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+77)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+78)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (30+124)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+114)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (40+91)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hmm¡­ my stats weren¡¯t great, but they weren¡¯t terrible. My Physical abilities had clearly benefited from my investment in them - which was thankful, because if I didn¡¯t have a +40 in Fortitude, I would have been struggling with health problems this time. If I was malnourished and had, say, a Grade 3 Fortitude, I wasn¡¯t sure if I would have lived long enough to redevelop my consciousness. Fortitude seemed to at least somewhat help my body stave off the effects of not having enough food, even if it didn¡¯t do anything to totally stave off the effects of malnutrition.


    My Strength was Grade 8, which was probably the highest natural stat I had ever had so far. I gripped my toddler hands, and could feel strength ripple through my muscles that did not belong to a 4-year old child.


    I grinned, but my grin faded away as I looked at my other stats.


    My mental stats were¡­ fine. A bit lower than I would have liked, but at least I had decent Willpower and Perception, even if I really would have appreciated another grade in Intelligence. Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl would hopefully help me boost my stats a bit.


    Alteration 6 and Absorption 6 were kind of disappointing, though. I had really hoped that they would at least be grade 7, and I had kind of been hoping to get super lucky and get grade 8 in both. That would have made me an absolute terror in the right world, and would have at the very least given me a huge leg up.


    I sighed. Oh well. Not much I could do about it now.


    The next prompt, however, was quite interesting.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations on Successfully Transmigrating!


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Analyzing this world¡­ Analysis complete!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essences Present in this dimension: Bonded Essence: Binding-Absorption (Binding dominant)


    Estimated tier: 2 (according to the Market¡¯s standardized power evaluation scale)


    Special notes: There are technically two essences present in this dimension, but the laws of reality governing magic in this world have caused both essences to be stuck together anytime they naturally appear.


    The amount of binding essence in this dimension is overwhelmingly high compared to the amount of absorption essence. Expect Binding Essence to be largely dominant in this world.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Huh. I had no idea what a ¡®bonded essence¡¯ meant for me in practical terms, but I would figure it out later.


    On the bright side, the pool of reincarnation had properly found us a dimension where binding essence existed. And the dimension was only Tier 2, meaning that we shouldn¡¯t run into anything outrageous like another dragon or the living universe that had killed us last life. I didn¡¯t see any special notes about this dimension being linked to another one, so hopefully, there wouldn¡¯t be too many crazy wildcards in this world. A Tier 2 world where we could work on growing and improving sounded like exactly what we needed right now. With any luck, maybe we could really become amazing people this time.


    After that, I tried to look around, to see if I could spot either of my parents and get a better grasp on my family¡¯s situation.


    Just as I had already noticed, we seemed to live in a very tiny home. I could see that I was placed in some kind of crib, and it wasn¡¯t very sturdy. There were little chunks of wood missing from the sides of the crib, and the pieces of wood surrounding me looked a bit rotten.


    I wondered if it was normal to put a four year old in a baby crib in this world.


    I looked at the ceiling, and I spotted little flecks of mold growing in the corners of the room. Just as I remembered. And the walls were an unappealing piss-yellow color, with flaking paint and no decorations to them.


    I winced.


    We clearly weren¡¯t very wealthy in this life. And my parents didn¡¯t seem to care much about sanitation either.


    I also couldn¡¯t see my mother or father around. Odd.


    I was also rather hungry. My stomach was rumbling and making its presence known.


    I was starting to get slightly uneasy feelings about my surroundings in this life.


    I glanced at my items list again, trying to see if I had brought along any food from the Market, and after a few moments realized that I had nearly forgotten something.


    My friendship bracelet would let me contact my friends.


    This was definitely something I wanted to take advantage of. I wondered if everyone else had already regained control of their body or not. Since Intelligence stats apparently affected how quickly our brain was able to adapt to our souls, I might even be slower than everyone else. I took one last look at the moldy, decaying house around me, and after confirming my parents weren¡¯t near me, I materialized my friendship bracelet and connected with my friends.


    It only took a few moments before I felt my friendship bracelet latch on to three other connections.


    Hello I thought, trying to focus on projecting my thoughts into my bracelet. I felt my thoughts get sent¡­ somewhere else.


    Oh, Miria! You¡¯re awake! thought Anise, a few moments later. Glad that you finally woke up


    I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I could talk with my friends and get a better handle on my situation, and theirs!


    I also realized that there had been no need at all to use pen and paper to communicate in the Market, after my throat had been ruined. We probably should have experimented with the friendship bracelets more after getting them. I suddenly felt a bit silly, but tried not to let that distract me.


    Anise! What¡¯s going on? How are all of you? I sent into the telepathic call.


    For me, not much, she sent. But Felix is in a rough spot, and Sallia apparently lives in a pretty bad neighborhood. My family is pretty average. You¡¯re the last one to wake up.


    I am? I asked. How long has everyone else been awake?


    Sallia woke up first, and Felix and I woke up around the same time, although Felix was a little bit faster, said Anise. But the difference was only a few months. How does your situation look? Both as far as stats go, and as far as family situation goes?¡±


    I checked my Status Screen again. ¡°Grade 5 Intelligence. Not too bad, but I do wish it was a bit higher,¡± I said. Everyone else has better intelligence?


    Yeah, Felix and I have grade 6, and Sallia is at grade 7, said Anise. We were just talking about-


    Ah! Miria! Came a new stream of thoughts. This one felt distinctly¡­ Sallia -esque. Glad that you¡¯re with us!


    Yeah, I hear I¡¯m the last one to wake up? I said. How are things looking on your end?


    Well, my family is living in the slums, and they¡¯re¡­ okay, Sallia said, and even though our conversation was entirely telepathic, I could feel a hint of hesitation in her mental voice. They¡¯re quite busy. My father is a factory worker near the bottom of the totem pole, and he seems to have lost an arm a few years before I was born. It¡¯s very lucky that I have the noodle bowl,¡± said Sallia. ¡°And I can sometimes hear gunshots outside of the window.¡±


    Gunshots? I said. This world has gunpowder?


    Ah, Miria! came Felix¡¯s voice, distracting me from the revelation that this world had guns. All four of us were now in the group call! Good to hear from you again. I¡­ hate to ask so suddenly, but whenever you¡¯re ready, and if you¡¯re able to help I would appreciate some assistance.


    What¡¯s wrong? I said, all thoughts of gunpowder tossed out of my mind. If one of my friends needed help, that was definitely priority number one. Everything else came afterwards.


    Well¡­ I¡¯ve discovered something quite surprising, said Felix. It seems that any brain that is suitably alive and able to contain our souls is something we can reincarnate into. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t think much of that fact, but¡­ I seem to have reincarnated into one of this world¡¯s first attempts at creating an artificial baby ever. I am a test subject, he said. And it is rather¡­ problematic. I¡¯m not quite sure where I am, but I¡¯m definitely underground somewhere. I would appreciate a rescue when you guys can manage it. I don¡¯t think I can escape on my own.¡± He paused. And if possible, swiping all of the stuff the researchers used to create me would be great. I¡¯m certain that my creation process involved a lot of interesting usage of binding essence, and I am fascinated by it. Even though it¡¯s putting me in a rather bad position right now.


    I frowned, and then nodded.


    Rescuing Felix from an unknown underground facility would be¡­ difficult. But there was no way I would just let a bunch of researchers experiment on Felix, either.


    Still, gunpowder and artificial babies¡­ what kind of world were we living in?


    What¡¯s the tech level for this world like? What kind of resistance should we expect during a rescue attempt? I asked. The first world that we had reincarnated into had been barely out of the stone age, and the second world had definitely been stuck in the iron age, with a couple bits of future tech mixed in from the second Orthan empire. But it didn¡¯t sound like any modern technology in this world was part of some long-distant empire - it sounded like it was firmly in use at this very moment.


    This world seems to be somewhere between your origin world¡¯s technology level and my origin world¡¯s technology level, said Felix. A few decades ago, somebody invented something they call ¡®the steam engine,¡¯ according to what Anise has been able to overhear. Her father works in a factory run by machines. Lots of factories are springing up in the world, and gunpowder has outclassed all cold weapons. But I¡¯m not sure how that fits into the overall technology of the world - the fact that the inhabitants of the world were able to create an artificial baby makes me think that some aspects of magitech may be way more advanced than expected.


    Also, swords are useless in this world, said Sallia, after a few moments of hesitation. I could detect a vehement bitterness in Sallia¡¯s words as she sent her thoughts into the conversation. Everyone uses guns now.


    I blinked. How would we handle gunpowder? I had been mostly thinking in terms of swords and melee weapons so far, but gunpowder introduced an element of danger I hadn¡¯t considered in the past. I was pretty sure it was possible to reach a point where we were bulletproof if we got the right abilities or a high enough Fortitude stat - but I was also sure we weren¡¯t at that point yet. Nowhere close. Even though this was just a Tier 2 world, the inhabitants of this world could hurt us really badly if they shot us with a gun.


    But we also needed to rescue Felix as soon as possible. I wasn¡¯t leaving my friend in a dangerous situation. The moment we could rescue him successfully, we were going to get him somewhere safe.


    Before I had time to think more about the implications of all of this, I heard the front door to the house open, and I heard a woman¡¯s voice. Even though I had never been fully aware before now, I instinctively realized that my mother was talking.


    Sorry, lemme focus on my end again, I said, exiting the conversation with my friends for the moment.


    It was time to figure out what my family situation was like in this world.

 Thumb Update

    Quick update


    So, updating ya¡¯ll about the thumb/doctor situation.


    Doctor appointment is scheduled for Thursday (Thursday in my time zone, anyway). I won¡¯t be doing any writing on that day.


    Markets and Multiverses readers, expect a chapter on Wednesday (or whatever day of the week I usually upload the first MaM chapter for your timezone). Then no chapter on Thursday, and whether there will be a chapter on Friday is currently unknown.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Budding Scientist readers, since I will probably miss Thursday¡¯s writing, expect that this week¡¯s chapter either won¡¯t happen, and then next week¡¯s budding Scientist chapter will be longer (assuming by next week I can write, we¡¯ll see what doctor says) or expect that we¡¯ll have a shorter and slightly less edited chapter this week (though, admittedly, that matters less for public readers and will be more immediate for Patreon readers).


    I¡¯ll update you again when I know more.

 Chapter 160: Family

    A few moments after I ended the call with my friends, a woman walked through the front door of the house. She had dull copper-colored hair, a vacant look in her eyes, and a vacuous smile on her lips. She didn¡¯t wear very much clothing - her clothes seemed more designed to show off her body than to cover anything up. Her expression looked¡­strange.


    She gave me an odd smile, before giggling randomly, and then began making her way towards a part of the house that was occupied by¡­ nothing.


    Perhaps she was drunk?


    As I was thinking that, she flopped over onto the ground and began randomly twitching her arms and legs. Her strange smile and vacant look never quite left her face, even as she spasmed and giggled to herself.


    I felt as if a cold hand was gripping my heart and squeezing it, and it felt hard to breathe. I felt worried.


    Part of my body was also giving me the same instinctual response I usually had towards my new mother, but the emotional response I had towards my mother in this life was very¡­ muted. I normally felt a surge of love and affection for my mother in a given life. Even if my body was largely on autopilot until my brain developed enough to properly house my soul, some instinctive responses towards my parents were usually still present. Why was my response towards my mother so muted?


    I was also pretty sure that my mother was blissed out on some kind of drug. My mothers reactions were simply far too odd for me to think that she was simply drunk. The vacant expression and hollow eyes didn¡¯t really scream ¡®drunk¡¯ to me. Of course, it was also possible that this world¡¯s alcohol was simply different.


    But either way, I now strongly suspected several things.


    First, I strongly suspected that my mother worked as a¡­ certain kind of woman. One that probably worked in this world¡¯s equivalent of the red light district. I could be wrong - I didn¡¯t have all of the information available to me yet. But it seemed plausible right now.


    Second, we were seriously struggling with food. My mother¡¯s figure wasn¡¯t much better than mine: she had slightly bony arms and legs that detracted from her looks and made her look¡­ rather frail, in a strange way. I wasn¡¯t the only one suffering from malnutrition - my mother wasn¡¯t really in a much better state. I didn¡¯t know whether my mother¡¯s possible drug addiction was the reason we were struggling with food, or whether there was a famine going on, or what - but either way, food was going to be much more important in the early parts of this life than it had ever been before. In the first two worlds, food had been plentiful enough that it wasn¡¯t really a concern. This was no longer the case, at least until I got a bit more established.


    Third, my mother was probably struggling with some sort of drug addiction. This actually explained a lot about the strange state I had been in when I awakened. I had been very hungry, my status screen had stated that I was malnourished, and our house was closer to a mold cultivation field than a proper living environment. Also, the fact that I had been set in the middle of a baby crib despite being about four years old had struck me as very odd. I had originally wondered if I was born in the middle of a famine, and perhaps my family was too busy to clean up. And the baby crib could have been explained by my current species simply having some odd genetic characteristics.


    However, after seeing my mother, I suspected that it was just a case of negligence. My mother didn¡¯t seem capable of taking care of herself, much less a baby that needed time and attention. She might have simply left me in my baby crib while in a blissed-out daze.


    I wondered where my father was. Perhaps he had died after I was born, leaving my mother and I in this state? Or perhaps he had simply left? Since my mother was in the midst of a daze, I took a closer look at our moldy, three room shack, but I didn¡¯t see any evidence of a third person living here. There was my baby crib, some other revealing clothing, and a small bed that couldn¡¯t fit two people in one room. The other two rooms seemed to be a dusty kitchen and a ratty living room.


    In other words, my father, whoever he was, wasn¡¯t particularly relevant right now.


    My current situation seemed dire. I needed food, and my mother seemed unlikely to be a reliable source of anything in her current state. I didn¡¯t feel any judgment towards my mother for working in the red light district. Sometimes, things happened, and one was forced into hard situations and needed to make decisions to survive. But a drug addiction was much more problematic, at least in my eyes.


    Could I heal her drug addiction? I had never tried healing a drug addiction before. I was able to regrow limbs given enough time and essence, but drug addictions were a lot more complicated. Was my renewal spell able to cope with such a complex type of damage to the body and mind?


    It was hard to guess.


    I also needed to make a decision. What was I going to do about my mother? It was clear that she was probably more of a hindrance than a help in this life, but she had still raised me for four years, and she hadn¡¯t turned violent towards me at any time. I also didn¡¯t have any sort of instinctive fear of her ingrained into my body, so she probably hadn¡¯t been actively hurting me before I regained my consciousness. However, she was actively neglecting me, and I wasn¡¯t really sure how to handle that. I was used to loving my family and having them love me, so having a more dysfunctional family wasn¡¯t something I had needed to think about or manage before.


    The question was whether I should try to help her, or just leave and see if I could find a better way to survive. I hesitated for a few moments, thoughts spinning around in my head¡­ before my thoughts turned towards my friendship bracelet.


    Maybe my friends had a good idea for how to handle the situation.


    <My mother is a drug addict, I think,> I sent to my friends.


    <Drug addiction? What are her symptoms?> Asked Sallia. <My family lives in a bad part of town, and my mother has warned me to stay away from people with certain symptoms. I might be able to guess which drug she¡¯s addicted to if you describe her to me.>


    <She¡¯s giggling to herself and twitching randomly in the corner. She has a vacant expression. She¡¯s smiling weirdly. I suspect that whatever she¡¯s doing, it¡¯s hallucinogenic. I also suspect that she works in this world¡¯s equivalent of the red light district, if that helps narrow down the details any.> I sent.


    <Hmm¡­ it could be a few things. That¡¯s not specific enough for me to narrow it down. Does she have blue discoloration near her eyes?> Sent Sallia.


    I slowly maneuvered my weak and malnourished body back to my mother¡¯s side, and then examined her eyes. She didn¡¯t seem to really notice my actions, and simply continued convulsing and giggling in the corner. I checked her eyes, before I nodded to myself.


    <She does> I sent. <It¡¯s very faint, but noticeable.>


    <That¡¯s Fizz, I think,> said Sallia. <It creates a sort of¡­ fizzing sound in the ears of whoever takes it, and it also fizzles and sparks and sometimes catches on fire if exposed to river water. Or at least the river water near my house, which is probably composed mostly of factory waste instead of actual water. My mother said that people with Fizz addictions are unpredictable, but usually not violent. But she said that I should stay away from them. My mother didn¡¯t say anything else, or go into further details, but she warned me that the drug was really bad and I couldn¡¯t ever touch it.> Sent Sallia. <I suspect it¡¯s lethal if one takes it for long enough, although I could just be misunderstanding something. Can you heal drug addiction with Renewal?>


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    <I don¡¯t know>.


    Sallia sent over the mental equivalent of a grimace, before she sighed. <Well, the way I see it, your mother is probably never going to recover from Fizz naturally. My mother could have been exaggerating what Fizz does to you, but there are occasional corpses in the street with signs of Fizz overdose. You can either try to heal your mother, or leave.> Sallia paused. <In fact, do you need help? I know we were just talking about rescuing Felix, but if your mother is a Fizz addict¡­ what about your father?>


    <No clue. He might not be around, or might be dead.>


    <Either way, he¡¯s not helpful¡­> Sallia trailed off, losing herself in her thoughts. Then, sounding much more worried, she sent me another message. <Do you need food or shelter? I don¡¯t know exactly how to make everything work if you need shelter, since I¡¯m only four years old and can¡¯t really influence my family much yet¡­but I will figure something out if you need help. I¡¯m not just going to let you keep hurting if you can¡¯t fix this. And my noodle bowl can help a lot with food>, sent Sallia. <Are you eating enough? If your mother is blissed out on Fizz all the time, I doubt she¡¯s feeding you enough.>


    <I could probably convince my parents to let you sleep in my room if you need to get away>, sent Anise, rejoining the conversation. <And if they don¡¯t give permission, I¡¯ll figure out a way to sneak you in anyway. My father is also a factory worker, just like Sallia¡¯s, but mine is a bit higher up on the ladder. He¡¯s overseer for the factory. Nothing special, but he¡¯s not near any of the dangerous machines, so I have room and supplies. And my mother isn¡¯t the most observant person. If you hide in the closet, I doubt she would notice. We can find a way to make it work.>


    I felt a little warm in my heart. My friends were so ready to immediately offer me help when I needed it. Even though they were only four years old, just like me, and didn¡¯t really have much power or influence right now¡­ we were still a team. Somehow, the cold hand that felt like it was squeezing my heart when I saw my mother blissed out in the corner felt like it lightened its grip around my heart, just a little bit.


    I thought about both offers. I was really quite hungry - I needed a stable source of food. Otherwise, I might starve to death before I could accomplish anything meaningful this life. I needed to find Sallia if I wanted to take advantage of her noodle bowl. However, Sallia¡¯s family was very poor, and she said that she heard gunshots outside of her door regularly. I suspected that, if anything, I was living in a worse part of town than her. I wanted to at least be able to defend myself if I needed to, before I went anywhere.


    The biggest question, however, was still what I wanted to do about my mother.


    No matter what else I thought about, my mind kept circling back to what I was supposed to do about my drug addicted mother.


    Did I want to help my mother? Could I help my mother? I had no idea if I could cure something like a drug addiction, and if I couldn¡¯t remove the drug addiction from my mother, sticking around might be a bad idea for my own long term health and safety.


    In my previous two lives, things hadn¡¯t been so complicated. My families in both lives had been comprised of people that clearly loved me, and didn¡¯t have any major issues. My father and mother in my first life had been simple fishermen, and in my second life, the biggest problem I¡¯d had with my mother was that she was too controlling - but even that had been rather mild, and we had been able to talk things out. I had been more than happy to return every bit of love that they extended to me. Having a lovely and kind family twice in a row was a blessing that I had never quite realized was a blessing until now.


    Now, I needed to figure out what to do about a family member with a drug addiction. My mother¡­ probably cared about me. She had kept me alive for four years, despite her drug addiction and the fact that she barely seemed to be able to take care of herself. But I had no idea if I could even get the food I needed to survive if I stuck around. I was used to just¡­ being able to care about the people around me, without it being complicated. And now, suddenly, it was actually complicated.


    I looked at my mother, who was still convulsing in the corner, and then sighed.


    I didn¡¯t know what to do, so for now, I decided to just see what I even could do. I wasn¡¯t sure how my powers interacted with the situation, after all, and that might change how I thought about things.


    First, I would try to help my mother and heal her drug addiction. If it didn¡¯t work¡­ I might have to leave and take shelter with Anise or Sallia. I felt bad leaving my mother here to fend for herself, when she clearly couldn¡¯t take care of herself. But right now, my emotional bond with my mother was also at its weakest, since I barely knew her. If I couldn¡¯t help her, and she couldn¡¯t help herself, I might need to be away from her - for the sake of my own sanity.


    If it did work¡­ hopefully everything else would work out somehow. I wasn¡¯t really sure what I would do in that case, but I would figure it out later.


    Of course, to test anything, I needed to get my attunement back.


    Since my mother seemed¡­ indisposed at the moment, and I still incredibly hungry, I waddled from one corner of the house to another, searching for something to eat. It took me several minutes, but I managed to find a slightly rotten apple and some sort of unidentified brown grain that probably wasn¡¯t moldy.


    My stomach churned a bit, but I was too hungry to care right now.


    I quickly stuffed the slightly overripe apple into my mouth, chewing it rapidly as my empty stomach screamed for food. It tasted rotten, but I tried not to think about what I was putting into my stomach. At least I was pretty sure I could heal food poisoning, once I got my attunement back online. Then, I turned my attention to the weird grain.


    What¡­ was this thing? How was I supposed to prepare it?


    <Hey¡­does anyone know how to prepare this food?> I asked, sending a picture of the grain to the others.


    <Add water and boil it. It¡¯ll make oatmeal. It doesn¡¯t taste great, but it¡¯s okay, and it¡¯s filling,> sent Sallia, a few moments later. <I eat it a lot. Also, if the grains start to turn white, it¡¯s not safe to eat anymore.> I examined the grain more carefully, and didn¡¯t see any white coloration on the grain. I thanked Sallia for the information and got back to work.


    I summoned my dress and then borrowed a bit of water from it, before I tossed it into a bowl with some of the strange grains. It took me a little longer to find a few logs, as well as a little kettle one could set up near the fireplace, and a few matches to go along with it.


    Apparently, matches were cheap enough in this world that my mother still owned a few, along with the iron cookpot. Which was a small relief. Starting a fire without that would have been difficult.


    I spent a few minutes boiling the water and the brown grain, before the brown grains started to mix into the water. In minutes, it started to resemble a very bland soup. I grimace at my food, before I dug in.


    It wasn¡¯t very good. Swallowing it was a bit difficult.


    As I ate, I thought of my favorite food. Ever since my first world, on the islands, I had become rather fond of eating fish. During the time we had spent on the second world, fish had been rather easy to obtain, but I had no idea whether we were even near the ocean in this world, or whether we had any major rivers nearby. Sallia had mentioned a river that was filled with factory waste, but I doubted any fish were living in that river. And if they were, they probably weren¡¯t edible.


    I sighed, and shook my head. I tried sending a few questions to my friends, to see if I could get any more information, but something must have come up on their end, because they didn¡¯t respond to me.


    As I finished my bland, slightly bitter porridge, I thought about what I needed to do first, before I sighed.


    The first thing I needed to do, no matter what my plans were, was to regain my attunement, and possibly a few runes. Then, I needed to figure out what to do when things were hard for me.


    With my mind made up, I walked back over to my crib, sat down, and got to work.

 Final Thumb update (Hopefully).

    Final Thumb update (Hopefully).


    Aight, so update on the thumb situation.


    Doctor says that what most likely happened is that I strained the tendons in my hands by a lot, essentially bending both of my thumbs back way more than my tendons are meant to handle. And that overusing my tendons has likely kept my hand from healing up quite as well as it normally would have over the month and a half or so that my thumbs have hurt..


    That being said, the probability of permanent damage is very close to zero, and unless something very weird has happened everything should heal up normally.


    Doc¡¯s healing time estimate is a week or two.


    During the healing time, I need to wear a thumb brace while asleep and take a pill to help reduce inflammation. Luckily, I only need to wear the brace while asleep, and not awake - meaning I can basically resume schedule as usual next week. The thumb brace is a bit uncomfortable, but considering the fact that yesterday I was worried there might be permanent damage or something, I think I got off pretty darn lightly. And I only need to wear it while asleep.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    For tomorrow¡¯s schedule, there will be a slightly shorter than usual budding scientist update (for patrons, at least. For public, obviously, the chapter was written a while ago, so the chapter in three weeks will instead be a bit shorter), but NO Markets and Multiverses update tomorrow.


    .


    The way I usually write a Market¡¯s and Multiverses chapter is by writing the first draft a day in advance, and then editing the previous day¡¯s draft before posting it. This gives me a bit of time away from the chapter to think about whether there are better ways to set up for the next plot point, any details I meant to include but forgot, any details I don¡¯t think belong in the draft and should maybe be part of a future chapter, etc, and also gives my beta reader time to look at the chapter. Having the first draft of a chapter done the day before I post the chapter is pretty important to my writing process.


    And I¡¯ma be 100% honest, yesterday, when I should have written Friday¡¯s rough draft chapter, I was kind of an anxiety wreck. I was worried about permanent thumb damage, and flipping back and forth mood-wise, and I didn¡¯t really get much done for the MaM draft that day. I believe I got like six sentences down? Which is not a completed first draft. It¡¯s, like, a paragraph. When I posted about this week¡¯s prospective schedule on Monday, I seem to have somehow overlooked the effect my state of mind would have on chapter production by just a bit. So no Friday MaM update. But by next week, things should be back to normal as far as posting schedule goes, and within a week or two of wearing my annoying brace and taking the anti-inflammation medication, everything should hopefully be healed up. If it isn¡¯t, I¡¯ll need to go back to the doctor and ask what¡¯s up, but hopefully this is the end of this.

 Chapter 161: First Steps

    The next few days passed quietly. I was finally aware of my surroundings, and so I decided to mess with my abilities a bit. {Echoes of the Deep} let me choose whether to embody life or death, and I immediately chose to embody life, since none of the bonuses from embodying death were useful right now. This gave me a 1-grade boost to my Fortitude, a boost to healing spells, a mild regeneration boost when exposed to sunlight, and the ability to breathe underwater. Most of these abilities were useless, but I appreciated the 1-grade Fortitude boost. Being healthier certainly felt nice, and I was more than happy to ward off the influence of whatever illnesses I could contract from factory fumes and whatever else was in the air in this world.


    However, apart from the fact that I was conscious again, most of what I observed over the next few days was not promising.


    My mother¡¯s actions quickly confirmed many of my initial suspicions. She left late at night and often came back blissed out in the morning. She wore clothes that exposed a lot of her body. She walked in a way that was meant to emphasize the swaying of her hips. She could also have been an exotic dancer or something, but at the very least, she was some kind of red light district worker. I learned from¡­that kind of industry wasn¡¯t illegal in this country. Most brothels were entirely legal. However, it wasn¡¯t a great job, either socially or financially.


    My mother was often absentminded when she was blissed out on her drugs. She remembered to give me food more than half the time, but she sometimes forgot to feed both me and herself. My malnutrition clearly wasn¡¯t going to be fixed as long as I remained in this situation.


    Only once, when my mother thought I was asleep, did I see anything other than a drug-induced haze out of my mother. While I laid down, focusing on my attunement, I felt my mother pick me up and gently cradle me, before sobbing and whispering that she was sorry over and over again for several minutes, before she set me back down and left the room.


    That, at least, helped me make up my mind a little bit. I definitely wanted to at least try to help my mother in this life. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was possible for me to help her, but I would definitely feel bad if I didn¡¯t try.


    I also learned quite a bit from talking with Sallia, Felix, and Anise.


    First of all, I learned that Felix¡¯s situation wasn¡¯t urgent, at least. He was a valuable test subject, so nobody was going to harm him in the short term. That could definitely change in the future, but for now, Felix wasn¡¯t in imminent danger - he simply had greatly restricted freedom. We could take some time to rebuild our abilities before we rescued him.


    Sallia also confirmed that there was magic in this world, but it was rather¡­ limited.


    In the first world, I had developed a rather specific impression of what a Tier 2 world might look like. Giant sea monsters capable of teleportation and shooting lightning bolts out of their skin had roamed the seas, and the very ocean itself was a giant pool of magic water that could drive people insane if they looked at it for too long. I had originally thought that Tier 2 worlds were still rather extraordinary as far as magical potential went.


    In the world of the black sun, I had instead started to wonder whether our first world had been abnormal. Perhaps it was a world on the verge of being considered a Tier 3 world, or perhaps some part of the planet had a far greater concentration of mana than the rest of the world.


    In this world, I could confirm that our first world had been abnormal somehow. The environment we had lived in on our first world had probably been closer to a Tier 3 world than a normal Tier 2 world.


    This was because this world was barely magical, despite also being a Tier 2 world.


    There was only one major discipline of magic in this world. It was known as Alchemy. Some parts of Alchemy weren¡¯t even things I would have considered ¡®magic¡¯ if I hadn¡¯t been aware that essences were involved. Many parts of alchemy resembled chemistry, rather than spellcasting as I was used to thinking of it.


    There were two major sub-branches of alchemy: Transmutation and Affixation. There was also a minor sub-branch.


    Transmutation was the art of converting one physical substance into another physical substance. To me, it looked basically like magic chemistry - with a strong emphasis on ¡®chemistry¡¯ over magic. The only real divergence from proper, nonmagical physics was that an alchemist needed to imbue binding essence into whatever substance they were transmuting in very specific ways, or else the entire conversion would usually fail - possibly explosively. It also had a lot fewer limitations than ¡®normal¡¯ chemistry, even if it was still pretty specific about what worked and didn¡¯t work. One could, theoretically, convert dirt into gold through transmutation - however, doing so was apparently insanely hard. There were a lot of restrictions about what could be changed into what, but at the end of the day, transmutation was the art of taking multiple substances, using essence to make them react to each other, and creating new substances as a result of those reactions.


    Affixation was more obviously ¡®magical.¡¯ It involved stapling a concept from one object to another. For example, one might take the ¡®melting point¡¯ of one object and affix it to a completely different object, creating wood that would melt at the exact same temperature as iron instead of catching fire when it got too hot. One could even affix more complex and bizarre ideas to objects with enough skill, such as affixing a sword with the concept of ¡®growth¡¯ and making a sword that grew sturdier and repaired itself on the battlefield with each soldier it killed. Affixation was much harder than transmutation, and required a lot more creativity to use effectively.


    Affixation, interestingly enough, was actually the less popular of the two disciplines. Several hundred years ago, Affixing powerful ideas to swords had been the most prestigious path an alchemist could take, but these days, guns were just better. And whatever people did while making guns in this world, it was much harder to enchant a gun than a sword. After all, the most important part of a weapon affixation was usually attached to the part of a weapon that made contact with an enemy, and enchanting every single bullet a soldier was likely to use in a fight was downright impractical. Enchanting the gun was sometimes useful, but given how rapidly technology evolved these days, people tended to focus more on developing better guns than developing enchantments for those guns these days.


    Of course, Affixing hadn¡¯t fallen completely by the wayside. A competent team of Affixers could still perform miraculous feats of magic, if they had the right materials and time. Affixers sometimes created practical enchantments to heat up the baths of the palace, or filter water for the wealthier sections of the city. Most importantly, alchemists who mastered both transmutation and affixation could create potions with miraculous, magical effects, such as healing grievous injuries and drastically extending the lifespan of the drinker. This was considered the most valuable part of affixation, and it remained the dream of many alchemists. The discipline as a whole, however, was no longer seen as the ¡®superior¡¯ path for an alchemist. Much like the art of transmutation, it was changing and adapting to the endless march of technology in this world, and it was having a much harder time of it than the other branch of alchemy.


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    Finally, there was a third, less popular form of Alchemy known as ¡®super creation.¡¯ Some of the potions created by an affixer who was talented in transmutation could even affix a person with some sort of unique, special ability, such as super-strength or the ability to control flames with their mind. Such potions were pretty rare, however, and people who drank them sometimes ended up getting nothing at all after drinking the potion. I strongly suspected that this sub-branch of alchemy was where all of the absorption essence of the dimension was put to use, since even though the magic system didn¡¯t really resemble the rune system from our first life, giving people one specific superpower and strengthening their body strongly reminded me of absorption essence. Sallia didn¡¯t know much about the potions beyond rumors, since her parents were living in the middle of the slum, but both of us intended to check out these potions and analyze them whenever we got the chance. It was the first time we had seen a ¡®duplicate¡¯ essence during our travels through the multiverse - and it seemed to have developed its own, entirely unique magic system.


    Felix was also rather interested in comparing what little we had seen of Sekundyrr¡¯s magic System and this world¡¯s local magic system. Sekundyrr had managed to communicate with our minds, most likely by ¡®binding¡¯ our thoughts to his. However, this world¡¯s magic System had no equivalent ability at all, and instead focused entirely on binding things to physical objects.


    Finally, I learned that every single human being on this planet had the potential to become an alchemist. Unlike the world of the black sun, there was no such thing as being born without access to an essence. Everyone could theoretically learn alchemy, as long as they spent time learning to control their essence and practicing. The discipline of Alchemy was simply very difficult to learn, and also quite expensive to experiment with, so most people didn¡¯t bother.


    After getting this background information from my conversations with my friends, and analyzing the situation of my mother, I started working on rebuilding some of my alteration and absorption abilities. Since more obviously ¡®magical¡¯ feats, such as controlling water with one¡¯s mind, were rare but known, I fully intended to make myself look like someone who had drank one of those rare potions. I also wanted to pass myself off as a novice alchemist. This would open some doors for me to learn ¡®more¡¯ about Alchemy in the future, and it would also give me a proper avenue of making money in the future. Potions that cured specific illnesses nearly instantly or mended the body were well-known in this world, and were neither common nor rare. Most alchemists tried to learn at least a little affixation, just so that they could put together some basic healing potions. So it wasn¡¯t too uncommon to find a few alchemists peddling their wares in middle-class parts of the city. With my renewal spell, I could probably mimic a healing potion pretty well. With some work, I could pretend to be a novice alchemist, which would hopefully go some way towards fixing the situation my mother and I were in.


    With these thoughts in mind, I managed to take the first step in rebuilding my attunement again.


    My Attunement was nothing new - I had already formed my attunement based on the ocean of souls twice, and I currently saw no need to change it. Extinguish and Renewal were incredibly potent abilities that I wanted to retain access to in this world.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Basic] Grade attunement (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support alteration spellcasting. Significant Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +50


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It would take a little longer to form my attunement in this dimension, since the laws of reality didn¡¯t really support alteration essence, but I could still probably get back to [Intermediate] grade in a week or two, at most, and I doubted it would take more than a year to push myself back up to [Expert] grade attunement. It was several times more convenient than the rune magic system, even after my Ability Evolution had made it faster and easier to regain my runes.


    With my runes, I decided to go in a slightly different direction this life. I had grade 6 in my absorption essence, and even if it wasn¡¯t very common, there was enough absorption essence in this dimension for me to absorb a bit. I guessed that I could probably push my way up to 7 runes, if I kept both of my keywords consistently activated. Maybe I could even go up to eight runes. This led me to a very careful bout of planning, during which I discussed what Sallia and I were planning to do with our runes.


    <I¡¯ve never actually seen a gun before, so I¡¯m not entirely sure what to do with my rune abilities,> sent Sallia. <My first thought was to develop some sort of metal control rune, similar to Felix¡¯s attunement. But the biggest issue I can think of is noticing a bullet before it hits me. Controlling a bullet once it punches through my skull isn¡¯t really going to do me much good,> she said. <Maybe my seventh rune will fix that, since we don¡¯t know what runes 13-15 did in the original rune System. But I don¡¯t want to rely on that fixing my problems. Do you have any ideas what we should do with our runes?>


    <Hmm¡­ the first thing to think about is how much we need to worry about ¡®weird¡¯ attacks, such as soul attacks, spatial manipulation, and so on,> I said. <I don¡¯t think those are big worries here. Based on your descriptions of this world, this dimension doesn¡¯t seem to have much awareness of souls or mental attacks. Does anyone know how much this world might have access to spatial manipulation and such?>


    <No clue,> said Anise.


    <At least in the lab, nobody has mentioned spatial manipulation of any sort, or hinted at it being possible,> said Felix. <But that might also just be because they don¡¯t see a need to mention it near me. Most conversations the researchers have with me is centered around how well I¡¯m learning and growing, and how my body feels. So it¡¯s hard to make detailed inferences based on that.>


    <Hmm¡­> I thought. <For now, I suspect we should create some sort of preventative ability against bullets, and another ability that lets us sense our surroundings, or something to that effect? That way we can track bullets heading towards us, even if our Perception won¡¯t be able to keep up with bullets yet. I¡¯m thinking something like ¡®sensing space around me¡¯ and then ¡®teleporting objects near me,¡¯ and some sort of utility ability for my third ability?>


    <That makes sense,> said Sallia, after a few moments of thought. <In that case, perhaps I should do something like metal control, object sense¡­ and then wait a bit before forming the third ability? The fact that it¡¯s much easier to form runes after my Ability Evolution means that I can wait for more information before making my third ability,> she said. <I don¡¯t want to end up in another situation like last world, where I end up with a few abilities that are only marginally useful and end up with a glaring weakness. I want more information this time.>


    With that, Sallia and I kept passing along the days, working on forming our first runes and setting up for this world. At the same time, I started to get more worried about my mother and myself. I was getting hungrier, and my mother didn¡¯t seem to be getting any better. I needed to find a solution to my living situation and figure out what I was doing about my mother, and I needed to do it soon.

 Chapter 162: Healing

    The days of hunger and productivity continued. I spent a fair amount of time working on building up my attunement and establishing my first rune. When I had time, I also tested out my healing ability on my mother, to see if it was possible to cure her drug addiction. My deepest fear right now was that my attunement might not be able to heal something as complex as a drug addiction. Since my mother seemed rather unaware of her surroundings anytime she came home blissed out, I simply waited a few minutes, before I gently splashed a bit of water on her and used that as a medium for the renewal spell. Even if I wasn¡¯t sure that the healing spell would work, I dearly hoped it would help.


    My first few tests were inconclusive.


    I could clearly tell that my renewal spell was doing something to my mother. It felt just like when I healed something else, like a missing limb. However, I didn¡¯t actually notice any changes in my mother when I applied the renewal spell to her, which was very frustrating. I had no idea whether it was just because I wasn¡¯t healing very much, or whether I couldn¡¯t heal my mother while she was high, or what.


    I also tried adding a little bit of water to her hands while she was sleeping off one of her drug-induced hazes, and the next day I did notice that she seemed a bit more lucid than usual. However, the blue discoloration around her eyes never faded, and I had a hard time figuring out whether she was just having a particularly lucid day or whether my healing was actually doing something, because the day afterwards, she seemed about as out-of-it as usual.


    When I talked about it with my friends, Sallia¡¯s theory was that my healing was working, but the efficiency was abysmal. At basic grade attunement, with me spending about half of my alteration essence each day and reserving half for emergencies, I was probably undoing whatever damage Fizz was doing to my mother¡¯s mind and body, but perhaps I wasn¡¯t actually outpacing the damage she did to herself. After all, my mother continued to take bliss almost every day - that kind of extensive drug usage had to be doing damage to my mother. And considering how many tiny little alterations to the chemistry of my mother¡¯s brain a drug like bliss made, it was probably hard for my healing spell to fix everything. In a strange way, healing a drug addiction might literally be several times harder than regenerating a limb. Which was very strange to think about.


    Although my first healing efforts weren¡¯t really going anywhere, and I was still feeling very hungry, I successfully set up my first rune by the end of the fourth day after regaining consciousness.


    Just as Sallia and I had discussed, I felt that it was best to set up two abilities in this world first - one to mess with bullets, and one to somehow improve my senses of the area around me. However, being able to sense the area around me was useful for more than just teleporting bullets around - it would also give me potential information about people sneaking up on me, and also give me the information needed to dodge things like knives and blunt weapons. Even if guns seemed to be the primary weapon wars were fought with in this world, they weren¡¯t used everywhere, especially in the back alleys of the city. After all, smuggling weapons wasn¡¯t easy, and while street gangs and gunshots seemed to be a big part of life in the section of the city Sallia lived in, it was still impossible for every gangster to own a gun. Most used whatever weapons they could scrounge together, or even their fists if they couldn¡¯t find something to swing around.


    Being able to sense people sneaking up on me with a knife or a pipe would give me plenty of time to debilitate or kill them with an extinguish, and I felt that was a higher priority ability than forming some kind of object teleportation ability.


    So, when I was setting up my first rune, I pictured all of the world around me as a giant, endless undercurrent of rippling, distorting space - and I pictured my own body as something like a giant eye, continuously scanning the area around me in a neverending vigil. As I tried to form my ability, I realized that something was missing - before I winced.


    Even though my ability had evolved towards spatial manipulation, it wasn¡¯t actually a spatial ability. At least, not completely. I pulled up the ability¡¯s description again, just to double check what was missing.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.) (Intermediate Grade)


    Glut Penalty: 40


    While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.


    Absorption essence may be spent to create runes, which have the following effects:


    The first three runes will grant you +20 to your mental stats AND an ability. This ability MUST be related to space, and use the ocean or water as a medium. You will have significantly enhanced control over what ability is formed here.


    The fourth through sixth runes will now fundamentally alter one sensory organ, providing +10 Perception per level, and also giving you improved vision when trying to see space. Additionally, each rune will provide you with a significantly increased ability to resist external spatial manipulation targeted towards you or the area directly around you.


    The seventh through ninth runes will now grant +10 to each physical Stat and begin attuning your body to the power of space, allowing your body to innately interact with the idea of space, regardless of which dimension you are in. This will replace the standard fusion and condensing boosts that runes 10 through 12 would give you, and give benefits such as decreased wind resistance, the ability to teleport without reliance upon rune abilities at all, and increased ability to sense space using your skin.


    In addition, every keyword activated within the past week and every rune you have condensed will also give you a moderately increased ability to control madness, as well as madness-adjacent magic such as illusions and mental attacks.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive something insane, you will collect Achievement as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.


    Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first time in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.


    Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only three abilities from this effect may be ¡®held¡¯ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one.


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After rereading my ability description, I sighed. I needed to use water or the ocean as a medium to fuel whatever I wanted to do using spatial manipulation. I had been wondering how hard of a rule that was, but after trying to form an ability without using water as a medium, the ability simply failed to form at all. I had been hoping I could dodge that somehow.


    I hesitated. How was I supposed to combine space and water into a proper sensory ability? And was it really ideal to create a weird sensory ability using my first rune? I suspected I would also get some odd sensory abilities once I pushed into my fourth and above rune, but I also wasn¡¯t sure what this would look like. After all, I hadn¡¯t formed a fourth or higher rune since evolving the ability. It was also distinctly possible that the upgrades to my sensory organs would enhance my ability to sense space, but not physical objects within space, and if I had no sensory abilities in this world, I would still be very vulnerable to guns.


    At the end of my thinking session, I still felt it was prudent to create an ability for sensing bullets before they hit me, even if I would end up forming a rather weird version of what I had originally envisioned. Just in case the ¡®sensory organ upgrades¡¯ worked differently than I thought they would, it was best to be prepared. After all, I couldn¡¯t go back and change my runes once I formed them, and unfortunately, the sensory organ upgrades took place after I had formed my abilities. This made experimenting with that component of my evolved ability very difficult.


    After tossing ideas back and forth with Sallia, Anise, and Felix for a while, eventually, I decided to focus on water vapor as a medium for my sensory ability. According to some comments Felix had overheard in the lab he lived in, there was a great deal of evaporated water floating around in the air all around us, much like there had been in our previous worlds. It was only a small part of the air, but it was still present. And since there was a very small amount of water in the air around us, I decided that I could probably use that water vapor as a radar to sense the space in the air around me - and more specifically, I would use it to detect physical objects.


    I also adjusted my vision of what my ability should be quite a bit. My new mental image was of every single droplet of water in the air around me transforming in an eye. These eyes would also be, at their heart, partially comprised of spatial manipulation - the ultimate idea of this ability was that I was transforming each droplet of air into an illusory eye connected to my own, peering at the world around me through the cracks in space and reality. I wasn¡¯t sure if my image would work perfectly, but it was worth a shot.


    This image worked, and a few hours of concentration later, I was the proud owner of my first rune, which I had stuck to the bottom of my feet, just like in my second life.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form your first rune (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support runes, although it does somewhat support absorption spellcasting. moderate Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +70


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This little bit of Achievement brought my total up to 662.08 Achievement. Not an amazing amount, but I was still happy to earn a bit of Achievement here and there.


    More importantly, I now had a proper sensory ability, and I had my attunement so that I could defend myself if needed.


    I poured a bunch of absorption essence into my new rune to give it a proper test, and felt my vision start to expand.


    Every single bit of water in the air around me for several meters in every direction seemed to become part of my eyes. For a moment, I could see everything around me. Space, the physical world, the souls, the air itself¡­ it was as if I could see every single aspect of the world at once. It was beautiful.


    And it was also overwhelming.


    I felt an intense headache start to build up behind my eyes, and frowned, shutting off the ability.


    My brain did not have the ability to process all of the information my ability had been feeding it at once. I had been looking through hundreds of thousands of little droplets of water at once, and the information was several orders of magnitude beyond what my mind could handle. I winced.


    I had put too much absorption essence into the ability. I felt that increasing my mental stats would probably help - Intelligence, in particular, would help me actually process the information I had been trying and failing to absorb from my ability. And Perception also seemed to assist the brain in processing all of the information one got from enhancing their senses. My first rune had also bumped up my mental stats by 1 grade each, so I was now working with Grade 6 Intelligence and Grade 8 Perception. I could definitely tell that those stat increases were helping me. But at least for now, I probably needed to keep the ability operating a rather low level. I couldn¡¯t handle the full ability.


    I tried activating my new rune ability again, but this time, I drastically reduced the essence I put into it, and I also focused on ¡®combining¡¯ larger clumps of water vapor into single eyes instead of hundreds of thousands of smaller eyes. This helped a great deal, and I was able to get a proper view of the world around me from multiple angles - as well as the ability to see through walls, so long as they weren¡¯t more than a few meters away from me. My ability also let me sense disturbances in air or space around me, rather like a radar - which would, hopefully, be enough to alert me to a bullet before it hit me. I intended to make my next rune ability able to teleport bullets around, which would let me teleport any bullet near me to another location, and potentially even return it to its sender. I grinned. It wasn¡¯t perfect - I would still need quick reflexes to respond to people shooting at me.


    However, for now, I was satisfied.


    And I was also very hungry.


    I took one last look at my mother, who was twitching in the corner again, and sighed.


    ¡°I¡¯m going out, mother,¡± I said, before I walked over to the door and opened it.


    I had spent several days confined inside of this tiny little house, trying to save my mother and feed myself. but there were no easy solutions here, there wasn¡¯t enough food, and I was running out of patience for the gnawing emptiness in my belly. If I wanted to actually solve the food problem, I needed to investigate this world, even if this was the first time I had done this at the age of four.


    It was time to step out of the house and explore the outside world.

 Chapter 163: Outside

    Outside of our tiny little three-room shack, I could see that the streets of the city we lived in were rather run-down. I scanned the surrounding area, and quickly realized that we lived in a row of tiny, cramped shacks. Furthermore, my mother and I could be considered somewhat lucky, since we lived near the ground. Most of the shacks on the street had another shack or two stacked on top of them in rickety, unstable-looking towers of houses. The only way up or down the little unstable towers of houses were rusty ladders dotting the sides of each tower.


    Our living conditions weren¡¯t unique. In fact, it was something of a small miracle that our house only had mold and signs of deterioration on the inside. The metal sheets that separated each house in a tower were usually bolted together with some kind of purple metal that I couldn¡¯t identify, but it was used very sparingly. I repressed the urge to wince at how unsteady looking the constructions here were.


    However, ruins and poor housing weren¡¯t the only things present in this world. As I peeked around the edge of the row of houses, in the distance, I could see a giant clocktower, standing so high it could overlook the rest of the city. Unlike the two and three-story shack towers I lived in, the giant clocktower looked like a monument to industry, heralding the arrival of a new era. I could see various other buildings as well, some made of steel, and others made of copper or brass. There were stacks of steam and smoke drifting over some other parts of the city, giving the area I lived in a heavy, polluted smell that nearly made me cough. I realized that I had been smelling factory smoke and pollution for most of my life already - however, the scent was much stronger outside.


    In the distance, I could also see tall, uniform buildings, with proud glass windows and brass walls reaching towards the heavens. I could even see some sort of massive flying ship in the distance, although it was far enough away that it was hard to see, even with my exceptional eyesight. It looked kind of like a blimp, but it was a bit more streamlined and sleek.


    I could also see that some of the wealthier parts of the cities had street lamps set up on their sidewalks. Some of the street lamps were still under construction, but this city was very clearly constructing more of them at a rapid pace.


    Of course, my immediate surroundings were a lot less mechanized than the pillars of brass and steel in the distance. They looked more like a middle-ages slum, with only occasional bits of brass and sheet metal tossed into the constructions.


    I was surprised that the well-off part of the city was so heavily industrialized, since Felix had mentioned that the Steam engine had only been discovered a few decades ago. Perhaps this city was especially industrialized? Or perhaps this country had simply adopted industrialization very quickly?


    I shook my head, and took a look around. I could think about this country and the rest of the world later. I needed to worry about food and safety first. Instead, I focused on the people near me.


    I also wasn¡¯t alone on the street.


    There were twenty or thirty other people on the street with me. Most of them were older than me - although there weren¡¯t many adults nearby. Two thirds of the people on the street were between the ages of twelve and seventeen, and many of them looked as lean and malnourished as my mother and I did. They moved together in small, huddled groups, with their shoulders hunched and hollow, indifferent expressions on their faces. There were a few adults on the street - but all of them still looked rather young. Many of the passerby also had insignias attached to their clothing. The insignias looked like a stylized brass gear attached to a fist. The people with those insignias still had indifferent expressions, but they stood a little bit taller than the other passerby. They hunched their shoulders less, and they looked less nervous.


    Most interestingly, however, the people with brass gear insignias often had brass arms.


    I couldn¡¯t tell whether the machines were prosthetic limbs, or whether they were just machines that were attached to their arms. However, that was definitely something I hadn¡¯t expected to see here. The idea that people had advanced machinery, capable of strengthening or replacing human limbs, startled me. I had been thinking of this world as something directly akin to a more industrial-era society, but seeing people stroll around with mechanical limbs in the middle of a slum was a strong reminder that even if this world didn¡¯t have dragons and spellcasters wandering around the world, it was still a magical world and not a purely mechanical one, and it also reminded me that the laws of physics could vary greatly from one dimension to the next. This planet might have a much easier time developing some technology than other dimensions, and it might also struggle to develop some other kinds of technology.


    Clearly, mechanical limbs weren¡¯t that hard to come by here, if even random slum dwellers had them.


    I looked at one of the insignia-bearing people with a brass arm, and activated my soul sight. I wanted to get an assessment for what my combat power looked like right now. People with mechanical limbs most likely had stronger punches than other people. However, did a brass limb change the way extinguish worked?


    After examining the insignia-bearing man with a brass limb, I tried not to cackle.


    The life force of the people here on the street was incredibly weak compared to the creatures from the world of the black sun. They were probably an entire order of magnitude weaker than the Orukthyri that I had seen in the previous world. They were just¡­ ordinary people. Their Fortitude stat was usually somewhere between grade 5 and grade 6, depending on how much they worked out. The people with mechanical attachments to their limbs didn¡¯t seem to have any additional Fortitude compared to random passerby. In other words, they were just as vulnerable to an extinguish as every other person on the street.


    And furthermore, the people here weren¡¯t innately magic resistant, the way the Orukthyri had been.


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    I felt a strange sense of unreality close over me as I assessed the difference between these people¡¯s life force and the Orukthyri. If I had an expert grade attunement, I would probably be able to drop¡­ somewhere between twenty and forty people by myself? It was hard to get an exact estimate right now, but I would definitely be able to fight more than a dozen people on my own, even with only having Grade 6 Alteration essence and an expert grade attunement. In our previous world, with Grade 6 Alteration essence, I probably would have struggled to kill more than one or two Orukthyri with the exact same Essence Grade and attunement grade.


    Of course, right now, I could only manage a half dozen people or so. But my combat power wasn¡¯t weak in the slightest in this world. I actually didn¡¯t need to be afraid of getting hurt by a random kidnapper or passerby at all, as long as they didn¡¯t ambush me or have a gun.


    Even if people decided to hurt me, and came after me in numbers, I could still probably drop several of them without much danger to myself just by relying on extinguish. And if I used {Breath of the Storm} to turn my absorption essence into another offensive spell, I could probably drop a dozen enemies by myself already.


    I felt my shoulders ease a bit. I had felt very tense when I first walked out of the house. I knew that my mother and I lived in a bad neighborhood, and I had been a little worried that someone might try to kidnap me or hurt me. After all, I looked like a four year old kid right now - I might as well be wearing a sign that said ¡®easy pickings here.¡¯ However, once I realized that I was surprisingly strong compared to the other inhabitants of this world, I felt a lot more at ease.


    I shook myself out of my relaxed state a moment later, and mentally chided myself.


    I needed to be careful in this world. Even if I was surprisingly powerful compared to a regular person here, I could still get shot and killed easily. I was only at grade 5 in Fortitude - there was no way I could shrug off a bullet to the head.


    Just to make sure nobody was giving me a weird or dangerous look, I closed my eyes for a moment and used my spatial eyes rune ability. Nobody seemed to be paying much attention to me, so I opened my eyes again and scurried onto the street. I kept a careful watch on the people around me, but at the same time, I started formulating a plan.


    What was I supposed to do to get better food? Right now, hunger was what dominated my thoughts the most. I needed something to eat. It was too hard to concentrate on improving my strength when my stomach felt like an empty pit that wanted to devour me from inside out. I needed a more stable source of food. Barring a stable source of food, I at least needed something to tide me over for a few days. The pain in my stomach was nearly unbearable.


    Was it already time to masquerade as an alchemist?


    I looked at myself dubiously, and snorted.


    As if anyone would believe a four year old was a competent alchemist. Even if I could defend myself, I doubted I would be able to get anyone to buy my ¡®potions.¡¯ If one person drank a ¡®potion¡¯ of mine in public and I used renewal on them, I could probably drum up some business, especially if I managed to heal a very visible and dangerous wound - but I doubted I would even get a chance to prove the value of my healing as it currently stood.


    I wasn¡¯t willing to rob anyone, even if doing so with extinguish probably wouldn¡¯t be very hard. I had a bottom line, and hurting and robbing random passerby was unacceptable to me. Unless they wanted to hurt me first, I wasn¡¯t going to hurt someone else.


    I thought for a few more moments, before my thoughts drifted back to Sallia.


    <Sallia¡­ was that offer to use your soup bowl still open?> I asked, sending my thoughts to her. <I¡¯m really hungry, and I want to get some food in my belly before I make bigger plans. I¡¯m definitely not thinking clearly right now, and long-term planning seems like a bad idea.>


    <Come over immediately! I¡¯ll share some food with you! Ever since you mentioned your situation, I¡¯ve been stockpiling some extra food every day. My family might not be wealthy, but we at least have a bit more basic food security than you. I have some goodies you can take with you. Where are you?>


    <I just left my house, and I¡¯m currently wandering the streets. I don¡¯t know much else about my surroundings. I¡¯m at, uhh¡­>


    I frowned, and turned towards the nearest passerby on the sidewalk.


    ¡°Excuse me, what street is this?¡± I asked a pair of teenagers who were walking by me.


    The boy who was closest to me just snorted and kept walking. He didn¡¯t even respond to my question. The other boy didn¡¯t even respond to me at all - he simply brushed past me, as if I weren¡¯t there.


    I didn¡¯t let myself get discouraged, and tried again with another group of passerby on the sidewalk. However, I got a pretty similar response. The only person who responded to my question at all simply gave me a disdainful snort, and ignored me.


    The third group I tried didn¡¯t even dignify my presence with a response - they just kept walking. I did see them hunch their shoulders a bit more as they moved past me, but that was the only sign that they had heard me at all.


    <Sallia, how do I figure out what street I¡¯m on? Or where you are?> I sent.


    <I¡¯m¡­ uhh¡­ do you see clocktower in the distance?>


    I looked at the horizon, and nodded. The clocktower was so tall compared to the other buildings near us that it stood out like a sore thumb.


    <All right, what direction is it for you?>


    <A bit East of me, I think. Assuming the sun sets in the east in this world, which, admittedly, may not be true.>


    <I have no idea what direction the sun sets in either. But it¡¯s towards the sunset for you? Hmm¡­ we might be in the same part of the slums. What kind of gang signs are the people near you wearing? And what kind of mechanical additions do they have to their limbs?>


    I blinked, and looked at the people wearing insignias of brass gears and mechanical limbs again.


    Now that Sallia pointed it out, it did seem rather likely that those were gang symbols. I just¡­ hadn¡¯t thought about it before.


    <The¡­ gangsters near me are wearing a stylized brass gear symbol,> I sent.


    <Hmm¡­ I think I know of that gang. You¡¯re a bit further away than I thought, but you should still be within easy walking distance. So, the area I¡¯m in is inhabited by a gang that is obsessed with pocket watches, so all of them have clock symbols for their gang sign, and have a clock or pocket watch lookalike attached to their person somewhere. They usually don¡¯t work, since actual pocket watches are expensive - but the gang still uses it as their symbol. I should be several streets west of you. Let me know if you need more directions if you start to feel like you¡¯ve ended up somewhere weird. And don¡¯t ask the passerby for directions - if you do, some gang members might try to kill you, if they think you¡¯re spying for another gang.>


    I nodded, thanked Sallia, and started heading west.


    It was time to meet up with the first of my friends.

 Chapter 164: Food and Friends

    Over the next hour, I made my way towards Sallia¡¯s house. I also periodically used my rune ability to scan the area around me, to check if someone was following me. I had already realized that asking people in this area for directions was unlikely to be productive - after all, the people in this neighborhood seemed afraid of interacting with strangers.


    Even if I didn¡¯t understand why they were afraid of other people, if everyone else was afraid of talking to strangers, there might be a good reason for that. So I followed suit.


    Even so, after an hour, I noticed someone following me. They were wearing gang insignias, so after some hesitation, I decided to hit them with a non-lethal extinguish. Just big enough to wipe out a good chunk of their life force, but not strong enough to kill them. I didn¡¯t know why someone wearing a gang sign was following me, but I suspected I didn¡¯t want to find out, either.


    I didn¡¯t know if anyone could trace my extinguishes back to me in this world, since I didn¡¯t understand the local magic system very well, so for now, I avoided killing the gangster. I didn¡¯t think I could fight an entire gang at once, and it was best to be cautious.


    The extinguish hit the gang member without any incidents, and a moment after my extinguish hit him, he doubled over, as if he had suddenly caught the worst case of the flu ever. Which was interesting. I had never seen something react like that when I wiped away a large chunk of its life force. There was clearly something a bit unique about how my extinguish worked with the local laws of physics, but I didn¡¯t have time to study that right now.


    I also felt a little bit bad about hitting someone with an extinguish when they hadn¡¯t directly attacked me or tried to hurt me, but a gang member following a child was probably a bad sign already. I had taken a few turns, but they had kept shadowing my footsteps, so I was pretty sure they weren¡¯t just walking in the same direction as  me or something.


    It took another hour after reaching the area where Sallia lived before I found her house, even with Sallia doing her best to guide me. Many of the streets of the slum looked similar to each other, and while some streets had street signs that clearly labeled them, there were also plenty of unlabeled streets that made navigating a huge trial. Luckily, Sallia¡¯s mother had at least taken her out of the house a few times, so Sallia was able to help steer me in the right direction.


    Eventually, I managed to find her house, and a few moments later, Sallia came out to meet me.


    ¡°Miria!¡± she said, giving me a huge grin as she ran out to meet me.


    A few passersby gave us strange looks, but nobody paid us much more attention than that.


    ¡°Sallia!¡± I said, before giving Sallia a proper look.


    It was my first time seeing Sallia¡¯s body in this world. Instead of her characteristic red hair, Sallia¡¯s hair had become a bit more copper-colored - something that she shared with many of the other passerby in this country. Copper and gold-blonde seemed to be the two most common hair colors in this area.


    But even though her hair color and facial features had been tweaked a bit compared to her Market body, she was still unmistakably Sallia.


    I walked up to her and gave her a huge hug.


    A few moments later, Sallia pushed me back, and then took a look at me.


    ¡°You¡¯re way too skinny,¡± she said. ¡°Also, why aren¡¯t you wearing your dress?¡±


    ¡°I have it dematerialized for now,¡± I said. ¡°It looks way too fancy for this area, even after I tried to mess with it a bit. Also, I noticed that the bottom part of the dress started out a bit messed up. Did you have that issue as well?¡± I asked.


    Sallia nodded.


    ¡°It was actually much worse for my robes. I looked at the item descriptions, and I noticed that our items state that they repair themselves when we return to the Market - not when we exit the Market. Your dress might have just looked a bit weird, but my swordsman¡¯s robes still have a massive hole near the stomach where I got stabbed during the fight with the giant spider,¡± said Sallia. She sighed. ¡°I just wear them underneath my regular clothes. On the bright side, their defensive properties weren¡¯t that useful in this world anyway. I care much more about the other effects.¡± Then, she sighed, and shook her head.


    ¡°Anyway, you really need a good meal. Here, take the noodle bowl.¡± A moment later, a bowl of noodles materialized in her hands, before she gave it to me.


    I didn¡¯t say a word before I started gulping down the food in Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl. It was only now that I appreciated how much better Sallia¡¯s noodles tasted compared to the rotting apples and mushy grain porridge I had been eating before. Unlike the half-spoiled food I had eaten until now, Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl tasted delicious and salty, with just a hint of spiciness. I normally didn¡¯t care very much about the flavor, but now, it tasted simply divine.


    ¡°Here, take this package too. My family isn¡¯t wealthy this life, but we aren¡¯t struggling with food, at least. We struggle with clothes though,¡± said Sallia, as she chuckled and handed me a white package. It was small, but I could see a few packs of the weird grain inside. It was probably enough for a few extra days worth of meals.


    There was also a fresh fruit of some kind. Unlike the apple, I had no idea what it was - but it looked nice and crisp.


    ¡°Go ahead and take the noodle bowl with you. You definitely need it more than me right now. Do you have a plan for a more long-term solution to your situation?¡±


    ¡°I do! Currently, I plan to pretend that I¡¯m an alchemist, and start selling healing potions,¡± I said. ¡°My healing spells are a bit different from a proper healing potion, but I can probably sell my abilities as a healer as long as I¡¯m careful.¡±


    Sallia paused, as if mulling over my plan for a while, before she nodded. ¡°That could probably work. Just be careful of the gang that runs your area. They will probably demand some money from you, if you start succeeding. They might also demand to know where you¡¯re getting potions, or something. Do you have an idea for how to handle that situation, if it comes up?¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    ¡°Fight them head on?¡± I asked.


    Sallia rolled her eyes. ¡°We¡¯ll need to talk about how to handle gangs later, then. It might come down to a fight, but there might be ways to avoid one, too. We¡¯ll think about what works later. Also, how do you plan to actually sell the potions? I don¡¯t think most people will be willing to buy potions from a four year old.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll probably pretend to be selling them for my ¡®master¡¯ or something. And I¡¯ll need to find an opportunity to show off the effects of one of my ¡®potions,¡¯ to convince people that it¡¯s a real healing potion.¡±


    ¡°That could work, but¡­¡± Sallia¡¯s voice faded for a moment. ¡°What happens if a person buys a potion from you and then tries to save it for later? All of your healing spells only work if you directly heal the person, right? Is it actually possible for you to create a bottle of water that ¡®saves¡¯ a healing spell for later? Also, how effective are healing potions in this world? If your healing spell is way stronger than a potion, or way weaker than a potion, things might get dangerous.¡±


    I paused.


    I could use general shaping to bend the way rules worked a little bit¡­ but I had never tried doing any sort of long-term essence preservation using the shaping magic system. I strongly suspected that it would take months of trial and error to turn Renewal into a healing-potion producing spell. In fact, months might be a massive underestimate.


    And during that time, the food problem would still be unresolved. Sallia¡¯s ramen bowl could fix some of the food shortage issue I was facing, but I needed more food than that if I wanted to remove the impact of malnutrition on my body. My mother sometimes brought back food for me to eat, but she was wildly inconsistent about it. The fact that I had lived to the age of four was already something of a small miracle. Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl could probably keep me alive, but I wanted more food than just one meal a day.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ do normal alchemy potions have expiration dates?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know,¡± said Sallia, as she frowned. ¡°We should ask Anise. My family is too poor to afford using healing potions.¡±


    <Hey, Anise or Felix, do you guys know if Alchemy potions expire? Also, how effective are healing potions in this world?> sent Sallia.


    There was a pause for a few moments, before Anise replied.


    <They do. My mom has a potion for healing broken bones and another for injuries that she keeps in the medicine cabinet for emergencies, but she says that she¡¯ll dump them out if two more years pass without using them. The potions only last for a decade, and then they start to turn bad and no longer heal,> said Anise. <The potions can do a decent amount of healing once they¡¯re consumed. A disease-removing potion will nearly instantly remove whatever disease it¡¯s supposed to cure, and broken bone mending potions can mend a smaller bone break instantly as long as the bones are aligned correctly. Why?>


    <I¡¯m thinking about how to sell potions and create a source of income for myself,> I said. <I¡¯m currently thinking that I¡¯m going to pretend that the Renewal spell is actually a potion, and then just manually heal people. But I¡¯m also trying to figure out how to handle people taking the ¡®potions¡¯ away, since, obviously, the potions won¡¯t work if I don¡¯t actually heal people.>


    <Maybe you could disguise yourself as a doctor instead?> sent Anise. <And just include potions as part of the healing process? Healing potions aren¡¯t omnipotent - they can cure most diseases, but most healing potions only address specific issues. A healing potion that heals the flu won¡¯t do anything to heal a broken bone or a common cold, and a healing potion that heals ripped flesh won¡¯t mend broken bones. So most healing potions that are sold for general consumption are either very generalized, or used by a doctor during treatment.>


    I thought about it, and then nodded. The fact that I was four years old still posed a huge problem, of course. Who would believe that a four year old was a competent doctor? But at least it would solve my other problems if I could somehow pull it off. Maybe I could disguise myself as an old lady with height problems?


    I frowned.


    Alteration essence was supposed to be good at shapeshifting, and the Orukthyri from our previous life proved that shapeshifting and even permanently altering body shape was possible using the shaping magic system. But I had no idea how to do it, and I was very worried that I would mess up if I tried to shapeshift myself into looking older than I was. I was pretty sure messing up a shapeshifting spell would kill me or seriously injure me, so I wasn¡¯t eager to experiment on myself. Not to mention, learning shapeshifting would also require years of research, and I needed a solution now.


    I sighed. Maybe I could get around the problem of looking young if I deliberately disguised myself to look mysterious, and then proved my ability by healing a few people for free when they were hurt? I could use that to spread word of mouth, and if I wore clothes that covered my entire body, it was possible that I could pretend to be older than I was. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, but if I got chances to prove my skills, I figured that people living in a literal slum wouldn¡¯t be too picky about what their doctor looked like.


    It was an idea, and it was the best one I had for now that didn¡¯t violate my morals.


    I was hungry, and I needed a source of income. I couldn¡¯t just keep leeching off of Sallia. Healing would give me a source of income, and also help me farm Achievement for curing people¡¯s injuries. I also felt good about healing people, so it was the ideal profession for me if I could pull it off.


    As I was thinking about ways to disguise my healing spell as a potion, I came across another idea.


    Perhaps I could pretend that I had drunk one of those ability potions that someone had mentioned earlier, and gotten a healing ability? It would be closest to the truth. Of course, it would also raise questions about what I was doing in a slum. Ability potions were rare and expensive, so the idea that I was wealthy enough to afford an ability potion but poor enough to live in the slums definitely raised some questions. But it seemed like the least problematic option overall, since it was the closest to the truth. There was a possibility that a local gang might try to kidnap me and force me to work for them, or threaten to hurt my mother¡­ but at least when it came to upfront combat ability, I could handle most things besides guns already. With Sallia¡¯s help, I felt that the two of us could probably handle a normal gang as long as we were careful. We just needed to make sure to avoid guns. And if I pretended that I had just gotten lucky enough to steal a potion and drink it, it would make far more sense than most other ideas I had.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to see if I can make myself look mysterious, and then go heal people as an ¡®ability user,¡± I said. ¡°It has some hidden long-term risks, but I think it¡¯s actually the least problematic development plan for myself in the future. And I think we can handle the risks involved. Are you willing to help me later on?¡±


    ¡°Absolument!¡± said Sallia. ¡°If you need me to help beat up some local gangsters or something, I can take them on. If you give me another couple days, I can probably handle guns pretty well, too. Are you planning on starting right now?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I need a way to deal with food. I can¡¯t just leech off of you, so I plan to get working on the problem right now. It¡¯ll take some time for word of mouth to spread, and I doubt a gang will act so quickly that we won¡¯t have an opportunity to build our second runes first. And with two runes we should be able to handle gangsters with guns.¡±


    ¡°Then let me come with you,¡± said Sallia, materializing her sword before twirling it around a few times. ¡°I have my swordsmanship back up to intermediate grade, so I can definitely help in a fight if one breaks out. I got metal control built for my first rune, and I¡¯m a good chunk of the way towards completing my second rune. I don¡¯t want to leave you alone when you¡¯re at your weakest.¡±


    I thought about it for a few moments, before I glanced at Sallia¡¯s house. Her home was also dilapidated and rotten. It wasn¡¯t anywhere near as bad as my house, but it was obvious that Sallia also wasn¡¯t living very well. She could definitely use some supplementary income too.


    I nodded, and grinned.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± I said.


    The two of us set off towards the deeper parts of the slums, to look for people in need of healing.

 Chapter 165: Fight

    After that, Sallia and I began roaming the streets, looking for an injured person I could use to prove my healing abilities. I was a little surprised that Sallia managed to slip away from her house so easily, since her parents seemed rather worried about Sallia¡¯s safety. However, Sallia simply shrugged.


    ¡°I spent a lot of time testing how the manifestation magic system works since I was waiting to build up my runes until I could talk with you and Felix,¡± she said. ¡°After all, this is my first time living in a world where guns exist, and I can sometimes hear gunshots at night. I was a little afraid to leave the street I live on, at least until I had a good idea how to defend myself. So my parents don¡¯t really expect me to move too far away from home. And we¡¯re poor, so my parents can¡¯t afford to spend every minute watching over me. Usually, they pay the old lady who lives down the street a bit of money to make sure someone is keeping an eye on me - but she¡¯s not too mobile, so she usually checks in with me and then just lays down to take a nap. As long as I get back before she wakes up, it¡¯ll be fine.¡± Sallia grinned. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m not going to let you take your first adventure in this world alone.¡±


    I thought about it, and nodded. I wasn¡¯t used to intentionally slipping behind the backs of caretakers, but Sallia was much more capable of defending herself than a normal four year old.


    As I thought about self-defense abilities, I realized I hadn¡¯t gotten a full list of Sallia¡¯s stats yet. ¡°What do your stats look like this time? I know you mentioned having Grade 7 Intelligence over the communication bracelet, but what about the rest?¡±


    ¡°Here,¡± said Sallia, before staring into the air for a moment. Then, through the communication bracelets, I saw Sallia¡¯s status screen appear in front of me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+123)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+125)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+108)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+122)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (30+92)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (40+82)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (20+78)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+83)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+83)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+117)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Sallia paused for a moment, and then frowned. ¡°By the way, do these friendship bracelets share my full status screen, or just my base stats?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s just base stats,¡± I said, frowning. ¡°I don¡¯t see the numbers from your runes tacked on anywhere.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°Well, in that case, keep in mind that my first rune is boosting all of my Physical and Mental stats by one grade. And I¡¯ve eaten enough meals from my noodle bowl that I¡¯ve bumped my Fortitude up a grade, since it was only two points away from the next grade to begin with. So I actually have Grade 8 strength and Agility, and so on.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Grade 4 Fortitude to start with is¡­ not ideal,¡± I said. ¡°Though it¡¯s better than grade 3, at least.¡±


    Sallia shuddered. ¡°Don¡¯t remind me. On our first world, I had to put up with Grade 3 Fortitude for months until I got my first rune built. With Grade 3 Fortitude you get sick from practically everything, and your body feels so fragile. You bruise so easily, and¡­¡± Sallia shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s just miserable.¡±


    I nodded, as I continued scanning Sallia¡¯s stats. ¡°That 10 extra points you put into Willpower really ended up making a difference.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°I¡¯m pretty glad I sank the points into it. I¡¯m a bit disappointed with my binding essence roll, though. Getting to use a new magic system is always exciting, but I only ended up with grade 5 in the stat. 1 Below average,¡± she said. ¡°On the other hand, it sounds like this world¡¯s magic system is really more of a crafting system than a combat magic system, so I might not even end up using it that much.¡± Sallia snorted. ¡°I¡¯ve never really been one for sitting down and tinkering with things for months or years on end. I prefer to start doing interesting things the moment I can properly defend myself. But I¡¯ll at least give it a try first.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure how I feel about this magic system either,¡± I said. ¡°For now, I intend to try to learn it, and I¡¯ll see if it ends up being useful to me later. In the worst case scenario, I can just fall back on my absorption and alteration essence systems,¡± I said. ¡°Those should really be sufficient for handling most threats in this world, at least as far as I can tell.¡±


    The two of us continued chatting as we walked through the streets, our barely out of toddler-age bodies moving deceptively quickly over the pavement.


    As we continued to talk, we ended up moving out of the territory controlled by Sallia¡¯s original gang.


    I started to notice that the people around us were once again giving us slightly more guarded looks than before. It was similar to what had happened when I first crossed into Sallia¡¯s area - if people didn¡¯t immediately recognize me as one of the ¡®locals,¡¯ people seemed to be afraid of interacting with me. They mostly kept their shoulders hunched and minded their own business.


    Which was a shame. I wanted people to know that I could heal others, so I had been trying to ask around, to see if anyone was hurt or injured and needed a helping hand. I didn¡¯t expect to just randomly find someone injured on the streets, after all. Knowing that an old lady had broken her hip and couldn¡¯t afford a bone-healing potion would have been the perfect way to start establishing my reputation as a healer. I could simply gather some information, and work out if I wanted to adopt some sort of ¡®disguise¡¯ later.


    Instead of finding someone to heal, after an hour or two of asking around, things got dangerous.


    Through a routine use of my water vapor sight, I caught sight of a few people with mechanical feet trailing after us. There were three of them, and they were looking at us with scowls.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    I frowned.


    Why were these people following us? I didn¡¯t think we had done anything to tread on the toes of the local gangs, at least not yet. I had expected a local gang to try to extort me for money once I started healing people, but I hadn¡¯t even started healing yet. Why were people already after us?


    I frowned, and tried to home in on the three men following us a little more carefully. I wanted to know if they had any guns on them.


    A moment later, I grinned.


    After using my water-vapor sight, I was pretty sure they didn¡¯t have guns on them. Two of them had poorly made knives, and the third had a metal pipe or crowbar. I wasn¡¯t sure which, since it was hard for me to precisely see things with my water vapor sight. But either way, it wouldn¡¯t pose a threat to the two of us. As long as nobody shot a gun at us, I was confident that we wouldn¡¯t be in any major danger against just three people.


    ¡°Three people following us,¡± I said. ¡°Probably teens? Less than 20, more than 15 years old.¡±


    Sallia frowned for a moment, before nodding. ¡°I see them too.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s duck into a few darker alleys and see if they follow us. If they do, let¡¯s see if we can beat them up. I want to know why they¡¯re following us.¡±


    Sallia nodded, and the two of us quickly ducked into a side alleyway. Then, we ducked into another side alleyway, moving into progressively darker and shoddier-looking areas until I ducked behind a pile of trash. Sallia, due to her superior agility and excellent strength, simply scampered up the side of a building like a humanoid spider, before easily bracing herself against a wall and sitting there. She even had the leisure to pull out a sword and prepare for a fight, showing exactly how little strain she felt while supporting her own body weight in midair with one arm.


    Sure enough, a few moments later, the three stepped into the alleyway after us.


    ¡°Where the fuck did the little midgets go?¡± said the one holding a crowbar. Immediately, I nodded to myself.


    ¡°Maybe they¡¯re trying to hide?¡± said the second person, frowning as he moved his hands closer to his pocket. ¡°Or maybe they ducked into a darkway or somethin¡¯?¡±


    ¡°They screamers?¡± asked the third.


    ¡°They were askin¡¯ too many questions,¡± said the third. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re from the ironheads, or maybe they¡¯re a hat. Either way, we can¡¯t have any more damn kids nosin¡¯ around. Ironheads keep hiring younger ones every week.¡±


    ¡°Really don¡¯t know where the little screamers went,¡± muttered the second one as he eyed the area cautiously. ¡°Did we lose ¡®em?¡±


    ¡°If so, we¡¯ll have to contact the boss,¡± said the first one. ¡°I don¡¯t wanna mess up something this basic, but if we screw up again and can¡¯t even rough up a couple kids for snoopin¡¯ around-¡±


    ¡°Kids are agile,¡± muttered the third person. ¡°Maybe they climbed over a wall or somethin¡¯?¡±


    As he said that, he started to look up - right towards were Sallia was.


    I reacted before I could finish processing the words of the gangsters.


    A small drop of water appeared above the leader¡¯s head, only a few centimeters away. Then, before the leader could say anything, the drop of water hit him on the head.


    The leader collapsed, dead on the spot.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a human with no ability for the first time.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +60


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I blinked. The Achievement gain for killing a human being was barely better than the reward for killing a basic skeleton.


    ¡°Mac? What¡¯s wrong with you? Mac?¡± asked the second thug, leaning over the corpse of his friend.


    ¡°Someone¡¯s above us!¡± yelled the thug who had been looking up.


    The other man looked up with surprise and - horror?


    Another drop of water materialized on top of him, before extinguish activated. His eyes dimmed moments later, before he dropped to the ground, dead.


    Sallia dropped towards the third person. The man tried to use his dagger to defend himself, but his weapon flung itself out of his hands as Sallia activated her rune ability. He died less than a second later.


    With a total of 60 Achievement from the fight, my total had gone from 662 to 722 Achievement.


    However, I felt¡­ strange after the battle.


    I didn¡¯t know how I felt at all, really.


    ¡°Miria? Are you all right?¡± asked Sallia.


    I realized I had gotten distracted. After killing the first two people, I had simply blanked out.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said. ¡°Just¡­¡±


    The men had been here for us. But one of the gangsters had mentioned that they were here to rough us up.


    They weren¡¯t here to kill us, but we had killed them.


    I felt odd about that.


    I wasn¡¯t sure how I felt about that at all.


    Trying to shake off my strange mood, I quickly checked through the skill I had gotten for killing a human for the first time.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Ordinary Human for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Human Innovation and Communication:


    Your Communication skills slightly improve, and your mental stats are all increased by +1.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This was probably the worst skill I had gotten from {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, at least as far as I could remember. +1 to my mental stats gave me a total of¡­ 3 stat points. Hardly impressive.


    At least, under normal circumstances it would be quite useless. However, as it happened, my Willpower stat was currently 159, including the +20 to my Willpower stat provided by my first rune. I equipped the new skill, and my Willpower stat increased from 159 to 160, pushing me into a new grade.


    I felt my willpower firm up and improve. My ability to focus, my mental resilience, and my ability to resist external magical influence drastically increased in a few moments, before settling into its new grade.


    Even though three stat points was quite a pathetic skill, it was certainly better than nothing, especially since it was useful now. Based on my current knowledge of this world, I doubted mental resistance was actually a particularly useful stat here, and grade 7 willpower was enough to help me focus and learn without being particularly distracted¡­ but it was still better to have the stat than not have the stat.


    Besides, Willpower still enhanced my brain a little bit. Even if the effects would be pretty minor, it would still help with controlling my first rune ability.


    Sallia¡¯s movements pulled me out of my thoughts. I saw her rifling through the pockets of the thugs we had killed. A few moments later, she pulled out a few pieces of paper money. I couldn¡¯t read, so I didn¡¯t know what the numbers on the paper money were, or what they meant.


    However, Sallia¡¯s movements, and the fact that she was looting the corpses of the thugs we had killed, brought my mind back to the fact that we had killed a few people who weren¡¯t here to kill us again.


    I.. didn¡¯t think it was wrong to defend myself. It wasn¡¯t even the first time I had killed a human being. On the islands, I had killed some of the Megailians that had been invading the islands, and I hadn¡¯t felt a speck of guilt. They had been clearly in our home and trying to kill us, as well as the other villagers in the area. I hadn¡¯t felt bad at all about defending myself.


    This should be the same. I had been defending myself.


    But the knowledge that the thugs hadn¡¯t been here to kill us somehow made it feel different in my mind. The last time I had killed someone, I had been purely reacting to the situation. They had tried to kill us first, and I had simply responded. This time, Sallia and I had definitely escalated the fight - or at least, potentially escalated it.


    Beating up a pair of four year olds might have very well been fatal for normal kids.


    Then again, maybe the thugs had intended to keep things as nonlethal as possible?


    I found my thoughts spinning around in my head.


    ¡°Miria? Are you okay?¡± asked Sallia, stepping closer to me.


    I blinked again, taken by surprise. I hadn¡¯t noticed my friend walking closer to me.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. I¡¯m just thinking,¡± I said.


    Sallia frowned, and opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something. And then she closed her mouth, and simply stared at me.


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know,¡± I said. ¡°I just¡­ my mother is a drug addict in this life, and then we killed a few thugs, and even though it was clearly self-defense, we also escalated the situation when it might have initially been nonlethal, and I just¡­¡± I sighed. ¡°This life is a mess.¡±


    Sallia took another step closer to me, and then gave me a hug.


    ¡°Here. Let¡¯s go get something to eat, and let¡¯s just talk a bit,¡± she said. ¡°I know you want to get your healing stuff going, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what you really need right now. We have enough food to last a few days, and we have magic that shouldn¡¯t exist on this planet. We have the ability to secure food easily enough. I think you need to just¡­ talk. Over a meal or something.¡±


    I thought about it for a moment, and then I found myself nodding.


    A moment later, the two of us set off once again. This time, we weren¡¯t looking for somebody injured to heal. We were looking for somewhere to just¡­ talk.

 Chapter 166: Food

    It proved much harder than expected to find a restaurant. After all, in the middle of the slums, while it was still possible to get food, this area was relatively impoverished, and so there weren¡¯t exactly bakeries lining the streets.


    However, after a bit of searching, Sallia and I ended up in the place where my mother most likely worked - the red light district. Unlike the rest of the slums, this area had a lot of abundant entertainment facilities. And, since plenty of wealthier people also visited the area to enjoy themselves, there were also plenty of restaurants, bakeries, and similar stores in the area.


    Before leaving the alleyway, we had looted the gangsters who had attacked us and found a few notes of money. After asking Anise, we learned that we were holding 1 arling and 42 Sterlings in our hands. One full meal for an adult male cost about 7 sterlings, and most adults ate two meals a day in this era. 50 sterlings made up 1 arling. So 1 arling and 42 sterlings was a pretty sizable sum of money for random kids, even if it was probably less than a week of pay for an average factory worker. Since Sallia and I were small, we ate much less than the average grown man, so the money was enough to splurge on one meal and then store some food for the future.


    I estimated that I could stretch the money to last me a month if I ate conservatively. Not a bad haul.


    ¡°We should probably avoid spending too much at any one place,¡± I said. ¡°If anyone sees two four year old kids spending a bunch of money, they¡¯ll know something is wrong.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll think we nicked the money,¡± said Sallia. ¡°But we should still avoid spending too much in one place. Two four year olds holding a decent amount of money will make us seem like easy targets. Though you are right that nobody in their right mind will trace the deaths of those thugs to us. In this world, nobody would expect a four year old to do any sort of fighting.¡±


    I blinked.


    I had¡­ forgotten that. I was very used to the notion that even a four year old could be incredibly dangerous when armed with the right spells, since in our previous two worlds, magic was an incredibly potent and powerful combat method. But in this world, magic was mostly related to item creation.


    Perhaps I had been overly cautious all this time? Since magic was so rare here, people were spectacularly unlikely to think of four year olds as being dangerous. Of course, that also meant that people wouldn¡¯t hesitate to mess with me. In our second world, an adult male challenging a teenage witch would have been considered a suicidal madman. And a few seconds later, they would probably be charcoal. In this world, a grown man could probably punch out a trained alchemist without issue. Magic was both common and nonthreatening, so even if Sallia and I could probably fight a smaller gang on our own and win, people would still think of us as weak until we proved otherwise.


    It was a strange thought. I mulled over it for a few seconds, thinking about how drastically the presence and type of magic in the world could alter the way people thought about each other, before I decided to focus on food again.


    ¡°Either way, best not to draw attention to ourselves. Let¡¯s spend half an arling at one shop, and then half an arling at a few other shops, stock up on food and other necessities, and then stick it all in my backpack. And let¡¯s also stay away from shops in the same area,¡± I said.


    Sallia paused, and then shook her head. ¡°I think we should get a nice meal first. You really need to relax a little. You seem pretty stressed out. Let¡¯s relax a little and then make a more concrete plan.¡±


    I paused, and then nodded.


    Finally, after searching through the red light district for a while, the two of us found a restaurant that was open.


    The woman standing behind the counter looked to be a little on the plump side, and wore a chef¡¯s apron. The fact that she was a bit chubby caught me off guard, considering how scarce food usually was in the slums. It had been a while since I saw plump people.


    Clearly, she wasn¡¯t financially struggling at all.


    She gave me and Sallia a distrustful eye each, before snorting. ¡°My shop doesn¡¯t do handouts. If you want to beg, go to the church or look somewhere else. I don¡¯t need little thieves wandering into the shop and looking for things to steal. Shoo! Shoo!¡± she waved violently towards the door, before shooing us out of the shop.


    I sighed, and we quickly left the shop. I took a look at myself, and realized I was still wearing the ragged dress my mother had put on me over my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress}. It did indeed look like I was a beggar of some sort. However, even if I spent a lot of time changing around the style of the {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress}, it would still look far too nice for this area.


    We spent another ten minutes carefully moving from one shop to the next, this time taking more care to pick which shop we went to eat at. We wanted a restaurant that looked like it was doing well enough that it wouldn¡¯t feed us moldy bread. However, we also didn¡¯t want a shop so well-off for the slum area that it would kick us out for looking like ragamuffin street kids.


    Finally, we found a shop that met our requirements. It looked and smelled like a bakery.


    The old man behind the counter had a somewhat gruff expression, but when he saw us, his gaze grew a little bit gentler.


    At least, for a fraction of a second, before it returned to a more normal, indifferent look.


    ¡°What are you two doing in here?¡± he asked, giving us careful looks. ¡°I don¡¯t do handouts.¡±


    ¡°We can pay for food!¡± I said.


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    The man frowned, then looked at my ragged clothes and Sallia¡¯s ragged clothes. Then, he sighed. ¡°Get lucky today? Fine, I won¡¯t ask where the money came from. What do you want to buy?¡±


    I nodded, and quickly checked the prices in the man¡¯s shop.


    This shop appeared to be a bakery that also sold some soup. The bakery side had a few different kinds of bread, but the majority of the bread types seemed pretty basic. And at the back, there was a bin of slightly older-looking bread. It had started to harden up, and wasn¡¯t quite as soft-looking as the loaves of bread near the front of the shop. The loaves of slightly stale bread also didn¡¯t smell quite as nice.


    I pointed at the bin of slightly stale bread.


    ¡°What kind of bread is that?¡±


    ¡°Discount bread,¡± he said. ¡°Sometimes I prepare some extra bread because I think sales will be better the next day. I¡¯m usually right but¡­ not always,¡± he said with a shrug. ¡°Last week, sales didn¡¯t go up as much as I expected, so I have some slightly stale bread laying around. I¡¯m selling it for five sterlings instead of the usual seven. You want it?¡±


    I grinned, and nodded.


    ¡°One loaf for both of you?¡±


    ¡°And some soup, please,¡± I said, eyeing the soup menu on the side of the wall. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t read it either.


    ¡°What kind of soup are you selling?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t read?¡± asked the man, before shaking his head.


    ¡°You see this letter here? It makes a ¡®ku¡¯ sound. Then, this one makes a ¡®la¡¯ sound, and this makes a ¡®ren¡¯ sound. So this is kularen soup. I only sell one kind of soup each day.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s a kularen?¡± I asked.


    ¡°A kind of vegetable. It has a hearty flavor. It tastes pretty good. Do you want to try it?¡±


    I nodded.


    Then, I paused, and smiled at the man.


    ¡°Thank you for teaching me those letters,¡± I said.


    The man gave me another, softer grin.


    ¡°No worries. Least I can do for paying customers,¡± He said, with a grin. ¡°One bowl for both of you?¡±


    ¡°Should be fine,¡± said Sallia. ¡°We¡¯re a bit small.¡±


    The man cackled. ¡°True enough. Two sterlings for a smaller bowl of soup good?¡±


    ¡°Yes please! And can we have a table near the back of the shop?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. Usually takes another hour or two for people to really start coming in. Seven sterlings in total,¡± said the man. ¡°And my name¡¯s old Mo.¡± he gave me a slightly larger grin.


    I smiled back.


    ¡°My name is Miria,¡± I said. I had a decent feeling about the man, and even if I turned out to be wrong, I doubted he could do anything to hurt me just from knowing my name.


    ¡°Sallia,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°Nice to meet both of you little ladies,¡± he said, before quickly showing us a table we could occupy. It was far enough away from the front that we could talk in peace, without fear of being overheard. Then, he gave us a friendly smile, before disappearing towards the kitchen.


    After seeing the walking catastrophe of my mother¡¯s drug addiction, having a nice, normal chat with somebody felt¡­ amazing.


    A few minutes later, he plopped down one of the pieces of stale bread and a big bowl of kularen soup in front of Sallia and I.


    The kularen soup looked kind of like someone had stuffed a bunch of purple carrots into a broth, along with a few other vegetables. It smelled nice, although I decided not to think too hard about what exactly I was eating.


    It did taste nice and warm, though, and with the bread to mop up the soup broth, it tasted lovely. The soup broth also softened up the stale bread, making it taste decent.


    ¡°So, let¡¯s talk,¡± said Sallia, after old Mo went back to the front of the bakery/restaraunt.


    I paused, and then sighed.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s,¡± I said.


    ¡°You seem stressed out,¡± said Sallia, temporarily switching to the language we had spoken on the islands to prevent any unnoticed eavesdroppers from listening to our conversation. ¡°Not just stressed out. You seem¡­ uncertain?¡± she said. ¡°I think? I¡¯m not used to that.¡± She smiled at me. ¡°When you were living in the islands with me, it never seemed like you were unsure what to do. You always had some kind of plan. Your plans were usually insane, and they did get us killed, but you were never worried about how to move forward.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just¡­¡± I sighed. ¡°Everything. I¡¯ve done a lot of insane things, but I always had people I cared about pushing me forward. I mean, in my first life, if we hadn¡¯t pushed back the invaders, my parents would have suffered or died under the rule of the outsiders. And in the second world, if we didn¡¯t find a way to push back the black sun, I thought that maybe that world would die, along with us and everyone we cared about. But I¡¯ve never had doubts about my family itself. Every single time I¡¯ve been reincarnated so far, loving my family, and knowing that they cared about me and prioritized my well-being was¡­ easy, I guess.¡± I said. ¡°I didn¡¯t need to think about it. My family loved me, and I loved them, and there wasn¡¯t anything more to think about in that respect. This life, I haven¡¯t even properly communicated with my mother - she¡¯s drugged out almost all the time, and the one time she wasn¡¯t drugged out, she said she was sorry and cried while holding me. But¡­¡± I sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t know. She¡¯s slowly killing herself - and it¡¯s just¡­ I¡¯m worried.¡±


    ¡°Worried?¡± asked Sallia, before stuffing a heel of soup-soaked bread into her mouth.


    ¡°Worried,¡± I said. ¡°Can I heal her? Even if I do¡­ will it matter?¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°I mean, I know I can heal the physical aspects of addiction, given enough time. I can even regrow limbs that have been severed. I¡¯m sure I can heal whatever drugs do the physical body. But¡­¡± I paused, sinking into thought as I arranged my words. ¡°Addiction is really complex, and usually stems from a mixture of physical and psychological factors. I suspect that I can¡¯t heal the psychological factors¡­ and I also can¡¯t fix whatever made my mother turn to drugs in the first place. Maybe I can figure out how to alter my spell a bit more, or come up with some creative use of the madness component of my abilities to fix it, but¡­ I don¡¯t know if I can do so in a reasonable time frame. And I¡¯m also very afraid to experiment with magi that messes with people¡¯s minds. Odds are decent that I accidentally turn my mother into a vegetable instead of curing her.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any guesses what caused her to start using drugs?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°I noticed that there are no hints of a father at all in the house. That could be linked, or might be random. Maybe he died, and mother started using drugs after that? Or maybe he left?¡± I shook my head. ¡°That¡¯s my best guess, but honestly, I have no idea.¡±


    Sallia paused, as if thinking for a moment, and then got up from her chair, and moved over to me. Then, she folded me into a gentle hug, and gently stroked my head.


    ¡°It¡¯ll be all right,¡± she said softly. ¡°Whatever happens, I know that you¡¯re a strong enough person to overcome it. And I¡¯ll be here to help. Not just me, but Anise and Felix as well.¡±


    My eyes started watering a little bit as I let my best friend hug me.


    For a moment, at least, I felt safe and happy again.

 Chapter 167: Talk

    After a few minutes of just letting my friend hug me, the two of us separated again, and we finished eating. However, a few questions kept swirling around in my head. Ones that I had never considered before. Now that I felt a little bit less bad, I had time to really think about my own actions, and what I wanted in the future.


    When was I okay with escalating a fight to the point of lethality?


    When was I willing to cut my losses, and stop caring about someone?


    Could I stop caring about someone?


    How did I want to act in future worlds to remain true to myself, while also being able to adapt to the local culture?


    When I expressed these thoughts to Sallia, she shrugged.


    ¡°I think you need to decide for yourself, Mir,¡± she said. ¡°But personally, I think that you would be sad if you resorted to violence against people you didn¡¯t think deserved it. So I guess for the first question, it¡¯s a matter of who you feel deserves to be hurt. I think the big reason the deaths of those thugs seem to be bothering you is that you weren¡¯t totally resolved that they deserved it.¡±


    ¡°What makes you think I care so much about who ¡®deserves¡¯ to be attacked?¡± I asked. I didn¡¯t disagree with Sallia¡¯s words, but I was curious.


    Sallia smiled. ¡°Because you try so very, very hard to be a good person,¡± she said.


    I blinked, and looked at her in confusion.


    ¡°Do you remember our first world? The islands world, where I could barely do anything?¡± asked Sallia.


    I nodded.


    ¡°I felt sad a lot of the time there. I felt like I was so full of potential, and I was so eager to make something out of myself - but I couldn¡¯t do anything. My body¡¯s innate potential was just too low,¡± said Sallia. ¡°During those days, you and Felix were like my beacons of light. You made me feel hopeful, and even though nothing worked perfectly, in the end, I got by. And in our last world, we might have died horrifically¡­ but we tried as best we could to shut down the portal and save the world. We may have failed catastrophically, but I¡¯m happy with who I am as a person when we try to make the worlds we encounter better places. I¡¯ve never made a decision that I¡¯ve regretted since I met you and Felix.¡± Then, her eyes turned serious, and for a moment, it looked like she was trying to stare straight through me.


    ¡°I think that this world will be hard for you,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Living in the slums means that we¡¯re going to need to handle a lot of things we¡¯ve never handled before. People being bad a lot more often, and bad things happening often. We¡¯ve never had to deal with that on a deeply personal level before. And I think that it¡¯ll be hard for you to watch if something bad is happening in front of you, even if it might get you caught up in trouble that you wouldn¡¯t otherwise be involved in.¡± Sallia shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s a good thing or not. But I do think that¡¯s what makes you¡­ well, you. And we¡¯re also going to get into more situations like this one. Times were people attack us, but maybe don¡¯t intend to kill us. Or maybe kids that are younger than us might try to rob us - I can definitely imagine that happening, and I can also imagine you freezing up in that situation.¡± Sallia sighed.


    ¡°Either way, I think you¡¯ll charge into trouble, but have a hard time figuring out what decisions are right for you. I can¡¯t give you a list of answers that you¡¯ll like - but I can be here with you while you figure out what you want and what you don¡¯t want, at least.¡±


    ¡°What makes you think I¡¯m just going to charge into trouble?¡± I asked, cradling the still-warm bowl of soup. I tried not to think about the thugs that we had killed.


    Sallia was right. The reason I was hesitating so much over having killed them was because I wasn¡¯t sure that they deserved to die. They had intended to beat us, but it hadn¡¯t sounded like they meant to kill us. That made me feel guilty for killing them, even if a grown man beating a four year old kid still definitely gave us some right to self-defense. I wasn¡¯t sure if that extended to lethal countermeasures, but if I had broken their arms, or something, I wouldn¡¯t have felt guilty at all.


    ¡°The reason I''m sure you¡¯ll charge into trouble this life is your attitude towards your mother,¡± said Sallia, chuckling. ¡°If my mother was addicted to drugs and barely functioning, I probably wouldn¡¯t put much effort into trying to heal her. It may sound cruel and selfish, but¡­ after four lives, I¡¯m a lot less attached to things like biology than before. If someone gives birth to me, that¡¯s nice, but I won¡¯t wade through hell for them. If they give me love and respect, that¡¯s one thing - I¡¯ll be happy to return it. But so far, your mother has brought guilt and neglect to your doorstep. Not love.¡±


    I paused, thinking about the time my mother had sobbed and apologized to me. Despite obviously feeling guilty about her actions, she had never shown that she truly valued me more than her drugs. I didn¡¯t know if that was because she was lost in the haze of her drugs, or if it was because she had always valued the drugs over me¡­ but I at least wanted to find out if she could change.


    And based on Sallia¡¯s words, that was already weird.


    Sallia chuckled. ¡°See? You¡¯re still thinking about trying to help her. I know that expression. You make it when you¡¯re about to do something dumb that might get you into trouble.¡± she sighed, and stroked my head again. ¡°I won¡¯t stop you. But remember - some people can¡¯t be saved. Not everyone can act in their own best interest. Even if you give someone every single chance to get to a better place¡­ they don¡¯t always take that chance. Anyway, what I¡¯m saying is that I want you to remember that sometimes, you can cut your losses and say that it¡¯s someone else¡¯s mess. We¡¯ve had four families now - and in the future, we¡¯re going to have even more. Not all of them are going to be good people, and not all of them are going to be in a good place, either. So you don¡¯t have to be responsible for everyone¡¯s problems just because they¡¯re related to you.¡± She gave one last, quick hug.


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    ¡°And I also want you to remember that I¡¯m here for you. No matter what. You¡¯re the big sister I never had in my first life. No matter what happens, I will always be there for you.¡± And then, Sallia chuckled. ¡°So I¡¯ll help you with whatever you want to do, okay? For now, we¡¯ll see if we can find a way to get your mother cleaned up, and if that doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯ll go from there.¡±


    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said.


    ¡°No problem at all,¡± said Sallia. Then, she laughed, patted me on the shoulder, and helped me stand up.


    ¡°Do you feel better?¡± she asked.


    I paused, and thought about Sallia¡¯s question for a moment.


    Did I feel better?


    A bit. There was a feeling of normalcy now, that hadn¡¯t been present before. Seeing Sallia, and just getting a nice dinner at a random restaurant and talking made me feel more normal again.


    And when my food situation was chaotic, I lived in the middle of gangland, and my mother was addicted to drugs, I valued whatever shreds of normalcy I could get my hands on.


    I smiled.


    ¡°I still have a lot of things I need to think about, but I feel better,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you pulled me out of my thoughts for a bit.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d do the same for me if I needed it,¡± said Sallia, her voice oozing confidence. ¡°Besides, I just wanted to go on a lunch date with you and hang out for a while.¡±


    After that, the two of us stopped talking in islander, reverting back to this country¡¯s language.


    After a few hours, we finished our bowl of soup and bread, thanked Old Mo for letting us sit at our table way past the time he probably should have let us hang around, and left. Old Mo gave us cheery grins as we made our way out of the shop, and I decided to memorize the way to Old Mo¡¯s bakery. Maybe in the future I would come back to this shop more often.


    Sallia and I parted ways and started making our way home after that.


    As I walked back home, I continued to occasionally use my ability to check my surroundings for people following me. Some gang members had already showed up, after all, and I wouldn¡¯t be totally surprised if more came. I wanted to be aware of any potential threats before I got shot in the back of the head. Luckily, nobody followed me, leaving me alone with my thoughts.


    When I returned home, I found my mother laying in her usual corner, a glazed expression in her eyes as she shivered in throes of her drugs.


    I hesitated for a moment, before I walked up to her.


    ¡°Mom?¡± I asked.


    She didn¡¯t respond.


    ¡°Mom? Can we talk?¡± I wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to broach the conversation topic with her, but I couldn¡¯t just keep doing nothing, either. Since I couldn¡¯t really make progress against my mother¡¯s addiction without her consciously making an effort to improve, I needed to talk with her.


    Unfortunately, my mother was unable to talk right now.


    I tried a few more times, even going as far as tapping her on the forehead and splashing a bit of water on her face. But she didn¡¯t respond at all.


    I felt a glimmer of a dark, empty emotion well up in my stomach when I saw my mother laying helpless and unresponsive in the corner of the room again, and I realized that I had felt it before.


    I went to bed a few minutes later, still thinking about my own emotions and what I wanted in this life.


    As I lay in bed and thought, thoughts started to flash through my mind.


    Faces of people I had lost appeared in my thoughts, one by one.


    Silas and Astra, the parents of my first life.


    Olav and the members of the flying boat I had been on in the islands.


    Laura, my bratty sister from the second world.


    Ruman and Lauren, my two older brothers.


    Ella, the woman who had taught me shaping and adopted me when my first set of parents disappeared into the tunnels.


    Face after face of people I had cared about and lost flashed through my mind, and I realize why I had been so ready to resort to lethal violence during our encounter with the thugs.


    I was hurt. Every single time I lost someone I cared about, it hurt. And That made me want to train harder, so that I wouldn''t lose anyone again. But I just kept losing people every single life. And I was also terrified that in a few lives, the four of us wouldn¡¯t succeed in gaining the right to buy more lives. The monsters we had seen so far in the Market were already powerful and dangerous. Even if we hadn¡¯t seen the creature that guarded wherever we could buy more lives, I was sure it was going to be terrifying. So I was always desperately training and trying to reach an imaginary goal I felt I needed to reach, because I was always afraid of losing Sallia, Felix, or Anise.


    So I was trapped in a cycle of constantly training, constantly hurting, and constantly being afraid of the next loss. That was definitely affecting my mind. I hadn¡¯t noticed it yet, but the constant loss and fear of more loss was like a disease, lurking underneath my emotions and ready to pounce at any time. I was also becoming very used to violence being both common, and the best solution to any problem I encountered. Monsters weren¡¯t exactly known for reasoning with people, after all, and the invaders from my first life also would have probably invaded the island even if I tried to talk them out of it.


    I was as taut as a bowstring about to snap, and I hadn''t even realized it yet.


    I had been rushing this life, trying so hard to prevent another loss, but I hadn''t een realized that I was rushing until now.


    I sighed as I continued to lay in bed, trapped in my own thoughts.


    It took a long time for me to finally fall asleep.

 Chapter 168: Nations and States

    The supplies Sallia and I had secured from Old Mo¡¯s store were more than enough to last me for a few weeks, and Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl could extend that time to over a month if I ate cautiously. My mother¡¯s condition wasn¡¯t urgent either, and Felix¡¯s situation could wait until I got a bit stronger.


    The most important thing I did with that time was to advance my magic.


    My runes came along nicely, and with about a week of work, I established my second rune.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form your second rune (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support runes, although it does somewhat support absorption spellcasting. moderate Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +140


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Using the same water-vapor visualization I had used for my first rune ability, I created the ability to teleport objects near me to other places with their momentum completely intact. The idea was to teleport away a bullet, and hopefully, return it to its sender. Since I wasn¡¯t teleporting myself, the difficulty of teleporting things was a bit higher - I could probably only teleport things about the size of my arm, or smaller. However, I felt that was more than enough to handle the weapons of this world. After all, bullets were quite small.


    I also noticed that when I used both of my rune abilities at the same time, I had a certain¡­ odd feeling. I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it, but when both feelings overlapped with each other, I felt as if I was the water vapor around me, gazing upon the world with eyes that saw everything with a cold indifference that I couldn¡¯t quite wrap my head around.


    It was a very strange sensation, but also quite interesting. It was sort of similar to the one and only time I had managed to raise a magic-related skill to basic grade during our last life, although it was several times more pronounced. I suspected that if I kept training that sensation, I would eventually get access to an interesting magic skill. It was something to work towards.


    Apart from my second rune, I also managed to push my attunement back to intermediate grade. I also continued to heal my mother every night, trying to reverse the damage drugs had done to her body.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Intermediate] Grade attunement (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support alteration spellcasting. Significant Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    These two Achievement rewards, combined, pushed my Achievement from 722 Achievement to 962. A little over half of the cost to raise another Stat from +20 to +40.


    Unfortunately, many of my earlier suspicions proved correct. While I was now slowly reversing some of the physical changes wrought by years of drug abuse, I couldn¡¯t interact with the psychological aspects of addiction at all. In other words, while I could heal some of my mother¡¯s drug addiction using magic, I couldn¡¯t heal everything. If my mother wanted to recover, she herself would also need to make a concerted, conscious effort to get better. I could make that path easier for her and reduce or remove a lot of the difficulties - but I couldn¡¯t just wave my hand and magic away every part of the problem.


    Which was a huge disappointment for me. It was the first time I had run into such a notable limitation for my healing spells. I could even regrow limbs, but it seemed that fixing the messed up chemistry of an altered human brain was far more difficult than regrowing an arm or leg.


    Still, for now, I wanted to focus on healing my mother a bit more before I sat down and had a talk with her. I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to broach the subject, and apart from seeing my mother in a blissed-out haze, I hadn¡¯t talked with her yet. I had worked up my courage to talk with her a few times, but¡­ frankly, I had yet to see my mother while she was sober, and most of the time she was blissed out, she seemed to act more on autopilot than out of any conscious thought. It was to the point where I was a little concerned about how she got home safely every morning. I hoped that once my healing had progressed a bit more, my mother might be a bit more conscious, and thus make it more possible to have a proper conversation. That was the best I could do for now.


    For now, I also put off my intentions of establishing myself as a ¡®mysterious hooded healer.¡¯ Now that I had a better idea why I was behaving the way I did, I had realized that I really was rushing things a bit because I felt stressed out. With food secured, for the next month or two, I could try to slow down a bit, put myself together emotionally, and come up with a less problematic plan that was less likely to blow up in my face.


    As for the gangsters Sallia and I had killed, neither of us saw any sort of follow-up repercussion appear. Whatever the local gangs had made of the mysterious deaths, they clearly hadn¡¯t linked it to us, which was good enough for me.


    Finally, I spent my off-time doing something I had never tried doing before.


    I tried to find a hobby.


    Once I had realized how much the feedback loop of anxiety, loss, and fear was getting to me, I realized that I really couldn¡¯t let it continue. Even if it was reasonable to be afraid of losing people, I couldn¡¯t let it control my entire life - because I wouldn¡¯t like the person I became if that happened. After more reflection, I didn¡¯t think I was wrong for responding to the attack of the thugs with lethal force. Beating a four year old had a pretty high chance of resulting in death, after all. So I was still reacting against potentially lethal force.


    But I wanted to be in more control over how I reacted and my own emotions.


    However, I really wasn¡¯t sure where to start when looking for a hobby. So I asked my friends for suggestions.


    Felix seemed interested in having someone to nerd out about when he talked about crafting, so he recommended I try picking up some sort of item creation as a hobby. I already had some basic foundation in making items, since I had spent four years as an apprentice bone carver under master Arne during our time on the islands. I decided to go for wood this time. So I found little blocks of scrap wood and carved them into artistic shapes using my sword.


    To be honest, I was surprisingly okay at carving. I still needed a lot of practice if I wanted to get good at carving art out of blocks of wood, since my skills were rusty after decades of disuse and I was more used to making functional tools than artwork. But I could see certain hints of talent in my carvings. When I sent pictures to my friends using the bracelet, they were able to figure out what I was trying to carve, which meant that I was at least all right at making the carvings.


    But I wasn¡¯t having fun with it, so I ended up dropping the carving after a few days. It just wasn¡¯t speaking to me as a method of relaxation.


    After that, Anise suggested storytelling or singing, which sounded a lot more interesting to me. I had fond memories of telling Anise stories about our times on the islands back when she hadn¡¯t known anything about the Market. Anise mentioned that in this country, there was a pretty popular form of song-storytelling she was fond of, and recommended I try it out.


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    And ultimately, I discovered that I enjoyed quite a bit more.


    I had never really sang all that much in our previous lives - there had never been much of a reason to, and I had never thought that much about music. In our first world, our society was barely out of the stone age. Besides some basic humming, the villagers hadn¡¯t really been very musically inclined. In our second world, while there had been a few bards kicking around in the city, the world had been slowly dying, and people just weren¡¯t that focused on music.


    But when I tried humming a few songs that Anise was able to convey via bracelets, to my surprise, I ended up really enjoying the feeling of just¡­ putting emotions into my singing. I quickly discovered that I enjoyed the musical aspect more than the storytelling aspect, but I ultimately liked both. I couldn¡¯t sing very loudly, because I didn¡¯t want to disturb the neighbors. But I found the experience relaxing. Some of the stress and fear from seeing my mother caught in a haze of drugs every day seemed to slip away from my shoulders when I sang.


    I liked it very much.


    So I decided to practice a bit, and maybe drag Sallia into a singing session with me or show off a bit in the future. I also arranged for a meeting with her at Old Mo¡¯s restaurant again, to figure out a better way to handle long-term finances and just hang out. Both of us were mobile and able to defend ourselves, and I had gotten a good feeling from Old Mo last time. I was also vaguely hoping that if he was in a good mood, he might teach me how to read - I hated the feeling of being illiterate again, and I doubted my mother was in any state to help me learn to read right now.


    However, my thoughts were brought to a screeching halt by Old Mo¡¯s greeting that day.


    ¡°Haven¡¯t seen you two in a while,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure if you two would ever come back. It¡¯s nice to have a bit more business. Things have slowed down a bit since the war started.¡±


    ¡°War?¡± I asked.


    Old Mo nodded. ¡°Or so I hear, at least.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t heard of it,¡± I said. I glanced at Sallia to see her reaction.


    Sallia furrowed her brows.


    ¡°Who are we at war with?¡± asked Sallia.


    ¡°Well¡­ most of our neighbors, I think,¡± said Old Mo, scratching his head. ¡°I heard a few of the soldiers who were coming to my shop after¡­ spending some time getting to know a few ladies last night.¡± He cleared his throat. ¡°They were a bit drunk, and mentioned that a few days ago, war was declared. They weren¡¯t too clear on all of the details when they were talking to me - probably because they were hungover.¡± Old Mo sighed, and shook his head. ¡°Anyway, I guess that probably doesn¡¯t mean much to you two, if you¡¯re still wandering around. No males that can get conscripted into the army in your family?¡±


    I blinked, and then shook my head. ¡°My father is either dead, or left. No clue which.¡±


    ¡°My father doesn¡¯t have an arm. The army isn¡¯t bored enough to conscript him,¡± said Sallia.


    Mo frowned. ¡°No arm replacement, either? I wouldn¡¯t think it¡¯s that hard to at least find a cheap replacement. Is his alchemy essence so low that he can¡¯t even get a basic prosthetic working?¡±


    Sallia gave Old Mo a blank look, and I tried hard not to stare.


    Alchemy¡­ errr, binding essence¡­ was linked to prosthetics? I had noticed that a lot of people in this world had metal additions to their body, and had wondered about how that was possible, considering how complex prosthetic limbs needed to be. Maybe this world¡¯s binding essence provided some kind of shortcut?


    The idea was fascinating to me. I glanced around the shop, and confirmed that there weren¡¯t any other customers.


    Which meant that I could drag Old Mo over to our table and chat with him over a meal, hopefully. He seemed fine chatting with Sallia and I, and I suddenly had two major topics I wanted to learn about. Actually, three topics - I was still hoping to ask if Old Mo would be willing to teach me a few more letters, too.


    ¡°Got any bargain bread?¡± I asked.


    ¡°One loaf left.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll take it, and a bowl of soup,¡± said Sallia. Then, before I could pay, she quickly grabbed a handful of sterlings, carefully counted out the correct amount, and shoved it at Old Mo. ¡°Can we get the same spot as last time?¡±


    ¡°Of course. Thanks for the patronage,¡± said Old Mo. Then, he made his way towards the kitchen, to prepare a bowl of soup for us. While Old Mo was away, I began to think.


    I still needed a steady source of income. Getting started as a healer was proving¡­ unexpectedly difficult. It would be fine once we were a bit older or had better ways to disguise ourselves. But my attempts at getting started as a healer, so far, had gotten Sallia and I turned around, left us wandering the streets for several hours, and then had one of the local gangs try to give us a beating, which had ultimately ended up with three fatalities. I felt less bad about killing the three thugs now - but I didn¡¯t really want to repeat the experience.


    When Old Mo came out with our meal, I decided that there were four things I wanted to talk about with him. ¡°Old Mo¡­. do you need any help?¡± I asked, tentatively. ¡°With cooking prep, or anything like that?¡±


    Old Mo gave me a curious glance. ¡°Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°I mean¡­ in exchange for teaching us letters. And maybe a spare meal every now and then?¡± I said.


    Old Mo frowned. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re interested in learning to read - some kids don¡¯t even want to learn, which isn¡¯t good. These days, it¡¯s becoming more and more important to read. But as for help in the restaurant¡­ let me think about it for a while.¡±


    He looked¡­ hesitant.


    I couldn¡¯t blame him. He might think that I would just be a burden in the bakery. He seemed like a good person, but that didn¡¯t mean he was obligated to personally take care of me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it if it¡¯s not possible,¡± I said. ¡°I just wanted to do something to help you, since you seem like a decent person. And I was also thinking of maybe finding a reliable source of food. I figured it was worth a shot.¡±


    Old Mo nodded, and seemed to fall into thought.


    ¡°So¡­ what about the war?¡± I asked, trying to divert Old Mo¡¯s attention back towards a different topic. I didn¡¯t want to make him feel awkward by bringing up the idea of me helping out in the restaurant again. If he was willing, that would be great, but if he wasn¡¯t, I wouldn¡¯t hold it against him. He was willing to accept money he thought was stolen, and even taught Sallia and I a few letters. He was doing enough to help out, and if he didn¡¯t want to do any more that was perfectly reasonable.


    ¡°Well¡­ we¡¯re at war,¡± said Old Mo, after a few more moments.


    ¡°With who?¡± I asked. ¡°What are the details?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ well, we¡¯re at war with the Ennalian empire, and four of the five other major powers,¡± asked Old Mo.


    I frowned.


    Four of the five other major powers? So were we just at war with most of the continent?


    ¡°Why are we fighting five countries on our own?¡± I asked.


    ¡°We¡¯re not. Uhh¡­ we and the Ennalian empire are the two strongest countries on the continent, and we fight a lot. And then there are five other countries that are weaker than us, but still fairly strong. They usually ally with either us or the Ennalians. Right now, most of them are allied with the Ennalians, but the Verin principality is still allied with us,¡± he said.


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked.


    ¡°The steam engine was born in our country, and that scares a lot of people. So they¡¯re trying to band together and keep our nation from dominating the Ennalians,¡± he said. ¡°They probably think that if we defeat the Ennalians, we¡¯ll try to conquer the rest of the continent afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Are they right?¡± I asked, even forgetting my questions about alchemy as I thought about the implications of a major war between all of the continental powers.


    If this war went poorly for our nation¡­ I did not like the idea of being caught up in a massive, continent-wide war as it swept through the city.


    Old Mo thought about it for a few seconds.


    ¡°Probably,¡± he said. ¡°But I doubt anything will change much this war. Wars happen every decade or two. It¡¯s just a part of life.¡±


    I frowned, and started thinking to myself.


    The Slums, war, Felix¡¯s status as the first artificial human¡­


    This world really was a mess.

 Chapter 169: Wars and Gangs

    Sallia and I left Old Mo¡¯s bakery a few hours later, though I felt dazed for a lot of it.


    I had never seen a modern war. The closest I had ever come to experiencing a war was the conflict between the islanders and the Megailian Empire. However, if there was a war between modernized nations with gunpowder, mechanical prosthetics, and flying ships¡­ it was obvious that the number of people, as well as the amount of destruction and death would be far higher than I was used to.


    I suppressed the urge to shiver as I thought about the war.


    If it had been during our previous two lives, I might have thought about whether there was any reason for the four of us to help one side. After all, the four of us could, quite easily, change the tides of battle between two stone-age villages entirely by ourselves, and even in a battle between weaker bronze-age nations, the four of us could potentially change part of the battlefield.


    However, in a war between modern armies, I seriously doubted the four of us could make any impact at all. I could probably kill a dozen people using extinguish now, and Sallia could utterly crush any combatants in a close-range fight. With the four of us together, favorable terrain, and the ability to run after we started running low on essence, I was guessing that we could fight dozens, or even a hundred organized soldiers together, based on the strength of this world¡¯s inhabitants and technology.


    According to Old Mo, our nation currently fielded a professional army of close to 500,000 people, and could immediately levy more troops if needed. I couldn¡¯t even make a dent in a small corner of a battlefield with that number of troops, and Sallia would probably run out of essence and get shot to pieces if she tried to charge such a large army.


    After a few more moments of contemplation, I shook my head. The war was just too big for us to interact with safely. We were better off staying as far away from the battlefield as possible.


    For now, at least, the war probably wouldn¡¯t affect us too much. Not to mention, my own personal reasons to intervene in a war were pretty weak this time. I didn¡¯t feel particularly close to my neighbors in this life, unlike when we had lived on the islands. I wasn¡¯t sure if this was because of the anxiety spiral I had fallen into over the past few worlds, or if it had something to do with the culture of the slums, but either way, I didn¡¯t care very much about this city or its inhabitants. I still didn¡¯t want innocent people to get hurt, of course - but I also wouldn¡¯t risk my neck in a potentially suicidal plan just to keep the people of this city safe. In other words, I didn¡¯t feel very patriotic in this life.


    If an army invaded the city, the first thing I would think about would be how to keep Felix, Sallia, Anise, and maybe my mother safe. Everyone outside of that circle would simply have to look out for themselves. I would help if an innocent person were about to get hurt and I could help them safely, but the fate of this nation as a whole didn¡¯t bother me much.


    Of course, while armies were currently a distant threat, heightened taxes and drafts were a much more notable concern. I imagined some of the people of the slums might see the army as a chance to make something of themselves, removing some potential threats from the streets. However, extra taxes, lowered army presence, and governmental control might also mean that things would grow more dangerous for Sallia and I in the near future. I simply wasn¡¯t sure how the draft and the war would affect the situation in the slums yet. I didn¡¯t have enough information.


    I also now needed to keep an eye on the situation of the front lines. If things started to turn against our country, it would probably be a good idea to leave the city for a while. I didn¡¯t think that our group would struggle to feed itself - my soul sense and extinguish would make hunting wild animals for food pretty easy as long as it wasn¡¯t in the middle of winter or something.


    Ultimately, I needed to be on guard  against potential trouble from the gangs, potential marauding armies, and for opportunities to find and rescue Felix.


    I hadn¡¯t seen two of my friends yet, after all.


    After I made my way home, I contacted Anise.


    <Hey, Anise, have you heard anything about a war?>


    <War? Not really. Why?>


    <Apparently, our country is at war now.>


    <With who?>


    <Like five countries.>


    <Are they stronger than us?>


    <I have no idea.>


    <Hmm¡­ well, that¡¯s a little worrying. How close are the front lines to our city?>


    <According to Old Mo, the war is probably concentrated at the borders of our country right now. Which are pretty distant from this city - it¡¯s half a week¡¯s gallop east from here to reach our border with Ennalia, and armies need to wheel around cannons, so they move far more slowly than a messenger on horseback.>


    <Then it doesn¡¯t really matter right now, does it?>


    <Well¡­ mostly. I¡¯ve been thinking about rescuing Felix. If Felix is an experiment from our nation¡¯s government, and most of the country¡¯s soldiers are called away to the front lines¡­>


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    <Ah. I see what you¡¯re thinking now. Have we figured out where he is?>


    I frowned. This was the biggest issue with rescuing Felix - none of us, including Felix, had a good idea where he was. Felix strongly suspected he was underground somewhere - but ¡®underground¡¯ didn¡¯t really narrow down where we should be looking for him.


    The only other thing Felix knew was that security in the facility he was in was high. There were armed guards stationed everywhere around his room, based on conversations he had heard from the faculty members of the facility, he wasn¡¯t the only ¡®interesting¡¯ thing that was heavily guarded in the lab.


    I sighed. <I¡¯m still not sure. So far, I¡¯m thinking that maybe Felix can use his attunement to create some kind of signal for us, and we can rescue him after that?>


    It was the best idea I had. Felix had mentioned he might be able to fire a fist-sized ball of steel into the air and make it glow by ¡®altering¡¯ it a bit¡­ which would probably be hard for me to spot, even with my Grade-10 Perception and in the middle of the night. And it would also need Felix to be close enough to the surface that he could actually fire a ball of metal into the air, which was far from certain. The street lamps that now lined the city would definitely make it even harder to pick out a glowing ball of metal in the middle of the night. It was our best idea, but it was far from reliable.


    <That¡¯s unfortunate,> said Anise. <At least for now he¡¯s safe?>


    I nodded. At least for now, Felix still wasn¡¯t in danger.


    It wasn¡¯t much of a comfort, but it was something to hold on to for now.


    After that, I started thinking about ways to rescue Felix again.


    The biggest issue was locating Felix in the first place. I suspected that if I had a good enough information network, I could probably find Felix easily. But I was four years old. None of the adults on this planet would take me seriously. Maybe I could turn other kids into an information network, but I lacked the knowledge needed to do that - and I was worried that street urchins might not be able to locate Felix, even if I built an information network out of them. Not to mention, I lacked funds right now.


    Even if Felix¡¯s situation wasn¡¯t urgent, I didn¡¯t want to just keep hoping his situation didn¡¯t get worse for years and years as I waited to grow older. At absolute most, I wanted to wait a year or two to rescue Felix - that was the maximum time I could tolerate being unable to rescue my friend. A year would give me time to build my third and fourth rune, and probably push my attunement back up to expert grade. By that point, I would match or slightly exceed my combat abilities in the world of the black sun. Even if my physical body wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with my previous strength, due to my lower age and weaker physical attributes, my reflexes and mental abilities would be a few grades higher, which would make my extinguishes and on-the-fly shaping far more versatile and dangerous than last life.


    I sighed, before I started thinking about my third rune ability again.


    I either needed a way to locate Felix, or a way to disguise my age from my third rune ability.


    <Hey Sallia, what are you thinking for our final rune abilities?> I asked. Both of us had set up our first two rune abilities to sense and nullify the danger of guns, meaning each of us had one rune ability left. The biggest constraint on our combat strength now was how much essence we had. I felt that meant that we should both focus on a utility ability for our third ability - and preferably, we should plan what we wanted before we made our final ability. That way we didn¡¯t end up overlapping.


    <Well, you mentioned the fact that you couldn¡¯t disguise yourself as an older person, and how that was a problem, right? I was thinking about doing some kind of shapeshifting or illusion for my third ability, to let us disguise ourselves as older people. Alternately, I could focus on locating Felix - I¡¯ve been thinking that we lack a way to locate him. But I felt that locating people might pair well with your spatial abilities. After all, space and location seem to go hand in hand.>


    <Hmm¡­ Maybe,> I said, thinking some more.


    Unbidden, the words of the book we had found while exploring the Market last time came to mind again. The book had stated that alteration essence usually specialized in shapeshifting, illusions, trickery, and dimensional terraforming.


    I mostly intended to go my own path - after all, just because most people did something didn¡¯t mean it was the best way forward. However, that didn¡¯t mean I wanted to wholly avoid the specialties of my primary essence, either. I just wanted to focus more on extinguish, renewal, and other abilities I could derive from my attunement.


    After a few minutes of talking with Sallia about potential abilities we could form, an idea came to mind.


    I couldn¡¯t create a new, working limb out of nothing. If I knew what I was doing, I was sure it was possible - but right now, I was more likely to screw up how my organs worked and kill myself.


    But what if I didn¡¯t use alteration essence alone?


    I had already noticed this last life, but alteration essence seemed especially good at messing with other magic systems.


    What if, instead of just trying to shapeshift using alteration essence, I created illusions using my third rune ability, and then used alteration to make those illusions ¡®permanent?¡¯


    I felt this was a potentially viable path towards shapeshifting.If I got good enough at coordinating my own abilities, I might even be able to shapeshift mid-combat, giving myself things like bear arms on the fly and then removing them once I left combat. I still intended to mostly pivot to a spellcasting role, to better suit our group¡¯s needs - but that didn¡¯t mean I needed to completely forego physical combat, even if I intended to let Sallia handle most direct physical confrontations.


    And if I figured out this trick, I might also be able to use it on enemies mid-battle. Shapeshifting enemies into frogs or something would be a nasty surprise for enemies in the future, and ruining the muscles in an arm would be incredibly useful for enemies too hard for me to extinguish on the spot.


    I quickly shared my idea with Sallia, and after some thought, I heard her chuckle through the communicator.


    <I don¡¯t know if that¡¯ll work or not, but it¡¯s a good idea to try, at least,> said Sallia. <And it¡¯s interesting. Experimenting with your powers might lead you in totally new directions in the future. Have you already planned how you¡¯re going to connect space, water, and illusions?>


    <I have a few ideas,> I sent. <I¡¯ll probably need to do some trial and error with my third rune, but I think I can get everything connected. And if it doesn¡¯t work, I just won¡¯t copy the ability set next life.>


    <Sounds good,> said Sallia, after a while. <In that case, I¡¯m going to create a ¡®divination¡¯ type ability for my third rune ability. It¡¯s going to be focused on locating specific objects. Using that ability, I could search for exact copies of our friendship bracelets. It should lead us right to Felix.>


    With our plan made, we started working on our last set of rune abilities.


    It was almost time to rescue Felix from his lab.

 Chapter 170: Shapeshifting

    The following two months were spent making another rune ability and trying to find better or more reliable ways to locate Felix without Sallia wasting a rune ability on it. Sadly, we couldn¡¯t find a reliable way to search for Felix that didn¡¯t involve magic from out of this dimension.


    However, my attempts at disguise and shapeshifting magic went considerably better than our attempts to find Felix without rune abilities. However, being able to either disguise or shapeshift would be very important, if Felix was going to be able to live a normal life without getting hunted down and caught by whoever had created him in the first place. This was an aspect I hadn¡¯t originally considered, but the more I thought about it, the more important a proper disguising ability seemed.


    So, to turn space, water, and illusions into a coherent rune ability, I spent a lot of time thinking about what exactly I wanted. Eventually, I came up with a viable combination of abilities.


    I didn¡¯t remember exactly how photons worked in my first world, since my memory was too spotty and garbled. I also had no idea whether photons were even a thing in this dimension, since the specifics of how a dimension worked could change pretty drastically from one world to the next. However, that didn¡¯t mean that I couldn¡¯t use my own understanding of something as a visualization method for what I wanted, even if it didn¡¯t agree with the local laws of physics.


    Breaking physics and reality seemed to be what the Market¡¯s abilities specialized in, after all.


    So I started using my image of the way light traveled through water vapor in the space around me as the medium for my illusion ability. My idea was to make space and water vapor warp light traveling through them, creating a detailed fake image out of light. Then, I would use space again, in order to create a sort of artificial projector screen wherever I needed one - ultimately, this would create a set of illusory images that worked kind of like clothes.


    Was this how light actually worked in this dimension?


    I had no idea. Probably not, honestly. I was certainly missing several specific details behind how this ability should work, at least.


    But luckily, absorption essence was able to run off of my idea of how stuff ¡®probably¡¯ worked over the local laws of physics. In other words, my rune magic system allowed me to brute-force the creation of my ability as long as it wasn¡¯t totally different from this world¡¯s laws of reality.


    Thus, after two months of hard work, I managed to create my third rune. At the same time, I raised my attunement back to advanced grade.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form your third rune (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support runes, although it does somewhat support absorption spellcasting. moderate Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +210


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Advanced] Grade attunement (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support alteration spellcasting. Significant Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +150


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With these two rewards, my total Achievement increased from 962 to 1322 Achievement.


    After forming my new ability, I spent a bit of time messing with it. I discovered that my rune ability worked slightly differently than I had intended it to work. I had imagined my rune ability being some sort of light-bending space-water prism, or something like that. Something that would make creating fake images easy.


    Instead, the ability seemed to take a page from my first ability and work off of people¡¯s perception first, before going into a light-water prism afterwards.


    My ability to create illusions was based at least partially off of madness. Specifically, I could now ¡®feel¡¯ other minds in my presence while using my new ability, almost like a second version of the soul-sight I had from my attunement. The mild mental attacks that my ability itself gave me access to also became actually useful, since my third rune ability drastically enhanced them.


    Upon using my new rune ability, in addition to my own eyes, I would look through the eyes of whoever I was focusing on. I could then blast their mind with absorption essence in order to totally warp what their senses were telling them, creating a fake image. This was, indeed, an ¡®illusion,¡¯ though it wasn¡¯t quite what I had in mind.


    Then, once I had used someone else¡¯s senses to create a fake image, I could activate the second half o the ability.


    After hijacking one person¡¯s sense of sight, I could then force the light in the nearby area to copy whatever I was forcing the original target to see. It was sort of like creating a mental illusion in one person¡¯s mind, and then using light to replicate that for everyone else. Which was a weirdly specific setup and limitation on the ability.


    I also noticed that when I used all three of my abilities at the same time, my perception of the world started to get very weird. I had already noticed that when I used my first two rune abilities at the same time, it felt like I was creating the nascent form of a new magic skill. When I used all three abilities at the same time, this feeling grew much stronger.


    When I used all three of my rune abilities in conjunction, I felt as if my mind was more real than my physical body. Instead of regular old Miria, the four year old kid plotting to rescue Felix, I felt like my mind was stretching and warping as I tried to see through every single drop of water in my surroundings. The minds of other people around me started to feel more real than the physical world, and every single drop of water became one of my eyes. Strangest of all, I started to feel as if the water vapor and droplets of water in my surroundings were my real physical body, and the sack of flesh I had been born in was simply an irrelevant temporary container.


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    It was an exhilarating way of looking at the world. It was a maddening way of looking at the world. It was a sense of perception I had never once had. It was also a bit worrying.


    I liked my sense of humanity, and this new sense of perception that I could tap into when I used all three rune abilities at once definitely pushed back against my sense of humanity. The way my sense of self and my brain stretched and warped in this state felt alien to me.


    Luckily, since I didn¡¯t like the way it changed my thoughts, every time I activated this ability I could feel my Willpower stat fighting against the strange alien senses this ability granted me. As long as I didn¡¯t use the ability for too long, it didn¡¯t seem to have any long-term effects on my sense of self or humanity - just weird, temporary out-of-body feelings. Still, it made me a bit nervous when I used it.


    However, even though using the ability felt incredibly odd and alien to me, that didn¡¯t mean I intended to completely abandon it. I just intended to be careful about how often I used it, in case there were some sort of hidden mental aftereffects to using it. I was still curious about what ability I would form if I developed this ability to a great enough extent, and I was pretty sure that as long as my Stats were high enough, I could easily manage the downside of this ability. I just needed to pay attention to my condition and carefully weigh whether this state¡¯s benefits were worth the downsides. So far, the only actual benefit I had found from this state was that it was much easier to process information from my thousands of new eyes, and sensing and attacking other people¡¯s mind was much easier. I would need to keep a lookout for other uses once I had a better handle on everything.


    My attempts to solidify my illusions into real shapes didn¡¯t go quite as well as I had hoped they would - but they didn¡¯t completely fail, either.


    Sallia and I continued to meet at Old Mo¡¯s restaurant every week or so, and with Sallia¡¯s permission, I tried using my newly developed rune ability on her to try my shapeshifting plan.


    I ended up being able to make very small, limited alterations to my body if I hijacked Sallia¡¯s eyes and then used alteration to warp my magic system, adding some layer of ¡®permanence¡¯ to the illusions I created.


    However, illusions didn¡¯t contain things like nerves, muscles, or any of the other bits of biology that made limbs and sensory organs work.


    In other words, if I created something like a third arm, I needed to create it perfectly, one nerve and muscle at a time, or else the new arm wouldn¡¯t work.


    My binding essence, oddly enough, seemed to partially circumvent this problem. The moment my body had a new limb attached to it, my binding essence perked up and tried to attach itself to the limb, almost as if binding essence was made to activate artificial limbs. I found, to my surprise, that if I was willing to spend an obscene amount of binding essence, I could use a lump of flesh with no nerves or muscles as a functioning third arm - however, since there were no joints, muscles, or nerves in the new ¡®arm,¡¯ it wasn¡¯t very good at moving around without help. It cost an obscene amount of binding essence just to use a third arm to pick up a loaf of broad. In short, it was slow, messy, and difficult to use.


    Useless though this discovery may have been, it helped me understand how people had developed mechanical prosthetics in this world. People¡¯s prosthetic limbs didn¡¯t need very much to work on a basic level. If one carved a metal arm and added a few joints, it would theoretically be able to at least do something. The more realistic the limb was, and the better it was crafted, the less binding essence it would take to move: but theoretically, one could probably even cut off their arm and attach a tree branch to it, and it would still work as an artificial limb. It would just be mind-bogglingly inefficient.


    Ultimately though, I needed far more practice and better understanding of biology to get shapeshifting working. For now, my dreams of growing a new pair of arms in the middle of combat, then using those arms to beat up my enemies were not viable yet. Perhaps they would be in the future, but for now, the most I could do without breaking stuff in my body was to make minor alterations to my face and skin. I could now totally alter my face if I had a couple hours, and my work would be dozens of times better than what the most skilled make-up artist could ever accomplish. But I couldn¡¯t just triple my height overnight if I wanted to have a functioning spine afterwards.


    Which was disappointing, since I couldn¡¯t just shapeshift myself into an older body yet. But at least I could disguise myself as someone older if I used my illusion ability. It would cost a constant amount of absorption essence to maintain, but keeping it up for several hours would be entirely manageable.


    As far as Old Mo¡¯s shop went, Old Mo did eventually decide that he was all right with taking me on as a little helper, in exchange for one meal a day and help learning to read. He had me knead the bread that he used for baking every morning, and he seemed rather surprised by the fact that I could keep up with him, despite the fact that he was an adult and I was a child. I constantly healed my arms with renewal as I worked, which was the biggest reason I could keep up with Old Mo despite being four years old. At the end of the day, Old Mo was pleased with my help, even though I suspect he originally accepted my request for work out of pity rather than any practical consideration.


    My attempts to corner my mother for a serious talk didn¡¯t go anywhere. She almost never interacted with me when she was sober, and the one time I did manage to corner her without her being high, she had been throwing things at the wall and punching her pillow over and over again. I could still little sparks of lucidity appear in her eyes more often as the months went by, which I hoped meant that my nightly healing sessions were going somewhere. Hopefully, I would be able to have a real conversation with my mother sometime soon.


    Meanwhile, I also paid attention to news about the war our nation was apparently caught in. For now, there wasn¡¯t much news either way - the front lines were apparently holding steady against the enemy, but neither side was really making much progress in the war. Our nation was constantly conscripting more men to fight, and ordering more guns and gunpowder to be made by the alchemists across the country. But so far, at least, the war hadn¡¯t really impacted my life very much.


    While I worked on my abilities, Sallia also got her third rune ability working. She was able to confirm that Felix was beneath the city - likely in some kind of sewer or tunnel system. She was also close to forming her fourth rune. After compressing her first nine runes into three runes, this would mean that Sallia would step past the ninth rune for the first time ever. On the islands, someone had mentioned that the tenth, eleventh and twelfth runes started to combine our rune abilities somehow, and none of us quite knew what that meant. However, I was very much looking forward to seeing how that worked out.


    However, before Sallia formed her fourth rune, the two of us decided that it was time to rescue Felix. Sallia had located Felix¡¯s rough location, I had a way to disguise him after we broke him out, and I was reasonably confident that we could take down the people defending Felix by relying on swordsmanship, extinguish, and Sallia¡¯s metal manipulation.


    In other words, it was time to finally break Felix out.

 Chapter 171: Meetup

    When I told Sallia that I thought it was time to bust out Felix, she reacted with enthusiasm and excitement.


    When Anise heard us talking, she immediately jumped in to help.


    Felix warned us to be careful and run if things looked dangerous, but otherwise seemed a bit relieved that a proper rescue was materializing. We had been forced to delay Felix¡¯s rescue again and again because we didn¡¯t have the ability to break him out, but now that it was finally happening, he seemed excited to finally leave.


    So Anise and I met up at Old Mo¡¯s shop, with Sallia running a bit late because she had to wait for her parents to get home and fall asleep. She didn¡¯t want to freak them out, after all, and her parents usually collapsed from exhaustion shortly after throwing together a basic meal. Meanwhile, Anise¡¯s parents went to sleep much earlier, since they worked better hours.


    It took a lot of directions over the communication bracelet to make sure Anise ended up at the right place, and a few times, I started to get nervous when Anise said that she wasn¡¯t sure if she was being followed by someone. Anise was the most vulnerable member of our group right now, since the only extra abilities she had were her magic missiles and the {Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes}, which Anise had installed before I regained consciousness. Even with those extra abilities, Anise had the longest walk to meet up with us. Sallia and I lived in the slums, which was right next to the red-light district where Mo¡¯s store was located. Anise lived in the middle class section of the city - and her parents didn¡¯t live anywhere near the red-light district. If Anise didn¡¯t have her magic missile glove and eyes, I would have yelled at her over the bracelet no matter how long I needed to in order to convince her not to come.


    Instead, after much getting lost and figuring out directions over our communication bracelets, Anise finally arrived outside Old Mo¡¯s shop, blushing furiously.


    ¡°Miria! There are women who¡­ who¡­¡± Anise stuttered a few times, and I started to feel guilty. ¡°They really aren¡¯t wearing¡­ that is¡­ uhh¡­¡± My guilty feelings intensified.


    Anise had only been 35 in our last life - but considering the lifespans of Orthanoids, she had been about the human equivalent of an 18 or 19 year old. And unlike the rest of us, she didn¡¯t have any memories of being an adult in any of her lives before being introduced to the Market. Not to mention, Anise had spent most of her last life studying magic with us, so she didn¡¯t have very many life experiences.


    Had asking Anise to meet up with us in the middle of the red-light district been a bad idea? I winced a bit, before deciding to just keep moving forward.


    ¡°You look different,¡± I said, as I examined Anise..


    Sallia and I didn¡¯t really look that different from normal - there were a few minor alterations to bone and facial structure based on the genetics we had inherited from our parents, and Sallia¡¯s hair color was slightly different than before. But if someone from the islands squinted a little and looked at me now, they would still probably recognize me.


    However, Anise looked almost unrecognizable.


    In our previous life, and in the Market, Anise had four eyes, pink hair, a somewhat short stature, and delicate facial features that made her look a little younger than she was.


    The delicate facial features and short stature were still there - even for a four year old, Anise looked a little younger. She had a healthier weight than Sallia and I, since her family wasn¡¯t hurting for food, but she was obviously a little on the small side.


    However, her pink hair was gone. It had been replaced with golden hair, instead. It was a sort of strawberry-blonde color that faintly resembled her original pink hair, but it her hair color was much closer to mine than her own.


    In addition, Anise had previously had four eyes. Two eyes in the same spot as everyone else, and two eyes on her temples, giving her a much wider range of vision than most people had.


    Now, Anise only possessed two eyes.


    ¡°You look very different,¡± I said, repeating myself as I took in all of Anise¡¯s changes.


    Anise nodded, and frowned.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really like it,¡± she said, after some thought. ¡°I liked my previous hair color more. And my eyes are really throwing me off. I¡¯ve kinda gotten used to the fact that I only have two eyes now, but I really don¡¯t know how people see like this. I have to turn my head so much to glance to the left or right. It¡¯s really annoying.¡±


    I looked at Anise, and sighed.


    To be honest, I hadn¡¯t thought about how different Anise¡¯s original facial structure was from the normal inhabitants of this world, or how {Identity} would interact with her genetics until now. So far, I always resembled my parents a little bit - probably exactly enough to make sure my father didn¡¯t wonder if my mother was cheating on him. But I also looked very distinctly like myself every world. There were a lot of pieces of my original body shape and facial structure mixed in, even if the way I looked still changed a little from life to life.


    Anise had changed a lot more than the three of us ever had, though.


    I absently wondered why that was the case.


    In the world of the black sun, I had observed that all life had some sort of soul attached to it, even moss and spiders. The souls of these creatures had all been different colors, so at the time, I had wondered what those colors meant. Now, I was even more curious about how the ¡®biology¡¯ of souls worked. The Market had mentioned that there were four layers to the soul, and briefly described what each layer of the soul did. However, how did souls and biology work together?


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


    So far, every single species we had ended up reincarnating as resembled humanity. Sure, there were some physical differences - the Orthanoids of our previous world had been very slightly shorter than normal humans, and our lifespan had been notably longer. But if I took a normal person from this world and threw them into the islands world, nobody would notice anything wrong immediately. Which made me wonder why our biology was so aesthetically consistent from one life to the next. Was this some sort of hidden Market function, to make sure we didn¡¯t reincarnate as flying squids or something? Or was it a property innate to our souls themselves, with the Market playing no part in what species we reincarnated as?


    I sighed, and shook my head. For every answer I got about the Market, it felt like I got ten more questions as well.


    ¡°Hey Anise, what do you think makes a species what it is?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Huh?¡± She asked, seeming startled by my question. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Well, I was thinking about how souls and biology work together, and I couldn¡¯t help but realize that every single life so far, I¡¯ve reincarnated as a species that strongly resembles my first life¡¯s biology. Like, I have two arms, two legs, a head, and so on¡­¡± I said. ¡°Since you have two eyes instead of four this time, I started thinking about it again.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Anise fell into thought, successfully distracted from¡­ whatever she had witnessed earlier while walking through the streets of the red light district during the busy hours of the night. ¡°You know, I remember you saying in your last life that different souls have different colors, right? Spiders and moss both had¡­ what colors were their souls again?¡± Anise paused for a moment, and then shrugged. ¡°Either way, their souls were differently colored. Are our souls still silver this time?¡±


    ¡°Yes. They look exactly the same,¡± I confirmed.


    ¡°And in the Market, I remember the book saying that some part of the soul links up to the biological brain. Maybe that part also determines what kind of brain you can inhabit? Like, bodies that we inhabit all need to be at least kind of similar to each other?¡± Anise shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s my guess, anyway.¡±


    ¡°Your guess is as good as any of mine,¡± I said, after a moment, before glancing at Old Mo¡¯s shop again.


    Old Mo was quietly moving around and serving a few people their meals, and the shop looked peaceful. Old Mo saw me glancing through the window, and frowned at me.


    I gave him a disarming smile. Old Mo frowned even more deeply than before, but was distracted by a customer a moment later.


    Anise and I made our way into the shop, where I grabbed a loaf of bread and sat down with Anise.


    ¡°Miria,¡± said Old Mo, after I sat down. ¡°You¡¯re out later than usual.¡±


    ¡°I wanted to meet up with a friend, and this place was safe,¡± I said.


    Old Mo glanced at Anise. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen you with her before. I¡¯ve seen you with Sallia a lot, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Old Mo, this is my friend, Anise.¡±


    ¡°She looks¡­ better off,¡± said Old Mo, glancing at Anise¡¯s clothes.


    Even though Anise¡¯s clothes had collected a bit of grime as she made her way towards our meeting location, they were still unmistakably of higher quality than the outer dress I wore.


    Anise nodded at Old Mo.


    ¡°My family is a bit better off. But that doesn¡¯t mean Miria and I can¡¯t be friends,¡± she said, giving Old Mo a happy smile.


    Old Mo frowned at me, and then frowned at Anise again.


    ¡°Miria, can I talk with you for a moment?¡± asked Old Mo.


    ¡°Sure?¡±


    Old Mo quickly led me to the back room, where he gave me a deep look.


    ¡°Look¡­ Miria, I get it. I know that it must seem hard to improve your life, and I know that a lot of other slum kids have been driven to desperate actions. I won¡¯t judge you for doing what you need to do, but¡­ are you sure about this? Kidnapping a rich kid¡¯s daughter is really brazen, and not to mock you, but I¡¯m not sure you could take her in a fight. And if you really kidnap a kid, the hats will be all over you afterwards. The hats usually don¡¯t interfere with the slums too much, and they might seem busy because of the war, but if you kidnapped someone important- well, it could end really badly. And I¡¯m not sure if she¡¯s a good target, either. Her clothes don¡¯t look that good, and she looks well fed, but not chubby. If you return her now, you can probably still get away from this without a giant mess unfolding, and I really think -¡±


    I tried not to laugh, and failed.


    ¡°Uhh¡­ Old Mo, Anise really is my friend. I didn¡¯t kidnap her,¡± I said, trying not to wheeze.


    ¡°Oh.¡± He said, after a very brief, awkward silence. He glanced at the door again, this time looking a bit awkward, before he cleared his throat. ¡°I¡¯m glad. Kidnapping is a road that¡¯s hard to walk back from, and considering how malnourished you are, too much physical labor isn¡¯t a good idea. Your brain is good, but your arms and legs are really too skinny. They¡¯re getting better, but¡­¡± Mo shook his head. ¡°Well, anyway. Sorry - I guess I read too much into the situation, but if she¡¯s really your friend¡­ well, do your best to stay friends with her, I suppose. Even just being able to eat a meal or two at her house and build a connection could help you if you ever want to improve your life in the future. I hope things turn out well for you. Carry on.¡±


    I nodded, trying not to laugh in his face, and quickly made my way out of the back room and back towards Anise.


    <What did he want?> sent Anise, voice full of curiosity as she spoke to me over the friendship bracelet.


    <He thought I had kidnapped you, and he was trying to dissuade me because the hats - erm, the guards would punish me afterwards,> I said.


    <Really?> Anise took a look at me, and then a look at herself, before her face also scrunched up as if she were trying not to laugh. <I can¡¯t imagine you kidnapping anyone.>


    <I found the idea pretty absurd as well,> I commented, as Anise snickered.


    After that, Anise and I started munching on our bread. A few minutes later, Sallia poked her head through the doorway, before she quickly made her way into the store. She greeted Anise and I with a grin.


    ¡°Miria! Anise!¡± She did a double take as she saw Anise. ¡°Anise, you look really different this time!¡±


    Anise grimaced and touched her hair again.


    ¡°I do,¡± she said, some of her good mood fading as she looked at her strawberry-blonde hair again.


    ¡°Old Mo, good to see you!¡±


    Old Mo gave the three of us nods, and tried not to look too awkward as he glanced at Anise and I again.


    <Did Old Mo really think you kidnapped Anise?> asked Sallia, sounding more bemused than anything else as she spoke over the bracelet.


    <Yup. He thinks I¡¯m six or seven, based on how I talk and act - which I guess is fair. But even so, do most six or seven year olds kidnap children in this city?>


    Sallia paused, before shrugging. <I have no idea. Maybe if they¡¯re caught up with a gang, they might help out or something? Anyway.>


    The three of us finished eating our bread, before we paid and left. Now that we had met up, it was time to find Felix and free him.

 Chapter 172: Into the Tunnels

    After leaving Old Mo¡¯s bakery, I took a closer look at Anise, before I remembered something.


    ¡°By the way, Anise, what are your stats like this time? I know that you had decent intelligence - at least, higher than mine. But what are the rest of your stats like?¡±


    ¡°Here, let me show you,¡± she said. A moment later, Anise¡¯s status screen appeared in front of me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+129)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+106)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+74)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+115)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (30+106)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (40+85)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (20+116)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+85)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+117)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+83)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡°I got pretty lucky this time,¡± said Anise. ¡°The only real complaint I have is my absorption essence is a bit low, and this world does have some absorption essence. And my Manifestation Essence is a bit lower than I would have liked. But overall, not a bad set of rolls at all.¡±


    I nodded.


    Anise¡¯s physical stats were excellent, and her mental stats could be considered all right as well.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to see that your rolls this time turned out well,¡± I said.


    ¡°Your rolls really did turn out nice,¡± said Sallia. ¡°And once you activate {Phoenix''s Last Stand}, you¡¯ll be pretty well equipped to get a bunch of influence Achievement too. Just make sure not to slack off in training until that point. You still need a reasonable level of swordsmanship to take advantage of your sword, even if guns are the weapon of choice in this world.¡± Sallia grimaced slightly as she said that.


    ¡°Do you not like guns?¡± asked Anise, seeming genuinely curious. ¡°So far, you¡¯ve seemed happy anytime you train with weapons.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t like guns much, no,¡± said Sallia, shaking her head. ¡°I get that they¡¯re useful in warfare, but they¡¯re just¡­ I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t like them. They¡¯re hard for me to cope with, since I like swordsmanship so much. I had to warp my abilities to handle the presence of guns in this world, and I would have been happier if I didn¡¯t. It¡¯s not the end of the world, but I really would have preferred a world without hot weapons.¡± Sallia shrugged. ¡°But that¡¯s the way reincarnation goes, I guess. Maybe next time. Or maybe I¡¯ll reach a point where my swordsmanship can overcome bullets. With enough stats or a high enough grade of swordsmanship, it¡¯s probably possible. Just need to reach that point.¡±


    I felt more than a little happy to see Sallia so confidently fighting against a major obstacle to her own growth. Trying to keep a positive attitude when Sallia¡¯s prized swordsmanship was outclassed by a new type of weapon probably wasn¡¯t easy.


    With that final thought, the three of us started following Sallia¡¯s directions as we moved through the city.


    Felix was located underground somewhere, and while Sallia and I could probably reach him by using our abilities to tunnel through the earth, I seriously doubted the government would simply let us tunnel under the city unhindered.


    Therefore, we needed to track Felix through the city¡¯s sewer system.


    Which was going to be considerably harder than it might have been in another world. In this world, human waste was a useful alchemy ingredient for some potions, such as fertilizer potions. So the city diverted the flow of human waste towards some underground industrial alchemy mixers that produced potions by the gallon every day and night.


    This meant that the sewers weren¡¯t going to be unpopulated. Alchemy workshops and government employees were going to be present in the sewers no matter what time we entered them. And, of course, we also needed to actually find Felix in the tunnels as well - which might prove a challenge.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Finding an entrance to the sewers was the first problem we had to handle. Anise¡¯s parents were a lot less afraid of letting her wander around the city, since she lived in a pretty safe area, so while we were preparing to rescue Felix, Anise had learned what the entrances to the sewers looked like. We just needed to find a sewer maintenance building and break in.


    It took us less than half an hour to find one in the red-light district. Hidden behind two buildings where women were enticing customers, we found one of the entrances to the sewers.


    The customers and the women were both busy, and didn¡¯t take much notice of us as we slipped past them. I did see one of the women standing in front of a building give us an odd glance, as if she was wondering what a group of four year olds was doing here, but after a moment, she ignored us and kept winking at potential customers.


    And so we simply walked past everyone and up to the small, gray building. I glanced around a few times, to make sure that nobody was paying much attention to us, and I was relieved to see that apart from the one woman, nobody else seemed to have even noticed our presence.


    The door was locked, of course, but Sallia had a metal-manipulation ability. She simply ripped apart the metal lock using her rune ability, and then we strolled in.


    Inside of the building was a pair of shelves. I looked at them with interest, and saw that one shelf was filled with large metal buckets. There were chunks of brown sludge caking the buckets, and they smelled quite¡­ unique. Much like the rest of the room, there was a distinctive odor that made me wrinkle my nose when I entered.


    The top shelf was considerably more interesting, and less disgusting. There were a variety of bottles on the shelf, all filled with different colored liquids. I studied them with interest, but I wasn''t sure what most of them were.


    "Potions," said Anise, without much inflection in her voice. "Those two are bone and flesh healers, and I know that the green one cures sweating sickness. Not sure about the others. Those two blue potions might be related to cleaning? I think I¡¯ve seen my mother use one before, but it might just be similar colors."


    I nodded, and scanned the other items on the shelf. I saw something that resembled a biohazard suit, although it was made of a material I didn¡¯t recognize. It looked kind of like a mix of rubber and plastic, and was bright green. It also had a few brown smudges caked on the edges of it, much like the buckets. Finally, there were a few metal tools on the shelf. I had no idea what most of them were, although I did recognize a hammer and a wrench.


    After a few moments, I shrugged. My eyes settled on the other door in the room, which likely led into the sewers. I took a step towards it.


    And then I hesitated. I started thinking over Sallia''s words. How she had said that this world might be hard for me.


    And then I eyed the potions again.


    I had never stolen before. The idea of stealing was one that I wouldn¡¯t have ever considered in previous worlds. My friends and I had been safe in those worlds, at least for the most part.


    On the other hand, the situation of my mother and I in this world was desperate. We barely had enough food, and my mother''s drug addiction siphoned away what little she made from her job.


    I hesitated for another moment. This might be the property of whoever worked here. Perhaps they kept these potions around in case their child got hurt, or perhaps they were afraid of work injuries. Maybe the owner of the potions was poor, and could barely afford to buy the potions, and these potions were all that they could afford to have laying around. If I took the potion, they might not have a potion when they desperately needed one¡­


    Or maybe this was owned by the city government, and the potions would be replaced in a day after a form was filled out.


    Was it really right to steal the potions right now?


    With Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl and Old Mo¡¯s work, I could comfortably feed myself right now. I didn¡¯t have enough money for much else, and my dress was growing more ragged every day¡­ but my basic necessities were met, at least for now.


    But I had no idea whether that would remain the case after we rescued Felix.


    When we broke Felix out, he was going to need food. Anise wouldn¡¯t be able to take care of him - after all, her family was pretty strict this life. They would probably object to randomly feeding a random kid.


    Sallia¡¯s family probably also wouldn¡¯t like it if she added another mouth to feed. They were less impoverished than my mother and I, since they didn¡¯t have any family members with crippling addictions, but they weren¡¯t wealthy, either. They still lived in the slums and didn¡¯t have much beyond basic food security. They would shut Sallia down if she tried to help Felix consistently.


    Which left me.


    My living conditions were the worst of all, but my mother was so out of it that I doubted she would notice Felix¡¯s appearance. She barely even remembered that I was there, since she was almost always high out of her mind.


    But I still needed ways to feed Felix. There was no way I was letting a friend of mine live on the streets if there was anything at all I could do about it. He might get stabbed or killed while he was asleep - and there was absolutely no way I would let that happen.


    Was it right to take the potions, though? It was still stealing.


    But at the same time, I might really need the money soon.


    I hesitated.


    I didn¡¯t know FOR SURE that I would need the money soon. Maybe I could start selling my abilities as a doctor soon, and my cash flow would even out.


    Or maybe I would be able to scrape by using Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl and Old Mo¡¯s food.


    Maybe everything would just¡­ work out, even if I didn¡¯t steal the potions.


    Or maybe Felix would starve to death.


    I hesitated. I hesitated some more.


    Sallia glanced at the entrance to the sewers again, glanced at me, and then blinked once.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get going,¡± she said. ¡°Miria, how about I go in front, Anise take the middle, and you take the back? Right now you and I can handle bullets and ambushes the most effectively, so let¡¯s protect Anise in the middle. Right?¡±


    I tried not to overthink Sallia¡¯s actions. Did she know what I was thinking about?


    Was it just in my head?


    Should I ask Sallia and Anise what they thought?


    The thought of asking them what they thought about me stealing potions felt awful. I felt guilty even thinking about stealing the potions.


    But my food situation was so unstable¡­


    Did I have a place to sell the potions after stealing them?


    Old Mo could probably help me out. He had talked about paydays and kidnapping Anise just a few hours ago with me - and while he had been trying to talk me out of kidnapping Anise, he certainly didn¡¯t seem unfamiliar with crimes. I doubted he would have a problem helping me pawn off stolen potions, and he might have a good channel for it.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± I said.


    Sallia and Anise made their way into the door leading into the sewers.


    I hesitated, one final time. Then, I gritted my teeth, stepped forward¡­ and grabbed the potions, before dumping them into my backpack.


    And then, because I felt bad, I used a bit of water to clean the outsides of the repulsive buckets. It was in no way a fair compensation for stealing the potions, but it was something I could do in return for taking the potions.


    I felt awful.


    Then, I made my way to the doorway that led into the sewers. A noxious smell invaded my nostrils. I quickly stepped onto the ladder that led deeper into the darkness, and followed Sallia and Anise into the sewers.

 Chapter 173: Sewer Run

    When Sallia noticed that Miria took a few extra moments to rejoin her and Anise, she smiled to herself.


    She was pretty sure that meant Miria had decided to steal the potions.


    Sallia hadn¡¯t been planning on pushing Miria to take the potions, since Miria seemed pretty uncomfortable with the idea. But¡­ Sallia was glad that Miria had decided to take them. In her current situation, Miria really needed them. Since Miria¡¯s mother couldn¡¯t be counted on to get Miria food and clothes, Sallia was glad that Miria was finding ways to fill in the gaps.


    As Miria rejoined her and Anise, Sallia started to speed up as she climbed down the ladder. As the smell grew stronger, Sallia wrinkled her nose.


    The sewers smelled awful.


    To be fair, she had already assumed the sewers would smell gross. The sewers were sewers, after all.


    There were obvious signs people maintained the sewers: the walkways on each side of the sewer were scrubbed clean and remained sturdy. However, the sewers in this part of the city had also been built a few centuries ago, when people¡¯s understanding of architecture was nowhere near as good. Sallia nervously eyed some of the walls, which were made of stone instead of brass, before deciding that nothing was likely to collapse on the group.


    But the overall experience was still gross. The smell of human waste was appalling.


    ¡°Felix-¡± Miria gasped before gagging.


    <Felix, you better appreciate this!> she sent over the communication bracelet. <We¡¯re in the middle of the sewers now, and it is the worst smell ever.>


    Sallia got a lungful of sewer smell as she tried not to burst out laughing. Miria using the communication bracelet to complain without needing to breathe too deeply was¡­ an inventive use of the friendship bracelets.


    <I¡¯m sorry. Thank you for coming to rescue me,> Felix said, unusually seriously.


    <I¡¯m pretty sure Miria is just complaining because she finds the experience unpleasant,> sent Sallia, as she got her chuckling under control. <This smell is really quite something.>


    <When we break you out, you¡¯ll be the one smelling this afterwards,> said Anise, doing her best threatening tone over the communication bracelet. <The smell will never, ever leave you.>


    <Maybe there¡¯s some kind of anti-stink potion that we can steal from the lab on the way out?> said Felix. <It seems like something they would have in the sewers.>


    Miria paused, gazing at the fetid sewer water for a moment, and then started nodding furiously. <They better,> she sent, shuddering. At the same time, Miria started to look very thoughtful at Felix¡¯s mention of potions.


    Sallia wondered if Miria was debating stealing all of those potions too. Sallia hoped that Miria wouldn¡¯t feel quite so bad about stealing potions from Felix¡¯s captors. There was at least some argument that Miria was stealing from a random innocent person when she grabbed the potions from the shack above, but the people who had imprisoned Felix could take a dunk in the sewers for all Sallia cared.


    Sallia caught Miria glancing towards the spot where she usually materialized her backpack, and a guilty expression reappeared on Miria¡¯s face for a moment.


    Sallia frowned.


    Perhaps Mirai was thinking about returning the potions if the group found more to steal? That would make a lot more sense.


    <All right, Sallia, what direction are we heading?> Miria sent over the communication bracelets.


    <We should be heading that way, roughly,> said Sallia, as she pointed to the Northwest. As she used her third rune ability to track Felix¡¯s friendship bracelet, she could feel Felix¡¯s copy of the item calling to her in the distance. <Anise, you have that item called {Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes}, right? How exactly does the vision granted by them work?>


    <They let me see from any darkness within about twenty meters of myself,> said Anise. <So as long as we get close to any secret entrances in the tunnels, I should see them. We just need to be in range.>


    <Good enough for me. Let''s start walking in the right direction and hope we see something. Miria, can you keep an eye out for any humans in the area? Your perception is probably the highest out of all of us.>


    <Got it,> Miria said, before Sallia felt Miria start to access her absorption essence. <I can see around corners well enough, so I¡¯ll take a peek anytime we need to turn. But I¡¯m going to keep my ability off at other times, to preserve my essence.>


    <Sounds good,> said Sallia.


    The three kept walking through the dimly-lit sewers as they talked over their communication bracelets. Sallia couldn¡¯t help but marvel at how convenient the ability to talk telepathically to each other was.


    The ability to communicate silently, and send images gained from using abilities back and forth instantly, and communicate over any distance was incredibly useful. Sallia felt that such communication tools had a great deal of potential on battlefields, and the longer the group walked, the more impressed Sallia was by the communication bracelets.


    Twice, Miria was able to spot maintenance people making rounds in the sewers and let everyone know that they needed to avoid a certain area. Doing so without needing to whisper was incredibly convenient.


    However, as the group walked through the sewers, Sallia found herself missing the adventuring boots the group had ditched back in the Market. She needed to be very careful about where she stepped, since her and Miria¡¯s shoes weren¡¯t very waterproof, and Sallia was not eager to get brown slime into her shoes during this adventure.


    Apart from the occasional maintenance person, the group¡¯s journey through the sewers was mostly unstopped by other people. Sallia didn¡¯t see anything else that was particularly noteworthy, until Miria suddenly shot a question over the bracelets.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    <Does anyone know if there are any monsters in this world?> she asked.


    Sallia felt slightly surprised by Miria¡¯s question. Had the topic simply never come up before?


    <There are none in this world,> said Sallia. <No monster species at all. Just humans. I mean, there are some wild animals that are kind of dangerous¡­ but ever since guns were invented, most of them have either gone extinct or very close.> At the same time, Sallia felt the urge to wince.


    A lot of Miria¡¯s abilities fed off of monsters. {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, in particular, benefitted greatly from having powerful monsters running around for Miria to kill and copy abilities from. Not to mention, Miria seemed to like fighting monsters a lot more than people. Given how much Miria was struggling in this world, Sallia suspected that wiping out a small monster horde or two might have been good stress relief for Miria, since there were no moral conundrums when fighting monsters.


    Sadly, in this world, that wasn¡¯t an option. Even though monsters tended to make achievement farming easier for the group, there were no monsters to hunt in this world.


    <No monsters at all, huh,> sent Miria, sounding a bit sad.


    Sallia simply nodded as the group kept moving.


    Eventually, Miria sent word that she had noticed something else. It took a few minutes of checking what everyone saw, but after a bit of examination, Sallia was pretty sure they had found their first underground alchemy workshop. Unlike the rest of the sewers, this workshop had a few doors installed into it. They were locked¡­ which meant very little against Sallia¡¯s metal manipulation.


    A few seconds later, she stepped into the workshop, leading the way in case an ambush had somehow slipped past Miria¡¯s senses. Sallia breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped into the underground structure.


    The all-invading stench of the sewers had finally disappeared inside of this workshop.


    <Some kind of smell-blocking method?> Miria asked, as she walked into the workshop. <I can still smell a bit of the sewers, but it¡¯s pretty faint here. And I have grade 10 perception. How about you, Sallia?>


    Sallia sniffed the air more carefully, and shrugged. Her perception was only at grade 8, even after forming her first three runes. <I don¡¯t smell anything,> she said.


    Then, she looked more carefully at the workshop the group had entered.


    The alchemy workshop was very different from what she had expected.


    When Sallia thought of alchemy, she remembered those chemists that Felix and Miria had talked about from their first worlds. Even though Sallia had never seen them personally, she imagined people sitting around little jars and dumping little colored liquids from one jar into another. Sallia had no idea whether that was accurate or not, but that was what she imagined.


    That was clearly not the way alchemy was handled in a post-industrial society.


    Instead of little glass vials, embedded in the ground at the center of the room was a massive mixing bowl. It was probably two or three times the height of a grown man, and wide enough for five men to stand next to each other comfortably. There were some pipes and vials near the edge of the mixing bowl, which probably let ingredients flow in and out of the mixing bowl as needed.


    Sallia could also feel the giant mixing bowl¡­ calling to her, somehow. It was a very faint feeling, but it felt like the alchemy bowl was reaching out towards her.


    <Does anyone else feel like the alchemy bowl is trying to talk to them?> Sallia asked.


    <Yes, actually,> said Miria. <It¡¯s very odd. Kind of like a magnet or something.>


    <That¡¯s an industrial alchemy mixer,> said Anise. <My father¡¯s workplace has a lot of them. They connect to people¡¯s binding essence really well and conduct it efficiently. Alchemists use the metal the bowls are made out of to control the essence interactions. Alchemists used to need to actually supply all of the essence themselves, and then do all of the mixing on their own. Binding Agent lets people collect and store binding essence from miscellaneous factory workers, the mixing bowls let alchemists control that binding essence during potion creation, and industrial mixers do all the hard physical work. It¡¯s why alchemists can create potions and bottle them up by the gallon every day. A proper alchemist with the right equipment can produce thousands of bottles of bone-mending or anti-disease potions every day. And all that¡¯s needed to make a potion that cures a new disease is a sample of the disease, so potions are pretty cheap nowadays. At least, they¡¯re cheap compared to a century ago.>


    Sallia looked at the industrial mixer with quite a bit more curiosity than before after Anise¡¯s explanation. Sallia had never been able to wrap her head around how industrial societies worked, at least not in their entirety. The first two worlds she had been born into after meeting Miria and Felix had been similar to her first world: people used swords to fight, and magic to protect themselves from the creatures of the wilds. Miria and Felix had told her all about guns and machines, but this was the first time Sallia had been so directly confronted with the power of an industrial mixer.


    In her mind, the image of a person stuck in a room with glass jars started to fade away, as Sallia looked at the industrial mixer.


    The size of the industrial mixer was so massive that Sallia could easily imagine just how many potions it mixed every day.


    The most terrifying thing about an industrial society might not be its gunpowder. The sheer abundance of resources might be even more terrifying. Sallia wondered if industrial societies had similar ways of amplifying food and metal production. Did mines have similar machines running them? What about farms?


    The old part of Sallia, the one that had once been an integral part of a noble family, wondered whether a noble family could easily crush its competitors if it had access to industrial machines. It seemed like a crushing advantage, both for internal and external struggles. Sallia filed that thought away for future use. This world didn¡¯t have nobility anymore, but perhaps in future worlds¡­


    <Anise, any signs of a hidden passage in this room?> Miria asked, breaking Sallia out of her thoughts.


    Anise paused, and then shook her head.


    <I think we¡¯re a bit too far away from Felix anyway,> said Sallia, checking the location of Felix¡¯s friendship bracelet again. The group was definitely closer to Felix than before, but there was still some walking ahead of them. <We need to walk a while longer before we get anywhere.>


    Miria sighed, but nodded.


    Sallia led the way as the group continued left the industrial alchemy workshop and continued through the sewers.


    The next hour was spent creeping through the sewers as they made their way closer to Felix. Twice, Miria spotted new alchemy workshops. Unlike the first workshop they had found, these two weren¡¯t abandoned. In one of the alchemy workshops, Miria reported almost a dozen people standing around the edges of the industrial mixer, shoving binding essence into the fluid as spouts of brown and blue liquid, water, dirt, and other materials were poured into the industrial mixer.


    Finally, as the group started to draw close to Felix¡¯s location, they found a third alchemy workshop. In this one, Sallia could see almost two dozen alchemists, some of which were working and some of which were taking breaks. At first glance, nothing seemed odd about that - after all, alchemists probably needed to take breaks in between batches of potion. Even if they didn¡¯t use much of their own binding essence, they still used some, and it was probably mentally exhausting to keep control of the whole mixture for several minutes or hours at a time.


    However, when she looked more closely at the people in the workshop, they seemed¡­ odd. Some of them were standing near the edge of the workshop, and it didn¡¯t quite look like they were taking breaks.


    Sallia could also sense large metal rods hidden underneath their clothing. She was pretty sure those were guns.


    <We¡¯re pretty close to Felix,> said Sallia. <Less than ten minutes of walking, I think. And the alchemists staring at the entrance to that workshop seem suspiciously similar to guards.>


    <I see something! Behind that wall!> Anise said, sounding very excited. <It looks kind of like a passage.>


    Sallia nodded, taking a closer look at the security guards and alchemists watching over the entrance to Felix¡¯s cell.


    Nothing was ever easy, was it?

 Chapter 174: Underground Facility

    I looked at the underground lab and fell into thought. The guards pretending to be alchemists were more numerous than I had been expecting. There were almost two dozen people at the entrance.


    I grimaced. If there were this many people just outside of the entrance, how many more people were going to be inside of the lab? Direct confrontation was probably only a last resort, if this was the kind of numbers we would be facing. I was confident in our abilities, but charging an unknown but massive number of gun-wielding soldiers was just suicidal. There was a limit to how much essence we had, after all.


    <I can probably disguise our presence using illusions,> I said. <I think we should just sneak past them. While we might win a direct confrontation, it¡¯s probably best to avoid it unless we know for sure how many reinforcements they have.>


    <I agree,> said Sallia. <A head on confrontation is a bad idea right now. If we just walk past them while using illusions, the ¡®disappearance¡¯ of Felix should also seem more mysterious, which will reduce the number of future problems we¡¯ll encounter. Even if you disguise Felix after we break him out, we still want to make it as hard as possible to track him down afterwards. If they can¡¯t even figure out how Felix escaped, it¡¯ll be harder for them to figure out where he might have gone.> Sallia shrugged. <Though thinking we¡¯ll make Felix vanish without a trace is a bit optimistic. We should still be ready for a fight. But the longer we go without raising the alarm, the better.>


    I nodded, and focused on one of the alchemists who seemed to be on break and was looking directly at the door. She had a somewhat dreamy expression on her face, and I suspected that she was daydreaming.


    In any case, she seemed distracted. Distracted meant that she would be more vulnerable to mental intrusion. I reached out with my third rune ability, and a moment later, I felt my mind connect with hers.


    I took control of her vision, and began carefully locking down certain visual elements of the room. I wanted her to completely fail to notice us as we walked into the underground alchemy lab. Then, I activated the other component of my rune ability, and light near the door began to distort and change. In moments, the part of the room that the alchemist was looking at seemed to freeze in time. In particular, the door was now completely locked into place.


    <Illusion is up. Remember, they can still hear, smell, and touch you - they just can¡¯t see you. Be careful,> I said.


    <Should we rinse off quickly? The smell of the sewers might give us away if they can still smell us.> said Anise.


    I paused, and then nodded. <Good point.> I grabbed a bucket of water from my dress, before rinsing the three of us off by constantly altering the shape of the water. A few seconds later, we were a bit cleaner and smelled less like the sewers.


    After that, we were ready.


    Sallia silently reached out with her rune ability, and detached the metal hinges from the door.


    We had no idea whether the door itself might have some sort of trap laid on its handle, so we had opted to open the door a different way. Rather than touch the handle of the door, we would simply remove the door from its hinges using Sallia¡¯s magic, and then jam it back into place afterwards.


    I grinned as the door¡¯s metal hinges were disconnected from the wall, and then the door floated away under Sallia¡¯s control. Meanwhile, none of the alchemists and guards noticed a thing.


    The three of us slipped into the room, before Sallia placed the door back into its original position and welded the hinges together using her metal control. The door probably wouldn¡¯t open after this, but that didn¡¯t matter much.


    Hopefully.


    With any luck, the people who next tried to open it would think that the hinges had broken from neglect or something. If we were in another world, people would probably immediately realize that someone was using magic to mess with them.


    But more combat-oriented magic was very rare in this world. The lack of magic use outside of alchemy meant that most people wouldn¡¯t think of magic when encountering odd things. I was hoping this would keep us under the radar until we completed our mission.


    The three of us walked slowly and carefully towards the spot Anise had claimed was another hidden entrance. We had to move carefully, because a wrong step could still alert the people in the room that something was wrong.


    Luckily, the noise of industrial mixers grinding potion ingredients together disguised any sounds we made. As we walked, I started to wonder if we were being too cautious in how slowly and carefully we were moving. The potion mixers were much louder than I had expected.


    As we moved out of the line of sight for the first woman, I sent everyone a message to tell them to wait a moment, and then swapped targets. I found another man who was looking in our general direction from across the room. In moments, I used my rune ability to link up to his vision, and then copied the trick I had used on the first woman to keep us invisible.


    We continued creeping forward, until we finally reached the hidden entrance. It took three different vision-hacks and careful walking, but nobody seemed to notice us.


    <What¡¯s the door made of?> I asked Sallia.


    <Not much metal,> she said, with a grimace. <Looks like stone? I think it must be part of the older sewer system, before the industrial revolution. I can¡¯t just warp it out of the way.>


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I frowned, and started concentrating on the spot where the door was supposed to be.


    In my eyes, it just looked like an ordinary patch of stone. I flicked through my items, trying to figure out if anything would help us move a giant stone door quietly.


    {Cursed Tarot deck} wasn¡¯t useful here - there was nothing to curse. {Lake Gazer¡¯s Dress} wasn¡¯t useful either. {Breath of the Storm}¡­ might help blow smaller stones away without making a sound? Its use seemed dubious to me, though. My {Storage Pack} was filled with potions and not much else. The friendship bracelet had nothing to do with moving rocks quietly.


    Sallia also grimaced. <Nothing much I can do. Are we abandoning stealth?>


    <Uhh¡­> I looked at Anise. <Any ideas?>


    <Hmm¡­>


    Anise frowned. <You know, I might have found the mechanism to open the door. There¡¯s a hollow space right behind that rock over there, and I think I can see a little lever inside of it. But I could also be completely wrong. Maybe that¡¯s the ¡®dump poison darts on intruders¡¯ lever. Do you want to risk it, or should we just rip away the door and drop stealth completely?>


    <Try flipping the lever,> I said, after a moment of thought. <If it dumps lava on us or something, I can probably teleport it away before it kills us. If it sounds an alarm¡­ then I guess it sounds an alarm. We¡¯ll deal with it if it happens.>


    <Sounds good. Lift me up, then. The lever is too high, and it¡¯s hard to reach,> said Anise. <The jerks who designed this base didn¡¯t think of how short four year olds are at all!>


    I tried not to laugh at Anise¡¯s remark. Meanwhile, Sallia bent down, grabbed Anise, and lifted her up, giving Anise just enough height to reach the rock with a hollow space behind it.


    It took almost a minute of fumbling around with the rock before Anise figured out how to remove it. Luckily, after forming three runes, Sallia¡¯s body was incredibly strong, and she was able to easily hold Anise steady while Anise tried to move the rock around. After removing the rock, Anise fumbled with the lever for a few minutes, before figuring out the trick to flip it and open the door.


    CREEEEEAAAAAK. With the loudest mixture of creaking and groaning sounds I had ever heard in my four lifetimes, the secret passage opened.


    Any attempts at stealth the three of us had been maintaining was suddenly thrown into jeopardy.


    The three of us froze and looked at the other people in the room, all of whom were now looking directly at the door.


    <Are you KIDDING ME?> I yelled into the friendship bracelet, but I kept maintaining the illusion. Right now, they still shouldn¡¯t see anything, and I didn¡¯t see anyone raising their guns at us, either.


    <Maybe they don¡¯t see us?> said Anise, sounding hopeful.


    Since my illusion was still being maintained, despite the absurdly loud creaking sound¡­ the people in this room should just be seeing a completely ordinary stone wall. They probably knew about the secret passage, since the people here were likely guards for the hidden facility. But they wouldn¡¯t see us or the open door at all.


    I started preparing to hammer people with extinguish, just in case. I had three rune abilities and an advanced grade attunement again. I could probably extinguish twenty or so ordinary people comfortably. Maybe a bit less if they frequently trained and had a stronger life force. With the help of my teleportation abilities, I should be able to wipe out this room of people by myself if things went perfectly for me.


    However, would we still have the strength to fight the people in the tunnels below this? If I spent all of my essence fighting the people in this room, I would definitely be low on essence afterwards. I had no idea how many people were still between us and Felix.


    A few of the guards with hidden rifles pulled them out of their clothes, and then started slowly pointing their guns in our general direction.


    ¡°There might be tunnelers nearby,¡± said one of the guards. ¡°Get someone to check the structural integrity of the nearby sewers. I¡¯m bringing Jodie and Marvin to let someone in the hidden base know that we heard a weird noise. Could be nothing, but better safe than sorry.¡±


    I resisted the urge to curse.


    The guards didn¡¯t see the three of us, and didn¡¯t know that we had already opened the secret passage. But they were opting to play it safe anyway. Since they had heard such a loud sound, they still believed something was wrong.


    That was bad news for us. The more cautious and competent the guards were, the harder it was going to be to rescue Felix.


    The three of us quickly hurried into the tunnel that had opened up in front of us, and Anise quickly fumbled with the side of the wall for another few moments, before, with another ear-piercingly loud screech, the doors snapped shut again. I resisted the urge to curse whoever had made the door. Did they intentionally never oil the hinges to make sneaking in impossible? Or was it just laziness? I had no idea, but I felt very frustrated with the creaky hidden door.


    Then, I started concentrating on one of the three guards who were walking up to the door we had just closed again, and started warping their vision.


    The moment they opened the secret door, I was going to make us invisible again.


    <Get ready,> I sent. Since the people in the room couldn¡¯t see us, there was still a chance to salvage our very stealthy operation.


    I was hoping we could just let the guards run past us, and then follow them. Not only would that ensure that we avoided accidentally tripping any other traps, but it would also help us get at least some sense of direction in this place. We had no idea what the facility we were in looked like, after all. Felix had never been allowed out of his room, so he couldn¡¯t give us any information about his place of captivity.


    But even though I hoped we could use the guards as trapfinders, if one of them bumped into us, the guards would definitely realize something was wrong. And there were plenty of other ways the guards might discover us if we were unlucky.


    Thus, we needed to be ready for a fight.


    <Would it be better to kill them if they spot us?> sent Sallia, after a few moments.


    <We don¡¯t have a good way to deal with the bodies. My dimensional backpack can¡¯t fit that the bodies of three large adult males inside of it.>


    <Got it,> sent Sallia. <Try really hard to avoid a fight.> Then, the door to the secret passage opened up again with the exact same set of jarringly loud creaks and grinding sounds.


    I immediately used my illusion abilities to make the three of us invisible.


    The three guards spent a few moments warily examining their surroundings, but didn¡¯t seem to see anything unusual. Their eyes passed right over us, as if we weren¡¯t even there.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything, captain,¡± said one of the guards.


    ¡°I don¡¯t either. We should still have some time before whoever is tunneling illegally in this area connects to the base,¡± said the captain. ¡°Let¡¯s go report to the base commander, so that someone can figure out how to deal with this mess.¡±


    The three quickly began jogging through the corridor, and the three of us followed right behind them.

 Chapter 175: Tracking

    We continued jogging through dark, stony underground corridors for several minutes. Near the beginning of the jog, the fetid smell of rotting vegetation and old, weathered stone was distinct and hard to overlook. If we hadn¡¯t been following the guards, I might have wondered if we were really going in the correct direction. However, the guards continued running, seeming completely sure of their path, and we followed.


    However, keeping up with the guards proved more difficult than expected. I had an agility of grade six - but my legs were extremely short, since I was four, and my stats were also somewhat weakened as a result of my age. After a minute and a half, as we started to lag further and further behind, Sallia sighed, and then picked both of us up and then started running more quickly. While age hindered her movements as well, Sallia had an overwhelming enough stat advantage to keep up with an adult male despite only being four years old.


    Finally, after running for about five minutes, we reached a giant doorway made of iron and brass. The leader of the guards quickly grabbed a small box from his pocket, then stuffed it into a cube-shaped hole in the middle of the giant doorway. I felt a whir of binding essence snake throughout the door, before it started hissing and groaning. I could hear machinery creak and groan in protest. Then, the doorway started to swing open, like the door of an ancient vault welcoming explorers for the first time.


    Before us lay another set of corridors. They were made of brass and iron, and the walls glittered with a polished, metallic sheen that spoke of hours of maintenance and careful attention to detail. The floors were also made of brass, and I could hear the whir of machinery in the distance. Strangest of all, there was a constant, rhythmic thunking sound that echoed throughout the facility every two seconds, as if it were on a constant loop. I could not figure out what the thumping sound was, or what it was for - it didn¡¯t sound like anything was being crushed, or stirred, or even as if the sound came from a machine at all. Even though the sound should have reminded me of industry, I was strangely reminded of a giant, beating heart, echoing deep within the facility.


    It was unnerving.


    Unlike the stone hallways leading to this facility, the underground facility had hallways leading into several different directions. The guards immediately turned left, and continued jogging towards the base commander they had mentioned earlier. I looked after them, and then paused. Following the guards had been useful for getting us into this facility, but I didn¡¯t see a reason to continue following them anymore. As interesting as this facility was, we were here to rescue Felix. We might explore the facility, steal documents, or investigate this facility¡¯s research as well. but rescuing Felix was by far the most important thing we had come here to do..


    <Which way is Felix?> I asked.


    <We need to go straight. He¡¯s really close by,> said Sallia. <He¡¯s close enough that we can reach him within five or ten minutes of walking, I think. This is definitely the facility where he¡¯s being held..>


    <You guys are close by?> asked Felix. I could detect both nervousness and excitement in his mental communication. <In that case, let me know when you get close enough. I can do at least a bit of metal manipulation, so I can help distract the guards if you need me to. I¡¯ve never shown any of my unusual abilities to the people in the facility, because they¡¯re already too interested in me as it is. There are currently two guards in charge of watching over me, but they aren¡¯t paying much attention. I can take them out before they notice anything. There might be more guards in the hallway outside of my room, though. I don¡¯t have a good view of what¡¯s happening outside of my area.>


    <Got it. We¡¯ll let you know when we¡¯re closer,> I said, feeling a smile pull at my lips.


    We were doing this. We were really doing this.


    Ever since I had come to this world, I felt, at least in part, like I had been beaten down by my circumstances.


    In our previous world, we had been killed by the living universe because it looked at us. In the Market, we had found a few answers, but were still left with far more questions and worries than solid wins. In this world, my mother was a drug addict who I couldn¡¯t have a proper conversation with, because she was almost always high, and Felix had been born as a test subject. Food was hard to get, and opportunities were even harder to find.


    I could use a win right now. And rescuing Felix would definitely make everything seem easier. We weren¡¯t waiting anymore, we weren¡¯t stalling to build up more abilities and prepare ourselves.


    We were just here. Ready to rescue Felix and then get out of here.


    <Head straight,> said Sallia. <The guards are heading in a different direction.>


    The three of us started moving straight.


    After less than thirty seconds of light jogging, we came upon our first interesting room.


    To our right, instead of brass and iron, I saw a giant glass window. The glass window had a copper tint to it, making me think that it wasn¡¯t regular glass. However, it was still clear enough that I could easily see through it.


    On the other side, I could see several batches of items I couldn¡¯t understand at all. To be honest, in a sketchy government facility, I had expected to see all sorts of things - secret military technology, weird healing technology, industrial projects that had some issues with them¡­ all of those would have made sense to me.


    However, what was laying inside of the room was very different.


    In the room, I saw four swords. Which made no sense at all - this world had pretty firmly moved beyond the era of cold weapons, and gunpowder was so dominant in warfare that nobody bothered manufacturing swords anymore. They were seen as relics of the past in this world, and the only place people even used melee weapons these days was when they were too poor to afford real weapons.


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    The swords looked new. Which left me scratching my head.


    Why the heck were swords stored in this facility? What the heck was wrong with the government?


    Were they trying to find a way to make swords relevant again? Sallia would certainly like that, since she had talked about not liking guns. But I could see no reason whatsoever for the government to sink resources into studying swords.


    Maybe they were historical relics? Maybe they were alien relics from space invaders who used swords for some reason? Or maybe¡­


    I quickly ran out of ideas. Frankly, the swords just made no sense at all to me. They seemed so random and out of place that I wasn¡¯t sure what to make of it at all.


    I blinked in confusion, but after a moment, kept running. As much as I didn¡¯t understand the purpose of this facility, rescuing Felix was more important. But now, my curiosity was piqued. I definitely wanted to investigate this facility more closely later.


    The three of us kept running, and after several more seconds, we came across a second large door. Unlike the previous large door, this time, we didn¡¯t have guards to conveniently open it up for us. There was another cube-shaped depression in the center of the door, indicating that we could open it if we had the key¡­ which we did not have.


    I grimaced.


    <Can you deconstruct the door quietly?> I asked.


    said Sallia. <But it¡¯s much more attached to its surroundings than the door to the alchemy lab. It¡¯ll take a lot more essence to remove, and if something breaks in the door, it¡¯ll probably make sound.>


    <I see guards on the other side of the door,> said Anise. <If we deconstruct the wall or the door right in front of their eyes, they¡¯ll notice. Miria, can you toss out an illusion on them? Then we can give stealth a try, and knock the guards out if it fails.>


    I nodded, and used my own space-based vision to lock on to one of the four guards on the other side of the door. The four of them were sitting down at a table, and two of them were eating, while the other two were playing some sort of card game. It looked like they were either slacking off, or on break. It didn¡¯t matter to me. I found one of the guards looking at the door, then used his perception to create an illusory version of the wall layered over the real one.


    <Illusion is up. You can break down the door now.> I said.


    Sallia nodded, and reached out with her absorption essence. The door started collapsing in front of us, bit by bit. However, Sallia¡¯s progress was very slow.


    <This thing is¡­ really complicated,> said Sallia, frowning. <Trying not to break or drop anything is really hard. This door has so many internal components that it¡¯s hard to just rip it off its hinges, like I did earlier.>


    <Send me an image of what you¡¯re doing. Maybe I can help,> said Felix.


    Sallia immediately projected an image of the metal bolts, hinges, and springs that she could see with her metal-vision ability, and for a few minutes, Felix didn¡¯t say anything else.


    <I figured it out. Push down that little thing that looks kind of like a giant gear, and then twist it. After that, try shoving a little bit of absorption essence into it. That should open the door, I think.> Felix sent. I could detect a trace of nervousness from Felix¡¯s voice.


    Sallia did as Felix suggested, and after a few moments, the door creaked, and then started to open.


    ¡°Door?¡± asked one of the guards turning around and looking straight towards us.


    However, he didn¡¯t see anything because my illusion was in the way.


    ¡°What the-¡± another of the guards, put down his sandwich and stared at the door in bewilderment.


    ¡°Aplos! It¡¯s escaping!¡± one of the guards yelled, before he picked up his gun and fired wildly towards the other door.


    The bullet bounced off of the door and landed somewhere on the other side of the room.


    ¡°I can¡¯t see it!¡±


    ¡°AAAAAAAHHHH!¡±


    I stared in utter bewilderment at the terrified guards, who had picked up their guns and were now wildly firing at the other entrance to the room.


    Aplos? What¡¯s that? I wondered. It sounded like the name of a creature¡­


    Before I had time to think further, one of the guns floated out of the grip of the guards, flipped around, and then slammed into the owner¡¯s head, knocking him unconscious.


    A few moments later, Sallia quickly knocked the other guards unconscious with her stolen weapon, then floated the gun over to herself.


    <Do you know how to shoot a gun?> I asked.


    <No clue, but I at least know to point the end with a hole in it at whatever I want to hurt, and then pull the trigger,> said Sallia. <Besides, guns are expensive. If we can find a secure place to sell them, we can make some good money.>


    I paused.


    <Good point.> I said, and grabbed all of the other guns before stuffing them into my dimensional backpack. They were a bit of a tight fit, but I managed to get them in.


    <Do you know how to reload a gun?> sent Felix.


    Sallia paused.


    <Reloading is overrated> she said.


    I rolled my eyes, and then checked with my spatial eyes to see if anyone had noticed our fight.


    I didn¡¯t see anyone who had noticed our scuffle, but considering how loud the gunshots had been, I doubted the base was still oblivious to our presence. They must be aware that something was happening, even if they weren¡¯t sure what. With any luck, the other people in the base would attribute the gunshots to ¡®Aplos,¡¯ whatever that was.


    <Do we kill them?> asked Sallia, looking at the downed guards.


    I hesitated. Were these people bad enough that killing them was okay?


    I hadn¡¯t hesitated to kill the invaders to the islands, all those lives ago, because they had been clearly trying to hurt the villagers of the islands. Killing them had, indisputably, been self defense.


    But the thugs that had tried to hurt Sallia and I in the alleyway had felt much worse. They had wanted to hurt us, but maybe not kill us. I hesitated again¡­ and then shook my head.


    <I don¡¯t feel good about them, since they¡¯re guarding a facility where Felix is treated like a lab rat¡­ but they aren¡¯t bad enough to kill, I think> I said. Then, I frowned. <But let¡¯s break their arms real fast. I don¡¯t want to kill them, but let¡¯s keep them out of a possible future fight and make sure they need to spend some time healing up. I¡¯m not completely ready to forgive them for locking up Felix, even if their part in the whole situation is probably minimal.>


    Sallia smiled. <I¡¯m glad you found something that works for you.>


    Two of the guard¡¯s arms simply twisted and bent with a flicker of absorption essence, while Sallia used the confiscated gun as a club to break the other arms of the guards. <Some of them don¡¯t have metal prosthetics for their arms,> she said. <Really makes a big difference in how well my ability can mess with them.>


    Then, Sallia turned towards the door on the other side of the room and popped it open using the same trick Felix had taught her.


    We stepped past the ruined door and into another hall. And there, I felt something I had never expected to feel in this world.


    Manifestation essence.

 Chapter 176: Manifestation Essence

    I blinked in surprise when I felt the presence of Manifestation Essence in the corridor.


    The existence of manifestation essence in this world clearly wasn¡¯t natural. According to the Market¡¯s analysis of this world, the two essences that existed in this world were binding essence and absorption essence - and the presence of absorption essence was very faint and rolled into binding essence.


    I thought about how I could possibly encounter manifestation essence in this world, before I remembered our previous world.


    In the world of the black sun, the four of us had encountered a creature named Sekundyrr, who had used Binding Essence, despite that essence not naturally existing in the world. It had been able to use binding essence to telepathically communicate with us. We had also encountered a lot of odd and interesting materials that operated off of different laws of physics, most of which had been stored within the ruins of an old Orthan research facility.


    And, most notably, those materials and Sekundyrr had been found in other dimensions. The second Orthan empire had been capable of crossing the ocean of souls and making contact with other worlds, allowing them to step into the greater multiverse and mine other dimensions for materials.


    Of course, exploring the multiverse had also led to their downfall, when they encountered the living universe and their civilization had been annihilated. The living universe had probably plowed through the expert mages of the second Orthan empire like a dragon tearing through a mob of peasants. But it was the only example I knew of where we had found an essence not naturally occurring in that dimension.


    Was this world doing something similar? Exploring the Multiverse, and then harvesting materials from worlds they found? Even if the risks were high when a civilization explored the multiverse, the rewards were also high. If this nation had a way to explore the multiverse, it didn¡¯t surprise me that it was exploiting it to fuel its advancing economy and increasingly powerful military.


    However, the idea that this nation was exploring other dimensions also confused me. I had no idea how the two major disciplines of alchemy could possibly feed into dimensional exploration. Perhaps my understanding of this world¡¯s magic system was just insufficient? Even if I couldn¡¯t imagine how this world¡¯s magic system could be used to open portals into the ocean of souls, it was possibly the result of some local quirk of physics, or something like that. I decided to investigate this matter later, if I found a chance.


    <Do you feel that?> asked Sallia, looking down the new corridor with bewilderment. <It feels like manifestation essence. Does this remind you of the Orthan empire?>


    <It does,> said Anise, frowning. <Are we going to get pasted by a living universe or something again? I don¡¯t know if I can handle getting instakilled by something so much stronger than me again. It felt pretty bad last time¡­>


    <I hope nothing that terrifying is nearby,> I said, glancing around using my spatial eyes. I didn¡¯t see anything unusual around us, which was a relief. But now that I was aware of the potential danger, I carefully swapped my soul-sight back on, trying not to shiver. Suddenly, it felt like the walls might have eyes that I was unaware of, watching us and waiting for a chance to annihilate us. <I don¡¯t see anything, but I¡¯ll keep my eyes peeled. Soul sight and spatial sight will be kept up until we¡¯re away from the facility.>


    <Good,> said Sallia, breathing a sigh of relief. <Do you think maybe they found an artifact from a civilization in a different dimension and stole it, or something like that?> Sallia paused, before turning towards Anise. <If there¡¯s an item generating manifestation essence, we could give it to Anise. With any luck, maybe it¡¯ll turn into something useful.>


    Anise grinned eagerly as she looked down the hallway, her expression similar to a hungry ghost smelling a feast. <If there¡¯s an item that could let me cast spells even without the abilities required to make it work¡­ I¡¯d be really excited,> she said. <Maybe it¡¯ll even help me get some keyword abilities set up this life, instead of waiting for us to find a world with the right essence.>


    <There¡¯s manifestation essence here?> asked Felix.


    <Yeah. We can sense it.> I said.


    <Now I¡¯m really curious about what this research facility is studying. Their research notes must be fascinating,> said Felix. I could hear a rising sense of curiosity from Felix¡¯s messages.


    I was also very curious - but I was also very nervous. Last world had been a shining example of why exploring the multiverse could be an awful idea.


    The three of us began moving towards the edge of the hallway. Just like the previous hallway, as we moved through the area, I saw a giant window tinted copper off to the side of us. I glanced inside as we walked by.


    On the other side of the window, I could see a giant orb. The orb was made of a material that resembled glass, but had a distinct blue-white tint to it. The material also rippled and changed as I looked at it - at first, it had resembled glass, but as I stared at it, it started to resemble a pool of water more. In a strange way, it reminded me of my dress.


    The object also radiated manifestation essence like a miniature sun. The closer I got to the window, the more acutely I could feel the manifestation essence leaking out of the orb and spilling into the corridor.


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    Apart from the giant orb, there were several neat, orderly rows of paper inside of the room. They were too far away for me to read, but I assumed they were research notes of some sort. I made a mental note to swipe them on the way out.


    It was interesting how much less bad I felt about stealing an object from the government than from a random guy.


    As I pondered my bizarre sense of ethics, Anise¡¯s head popped up next to mine, and she also stared through the glass at the orb filled with manifestation essence.


    <Miria¡­ you can teleport that glass orb to us, right?> she said, glancing at the window.


    I thought about it for a moment, and then chuckled. I knew what Anise was thinking of.


    <We¡¯ll grab it on the way out. Felix first. The orb could have an alarm attached to it or something,> I said. I didn¡¯t think electronic alarms were within this world¡¯s technological ability¡­ but then again, I also wouldn¡¯t have thought prosthetic arms were within this world¡¯s capabilities if I hadn¡¯t seen it myself. Better to be cautious until I had my assumptions confirmed.


    Anise nodded. <All right. Felix first. But if we don¡¯t get the chance to steal it on the way out, I¡¯m going to be very sad.>


    I rolled my eyes, laughed, and gave Anise a quick hug. <That way you can restart your path to becoming the multiverse¡¯s greatest super witch.>


    Anise twitched, as if experiencing some sort of horrendous mental agony only acute embarrassment could inflict on a person, but then she nodded sheepishly. <Thanks.>


    The two of us moved away from the glass window, and Sallia opened the door on the other end of the hallway. Just like at the end of the previous hallway, there was another room that appeared to be a break room. However, there wasn¡¯t anyone inside, so we didn¡¯t stop for long before moving into the next hallway.


    The third hallway had another room that we could see through a coppery window. And this time, there was something even more bizarre inside of it - there were dozens of items inside of it, and they looked like a mix between a javelin and a lightning bolt.


    There were dozens of them, thrown across various tables in a sort of organized chaos I found hard to associate with the first two rooms. The first room had been very spartan with the four odd swords each neatly lined up in the center of the room. The second room contained the manifestation essence orb and piles of paper, but those piles of paper had maintained a kind of military orderliness.


    The third room, however, looked like a tornado had passed through it. And the giant, glowing javelins of energy inside of the room didn¡¯t make much sense to me either. They were shaped like lightning bolts, and I could feel manifestation essence and binding essence crackling through the room.


    Then I realized something rather interesting.


    Only some of the javelin-lightning bolts had manifestation essence. These lightning bolts looked prim, polished, and sleek, as if they were weapons of war ready to be activated and hurled at enemies. The lightning bolts made of binding essence looked a lot rougher. They were still filled with enough energy to pack a huge punch, and possibly kill me on the spot if I didn¡¯t teleport it away - but they lacked a lot of the polish and efficiency that I could feel radiating out of the manifestation-essence lightning bolts. This time, I quickly figured out what I was looking at.


    <It¡¯s a room to copy the lightning bolts,> I said. <The manifestation essence lightning bolts are probably the originals, and the binding essence lightning bolts are knockoffs that the facility people are trying to replicate. At least, that¡¯s what I think it is.>


    <Sounds right to me,> said Sallia, taking a look at the lightning-bolt esque bars of energy stacked inside of the room. <So this sketchy research facility is dedicated to analyzing the spoils of war they found from another dimension they were exploring¡­ or something?>


    Anise shrugged.


    I frowned. Anise¡¯s question hit a key point. And it also made me think of another question. If this facility was dedicated to researching manifestation essence, why was Felix being raised in this facility? Something just didn¡¯t add up here¡­


    I shook my head, and we continued running through the corridors. We could figure out the nature of this facility later.


    We pushed through another set of doors, ignoring the lightning bolts for now, and pushed into the last corridor.


    There, I could see another hallway. There were four guards inside of it, and there was also a door attached to the right side of the hall. I immediately slammed my mind into the eyes of one of the guards, took over their vision, and created an illusion of us not being there.


    <We¡¯re right next to Felix,> said Sallia. <He¡¯s in that room.>


    The guards started turning towards us, doubtless alerted by the sound of Sallia opening the door, and Sallia immediately made the ground underneath their feet tilt, throwing them off balance as they reached for their guns.


    I immediately expanded the range of my spatial eyes, just in case.


    Two of the four guards managed to get out their weapons, and fired their guns at us.


    I felt my spatial eyes lock on to the bullets as they ripped through the air, and with a flex of my willpower and my essence, two objects that had been heading towards us vanished.


    A fraction of a second later, those objects reappeared, right in front of the shoulders of the two guards who had fired at us.


    With screams of agony, the two guards collapsed, holding their bleeding shoulders.


    <I hear gunshots outside my room. I¡¯m disabling the two guards in my room,> said Felix, before I heard two thunks.


    At the same time, Sallia levitated one of the guns and proceeded to start brutally bashing the skulls of the two remaining guards. The two quickly went down, and stopped moving.


    <They¡¯re unconscious,> said Sallia.


    Then, I turned towards the metal door separating us from Felix, and glanced at Salia.


    She looked at me, and grinned.


    Then, the metal door separating Felix¡¯s cell ripped itself off of its hinges, as Felix¡¯s alteration essence exerted itself upon the door.


    ¡°I am so glad to see you guys,¡± he said, before I ran up to him and gave him a hug.

 Chapter 177: Aplos

    <It¡¯s good to see you again,> said Felix, smiling at us.


    I looked at Felix in surprise.


    He looked¡­ different.


    Not just a little different. Anise had looked different, with two eyes and strawberry blonde hair.


    Felix, however, didn¡¯t look like the same person at all.


    He had a slimmer, more delicate-looking form, and his hair had changed from black to a reddish-white color I hadn¡¯t seen in this area at all. His facial structure and body shape had almost nothing in common with how he usually looked.


    He seemed to notice my gaze.


    <I think it¡¯s because {Identity} had nothing to work with,> he said with a sigh. <The Ability seems to take all of the possible features we could have and then select for the ones that fit our body shape the best. But since I was grown in a lab¡­ there was no ¡®pool¡¯ of choices to choose from. So {Identity} had nothing to work off of.>


    I winced. <That sucks. At least you¡¯re okay. And once I get better at shapeshifting, maybe I can help you look more like yourself? Also, what do your stats look like this life?>


    Felix shook his head. <I¡¯d like the help with my features, but let¡¯s focus on it later. As for my stats¡­> Felix paused for a moment, and then I saw his Status Screen flicker into view in front of me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+112)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+114)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+123)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (40+98)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+81)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Perception:  (40+99)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+75)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+111)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Binding: (40+82)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Alteration: (40+96)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I scanned his status screen, before wincing. Felix had¡­ pretty much been carried by his Market bought stats in most of the categories that mattered. It wasn¡¯t a huge deal - a few bowls of Sallia¡¯s noodles could round up a few of his more awkward rolls, like Perception and Intelligence. But it definitely wasn¡¯t the ¡®ideal¡¯ set of rolls, either.


    At least he had rolled well on Fortitude, which was a plus.


    <Are the guards all unconscious?> asked Felix, bringing me out of my thoughts a moment later.


    I nodded.


    <Let¡¯s get moving then. Based on your conversations from earlier, the base has probably figured out that there are intruders by now. If they come across any of the people you¡¯ve knocked unconscious, they¡¯ll be ready for us..>


    <Any idea how many people are in this base?>


    <At least a few hundred people work here daily. I don¡¯t know what percentage of those people are guards, but I think it¡¯s pretty high,> said Felix.


    <Why so many guards?> I asked, as I grabbed another few guns from the guards and stuffed them into my bag.


    <No clue. Something about ¡®Aplos,¡¯ which is also contained in this base. I don¡¯t know what it is, but the people here are afraid of it,> said Felix.


    I frowned. Multiple guards in this base had already mentioned ¡®Aplos,¡¯ and when I had used illusions in front of them, it had seemed almost as if they were convinced they were facing Aplos. They seemed afraid of the creature. However, the alchemists and guards outside of this base displayed no fear of ¡®Aplos,¡¯ even though they clearly knew about this base.


    Curious.


    I quickly shared my observations with the rest of the group.


    <That¡­ is very strange. Maybe the alchemists outside of the base are kept in the dark about exactly what happens in this research base?> said Felix.


    <But if that¡¯s the case, why would they know about the research base in the first place? If they know about the base, they should¡­ already know about what¡¯s happening in the base¡­ right?> asked Anise.


    <Maybe?> I said, after a few moments of thought. I had no idea how security and information clearance worked in this world. But I still felt something was very weird about this.


    I shook my head. I thought about the strange sound deeper in base, which sounded almost like an unnatural heartbeat mixed with the thump of machinery, and shivered.


    I spent a moment thinking over all of the ¡®oddities¡¯ in the facility that I wanted to grab on the way out. The swords, Anise¡¯s magic orb, and the javelin-lightning bolts were all probably valuable and useful for us.


    I had originally wanted to explore the base a little more, because I was incredibly curious to know what they were doing in this base. However, I was starting to get a very bad feeling about this. Something about this base didn¡¯t add up, and I was starting to think it might be better not to pick at the hornet¡¯s nest.


    <Felix, I know you said you wanted the research notes of people in this base, but I¡¯m getting a terrible feeling about this place. I think we should leave.>


    Felix paused, and looked around. <It doesn¡¯t seem any different than usual. Nothing has happened in the four and a half years I¡¯ve lived here. Are you sure we can¡¯t grab some notes?>


    <I just have a bad feeling right now.>


    Felix sighed. <All right. I trust your judgment. I¡¯m very sad, though.>


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    <Do we still have time to grab the orb?> asked Anise.


    <That shouldn¡¯t take more than a few seconds, and since the base probably already knows about our presence, we¡¯ll definitely grab it on the way out,> I said.


    I turned towards Sallia, who was already working on reopening the door behind us.


    A few moments later, the door opened, and the three of us started running.


    As we moved into the hallway with the javelin-lightning bolts, I paid for a moment to teleport a few of the lightning-javelins over to us. I stuffed a few binding and a few manifestation lightning bolts into my dimensional pack and waved away a System notification. Then I frowned.


    <Do any of you hear that strange thumping sound in the base?> I asked.


    <It¡¯s a bit faint, but I hear it. Why?> asked Anise.


    <Thumping sound? What are you guys talking about?> asked Felix.


    <Huh?> asked Sallia.


    <It¡¯s getting louder.> I said.


    <I don¡¯t hear anything,> said Sallia.


    <I would have mentioned it if I heard it,> said Felix.


    I heard a loud ringing sound start blaring through the base, followed by the sound of bells ringing and objects crashing against each other.


    <Is that the alarm?> I asked.


    <Guess they noticed we broke in?> said Sallia.


    I felt my heart start to tighten. <I think that things are about to get dangerous,> I said. Something was causing me to feel a faint sense of danger, and I didn¡¯t think it was just from the people in the base.


    I heard something bang against something else in the distance. It sounded like a cannonball colliding with a giant steel door.


    Or, perhaps, it sounded like an elephant ramming itself against one of the walls of the base.


    We looked at each other, and I stopped stealing lightning bolts. We started sprinting towards the entrance as fast as we could. The strange, almost-heartbeat sound in the distance also started to get louder.


    <Do you two really not hear that?> I asked Sallia and Felix.


    <We hear the sound of stuff banging on other stuff! I still don¡¯t hear any thumping sounds at all!> said Sallia. <Maybe the sound is an illusion, or has some sort of requirement to hear it or something?>


    I tried to concentrate on the distant sound of twisted thumping, but it didn¡¯t sound like an illusion at all. I frowned in confusion as we reached the next door.


    Perhaps whatever was creating the illusory sound was just better than me at doing illusions, and that¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t detect anything wrong with it? If I could hear it but Sallia and Felix couldn¡¯t, that meant something was wrong. I just couldn¡¯t, for the life of me, figure out what was wrong here.


    As I was trying to figure out what was going on, I heard another, much louder crashing sound. And then, Sallia frowned.


    ¡°The door isn¡¯t opening,¡± she said out loud, startling me as she broke the silence we had been maintaining apart from all of the gunshots. ¡°Something changed about the flow of binding essence in the building.¡±


    Felix grimaced, and put his hand against the wall.


    ¡°I think they shut the building off somehow. They made every door in the base  impossible to open,¡± he said. ¡°I doubt they would do this just to contain me.¡±


    I heard another loud crash in the distance.


    ¡°My first guess is that ¡®Aplos¡¯ decided to break out at the same time we did,¡± I muttered.


    Felix and Sallia¡¯s face tightened, but neither of them contradicted me. Clearly, they also thought the same thing.


    ¡°So¡­ based on the reactions of the guards, as well as the fact Miria and I can hear a strange sound that we can¡¯t¡­ it¡¯s some sort of illusion-wielding person?¡± asked Anise.


    ¡°Since they created me in this lab, it could be an artificial life form of some sort,¡± said Felix. ¡°Maybe it has an ability similar to those derived from potions? But if it¡¯s just an illusion based monster, I don¡¯t know why the guards would be so afraid of it. And I don¡¯t know why the researchers outside of the base would be kept in the dark about it. Ability potion research isn¡¯t anything super confidential or rare. Something about it still seems weird to me¡­¡±


    I heard gunshots in the distance.


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t Aplos have chosen some other day to break out?¡± I said, cursing the creature in my heart.


    Why now of all times?


    But I didn¡¯t have time to curse our crappy luck any more before Sallia swore. Instead of trying to fiddle around with the delicate internal mechanisms of the locked door, she simply reached out with her absorption essence and started ripping the door apart.


    ¡°We¡¯re abandoning stealth,¡± she said. ¡°This door needs to go.¡±


    Moments after Sallia deconstructed the door, we pushed through the ruins of the once-solid metal wall.


    On the other side, we came face to face with over twenty soldiers. Unlike the sloppy guards we had seen earlier, these people were no longer screwing around. Ten of the soldiers were in front, and were laying down and leveling guns at us, while the other ten soldiers were standing upright and pointing their weapons at us. To the side, I could see two more soldiers staring at us - but while they also held guns, I could feel traces of absorption essence in their bodies.


    Ability-potion users of some sort? I cursed. The soldiers were perfectly arrayed to avoid obstructing each other¡¯s line of sight, and they had grim expressions on their faces. They looked ready to fight to the death.


    ¡°Aplos! I see it! Fire at whatever you see in front of you!¡±


    The soldiers opened fire.


    My spatial eyesight expanded, more out of instinct than out of any real planning on my part as I panicked and activated my perception ability.


    I saw dozens of bullets flying towards us, as well as a streak of lightning. At the same time, I felt something eat at the edges of my thoughts, as if someone was trying to invade my mind. It was weak compared to my Willpower, but I could still feel it slowing my thoughts.


    One of the ability users.


    I split my mind and concentrated on as many of the bullets as I coud. Unlike earlier, I didn¡¯t have the leeway for mercy.


    Six of the bullets and the lightning bolt disappeared into thin air, before reappearing in front of the soldiers. I heard soldiers scream, but I started panicking.


    I had been overlooking one problem when I thought about our combat prowess in this world.


    I could only teleport so many things at once.


    I stopped six bullets, but couldn¡¯t stop the others.


    Sallia blazed with absorption essence, and another eight bullets halted in midair. Unlike the bullets I had commanded, Sallia¡¯s bullets didn¡¯t counterattack their shooters.


    The other eight bullets whizzed towards us.


    Felix stopped another one using his metal control alteration essence. I could see him trying to reach out for more, but without the vision-related boosts Sallia and I had created with our other rune abilities, trying to ¡®catch¡¯ a bullet using magic in midair was nearly impossible. It was a miracle Felix stopped one.


    I jumped in front of my friends. My dress would absorb the impact of many of the bullets, and so I was suitable for standing in the front lines. A few bullets cut into my dress, where they sank into the water and didn¡¯t seem to cause any harm.


    At the same time, a hot streak of pain ripped its way into my arm, and another into my shin.


    I cried out in pain, but managed to turn behind me.


    Anise was doubled over, clutching at her stomach as blood bloomed. She coughed wetly, before glaring at one of the soldiers. A moment later, the air in front of her rippled and a magic missile shot out of her hands.


    I heaved a sigh of relief, even as most of my body writhed in agony.


    Anise hadn¡¯t died, she was just injured.


    Felix and Sallia looked fine. The soldiers had missed them.


    Sallia also looked pissed.


    ¡°No one hurts my friends,¡± she hissed, and raised her hand towards the soldiers.


    The floor of the facility twisted itself, then spears of metal ripped themselves out of the ground and impaled several of the shooters.


    Felix joined in, and a huge chunk of the ceiling fell off and smashed into the soldiers. It wasn¡¯t large enough or heavy enough to kill them, but it definitely looked like it hurt.


    Several soldiers were now dying, screaming in pain, or desperately trying to take aim and fire at us. I didn¡¯t have time to process who was dead and who was alive.


    I gritted my teeth and pushed through the pain. I was getting used to fighting while injured. I used my third rune ability to leap into the eyesight of one of the soldiers, then hijacked his vision. I created an image of us jumping over his head at an incredible speed and then fleeing as fast as possible.


    With another push made of absorption essence, an illusion made of light copied my image.


    Some of the soldiers were distracted by my image. Five soldiers retained control and fired another volley of bullets at us, but five bullets was much more manageable, even if I was in a lot of pain.


    I teleported three of the bullets to return them to the soldiers who had fired at us, killing them on the spot, and Sallia stopped the other two. The distracted soldiers instead fired at the illusion I had created, giving me enough time to throw a few extinguishes at the strongest surviving soldiers. Two more soldiers died, before Sallia and Felix sent another wave of metal crashing towards the soldiers, and Anise managed to get in a few magic missiles that killed or maimed any stragglers. We successfully ended any vestiges of resistance, leaving only heavily injured or dead soldiers.


    I turned back towards Anise. I noticed that her stomach injury was bleeding a lot, but it wasn¡¯t as bad as I had first thought. It looked more like the bullet had grazed her side, causing her stomach to start bleeding but not heavily injuring her. I crawled over to Anise and started dumping alteration essence into her body, to close up the wound. I also started healing up my shin. I was going to need it to keep running away.


    We had defeated the first wave of guards, but there were still two hallways left we needed to cross.


    And then, the doorway in the hallway behind us ripped open. And on the other side of that door was something. Something that my mind instinctively recognized, but couldn¡¯t comprehend, for it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.


    Aplos.

 Chapter 178: Aplos (2)

    The hallway where Aplos had come from turned dark. Not as if someone had turned off all the light, but as if something had simply eaten every single speck of light in the world, leaving behind nothing but an inky void. I felt something tug at my mind as I looked at the creature, as if the very essence of whatever I was looking at was twisted. It reminded me of a broken mirror, with eyes peering at me through the cracks in the glass. A dozen different reflections of what could be stared at me from angles that didn¡¯t exist in reality, sending nervous shivers down my spine. My brain struggled to comprehend what it was looking at. It was almost as bizarre and hard to conceptualize as the fish from the first world the three of us had lived in.


    However, my Willpower was much higher than it had been in the past, so I quickly pieced my mind back together. Some part of me realized that the creature hadn¡¯t even properly attacked us - I had simply felt a little tug at my mind from looking at the creature and trying to understand what it was. I could certainly understand why the soldiers in the base were told to watch out for odd sights and sounds. Depending on how strong their mind was, some people might genuinely go insane from looking at Aplos.


    Luckily, nobody in our group had below Grade 6 Willpower. I doubted it would be an issue for us.


    Aplos continued staring at us, and I tensed. But the creature did not move to attack us.


    I glanced at the injured and dying soldiers near us, and then decided they weren¡¯t ready to make any problems for us right now.


    ¡°Are you able to converse with us?¡± I asked Aplos. The soldiers in the base seemed hostile to Aplos, but that didn¡¯t necessarily mean it was hostile to us. I didn¡¯t really think it would work, but it was worth a shot. I didn¡¯t want to kill something without at least checking if it was intelligent and non-hostile first. At the same time as I spoke, I swapped to my soul vision.


    I spotted a large, floating candle in the middle of Aplos¡¯s body. It was on the larger side for this world. If I was at full essence, and had at least three of my alteration ability¡¯s keywords active, I could probably kill the creature in one hit with extinguish. However, it would take most of my mana - and I had spent a huge amount of alteration essence healing myself and Anise, and extinguishing some of the soldiers earlier. Anise and I still had bad injuries, although they were no longer life-threatening.


    Aplos continued staring at me, and I heard something speak to me. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, but it resounded directly inside of my mind, rather than in my physical ears.


    And then, reality split into two different visions.


    In one reality, I saw myself and my friends standing in the corridor, just as before. Anise and I both had wounds that were partially healed, and all of us were preparing for a possible fight with Aplos.


    In another reality, I saw the darkness that constituted the creature¡¯s body reach towards me, like long knives made entirely of shadow. I felt searing pain in my side as they ripped into my flesh, and I immediately realized the creature was somehow attacking me with an illusion.


    I immediately pulled together every single drop of alteration essence I could, and then slammed it into Aplos¡¯s soul in the biggest extinguish I could manage. Immediately, about half of its candle of life disappeared, and the vision of Aplos¡¯s body ripping into my guts disappeared. I gasped and doubled over, feeling blood drip out of my stomach.


    Whatever the creature had done in its ¡®illusion,¡¯ it had somehow carried over to reality. I saw Sallia start to bleed out of one of her eyes, and Felix started shivering uncontrollably, as if he had taken a long bath in icewater.


    ¡°Hostile,¡± I said, gasping.


    Sallia ignored her wounds, and followed up my attack by launching a spray of metal spikes at Aplos - only for them to pass harmlessly through its body.


    ¡°Body of darkness,¡± she said, almost sounding as if she was complaining. I glanced at Anise, and was relieve to see that her injuries hadn¡¯t gotten any worse. Aplos had focused on the three of us, possibly because we were the ones with the least severe injuries. Then, taking me by surprise, Anise looked at Aplos and pouted angrily at the creature that had injured the three of us. She launched a magic missile at the creature, and a silver bolt of force cut directly into its body.


    The creature didn¡¯t seem to take any damage from the attack - however, Anise¡¯s magic missile did hit the creature, instead of just passing through its body, the way Sallia¡¯s metal attack had. The creature didn¡¯t react - it seemed almost as if if it were stunned.


    Perhaps it had reacted poorly to having nearly half of its life force destroyed instantly. I grinned savagely.


    ¡°How did the people in this facility keep it confined in the first place, if it just passes through physical matter?¡± asked Felix.


    I looked at the creature, which had an incorporeal body made entirely of darkness, and blinked.


    I had no idea how the facility had imprisoned Aplos. It was obvious they had confined it successfully for a long time before our arrival - after all, the soldiers seemed pretty familiar with the creature. We had seen a few other items in this facility made out of manifestation essence as well, and Anise¡¯s attacks had seemed to at least interact with Aplos, unlike Sallia¡¯s physical attacks.


    ¡°Maybe it has a weakness to manifestation essence?¡± I said. Since this facility seemed dedicated to studying manifestation essence, it was a reasonable guess.


    Sallia¡¯s eyes widened, and a moment later, she whirled towards me.


    ¡°Miria, give me your umbrella!¡±


    I immediately handed her the umbrella, and Sallia launched a lightning bolt out of it and into the creature¡¯s body.


    The creature shrieked in agony, and a great deal of the dark mist that made up its body seemed to vanish under the light and heat of the lightning bolt.


    ¡°I¡¯m out of essence,¡± said Sallia, grimacing.


    I grabbed my umbrella and handed it to Anise, who launched another lightning bolt at the creature.


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


    This time, the creature completely collapsed.


    The candle of life in its body was snuffed out by the attack, and I breathed a sigh of relief. A few moments later, my soul-vision collapsed, as even the last wisps of my alteration essence drained out of my body. I could barely even move now - and the damage to my shin certainly wasn¡¯t helping anything.


    However, I also felt relieved when I saw Aplos die. The creature had been dangerous, but nothing we couldn¡¯t handle. After all, we were now transmigrators with two worlds behind us. While Aplos¡¯s illusion attack had been strange and unexpected, the creature hadn¡¯t been that hard to handle once we were on the offensive.


    I checked my notifications, and breathed a sigh of relief.


    Along with all the other notifications I hadn¡¯t had time to process yet, I could see a notification that we had killed ¡®Aplos.¡¯ I ignored the other System notifications for now - I could look at them once we got out of here.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill ¡®Aplos.¡¯


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +450


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There was also a notification that I had received a new skill for killing Aplos, but that could also wait.


    I turned towards my friends, and then towards the dying soldiers in the corridor. Whatever Aplos had done to them, it seemed to have nearly killed the soldiers who had survived the fight with us. I looked at them, and then shook my head. They had fired at us. Their life or death wasn¡¯t my problem anymore.


    ¡°Let¡¯s keep running,¡± I said. ¡°We need to get out of this facility.¡±


    Sallia nodded, and quickly removed the next wall from our path. I stopped for a few seconds to steal Anise¡¯s manifestation orb and stuff it in my backpack, since I still had a little absorption essence left over, and then we kept moving. I had a hard time running on my injured shin, so Sallia picked me up and started carrying me as we continued fleeing from the facility.


    For once, luck seemed to be on our side. The first corridor we had run into was also deserted, just like the previous one.


    I grabbed the four swords we had seen as well, feeling my absorption essence reserves strain, and grimaced as I shoved them into my backpack. I was running dangerously low on absorption essence, and my alteration essence was completely gone. Sallia apart the entrance to the facility.


    And there, on the other side of the facility, we found another forty soldiers sitting in formation and staring at us down rifles.


    I resisted the urge to curse.


    We had been running so fast that I hadn¡¯t had time to look at our destinations through the use of my spatial eyes. And now, we had been nearly ambushed by another group of soldiers.


    The person who was standing at the back of the soldiers looked at us in disbelief, and then his eyes flicked towards Felix.


    ¡°You¡­?¡± he seemed stunned by our presence, before he cackled. ¡°I knew there must be something special about you. There¡¯s no way you could have been normal! I knew you were faking it!¡± he grinned toothily at Felix, seeming to ignore the rest of us. ¡°Tell me how you did it, you little bastard, and I¡¯ll-¡±


    I¡¯d heard enough.


    I spent nearly half of my remaining absorption essence to blast the toothy fucker down with a lightning bolt from {Storm¡¯s Breath}. No one treated my friends like that.


    His eyes widened as he died.


    Felix raised his hand, and several guns twisted and warped in their owner¡¯s hands.


    ¡°Fire!¡± yelled a frightened-sounding soldier, and I expanded my spatial senses to their limit. At the same time, I held my umbrella in front of me like a shield, something I should have done during our last encounter with soldiers but had forgotten, and prayed with all my heart that the umbrella was bulletproof.


    My umbrella rattled and shook, and my arms and shoulders felt like they had been hit by a truck. I heard one of my arms snap, because my bones just weren¡¯t sturdy enough to withstand the hail of bullets. But in that time, I managed to teleport nearly twelve bullets back to their owners, killing them on the spot.


    Sallia and Felix were no slouches either, and Sallia constantly took control of bullets and metal fragments to kill the soldiers attacking us. Felix, meanwhile, broke the rifles of nearby soldiers. Since he couldn¡¯t catch bullets the way Sallia and I could, he seemed to have found a different way to help.


    As chaos started to break loose, I reached into the vision of another of the nearby soldiers, and made us disappear.


    ¡°They disappeared!¡± yelled one of the remaining soldiers, before several other soldiers started wildly looking around. They looked terrified, but still managed to form back up. I scanned the remaining soldiers.


    Perhaps twenty were left standing, and another half a dozen were left moaning in pain on the rocky ground.


    <Don¡¯t move or make a sound,> I sent over the friendship bracelets.


    The soldiers continued scanning their surroundings for several seconds, before they started shuffling around, kicking at suspicious-looking patches of air. The four of us very, very slowly and carefully started making our way towards the entrance of the tunnel.


    ¡°Block them at the entrance!¡± yelled a soldier, as we were trying to make our way forward. ¡°Someone get more reinforcements from the base, and I¡¯ll let the guards at the entrance know to stop them. They can¡¯t escape with the test subject!¡±


    Then, the man took off towards the alchemist workshop we had entered this facility from.


    I felt the urge to curse the man rise up, and wished I had enough alteration essence left to drop him on the spot.


    <Run faster and hope for the best?> asked Sallia.


    I hesitated, and then nodded.


    <Let¡¯s go.>


    The four of us took off towards the entrance, and the sound of our shoes slapping against the stones quickly gave away our position.


    ¡°They¡¯re still here!¡± yelled another soldier, before several of them pointed their guns at us.


    Felix quickly ruined a few more guns as another wave of bullets ripped towards us. However, since the soldiers didn¡¯t know where we were, a lot of their shots were horribly inaccurate.


    I grabbed the bullets that were heading towards us, and then used them to kill or injure the other soldiers firing at us - as well as the soldier who was running towards the entrance.


    That soldier, as well as several of the shooters, dropped dead. The soldiers continued blindly firing at all of the places we could be, but the sound of gunfire was so loud it made it impossible for them to track us through sound.


    The four of us quickly made for the entrance, and after a few moments of struggling, managed to open the door. I maintained an illusion over the eyes of the alchemists and guards inside of the workshop. They seemed to be alert to the idea that something was wrong, and the sound of gunfire echoing through the tunnels definitely made them nervous. The alchemists and guards were no longer producing potions, and were instead warily scanning the area with their guns ready.


    But they couldn¡¯t see us, and while they seemed worried by the sound of us opening the secret door, they didn¡¯t open fire at us instantly. So under the cover of my illusions, the four of us slipped back to the door to the sewers. I had spent almost all of both of my essences, and I was starting to feel tired and drained. But I had just enough left to cover us for another minute or two.


    I breathed a sigh of relief as Felix wrenched the non functioning door using his metal attunement, and then the four of us charged into the sewers under the watchful eyes of the alchemists and guards.


    I was out of both kinds of essence, Sallia had almost no absorption or manifestation essence left, Anise was tapped out of everything, and only Felix still had a little bit of alteration essence left in him. However, as we slipped back into the sewers, and the din of the hidden laboratory faded into the distance, I couldn¡¯t help but want to cheer and laugh in excitement.


    We had rescued Felix!

 Chapter 179: Thoughts of a Scientist

    Leon, head researcher of the ancient institute, stared at the reports he had received of the break-in a few hours ago.


    They left him scratching his head in utter bewilderment.


    According to the surviving soldiers, last night the test subject ¡®Felix¡¯ had broken out of his confinement. In addition, Aplos had also broken free¡­ only to be slain by Felix.


    Along the way, Felix had also somehow stolen several other important artifacts that were housed in the ancient studies facility. Leon wasn¡¯t actually sure how in the world Felix had even done that. There weren¡¯t any signs that the boy had broken into the rooms. Somehow, the rooms were just¡­ empty. Perhaps Felix had ripped open the walls, stolen everything, and then welded the walls back together somehow? The doors were built to be impossible to open without the correct keys. Leon had no idea how he had managed that.


    Most bizarre of all, Felix hadn¡¯t broken out alone. Two different groups of guards had reported that three other children had broken him out. The other three had all been female, and none of them had been older than six years old, at most. Most of the soldiers thought that they three were even younger - perhaps four or five years old.


    And every single one of them had powers.


    This was the part that made Leon¡¯s head hurt the most.


    Potions that granted people abilities were rare. There were only a few thousand of them manufactured in the country every year, and that was after industrial fertilizer potions had become more commonplace and the alchemical revolution and industrial revolution had turned potions from a commodity for the rich and powerful to something even commoners could buy by the dozen. The ingredients for ability potions were rare and hard to grow, and a skilled alchemist was needed to control the reactions between ingredients during the potion creation process. Otherwise, an ability potion would explode instead of giving its drinker a special ability.


    They were an item for the rich and wealthy, or for highly promising soldiers. One of the biggest draws the underground facility had for soldiers to take jobs defending it was the research facility¡¯s yearly allotment of four ability potions.


    And yet, seemingly out of nowhere, three kids who had all taken ability potions had appeared out of nowhere and broken Felix out of the facility.


    And even more strange than the fact that nobody knew of the four kids beforehand, some of them had demonstrated more than one ability.


    Leon, of course, knew that it was completely impossible to get more than one power from an ability potion. Every single potion could grant its drinker one ability, and once someone had gained an ability, it was completely impossible to ever gain another one. Any ability potions they drank afterwards would just be wasted. People who had the opportunity to drink an ability potion had to think very carefully about what ability they wanted before choosing a potion to drink, because there were no second chances.


    And yet, the little girls who had rescued Felix had demonstrated the ability to use multiple powers. One of them, the little girl with pure blonde hair and thin limbs, had somehow teleported objects around, and also seemed to have the ability to kill or seriously injure other creatures in a way that nobody quite understood. She was also unusually perceptive, although that might not have been the result of an ability potion.


    Upon hearing the physical description of the girl, the commander had wondered if whoever had actually rescued Felix thought he was stupid.


    Nobody that could afford an ability potion could possibly be impoverished. That was like saying that someone had dozens of Sterlings but couldn¡¯t afford basic food, when a decent meal for a kid was less than a tenth of a sterling. Ability potions were worth several times their weight in gold.


    Apart from the blonde-haired girl, another of the girls with strawberry-blonde hair seemed to have s the ability to shoot silver bolts of force out of her hands, and had displayed the same unusual perceptiveness the blonde haired girl had displayed.


    The girl with copper hair had demonstrated the ability to physically outperform even an adult male, despite only being four years old. This clearly meant that she had drunk a superstrength potion, since a four year old having more strength than an adult was well beyond what could be accomplished with any training or genetic gifts. However, she also seemed to have the ability to command metal. And she ALSO had displayed unnaturally good perception.


    Leon was starring to wonder if the girls had access to some sort of item that enhanced their perception. That would explain why all of them had some sort of vision-related ability. However, Leon had no knowledge of any item that could allow someone to see behind them, through walls, and in basically all directions all the time. But the idea that someone had developed technology that Leon, one of the head researchers of the country, couldn¡¯t understand was worrying in its own right.


    And even if the unusual perception could be attributed to some sort of equipment, that still didn¡¯t explain how some of the girls had demonstrated multiple abilities.


    Someone in the group ALSO seemed to have the ability to make themselves invisible or distort vision somehow. Leon wasn¡¯t quite sure what the ability was, and none of the Soldiers seemed to know either. But if Leon had to guess, the strawberry-blonde girl probably had the illusion ability. The other two girls had displayed two abilities each, while the strawberry-blonde girl had only displayed one ability. It would make sense for her to actually have two abilities, with illusions being her second gift.


    Felix also demonstrated the ability to command metal.


    The entire scenario was so utterly ridiculous that Leon didn¡¯t know what to think.


    The best explanation that he could think of was that maybe another group of ability users had quietly broken into the facility to help Felix escape, and had remained invisible the entire time. This could at least account for the mismatch between reported abilities and the number of people present. If someone had the ability to create fake images, it would also explain why a four year old could apparently waltz into one of the most heavily guarded military facilities in the country, steal nearly a fifth of the artifacts inside, rescue Felix, and then walk back out unharmed. Obviously, the four year old girls didn¡¯t exist at all. If they were illusions meant to attract attention, it would at least make a bit more sense.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    But even that explanation had its own problems. If people were breaking into the base, why create illusions of four year old girls at all? Anyone with a brain would obviously be able to tell that four year old children didn¡¯t go around breaking into military bases. The very thought was so utterly ridiculous that Leon didn¡¯t know why someone would even bother using children as a cover for their actions. It would make more sense to at least create illusions of adults breaking into the facility - that would have at least made some sense.


    Leon resisted the urge to tear his hair out in frustration at just how little sense everything made, as well as the thought of just how much he had lost yesterday. Thousands of sterlings of equipment and rare, ancient artifacts had been stolen.


    On top of the catastrophic financial losses yesterday, the facility had also lost Aplos, the most important part of the base.


    It wasn¡¯t a surprise that Aplos had broken out yesterday. The creature was an ancient imperial guardian of the Zelyr, the most infamous ancient empire in the world. Even though nobody was quite sure how the Zelyr had created half the ancient artifacts that they had created, everyone knew that the Zelyr had done things nobody else before or since had accomplished. Aplos was an artificial life form that exemplified the madness and creativity of the old Zelyr, and capturing the creature alive had proven a huge strain on resources and manpower.


    However, unlike Felix, who had also been assembled from ancient artifacts designed to create artificial life, Aplos was a creature born of thought over matter. How people perceived the creature, and what they assumed its capabilities were, played a massive role in determining exactly how strong the creature and what its abilities were. There were limits, of course - one couldn¡¯t simply imagine that the creature was a benevolent god, train a group of people to believe the same thing, and create an unkillable benevolent deity. There was an upper limit to how strong the creature could become based on other people¡¯s imagination.


    But the creature could become hundreds of times stronger than the average soldier if enough people believed it was stronger than them, and even the exact location where it was located could change if enough people believed it was watching them. Once someone else learned of Aplos and how it worked, all it would take for the creature to escape was a few people who weren¡¯t fully convinced that it was securely locked away in its cage, and the creature would slip out. That was why the soldiers who worked in the base were carefully vetted before being allowed to learn of the creature¡¯s existence, and their belief was then used to anchor the creature to the room it was imprisoned in.


    Since someone had broken into the facility, they must have heard of Aplos and wondered what the creature was - or had already known how the creature worked and exploited that to bring the creature to them.


    Leon had no clue why they had killed Aplos, instead of bringing it away and then studying it. Perhaps they had sought to  cripple the ancient studies of Vern? Leon could certainly understand other nations sabotaging the research abilities of the country, especially since the other countries of the continent were so threatened by the birth of the steam engine.


    Leon shook his head in frustration.


    There were just so many weird parts about the rescue of Felix last night. The invaders had seemed frighteningly powerful, but had hesitated to kill witnesses. They had pretended to be three underage girls for some reason, even though there was no logical reason for that. They had managed to rip through one of the most heavily guarded facilities in the country, but Leon had no idea who the real infiltrators possibly could have been.


    Leon frowned.


    An idea started tugging at his thoughts. One that he hadn¡¯t thought of before now.


    Felix had been built from a variety of modern research and ancient technology. One of the most famous ancient empires in the world had accomplished feats involving ability potions that even modern empires couldn¡¯t replicate.


    The Ancient Zelyr had done quite a bit of research into making artificial humans, who were supposed to be much stronger and more powerful than regular people and work as the perfect super soldiers. This technology had died out when the empire collapsed, hundreds of years ago, leaving behind nothing but a name in history books.


    Leon had been rather disappointed when Felix hadn¡¯t displayed any such abilities, but it was obvious that Felix had been lying. Several soldiers had seen him use an ability to control metal, despite Felix never having been given an ability potion. Perhaps Felix had been born abnormally smart, and had decided that it was best to keep his abilities to himself until he could escape?


    Perhaps one of the other nations that stood against Vern had also been researching how to create super soldiers. Worse, they had clearly come much further than Vern. Unlike the facility under Leon¡¯s control, whichever nation had broken Felix free had clearly already built and then raised a few child supersoldiers that were loyal to their nation. Loyal enough that the children hadn¡¯t escaped, even when they had been sent on a mission to rescue one of their compatriots alone.


    With Felix freed from his captivity by other children like him, it would be easy for that nation to raise Felix as yet another loyal soldier.


    The impact of a few soldiers with exceptional potion abilities might not be able to single-handedly control larger battles, but Leon had never thought that was the real potential of the super-soldier program, as much as the higher-ups disagreed with him.


    Leon had always been much more worried about surgical assassinations and disruptions of supply lines. Even if someone with abilities couldn¡¯t single-handedly swing a large battle in favor of either size, several small squads of incredibly powerful soldiers who could move quickly and sabotage the supply lines for an army could still represent a massive problem, if led by a good commander.


    And now, another nation already seemed like they had created such a soldier squad. Even if the people involved were only children, they had already demonstrated just how dangerous an artificial life form created by mixing old and new technology could be.


    The more Leon thought about it, the more he was convinced that he was correct. The idea of several invisible people pretending to be six year old little girls rescuing Felix seemed utterly ridiculous. The idea of a few little supersoldier girls rescuing a ¡®fellow human experiment¡¯ made much more sense.


    Leon sighed, and started writing his report to the higher-ups. He shuddered at how insidious and powerful the strike against Vern¡¯s ancient Zelyr studies had been. Even if studying the old Zelyr was far from the most important aspect of war technology, the coalition was looking for any advantage they could get against Vern. A powerful, already activated set of assassins and saboteurs wasn¡¯t enough to tilt the war against Vern - but it would certainly make it harder to proceed.


    He also alerted the higher ups to exactly what his soldiers had reported the little intruders had looked like. If anyone managed to spot them, perhaps they could at least prevent the saboteurs from hitting any other important aspects of Vern¡¯s industry. However, he doubted the reports he had were enough to locate the little intruders. ¡®Blonde little girl,¡¯ ¡®strawberry-blonde little girl,¡¯ and ¡®copper haired little girl¡¯ just wasn¡¯t a very detailed description, and not many soldiers had survived an encounter with the little intruders. Felix, at least, they could provide very detailed and accurate descriptions of, which was something. But considering the fact that one of the intruders could alter perception, perhaps any description of them was wrong from the beginning.


    Searching for the little intruders might be an exercise in futility.


    Still, they had to at least try. The little girls who had rescued Felix represented a deep, underlying threat to Vern¡¯s war effort - and when nearly half of the continent was allied against Vern, they couldn¡¯t afford to let any potential threat slip by.

 Chapter 180: Return

    The four of us spent a few hours running through the sewers, before we exited from the same building we had entered from. Along the way, we almost ran into three other groups of people. The exceptional hearing Sallia and I possessed saved us from all of those potentially dangerous encounters - and also saved us from leaving behind any witnesses. Even if it probably didn¡¯t matter either way, since we hadn¡¯t had anywhere near the essence needed to wipe out all of the soldiers who had seen us, masking which direction we had escaped to was probably still somewhat useful.


    When we exited the sewers, I was too exhausted to even clean up at the entrance. When we had first entered the sewers, I had intended to use some water to remove the foul stench of once we exited.


    Sadly, I didn¡¯t have the essence for it.


    I quickly glanced back to the shelf where I had stolen the potions, and paused.


    We had taken a lot of artifacts from the facility when we had rescued Felix. And I had also stolen a few guns. Surely, they were all worth something? But after a few moments, I realized how silly that idea was.


    The artifacts I had stolen were probably valuable. The problem was that they were likely so valuable and unique that anyone caught possessing them would immediately be recognizable. I hadn¡¯t exactly seen manifestation essence lightning bolts laying around in this world. Anyone who knew how to interact with essences would immediately realize something was wrong with them.


    Which probably meant every Alchemist on the planet would realize something was up with the lightning bolts the moment it was near them. The lightning bolts were probably worth an insane amount of money, and I had no way at all of turning them into money without exposing us to a massive amount of risk. The fights with the soldiers had both solidified my confidence in our skills as a team, and had also given me a reality check on how powerful we actually were. We could definitely crush small groups of soldiers, but there were only so many bullets I could handle a second. A critical mass of soldiers could still kill us, even if a couple soldiers stood no chance against us. Even though I had the essence to handle dozens of people on my own, I didn¡¯t have the brain capacity to do the same.


    In other words, we needed to avoid exposing ourselves to the government. I might still be able to sell the guns we had looted, since they didn¡¯t seem special, but everything else would need to stay within our group.


    And since I was so unsure about the ability to sell the guns, I couldn¡¯t return the potions I had stolen.


    Sallia glanced at the potion shelf as well, but her eyes seemed to slide right over it before she continued looking around.


    Had she noticed the potions were missing now?


    On some level, it felt almost ridiculous to worry about my friends realizing I had stolen the potions. We had just killed several people inside of the base, and I didn¡¯t even really feel bad about it. They had been trying to kill or seriously hurt us, and while I didn¡¯t want to be trapped in my own emotions, so perhaps part of my brain still felt that we had been acting in self defense.


    On the other hand, it was incredibly strange that I felt better about killing several people than I felt about stealing a few potions from someone I had never seen before. Maybe my sense of morals was more messed up as a result of joining the Market than I had thought it was. Being able to die and come back to life over and over again had definitely messed with my perception of what death meant, and had seemingly spilled over into my perception of what was ¡®bad.¡¯


    I found myself starting to spiral into my own thoughts again, before Anise touched my arm.


    ¡°Miria?¡± she asked.


    I blinked, and focused on my friends again. I sighed, and shook my head. I could think about morality and how I felt about all of this later. We needed to finish escaping first. Now wasn¡¯t the time to relax.


    I gave myself an exploratory sniff. The odor of the sewers hadn¡¯t clung to me quite as badly as I had expected, but there was definitely a smell I wanted gone as fast as possible.


    I looked around, and grimaced as I checked the buckets, before shaking my head. The buckets in this building were absolutely disgusting. I wasn¡¯t willing to use them to rinse off at all.


    I wondered if any of the potions that I had stolen were cleaning or odor-removing potions, but I had no idea what most potions were. I sighed.


    ¡°Here, I¡¯ll splash all of us with some water, and we can just clean off using that,¡± I said, as I stuck a hand into my dress. I really would have preferred a cloth to use to help wipe down, but most of our clothes had the same awful reek that we did at this point. The only items that didn¡¯t smell foul were the ones we had brought with us from the Market - most of which, thankfully, had self-cleaning functions.


    ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± said Felix, nodding at me. ¡°Ah, I have the origami kit. It¡¯s not exactly an ideal wash cloth, but there are worse options,¡± he said.


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    I shrugged. It was better than nothing.


    I quickly started splashing the four of us with water, and we started doing our best to wipe ourselves down using Felix¡¯s endless sheets of paper as paper towels. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but at the very least the smell of the sewers was much less noticeable than it had been before.


    I eyed the origami papers that we had used. They looked rather soggy and messy now.


    ¡°Let¡¯s find a place to throw these away,¡± I said.


    I cracked open the door to the building, and confirmed that nobody was watching us. In fact, there didn¡¯t seem to be many people nearby at all. We had maybe an hour before dawn, and it seemed like the earlier bustle of the area had vanished.


    The four of us crept out of the building, found a nearby trash can, and tossed all of the paper origami into it. Then, we made our way through the red light district. After several minutes of walking, the four of us arrived at the edge of the red light district, where this region and the slums intersected with each other.


    ¡°So¡­ I guess this is it for the night,¡± I said, hesitantly.


    ¡°I guess it is,¡± said Sallia, also hesitating.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing left to do,¡± said Anise, looking around us. For a moment, she seemed a bit sad.


    I sighed. ¡°We got what we came here to do. Felix is saved.¡± I paused for a moment. ¡°Ah, your orb,¡± I said, before digging Anise¡¯s manifestation orb out of my backpack. I handed it to her, and she grabbed it, before concentrating on the orb¡­ and then frowned.


    ¡°Very odd,¡± she said, after a few moments. ¡°I can channel manifestation essence into it, but it¡¯s very different from the magic circles of my homeworld. And it doesn¡¯t¡­ feel right, either. It feels like it conflicts with this world, just a little bit.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°It¡¯s probably using dimensional laws from another dimension or something. Let me know if you need help with it. I don¡¯t know how much I can mess with the item using alteration essence, since there¡¯s a chance I¡¯ll accidentally break it in the process. But if you guide me, we might be able to make minor alterations to the orb once you figure out what it is and how it works. Hopefully it proves useful to you.¡±


    Anise nodded. She grabbed her orb, and then quickly gave me a hug. ¡°Stay safe, okay? Let me know if I can help you with anything, too. I know that I may not be as strong as you three, but I still have the best family situation this time. I can maybe sneak out some food or money if you need it.¡± she hesitated, looking at Felix for a moment. ¡°Also, you said that you can permanently alter people¡¯s face, right? When you get the time, could you change my hair color? I want it to be pink again.¡±


    I smiled, and gently ruffled Anise¡¯s hair. ¡°Absolutely. I¡¯ll spend a few days messing with Felix¡¯s appearance to get him back to his proper appearance, and make sure that it¡¯s hard for people to recognize him. After that, contact me over the friendship bracelet. We can meet up somewhere and start changing your hair, and then hang out afterwards. We should probably make the transition from strawberry blonde to pink gradual, so that your parents don¡¯t just wonder why your hair color changed overnight. But we can definitely find a way to make your hair pinker and pinker over the next few years, until it¡¯s back to normal.¡± I frowned. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I can do anything about the eyes, though. Right now I have a hard time making that kind of alteration to delicate organs like eyes without messing something up.¡±


    Anise frowned, but then shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve survived without them this long, so I guess it¡¯s not a big deal. I mostly liked the vision they added, but I would probably also be pretty distinctive if I had four eyes. Being recognized right now isn¡¯t ideal.¡± She sighed.


    I gave her a quick hug. ¡°We¡¯ll figure something out in the future. Maybe I can find a way to make invisible eyes, or something. Or maybe the Market has a solution. We can look into it later.¡±


    Anise nodded.


    Sallia gave me a hug right afterwards. ¡°Felix is crashing at your place for now, huh? Let me know if your mother does anything that puts you two in danger. I¡¯ll come immediately. And let¡¯s meet up at Old Mo¡¯s soon. I think he knows how to deal with stolen goods, so we should definitely sort something out with him..¡±


    I froze. Sallia mentioning stolen goods reminded me of the potions I had swiped.


    ¡°All those guns won¡¯t sell themselves,¡± she said, tightening her arms around me.


    I relaxed and hugged her back. I also steadied my nerves, and tried resolve myself not to react so heavily to mentions of ¡®stealing¡¯ in the future. Even if my friends knew, I still felt like I had done what I had to. I just felt¡­ guilty about it.


    Then, Felix nodded at all three of us.


    ¡°Thank you for helping me,¡± he said. ¡°It means a lot. Really. There¡¯s no way I could have gotten out of there on my own. Things got a bit crazy towards the end, but we all got out of there intact.¡± He smiled at all of us. ¡°You guys are the best friends a guy could have. Really.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± said Sallia. ¡°You¡¯d definitely help if one of us was in a bad spot, too. And if you didn¡¯t Miria would chew you out until all of us died of old age.¡±


    Felix laughed, and glanced at me. ¡°True enough,¡± he said.


    After that, we had one final group hug, and then broke apart. I started walking back towards my house, with Felix in tow. We still had a lot of things to organize and figure out, and I still had a bunch of System notifications that I hadn¡¯t even looked at. I hadn¡¯t even swapped Status Screens with Felix yet, since we just hadn¡¯t had time yet.


    But after fighting through dozens of people, killing Aplos, stealing several room¡¯s worth of artifacts, and spending hours running through the sewers, I was exhausted. My System notifications could wait until tomorrow.


    I quickly checked on my drugged-out mother, confirmed that she had gotten home safe, and then dragged Felix into my room.


    He grimaced as he looked at the mold and yellowed walls.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± I said. ¡°You take the bed for now - I¡¯ll sleep on the floor.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to sleep on the floor,¡± said Felix, as he rolled his eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll do it. Actually, how about I sleep in the closet? Just in case your mother wakes up and is lucid enough to realize something is wrong. It would be hard to explain if she found me.¡±


    I paused. I felt bad about making Felix sleep in a cramped little closet where all of my ragged and undersized clothes were stored, but he was right.


    ¡°All right, fine,¡± I said. I pulled the blanket out of my tiny crib, handed it to Felix, and helped him get situated.


    Then I collapsed onto my bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

 Chapter 181: Rewards

    When morning came, I felt less exhausted, so I finally started going over the Achievement rewards we had gotten while rescuing Felix. There were quite a few of them, and a few of them made me scratch my head in puzzlement, because they had some rather interesting implications.


    The first System messages were fairly normal.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Human who has consumed and absorbed an Ability potion


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Sadly, since I had been too busy teleporting around bullets and lightning bolts, I hadn¡¯t killed the ability user with water. So I didn¡¯t get an ability from it. But ultimately, it wasn¡¯t that big of a deal. My raw combat ability in this world was already quite high, and losing a skill wasn¡¯t the end of the world. If another ability user attacked us in the future, I would just need to remember to use extinguish next time. And if no other ability users attacked us in the future, I would just accept that I wasn¡¯t getting a Skill from an ability-user and move on.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a human with no ability for the fifth time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The fact that I had killed five people didn¡¯t surprise me. I had been teleporting around a lot of bullets, and I had at least tried to aim for lethal attacks when I had the option. Sallia and I had probably both gotten the most kills last night.


    I was a bit surprised to see that I hadn¡¯t reached the next breakpoint for killing humans. The next Achievement reward was one I had already eyeballed during the fight, to confirm my kill.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill ¡®Aplos.¡¯


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +450


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Unlike my earlier kills, this kill had been done entirely using my alteration essence, thrown into the biggest extinguish I could muster up. Sallia and Anise had also contributed heavily to killing the creature, but I had done the most damage overall. I did suddenly realize that all of us had been focusing on other stuff, and hadn¡¯t had time to go over our System notifications. If Anise was lucky, she might have gotten a keyword ability out of fighting Aplos. I would ask her later, once she was more likely to be awake.


    But I had gotten a ability from Aplos, which was nice.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Aplos for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mirror of the Mind¡¯s Eye:


    Your body begins to take on characteristics based on other people¡¯s understanding of you. (This may be somewhat controlled).


    This Ability allows you to detect what other people think about you, so long as they are within a certain distance, and then choose up to one enhancement or new ability based on that impression. This understanding of you will also potentially influence your personality somewhat, although the higher your [Willpower], the weaker this interference will be.


    This ability or enhancement cannot exceed the equivalent of a [Basic] Grade enhancement or Ability from the Market. (Up to 15 points in Stats or one basic-grade new ability).


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The ability to take on new characteristics, depending on what other people thought of me, was¡­ odd. I thought back to the fight with Aplos.


    HAD the creature gained new abilities based on my understanding of it?


    Now that I thought about it, Aplos had used illusions to attack us, and before then, I had suspected that the creature was a master of illusions. After all, the soldiers who had seen me use illusion magic had immediately assumed Aplos had escaped. Perhaps my belief had directly granted Aplos the dangerous attack it had used against us. Which made me feel a little bad. Even if it hadn¡¯t been intentional, one of my thoughts might have gotten my friends hurt. Luckily, nobody had died last night, or I would have felt incredibly guilty.


    Aplos had also had a weakness to manifestation essence, at least when we tried using manifestation essence attacks against it. Which made me wonder if Aplos also copied weaknesses when using people¡¯s expectations to get new abilities. If so, my version of the ability didn¡¯t have that glaring weakness, which was nice. Normally, {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} only created weaker copies of abilities I encountered, but it might also try to remove harmful components as well. It was something to think about.


    Since the ability could be deleted if I felt it was influencing my personality too much, I added the ability into {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}¡¯s second skill slot, and felt a wave of new, bizarre sensations. I could feel several strings of ideas about me, primarily coming from five different sources.


    The first three sources of ¡®belief¡¯ about me were from my friends, and before I could respond to the sensation of my new skill activating, they pressed firmly into my mind, like a weight settling on to my thoughts. It was almost like it was a weight that had always been close to me, and I had simply been unaware of it until now.


    The closest and strongest impression was from Felix, and his image of me was pretty close to how I thought of myself. But some parts of my personality were magnified in his eyes. Felix seemed to have an especially strong impression of my drive to improve, possibly because I was the strongest advocate of ¡®do interesting things, even if it might get us killed¡¯ within the group. Due to my own reflections on myself and my emotions over the past few months, I was pretty sure that my actions were driven by fear instead of confidence and drive to improve, but Felix wasn¡¯t intimately aware with every single one of my thoughts and emotions, even though I did talk with my friends about my feelings from time to time.


    Anise, had a slightly different impression of me. I could feel her impression of me as if it were a warm, fuzzy blanket, or a hug. Anise¡¯s strongest impression of me seemed to be from the stories I had told her in our previous world, about our time in the ocean world. And she also seemed to pay a lot of attention to my attempts to take care of the group. Her strongest impression of me was of a warm-hearted healer.


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


    I had a strong feeling that tapping into Anise¡¯s understanding of me would give me some sort of passive skill that boosted my healing abilities, and it might also change my personality a bit to make me more empathetic and warm-hearted.


    Sallia¡¯s impression of me was closest to my own impression of myself. She felt that I was a someone who focused on my friends and ¡®found family¡¯ a lot, and had a very strong desire to ¡®protect¡¯ my friends and keep them safe whenever I felt they were threatened. This created a slightly odd split in Sallia¡¯s impression of me, since she felt that I could be extremely dangerous when I felt that my friends were threatened. This impression would likely give me some sort of boost to extinguish, since Sallia had a particularly strong impression of that ability and how it tied into my fighting style.


    I recoiled as I felt those impressions push into my mind.


    I wasn¡¯t sure if I was comfortable seeing the way my friends thought about me. Those thoughts were theirs. I had kind of thought that Aplos¡¯s ability would require a lot more people to ¡®believe¡¯ a certain thing about me, and so I had mostly been expecting to tap into the impression the soldiers had of us from last night. The idea of spying on my friend¡¯s thoughts made me uncomfortable, and I was honestly tempted to delete the skill on the spot. I nearly did, but I held myself back right before I scrapped it.


    I decided that I would talk with my friends about exactly what my skill did and ask for their thoughts, first, because if I deleted the skill, it would still weaken our group a bit. And I wasn¡¯t entirely sure if deleting the skill was the ¡®right¡¯ choice. But my friends absolutely deserved to know that I had accidentally seen a bit more than I meant to, and ask them what they wanted me to do about it. And if they were okay with me keeping the ability, I would consider it. But spying on their thoughts without them knowing felt like a scummy thing to do, so I wanted to at least apologize to them first and ask for their opinion before I proceeded.


    Then, I looked into the other two sources of ¡®impressions¡¯ floating around.


    The fourth source of impressions seemed to come from Old Mo. It was a bit more distant to me, and felt less¡­ ¡®real,¡¯ in a strange way. Perhaps it was because Old Mo didn¡¯t know me as well, and so he had a less distinct impression of me than the people I had spent decades with. Now that I knew that my ability spied on people¡¯s thoughts about me, I did my best to shut out his thoughts before I accidentally peeked at them. Old Mo had been nothing but kind to me so far, and he deserved his mental privacy as well.


    Then, I focused on the fifth source of ¡®impressions.¡¯ This was the only one I had been expecting to see, and also the reason I still thought this skill had some potential. I could feel my mind tapping into the impression the soldiers had of me. This would tell me what the soldiers, and thus the government, thought about us, and would give our group more information to work with in the future. And it could potentially give me new abilities that I might find valuable as well.


    The fifth source of impressions felt like a variety of opinions clashing and colliding with each other, but they still at least somewhat similar to each other in nature.


    I could make out the impression the soldiers had, of somebody who was cold nearly faceless. It almost felt like, instead of a normal four year old girl, the soldiers we had attacked last night thought of me as a faceless assassin and force of destruction.


    They seemed very afraid of me. Their impression of me didn¡¯t really feel like ¡®me¡¯ at all. Which was probably fair. My friends and I knew that we had attacked the facility entirely because Felix was imprisoned there, but the soldiers who had survived the battle probably saw us as infiltrators from another nation or something, there to ruin their sketchy research facility. That wasn¡¯t something I had originally thought about, but when I talked with everyone else later, I would also mention how the soldiers thought about us. I didn¡¯t mind reinforcing their belief that we were from another nation, in order to make it harder to track us down.


    After that, I did my best to shut off the sensations coming from my new ability. I didn¡¯t want to think too much about my new ability until I had some time to talk with my friends about it. I was still half-tempted to just delete it entirely, honestly.


    Then, I continued scanning through my notifications. There were no more kill Achievements, but there were a few interesting Wealth and Influence ones.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Own five Ancient Lightning Bolts


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +250


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ancient? I had thought that the people of the facility had been raiding the multiverse or something. If the lightning bolts were ancient¡­ that might imply something very interesting about the history of this world.


    Or it could be totally wrong. Yet another thing to bring up with my friends later.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wealth: Own 1 kilogram of Alkulsteel


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I suspected the ¡®Alkulsteel¡¯ was the material the swords had been made of. I had no idea what Alkulsteel was, but apparently, it was a valuable material, if it had triggered wealth Achievement for stealing it.


    I would give it to Felix and see what he could make of it. If the swords had no magical properties but were made of some neat alchemical material or something, I wouldn¡¯t really know what to do with it, but Felix might figure out a use for them.


    Finally, the most interesting System message of all.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Cripple the Vernian attempts to study ancient artifacts and rescue project ¡®Felix¡¯. (Moderate Impact on this event).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +2,400


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had gotten a pretty sizeable amount of Achievement for rescuing Felix and stealing a bunch of weird artifacts. Though, if what we had stolen were ancient, hard to replace artifacts, perhaps we had accomplished a lot more than I thought we had by stealing everything we encountered. I didn¡¯t know how hard it was to find more ancient artifacts, but I was pretty sure we had gotten almost the same amount of Achievement for looting the base as we had for contributing to the battle to keep the islands alive in our first life. I recalled getting around 3,600 Achievement from the battle for the survival of the islands, and my contribution had been destroying two boats by luring the sea monster to attack them. For stealing a big chunk of a research base to give me 66% of the rewards felt a little absurd to me. I decided to think more about that later.


    All of my Achievement earnings combined totaled up to 3,600 Achievement. With the 1,322 Achievement I had previously had, I now had 4,922 Achievement. Not bad for one night of work, although it had been a bit risky at some points.


    A few moments later, as I was reading through my System notifications, I heard Felix stir from my closet.


    I quickly ran out the bedroom, and confirmed that my mother had already left the house. I started making a quick breakfast for Felix out of some of the supplies I had squirreled away in my backpack. I still needed to deal with all of the stuff we had swiped last night, and sell the potions I had¡­ borrowed, and do a million other things. But first, I needed to help Felix change up his face a little bit, check if my other friends were awake, and talk about all of the things I had learned and my accidental peeping on their thoughts.

 Chapter 182: Mental Privacy

    After I gave Felix his breakfast, I sighed, and sat down.


    ¡°Is something wrong?¡± he said after seeing my expression. ¡°If there¡¯s something you need to talk about, just say it. You don¡¯t have to be nervous.¡± He seemed almost expectant.


    ¡°I need to talk. Not just with you, but everyone,¡± I said, after a moment.


    Felix nodded. ¡°If you really need advice or want to talk about something, we¡¯re here for you,¡± he said.


    <Anise, Sallia, are you two awake?> he asked, before I could even steel my nerves.


    <I¡¯m up,> said Anise, although she sounded a bit tired. <I had to wake up at a normal time, or my parents would have been suspicious. So I¡¯m running on about two hours of sleep. It¡¯s very lucky that we could at least rinse off a bit after getting out of the sewer, by the way. I think my parents noticed something, because my mom complained about the drains being backed up this morning. I don¡¯t think she noticed anything else, but I was very nervous. I took a really long bath this morning.>


    <What do you need, Miria?> asked Sallia. She also sounded rather tired. <It¡¯s a bit early to start chatting, don¡¯t you think? I¡¯m still pretty sleepy from last night.>


    <I was testing out an ability I acquired from killing Aplos last night, and I accidentally invaded your mental privacy. It wasn¡¯t intentional, and I backed out immediately once I realized what I had done,> I said. <But I did accidentally look into your thoughts, at least the ones concerning me.> I then proceeded to explain my new skill, what had happened once I used it, and that I had accidentally looked almost directly at everyone¡¯s impression of me.


    Felix paused for a few moments after I finished talking. <I will admit, I¡¯m not entirely sure how I feel about someone looking at my thoughts,> he said. <if it were a stranger, I would be deeply upset by this. However, you also immediately told us, and it¡¯s clear you didn¡¯t do it on purpose.> he said. <I.. also think that it might not be ideal if we¡¯re too weak to survive in a few lifetimes, and this skill sounds like it WILL make you more powerful. But at the same time, even if it¡¯s you, reading my thoughts is a bit¡­ let me think for a while,> he said.


    <I personally don¡¯t mind much,> said Anise. <I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that big of a deal if you see my thoughts about you. You don¡¯t see anything else, right?>


    <I don¡¯t,> I sent.


    <I don¡¯t have a problem with it then,> said Anise. <I don¡¯t really mind much if you see my thoughts about you, as long as you don¡¯t see anything else. There are some thoughts I¡¯d like to keep private, but if you can ONLY see what I think of you¡­ it¡¯s fine. What do you think the skill will actually give you power-wise?>


    <I could probably get a mild boost to my healing abilities if I tap into one of the available images of me,> I sent, thinking about Anise¡¯s very warm-hearted impression of me. <I suspect it would also slightly change my personality to make me more warm-hearted and empathetic, but my Willpower can probably resist it. And honestly, if my Willpower doesn¡¯t resist those changes to my personality, I don¡¯t mind. I¡¯m fine with those aspects of my personality being amplified.> I thought about it for a moment, thinking about the other images of me.


    <If I tap into one of the other images, I can probably get better at sneaking and disguising,> I said, thinking about the impression of the soldiers. <I am not quite sure what that would look like in practice, but it should give me a variety of skills related to assassination and stealth.>


    Then, I thought of Felix¡¯s impression of me next.


    <If I tap into the second image, I suspect it will enhance my¡­ strength of will, I think?> I said, frowning. It was harder to interpret what abilities I might get out of Felix¡¯s impression of me, since he didn¡¯t seem to be as focused on specific abilities of mine as Sallia and Anise were. He had a strong impression of my drive to improve, but I wasn¡¯t sure what it would do for me in practice. Maybe it would give me more willpower stats instead of a new ability?


    As for Sallia¡¯s impression of me, I was pretty sure that if I tapped into it I would get a boost to extinguish, or some sort of boost to my ability to protect my friends. Sallia¡¯s impression of me felt like it could feed into either one, since Sallia felt that I was very protective of my friends, and also felt that I was very dangerous once provoked.


    <I think the final one might give me a boost to extinguish, or some sort of shielding ability, but I could be wrong on that.> I said. <Finally, if tap into the impression the soldiers have of me, I should be able to improve my stealth and disguise abilities, or my fighting abilities, I think? It¡¯s a little harder to figure out, since a lot of similar opinions are kind of jumbled together and they aren¡¯t as clear about who I am.>


    <How strong would each ability be?> asked Felix.


    <Equal to a basic grade ability or 15 stat points,> I said.


    <That¡¯s not very strong,> said Sallia. <It¡¯s not bad, but not amazing, either.>


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    <I don¡¯t think it¡¯s too bad to get smaller passive abilities baked into your regular fighting style,> said Anise. <You can already extinguish¡­ what, 20 or 30 people in a fight?>


    <Around there,> I said. <It depends a bit on their own health and age, too. but 20-30 is a good estimate.>


    <How big do you think the boost would be if you chose the extinguish ability, just to give us a point of reference?>


    <I have no idea,> I said, frowning.


    <I think we¡¯re getting derailed,> said Felix. <The big question is how we should handle mental privacy.>


    <True,> said Sallia. <I personally don¡¯t know if I¡¯m entirely comfortable with anyone looking through my thoughts. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t trust you, Miria, and I think if you as my best friend. I don¡¯t feel the need to hide that. But at the same time, the idea of someone looking through my thoughts, even if it¡¯s you, is a bit¡­>


    I said. <You don¡¯t have to feel guilty about not wanting me to see your thoughts. The reason I brought this up is because I also felt like it was a violation of your mental privacy, albeit unintentional.>


    <I don¡¯t know how I feel about it either,> said Felix. <I mean, it¡¯s Miria, so I care less, but I still think I would prefer if it didn¡¯t happen. But throwing away a useful ability is also bad, given our overall situation.>


    <I¡¯m fine with deleting the ability if you guys want it gone,> I said.


    <But throwing it away is also wasteful,> said Felix. <And I don¡¯t want to slow down your growth, or weaken you. I mean, all of us are in this mess together. In a few lives, if we aren¡¯t strong enough to defeat whatever is guarding the lives in the Market, we¡¯re all dead. Wasting a potentially useful ability is dangerous for that reason, especially since the abilities you can get in this world are so limited without any real ¡®monster¡¯ species to hunt.>


    <I might be able to get some Ocean abilities from killing animals too,> I said, frowning. <I doubt they¡¯ll give anything super useful, but they might still meet the minimum requirements to get me an ability. I don¡¯t know if this world has any bears or wolves, but I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if apex predators are still strong enough to give me something.>


    <Hmm¡­> Sallia said over the connection.


    <Look,> I said. <If you guys are uncomfortable with it, I¡¯ll just get rid of it. We can find other ways to be strong. I don¡¯t want you to be upset that I¡¯m peeking into your thoughts, even if it¡¯s only in a very limited way, and I honestly don¡¯t like invading your privacy. I¡¯ll just get rid of it, and we¡¯ll find another way. I just wanted to check what your feelings were on the matter, since all of us have at least somewhat different cultural backgrounds, and that sometimes leads to different impressions of the same thing. Now that I have confirmed you guys are uncomfortable with me seeing your thoughts¡­>


    Before anyone else could say anything to talk me out of it, I took the skill from {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} and decisively deleted it.


    I was a little reluctant to see an easy source of attribute points or new abilities disappear so quickly. But I hated unintentionally reading the minds of my friends, especially if they were uncomfortable with it. It wasn¡¯t even that their thoughts were bad - it was just that it was a violation of their privacy, and it felt wrong to me. I had been open to the idea that perhaps my thoughts about people reading other¡¯s thoughts were just my own personal belief - after all, the first life I¡¯d had before joining the Market would inevitably influence my views on life and morality, even if I could barely remember it.


    But the reactions of my friends had indicated that it wasn¡¯t just a byproduct of my original culture. While Anise didn¡¯t mind, Sallia and Felix were clearly uncomfortable with me seeing their thoughts.


    And that was enough for me. If I did something that made my friends uncomfortable, the best thing to do was admit it, apologize, and fix the problem before it happened again. It might make me a little less powerful, but power wasn¡¯t everything.


    After destroying the skill, I felt a weight that I hadn¡¯t even realized I had felt start to lift from my shoulders. I hadn¡¯t realized just how much the skill had bothered me until I made up my mind to remove it. Once I destroyed the skill, it felt easier to breathe again, and some of the guilt I hadn¡¯t realized I felt started to lift from my chest. I felt better than before.


    <I¡¯ve destroyed the Skill,> I said. <We¡¯ll find another way to grow stronger as time passes, but if you guys are uncomfortable with me having looked into your thoughts, even in a very limited way, I¡¯ll just remove it before it becomes an issue again. Power isn¡¯t everything, and even though the skill would have made me a little stronger, I care a lot more about how you feel about all of this.>


    I saw Felix breathe a small sigh of relief, and some of the discomfort from his face vanished. However, he also looked a little bit regretful. He looked at me for a moment, and then opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something. He paused, and stared at me for a few more moments. Then, he stepped closer and gave me a hug.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯ve done a lot for us, and the skill could have made you stronger, and it might have made more sense to leave it around. But¡­ I¡¯m glad my thoughts are my own, even if I do consider you one of my best friends and I care a lot about you,¡± he said.


    <I¡­ admit that I¡¯m happy with this decision, even if I think it might have been a bit foolish at the same time,> said Sallia. <I have really mixed feelings about this. I¡¯m going back to sleep for now, but we¡¯ll talk more about this when I¡¯m more awake.>


    I simply smiled and nodded.


    <That sounds good, Sallia. Rest well!> I said.


    <It¡¯s your decision. I don¡¯t agree with it, but since Sallia seems happier this way, I suppose it¡¯s fine,> said Anise. <My parents are calling me to breakfast. I¡¯ll talk to you later.>


    I looked at Felix¡¯s relieved expression, and thought about how much less awkward Sallia had sounded once I had said that I had deleted the skill.


    And then, I smiled.


    It might not have been the ¡®optimal¡¯ decision to delete the skill, but after seeing my friend¡¯s reactions, I knew that I had made the right decision.

 Chapter 183: Shapeshifting

    Once the more unpleasant part of the conversation was over, the group chatted for a few more minutes, before I ended the group mental call. After all, there were other things I still needed to do.


    ¡°Let¡¯s take a look at your face,¡± I said as I turned towards Felix. ¡°I promised that I¡¯d help you change it around, and now seems like the best time to get started. Are there any modifications you want me to focus on?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Felix took a quick look at his body, and then grabbed a bowl of water to use as a mirror. He inspected his face and his body from every angle, occasionally frowning, and occasionally nodding.


    ¡°I think I¡¯d like a little bit more of a tanned look,¡± he said, after some thought. ¡°I¡¯ve  noticed that in this country, people tend to have fairer skin, and more ¡®tanned¡¯ complexions aren¡¯t very common. But I¡¯m pretty used to it from our time on the islands, and as long as it¡¯s done in moderation, it should look like I¡¯m just someone who works in the sun a lot, rather than someone who moved here from one of the colonies. I¡¯d prefer it if my skin was a bit more tanned, but I¡¯d like to avoid getting discriminated against as if I were someone from overseas,¡± said Felix.


    ¡°I can do that. I assume you want a bit more of a bronze color?¡± I asked. That was roughly what I remembered people¡¯s skin looking like while we had been on the islands.


    ¡°Yeah, that would be perfect. Apart from that, can you modify my cheekbones a bit? I don¡¯t like how narrow they look. I¡¯d prefer a bit more of a chiseled jawline,¡± said Felix, grinning. ¡°Might as well set myself up to be handsome later, right?¡± I chuckled, and nodded.


    ¡°My muscles are also a little bit on the slim side. I mean, I know I¡¯m not even five years old yet, but when I get older, I¡¯d really prefer a bit of muscle definition, but not much,¡± said Felix, after some thought. ¡°I¡¯d like to keep my aesthetic as somebody who has worked out in the sun a little bit, but isn¡¯t too muscular. Also, my nose is a little bigger than I¡¯d like, and my eye color is completely wrong. Can you change my forehead a little bit, too? I actually like this shape, but it¡¯s best to make me as unrecognizable as possible. Just in case the people from the base track me down later.¡±


    I paused as I thought about Felix¡¯s description for what he wanted his body to look like. A lot of the details he had mentioned were similar to the way his body looked in the Market - but there were some differences to it.


    ¡°Are you experimenting with a different look?¡± I asked. I was fine with helping Felix look however he wanted to look, but I was slightly taken aback by the changes to his facial structure and body shape he had proposed.


    Felix nodded and grinned. ¡°I¡¯ve been experimenting a little bit with my body shape over the past few lives, to figure out what I¡¯m happiest with. I mean, I think you also remember this, but in my first life, due to genetics, my body was really bulky, kind of like a bear. I wasn¡¯t really happy with that, because if you look too muscular, people tend to think of you as a brute and not somebody very smart. A little bit of muscle is nice, but too much just looks off.¡± Felix said. ¡±I would prefer to look like I have a little bit of muscle and do some exercise regularly, but also have thinner and more dextrous arms and fingers. They make more delicate work easier. And I¡¯d prefer it if people look at me and think that maybe I have some muscles to me, but if I also have a bit of a scholarly look. I haven¡¯t quite figured out how to give off both a scholarly and a slightly muscular look yet, so I¡¯m trying to balance body shapes until I figure it out,¡± he said.


    I frowned, thinking about Felix¡¯s request. ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure how to balance those two looks either, but I can try. Let me tap into your perception of your face while you look at your reflection, and I¡¯ll start creating an illusion for you based on what I think you want. Let me know if you¡¯re happy with that look, and if you are, I¡¯ll start to use my alteration essence to make that illusion more permanent. Does that sound like a plan?¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°Sounds good. Your illusion-perception ability just taps into my eyesight, right?¡±


    ¡°Yup. Just eyesight. No thoughts, feelings, or anything else,¡± I said.


    ¡°I trust you. Go ahead.¡±


    I pushed my thoughts into Felix¡¯s vision, and started creating an illusion for Felix based on his description. Felix helped me correct some of the final details, and we spent over half an hour trying to sculpt a face that Felix was happy with as my absorption essence slowly dribbled away.


    Finally, Felix sighed. ¡°I¡¯m still not entirely happy with this illusion, but it¡¯s at least closer to what I want. Do you mind going over my face with me a few more times in the future, until we get it right?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± I said.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go with this for now. We can always change more later,¡± said Felix.


    I started using my alteration essence to make Felix¡¯s illusory face more permanent. I kept a good amount of alteration essence laying around in case an emergency happened, but I still bronzed up Felix¡¯s skin a little and straightened out his nose and cheekbones. Felix wasn¡¯t completely unrecognizable yet, but he definitely looked different than he had last night. Another day or two of modification, and he would be completely unrecognizable.


    At the same time, I couldn¡¯t help but grimace at how inefficient it was that I needed to use my absorption essence for this. In the future, I really needed to set aside time for practicing shapeshifting using just alteration essence. Right now I was using the illusion rune ability as a crutch to make everything work, but that meant I was wasting a rune ability to cover up for my lack of practice and knowledge. Since the Orukthyri of my previous life had been created from shapeshifted Orthans, it was obvious that permanent shapeshifting WAS possible using the shaping magic system. I just didn¡¯t know how to do it.


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    In the future, I wanted to have good enough control over my abilities that I didn¡¯t need to waste an ability slot and a bunch of absorption essence to make shapeshifting possible. Since I had lots of time to practice, I should make the most of it. It would be even better if I could figure out how to make illusions using alteration essence too.


    As I fell into thought about my future plans for what I needed to learn and master this life, my illusions faded away, leaving only the permanent alterations I had made to Felix¡¯s face. Felix inspected the changes, before he nodded. ¡°Not bad,¡± he said, grinning into makeshift mirror. ¡°Thanks, Miria. For everything. Rescuing me from the base and helping me disguise myself, it just¡­ it means a lot to me.¡± He gave me a quick hug, which I happily returned.


    ¡°I¡¯m happy to help,¡± I said. ¡°Besides, if I was in a bad situation, the three of you would do the same for me.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°Of course. That¡¯s what friends do.¡± He smiled at me, and then fell into thought, as he looked at the makeshift mirror again.


    ¡°Out of curiosity, Mir, have you had any thoughts about experimenting with your body shape? I¡¯ve noticed that you tend to use the same face and body structure from one life to the next, while I¡¯m still actively experimenting with what I want. I¡¯m just curious.¡±


    I thought about the question.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I want to experiment, much,¡± I said, as I took a glance at my own face in the makeshift mirror. ¡°I¡¯m pretty happy with how I look right now. I was¡­ really happy on the islands, for the most part,¡± I said. ¡°Keeping my face and body at least mostly similar to what I looked like back then helps me remember. If I was ugly, I might have been more tempted to change things, but¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m pretty happy with how I look now.¡± I looked at my childlike, pudgy limbs, and then snorted. ¡°Or at least I¡¯m happy with the way I look when I¡¯m grown up.¡±


    Felix nodded, and then laughed. ¡°I was just curious. Sallia has also been changing her body a bit from one life to another, but I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s optimizing for swordsmanship instead of trying to hit some sort of specific beauty standard. Her reach and balance seem to get a little bit better every time.¡±


    I grinned. I had noticed that Sallia¡¯s swordsmanship was getting better every life. I had assumed that was just the process of Sallia memorizing and learning more, as well as her stats and abilities improving, but it might also be from her optimizing her body a little every life.


    ¡°So, you said that you were working at Old Mo¡¯s to get food, right?¡± said Felix, his tone turning a little more serious. ¡°Is there anything I could do to help? I don¡¯t want you to be responsible for feeding me. I¡¯d at least like help out.¡±


    I thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged. ¡°I have no idea. Honestly, given Old Mo¡¯s personality, I doubt he¡¯d accept another helper. He¡¯s a bit soft-hearted, but he is still someone who lives near the slums. There¡¯s a limit to how much kindness he can afford. There is something else you might be able to do,¡± I said, before I pulled out some of the guns I had stolen last night from dead soldiers while rescuing Felix. ¡°If you can find a way to start making guns, or something else that can be sold that would help a lot. I originally wanted to become some sort of shady-slums healer or doctor, but the logistical difficulties are hard for me to fix right now. It¡¯s probably easier to sell fully-made products, as long as I can find a good way to sell them off. Sallia could probably help with that. Do you have any ideas?¡±


    Felix paused, and then started grinning. ¡°You know, I¡¯ve been rather curious about how gunpowder and weapons work in this world. I¡¯ve noticed that bullets are a bit slower but pack a bit of a bigger punch when the soldiers fired at us last night, and the way gun triggers are constructed look a bit different than they did in my first life. I would definitely like to take a look¡­¡±


    I grinned, and pulled some of the guns I had swiped last night out of my backpack before handing them over to Felix. I also gave him the swords, although I left the lightning bolts in my backpack for now. I didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to let Felix investigate them until we had an area that was more isolated from other people, just in case a passerby noticed the manifestation essence in the lightning bolts. It was unlikely, but there was no reason to take the risk right now.


    Felix looked at the guns and then grinned. ¡°I can work with that. How about the potions, too? I might be able to figure out what they do, and maybe find a way to make more of them-¡±


    I froze.


    Felix looked a bit awkward. ¡°Ah¡­ I mean¡­ the lightning bolts?¡±


    I winced.


    ¡°You knew?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Sallia told me to help you if you couldn¡¯t sell them,¡± he said. ¡°And she also said that you should try selling the potions you stole to Old Mo. He seems like the kind of person to have a few shady connections, and be willing to help you out.¡±


    I sighed. ¡°If you and Sallia already know, why did I put so much effort into trying to hide it¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re¡­. very bad at keeping secrets from your friends, Mir,¡± said Felix.


    I drooped. ¡°All right, fine. Take a look at the potions and get back to me on them. I was planning on giving them to Old Mo to take a look at them, but you can probably get more out of studying them than we would get from just selling them.¡±


    Before I had time to think further about potions, moneymaking, and supplies for the future I heard the front door swing open.


    ¡°Miria!¡± said my mother.


    She sounded different than usual. She still sounded hazy and floaty, as if her mind wasn¡¯t all there. But it was rare for her to call out my name, since she usually wasn¡¯t lucid enough to recognize whether I was there or not.


    My mother sounded partially lucid. It was more than I had seen from her in months. I had wanted to talk with her for a long time, but she had never been present enough to hold a conversation with. Until today.


    I looked at Felix, who had frozen in surprise, and then quickly pointed towards the worn-out closet. He nodded, and quickly hid as I made my way out of the room.


    It was finally time to have a conversation with my mother.

 Chapter 184: Fizz

    ¡°Miria!¡± called out my mother again.


    I felt a glimmer of excitement as I thought about the first real conversation I would have with my mother in this life. Thus far, she had been in a drug trip almost every time I interacted with her, and seeing her lucid for the first time in months brought hope for a real change. I wanted my mother to get better in this life. And having a real conversation with her was the foundation for improving everything.


    I left my room and half-ran into the living room, and looked at my mother.


    She was¡­ normal looking. Or at least, much more normal looking than usual. None of the usual haze stuck to her eyes, and when she looked at me, she looked as though she was really looking at me, instead of a distant apparition that existed only in her imagination.


    ¡°Mom,¡± I said, cautiously.


    My mother hesitated, and looked at me more carefully, and I could see a bit of a grim smile appear near her lips.


    ¡°You¡¯ve grown,¡± she said. ¡°In my memories, you¡¯re much smaller¡­¡± she sighed, and shuddered. ¡°Miria,¡± she said. Even though she still seemed a bit out of it, her words were the clearest they had ever been in this life. ¡°I¡­ I haven¡¯t been well, have I?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ you haven¡¯t been, mama,¡± I said. I felt my eyes start to grow hot as I thought of all the times I had tried to talk to my mother, and she had just given me a blank, empty smile as I watched her slowly kill herself. ¡°You haven¡¯t¡­ been here.¡±


    ¡°Miria¡­ you¡¯ve grown older,¡± said my mother. ¡°So much older while I wasn¡¯t here. I¡¯m sorry. It hurt so much, and I didn¡¯t want to look at anything, so I just¡­ dreamed. I don¡¯t¡­I¡¯m not sure how you even survived.¡± She said, as she inspected my arms and legs, and then looked at my face. ¡°You look healthy. Much healthier than I thought you would.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I found someone who was willing to let me help out for food, so I¡¯m not hungry these days. I was really hungry before. But it can be better now. You¡¯re¡­ you¡¯re planning on continuing¡­ right?¡± I asked, looking into my mother¡¯s eyes and making the best pleading expression I could.


    Please be done with drugs. Even if you just want to get better, I can help. I have magic and as long as you want to get better I can find a way to make it happen. As long as you¡¯re willing to accept help, I¡¯ll help.


    My mother sighed. ¡°So you needed to find someone to take care of you when I couldn¡¯t. That¡­ makes sense. Who is it?¡±


    I felt a stab of concern. I couldn¡¯t tell whether she was ignoring my unspoken question, or whether she hadn¡¯t understood it. Should I push harder? Should I back off?


    I had never dealt with someone in such a delicate mental state before this. Sallia and Felix had never once lost control of their mental faculties. Not like this.


    I felt like I was in a field of landmines. A single mistake could cause the situation to collapse and send my mother back into a drug induced haze for months. For now I decided to back off and go with my mother¡¯s topic change.


    ¡°Old Mo helped me. He runs a bakery. Nothing fancy, but he needed some help kneading dough in the mornings, so I help him out in exchange for meals.¡±


    My mother sighed. ¡°A bakery, huh. You¡¯re¡­ four? Five?¡± My mother looked at me, and then shuddered. ¡°Gods, I don¡¯t even know what year it is anymore. Is working at a bakery where you learned to talk so¡­ maturely?¡±


    I froze. Was I doing a bad job of pretending to be a four year old? I had thought I was doing all right, but it had also been a long time since I had the mindset of a real child. Ever since I had joined the Market, I was basically playing pretend anytime I tried to act like a kid¡­


    My mother looked at my confused expression, and then sighed. ¡°I guess with a mother like me, you had no choice but to grow up fast¡­¡± she shook her head again. ¡°Damn. I really need¡­¡± She reached for a small pouch that I hadn¡¯t noticed before. It hung off of her shoulder, almost like a fanny pack. I saw my mother pull out a pinch of blue powder and start raising it towards her mouth-


    ¡°Mama? Can you not take Fizz anymore?¡± I asked, urgently. My mother¡¯s first response to stress or disappointment had been to immediately start reaching for her drugs again. I nearly teleported the drugs away from her, before I managed to stop myself in time. My mother wasn¡¯t in her right mind most of the time - I didn¡¯t think she would really be all that great at keeping secrets. If my mother started blabbing about my weird teleportation abilities to her customers, it wouldn¡¯t be long before someone put two and two together and figured out where Felix had gone.


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    But the temptation was still there. I wanted to knock the drugs out of my mother¡¯s hand and throw them in the trash.


    My mother froze for a moment, looking at me and the pinch of blue powder in her hand.


    ¡°Please? Don¡¯t take any more. If you just wean yourself off of it, maybe you can get better. And then¡­¡± And then I would have you in my life, instead of a hollow shell of a person that occasionally wanders into the house before passing out. I didn¡¯t say that out loud, because it didn¡¯t match the four year old persona I was trying to display.


    My mother looked at me, and then looked at the blue powder in her hand, before she laughed bitterly.


    ¡°Miria.¡± Her eyes locked onto mine, and her expression became unreadable. Some of the sorrow and warmth that had been in her gaze seemed to fade away, replaced with a look of alienation and disgust as she stared at me. There was something else in her eyes for just a moment - something that made me a bit nervous. It was a spark of rage.


    Then, a few seconds later, my mother smothered it before turning to me again. She stuffed the pinch of blue powder into her mouth, chewed once, and then swallowed.


    ¡°When you¡¯re older, you¡¯ll understand, Miria. Verne isn¡¯t¡­ a good place to live for someone like me. People don¡¯t¡­ think highly of my work, and they also don¡¯t really approve of single mothers,¡± said my mother, snorting. ¡°No matter what I do, nothing will change anyway. Ever since I kicked your bastard of a father out, getting by has been hard, but at least everything we have is safe with him gone.¡± My mother snarled as she said that.


    ¡°But mama¡­ when you¡¯re at home, it doesn¡¯t feel like you¡¯re really here,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t care what you do for work. If you don¡¯t want to anymore, we can change it. If you really don¡¯t want to change¡­ it¡¯s not what matters right now. What I want is for you to be here with me when you talk.¡±


    My mother snorted again, although I couldn¡¯t tell if that was some sort of reaction to the drugs she had just inhaled or not.


    ¡°Miria¡­ I love you, but the real problems are you damn father and my¡­ job,¡± she said. ¡°When you get older, and you understand what I do for a living¡­ you¡¯ll see why my actions don¡¯t matter anymore. Don¡¯t ask me to stop. This is the only way I have left to cope with our situation.¡±


    I started to feel a gut-wrenching pain in my gut.


    ¡°So you won¡¯t stop? You won¡¯t even consider it?¡± I asked, hoping that maybe I had just misunderstood my mother. If my mother was willing to work with me to improve, there was so much I could do to help. I could use alteration to turn all of the drugs she took into some sort of vile-tasting sludge, or just ¡®hide¡¯ it from my mother¡­ or a number of other things.


    But if my mother actively fought my treatment, I didn¡¯t know what to do. It wasn¡¯t like I could stalk her 24/7 and teleport things out of her hand anytime she was about to take a drug.


    ¡°No. Stop asking,¡± said my mother. Once again, for a brief moment, my mother had an expression of alienation and coldness on her face as she looked at me.


    I hesitated for a moment. I had never seen that kind of expression on any of my previous parents. I knew that I hadn¡¯t. It almost made me want to run away, instead of continuing to talk with my mother.


    But if nothing changed, she wouldn¡¯t get better.


    I hesitated. Was pulling back the right thing to do? Should I wait for another day?


    I thought about how long I had waited for a single lucid day from my mother. If I pulled back now, I might need to wait months, or years, for another lucid conversation with my mother. I didn¡¯t think that was a good idea. Even if my mother¡¯s body and brain were in decent condition due to my constant healing, the longer my mother was trapped in a haze of drugs and despair, the harder it would be to build a life afterwards. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was possible for my mother to get back everything she had lost during this period of time¡­ but I wanted to try. I wanted her to get back on her feet, so that she could build a life again.


    ¡°Mama, if you don¡¯t stop taking Fizz, you¡¯ll still keep hurting. If you stop, then we can find ways for everything to improve. Please, just-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t ASK ME TO STOP,¡± snapped my mother, nearly snarling at me, before she shivered, and her tone became a bit softer. ¡°Sweetie, don¡¯t mention Fizz again. I hate the way I get when you mention it. I don¡¯t want to hurt you by accident. See? I don¡¯t¡­ I can¡¯t¡­¡± my mother¡¯s eyes were starting to become a bit more vacant as the drugs she had swallowed started to take over again. ¡°I can¡¯t handle the withdrawal symptoms, sweetie. I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t mean it.¡± She leaned a little closer to me, and then gently wrapped me in her arms.


    This was the first hug I¡¯d had that didn¡¯t feel nice. I just felt cold and sad.


    A few moments later, my mother released me and then  wandered into her room. I was left with an empty feeling in my heart. As I heard my mother start to drift further into a set of dreams, Felix quietly crawled out of my closet and started gently rubbing my back as I sat on my bed and tried not to cry.

 Chapter 185: Time鈥檚 Worn Tracks

    After my failed conversation with my mother, I didn¡¯t try to engage with my mother again. I still wanted her to get better, but most of the time she was lost in a drug-induced haze, and I firmly remembered how badly my first attempt to help her get clean had gone. I couldn¡¯t communicate with her when she was high, and when she was lucid she adamantly refused to change.


    Sallia was the one who had the firmest stance against my mother when I talked about what had happened in the group.


    <Miria, just because you¡¯re born to a certain set of parents doesn¡¯t mean that they care about you. I¡­ I know that you care a lot about people. And I¡¯m grateful for that - I really am. But you also need to remember that not everyone is going to have the same reaction to you, or have the same attitude towards their friends and family as you do,> she said. <Some people won¡¯t treat you as precious members of their family, even if you¡¯re related by blood. You don¡¯t have to care about people less. Just¡­ be more selective about who you invest your time and energy into, and don¡¯t let other people prey on your good nature. I don¡¯t want to see you get hurt like this every time you¡¯re born to a bad family.>


    I didn¡¯t know if I entirely agreed with her, because I still wanted to see my mother get better and healthier. And my mother had kept me alive while I was young and vulnerable: I felt that counted for something, even if it was hard to see my mother lost in a drug-induced haze every day and it looked like she wanted to rip my throat out anytime I mentioned quitting. But even if I wasn¡¯t sure if I agreed with Sallia, I promised her that I would at least think about it. She didn¡¯t seem wholly satisfied with that, but she didn¡¯t push me.


    I still wanted my mother to get better and for our life to improve. But I also couldn¡¯t make her better just by waving my hand and throwing magic at her. Renewal could do a lot for someone who was hurt and needed help. It could even regrow lost limbs. But it couldn¡¯t help somebody fix their psyche when they didn¡¯t want to get better. As much as it hurt me to admit it, right now I just couldn¡¯t fix things.


    That didn¡¯t meant that everything remained stagnant, though. Even though my mother continued to be lost in her drug addiction, things with my friends got better as time passed.


    For Felix, I continued to slowly modify his face, making him less and less similar to the person we had first rescued from the facility and making him look more and more like himself. We experimented a lot with slightly different facial features and aesthetics until eventually we found something Felix was really happy with, and at the same time, he started to look so completely different from the body we had rescued that nobody would be able to recognize him.


    At Felix¡¯s very strong suggestion, I also modified my face a little bit. I wasn¡¯t willing to change my face much from its original shape, because I was still very happy with my face and body. But Felix pointed out that, while none of the soldiers in the facility had gotten a good look at us due to all of the chaos, magic, Aplos¡¯s escape, and the illusion-based magic that had been flying around, the soldiers might have gotten at least a glimpse of my face. So I tweaked my face just enough to make it hard to recognize me at a casual glance by broadening my forehead a bit, shrinking my nose a bit, and slightly lightening the color of my eyes. It wasn¡¯t enough to make me unrecognizable if someone knew what I looked like, but considering how hard it should have been for the soldiers to see us in the first place, I felt it would keep them off our trail.


    Sallia and Anise went through similar treatments, although their facial reconstructions were slower, to make sure their parents didn¡¯t notice anything off. Anise¡¯s hair was slowly restored to a bubblegum pink color over the course of a few months, much to her joy and my bemusement. Anise was as attached to her hair color as I was attached to my facial features. It definitely made Anise stand out, since pink was NOT a common hair color on this planet, but her parents seemed to find it more hilarious than troubling, so it worked out fine.


    About a week after we rescued Felix, Anise did say that the hats in her area had stepped up patrols around important buildings and increased security checks. Her father had apparently been complaining about the inconvenience of the increased security measures in the more important districts of town. I wasn¡¯t even sure whether it was a response to the ongoing war, which had settled into a long, drawn out stalemate, or whether it was due to our rescue of Felix. it could have been either, or both. Either way, the giant, prominent hats worn by the guard were now everywhere in Anise¡¯s district. Amusingly enough, the slums still had about the same hat presence as before - approximately zero. If the government was looking for us, they were looking in the wrong area.


    The next several months were rather stable monetarily, if a bit lean for Felix and I. Felix continued to experiment with the gunpowder and metal of this world, in hopes of creating some sort of knockoff product we could sell to local gangs. The profit from selling guns would probably be several dozen times what I got from helping Old Mo, and so I was at least kind of looking forward to Felix succeeding.


    I did manage to convince Old Mo to help me sell my swiped potions as well. He didn¡¯t even ask me where they had come from when I asked him to help me. He directly bought them the moment I produced them. Apparently, most of the potions were cleaning related, with a few that were meant to heal broken bones or disinfect wounds, as well as one potion that treated an illness called ¡®Ebellia-¡¯ a sort of deep lung illness that caused chronic coughing and lung pain.


    In total, he gave me 40 Sterlings for the whole batch. It wasn¡¯t a very big payout, but even though I didn¡¯t even get one arling, 40 Sterlings was enough money to keep for a bad day or an emergency.


    Sallia and Anise also helped me feed Felix. It wasn¡¯t much, but they sometimes managed to sneak out a meal here, a few sterlings there, and sometimes, a few second-hand clothes. It wasn¡¯t anything fancy, and the clothes were often slightly too big or too small for me, but they still helped. Sadly. Felix didn¡¯t get any new clothes - after all, he wasn¡¯t willing to put on a dress, and while Sallia did have some clothing that leaned a little bit more towards male dress, there were still some distinct differences between men¡¯s pants and women¡¯s pants in this country.


    Felix wasn¡¯t discovered by my mother, likely because she was in a blissed-out haze most of the time, and nobody else ever came into our house. We were too poor for anyone to bother trying to rob - which was lucky for the would-be robbers. The idea of a robber breaking into our house only to get met with two superpowered children did amuse me, but luckily it never actually happened.


    Finally, everyone¡¯s skills and magic continued progressing as time passed. Anise grew more proficient in using her Shadow-Dryad¡¯s eyes and magic missiles to grow stronger, Felix managed to push his metal attunement to ¡®advanced¡¯ state, Sallia managed to push her way to her fifth rune and get all of her spellcasting abilities from the manifestation system online and tailored to this dimension. She also managed to push her swordsmanship up to advanced grade. I managed to push my attunement to [Expert] grade, where I had gotten stuck last life, and I also managed to form my fourth absorption rune.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Expert] Grade attunement (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support alteration spellcasting. Significant Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form your fourth rune (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support runes, although it does somewhat support absorption spellcasting. moderate Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +280


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With the 4,922 Achievement I had previously had, the new 480 Achievement pushed me to 5,402 Achievement.


    Sallia was the first one of us to ever push our runes past the ninth rune. Due to Sallia¡¯s rune upgrade, her first three runes were essentially the first nine runes for a normal user of the magic system - meaning that her fourth rune was equivalent to the tenth rune, a threshold none of us had ever crossed before.


    On the day that Sallia¡¯s fourth rune was formed, she was incredibly excited.


    <My rune abilities are combining!> She yelled into the friendship bracelet. Even though the friendship bracelets used telepathy instead of real sound to let us talk to each other, I could practically feel my ears vibrating from her excitement.


    <Combining?> asked Anise.


    <Yes! You know how I formed my third rune ability to track ¡®similar items¡¯ to whatever I¡¯m concentrating on, right?> said Sallia.


    <Right?> I said.


    <Well, once my rune abilities blended together, something interesting happened. First of all, the range for my metal manipulation has gotten much larger and more precise - I can probably ¡®catch bullets¡¯ with more precision than before, and I wouldn¡¯t need as high of a perception stat to keep myself alive,> said Sallia. <More interestingly though, if I hold a bullet in my hands, I can use my metal manipulation ability to look at other bullets with the same shape from a ridiculous range. I don¡¯t think I can do cross-city bullet manipulation yet - but I can pretty easily divert a bullet from a few city blocks away and no direct line of sight. And I can also ¡®see¡¯ everything around the bullets, almost as if they were an extra set of eyes. So I¡¯m surprisingly good at scouting now,> said Sallia.


    It took a few more months before I created my fourth rune, but when I did. I also got a rather interesting upgrade. It almost felt like my ability was asking me to make a choice.


    It only took me a few moments to pull up the relevant part of my rune magic ability and figure out what was going on.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    The fourth through sixth runes will now fundamentally alter one sensory organ, providing +10 Perception per level, and also giving you improved vision when trying to see space. Additionally, each rune will provide you with a significantly increased ability to resist external spatial manipulation targeting you or the area directly around you.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    When I formed my fourth rune, the first thing I noticed was that my eyes got much better. I had already had excellent vision, courtesy of my high Perception stat.


    Combined with the benefits of Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl pushing my stats higher, my four runes, and my base stats, my stats in this life had started to reach truly ridiculous levels.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental (+61)


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (40+128)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+92)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+82)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (40+94)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+106)


    Grade 10


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+77)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+80)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (30+130+10)


    Grade 11


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+114)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (40+91)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My physical stats, especially my strength, was starting to push the boundaries of what was ¡®possible¡¯ for a normal human in this world. My youth still worked as a shackle that dragged down my physical abilities, but when I became an adult, my weakest physical stat would already be on par with a trained soldier or athlete, and my strength would probably just barely touch the truly supernatural realm. And with the help of Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl, my stats were still improving. I had hopes that by the time I became an adult, people would assume that I had taken a superstrength ability potion.


    However, my perception was my most prominent stat. I was starting to notice that my perception stat mildly warped my perception of time, in addition to letting me spot the patterns on an insect¡¯s wings from a hundred meters away. I was beginning to see things travel more slowly, especially when I focused. Combined with the low-speed gunpowder bullets of this world, I was actually starting to reach a point where I could track the slowest-gunpowder based projectiles entirely using my eyes, without even needing to use my spatial perception to track things more accurately. My body was completely incapable of dodging, of course, but I was getting a better handle on just how ridiculous a few extra grades in each stat truly were.


    By my estimations, if I had grade 20 Agility and perception, I would probably be able to just dodge guns entirely using my physical body, give or take a grade or two. It would depend some on the type of bullet and gunpowder used, of course - this world¡¯s bullets were definitely on the slower side, so I could probably dodge them with a grade 16 or 17 instead. But I suspected that at grade 20 even the fastest bullets from a dimension like this one would be easy to deal with.


    I spent a long time considering which organ I wanted to use my fourth rune to improve, before eventually choosing my ears. The ability to hear people sneaking up on me and activate my dimensional perception ability earlier would help me protect myself against my greatest vulnerability right now - sneak attacks. In a head on confrontation, I could protect myself against most problems, so ensuring nobody snuck up on me felt like the best investment of my sensory organ upgrade right now.


    The enhancement felt almost like I had directly added another grade to my perception, but only for my ears. But that wasn¡¯t all it did.


    After the upgrade, I could hear space itself. It was quiet and subtle, but when things moved around me, I could hear space distorting ever so slightly accommodate that movement. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was quite the same as the echolocation some animals used, but it definitely felt similar. I could track exactly where almost every object in my surroundings was using only my ears and my Perception stat after my sensory organ upgrade.


    My eyes also got an upgrade, although it was less pronounced. After the smaller upgrade to my eyes, I could see the way space and reality curved and bent whenever someone messed with space - which was completely useless in this world, since we had yet to meet a single space-magic user besides me. But it would be useful in the future at least.


    I found myself increasingly curious about what would happen when I pushed into grade 12 of Perception with my next rune, and then upgraded yet another sensory organ.


    Finally, the month we turned six, Felix started laughing maniacally.


    ¡°Miria! Come take a look! I think I made a working gun!¡±

 Chapter 186: Guns

    ¡°Guns?¡± I asked, as Felix led me back towards my room.


    Felix nodded, while grinning at me. A few moments later, he rummaged around in the bottom of the closet I had given to him, before he pulled out a large box. His grin grew even wider as he handed the box to me.


    ¡°Guns!¡± he proclaimed proudly. ¡°Well, a gun. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to make them, and I haven¡¯t made more than one yet. But I think I managed to create one! Look inside the box.¡±


    I gave Felix a careful, considering look, before I opened the box.


    Inside, just as Felix had promised, there was a gun. It looked a little bit longer and thinner than other guns I had seen, but it still looked like a well-made gun.


    ¡°Does it work?¡± I asked curiously.


    ¡°It should,¡± said Felix, wincing. ¡°But I also don¡¯t think the inside of your house is a good place to test whether my homemade gun works properly. So I haven¡¯t actually tested it yet. How about we find another spot to give it a trial run? If it works, we could try selling it through Old Mo.¡±


    I nodded, and the two of us quickly left the house before heading into the streets.


    As always, we kept to ourselves as we walked. None of the people in this part of the city were friendly, and an attitude of wariness and gloom hung over most of the people we came across. But that was normal for the slums, so I tried not to pay it too much mind. Instead, the two of us walked a little faster as we moved through the streets.


    I did notice that the people around us gave us a wider berth than they might have when we were younger. I had stuffed Felix¡¯s gun into my backpack, so we weren¡¯t obviously armed. However, the people around us still gave us a wide berth.


    I absently wondered whether they were afraid of being pickpocketed or whether they were afraid of being stabbed for accidentally nosing into some gang¡¯s business. After a moment of consideration, I decided it didn¡¯t matter. Right now, at least, I was grateful that nobody interrupted us.


    The two of us walked past several streets, before we found an alley that was at least somewhat isolated from the rest of the city. I used my enhanced hearing to check our surroundings, making sure that nobody was near enough to get hurt if the gun misfired, and also to ensure that we could hide if someone came to investigate. It would be pretty dumb for someone who lived in the slums to walk towards gunshots, but it didn¡¯t hurt to have alleys we could duck into, just in case. Owning a gun was probably illegal, and I didn¡¯t want a hat patrolling nearby to spot us, even if they seldom patrolled the slums.


    Luckily, at least for now the closest people to us were several houses away.


    ¡°Make sure to use your dress to shield yourself,¡± said Felix, starting to look a little nervous. ¡°Make sure gun shrapnel won¡¯t hit your face if the gun explodes. I don¡¯t think it will, but just in case. If it blows off your hand, you can just regrow it, but if it hits your brain you might get sent straight back to the Market.¡±


    ¡°Are you that worried about it?¡± I asked, giving the gun a curious look. ¡°Are you sure I should be firing this thing?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m mostly sure that it¡¯s fine,¡± said Felix. ¡°But the gunpowder of this world looks really different from gunpowder I¡¯ve seen in the past. The gunpowder in this world is blue, and made of some kind of gel stuffed with weird powders and binding essence. To be honest, I haven¡¯t figured out exactly how it¡¯s made yet, even though I have figured out how it works through some trial and error. I also tried making the kind of gunpowder I recognized from home, but¡­¡± Felix sighed. ¡°Well, the chemical reaction just didn¡¯t work. I ended up with a handful of completely useless powder. The differences in the laws of reality are very noticeable when looking at this particular chemical reaction. So while I¡¯ve recreated the gun itself using my metal attunement, and modified it a bit, I have no idea how to make gunpowder.¡± Felix shook his head. ¡°Sorry, I got lost in thought. Anyway, I¡¯m pretty sure my gun works, but I¡¯d prefer you stay as safe as possible just in case something goes wrong. I don¡¯t think it will, but¡­¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°I would feel awful if I accidentally sent you back to the Market. So stay safe, okay?¡±


    I nodded, and adjusted my grip on the gun so that if it blew up in my hand, I would only need to regrow an arm and wouldn¡¯t just die on the spot. It required a little bit of awkward reshuffling of my arms and my dress, and by the end, I was practically holding the gun against my stomach instead of in any reasonable grip. Given the defensive properties of my dress, at the angle I was holding the gun it would be impossible for shrapnel to clip my brain if something did go horribly wrong.


    After that, I aimed at the ground, prepared my spatial vision just in case it was needed, and fired.


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


    An incredibly loud, ear-destroying banging sound resonated through the area, and I winced. My ears were much more sensitive to sounds than they had been in the past, and this gunpowder was much louder than I remembered. I could adjust to it, and I could even tell that some part of my Perception stat was trying to keep my enhanced senses from hurting me. But the loud crack of gunpowder still caught me off guard.


    I glanced down at the spot where I had fired the gun, and noticed that there was now a small chunk of metal lodged in the mortal between two large chunks of cobblestone. I knelt down, and inspected the bullet and the street more carefully.


    ¡°YES!¡± yelled Felix, throwing his fist into the air and nearly jumping with glee. Then he winced, and checked our surroundings, before clearing his throat. ¡°I mean¡­ yes. It worked. I am delighted to see that my attempt at creating a gun has succeeded.¡±


    I chuckled, but decided not to say anything about Felix¡¯s outburst. Instead, I continued inspecting the bullet itself.


    ¡°It penetrated further into the street than I thought it would,¡± I said curiously.


    Felix shrugged. ¡°Bullets in this world are a little bit bigger, for reasons I haven¡¯t quite pinned down yet. It makes them a little bit slower when they travel through the air, but they also have a little more oomph to them. With the prevalence of metal prosthetics in this world, I suspect that this is an explicit design choice. If someone replaces their ribs with metal or something, it¡¯s probably best to have some more penetrative ability, even if it slows down the bullet¡¯s speed a little.¡± Felix chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s not like anybody besides us has the reflexes to handle a bullet speeding towards them either way, after all. So might as well have a bit more penetrative power.¡± Then, he looked more closely at the barrel of the gun, and the street, before his grin grew wider. ¡°I also added a little rifling to the barrel. In my first world, guns had little grooves on the inside of a gun barrel to make the bullets spin a little bit. It made bullets travel further and penetrate objects more easily. I wasn¡¯t sure if there was some sort of change to the laws of physics that made them ineffective, but I¡¯m now pretty sure that rifling still works here.¡± Felix¡¯s face grew thoughtful. ¡°I wonder why the military guns we stole don¡¯t have rifling.¡±


    I shrugged. I didn¡¯t even know that guns had metal grooves inside the barrel. It did sound like it would be pretty hard to add to mass-produced guns, but I had no idea whether that was the issue or whether there was some other problem that held up the production process. Felix¡¯s thoughts about the impact of metal body parts interested me more, but I wasn¡¯t going to rain on his parade now that he had finally succeeded.


    I inspected the gun again, and used my spatial vision to get a better look at the interior of the rifle. Nothing looked out of place, at least to my uneducated eyes.


    ¡°How many shots can it fire before it needs to be reloaded?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Five shots. It¡¯s the same number of shots as the rifles we stole had,¡± said Felix. ¡°I could probably improve it, but honestly, I don¡¯t think I need to, especially for guns we¡¯re planning to sell. I already added rifling to the gun, and I feel that¡¯s enough optimizing for now. If one of us wants to use guns for fighting, I¡¯ll make a much better custom weapon, but I kind of get the feeling I¡¯m going to be the only one really embracing the new weapons,¡± he said.


    ¡°Probably,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t think Anise the super witch is going to be too enthusiastic about using any weapons at all, and Sallia has already mentioned she doesn¡¯t really like guns. I could see myself using them if I need a weapon, but at this point, I would be much more inclined to just extinguish something if I need it dead.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± said Felix. ¡°In that case, I¡¯m going to try not to improve the design of guns too much just yet. Once we have a little bit more of a reputation as gun sellers, maybe I¡¯ll try pushing out better designs, but let¡¯s start slow.¡± Then, Felix grinned. ¡°But we have a real source of income now! Not just one-off batches of stolen goods. We can actually start producing wealth!¡±


    I grinned and nodded in agreement.


    ¡°How much do you think we can sell it for?¡± I asked. I started thinking about food and clothes, the two things that we needed the most. While we were getting by right now, it was hard to say when something would go wrong. Tomorrow, the armies that were deadlocked at the front lines might sweep into the city and start killing everyone, or the government might figure out that we were the ones who had broken Felix out of prison and send an army to kill us. Or Old Mo might move or close down his shop, causing me to lose my job at the bakery. Right now we were barely scraping by, but if Felix could start selling weapons, we might really reach some level of financial stability.


    ¡°Do you want to try to sell it through Old Mo?¡± asked Felix, giving the gun another curious look.


    I thought about it, before I nodded.


    ¡°He has already helped me dispose of other sketchy items, and he doesn¡¯t seem to have an aversion to illegal business. I¡¯ll see if he has any ideas about where I could dispose of some ¡®dubiously acquired goods¡¯ and go from there,¡± I said. ¡°I mean, we made the gun ourselves, but I doubt anyone will seriously think a group of six year olds made working guns without a factory or any other conditions. Without the help of your metal attunement, the only other way to create something like this is to either use expensive equipment or an ability potion - and neither of those are available to random six year olds. So people are going to think we stole them.¡±


    Felix nodded, and then sighed. ¡°If they¡¯re sold as stolen goods, the price will probably be lower.¡±


    I also felt a bit depressed as I thought about that, but that didn¡¯t change what had to be done.


    We gave the gun a few more test shots, just to make sure the gun didn¡¯t explode in its user¡¯s hands after the third shot or have some sort of other critical malfunction, and then finished stress-testing the rifle. Luckily, nobody came to investigate what was happening over here. In the slums, gunshots meant people moved away from the sound.


    It took a few minutes of walking before I arrived at Old Mo¡¯s bakery, where I worked, and where I had learned to read and write. I took a deep breath, before I walked in. It was time to see how Old Mo felt about dangerous ¡®stolen¡¯ goods.

 Chapter 187: Wars

    I walked into Old Mo¡¯s bakery, and I was surprised to see that there weren¡¯t many customers there. Old Mo¡¯s bakery usually started to get more business around dinnertime, since that was when the red light district started to get more customers. However, even though it was approaching the evening, there wasn¡¯t a single customer in sight when I walked in.


    I frowned, and used my spatial sight to look at everything nearby. The first reason I could think of for why Old Mo¡¯s bakery might be deserted was the government. If the government had found us, they might have kicked out Old Mo and all the customers, before filling the place up with soldiers.


    Alternately, one of the local gangs might have decided to mess with the bakery. Even though the gangs usually tried to keep violence down in the red light district, a little bit of violence still bubbled to the surface from time to time. It was bad for business, but that didn¡¯t mean it never happened.


    But when I looked at our surroundings using spatial sight, I couldn¡¯t see anyone unusual. Old Mo was clearly present in the building, and was currently fumbling around with some items at the back of the shop. He didn¡¯t seem to be injured or in danger. Apart from Old Mo, nobody else was in the shop at all.


    I blinked in confusion.


    ¡°Old Mo?¡± I called out.


    ¡°Miria? Good timing! I didn¡¯t see you this morning, so I didn¡¯t think you were coming in today!¡± yelled Old Mo. ¡°Come back here! Yelling across the shop makes it harder to talk!¡±


    I nodded, and started making my way towards the back. After I pushed through a few doors, I stopped and took a closer look at Old Mo. He looked different than usual. His old face had a few more wrinkles than before, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He looked a bit haggard and stressed out.


    ¡°Old Mo? What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked. Old Mo had done a lot for me this life, and I was absolutely willing to step in if he needed help. I might not have much money, but I was several times more scary than the trained soldiers of this world.


    ¡°Have you not heard, Miria?¡± he asked. He seemed a bit concerned as he looked at me. ¡°Look, kid¡­ you¡­ I haven¡¯t asked too much about your home situation before, but this is important. I believe you¡¯ve mentioned your mom is addicted to fizz, and your father isn¡¯t around, right?¡±


    I nodded. I tried not to feel a wave of anxiety and depression when I thought of my mother.


    ¡°My mother is an addict, yeah.¡± I hadn¡¯t told Old Mo everything about my home life, but he knew enough to put the picture together on his own.


    ¡°Miria¡­ you might want to leave the city soon,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°And you should think really hard about if you want to bring your mother with you. Or if it¡¯s even possible to bring your mother with you. This¡­ isn¡¯t really something I would normally talk about with a child. You¡¯re¡­ what, Eight? Seven?¡±


    ¡°Six,¡± I said.


    ¡°Even younger than I thought. The point is, this isn¡¯t a nice topic, but as a kid from the slums, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve already seen much more than some adults have. So you have choices to make. And you need to make them soon.¡±


    I blinked, and felt my anxiety start to skyrocket again. Had the government found me and threatened Old Mo or something? The way he was talking made it sound like danger was about to fall out of the sky and onto my lap. That meant that Old Mo was worried. My first two guesses were the government or gangs.


    ¡°Old Mo, is something wrong? You still haven¡¯t actually told me why I should be worried,¡± I said. ¡°Do you have some sort of trouble with the local gangs? If so, I know a contact who might be able to help you out.¡±


    That ¡®friend¡¯ was me, of course. But since Old Mo wouldn¡¯t believe a six year old could save him from the local gangs, it was probably best to pretend someone else would act and not me. I was already starting think about the best way to beat down the local gangs and scare them a little bit.


    Old Mo¡¯s next words silenced my thoughts about gang fights and slum politics.


    ¡°The front lines are collapsing,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°Not completely, but the country might lose this city.¡±


    I blinked.


    ¡°What?¡± That was not what I had expected. I had been thinking about the government coming after us, or gangs trying to hurt us, but as time passed, my awareness of the war had started to fade to the background. After all, the front lines hadn¡¯t budged much for the past year and a half. I wasn¡¯t wealthy enough to buy the newspaper and read it, but from what news trickled into the slums, it sounded a lot like the front lines had been deadlocked for a long time. Both sides would gain minor victories from time to time, but nothing really changed.


    ¡°The armies of Verne have mostly held up the coalition army at fort Brenzo for the past two years while our nation has tried to dominate the sea,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°And as far as I know, that was actually working out, for the most part. All countries on the continent are a bit dependent on their overseas colonies now, so cutting off their access to the colonies has been causing a material shortage for Verne¡¯s enemies.¡±


    I blinked. That was¡­ a lot more information than I had ever expected Old Mo to have. Old Mo knowing about the war strategy of our nation was¡­ surprising, to say the least. I had always known that Old Mo had some shady contacts - after all, he seemed rather okay with the idea of kidnapping or killing people, and he hadn¡¯t even batted an eye when I asked him to help me sell the potions I had stolen.


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    But I had always assumed Old Mo had some kind of past with the gangs. I had never asked about it, because I figured it was his business whether he wanted to tell me or not, but I had always imagined that Old Mo had been part of a gang and then managed to work his way out of the slums afterwards.


    But a random former gang member wouldn¡¯t know about the front lines of the war in anywhere near the detail Old Mo seemed to.


    Unaware of my newfound suspicion, Old Mo continued speaking.


    ¡°But that changed a few days ago. Ennallia gave their own ironclads their first field test, and managed to squeak out a victory against Verne¡¯s navy. They used their naval advantage to secure a decisive victory against Verne at fort Branzo. The most important fort in the war just fell,¡± said Old Mo.


    I blinked again. Old Mo knew¡­ way too much about the inner workings of other countries. He definitely wasn¡¯t an ordinary baker, and he definitely hadn¡¯t been an ordinary gang member in the past, either.


    Why had he been so nice to me?


    I thought about it for a few moments, trying to go over every interaction with Old Mo and figure out if he had been tricking me somehow. But I couldn¡¯t think of any times where he had done something to hurt me. I might not be that good at lying to people, but I did think I was decent at figuring out if other people were acting in bad faith towards me. And so far, Old Mo had seemed genuinely worried about me and happy to help me out.


    ¡°Why are you telling me this?¡± I asked. I wasn¡¯t just asking Old Mo why he was talking about the collapse of the front lines. I was asking him why he was telling me all of this information about the war, when this kind of information from the front lines should be impossible for a regular baker to have access to. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure what Old Mo¡¯s background was, but now that I knew something was wrong with it, I would be much more alert to future mistakes he made.


    Old Mo sighed.


    ¡°Miria¡­ how do you feel about this country? Do you want to stay in it?¡±


    I didn¡¯t need to think very hard before I answered.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really care much about it either way,¡± I said. If anything, I was understating things a little bit. The country of Verne was responsible for locking Felix up in a facility and studying him like a lab rat, and the soldiers of Verne had tried very hard to kill us when we were escaping with Felix. I didn¡¯t really like this country much.


    ¡°Then do you want me to take you out of the city? I¡¯ve heard that the advancing army has treated the town that supplied Fort Branzo pretty badly. I doubt this city will fare any better if Verne loses it. This city is the industrial heartland of the country, and supplies the rest of Verne with copper, iron, and industrial products. The other countries will probably raze this city to the ground, before fighting over pieces of it.¡± Old Mo frowned. ¡°There are maybe two weeks before the coalition army arrives. It could be a few days faster though, depending on how many of their cannons they leave to safeguard fort Branzo and how many they bring with them. I intend to be out of here within the week, just in case¡± he said.


    I blinked.


    Given my new suspicions about Old Mo¡¯s background, he could have bad intentions for me if I joined him. But I also didn¡¯t really want to think that poorly of Old Mo. Despite the fact that his background now seemed very suspicious. he had still taken me in, taught me to read and write, and fed me when he had no reason to. And I was strong enough to escape if it was some sort of trap.


    As for an invading army¡­ I didn¡¯t need to think for long before I decided I wanted nothing to do with that. Being in the middle of a city that was being invaded sounded like a terrible idea. I was confident that the four of us could fight off smaller groups of soldiers, but I had no interest in seeing how many soldiers we could down before someone got a lucky shot or we just ran out of essence. Fighting an army on our own was just suicide.


    I immediately concentrated on my friendship bracelet. <According to Old Mo, the front lines just faced a big upset. The countries Verne is at war with just took a really important fort, and they¡¯re pushing towards this city. Old Mo is planning on fleeing the city. He asked if I want to go with him. Do you guys have any thoughts?>


    <Does Old Mo know how the soldiers are treating captured cities?> asked Sallia.


    <He said they¡¯re being treated poorly, at least so far. He didn¡¯t specify anything more detailed.>


    <Old Mo has treated you pretty well. I¡¯m willing to go off of his words this time,> said Sallia. <In that case, leaving sounds like a good plan. Even if I have to expose how weird I am and drag my parents along. Let¡¯s get out of here before things go horribly wrong.>


    <I¡¯m happy to get out of this city,> said Felix. <I feel no real attachment to it at all.>


    <I¡¯ll¡­ see what I can do,> said Anise. <If I need help¡­ can you guys help me get my parents out of the city? I¡¯ll say that one of the other kids my parents have tried to get me to play with mentioned something about an important fort falling. But I also think leaving is a good idea. If it¡¯s a false alarm, we can come back to the city afterwards.>


    ¡°I¡¯d really like help getting out,¡± I said, after I received a positive response from the others. ¡°Would it be okay if I brought some friends?¡± I asked.


    Old Mo hesitated. ¡°How many people are you planning on bringing?¡±


    ¡°My mother, my little brother, and two friends and their families, if possible,¡± I said.


    Old Mo hesitated, and I could see him warring with himself. Then, he sighed.


    ¡°All right, fine, kid.¡± he laughed bitterly. ¡°I really am getting too soft-hearted in my twilight years.¡± He sighed. ¡°But I¡¯m leaving in a week. Make sure that you¡¯re here before sunset in seven days, or I¡¯m leaving without you.¡± He paused. ¡°And make sure to bring supplies, too. We¡¯ll be moving through the wilderness for a while, so we need food, water, and camping supplies. And I know our group won¡¯t be the only one fleeing from the oncoming army. We might need to fight or scavenge for food, so if you have any tools that would help with that, bring those too. Do you have any weapons?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°We have a gun.¡±


    ¡°Then make sure to bring it along. But hide it well. Owning a firearm is illegal if you aren¡¯t part of the military,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°Though the hats will probably have better things to focus on right now. But make sure it¡¯s hard to find, just in case.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Will do. Thank you for bringing us along, Old Mo.¡±


    He sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, kid. I¡¯m already having second thoughts. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m doing this.¡±


    I quickly nodded, and left the shop.


    I had preparations to make.

 Chapter 188: Leaving the City

    The next day, those with parents started trying to convince them that fleeing was the right decision.


    Sallia had the easiest time of it. Her parents were aware of my existence, since both of us lived in the slums and there was no reason to keep our friendship hidden. When Sallia mentioned that Verne had lost fort Branzo, her parents got very twitchy. A big loss on the front lines probably meant that the army recruiters would be more desperate than before to get fresh blood into the army and help stabilize the front lines, and Sallia¡¯s father was only a little out of the age range for being dragged into the army again after his initial mandatory years of service. He was a factory worker for a gun factory, which would normally save him from being called back to the army - but if the army got desperate enough, it was hard to say whether they would still call him back in.


    When Sallia mentioned that I was fleeing the city with my ¡®parents¡¯ and my little brother, they seemed more than happy to tag along with us. Of course, Sallia¡¯s parents seemed to expect that they would return to the city after the war was settled. They seemed to believe that given Verne¡¯s industrial prowess, it was unlikely to lose the war - things would just get dangerous for a while. I didn¡¯t know how strong each country¡¯s army was, so I didn¡¯t have a strong opinion about who would win the war - I just didn¡¯t want to get dragged into the conflict somehow. But when Sallia mentioned her parent¡¯s assumptions, I did start thinking about where I wanted to go after leaving the city. And that brought me to a surprising conclusion.


    I was actually kind of interested in leaving the country. I intended to ask Old Mo where he was heading after we left the city, and then possibly follow along if he had some sort of organized plan. I currently suspected he was a spy for another country, or possibly a retired spy for our own country. If he had a contact that could help us settle down in a new city, I would be happy to try living somewhere else.


    If we returned to this city, life would probably continue in much the same way it always had. I would return to being a slums kid, barely scraping by from one week to the next and thinking about money. When I got a little older, I would have the ability to start working as a shady healer, which would earn me some more money, and probably a good amount of influence achievement from healing people. But ultimately, my Achievement gains - and more importantly, the entirety of my life - would probably never amount to much in this world. Becoming a shady healer wasn¡¯t my idea of an ¡®ideal future,¡¯ even if it was ¡®good enough¡¯ to get by. But I wanted more out of life, and at least in this city, pulling myself up in the world was incredibly hard. With Old Mo¡¯s help, or with a fresh start away from the prying eyes of Verne¡¯s military, I would have an easier time becoming something more.


    When I mentioned this to Felix, Sallia, and Anise, they were mostly in favor of the idea. Felix was in much the same position I was, and Sallia and her family were also scraping by in this city.


    Anise herself didn¡¯t seem to mind the idea of moving. However, her parents proved to be a bigger stumbling block.


    Shortly after she went to have a talk with her parents, she returned to the communication bracelets. Her mental voice sounded glum when she spoke with us.


    <My parents aren¡¯t willing to leave,> she said.


    I frowned. I had somewhat anticipated someone¡¯s family not being willing to leave. After all, our families had lives outside of us. Even if the four of us were in favor of fleeing the city before the army arrived, others might not be willing to leave behind everything they had built up here.


    Anise¡¯s family was also the wealthiest one among the four of us. They had the most to lose, so it made sense they were the most reluctant to leave.


    <How do you¡­ feel about your family this life?> I asked.


    <I don¡¯t want my parents to get hurt. I don''t think this is a good decision, but they¡¯ve been good parents,> said Anise, sounding a little sad. <My father is really nice, and he cares about me and mother a lot, and my mother is also a really sweet lady. I don¡¯t want them to get caught up in this mess if there¡¯s any way at all to avoid it.>


    <Hmm¡­ well, news about Fort Branzo and the treatment of the town that the coalition forces captured isn¡¯t really widespread yet. It¡¯s possible they¡¯ll change their mind when information becomes more widely available,> said Felix. <For now, keep an eye on the newspapers or any other forms of widely available information, and try to convince your parents that way. If that doesn¡¯t work¡­ we¡¯ll figure something out.> Felix sounded a bit uncertain about what we would even do if we wanted to ¡®figure something out,¡¯ but he sounded like he was trying to comfort Anise.


    That left me.


    <My mother¡­ also doesn¡¯t seem willing to come along, at least as far as I can tell,> I said. <She¡¯s, uhh¡­ not really conscious most of the time. But when I mentioned an army was coming, she said mumbled something about the black bugs in the ceiling. She didn¡¯t seem to actually hear me at all,> I said. I resisted the urge to grimace at the mention of that conversation.


    I had been thinking about what to do with my mother for a while.


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    My mother needed an intervention. She seemed to have little control over her actions, and she was so lost in a blissed out haze most of the time that she wasn¡¯t really capable of planning for the future. But I was also aware that just trying to knock someone unconscious and force them to cut back on a drug habit wasn¡¯t a very productive method of making them quit. If that happened, my mother was more likely to violently hate my guts and then run right back into the arms of her drugs than to actually quit, especially given how much she seemed to be against quitting.


    At the same time, this couldn¡¯t go on. I loved my mother, but she just¡­ wasn¡¯t trying to get better, and I didn¡¯t know what to do about it. But at the very least, I needed to get her out of the city before the army came. I didn¡¯t know exactly what Old Mo meant when he said that the town captured by the army had been treated poorly, but I had a few good guesses that I wasn¡¯t willing to test out. No matter how much my mother had left me frustrated and disappointed over the years, I wasn¡¯t going to just leave her behind and hope for the best.


    Sallia seemed to notice my long, painful silence, so instead of leaving me to stew in my thoughts, she broke the silence after a few moments.


    <Maybe your mother will wake up in time to have a serious talk?> she said. <Or if that doesn¡¯t work¡­ maybe we can just drag her along. I know that withdrawal can be terrifying, or even lethal, so maybe we can take along a supply of her drug and hope that maybe this serves as a wake up call for her¡­ or something,> said Sallia. <We have a week to get ready. Felix can keep an eye on your mother and alert you if she¡¯s ready to talk, and you can get supplies and get ready. Hopefully, by then something will change.>


    I frowned at Sallia¡¯s words. It was an incredibly thin chance. My mother often spent months lost in a drug-induced haze and rarely interacted with the world around her. I wasn¡¯t sure just what Fizz did to the human mind, but it was obvious that it left the user in a near-coma like state for very, very long periods of time every time they used it.


    But it was the best idea I had for now. So I nodded along, prepared for a week of buying supplies, and hoped that things would work out.


    * * *


    For the rest of the week, I converted every arling and sterling I had into supplies, and then stuffed everything I thought we could use into my backpack. I didn¡¯t have much of a savings, but I at least had a few Arlings laying around. Sallia¡¯s noodle bowl was also returned to her so that she could dematerialize it and carry it along. I would be a bit hungrier this week, but it was manageable, at least.


    The fact that we had a dimensional backpack meant that packing up and moving was much easier than it should have been. I packed efood, water, a few very basic tents that Felix and I knocked together using bits of scrap metal and some bolts of cloth, blankets¡­ and basically everything else we could think of. The only thing we really skimped on was medicine and potions - with me here, there was no real need for either. Felix still carried a few in his own backpack, in case I somehow died during the trip and left the others without my healing services. But with our various perception abilities and healing abilities, any of us dying seemed unlikely, at least.


    Felix also managed to put together two more guns. We still didn''t have a way to make bullets, so we were entirely reliant on the bullets we had stolen from the soldiers all those years ago - but while they didn¡¯t exactly have generous ammunition reserves, they were fine for a couple short fights. In any case, the four of us all had some form of magical attack that we could use before resorting to bullets. Anise still hadn¡¯t figured out what was up with her orb, but she had her magic missiles to rely on, Felix and Sallia had their metal control, and I had extinguish. Bullets would only be used if something went horribly wrong.


    Anise¡¯s parents, luckily, changed their mind after four days. News started trickling into the city through more mainstream channels, such as the daily papers.


    And the news that Anise shared with us about the conquered town was quite horrifying.


    Apparently, the coalition army had quite the dislike for Verne¡¯s citizens. They had dragged away most of the people in the first town they had conquered, and then forced them into labor camps where they were beaten and overworked routinely. Meanwhile, the soldiers had also looted every single item of note in the town - from food to money. The factory workers weren¡¯t being fed much, and given what else I had heard about the conquered town, it was unlikely that the townspeople would live more than a few weeks, at most. There were also a few hints at even worse treatment for the conquered town, although the newspapers never stated exactly what had happened. I wasn¡¯t sure what to make of those ¡®darker hints,¡¯ since it really wasn¡¯t easy to sort out what the newspapers were alluding to. It almost felt like the newspapers Anise had found were trying to play off of the imagination of the reader.


    Of course, I also wasn¡¯t sure how much of the news was exaggerated, since it came from Verne¡¯s national newspaper. This country didn¡¯t have anything like freedom of press, so the treatment of the town might have been greatly exaggerated in the newspaper. The government could be trying to rally patriotic fervor against the enemy or something - I wasn¡¯t really sure. But Old Mo had mentioned the town was treated poorly, so I imagined that at least some of it was true.


    In any case, Anise¡¯s parents made up their mind and also decided to flee with us, meaning that everyone except for my mother was on board.


    On the day of our flight, my mother was in a blissed-out haze as usual. I hadn¡¯t managed to ask her what she wanted to do, or talk with her about the situation, because she hadn¡¯t been lucid enough to talk yet. I hesitated, wondering if it was really the right choice to just take her along¡­ but if the stories about the invading army were true, I didn¡¯t think my mother would survive if the city got taken. I didn¡¯t want to leave her to be abused and die.


    I grabbed her stash of Fizz and tossed it into my backpack, in case there was some sort of withdrawal effect that she would be subjected to if she just suddenly cut herself off. I hoped this might turn into an opportunity for my mother to get clean, but I also had no idea how to fix my mother¡¯s addiction. Maybe Old Mo would have some advice for me - I would ask him later. But I wasn¡¯t just going to leave my mother to potentially die in this city.


    Sallia came to meet me that morning, and using her exceptional strength, she easily lifted my mother up and helped carry her along to the meeting spot with Old Mo.


    It was time to leave this city.

 Chapter 189: First Steps out of the City

    After we arrived, we saw Anise arrive with her parents, and I also saw Sallia¡¯s parents waiting for us. I took a moment to inspect them.


    Anise¡¯s parents looked fit and healthy. They had a sort of dazed demeanor about them, despite the fact that they were preparing to flee the city. I got the impression that they weren¡¯t really used to handling hardships or calamities. Anise¡¯s father even had a very slight potbelly. He had crinkles around his eyes that made me think he smiled a lot, but they were very hard to notice, since he wasn¡¯t smiling right now. His expression was vacant as he looked at the city where he had probably spent most of his life, and for a moment, I was worried he would have another change of heart and decide not to run with us. But when he looked at Anise, his eyes grew firmer and more determined.


    Anise¡¯s mother was somewhere in her late twenties or early thirties, about the same age as Anise¡¯s father. She had a metal hand, unlike Anise¡¯s father, who had no prosthetics. Her hand was extremely well crafted - it looked almost like a work of art, and I could tell that a lot of mechanical knowledge and care had been put into crafting it.


    She was currently using her organic left hand to hold Anise, and her right hand was hanging loosely by her side. Something about the way her hand moved gave me the impression that getting punched with her right hand would hurt a lot. It almost looked like Anise¡¯s mother had learned a bit of self-defense, too. Not enough to pose a threat to a soldier, or somebody really trained in combat - but enough to at least fend off the average street thug.


    They had healthier bodies than the rest of us, courtesy of the fact that they had more regular meals. But despite their obvious healthiness, I had the feeling that I would need to pay close attention to them, to make sure that they didn¡¯t buckle under the pressure of running. The unconcealed fear in their eyes as they looked at us like startled animals made me a little worried about them. They clearly weren¡¯t people who were used to making snap decisions that might affect whether they lived or died - they were people who were used to living in wealth and comfort.


    However, Anise¡¯s father still had a firm and strong gaze when he looked at his daughter. I could see love and determination there, and he had come here the moment it seemed likely that the invading coalition army would pose a threat to Anise.


    Even if he was mentally soft and weak compared to the people of the slums, he was still determined to protect his daughter. I could respect that. Bravery was about being afraid, but moving forward anyway, and I admired Anise¡¯s father for making the decision to leave behind his decent job and stable life in order to keep Anise safe. I looked at Anise, and gave her a faint smile. It looked like she had lucked out with her parents this life.


    Then, I felt a bit guilty at the thought. My mother was¡­ not exactly helpful, or particularly loving, but she was still probably trying her best in her own way. Comparing her to my previous families, or Anise¡¯s family, wasn¡¯t fair to her.


    I shook my head, and turned my attention to Sallia¡¯s parents. I wanted to distract myself from thinking about my own mother, who I had needed to bring her while she was unconscious and blissed out.


    Sallia¡¯s parents were a lot thinner, and also looked a bit older than Anise¡¯s parents. Which was interesting, since I knew Anise¡¯s parents were actually older than Sallia¡¯s. Living in the slums forced one to grow up quickly if they wanted to live, and so Sallia¡¯s parents had the lean, wiry strength of people who had lived through situations others hadn¡¯t.


    Sallia¡¯s father had an entire arm replaced with a rather mediocre prosthetic. It was several bits of scrap iron, welded together with a bit of rough construction. If it weren¡¯t for his binding essence holding the thing together, I suspected his arm might fall apart at any time. It had nowhere near the exquisite craftsmanship put into it that Anise¡¯s mother¡¯s hand had. It probably cost several times more binding essence to move his arm, and I doubted he could do any precision work with it either.


    I suspected they would have an easier time than Anise¡¯s parents with the flight from the city, even though they were clearly less healthy.


    The other families looked at my unconscious mother. I saw Sallia¡¯s mother frown, before shaking her head and looking at Sallia, who was helping me carry my mother. Her expression grew slightly warmer when she looked at Sallia, but I could still see distinct distaste in her eyes. She sighed, and then looked at Old Mo.


    Old Mo gave my mother a curious look, before raising an eyebrow at me. I sighed, and shook my head.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be responsible for her,¡± I said. ¡°I can¡¯t just¡­ leave her here to die.¡±


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    Old Mo looked at my mother, and his eyes grew harsher for a few moments. And then he looked at me, and his eyes softened.


    ¡°Just¡­ if she proves to be a burden, or it proves impossible to take care of her, I¡¯m leaving her behind,¡± he said. ¡°If she can keep up with the rest of the group¡­ I guess you can bring her along.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Old Mo!¡± I said, before springing forward and giving him a big hug.


    Old Mo seemed surprised for a moment, and I saw his right arm twitch as his fingers reached towards something. But a moment later, he caught himself, and gently ruffled my hair before pushing me back to my feet.


    ¡°This should be everyone, then,¡± he said, scanning the four of us and our families. ¡°Do you have any self-defense weapons?¡±


    I grinned, and Felix and I both pulled out guns from my backpack. Old Mo¡¯s eyes widened when he saw our guns.


    ¡°Two rifles. Are they good?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°They fire just fine.¡±


    Old Mo looked at my backpack again, and frowned. ¡°The fact that you managed to fit those things into your backpack without them protruding out is¡­ interesting. You¡¯ll have to show me how you did that later. It¡¯s a neat trick.¡± Then, he shrugged. ¡°Well, two more guns will definitely make this easier.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s get moving. I have a friend who has already gotten us a route out of the city. The edges of the city are on lockdown right now, but a few people have passes to move about - mostly officials, soldiers, and a few other important jobs such as messengers. I used a few connections to get a pass for us to use, so we can just walk through,¡± he said. Then, he reached into his pocket and handed Anise¡¯s father and Sallia¡¯s father two pistols.


    ¡°They¡¯re unloaded, but if someone makes trouble, feel free to wave them around. They should scare off the average hooligan, at least. And all you really need to do is buy time for me to fix the problem,¡± Old Mo grinned.


    Anise¡¯s father seemed a little shocked when he saw Old Mo¡¯s grin and heard his words, but he hurriedly nodded and grabbed the empty gun. Sallia¡¯s father simply took the gun, fiddled with it for a few moments, and then nodded, before stuffing it into his coat.


    ¡°Any chance we  can get some of the ammunition too?¡± asked Sallia¡¯s father.


    ¡°Maybe once we know each other a little better,¡± said Old Mo.


    Sallia¡¯s father didn¡¯t seem terribly disappointed by Old Mo¡¯s response. With that, the group started heading towards the edge of the city.


    As we moved further and further away from the slums, I couldn¡¯t help but notice that the spires of steel and brass, as well as the massive clocktower in the center of town, were getting further and further away from me. I had spent this life in the shadow of that giant clocktower and the bulky flying machines that docked in the center of the city each day - and now, for the first time, I was leaving them behind. If things went well, and we moved to another country, I might never see them again.


    Part of me felt a bit sad. The city of brass and steel had been a truly fascinating sight to behold, and I did kind of enjoy the view of the giant clocktower in the distance as I went about each day.


    But a bigger part of me felt relieved.


    I was tired of living in the slums. I felt exhausted from how hard it had been just to scrape by every day. Feeding Felix and myself was far harder than it should have been, because the city just didn¡¯t provide opportunities for slum kids. I wanted something more from this life.


    There was almost nothing that I cared about in this city, and almost no material possessions that I valued. Our home was ratty and moldy. We had almost no money. Food was scarce. The people were silent and wary.


    I wanted out. I felt like I had been trapped for years in the mindset and circumstances I had been born into, and now, I felt like a pressure I had never been aware of was lifting away from my mind.


    I smiled as we approached the edge of the city. I was eager to be leaving.


    It took almost another hour of walking before we reached the edge of the city, where we found a large line. Controlling the line was a small barricade, with a group of soldiers with exceptionally distinctive, massive black hats manning it and wielding rifles. I was a bit worried when I saw the line, since a soldier catching on to us might spell trouble. Even if it was spectacularly unlikely that somebody would link our group to the rescue of Felix all those years ago, I had been very nervous around hats for the last few years. Our group quickly shuffled towards the front of the line, as one person after another was either told to get lost or allowed out of the city.


    ¡°Halt!¡± said a soldier. My muscles tensed as he gave our group a dubious look, and I subconsciously reached for my alteration essence and absorption essence. Just in case he noticed something.


    But I did my best to look like an ordinary child as well. I gave the soldier a confident gaze that I didn¡¯t actually feel at all, and gave him my best ¡®normal six year old¡¯ smile.


    The soldier looked at me even more dubiously for a moment, before he shrugged.


    Old Mo handed the soldier a pass, and a few pieces of paper. The soldier quickly looked over both documents, spending a few nerve-wracking minutes reading over one particular section of Old Mo¡¯s papers. Then, he narrows his eyes at us for a moment longer, before he waved us through..


    ¡°Your papers look good,¡± he said. ¡°Go on.¡± And then, he waved us through.


    Old Mo nodded, and our group walked through the barricade and out of the city.


    We were free.

 Chapter 190: Into the Wilderness

    As they walked past the barricade and out of the city, Felix felt a weight start to lift off of his shoulders, and he had to focus to avoid breathing a long, heavy sigh of relief as he felt the pressure of avoiding the soldiers of the government, the poverty of the slums, and the danger of the ever-present gangs slide away from him.


    He took a final look at the city they were leaving. He looked at the giant clocktower in the distance, the giant boats that sailed through the sky, defying gravity with naught but the power of industry to back them up as they flew against nature itself. The endless rows of factories, smoke, and brass. The streets filled with people using mechanical limbs, empowering their actions and giving people safe and easy ways to recover from accidents or strengthen themselves.


    Paradoxically, in addition to relief, Felix felt a twinge of sadness as he left the city. Being imprisoned as a test subject for several years had been miserable. But despite the way the people of Verne had treated him, he still couldn¡¯t help but admire what they had built. For all of their other flaws, Felix admired this city with all of his heart.


    He wondered if, someday, he would be able to do something similar. The past few years had been tiring, but exciting, since he had spent most of them figuring out exactly how and why a gun worked. In his first life, he hadn¡¯t had the time to pursue his passions, since he had been caught up in the pace of life around him. He¡¯d had a job to go to, friends and family to take care of, and he had never had the time to pursue the kind of life he had always wanted. On the islands, he had once again let the people around him pressure him away from his passions.


    But during the previous life, he¡¯d finally stepped forward and made a way to learn more about crafting. He had spent years learning as a blacksmith, building a foundation of knowledge for his future. Sure, the laws of physics might not always be terribly consistent from one world to the next, and so a specific technique that worked in one world might actually be harmful in another. But as long as he understood the hows and whys of the way metal, leather, and wood worked with each other, Felix was confident he would be able to adapt to any new world, given enough time and materials to experiment with.


    Of course, Felix would have much rather not been forced to build a gun while hiding in Miria¡¯s closet and hoping her drug-addicted mother didn¡¯t notice him. Not that Miria¡¯s mother was particularly observant, since she was high almost every moment of the day. But the working conditions he¡¯d been given were¡­ less than ideal, as much as he appreciated Miria helping feed him and the rest of the group risking their lives to break him out of prison.


    Felix turned back to his friends, and noticed that Miria¡¯s shoulders looked lighter and less tense than he had ever seen them. At least in this world, Miria always looked stressed out. Now, she looked excited to be moving forward.


    Felix felt a bit of a grin tug at his lips as he saw how energetic Miria looked. While he didn¡¯t consider himself quite as driven to protect his friends as Miria, he was still happy to see her practically bouncing on her feet as she moved along. Even her mother¡¯s literal weight on her shoulders didn¡¯t seem to affect her mood.


    Felix turned to Anise and Sallia, and was more than a little amused to see Sallia was in a similar state. He hadn¡¯t noticed much of an impact on Sallia¡¯s mood when he saw her while they were living in the slums, but now that they were leaving, it was clear that Sallia was just as excited to be gone as Miria.


    Felix just hoped that the next city they went to also had a strong industrial sector.


    Living in the heartland of Verne¡¯s industry should have been a golden opportunity for Felix to learn more. He would have loved to go to an alchemy academy, pair it with some sort of education on how all of the machines and factories in the city worked, and then learn exactly how and why the industrial revolution had happened in this world. If Felix could learn about both machinery and alchemy, he thought he would be able to make something really special in this world - and quite possibly, replicate at least some of it in future worlds too.


    It might not always be physically possible to make machines in each world, but Felix was sure that he could learn something useful from all of the factories, industrialized potion-making, and mechanical prosthetics in this world if he had the opportunity.


    Sadly, his status as a test subject had prevented him from learning much of what he was interested in.


    But seeing his friends so happy to be leaving the city made up for the fact that Felix wouldn¡¯t get a chance to learn in the center of the industrial revolution itself.


    ¡°Do you think it¡¯ll be possible to enroll an alchemy academy in the future?¡± He asked, mostly in case Old Mo had an answer for him. Old Mo hadn¡¯t said much about their destination yet, beyond the fact that they were leaving the city.


    ¡°You¡¯ll see when we get there,¡± said Old Mo. Felix swore he could hear the man smiling, even though he hadn¡¯t turned around enough for Felix to see his face.


    Felix huffed in annoyance. Old Mo was very nice to Miria, but whenever he was talking to somebody else, he seemed to enjoy driving them up the wall.


    ¡°Where are we heading, Old Mo?¡± asked Miria, a few moments later.


    Old Mo paused, as if he was considering giving her a similar non-answer, before he chuckled.


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    ¡°I¡¯m thinking of heading to Damilius,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°They were the only nation with any sort of real power on the continent that decided to stay out of this war, which makes them an ideal destination to get away from all of this. I have a few contacts that can help set me up, and their count is fairly defensible. Over 70% of their border with the rest of the continent is mountains, so nobody is dumb enough to invade them anymore, and they have a strict neutrality policy.¡±


    Felix shot Miria a grateful look, and she grinned back at him.


    ¡°Are there a lot of alchemy academies there?¡± asked Miria, apparently having picked up on Felix¡¯s desired topic.


    ¡°Depends on the part of the country. The country¡¯s population is a bit smaller, since so much of it is mountains, but there are a lot of people living on the coast of the country. But interestingly enough, most of the alchemy is located a bit north of the cities - they have a lot of anti-pollution laws that prevent industry from taking off in quite the same way it did in Verne. However, it¡¯s a much nicer country to live in since you¡¯re a lot less likely to breathe in smog.¡± Old Mo eyed Miria¡¯s mother. ¡°And it¡¯s also a lot harder to make or smuggle in drugs, so addiction is less common.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean the country hasn¡¯t industrialized?¡± asked Miria, sounding a bit more genuinely curious now.


    ¡°Well¡­ yes and no,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°Their country has slowly been lifting some of the anti-pollution laws where needed, since the government seems to be realizing just how big of an advantage the industrial revolution is bringing to Verne. But due to the distance between industrial centers and population centers in Damilius, there is definitely much less machinery and industrialized potion-making there,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°I don¡¯t think that the country will remain as hard to invade as it currently is if they don¡¯t start buckling down and making more factories, but¡­¡± Old Mo shrugged. ¡°That probably won¡¯t be a problem for a few decades, at least. I sure won¡¯t be alive by then,¡± he said, before chuckling.


    Miria nodded thoughtfully, and Felix shrugged.


    The big alchemy centers being a bit distant from the ¡®regular¡¯ cities wasn¡¯t exactly ideal for him, but he could work with it. But that did make Felix wonder about something else. Something that he hadn¡¯t thought too much about before leaving the city, but had started paying more attention to recently.


    <Ask him about prosthetics,> said Felix, after a few more moments of thought. <Are they common in Damilius? Can I learn anything about them there?>


    From living in the slums with Miria, Felix had started to get an impression that prosthetics were mostly rough replacements for already-missing limbs. The gangs all used mechanical prosthetics to enhance certain limbs, since metal backed by binding essence was much sturdier than human bones and flesh, but until Felix had seen Anise¡¯s mother and her mechanical hand, it hadn¡¯t quite hit him that prosthetics could be so¡­ artistic. And functional.


    Now that Felix could manufacture guns, he had the confidence to at least feed himself, as long as there was a place to sell them. Which meant that Felix had time to think about other things again.


    How did prosthetics¡­ work exactly, in this world? It was obvious that people¡¯s bodies, and the binding essence inside of them, were built to allow substitute limbs when needed. Felix suspected that this was just a normal evolutionary advantage this variant of humanity had developed - being able to replace a limb with nearby rocks and tree branches had pretty obvious and useful survival benefits, after all.


    But Anise¡¯s mother had a hand that was more than just a crappy replacement. Based on the way she moved and held things, her metal hand was strong, didn¡¯t seem to consume much essence, and gave Anise¡¯s mother a decisive advantage if things turned into a fistfight.


    ¡°Old Mo, are there a lot of prosthetics in Damilius? Or any academies that might teach people about them?¡± asked Miria.


    Old Mo paused. ¡°I¡­ suppose? Prosthetics these days are a lot more detailed and cost a lot less energy, since it¡¯s easier to produce high quality metal now. But I don¡¯t think Damilius has fallen behind on prosthetic production. After all, people have been studying the human body for centuries to create better prosthetic limbs. It¡¯s just much more economical these days. I would be shocked if there weren¡¯t academy classes dedicated to prosthetics. I imagine those would be attached to medical schools, or alchemy schools that focused on material creation?¡± Said Old Mo, after a few moments of thought.


    Felix grinned.


    <Thanks for asking,> he sent.


    <No problem,> said Miria.


    Felix started to think about whether there were any uses for prosthetics in his body.


    Originally, he had been hesitant about the idea. To use an extra limb, he would first need to cut something off. Then, he would need to have a good replacement for whatever he removed - after all, he didn¡¯t want a cheap piece of scrap metal attached to his body for the rest of his life, eating up all of his binding essence and leaving him with none for crafting.


    However, Felix also had a dream that in the future, he might not be quite as bad at combat as he currently was. He wasn¡¯t useless in a fight, sure. But he knew that as things currently stood, Miria and Sallia would outgrow his combat abilities soon enough. Felix didn¡¯t want to become useless to the group, even if he knew Miria wouldn¡¯t say anything about it.


    But what if, in future worlds, he had a few small, useful metal substitutions to his body, to give himself exceptional physical abilities? A few joints here and there, a bone or two swapped with a metal replacement, and Felix felt that he might be able to become much stronger than a regular person, without requiring a crazy amount of binding essence to make everything work. He might not be able to ever overpower someone with a magic System like Sallia¡¯s - but if Felix combined his metal attunement shaping abilities and his thoughts about mechanical limbs, and then tossed in a few inspirations from gunpowder, he might be able to create something really special. And he also wouldn¡¯t have to give up his dreams of becoming an amazing item craftsman, either.


    It would take a lot of understanding of mechanics and the human body, but Felix felt like it was a promising direction to take his research and focus in this world.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s get moving faster,¡± said Old Mo, disrupting Felix¡¯s thoughts. ¡°I want to be at least a decent way east of here before nightfall.¡±


    ¡°Why east?¡± asked Miria.


    ¡°To the east, the terrain is a lot more hilly. I doubt the coalition army will try to lug their cannons through such rugged terrain,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°So we should be safe there. The strip of hilly terrain also extends quite a bit to the south, so we can just keep following it for several days. With any luck, we can completely dodge the army and move right past it, and then we¡¯ll just have one coalition country and a bit of marshland to move through before we reach Damilius,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°And there, unless things go horribly wrong, we¡¯ll have a new home.¡±

 Chapter 191: Abilities

    Our group spent nearly four hours walking along the road before it started to get dark. We spent most of that time simply putting one foot in front of the other. Old Mo didn¡¯t seem very interested in answering other people¡¯s questions after his short conversation with Felix, and Anise¡¯s parents and Sallia¡¯s parents seemed tired from the long trek. Sallia and Anise were doing just fine, thanks to the occasional renewals I tossed at them to boost their stamina, but I was definitely getting a bit tired myself. My mother was heavy, and I didn¡¯t want to waste all my essence keeping my muscles fresh.


    As we walked, I noticed that Sallia and Anise¡¯s parents were giving Felix and me progressively more strange looks every couple minutes. I felt that probably made sense - after all, I was carrying my mother as she snored away. A six year old carrying an adult woman for hours on end was clearly a strange sight.


    Old Mo even gave me an odd glance from time to time, and I could see his eyebrows climbing higher and higher every time he noticed how little I was struggling with my mother¡¯s weight. A few times, I noticed him opening his mouth, as if he wanted to say something to me. But he closed his mouth each time.


    Apart from Felix and I carrying my mother along, the four of us kept occasionally chatting through our friendship bracelets. The ability to use mental communication was extremely handy, and did a lot to set my mind at ease. I also occasionally used my soul-sight and my spatial sight to check our surroundings, just in case we were about to walk into a scouting party for an army or something. I noticed that Old Mo also stayed alert, but my supernatural senses had a much better chance of detecting danger in advance than Old Mo¡¯s aging eyes.


    Finally, midday approached. Our group had traveled for four hours, and by now, I was starting to be a lot more sparing with my renewal spells. I didn¡¯t have an endless supply of essence, after all, and I had never forgotten that an emergency might crop up. I kept at least half of my alteration essence ready at all times.


    Old Mo paused for a moment, and I nearly bumped into him before I stopped. Everyone else slowly stopped as well, before giving Old Mo confused and weary looks.


    ¡°We can rest for a while and eat lunch,¡± said Old Mo, after taking a look around. ¡°I think we¡¯ve gone far enough for a quick break. Everyone must be tired, and it¡¯s about time for lunch, anyway.¡±


    I heard Anise¡¯s parents groan in relief, and I saw Sallia and Anise¡¯s parents quickly sit down in some more comfortable positions. I also gently set my mother down, and then gently massaged my arms and shoulders as Felix did the same.


    <Thanks for helping me carry her,> I sent Felix.


    <No problem. You¡¯re carrying more of her weight than I am, anyway,> said Felix, sounding slightly bemused.


    As everyone started to relax, I noticed Old Mo take a small tin out of his backpack, before popping it open. Inside, I saw a few different kinds of vegetables and even a little bit of meat. All of them were covered in some sort of liquid that I didn¡¯t recognize - but I could definitely feel a little bit of binding essence present in the liquid.


    <Is Old Mo eating this world¡¯s version of canned food?> I asked.


    <I don¡¯t know what canned food is,> said Sallia. <But I¡¯m pretty sure the potion keeps food preserved. I¡¯ve seen them a few times, although they aren¡¯t sold very often. Most of the ones that are made in the city are used to send supplies to the front lines, and the potions still only keep things fresh for a few months.>


    <What an interesting preservation method,> said Felix. <I don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve seen something like this before.>


    <Well, it does make things a bit more awkward. I¡¯m used to the dimensional backpack keeping things fresh, so I didn¡¯t think about buying any ¡®preservation potion,¡¯> I said, before I winced. Even if I had known about preservation potions, I wouldn¡¯t have had the money to buy any.


    <It¡¯s probably not a big deal,> said Felix, shrugging. <Sallia, do you have plans for hiding your soup bowl?>


    <I¡¯m planning on just grabbing a few ¡®wild vegetables¡¯ as we move around, and then making soup,> said Sallia. <My parents are out enough of the time that they probably aren¡¯t aware of all of my hobbies and skills - and since we¡¯re poor, me knowing how to make a basic soup shouldn¡¯t seem too weird.>


    Just as I was pulling out my and Felix¡¯s meals from my backpack, and Anise and Sallia¡¯s parents were taking out something that looked more like hardtack, It looked less edible than Old Mo¡¯s food, but it looked like it would keep them going for the day. While they were distracted with their own meals, I saw Old Mo scoot a little bit closer to me.


    ¡°Kid, did you drink an ability potion?¡± asked Old Mo. His voice was very quiet, and hard to make out - if I wasn¡¯t sitting right next to him, I would have struggled to understand what he was saying. ¡°Nod or shake your head, and try not to move your body too much. No need to let the others know about this conversation.¡±


    I blinked in surprise.


    Old Mo actually rolled his eyes. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m blind, kid? You¡¯ve always had unusual stamina for a child. Normal six year olds can¡¯t spend a few hours kneading bread dough every morning, at least not easily. I thought that was already a little suspicious, but I decided not to pry. But now, you have a ¡®brother¡¯ you¡¯ve brought along that you¡¯ve never mentioned before, and you¡¯ve somehow been walking under the hot sun for four hours while carrying your mother. Normal six year olds can¡¯t carry a grown adult without help, much less for four hours.¡±


    I paused.


    <Old Mo is asking me if I have an ability,> I said. <Do you guys¡­ mind if I reveal it?>


    <To Old Mo?> Felix said. <Sure. Go ahead. I think him knowing that at least you have ¡®drank an ability potion¡¯ isn¡¯t a bad thing. We might need to actually defend the group if we run into a wild animal or soldiers, and having an excuse for why magic is flying around sounds like a good idea. It¡¯ll also let the four of us participate a bit more in this journey without things seeming weird, if you and I are known to have abilities.>


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    <I don¡¯t mind either,> said Anise. <Just leave me out of it - I don¡¯t know how I would explain to my parents if they found out I had an ability.>


    <My parents would probably be impressed I managed to steal a potion and get away with it,> said Sallia, sounding amused. <I don¡¯t mind my parents knowing. Actually, having an ability would probably make the country we¡¯re traveling to a lot more likely to accept us. If we pretend we were wealthy refugees from our old city, they would probably have a lot less prejudice against us than if we appear to be refugees from the slums. I¡¯d have to talk with my parents about it, but I think it could work out really well, now that we don¡¯t have to the lay low from Felix¡¯s rescue and we¡¯re a bit older.>


    I turned towards Old Mo, and then nodded.


    ¡°Did you know this whole time?¡± I whispered.


    Old Mo snorted. ¡°I¡¯ve had suspicions. But it¡¯s too weird. You almost seem like you¡¯re using multiple abilities. Sometimes your expression changes while we¡¯re walking, and that makes me think that you¡¯re somehow talking with the other kids. But I figured that maybe you four developed some kind of code language¡­ but then there¡¯s the unusual strength and stamina. And the guns you somehow have access to. They don¡¯t look like they came out of any nearby factory, and I¡¯ve seen a few ability-made guns before. Your guns look¡­ different, but still sort of similar.¡± Old Mo sighed, loudly enough that I saw Sallia¡¯s ears twitch for a moment before she continued nonchalantly ignoring our conversation. ¡°You¡¯re not that good at hiding it. I¡¯ve been trying not to learn your secrets, and I¡¯m still pretty sure you¡¯re an ability potion user.¡±


    I winced. Then, I brightened up. If we were planning on just making our abilities known in the future, me being bad at hiding things wouldn¡¯t come back to bite us later.


    ¡°Look, kid, I don¡¯t mean to pry. If you nicked an ability potion or something and drank it, that¡¯s your business. More power to you - I have no idea how you managed that, since there are only a few thousand manufactured every year, but if you did, it¡¯ll only help you in life. But you need to think about whether you want to make your abilities obvious. If you show up in another country, with abilities obviously granted by a potion, people will assume certain things about you. If you want to lean into those assumptions, it¡¯s fine - but you need to know what you¡¯re getting into. Think about it, all right? If you look like you drank an ability potion, people will assume you¡¯re a somebody. Street urchins don¡¯t get access to ability potions, so you need to figure out how you want to handle all of this,¡± said Old Mo. He glanced at my mother, who was still asleep, and then sighed. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for your mother¡­ it would probably be very easy to impersonate a formerly wealthy family fleeing the war. She¡­ complicates things.¡±


    I frowned. I hadn¡¯t thought about how my mother might impact our situation if we planned to be ¡®wealthy refugees.¡¯ The idea of a wealthy family getting addicted to a cheap, devastating drug like Fizz¡­ was unlikely. Not impossible, but it would make us much more suspicious. I glanced at Felix. He had mentioned wanting to go to an alchemy academy a few times now. Being a ¡®wealthy refugee¡¯ would probably help him a lot with that. Would my mother hold him back?


    I frowned, and decided to double check that.


    <Felix, you were still thinking of entering one of the academies that train alchemists, right?>


    <Yeah, that was my plan,> he said. <Trying to figure out binding essence on my own is going somewhere, but it¡¯s very slow and difficult. And I also want to try doing some really precise prosthetics to improve my body later, but I need some pretty specific medical knowledge for that.>


    I nodded.


    <In that case¡­ it might be best for you to pretend that you aren¡¯t associated with me once we reach our new home. Old Mo is pointing out that my mother being a drug addict is weird if we want to present ourselves as formerly wealthy people, but our ability potions do make us seem like the children of wealthy families. I haven¡¯t figured out how I want to handle my mother, and what story I want to tell people once we get to the new city, but you shouldn¡¯t be dragged down->


    Felix actually snorted. <We¡¯ll see if we can get your mother out of her addiction. But if we can¡¯t¡­ I¡¯m not comfortable just leaving you to handle all of the fallout from your mother on your own.>


    I blinked.


    <I can¡¯t->


    ¡°Your expressions are all changing again,¡± whispered Old Mo, interrupting my words. ¡°If you have abilities, that¡¯s great, but half of the point of having secret communication is to keep it¡­ secret.¡±


    I froze.


    Old Mo sighed.


    I turned back towards Old Mo, and decided I had left him out of the conversation for long enough.


    ¡°I do have an ability,¡± I whispered. ¡°A few of us do. Felix¡­ has the ability to let us talk to each other, mind to mind. I can heal, and Sallia can manipulate metal.¡± It didn¡¯t cover our entire range of abilities, but it was close enough to what we focused on that we should be able to use our abilities fairly freely. If I needed to teleport bullets around, we could just say Sallia had helped out by moving metal, for example, and any unusual perception could be attributed to Felix ¡®sensing¡¯ other minds or something. It would probably work well enough.


    Old Mo seemed surprised by my revelation, before he squinted at Sallia and Felix more carefully. ¡°Both of them and you?¡± he whispered. ¡°As in three ability potions? Kid, how in the world-¡± his voice started to rise from the nearly inaudible whisper he had been using, and I decided to cut him off before the other parents noticed what we were talking about.


    I nodded. ¡°They said it was okay to tell you.¡±


    Old Mo paused, before he nodded. ¡°Healing, huh. I can see how that feeds into stamina. Can you heal muscle exhaustion?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Can you heal me?¡± asked Old Mo.


    I nodded again. ¡°I just need you to be touching water first.¡±


    Old Mo wordlessly opened his water canteen, then dribbled a few drops of water onto his hand. ¡°Can you show me?¡±


    I used renewal on him, and Old Mo grinned and relaxed.


    ¡°That hits the spot. My knees aren¡¯t quite what they used to be.¡± Then, he nodded. ¡°So, if you¡¯re showing this to me¡­¡±


    ¡°I think I¡¯d like to try being a wealthy refugee instead of a street rat,¡± I said, grinning.


    Old Mo nodded thoughtfully. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, there are a few things you might want to learn before we arrive. I¡¯ve never learned exactly what rich young ladies tend to learn about, but I can at least help you brush up a bit on your grammar and posture before we arrive, if you want my help. I know a bit.¡± Old Mo grinned.


    I grinned as well. ¡°I¡¯d really like that.¡±


    Before we could continue the conversation, I saw shuffling from the corner of my eye, and I turned to look at the piece of ¡®luggage¡¯ Felix and I had set down earlier.


    My mother was waking up.

 Chapter 192: Mother

    ¡°Miria?¡± asked my mother.


    I looked at my mother, who was sitting in the grass next to the dirt. Her eyes were clearer than usual. It didn¡¯t look like she was completely here - but she looked more lucid than she had in months.


    ¡°Mama?¡± I asked. I felt a twinge of anxiety crawl down my spine and towards the tips of my fingers and toes.


    I had dragged my mother out of the city while she was still asleep, without informing her beforehand. I had done so to keep her alive - after all, from what I had heard of the oncoming army, they would probably treat the city very poorly if it fell. And I would have consulted with my mother about leaving the city - I had tried to talk to her about it numerous times. But she had been high out of her mind, and hadn¡¯t really been able to process the information.


    In other words, it would make perfect sense if she was angry that I had dragged her out of the city while she was still asleep.


    ¡°Where are we?¡± she asked. She looked at our surroundings and frowned, as if trying to figure out why she wasn¡¯t in her room anymore.


    ¡°The war is going¡­ poorly,¡± I said, trying to disguise how nervous I felt. If my mother blew up, I wouldn¡¯t necessarily think she was wrong to do so - but if she flipped out frequently while we were on the road, it would make an already potentially dangerous journey worse. If that happened, I would need to find a way to deal with it - I couldn¡¯t let my mother¡¯s actions put the rest of the group in danger. But I also wasn¡¯t quite sure how I would handle it. Would I need to escort my mother back to the city, and then catch up to Old Mo¡¯s group somehow, if she insisted on returning to our wreckage of a life in the city? Would I need to just carry her all the way to Damilius? I wasn¡¯t sure yet.


    I swallowed my anxiety and my hesitation, and met my mother¡¯s eyes, before I continued speaking.


    ¡°Old Mo offered to take me with him when he fled. The coalition army isn¡¯t treating the town they captured well. I don¡¯t want to die. I¡­ I don¡¯t want you to die either.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s where the city went? We¡¯re running away?¡± My mother¡¯s voice was ephemeral and hazy, as if she was only half-processing our conversation. It almost felt like she was drunk, or half-asleep. She seemed to have a hard time understanding exactly what words she was repeating.


    ¡°Yes. We¡¯re running. We¡¯ll reach a new city soon, and then¡­¡± And then you can get the help you need, I hope.


    I didn¡¯t say the last words. My mother hadn¡¯t taken to the topic of quitting very well the last time I had raised it. But I still hoped that she could quit, and that things would get better afterwards.


    My mother¡¯s eyes seemed to clear up a bit more as she looked at our surroundings.


    ¡°Old Mo. You mentioned him once or twice before¡­ isn¡¯t he a baker? Was that a dream?¡±


    My mother frowned, before scanning all of the other people who had fled the city with us.


    Anise¡¯s mother tightly held on to Anise¡¯s hand while curling her other, metal hand into a fist, as if prepared to beat my mother up if she made a move towards Anise. Anise¡¯s father had his hand curled around the gun Old Mo had given him - although there was no ammunition in the gun, making it an entirely fruitless gesture.


    Sallia¡¯s parents weren¡¯t quite as protective of her - but even so, the three of them stood together as if ready to respond to any emergencies caused by my mother waking up.


    My mother¡¯s gaze settled on Old Mo, and Old Mo stared back at my mother. He didn¡¯t say anything, and his expression didn¡¯t change, but I somehow felt like his eyes radiated disapproval.


    My mother looked at the two families, and then looked at me, and started laughing wildly. I felt confused as I listened to her laugh - it sounded like the grating sound of a lunatic laughing, and for a moment, I started preparing a renewal spell to see if it could maybe piece together whatever had broken inside of her mind. However, before I could start throwing magic at her, my mother¡¯s wild laughter cut off, replaced with a giggle that sounded halfway between a hiccup and a sob.


    ¡°Leaving the city makes sense. I just don¡¯t know where I¡¯m going to get¡­¡± My mother shook her head, and then checked her pockets. I suspected she was looking for Fizz. Then, she hiccup-laughed again. ¡°I¡­ really haven¡¯t been a good mother, have I?¡± she said. ¡°I didn¡¯t even know the war was going poorly, and you¡­ you already prepared an escape route. You have guns. Tents. Supplies¡­ it must have been hard for you to prepare all of this. Most parents would handle this, but you did it all on your own.¡± My mother¡¯s gaze turned a bit sad. ¡°I¡¯m really¡­ not a good parent.¡±


    I opened my mouth to say.. something. To refute her, or encourage her, or something like that. but I couldn¡¯t think of what to say when I opened my mouth.


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    I understood that addictions were hard to fight.


    I understood that life had probably been very hard for my mother. She had probably suffered a lot before reaching this point.


    I was mentally an adult, and I understood that things just went horribly, horribly wrong in life. Things didn¡¯t always turned out the way one thought they would.


    But at the same time, I couldn¡¯t say that my mother had been a good mother. She forgot to feed me often, and I had been on the brink of starvation when I had regained full control of my body. She was addicted to drugs, and showed no interest in stopping them. She was emotionally distant, and I usually didn¡¯t have a chance to interact with the real her for months on end, because she only returned home when she was high out of her mind. My mother was physically present, but she had basically never once been there when I needed her.


    A part of me still loved her. She was my mother, and nothing she said or did would change that.


    But I couldn¡¯t deny that I had been hurt by her a lot. I tried so hard not to compare my mother in this life to my other sets of parents - but it was so hard. I loved all of my parents - I didn¡¯t think I had it in me to truly hate a friend or family member, regardless of what happened. But a big part of me wished it was as easy to handle my mother in this life as my previous two sets of parents had been. My mother in the world of the black sun had been overprotective, but I had never once doubted that she loved me and wanted the best for me. My parents on the island world had been willing to support almost everything I did, even when I wanted to be a fisherwoman and hunt giant fish with non-euclidean geometry. They hadn¡¯t even said anything when I trained with Sallia, one of the ¡®weakest¡¯ kids on the island, and Felix, a trainee hunter.


    Thinking about how much my previous two sets of parents had obviously cared about me, and then comparing it with my mother in this life, who often forgot I existed, hurt.


    ¡°Why did you bring me out?¡± asked my mother. She looked my straight in the eyes. Right now, her eyes were the most clear and lucid I had ever seen them.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want you to get hurt,¡± I said. ¡°I¡­ I just¡­ I don¡¯t think that the army would treat you well, if the city fell. And I was leaving, and all of my friends were leaving¡­ and I just felt that leaving you behind was wrong. I wanted to tell you about it, and get your opinion¡­¡±


    ¡°But I was never present?¡± asked my mother. There was a bitter edge to her words, and for a moment, it felt like she was about to flare up. but then, miraculously, she took a deep breath. She looked at Sallia and Anise¡¯s parents, and seemed to think about something.


    My mother looked at Old Mo, hesitated, and then nodded at him. ¡°You¡¯re the one who let her join you while fleeing? Thank you for looking after my daughter.¡±


    ¡°Someone had to,¡± said Old Mo, his voice flat and cold.


    My mother flinched at that.


    She shivered for a moment, and then turned to look at me again.


    ¡°I¡­¡± my mother simply stared at me, at a loss for words. For a moment, she fell into an awkward silence.


    Old Mo, however, seemed genuinely pissed off.


    ¡°While you were high, your daughter nearly starved to death. I looked after her and kept her alive while you did nothing.¡±


    My mother, who had been repressing her anger a few moments ago, seemed to snap. ¡°You don¡¯t know a damn thing about me. I may not have looked after Miria all this time, but at least I kept her alive for the first couple years of her life. I worked doing things I didn¡¯t want to do because I had no choice. I had no hope for a better future. I don¡¯t need someone who owned their own business to lecture me about looking after my daughter. I might not have done the best job, but I did the best I could.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t tell me you really believe that,¡± said Old Mo. His voice was still cold and flat. ¡°She was on the verge of starvation when I first saw her. I know you¡¯re addicted to Fizz, and I know Fizz is cheap. But surely if you could afford Fizz, you could have at least given her a bit of food, too? If nothing else, at least that-¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t get to tell me how to live my life, or my daughter¡¯s life! Unless you think you¡¯re Miria¡¯s father, how we live has nothing to do with you!¡± My mother snapped.


    Old Mo simply gave my mother a flat, expressionless stare. I hesitated. I didn¡¯t think this conversation was going to be very¡­ productive from this point onwards. I was surprised to see Old Mo so angry about how my mother had treated me, but in a way, I felt warm. Old Mo really did seem to treat me kind of like a daughter. I appreciated his thoughts.


    But this argument probably wouldn¡¯t go anywhere. I didn¡¯t think confronting my mother like this was likely to help her.


    ¡°We should eat faster,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯ll need to get moving soon.¡±


    Old Mo glanced at me, and then took a deep breath, before calming down. My mother looked like she was about to say something else, but after seeing Old Mo closing his mouth and turning back towards our half-finished lunches, she swallowed her words and then looked somewhere else.


    I quietly pulled out a meal for my mother and put it in front of her, and she quickly stuffed the hardtack-like food into her mouth, before wincing as she tried to chew it.


    The group fell into an awkward silence as people focused on their meals for a few minutes. I ate quickly and finished early, before I habitually activated my soul-sight and started scanning our surroundings.


    What I saw made me leap to my feet.


    <Felix, we¡¯re going with the story that you can sense minds, right?> I said. <There are somewhere between twenty and thirty people heading in our direction. Let Old Mo know so we can decide what to do about it.>


    ¡°There are people coming,¡± Felix said, as he ¡®frowned in thought¡¯ and did his best to look suitably concerned. ¡°Less than thirty, coming from that direction.¡±


    Old Mo frowned, looking at his meal, before glancing at the direction Felix had pointed towards. ¡°They¡¯re coming from the city we left?¡± he said, after a few moments. Old Mo¡¯s hand dipped into his sleeves for a moment, before a gun appeared in his hand.


    ¡°How far away?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Maybe¡­ half an hour of slow-walking?¡± Felix said.


    ¡°Get everything packed up. We need to move,¡± he said.

 Chapter 193: Tracked

    Our group was silent as we packed everything up and started traveling away from the group of people heading towards us. I kept a close eye on them using my soul-sight, and Felix constantly fed that information to Old Mo. The group of travelers kept getting closer to us as we stuffed everything into our bags and got moving.


    I hoped that they were just another group of travelers, or perhaps another group of refugees fleeing the oncoming army. It was entirely reasonable for another group of people to flee the city, after all. And Old Mo¡¯s plan of traveling through difficult terrain to dodge the coalition army wasn¡¯t too hard to think of. There was every chance that the approaching group was also fleeing the army, just like us.


    Right?


    Old Mo seemed a bit nervous, but he started leading us north almost immediately after we packed up our food. It was out of our way, since Verne was located at the northernmost part of the continent and we weren¡¯t planning on heading overseas. Since we were changing our direction a bit, we hoped to avoid a direction confrontation with the other group. I was still hoping it was another group of refugees or something, but I didn¡¯t want to alert a group of military scouts if they were from the coalition army. If we killed a group of scouts, there was a chance a much bigger group of soldiers would come after us, causing us to get entangled in a group too big to handle.


    Sadly, we didn¡¯t seem to be lucky. The group of people behind us kept following us, which made our group increasingly nervous as the minutes wore on and we kept running away.


    Furthermore, while my mother was actively trying not to be quite the burden she had been up to this point, she wasn¡¯t a very physically strong person. Since I had already exposed my ¡®ability potion use¡¯ to Old Mo, and I fully expected the rest of the group to learn about my abilities in the future, I was a lot more active about healing the rest of the group. I didn¡¯t need to discreetly wait for someone to drink a bit of water or something to cast renewal on them - instead, Old Mo occasionally told people to sprinkle ¡®just a bit¡¯ of water on their forehead to help keep them cool, as a ¡®survival tip.¡¯ Anise¡¯s parents gave Old Mo a few odd looks after he said that, but they did as he suggested. I suspected that by tonight, Anise¡¯s parents were going to want more concrete answers - and I was willing to talk to them about my healing abilities once we had a bit more time to explain.


    Of course, my essence usage was hard to maintain, so after an hour of walking, I had to whisper to Old Mo and tell him I was running out of energy. Despite the healing I had used to maintain our group¡¯s stamina, we hadn¡¯t shaken off the people pursuing us. Clearly, they were far more physically fit than we were - or had abilities of their own to enhance their physiques. Neither possibility boded well for us.


    After an hour of trying to escape, and getting constant updates from ¡®Felix¡¯ about their location, Old Mo sighed.


    ¡°All right, stop. Do you know how to use your guns?¡± asked Old Mo, turning towards everyone with a gun.


    I looked at the gun, and shrugged. ¡°I think so? Point the hole at people you want to hurt, and then pull the trigger, right?¡±


    ¡°I mean¡­ that¡¯s not wrong, but guns have a lot more kick than you might expect,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°For now, don¡¯t shoot it - you might accidentally break your nose instead of hurt the enemy. Just point it at them and hope it doesn¡¯t come to a confrontation, I think.¡± Old Mo turned towards Anise and Felix¡¯s father, and frowned. ¡°You,¡± he said, pointing at Anise¡¯s father. ¡°Give the gun to your wife. She has a metal hand, so she¡¯ll be better equipped to handle the recoil. Can you shoot?¡± he asked Anise¡¯s mother. She shook her head. ¡°Well, if it comes down to it, pull the trigger and hope it works out.¡± Then, he gave Anise¡¯s mother and Sallia¡¯s father several gel-coated bullets and quickly taught them how to reload the guns.


    ¡°So are we planning on confronting the group following us?¡± I asked, as Anise¡¯s mother managed to stuff the bullets into her gun.


    Old Mo sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t think we have a choice. They keep following us, and we can¡¯t move faster than them, even with your magic to keep our stamina up. We need to see what they want, and waving some guns in their face might make them a little less inclined towards violence.¡± He seemed to realize something else, and turned towards Sallia. ¡°Do you¡­¡± Old Mo trailed off, as if unsure whether or not to breach the topic of Sallia¡¯s metal manipulation ability.


    Sallia nodded. ¡°If it comes to it, I can help a lot. If you can stall them by talking for a while, I can deactivate their guns before the shooting starts. Of course, they could also try to shoot us without talking,¡± said Sallia after a few moments. ¡°So I¡¯m not sure whether trying to talk is the best idea.¡± Sallia¡¯s parents gave her a rather strange look after Sallia mentioned she could deactivate their guns, and I knew I wasn¡¯t the only one who was going to be explaining my abilities tonight.


    Old Mo nodded thoughtfully. ¡°I plan to see what they want, but I¡¯m going to do so behind cover.¡± He turned towards me as well. ¡°What about you? Can you heal if it comes down to it?¡±


    ¡°Definitely,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve kept some essence in reserve in case we need it.¡±


    Old Mo nodded, and tightened his grip on his own gun. ¡°Then let¡¯s see what the group following us wants.¡±


    Our group found a little rock outcropping where everyone with a gun could take cover, just in case the situation devolved into a gunfight. Just two minutes after we ducked behind cover, I saw the nearby souls get close enough that I could see them with my regular eyes. The first thing I expected to see was a group of hungry travelers, or a group of enemy soldiers wearing coalition colors, or something along those lines.


    Instead, the first thing I saw as the other group drew closer to us were the tall, poofy hats our country¡¯s military was known for.


    The group of twenty-six that had been following us were soldiers from the nation of Verne. Our home country.


    I frowned.


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    Were they that insistent on chasing down a group of civilians fleeing from the city? We had left the city when we weren¡¯t supposed to, but I was surprised that anyone had noticed our departure and cared enough to track us down. Especially after losing an important fort, I would have expected the military to be low on manpower and supplies. A military sending 26 soldiers after a group of refugees and children definitely didn¡¯t sound like a military running low on manpower. Had they somehow connected us to the time we had broken Felix out, all those years ago? I started feeling very nervous at that thought, and nearly started launching extinguishes at the nearest soldiers.


    However, the moment the leader of the soldiers opened his mouth, I realized the soldiers weren¡¯t here for us.


    ¡°Dremor Mol,¡± said the leader, a tall man with pale skin and gleaming eyes. He gave Old Mo a vicious grin as he sized him up. ¡°Or perhaps I should call you Old Mo now?¡± Then, he turned to look at me as well. ¡°And a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.¡± His smile seemed almost predatory as he looked at us, and I carefully opened my spatial eyesight. I was prepared to start teleporting bullets around the moment it was needed.


    At the same time, I noticed that some of the internal parts of the guns the Verne soldiers were holding were starting to fuse, bend, or break. I resisted the urge to grin. Sallia and Felix were hard at work removing the enemy¡¯s weapons.


    ¡°Who are you? Why are you following us?¡± asked Old Mo, flicking the safety for his gun off.


    The soldiers raised their guns and pointed them at Old Mo¡­ and strangely enough, several more of them pointed their guns at me, even though I should have looked exactly like a normal, unassuming six year old.


    ¡°Not so fast, Dremor. Why don¡¯t you relax a little, or the little girl will be missing a limb or two,¡± said the old soldier, his grin growing even more predatory. ¡°I have a few superiors who want to have a ¡®talk¡¯ with you.¡±


    ¡°Why are you pointing guns at Miria?¡± asked Old Mo. ¡°She has nothing to do with this.¡± He sounded shocked and vulnerable - or at least, that was what he was trying to project. I was almost fooled, but I had spent enough time with Old Mo to know he was acting. He was buying Sallia more time.


    ¡°Miria, is it?¡± asked the soldier who led the group. His eyes swept over me, giving me a look that made me want to launch an extinguish at him immediately. ¡°So she is the right one.


    ¡°You know, I¡¯m very disappointed that you left before we could have a proper¡­ chat. I was planning to visit you in a few days, but you fled the city before I could visit you. Now I¡¯ve had to chase you down in the wilderness instead of having a nice, civilized conversation over a cup of tea.¡± He clicked his tongue, and I blinked in confusion. ¡°Well, consider little Miria¡¯s safety to be your incentive to have a proper conversation. My spies have said that you¡¯re quite close to her, and I would hate to see another innocent girl get killed because of you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m here,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°What do you want to talk about?¡±


    ¡°I know you¡¯re retired, after the¡­ last incident of your career. but I also know you¡¯ve still got a connection network that most former assassin¡¯s don¡¯t have access to. The country requires your assistance once again. I want you to leverage your contacts and information network for us,¡± he said, before idly flicking the gun in his hands. ¡°Otherwise, I¡¯m going to kill both of you. We can¡¯t have dangerous former assassins running around when the country is in danger, after all.¡±


    Before the man could continue his speech, Sallia cut him off.


    ¡°Their guns are disabled,¡± she said.


    Old Mo didn¡¯t hesitate. He immediately raised the gun towards the man who had been speaking, and shot him directly between the eyes. The man barely had time to blink before a bullet buried itself in his skull.


    The other soldiers immediately tried to open fire on us - only to find that none of their guns worked anymore.


    ¡°Ability users!¡± one of the soldiers yelled, right as the closest guns ripped themselves free of their user¡¯s hands, turned into a small swarm of metal fragments, and then tore into the group.


    I launched a few extinguishes at soldiers who looked like they were trying to charge us and fight with their fists, and Old Mo precisely shot several soldiers that were digging around for secondary weapons Sallia might have missed.


    Within about ten seconds, nearly half of the soldiers attacking us had been mowed down. The enemy had given us too much time to set up, and didn¡¯t have any ability users opposing us.


    ¡°Old Mo is an ability user now!¡± yelled one of the other soldiers, seeing Sallia¡¯s obvious look of concentration. ¡°We need to take him down before-¡±


    An extinguish dropped him.


    Old Mo¡¯s old, wrinkled face twisted into a smile.


    ¡°Surprised?¡± he asked, right as another round of metal fragments killed another four soldiers.


    With over half of their group dead, and Old Mo the ¡®ability user¡¯ attacking them, the soldiers who had tracked us down began to flee. However, the soldiers just didn¡¯t have anywhere to run to - too much of our surroundings were flat plains, or only vaguely hilly terrain, and they were way to close to us to get out of range easily.


    Within a minute, the remaining soldiers were dead.


    I looked at the fallen soldiers, and quickly checked over my System notifications. I hadn¡¯t gotten any new kill or assist milestones, unfortunately - it seemed like Sallia and Felix had probably gotten most of the soldiers with their metal manipulation abilities.


    Old Mo looked at Sallia, who was the only metal ability user he knew of, and then nodded at her.


    ¡°That was pretty good. I¡¯ve never seen someone so young use their ability so proficiently. Heck, even a few of the professional ability users I¡¯ve seen can¡¯t use their ability so effectively.¡± He turned towards Felix. ¡°And well done on the scouting, Felix.¡±


    Then, Old Mo looked at the dead soldiers and frowned. ¡°If someone like this was able to track us down, he might have alerted the rest of the Verne army before pursuing us. Scratch that - he almost certainly let others know he was tracking us down. If he doesn¡¯t return, they¡¯ll know something is up, and they might send more people after us. I hate to say it, but¡­¡± Old Mo glanced at Sallia. ¡°Right now, Sallia is an ideal person to train as an assassin if they want someone dead. She¡¯s young enough that nobody will be on guard against her, and her ability is terrifyingly lethal.¡±


    I could see Sallia¡¯s parents tense up at that statement, as well as when they looked at Old Mo. The enemy commander had mentioned Old Mo had worked as an assassin, if I had heard him correctly. I had known Old Mo¡¯s past was a bit complicated, but I had never expected it to be that complicated.


    I shook my head, looking at the awestruck parents who had just seen us use ¡®rare and expensive¡¯ abilities, as well as Old Mo, who I really wanted to talk with about his past in more detail later. Then, I turned my attention back to the dead soldiers.


    For now, we needed to put more distance between us and the heart of Verne¡¯s industrial revolution. Instead of just the coalition army, we also needed to flee from Verne¡¯s army now. We could figure out the rest later.

 Chapter 194: Ability Potions

    After we wiped out the group of soldiers that had tracked us down, we didn¡¯t run into anyone else for the rest of the day. Old Mo kept us moving at a decent pace, but didn¡¯t talk much, and the rest of the group also seemed stunned by the bloodshed and revelations they had experienced earlier that day.


    The parents seemed particularly surprised after seeing metal fragments zipping through the air and wiping out the soldiers. I didn¡¯t blame them for being surprised. Abilities were so rare that most people had never seen them. For a group of children from the slums to have suddenly gained abilities was about as likely as a group of slum kids suddenly becoming wealthy merchants overnight.


    At the same time, I was also left with my own thoughts.


    The man who had come to attack us had seemed mostly interested in threatening Old Mo, and had mentioned that Old Mo used to be an assassin. I wasn¡¯t completely sure why he wanted to catch Old Mo, but I had a couple guesses. Old Mo was a bit older now, so he probably wasn¡¯t physically able to handle physically strenuous actions like assassinations anymore. Or at least, I had assumed so. I had never asked Old Mo what his age was, but he looked like someone who was in his early to mid fifties.


    That being said, Old Mo had kept our entire group moving at a fast pace through the wilderness for hours on end, and even though Sallia¡¯s parents seemed out of breath, Old Mo didn¡¯t seem particularly fatigued. That obviously meant he was keeping up his physical abilities somehow. Did Old Mo have an ability of his own, that somehow enhanced his physical strength? Or perhaps he had replaced some of his limbs with metal prosthetics, allowing him to keep his physical abilities at the level of a reasonably athletic person in their early thirties?


    But I still doubted the soldiers who had chased us had been looking for Old Mo to assassinate someone. The soldier in charge had mentioned Old Mo¡¯s contacts, and how Old Mo kept a strong information network despite his age and retirement. I imagined there were several uses for a developed spy network that Verne¡¯s military could make use of. Spy work, information for other assassins, and the like all seemed reasonable to me, although I had no idea what exactly Verne¡¯s military wanted.


    But the biggest thought that had been running through my mind was that Old Mo had been an assassin once. That was surprising to me. Old Mo had treated me very well during my time in this world - in a lot of respects he was more of a parent than my mother was. He kept me fed, looked after me, and worried about my circumstances when he saw me every day. He was a bigger part of my life than my mother, who was never mentally present.


    I wasn¡¯t sure how I felt about Old Mo being an assassin. In my mind, assassins were terrifying individuals who didn¡¯t flinch at the thought of killing innocent people for money, and if I had met someone calling themselves an ¡®assassin,¡¯ I would have normally avoided them.


    But considering how Old Mo had treated me this far, I found it hard to have a bad impression of him, regardless of his past. I had a hard time reconciling my two mental images together, so I spent a few hours thinking about it. Eventually, I came to a decision.


    I didn¡¯t know the circumstances surrounding Old Mo¡¯s past, and I could only judge him based on what I had seen from him. At least when he interacted with me, he was a kind older gentleman who was willing to look out for a little girl, even when he had no need to. Perhaps in the past, he had assassinated people - and I had no way of knowing whether or not those people were bad people unless Old Mo told me about them. But despite the fact that I found assassins frightening, Old Mo had given me no reason to distrust him so far. I would put his past to the side, and perhaps someday he would tell me about it. If I saw Old Mo about to kill someone innocent, I would step in and stop him - but I wouldn¡¯t enforce a value judgment on him unless I knew more about his circumstances.


    Finally, near nighttime, we reached a considerably hillier area. I could see mountains close to us, although we hadn¡¯t quite reached them yet. The terrain was also starting to get more difficult to traverse - which was a good thing. It meant that large groups of people would have a harder time traveling through the area, which should keep both armies off our backs.


    When we set up camp for the night, the parents started awkwardly staring at us again - especially Sallia, who the parents seemed particularly wary of. Though, according to our story about what abilities each of us had, Sallia had done almost all of the fighting earlier, so it was understandable for them to be most shocked by Sallia. But they were also giving Felix, Anise, and me looks of interest, as if they weren¡¯t quite sure which of us they should be interested in or afraid of.


    Having all of our parents stare at us with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity¡­ was honestly a little nerve wracking.


    After a few minutes of awkward silence, Old Mo whispered to me.


    ¡°Were you all right with others knowing about your abilities?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I have no real intention of hiding them anymore. I felt it was dangerous to expose them while we lived in Verne, but it should be much safer in other countries, where I won¡¯t have an easily findable past as a street kid.¡±


    Old Mo nodded, and let his voice grow a little bit louder. It still wouldn¡¯t be easy for the parents to catch on to what he was saying, but it was no longer impossible. ¡°Your past will be hard to dig up, yeah. And even if people realize that you were a street kid, if you stole from another country, they¡¯re a lot less likely to make a fuss out of it. Especially since Verne isn¡¯t particularly well liked by most of the continent right now. And if you do manage to successfully convince people you were a rich kid from the beginning, and fled from Verne¡­¡± Old Mo trailed off. ¡°Actually, you might be better off pretending to be from a different country. I know that the town of Dalia, from the nation of Semurria, has suffered pretty heavily from Verne¡¯s navy during the war. If you pretend to be from there, you could probably make a decent show of it. The nation still has nobility, unlike most modern nations, but they have no real power. And their language is very similar to Verne¡¯s, since they were both part of the Zelyr empire during the Zelyrian golden age. You could pass yourself off as a fallen noble whose family tried to turn to mercantile purposes, and then lost your fortune in Dalia, before setting out for greener pastures¡­¡±


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    I nodded to myself. I would need to learn more about Dalia, Semuria, and how to run a ¡®failing merchant company¡¯ from Old Mo, but it was a decent enough backstory to set myself up for a new life in the future.


    A few moments later, with Old Mo having started to breach the topic of our unusual past and abilities, Sallia¡¯s parents finally worked up the courage to broach the subject.


    ¡°Have you¡­ how long have you had abilities?¡±


    Unlike Old Mo, they didn¡¯t try to disguise their voices at all. I could also see them glancing at Felix and I.


    <How much do we tell them?> asked Sallia. <I planned to expose my abilities, but we should at least make sure our stories are consistent about how we got them.>


    <Do you remember the night all of us rescued Felix? Maybe we could pretend we got lucky and found some ability potions that night?> said Anise, although she sounded unsure of herself.


    <It wouldn¡¯t work. I¡¯ve been working for Old Mo well before that night,> I said. <And he knows that a lot of my ¡®unusual stamina¡¯ comes from my healing abilities now. So the timeline wouldn¡¯t make sense.>


    <Then how about we pretend that we just got lucky a lot earlier,> said Sallia. <It¡¯s not totally implausible for you to have shown up at my house a few days before we saw each other again for the first time in this world. I could have plausibly snuck out with you, and run into Felix. As for how we stole the ability potions¡­ maybe we could pretend that we just found a few near a corpse in the slums?>


    <That¡¯s a bit grim, but it makes sense,> said Felix. <Or at least, it¡¯s the best explanation I can think of. It¡¯s hard to imagine a rich person wandering around the slums with no protection, but maybe the rich person could have been an ability user? If one got overconfident in themselves it¡¯s not impossible for them to have been wandering around on their own. We probably shouldn¡¯t outright say that they were an ability user, though - just imply that they might have been. Maybe there were a few scorch marks around their corpse, that might have been the result of them tossing out fire or lightning or something..>


    <It¡¯s not a perfect story, but it¡¯s the best idea I can think of,> I said, with a sigh. <Anise, are you still disguising your abilities?>


    <I think it¡¯s for the best,> said Anise, with the telepathic equivalent of a sigh. <If my parents learn that I ¡®stole an ability potion,¡¯ they¡¯re going to kill me. And magic missiles really aren¡¯t that impressive anyway. If I get the artifact we stole from the Verne government working, I can pretend that it granted me abilities or something, especially if I ¡®find a weird object¡¯ while we¡¯re traveling. Could I ask you to help me set the scene so that it looks natural?>


    <I can do that,> I said. <I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to do so right now, though, since it might look suspicious if you ¡®reveal¡¯ an ability right after the three of us reveal our abilities. Let¡¯s see if we can figure something out after a week or two of travel, or wait until we have a better opportunity.>


    <That works for me,> said Anise.


    <Ready, Sallia?> asked Felix.


    She nodded.


    ¡°The three of us managed to steal an ability potion from a corpse that we found while we were hanging out,¡± said Sallia. ¡°The three of us were walking through the streets, when we saw a dead guy in a nearby alley. He looked wealthy - he had a suit on.¡±


    Sallia launched into our somewhat plausible explanation of where we got our ability potions. There were a few weird parts to the story, such as the question of why whoever had killed the rich person hadn¡¯t taken the ability potions we had found, but Felix ¡®interjected¡¯ to help clarify that the ability potions had been hidden under the man¡¯s body, and it looked like the killer had fled in a hurry for some reason. By the end of it, our narrative was at least somewhat plausible, although it was unlikely.


    ¡°So you stole potions from a dead rich man?¡± said Sallia¡¯s mother, frowning. Sallia¡¯s father looked thoughtful. Meanwhile, my mother looked like she had fallen back into a daze - I was sure there was some sort of residual effect of her drugs running through her system right now, and she had stopped paying attention quite a while ago.


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have been going out at all,¡± said Sallia¡¯s mother, as her frown deepened. ¡°We hired the old lady to make sure you didn¡¯t go out and get hurt! Now I find out that you¡¯ve been traipsing through back alleys when we were working.¡±


    ¡°It worked out though, didn¡¯t it dear?¡± asked Sallia¡¯s father. ¡°She has an ability now.¡± I could see a glimmer of hope in his eyes. ¡°Ability potions are so expensive that there¡¯s no way we could ever afford them. The ability to manipulate metal¡­ that could get Sallia an amazing job in the future. She could easily make items that are hard to construct for regular factories. It could get her a real future as something other than a factory worker. Something we never had a chance for.¡±


    ¡°But if she dies it would all be for nothing! I¡¯m not¡­ comfortable with my little girl risking her life like that!¡±


    ¡°But there¡¯s also no changing the past,¡± said Sallia¡¯s father, although his tone turned gentler. He turned back towards Sallia. ¡°I don¡¯t approve of you wandering around the streets without an adult, especially since it sounds like you did so a long time ago. I also don¡¯t approve of you hiding it from us¡­ but I guess it at least shows that you have the sense not to flaunt your ability when it could put you in danger. It worked out this time. Don¡¯t take that as an endorsement of your actions - when we get to our new home, we¡¯re going to have a nice, long talk about trust and safety. After that, we¡¯ll figure out what to in the future.¡± He turned towards Old Mo. ¡°And I imagine you can help all of us blend in to our destination? Since it sounds like you were an¡­¡± he didn¡¯t manage to say the word ¡®assassin¡¯ out loud, but I could see what he was implying. With a spy network and an identity as a former assassin, Old Mo probably had ways to slip in and out of a city undetected and set up a new identity for all of us.


    Old Mo nodded. ¡°That was my intention. We¡¯ll figure something more detailed out tomorrow night, when we¡¯re a little less tired, but I¡¯m thinking right now you could be childhood friends of Miria¡¯s fallen noble family. Or perhaps investors in her father¡¯s failed company or something. We¡¯ll work out the exact details later, but I¡¯m sure we can figure something out.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s father seemed to think about Old Mo¡¯s words for a while, before he nodded. ¡°All right, that makes sense to me, at least. We¡¯ll figure out the finer details in the future.¡±


    With the air finally cleared regarding our abilities, I felt lighter than ever when I went to sleep that night.

 Chapter 195: Mountains

    After we discussed our abilities with the group, the next night, as we set up camp, Old Mo pulled me aside and asked me a few questions.


    ¡°Miria, have you thought about what you want to do in the future? What do you want to be when you grow up?¡± Old Mo hesitated. ¡°I know you¡¯ve already talked about your healing ability, and I was talking about a backstory that might work for you. But does that¡­ make you happy?¡±


    I didn¡¯t need to think much about it before I nodded. ¡°I like healing people,¡± I said. In our previous life, on the world of the black sun, Sallia and I had both healed people for several years before we had left the city as adventurers. I distinctly remembered how nice it had felt to heal people. It had been a good way to get money, Achievement, and I felt good doing it. Healing was probably the ideal job for me in this world, unless more opportunities to explore the weird manifestation essence items cropped up.


    Old Mo smiled. ¡°If you like it, then that¡¯s good to hear. I don¡¯t need to change any of your backstory, then. Now, we still have a few weeks to a month of walking before we arrive, which should give you just enough time to learn the language Normally, that wouldn¡¯t be enough time to learn a new language, but there are so many shared words and grammatical rules between Vernese and Semurian that it should be easy. Does that sound good to you?¡±


    I nodded.


    That night, and every night afterwards, Old Mo sat down with me for an hour or two and drilled information into my head. How I needed to act, as a ¡®fallen noble¡¯ from Semuria. How to speak Semurian. What I needed to talk about whenever people asked about my past.


    Old Mo also extended the same training to the other members of the group, although he spent the most time teaching me my role. By the time we arrived at our new home in Damilius, we would be able to play our roles perfectly - or so I hoped.


    Of course, everyone participated except my mother.


    The aftereffects of the drugs my mother usually took still left her in a semiconscious state most of the time, but she now seemed to retain at least enough self-awareness to walk on her own. However, my mother also suffered from withdrawal symptoms every night, which I had to strain my essence pool to negate. Every night, my mother started trembling and shivering, almost as if she was dying of hypothermia, and so I dribbled water onto her forehead and used it to apply renewal over and over again. Even though my mother didn¡¯t have any conscious periods during the three days after the encounter with the soldiers, she didn¡¯t create problems for the rest of the group either. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but I hoped that my mother could last until we got to our new home.


    Sallia and Felix, who were now also known to have abilities, became able to use their abilities constantly as we marched forward. I constantly fed Felix information I gathered using my spatial sight and soul sight, and he relayed everything useful to the group through his ¡®ability to sense other minds.¡¯


    This came in relatively handy, as a few other groups of people came near our group during the three days of marching. They seemed like other groups of refugees, which was lucky - I wasn¡¯t sure whether the Vernese military was tracking us down after we had wiped out the group of scouts, but I was worried that they would send a group too big for us to handle. I didn¡¯t want to meet with any other groups along the way, just in case they were actually Vernese soldiers in disguise or something. our situation wasn¡¯t good enough for us to help them out, either, so I could only wish them good luck as we continued on our way.


    Meanwhile, Sallia freely used her own powers to make our journey more comfortable. We ran across a few streams and rivers, and rather than undertake potentially dangerous river crossings, Sallia just had us stand on larger pieces of metal and then floated us across. Her parents seemed to be getting more used to the idea of Sallia having an ability, while the group of parents was also growing more comfortable with each other.


    Of course, my mother still wasn¡¯t really welcomed by the rest of the group. The group seemed to have grudgingly agreed that having a magic healer justified the cost of bringing along a drug addict suffering from withdrawal. However, the other group members still didn¡¯t really seem to approve of my mother¡¯s presence. But I felt that was to be expected. Even with the full range of abilities I had available to me, I was starting to feel the strain of dragging my mother along with us during our flight from Verne. It was understandable that the rest of the group was frustrated with her presence. None of them got verbally or physically abusive about it, and I figured that was probably the best I was going to get.


    On the third day of travel, the hills we had been traveling through started to get larger and more omnipresent. We were now practically traveling alongside the mountain range, and Old Mo intended to stick next to the mountains until we eventually reached a mountain pass that would lead us into Damilius.


    Unfortunately, the hills seemed more populated with soldiers than Old Mo had anticipated. As we got closer to Verne¡¯s borders, we ran into an increasing number of scouts from both sides of the conflict.


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    We were still four days away from passing by the actual front lines, and we were already starting to run into troops from the two armies. Seeing coalition troops this deep in Verne, I had a strong suspicion that things were even worse for Verne¡¯s military than I¡¯d heard about. The coalition army¡¯s scouts were breezing through the front lines as if they weren¡¯t even there, and I felt that the coalition scouts were definitely more common than Verne¡¯s soldiers, even though we were firmly in Verne¡¯s territory right now.


    I was able to scout out the location of potential threats in advance, thanks to my soul and spatial perception, so we were still able to avoid running into any other people. But I was getting increasingly nervous. Even though we were successfully dodging any actual contact with scouts, that didn¡¯t mean that they weren¡¯t able to find our trail. And I didn¡¯t want to know what kind of force they might send after us if they noticed us.


    ¡°Old Mo, what should we do?¡± I asked, after our group dodged the seventh scout of the day. It was nearly dinnertime, but our group had already dodged seven different scouts scouring the area. We had even heard a shootout happening between two scouts as they took potshots at each other from a distance, and while we had stayed far away from the shootout, I was becoming more and more tense. I still needed to sleep, and if a scout saw our group while I wasn¡¯t scouting, we would be found and potentially attacked before I could respond. I didn¡¯t want to get shot in my sleep.


    Old Mo also gritted his teeth, and looked at Felix.


    ¡°Are you sure we¡¯ve dodged seven scouts today?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely positive,¡± said Felix. ¡°All of the areas we dodged were occupied by people, and¡­ their minds were filled with violence,¡± said Felix, after a few moments. Of course, in reality, I had known they were scouts because I peeked at them using spatial perception and saw their army insignias, but that wasn¡¯t one of the abilities we had pretended Felix had.


    Old Mo gritted his teeth. ¡°Both armies are putting a lot more emphasis on this area than expected. I wonder why¡­¡± Old Mo gritted his teeth, and then sighed.


    ¡°The way I see it, we have two options. First, we can keep going as is, and hope it all works out. We¡¯ve been dodging scouts so far, and Felix¡¯s mental perception gives us a range of detection and mobility that is far beyond what I had originally expected. Thanks to that, we haven¡¯t even run into a group during our time in the hills. If Felix is able to keep it up, maybe we¡¯ll be safe from any problems. And if we do run into a smaller group of soldiers, maybe Sallia can fight them off again.¡± Old Mo turned towards Sallia. ¡°How many shooters can you handle at once using your metal manipulation?¡±


    ¡°I can probably deconstruct a few guns per second, or move around a much larger number of bullets per second,¡± said Sallia, after some thought. ¡°Maybe¡­ twenty?¡± Of course, Sallia couldn¡¯t move that many bullets at once - but that was how many bullets Sallia and I combined could handle, if conditions were almost perfect for us.


    ¡°Twenty¡­¡± Old Mo frowned harder. ¡°A standard Verne scouting force is usually a group of ten people spread out over a certain area. Unless they¡¯ve reorganized the military since I was part of it. So Sallia can, theoretically, handle the average ten-person scouting force. but that¡¯s also a rather dangerous idea to rely on, since Sallia will need to sleep sometimes, and there¡¯s always the chance she could mess up in the middle of a battle. One mistake could leave one of us dead, even with Miria¡¯s healing on hand,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°So the other option I was thinking of was to head into the actual mountains, instead of hugging them the way we have been.¡±


    I looked at the mountains. It would be much harder to travel through the mountains than the foothills, and probably much colder. It was still a month and a half way from winter, but the temperature had been steadily dropping for the past month or two. The mountains would only exacerbate that.


    Of course, the cold also meant that most soldiers wouldn¡¯t be as willing to travel into the mountains. Frostbite and hypothermia were very real threats to the soldiers in the army, and unlike our group, they wouldn¡¯t have access to magical healing to remove the problem.


    ¡°Are there any special features in the mountains that might make it more dangerous?¡± asked Felix.


    Old Mo frowned. ¡°Well¡­ there are old legends that it used to be the heartland of the old Zelyr empire, and a lot of archeological digs have found old Zelyr settlements in the mountain ranges of the continent. Sometimes Zelyr settlements have strange, artificial creatures that use some kind of twisted essence. They can be dangerous.¡±


    Artificial creatures? Twisted essence? I frowned. That sounded¡­ awfully familiar. Thus far, I had been assuming that this dimension was actually raiding other dimensions throughout the multiverse or something, but Old Mo¡¯s mention of the ancient Zelyr empire made me wonder if there was more to the story.


    Anise¡¯s eyes lit up.


    <Do you guys think that the Ancient Zelyr are linked to whatever the facility researching Felix was doing?> asked Anise.


    <It¡¯s definitely possible,> I said. <If we get a chance, I think it¡¯s worth looking into.>


    ¡°But the odds of us finding an old Zelyr ruin are very low,¡± said Old Mo, either unaware of or politely ignoring our mental conversation. ¡°Apart from that, we just need to keep an eye on temperature. Miria, can your healing handle things like frostbite?¡±


    ¡°I can even regrow lost limbs,¡± I said. ¡°Really, as long as it¡¯s not a mental problem and as long as you aren¡¯t dead, I can heal almost anything.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s quite impressive,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°In that case, I personally favor going into the mountains over staying in this area. Does anyone have any objections?¡±


    ¡°I like the idea of running into fewer gunfights,¡± said Anise¡¯s father, after a few moments. ¡°And I¡¯m willing to trust the little girl about her healing powers.¡± He looked protectively at Anise. ¡°I don¡¯t want anyone to get hurt from a stray bullet or something.¡±


    A few other group members chimed in in agreement, after a few minutes, the decision was made. We were going to travel into the mountains.

 Chapter 196: Ruins

    The next day, we stopped hugging the outskirts of the mountain and started heading directly into the mountains.


    Once we left the outskirts of the mountains, I started to notice that the essence in our surroundings was very¡­ odd. Rather than simply drifting about, the essence in the mountains seemed to surge and ripple at constant intervals. It almost looked like a machine - every single rhythmic pump of the essence in our surroundings reminded me of the giant industrial mixer we had seen alchemists under the city using. There was a very specific order and rhythm to it that was hard to notice at first, but became increasingly obvious the more I paid attention to it. I had no idea how the essence was being manipulated to move so precisely, but it was obvious that someone or something had fundamentally altered the way essence behaved in this area for some reason.


    Most interestingly, however, was the presence of manifestation essence. It was faint, but I could definitely detect little specks of manifestation essence mixed with the binding essence in the area. The ratio of binding essence to manifestation essence was probably around 9:1, so there wasn¡¯t exactly a huge amount of manifestation essence here. But considering the fact that manifestation essence wasn¡¯t native to this world at all, seeing so much binding essence in one place was clearly unnatural.


    Felix was incredibly interested in our surroundings. He constantly stared at the binding essence in our surroundings, frowning and squinting as he glared at it.


    <Does anyone else think the essence here is weird?> asked Felix, after a moment. <It seems¡­ almost like some sort of giant machine, but it¡¯s made entirely out of essence. I don¡¯t understand what it¡¯s doing, or how this is even possible.>


    <I also get the impression it¡¯s kind of like a giant magical machine,> I said. <But that¡¯s as much as I figured out.>


    <Maybe Old Mo knows something?> said Sallia. <The people of this world have probably spent at least some time investigating these mountains. Maybe they figured it out?>


    ¡°What is the essence in this area doing?¡± I asked. ¡°And what¡¯s up with that¡­ weird essence?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if people of this world had a specific word for ¡®manifestation essence,¡¯ so I opted to call it ¡®weird essence¡¯ for now.


    Anise¡¯s father nodded at my words. ¡°The area feels¡­ wrong to me,¡± he said as he shivered.


    I frowned, and mentally poked at a little blob of manifestation essence with my mind. There wasn¡¯t anything ¡®wrong¡¯ with it, at least in my eyes. It felt exactly the same as the essence we had encountered in our previous world. Perhaps Anise¡¯s father just found manifestation essence itself weird?


    A few moments later, I got a deeper understanding of what he meant when he said the essence felt wrong.


    The local laws of reality in this dimension didn¡¯t support manifestation essence at all, which was why it didn¡¯t naturally form here. This didn¡¯t strike me as particularly unusual - after what we had already seen during our time in the Market, I just took it for granted that some dimensions had certain kinds of essence and others didn¡¯t. But when I felt the manifestation essence in this area, it felt¡­ almost like it was rubbing against something in a way that wasn¡¯t supposed to happen.


    It was similar to water and oil, in a sense. The manifestation essence itself wasn¡¯t what was weird here - it was the fact that the manifestation essence was somehow interacting with the laws of reality. I was surprised Anise¡¯s father managed to pick up on the fact that the laws of reality were being distorted in this area, when even I hadn¡¯t noticed it immediately.


    It also opened my eyes to several new possibilities and ideas that I had never considered before. I now had at least some idea what the ¡®machine¡¯ made of essence was doing - it was very slightly altering the laws of reality itself in the area. However, that made me think even harder about what we were walking into. Somehow, a person or group of people in this area had created a massive machine-like thing entirely out of essence, and that ¡®machine¡¯ was manipulating the laws of reality itself.


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    I hadn¡¯t even been aware that manifestation essence and binding essence could interact with the laws of reality - I had assumed that was a property exclusive to alteration essence. But clearly, I was wrong.


    I didn¡¯t know exactly what law of reality was being tweaked in the mountain area, but I suspected it was related to the fact that manifestation essence was present here. In any case, the laws of reality in the mountains wouldn¡¯t cause my organs to instantly collapse or come to life, at least. If the laws of reality in the mountains did that, there was no way Old Mo would have led us here.


    <Felix, I think the essence here is messing with reality itself somehow,> I sent. <Kind of like the living universe from our last life, although it¡¯s considerably less terrifying.>


    Felix didn¡¯t say anything - he just stared even more closely at the ordered pumping of binding and manifestation essence in our area, as if he wished to swallow everything in the area whole using only his eyes.


    ¡°Nobody knows what the essence in this area is doing,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°Dozens, or perhaps hundreds of great scholars and alchemists have studied the mountain ranges of our continent and tried to figure it out. At its height, the Zelyr empire controlled most of the continent - and every single mountain range they controlled has a similar mixture of binding essence and the weird essence. Some scholars even claim that the surges of essence in this area are random, and just appear to be ordered.¡±


    Old Mo shrugged. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know if I buy that. The Zelyr did a lot of feats that seem impossible, according to our modern understanding of alchemy. We¡¯ve learned how to do a lot, especially over the last few decades. We¡¯ve created factories, iron ships that sail as well as wooden ones, made potions an object that can be mass-produced by the gallon¡­ but we still can¡¯t figure out how the ancient Zelyr did half of the things they did. We still have no idea how to create artificial life, while the Zelyr did it with ease, for example.¡±


    I resisted the urge to glance at Felix the artificial life form.


    I wondered if Felix¡¯s body was made with some number of ancient Zelyr artifacts - we had rescued him from a facility that was probably dedicated to the study of ancient Zelyr artifacts, after all, and we had found all sorts of other weird artifacts when we rescued Felix. If Old Mo felt that artificial life was beyond the bounds of current technology to create¡­ that might indicate that Felix had a deeper connection with the ancient Zelyr than I had anticipated.


    ¡°Is it dangerous?¡± asked Anise¡¯s father, his fingers unconsciously creeping towards the gun he had clumsily strapped to his waist.


    ¡°Almost certainly not,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°Hundreds of scholars have visited the mountains and studied them over the years, and nothing particularly interesting has happened. I highly doubt that we¡¯re unlucky enough to run into these old essence machines breaking down in the middle of¡­ whatever it is they¡¯re doing, and they definitely don¡¯t respond to people just walking through the mountains. In fact, they don¡¯t even respond to alchemists trying to manipulate them with binding essence - anyone who tries just ends up feeling like they tried to push a mountain. These essence patterns have far too much power in them for an entire army to disrupt them, much less our little group.¡±


    I frowned in thought. Normally the essence machines probably wouldn¡¯t respond to anything - but we currently had Felix the first artificial baby with us, and Sallia and I were also frequently using manifestation and alteration essence as we moved along. If an ancient empire had some knowledge of manifestation essence, and even found a way to make it ¡®native¡¯ to a certain area¡­ perhaps they had some sort of knowledge of other essences too? Or perhaps the essence patterns would react to a proper manifestation essence user? I decided to be on my guard, just in case.


    At the same time, I also started using my spatial perception to investigate the area around us. Given the potential link between the Zelyr and Felix¡¯s creation, I was very, very interested in investigating ruins of this ancient empire. I¡­ wasn¡¯t quite sure whether the non-Market members of our group would be quite as enthusiastic about ancient ruin exploration as I was, but I hoped to check out a ruin or two if we got the chance. Given how strong our group seemed compared to the threats on this planet, we could probably even explore an ancient ruin without horribly dying at the end.


    I smiled at the thought, before I frowned. I needed to keep my guard up. Even though most of the people of this world weren¡¯t very threatening without guns and numbers on their side, the Zelyr empire was rather strange. Aplos, which had probably also come from the Zelyr empire, might not have been able to threaten us that severely - however, it had still posed some threat to our group. If we were cornered by ten or fifteen of such creatures, I wasn¡¯t sure if our group would survive. I needed to keep my guard up.


    After a few more minutes of watching the weird essence, Anise¡¯s father seemed to calm down a little bit. We took our first step into the mountains, and into the midst of the strange manifestation and binding essence swirling through the air.


    And almost immediately afterwards, Anise let out a mental gasp of surprise.


    <My orb is heating up!>

 Chapter 197: Orb

    <Your orb is heating up?> I asked, my mind whirring as I tried to sort through the implications of Anise¡¯s statement.


    For years, Anise and I had tried to figure out what her orb was supposed to do. It emitted a small amount of manifestation essence, so the two of us had always assumed it would let Anise cast spells from a manifestation essence system. but so far, neither of us had ever gotten the blasted thing working. After a year of banging my head against it, I had been sorely tempted to just start throwing alteration essence at it and try to force it to do what we wanted it to, but I had a feeling I was more likely to break it than get it working, so we had continued poking at it in hopes that it would do something. Sallia had also tried putting manifestation essence into the orb, to see if it was some sort of spellcasting enhancer, but that had also gotten nowhere. Either Sallia¡¯s manifestation essence system was incompatible with the orb, or we were using it wrong. Ansie had tried tossing magic missiles at it, and I had tried stuffing alteration essence into it, along with a variety of other tests - but nothing had ever worked.


    And now, Anise was saying that the bloody orb was finally doing something. I didn¡¯t know whether to laugh in ecstasy or throw the bloody thing off the mountain in sheer frustration.


    <Are you sure?> asked Felix, sounding just as surprised as me. Felix had also tried several times to figure out what Anise¡¯s orb did, but apart from confirming that the Orb was unusually resilient against damage, and the fact that the orb didn¡¯t emit manifestation essence when it was surrounded by a thin shell of iron, he hadn¡¯t figured out what the orb did either.


    <It¡¯s definitely heating up,> Anise confirmed.


    <Is there anything else happening to the orb?> I asked.


    Anise frowned. <It¡¯s hard to notice, but I think it¡¯s getting hotter as we walk further into the mountains. I might just be imagining things, though. The iron shell makes it a little hard to feel minute heat differences.>


    I frowned as well. Anise¡¯s orb heating up could be a good thing - or it could be a bad thing. It was honestly hard to guess right now. It was an unexpected variable.


    <Keep an eye on it for now,> I said, as I tried to think.


    On one hand, if Anise had some sort of miraculous encounter, it would be nothing but helpful. Anise was currently far behind the rest of our group in terms of power - and after this world, Felix would probably have a lot more useful abilities, assuming he got a keyword ability for binding essence out of this. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what Felix was going to do with a magic system focused around affixing and transmuting items, creating ability potions, and making prosthetic limbs work - but I was sure he would figure out a way to weld this magic system into a coherent whole. Sallia and I weren¡¯t likely to get much out of this world, since neither of us seemed very interested in this world¡¯s magic system, but we already had a synergistic set of magic systems working for us. Which left Anise far behind the three of us. If she found something to help her catch up, it would be much easier for us to work as a group in the future, and it would also be easier to buy lives when the time came to fight for our futures.


    On the other hand, if we all died here, Felix would lose this chance to get his binding essence keyword ability online, and we would all lose the potential to farm more Achievement in this life. In our other two lives, we had only taken massive risks once we had farmed out most of the low-hanging fruits that would help us earn more achievement. Any further gains would have been very hard to accomplish, given our circumstances and abilities in those lives.


    In this life, we definitely hadn¡¯t tapped out our achievement earning yet. We were nowhere close to that point. I still hadn¡¯t even gotten my first round of achievement for healing people, and Felix had been talking about looking into precise metal prosthetics to improve his combat abilities. If we died at the age of six, without earning all of the easier Achievement rewards, we would suffer a huge loss, which might kill us when we needed to buy more lives.


    Interacting with Anise¡¯s orb was a potentially massive risk with a potentially massive reward.


    <All right, this is a decision we have to make together,> I said, after some thought. <What do you guys think we should do about Anise¡¯s orb heating up? I suspect if we remain in the mountains, Anise¡¯s orb will eventually do something unusual. I have no idea what yet, but it¡¯s obvious it¡¯s doing something, and we don¡¯t know if that¡¯s positive or negative. If we want to, we could stuff it in my dimensional backpack, to keep it from reacting to our environment, or we could throw it off the mountain. Or, we can let things play out and see what happens. We haven¡¯t earned all of the easy Achievement in this world yet, so we¡¯re taking on more of a risk than usual¡­> I started outlining all of my thoughts about adulthood, achievement earning potential, and what following Anise¡¯s orb might mean for our safety, before I finished speaking to the group.


    <I¡­ umm¡­ if it¡¯s okay, I would really like to see if there¡¯s a chance for me to really earn a manifestation essence keyword ability in this world. But I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m comfortable putting other people¡¯s lives in danger for that. I really want it, but if I have to give up on it, I can wait until we find a better world for my manifestation essence keyword ability¡­> Anise trailed off.


    <I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to pass up on this opportunity,> said Sallia. <I mean, we seem much stronger than the regular combatants of this world, since the magic system is so unsuited for direct combat. I mean, we can still definitely earn more Achievement in this world, and we definitely haven¡¯t maxed out our runes yet¡­ but I think that being too cautious will make us miss out on a valuable opportunity to grow stronger. Even if we manage to get an opportunity for Anise, she needs time to capitalize on that opportunity and turn it into a keyword ability. If we toss the orb into Miria¡¯s backpack, it might be years before we can return here - and those years could be the difference between Anise earning a keyword or not. I think we have the ability to handle any danger we run into, and this opportunity is too precious to pass up or delay.>


    <We are pretty strong compared to the residents of this world, but Sallia¡¯s words also bring up something I think we should pay more attention to,> said Felix. <We still haven¡¯t reached the peak of what strength we can gather on this planet. Not by a long shot. Both of you can still form a lot of runes, right?>


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    <I haven¡¯t done the math on how many more I¡¯m likely to form, but I¡¯m definitely not close to capping out yet,> I said.


    <Neither am I,> said Sallia.


    <In that case, if we do this exploration later, it¡¯ll be safer. Passing up the opportunity now might feel bad, but I think we¡¯re likely to live to old age in this world,> said Felix. <Unlike our last two worlds, our ability to flee from disasters isn¡¯t particularly constricted - and we also aren¡¯t about to fight large groups of people who are stronger than us. At least as far as individual combat goes, we¡¯re fairly safe here. So Anise will naturally have a lot more time to capitalize on anything we find in the ruins. There¡¯s no need to rush when we can grow stronger and then come back later.>


    <I¡­ I can wait a little bit,> said Anise, although she sounded a little disappointed.


    <I don¡¯t know - while it¡¯s possible that we¡¯ll be able to come back here in the future, Anise having as much time as possible to train, improve, and make use of whatever we find could mean a lot. And while I don¡¯t want to sound overconfident, I also think we can handle most smaller-scale threats in this world,> I said. <Anise still has {Phoenix¡¯s Last Stand} for emergencies, I still have my tarot deck, Sallia can end her swordsman¡¯s journey and get immediate stats if an emergency happens, and we have all of the items I stuffed into my dimensional backpack after stealing them from the facility we rescued you from. Several of which were lightning bolts that we can probably use like grenades or javelins, although we haven¡¯t tested them much. I think we have a reasonable level of power and a good number of trump cards if an emergency happens. Exploring now feels more reasonable to me than exploring later. There¡¯s value in being cautious, but I think waiting several years to return is being to cautious.>


    <Hmm¡­ that¡¯s also a good point,> said Felix, after some thought. <All right, you¡¯ve convinced me. Let¡¯s keep an eye out for whatever is causing Anise¡¯s orb to heat up, and see if it leads to anything useful. Miria, can you be ready to teleport the orb away if it looks like it¡¯s going to explode or something?>


    <Of course,> I said.


    The four of us nodded, and then stopped mentally conversing with each other. I took the time to examine the parents again. They were watching their surroundings like frightened animals, ready to flee at the first sign of danger. However, I also saw a hint of fascination in everyone¡¯s gazes. The otherworldly feeling of manifestation essence existing where it shouldn¡¯t, as well as the rhythmic pumping of essences from place to place, was a sight that defied the conventional wisdom of this world.


    Very noticeably, the constantly fighting scouts from both militaries seemed absent in the mountains. The cold, frigid air in the mountains, as well as the exceptionally rough terrain, seemed to have driven them off, thankfully. I wasn¡¯t finding any other people with my soul sight, just plenty of plants and animals. I also occasionally needed to heal everyone, despite the fact that everyone had bundled themselves up with a few extra layers of clothes, but the trek wasn¡¯t that bad with magical healing readily available.


    Anise¡¯s orb continued to heat up as we cautiously moved forward¡­ for about two hours, she would occasionally confirm that the orb was still getting hotter. Until suddenly, she sent another mental message.


    <The Orb is cooling down,> she said. <I think.>


    <Hmm¡­ interesting,> said Felix. <Anise, can you try taking a few steps backward and tell me if it feels like the orb is getting hotter or colder?>


    Anise did as Felix requested, although her parents gave her some very odd looks.


    <It¡¯s getting hotter again,> she said.


    <Maybe it gets hotter the closer we are to a specific object or location?> said Felix, before glancing at the sky. <It¡¯s nearly dark. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m comfortable with dragging our parents into whatever we¡¯re about to run into. Maybe we can sneak out at night and try exploring on our own? That way we don¡¯t have to deal with potentially getting our parents hurt. I think we¡¯re unlikely to die this time, but it¡¯s always a possibility.>


    <I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m comfortable with that,> said Anise.<If my parents woke up and found me missing, they would lose their minds. Maybe we should just tell them that we¡¯re going exploring?>


    <But we¡¯re also six,> said Sallia. <It would be hard to explain why we¡¯re all going to leave, and I doubt our parents are just fine with letting their six year old children wander around. I mean, we could say something is ¡®calling¡¯ to us, which might make sense since we have abilities and they don¡¯t. But that¡¯s more likely to get the parents wondering what is influencing our minds than get them to let us explore.>


    <Also, will the temperature be fine? It¡¯s pretty cold, and without Miria¡¯s healing¡­> said Anise.


    <If we take shelter in a cave for the night, and light a campfire, I think it should be fine,> said Felix. <Miria, you didn¡¯t see any scouts or military people in the mountains at all, right?>


    <Yeah.>


    <Then it¡¯s probably safe enough for a small fire to keep everyone warm. Especially if it¡¯s partially hidden by a cave,> said Felix.


    I hesitated, and then glanced at my mother, with her glazed expression and her slightly blue eyes. Then, I looked at Old Mo, who was still cautiously scanning our surroundings to check for danger.


    <Even if temperatures are taken care of, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m comfortable leaving Old Mo wondering what happened to me if something goes wrong. Or my mother¡­ if she notices my absence, anyway. I¡¯ll let him know tonight, but I¡¯m going to say that it¡¯s resonating with my ability somehow. Old Mo knows that I¡¯m an¡­ unusual six year old. I think he¡¯d be willing to let me go,> I said. <I¡¯ll also tell him that Anise has an ability, and ask him not to share that fact with Anise¡¯s parents. We were originally planning on pretending you acquired your ability sometime during this trip, right? We can just ask Old Mo to help us feed into that narrative. I think he¡¯d be willing to help.>


    <You have a lot of trust in Old Mo,> said Sallia. <I mean, don¡¯t get me wrong, he¡¯s treated you pretty well, but it also sounds like he¡¯s a former assassin. And he might have an ability too. We don¡¯t know. If he does have an ability, why wouldn¡¯t he feel the ¡®call¡¯ just like us?>


    <Maybe the ¡®call¡¯ only applies to children?> said Felix.


    I mentally sighed. <I¡­ I don¡¯t know. Look¡­ I do have a lot of faith in Old Mo,but he¡¯s also always been there for me when I needed him to be. I¡­ I really want to think the best of him. And even if he knows something is weird, he¡¯s more likely to confront me about it than make problems for us with our parents, which I value.>


    <All right, fair enough,> said Felix. <In that case, we¡¯ll go with your plan. Tonight, we¡¯ll let Old Mo know where we¡¯re going, and maybe we can also leave notes for your parents, just in case. leave notes for our parents in case. Then, let¡¯s see if we can reach whatever is making Anise¡¯s orb heat up and return before morning.> said Felix.


    With our decision made, we prepared to wait until nightfall.

 Chapter 198: Halls of Stone

    Once we found a camp and set up a campfire, Old Mo proved surprisingly easy to talk to about our desire to leave at nighttime. He gave me a dubious glance, before he looked at Sallia, and then looked at the guns we were carrying with us. He made me check how much ammunition I had brought with me twice, and after that, patted me on the shoulder and told me to stay safe.


    I had expected old Mo to put up more resistance against us leaving, but apparently, the fight where Sallia and I had wiped out an entire squad of soldiers on our own had left quite an impression, and we were carting along guns, ammunition, and a good amount of raw steel for Sallia to manipulate if a fight came up. Old Mo didn¡¯t seem terribly worried about our safety.


    He also promised to take care of my mother while I was away, in case she had a seizure at night from withdrawal. I hesitantly left him a small pouch of fizz, in case my mother needed it. I had already dosed her with an absolutely insane amount of healing after she fell asleep, since it did seem like applying healing in larger doses before one of her fits helped her a lot. A part of me hesitated to put my mother in any danger at all just to go explore with Anise - but I had thrown healing into my mother¡¯s body for years, left behind an emergency pouch of her drug in case the seizure was really impossible to manage, and overhealed my mother far beyond what was reasonable, to make sure that tonight had as few complications as possible.


    Not hovering over my mother¡¯s side might mean she had a particularly bad night, and might even reset some of the progress towards kicking her fizz addiction. But I also wasn¡¯t willing to potentially sacrifice Anise¡¯s future for my mother¡¯s comfort.


    Besides, I might have just been being optimistic, but I felt that her shivers and shaking had been getting less bad over the past night or two. I had been bombarding her with healing magic almost nonstop for two years now, so even though my mother still craved herdrug, fizz shouldn¡¯t have seriously impacted her body or physical health. I had thrown enough healing magic into her to regenerate her entire body, probably multiple times. While my mother had never been willing to use that to stop her fizz addiction, it had definitely reduced the impact of the drug on her system drastically.


    Old Mo gave the pouch of powdered drugs a look of disgust, but promised to hold on to it in case it was needed. He also said that it would be an absolute last resort - which I agreed with.


    After that, I gave everyone¡¯s parents one last shot of healing magic, just to make sure they were as healthy as possible before we left. Then, once the fire was started and everyone was warm and safe in the cave, we left.


    We started out by following Anise¡¯s orb. Since it grew hotter when we walked in some directions, and grew colder when we walked in other directions, we just kept walking in the direction the orb grew hotter.


    It took nearly an hour of walking before Anise finally moved the orb out of its metal casing - before wincing and nearly dropping the orb.


    ¡°It''s really hot,¡± she said.


    I frowned, and then reached out to touch the orb with my hand, before pulling my hand back.


    Anise was right. It was very hot


    ¡°I¡¯ll take it,¡± said Sallia, as she bent down to pick up the orb. ¡°I have grade 7 Fortitude just from my runes, and it¡¯s not particularly hard for me to just pour some extra essence into my body if I want it to get healthier. I should be able to handle the heat better.¡±


    With Sallia working as the new orb carrier, our group continued onwards.


    After nearly an hour of walking, Anise¡¯s orb stopped merely growing hotter, and started started to glow like a miniature lighthouse. Moments later, a beam of light shot out of the orb, creating a thin but easily visible trail of light for us to follow. It was a small pillar of light - barely the thickness of my arm, but even without me and Anise using our night-related perception to point out the way forward, it was to see what direction we needed to head in.


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    We continued following the beam of light, until we came upon a completely and utterly ordinary slab of stone. It looked kind of like a boulder had fallen off of the sheer edges of the mountainside, and had simply fallen onto a random patch of land.


    I wouldn¡¯t have thought much about it, except for the fact that whenever we started walking away from the stone slab, the beam of light emitted from the orb kept insistently pointing at the stone wall. Even when we climbed a little bit above it with the orb, the light still kept pointing directly at the stone - not at something behind it, or underneath it. the orb pointed directly at the stone. It also felt a little¡­ odd to me. I had now manipulated space in some way, shape, or form for three lifetimes in a row. While they had all been short lifetimes, I was still starting to build enough experience with space to at least have some instinct and understanding for it.


    Somehow, space was being manipulated in the area. It was incredibly subtle, and I nearly missed it at first, but the longer we spent investigating the seemingly ordinary stone slab, the more I realized that something was off about it. But it was hard to pinpoint exactly what was being done, simply because I had never encountered a similar type of spatial manipulation before. It didn¡¯t feel quite like the teleportation I had mastered in our first life, or the spatial attacks that had happened during our second life. It was new to me.


    Out of curiosity, I touched the stone wall in front of us, and shrugged.


    It felt exactly like regular stone. It didn¡¯t have a speck of essence in it, either. The fact that I was so sure that space was being manipulated somehow, but couldn¡¯t find any evidence of essence being used, was intriguing. Either the creator of the stone slab had disguised the essence usage, or they had somehow bent space without using essence. I wasn¡¯t sure yet.


    ¡°The stone slab is manipulating space somehow,¡± I said.


    The other three started inspecting the stone slab more carefully, but none of us could figure out what exactly was being changed, or how it was being changed.


    ¡°Maybe try touching the stone wall with the orb? It could be some kind of advanced¡­ door or something,¡± said Anise, sounding hopeful. ¡°Maybe there¡¯s a big spatial palace, or a big spatial wizard tower or something!¡±


    Sallia seemed to think it sounded reasonable, so she poked the pile of stone with the orb a few times.


    The pile of stone in front of us shifted. It wasn¡¯t as if the stone had opened or moved, like a door. Instead, it was more like reality bent to reveal a completely open passage in front of us. I blinked in surprise.


    The stone wall that had been in our way earlier now seemed almost like an optical illusion. I hadn¡¯t seen or felt any essence move in our surroundings. I still hadn¡¯t felt anything that felt like magic. The stone wall was just there, and the next moment, it was gone.


    ¡°That¡¯s a neat trick,¡± I said, as I felt my curiosity deepen. I didn¡¯t actually know how the ancient Zelyr had pulled that trick off, but it was quite interesting. I felt that my sense for essence was usually keen enough to notice more obvious essence usage. The more I thought about the extremely well-disguised wall, the more I realized how vast the multiverse was, and how much more there was to learn.


    Sallia and Felix gave our surroundings uneasy looks, while Anise seemed torn between excitement and worry.


    ¡°Is it safe to go in?¡± asked Anise.


    I shrugged. ¡°I still think we can handle whatever is inside¡­ probably,¡± I said. ¡°But we should be more cautious than before. Since I can¡¯t easily detect whatever is messing with space here, it¡¯s clearly something I haven¡¯t seen before. We should be more cautious than expected.¡±


    Just in case, I also double-checked every combat method I had available. Some of the abilities I had hadn¡¯t really been used much in this world, since they simply weren¡¯t necessary so far.


    I hadn¡¯t had a single need to use my {Tarot Deck} in this world, because there weren¡¯t any individual enemies that could actually threaten me so far. Tarot deck was useful against one strong enemy, but rather useless against hordes of weaker enemies. Similarly, I hadn¡¯t needed to use my {Breath of the Storm} for anything. The only time I had used my magic umbrella was as a shield, since I hadn¡¯t had any reason to fly around or shoot wildly inefficient lightning bolts in this world. I still had a bunch of lightning bolts packed into my storage pack from the base we had raided while rescuing Felix as consumable weapons. We also had guns and ammunition. Finally, I had my two magic systems - both of which I felt I had already been making decent use of. I had a lot of different abilities and weapons to respond to an emergency, and I knew my friends were also armed to the teeth with weapons, items, and abilities.


    ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± I said, after a moment.


    ¡°I¡¯m also ready,¡± said Sallia, after a moment¡¯s notice. Felix also hesitated for a moment, before he nodded.


    Anise also stared into the darkness that lay behind the now-gone rock wall, before she double checked the gun she was carrying, and then nodded. ¡°I¡¯m also ready,¡± she said.


    With that, the four of us stepped into the passage.

 Chapter 199: Heirs of Zelyr

    The four of us stepped into the darkness, as I did my best to keep an eye on the strange dimensional warping taking place in our surroundings. It was clearer and easier to detect the spatial warping happening in our surroundings now that we had entered the corridor: it felt almost like we had stepped into an entirely new dimension.


    The feeling of essence moving in a constant rhythm was also stronger inside of this tunnel, and I had an even stronger feeling that the laws of reality were somehow different in this area. It wasn¡¯t easy to notice exactly what was being changed, but the altered laws of reality weren¡¯t incompatible with our bodies, at least. We hadn¡¯t simply started dying or falling apart here, unlike when we had come in contact with the dimensional laws of the living universe¡¯s dimension.


    I stopped thinking about the dimensional laws of this area, and instead focused on the physical world again.


    ¡°It¡¯s quite dark,¡± I said, not needing to resort to mental communication since we weren¡¯t near other adults. ¡°I can see just fine if I rely on my soulsight and spatial sight, but how are your eyes doing, everyone?¡±


    ¡°Not great,¡± said Felix, frowning. ¡°It¡¯s quite hard to see. I can¡¯t quite figure out how to make metal turn into a light source for me, either, so my attunement is useless here. Sallia?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know any light spells from the manifestation system,¡± said Sallia, sounding a bit embarrassed. ¡°I might have focused a bit too much on physical boosts. I didn¡¯t really think that much about smaller utility spells.¡±


    ¡°I have no issues seeing here,¡± said Anise. ¡°The eyes you guys got for me back in the Market are really helpful right now. I can also see a little bit of plant life scattered throughout the area as well, but that still doesn¡¯t help you guys see. Miria? Do you have any ideas for how to help Sallia and Felix?¡± Anise frowned. ¡°Now that I think about it, my sword lets me do a bit of fire manipulation, but I¡¯ve also heard that gasses can build up in underground mines and explode when they come in contact with fire. I don¡¯t know if anything similar would happen here¡­¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not mess with fire for now. If we have no other choice, we can think about it, but there might be a better option,¡± I said.


    After a few moments of thinking, I turned to Anise. ¡°Can you fire a magic missile at the air in front of us? I¡¯m going to try to shape it into a lantern.¡±


    Anise nodded, and fired a bolt of glowing, silvery force into the air in front of her. I immediately latched onto it the spell with my alteration essence, and then tried to alter the magic missile just a bit. Specifically, I removed the momentum from the magic missile.


    Or at least, I tried to. Messing with other people¡¯s magic was much harder than messing with my own magic, especially if I was trying to do something very specific to Anise¡¯s spell. I messed up the first time, and the bolt of force slammed into the wall. I had altered its trajectory, but hadn¡¯t stopped the missile in midair. Even though magic missiles were incredibly basic spells, hijacking Anise¡¯s magic missile and turning it into a completely different spell wasn¡¯t easy.


    ¡°Sorry, try again,¡± I said.


    Anise fired another magic missile, and this time, I managed to stop the magic missile in midair. I thought I had succeeded, right up until the magic missile dissipated into a puff of glowing silver-colored air, almost like a firework petering out in midair.


    I sighed.


    ¡°Again.¡±


    The third time, I managed to create what I was hoping for - a magic, silver colored blob of light that helped illuminate our surroundings. I had to keep a small trickle of alteration essence going into the silvery bolt of force at all times, but frankly, it was such a tiny amount that I barely noticed the strain. I regenerated essence faster than I was spending essence keeping the lantern going, so it wasn¡¯t really a problem.


    ¡°Thanks, Anise,¡± I said.


    Anise grinned at me and nodded.


    ¡°Can you two see now?¡± I asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s good enough for me,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°I can also see again,¡± said Felix. ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a strain on my eyes, since my perception is a bit lower and I don¡¯t have any abilities to compensate for it. But it¡¯s good enough.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s keep going,¡± I said.


    The stone tunnel kept going for what felt like forever - although it couldn¡¯t have been longer than twenty minutes, during that entire time I was carefully scanning our surroundings with my spatial and soul sight, trying to make sure that I didn¡¯t miss a single potential threat.


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    ¡°I found something,¡± said Anise, after a few moments.


    I blinked in surprise. Anise had noticed something I hadn¡¯t?


    ¡°There''s a room under our feet,¡± said Anise. ¡°It¡¯s about thirty meters down. I can see something sleeping inside of it, too. Do you remember the giant white¡­ worm¡­ centipede thing from our last life? The one we saw while we were traveling overland?¡±


    ¡°Vaguely?¡± I said, trying to remember what Anise was talking about. I remembered we had seen some sort of giant creature during our time above ground. It had been using some sort of acid magic and had demolished a giant group of Orukthyri. However, we hadn¡¯t fought the creature, so my memories of it were pretty vague.


    ¡°It looks kind of similar. It¡¯s like a giant, fuzzy worm, with white fur. It also has about twenty different pairs of eyes spread across its body. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s dangerous,¡± said Anise.


    I scanned the area using my soul-sight and spatial sight, before I frowned.


    Even when I looked directly at the spot Anise was pointing towards, I still didn¡¯t see a thing. Even when I used my soul sight and spatial sight, I couldn¡¯t find the monster Anise was talking about.


    The danger of this facility ratcheted up several notches in my mind. Perhaps I really had been too overconfident in saying that we would be able to safely explore this facility.


    ¡°How strong do you think it is?¡± I asked Anise.


    Anise frowned. ¡°Honestly, I have no idea. I have no way to measure essence or mana, and I can¡¯t quite guess based on looks alone.¡±


    I nodded. We spent a few minutes trying to make sure the creature didn¡¯t have any way to get to us, and also made sure that we didn¡¯t have any way to get to the monster. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t find any hidden passages or methods of attacking the creature. If it was hostile, a kill and a new skill would have been quite nice, after all.


    After a few minutes of searching, we decided to give up and move on. We wanted to be back at camp before our parents woke up, and so we couldn¡¯t afford to waste too much time. Instead, we continued walking down the corridor.


    After another few minutes of walking, we came to a small room.


    The room was packed to the brim with furniture, almost like someone had tried to cram an entire house into a single room. In the furthest corner of the room, there was a cot where a single person could comfortably lay down and sleep. Next to the cot were several bookshelves, all packed full of books. All of the books were in a language I half-recognized and half didn¡¯t.


    In another corner of the room was a desk filled with writing tools and paper. There were a variety of papers scattered across the ground, all covered in dust. It gave the room a feeling of both clutter and age - it was obvious nobody had set foot in the room for decades, or perhaps even centuries.


    Finally, in the center of the room, I saw an empty table. Given how cluttered the rest of the  room was, the empty table stood out like a sore thumb. In the middle of the table, there was an indent.


    The books were what caught my attention the most. The old books and papers scattered throughout the room might give us some idea what this facility was used for, or why it existed. The language written on the books also caught my attention, so it was so strangely familiar and also unfamiliar to me at the same time.


    I frowned, and squinted more carefully at the letters and words on the spines of the books. The books were all written in an alphabet exactly like the one used by Verne, and some of the words were even the same. However, there were also several words I didn¡¯t recognize, and the grammar felt¡­ odd.


    ¡°They¡¯re probably written in whatever language the Zelyr empire used,¡± said Felix, as he examined the books. ¡°Old Mo mentioned that nations that were conquered by the Zelyr had a partially shared language, which implies the Zelyr enforced some kind of language on their conquered territories. This is probably the parent language of Vernese, which is why it looks so similar.¡±


    I nodded at this, and did my best to peruse the titles books. I couldn¡¯t quite make out what they were saying - but I could understand just enough words to guess what the books were about, even if some of the books were harder than others.


    The collection of books seemed completely random to me. Even though I could only understand about half of the words on each book, some of them were about forging, some of them were about growing crops, and there were a variety of other random fields of knowledge represented in the bookshelves. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to them at all.


    While I scanned the bookshelves, Anise¡¯s orb continued to glow, and the beam of light it emitted pointed towards the indent in the table.


    ¡°The indent in the table is shaped perfectly for me to be able to slide my orb in,¡± said Anise. She looked at us with some hesitation. ¡°Can I put it in?¡±


    I also hesitated for a moment.


    ¡°We followed the orb this far. We might as well see it through,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be dangerous enough to hurt us¡­ probably?¡± She didn¡¯t sound entirely sure about that statement.


    Felix eyed our surroundings warily, but he also sighed and nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s see what happens. The indent in the table is perfectly sized to allow you to insert the orb into it. Just be ready to fight if something goes wrong.¡±


    ¡°Do it,¡± I said.


    Anise inserted the orb into the indent in the table.


    A blob of light appeared above the orb, taking the shape of an older man. He appeared to have a goatee, as well as reasonably long, graying hair and a dignified expression.


    ¡°Welcome, prospective heirs of Zelyr! It has been 172 years since the last test was given out. I welcome you to -¡± the old man broke off his speech, giving us all downright rude stares. I blinked in surprise. When the old man had started talking, I had assumed he was essentially a video recording of some sort, but the hologram seemed¡­ surprised?


    Before I could sink further into my thoughts, the old man¡¯s tone changed completely, and the dignified expression melted off of his face. He stared at the floating silver lantern I had made out of Anise¡¯s magic missile, before he sighed dramatically.


    ¡°Well shit. That essence definitely doesn¡¯t belong here, and the way your spells work doesn¡¯t conform to the local laws of reality at all. And it doesn¡¯t look like you traveled here from another dimension with your physical bodies, because the way your body composition looks is just too similar to the locals. You four are from the Market, aren¡¯t you?¡±

 Chapter 200: Soul Fragment

    I froze.


    ¡°Market?¡± I asked. I had heard the holographic man¡¯s words clearly the first time, but a huge part of my brain just short-circuited the moment the hologram mentioned information that it shouldn¡¯t have.


    Nobody else in the other dimensions we had entered had ever displayed any awareness of the Market. This was a first for me. My thoughts started racing.


    Was the hologram hostile towards the Market? If something was aware of the Market, it might also know how to actually hurt a reincarnator. Killing us only sent us back to the Market, but I strongly suspected that attacking our souls might do more permanent harm to us, and if the hologram was aware of the Market, we might be in genuine danger here.


    ¡°The four of you all look like six year olds, yet you¡¯re wandering around using abilities that don¡¯t belong to this dimension at all. And you don¡¯t act like six year olds at all - you act more like people in their early twenties. I mean, I guess you could be the children of Transmigrators from the Market too, but the attitude just doesn¡¯t match up.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just¡­ I mean¡­¡± I flailed around, searching for a way to explain ourselves, while the hologram simply shrugged.


    ¡°You seem afraid of me. Don¡¯t worry - I¡¯m not hostile to other transmigrators.¡±


    I blinked in surprise.


    Other transmigrators?


    ¡°How about this. Since you guys probably already know things are wrong with this setup, I¡¯ll tell you the truth. This ruin actually has a lot less to do with the ancient Zelyr than it¡¯s pretending to, and most of the ¡®historical documents here¡¯ are a sham. My creator tacked me onto the original Zelyr essence machinery, tidied things up a bit, and then added this little area into it. But unless you¡¯re interested in gathering some keyword abilities, I doubt you have much to gain here, since this is only partially a ¡®real¡¯ inheritance. The Achievement value for exploring here isn¡¯t that great, and this ruin has zero real historical value. Can you just leave and pretend this never happened? You guys go your way, and I go mine?¡±


    A few words caught my attention immediately.


    The hologram assumed that we were exploring this ruin in order to gather more Achievement. This had been the reason the four of us explored most ruins - and I had, indeed, expected to get a nice amount of Achievement for exploring this ruin as well. The fact that exploring a ¡®fake¡¯ ruin would decrease our Achievement reward was interesting, and something I would need to take note of in the future.


    However, the hologram had also hinted that it was possible to learn keyword abilities here. Keyword abilities related to manifestation essence were very desirable for one member of our party right now.


    ¡°Does this place have the ability to give me a keyword ability for manifestation essence spellcasting?¡± asked Anise. She was practically vibrating with excitement.


    The hologram turned towards Anise and seemed to study her carefully. ¡°There¡¯s one of you who wants a keyword ability? How young are you guys? Most people finish getting their keywords within the first five worlds.¡±


    I hesitated, wondering whether or not it was a good idea to tell this guy how ¡®young¡¯ we really were, at least according to Market standards.


    ¡°Nevermind, I can tell that you¡¯re new to this,¡± said the hologram, before I could even finish thinking. ¡°Well, if you want a keyword ability, this could also work for both of us. This inheritance ground is used as a place to give people some manifestation essence spellcasting. However, it¡¯s not possible for me to give you a keyword ability - there is no known way to just give someone a keyword ability, unless the Market has discovered something new since I was created. Which is unlikely. People have been searching for trillions of years for a way to expedite skill learning and evolution, and there has been a lot of progress for non-keyword abilities. But none for keyword ability sharing.¡±


    My frowned. If the Market has discovered something new since the Hologram was created? I realized that the Hologram wasn¡¯t aware of the fall of the Market. Should we tell it? I hesitated, before I decided against it.


    I wasn¡¯t sure how the hologram would react to learning its home had been destroyed, and I was afraid of it potentially managing to hurt us. Claiming that the Market had been destroyed was probably a bad idea.


    But I also felt a twinge of hope when I heard the hologram so easily refer to life in the Market before the collapse. The hologram had a chance of giving us real answers about the Market. Not pieces of information we had pieced together while rooting through half-decimated stores and ruins. We could hear information directly from before the collapse.


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    After two and a half lifetimes of looking for answers in the Market and finding nothing but scraps of information, I was ready for some more concrete information.


    However, information about the Market could come later. First, we needed to figure out Anise¡¯s magic. Anise had been hoping for a chance to be a super-witch for her entire life in our last lifetime, and while she managed to stay optimistic in this life, she did seem rather disappointed with the fact that she could only use magic missiles right now. And she was also notably behind the rest of the group in combat ability right now, which wasn¡¯t ideal.


    ¡°What specifically are these ruins designed to do?¡± Felix asked, looking curious.


    ¡°Well¡­ the original Zelyr ruins were meant to maintain a sort of¡­ pocket dimension that encapsulated the entire mountain range,¡± said the hologram. ¡°And fill it all up with manifestation essence. My creator suspects that the idea was for the ancient Zelyr to always have a homeland to fall back to, even if their empire collapsed. That being said, the whole machine doesn¡¯t seem to have ever actually worked - at least, not well enough to use. The Ancient Zelyr¡¯s understanding of pocket dimensions was pretty good for a civilization that had barely interacted with the multiverse - but it was still far from complete. So basically, the essence ¡®machinery¡¯ in these mountains are a broken machine that never actually worked.


    ¡°My creator added on the ability for this particular set of ruins to reconfigure a person¡¯s body, essentially performing a type of surgery that will let them absorb manifestation essence naturally. It will also bond someone to a Zelyrian spellcasting aid, letting them perform Zelyrian spellcasting as if they were born as a Zelyrian instead of a native of this dimension. Whenever someone shows up with an orb, I appear and offer to perform the body surgery for them¡­¡± The hologram seemed slightly embarrassed for a moment. ¡°Although I may also make my offer sound a bit more¡­ grandiose. It makes people more excited to accept the offer, you see.¡±


    I resisted the urge to snort. If there was one thing that the original of the Market seemed familiar with, it was advertising. Given how many ads we had been bombarded with over three lifetimes, I could certainly understand why.


    ¡°Why did your creator bother setting all of this up in the first place?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°It seems like an awful lot of work to go through just to help future generations.¡±


    ¡°Help people? What the¡­¡± the hologram looked at Sallia as if she had just suggested the moon was made of cheese. ¡°No! Who would bother doing something ridiculous like that? Obviously ¡­ ah, do you not know how legacy Achievement works? You are pretty new, after all, and Legacy Achievement usually requires pretty specific and resource-intense items or abilities to set up.¡± The hologram nodded to itself. ¡°All right, so what do you know about collecting Achievement once you¡¯re outside of a dimension?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ can¡¯t be done?¡± I asked. That was what the System notifications had told us, at least.


    The hologram nodded. ¡°Correct. Under normal circumstances, it can¡¯t be done. Achievement is formed from the way the mana your souls is comprised of interacts with the laws of reality. If your soul is not present, it can¡¯t interact with the laws of reality, so no Achievement is formed. But obviously, being able to collect Achievement from multiple dimensions at once would be incredibly valuable, right? So there was never a shortage of people trying to find a way around that issue. Unlike some other branches of research, this one eventually bore fruit. It was discovered that if you create a sort of ¡®dimensional anchor¡¯ to a certain dimension, you can still collect Achievement from it. These dimensional anchors can take many forms - such as a fragment of your own soul, left behind to keep the Achievement flowing.¡± the hologram grinned. ¡°But it works, and that¡¯s what matters.¡±


    I thought about the hologram¡¯s words, and then looked at the table again.


    It didn¡¯t seem to have a soul inside of it¡­ but then again, Anise had also mentioned that her eyes had picked up another creature in part of the corridor, and I hadn¡¯t been able to see its soul either. The hologram here also referred to us as ¡®young.¡¯ It was possible that there was just an item or ability shutting off my soul-sight in the area. Or I might just not be able to see soul fragments, if they were too small or hard to see.


    Unaware of my thoughts, the soul-fragment shaped like a hologram kept speaking.


    ¡°I¡¯m also still the same person as my creator - at least, sort of. So I can earn Achievement by teaching relatively strong spellcasters who then go on to influence the world, and then pass it along. After all, if I have a hand in teaching you or helping you grow stronger, a very small fraction of all future actions you take will be credited to me. It¡¯s usually not much - but if my creator just keeps leaving behind a few inheritances in every single world they come across¡­¡±


    I nodded to myself, starting to understand the point of all of this.


    Just like everything else in the Market, it came down to earning more Achievement.


    I had seen a section of our ¡®death reports¡¯ that explicitly mentioned Achievement earned from Family and Disciples. I hadn¡¯t quite been sure how to gather that type of Achievement, and since there were so many other ways to earn Achievement, I had never really focused on it. However, it seemed like there was a merit to training a few strong disciples or family members, if I could get a small cut of their earnings in the future.


    Though I wasn¡¯t sure if I had it in me to train someone just to earn Achievement. I knew myself well enough to know that unless they were terrible people, I would probably get way too attached to someone if I spent years training them. I wasn¡¯t sure if that would make it better or worse for me to earn Achievement this way, but it was something to think about in the future.


    ¡°Anyway, if you want to earn a keyword, I can help you. If not¡­ I suggest you just leave. You won¡¯t get much Achievement from exploring a fake set of ruins, and I don¡¯t really have anything to offer you outside of my intended functions.¡±


    I looked at Anise, and then looked at the talking soul fragment again.


    We had a lot to gain here. The soul fragment was also a potential goldmine of information. It seemed to have knowledge of the Market, how things worked before the Market collapsed, and had a bunch of information about earning Achievement that we never would have found anywhere else. And it could also help Anise earn her keyword ability.


    I looked at Anise, who was looking more and more eager every time the soul fragment mentioned getting a manifestation keyword ability, and grinned. I would need to keep an eye on the whole process, to make sure nothing sinister happened during the surgery. But I was looking forward to finally figuring out how the Market was supposed to work, and possibly getting some hints about how it had all collapsed.

 Chapter 201: Mana and Multiverses

    ¡°So if we were interested in taking you up on your offer, how would Anise actually go about changing her body?¡± I asked the hologram.


    The hologram looked down at the table, before glancing at Anise thoughtfully.


    ¡°To undergo the body-reshaping process, you need to lay down on the table with your head resting next to the orb. If you do that for a few minutes, the table will start the operation. It takes about an hour to finish, and afterwards, your body will naturally generate manifestation essence. You¡¯ll still need the orb to do spellcasting, and after the operation, you¡¯ll essentially be bound to the orb.


    ¡°The Zelyrian orbs were originally a kind of spellcasting focus, but the table here is designed to turn it into something more like a Market ability, where it¡¯ll let you cast spells using the Zelyrian magic system as long as you¡¯re holding the orb.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± I said, eyeing the table distrustfully. I wasn¡¯t 100% sure it was safe, even though I couldn¡¯t immediately think of a reason for the hologram to lie to us. However¡­ even if the hologram tricked us, Anise would die and then return to the Market. I didn¡¯t want to see one of my friends die - but I didn¡¯t think the hologram was lying to us, and I could probably forcibly heal Anise even if the hologram was tricking us.


    ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± I asked Anise. I still wasn¡¯t entirely sure that trusting the hologram completely was a good idea, but ultimately, this was Anise¡¯s choice, not mine.


    She nodded.


    ¡°All right then. I¡¯ll watch over you to make sure nothing funny happens,¡± I said, eyeing the hologram.


    The hologram simply nodded in acceptance of my words, and I sighed.


    Anise grinned, gave the three of us a big hug, and then laid down on the table.


    For a few seconds, nothing happened. I could see essence activating well beneath the table, but so far, nothing was directly interacting with Anise. Instead, it looked more like the table was scanning Anise. At leat so far, I didn¡¯t see anything suspicious.


    ¡°Do you mind if we ask you some questions while we wait?¡± asked Felix, after watching Anise with me for a few moments.


    ¡°Do you have other questions? Go for it,¡± said the hologram.


    ¡°What is Achievement anyway?¡± asked Felix. ¡°I mean, I know it can be used as a currency, and as a crafting material, but what is it to begin with? Where does it actually come from? Why do we earn it for doing stuff?¡±


    I was a bit surprised by Felix¡¯s question, but I nodded to myself. It was a good question, and something I had wondered often.


    ¡°Did you not attend a basic introduction to the multiverse lecture?¡± Asked the hologram, snorting. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re that expensive to attend, are they? Usually just a dozen points of Achievement or so.¡±


    I wondered whether we should discuss the collapse of the Market. The hologram seemed¡­ strangely unaware of the collapse of the Market, and I wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of that. I wasn¡¯t sure whether mentioning the fall of the Market would set the hologram off, though, so I decided not to bring the topic up for now.


    ¡°We haven¡¯t attended a lecture like that, no,¡± said Felix.


    ¡°You really are new,¡± said the hologram, sighing. ¡°All right, very, very abbreviated version of Achievement - it¡¯s mana. Kind of. It¡¯s mana in a very different form from regular mana, much like how ice is water in a strange and interesting shape. Some kinds of mana are attuned to certain ideas, like ¡®swordsmanship¡¯ or ¡®cooking.¡¯ If you do something related to that idea, mana is drawn towards you, which your soul absorbs and converts into Achievement. And to convert it from mana into Achievement, your soul also resonates a bit with the laws of reality, which helps kick-start the actual conversion process. The reasons for this are very complicated, and I actually don¡¯t know what those reasons are, because neither I nor my creator ever cared enough to figure out the deeper mechanics behind how it all works. At the end of the day, it works. That¡¯s what matters.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± said Felix, thoughtfully. ¡°Why do different dimensions seem to award different amounts of Achievement for the same action, then?¡±


    ¡°Well, the easiest way to think of a dimension is that it¡¯s like a cracked snowglobe. Inside of the snowglobe the laws of reality are different, and most of the stuff inside of the snowglobe will remain contained - but since the snowglobe is cracked, the outside world leaks into the snowglobe all the time, and stuff also leaks out. Within the ¡®snowglobe,¡¯ the amount of, say, swordsmanship mana might be a bit different from another snowglobe. But you¡¯ll still usually have a bit of swordsmanship mana drifting about in each snowglobe, the concentration is just very different.¡± The hologram smiled. ¡°Which is also where things get interesting.¡±


    The hologram¡¯s smile was getting considerably more smug each time it saw us still being confused, and I was starting to get a rather strong impression of the personality of the person who created this whole setup. They seemed to be someone who enjoyed showing off their knowledge and prestige, as far as I could tell. I wondered if this was normal for residents of the Market or not.


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    However, while Felix¡¯s questions were interesting, I felt we had more pressing concerns that I wanted to learn the answer to.


    ¡°How do we buy more lives?¡± I asked.


    ¡°You can¡¯t even figure out how to buy lives on your own?¡± the soul fragment asked, seeming genuinely baffled by my request. ¡°Just go to a ¡®life bank¡¯ and buy more,¡± said the soul fragment. ¡°It¡¯s not that complicated, is it? You can also buy them remotely once you set up a subscription service with them, although that involves a lot of teleportation fees, and you need to physically go into an office and set the whole thing up. Lives should only cost around 2,500 Achievement at base, plus any miscellaneous fees and taxes unique to you.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ miscellaneous taxes unique to us?¡± I said. I started to have a very odd feeling about this¡­


    ¡°Oh, you know. 20 Achievement for being left handed, 23 Achievement for being right-handed, 40 Achievement for being ambidextrous. 36 Achievement for being pretty, 27 Achievement for being ugly, 30 for being average¡­¡± the hologram frowned as it trailed off. ¡°Ridiculous taxes like that. Honestly, I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re all bullshit, and someone in the chain of command is using all of the ¡®unique fees¡¯ to line their own pockets using the extra money. There¡¯s no freaking way the fact that I¡¯m left-handed changes the value of a life, and I refuse to believe otherwise. After all of the fees, you¡¯ll probably be paying more like 4,000 Achievement for each life. But that¡¯s just what happens, I guess,¡± said the hologram with a sigh. ¡°There¡¯s only one place to buy lives, so what can you do?¡±


    I blinked.


    The fees that the hologram mentioned definitely didn¡¯t inspire confidence in the fairness of the Market and its systems. Lives were the one thing every transmigrator desperately needed to stay alive - so to tack on a bunch of ridiculous extra taxes left a sour taste in my mouth.


    Furthermore, the fact that it was possible to buy lives remotely, and it just wasn¡¯t an option until we set a subscription service was infuriating. I was sure that whatever had destroyed the Market had definitely set up something incredibly dangerous to prevent future transmigrators from advancing further, and that fact had been like an axe hanging over our head for decades now.


    To realize that it was an easy problem for the Market to solve, and they had simply never bothered, made me feel incredibly frustrated.


    ¡°What are lives in the first place?¡± asked Felix, as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. I sighed, and nodded gratefully at Felix. I was definitely feeling too annoyed to focus on my next question, so I went back to carefully watching Anise as the table got to work. Anise wasn¡¯t unconscious during this process, so she was avidly listening in as we questioned the hologram, although she seemed to be afraid of moving around too much, in case it messed up the table as it prepared to perform delicate magic surgery on her.


    ¡°At its heart, a ¡®life¡¯ is actually a sort of soul tether caked in spatial magic that tells the Market where you are, helps you return, and keeps your soul fresh as you¡¯re returned to the Market.¡±


    I saw Sallia nod thoughtfully, before she turned towards the hologram again, and asked quite possibly the most important question of all.


    ¡°Did the Market¡­ does the Market have any enemies?¡± She asked.


    The hologram looked thoughtful.


    ¡°Plenty. Enough that I don¡¯t know if I could name them all, honestly. Some civilizations that have started exploring the multiverse think that the way we retain memories from one life to another is incredibly unnatural. Some civilizations also fear us, because a reincarnator can always be reborn as the son or daughter of the current leader of a civilization, and then quickly take over the civilization from within. While plenty of powerful civilizations have cured aging, some haven¡¯t, and those civilizations often see us as a dangerous and sinister threat. And, of course, the other big civilizations in the Multiverse are wary of us, simply because we are the most powerful singular faction in the multiverse,¡± said the hologram.


    ¡°There are other civilizations as strong as the Market?¡± asked Felix.


    ¡°Of course. If one civilization can find a way to traverse the ocean of souls, isn¡¯t it obvious plenty of other civilizations will eventually do the same?¡± asked the hologram.


    ¡°What are they?¡± asked Felix.


    ¡°Well¡­ that¡¯s a good question,¡± said the hologram, scratching its head. ¡°To be honest, my creator left me with enough information to remember that other large civilizations exist in the Multiverse. But since it wasn¡¯t terribly relevant to farming more Achievement, I don¡¯t actually have any data on other major civilizations.¡±


    ¡°Can you contact your creator and ask for that information?¡± I asked, feeling slightly hesitant. I wasn¡¯t sure if the soul fragment in front of us would try to contact its creator, realize it was dead, and then go haywire on us - but I also desperately wanted information on who or what had destroyed the Market and why. Since they seemed intent on stifling us before we could grow, I wanted to know as much as possible about the enemy.


    ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± said the soul fragment. ¡°All I can do is keep sending Achievement to my creator until I¡¯m eventually destroyed. Since it would cut too much into the income my creator would earn from my existence, I only have access to low-quality long-distance teleportation. Most packages of Achievement I send are simply sent to the Market to be banked in my creator¡¯s account, so that he can retrieve it at his leisure later.¡±


    I sagged in disappointment. I had been hoping for insight into whatever had destroyed the Market, but the soul fragment here seemed completely unaware of the fall of the Market. Still, we had at least gotten useful information about the ¡®normal¡¯ cost of lives, as well as the nature of lives and Achievement. Felix could probably do something with that information someday.


    Felix opened his mouth to continue questioning the soul fragment in front of us, but I was instead distracted by the table Anise was laying on. It started to light up, and I realized that it had finished scanning Anise.


    I tuned out the conversation Sallia and Felix were still maintaining with the hologram, and started carefully watching Anise as manifestation essence started to swirl around her body. So far I hadn¡¯t detected any signs of foul play from the soul fragment, but I wanted to keep my eyes peeled just in case. I didn¡¯t want to be distracted while Anise¡¯s surgery progressed.

 Chapter 202: Anise Awakens

    It took nearly an hour for Anise¡¯s surgery to finish.  I spent most of that time worriedly hovering over her shoulder, but I didn¡¯t see anything sinister happen during that time.


    During the surgery, I saw a large amount of manifestation essence constantly swarm over Anise¡¯s body. It took me a few minutes to figure out exactly what was happening, but eventually, I noticed that every few seconds, a small cluster of manifestation essence would position itself over part of Anise¡¯s body, before imprinting itself into her flesh - kind of like a stamp. This seemed to gradually create a sort of¡­ secondary set of veins in her body, except that they were built to conduct essence instead of blood.


    As the surgery progressed, I was slowly able to sense trace small amounts of manifestation essence circulating throughout her body, and I could feel that Anise¡¯s body was more compatible with manifestation essence than before.


    Anise remained conscious during the entire operation, and I received constant updates from her through our friendship bracelets during the process. According to her, the process felt uncomfortably tingly, almost as if her body was unbearably itchy. But it didn¡¯t hurt, and she didn¡¯t report any other problematic sensations.


    Meanwhile, Sallia and Felix kept picking the hologram¡¯s brain for any information they thought might be useful. I didn¡¯t have the ability to focus on their conversation all of the time, since I was so focused on Anise, but I did hear a few snippets of their conversation as time passed. The hologram didn¡¯t know as much as I had been hoping it would - a lot of information that wasn¡¯t related to its purpose just wasn¡¯t in its memory bank. It seemed more like the soul fragment had very patchy memories about things that weren¡¯t related to its purpose of farming more Achievement.


    However, even though its knowledge was very patchy, it still had some rather useful tidbits of information. Since I was only half-listening, I would need to pick Sallia and Felix¡¯s brain later to get caught up. But it sounded like the hologram knew a bit about the innate nature of mana and Achievement, as well as the statistics for what kinds of worlds were most common in the Multiverse. And it also remembered with absolute certainty that there were other massive, super-civilizations in the Multiverse beyond just the Market - although the Market had apparently been the most impressive of them all, at least as far as the soul fragment remembered.


    Finally, after an hour of straining my eyes and essence-senses to detect even the slightest hint of malice in Anise¡¯s surgery, the table shut itself off. Anise kept laying down and staying as still as possible, as if waiting for anything else to happen - but nothing did. The table had already finished its work.


    Anise sat up, nearly rolling off of the table, and I caught her before she could topple over.


    ¡°Anise, are you feeling all right?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I feel fine,¡± she said, after a moment. ¡°My legs feel a little different, but it¡¯s not bad. It¡¯s like¡­ you know how our joints, muscles, and bones all feel subtly different when we return to the Market? It¡¯s kind of like that. I can feel like my balance is different from before. But it¡¯s not a bad thing, I think I just need a few minutes to adjust.¡±


    ¡°Several of the muscles in your body were slightly adjusted, specifically to make room for the mana circuits,¡± said the hologram. ¡°It¡¯s normal to feel a bit unsteady for an hour or two after the process. It should clear up if you just walk it off.¡±


    Anise nodded, and then eyed the orb in the center of the table. She hesitated for a moment, and then reached out and grabbed it. And then, Anise started grinning.


    ¡°It feels different!¡± She said. ¡°I don¡¯t feel too different when I¡¯m on my own, but¡­ when I hold the orb, I can feel my body gathering manifestation essence a lot faster than it did, even during our previous life.¡±


    ¡°You can sense that?¡± The hologram nodded to itself. ¡°Your senses for manifestation essence must be quite acute. Were you four added to the Market naturally, instead of being given a ticket to the Market?¡±


    ¡°There are tickets to the Market?¡± asked Felix.


    ¡°Of course. Most users are added when someone else pays their way. You can buy a ticket for about a hundred thousand Achievement and give it to pretty much anyone you feel like adding to the Market. You also get a 20% cut of whatever they make for the rest of eternity, so plenty of people scour the multiverse looking for talents to add to the system. But people who are innately talented in an essence don¡¯t need a ticket - the Market just manually adds them in.¡± The hologram shrugged. ¡°I believe naturally talented people make up around 0.5% of the Market¡¯s population? I don¡¯t remember the exact statistic, but I think it was somewhere around there. Not rare, but nowhere near the majority of people.¡±


    Felix and the hologram started discussing the intricacies of Market tickets, and while this topic normally would have been of critical interest to me, right now I was more focused on Anise.


    Anise wobbled a few more times, before she turned towards the wall, held up her orb, and fired a magic missile. The manifestation essence flowed through her entire body, instead of just her arm - and the power of her magic missile was also notably increased. Her magic missile slammed into the wall with nearly double the force it had previously had, much to Ansie¡¯s delight.


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    The hologram critically eyed Anise, before nodding to itself.


    ¡°The surgery went well,¡± it said. ¡°She should now be able to use manifestation essence spellcasting, much like one of the ancient Zelyr. Biologically, she¡¯s now pretty similar to them.¡± The hologram paused. ¡°It IS worth noting that she will need to use their spellcasting system. Regardless of whatever other manifestation essence magic systems you¡¯ve encountered in the past, your surgery is intended to make you a proper manifestation essence user from the Zelyrian magic system. If you want to maximize the benefits, you should focus on that.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any instruction manuals or lessons to give Anise about ancient Zelyr spellcasting?¡± I asked.


    The hologram actually looked offended. ¡°Of course I do. What do think the point of this whole setup would be if I couldn¡¯t provide that much?¡± The hologram gestured towards one of the bookshelves to the side of the room. ¡°Those are books on Zelyrian spellcasting. If you don¡¯t understand some of the words in the books, ask me for help, or any scholar of the ancient Zelyr language. But in all honesty, it¡¯s not that hard to translate Ancient Zelyr to modern languages. These people conquered most of the continent back in their day, after all, and they weren¡¯t shy about enforcing their language and culture on this dimension¡¯s natives after conquest.¡± the hologram said. ¡°Most modern languages on this continent are some derivative of Ancient Zelyrian.¡±


    I nodded. Learning a new language was going to be annoying, but I had an Intelligence stat of Grade 8 after all of my runes and Sallia¡¯s ramen bowl were factored together. It would reach Grade 9 when I finally maxed out the stats from the ramen. Learning a new language, especially one that closely resembled my current language, should prove much easier for me than for a regular person. I turned towards Anise, who was still experimentally taking steps, wobbling around, and grinning as she felt the manifestation essence coursing through her body.


    Anise turned to look at me, and seemed to see what I was thinking. She shook her head.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do it, Miria. This should be my journey.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure? It¡¯ll be easier for me to learn a new language, and I don¡¯t mind doing all of the translating work for you. It might be faster if I do it.¡±


    Anise shook her head, and then gave me a quick hug.


    ¡°I want to do it myself,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t mind accepting help when it¡¯s something I can¡¯t do at all, or when I want to catch up - but I think that these steps should be taken by me. If I always rely on you three for help, I won¡¯t ever be able to stand on my own. I should put in the time and effort to make my own path forward. Besides, maybe doing all of the translating work on my own might make forming a keyword ability easier,¡± said Anise.


    The hologram actually nodded at Anise¡¯s words. ¡°Her doing all of the translating on her own will help her with a few forms of Achievement, depending on what she¡¯s planning to do. And it¡¯s definitely more important if she wants to get a keyword ability, which is where dumping all of the Achievement into one person can be the most important. If you just want to share Achievement with each other, it¡¯s really easy, but there¡¯s no way to share keyword abilities,¡± said the hologram. I nodded in response. We had already discovered just how easy it was to share Achievement with each other when Felix had lent me Achievement last time we were in the Market. Letting Anise go off completely on her own felt¡­ strange to me. I wanted to help my friends any way I could, but doing nothing felt harder than doing something.


    At that thought, I sighed. Perhaps Anise was right. I really was trying to coddle her a bit too much.


    ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± I said.


    Anise grinned, and gave me a quick hug before she strode to the bookshelf, took one and cracked it open. A moment later, she blushed, and turned back towards me.


    ¡°Umm¡­ I know I just said that I wanted to do things on my own, but you¡¯re the only one with a dimensional storage. Could you¡­¡±


    I chuckled. ¡°Of course.¡± I left Anise to scan the book she had chosen, and started stuffing the rest of the bookshelf into my dimensional backpack. I noticed that the moment I shoved the last book into my backpack, a hole in the wall appeared, and a few tentacles sprang out of the small holes in the wall. I saw a pair of eyes that seemed massive staring at me through the holes in the wall.


    My eyes widened in shock, and I started preparing an extinguish, before the hologram interrupted me.


    ¡°That¡¯s just Bessie. She¡¯s¡­ some sort of creature left behind by the Zelyr. Quite a bit more intelligent than most of their creations, though.¡± The hologram actually smiled fondly. ¡°She¡¯s quite a nice creature, if a bit hard to understand. My creator had a hard time communicating with her. She helps restock the books.¡±


    I stared at the massive pair of eyes looking back at me through the hole in the wall, and noticed that the creature had made no moves to actually hurt me.


    Anise looked at the hole in the wall with curiosity.


    ¡°I think that¡¯s the creature I saw from the entrance,¡± Anise said.


    ¡°Oh? You noticed Old Bessie?¡± said the hologram. ¡°You must have a rather unique and specific type of vision. Most of the more standard types of vision, and even the more esoteric ones, are largely shut off in this sub-dimension.¡±


    Anise simply nodded and went back to looking at the book she had picked up.


    I relaxed a bit, and the tentacles on the other side of the walls started shoving a few books back onto the shelves. They were exact copies of the books that we had taken.


    ¡°Well, I believe that¡¯s everything,¡± said the hologram, after a few moments. ¡°Please do your best to earn Achievement and change the world, I suppose? Not that I need to encourage you to do that. You¡¯ll do it on your own if you want a keyword ability. Good luck, and please don¡¯t die until you accomplish a lot. I¡¯m hoping to send my next packet of Achievement to my real body sometime soon, and you dying would definitely get in the way of that.¡±


    With that, the hologram disappeared.


    After that, the four of us packed up our things and left the sub-dimension. We returned to our campsite, where we found Old Mo still waiting for our return.


    Which reminded me that we still wanted to pretend that Anise had acquired her powers while on this expedition. Since our parents were still asleep, I confirmed that Anise still wanted to go with our previous plan. Then, I pulled Old Mo aside, and started talking with him about Anise and her powers.


    It was time to put on a show for Anise¡¯s parents.

 Chapter 203: The Old Market

    With Old Mo on board with helping us set up Anise¡¯s ¡®ability potion,¡¯ the four of us went to bed for the night. Anise quietly crawled back into the tent with her parents, Sallia did the same, and I quietly tended to my mother, who, according to Old Mo, had stirred a few times during the night, but hadn¡¯t erupted into a full on withdrawal seizure - although it seemed like she might, if a few more hours passed. After returning to the tent I shared with my mother and Felix, I immediately dumped a bunch of healing magic into her.


    After that, I laid down and got ready to sleep for night, but a few thoughts started to intrude into my mind as I prepared to go to sleep. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if Old Mo knew we were hiding things, or if he knew anything about the rest of the Multiverse.


    I wouldn¡¯t have considered it before we had entered the ruins, but now that we had seen someone else from the Market on this world. If one person from the Market had set up an ¡®inheritance¡¯ on a planet we had visited, perhaps other people from the Market had done the same? I found myself wondering if people from less dimensionally aware worlds might still be aware of the Market. And if they were aware of the Market, I wondered how hard it would be for them to put two and two together if they observed us for long enough. Old Mo certainly knew that something was weird about us, and he had also spent nearly two years acting almost like a parent for me. If anyone was in a position to put everything together, it was him.


    Of course, there was also a good chance that Old Mo didn¡¯t know anything about the greater Multiverse at all. I had no idea what the governments of this world knew about other dimensions, and I only had my speculation and imagination to go off of. It was food for thought, though.


    Eventually, after thinking about the Market and Old Mo for nearly an hour, I gave up on getting to sleep. I just couldn¡¯t turn my brain off and go to sleep for the night.


    <Are you guys awake?> I asked through the communication bracelets.


    <I¡¯m still awake,> said Sallia, after a few moments.


    <I am too,> said Felix, wriggling slightly on the other side of the tent to let me know he was awake.


    <What do you guys think this world knows about the Multiverse?> I asked, after a few moments.


    <I doubt they know anything, at least based off of the conversation we had with the Soul Fragment. It sounds like the Market wasn¡¯t very open about information on the greater Multiverse, or at least the owner of the soul fragment wasn¡¯t,> said Felix. <Though I suppose the governments of this world might have figured something out, if they studied the manifestation essence artifacts for long enough. Who knows what explanation they cooked up for why it uses a different essence than the one they¡¯re familiar with?>


    I hesitated, and then sighed, and nodded. It didn¡¯t sound like Sallia or Felix could put my worries to rest. I hesitated for a moment, before I changed the topic a bit.


    <So did you guys learn anything useful from the soul fragment?> I asked the two. I hadn¡¯t been able to tune into the conversation as much as I might have liked, since I had been so focused on Anise. I had still heard a few snatches of conversation between them, though, and was more than a little eager to know what Felix and Sallia had managed to figure out. Even if it was in a fragmented form, this was the first time we had actually been able to talk with a real member of the Market, since the Market itself was in ruins.


    I was more than a little excited to know what information the two had managed to dig out.


    <The thing we learned the most about was the fact that the Market wasn¡¯t¡­ very nice during its heyday,> said Sallia. Even though I couldn¡¯t see her face, I could almost hear her frowning. <Some of the stories the soul fragment shared about the Market¡¯s actions were¡­ disturbing.>


    I frowned.


    <How bad did it get?> I asked.


    <Well¡­ none of us have ever thought about this before, and I don¡¯t think we should in the future, but¡­ have you ever considered exactly what the optimal way to farm Influence Achievement is?> asked Sallia.


    <Take part in big events?> I asked.


    <Well, that¡¯s what we¡¯ve been doing, and that is one way to farm Influence Achievement,> said Sallia. <But there are other, worse ways to get access to more Influence Achievement. If you are strong enough to become a big event, for example, you don¡¯t need to go searching for opportunities to make the world a better place or historical events to take part in. Instead, you can just force the rest of the planet to take notice of you, because they have no choice,> said Sallia.


    <How?> I wasn¡¯t quite sure where Sallia was going with this yet, but a certain suspicion was starting to form in my gut. One I was very much hoping was not accurate.


    <Apparently, one of the best ways to farm Influence Achievement is to utterly wipe out all life on the surface of a planet,> said Felix. <Completely and utterly murder everyone alive on the planet and turn it into a pile of lifeless ash and rock. You get plentiful slaughter and Influence Achievement, you usually improve your skills a decent amount during the fighting, and you also get some excellent keyword abilities out of fighting an entire planet and winning. It wasn¡¯t encouraged by the Market, even during the Market¡¯s heyday - but there were also no measures taken to stop people from wiping out planets, as long as it didn¡¯t happen too frequently.>


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    I froze.


    I felt sick.


    Had the Market done that in the past? Part of me hoped they hadn¡¯t, and that it was all a misunderstanding of some sort.


    At the same time, part of me knew that the Market of the past would have done practically anything to get more Achievement. Even wiping out a planet didn¡¯t seem very surprising, when I thought about some of the other records that we had recovered from the Market. My time constantly dying and reincarnating had started to warp my perception of life and death a bit - after all, I knew exactly what was coming after we died, and I didn¡¯t find death to be quite as tragic as I might have in the past. But I still retained enough of my original moral compass to believe killing innocent people was wrong. But I could see how, after dozens of lives, people¡¯s understanding of death might get very twisted. Combined with the constant desire to improve profit margins, it all made a twisted kind of sense.


    <There are other ways to farm Achievement too. They aren¡¯t¡­ well, I¡¯m not sure if I consider them better or worse than wiping out a planet just to farm more money,> said Felix. <They¡¯re¡­ I don¡¯t think you would be happy knowing about them. But they exist. I¡¯ll just say¡­ the things that some of the bigger corporations of the Market did to farm Achievement were very twisted. And some of the individuals with more twisted personalities copied them. Not everyone was like that - there were plenty of decent people in the Market as well. But some of the things that happened were pretty messed up.>


    I fell silent after that. I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to respond, and I definitely didn¡¯t want to think about any atrocities committed by the old Market.


    As if sensing my disquiet, after a few minutes, Felix got up, walked over to me, and gave me a quick hug, before patting me on the shoulder.


    <Just because the old Market did some bad things doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re responsible for it, Mir. We just need to keep an eye out for our own actions in the future, to make sure we don¡¯t ever become like them,> said Felix.


    That was the end of my questions about the Market for the night. Sallia and Felix had probably learned other things about the old Market from conversing with the hologram, but I wasn¡¯t ready to hear it yet.


    It took many more hours for my restless thoughts to finally calm down enough for me to drift off to sleep.


    * * *


    The next day, as the group began moving again, I found my thoughts turning over what we had learned about the Market. Anise had been asleep while the three of us had talked, and I hesitated a lot when thinking about what to say to her. I eventually decided to wait until Anise had made some progress in her magic studies before broaching the topic. Anise was so, so excited to finally have access to magic again - she was practically bouncing as we walked through the mountain. I didn¡¯t want the information we had gathered to put a damper on her mood, so I would wait a bit before broaching the topic.


    For now, I didn¡¯t mention it to Anise, and also did my best to put it out of my mind. Regardless of whatever the Market had done during its heyday, it was destroyed now. What mattered was keeping my friends alive. The Market¡¯s actions could be processed later, when we had our own existence as transmigrators figured out. I had people I cared about, and they mattered much more to me than whatever the Market had done hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of years ago.


    That night, after our group settled down to make camp once again, we once snuck out of camp - although this time, Old Mo left with us, while Sallia stayed behind to tend the fire and make sure that nothing dangerous attacked our parents while we slept.


    Old Mo helped us set the stage for a very ¡®lucky¡¯ find, by helping us find a rather out of the way place, and then helping us create a ¡®corpse¡¯ of a scout from the Coalition army. Which, of course, ¡®Felix¡¯ created by practicing how to create an illusion and stick it to a pile of rocks. Since Felix¡¯s ability was supposed to be related to mental communication, I didn¡¯t think illusions were too out of whack for Felix to be able to employ - and as long as we kept pretending that Felix was doing everything, I could use my illusions in plain sight, which might be important in the future. Old Mo gave all three of us a curious glance once Felix asked Old Mo to coach him on what a coalition scout¡¯s campsite should look like. This only deepened my suspicion that Old Mo knew something was up - but now that I knew what I did about the Market, I was more hesitant to broach the topic with him. If Old Mo knew what the Old Market had done, would he be afraid of us, if he knew we were also from the Market? I found myself worried about Old Mo¡¯s opinion of me in a way I had never been worried before.


    I did my best to keep putting it out of my mind, as Old Mo slowly coached ¡®Felix¡¯ through how to create an illusion of a Coalition army scout. The coalition army was composed of several different nations working together, so Old Mo opted to coach ¡®Felix¡¯ on setting up an Ennalian scout camp, since they were the backbone of the coalition army. Old Mo seemed to know every detail of what their uniforms and campsites should look like, from what kind of tent they used to what an Ennalian Scout¡¯s campfire looked like.


    Of course, Felix didn¡¯t actually do much of anything during Old Mo¡¯s coaching. Instead, I quietly warped nearby rocks, plants, and patches of snow by plastering illusions on top of them, all to create the illusion of a ruined Ennalian scout camp.


    Once I was done dressing up the campsite, we stuck an ¡®ability potion¡¯ into the pockets of teh ¡®corpse¡¯ - as well as Anise¡¯s orb, and a few books from the ruin. Old Mo¡¯s background as an assassin lent a lot of his words some level of credence, especially when it came to more valuable objects such as ability potions. So the plan was for Old Mo to verify it was a real ability potion, before giving it to Anise.


    Of course, the ¡®ability potion¡¯ was actually just colored water, but after drinking it, Anise would be able to openly use her magic missiles, and we would also have an excuse for Anise to openly carry her orb and magic books around.


    With the orb and books added to the campsite as well, it would look like the scout had been trying to get Zelyrian artifacts and send them back to the coalition, and had frozen to death before returning home. At least, that was the hope.


    With everything set up, we returned to camp, and prepared for our big discovery the next day - as well as the chance to finally get Anise the ability to use her potions out in the open.

 Chapter 204: Sleight of Hand

    The next morning, we set out on our journey, as usual. We still had quite a bit of territory to cover before we even left Verne, and we wanted to be away from the coalition army and the Vernese army as quickly as possible.


    As planned, Old Mo led us closer and closer to the campsite of the ¡®scout¡¯ we had found, until after half an hour of walking, we were nearly upon the site we had set up. Old Mo discreetly winked at me, and I smiled back at him.


    Felix pretended to squint in concentration, out of the view of Anise¡¯s parents, but fully in view of Old Mo. Just to make sure the story that Felix was the illusionist was maintained, although I was really starting to wonder if Old Mo knew that something was off about us. After Felix started squinting, Old Mo raised an eyebrow at us in a way that felt very accusatory, and I had a very hard time maintaining a poker face after that.


    Either way, the parents seemed surprised when our group stumbled upon the burnt-out husk of an old camp, complete with the remnants of a long-ruined bonfire, a pack full of frostbitten supplies, and a tent that seemed likely to collapse under its own weight - as well as the corpse of a scout from the coalition army.


    Anise¡¯s father looked at the dead soldier with a strange expression on his face. For a moment, it looked almost like fear - before it slowly morphed into curiosity, and then a mixture of relief and sadness. Finally, he simply sighed.


    ¡°He¡¯s already dead.¡± Anise¡¯s father kept looking at the corpse of the scout for several seconds, as if lost in thought.


    I looked at Anise¡¯s father in curiosity. The man¡¯s feelings about finding a corpse seemed oddly mixed. Perhaps he felt relief that we wouldn¡¯t fight, and sadness that he was happy to find a human corpse? I wasn¡¯t able to completely understand the man¡¯s feelings, but I could still sympathize with how much of his life must have been thrown away for him to come this far.


    And in contrast to the mixed feelings of Anise¡¯s father, Old Mo looked at the campsite and simply grinned. Part of me suspected that even if Old Mo didn¡¯t know the campsite was completely fake, he wouldn¡¯t have been too worried about finding a human corpse. Instead, Old Mo simply examined our surroundings, as if checking for any other coalition army members, and then moved into the campsite.


    ¡°I¡¯ll check to see if there¡¯s anything useful,¡± he said, as he started carefully rifling through the illusory supplies I had prepared. Old Mo made a show of checking everything over, before his eyes lit up, and he pulled out a small, half-frozen glass vial. The liquid inside was a very faint blue color, and looked¡­ well, kind of like someone had crushed a few of the purple berries that grew in this area and then tossed it into a vial of water.


    Which was exactly what I had done.


    Old Mo squinted at it, tapped the glass several times, and then carefully held it up to the light.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s an ability potion,¡± he said.


    ¡°Is it¡­ real?¡± asked Anise¡¯s father, frowning. At the same time, Anise¡¯s father seemed¡­ excited. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t the scout have drank the ability potion? Why keep it?¡±


    ¡°Maybe he already had an ability,¡± said Old Mo, with a shrug. Then, Old Mo found the orb and old Zelyrian books, and shrugged. ¡°Could have also recovered the ability potion from wherever he got these. Hard to say.¡±


    From the corner of my eye, I also saw Sallia¡¯s parents start to eye the potion with an unhealthy amount of interest as Old Mo talked about the ¡®ability potion¡¯ in greater detail.


    ¡°If that¡¯s the case¡­ who gets it?¡± asked Sallia¡¯s father, eyeing the potion.


    I frowned, before nodding to myself.


    I admittedly hadn¡¯t thought about fighting over the ¡®ability potion¡¯ quite as much as I should have. I was much more used to the dynamic of the four of us, where none of us really fought over objects. If something was more useful for one of us, the rest of us were usually fine with stepping down and letting the others take it. After all, we were a team, and we would ultimately live and die with each other in the future. We trusted each other enough and cared about each other enough to yield items to each other the moment it seemed reasonable to do so. But Sallia¡¯s parents, Anise¡¯s parents, and my mother weren¡¯t really a team. They barely knew each other. The only thing bringing them together was a mutual desire to escape the coalition army and Vernese conscription. They had no reason to yield items to each other if they wanted something.


    <I messed up, guys!> I sent through the communication bracelets.


    <My parents seem pretty interested in the ability potion,> said Sallia, frowning. <I guess it makes sense. My parents are essentially disempowered factory workers who lived in the slums. If they can find a way to get out of their crappy life circumstances, I can see why they would be desperate to take it. The fact that the ability potion isn¡¯t real poses a bit of a problem to their plan¡­>


    Before we could continue debating how to proceed forward, Old Mo stepped in.


    He looked at Sallia¡¯s parents, and shook his head. ¡°I said it might be real. It also might be poisonous, or acidic, or something else entirely. In other words, to safely drink it, you need to either have some identify it, or have Miria willing to heal you up if things go wrong.¡± He turned towards me. ¡°Miria, are you confident that you can heal poison or any problems that might arise from drinking an unknown liquid?¡±


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    I nodded. ¡°I can heal anything that isn¡¯t mental in nature. I can even regrow limbs if they¡¯re cut off. I¡¯m very confident in my ability to handle a poison, as long as it doesn¡¯t instantly kill you.¡± Old Mo actually gave me a thoughtful expression after that statement, before he shrugged and concentrated on the ability potion again.


    I saw Sallia¡¯s father eye me a bit more intensely than before as well.


    ¡°Wait, can you really restore lost limbs?¡± asked Sallia¡¯s father.


    ¡°Do you want me to restore a lost limb?¡± I asked, surprised. Most people in this world seemed pretty attached to their prosthetic limbs. Even though they cost binding essence to move around, unlike regular limbs, prosthetic limbs were much stronger and sturdier than real limbs. There were definite advantages to them to make up for the essence costs.


    I took another look at Sallia¡¯s father, and once again noticed his missing arm. The prosthetic he had used to replace it was rather¡­ scrappy. With how low quality it was, it probably didn¡¯t get most of the benefits of a real prosthetic arm, and also probably cost quite a bit of essence to move around. When I thought about that, I could see why he was interested in regrowing his arm.


    ¡°I could help you regrow your arm, if you want,¡± I said. ¡°But this ability potion is Anise¡¯s. I won¡¯t heal anyone else who drinks it.¡±


    ¡°Anise¡¯s?¡± Sallia¡¯s father actually looked dumbstruck for a moment, before he glanced at Sallia, Felix, and I.


    I nodded. ¡°Anise is the only one of us who doesn¡¯t have an ability. She should get one.¡± It wasn¡¯t the most sound argument - but then again, I was six years old. I felt that I could get away with fudging a ¡®real¡¯ argument this time if I relied on my status as the group¡¯s healer.


    I felt a bit bad holding healing over people¡¯s heads to get my way, but at the same time, this was just a glass of water and fruit juice. Drinking it wouldn¡¯t give anyone an ability at all. It would just give Anise an excuse for using her abilities.


    Sallia¡¯s father frowned at my words, before eyeing the potion again.


    Then, Sallia¡¯s father turned towards Old Mo. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s a good idea to let a kid drink an ability potion?¡±


    Old Mo shrugged. ¡°Childhood is the best time to drink a potion. I drank mine when I was¡­ twelve? The longer you have your ability, the more time you have to train with it and get used to it. Besides, I don¡¯t want to piss off the healer who¡¯s keeping frostbite away from all of us,¡± he said, raising an eyebrow. ¡°The only real problem is that we don¡¯t know what ability is contained inside the potion, and you only get one  chance at drinking an ability potion. If you don¡¯t like the ability, you won¡¯t get a chance to change it later on. One ability per person, no exceptions. But frankly, most people never get a chance to drink an ability potion in their lifetime. And if you really hate an ability, you can just not use it.¡±


    I blinked in surprise. So people could only have one ability in this dimension? I hadn¡¯t actually thought to check that before. I had known that each potion granted someone one ability, and so I had only pretended to have one ability - after all, the odds of us finding three different ability potions was already really low. Finding six or seven would have been even weirder.


    But apparently, I needed to pretend to only have healing for the rest of my life, because there was apparently no way to get a second ability here. That was something I hadn¡¯t thought about until now either.


    I was glad I had pretended to have a healing ability. If I was stuck using only one ability in public, I definitely didn¡¯t mind that one ability being healing.


    Old Mo¡¯s words also let me confirm something else. Old Mo did have an ability. He had gotten it at the age of twelve. That made me wonder why Old Mo had qualified for an ability potion at such a young age. He couldn¡¯t have been an assassin at that time¡­ right? There was probably a long story behind that statement.


    Sallia¡¯s father eyed the potion, looked at me again, and then sighed.


    ¡°All right, Miria. You want Anise to drink the potion?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°But don¡¯t you think that it would be a better idea to have one of the adults drink it? After all, we might run into more scary soldiers in the future, and having an adult who knows how to use an ability is more willing to step up and fight might-¡±


    ¡°I want Anise to use it. I trust her more.¡± I said, cutting him off. I actually sympathized a bit with Sallia¡¯s parents, but I wasn¡¯t going to budge.


    ¡°Are you sure-¡±


    ¡°Anise is drinking the potion. End of discussion.¡± I said.


    Before Sallia¡¯s father could badger me any further, Old Mo quickly handed the potion to Anise, who downed it in seconds, while I tossed a few drops of water at her and started making a show of trying to heal her.


    A few moments passed, as Anise blinked a few times in confusion, and then she grinned, and used a single magic missile. It flew out of her hand, and slammed into a nearby pile of snow with a force only slightly inferior to a bullet.


    ¡°Some sort of¡­ force manipulation bolt? Or a bolt of pure energy?¡± asked Old Mo, sounding more confused than anything else.


    I frowned. Did this world not have any ability similar to ¡®magic missile?¡¯


    Old Mo seemed a little baffled, and looked at Felix, Sallia, and I for confirmation. ¡°I¡¯ve¡­ never heard of an ability potion like that. It¡¯s sort of similar to lightning or fire ability potions, but it seems¡­ unique,¡± he said.


    I tried not to squirm under Old Mo¡¯s scrutiny. I definitely felt like he was starting to confirm that something was up.


    A few moments later, Old Mo sighed, and shook his head slightly at me. I realized that I was going to have some explaining to do that night when we settled down for camp, and I wasn¡¯t sure if I was comfortable lying to Old Mo.


    For the second time since our journey had started, it was time to tell someone else about the Market and the greater Multiverse.


    For now, though, Old Mo simply shrugged.


    ¡°The orb and the books are probably Zelyrian artifacts, but the books don¡¯t seem that impressive. The orb also seems to be a bit broken. I doubt either is very valuable.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s father eyed the orb and the books, before he shrugged. After hearing Old Mo say they were broken, he didn¡¯t seem terribly interested in them.


    ¡°Do you want to read over them? Maybe they¡¯ll explain a bit about the ability potion you just drank.¡±


    Anise nodded.


    Old Mo tossed them at Anise, and then our group set off again.

 Chapter 205: The Lost

    With Anise¡¯s orb and ability potion sorted out, the group continued traveling. Sallia¡¯s father seemed a bit upset over the ¡®loss¡¯ of the ability potion, but he seemed to be willing to put it behind him and keep moving forward. Soon, our journey returned to an endless set of footsteps as we marched through the cold of the mountains.


    After several hours of travel, we hadn¡¯t come across any other anomalies, and Old Mo quickly found a spot for us to camp for the night.


    After almost everyone settled down for the night, Old Mo volunteered to maintain the campfire for the first hour or two after everyone else went to bed. As he did so, he also eyed from the side. I felt a strange mixture of anxiety and eagerness in my stomach - I realized that Old Mo wanted to talk to me.


    That was for the best. I also wanted to talk to Old Mo.


    I waited a few minutes, as everyone settled down for the night and I dumped some healing mana into my mother¡¯s comatose form. Then, I got up, and made my way back out of the tent and towards the campfire. There, I saw Old Mo, sitting on a tree stump as he tended to the campfire.


    I walked over to him and sat down. Old Mo poked and prodded at the campfire a few times as I scooted closer to him..


    Old Mo seemed lost in his thoughts as he stared at the campfire, and I didn¡¯t interrupt him. Finally, he turned towards me, before he instead looked up at the stars.


    I opened my mouth to speak, and then hesitated again. Old Mo might already know something was ¡®off¡¯ about the four of us.


    Did he know that we were from the Market?


    Probably not, unless he already knew about the greater multiverse. That seemed unlikely, since we hadn¡¯t found any evidence of the natives of this dimension knowing about the greater multiverse. But he still probably knew something was wrong. And I felt bad lying to him when he had done so much to take care of me.


    But before I could say anything, Old Mo sighed.


    ¡°Did I ever tell you why I got out of the assassination business?¡± asked Old Mo.


    I blinked in surprise, and then mutely shook my head.


    I had wondered a lot of things about Old Mo¡¯s past, especially after a group of soldiers had chased after us and mentioned Old Mo¡¯s past as an assassin. But I had never asked about any of it. I had felt that Old Mo would tell me when he was comfortable telling me about his past - and if he didn¡¯t tell me, that was also his right.


    ¡°I started out as a rich kid. I must have been¡­ what, eighteen? When my family was murdered by Ennalians during a war.¡± Old Mo sighed. ¡°It¡¯s blurrier than I wish it were. You¡¯d think that I would never remember the loss of my family. That the date would be etched into my mind like a brand that I could never forget. The day isn¡¯t what I remember. It¡¯s the feeling I had when I learned what had happened and saw their corpses. Everything else in my memory surrounding that day seems as blurry as snow in a fog bank, but I remember the moment I learned they were dead as clearly as cut crystal.¡± Old Mo stopped for a moment, before he turned away from the stars and towards me again. ¡°Do you remember when I told you that the continent goes to war again every decade or two?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s where things started. Ennalia and Verne started yet another foolish war when I was fifteen. My family was an important supplier of brass prosthetics at the time - we had a lot of connections with the Vernese military, since we supplied most soldier hand and leg replacements and upgrades. Factories were just starting to make a big impact on the world and production, but my family was one of the first merchant families to jump headlong into the new age. We managed to rig together a factory that produced prosthetics at a rate no normal alchemy workshop could match up with. The technology wasn¡¯t complex enough to put absolutely everything together - but we were able to put together a lot of pieces in a factory, and then get an alchemist to do the last bits of welding.¡± Old Mo laughed bitterly.


    ¡°The Ennalians didn¡¯t appreciate my family¡¯s contribution to the war effort. The front lines of the war that year kept moving back and forth. Verne mostly had a decisive military advantage at the time, because Verne was the birthplace of the industrial revolution and Ennalia hadn¡¯t really started investing in factories yet. So Verne kept pushing the Ennalians back - but the front lines overextended due to how easy victories on the battlefield came for Verne. The generals of Verne were probably used to deadlocked war fronts with Ennalia, and so when they the new rifles and mass-produced artillery and grapeshot cannons punched through Ennalian lines, they overcommitted the troops. The supply lines couldn¡¯t keep up, and for a month or two, the front lines didn¡¯t have enough food or ammunition. During that month, Ennalia managed to push Verne back quite a bit, and even gained some ground. Including the that my family lived in and where all of our factories were located. The Ennalian military executed all of my family members for supporting the war efforts of Verne, along with a lot of other economic producers.¡± Old Mo snorted, a mixture of anger and bitterness creeping into his tone. ¡°I bet they were trying to intimidate other factory owners in Verne - not that it really accomplished much. I wasn¡¯t in the city at the time, thankfully - I was in the capital. But when I learned that the city fell, I feared the worst. When Verne took the city back, I found my family¡¯s graves. I lost everything during that war. My mother and father, my big brother, all of my family¡¯s property¡­¡± Old Mo sighed. ¡°I was so angry. I joined the military, and I did very well. I was recommended for the sharpshooter squad less than a year into my service - which is quite rare. Usually it takes three years of service to get recommended as a sharpshooter. By the time the next war started, I had been determined to have a lot of useful talents, and so I was offered a position as an Assassin of Verne. I gladly took it. I wanted the Ennalians to pay. And for a while, that went well. I got rid of a lot of Ennalian smaller leaders - I even managed to track down the commander who ordered my family¡¯s execution. I killed him.¡±


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    Old Mo sighed. ¡°Things changed when I met a girl. I was in my late twenties at the time, and I was getting a bit old for a marriage. Most people get married around 20, maybe even in their late teens. So I had thought love just wasn¡¯t for me. She was Ennalian. I met her while I was infiltrating a city. As I got to know her better, I was quite smitten.¡± Old Mo sighed again, and this sigh carried the weight of a lifetime of regret.


    ¡°I was too afraid to say anything about what I really was. I was Vernese, and she was Ennalian. Our countries have been at war again and again for centuries now. There¡¯s enough bad blood between the two sides to drown a continent. But maybe we could have worked through it.¡± Old Mo grimaced. ¡°Instead, I was a coward. I didn¡¯t say anything. I was content to talk with her whenever she would have me around. I was happy spending time with her. She was happy spending time with me. She hinted once or twice that she wouldn¡¯t mind something happening between us, but I was always afraid to push our relationship into more serious territory. I wanted to find the perfect way to tell her about my past, but I could never find the words. Or the courage.¡± Old Mo reached for his belt, and for a moment, I blinked in confusion as I saw his hand snatch at empty air.


    He seemed surprised, and then chuckled. ¡°No alcohol anymore. I quit a long time ago.¡± He shook his head. ¡°She got killed by one of the other Vernese assassins in the city after we had been courting for half a year. She wasn¡¯t even a target - she was just a bystander. The Vernese assassin in question stuck a bomb to a carriage, and it blew up, killing the target and a few bystanders. Mary was just¡­ unlucky. She was on the same street, and a few pieces of shrapnel embedded themselves in her skull. Probably killed her instantly. At least she didn¡¯t suffer.¡± Old Mo¡¯s face was the color of stagnant water at the bottom of the ocean, inky black and stained with the weight of fallen remnants of the past, laying like rotting carcasses in a void that would never hold light. ¡°That was the day I stopped working as an assassin. I¡¯ve never, for a single day, not regretted that I didn¡¯t take her up on her hints before that day. Every single day, I think about what I could have done differently. How many chances I had to change the outcome of that day. How things might have turned out differently. Maybe if I had taken her up on her offer, we could have moved to another country, or even another continent. I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s too late to think about it now.¡± Old Mo laughed bitterly.


    ¡°She looked a lot like you, you know. Your eyes are the same blue as hers. Your hair is almost the same shade of gold as hers was. Sometimes, when I see, I can¡¯t help but think that if she and I had a daughter, she would have looked a lot like you.¡±


    I could see little glimmers of wetness at the edges of Old Mo¡¯s eyes, and I opted not to say anything.


    Instead, I gave Old Mo a small hug. Hugs may not fix everything, but they could always make things better.


    Old Mo patted my back a few times, before he sighed again. Then, his eyes hardened. ¡°I know that there¡¯s something off about the four of you. You don¡¯t have to tell me what it is, but things just don¡¯t add up. I see a lot of Mary in you sometimes, but I want to know, Miria. What¡¯s with the four of you?¡±


    I hesitated for only a moment, before I patted Old Mo¡¯s back again.


    <Guys, I¡¯m telling Old Mo about the Market. I¡¯m sorry, but I just don¡¯t think it¡¯s right not to tell him,> I said.


    I only got a few moments of silence, before Felix responded. <Got it. I understand. I kind of figured you would eventually tell him anyway.>


    <I don¡¯t mind,> said Anise, sounding a bit hesitant. <But make sure he doesn¡¯t tell my parents, all right? I don¡¯t want my parents to look at me differently¡­>


    <I¡¯m all right with Old Mo knowing. He has extended a lot of help to you,> said Sallia. <And I¡¯ve just kind of come to accept that you¡¯ll tell a few people about the Market from time to time, just like Anise. I just hope it works out this time too.>


    With the approval of my friends, I felt a little bit of the pressure on my heart lighten. I took a deep breath, and prepared to tell someone about the Market for the second time in my existence.

 Chapter 206: A Talk with an Assassin

    ¡°Have you ever heard of other dimensions?¡± I asked Old Mo.


    Old Mo frowned, and looked at me in confusion. ¡°Other¡­ dimensions?¡± he asked. ¡°Like in some of the fantasy stories that have grown popular recently? I¡¯ve read at least a few novels and short stories that feature ¡®other worlds¡¯ as the setting for the story, although I wouldn¡¯t say I have much familiarity with them beyond that. Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°Oh, they have a lot of fantasy novels here?¡± I asked, nearly getting side-tracked.


    Anise would probably love science fiction and fantasy stories. It hadn¡¯t occurred to me until now, but a lot of people in this world were literate, and it didn¡¯t seem like paper was that expensive. And if these people were capable of designing prosthetic limbs, they probably had some sort of printing press. I should keep an eye out for them next time I had an excuse to give Anise a gift. Then, with some effort, I turned my mind away from getting Anise gifts and back towards the conversation with Old Mo.


    ¡°Yeah, other dimensions. Well¡­ the thing is¡­¡± I hesitated for a moment, and then I simply opted to show Old Mo. Since he associated ¡®other dimensions¡¯ with ¡®fantasy stories,¡¯ he would probably have an easier time accepting my story if he could see it with his own eyes. After the discussion with the soul fragment, I strongly suspected that the Zelyrians had come to this world from another dimension - but clearly, that tidbit of information had never made it to the natives of this world.


    I looked around for a moment, and it only took me a few seconds to find a small branch of soggy, snow-covered wood. I tossed it into the air, and then focused on expanding my spatial senses. A moment later, I teleported the branch directly in front of me, as Old Mo¡¯s eyes widened in surprise.


    Before he had time to say anything, I used my illusion ability to tap into Old Mo¡¯s eyesight. Then, I painted an illusion of a bar of gold onto the tree branch, before teleporting it in front of Old Mo.


    Old Mo reflexively caught the fake gold bar, before his eyes widened in surprise. ¡°It¡¯s still a tree branch?¡± he said in shock. ¡°But it looks like-¡± he turned towards me again, and if before he was frowning in surprise, now it looked like he was trying to bore a hole through my head with how intensely he was scrutinizing my face.


    I gave him a wink, and then dispelled the illusion of a gold bar, revealing the ordinary wet tree branch underneath. Then, I pointed at a nearby tree, and gave Old Mo a second to catch up. For some reason, I felt like a stage magician for a moment.


    Old Mo obligingly looked at the nearby tree, and I then sent an extinguish at it, killing the tree. The tree died¡­ and no visual effects happened.


    I blinked, as I realized that even if I instantly killed a tree, just like most other things I¡¯d killed with extinguish, extinguish didn¡¯t do anything to the corpse. The tree was dead, but it wasn¡¯t like its needles were instantly going to instantly turn brown, just like they wouldn¡¯t if I plucked them out by hand. The tree would start to become visually ¡®dead¡¯ as time passed, but it would take a while.


    I blushed slightly, and then extinguished several leaves instead. This time, the needles turned a bit visibly brown after I attacked them.


    ¡°Uhh¡­ Miria?¡± asked Old Mo. Right now he was looking at me as if I had lost my mind.


    ¡°My last ability isn¡¯t very visible,¡± I said, looking around for an animal I could kill and turn into breakfast tomorrow. Sadly, there weren¡¯t any convenient rabbits or animals nearby.


    ¡°All right, look - my final ability is to kill stuff really quickly and efficiently. I killed the tree, and a lot of the leaves, but even though I killed it, it doesn¡¯t just drop dead, since it¡¯s a plant and doesn¡¯t move that much in the first place,¡± I said, hoping that my cheeks were turning as red as I thought they were. ¡°It¡¯s hard to see, but I promise it¡¯s happening.¡±


    Old Mo went to investigate the tree, and after prodding some of the needles I had extinguished, he nodded.


    ¡°I can feel it in the way the texture changed, although it¡¯s hard to notice,¡± he said. He returned to the campfire a few moments later, and turned towards me again. He looked intrigued now, and it looked like he was waiting for me to explain.


    ¡°These are all of my abilities, Old Mo,¡± I said. ¡°Well, besides a few perception and intelligence enhancements, and the healing that I¡¯ve already shown you. And a few magic items, but those aren¡¯t me doing anything.¡±


    Old Mo sat there for a moment, as if waiting for me to continue, but I decided to give him some time to process everything.


    I may have also been enjoying seeing his look of shock, just a little bit. The man hadn¡¯t even seemed shocked when he realized all four of us had abilities, which were supposed to be super rare in this world. Finally seeing Old Mo react to something was a bit gratifying, and it also seemed to alleviate some of the old wounds in his heart he had dug up earlier by distracting him.


    Eventually, Old Mo¡¯s brain rebooted.


    ¡°How? You should only be able to take one ability potion in your entire lifetime. Drinking a second has no effect. Heck, if you¡¯re unlucky, your FIRST ability potion might not have an effect - while most people get an ability after drinking a potion, there are some people that just can¡¯t have an ability for whatever reason. But I¡¯ve never, ever heard of anyone having two abilities, let alone¡­ however many you just demonstrated. Four? You have four abilities, right? Illusions, teleportation, healing, the death curse thing¡­¡± Old Mo¡¯s eyes widened even further. ¡°And sensory enhancements too? How is this possible?¡±


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    ¡°I haven¡¯t actually drank an ability potion - although I suspect I would get nothing out of doing so. Instead, my story stretches back to long before I was born. I don¡¯t know very much about my original lifetime, but I¡¯m fairly certain I was an ordinary girl before I died¡­¡±


    I started quietly narrating my story, to the best of my memory. I narrated my first trip to the Market, the utterly ruined landscape that looked like a playground of the gods after having been smashed by a giant, and the strange abilities, and items we had found there.


    Then, I narrated meeting Sallia, and then Felix, and our escape from the skeletal mages in the Market and into our first lives. I talked about the islands, our time in the world of the black sun, our encounter with Anise, and finally, our births here. I didn¡¯t go over every single detail - after all, I had fifty years of memories, and going through every single detail would take far too long. But I went over everything I thought was important, and in enough detail that Old Mo could understand what made the four of us so¡­ odd.


    Old Mo was a very good listener. He didn¡¯t interrupt me a single time, even though I could tell he was struggling to wrap his head around some parts of my story. Especially the living galaxy that had wiped us out last time - when I mentioned how my body parts had come to life and ripped themselves out of my collapsing corpse, Old Mo suppressed a shudder of horror.


    ¡°That living universe¡­ is there anything like it here?¡±


    ¡°Thank god, no,¡± I said, shivering. Just remembering how weak and helpless I had been when that thing had killed us all was enough to send a shudder down my spine again. ¡°As far as I can tell, this world is pretty low-power. Nothing that can melt a continent or rip apart an island with its tentacles or teeth, or anything like that. There aren¡¯t even real monsters in this world.¡±


    ¡°Unless you count humans,¡± said Old Mo, grimacing. I winced.


    ¡°You know, I¡¯m surprised you believed me so quickly,¡± I said.


    ¡°Everything just lines up, kid.¡± Old Mo paused. ¡°Perhaps not really a kid. You¡¯re¡­ what, sixty years old in total? That¡¯s almost as old as me,¡± he said with a chuckle. ¡°But honestly, it just makes a lot of sense. You¡¯ve already shown me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you can use an absolutely impossible number of abilities. Way beyond what anyone should ever logically be able to use. You act way too mature for your age, and you don¡¯t really talk the way a normal six year old does.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°Miria¡­¡± Old Mo gave me a look that reminded me of a disappointed parent. ¡°Acting isn¡¯t your strong suit. I would never have imagined a story quite like the one you told me without more information - too much just lies outside of my understanding of the world. But, uhh¡­ you¡¯re not very good at lying.¡±


    I resisted the urge to pout.


    How rude! I was an excellent pretend six year old!


    Then, Old Mo gently ruffled my hair.


    ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m glad you were willing to trust me with this information, Miria,¡± he said. He looked at the stars again, before he smiled. ¡°So you¡¯re saying that Mary is still out there somewhere, in the greater multiverse?¡± I hesitated.


    ¡°Probably. Like, I said, I also saw a few souls get destroyed by the ocean of souls, and I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s linked to them not having enough Achievement to defend themselves after they died. But it doesn¡¯t seem to happen often.¡±


    Old Mo sighed and nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can be entirely happy with that knowledge - there a few religions that talk about afterlives in¡­ in this world. I wondered if she was waiting for me in one of them, on some days..¡± Old Mo sighed. ¡°But I¡¯m still glad that she¡¯s probably out there somewhere. Hopefully her life now is better than the one she had here.¡±


    Old Mo turned back towards me, away from the stars. ¡°As for you, we should talk a bit more about the magic system of this world - specifically, ability potions. If you don¡¯t want other people to catch on to the fact that something is wrong, you should memorize what healing abilities are known to exist, and then try to visually copy one of them. I didn¡¯t say anything, because I figured you might have just drank a variant potion at first, but there are no healing ability potions that require contact with water to work. There are, however, a few that require contact with blood to work. Most alchemists today think that the healing ability somehow duplicates the drop of blood, changes the blood type, and then uses it to transfuse blood into the injured person. Using pure water instead isn¡¯t unbelievable, but it¡¯s definitely not an ability I¡¯ve heard of. And as you¡¯ve already noted, using more than one ability should be impossible - so make sure to keep distributing your set of ¡®abilities¡¯ among your allies if you don¡¯t want anyone to realize something is wrong. But overall¡­ with that information, we can do a lot to help you set up when we get to the next city. Felix wants a spot at an alchemy or medical academy, and Anise wants room to study Zelyrian magic, right?¡± Old Mo chuckled. ¡°I kind of thought their goals might change as they grew older, but¡­ it sounds like their goals were set long before they were even born. I¡¯ll see what I can do to help you four get situated.¡±


    ¡°So nothing is different between us?¡± I asked, feeling a bit hopeful. I liked the way things were with Old Mo right now. I didn¡¯t want things to change.


    Old Mo tousled my hair again.


    ¡°Maybe I¡¯m just a bit too attached to the fact that you look like a six year old, or the fact that out of four lifetimes you¡¯ve still somehow never lived very long¡­but you still seem like a kid to me. Nothing will change between us.¡±


    Old Mo grinned at me, and I knew everything was going to be all right.


    We kept talking long past the time we were supposed to wake up someone else for another watch, so long that even my friends, who had been having a conversation of their own about the stuff they had learned from the hologram, eventually fell asleep.


    I woke up the next day far more tired than usual, and wasted a lot of extra essence healing myself to get rid of the fatigue. But it was worth it, because I knew that Old Mo was there for me.

 Chapter 207: The Rattle of Cannonfire

    After my conversation with Old Mo, to my relief, he seemed considerably more comfortable with me than before. He stopped awkwardly eyeing me from the corner of his eyes, and he seemed less on edge than before. The strange tension in Old Mo¡¯s actions wasn¡¯t something I had noticed before, but now that it was gone, it was abundantly clear that the oddity of myself and my friends had put Old Mo at least a little on edge. He also seemed more than a little curious about Anise, Sallia, and Felix. However, he didn¡¯t seem disturbed - which was a relief. I was fairly certain that the process of dying and reincarnating was something every soul went through. But even so, Old Mo could have been a little afraid of the idea that we had somehow retained our memories from before. It would be pretty unnerving to see a kid and know that they had more experience and memories than you did, and I could also see some parents believing I had ¡®replaced¡¯ their child or somesuch, even if I was pretty sure that wasn¡¯t how souls worked.


    But Old Mo just seemed curious - he would occasionally pull Sallia or Felix aside when there was a good time for it and ask them about the greater multiverse, but he never seemed afraid of us. Sallia and Felix mostly stuck to basic topics when talking with Old Mo, and never shared the full details of their abilities with him - but they seemed willing to discuss the broad strokes of our lives up to this point. Old Mo also tried to pull Anise aside a few times - but Anise was currently obsessively reading through her new books and poking at her orb, and wasn¡¯t particularly interested in talking to him or doing anything else. Even during meal times, Anise would just cram as much food as she could into her mouth and get back to her books, and only occasionally responded to the three of us during conversations or when I stopped her from tripping over her own feet while walking. I was a bit concerned with the fact that Anise was trying to read and walk at the same time, but Anise made sure to steer clear of any sheer drops or ledges, so I decided to just keep a close eye on her and make sure she didn¡¯t hurt herself.


    We spent nearly a week traveling through the mountains after the conversation with Old Mo.


    As we continued marching through the mountains, my mother¡¯s seizures seemed to get better and better. I hoped that meant that my healing abilities were outlasting the Fizz addiction - but at the same time, my mother¡¯s lucid phases didn¡¯t become any more frequent than before. I had hoped that she would be mentally present most, or all of the time, as her drug dependency disappeared. I had been honestly hoping that confiscating her drugs and fleeing the city might somehow make everything better.


    And unfortunately, that wasn¡¯t the case at all. I could only hope that, with time, it would be fixed - but I was starting to second-guess whether depriving my mother of her drugs had been a good idea at all. I had heard before that only the person could really resolve themselves to quit once they started a drug habit, and while I wasn¡¯t sure if this situation was quite what other people had been referring to, it certainly didn¡¯t feel like things were improving as much as I had hoped they would. My mother still seemed to crave Fizz and had withdrawal symptoms, and still wasn¡¯t mentally present for the majority of each day. It was¡­ not what I had envisioned.


    A week later, however, we were forced to stop and reconsider our actions.


    Because as we continued traveling, we came across the rather ominous sound of cannons booming in the distance, as well as the distant sounds of explosions.


    I frowned, and stopped. Old Mo seemed to notice that I had stopped, and frowned as he scanned our surroundings.


    ¡°Miria?¡± he asked, sounding confused. ¡°Why did you stop?¡±


    I realized that Old Mo couldn¡¯t hear the cannonfire yet. He had just stopped because I had stopped.


    ¡°I thought this route was supposed to be free from both armies?¡± I asked.


    ¡°It should be. I can¡¯t imagine why either army would bother stationing troops in the mountains - it¡¯s cold, hard to lug cannons through, and hard to supply. Why are you bringing this up?¡±


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    I realized that I, perhaps, hadn¡¯t given quite enough credit to the upgrades to my ears after my fourth rune had been created. They were better than I had thought they were.


    ¡°I can hear cannons in the distance,¡± I said. ¡°But they sound pretty far away¡­¡±


    I saw the parents tense up at that statement, and Old Mo started cautiously scanning our surroundings.


    ¡°Are your ears¡­ special?¡± he asked quietly, after a few moments of confused scouting.


    I nodded. ¡°My hearing is very good. Very, very good.¡±


    Old Mo¡¯s eyes settled on my ears, as if he was trying to figure out what I meant by ¡®very good.¡¯ Now that I had discussed the Market with him, I could practically see the gears whirring in Old Mo¡¯s brain as he put my statements about the abilities of the Market and my very good hearing together.


    If I could hear cannonfire in the distance, it definitely wasn¡¯t a good thing, because it meant that we had run into one of the armies we were hoping to avoid. There was simply no other way that we would run into cannonfire while traveling through the mountains. But me hearing it didn¡¯t necessarily mean we were completely screwed yet. The battle could be happening several kilometers away, depending on the acoustics of this region of the mountains. It meant that we still potentially had time to avoid the battlefield if we were careful.


    ¡°Let me know if it gets louder,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°For now, let¡¯s keep moving. Let¡¯s get a little closer to the battlefield and see if maybe you¡¯re just picking up the sound of a battle from outside of the mountain range. It¡¯s unlikely, but still worth checking.¡±


    I nodded, and we continued moving.


    Half an hour later, I started to wince.


    I had been hoping the cannonfire would end, but it was definitely getting louder. A prolonged battle meant more soldiers participating in it. And we were also definitely getting closer to the battlefield. Old Mo was also starting to frown more and more as I constantly updated him, until eventually, he simply stopped us from moving forward at all.


    He turned towards the four of us.


    ¡°Do the four of you¡­ have any scouting abilities?¡± he asked. ¡°I could probably do it as well, and before learning about your¡­ abilities, I was planning to act as the scout for the group. But now I¡¯m seriously revising my opinion about who is capable of what.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I do, and Sallia kind of does.¡± While Sallia hadn¡¯t had much of a chance to use it yet, her seventh rune¡¯s ability to combine her previous abilities together was still very much an option for scouting. Her ability to look through bullets as if they were scrying spells would be incredibly useful for spying on soldiers that I might miss with my own detection methods.


    I noticed Anise and Sallia¡¯s parents giving me strange looks, since my ability to heal other people was now very well known to everyone. The idea that I also had scouting abilities would sound strange to them. But right now, I felt that holding too much back might put us all in far more danger.


    Old Mo nodded thoughtfully.


    ¡°All right, could the two of you scout ahead a little bit and let me know if you see anything?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t just ask a six-year-old to scout!¡± said Sallia¡¯s father, sounding more than a little angry.


    Old Mo turned to him. ¡°Do you know anyone else in this group who has drunk an ability potion? The whole reason I think these two would make a good scouting team is because I saw what they did to the first group of soldiers that tracked us down.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s father stopped dead in his tracks, before he shut his mouth and sat back down. Nobody else objected.


    ¡°We¡¯ll do it,¡± I said.


    Five minutes later, Sallia and I set out. Not that it took too much scouting to find the problem.


    Another hour away from us, we found exactly what we had been hoping to avoid.


    Just next to the mountains, thousands of Vernese and Coalition troops were fighting. The Vernese didn¡¯t have many cannons with them, and looked like they were being driven deeper into the mountains.


    The Coalition army was somewhat better equipped, but for some reason they had decided to pursue the Vernese directly into the frozen, heavily wooded mountain peaks instead of just trying to let the Vernese freeze to death.


    There was no way this was the entirety of each army - I only saw a few thousand troops from each side, and I knew that tens or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers had been conscripted from across Verne. But even though we had still dodged most of the army, we certainly hadn¡¯t dodged the entirety of it. The battle was right before us.

 Chapter 208: Hunted

    The group was less than pleased to discover that we had somehow managed to run into a battle between the Vernese and coalition armies. Somehow, we had ended up right next to the very armies we had been trying to avoid, and worse, we were now at the edge of an active battlefield where thousands of people were fighting. I seriously doubted this was an important front of the war - it appeared to just be an offshoot of the real armies. And I also had no idea why they were fighting in this area at all. But running into two armies was terrible news.


    ¡°So after all of this, we still ran into them,¡± said Old Mo, with a grimace. He turned towards me, before he caught himself and turned towards Felix instead.


    ¡°Since your mental ability extends to illusions, how many people do you think you can trick at once? How exactly does your illusion ability work?¡± Old Mo asked.


    Felix twitched, and then quickly messaged me through the friendship bracelet.


    <Miria, how many people can you trick at once with illusions?>


    <Theoretically, everyone looking at us. But I now know some ability potions will be able to counter my illusions, so there¡¯s no way I could fool an entire army,> I said. <I can fool all non-ability users though.>


    Felix repeated my answer to Old Mo, who eyed me from the corner of his eyes before nodding.


    ¡°I thought so. In that case¡­ our options are a bit limited,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°We have no way of knowing which soldiers are ability users without getting close to them, and if they catch sight of us, it will be a disaster. On the other side of the mountains there¡¯s only ocean, and I don¡¯t particularly fancy taking a swim in the frigid waters of the ocean. Healing ability or no, I doubt we would survive the hypothermia that would follow.


    ¡°But we also can¡¯t exit the mountains and cut through the area. If we do, we¡¯re going to be surrounded by plains on all sides, which means no cover to make it past any other armies we see - and we¡¯ll also probably be heading towards the main armies. If there¡¯s a large group of soldiers from each army over here, I imagine the main armies are fighting nearby - we¡¯re close enough to Fort Branzo that the Vernese are probably trying to establish a new chokepoint somewhere near the Betten river, and that¡¯s not too far from here. It¡¯s an ideal position to set up a new chokepoint if the Vernese are trying to remain on the defensive. In my opinion, weaving through the Vernese army in the mountains and then continuing forward is our best plan. It¡¯s a bit risky, since we¡¯ll be traipsing through a live battlefield - but with any luck, neither side will notice our presence before we leave. As long as we move through the area before they finish fighting each other, they won¡¯t have the scouts or forces ready to hurt us, even if they do spot us.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s a good idea? What if we just wait for the two armies to stop fighting?¡± asked Sallia¡¯s father, frowning.


    Old Mo simply sighed. ¡°Honestly, nothing is certain here. If we stay here, whichever side wins might leave afterwards - but if they establish a fort or an outpost here, we¡¯ll be trapped in Verne. I was pretty convinced that the Vernese and Coalition armies would avoid the mountains like the plague, because the cannons are nigh-impossible to transport through this area and the logistical difficulties will make any action here a nightmare. And yet, here they are. So I don¡¯t know why they¡¯re here, or what they might do once they win. That means I¡¯m doing a lot of guessing. But their armies wouldn¡¯t be fighting in this area for no reason.¡± Old Mo¡¯s face seemed to grow heavier for a moment, as he looked in the direction of the fighting armies. ¡°On the bright side, this should be the last difficult stretch of the road. Once we get through this area, we¡¯ll be past the border region where Fort Branzo fell. The other country we¡¯ll be traveling through is part of the coalition, but the fighting has never encroached on their land - most of it is happening between Verne and Ennalia. So they probably won¡¯t have too many soldiers to avoid. It¡¯ll be much less risky than this region.¡± said Old Mo.


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    I could see Sallia¡¯s father and Anise¡¯s parents sigh in relief at that statement, while my own mother simply retained her usual glassy-eyed, dazed expression. Sallia¡¯s mother tightened her lips and stared in the direction of the battlefield.


    ¡°So we still have to creep through an active battlefield?¡± she asked.


    ¡°We do,¡± said Old Mo.


    Sallia¡¯s mother grimaced and then sighed, before nodding. ¡°I understand,¡± she said.


    I sighed, looked at the soldiers fighting in the mountains, and then tried not to frown. We just had to keep moving and hope for the best. This would be something I couldn¡¯t just rely on my abilities for. Illusions wouldn¡¯t help much if scouts from either side picked up our tracks and started hunting us down, since there was a range limitation on my illusions, and if we got caught, we would face a force that we had no way of fighting. My abilities didn¡¯t lend themselves to this situation as well as they usually did.


    Our group spent a few moments mentally preparing ourselves for what would hopefully be the final danger of our journey, and then we got moving again.


    I carefully trained my ears to our surroundings, putting my enhanced senses to the best possible use I could, and I also occasionally activated my dimensional eyesight to try to get a handle on whether we were close to anyone.


    Twice, I saw scouts in the distance, which I steered our group away from. We also did our best to cover any tracks our group made, to prevent either army from noticing our presence. Luckily, they seemed mostly focused on each other, and whether by skill or luck, they didn¡¯t notice us. We walked for an hour. And then we walked for another. The snow, trees, and the strange beating of the old essence machinery left in the mountains was the only company our group had. We even avoided talking, to make sure that we didn¡¯t accidentally alert any scouts nearby - although as we skirted around the battlefield between the two armies, the sound of gunfire started to become clearer and easier to notice. When the others could hear the sound of the battle, even without my exceptional hearing, I knew that we were getting close to the battlefield, and heightened my wariness even further.


    Each of my nerves felt like they were being pared away with a knife. If something went wrong right now, we would be in a catastrophically bad situation.


    I often used my spatial eyesight to look at the battlefield, and from what I could see, the Vernese soldiers were mostly resorting to guerilla warfare, since the coalition troops had cannons and they did not. Luckily, nobody noticed our presence as we shuffled around the armies, as far away from either side as the terrain allowed. I also used my illusions to help direct the rest of the group, making sure that everyone knew where to walk and where potential threats were. I think that helped calm down the parents.


    And then, after two hours of tense wading through the mountainous terrain, we finished skirting around the battlefield. The army started to grow further away from us, and I stopped spotting quite so many Vernese soldiers hiding in bushes and trees and preparing to snipe the coalition troops through my spatial eyesight.


    I felt the urge to let out a sigh of relief as we started to creep further away from the battlefield. But I still maintained my state of tension and wariness - just because we were past the most difficult part of our journey didn¡¯t mean that we were out of the woods yet. If a scout from either side started to track us down, they could still kill us.


    Another hour of slowly creeping away from the battlefield passed before the cannonfire stopped. It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize that the two armies had stopped fighting. One side had probably won the battle. I had no idea which army had won, and frankly didn¡¯t care. The fact that they weren¡¯t distracted meant that they would probably have more time and energy to chase down potential survivors from the enemy army - and if we were unlucky we would end up directly in the middle of their search.


    After I informed Old Mo of this occurrence, he strongly encouraged us to speed up, just in case. Speed was probably more important than stealth, now that we were already a few hours of walking away from the battle. We just needed to put as much distance between us and the winning army as possible.


    At least, that was what both Old Mo and I thought, before the strange essence machinery in the area started to rattle and shake, almost as though a magical earthquake was going through the area. Whatever the Old Zelyr had been trying to do with their pocket dimension, for the first time in centuries, it seemed to be either activating or imploding. And I had no idea which it was, or what it meant for our group.

 Chapter 209: Spacequake

    The essence in our surroundings quaked and shuddered, like a leviathan emerging from the depths of the ocean. Space started to crackle and pop, and. I could feel adistortion in the world around me grow. There was a sense of wrongness in the air around us that hadn¡¯t been present before.


    When we had first entered the mountains, I had noticed some kind of giant essence machine operating on our surroundings. I had been very curious about what it did, but I hadn¡¯t been able to figure it out, and Old Mo said that several scholars had investigated it and learned nothing. Once we had met with the hologram from the Market, it had mentioned the essence machinery again and said something about it being a failed attempt at creating a pocket dimension. His creator had theorized that it was supposed to create an ¡®eternal homeland¡¯ for the Zelyr, or something like that. And that the essence machinery also filled up the mountains with manifestation essence.


    Since I had so little context for how the whole essence machine worked, I had just filed it away as ¡®kind of interesting¡¯ and then forgotten about the whole thing. After all, I had no idea how Zelyrian spellcasting worked, and whatever they had done in the mountains was a level of spellcraft that I was nowhere near. If Zelyrian spellcasting was advanced Calculus, I couldn¡¯t even do basic addition, so there wasn¡¯t much learning value from studying it. Once I had learned that it was a ¡®failed¡¯ project, I had assumed it was harmless and then ignored it.


    And I was now paying the price for it, as the essence machinery in our surroundings was imploding on itself. I had absolutely no idea what that meant or how to handle it.


    What was going on?


    Old Mo turned towards me, and I could see that he was hoping that I had an explanation. His eyes were wide and worried.


    I frowned, and turned my attention to the Zelyrian machinery around us. I had no idea how it worked, but I had worked with manifestation essence before. I hoped I could get a rough idea what was going on, even if I wasn¡¯t completely sure what was happening.


    But before I could use my familiarity with manifestation essence and a huge amount of guesswork to figure out what the now-active Zelyrian essence machinery was doing, I figured out the answer.


    This was because a portal ripped itself open in our surroundings. It was a broken, messed up tear in space that looked nothing like the portals I made. It wasn¡¯t¡­ complete. It was like an error in the world itself, and all I could see on the other side was twisted, mangled void. It was like the corpse of an unborn infant, swollen and bloated with mana that had seeped into its rotten carcass and caused its essence to collapse under its own weight.


    And the portal had opened right next to our group.


    Immediately, I reached out with my alteration essence. I didn¡¯t understand what principles the Zelyrian portal operated off of, but luckily, I didn¡¯t need to.


    Breaking things had always been easier than creating them. And there was nothing alive or intelligent that was trying to maintain the portal¡¯s existence, so there was nothing to push back against my essence. The portal was inherently unstable, and ending it was nowhere near as hard as it would be to destroy a functioning portal.


    I reached into the underlying essence that had formed the fragmented, broken portal.


    And then I ripped at it with my alteration essence. The portal looked even more swollen and bloated for a moment.


    And then the portal collapsed, almost as quickly and thoroughly as someone hit with a full-powered extinguish. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that we were safe from whatever that messed up portal had been.


    Then I looked at our surroundings. There were dozens of other portals opening and closing randomly in the mountain range. Each one seemed almost like a vacuum, as they sucked in the matter in their surroundings before snapping closed. In the process, they ate the surrounding region like a hungry, carnivorous set of teeth trying to eat the world itself.


    Small boulders were sucked in. Plants were ripped up and dragged in. It was utter pandemonium.


    ¡°What in the world is that?¡± asked Sallia¡¯s mother, her voice rising to a dangerous shriek as the portals started randomly opening and closing in our surroundings.


    ¡°Some sort of broken teleportation attempt,¡± said Felix, his voice an unusual mixture of terror and curiosity.


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    ¡°I can break down the faulty portals when they open near us, but my essence is limited,¡± I said. ¡°We need to get away from the mountains and wait for the Zelyrian essence machinery to settle down.¡±


    ¡°What caused this mess?¡± asked Anise.


    ¡°Probably an action whichever army won the battle? Maybe the generals of each army figured something out and thought of a way to ¡®exploit¡¯ it, only to mess up catastrophically. Or maybe it¡¯s just what the essence machinery is designed to do,¡± said Old Mo, after a moment. ¡°I did think it was very strange that a few thousand men from each side would bother coming to the mountains. There isn¡¯t anything important to fight over here. But if someone figured out how to activate old Zelyrian ruins¡­ then things change. These areas go from being useless to being incredibly valuable. Nations are always willing to fight over old Zelyrian artifacts and technology - they managed some wonders that even today, scholars and alchemists can¡¯t replicate. Even though we¡¯ve developed gunpowder and prosthetic limbs that the old Zelyrians could never have imagined, they had artificial creatures and spells that we just don¡¯t understand.¡± I saw Old Mo¡¯s expression shift from curiosity to a strange mixture of fear and amusement, and he glanced at us.


    Now that Old Mo knew about the Market and the greater multiverse, as well as the four different types of essence, he knew exactly why Zelyrian spellcasting was so weird compared to the alchemy of this world. I put aside my own thoughts on the matter, and tried to concentrate on the unfolding crisis around us.


    If one or both of the armies had figured something out and fought over a way to ¡®activate¡¯ the essence machinery in the mountains, it would explain this mess. Both of them probably thought they were activating some sort of ancient super-weapon, or a pocket dimension that might let them create a massive resource base or sneak armies around the backlines of the war or something. After all, nations in this world held the Zelyrians in pretty high regard. So they probably thought that whatever the Zelyrians had created, it would be worth fighting over and activating.


    Instead, they had activated a half-broken mess that had started slurping up the mountain range.


    I glanced at my mother, who still had the same glassy-eyed expression as usual, and then grimaced.


    Sallia immediately picked up my mother. The sight of a six year old easily hefting a grown woman and preparing to sprint was slightly absurd, but we needed to move as fast as possible. ¡°I¡¯ve got her. Let¡¯s go!¡±


    Then, Sallia turned towards one of the side paths that looked like it led away from the mountains and charged forward.


    I immediately ran after her, and everyone else followed along.


    As we sprinted away, I opened my spatial sight. But my ability to see using ¡®space¡¯ was almost completely ruined right now. Normally, my ability to see through drops of water in our surroundings was like gazing through a clear pane of glass - but now, it was like trying to look through a dirty, cracked window. The space in our surroundings was too chaotic. I couldn¡¯t see anything clearly.


    I gave up, and instead concentrated solely on my essence sense to disrupt any portals that tried to form near our group.


    But each portal was taking a huge amount of essence to dispel. My reserves were rapidly draining away, and Felix¡¯s perception wasn¡¯t as high as mine. He was seriously struggling to keep up with the forming portals, and although he sometimes managed to pop a portal before it opened up on top of us, I was the one who needed to handle most of them.


    Anise was desperately clutching her orb and looking at the broken portals, but Anise hadn¡¯t even made much progress in translating her spellbooks yet. She couldn¡¯t do anything about the giant essence machine breaking down in our surroundings.


    ¡°Left!¡± yelled Felix, as we rounded another mountain trail.


    I looked past Sallia and glanced at the massive amount of ground we had left to cover, and resisted the urge to throw something out of frustration.


    There was too much distance left. We had maybe half a day¡¯s worth of jogging left before we could leave the mountain range - and my essence reserves could last maybe fifteen minutes, at most. If I had a more intricate understanding of the portals, we might have been able to make it - but since I barely understood how they worked, I was just brute forcing the collapse of each portal. That kind of essence spending wasn¡¯t sustainable in this situation.


    ¡°We need to find a safe spot or make one! My essence won¡¯t hold up for long, and we have too much ground to cover!¡± I said.


    ¡°Where the hell are we going to find a safe spot?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°The entire mountain range looks like it¡¯s dissolving!¡±


    I batted away another portal, and felt the urge to curse.


    The portals were opening with no rhyme or reason to them. A portal seemed just as likely to open up in the middle of the sky as it was to open below the earth. Parts of the mountain range were starting to collapse, as chunks of rock got teleported into the broken pocket dimension and left behind voids where supporting rock had once been. Little potholes were starting to form as the land supporting the ground disappeared and cave-ins occurred below our feet.


    It was like an earthquake and a spatial disaster, all folded together into a terrifying collapse of reality itself.


    Our group started desperately sprinting forward, towards the plains, in hopes that maybe we would somehow make it. But each time a portal nearly opened up on top of our group, I was forced to spend more essence. Felix did his best to help, but it just wasn¡¯t enough.


    After ten minutes of playing whack-a-mole, I finally messed up.


    The ground beneath our feet teleported into the broken pocket dimension, dragging the rest of our group into it as well. Before I could even blink, everything faded into darkness, and the world disappeared in front of my eyes.


    We had entered the broken pocket dimension.

 Chapter 210: Emptiness

    After a moment of pure darkness, we were somewhere else. I couldn¡¯t see anything.


    I opened my mouth, but no sound came, even when I desperately tried to speak. I frowned, and a shiver of terror wormed its way down my spine as I realized that I couldn¡¯t make a sound. My throat was working just fine - but no sound came out no matter what I tried.


    Were we in a vacuum? Did vacuums even exist in this dimension? I started to hyperventilate as I imagined suffocating to death in space, only to realize that I was breathing just fine.


    So we weren¡¯t in space, even though this place sure looked like it. Or this dimension¡¯s version of space had a handy supply of oxygen. I took a few calming breaths, and restarted my analysis of our situation from the beginning. The initial panic was starting to fade as I noticed that nothing was immediately killing us, so I carefully probed our surroundings with my senses.


    I didn¡¯t feel like the laws of reality here were shattering my body apart, or anything like that. Sure, the stillness, lack of sound, and total lack of light was uncomfortable - but nothing was actively threatening me right now. I felt like I was standing on solid ground, even though I couldn¡¯t see anything below me. In other words, the floor was invisible, but present. As I had already checked, it was possible to breathe here, although making sound was impossible, and I still couldn¡¯t see anything at all.


    At least, not with my regular eyes.


    I swapped to my soulsight, and confirmed that the rest of our group was also here.


    <Are you guys all right?> Came Anise¡¯s mental voice. She sounded shaken, but otherwise unharmed.


    <I¡¯m fine. Everyone is nearby and safe. I checked with soulsight,> I said. Then, I realized we had a solution for the lack of light. <Hey Anise, could you jump up and down a few times? I need to figure out which soul is you.>


    Anise obediently jumped up and down a few times, and I quickly located her.


    <All right Anise, could you turn about thirty degrees to your left, and then fire a magic missile directly forward? I want to turn it into a lantern.>


    After a few rounds of trial and error, we got another working magical lantern.


    Which was fortunate, because it looked like Anise¡¯s mother had been about to start panicking and wandering off, and most of the other adults looked panicked and confused. The four of us looked notably calmer, because we could talk to each other using the friendship bracelets, but the adults were just confused right now. Once Anise¡¯s mother saw the rest of us she seemed to relax, and immediately returned to Anise¡¯s side to start checking up on her.


    She opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if she were trying to speak, but was foiled by the strange lack of sound in this pocket dimension.


    Anise held up her finger, and then started trying to convey¡­ something by playing charades with her mother. But I had no idea what Anise was trying to convey, and her mother seemed just as confused.


    Meanwhile, Sallia¡¯s parents had also started to group up around her, and Old Mo was carefully studying me as well. Unlike the other adults, Old Mo wasn¡¯t carefully examining me to make sure I was all right. Now that he knew we were from the Market, he probably trusted me to assess my own health. But he still looked worried.


    Felix rolled his eyes, and a moment later, his endless origami paper kit appeared in his hands. He started handing people pieces of paper, as well as a few writing utensils.


    Even though we couldn¡¯t make sound, since we had light and writing utensils all of us should be able to communicate with each other.


    I grinned at Felix.


    <Good idea,> I sent him.


    Sallia was the first one to write a message to her parents.


    I¡¯m okay. Nothing hurts. I think the reason we can¡¯t talk here is somehow related to the laws of this pocket dimension, wrote Sallia. A few moments later, Anise just wrote that she was okay, before hugging her parents.


    Sallia¡¯s mother seemed to relax even more as she read the first part¡­ only to look completely and utterly confused as she read the second half of Sallia¡¯s statement.


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    Perhaps mentioning conflicting laws of reality wasn¡¯t the best way to talk to the parents about the situation. That would probably just confuse them.


    Anise¡¯s parents were writing back to her, but I concentrated on Old Mo, who seemed to be waiting for me to communicate with him.


    I only hesitated for a few moments, before I wrote my own message to him.


    I¡¯m okay. I don¡¯t detect any major issues with my physical body, and luckily, reality itself isn¡¯t tearing us apart or anything like that. This pocket dimension¡¯s laws of reality seem pretty similar to the rest of the world. Are you hurt? I wrote before passing the message to Old Mo.


    I¡¯m okay, little Miria.


    I nodded to myself, before I made the lantern brighter to get everyone¡¯s attention. Then I wrote a quick message in large letters, to make sure everyone could read it.


    Can everyone here read and write? And does anyone have any pains or unusual problems? If you hurt somewhere, raise your hand so I can heal you.


    After a few moments of hesitation, Anise¡¯s father raised his hand. I checked him over, and confirmed that he had fallen badly on his ankle and twisted it. It wasn¡¯t a severe injury, and it would probably heal naturally in a day or two on its own - but it would hinder his movement.


    I healed it up. I was running a bit low on alteration essence, but letting someone wander around on a hurt ankle would make it that much harder for him to respond to an emergency.


    Nobody else seemed to have any real injuries, so I went back to inspecting the pocket dimension we had fallen into.


    There was darkness in every direction, and every single direction seemed to stretch on for all eternity. It was also filled with manifestation essence, and nothing else. Even the usually-present binding essence wasn¡¯t here. Which would eventually pose a problem for us - Anise¡¯s mother and Sallia¡¯s father both had metal limbs that required essence to keep working, and unlike us, the natives of this world seemed to absorb binding essence from the air to replenish their reserves. In a few days they would just lose the ability to maneuver their mechanical limbs entirely, which meant we were on a time limit. Even if we had plenty of food and water squirreled away in my dimensional pack, after a few days we would still start running into major logistical issues.


    I also realized that the place we were in wasn¡¯t uniform.


    Interspersed throughout the endless darkness were large clumps of rock, dirt, and various other things stuck in random piles around the area. Every so often, I also noticed a new pile of dirt, stone, and random plants as it was thrown into the area by a new portal. The problem was that those portals weren¡¯t very good ways to exit this pocket dimension - we would probably get killed by the stones that each portal vomited into the area if we even got too close to them. Having hundreds of thousands of kilograms of stone suddenly smash into someone was no joke, and might not even leave me with anything to heal.


    <The portals that keep opening up aren¡¯t a good way to leave,> I said. <Anyone have a good idea how to get out of here?>


    I also asked the non-Market members of the group the same question in writing. Everyone stood in a circle and stared at the endless nothing around us for several moments, as we all searched for some way out of this mess.


    Except for my mother, who wasn¡¯t mentally present, as usual.


    <Well, the first idea that comes to mind is maybe Anise can figure out how to get us out of here?> Said Felix. <Anise, how far along are you in translating the old Zelyrian spellcasting books?>


    <Nowhere near done.> said Anise. <If you rely on me, expect to be here for several weeks, at least. Maybe several months. I¡¯ll swap to the books that are more focused on dimensionalism, but¡­ honestly, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be able to understand them without the basic books to work as a foundation. It looks like Zelyrians considered dimensionalism pretty advanced stuff, from what I can gather. I¡¯m not even done translating the first chapter of their version of ¡®baby¡¯s first spellbook¡¯ though, so honestly, any knowledge I have is pretty dubious. I don¡¯t even really understand the principles of this magic system yet.>


    I winced.


    We had a good amount of food, but definitely not enough for several weeks or months.


    How about we look for a natural exit? I¡¯m sure that the Zelyrians who designed this pocket dimension must have had something in mind to work as an exit to this place, wrote Old Mo. We just need to find it and figure out how it works. Maybe Anise can get that started?


    Why would my daughter be able to do anything with old Zelyrian essence machinery? wrote Anise¡¯s father.


    Anise has a great deal of interest in old Zelyrian stuff, especially spellcasting, I wrote. She seems really interested in getting it to work in the present day. I don¡¯t know if she¡¯ll succeed, but anytime we hang out she does talk about new stuff that she learned.


    That would at least give Anise an excuse to start pulling guesses and ideas out if we ran into something. Even though she said that she hadn¡¯t translated much yet, I also knew that if Anise learned something valuable from her translation efforts, it would be good to have a groundwork for her to interject ideas into the group.


    Anise¡¯s father glanced at Anise for a few seconds, before he ruffled her hair and nodded.


    So the plan right now is to explore and hope to find something useful in the darkness? I wrote.


    Old Mo hesitated, and then nodded, and most of the other parents followed suit. It wasn¡¯t a great plan, but it was the best idea we had right now.


    And so we started wandering through the darkness.

 Chapter 211: Fragmented Space

    As we walked, I constantly shifted from one type of vision to another, trying to keep an eye out for any dangers in our surroundings. To my surprise, when I tried to activate my spatial sight, I realized that it worked in this broken pocket dimension. Since my spatial sight relied on using water vapor, I hadn¡¯t really expected it to work - but apparently there was enough water in the air for my spatial sight to work.


    Not only did it work, but it felt¡­ correct, somehow?


    A long time ago, I had discovered that if I used all three of my rune abilities in conjunction with each other, I had a very odd, out of body experience, where it felt like every single drop of water in our surroundings constituted my real body. Furthermore, it felt almost as if I were a creature of mind and thought rather than flesh. Due to that strange experience, I usually didn¡¯t use all three of my rune abilities at once - that sensation felt like it was trying to pull at my humanity, and while my Willpower resisted the negative effect on my mind, I still didn¡¯t like the feeling.


    But while I didn¡¯t like the way this sensation ate at me, I also suspected that if I pursued it to a certain level, something interesting might happen. Perhaps I would get another keyword ability, or a regular ability, or I would just start to understand more about space and spatial manipulation as a whole.


    But until now, I hadn¡¯t been motivated enough to pursue this research project. I had been more invested in learning and experimenting with my shaping magic - learning to do illusions and shapeshifting would save me a lot of time and effort in future worlds, and it felt logical to focus on my primary essence type before focusing on less important objectives.


    But in this broken pocket dimension, it easier than ever to tap into the strange, out of body sensation that I got when I used all three of my rune abilities at once.


    This place just looked like an endless, lightless void when I looked at it with my regular human eyes, and through my soul sight, all I could see for kilometers in each direction was our group and occasional chunks of plants that had gotten teleported into this dimension with us. But through the eyes of my combined rune abilities, this place was fascinating.


    This entire pocket dimension looked like a giant plane of fractured glass. I could see that this dimension was supposed to be whole - like a giant, unbroken table. But it was also obvious where things had gone wrong when creating this pocket dimension.


    Instead of a large, unbroken landscape, the space in this dimension was littered with cracks. Some of those cracks were alarmingly close to our group, and I had the distinct feeling that falling into them would be disastrous. I couldn¡¯t quite see what was on the other side of each crack in space, but I was pretty sure that the messed up space would turn our bodies into paste long before it mattered.


    And within those messed up cracks in space, I could also see things. They looked like they had souls, but somehow, they were impossible to see if I used my soul-sight alone. I could only notice their presence if I used both my soul sight and my spatial sight in conjunction.


    They actually looked surprisingly weak from the perspective of my soul-sight - there wasn¡¯t much mana attached to their souls. They were a little stronger than a completely normal human, but not by much. What they lacked in power they made up for in quantity - there were hundreds of them sitting in each crevice, wriggling and writhing as they shuffled around each other. The way they moved made it look almost like they were swimming in midair - sort of like manta rays that swam through the broken space of this sub-dimension. I had no idea whether they were dangerous or not, but they were probably one of the more bizarre creatures I had seen so far across the past three lifetimes.


    Luckily, they didn¡¯t seem very interested in us. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was because they were quite far away from us or because they weren¡¯t hostile, but at least for now they seemed content to go about their lives.


    <I noticed a couple odd creatures. They seem slightly stronger than humans, but not much. Biggest problem is that there¡¯s a lot of them, and I can¡¯t see them unless I use both my spatial sight and my soul sight. They¡¯re very good at hiding. At least so far, they don¡¯t seem hostile.> I said. <Also, there are a lot of strange spatial cracks in the area that might kill us if we fall into them. The space creatures only live inside of these spatial cracks. Felix, could you pretend that you can sense the minds of creatures near us, or something to that effect? I want to make sure nobody wanders off and gets killed.>


    <Of course,> said Felix, as he started rapidly scribbling on his piece of paper. <How many of them are there?>


    <A few hundred of them in each spatial crack. I think we should avoid them.>


    Felix nodded, and quickly presented the results of his mental scanning with the rest of the group. The parents seemed a bit more on edge when they learned we weren¡¯t alone, but seemed willing to follow Felix¡¯s lead - and with the help of our communication bracelets, it would be very easy for me to direct him away from any of the weird spatial cracks or space manta-rays.


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    The final thing I noticed were the little tunnels in reality. Most of them looked scarred over, like old wounds in a warrior¡¯s body - but they were still clearly evident. Unlike the weird fissures in space, these looked more like little peepholes that one might install in a door. I could even see through them, if I looked carefully at them. Most of them seemed to be looking at random sections of the mountain range that we had originally been traveling through - although the angle of these ¡®peepholes¡¯ often made it hard to see much through them. Several peepholes seemed to be staring straight at rocks, or random patches of the open sky. Several of these peepholes also had a lot of rocks, dirt, and random plant detritus in them, blocking any attempt I might have made to physically access them - they were covered in random gunk on our side.


    From what I could see of the mountain range, it had seen better days. Several mountains had basically collapsed after most of their supporting rock had been teleported away, and landslides made the entire region look completely unstable. If we found a way back to the mountains, we would need to be very careful of landslides or unstable footing.


    Out of curiosity, as well as a bit of hope that there was an easy way out of this place, I tried poking at one of the random peepholes with my own teleportation ability, just to see if it would respond. Unfortunately, whatever was required to reopen portals, I didn¡¯t have it. Poking at it with alteration essence gave me a little bit of give, but not in the way I was hoping it would. It felt more like I was about to break the portal completely instead of like I was about to open it again. The problem was probably that I had no idea what I was doing, and even in the best of times, these portals were delicate. I was also afraid of poking too intensely at the peepholes in fear of burying us under a new mound of stones, dirt, and plants.


    If we didn¡¯t find a better way back to our original dimension, it might be worth trying to shovel away the rocks and plants that blocked these portals and then pushing really hard at a portal with alteration essence, to see if the portal did open back up, but I was pretty sure it would be a waste of time. Unless we had no better options, it probably wouldn¡¯t be the way we got back home.


    Once I finished scanning the area, I started sending messages to the rest of the group again, and after a few moments, we started moving, with Felix in the way so that he could pretend to check the area for spatial cracks.


    About an hour passed as we carefully navigated through the area, avoiding spatial cracks and staying away from the space manta-ray things. As we traveled, I noticed that the spatial cracks in the area were starting to become more frequent. Oddly enough, the parts of space that weren¡¯t cracked seemed more stable, and the peepholes back into reality also seemed less messed up - which made me hope that we would find a way back if we kept traveling in this dimension. but the excessive quantity of spatial cracks also meant that our group needed to take more detours than before.


    <What do you think the shadowy fish-creatures are?> asked Sallia, as our group inched past a pair of spatial crevices. Now that we had built up some familiarity with this broken pocket dimension, our group was starting to settle into a more relaxed walking routine. The spatial peepholes into reality had also started to settle down - it looked like they were no longer activating and spewing random sections of stone and plants into this pocket dimension, which was a relief. I didn¡¯t want to get buried or killed by several kilograms of rock flying out of a portal.


    <Maybe they¡¯re some sort of¡­ creature that lives on the edges of the ocean of souls?> said Felix, after a moment. <I could see them showing up oddly if we were inside of a dimension, instead of the ocean of souls. When we were talking with the soul fragment earlier, we learned that there are a few species that live inside of the ocean of souls. It¡¯s very uncommon, since the conflicting laws of reality inside of the ocean usually rip apart most life forms - even souls barely escape destruction. But if you can¡¯t see what¡¯s on the other side of each spatial crack, and it doesn¡¯t lead back to the dimension we were born in this time, I figure it¡¯s probably somehow connected to the ocean.>


    <There are creatures that live inside of the ocean of souls? How does that even work? What do they eat?>


    <Ocean water and souls, sometimes. And sometimes they instead invade other dimensions and act like infestations,> said Sallia. <Hmm¡­ the way the soul fragment explained dimensions and the ocean of souls is that every single dimension is kind of like a cracked snow globe. Inside of each snow globe, there are certain laws of reality that take effect - but there are still cracks in each one. After all, souls and mana need to enter and exit each dimension. Some creatures can also enter and exit dimensions through those cracks, much like souls.>


    <So, if we continue with the snow globe analogy, is the ocean of souls basically just a giant ocean that all of these snow globes float inside of?> I asked. I hadn¡¯t asked much about the conversation the group had with the hologram after I learned about the Market¡¯s more genocidal tendencies, but I was glad to know that we had still gotten some useful information out of it.


    <Sort of. The ocean of souls doesn¡¯t have anything like water pressure, so maybe it¡¯s more like a cloud than an ocean in this analogy? But the general idea still holds up,> said Sallia.


    I nodded to myself.


    If these little manta-ray like creatures were extradimensional invaders, they certainly didn¡¯t seem very interested in us, at least. I was glad that they were more interested in just¡­ floating around instead of attacking us. I wasn¡¯t sure if we could fight off a large colony of them.


    And right as I was thinking that, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the manta-ray like souls was drifting towards us. I wasn¡¯t sure if this one was just overly curious, or aggressive, or if we had just wandered too close to one of the spatial crevices without noticing. But for the first time, one of the creatures was showing interest in us.


    A moment later, the creature attached itself to a nearby hunk of rocks, almost as if it were putty filling a mold.


    And then, a moment later, like a golem assembling itself out of the ruined chunks of mountain, the rocks began to move.

 Chapter 212: Language Barriers

    As I watched the pile of rocks animate itself, my hands flicked to the items I usually ignored.


    In this world, I hadn¡¯t fought against any major single threat. Humans were only threatening in numbers, and no powerful wild animals existed here. I hadn¡¯t had a reason to fear a single powerful enemy in six years now. The way I fought against a single strong enemy and a large group of weak enemies was very different, and most of my current ability setup was best at fighting other humans.


    But that didn¡¯t mean my instincts for combat had disappeared.


    In moments, my tarot deck was ready, and I equipped my umbrella, {Breath of the Storm}. My tarot deck hadn''t been useful in years, but it was the best tool I had against a single strong enemy.


    And then I hesitated.


    At least so far, we didn¡¯t have evidence the creature was planning to attack us. If the other side initiated a fight, I had no issues sending them back to the ocean of souls the moment they raised a weapon. They could learn to be better people or nicer monsters in their next life.


    But so far, the manta-ray creature hadn¡¯t shown any signs of hostility.


    As I hesitated, lost in my thoughts, I saw Sallia and Felix also pull out their weapons and items, and Old Mo started carefully ushering the parents out of any potential lines of fire. In moments, Sallia and Felix were also armed to the teeth, and Anise had settled into a spot where she could fire magic missiles without hitting anyone else. The parents seemed a bit baffled by the fact that both of them had seemingly created several items from thin air, but we could deal with that later.


    A few moments later, the rocks stopped moving. I saw that they had assembled themselves into a square, lumpy facsimile of a human face. It wasn¡¯t a particularly good facsimile - it looked more like a mess than a real human face. But I could see that the shadowy manta-ray like creature had made at least some attempts to create a human nose, eyes, and a mouth.


    I kept my weapons ready, and kept my strongest extinguish ready to go, just in case. I was at less than half of my alteration essence, but if the creature initiated hostilities, I was more than ready to respond in kind. But I still felt myself relaxing a little bit. Since the creature had created a human face, perhaps it intended to communicate with us instead of fighting?


    Old Mo and the parents seemed to get more nervous when they saw the creature assemble a humanoid face, interestingly enough. The four of us felt a bit less nervous, though - the creature might be trying to initiate diplomacy.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I wrote in berry juice upon a piece of Felix¡¯s origami paper, before turning the paper to face the creature.


    The creature cleared its throat a few times, and then rumbled at us.


    ¡°Hello, ¡­.. ¡­.. dying ¡­¡­ ,¡± said the creature, words rumbling out of its stone throat like boulders falling down a mountain.


    I blinked in confusion.


    I could actually understand some of the words that the creature had said - the word ¡®hello¡¯ at the beginning had been very distinct, and while the creature spoke with an accent that made it hard to understand, it definitely wasn¡¯t impossible to make out what it was saying.


    But the other half of its words were very hard to make out. It wasn¡¯t totally incomprehensible - in fact, I could hear some fragments of words that sounded very similar to modern Vernese. But other fragments of the words were either incomprehensible, or pronounced so differently that they might as well have been a different language.


    Then, there was the fact that the creature was speaking at all. Our group couldn''t make any sound in this void, so the fact that the creature could was baffling to me.


    I realized that the creature was probably speaking old Zelyrian - or at least, that was my best guess for what was happening. I knew that modern languages originated from old Zelyrian, and we were in the middle of an ancient Zelyrian pocket dimension. It seemed like the most reasonable explanation for why I understood some words, but not most of them. I turned towards Anise, to see if she recognized any of the words, and to my surprise, Old Mo of all people looked like he recognized some of the creature¡¯s words.


    Old Mo looked at his own piece of paper and then frowned, before he started writing on it. A few moments later, he turned his piece of paper towards the creature.


    ¡°I can ¡­¡­¡± spoke the creature, much to Old Mo¡¯s surprise.


    Old Mo wrote something new on his paper, and this time, I moved a little closer to see what he was writing.


    ¡°¡­¡­. ¡­ ... Mo Remithus¡­¡­. ¡­ Hello?¡± was what Old Mo had written on his paper.


    Old Mo¡¯s writing at least confirmed that he was writing in old Zelyrian. The writing looked exactly the same as in Anise¡¯s magic books.


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    I realized a few moments later that Old Mo wasn¡¯t quite as fluent in the creature¡¯s language as I had thought. Each time he wrote a word he took a great deal of time to finish it, as if he was trying to remember how to translate some words and couldn¡¯t quite remember how. The creature didn¡¯t seem offended by how slow Old Mo¡¯s translation attempts were, and started speaking slowly so that Old Mo had more time to translate its words.


    But its eyes remained on Anise the entire time, instead of focusing on Old Mo¡¯s piece of paper. The stone head it had constructed didn¡¯t give this fact away - while the creature seemed willing to move the stone face¡¯s jaw up and down when it ¡®spoke¡¯ to us, its eyes were still just hollow sockets. But the shadowy manta-ray figure seemed to always be facing Anise, regardless of what it did or said. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet, but I was on guard against it.


    Helping Anise pick up the old legacy of the ancient Zelyrians was definitely a good idea, since it would help her form a keyword based on Zelyrian manifestation spellcasting. I had some vague hope that perhaps this would turn out like our first encounter with ¡®Ancient Zelyrian Ruins,¡¯ where Anise had shifted her biology towards something that fit her needs better. But something about the creature¡¯s gaze felt off, although that might have just been my imagination.


    I tightened my grip on my tarot deck, just in case.


    ¡°I ¡­¡­ ¡­..  dying ¡­.. Can I ¡­.. ¡­¡­. you are ¡­. ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­ ¡­.. ¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­ ¡­ ¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­ ¡­ ¡­¡­.. Zelyrian, ¡­. ¡­¡­ ¡­.. ¡­. ¡­. ¡­. ¡­¡­¡­,¡± said the creature.  Despite the fact that it was speaking more slowly than before, it was now using much more advanced vocabulary. That, combined with the fact that its voice was nothing like a human voice and its accent was very hard for me to adapt to, made it very hard to figure out what it had said.


    But something about the situation was making alarm bells ring in my head now. Even if I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on what was bothering me, I didn¡¯t like this situation.


    Just because the creature was intelligent and capable of communication didn¡¯t mean it would be friendly, just like with other humans. We had fought with other humans many times in this world already, and there was no reason to believe other intelligent life would treat us well.


    ¡°Sorry¡­ could you speak more slowly?¡± wrote Anise onto her piece of paper.


    The manta-ray controlling the pile of stone accidentally slipped out of the stone head for a moment as it seemed to glare at Anise for a moment, before it slipped back into the pile of stones and gave the group an amiable smile instead.


    It repeated the same sentence more slowly. As I heard old Zelyrian I was also starting to get a little more familiar with the ¡®accent¡¯ associated with the language, so I was able to pick out a few more words than before.


    The first sentence, especially, became clear enough for me to at least understand the creature¡¯s statement, after I did a little mental translation. The next few sentences were harder to make out, but I could still understand some word fragments.


    Those word fragments set my teeth on edge.


    ¡°I am Eyes like Dying Suns. Can I ask ¡­.  ¡­.. here? Trespassing¡­.. ¡­ ¡­.. ¡­ forgivable, but¡­. ¡­. ¡­. ¡­¡­.. girl is Zelyrian. I can¡¯t¡­ ¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­. .. pass.¡±


    What was the creature talking about? The way it was staring at Anise as it said something about a girl being Zelyrian made me carefully eye our surroundings. I didn¡¯t like the way it had said something about trespassing and Anise being Zelyrian. I worried about the other creatures in our surroundings doing something while we were distracted.


    The other shadowy manta-ray like creatures were still going about their business, apparently disinterested in whatever we were doing. I breathed a small sigh of relief. It didn¡¯t seem like they were doing anything hostile¡­ yet.


    Old Mo quickly scribbled another phrase onto his sheet of paper. I glanced at it, and was pretty sure it said ¡°I am Old Mo. Please pass let?¡± I was pretty sure Old Mo¡¯s grammar in ancient Zelyrian was nonsensical, probably because he only had passing familiarity with it. But the creature nodded, and then looked at Anise again.


    Once again, it spoke, and I couldn¡¯t make out what it was saying.


    ¡°.... ¡­¡­ ¡­.. Girl is Zelyrian. Cannot ¡­. ¡­¡­ ¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­.. pass. You must¡­ ¡­¡­.. ¡­.. otherwise I cannot. ¡­. ¡­. ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­ pass. Can you ¡­. ¡­¡­. ¡­¡­ her to ¡­.. ¡­.?¡±


    Old Mo started scribbling furiously onto his sheet of paper, and a moment later held it out to the creature.


    The only words on his paper were Anise is not Zelyrian!


    I was still missing a lot of context in the conversation, but whatever Old Mo had heard, he didn¡¯t like it. He reached for the gun hidden in his sleeve.


    Old Mo, what¡¯s it saying? I wrote onto my paper and held it out to Old Mo.


    It says that it can¡¯t let a Zelyrian leave this place alive, so we¡¯re free to go, but Anise needs to stay here wrote Old Mo, while keeping one hand on his gun.


    ¡°Why?¡± I tried to say, nearly snapping - but just like before, I could make sounds in this place. I wrote it down instead and showed it to the creature, despite my extremely spotty understanding of old Zelyrian and even worse understanding of its writing system.


    The creature seemed to understand my words. Perhaps the Vernese and Zelyrian languages shared the word ¡®why.''


    ¡°The Zelyrians ¡­.. ¡­¡­.. betrayers! We ¡­. ¡­¡­. ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­¡­ punish!¡± the creature said, nearly hissing as the venom in its voice was unmistakable. ¡°....... we¡­. ¡­.. ¡­.. ..Broke this¡­ ¡­. ¡­.. to ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­ realize we¡­. ¡­.. ¡­. ¡­. betrayed at will!¡±


    Old Mo seemed shocked. I think¡­ the creature said that the Zelyrians betrayed them somehow, but I couldn¡¯t get any more details. It¡¯s talking too fast, he wrote, before showing me his piece of paper.


    I transmitted his words to the rest of the group via our friendship bracelets, as I frowned and wrote a response.


    Anise isn¡¯t Zelyrian, I wrote, before holding it out so that the creature could see it.


    The creature snorted.


    Why was Anise being mistaken for¡­ my heart dropped as I realized where Anise might have picked up a trait that would make other creatures believe she was Zelyrian.


    The magic surgery that gave her Zelyrian spellcasting abilities. It could have made her resemble a Zelyrian.


    I didn¡¯t think we were going to exit this conversation through talking, so I eyed my remaining alteration essence. I tried not to wince as I confirmed that I was less than halfway full, and activated my deck of cursed tarot cards on the creature.


    If it wanted to hurt my friends, I was going to send it back to the ocean.

 Chapter 213: Cups

    My tarot deck activated, and I saw three cards pull themselves out of the deck and reveal themselves.


    The Priestess. Death. Cups.


    I had no idea what Cups or the Priestess would do, but Death sounded like a very promising curse to throw at an enemy moments before combat started.


    Unfortunately, my attempts to curse the creature didn¡¯t go unnoticed. The shadowy silhouette animating the pile of rocks turned towards me and glared. I saw shadowy strings and tubes of energy snake out of the creature¡¯s body and into the pile of rocks, before some type of manifestation essence flooded into the pile of stone, giving me my first good look at how the creature interacted with our plane of reality. The human-looking face that had been carved out of stone disappeared moments later, to be replaced with a giant pile of rocks shaped vaguely like a human fist.


    The creature was done trying to be diplomatic.


    The human shaped fish flew through the air towards us, its fist-like shape collapsing as it tore towards us.


    Sallia grabbed Anise and then leapt to the side, and Felix grabbed my mother and rolled away. Felix also tried moving a disc of metal in front of him, in order to block the giant pile of rocks, but it was about as effective as someone trying to stop a train by punching it. Felix¡¯s roll saved his - and my mothers - life.


    I glanced at Anise and Sallia¡¯s parents, and was grateful for the fact that Old Mo had moved them out of the way before hostilities broke out. They were positioned away from the fighting, and as long as we dodged away from them we wouldn¡¯t have to worry about them getting caught up in the fight.


    And the creature definitely didn¡¯t seem interested in the adults at all. I can see the shadowy figure behind the creature was still focused entirely on Anise. As far as the creature seemed concerned, the rest of us might as well have not even existed. It wanted one, and only one of us dead. The rest of us were just obstacles.


    I growled.


    Nobody hurt my friends. If this shadow manta ray wanted to kill Anise, I was going to send it back to the ocean or die trying.


    I focused even more intensely on the space the creature was occupying, trying to figure out what to do. I still couldn¡¯t see its real body without both my soul-sight and spatial sight activated, which made me think that the creature was somehow hiding in a sort of¡­ pocket dimension that overlapped with this one, or something like that. I didn¡¯t know exactly how that worked, but I also didn¡¯t know much about all of the different kinds of spatial magic that existed in the Multiverse. And right now, I desperately needed to figure out how to interact with the creature¡¯s body.


    The pile of rocks it had launched at us clearly wasn¡¯t its real body. It was like a puppet controlled by a puppeteer - if we attacked the pile of rocks, we wouldn¡¯t accomplish anything at all. We needed to hurt its real body somehow if we wanted to get it away from us.


    I hesitated for a moment, before trying to shoot a lightning bolt at the creature using {Breath of the Storm}. I was hoping that it would prove similar to Aplos, where its body had been vulnerable to essence-based attacks. If essence attacks could hit it from across dimensions, the creature wouldn¡¯t be much harder to kill than a regular human - after all, our group¡¯s combat style was built almost entirely around essence.


    Instead, the lightning bolt whizzed through the creature as if it weren¡¯t even there.


    Clearly, essence attacks weren¡¯t going to be enough. Which also made me feel very worried - if ordinary essence attacks couldn¡¯t hurt it, Sallia and Anise might not be able to defend themselves against these creatures at all.


    And more importantly, I also didn¡¯t have a good way to hurt the creature if its body didn¡¯t exist in the same layer of reality as I did.


    The creature looked at me, and then jiggled mockingly, its oval-shaped body wobbling from side to side as if it were laughing at my futile attempt to hurt it.


    ¡°........ Should have ¡­. ¡­. ¡­ ¡­¡­.. kill the¡­. ¡­ ¡­¡­. Zelyrian,¡± said the creature, its voice echoing strangely through the area around me as it laughed in a strange, hissing sound that resembled oil frying in a pan. Without the stone head to project its voice, it seemed to be difficult for the creature to make words that I could hear - but it still did its best to mock me for trying to keep Anise alive.


    Rage made my ears ring as I looked at this thing that wanted to kill Anise, and I reached out towards my other ability.


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    Extinguish.


    A drop of water materialized right above its body, containing nearly a quarter of my remaining alteration essence. Right now, I didn¡¯t care that I might need the essence later to fight off other enemies - this thing wanted to hurt Anise.


    And I wanted it gone.


    The creature stopped laughing at me the moment the extinguish appeared - and true to my hope, the extinguish seemed to exist in the same sub-dimension that it did. Even though I couldn¡¯t see the drop of water that contained my extinguish with my regular eyes, I could see that the drop of water was somehow right next to the creature. But unlike when I created extinguishes in the regular world, the drop of water seemed to fall very¡­ slowly this time.


    The creature seemed to be afraid of the extinguish touching it - but it also didn¡¯t seem that worried about actually getting hit. It just seemed surprised that I could potentially hurt it at all.


    The creature turned back towards me, and created a mocking smile entirely out of strings of black manifestation essence, as if to let me know just how little it thought of my attempt to kill it. The creature created a hole in the middle of its body, and the drop of water that contains a huge chunk of my alteration essence and my desire to wipe this creature off the face of the planet fell harmlessly through the hole in the center of its stomach. A moment later, my eyes started to hurt, as my vision insisted that the drop of water was both in front of me, and insisted that there was no drop of water at all.


    And then, I felt a tarot card activate.


    Cups.


    My eyes started to hurt as the drop of water that contained my extinguish shifted. One moment, it had already fallen through the creature¡¯s body, missing it entirely - and the next moment, like a drop of water sliding to the bottom of a cup, the drop of water reversed directions and sped up, tracking the creature¡¯s body as if it were a heat-seeking missile.


    The creature seemed shocked as the extinguish slammed into its body, wiping out over half of its life force in a quarter of a second.


    I blinked in surprise. The fact that the creature had lived through the extinguish at all was shocking - I had thought I packed enough alteration essence into the attack to kill it on the spot. Perhaps it had some sort of resistance to alteration essence?


    ¡°@*#$7* @*#$#&%*#@&$*# @*#&$*#@$!¡± The creature shrieked. Its words were no longer even remotely close to the ancient Zelyrian language - it sounded like a bunch of angry hisses and clicks instead. The sound grated at my ears.


    But I was much more focused on the fact that extinguish had hurt it. The creature seemed nearly dead - losing half of its life force in less than a second was enough to incapacitate it, even if it hadn¡¯t died outright.


    I glanced around, and saw the hundreds of other manta-ray creatures that lived in most fragmented cracks in reality. I had enough essence for three more extinguishes like that, and then I would be out. We needed a better way to fight them if more of them turned hostile. None of them seemed to have reacted to our fight yet - perhaps their vision of what was happening over here wasn¡¯t very good?


    <Felix! Can you try hitting the creature?> I asked, sending him an image of where the creature was located through the friendship bracelet to help him locate it.


    Felix threw a rock at the spot where the shadowy soul-manta ray¡¯s figure overlapped with reality.


    And then Felix¡¯s rock passed right through it as if it didn¡¯t even exist. I sighed.


    I had kind of expected that - once my lightning bolt had passed through the creature like it didn¡¯t exist, I had suspected we would have issues using physical attacks against the creature.


    <You hit it, but the rock did nothing. Try loading up a piece of metal with alteration essence instead?>


    The soul creature struggled to right itself, but it looked like a floppy pancake instead of a manta ray right now. Its body was desperately quivering as it tried to right itself, but losing so much of its life force had still left it very close to dead.


    Felix carefully held a small spike of metal in his hands, and began trying to stuff alteration essence inside of it. The alteration essence resisted being stuffed into the item - I got the sense that while the essence wasn¡¯t quite sentient, it still innately resisted being locked into the metal spike the way Felix was trying to do it. But through sheer force of will, Felix managed to get everything crammed inside of the piece of shrapnel, before launching it at the shadowy manta-ray.


    Since the creature could barely move, Felix¡¯s projectile slammed straight into its body. It didn¡¯t even have the energy to try to make a hole in its body and avoid the attack.


    The alteration essence inside of the rock spilled into the creature¡¯s body, and a moment later, I realized what Felix had done.


    Felix may not be able to see the sub-dimension the creature was hiding in, but he also had a reasonable understanding of how dimensions and spatial manipulation worked, since every single dimension we had lived in so far had some sort of spatial manipulation ability present in it. So Felix had just loaded up the rock with his best idea of ¡®disrupt other dimensions¡¯ energy, as far as I could tell.


    It seemed to work, and moments later, the creature flicked into view of my regular, totally unaided eyesight. Felix followed up with a second, entirely normal spike of metal, which cut directly into the creature¡¯s shadowy body. Once the creature had been pulled out of its home sub-layer of reality, it was just as vulnerable as a regular enemy.


    Without either of my two remaining curses activating, I saw the creature die, and a System notification appeared in front of my eyes moments later.


    But before I could rejoice at the fact that we had found a way to let the others participate in future battles against the shadow manta-ray like figures, I noticed that our battle hadn¡¯t gone unnoticed.


    Several more shadowy figures had finally noticed what was happening, and were starting to make their way towards us. And they did not look happy.

 Chapter 214: Fragmented Space

    When I saw the horde of shadow creatures flying towards us, I immediately realized something.


    There were way too many of them to handle.


    Worse, Felix¡¯s regular attacks had passed through the first creature¡¯s body. My lightning bolt had done nothing to it. Anise and Felix wouldn''t be able to hurt them. With two of our four combatants out of the picture, contending with a horde of dozens of enemies was a pipe dream.


    So I grabbed my mother and ran for my life. The rest followed suit.


    Even the parents seemed to realize the situation was urgent, even if they didn''t have all the details.


    As we fled, I saw o that several of the manta rays were still investigating their fallen comrade. Only a few of them focused on our group.


    Based on the first creature¡¯s contempt for our actions, I surmised that most of the manta-ray creatures felt we weren''t threats. They didn''t believe we could hurt them at all.


    I hoped that they were afraid of us, instead of enraged.


    That hope was short-lived, as I saw the first few glow with manifestation essence. Black strings of essence tore out of their bodies and snaked towards the nearby rocks. A moment later, airborne missiles started flying towards us.


    The horde was not afraid of us. Instead, they were hellbent on vengeance.


    I teleported the first few rocks back into the horde. I hoped that I could slip them into the same sublayer of reality the creatures existed in. It didn¡¯t work - the creatures shifted their body shapes and let the rocks sail right through them. Without the tarot card guiding my aim, hitting the creatures was nearly impossible.


    <There are several of them chasing after us,> I said.


    <How many?> asked Felix.


    I opened my spatial sight again, before I winced. <Thirty are close enough to attack us. And several dozen more are behind them. Too many to fight unless you have any bright ideas.>


    <I don¡¯t think our essence pools will hold out for that long. Trying to hit these things is difficult> said Felix.


    <Miria, do you have any good ideas for how my attacks could hit them? Or Anise¡¯s? If both of us could contribute to the fight, it would help,> asked Sallia.


    <I have no idea!> I yelled into the friendship bracelet. A moment later, I ducked to the ground as a boulder crashed into the ground near me. Since my essence was nowhere near enough already, I needed to dodge some attacks instead of teleporting everything away.


    In desperation, I popped open the System messages I had pushed to the side earlier, and hoped that somehow one of them would fix this mess.


    The first thing I saw was a regular kill notification. My actions counted for a kill rather than an assist, even though Felix struck the final blow.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Worldstrider for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +80


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I resisted the urge to throw something when I saw that the kill had only been worth 80 Achievement. That was barely any better than a skeleton foot soldier in the Market. I felt that the creature was far more frustrating to fight against than the Skeleton. Only getting 80 Achievement didn¡¯t feel fair.


    I took a deep breath and looked at the other System notification. This was the one I had been hoping to see, and would hopefully provide us a way out of this mess.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured a Worldstrider for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fragmented Space:


    Your body gains the ability to step in and out of a certain sublayer of space. One may think of this as something like a ¡®pocket dimension¡¯ that layered on top of the surface world.


    It takes a moderate amount of any type of essence to step into this sublayer of space. Interacting with items in the ¡®surface world¡¯ while within this sublayer of space will require other abilities.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked at the ability, and immediately accepted it. A few moments later, I felt as if something was calling to me. It was almost like a door or a window that I could step through, but had never been aware of until now.


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    <I¡¯m going to try a new skill that I got from Endless Hunger of the Ocean. Let me see what it does,> I said, before activating the ability.


    I felt some of my absorption essence disappear. Immediately, my vision went black. I felt like I had fallen even deeper into an endless void - and it was slowly ripping away at my body. The laws of this reality weren''t wholly compatible with my biology. It was nowhere near as dangerous as the living galaxy had been, but it hurt. I tried not to grimace in pain - it still felt like I had jumped into a vat of acid.


    But if I wanted us to have any chance at all against the horde of creatures, I needed to hit them in their home territory. Attacks from the surface layer of reality didn''t even hurt them without a lot of extra steps. I scanned the area, looking for some sort of weakness I could seize to finish off our attackers.


    I didn¡¯t see anything. This sublayer of space was even more void-like than the first one. I could feel the ground I was standing on, and see a few ripples of essence in the distance. The only other thing I could find were the worldstriders flying towards us.


    I couldn¡¯t even see the rest of the group unless I used my spatial manipulation/soul sight combination. To the rest of our group it must have looked like I had disappeared into thin air.


    The sounds the worldstriders made were also much louder in this sublayer of space.


    They spoke to each other in strange, chittering sounds that I couldn''t interpret at all. The first one we had met had clearly only spoken Zelyrian for our benefit.


    But they definitely noticed the fact that I had traveled to their ¡®home layer¡¯ of reality.


    Several of the flying blobs started zooming towards me. I gritted my teeth and held {Breath of the Storm} in front of me, before I activated the lighting attack.


    This time, the lightning didn¡¯t pass through the creature - it slammed directly into the worldstrider. For once, my attack had been fast enough that the blasted creature couldn¡¯t shapeshift out of the way. It collapsed into a burnt, foul-smelling pile of charcoal a moment later.


    <Miria?> asked Sallia. <Where did you go?> She sounded panicked.


    <Busy. Fighting!> I sent back as I started moving to keep up with the group. <Got into the same sub-layer of space as them. Lots of enemies to handle!>


    <Can you bring me there?> asked Sallia.


    I blinked.


    That was a good idea, if it worked.


    I spent some more absorption essence to reappear in the ¡®main¡¯ layer of reality. I grabbed onto Sallia¡¯s hand and tried activating my new Fragmented Space Skill again.


    A moment later, the real world disappeared, and I was standing back in the other layer of reality. Sallia was with me.


    I grinned.


    I was pretty reliant on my essence to fight, and I had started this battle at less than half of my reserves.


    Sallia was not low on essence at all.


    Sallia grinned at the worldstriders. Her grin was the stuff of nightmares - it was savage, feral, and conveyed how very, very pissed off she was. I wasn¡¯t the only one upset that something was trying to kill Anise.


    Then Sallia leapt towards them. The creatures chittered and screeched at her, and few of them launched strings of black manifestation essence at Sallia.


    She ducked out of the way, but one of the strings latched onto her skin - where it left a shallow cut and then collapsed.


    <My Fortitude Stat seems to resist whatever their essence is doing. It feels like some sort of kinetic manipulation attempt,> said Sallia as her grin widened.


    I also grinned. We could fight the worldstriders on even ground here.


    A few of the creatures swapped to launching fist-sized globs of darkness at Sallia instead. These gave me a bad feeling - but it seemed like projectiles travelled slower in this sub-dimension. This had thrown my extinguish off-course when I first tried to use it. Now, it worked to our benefit, since Sallia could dodge the attacks with ease. The few blobs of darkness that did make past Sallia¡¯s defensive maneuvering sank into her {Robe of the Wandering Swordsman}... and then did nothing.


    Sallia hit the first worldstrider like a billion ton asteroid. Her first swing divided one of the worldstriders in half before it could respond. The creature fell and stopped moving, as Sallia¡¯s grin grew even wider.


    With another worldstrider dead, the worldstriders finally stopped paying attention to the group. Sallia and I had their full, undivided attention. They had realized we were the real threats, and they weren¡¯t happy about it. I was glad to see their attacks no longer falling on Anise, our parents, and the others.


    I fell back, and concentrated on supporting Sallia. I needed to preserve my essence, but I could still hit worldstriders with lightning bolts at opportune moments. I reserved my alteration essence for emergencies, since it was hard to hit the creatures with extinguishes.


    Meanwhile, Sallia was like a hurricane. She took occasional wounds, but they were minor in comparison to the devastation she wrought. Every time one fell, she sprinted towards another one and stuck to it like glue. The creatures tried to float out of her range, but it didn''t work. Sallia used her metal manipulation to create platforms for herself, and somehow managed to keep herself airborne using her muscles and rune ability.


    I watched in awe as Sallia killed her sixth worldstrider. Many of them started to try to shapeshift out of the way of Sallia''s blade. Sallia adapted to this trick equally quickly through her swordsmanship expertise. For a few moments, Sallia dominated the battlefield on her own. Against a horde of enemies, the two of us stood like mountains holding back the ocean. We made them aware of just how big of a mistake they had made in picking a fight with us.


    Then the moment ended.


    The horde of worldstriders seemed endless, and they were approaching faster than we could kill them. We could kill one every few seconds, but there were dozens of enemies. And the laws of this sublayer of reality were still corroding our bodies. That did more damage than the worldstriders, and I didn''t have enough alteration essence to heal us. After a minute, I picked up Sallia and dragged us back in the original dimension. The corrosion of the other sublayer of reality disappeared.


    The others had made good use of the time we bought and had booked it.


    Sallia grabbed me, burned some absorption essence, and then ran at a speed that made my neck hurt from whiplash. We caught up to our group in moments.


    We had held off the horde of black blobs and gained a small lead - but we were now sprinting blindly through a massive, empty dimension that we still hadn¡¯t figured out a way to leave.

 Chapter 215: Lost in the Silence

    We ran through endless darkness. The horde pursued us like an unrelenting river, hounding our footsteps as we ran for our lives.


    I constantly used alteration essence to activate renewal, keeping everyone¡¯s stamina high. With every single minute, tiny bits of my alteration essence drained away. My keywords, {Duality}, {Ocean}, and {Alteration}, worked to boost my essence regeneration - but even with three of my keywords active, I was losing essence every second.


    But that wasn¡¯t without benefits. After a few minutes of nonstop sprinting, I saw that the worldstriders were tiring out. Apparently, the creatures didn¡¯t have very good stamina. It was possible for them to fly as fast as we could sprint away, but they didn¡¯t have any sort of stamina restoration, and they struggled to maintain the same speed as us for any decent amount of time.


    We also managed to stay out of their attack range. A few of them tried to hurl stone pellets at us, but with how far away they were, their aim was abysmal. I still needed to teleport away a few projectiles, but most of them weren''t even close to hitting us.


    On the other hand, my essence reserves were starting to bottom out. I had done too many different things with my alteration essence today, and I hadn¡¯t had enough time to regenerate.


    It was thankful that Old Mo seemed to have some sort of endurance-type ability, because without Old Mo and Sallia helping carry the slower members of the party, we would have been swarmed by the worldstriders minutes ago.


    After the first few minutes of our desperate sprint, I started to believe that we were going to be fine. The worldstriders were falling behind, we were out of attack range, and I could deflect any lucky shots with my portals.


    And then, I realized that we were getting close to another spatial crack.


    This entire dimension was littered with spatial cracks, and they were teeming with worldstriders.


    I redirected our group away from the new spatial crack. But a few of the flagging worldstriders managed to put on one last burst of speed. They flew to the new spatial crack, and started chittering at the other worldstriders inside of it.


    Most of the residents of the new spatial crack ignored us. Only one in ten flew close enough to the talking worldstrider chasing us to even listen to what it had to say. Half of them ignored it right afterwards.


    Unfortunately, a new group of about twenty worldstriders joined the group chasing us. They didn''t make a big difference in numbers - but the newcomers had fresh reserves of essence and stamina.


    I hesitated, wondering whether we could turn on the pursuers and wipe them out. If we kept fleeing, they would just keep recruiting more enemies. Maybe we could escape if we found a way to handle the horde?


    But then I looked at the much larger group of exhausted worldstriders, and gave up the idea. I was close to running on fumes for my alteration essence, and there were too many of them. A fight against them wasn¡¯t winnable.


    Luckily, the worldstriders from the new group still struggled to catch up to us. They maintained pressure on us as we ran, but they couldn¡¯t actually reach us. I also saw some of the worldstriders from the original group drop out of the chase. We had exhausted some of our pursuers.


    The problem was that there was no path forward in this dimension that didn¡¯t pass by more spatial cracks. As we kept running, every time we got near another spatial crack, a few more pursuers would join the chase. The worldstriders hand an unlimited supply of new combatants, while we did not.


    So we kept running.


    The group of pursuers renewed their manpower again¡­


    And again¡­


    And again¡­


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    And again¡­


    By the seventh time it happened, I was starting to lose my mind. The worldstriders weren¡¯t even attacking us at this point - they were just wearing us out. They only ever attacked if we slowed down. As we continued to run, I started to realize something.


    We were being herded somewhere.


    As we fled, the density of spatial cracks was increasing. The worldstriders weren¡¯t stupid. They weren¡¯t like the monsters we had fought before in other worlds.


    They were an intelligent group of communicative creatures. It was normal for them to use tactics and planning against us. They weren¡¯t a threat individually, but they had planning, organization, and teamwork.


    We were going to die if we couldn¡¯t find a way to take control of the situation.


    I searched for a way out of this - any way at all.


    But nothing came to mind.


    My best idea was to try to force open one of the half-open portals using my alteration magic - but given how fragile they were, I felt it was more likely that we would all die than flee back to the real world. I was more likely to turn a broken portal into a blender than a doorway. And most of them were buried under several times my body weight in boulders.


    <They¡¯re herding us closer to somewhere,> said Sallia, as I desperately searched for a way to turn the tables. <I don¡¯t know where, but I doubt it''s good for us.>


    <I¡¯m so sorry. I didn¡¯t think-> Anise started to stutter out.


    <Shhh. You did nothing wrong, Anise. It¡¯s their fault, not yours,> I said, sending every single speck of emotion I could into that mental message. I sent every single drop of pride, fury, and love I could at Anise. Fury at the worldstriders, for blaming Anise for something she had nothing to do with. Pride for the strides Anise had taken forward during our time on this planet. And every single ounce of love I felt for my friends. Pride was the strongest emotion.


    Anise had been willing to take a dangerous, untested magical surgery to let her pursue her dreams. It might not be working to our advantage right now, but there was no way I was going to let these damn worldstriders hurt Anise for trying to pursue her dreams. If we died here, I still wouldn¡¯t regret a single one of our choices. I just wished Old Mo and our parents weren''t going to die with us. Still, I felt that we had done our best to keep them safe. Due to the war situation, keeping them completely safe had been a pipe dream from the beginning.


    <We might not live to see the end of this, but Anise¡­ if we die, I don¡¯t want you to think for a second that you got us killed. We were with you every step of the way, encouraging you and trying to help you manage the risks of your decisions. If we die, it¡¯s because of the actions we took as a team - not because of you. Okay?> I sent, after a few moments of silence.


    <Okay.> Anise didn¡¯t sound completely convinced, but she still sent her words back to me.


    <Miria, less defeatist talk, more strategizing. Is there a way out of this?> asked Sallia.


    And then, a few moments later, Felix injected his first words into the conversation.


    <Do you guys see that giant pyramid in the distance?>


    I blinked in surprise. I immediately squinted, and in the distance, I could definitely see a giant pyramid. I should have seen it first, but I had been so wrapped up in our conversation and my expectation of death that I had missed it.


    Surrounding the pyramid was what appeared to be the center of the void cracks. It was almost like there was a giant wall of worldstriders there. Many of them didn¡¯t seem to have taken interest in our flight yet, but that would change soon.


    In the midst of the wall of enemies, I also found a tiny, tiny sliver of hope. The area directly around the pyramid was free of spatial cracks. There was a giant circle surrounding the giant pyramid that looked like a completely intact chunk of pocket dimension. Unlike the rest of this dimension, it also had a few plants trees inside of it. The space around the pyramid also felt more... stable than the rest of this place. I couldn''t see anything more specific, because it was too far away. But it was the first thing we had found in this dimension that wasn''t endless darkness and spatial cracks.


    I didn¡¯t know if there was a way out of this pocket dimension inside of the pyramid - but it was the only interesting place we had seen here.


    I looked at the horde of worldstriders chasing us, and realized that they must be trying to herd us into the wall of worldstriders. If we kept moving forward, they could trap us between two hordes of worldstriders. Then, they would swarm us and annihilate us.


    We couldn¡¯t run in another direction, either. The horde of worldstriders, finally seeing the group they had been herding us towards, seemed to be picking up the pace. They seemed excited to have finally found a way to catch us.


    I gritted my teeth. We needed to survive. We couldn¡¯t run in another direction, or we would be torn to shreds . We couldn¡¯t fight our way out - there were way too many enemies to fight.


    I glanced at the giant sets of spatial cracks again, and the swarm of enemies behind us, and finally, a desperate plan hatched in my mind.

 Chapter 216: Old, Forgotten, Worn out Things

    As we drew closer to the wall of worldstriders, I quickly explained my plan to Sallia, Anise, and Felix via the friendship bracelets.


    I couldn¡¯t communicate very efficiently with the parents of the group, but I still managed to write that I had a plan in the letters of light I had created. The last thing we needed was people panicking.


    The only blessing was that the horde behind us wasn¡¯t moving that quickly anymore. They seemed to be more focused on making sure that we had nowhere to escape, rather than closing the distance between them and us.


    That didn¡¯t give us a ton of wriggle room, but it meant that I could ease up on my alteration essence consumption.


    I checked the amount of alteration essence I had left, and tried not to grimace.


    I was at a tenth of my maximum reserve. My three keywords, {Ocean}, {Duality}, and {Alteration} were working overtime to boost my regeneration and help replenish my reserves - but even so, the flight to this area had cost me a huge amount of essence.


    Luckily, my plan didn¡¯t require too much alteration essence - it was mostly reliant on Sallia, my absorption essence, and a little bit of alteration to handle any emergencies. At least, if everything went perfectly - which it almost certainly wouldn¡¯t.


    I would have liked to be at full essence reserves, but it was impossible right now.


    Since the enemies behind us were slowing down, I signaled for the group to also slow down a bit - there was no reason not to regenerate as much essence as I possibly could. But even though the horde pursuing us had slowed down, we still needed to maintain a good pace.


    <Are you sure about this?> asked Sallia. <They¡¯ve already seen me do a little bit of airborne combat.>


    <I¡¯m hoping they won¡¯t have transmitted all of that information to the groups now chasing us,> I said. <We¡¯re much faster than them, so the original group chasing us should be gone by now. It¡¯s unknown how much information they¡¯ve managed to transmit to the groups ahead, but I doubt they had time to explain everything. I hope.> If the worldstriders had given the new groups enough information, then we might all die here today.


    <If you¡¯re sure¡­> said Sallia, sounding uncertain. Then, her mental voice grew steadier. <I guess we don¡¯t have any better options. All we need to do is push forward and do our best!.>


    We continued running. Finally, we reached the blockade of creatures. The chasing groups hemmed us in, and they looked ready to crush us against the wall of other worldstriders.


    It was time.


    I sent a quick message to the parents of the group, with the message only containing a few words.


    Close your eyes and cover them. Now. We gave the parents a few seconds to protect their eyes, and then we got started.


    Anise was the first one to take action.


    In moments, she threw out as many magic missiles as she could. They zoomed into the endless void around us, illuminating our surroundings like dozens of flickering candles.


    I extended my alteration essence outwards, and felt myself touch each of them. I spent a moment closing my own eyes and covering them. If this wasn¡¯t bright enough to totally ruin a regular human eyeball, it wouldn¡¯t be good enough.


    Then I tweaked the magic missiles, making them all detonate into as much light as I could. Despite the fact that my eyes were covered, I still saw a sickening flash of white, and prayed that I hadn¡¯t just fried my retinas. I could always fix them later, but I didn¡¯t have enough essence to heal them right now.


    I blinked away tears, and a few moments later, confirmed that I could still see. My eyes were a little bit more blurry than before, which might or might not be permanent - but right now, I could still understand what was happening around us.


    I grinned as I noticed that the worldstriders seemed stunned by the massive light show. Since their biology was so different from ours, it had been a bit of gamble whether light would work against them at all - but our light blasts had done exactly what I had hoped they would.


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    Next, Felix quickly created a large metal platform. It was incredibly thin, and would barely stand up against more than the lightest of impacts - but that was enough for our purposes. He quickly glued it to my umbrella with his essence, trying to create a small metal platform that wouldn¡¯t easily detach from my weapon.


    Sallia grabbed all of the slower members of our group using a burst of absorption-essence fueled speed, before dragging them all onto the platform, before using her essence to help reinforce the thin sheet of metal. It needed to be strong enough to hold everyone¡¯s body weight, and right now it was barely capable of doing that. With Sallia¡¯s help, it shouldn¡¯t collapse, which was good enough for our purposes.


    Finally, I stuffed as much absorption essence as I could into my umbrella, activating a function I had barely had a use for before now.


    Flight.


    My umbrella, now glued to a metal platform carrying our group, lifted into the air. While the worldstriders were certainly capable of flight, most of them were still situated near the ground to better catch us. It looked like we had lucked out.


    A moment later, I realized that I had celebrated too soon.


    Many of the stunned worldstriders were recovering from the bright flash of light far more quickly than expected. I had hoped to take the nearby worldstriders out for several seconds, perhaps even a few minutes. If we had gotten truly lucky, perhaps the creatures would have had some sort of biological weakness to light that would have rendered them all dead or seriously injured after the flash of light.


    Instead, less than five seconds after I had nearly burnt my retinas to a crisp, the worldstriders were already shaking off the effects of the bright flash of light. Some of them were already turning towards us, and in a few seconds, we would probably all die.


    Sallia, seeing the situation, sighed. We would need to fall back on our emergency plans. I quickly used my new skill to drag Sallia, Anise, and I into the sub-dimension that the worldstriders resided in. Felix remained in the regular layer of space, to keep steering the umbrella - but the three of us fell into the same layer of reality as the worldstriders. A moment later, Sallia caught us with a smaller disc of metal. I felt the laws of reality in this subspace start to tear at my body, but it was slow enough that I could last for a while.


    <I declare an end to my swordsmanship journey,> Sallia said, sounding a bit regretful.


    Her {Robe of the Wandering Swordsman} glowed with pure mana for a moment, before a great deal of it seeped into Sallia¡¯s body.


    At the exact same time, Anise pulled out her own sword, and then stabbed herself in the heart.


    The final effect of {Sword of the Lost Pheonix¡¯s Embers} activated, and Anise entered {Pheonix¡¯s Last stand}.


    A cocoon of flames formed around her body for a few seconds, burning even in this soundless, lightless void as though they were in the midst of the city.


    <Gimme¡­ couple seconds¡­> Anise slurred. Her voice sounded incredibly drowsy and unfocused, even through the mental communication of the bracelet, but she still sounded coherent.


    At the same time, Sallia swung {Mirror¡¯s Edge}. For one of the first times in this life, she had been forced to use one of the abilities of her sword.


    A massive amount of stored-up sunlight and darkness erupted from her blade, almost as if it were an exploding star, and I blinked in surprise, shortly before my eyes completely collapsed.


    I had thought that the burst of light Anise and I had created was bright, but compared to the light erupting from {Mirror¡¯s Edge] and its light-storing ability, it was like the difference between a candle and the sun.


    I knew with certainty that my eyes were totally ruined, but subconsciously, I reached for all three of my rune abilities again.


    The strange, out-of-body mental experience returned in full force, but without any hope at all of seeing through my regular eyes, and in the middle of this sub-dimension, the experience felt¡­ different.


    I felt like I had touched on something I had never been fully aware of before. It was like I was splitting apart and coming back together, again and again. I had always hated the way my dimensional abilities, when layered on top of each other, made me feel like I was having a warped, out of body experience. But this time, I realized that I wasn¡¯t completely losing who I was.


    It was just that I was more than before. The original me was like one drop of water in a vast, endless ocean. This ocean transcended space, time, and reality itself.


    It wasn¡¯t the ocean of souls - at least, not entirely. It felt like I had latched onto a very small fragment of the underlying mechanics of the ocean of souls. Not very much of it, but a tiny, tiny little speck of it. Like a mote of light in an endless sea of stars.


    I barely had time to process this information as my real eyeballs collapsed under Sallia¡¯s friendly fire, right before Anise finished activating her {Phoenix''s Last Stand}. The cocoon of flames disappeared around her body just as I started watching the entire battlefield again.


    Anise¡¯s eyes flickered red and orange, like someone had implanted tiny suns inside of them. Broken, mangled feathers of flame flickered in and out of existence around her body, creating a haze of heat that burned even in this world with no fire.


    Anise took one look at my ruined eyes, and then gazed at the horde of worldstriders that was already starting to surge towards us.


    The three of us prepared to hold off the horde.

 Chapter 217: Light and Fire

    The void burned as the three of us stood on Sallia¡¯s metal platform. A moment later, Sallia leapt forward.


    There were dozens of times more worldstriders in this area than there had been in our first fight, and our essence reserves were much worse. The one and only possible advantage we had right now was that we were near our destination.


    The massive pyramid.


    I had no idea if the Zelyrians had set up their buildings to be Worldstrider-proof, and even if they had, it might have deteriorated by now. It had been centuries since the Zelyrian empire had collapsed, after all.


    But we had no other places to look in this pocket dimension. The worldstriders were slowly hemming us in, and if we didn¡¯t gamble on the pyramid being able to protect us, our only other option was to wander around the void and hope that we found a way to get back to reality. With the horde of worldstriders closing in on us, I didn¡¯t think we had the time for that to work. I closed my eyes and prayed to whatever gods existed in the Multiverse that our plan had a chance of succeeding.


    Moments later, the flaming feathers surrounding Anise¡¯s body launched themselves outward, followed by a shower of magic missiles.


    The first wave of worldstriders were swallowed up by a river of flames. I had been worried that they might somehow survive. The worldstriders had proved frustratingly good at evasion, after all.


    Luckily, my worry was unfounded.


    Anise¡¯s wall of flames enveloped the encroaching horde of worldstriders like a smothering blanket. The worldstriders simply disappeared off the face of the planet the moment they made contact with the flames. Anise quickly wiped out the first wave of worldstriders, before the flames puffed out of existence, and she started scanning the battlefield.


    <It¡¯s eating up a lot of my binding essence,> said Anise, after a moment. <I can produce flames now, but the fact that I¡¯m creating the fire instead of manipulating what¡¯s already there makes it cost more essence. It¡¯s lucky that the sword lets me use any kind of essence, or there¡¯s no way I would be able to do anything.>


    <How long can you hold on?> I asked.


    <The sword boosted all of my stats by 2 grades, including my essence stats¡­ so I can last several minutes,> said Anise. Then she grinned. <Even if I can only use this ability once per lifetime, this feels amazing. And I¡¯m getting so much Achievement!>


    As she said that, another wall of flames flickered into existence and started vaporizing the next wave of worldstriders. They tried to dodge and weave out of the way, and some of them succeeded - but most of them were killed by Anise, and Sallia quickly jumped in and wiped out the survivors.


    I grinned as I watched the worldstriders disappear under the combined assault of my friends. Things felt¡­ surprisingly manageable right now.


    The next wave of worldstriders, which had a considerably larger number of enemies inside of it, shied away from Anise¡¯s flames, and chittered at each other, before another worldstrider stepped forward.


    Unlike the others, it bothered speaking in Zelyrian, meaning I could at least make out some of what it was saying.


    ¡°.... ¡­ ¡­ ¡­¡­. ¡­. not able to ¡­ ¡­ ¡­¡­.. ¡­! Hand over ¡­ ¡­. ¡­¡­¡­ can let you two¡­ ¡­¡­¡­. ¡­!¡± The creature yelled at us.


    I had no idea what the creature meant to say, but that didn¡¯t change my response. I flipped the creature off, and then threw a rock at it. The rock didn¡¯t have a fortitude stat to prevent it from collapsing in this layer of reality, but it was more about sending a message.


    I didn¡¯t have my umbrella anymore, so I couldn¡¯t convert my absorption essence into attacks. I also didn¡¯t have enough alteration essence to really throw extinguishes around - doing so would be a colossal waste of the previous few resources I had left.


    But I could still tell the stupid worldstrider who had backed us into a corner and kept trying to chase Anise to drop dead.


    The creature seemed to give up on negotiating with us, and fired a projectile towards Sallia, which I promptly teleported right back at the creature. It wove out of the way, and I was hit with another wave of strange, out of body sensations.


    I was everything and nothing, an ocean and a person. I was both the tiny, insignificant sack of flesh my soul was inhabiting and every single trace of water vapor in the air¡­


    The strange sense of out-of-body oddness disappeared as I adapted to it. I was on the verge of figuring something out, but I was missing more than the barest speck of understanding. Every time I tried to grasp the sensation of being an ocean, it slipped out of my fingers again.


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    I shook my head as a ball of black energy flew towards Sallia. The worldstrider who had tried to negotiate with us had noticed my distraction, and nearly slipped a projectile by me. This time, my teleported projectile hit it and killed it.


    But the other worldstriders were closing in on us, and there were far, far more enemies in these waves than there had been in the first few.


    Anise summoned another wave of flames, but couldn¡¯t mop up the majority of the enemies this time. Sallia still dove into the enemy horde afterwards, but with the next wave of enemies more than half intact, she couldn¡¯t just demolish the remnants of the wave. The ones she didn¡¯t kill immediately quickly reorganized and started attacking her with threads and bolts of black essence.


    I didn¡¯t bother teleporting away the strings of manifestation essence. Sallia¡¯s robes deflected them as if they weren¡¯t even there, and Sallia was more than capable of protecting the uncovered parts of her body with her sword and her rapid movement. But I did teleport away the larger projectiles, returning them to the worldstriders who launched them.


    At least, that was what I did until a few strings of black manifestation essence cut into Sallia¡¯s neck. I immediately teleported them away and healed Sallia¡¯s neck, hoping that the string of manifestation essence hadn¡¯t hit her jugular vein or anything important.


    <Lucky bastards,> said Sallia, swearing as she hopped up a meter and bisected a worldstrider. <Missed that one. Thanks Mir.> Then, before I could say anything, Sallia was right back in the action.


    I eyed the next wave of worldstriders, which was approaching us before we had even finished off the previous wave, and felt the jaws of despair start to clamp down on me.


    There were just too many of them.


    Worse, the ones that were further away were starting to realize that Sallia couldn¡¯t shrug off the larger, heavier blobs of manifestation essence. This made it even harder for Sallia to dodge everything. Sallia was performing admirably well considering the fact that her eyes must have also been damaged, but as more worldstriders built up and they started to figure out her weaknesses, things started to get more and more desperate. I teleported away every single attack I thought was about to hit her, but I couldn¡¯t cope with the number of attacks that were bombarding us anymore.


    <Sallia, how much sunlight do you have stored in your sword?> I asked, still examining the battlefield with my spatial manipulation abilities.


    <None. I already used it all.>


    I winced, and the beginnings of a new plan flew out the window. So much for that.


    I stared at the worldstriders again with my many, many eyes, and tried to ignore the fact that all of my thousands of eyes felt more natural than the two that had been destroyed by Sallia¡¯s light.


    Felix and the adults were getting closer to the pyramid, but there were still a few minutes left before they could reach it. We didn¡¯t have a few minutes. We didn¡¯t even have thirty seconds, with how quickly the worldstriders were converging on us. Sallia would be overwhelmed sooner or later, and the other worldstriders were starting to take potshots at me and Anise as well.


    I looked over my magic items and my abilities, but I couldn¡¯t see a way out. I resisted the urge to throw something in frustration.


    <Does anyone have any ideas? I thought the fire and Sallia would keep them away for longer,> I sent.


    <Let me try something else¡­> said Anise, after a few moments. She squinted, and the fire in our surroundings started to flicker and meld together. For a few moments, I had no idea what Anise was trying to do. Weren¡¯t the walls of flames one of the only things we had going for us on this battlefield?


    Then, all of the flames pulled closer to Anise for a few moments, before they exploded outwards.


    I blinked in surprise as I realized what Anise had done.


    She had created a literal fire bomb, using herself as the center point.


    The scorching heat passed by me, cooking a fair amount of my skin and flesh but not outright killing me. Anise had clearly tried to avoid friendly fire, but hadn¡¯t quite succeeded. Sallia responded to Anise¡¯s fire bomb by swinging her sword at the wall of flames.


    I blinked in surprise, before I realized that her sword, {Mirror¡¯s Edge}, was flickering unnaturally with mana. It took me a moment to remember its abilities, but I realized after a moment that it had the ability to reflect one attack of below a certain level of power.


    Apparently, Anise¡¯s fire bomb counted. Sallia had ¡®reflected¡¯ the firebomb directly over her head, towards a group of incoming worldstriders, and killed them all.


    The firebomb quickly wiped away most of the worldstriders near us, but Anise sent us the mental equivalent of a gasp right afterwards.


    <That¡­ took a lot of essence,> she said. <Not¡­ not as much left in the tank now. Maybe half left? Or a little less than half now.>


    I grimaced. Anise had bought us a few more seconds, but I still just wasn¡¯t seeing a way to survive the onslaught.


    The remaining worldstriders hesitated for a few moments, before they started rushing back towards us again. Moments later, the barrage of endless manifestation essence resumed.And they were starting to get used to my teleportation tactics. It was getting harder to hit them with their own attacks. It was becoming impossible to handle.


    And then, for the first time, Sallia took a bad hit.


    A massive wad of dark manifestation essence slammed into her stomach, tearing right through her {Wandering Swordsman¡¯s Robe} as if it weren¡¯t even there.


    <Ow! Fuck!> screeched Sallia into the friendship bracelet, before she dropped out of the sky. The metal platform Anise and I were standing on also wobbled for a moment, before Sallia stabilizied it. She caught herself a moment later, and I immediately sent her the last bits of my alteration essence packed into a renewal.


    I was out of alteration essence.


    I glanced at Felix and the parents again, and saw that Anise¡¯s firebomb had bought them time, but they still hadn¡¯t reached the pyramid yet. They were maybe 70% of the way there, but we were running out of tricks and resources.


    It was then that I accepted something deep inside of me.


    We were going to die here.

 Chapter 218: Jaws of Death

    I turned back towards Felix and our parents as they drifted further away. The knowledge that this situation was impossible settled in my bones as I continued to search for a way out.


    Anise and Sallia attacked the endless horde of worldstriders, felling them by the dozen. More poured towards us. The interval between each wave grew shorter as they grouped up. Each clump of worldstriders grew more fine-tuned to handle our abilities. It wouldn''t be long before they completely mitigated our advantages. Then we would die.


    I tried to dig through the depths of my mind, searching for anything we could do to turn the tables.


    My alteration essence was gone. My absorption essence was running low. Anise¡¯s manifestation and binding essence were both nearly gone. Sallia¡¯s absorption essence was almost depleted.


    The laws of this layer of reality continued to sand away our bodies, ripping at us like a cloud of weak acid. It wasn¡¯t the biggest threat to us. But compounded with the waves of worldstriders, it made a bad situation worse. We couldn¡¯t attack the worldstriders from regular reality, but this layer of reality was weakening us every second.


    I watched as Anise unleashed a storm of flames upon one of the nearby groups of worldstriders. They all died, but there were more groups. Always more. It was like trying to put out a wildfire with a cup of water.


    A wave of projectiles flew towards Anise and I. I redirected the largest cluster of projectiles, killing a few worldstriders. Moments later, Sallia lowered the platform we were standing on. The rest of the projectiles sailed over our heads. Another chunk of my absorption essence was gone to buy Sallia time to save us.


    Moments later, Sallia was upon the group that had attacked us. Four of the six worldstriders had died from my return volley. Sallia diced apart one of the last two in seconds. The other one managed to get an attack on Sallia, and right below her eye, a small cut appeared. Blood welled up and flowed down her cheek as she killed the final surviving worldstrider.


    Sallia ignored the wound, as if it wasn¡¯t even there, but I could tell that she was getting tired. There were a dozen such cuts on her body , and they were adding up. Sallia was running out of essence and stamina.


    We all were.


    <Felix, how far away are you from the pyramid?> I asked, trying not to embed any of the exhaustion I felt into the message.


    <Less than a minute away. I''m flying as fast as I can, but I need to dodge some stray projectiles,> said Felix. <It''s making flying harder and slower.>


    <Miria¡­ Sallia¡­ if they kill me, I can always try again next life. The two of you should just¡­> said Anise.


    I shook my head.


    Maybe it was irrational. Maybe Anise was right, and we should leave her to die here. The worldstriders might not pursue us afterwards.


    But I wasn¡¯t someone that could abandon my friends. And I didn¡¯t want to become that kind of person, either. Even if I knew that Anise would just enter hibernation after she died¡­ I wasn¡¯t willing. Abandoning someone I cared about wasn¡¯t right.


    Besides, Anise had a fantastic opportunity to get a manifestation essence keyword. She needed to survive a little longer in this world or it would all come to naught. If she missed this opportunity, it might take several worlds to find another manifestation essence system. For both Anise¡¯s happiness, and the survival of our group, I couldn¡¯t let Anise die here.


    So I kept fighting. Even as my absorption essence dipped lower and lower, Sallia and I kept fighting.


    Another group replaced the one that Sallia and I had destroyed. Anise destroyed the new group with a wave of flames. Before the last worldstrider finished dying, another group attacked us from above.


    No matter how many we killed, the situation didn''t improve at all.


    Seconds later, a string of darkness whipped out of one of the worldstriders. Sallia tried to deflect it with {Mirror¡¯s Edge}, but her angle was off, and the string of manifestation essence sliced off her pinky and ring finger.


    I almost immediately tried to throw a renewal at her to regrow the missing fingers. Instead of the familiar thrum of alteration essence, all I got was a painful headache. My alteration essence was still completely gone. There was nothing to fuel the spell.


    <Fuck! Ow!> yelled Sallia into the bracelet.


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    <Sallia?> yelled Felix. <How are you three doing?>


    Sallia danced backwards, avoiding a string of manifestation essence that would have beheaded her. Another string of essence shot towards Anise,. Sallia fumbled as she tried to swing her sword and knock it out of the way. Her sword nearly slid out of her grasp. Her missing fingers were destroying her grip. As Sallia tried to correct her grip on her sword, the string of black manifestation essence shot past her and towards Anise.


    Sallia fumbled with her blade for a moment, before transferring her sword to her left hand.


    <These fucking creatures!> she yelled into the bracelet, as I jumped into the string of black manifestation essence. My dress absorbed the string of manifestation essence. While I focused on blocking the first attack, I missed a different attack that snuck by me.


    A moment later, Anise shrieked into the communication bracelet as one of her arms fell off. Her elbow, which had once connected the two halves of her arm together, was now a stump that bled flames. {Sword of the Lost Pheonix''s Embers} sent a wave of flames golden mana into her body, reaching through her whole arm and into her stump. The wound sealed itself off, but Anise continued screaming into the bracelet for several seconds.


    I handled another barrage of attacks right before it killed Anise. As I teleported away another attack, I felt my essence reserves disappear.


    I was out of absorption essence too now.


    <What¡¯s happening?> asked Felix.


    <Anise lost her arm!> I yelled into the bracelet.


    I tried to tap into the strange, dimensional perception I had been getting closer and closer to understanding in my time here. I didn¡¯t know how it could help, I didn''t know if I could access it without essence... But I was praying for a miracle at this point. A last minute power up that would save the day. A realization that would get us out of this mess.


    Anything.


    Nothing came to me. The only thing I felt was the cold, creeping dread of death. There wasn''t a miracle that was going to save us here.


    <We¡¯re almost at the pyramid,> said Felix. <Come over! We can heal up later! Run!>


    Sallia tried to fling herself back towards us. The metal platform she had created to hold Anise and I lurched drunkenly towards the pyramid. Rather than propelling us to safety, it nearly launched us into the horde of worldstriders.


    Sallia had messed up?


    I blinked in shock and turned towards Sallia, only to see her bleeding much more heavily than before.


    At some point, an attack had punched through her stomach. Blood poured out of a fist-sized hole in her intestines.


    Another wave of black projectiles drilled into the platform. I managed to soak up the worst of the attacks with my dress, but we almost fell out of the sky. I tried to heal Sallia again, but my headache only grew worse.


    I couldn¡¯t heal her without essence.


    As I looked back at Sallia, I saw a projectile of black manifestation essence tear into her pelvis. Everything below her stomach disappeared.


    Sallia shrieked, a soundless scream that didn¡¯t make a single sound in the void. The metal platform holding Anise and I launched toward the pyramid, heedless of what speed it reached. And also heedless of what speed our bodies could handle.


    Out of instinct, I grabbed Anise to keep her from flying away as the metal platform spun out of control.


    Whiplash tore at my brain and darkness ate at my vision. This was far beyond what my Grade-6 Fortitude could handle.


    But I maintained my consciousness for a few moments.


    Just in time to see a projectile slam into Sallia¡¯s head, completely shattering her skull.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    A member of your registered group of friends has been detected to be dead.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Before I could process the horrible System message, I felt my mind finally go blank, as the speed of our sudden travel finally caught up to my brain.


    While still cradling Anise, for a brief moment I blacked out.


    <Miria? Anise? Sallia?> Felix¡¯s screaming into the friendship bracelet woke me up moments later. I realized that the world was spinning sickeningly. I was still holding onto Anise, and there was a big black shadow in the corner of my eye that kept spinning in circles, and it was getting closer, and


    Snap.


    I blacked out again.


    I came to a few seconds later as I bounced off of the side of the pyramid, rolling towards the entrance.


    I became aware of a few things.


    First, the slowed projectile in this layer of reality had saved us from turning into bloody smears. My Fortitude had also helped, but the only reason we were still alive was because I hadn¡¯t swapped us out of this layer of reality yet.


    Second, my ribs felt like someone had stuck them into a blender.


    Fiery pain lanced out of my probably-broken ribs, and I passed out again as I fell down a layer of pyramid steps.


    <Miria! Are you okay?>


    Asked Felix, waking me up again.


    <Not¡­ not great,> I said, as a layer of metal drifted towards Anise and I and gently caught us.


    Anise was doing better than I was - I suspected I had cushioned her when we hit the side of the pyramid. Her enhanced stats and boosted healing speed also helped. She still had almost one hour before {Pheonix''s Last Stand} ended.


    The thin layer of metal floated Anise and I through the entrance of the pyramid. Moments later, I saw Felix¡¯s worried face. He, Old Mo, and the parents had already made it through the entrance of the pyramid.


    Sallia¡­ had not.


    Sallia was dead.


    It didn¡¯t seem real to me.


    As the horde of worldstriders surged after us, I prayed that our original hope was correct. If the pyramids didn''t have a way to hold off the horde, we would join Sallia soon.

 Chapter 219: Pyramid

    <Is Sallia really dead?> asked Felix, still caught in the same shock as me. The worldstriders raged outside, but for the three of us, the world seemed to have narrowed to a single fact. Sallia was gone.


    <I do appear to be dead,> said Sallia.


    I blinked in surprise.


    <Sallia?> A mixture of shock and relief coursed through me. Was Sallia still alive?


    <Well¡­ I did indeed die. You know how after you die, you get that Market message saying you can enter hibernate mode? I did that, but I can still talk. I sort of... zone out whenever I''m not doing anything. It''s a very strange feeling. I can¡¯t do anything interesting, but I can still talk,> she said. <I¡¯m also getting a lot of advertisements for television shows that I can watch through my Status Screen. How are things going over there? Did you guys make it to the pyramid? I was trying to get you out of there once I realized I was dead, but I couldn''t pay very much attention to the force involved...>


    I felt a strange mixture of sadness and relief wash over me. Sallia was still dead, and she would remain dead for the rest of this world.


    But Sallia wasn¡¯t really dead. The fact that she was talking to me right now cemented that idea in my head. For all that she was dead, she was still with us. I wasn¡¯t going to be stuck wholly without one of my best friends for decades.


    But she couldn''t do anything, either. Sallia couldn''t practice her swordsmanship, or talk to people, or walk around. She was stuck floating around until we died.


    As my mind started to spin in circles, Anise responded.


    <You stalled the worlstriders for and managed to throw us to the pyramids. Miria broke a few ribs, and I lost an arm during the fight. {Pheonix¡¯s Last Stand} handled the bleeding and the pain is starting to disappear, but we''re pretty hurt. Luckily, our gamble worked out. The worldstriders aren¡¯t coming any closer to us.>


    I paused. Now that the guilt from Sallia dying had started to fade away, it was easier to think again. Were the worldstriders really stuck? Also, how could Anise see that the worldstriders were stuck? To see them, we had needed to either be in the same layer of reality as them, or I had needed to use my spatial abilities and soul sight. Why was Anise able to see them now?


    I tried to get up, and started wetly coughing as my broken ribs brushed against my lungs. I immediately stopped moving. Agitating my injuries was a terrible idea right now. If I moved the wrong way, I might send a fragment of my ribs into my lungs and go join Sallia in the void.


    <Felix, could you send me an image of what¡¯s happening?>


    A few moments later, Felix used the bracelets to show me what was happening.


    Outside of the pyramids, a sea of worldstriders stared at the pyramids with hatred. They constantly barraged it with strings and projectiles made of manifestation essence. And, instead of hitting the pyramid and killing us all, every single attack stopped in its tracks.


    It looked almost like there was a force field around the pyramid. One that kept the worldstriders out while letting us in. Itwas also clear that everyone could see the worldstriders without help now.


    <It looks like something in or near the pyramid is making them visible, even when they shouldn¡¯t be,> said Felix. <It''s very interesting.>


    My mind returned to the statements that the worldstriders had made earlier. How they had pursued Anise the moment they believed that she was a Zelyrian.


    What had happened between the worldstriders and Zelyrians ? Why were the Zelyrian ruins here engineered to keep the worldstriders out and reveal the worldstriders? It must have taken a lot of effort to make a building remove their invisibility. Why bother? Part of my mind cycled through these questions, wondering if they could get us out of this mess.


    A bigger part of me didn¡¯t care. Whatever had happened in the past, it had nothing to do with us. I hoped that after we left this pocket dimension, we would never have to deal with these bastards again. They had killed Sallia. That alone was enough to make me hate them forever.


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    I took a few deep breaths, and then sighed. I scanned my System notifications, to see if there were any important messages mixed in.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Worldstrider for the third time and ninth time.


    Assist in killing a world strider for the first time, third time, and ninth time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +150, +210, +30, +60, +80


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    All I saw were the standard kill and assist notifications.


    My previous Achievement total of 5,402 Achievement became 5,932. I glanced at the new total, and then ignored it. We had bigger things to worry about right now.


    The System notification didn''t have anything new for me. I was happy to see more of the little monsters die after they had killed Sallia, but I hadn''t gotten any new skills yet.


    At least Sallia had taken several of them with her.


    There was no influence Achievement for the whole event either. Our escape from this pocket dimension wasn¡¯t important enough to generate any influence Achievement.


    ¡°Any ideas what to do next?¡± asked Old Mo, glancing at Anise and I.


    ¡°You can talk?¡± I asked, before stifling another cough. My lungs did not appreciate me exercising them right now. But the fact that I could also talk was shocking.


    This was another sign that the space around this pyramid was different. Here, we could speak. We didn''t need to rely on writing or magic to communicate.


    Before I could say anything else, Old Mo continued his questions.


    ¡°Where¡¯s Sallia, by the way? Is she invisible or something?¡±


    I tried not to flinch as another wave of guilt crashed into my mind. Even though Sallia could still talk to us¡­ even though she was still herself, she wasn¡¯t here anymore.


    I couldn¡¯t hug her. If we lived through this, I wouldn¡¯t be able to give Sallia a hug for decades. And Sallia was stuck floating in the void watching television.


    ¡°Oh no. Is she¡­?¡± asked Old Mo.


    I nodded, and tried not to cry as Old Mo walked over to me and stroked my head. He seemed to want to give me a hug, but after glancing at my ribs he thought better of it.


    ¡°What the fuck do you mean?¡± asked Sallia¡¯s father, a moment later. Both he and Sallia¡¯s mother glared at me, before turning their gazes towards Anise. They eyed the outside of the pyramid again, only to find nothing. No trace of Sallia.


    Not even a corpse.


    ¡°Where is my daughter?¡±


    If I could move, I would have hung my head in shame. Sallia had died keeping us alive. And I couldn''t even let her father speak to her again. My friendship bracelet wouldn''t let him use my friend network, even if I gave it to him. He would never be able to talk to his daughter again. And while I couldn''t think of a way I could have saved Sallia... she had still died keeping me alive.


    I felt guilty about that.


    Sallia¡¯s father kept his gaze fixed on us like an enraged python for a few more moments. Then, the rage in his expression cracked, and I saw a few tears leak out of his eyes. He turned away from me as his shoulders started to shake. Since I couldn''t walk, I couldn¡¯t walk over to him to give him a hug. I didn¡¯t know if he would want one from me right now, either.


    Old Mo gave Sallia¡¯s father a few moments to grieve as he watched the worldstriders attack the force field.


    ¡°Let¡¯s move a little further into the pyramid. We have to find a way out of this pocket dimension before we can do anything else. And¡­ I¡¯m sorry,¡± he said, looking at both me and Sallia¡¯s father. ¡°I know how hard it is to lose someone you love.¡±


    Sallia¡¯s father didn''t respond to Old Mo''s words. He seemed lost now that Sallia was dead.


    Felix floated me a little bit further into the pyramid, followed by Anise and the rest of the group. Once we were out of sight of the worldstriders, we sat down for a few minutes. I regenerated a few tidbits of my essence, which I used to heal myself a bit.


    It barely helped. My body was too damaged for a few small healing spells to do much. Fifteen minutes passed while I siphoned away my alteration essence and tried to fix my ribs.


    With such little essence to work with, Renewal didn''t pull off any miracles. I managed to wriggle my ribs away from my lungs and heart, which was about all I accomplished. I was no longer at risk of dying if something jostled me.


    Meanwhile, Anise¡¯s ability was ticking away. After my healing session, she only had forty five minutes before the ability ended. Once that happened, both of us would be helpless. I doubted Felix could keep the party safe on his own. With both of my essences tapped out, I needed my friends to protect me. This was the most vulnerable I had been in years, and I hated every second of it.


    Our party made for a sorry sight when we finally exited the first corridor in the pyramid and stumbled into our first room. There, I resisted the urge to start swearing at whoever had made this damn place.


    With my exceptional perception, I could make out a tripwire stationed five steps into the first room.


    The pyramid was booby-trapped.

 Chapter 220: Lost and Broken Worlds

    ¡°Why did the bloody Zelyrians trap this room?¡± asked Felix, frowning. I scanned the area around us as best I could with my spatial eyesight to see if I could figure out the answer.


    The room was massive -  it seemed large for the sake of being large. There were four pillars near the center of the room, and the rest of the room was empty save for traps. There were at least six tripwires in the room, and twelve pressure plates. This room did not contain a control panel for the rest of the pocket dimension, the way I had been hoping it would.


    <Sallia, do you have any idea why the Zelyrians would booby trap the first room in the pyramid?> asked Anise.


    <Maybe it''s some kind of burial ground?> said Sallia. <I know in my first life, kings buried themselves in large trap-filled tombs so that they could reincarnate in peace. I have no idea what the Zelyrian religious beliefs were, but that¡¯s the only guess I have.> She paused. <Is there anything else in the room? Like a coffin or something?>


    <There are some pillars in the center of the room,> said Felix. <I think I can also see some splotches of color near the edge of the room. Miria?>


    I focused my dimensional eyesight a little more, and confirmed Felix''s words. There were several pictures painted onto the walls of the room.


    <There are a lot of paintings on the walls,> I said.


    <Are they magical in nature?> asked Felix.


    <I don''t think so, unless they''re somehow hiding their magical nature,> I said.


    We both paused as I realized that Anise¡¯s parents and Old Mo were giving us a look. One that said that they knew we were communicating with each other mentally, and wished we would include them in the conversation.


    Felix repeated his words out loud, and a moment later, Anise also repeated Sallia¡¯s speculation that this pyramid might be some kind of ancient tomb.


    The fact that Sallia was participating in the conversation made it harder to manage. One of us also needed to relay Sallia¡¯s words to the group, and we needed to talk both verbally and mentally. It was the only way to include everyone in the conversation.


    Once Anise relayed Sallia''s suspicions to the group about this being a crypt, Old Mo shook his head.


    ¡°The Old Zelyrians didn¡¯t have a habit of burying their dead in pyramids. Zelyrian burial custom was to launch the corpse into the sky and then immolate it in midair. Supposedly, it was to give them a way to return to their home beyond the stars. The Zelyrians always claimed to be divine beings descended from beyond the stars¡­ much like every other king and emperor of the era.¡± I could see Old Mo¡¯s lips twitch as he realized that, the Zelyrian claim actually held some weight to it.


    The Zelyrians were from another dimension, after all. While they weren''t divine beings, they were from beyond the stars¡­


    I sighed, and shook off my idle thoughts.


    We didn¡¯t have time to waste. The worldstriders might break through the force field and attack us if we delayed too long. We needed to leave now if we wanted to survive this mess.


    ¡°If it''s not a crypt, we need to figure out what this room is,¡± I said after a few moments. I tried not to rasp as my battered ribs creaked in pain. They still complained when I tried to speak, just like they complained when I took too deep of a breath. "We need to get out of here before the worldstriders catch up."


    With that, we made our way into the room. As we strode into the room, Sallia kept offering suggestions.


    <If this isn¡¯t a burial ground, maybe it¡¯s some kind of treasure vault?> said Sallia. <Or a power source? Or some space or object that the Zelyrians might not have needed to enter this building to operate. I don¡¯t think it makes sense to put a lot of traps into a room if people need to enter it frequently. The Zelyrians might have thought differently, but I think my reasoning makes sense,> said Sallia. <If you have a lot of people entering and exiting often, someday someone will trip and blow themselves up. So the room you found shouldn''t need frequent entry.>


    Anise acted as Sallia¡¯s mouthpiece again, and the group paused. The idea that this room might be some kind of treasure vault or power source was interesting. It also renewed my hope that we might find a way to leave this dimension here. I didn''t fancy our odds if we had to go back through the wall of worldstriders.


    With Sallia¡¯s idea in mind, we started to search the room.


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    As Anise and Felix led the search, I decided to look at the murals. I was curious to know what the Zelyrians had left behind. It might give me a clue what this room was for, if I was lucky.


    The first picture was of a city, located somewhere¡­ else. The way shapes in the picture seemed to bleed into each other, in a way that didn¡¯t match geometry in this dimension. The architecture was also very different. Some of the buildings defied gravity in a way that was impossible here. I suspected the first picture was of the Zelyrian home dimension.


    The second picture was an image of the worldstriders. They appeared in the middle of the city. The Zelyrians, didn¡¯t seem to have the same problems that I did in targeting or harming them. I wondered if Zelyrian spellcasting circumvented the dimensional properties of worldstriders somehow. If so, Anise would make handling these creatures less of a pain in the neck once she grew up.


    The Zelyrians did not take kindly to these new, dimensional invaders. The Zelyrians killed or captured the newcomers to their dimension shortly after they appeared.


    Furthermore, it didn¡¯t look like the worldstriders were particularly prepared for an invasion. They seemed more like desperate refugees than armed invaders. They appeared sporadically, and when they appeared they seemed to low on essence. The Zelyrian murals didn''t depict very much resistance from the worldstriders. I frowned.


    The idea of the worldstriders being refugees was¡­ odd. And concerning.


    The third picture was of something. It reminded me of the living galaxy we had seen in our second world - it was a picture of an overwhelming force. Something that required an incredible mage or an advanced civilization to fight off. It was a picture of a giant with dozens of flaming eyes, gazing at the city from the sky. The city of impossible architecture was collapsing as the giant face scowled at it.


    The flaming giant didn¡¯t seem quite as powerful as the living galaxy. The living galaxy would have wiped out the city in moments, without any hope of escape. But it was still too hard for the Zelyrians to fight off. If the pictures were anything to go by, the Zelyrians tried and failed to kill it several times before giving up.


    I realized what the worldstriders had been running from.


    The Zelyrians realized the same.


    In the next picture, the Zelyrians made a deal with the captured worldstriders. The Zelyrians would release the worldstriders, in exchange for helping the Zelyrians escape.


    The next picture was of the Zelyrians and worldstriders fleeing to a new dimension. The Zelyrians provided essence, and the worldstriders opened tears in reality. They fled across the ocean of souls, and arrived¡­ here.


    They had arrived right in the middle of the bronze age for this world. The Zelyrians had arrived with archmages, worldstrider allies, and developed steel weapons. They were few in number, but had a massive advantage in combat prowess. Furthermore, the local empires of this world were frequently at war with each other. This left them weakened, and gave the Zelyrian invaders room to grow.


    The fifth mural was a picture of the Zelyrians building their empire. They played the local powers off of each other, grew in strength, and then conquered this entire continent.


    That¡¯s where things started to become different.


    The next picture showed the construction of this very pyramid. I couldn¡¯t quite wrap my head around what I was seeing, but I suspected I was looking at the plans for this pocket dimension. It was a picture of a hidden world in the mountains. One that had the same impossible architecture as the Zelyrian homeworld.


    It was also far beyond the abilities of the Zelyrians. They couldn''t amek it on their own. To make this plan a reality, the Zelyrians had turned their eyes towards their allies.  The new pocket dimension would feature two layers of reality: one for Zelyrians, and one for the worldstriders.


    The details for the worldstrider''s layer of reality looked odd to me. There was something wrong with the image that I couldn''t quite put my finger on. As I stared at the picture, I couldn''t help but feel like the worldstrider layer of reality was more like... the jaws of a beast.


    I frowned.


    Was there some kind of foul play involved in the worldstrider''s layer of reality? I could see how the worldstriders would be able to help with the creation of the pocket dimension. They seemed to have an innate ability to move between one dimension and another freely.


    But considering how much hatred the worldstriders had for Zelyrians now, something must have gone wrong. I thought of how the mural reminded me of the jaws of the beast, and resisted the urge to snort.


    Clearly, there had been something wrong with the worldstrider''s layer of reality. I didn''t know how the Zelyrians had done it, but I suspected the worldstrider''s layer of the pocket dimension was a trap. Something that hurt them, or used them, or... something.


    I turned towards the next wall, to see how the story continued. All I saw wasa blank patch of wall staring back at me. After the picture depicting the creation of this pocket dimension, there was nothing. I had no idea how things had turned out past that point.


    The worldstriders had ended up in the pocket dimension. The Zelyrian empire had also somehow collapsed. The worldstriders also hated the Zelyrians. This pocket dimension was also completely empty. There were no Zelyrian cities inside, and only endless darkness. This half-built pocket dimension was the last act of the Zelyrian empire at its peak. After building this, it had gone into irreversible decline.


    Had the worldstriders realized something was wrong with the pocket dimension? Was I thinking too much about the picture I had seen? It was hard to judge what had happened after the last mural.


    I sighed, before shaking my head.


    While the murals were interesting, I still wasn¡¯t quite sure what this pyramid was for. Was it a control room for the pocket dimension? Was it linked to the worldstrider''s layer of reality? Did it do something else?


    As I ran over these questions in my head, Anise brightened up.


    <I found something!> she said, staring at one of the four pillars in the room.

 Chapter 221: Echoes of Gold and Glory

    I focused my vision on Anise¡¯s voice, trying to figure out what she had discovered. Anise pointed at one of the pillars, and I felt confused. I didn¡¯t see anything there. It was a solid column of stone.


    The others in the group seemed to share my confusion, and shot puzzled expressions at Anise. Anise seemed to realize we couldn¡¯t see what she was pointing at. A moment later, an image appeared in our friendship bracelets.


    One of the pillars contained a little pocket inside of it. But Anise couldn¡¯t see it with her regular eyes - she had found it through her essence sense. Even to her essence sense, it was incredibly faint.


    And oddly enough, nobody else could see it with their essence sense. Without Anise¡¯s help, it seemed like a normal pillar. I didn''t know whether Anise could see it because she was ''Zelyrian'' or because of her affinity for manifestation essence. But nobody else could detect it.


    ¡°Are you sure there¡¯s something there?¡± asked Old Mo, glancing at the spot on the pillar that Anise was pointing at. Unlike us, he couldn¡¯t look at the images Anise had sent over the communication bracelets,. As far as he knew, he was looking at a stone pillar.


    Anise nodded. ¡°It¡¯s definitely there. I can¡¯t reach it. Normally, I¡¯d climb up, but¡­¡± Anise gestured towards her stump. Her arm was starting to regrow on its own, as {Pheonix¡¯s Last Stand} amplified her regeneration. But her arm was nowhere near regrown yet. ¡°Miria doesn¡¯t have the essence to fix my arm yet.¡±


    Old Mo nodded. ¡°All right, I¡¯ll poke at it. If you¡¯re sure,¡± he said. He hopped onto the pillar with surprising agility and climbed up. Anise called directions out to him, and after a bit of fumbling around, he managed to locate the right spot.


    A moment later, he frowned.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel anyth-¡± before he could finish speaking, I heard something crackle. Then the pillar changed colors. Old Mo clambered down the pillar, as it started to glow bright orange. Manifestation essence flooded into the pillar.


    Anise stepped closer to the pillar, and the essence inside seemed to react to her presence. Manifestation essence stopped flooding into the pillar, and instead gathered closer to her.


    ¡°Is it hostile?¡± asked Old Mo, fingering his gun as he glanced at me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ think so?¡± I said.


    The pillar stopped glowing and seemed to shrink without changing shapes. My brain started to hurt as a contradiction unfolded in the space in front of me. To my spatial senses, the pyramid had become similar to a black hole for a moment.


    Finally, I realized that the stone pillar wasn¡¯t shrinking. Somehow, the space in front of me was bending and contorting, as the pillar reached to somewhere else. I concentrated on it using my spatial senses to figure out what it was doing.


    It seemed to be using some sort of portal-like ability.


    A moment later, the spatial contortions around the pillar disappeared. The room was almost exactly the same as before, but now there was a glowing stone cube present. It flew through the air, and stopped right in front of Anise¡¯s face. I stared at the little fist-sized stone cube in awe.


    It crackled with manifestation essence. It had hundreds of times more essence than I did. And all that essence was inside of a stone cube the size of my fist. I had no idea how the Zelyrians had managed that, but it gave me a new appreciation for their mastery of magic.


    ¡°What do you think this thing is?¡± asked Anise as she reached out to touch it.


    The moment she took it, something changed.


    It felt like our surroundings had¡­ lost something. The pyramid was somehow less than before. Instead, part of the pyramid now felt connected to Anise. The moment I saw something latch on to Anise, I panicked. I scanned the strange connection between the pyramid and Anise to try to figure out if it was malevolent. Then I relaxed. It felt more like¡­ Anise had donned a suit of armor. Nothing fundamental about her had changed - she was just connected to the pyramid now. It almost felt like the pyramid acknowledge her.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    <Anise, are you all right?> I asked.


    <I¡¯m fine. This feels a bit weird, but nothing bad is happening,> she said.


    I felt relieved, and then looked at our surroundings. After Anise connected to the pyramid, the essence in our surroundings was going crazy.


    The pyramid walls stopped looking like nothing more than ordinary stone. Now it felt like someone had wrapped a handful of starlight inside of each stone. I didn¡¯t know how else to describe it. The starlight didn¡¯t feel like an actual star. It felt like someone had taken the idea of a star out of a children¡¯s nursery rhyme and then poured it into the pyramid''s walls. The starlight was gentle, and had no connection to heat or mass at all. It was something I didn¡¯t usually associate with manifestation essence. The manifestation essence of our previous world had felt more like a math equation - there was only one ¡®correct¡¯ version of it. I had thought that this was an innate property of manifestation essence. The essence usage I saw in this pyramid¡­ challenged my understanding a bit. The starlight in the walls felt very different from what I believed a star should look like.


    The images that I had been inspecting were also part of the pyramid''s essence network. Before, the pictures had been simple murals adorning the walls. Now, I could see that they were much more important than simple murals.


    Somehow, the Zelyrians had turned paintings into a part of their magic system. I had no idea how that was even possible, but it was obvious that they had done it. I also didn''t know what the paintings were actually doing. All I knew was that it was woven into the rest of the magic in our surroundings. I had a sneaking suspicion that removing even one painting would cause the pyramid to implode. Even with one of the four walls of this room left bare, the essence in our surroundings was incomplete.


    A very small part of me wondered if there was anything I could learn from these paintings. I had to shake the thought away. I had too many other projects to focus on right now. I still needed to learn shapeshifting and illusions before I added more to my plate. The fact that they were specialties of my essence, but I relied on absorption essence to handle both, was embarrassing.


    Finally, the essence in our surroundings calmed down. The manifestation essence was still present, but it was no longer roiling like boiling water. It had stabilized.


    Anise smiled brightly at the stone.


    <This is so cool!> she sent, sending a picture through the bracelets. To Anise¡¯s eyes, the pyramid was aglow with manifestation essence, but she was getting a much more complete picture than I was. The murals on the wall were being used as something like anchor points. They recognized Zelyrians, using the paintings as cores to anchor everything to the concept of Zelyr. It was like some kind of madhat spell focus centered on an entire nation.


    <This is one of the weirdest things I¡¯ve ever seen,> said Sallia, sounding somewhat sleepy. <This manifestation essence system feels different from the one in our last world.>


    I couldn¡¯t help but agree.


    <That wall looks really¡­ glowy now,> said Anise, after a few seconds. <It was pretty normal before, but now it looks almost like a cloud...>


    <Do you think the stone cube was powering the pyramid?> asked Sallia, before we could investigate the glowing wall. <In the images you sent, it looks like it''s a battery or something.>


    <Maybe?> I said. I felt cold fear slither down my spine. If we had just removed a power source from the pyramid, was it still keeping out the worldstriders?


    Anise and Felix seemed to feel the same fear. Felix set me down on the floor before running towards the entrance of the pyramid. Meanwhile, Anise rushed to the glowing wall. She tried to be calm about it, but I could tell she was rushing. The idea of the horde of worldstriders rushing in to finish us off was terrifying.


    Anise started poking at the wall with the stone cube. Felix returned a minute later.


    ¡°They still can¡¯t get in,¡± he said, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°But we should still hurry up.¡±


    I saw Anise''s hands stop shaking, and her work became less frantic.


    Less than a minute later, I heard a clicking sound as the stone cube sank into thin air. A moment later, it re-emerged. The entire side of the pyramid slid open, leaving a gaping hole in reality in its place.


    On the other side of the wall was a much larger room. There was an awful lot of spatial magic folded into it, and while I only understood a bit of it, I was certain that the room wasn¡¯t in the pyramid . It was halfway between this pocket dimension and reality, somehow.


    Sitting in the center of the room was a golden throne. I looked at Anise, who swallowed in nervousness, and a moment later, we moved into the room.

 Chapter 222: Sunlight

    As we stepped into the room, I had a very strange feeling. It was very faint - only a little change, but it was something I was so used to that any change stood out. I frowned, and spent a few moments trying to figure out what was different in this room.


    Time?


    The Zelyrians were capable of manipulating time?


    I pushed further with my essence senses before I confirmed my suspicions.


    Someone had, indeed, messed with time in this room.


    But they hadn¡¯t done it very well. It was like an amateur hitting notes on a piano. The reason I could detect it was because it was jarring and out of tune.


    After a few more moments of investigation, I felt disappointed. Once I had realized that the Zelyrians were manipulating time here, I had been hoping to learn from it. But the Zelyrians had done such a terrible job that it was a miracle the room hadn¡¯t imploded. If I tried to copy this room, I was more likely to blow myself up than master a new type of magic. Especially if I used a completely different magic system, such as shaping. The time magic in this room was held together by duct tape and well-wishes. There was nothing worth copying here. But I could still admire the ambition displayed in this room.


    The Zelyrians who had made this dimension hadn¡¯t just been trying to create a new, second home. They had been trying to create a resource basket. A place where time would pass much faster inside of the pocket dimension than outside of it. It would amplify their weapon and food production considerably if they had succeeded.


    Of course, they had barely accomplished anything. Time passed faster inside this dimension, but only just. For every five minutes we spent in the room, four minutes and fifty-nine seconds passed outside of it. And this was at the cost of enough essence to refill my essence reserves every second. And the time magic in this room didn''t even apply to the rest of the dimension, although it was probably supposed to.


    Still, the room was interesting. I had never seen an experiment with time magic before. I had focused a lot of my energy on countering space magic, since that seemed to show up often in the multiverse. This room still served as a reminder that I had a long ways to go before I could defend myself in some worlds.


    To the side of the room, I also saw a variety of lights made of essence. I had no idea what any of them meant, but they seemed to be some sort of display panel or control panel.


    Anise frowned at the display panel, then pulled out a book on Ancient Zelyrian. I couldn''t see any words on the wall.


    <Anise, what do you see on the wall?> I asked.


    <I see a bunch of display panels, as well as some words. I can translate some of them, but not enough to figure out what anything means. Give me a few minutes,> she said. I nodded.


    ¡°It feels¡­ weird in this room,¡± said Old Mo, a moment later. ¡°Someone tried to mess with something unusual here.¡± He frowned. ¡°Time magic? Is time manipulation even possible? I¡¯ve only heard of it happening in fiction stories.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s time manipulation, yes,¡± he said. ¡°I''ve only heard of time manipulation from a few... other sources, but I know it''s possible,¡± he said.


    I blinked. Was that something Felix had learned from the old ghost? I had never asked them to share everything they had learned while I watched Anise''s surgery.


    Heedless of my thoughts, Felix continued on. ¡°This room has an awful cost to results ratio. But it''s still pretty interesting. Although... if their understanding of time was this bad, I¡¯m kind of baffled that they expected results at all.¡±


    Old Mo shrugged. ¡°After conquering the entire continent, their empire started to decay. The empire was way, way too big for its administration to handle. Not to mention, the economy was reliant on military conquest to function. After the Zelyrains conquered the continent, there was nowhere to go. They never found the other continents. With a declining economy, no social mobility, and increasing internal corruption, it''s plausible for them to do something stupid.¡± Old Mo shrugged. ¡°When your country grows that rotten from the inside out, power-hungry dictators will run it into the ground sooner or later.¡± His face soured. ¡°Reminds me of Verne and Enallia.¡±


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    ¡°I know why the Worldstriders hate the Zelyrians so much,¡± Anise said, interrupting old Mo. ¡°These display monitors keep track of the harvesting facilities in this pocket dimension. Their output, stability... and the reproduction rate of the worldstriders imprisoned within¡±


    ¡°Harvesting facilities?¡± I asked.


    ¡°The Zelyrians turned those cracks in this dimension into miniature prisons. They drag nearby worldstriders into them, then eat them to fuel this pocket dimension. And even if a worldstrider escapes, the cracks keep trying to drag them back.¡± Anise eyed the stone cube in her hand. ¡°Even though the worldstriders broke the pocket dimension, they didn¡¯t free themselves. They''re still converted stone cubes every day. It''s just much slower than it should have been.¡±


    I blinked in surprise, before nodding. That would explain the behavior of the Zelyrians a bit better. I had found it surprising that they held such a deep grudge after hundreds of years. If they were being sacrificed and harmed RIGHT NOW things made much more sense. It also explained why their stamina was so abysmal. If their ''homes'' were actually harmful to them, the same way it was harmful to us, they were constantly weakened. We had fought hordes of worldstriders that were already half-dead.


    Anise looked completely horrified as she stared at the control panels, and I wished I could give her a hug. My ribs wouldn''t stand up to that amount of strain yet, but I could see how disturbing she found this revelation.


    ¡°Does it change anything we need to do right now?¡± I asked Anise instead. Regardless of the reason for the worldstrider''s actions, they had attacked us. I wasn''t going to forgive them for killing Sallia.


    Anise stopped staring at the displays on the wall, and glanced back towards the throne. ¡°I guess not,¡± she said. Her voice still wavered as she spoke, but she sounded a little bit less nauseated than before. She stepped closer to the golden throne, and sat upon it.


    I felt some of the essence in the room crackle in response. I dredged up what little alteration essence I had recovered, preparing for an emergency. Luckily, nothing happened. Whatever had fooled the worldstriders into thinking Anise was a Zelyrian hald also fooled the golden throne.


    ¡°All right, give me a second to figure things out,¡± said Anise, as she scanned the room and the stone cube. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m doing, but I think I can figure things out. When I sat down on the throne, a couple of different ¡®buttons¡¯ appeared, and I can translate them if you give me a bit of time." She pulled her translation book back out, and started flipping through pages.


    We spent the next minute in nervous silence. Nobody wanted to interrupt Anise¡¯s concentration, so we didn¡¯t say a word as we waited. Finally, Anise cheered.


    ¡°I got it!¡± yelled Anise, as a surge of manifestation essence leapt out of the chair and into the floor. The floor started churning and bubbling, before it tore open like a maw opening to devour us. At the same time, I felt space twist and bend itself around us. We fell through space, and moments later, I saw real sunlight again.


    And then I tried not to scream in pain as the landing jostled my broken ribs and ruined eyes. Every part of my body pulsed in pain before it faded into the background again.


    I gasped in pain, before I started scanning the area around us with my spatial eyesight. If there was a threat, I wanted to see it and prepare to kill it, even if I was in terrible condition.


    Then I relaxed.


    We had left the pocket dimension. We were back in our original layer of reality. We were in the mountains somewhere. There was nothing else alive near us, except for some plants and a few rabbits. Nothing hostile.


    The biggest question was where the heck we had landed.


    The mountain range around us was totally ruined. It would take a miracle to use previous landmarks to navigate our surroundings. We had also gotten turned around several times in the pocket dimension, so I had no idea which direction was which. Once the sun moved a little more, we would at least be able to distinguish east and west. But I had no idea how long we had spent in the pocket dimension. It could have been evening, or morning of the next day.


    I spent a few minutes trying to guess whether we were even in the same mountain range as before, and then gave up.


    At the very least, we had made it out. We could figure out our surroundings and continue our journey once we had a moment to get our bearings.


    As if to reward us for our efforts, I felt a small trickle of achievement worm its way into my body a few moments later.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Exploration: Explore the heart of the Zelyrian pocket dimension and exit alive.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I smiled as my Achievement went from 5,932 to 6,432. It was a small boost, but every increase in Achievement was appreciated. Especially since Sallia had died early this time. It would be best if we could help Sallia get an upgrade or two after returning to the Market, and since she couldn''t earn on her own, we would need to help.


    Old Mo glanced at our surroundings, before he grinned.


    ¡°We made it out. This mountain range looks utterly ruined, and I don''t know where we are. But our current position looks stable enough that it won''t turn into a landslide. Miria and Anise need time to heal up. How about we rest for a while before we keep moving?¡±


    Nobody in our group objected, so we pulled out our tents and prepared to heal up.

 Chapter 223: Arrival

    Twenty minutes after we began to rest, Anise¡¯s {Phoenix''s Last Stand} ended. Immediately afterward, her stats dropped two grades. Her ability to control flames and conjure fire dropped to almost nothing. She also suffered a huge amount of backlash. She screamed in pain once the backlash started, and then fell unconscious.


    I had prepared for that. The moment Anise collapsed, I threw every speck of alteration essence I had into another renewal while Felix soothed her parents. Felix''s excuse was that Anise had overextended herself during the battle - which was accurate, if misleading.


    After my healing, Anise still looked like she was in pain. I got worried and spent a few minutes verifying that she still had a pulse and a heartbeat.


    She did.


    After a few minutes of gut-wrenching anxiety, I started to relax. Anise¡¯s condition wasn¡¯t getting any worse. She would live. She was still missing half of her arm, and wasn''t waking up anytime soon, but I could fix everything later.


    <Anise is going to live. We got out of the pocket dimension,> I said, so that Sallia would know her death wasn¡¯t in vain.


    <Glad¡­ to hear it¡­> said Sallia sleepily. <If you guys died anyway... I would''ve been... pissed. Good job.>


    After that, Sallia fell asleep. We finished setting up camp, and then I got to work.


    I spent the next several hours getting myself and Anise back into some sort of fighting shape. The first thing I did was fix my ribs up, so that I didn''t bleed out after my ribs punctured my lungs or something. After that, I started healing Anise''s mind to handle the backlash of {Phoenix''s Last Stand}. Once Anise started sleep-kicking and tossing around, I felt good enough for now. The next thing I focused on was my eyes. Being forced to use my absorption abilities to mimic eyesight was a small but annoying resource drain. Finally, I regrew Anise''s arm.


    A few of the muscles and nerves connecting everything together were still fragile. I didn''t have enough essence to fix everything perfectly. But as long as we were careful, our bodies were back in working condition.


    It took another eighteen hours before Anise woke up again. She said that she felt tired, but thanked me for the healing. After testing her rebuilt fingers, she said that they were a bit stiff, but usable. After that, she returned to sleep.


    Finally, after twenty-four hours, Anise woke up again. This time, she didn''t fall unconscious immediately. Which meant that it was time to figure out where the heck we were.


    Old Mo and I spent a few hours scouting around to try to lock down our position. Old Mo was the only one understood geography, while I came to handle threats.


    After spending some time analyzing our surroundings, Old Mo grinned.


    ¡°We got lucky. We exited the pocket dimension closer to our destination than we started. I was worried that we would teleport to the other side of the continent or something, but we¡¯re next to Damilius,¡± he said. ¡°We have three days of walking before we reach our destination, and we should be safe for the rest of the journey.¡± Then, his face turned into a little bit more of a grimace. ¡°Sorry about what happened to¡­¡±


    ¡°Sallia?¡± I asked. I felt a tug of pain in my chest. Even though I could still talk to her, Sallia being dead still hurt. I nodded. ¡°This is the first time one of us has died without the rest of us dying shortly afterwards. I just¡­ I don¡¯t know. She can¡¯t earn any Achievement for the rest of this life, and she¡¯s going to be stuck in the void for years. I can still talk to her, but it¡¯s not the same. She can¡¯t live her own life anymore. It might be years before she can swing a sword again. A part of me wonders if there''s something I could have done differently...¡± I shook my head.


    ¡°You¡¯re still in contact with her?¡± asked Old Mo. He seemed very surprised by that statement.


    I nodded. ¡°Yeah, we can still talk to her. After we die, we kind of¡­ float around and wait for the rest of the group. And our friendship bracelets let us keep talking. But she''s still not alive anymore. She can''t do anything on her own until we return."


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    Old Mo sighed, and then ruffled my hair. ¡°I¡¯m glad you can still talk to her, at least. Even if she isn¡¯t here, you can still keep her updated on what you three are up to. It¡¯s not the same, but I''m sure she''s glad that you survived. And you did everything you could to keep her alive. I saw what state you and Anise were in when you rejoined the group. You don''t get that hurt without fighting for your life. Don''t blame yourself for her death.¡± Then, he reached down and hugged me. I tried not to make a mess as I buried my head into his arm for a few minutes and cried. Sallia being dead hurt.


    A few minutes after I regained my composure, we returned to camp.


    I noticed a tension between Sallia¡¯s parents and Anise¡¯s parents that hadn¡¯t been there before.


    Or, perhaps more accurately, it hadn¡¯t been on display when Old Mo and I left. Now that I''d had some time to decompress, I realized that Sallia''s parents had been on edge ever since Sallia died.


    <What¡¯s going on?> I asked Felix.


    <It boils down to the fact that Sallia is dead,> said Felix, after a few moments. <Sallia¡¯s mother started making snide comments, and Anise¡¯s mother responded in turn. Things devolved from there. The snide comments weren''t about anything substantial in and of themselves. But after everyone nearly died, tempers ran high once Old Mo wasn''t around to tamp down on it> said Felix.


    I winced.


    I could see why Sallia¡¯s parents felt upset. Anise, Sallia and I had fought together, and only Sallia had died. It might not be rational to take that out on Anise''s parents¡­ but I felt that Sallia¡¯s parents could be forgiven. They had just lost their kid. They were hurting, and it was normal for them to lash out.


    <I feel bad about it too,> said Sallia, taking me off guard when she spoke again. She sounded a lot more awake than the last time I had spoken with her. <My parents had flaws, but they were decent parents. I won¡¯t get to see them anymore. And it must hurt to bury your kid,> said Sallia.


    She sounded a bit bummed out about it. I wished I could give her a hug, but she didn''t have a physical body for me to hug anymore.


    <Do you have any last wishes you want to convey to your parents?> I asked. <I could pretend that they were your last words during the battle. Things were rather chaotic after you died, so it would make sense that we couldn''t convey your last wishes until now. Do you have anything you want to say?>


    <Just... tell them that I appreciated being their daughter,> said Sallia. <I only got to spend six years with them, and for three and a half of those years, I was barely conscious. But I still loved getting to know them.>


    <Will do,> I said.


    I walked over to Sallia''s parents, who no longer looked snippy and frustrated. Now they just looked numb.


    "Umm... Sallia''s parents," I said, trying not to sound awkward.


    "What do you want?" asked Sallia''s father. He didn''t sound angry, or even upset anymore. He sounded like there was nothing left to look forward to.


    "I know that it doesn''t replace Sallia actually being here... but she said that she wanted to thank you for being her parents," I said. I felt awful as I said it.


    Was this what we had left behind in our last two lives? Had someone else had to break this news to our parents both times we had died? I felt nauseous at that thought. I didn''t want to leave behind groups of grieving people every time we died. It felt... bad.


    Sallia''s father looked like he didn''t know how to feel for a moment. Then, he sighed.


    "Miria... I''m sorry too. Both of us haven''t behaved very well during parts of this journey. I know that life must have been hard for you and Felix, considering your mother''s... issues," he said, glancing at my mother''s dazed expression. "I just... I wanted Sallia to be safe. And now she''s..." he swallowed heavily, as if trying to banish a sob. "I''m sure you did everything you could to keep her alive."


    I nodded, and a moment later, Sallia''s father awkwardly patted me on the shoulder a few times. "Run along. We''ll be ready to leave by the time everyone else packs up."


    I hesitated, and then left Sallia''s parents to their grieving. I didn''t think intruding in their space right now was the best idea.


    We took half an hour to pack up our tents, before we started moving again.


    It took us about four hours to make our way out of the ruined mountains. There was one moment when I felt the ground shift beneath us, and I thought we were about to get caught in a landslide. Right as I was getting my umbrella ready, the ground stabilized. We were very cautious about moving through that area afterwards. Luckily, we didn''t encounter any other incidents before we exited the area.


    The next few days of travel were uneventful. We didn¡¯t run into any groups of soldiers, and since we had plenty of food and water, we avoided the only town we came across. We avoided everything that seemed dangerous.


    Finally, three days later, we came across a natural chokepoint. In front of us lay a massive river with only a single bridge across it. It hugged the mountains on one side, and the ocean on the other side. On the other side of the bridge was a small fort, manned by several hundred soldiers. When we saw it, Old Mo grinned, and informed us that this was the border of Damilius.


    At long last, we had arrived at our new home.

 Chapter 224: Damilius

    ¡°Names?¡± asked the border guard. He, along with four other soldiers, gave us lazy scans as we walked forward. Despite his relaxed posture, I could see a trace of sympathy in his eyes when he eyed our group.


    I resisted the urge to wince when I glanced at everyone else.


    We had three children in our group. We looked dirty, bedraggled, and tired after our escape from the pocket dimension. We also hadn¡¯t had much time for bathing during our journey. It was obvious at a glance that we were refugees.


    Despite the fact that we looked and smelled awful, the soldier didn¡¯t look disgusted. I took that as a good sign for the attitude of soldiers in Damilius.


    Old Mo stepped forward to greet the man. Then he started speaking in Damilian, a language that I recognized but didn¡¯t speak it very well.


    ¡°Good¡­.  ¡­. .. you, I¡¯m ¡­. Mo. This is ¡­ ¡­. ¡­¡­ Miria, her mother ¡­. ¡­¡­ Felix and Anise. . ¡­. ¡­¡­¡­ families, and we¡¯re here to seek ¡­¡­¡­. . Miria is ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­ healer. We come from. ¡­.. ¡­.Semurria.¡±


    After Old Mo finished speaking, the soldier gave us a far more critical look than before. I noticed that the soldier¡¯s eyes lingered on me for a few moments, before he continued examining the group.


    ¡°She¡¯s ¡­. healer? Why ¡­ ¡­. ¡­ ¡­. border like this?¡± asked the soldier, as his gaze returned to me. ¡°In most countries ¡­ ¡­.. ¡­. treated like ¡­. ¡­. ¡­.. . Why flee to Damilius?¡±


    ¡°There was ¡­. ¡­. ¡­. Verne''s navy ¡­ ¡­. ¡­. destroyed. We decided ¡­ ¡­.. ¡­. to a new country, where ¡­ ¡­. ¡­. ¡­¡­.. war.¡±


    ¡°And who are you to ¡­. ¡­.. girl?¡±


    ¡°Her caretaker. After ¡­ ¡­¡­.. ¡­. father died, I promised ¡­. ¡­.. ¡­¡­ take care of her.¡±


    The soldier gave me a far more sympathetic look than before, and then his gaze turned to my mother.


    ¡°What about her? And the others?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s ¡­. mother. She¡¯s ¡­¡­¡­ fizz.¡± said Old Mo, after a few moments. ¡°As for ¡­. else, they¡¯re ¡­. ¡­. ¡­.. picked up on the way. The two kids are¡­ ¡­.. friends.¡±


    I winced when Old Mo mentioned Fizz.


    Then, after some consideration, I sighed.


    Even after my healing, my mother was a zombie most of the time. I wasn¡¯t sure why that was the case, but I still wanted her to get better. Since my healing wasn¡¯t working the way I hoped it would, I would need to find someone to help. Most likely, the first thing I would do once we settled down would be to find a doctor and have them look at my mother. Since it would look bad to lie here, it was best to explain my mother''s fizz addiction from the beginning.


    The soldier¡¯s gaze turned frosty when he looked at my mother, before he sighed, and looked at me again. He crouched down, and held out a hand towards me. ¡°Nice to meet you, little lady. ¡­¡­ ¡­. name is Miria?¡± A moment later, the soldier stopped speaking in Damilian, and swapped to Semurrian. ¡°Or is this easier for you to understand?¡±


    I nodded. Old Mo¡¯s language lessons for Semurria had gone well, and I understood the language reasonably well. The similarities between Vernese and Semurrian, as well as my Intelligence stat being at grade 8, allowed me to assimilate the language quickly. I couldn''t speak Semurrian like a fully-grown adult - but I was six years old right now. Nobody would find it strange if I didn''t know advanced pieces of vocabulary or spoke strangely.


    Though the fact that a random soldier on the border also spoke perfect Semurrian was surprising. Perhaps I would get to use my ¡®native¡¯ language more than I had expected. He extended his vowels far longer than Old Mo had taught me to, but he was still understandable.


    ¡°Well, in that case there are a few things to keep in mind here,¡± said the soldier, still in Semurrian. ¡°We don¡¯t have nobles here in Damilius. We kicked ours out about a century ago, during the sunlight revolution. We also don''t have kings, or rulers - we''re a republic. Old Mo says that you used to be a noble. Can you live with that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can,¡± I said, also speaking in Semurrian. ¡°I don¡¯t have any attachment to being a noble - I just want my friends to be safe,¡± I said. I glanced at Anise and Felix, and tried not to think about Sallia.


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    The soldier looked at me a little bit more closely, and then smiled. ¡°Friends, huh. That¡¯s a good mentality to have. I think you¡¯ll fit right in.¡± The soldier looked at our group one more time, before gesturing towards the bridge. He continued speaking in perfect Semurrian as he addressed us. ¡°A few more things. You¡¯ll have to give up your guns before entering. Semurria has a strict no weapons policy for anyone who isn¡¯t in the military. I know you don¡¯t own much, so we¡¯ll provide you with some kind of compensation for the weapons. The military won¡¯t pay much, but it''s better than nothing. All right?¡±


    Old Mo nodded. He reached towards the gun he had in his belt, then unloaded it and handed it to the soldier. The rest of the group followed suit, and we all surrendered our weapons.


    The soldier''s smile grew wider after we disarmed, and then he gestured for us to follow him.


    ¡°My name is Devon, by the way. Welcome to Demilius. Oh, and one more thing. Miria?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°If you have an ability, you¡¯ll also need to get your ability registered. That way, people with dangerous abilities can¡¯t hurt people and get away with it. If you¡¯re a healer, you¡¯ll also want to have your ability verified, if you intend to work as a healer. Is that all right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine!¡± I said. I wanted the knowledge that I was a healer to be as public as possible. Felix needed money to enter school, and Anise might need money to buy research materials. I was fine spending a few years earning money to support my friends. Being known as a healer would make it easy to earn money and fund my friends. Since everyone had been willing to go along with my plans for the last two lives, I could spend some time earning money for them this life.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Let¡¯s go to the base, and I¡¯ll help you figure out how to register. Is that all right? And we can also talk about your new home! I¡¯m sure you''ve had... a lot of bad experiences. Losing your home and moving must be hard. But now that you¡¯ve arrived, things should get better!" said the Soldier. He sounded overly enthusiastic, but he had a relaxing smile on his face when he spoke. He also constantly looked at Anise, Felix and I. It was as if he was afraid that we wouldn''t want to talk to him.


    I stared at the man, and felt my tension loosen. We had spent most of this journey terrified that we would run into a threat that we couldn''t handle. We had lost Sallia during the fight with the worldstriders. But now, a soldier was trying to take my mind off of things.


    The soldier continued talking as we walked forward, and at some point, the topic changed. He might have noticed from our expressions that the journey here wasn''t a good topic. Instead, he swapped to talking about Damilius''s policies. Which probably wasn''t a topic most six year olds would have found engaging, but I had a lot of interest in.


    At some point, the soldier had gotten onto the topic of id''s. Which wasn''t something I had expected to encounter in this world. In Damilius, a lot of people were arguing that national id''s would be a good way to stop spies from other countries. The idea hadn''t been very popular at first, but after ability-potion drinkers had started registering, the idea had caught on.


    After a minute or two, Anise and Felix also started asking questions about the national id system. We still missed some words every now and then, but the soldier seemed happy to adjust his words when he realized we didn¡¯t understand something.


    Finally, we arrived at the fort, where several other soldiers gave us friendly smiles.


    The soldier who had been leading us forward gave us a gentle nudge forward, before addressing the soldiers. He swapped back to Damilian, so I missed some of the words he spoke.


    ¡°They¡¯re ...from Semurria. I¡¯m going to take Miria ¡­.. ¡­.. get her ability registered,¡± I realized we should say something now. I wasn¡¯t the only one that needed to get my abilities registered.


    <Are you guys all right with getting your abilities registered?> I asked.


    <Sure,> said Felix. <No point in keeping it secret, as long as we only expose one ability each.>


    ¡°All three of us have abilities!¡± yelled Felix, holding up his hand as if he were afraid the soldiers would miss him.


    ¡°..... with abilities? Three of them?¡± One of the other soldiers winced. ¡°I¡¯d heard the war was getting ¡­., and that ¡­. of Semurria¡¯s ¡­¡­ were especially hard hit. I¡¯m surprised it drove ¡­¡­ with an ability to ¡­. ¡­.. ¡­.¡± He gave us pitying looks, before he sighed. ¡°And they¡¯re just kids, too. The little girl at the front ¡­.. ¡­.. ¡­. six years old. The other kids can''t be..... ....... older .... .... .¡± He looked at Devon and sighed, before reaching into his pocket. A moment later, to my surprise, he presented me with a little square of something dark brown. He gave me a friendly wink, and then stuffed it into my hand.


    ¡°It¡¯s called ¡­¡­. Kids love it. Eat it while you go to the commander''s office. He''ll help you get ..... ....... registered. And don¡¯t let Markus ¡­ you too much. He looks a bit ¡­, but he¡¯s a good man.¡± I gazed at the little dark brown square, and sniffed it, before I put it into my mouth and chewed. I grinned.


    It was chocolate!


    The soldier gave Felix and Anise a square of chocolate of their own, before shooing me towards a little door. ¡°You two stay here. One registration at a time,¡± he said.


    I relaxed a little bit. The soldiers here didn¡¯t seem like bad people, and they had surprisingly welcoming attitudes towards us. The attitudes of the soldiers might reflect the country¡¯s attitude towards refugees from the war - or at least, that was my hope.


    With a lot more hope about our future treatment, I knocked on the door the soldiers had pointed me towards.

 Chapter 225: A New Home

    A moment later, the door swung open to reveal a grizzled old man. He had metal arms that resembled the arms of a gorilla, and a beard that was almost as large as my head. His hair was a rusty copper color, and his face seemed permanently stretched into a flat line that was neither a smile nor a frown.


    ¡°Well hello there little girl. Are you lost?¡± he asked as he gave me a confused look. ¡°How did you ¡­.. ¡­¡­.?¡± I missed a few words because he was speaking in Damilian, but I understood enough to realize what he was asking.


    ¡°Umm¡­ Me¡­ Miria. Not¡­ not lost, but register abilities!¡± I said, trying not to stumble over my words. I wasn¡¯t sure if Markus spoke Semurrian, so I did my best to speak in Damilian. Unfortunately, my grasp of the grammar of the language was¡­ questionable. I could understand the language well enough to get by, but speaking it was harder.


    ¡°The soldiers outside said talk to you!¡± I said.


    Markus seemed confused by my broken Damilian. He spoke much more slowly with his next sentence.


    ¡°Miria ¡­.. ¡­.. speak ¡­.. ¡­. language?¡±


    Unfortunately, I didn''t know most of the words in the sentence, so I had no idea what he had just asked.


    ¡°Ermm¡­ do you speak Semurrian?¡± I asked in Semurrian. Without Old Mo to help communicate, I was struggling to communicate. I wished that I had asked Old Mo to teach me a little more Damilian and a little less Semurrian.


    The corners of the burly man¡¯s lips quirked up for a few seconds, before they drifted back down. It looked kind of like he was smiling awkwardly.


    ¡°Nice to meet you, Miria. My name is Markus,¡± he said, this time in accented Semurrian. I breathed a sigh of relief. I could actually communicate with him. He extended one giant, steely hand towards me. I reached my hand out and he gently shook it.


    ¡°Well, if you need to get your ability registered, you¡¯ve ¡­.. to the right place. But aren¡¯t you a little young to have taken an ability ¡­..?¡± asked Markus, curiously. ¡°And why register here? In most towns there are ¡­¡­. ¡­¡­.. to do so.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re refugees,¡± I said. "I have an ability because my father gave it to me, before he died."


    Markus''s expression darkened as he looked at me for a moment, before he forced out an ugly smile. ¡°Ah. I''m sorry for your loss."


    "It was a long time ago," I said.


    Markus nodded, and changed the subject. "You''re doing a good job of trying to learn Damilian, at least! I''m sure you''ll master it in no time!"


    I nodded, and smiled. "It''s hard, but I''ll get lots of practice in the future!"


    Markus chuckled. ¡°Some of the sentence ¡­.. is a bit hard for people to learn. Don''t worry if you struggle with it. Learning a new language is hard." Then, his eyes grew a little softer as he looked at me, before he sighed.


    ¡°Anyway. Ability registration. I¡¯ll need you to use your ability so that I can ¡­¡­ it. That way, you can get a ¡­¡­.. to use it in Damilius. What kind of ability do you have?¡±


    ¡°I can heal people! As long as they touch water, I can fix wounds. I can even regrow limbs!¡±


    ¡°Healing, huh. Can you show me? Ah, you need a wound, don¡¯t you. Here, one moment,¡± said Markus, before pulling out a massive combat knife from his belt. Markus poked his wrist with the knife tip. A very shallow wound appeared on his wrist. I saw a single drop of blood ooze out a moment later. Then, Markus reached over to a little canteen of water on his belt and dumped some water onto the injury.


    ¡°There you go. Can you show me?¡±


    I activated renewal, and the injury disappeared in seconds. ¡°Is that good enough?¡± I asked.


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    Markus inspected his wrist, and poked and prodded at the former knife wound. A moment later, he grinned.


    ¡°It¡¯s healed. I can¡¯t even see a scar.¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of a healing ability potion that ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­. such a good job of removing traces of injury.¡± I missed a few of the words in the middle of the sentence, but I understood most of what he had said. Markus seemed to sink into thought for a few moments, before he shook his head.


    ¡°For even a kid with a healing ability like yours to be fleeing¡­ things must be pretty bad. Normally, your ....... would treat you really well, in exchange for healing. And running to a new home is ......... dangerous. This war is even worse than the usual ones.¡±


    I winced. I had heard a few other soldiers mention that. To be honest, I couldn¡¯t refute them. This war seemed brutal even for a continent that was at war every decade or two.


    When he saw me wince, Markus''s expression turned panicked for a moment.


    ¡°Sorry, sorry. I shouldn¡¯t have - look, I¡¯m not that good with kids,¡± he said. "I just... I think it''s awful how wars like this can do so much ..... to people. But I shouldn''t have brought it up. You''re probably too young to ...... ...... what I''m thinking about, and I doubt it brings up ...... memories for you."


    ¡°Relax,¡± I said, trying to stem the flow of words shooting out of Markus¡¯s mouth. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you seem like a nice soldier.¡±


    I saw Markus smile, although it vanished after a few more moments. It was the widest smile I had seen him make since entering his office.


    ¡°All right, since you''ve shown that you can ¡­. healing, do you have any plans for ¡­. future?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°My friends want to go to school, and I heard that healing pays well. I¡¯m going to heal people and get money for everyone. Then Felix can get the education he wants. He wants to learn how to be an alchemist,¡± I said.


    ¡°Earning money as a kid? You should leave earning money to the grown-ups,¡± said Markus. The corners of his lips quirked up again, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.


    Rude!


    ¡°But the fact that you want to help your friends is ¡­¡­,¡± he said. I missed the last word, but based on the smile on his face, it seemed like he was complimenting me.


    I shook my head.


    ¡°I want to help my friends. And healing people makes me happy,¡± I said. It wasn¡¯t even a lie. Of the things I had done to earn Achievement in the past, my two favorites were exploring interesting places and healing people.


    ¡°Is that so?¡± asked Markus. I could see him think for several seconds. ¡°Well, if you should go see a doctor first, and have them figure out what your healing ability is ...... ........doing. It seems like an ability that isn¡¯t ......., as far as I can tell. There are a lot of ....... healing abilities, but I¡¯ve never heard of one that ....... contact with water. Since your ability isn''t ........, you should make sure ........ ...... side effects. What town were you guys planning to settle in?¡±


    ¡°We haven¡¯t figured out where we¡¯re going yet,¡± I said. ¡°I want somewhere far away from factories though, because they smell terrible.¡±


    Markus chuckled. ¡°Most people want ¡­.. ¡­¡­. away from factories. Most cities are a reasonable distance away, so you won¡¯t have to deal with .... smell or ....... of lots of factories. A lot of factory owners complain about transportation difficulties, but ¡­¡­ ¡­¡­.. .¡± Markus shrugged. ¡°Anyway ¡­¡­., I know a doctor who¡¯s ...... nice. She lives in Vintella. It¡¯s on the ....... side of the country, right on the coast. It has a good university, too. If you don¡¯t know where to settle, maybe you¡¯d like it there?¡±


    ¡°It sounds like a good idea!¡± I said. ¡°Are there any downsides to the town?¡±


    Markus thought about it. ¡°The bad part of town is a bit worse .......... than in other cities. But I doubt it will ¡­¡­. your life much. The only other thing I have to say about the town is that it¡¯s a ¡­¡­ town. The local .......... is built around the ¡­¡­¡­. university. So it¡¯s easy to find a lot of ¡­¡­.. products nearby, and get ingredients, but it¡¯s also harder to make money if you don¡¯t interact with ¡­¡­.students.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°What age does the university accept people? How long does education last?¡±


    ¡°Most universities accept kids who are at least 15 years old, and then teach people for five years. There are also some schools that start earlier, and prepare kids for actual university. I know¡­. universities start earlier, but not ¡­.. . It might be best for your friends to start there,¡± Markus said.


    I smiled, thanked Markus for the help, and then chatted for a bit more about the town of Vintella. I got the contact information for the doctor Markus was recommending as well. After that, Markus took a picture of me, and printed out a little ID stating what ability I had and some basic information about me. The camera surprised me, since I hadn''t known they existed here. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was because I had grown up in the slums, or if they just hadn¡¯t spread to Verne, or what. After I left Markus¡¯s office, Felix entered Markus¡¯s office next, and Anise and I chatted while Felix got his ability certificate ready. In the meantime, I spoke with Old Mo about Markus¡¯s suggestion for what town to settle in. Old Mo seemed amenable to Markus¡¯s suggestion, so we decided to head towards the town of Vintella.


    Once we finished getting our new id''s, we would head to Vintella and see if it was a good place to settle down.

 Chapter 226: A New Home (2)

    It only took a few hours before Anise and Felix also got their ID¡¯s handled. After they emerged from Markus¡¯s office, Markus emerged as well.


    He turned towards Old Mo and gave him a friendly nod. Old Mo responded in kind, before Markus joined us.


    ¡°So, before we ¡­¡­ anything, you¡¯re Old Mo, right?¡± said Markus, still speaking in Semurrian. ¡°You¡¯re the ¡­¡­ of this group?¡±


    Old Mo paused for a moment and eyed me. Then he nodded. ¡°I¡¯m essentially the ¡­¡­, I suppose.¡±


    Markus paused, as if thinking about Old Mo¡¯s words, before he nodded. ¡°All right, good enough. I already ¡­¡­.. about it with the kids, but I wanted to talk about it with you as well. Do you have a final ¡­¡­.. in mind?¡±


    ¡°We decided that ¡­¡­.. out Vintella was a good idea. I don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll stay there ¡­¡­.., but some connections would be nice. Your doctor friend could be a big help as we get settled in. We¡¯re going to ¡­¡­.. there and see if the town suits us,¡± said Old Mo.


    Markus¡¯s expression brightened up. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear my ...... were useful! I can only imagine what your group has gone through over the past ¡­¡­.. .Starting a new life can be hard, and I was hoping that I could make ........... a bit easier for you." Then, Markus looked at the three kids in our group for a moment, before he frowned.


    "You know, I imagine all this walking has been hard on the kids. They don''t have the same ...... as adults do. Do you guys want some help with ¡­¡­?¡± asked Markus. ¡°We have some horses ¡­¡­near the edge of the encampment. They¡¯re normally for ¡­¡­., but, well,¡± he grinned. ¡°Felix mentioned that one of the people on guard duty ......... your guns. We owe you some kind of .......... for that, right? I¡¯d say a few horses are about ¡­¡­ in value?¡±


    Old Mo''s eyes widened at Markus''s words.


    ¡°Unless the horses are half-dead, a horse is worth way more than a gun. Are you sure?"


    Markus winked at Old Mo. ¡°Come to think of it, the horses looked a little ¡­.. to me when I glanced at them last week. Maybe they¡¯re coming down with something. I''m sure that lowers their value a bit. They seem about ...... to some guns.¡±


    Old Mo¡¯s eyes widened a little further, before he guffawed. ¡°You¡¯re a good man, Markus.¡±


    Markus''s grin grew a little wider, before he shrugged. "Just take care of the kids. I don''t want to see ......... get affected by wars like this."


    Markus turned his attention towards the sky for a moment, as if lost in thought. ¡°The country is pretty safe these days, so I doubt you¡¯ll run into any ¡­¡­..while you¡¯re heading back. If you do, you¡¯ve got three ability users in your group. Do you have a roadmap?¡±


    Old Mo shook his head. ¡°I have a rough idea where everything is, since I¡¯ve visited Damilius before. But it has been a long time.¡±


    ¡°In that case, wait here for a second.¡± Then, Markus paused, and I could see his face turn slightly red. ¡°Erm¡­ since you¡¯re taking our ¡­¡­.. horses, could you also deliver something for me? The actual ........ is a day late, and I have a few letters I was planning on sending to a friend.¡±


    Old Mo gave Markus a strange gaze, but nodded. ¡°We can do that.¡±


    Markus turned towards me. ¡°Miria, you remember the doctor I was telling you about, right? Were you planning on visiting her?" I nodded. Getting a way to make money would be really important when we settled down in our new home. And I was starting to think that my mother needed more than just healing spells to get better. A doctor might help me figure out why my mother was still practically a zombie, even after healing her for years. "Well, if you''re going to see her, could you ¡­¡­. her those letters for me?¡±


    I blinked in surprise. I was now pretty sure the word Markus kept using that I didn¡¯t understand was ¡®messenger¡¯ or ¡®deliveryman¡¯ or something like that, based on the context. But why did Markus look so embarrassed about sending the letters to his doctor friend?


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    I thought about the conversation I''d had with him. He had mentioned that he knew a nice female doctor in the city he recommended we settle in. He had recommended that we contact her. He now also wanted us to deliver a few letters to that doctor. He looked embarrassed while mentioning those letters.


    Could it be¡­?


    I grinned.


    If I got to know the female doctor well, maybe I¡¯d see more of Markus in the future. Markus had left a pretty good impression on me. I wouldn¡¯t mind seeing him around more often.


    ¡°I¡¯ll give them to her, and let her know you¡¯re thinking about her lots!¡± I said, and watched as Markus turned a brighter shade of red.


    ¡°You don¡¯t¡­ need to include that last part,¡± he said.


    I gave Markus my best ¡®innocent six year old¡¯ grin. I saw Old Mo roll his eyes behind Markus, but he didn''t say anything.


    ¡°Well, if you''ve agreed, I¡¯ll be right back,¡± said Markus, before he went to go fetch the letters and the maps.


    A few minutes later, he returned and handed a few sealed letters and a map to Old Mo. He also handed Old Mo a small stack of money.


    Old Mo seemed surprised.


    "You don''t have to-"


    "Relax. It''s not much, but you can get an inn room and a nice meal when you arrive."


    "Thank you," said Old Mo.


    ¡°All right, I think that¡¯s everything,¡± said Markus. ¡°Does anyone in your group know how to ride horses?¡±


    Old Mo nodded. ¡°I can ride well enough to get by.¡±


    ¡°Good. I don''t have to worry about you breaking your necks on the way in, then. Safe travels,¡± said Markus.


    After that, our group was off.


    * * *


    It took another day before we reached Vintella. Navigation was a bit difficult after we left the fort, but once we found the main road, it became much easier.


    Which, oddly enough, left me with nothing to do. When we had been travelling through Verne, I had been responsible for scouting, because of my soul vision. Now we weren''t in danger of getting caught up in a shootout. Since I didn¡¯t need to scout for danger, I spent some time talking with Sallia as we plodded along.


    Sallia sounded very sleepy when I talked to her. I was beginning to realize that Sallia had a hard time staying awake for long periods of time now. After only an hour of talking, she started to sound exhausted. And even during that hour, she had a harder time focusing than usual. It was a sharp contrast with her usual vibrant, active self. Still, I was happy that I could talk with her at all. It helped hammer in the fact that even though Sallia was dead, she wasn¡¯t gone.


    Sallia also mentioned that she had purchased a TV subscription. It would let her access a catalogue of shows for a small price, so that she had something to do besides talk to us.


    Once Sallia fell back asleep, Anise, Felix, and I all convened and decided to cover any expenses Sallia incurred during her time in the void. She had died to protect us,. The least we could do was cover her television shows while she waited for the rest of us to die. They weren¡¯t that expensive - a one year subscription for television cost fifteen Achievement. Slumber Mode cost at 20 Achievement a year. In other words, every year that we stayed alive, we needed to pay Sallia 12 Achievement each.


    It was a manageable cost, and one that I was happy to pay.


    About an hour after we figured out how we planned to handle Sallia''s entertainment expenses, we saw Vintella.


    The town was beautiful. I could tell that it was on the larger side for a town - my very rough guess was that there were around 100,000 residents, based on its size. It was nestled right against Damilius¡¯s coastline, and there was a lot of ships in its harbor. Most of the ships were metal, but I found a few large ships made entirely out of wood docked as well.


    I found the sight interesting. It looked like the merchants in this world were starting to upgrade their ships from wood to metal. But not all of them had switched. I wondered if the wooden ships would disappear another decade, or if they had some uses metal ships couldn''t cover.


    The rest of the town was unremarkable, save for one thing - it was clean. All of the factories were outside the town. Unlike our previous home, the city wasn''t filled with factory fumes.


    It was close to nighttime when we made it into the city, so when we entered, most of the people were asleep. We found our way to a nearby inn, paid for the night, and luxuriated in the baths and our first hot meal in over a week. Washing off a week¡¯s worth of grime and filth felt wonderful, and I spent quite a bit more time in the bath than I strictly needed to.


    It was the most relaxed I had felt since being born in this world. As I relaxed in the water and sent mental messages to my friends, it started to hit me that we had really arrived. We had escaped Verne and found a new home.

 Chapter 227: Fizz Crystals

    The next day, I prepared to focus on long-term planning. I also needed to deliver Markus¡¯s letters, and get my mother looked at by a doctor. After all, she had never recovered her mental faculties. I had spent years healing her, and she wasn''t getting better. I wanted to know why that was the case.


    Luckily, I had a way to address everything at once.


    I needed to go see the doctor Markus had recommended.


    With that thought in mind, I first bought a new set of clothes. After our journey to Damilius I looked like a beggar. I had taken a bath and cleaned myself, but my clothes, apart f looked like they had been through a war zone. They smelled like a sewer. I was thankful that my dress had a self-cleaning ability, because I had no other clothes to wear right now.


    While I was getting a new outfit, I also bought everyone else something to wear. They might not fit perfectly, but they presentable, at least. That drained most of the money Markus had given us, but I still had enough of my portion left to afford the doctor and a meal. So I took my mother and went off to find Markus¡¯s girlfriend, the doctor of Vintella.


    It took a while to find our way through the streets. After an hour of walking, we stood in front of a small, brightly lit doctor¡¯s office close to the alchemy university. The sign outside of the door proudly proclaimed that we were about to enter Doctor Trish¡¯s General Clinic.


    I took a deep breath, before I opened the door and led my mother through.


    ¡°Hello?¡± asked a man sitting behind a desk. ¡°Do you ¡­.. an appointment?¡± He gazed at my mother, before frowning in confusion. "Ma''am? If .... urgent, you would be better of..... to see an emergency doctor."


    ¡°I don¡¯t, have an appointment,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯re new to area. Not urgent.¡± I resisted the urge to frown. I had learned more of the Damilian language with Old Mo last night, and I had learned phrases relevant to visiting the doctor. But I still didn''t understand everything the receptionist said.


    The receptionist seemed surprised that I had spoken instead of my mother. He turned his attention from her to me.


    ¡°Is ¡­ urgent? Is she ¡­¡­.?¡± asked the receptionist. He eyed my mother far more critically this time. It seemed like he was worried by what he saw.


    ¡°I was hoping to see Doctor Trish, but it¡¯s not urgent,¡± I said, trying not to stumble over my words. My mother hadn¡¯t gotten better after two years of healing. I doubted a few hours would make much of a difference.


    The receptionist frowned. ¡°Is she¡­ mother? Or ¡­.sister? She ¡­.. seem ¡­¡±


    I sighed. ¡°She¡¯s my mother. She¡¯s .... uhh." I tried to remember the word for ''been,'' and came up completely blank. "She like this for long time now.¡± My grammar made me wince. I was now speaking like a cavewoman. The first thing I needed to do was learn proper Damilian.


    The receptionist started to frown, and then looked at me.


    ¡°Do you not ¡­¡­ Damilian?¡±


    I spent a few seconds puzzling out the meaning, before I shook my head.


    ¡°Not well. No speak good. Trying hard.¡±


    The receptionist glanced at me a bit more closely, before he nodded. When he spoke again, he slowed down the tempo of his words. It made it much easier for me to figure out what he was saying.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure I can ..... a time ..... Give me a moment.¡± The receptionist cleared his throat, before he started thumbing through a pile of papers. A few moments later, his eyes lit up. ¡°Doctor Trish free¡­ two hours. Does that work?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Sounds good. I get lunch. Come back later. Okay? I Miria.¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± said the receptionist, before shooting me another worried glance. ¡°I wrote .... down. You have an appointment now. Are you ¡­ sure that ¡­. mother ¡­. okay? She really¡­ look well. Dangerous.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Two years. Never better. Same as always. Just hoping this doctor help.¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    That answer seemed to satisfy the receptionist. Some of the concern bled out of his face when he heard that my mother had been like this for a while. Then, he frowned, and looked at me a lot more closely.


    "Are you.... kid?"


    "I''m six," I said.


    "Do you ..... ...... parent?"


    "Old Mo," I said, after a moment of thought. I was pretty sure the receptionist was asking me if I had another parent. Old Mo was kind of like a father to me. And I didn''t want the receptionist worrying about a six year old wandering around without any adults. I could take care of myself, but he had no way of knowing that.


    The receptionist looked relieved at that statement. I led my mother away and left before the receptionist could ask more awkward questions.


    I walked around the streets of Vintelle for over an hour. I quickly realized how different Verne and Damilius were. There were a lot more restaurants in Damilius than Verne. Every other street had a few restaurants, unlike Verne, where they were more scarce. My understanding of Verne was somewhat biased, since I had lived in the slums. But I was still sure the restaurant density was lower there.


    I also noticed that there were a lot of theaters in Damilius, as well as a few art galleries. I didn''t remember seeing either of those things in Verne. When I asked Anise, she said that even in the middle-class district, they were rare.


    Clearly, Damilius put a lot more emphasis on arts and culture than Verne did. The quality of people''s lives in this country also seemed to be pretty good. If people had the time and money to see plays frequently, things couldn''t be too bad here.


    A bit of asking around confirmed this suspicion.


    Apparently, the land in Damilius was very fertile near the biggest river in the country. The country was also very isolated from the rest of the continent. As a result, Damilius spent far less on its military than most countries of comparable size. Damilius sank this extra money into art. People in Vintelle believed that Damilius was the artistic center of the world. I didn''t know whether people outside of Damilius believed the same thing, but it was an interesting national identity.


    Of course, that didn¡¯t mean the country was totally untouched by war or conquest. Damilius also had a few colonies overseas, and owned a small set of islands that grew cocoa and sugar. Damilius still had a respectable navy and a small land army. But for a country of its size, its military spending was low.


    After walking around for an hour, I had a nice fish stew from a nearby restaurant and fed my mother.


    After our meal, we returned to the clinic. We only had to wait five minutes before I saw an old man walk out of the examination room. The receptionist gave me a warm smile.


    ¡°Doctor Trish is ready,¡± he said.


    I stepped into the examination room of the clinic, where I saw a woman in her mid twenties standing behind the counter. She had bright auburn hair, brown eyes, and a stern but warm expression.


    ¡°Miria,¡± she said, eyeing me. ¡°I hear you don¡¯t speak the language of Damilius very well?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry then. I don¡¯t speak other languages. If you don¡¯t know a word, tell me. I¡¯ll simplify. Okay?¡±


    I noticed that she was making efforts to speak with very basic vocabulary. I actually understood everything she had said, which was nice.


    ¡°You doctor Trish?¡± I asked. She nodded.


    I reached for Markus¡¯s letters. ¡°From Markus, I have letters!¡±


    ¡°Markus?¡± Doctor Trish seemed shocked. I quickly pulled Markus¡¯s letters out of my pocket. Doctor Trish looked at the envelopes in my hand, before her gaze softened. ¡°That guy sent me letters again, huh. Thank you ...... delivering them.¡± She gently caressed the letters, before she carefully placed it in a little box near the back of the room. Then, she turned back towards me and frowned. ¡°I''ll read ..... later. But why did he send letters with a six year old?¡±


    I paused, trying to think about how to explain our arrival circumstances in broken Damilian. Before I could, she sighed.


    ¡°Nevermind, I¡¯ll find out when I read them. Right now we have more urgent matters to take care of. Is this your mother?¡± She pointed towards my mother.


    I nodded, and helped seat my mother on doctor Trish¡¯s examination chair.


    ¡°Let¡¯s ......... her,¡± she said. She started asking me questions about when and why my mother had become like this. I answered truthfully, talking about my mother¡¯s fizz addiction and the constant use of my healing ¡®ability¡¯ to keep my mother alive. It was a bit hard to translate some of my words into Damilian, but with some back and forth, we managed to mostly understand each other. Finally, she spent a few minutes prodding at my mother, testing her reflexes, and examining my mother''s eyes. Her frown grew deeper with each test.


    ¡°I ........ I know what problem your mother has, but I¡¯d like to take a closer look,¡± said doctor Trish. ¡°There¡¯s a certain ¡­. that a lot of long-term Fizz addicts ¡­.., and it sounds like your mother already has it.¡± Then, she paused. ¡°Actually, it sounds like it should have killed her already. I ¡­.. your healing ability has kept her alive well past the point she should have died.¡±


    Then, she opened my mother¡¯s mouth, and stuck a strip of some sort of paper inside of it. She stuck two similar strips of paper up both of my mother¡¯s nostrils. My mother started squirming, and I worked with doctor Trish to keep her from dislodging the papers for a moment. Finally, doctor Trish pulled the pieces of paper back out.


    I stared at them, and realized that all three papers had turned bright blue.


    Doctor Trish eyed the pieces of paper before she nodded.


    ¡°Yup, that ¡­. it. Your mother has ¡­¡­. Fizz crystals lodged in  her brain.¡±

 Chapter 228: Brain Sediment (2)

    ¡°Fizz Crystals in her brain?¡± I asked.


    Doctor Trish nodded. ¡°Fizz itself is a ......., which is a type of mold that eats binding essence. This allows it to ¡­.., grow, and ...... in harsh conditions. For example, factory waste, ¡­¡­., and other extreme environments. With Fizz, one can extract a kind of chemical that gives users happy hallucinations. This is the basis of the drug Fizz.


    ¡°Of course, Fizz can also ¡­.. in the human body. The human body is one of the most powerful binding essence ¡­¡­.. in nature, after all. Normally, Fizz gets killed by our immune system or ¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­.. And Fizz mold is often killed in the process of making the drug version. But, it''s easy to make mistakes during this process. And nobody holds ...... drug dealers accountable for bad product.¡±  Doctor Trish shook her head. ¡°Some Fizz users take a few badly made ......... of Fizz and the mold starts growing in their body. If they keep taking it, they eventually overwhelm their immune System. Then, you have a problem." Doctor Trish paused for a moment and looked at me, making sure that I understood the conversation so far. While I had missed a few words, I understood the gist of what she was saying. Seeing me nod, she continued.


    ¡°The brain, is central to any living being¡¯s ability to ....... binding essence. So the most natural spot for this mold to grow is right next to where it''s produced.¡±


    ¡°So my mother¡¯s brain, is growing mold?¡± I asked, feeling horrified. Was my mother¡¯s brain a mold factory now?


    I had never stopped to consider whether my healing magic could get rid of mold inside the human body. I knew that my healing magic could handle most illnesses. But I had no idea whether it could handle mold and parasites.


    Doctor Trish nodded. ¡°Of course, the immune system will often get things back under control within a few months. The body starts to ramp up its attempts to kill the mold. Things like fevers, coughing, et cetera will help ......... it. The body doesn''t take kindly to becoming a mold ........ . But there¡¯s nowhere for the dead Fizz to go afterwards, and it''s a lot larger than most bacteria. The dead Fizz hardens up and clumps together inside the brain. Which is what these .... detect - Fizz mold inside of your mother¡¯s brain," said Doctor Trish. A moment later, she waved the three pieces of bright-blue paper in front of my eyes. "I¡¯ll be honest. I have no idea how to extract the blockages from your mother''s brain. It¡¯s a ¡­.. that your mother is still alive. The ¡­¡­ of the body fighting off the Fizz mold usually kills the patient. Most Fizz users die long before this point. They take a bad trip with Fizz, get mold in their brain, and then get a ¡­¡­ and die.¡±


    I tried not to shudder. My mother had hardened pieces of mold inside of her brain. I finally understood why my healing never seemed to cure my mother¡¯s problems.


    My healing wasn¡¯t omnipotent. I could heal a lot of things - I could even regrow limbs. But if there was still dirt or debris stuck in a wound when I healed it, where did it go?


    Usually, my healing essence pushed debris out of the wound. If I tried to heal a splinter, for example, my healing essence would remove the splinter through the wound. Then, the wound would close, leaving behind no evidence of the injury at all.


    But what about my mother¡¯s brain?


    There was no wound. Since there was no wound, there was nowhere for my healing to push the dead, hardened mold. So it got stuck inside of her skull, and every time she took more Fizz, it accumulated...


    And this had been going on for years.


    That was the reason that my mother seemed to be less and less conscious of her surroundings. Her brain should have shut off months ago. I had managed to prolong her life by infusing a never ending stream of healing essence into her body. But since I had no way to fix the root of the problem, my mother never became more aware of her surroundings. It was now obvious that some parts of my mother''s frontal lobe weren''t working at all anymore. My healing spells had probably sewed my mother''s brain together around the chunks of fizz. But they clearly hadn''t done a perfect job.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Was there a way to fix this?


    I frowned.


    To be honest, my understanding of the brain was¡­ not very good. I knew, for sure, that the brain was connected to the way people¡¯s soul¡¯s interacted with their bodies. If the brain was like a control panel for the body, the soul was the person pushing buttons inside. But the brain also worked as a kind of glue that kept the soul from drifting away. If I tried to cut off parts of my mother¡¯s brain and then regrow it mold-free, I might detach her soul and send it to the ocean. I had no idea how to stop that from happening. I could regrow almost any part of the body, but I had no idea how to fix the brain.


    <Sallia, Felix. Did the soul fragment give you any information about how souls work? We still haven''t reviewed everything you learned during that conversation,> I said. <The reason my mother never wakes up is because there are chunks of hardened mold in her brain. I don¡¯t know how to fix it.>


    <None of the information we got while you were watching Anise would be relevant,> said Sallia. <He told us a lot about how the Market itself works. And he also made a few other notes about the powerful factions of the Multiverse, as well as the way time works. None of those things are useful right now. The reason we never went over everything was because nothing is urgent or useful until we return to the Market. We just figured we''d get to it once we got to Damilius and started our new lives.> Sallia paused. <Sorry, Miria.>


    <Thanks for answering,> I said.


    I sighed.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t know how cure, I¡¯ll think about,¡± I said. My brain started racing. There had to be a way to fix this. It took me a few moments to figure out where I could learn more.


    School.


    If I went to a university specializing in medicine, maybe I would be able to devise a way to heal my mother.


    And it wasn¡¯t like this was the only time I would ever encounter something like this. In every dimension, understanding how brains and souls interfaced would be useful. The exact biology of people changed from one dimension to another, but it was usually still kind of similar. There were no downsides to learning medicine in this world. Maybe I could even get an ability evolution out of this if I got lucky.


    I wasn¡¯t quite sure how I felt about the idea of going back to school. Part of me vaguely recalled that in my first life, I''d had friends in school. But I also faintly remembered stress, tests, and frustration. But I didn''t know where else I could study brains and medical knowledge efficiently.


    ¡°Thank you look at mother, doctor Trish,¡± I said. "Is there other doctor who can help?"


    "I don¡¯t think anyone in city could ¡­¡­.. mother with the brain mold. The brain is just too poorly understood. An accident would ......... your mother on the spot." Doctor Trish hesitated, and looked between me and my mother again. She sighed. "It might be better if you let her go.¡±


    I shook my head. I could keep my mother alive with healing magic. I wasn¡¯t willing to let my mother die. She might not have been a great mother in this life. She might have never been there when I needed her. But I wasn¡¯t sure if I was ready to abandon her, either. Thinking about leaving her to die hurt. That wasn''t the kind of person I wanted to be. I would do my best to keep my mother alive and heal her. If it didn''t work, it didn''t work. But I had to at least try.


    But that would take a lot of time. Since nobody else could cure my mother, I doubted she would get better anytime soon. I needed to make plans for the near future, so I put the topic aside and got to the final goal of the day.


    ¡°Can you look over healing ability? I want to get certificate and heal patients.¡±


    Doctor Trish nodded. ¡°If your healing ability is what kept your mother alive, it must be amazing. I¡¯m happy to help.¡±


    Doctor Trish and I started testing my ability. Doctor Trish asked me what I could do, and then inflicted a few small wounds on herself. After I healed all of those injuries, Doctor Trish started getting excited.


    ¡°This is far more ¡­. than other healing abilities,¡± she said. ¡°It handles different situations very well. Most healing abilities only heal one thing. Like blood loss, flesh wounds, and broken ¡­¡­ . Those would be three different abilities most of the time. It¡¯s just like potions - you need a different potion for different ¡­¡­. . And it also handles some of the ¡­¡­¡­ that usually arise from healing, like debris left in an injury. This ability is remarkable.¡±


    I grinned. I was proud of the renewal spell I had developed. It had healed a lot of people in our last life, and it was great for most healing needs. If it was useful in this world, we would have an easier time making a living in this town.


    Doctor Trish paused, and gave me a curious look. ¡°Instead of healing people off of the ¡­ would you like to work for me? I normally wouldn¡¯t hire a six year old. But with your mother like this, you need a source of ¡­¡­. I don¡¯t mind having a little worker, ¡­¡­ with an ability like yours.¡±


    I only needed to think for a few seconds before I responded. ¡°I would be happy to!¡± I said.


    I had found employment in the city.

 Chapter 229: Healer

    I spent a few hours going over a contract that Doctor Trish offered me. She offered to pay me a percentage of every patient I helped treat, depending on how much I contributed to each treatment. I wasn¡¯t offered a ¡®standard wage,¡¯ but considering the fact that Doctor Trish was unfamiliar with how much healing I could do a day, I thought this was fair.


    When I checked in with the others back at the inn, they reported less luck finding employment. Neither Anise''s parents nor Sallia''s parents had found a new job yet. Sallia''s parents didn''t seem to be in the right mental state for job hunting yet, given how recent Sallia''s death was. I quietly promised that I would help them out for a few months. It was only right to give them time to grieve.


    Old Mo had a much easier time finding a new job. He claimed he had met up with a few acquaintances of his, which I took to mean informants. Right afterwards, Old Mo had a new stash of funds. He bought a new building, where he intended to establish a bakery that also sold soup.


    I wondered if Old Mo had a fixation on bakeries that sold soup. Was it some sort of remnant from his dead lover? I almost asked him about it, before I decided it was none of my business. If Old Mo wanted to talk about it, he would tell me.


    The next day, our families arranged to rent a small apartment together. Since we had just arrived in this town, Anise and Sallia¡¯s parents needed to save on costs. I also needed someone to keep an eye on my mother, and Anise¡¯s parents wanted someone to watch Anise while they looked for employment.


    A few months passed as we adapted to our new home.


    My work at the clinic went very well. Doctor Trish seemed more pleased with my healing ability every day, and paid me generously. I also got Doctor Trishs¡¯s clinic a lot more traffic, because I was excellent at re-growing limbs.


    Plenty of people liked to upgrade a limb or two and replace them metal. After all, metal limbs were stronger, and they could drastically enhance one''s physique. But it was also common for someone to regret replacing a limb. Every single metal limb relied on binding essence to move, so there was a limit to how many limbs one could replace. And sometimes, either due to an accident or overreaching, people exceeded that limit. People might replace a hand, and then unexpectedly lose a leg in an accident. Or they might get two new arms, then realize they didn''t have enough essence to move them both. It was rare, but it happened.


    In such cases, people sometimes wanted their organic limbs back.


    In this world, re-growing a limb was very difficult. It usually took a team of people with healing abilities to fix. Each person would help recreate part of the limb in a process that took several weeks. But considering how rare people with abilities were, this wasn''t an option for everyone. People with abilities expected to be paid more for their time. Hiring a team of ability-users for several weeks of delicate work was expensive.


    I didn''t need a team of other people to help restore a limb. I could heal a lost limb entirely on my own, and I could restore multiple limbs a day. Doctor Trish guaranteed my abilities, and I charged much less for limb restoration than a full team of people. Soon, we had plenty of patients.


    As my ability became more well known, Doctor Trish¡¯s clinic also became more well known. Doctor Trish gave me almost all the money for each limb restoration, so I was soon swimming in wealth.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Restore 2 Permanent, debilitating injuries.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +90


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Restore 10 Permanent, debilitating injuries.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Restore 25 Permanent, debilitating injuries.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +450


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As I healed people, I started to notice that I got less Achievement in this dimension than the previous one. It was still a good source of Achievement, but it was worse than last time. I couldn''t help but feel that it was a bit of a shame. The exact amount of Achievement I got for doing something seemed slightly random from one dimension to another.


    With the 860 Achievement I got from healing injuries, my Achievement increased from 6,432 to 7,292.


    During the time I worked for doctor Trish, I also regrew the arm of Sallia¡¯s father. It wouldn''t make up for the fact that Sallia was dead, but it was something to improve their lives.


    After a month, they recovered enough to look for work. Old Mo helped them find jobs working as waiters. It wasn¡¯t a perfect job, since it didn¡¯t pay as well as some other jobs in the town. But it was safer than their previous jobs as factory workers, and they were able to scrape by.


    Anise¡¯s father found a job as a factory manager without Old Mo''s help. He had lost some pay from his previous job, but he was still firmly in the middle class. With their finances resolved, Anise''s mother went back to being a housewife. It seemed boring to me, but if she was happy, who was I to say anything?


    After two months, we moved into new apartments. We still lived next to each other, but our environment was much less cramped.


    A few weeks later, we heard news about the coalition army. They had pushed further into Verne. The coalition soldiers had an awful reputation for how they treated occupied territories. When we had left Verne, I had assumed that Verne was exaggerating the news. That turned out to be true... but they hadn''t been exaggerating much. The coalition soldiers massacred most towns that they conquered. And while the coalition failed to strike a decisive blow against Verne, they seemed to be winning the war. This news seemed to make Anise¡¯s parents glad that they had fled the country with us. I was glad that the war was now on the other side of the continent. The idea of trying to escape the city with Anise, Felix, and Sallia sent shivers down my spine.


    After a few more months, I started preparing to put my other plans in motion.


    It was time to think about school for all three of us.


    Felix was the one that would most obviously benefit from school.


    Felix still wanted to  learn alchemy. This world¡¯s binding magic system was practically tailor-made for him. But this world¡¯s binding magic system wasn¡¯t very intuitive. Felix needed specialized tutors and education to learn how to progress. I needed to learn medicine, so that I could heal my mother and learn how to heal better.


    Anise seemed the least interested in going to school, but she wasn''t against the idea. After talking with the three of us, Anise decided she wanted to specialize in two magic systems. But she couldn''t figure out which one would supplement her ambitions to be a super-witch. She decided to try out alchemy while she had the chance. If she ended up liking it, she would try to form a keyword ability based on binding essence. If she didn''t like it, she could just ditch it after this life.


    The week after we turned seven, I enrolled the three of us in an alchemy prep school.


    The night before our first day at the academy, Anise, Felix, and I got together to do our last bits of preparation. After packing and repacking our bags, scanning our textbooks, and checking the school''s entry requirements, we ended up turning the meeting into a sleepover.


    ¡°I¡¯m a bit nervous,¡± said Felix, as we were getting ready for bed.


    ¡°But are you excited?¡± I asked, grinning.


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m very excited,¡± said Felix, as he faintly smiled. Then, he gave me a hug. ¡°Thank you very much, Miria. You did a lot for me this time. I don''t know how much harder it would have been to get into alchemy school without your help. I really appreciate it.¡±


    I grinned. ¡°You guys have gone along with my crazy ideas for the past two lives. It''s only fair if I help you out for a life or two, right? Besides, I''ll benefit from this too. If I ever want to figure out how to heal brain injuries, I need to start somewhere. Maybe in another life or two I''ll understand much more about how souls work.¡±


    Felix just smiled. ¡°You¡¯re the best friend I could have asked for.¡±


    I felt myself cheeks grow warm, and Anise giggled. "Yeah, thanks Mir. The amount of work you put in for us is astounding sometimes. But I¡¯m glad that I get the chance to try out alchemy. And I''m also glad I get the chance to learn Zelyrian magic. You helped keep me safe for both of those things. Thank you.¡±


    I felt my cheeks grow hotter.


    I didn¡¯t know what to say, so instead, I leaned closer to both of them and gave them big hugs.


    ¡°Seeing both of you happy is the best thanks you can give me,¡± I said. ¡°Now let¡¯s go to sleep. Our first day is tomorrow.¡±

 Chapter 230: School

    As we walked towards school, I couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit of anticipation. In our first and second lives, the education systems had revolved around apprenticeships. There hadn''t been large schools where everyone learned in the same classroom. I wasn''t sure if I would meet any new friends, but last time, we had met Anise. If we got lucky, we might find someone else who was likely to join the Market.


    As I stewed in my thoughts, we finally arrived. At the gate of the school, I saw two guards checking each student''s papers before they passed through. I noticed that the guards didn''t have guns, but they were very muscular. Their hands were also made of metal. Getting punched by them would hurt a lot.


    They''re probably trained in hand to hand combat, I mused to myself as we walked up to them. I pulled out my school papers and handed it to the nearest guard.


    He examined them, before cross referencing them with a list of names.


    ¡°Little Miria? Yup, there you are,¡± he said, making a check mark on his clipboard. ¡°Do you know where to go?¡±


    I shook my head. "I don''t," I said.


    ¡°Well, in that case, head to the auditorium. Walk through the main entrance, take the first right, and walk in a straight line. It¡¯s the big set of doors at the end of the hallway. Can¡¯t miss ¡®em. Today is orientation and class introductions,¡± said the guard. ¡°Some teachers also like to do a bit of actual teaching on the first day. Good luck!¡± He gave me a cheerful wink.


    ¡°Thank you!¡± I said. The guard waved me through the gate. I waited on the other side for Felix and Anise to catch up before we proceeded.


    As we walked through the hallways, I peeked at our surroundings with my spatial sight.


    I could see that the school was very well-built. The paint on the walls was new, the wall materials were all imported wood from the colonies, and the classrooms were richly decorated.


    I also saw a teacher in one of the classrooms using an ability to levitate decorations and books around. I blinked in surprise.


    According to Old Mo, even Verne, the industrial powerhouse of the continent, only produced a few thousand ability potions per year. Smaller and less industrialized countries, like Damilius, produced less than that. Damilius produced less than a thousand ability potions a year. There were probably less than thirty thousand ability users in Damilius. For one of them to be teaching in a school seemed extravagant.


    I smiled.


    <I see a teacher using abilities,> I said.


    <Your new school knows how to splurge,> said Sallia, who sounded as if she was trying to stifle a mental yawn. <Could one of you send me everything you see through the bracelet? I admit, I¡¯m a little curious. In my first life, I had a lot of private tutors teach me, but I¡¯ve never heard of a ¡®school¡¯ that works like this one. I want to take a look.>


    I winced.


    It would have been even nicer if Sallia could attend school with us, but¡­


    That wasn¡¯t possible.


    Next time, I promised myself. Once we got stronger, it would be harder for one of us to die early on in a life. Next time we had a reason to go to school, Sallia would be with us. Then she wouldn''t have to watch through the bracelets. She would be able to see everything with her own eyes.


    <I''ll do it!> said Anise, breaking me out of my gloomy thoughts. Anise sounded like she was vibrating with excitement. <I¡¯d be happy to share everything I see during the first day!>


    I eyed Anise, but couldn''t see any physical signs of her excitement. She looked calm. Seeing the difference between her expression and her mental voice made me smile.


    <Thanks, I¡¯ll enjoy watching along,> said Sallia. A moment later, Anise started broadcasting her vision and hearing through the bracelet. I noticed, with some amusement, that Anise¡¯s eyesight kept jumping from one object to another. She seemed to have a hard time concentrating on one thing. Every few seconds, she looked at something new.


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    A few moments later, we reached the doors of the auditorium. I looked around, and saw several other children milling about in front of the doors. I started approaching the doors, to see if they would open.


    ¡°They¡¯re locked! We have to wait a bit,¡± said a girl right before I touched them. I turned towards the source of the voice, and saw a cheerful-looking girl sitting nearby. Her clothes were clean and well made, but not extravagant. Her face was a little lean, but not malnourished. She had golden- blonde hair, much like me. She gave me a cheerful wave when I looked at her.


    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Iselde. Let¡¯s be friends! What¡¯s your name?¡± asked the girl.


    ¡°My name is Miria,¡± I said, smiling. I admired Iselde¡¯s attitude. Making friends was great!


    ¡°Are you also going to be a student here?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Yeah! The three of us are all going to study here. We¡¯re friends!¡± I said, indicating Felix and Anise. Iselde gave the two of them curious glances, before she looked at Anise in particular.


    "Your hair is pink! I''ve never seen someone with pink hair before!" Said Iselde.


    Anise nodded. "It''s amazing, right?"


    "It''s very pretty!" said Iselde. She paused a moment, before turning back towards me. "Where do you live?"


    "We live pretty close to the university," I said. "How about you?"


    ¡°I live on a big farm with my parents and my two brothers. My older brothers aren¡¯t my friends though. They¡¯re mean!¡± said Iselde.


    ¡°Is that so?¡± I asked, taken aback. I hadn''t expected her to change topics so quickly.


    Iselde nodded. ¡°One of them always messes up my hair! Two days ago, mommy spent a lot of time helping me braid my hair, and then my little brother messed it up right after!¡±


    ¡°How old is your brother?¡± I asked, relaxing. When Iselde had mentioned her brothers being mean, I had pictured something worse. Messing with her hair was pretty tame though.


    ¡°He¡¯s three, and he¡¯s the worst!¡± said Iselde.


    ¡°Well, he¡¯s not really that old yet,¡± I said, conversationally. ¡°When he gets older, he''ll learn to behave better.¡± Even transmigrators weren¡¯t usually very functional at three years old. Whenever I had grade 5 intelligence, I was essentially semiconscious at that age. Before I turned four, I was just sleepwalking with some minor situational awareness.


    ¡°Hmph!¡± said Iselde, looking as though she was pouting. I realized that my approach might not have been great.


    ¡°What about your older brother?¡± I asked, trying to change the topic. Iselde seemed friendly, and I didn''t want to put her off from talking with us.


    Iselde¡¯s pout grew even bigger. ¡°He laughed at me!¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± asked Anise. ¡°Laughing at someone isn¡¯t nice!¡±


    ¡°Well, my family doesn¡¯t let me help very much on the farm,¡± said Iselde. ¡°They only let me milk the cows, and only sometimes. The ten¡­ tenn.. tennenment farmers usually do it.¡±


    Tennenment farmers? I wondered. A moment later, I realized Iselde was probably trying to say ''tenant'' farmers. That would make sense.


    ¡°I wanted to help mommy and daddy with more chores, so I started thinking about how to get bigger faster!¡± said Iselde.


    I blinked. Trying to get bigger faster? I didn¡¯t know of any ways to accelerate growth in this world¡¯s magic system¡­


    ¡°So I asked my big brother where we kept the fertilizer potions,¡± said Iselde. ¡°I thought that if I drank some fertilizer potions, I would get bigger! After all, daddy says fertilizer potions are what makes plants big and healthy. But when I asked my older brother where the fertilizer potions were, he asked me why I wanted them. When I told him, he laughed at me! I¡¯m mad at him!¡±


    I froze.


    Drinking fertilizer potions to grow big and healthy?


    I felt my stomach start cramping as I tried not to chuckle. I spent a few moments working to keep my face steady.


    Humans drinking fertilizer potions to grow big and healthy faster. Fertilizer potions were made from human waste. They were optimized to help plants grow. I didn''t think a human would get much out of drinking them.


    ¡°Is¡­ is that so?¡± I asked, fighting to keep my voice steady.


    Iselde gave me a very serious nod.


    <Is¡­ is this what all seven year olds are like?> I asked. No wonder Old Mo said I was bad at pretending to be a normal kid. I would never have thought of trying to drink fertilizer potions to grow bigger.


    <Miria¡­. this is, indeed, what a lot of seven year olds are like,> said Felix. <Still¡­ drinking fertilizer potions to grow bigger. That¡¯s not something I would have thought of,> said Felix. He also sounded like he was trying not to laugh.


    I sighed, and resisted the urge to rub my forehead.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a good idea,¡± I said. ¡°But maybe plants and humans need different things to grow bigger.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so!¡± said Iselde. ¡°My older brother is bigger than me, and he¡¯s only two years older! He must be drinking them and not telling me! But I¡¯m a grown up now, so I want to help too!¡±


    I didn¡¯t know how to respond to that, so I just gave Iselde a reassuring nod. A few moments later, the doors of the auditorium swung open, rescuing me from trying to explain how fertilizer potions worked.

 Chapter 231: School (2)

    The wave of students shuffled into the auditorium, bringing the four of us with them. I gazed at the room, and tried not to frown in confusion.


    The auditorium was made entirely of various colors of marble. I had never seen marble come in any color other than white, but despite the oddity of the room, I had to admit it was lovely. I took a closer look at the room, and realized that every slab of material was one massive, unbroken chunk.


    Probably made by an alchemist, I decided. Materials didn''t look like that if they were processed by machines instead of magic.


    I shook my head, and turned my attention back to the horde of children. Now that the orientation was finally starting, I could get a head count. I wanted to know how many children this school accepted each year.


    In total, there were around 100 students present. Only the first years came today, so there should be about 800 students total in the school.


    There aren''t that many prep alchemy academies in the country, I mused to myself. If each academy only accepted a few hundred students a year, what did everyone else do for education? Was there some sort of standard education for children, or had that not developed in this world? If it hadn''t, perhaps I could earn some Achievement by making it part of this world''s culture? I felt that making education accessible for kids wasn''t a bad ''life goal,'' if I needed something to spend my time on.


    As I mused about ideas for the future, an older man stepped to the center of the room. He had short salt-and-pepper goatee, and he was on the taller side. He wore a classy, tailored suit, and he was in his mid-forties. He was probably the headmaster of the academy.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to see all of you,¡± said the headmaster, giving us a practiced smile. ¡°I¡¯ll spare most of the long speech, since I assume you''re eager to meet your classmates. But I still have a few words to say.


    ¡°This academy will teach you the basics of alchemy, one of the most important jobs in modern society. Alchemy and machinery are the two beating hearts of the new age - and by stepping into this academy, you have the opportunity to access one of them. I hope that you won''t waste this opportunity. Many people don''t have the money or time to study Alchemy. By learning it, you can improve the lives of you and your family members by leaps and bounds,¡± he said. I resisted the urge to frown. I felt that the headmaster''s speech was a bit pretentious. Then again, he was the headmaster of an expensive private school. Perhaps I should have expected that.


    The headmaster gave us one final critical look, before his gaze grew less stern. He gave us a lukewarm smile, before gesturing towards the other adults standing in the auditorium.


    ¡°That is all I wanted to say. Your teachers will give you a more detailed breakdown of how classes and this school work. We¡¯ve already created your classes based on your own personal requests, as well as the requirements of your teachers. When I call your name, please step forward and stand where I point. Tallia¡­¡± the headmaster began naming people, one after another. Whenever someone heard their name, they joined one of the adults in the center of the room.


    Each class seemed to have twelve to thirteen people in it.


    When my name was finally called, I grinned.


    I was in the same group as Felix and Anise.


    It would have been a huge bummer if we all went to the same school but ended up in different classes.


    Sadly, we weren¡¯t in the classroom with the ability-using teacher. I had been hoping that he would teach us a few useful things about ability potions. A few moments later, I shrugged.


    <I¡¯m glad we ended up in the same group!> I said, not needing to fake my cheer at all.


    <Yeah, it would have been way less fun if we were in different classes. Now I can make Felix explain everything I don¡¯t understand!> said Anise.


    Felix sent a wave of mental chuckles at us as the headmaster continued naming students. Anise, Felix and I started mentally chatting until he called the last name. Then, I took one final look at our group, and chuckled. Iselde was also part of our group.


    She gave me a bright, cheerful smile, and I gave her a small wave. I hadn¡¯t gotten to know Iselde very well yet, but she seemed friendly. Making another friend would be fun.


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    I turned my attention to the teacher, who gave our group a quick scan eye. I examined him while he eyed our class.


    He was a bit younger than the headmaster, and appeared to be in his thirties. He also wore a suit, although it was a bit sloppier than the headmaster''s. He had a warm smile when he looked at us.


    ¡°Six girls and seven boys, huh,¡± he said. ¡°Almost exactly even. My name is mister Delmont. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet all of you. Let¡¯s head to the classroom, and then we can do self-introductions.¡±


    He led us to another classroom. I noticed that his classroom also used alchemically-made construction materials as decorations. The stones on mister Delmont''s walls were also colored, creating natural landscape paintings. They looked quite nice.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s see... For your introductions, tell us your name and one thing you like,¡± said Mister Delmont.


    The other students started introducing themselves. The first few self-introductions were a bit stiff - probably due to nerves.


    Iselde was the fourth to introduce herself, and was the first to break the tension of the room a bit.


    ¡°My name is Iselde, and I want to see if tennenment farmers drink fertilizer potions to grow!¡± she said.


    Mister Delmont had a rather curious expression on his face after that. It almost looked like he was constipated, but I was pretty sure he was trying not to laugh.


    ¡°Erm¡­ is that so?¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a very interesting hobby. I imagine that the tenant farmers don''t drink fertilizer potions. They don''t really agree with humans, you see...¡± Iselde gave mister Delmont a suspicious look, but didn''t say anything.


    After Iselde broke the tension in the room, the next few students seemed more relaxed. The seventh student seemed rather interesting. He was a boy named Vance, and he claimed that his hobby was fencing.


    <Ahh.... I wish I was there in person,> said Sallia, after Vance introduced himself. <He''s only a seven year old, but nobody else in this world likes swordsmanship. They all like the stupid guns instead. Guns are lame! Swords are much better!>


    I stifled a chuckle at Sallia''s words. I hadn''t thought about it before, but this world really didn''t suit Sallia very well. Gunpowder made most melee weapons obsolete, and Sallia''s exceptional talent didn''t seem to extend to guns.


    Finally, it was Felix¡¯s turn to introduce himself.


    Felix straightened his back, stood in front of the classroom, and confidently smiled at us.


    ¡°I¡¯m Felix, and I want to be a great alchemist,¡± he said. ¡°Ever since I was little, that¡¯s been my dream. I love alchemy and creating items a lot. I hope to learn a lot in these coming years.¡±


    Mister Delmont gave Felix an even warmer grin. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to support your learning then,¡± he said. ¡°Becoming a great alchemist requires a lot of studying, but it¡¯s also incredibly interesting. Well, I think so, at least. I may be a bit biased,¡± he said, before chuckling.


    Next up was Anise.


    ¡°I¡¯m Anise!¡± she said. ¡°I like Zelyrian mag- uhh¡­ alchemy. And reading books!¡±


    I grinned. I had started giving Anise a few fantasy books that I thought she would like every month. Hearing that Anise liked them made me happy.


    The teacher gave Anise a thoughtful look, before he chuckled. ¡°Magic, huh. I will say that most Zelyrian magic is impossible to replicate today. It''s a fascinating topic of study, but don''t delve too deeply into it. Many scholars have spent their lives studying Zelyrian magic without results. But I hope that you learn to love alchemy as much as you love magic.¡±


    That was a¡­ tactful way of putting it. If Anise didn¡¯t have the surgery that changed her body, learning Zelyrian magic would be a pipe dream. Without the right essence, learning a spellcasting system was like trying to drive a car with no gas.


    Finally, the teacher turned towards me. ¡°And last but not least, Miria.¡±


    I stood up.


    ¡°My name is Miria! I have a healing ability, and I enjoy singing!¡± I said. After we had arrived in Vintella, I had picked my hobby of singing back up. I didn¡¯t think I was going to do anything crazy with it, but it was nice to have a hobby.


    ¡°Healing ability, huh. Say, do you work with Doctor Trish?¡± asked Mister Delmont. ¡°I remember hearing that her clinic had a little assistant who heals missing limbs."


    I nodded. ¡°I work there! Although I¡¯m going to be present a lot less often, now that I¡¯m going to school,¡± I said. ¡°But I still want to learn healing! I want to learn more about medicine by studying alchemy.¡±


    The teacher smiled at me. ¡°Well, there¡¯s a good amount of overlap between Alchemy and medicine. Half of alchemy is understanding the building blocks of matter. It won''t be this year, but in the future we''ll talk a lot about bones, tendons, and nerves. Welcome to the class.¡±


    The teacher had us sit down, before he moved to the front of the classroom.


    I saw Felix sit with rigid anticipation as he stared at the front of the classroom.


    The security guard had mentioned that most teachers just did self-introductions on the first day, but a few might do a bit of lecturing. Perhaps¡­


    ¡°All right, since this is a prep school for future alchemists, how about I show you a little alchemy?¡± said the teacher, his eyes twinkling. ¡°I can at least show you what a fully fledged alchemist can do, and give you a few basics to think about.¡±


    I saw Felix¡¯s eyes start shining as he stared at the teacher.


    It was finally time to learn the fundamentals of alchemy.

 Chapter 232: Basics of Alchemy

    ¡°Let¡¯s start with a quick definition of alchemy. Then, I¡¯ll show you what a trained alchemist can do,¡± said mister Delmont.


    ¡°There are two basic types of alchemy: Affixation and Transmutation. Affixation is also occasionally referred to as ¡®enchanting¡¯ in modern times. It allows you to bind concepts to physical matter. For example, you might bind the concept of ¡®strength¡¯ to a pair of gloves, making the wearer stronger. Affixation is harder than transmutation, and is often used to help maximize the effects of potions.


    "Transmutation is the art of turning one material into another by binding physical objects to other physical objects. The specifics of how that works is hard to explain, and we''ll get more into that later. For now, remember that affixation binds the physical and the conceptual together. Transmutation binds the physical and the physical together."


    Then, he took an ordinary rock out of his pocket, before he held it up so everyone could see it.


    ¡°Today we¡¯ll focus on transmutation, because it¡¯s simpler and easier to understand. Once you understand how matter works and get better at using binding essence, here''s what you can do.¡±


    Mister Delmont set the rock down in the middle of an empty tub. Then, took out a few different flasks of liquid, and started pouring them into the tub one after another. Finally, he placed his hands into the tub of liquid.


    I felt a binding essence trickle out of his hand and into the tub, before the liquid started bubbling.


    A few seconds passed by, and the rock started to change. The liquid from the tub flowed into the rock, as if it were a sponge sucking in the surrounding liquid. Moments later,, the rock started to glow. The liquid from the tub continued to flow into the rock, until after about a minute, it settled down.


    Mister Delmont picked up the rock and held it out for us to see. Instead of ordinary stone, he was now holding a small hunk of silver.


    Mister Delmont smiled.


    ¡°That is what a proper alchemist can do. Of course, the reagents that allow the creation of gold and silver are pretty expensive. You lose a bit of money every time you do this. But the heart of transmutation is turning materials into other materials, just like that rock. It involves a lot of chemistry and physics... but we''re going to learn that by the time you graduate." He grinned at us, as several of the children oohed and aahed at the magically-produced chunk of silver.


    I joined in.


    Even though it might not be cost effective, the man transforming an ordinary rock into silver was pretty impressive. And transforming materials into gold or silver held a lot of potential. Even if something wasn¡¯t cost-effective in this world, it might be incredibly profitable in a future world.


    ¡°Why does transmutation involve so much knowledge of chemistry?¡± Felix asked, his eyes shining with curiosity.


    ¡°Well, the key to this has to do with the nature of matter. You see, every piece of matter is actually made of smaller and smaller chunks of matter. At their very smallest, we call these little  building blocks of reality ''granules''.¡±


    I blinked.


    Granules?


    ¡°Granules are essentially tiny building blocks of matter. But the way that these granules connect to each other changes what they are. Transmutation is about messing with the chemical bonds formed between granules. Of course, some things are harder to break apart than others, so transmutation can become very convoluted very quickly. And living things resist transmutation, so getting useful chemicals from plants is difficult. Machinery has made this much easier, though. We''ll get into the specifics later..¡±


    ¡°Really?" asked Felix, glancing at the tub of chemicals again. "What about bacteria? Even the simplest item should have lots of bacteria on it. If all living things resist transmutation, how do we handle that?¡±


    The teacher opened his mouth, as if he was going to answer Felix''s question, before he glanced at the rest of the class. ¡°You know what, we can talk more about this later in the year if you want. We¡¯re getting a little bit into a much more complicated subject, and we''re going to learn it later anyway. The quick answer is that the first liquid I added to the rock gets rid of most bacteria. We''ll talk about the way granule bonds work much later in your education.¡±


    Felix reluctantly nodded, but I could see his eyes were still shining with curiosity.


    He seemed even more excited to learn alchemy now. Meanwhile, I was really starting to suspect that this magic system wasn''t for me. Granule bonds sounded very, very complicated.


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    <It¡¯s kind of like those ¡®atoms¡¯ you were talking about back in our first life, Miria,> said Sallia. <I remember thinking that the concept was unusual when you first mentioned them. But it seems quite applicable here.>


    I paused. <You¡¯re right, actually. Maybe ¡®granules¡¯ are atoms? Or perhaps they¡¯re the sub-components of atoms.> I said. Once I thought of it that way, it seemed less intimidating.


    <The exact nature of granules might be different, though,> said Felix. <Don¡¯t forget, the exact details of physics can change from one world to another. Granules might be this world¡¯s version of atoms, but there might also be key differences in how they work. Don¡¯t get too caught up in the concept of ¡®atoms¡¯ until we know more.>


    I nodded. Felix was right. With how much the underlying physics of a dimension could change, I should be careful. It would be very easy to get stuck with a conception of reality that was totally wrong if I wasn''t careful.


    Mister Delmont cleared his throat, and returned to what I assumed was his lesson plan.


    ¡°Now, a lot of teachers wait until the second week to teach you this, but I think you kids can start a little earlier. One of the biggest hurdles an aspiring alchemist needs to overcome is learning to sense matter using their binding essence. After all, transmutation works by manipulating the smallest pieces of matter. It''s very hard to sense those without any help. We have a lot of exercises we¡¯ve developed over the centuries to train our senses. Today we''ll start with one of the simplest ones. I¡¯m going to give each of you a bowl filled with oil and water. I want you to try to sense the oil floating on top of the water. Then, I want you to inject some binding essence into the oil. It¡¯s a special kind of oil that will change colors when it comes into contact with binding essence.¡± Then, the teacher grinned a bit more widely at us. ¡°But be careful. The water also has something added to it to make it change to a different color if you add binding essence to it. If you have one color in your bowl, it means you succeeded. If you have two colors in your bowl, you need to try again. Injecting binding essence into the liquid should be instinctive for you. After all, it''s the exact same thing people use to handle prosthetic limbs. It''s not very difficult. But if you have trouble with it, ask me and I¡¯ll help you.¡±


    After that, mister Delmont poured two different kinds of liquids into bowls before handing them out.


    I stuck my hand into the bowl, and spent several minutes trying and failing to use my essence-senses in the bowl of liquids. I had an easy time using my essence senses to sense the liquid in the bowl. I had a very hard time distinguishing the oil from the water.


    Finally, after fifteen minutes, I thought I had sensed the oil but not the water. I tried injecting my binding essence into the bowl¡­ only to get a bowl filled with two differently colored liquids. I had messed up.


    <Did either of you get it already?> I asked. <I messed up.>


    Felix grinned, and showed me his one-color bowl. <Got it after only a minute,> he said.


    Anise nodded. <It only took me five minutes. Sensing the oil was a bit hard, but I got it after a bit of trying.>


    I sighed. <Can you help me? I''m having a hard time with it.> I asked, as I got a replacement bowl of liquid.


    <Sure. No problem,> said Felix. Despite Felix''s help, I still spent another ten minutes struggling before I got it. I was one of the last people in class to complete the exercise. Which led me to wonder if there was such a thing as ¡®awful¡¯ talent for handling some kinds of essence. The four of us were exceptional at handling one kind of essence. Was it also possible for the reverse to be true?


    Once the entire class finished the exercise, mister Delmont gave us all wide grins.


    ¡°Well done everyone. We¡¯ll keep doing basic sensing exercises for a while, until you get more used to using your senses. Don¡¯t worry if you messed up - it takes longer for some people to get used to it. But as you can see, your essence senses can act as a kind of ¡®second pair of eyes¡¯ if you use it well. This is the foundation for transmutation.¡± He took our bowls of oil and water and dumped them into a waste container, before he returned to the front of the room.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s do some basic addition and subtraction now. This won¡¯t be immediately useful for alchemy, but you need to know it if you want to do real transmutation.¡±


    From there, mister Delmont moved into more basic school subjects. Addition. Literacy. Things that were useful for anyone to know, but which the three of us were already quite capable of. Mister Delmont rounded out the lesson with a few tidbits of history and geography. I saw Anise perk up a bit when Mister Delmont mentioned the Zelyrian empire, although he didn''t go into much detail.


    ¡°That¡¯s all I wanted to cover today. I¡¯ll see you all again tomorrow,¡± he said, before packing up his supplies and herding us out of the classroom. A few moments later, he ushered us to the front of the school, and then waited there. It took me a few minutes to realize that he was waiting with us until our parents to picked us up.


    Which was something I hadn''t thought about.


    I had forgotten most seven-year-olds weren¡¯t independent enough to walk to and from school on their own. The four of us were able to protect ourselves, and we could assess threats pretty well. I had forgotten regular children couldn''t do the same. Just another thing that made me bad at mimicking regular children my age.


    I sighed, and rubbed my forehead, before I decided to ask Old Mo to pick us up next time. I told Mister Delmont that we lived right next to the school, and we walked home for the day.


    <Did you have fun?> I asked Felix, as we walked away from the school.


    <I enjoyed learning the basics of Alchemy,> he said. <I hope we move past addition and subtraction quickly. I already know basic math, so this is a pretty boring topic. But I like the teacher''s teaching style. And I''m sure we''ll get to the fun stuff after we have a foundation of knowledge to build on.>


    I smiled. I was glad to hear that Felix had enjoyed his time in school.


    <How about you, Anise?>


    <I had fun. Showing Sallia everything was interesting!> she said.


    I smiled.


    There had been a few hiccups in my first use of binding essence, but our first day of school had been a success.

 Chapter 233: Markus and Mo

    After everyone returned home, I returned to the clinic to see doctor Trish and Old Mo. They had asked me to tell them about my first day of school, and promised me a dinner at my favorite fish restaurant. I asked Felix if he wanted to come along, but he wanted to play with binding essence now that he finally had access to his primary essence. Which was understandable, if a little disappointing.


    When I arrived at Doctor Trish¡¯s clinic, to my surprise, I found Markus and Old Mo talking outside of the clinic doors.


    ¡°Markus! Old Mo!¡± I said, giving both of them big grins. I hadn¡¯t seen Markus in person since he had asked me to deliver his love letters to doctor Trish.


    Once Old Mo saw me, he gave me a quick hug before putting me back down.


    ¡°Miria,¡± said Old Mo, after setting me down. ¡°How was your first day of school?¡± Then he paused, and his voice took on a more serious tone. ¡°Did you learn anything from the other kids in your school?¡±


    I resisted the urge to wince.


    Before I had gone to school, Old Mo had mentioned to me a few times that I was bad at acting like a regular kid. He suggested that I take a look at the other children I met and try to learn from them.


    After talking to Iselde, I finally realized several gaping holes in my ''act'' as a normal seven year old. The way I thought and acted was so removed from normal children that it was a miracle nobody had ever caught on. Most seven year olds were just putting together a coherent idea of how the world worked. They were filling in their understanding of cause and effect and the world around them. They usually had a rough idea how some things worked, but had misunderstandings about other things. And those misunderstandings sometimes led them to ludicrous conclusions about the world.


    Meanwhile, as a four year old, I was going around with fully developed vocabulary and a working understanding of science and society. I still ended up with weird gaps in my understanding of reality, due to the differences in the laws of physics from one dimension to another, but it was way different from a real child.


    ¡°I met a girl named Iselde,¡± I said, eyeing Markus. ¡°She talked about how she wanted to drink fertilizer potions to grow bigger and healthier.¡±


    I saw Markus twitch as he took in my words, but he didn¡¯t say anything else, while Old Mo chuckled.


    ¡°Most children are like that. I know that you and your friends are a lot more mature than most kids your age. I hope you can still get along with them,¡± said Old Mo. He paused for a moment, and I saw his lips quirk in amusement. ¡°I hope you also explained why drinking a fertilizer potion is a poor choice.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I did my best. I¡¯ll try to make friends with Iselde. I can learn a lot from her, and she¡¯s a nice ki - errr¡­ person.¡± I nearly called Iselde a ¡®kid,¡¯ before I realized that a seven year old referring to another seven year old as a kid was odd. I had a lot of mannerisms that I needed to work on cutting out.


    Old Mo nodded appreciatively, before Markus stepped in and patted my head.


    ¡°Little Miria,¡± said Markus, grinning at me. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯ve settled in so well. And that you¡¯ve mastered the local language.¡± He spoke to me in Damilian, and I smiled proudly.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a lot easier to talk now! It was really hard at first, but I got some help from doctor Trish. Now I can talk with everyone I meet! Thank you for your help when we were entering the country. It meant a lot to us at the time. Thanks to you introducing me to doctor Trish, we had an easy time settling into the city.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± asked Markus, rubbing my head. ¡°I was a bit surprised when Doctor Trish said that you were learning medicine from her. Usually kids don¡¯t enjoy such dry topics.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I want to learn how to heal my mom. She doesn¡¯t wake up very often. Old Mo hired one of Doctor Trish¡¯s assistants to look after her while I¡¯m at school. To make sure she doesn¡¯t hurt herself or do anything bad while I¡¯m away. If I want her to return to normal, I need to learn a lot.¡±


    I saw Markus relax a little bit at those words. ¡°As long as you¡¯re happy with what you¡¯re doing, I suppose. But make sure to spend some time playing with your friends and having fun, all right? You''re only seven once.¡± I resisted the urge to grin a bit at that statement. It was my third time being seven since joining the Market.


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    A moment later, Markus knocked on the door to Trish''s clinic.


    ¡°Trish! I¡¯m here!¡± he yelled.


    ¡°Markus?¡± asked Doctor Trish, before I heard a few muffled bangs. Doctor Trish hurried out of the clinic before slamming the ''closed'' sign onto the door. Finally, she turned to see us.


    When she saw Markus, she seemed to fall into a trance for a few seconds. It was as if she had forgotten that Old Mo and I were there.


    She smiled at Markus, and he smiled back at her.


    ¡°I thought you were coming next week,¡± she said.


    ¡°I got rewarded with an extra week of vacation by my superior,¡± said Markus. ¡°He also mentioned that I might get promoted when my vacation ends.¡± Then, Markus stepped closer to her and enveloped her in a hug. The two stared at each other for a few seconds, lost in their own world, before they separated again.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I want you to get promoted,¡± said Doctor Trish, after a few moments. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen very much of you this year. If you get promoted, you¡¯ll be even busier. I was hoping¡­¡± she trailed off.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll turn it down,¡± said Markus, still smiling. ¡°If it seems like it¡¯ll eat up more of my time, I can stay in my current position.¡± Then, he looked more closely at Doctor Trish¡¯s face, and I thought he was about to go for a kiss. A moment later, he seemed to hesitate, and then brushed her hair away from her face instead. Trish leaned a little bit into the contact. ¡°I missed you a lot.¡±


    "I missed you too."


    The two spaced out again, staring at each other for a few more seconds, before Old Mo cleared his throat.


    Doctor Trish finally remembered that we existed, and gave me a light hug. ¡°Little Miria,¡± she said, before turning to Old Mo. ¡°Old Mo and I already have the reservation set up. Should we start walking?¡±


    We started walking away from Doctor Trish¡¯s clinic, and towards the restaraunt.


    ¡°How was your first day of school?¡± asked Doctor Trish.


    ¡°It went well! Anise, Felix and I are all in the same class,¡± I said. "And I made a new friend! Her name is Iselde!"


    ¡°That¡¯s great to hear. Being able to see your friends every day would make school a lot better. And making new friends is always fun,¡± said Doctor Trish. ¡°It¡¯s good for you to spend more time with kids your own age. I know that you¡¯re friends with Anise, and spend a lot of time with Felix, but I never see you hanging out with other kids.¡±


    I winced. I hadn¡¯t ever thought about it, because I always thought of myself as a very social person. But ever since we had joined the Market, I tended to spend a lot more time with adults, or other people from the Market. It was hard to connect with real children, given how long I had lived already.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear you¡¯re going to school too,¡± said Markus, grinning. Then, his grin faded, replaced with a grimace of distaste. ¡°The fact that the war is affecting so many children is a disgrace.¡± The disgust on his face faded as he turned towards me again.


    ¡°Anise and Felix didn''t come today?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Felix wanted to keep practicing alchemy. It¡¯s his dream to be a great alchemist, so it makes sense." I shrugged. Felix probably also wanted a bit of alone time. Since I was still claiming that he was my brother, he lived with my mother and I. My friends and I cared about each other, but that didn''t mean we didn''t want some space from time to time.


    I realized I had trailed off, and focused on the conversation again.


    "Anyway, he seems too excited about our first alchemy lessons to focus on anything else. In a few weeks he''ll be more ready to socialize again."


    "How about you, Miria? I''m a bit surprised that you''re also going to school. I mean, when we talked at the fort, it sounded more like Felix was the only one planning to go..."


    "I thought that it was a good place to learn some medical knowledge," I said. "Healing my mother is too hard for me to do right now, since my ability can''t do everything on its own. I''ll have a better chance of healing her if I learn more. And I can also learn to be a doctor if I go to school. Being able to heal without relying on my ability will be a good skill to have in the future.¡±


    Markus nodded. ¡°Being a doctor is a great profession.¡± His gaze turned slightly playful as he glanced at doctor Trish. ¡°I hear that doctors are all amazing people. They¡¯re very attractive, and compassionate, and¡­¡±


    Doctor Trish swatted at his shoulder as she turned red. Markus cut off his words, but his grin grew wider.


    We arrived at the restaurant, placed our orders, and then went back to discussing my first day of school. Everyone asked me about my teacher, Iselde, and how my first alchemy lesson had gone. I was happy to tell everyone about my day. After the food arrived, we had a pleasant evening eating dinner and chatting. I also sent the occasional message to Anise and Felix, although they seemed distracted. Anise and Felix were talking about some kind of project that Anise had an idea for. I made a mental note to ask them for details later, and see if there was anything I could help with. But for the most part, I just enjoyed the evening and soaked up the attention from Markus, Trish, and Old Mo.


    All in all, it was a nice evening, and it was also nice to see Markus again. I¡¯d had a good impression of him when he helped us into the country, and I was glad to see that he hadn¡¯t changed.


    It was a lovely first day of school, and a lovely dinner to celebrate it all.

 Chapter 234: Anise鈥檚 project

    While Miria went to eat dinner with the adults, Felix pondered what he had learned during the day. And as he thought about everything they had learned, he tried not to manically grin in delight.


    He was finally delving into the secrets of alchemy. At long last, after years of unsuccessfully searching on his own, he knew how to progress.


    Felix had been the most excited when Miria asked who wanted to go to alchemy prep school. Unlike other essences, binding essence seemed hard to use intuitively, even with his exceptional affinity.


    The first class of school had clarified a lot of things for him. Felix had never realized that binding essence needed to work as a sort of external sense before it could be used for alchemy. Once he¡¯d realized what the ¡®correct¡¯ direction was, using his binding essence to go further had felt¡­ easy. Natural. It was like learning how to breathe. It felt exactly the same way the others had described their own extreme affinities.


    Felix finally gave in, and grinned with delight. He was finally learning the magic system meant for him. He started running through the exercise they had learned in class again. He didn''t have any of the fancy liquids their teacher had used, but that was fine. He could sense his own essence well enough to confirm that binding essence was leaving his body.


    <Hey Felix,> said Anise over the communication bracelet, interrupting Felix¡¯s sixth repetition of the exercise.


    <Yes?> He asked, trying not to wince as his attempt to sense parts of the bowl of liquid in front of him fell apart.


    <I made a breakthrough in the Zelyrian magic system!> said Anise. <But I need your help with something!>


    <Really?> asked Felix, trying not to show his surprise. The Zelyrian magic system was harder to learn than the magic system from the world of the black sun. And Anise wanted to do everything on her own , so that she wouldn¡¯t miss out on a keyword ability. So the idea that Anise was asking for help surprised him. Why was Anise risking missing out on her keyword ability?


    <I think so! The learning exercise today inspired me. There was one part of the Zelyrian introductory magic textbook that kept tripping me up, since it said I needed to ¡®observe the stars¡¯. From there, I''m supposed to do a few things with that... But no matter how much I looked at the stars, nothing ever happened. Once I tried using my manifestation essence as a pair of ¡®eyes¡¯ instead, I finally got somewhere.>


    <That¡¯s great to hear!> said Felix. <But what do you need my help for? It sounds like you¡¯re finally making progress. If I help you, it might mess up your attempts to get a keyword ability...>


    <Well, here¡¯s the thing¡­> said Anise. <I had an idea. It''s an item I want as a training aid, and you''re the person most likely to be willing and able to help me.>


    <Oh?> said Felix. He had barely started figuring out the alchemy of this world. He started feeling a bit nervous. If Anise wanted a training aid, Felix would love to help - but he wasn''t sure if he could do it yet.


    <Well¡­ here¡¯s the thing,> said Anise, after a few moments. <The Zelyrian manifestation magic system relies a lot on constellations and stars. The first step in Zelyrian magic is to observe stars and starlight with your magic. Then, you need to sort of... make a copy out of manifestation essence. Then, you spend a while solidifying them. Once they''re stable, you start shaping them into a spell glyph. After it''s finished forming, you just stuff essence into the spell glyph to activate a spell. The glyphs are reusable, so it''s easy to spam spells once you have the appropriate spell glyph. Does that make sense?>


    Felix nodded - before he realized that he and Anise were a few houses apart, and so she couldn¡¯t see him nodding.


    <I think I get it,> he said. Then, he frowned. <That sounds a lot more complicated than the other manifestation magic system,> he said. <The magic system from the world of the black sun didn''t need to go through that many steps to cast a basic spell. We just needed to make the magic rings and then stuff the right magic symbols into our spell rings. Are there any benefits to the Zelyrian magic system?>


    Stolen novel; please report.


    <Well, there are, actually,> said Anise. <First of all, the essence cost of casting a spell is lower with this magic system. The essence stars in your brain help focus and optimize spellcasting, so there¡¯s a lot less mana wasted. For another, casting a spell is much faster with this magic system, which is very useful. The magic system from our last world might require several minutes to put together a seventh or eighth circle spell. This magic system lets you cast even the largest spells nearly instantly. Of course, it takes way longer to form each constellation, so it''s not all upsides. It''s way harder to learn new spells in this magic system, too. So with the Zelyrian magic system, I''m going to tend to specialize in a few spells and struggle with utility spells. But this one has a lot of potential for growth> Anise paused. <But anyway! The training item I wanted is a piece of paper with fake stars in it.>


    <Fake stars?> asked Felix, feeling bewildered. He hadn¡¯t expected Anise to come up with that idea. How would that even work?


    <Well¡­ it doesn¡¯t have to be now, of course. But binding essence is about binding things together. Affixation binds the conceptual to the physical, and Transmutation binds the physical to the physical,> she said. <We¡¯ve only learned the basics of how to do anything, but I was thinking¡­ what if we took some starlight and then bound it to a piece of paper? Or, once we learn a little more alchemy, what if you affixed your idea of what a star is to a piece of paper? I want to see if that would work, and if that changes the way the Zelyrian magic system works. I might get some very interesting results when forming my essence stars if it succeeds.>


    <That¡¯s an interesting idea,> said Felix, trying to figure out how that would work. He didn¡¯t know quite enough about light to bind it to a piece of paper¡­ but he could fix that with some research. He would need to get some books describing what light was and how it worked, of course. But if it would help Anise, he didn¡¯t mind spending some time on it. And it also sounded like a fascinating project. It might even help him form his own keyword ability. Still, he was a bit confused.


    <I get the idea of trying to affix the concept of starlight onto the paper, since that could improve the magic system. But what does a paper with physical light bound to it do for you?> Felix asked.


    <One of the biggest issues I¡¯m having right now is that the stars are very far away. That makes it hard to ''observe'' them with my essence properly. It¡¯s a distance issue. And I also can¡¯t see the stars when the sun is up, so I can only do my starlight absorption exercises at night. That doesn''t work very well when my parents feel obligated to watch me whenever I observe the stars. They have to sleep too, after all. And sneaking out feels wrong¡­ so I was thinking of ways to circumvent that. Having more time to work on my constellations would have other benefits, too. In the Zelyrian magic system, there is almost no real limit on how many fake stars I can make. So if I could work on the magic system whenever I''m awake, I could learn way more spells in the same amount of time.>


    Felix thought about it, and chuckled. Anise had barely stepped into the Zelyrian magic system, but she was already experimenting with it. If her idea worked, she would circumvent one of the major weaknesses of the system.


    <Well, I¡¯m happy to help,> said Felix. <I don¡¯t have the ability to stick starlight inside of a piece of paper yet, because we haven¡¯t progressed that far in our lessons. But I¡¯ll pester Old Mo to help us find some books about light. I''m going to need a solid understanding of it to make this work. We can start preparing for this project, even if I can''t make items yet.> Felix found himself getting excited at the thought of Anise¡¯s project.


    For a long time, he had felt bad about how lacking his combat prowess was. Miria had her extinguishes and her renewals, and they were utterly terrifying. Sallia had her swordsmanship, and she was a monster when it came to physical combat. Anise wasn''t very powerful yet, but Felix was sure she would get there soon. Meanwhile, Felix''s best idea so far was to optimize prosthetics. That would certainly help - he would be able to drastically enhance his physique with the right modifications. But it felt a little lackluster if that was the only thing he could contribute to future fights. Especially the fight to buy more lives. If the group failed that, everyone would really die.


    On the other hand, if he also learned how to make training aids for everyone, he could enhance the group a lot. Making training aids had a lot of potential for future worlds.


    <Where are you right now?> he asked. <I want to get a closer look at what you¡¯re doing with your essence when you make a fake star. And we can work out a more concrete plan for how this is going to work if we meet in person.>


    <I¡¯m in the yard of our apartment,> said Anise. <My father is getting sleepy, but he said he¡¯s willing to stay up with me for another hour before he goes to bed. And my parents don''t want me to stay up late alone at night while sitting outside of the apartment.>


    Felix grinned, and started making his way towards the yard of Anise¡¯s apartment. His thoughts constantly circled around Anise''s new project as he thought of new ideas and ways to make it work. He might not have the expertise to build what Anise wanted yet, but one thing was certain. He was incredibly excited to see if Anise''s idea would work.

 Chapter 235: New Friends

    The next day, as we walked to school, I asked Anise and Felix about their new project.


    <Felix and I are going to try trapping starlight inside of a physical object so that I can use it!> she said.


    <Why?> I asked.


    <Well, the Zelyrian magic system is reliant on starlight to work. It also doesn¡¯t work with the sun, for some reason, even though the sun should also be a star. I need to absorb starlight to get the magic system working. That creates a big problem for me, since I can only absorb starlight during certain hours of the day,> said Anise. After that, she gave me a more detailed breakdown the Zelyrian magic system, followed by an explanation of their project.


    <It sounds like a good idea,> I said, once I roughly understood what they were planning. <Is there anything I can do to help? I don¡¯t know if my absorption essence can do anything, but my alteration essence might be useful. I''m not sure how yet, but I''d love to help if I can.>


    <Hmm¡­> Anise trailed off just as we walked past the security guards for the school. <For now, your alteration essence wouldn''t be very useful. After all, right now, we¡¯re in the theorycrafting stage of the project. We¡¯re theorizing what we can do and doing research,> she said, finally. <But once we¡¯re to the point where we start making stuff, I¡¯ll let you know. Maybe there¡¯ll be something you can help with then?>


    After that, our group entered the classroom, before sitting near the front.


    To my surprise, Vance, the boy who enjoyed fencing, sat next to us when he entered the classroom a few minutes later. Once I saw Vance sitting near us, I knew it was time to act. Old Mo had told me a few times that I really needed to interact more with normal children. The four of us were not that great at emulating real seven year olds, and in future worlds that could be a problem.


    ¡°Hi Vance!¡± I said.


    ¡°Hi! Your name was¡­ Mir¡­ Mir, right?¡± he said, awkwardly.


    ¡°Miria,¡± I said, grinning. ¡°But you got the first half correct!¡±


    He rubbed the back of his head, looking a bit embarassed, and I chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there were a lot of names thrown around yesterday. The fact you still remembered the first half of my name is impressive!¡± I paused, trying to figure out what else to say. One of the things I had learned about normal children yesterday was that they were direct. If they had something to say, they just said it. They were much easier to understand than adults in that sense.


    ¡°You like swordsmanship, right?¡± I said.


    Vance seemed to get a bit defensive, and warily scanned me. I resisted the urge to wince. That had not been the reaction I was going for.


    ¡°Yeah. I like fencing and swords. Why?¡±


    ¡°I think swordsmanship is really cool!¡± I said, hoping to dispel his anxiety. Vance almost looked like it might be a sore subject, and although I didn¡¯t know why. ¡°I used to have a friend who was a big fan of swordsmanship. She¡­¡± I felt a bit glum at the thought of Sallia''s death, and then shook my head. ¡°Anyway, I wanted to know what drew you to swordsmanship. It¡¯s a pretty unusual interest, ever since the advent of guns.¡±


    ¡°Advent?¡± The boy looked confused. I winced. Was advent not a commonly used word among seven year olds?


    ¡°I mean, uhh¡­ the beginning. The creation? Ever since guns came around, people don¡¯t use swords much,¡± I said, trying to dumb down my vocabulary.


    Old Mo was right.


    I was awful at this.


    Vance seemed to finally get it, so he nodded. ¡°My dad says that hundreds of years ago, before guns, swords and spears were the kings of the battlefield. And the books I read are always about knights and mages!¡± Vance grinned. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a picture of a knight with a gun, and that''s because guns aren¡¯t as cool as swords.¡±


    ¡°Why swords and not spears, then?¡± I asked, out of pure curiosity.


    ¡°Well, spears just aren¡¯t as cool as swords either,¡± he said, a little bit more quietly. ¡°But I think that melee weapons make battles way more interesting than guns. Guns are so easy to use that any war story featuring guns is just a question of numbers. There aren¡¯t any tactics or amazing combatants at all.¡±


    I spent a few seconds trying to parse Vance¡¯s logic, before I rubbed my forehead.


    I was pretty sure that wasn''t true. Guns still required some training to use, and militaries definitely used tactics during wars. But I could definitely understand Vance not liking stories with guns as much. Everyone had their own preferences, after all. I also felt a strong urge to scratch my forehead in confusion. Did Vance liked fencing and swordsmanship because they showed up a lot in novels that he liked? I knew that fiction stories were popular here. But finding an avid reader among our classmates was rather surprising. The other children yesterday seemed to struggle with reading more advanced books.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ¡°What about magic?¡± asked Anise, looking at Vance. "Isn''t magic way more interesting than swordsmanship?" I blinked.


    I had almost forgotten. There had already been one massive story reader in the class, even if I didn¡¯t include Vance.


    ¡°Magic is also cool. In stories, the witches and wizards are always my second favorite characters. But a knight with a sword is much better as a main character, you know? Spending years honing his swordsmanship, facing your enemy in close combat... I think that main characters like that are more compelling. Wizards just live in towers and practice spells until they join the main character. They''re good side characters, but never good main characters.¡± said Vance. ¡°If I lived in the faded era , I definitely would have wanted to be a knight instead of a Zelyrian mage.¡±


    I blinked in surprise. The faded era was the name for the era where the Zelyrian empire had collapsed, but Zelyrian bloodlines hadn''t quite died out yet. It had been an era of fading imperial power and the establishment of new kingdoms. I was surprised that Vance actually knew anything about the era, though. Even though I was terrible at pretending to be a normal seven year old, there were plenty of differences from one person to another. Perhaps that was the other reason nobody had ever realized there was something off about the way I acted.


    Anise puffed up her cheeks as she looked at Vance. ¡°Witches and wizards are cooler! They can control the laws of reality with their mind! With a wave of their hands, they can control the elements and heal people! Isn¡¯t that much more interesting than a couple people hitting each other with swords?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ it always struck me as kind of unfair,¡± said Vance.


    I blinked. Unfair? Were fights supposed to be fair?


    Anise seemed to also feel confused, although for a slightly different reason. ¡°What¡¯s unfair about using the powers you¡¯ve spent years learning to fight bad people?"


    ¡°Well, maybe ''unfair'' isn''t the right word," said Vance, after a moment. "Maybe ''boring'' is a better term?" I could see Anise start to give Vance an expression that somehow conveyed total disbelief as he spoke. "In stories where mages fight, they sit around flinging spells at each other. It¡¯s just a matter of which one hits first. It just isn¡¯t as fun to read about. In stories where spellcasters are the main characters, the fights are always dull,¡± said Vance.


    Anise now looked like she was trying to stare a hole through Vance¡¯s brain.


    ¡°Magic is so much cooler than swordsmanship!¡± she said, now sounding very defensive. ¡°Think about it! Witches are basically the pinnacle of reality itself! They can heal, and warp reality with their mind. Isn''t it neat to see someone just... summon water or fire by pointing at something?¡± I noticed that Anise had completely forgotten to mention wizards this time, but I decided not to say anything. Still, I saw Felix shoot me an amused expression out of the corner of my eyes.


    ¡°But it¡¯s just not as interesting as two swordsmen fighting!¡± Said Vance.


    Their argument started to heat up, while I shared a look with Felix.


    ¡°Do you think they¡¯re friends, or enemies?¡± I whispered as they continued arguing.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ not sure,¡± said Felix. ¡°Both? I mean, they both clearly enjoy reading the same kinds of fiction. Vance is also a much more advanced reader than most of our classmates, so Anise can talk with him. It''s not as hard to communicate as it usually is. But they don¡¯t seem willing to bend on their stance at all.¡±


    A few minutes later, Iselde walked into the classroom, and sat down next to us. Anise and Vance didn''t even notice her presence, but Felix and I gave her welcoming grins. She gave me a sad expression in response.


    ¡°Iselde?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Hey Miria,¡± she said, sounded dispirited.


    ¡°Is everything all right?¡± I asked.


    Iselde pouted.


    ¡°I told my dad how yesterday went, and my older brother called me a dunderhead,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what that means, but it sounds mean! And my father started lecturing me about how humans can¡¯t drink fertilizer potions safely,¡± said Iselde. She mumbled something else after that, but even with my exceptional senses I couldn''t quite make out her words.


    I resisted the urge to start giggling, and instead gave Iselde a comforting hug. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s one of those things you learn about as you grow older.¡±


    Iselde muttered something under her breath, before she sighed. Then, she turned to look at Anise and Vance. ¡°What are they talking about?¡±


    As if her question had brought her into the conversation, Anise turned towards Iselde.


    ¡°Iselde! Which is cooler? Magic or swords?¡±


    ¡°Erm¡­¡± Iselde seemed completely lost after Anise¡¯s question, and blinked in confusion. She turned towards Felix and I, as if hoping for an explanation, and I tried not to laugh.


    ¡°I guess¡­ swords?¡± she said, sounding uncertain about her answer.


    Anise puffed up her cheeks in outrage, but before she could say anything, the teacher arrived, putting an end to the debate.


    ¡°Everyone is here. Good morning, everyone!" he said, before he started writing on the blackboard. I resisted the urge to wince as I saw an addition sign. Learning addition was quickly becoming my least favorite part of the day. History was interesting, and alchemy was at least useful. Addition was... something I was already very familiar with. I resisted the urge to sigh as the first part of the day''s lessons started.


    Still, I was glad to see that Anise was making friends. Or enemies? It was hard to tell.


    The rest of the day was mostly a longer version of the previous day. We practiced addition, reading, writing, history, and then did some sensing exercises. I was surprisingly happy to spend some time each break talking with Iselde and Vance. When I got more into the swing of acting like a normal seven year old, they were fun to talk to, and they melded into our group well enough.


    Old Mo picked us up from school after the day ended, he complimented me about making efforts to improve my acting. It might not be fast, but I was shoring up my weaknesses and improving myself every day that passed. And the feeling of growth and progress, both magical and emotional, made me feel good about the day.

 Chapter 236: Growth and Change

    Time passed. Before I knew it, we turned ten.


    Our life at the alchemy prep school fell into a comfortable routine. The three of us, along with Iselde and Vance, continued to grow, both as alchemists and in height. I also got a lot of coin, healing experience and Achievement from healing with Trish.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Restore 100 Permanent, debilitating injuries.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +700


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The 700  Achievement I got from healing injuries increased my Achievement from 7,292 to 7,992. But that wasn''t the only thing I got from healing with Trish.


    I had spent a long time relying on my magic to handle healing. The fungus in my mother¡¯s brain served as a wakeup call. I had never pushed the boundaries of my healing magic, because I had never needed to. But now? I needed to know more.


    I spent long hours studying medicine with doctor Trish. I learned every bone in the human body. I learned how the granules of ¡®blood essence¡¯ inside of people''s bones and organs created blood. I learned how muscles and tendons worked. I studied regular, non-magical healing for several hours after school every day.


    And I started to notice that the cost of healing patients was decreasing. When I performed the exact same set of actions, I would spend less essence than before. I realized that my healing magic normally spent mana to compensate for my lack of knowledge. By the time I turned 10, I was spending 10% less essence on each patient. And I hadn¡¯t hit the limit of this world¡¯s understanding of medicine yet. I still had a lot of things left to learn. By the time I graduated from university, I might use 20% less essence for every patient I healed.


    I even received a skill related to medicine and healing during my studies.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of medicine and healing skills (Industrial-era variant)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +30


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The 30 Achievement I got didn¡¯t matter much to me - it only brought me to 8,022 Achievement. But far more interesting was the other skill I had earned.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained medicine and healing to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Basic Medicine and Healing] as an ability, for the cost of 300 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: N/A (This Ability does not have any keywords).


    Your knowledge of medicine will immediately ¡®update¡¯ itself to whatever biology your birth species uses in new worlds. (This will occur over the course of a few days, whenever you regain proper sapience and your brain is able to manage the load of information this ability creates). Your training speed when rebuilding your knowledge of healing will be increased until you regain [Basic] Grade. When you reach [Basic] Grade medicine and healing for the first time in a new world, your body¡¯s [Intelligence] stat will increase by 10.


    Glut Penalty: 4


    Note: This Ability can also be purchased in the Market from an Ability Cube as well, as it is an Ability with no keywords. However, it will be more expensive than purchasing it after earning it yourself during a Reincarnation. You will need to purchase any Abilities you wish to keep within three days of returning to the Market. Please keep this in mind when considering purchases, and plan your purchases in advance.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    While the ability didn¡¯t seem that impressive at first, it was actually very interesting.


    The laws of physics and the way our biology worked changed from one dimension to another. In this dimension, for example, the way our eyes processed light and relayed them to our brain was different from our previous dimension. In our previous dimension, I had excellent low-light vision. In this world, without light I was completely blind. And I had also noticed that my vision didn''t have any blind spots in this life, unlike the last world. The way people''s organs worked could subtly change from one dimension to another.


    So each new life, I would need to spend time rebuilding my knowledge of medicine. Otherwise I would be blind again. And not all worlds had accurate understanding of the human body. In this world, people had once believed that the heart was responsible for thinking. They had believed that the brain was responsible for ''purifying and regulating blood.'' This had later been disproven during the medical revolution. It was likely that I would face similar misunderstandings in less technologically developed societies.


    This Ability offered a chance to bypass that problem. As soon as I was reborn in another world, I would get intimate knowledge of how the human body worked. No need to worry about erroneous teachers, and no need to relearn everything from scratch. I would still need to learn how to use that knowledge, but it would save me years of work every life.


    If I had the glut penalty available I would probably grab the skill. It seemed pretty useful for only 4 glut.


    Apart from my healing, we continued learning alchemy in school. My results¡­ were quite bad. It was a little embarrassing how awful my talent for binding essence was. Felix and Anise tried to comfort me, saying that everyone had their strengths and weaknesses¡­ but being bad at something felt bad.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Still, I did well in every subject besides alchemy, so the teacher started encouraging me in other subjects. He praised my exceptional results in math, history, and reading. I think he was trying to make me feel better about my bad alchemy results. Still, alchemy wasn''t the only thing that the school taught. Once we started learning about how blood vessels and bones worked, I lapped the material up. Even though the school mostly focused on alchemy, there were still useful things that I could learn.


    Felix, of course, had no such problems with binding essence. He blew the rest of the class¡¯s results out of the water in every alchemy exercise. Mister Delmont raved about his results. After a few months, he started preparing advanced lessons for Felix to work on when we practiced alchemy. I was still happy to see that he was having so much fun with this world¡¯s magic System. By the time we turned ten, Felix was able to do some basic transmutations on his own, and had made some progress with affixation. He could rearrange granules of matter into new configurations with little effort. He was capable of turning turning plants into dirt, or copper into iron in a minute flat. Of course, he still needed to use specific formulas and step by step processes to get the right result. This world¡¯s alchemy relied a lot on memorizing molecules and knowing how to break them down and rebuild them. But he was far ahead of the rest of the class, most of whom could barely do easy transmutations. Affixation was harder for him, but Felix did manage to bind the idea of ¡®sharpness¡¯ to a kitchen knife. The kitchen knife was great at cutting things afterwards.


    Unfortunately, this affixation made the handle of the knife sharp as well. This made the item useless. And Felix also had to get the idea of ¡®sharpness¡¯ from somewhere, meaning that Felix ruined a perfectly good kitchen knife to make his dysfunctional sharpness enchantment. But it was still evidence that he was getting somewhere with his studies, even though there were some issues to work out.


    Iselde and Vance remained a part of our social group, and I started to get better at ¡®acting my age''. I learned to dumb down my vocabulary a bit, and think a little bit more like a normal child. I doubted I would ever have a moment where I tried to drink fertilizer potions to grow big and healthy, but Old Mo stopped commenting on how ''adult'' I seemed. I considered that a victory.


    My attempts to form more runes slowed down a bit, since I had so many other things competing for my time. But I didn¡¯t let my runes fall completely to the wayside. On my ninth birthday, I formed my fifth rune, giving me an extra +10 Perception and another chance to improve a sensory organ.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form your fifth rune (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support runes, although it does somewhat support absorption spellcasting. moderate Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +350


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This also brought my Achievement from 8022 to 8,372.


    Since I had chosen to improve my ears the first time, this time, I decided to improve my skin. Being able to feel space seemed incredibly useful.


    My skin improvement gave me an excellent ¡®feel¡¯ for any spatial manipulation in our surroundings. If we were to encounter the spacequake again, I would be able to sense tears in reality much faster. I might have even been able to avoid falling into the pocket dimension. It was too late to save Sallia¡­ but I hadn''t forgotten the worldstriders. They had taken Sallia from me. If I ever saw them again, they would pay for that. Being able to feel space would make it much easier to fight them.


    Of course, it was useful in a lot of other situations. My improved skin let me feel everything for nearly 100 meters in each direction. I could now detect people walking behind me, even if they were behind a wall or an entire street away. By this world''s standards, I was impossible to ambush from close range. I hadn''t tested whether I could feel bullets moving through the air yet. But if I was able to, I wouldn''t need my ''spatial sight'' rune ability anymore.


    Apart from alchemy school, rune construction, and healing, I spent the rest of my time researching. I had three main lines of research I wanted to complete as soon as possible. I wanted to learn how to make illusions using alteration essence, shapeshift, and figure out what was up with my spatial abilities. I felt something when I used all three of them at once. I wanted to know what it was.


    The illusions research came along nicely. After a year of research, I figured out how to make light bend using only alteration essence. I could also create sounds out of thin air. They looked pretty stiff and transparent, but I was getting there. With another few years of practice, I would be able to ignore my illusion rune ability. I had found a way to make two of my three rune abilities obsolete in this world. That opened up a lot of options for future worlds.


    My shapeshifting research did not go anywhere near as well. I had started experimenting on plants, to see if I could shapeshift something simple. So far, almost every single test subject died after I finished ¡®helping¡¯. In one particularly memorable experiment, I somehow caused the potted flower I was experimenting with to explode, showering me with plant bits. That was my worst mistake, but it put me off of the experiments for a few weeks before I started again. I still had a long way to go before I could do freeform shapeshifting. My ultimate goal was to be able to do things like create bear claws mid-fight and then transform back seconds later. If I tried that right now, I would probably explode just like the plant. It was going to take a lot of time and effort to make my manipulation of alteration essence as fluid and efficient as it needed to be. And I was also going to need a lot of knowledge about biology and medicine. The most productive thing that came out of my shapeshifting experiments, at least so far, was an increased desire for the medicine ability.


    My progress in learning more about my three rune abilities, and what they did when combined, was even less productive. I could still sense that something was happening when I used all three of my spatial abilities at once. I could even sense that it might be something special. Something that would propel me forward. Maybe it would help me push past the [Expert] grade in my attunement, or give me some kind of neat new keyword ability. But I was missing some sort of critical insight to turn the whole thing into something useful. For now, every time I experimented, I just had weird, out of body experiences. I never gave up on it, but I couldn''t tell if I was making progress. And unlike with my shapeshifting research, I wasn''t even sure what I was doing wrong.


    About a month after our tenth birthday, Anise contacted me over the communication bracelet. Her words broke me out of the frustrated mood I had been in after I killed another plant with shapeshifting.


    <Miria! Come over! We got a piece of star paper working!> she yelled.

 Chapter 237: Star Paper

    In front of me sat the experiment of a madman.


    There was, for some reason, the top half of a giant glass orb in the center of the lawn behind Anise''s apartment. Felix had covered it with multiple layers of blankets, which he had glued to the glass. Then, Felix had cut small holes in the sides of the blankets, and attached small lamps to those holes.


    The top half of the glass orb was held above the ground by a pair of table legs. The top half of the table was made of glass, and in the center of the table was a piece of paper. It was glowing.


    I blinked in confusion, and then looked at Felix.


    ¡°Felix...¡± I said, drawing out my words for extra dramatic effect. ¡°I can''t heal insanity. I''m sorry.¡±


    Felix rolled his eyes, unamused by my teasing.


    ¡°There¡¯s a reason for all of this setup,¡± he said. ¡°As ridiculous as it looks, it does make sense. I promise. I needed a way to recreate the ''night sky.'' The real night sky is too far away from us, so it wasn''t working very well. This is somehow the best way to make a copy of the ''night sky'' without running into range issues.¡±


    ¡°So you covered half of a glass orb with a blanket and glued a bunch of lamps to it? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s quite what the night sky looks like,¡± I said.


    ¡°I have limited materials,¡± he said dryly. ¡°Besides, if it¡¯s ridiculous but it works, it¡¯s not ridiculous, right?¡±


    I gave up on teasing Felix, and glanced at the real night sky. The stars were just beginning to appear as the sun set beyond the horizon. I took another look at Felix¡¯s ridiculous setup, and then crawled underneath the glass table.


    I could see what Felix was going for. The blanket made it dark underneath the glass orb, and so all of the lamps¡­ kind of resembled stars. I could also see that Felix had added very subtle splotches of paint onto the underside of the glass. He had used some kind of transparent paint. It barely colored the light coming from the lamps, and didn''t obstruct the light, either. I had no idea what it was for.


    I gave Felix and Anise another dubious look.


    ¡°Does it work for your spell creation needs?¡± I asked Anise.


    She grinned and nodded.


    ¡°It¡¯s a lot slower than absorbing real starlight, but I should be able to work on creating spells 24/7 now,¡± she said. She waved her hand, and the top half of a glass orb lifted up. A moment later, the piece of paper flew through the air towards her, as if picked up by an invisible hand.


    She closed her eyes, and I saw some of the starlight from the paper disappear, as if Anise had eaten it.


    "See? It works!" she said happily. "It''s a lot slower, though," she admitted a moment later. I smiled at the sight of Anise using magic so readily.


    It had taken Anise quite some time to get her first spell constellation built, but Anise had been hard at work over the past three years. She had constructed two spell constellations. One spell constellation for Mage Hand, one for Force Shield. Her Market items still gave her access to Magic Missile. In total, Anise now had three spells. She didn''t have the insane reaction times my spatial sight granted, so she wouldn¡¯t be able to stop a bullet in midair. But if she was paying attention, she could create a force shield before the shooter pulled the trigger.  After some crude testing, we were pretty sure that Anise¡¯s force shield would stop a bullet before running out of energy. And she looked so happy when she was casting spells that it almost pushed the absurd setup out of my mind.


    Almost.


    ¡°So it¡¯s slower than real starlight?¡± I asked, glancing at the glowing piece of paper. ¡°Also, what¡¯s up with the little splotches of paint in the glass orb? Do they serve a purpose?¡±


    ¡°Ah," said Felix. "I haven''t tested this apparatus without them, so they might not be needed. But they''re supposed to emulate the various kinds of star in the night sky,¡± said Felix. ¡°Astronomers have found that there are a lot of different kinds of star. Blue wanderers and green giants are actually the most common. Our sun is an orange stationary star, which is one of the rarer types.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I figured that it would help with the idea of ¡®starlight¡¯ if there was some variance to the ¡®stars¡¯ in the night sky I made. I copied the positions and star types of real stars with my glass orb, too. I think it was a little easier to affix the idea of ''starlight'' after I added the paint. But it wasn''t a big difference.¡±


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    I glanced at the glass orb again. It still looked absurd... but it was also the fruit of my friend''s labor. I grinned, and then gave Felix and Anise both big hugs.


    ¡°Congratulations! Even if it¡¯s not perfect yet, I¡¯m still happy that the two of you succeeded!¡±


    Anise grinned.


    ¡°It did work, but it¡¯s not perfect," she said. "Right now, it¡¯s about 1/6th of the efficiency of absorbing real starlight. It¡¯ll still help me make more spell constellations¡­ but we were hoping for better. That¡¯s why we called you over here.¡± She gestured, and the piece of glowing paper flew over to me again. ¡°We¡¯ve already noticed that the starlight coming from the paper isn¡¯t quite right. Now that we¡¯ve actually created a working prototype, we''re hoping you can perfect it.¡±


    ¡°I would have been happy to help earlier,¡± I said.


    ¡°You already have a lot on your plate, Mir. And honestly, the first year or so of trying to make this was just me trying and failing to make glowing paper. You wouldn¡¯t have had much to do except stand around and watch me fail,¡± he said. "It took me way longer than it should have to realize that light isn''t what Anise needs. Otherwise, she could just turn on a lamp and call it a day," he said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "It seems obvious, but sometimes obvious insights escape the best of us."


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± I said. ¡°So what do you want my help with now? How can I perfect the process?¡±


    ¡°Well, how much of the explanation about affixation did you understand from class?¡± asked Felix.


    I winced.


    ¡°Umm¡­ not that much, honestly.¡± Binding essence and I did not get along well. Some parts of alchemy were just hard to understand without doing them myself. And I was awful at alchemy. The theory behind affixation was a lot more feelings-based than the theory behind transmutation. And since I couldn''t transmute anything, I had been lost when the teacher went over affixation.


    ¡°That¡¯s all right,¡± said Felix, smiling. ¡°I¡¯ll use a really simplified analogy so that you can follow along. So, as you already know, binding essence binds stuff together. These bonds can be between two physical objects, or they can bind concepts and physical matter together. Affixation is all about binding objects and ideas together. What we did here was bind the ¡®physical¡¯ components of light and the ¡®idea¡¯ of starlight together to the paper. I figure that¡¯s what Anise¡¯s magic system is working off of - the physical aspect of light, mixed with the idea of stars. That''s probably why Anise can¡¯t use sunlight for spell constellations." Felix paused. "Well, or her magic system just hates red stationary stars. That''s also a possibility. But I think the ''idea incompatibility'' makes more sense, so we''re going with that for now.¡±


    I nodded. So far, I was following along. I had always found it strange that Anise couldn¡¯t use sunlight to make more spell constellations. Felix¡¯s explanation cleared up my doubts nicely.


    ¡°So I studied a lot of library books talking about what light was, at a granular level, and then started trying to figure out how to make paper emit light. This was a dead end, as I already mentioned, but it was good practice for what came later. Once it turned out to be useless, I started incorporating the ¡®idea¡¯ of stars into the next prototypes. And that¡¯s why we now have this ridiculous getup. I don''t mind saying that it took me forever to make glowing paper that was imbued with the idea of starlight. Affixation is hard. But the prototype worked! The issue is... well, as you mentioned, my setup is ridiculous. I can''t use the real night sky, because it''s too far away. But my knockoff night sky is terrible. That''s where you come in,¡± said Felix.


    I was starting to get a better idea of why the too had called me over.


    "We have a few ideas how you might help. First of all, you could try altering the idea of starlight imprinted into the paper after I finish. If you can just tweak the ''idea'' of starlight contained in the paper, that might solve the speed issue Anise is running into."


    I frowned. The idea made sense, but I was worried about destroying the paper by accident. Alteration essence was excellent for brute-forcing changes to a magic system, but trying to gently alter the paper might break it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if the paper will survive my tampering,¡± I said.


    Felix nodded, as if that was within his expectations.


    ¡°That¡¯s kind of what I figured, too. Alteration essence seems to have a harder time with physical objects. That¡¯s why I figure our second testing method actually has the best chance to work. As we set up the giant starlight array, I want you to mess with the ¡®idea¡¯ of starlight before it gets absorbed by the paper. My getup is only a flimsy recreation of the night sky. If you tweak it with alteration essence before I bind it to the paper, we might get much better results," he said.


    I nodded. That sounded a lot more likely to work. I would be a lot less worried about breaking the paper as well.


    ¡°The third idea I had was to get you to recreate the night sky using an illusion,¡± said Felix. ¡°And then I would try to bind that to the paper. This method would also sidestep this ridiculous night-sky recreation. That might produce the best results, but I''m not sure if it''ll work or not.¡± He paused. ¡°I wanted to try all three methods and see what worked and what didn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°So¡­ that means a lot of testing?¡± I asked.


    Felix grinned. ¡°A lot of testing,¡± he agreed.

 Chapter 238: Star Paper (2)

    It took a great deal of trial and error to figure out a few things.


    First of all, altering existing star-paper wasn''t possible. Or at least, it wasn''t possible at my skill level. When I tried to make the already-created star paper better, it disintegrated. Maybe I could do it someday, but for now, the paper was not capable of handling shaping from me.


    After that, we tried using illusions to recreate the night sky, and then having Felix bind that to the paper. It did away with the absurd setup that Felix had been using to mimic the night sky.


    It actually worked a lot better than Felix and I had been expecting. The resulting piece of paper was a marked improvement over Felix¡¯s first product. Anise estimated that it was about a quarter as useful as the real night sky. Nowhere near ideal, but still an improvement. It was a hint that we were going in the right direction.


    Finally, we tried using my shaping magic to mess with the light inside of Felix¡¯s crazy setup. I took the lamp light, and then tried to twist it towards my idea of ¡®starlight''. It was messy, but after pushing a bunch of my alteration essence into the light, I felt something twist. Felix grabbed hold of it with his binding essence and affixed it to the paper, and we handed the paper to Anise for evaluation.


    After a quick test, she grinned.


    "Better than the last test!" She said. "Nearly half as efficient as real starlight!"


    Felix sagged in disappointment. "Only half? I was expecting much more than that. How can we improve it?"


    Anise scratched her head, and looked at the paper. "Half efficiency is already way more than I was expecting. I really appreciate you two helping at all. If I can sneak in a little starlight absorption during the day, I''ll increase my efficiency by a lot..."


    "But it''s nowhere near as good," said Felix, shaking his head.


    Even though I wasn''t a craftsman, I was inclined to agree with Felix. The idea that Anise was barely getting half efficiency out of our best product rankled at me. Anise had mentioned, at one point in time, that she wanted to see what happened if she took different ¡®concepts¡¯ of starlight and used them. She was also going to need as many spell constellations as possible. The world was densely populated and in the midst of an industrial revolution. If Anise wanted a keyword ability, she needed to do something amazing. I wanted her to have every single tool available for that. Half efficiency just wasn''t going to cut it.


    I took a closer look at the best prototype we had made so far.


    The paper seemed better than the other few results. It emitted a healthier glow, and it almost looked like real starlight. But it still felt like there was something off about it.


    ¡°Anise, do have any idea what we did wrong?¡± I asked, after a few moments. "I know that a half efficiency paper is better than nothing, but... I really want to make these pieces of paper better. And I was also hoping you would get something out of using different conceptualizations of starlight. But right now, our star paper barely even works."


    Anise frowned, and picked up the paper again, before she closed her eyes. She spent a lot longer thinking about her response this time. Finally, she opened her eyes again.


    ¡°It just¡­ doesn¡¯t feel like real starlight,¡± she said, frowning. ¡°I don¡¯t have any way of detecting ¡®concepts,¡¯ so I¡¯m just guessing here. But your idea of starlight could be off? Or maybe I only need a specific kind of starlight? I mean, there are different kinds of stars¡­ so we could try experimenting with that. Maybe I only need stars from green wanderers or something. I don¡¯t know,¡± she said, finally.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Felix said as he rubbed at his chin in thought. ¡°I thought for sure that Miria¡¯s help would perfect it. Are we missing something? Maybe we need better materials for the paper? Since the paper is acting as a container for the concept of ''starlight,'' we could try making it more... star-like.¡± He sighed, and shook his head. ¡°The nice thing about paper is that it¡¯s cheap, and as a kid in school it¡¯s pretty normal to carry around. But we could also try something else. Stars are made out of gas, so we could try that? But I have no idea how Anise could even carry around gas . What are we supposed to do, bottle it up?¡± He looked thoughtful at that. "You know, Anise only needs access to the light. Bottling up the gas might work..."


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that would be very practical,¡± said Anise. ¡°I mean, the gas would still need to glow afterwards. And I think most gasses that stars are made of are dangerous. If I want light to emit from the gas, whatever container we use would need to be transparent. I can only think of a glass container. And carrying around dangerous gas in a glowing glass bottle sounds like a recipe for disaster.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I also don''t think that''s a great idea. Unless there¡¯s a way to make that several times safer. I don''t want Anise to trip, break the container, inhale a bunch of dangerous gas, and then die. That would be a pretty absurd way to return to the Market.¡±


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    Felix nodded. ¡°True. But I can¡¯t figure out what else we can do to improve the star paper. It¡¯s driving me crazy.¡± He reached to the side, and picked up one of the books he and Anise had checked out from the school library. It was one of the books that detailed how stars were born.


    I skimmed the book over his shoulder, to see if there was anything I missed. Maybe my conceptualization of starlight was the problem? I did a bit of quick reading, to figure out how if the book held the missing puzzle piece.


    Apparently, stars in this world were born from binding essence linking together a bunch of space dust. This resulted in a larger and larger ball of stuff. Once it reached a massive size, the gravity of the star ignited the whole mess, as long as there was enough gas trapped in the ball of material. The binding essence somehow stabilized the whole mess.


    I also learned, with some surprise, that any clump of space dust could become a star in this dimension. All planets were also bundles of space dust held together by binding essence. If they collected enough gas and reached critical mass, they would ignite and become stars. Or at least, that was what astronomers claimed right now.


    I wasn¡¯t sure why big things naturally caught fire in this dimension. Was it some sort of side effect of how gravity worked here? Was it a result of some other esoteric dimensional law? I had no way to find out.


    I skimmed the book to see if it explained the relationship between gravity and fire, but unfortunately, the book didn''t explain that.


    "Felix, could we try again? I''m thinking that maybe my idea of how ''starlight'' works could influence the result," I said.


    We fired up the apparatus again, but the results were disappointing. Anise didn''t even notice much of a difference this time. That was considerably less than I had expected to achieve.


    After my failed idea, I sighed. I started rifling through the pile of books Felix and Anise had accumulated, but with much less enthusiasm than before.


    Felix also sighed in frustration, running his hands through his hair as he fell into thought.


    ¡°Maybe we could use gas instead of oil to turn the lamps on?¡± asked Felix, after a few minutes of thought. ¡°That would make them¡­ closer to real starlight, at least.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ worth a shot,¡± I said, frowning. Anise also thumbed through a few books on stars, but she didn''t seem to have any new ideas.


    After a few minutes, Felix replaced the lamps, and we tried the experiment again. The result was marginally better¡­ but only by a little bit.


    "It''s... maybe 55% of the efficiency of real starlight?" she said, after a few moments of concentration. "It''s a bit better than the last one, but not by much. But that''s okay! I''m grateful to have any way to improve during daylight at all!"


    "But it might not be enough for you to get a keyword ability," I said. "I want you to have every advantage we can give you." Anise fell silent, although her expression seemed torn between gratitude and worry.


    "If it''s too hard, I can work with this, though," she said. "You two have done way more than you needed to."


    "Let''s keep thinking for a while," Felix said. "There might still be a way to make it better. My pride as a craftsman is at stake now, you know?" he grinned, to let Anise know that he wasn''t taking things too seriously. But he still seemed determined to keep improving the paper.


    So we fell into thought.


    ¡°I just don¡¯t know,¡± said Felix, after several minutes. He scowled at the night sky. ¡°The concept of starlight in the ritual setup didn¡¯t feel perfect, but it felt like I was on the right track. It should have been better than 55%.¡±


    ¡°Maybe we¡¯re going about this the wrong way?¡± asked Anise. ¡°I mean¡­ actually, is there anything stopping us from modifying the paper once it¡¯s already created?¡±


    ¡°We already tried that, didn¡¯t we?¡± I said. ¡°The paper disintegrated. I mean, I could keep practicing...¡±


    ¡°Not you, Miria,¡± said Anise.


    A moment later, I realized what Anise was suggesting. I blinked in surprise.


    Was it even possible for alchemists to mess with an affixation after it was made? I turned towards Felix to see if he knew.


    ¡°Well, once you affix something, it¡¯s pretty much set in stone,¡± said Felix. ¡°After all, you¡¯ve taken a foreign concept and welded it to a chunk of physical matter. Physical matter can only handle so much foreign conceptual stuff before it implodes. In the past, Alchemists have welded concepts onto an item at the same time, but that¡¯s beyond my skill level. And we would need better materials, too.¡±


    ¡°So there¡¯s a limit on affixation?¡± I asked.


    ¡°You can think of each piece of physical matter as something like a cup. Each concept I add to it fills the cup up. Once I overfill it, the cup explodes. Better alchemists can make a concept without adding quite as much liquid to the cup. And better materials work as bigger cups - more like a bucket. And once an affixation is ''set,'' it solidifies. Kind of like ice,¡± he said.


    ¡°Well¡­ that¡¯s the case for physical matter, yeah,¡± said Anise, carefully. ¡°But¡­ I mean, I don¡¯t know much about affixation, since we haven¡¯t gotten to that in class yet. But what if you tried¡­ I don¡¯t know, binding a concept to a concept? Would that even be possible? Using the affixation itself as a container for another affixation? Kind of like one of those dolls with more dolls inside of it? If you did that, you could just keep binding the concept of starlight to the concept of starlight over and over again. It seems ridiculous, but maybe it would work?"


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s obviously¡­ huh.¡± Said Felix, blinking. ¡°Binding a concept to a concept. It¡¯s possible to bind physical matter to other physical matter. It¡¯s also possible to bind concepts to physical matter. I don¡¯t know of anyone who has ever successfully bound a concept to a concept but¡­ Hmm¡­¡± Felix looked more and more thoughtful, until he started grinning. ¡°I don¡¯t know if anyone has ever tried that before. It sounds ridiculous, but¡­ maybe it¡¯s possible?¡± He turned towards me.


    ¡°If it works I know what I¡¯m doing to get my keyword ability!¡±

 Chapter 239: Artificial Children

    The next day, the three of us returned to school. I wasn¡¯t really expecting much out of the alchemy lessons anymore. Luckily, Mr. Delmont had started pushing me further and further in medicine instead. The school mostly prepared students for alchemy university, but it also sent a few students to medical school. And my healing ''ability'' made it easy to promote myself as a future medical university student.


    When we got to class and sat down, I saw Iselde. It was rare for her to arrive before us, so I gave her a friendly wave.


    ¡°Iselde! Good morning! How are you?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Hey Miria! Hey Felix! Hey Anise!" said Iselde, giving the three of us friendly grins. I gave her a quick morning hug, which she returned, and then her grin grew wider. "Did you hear? The war is ending! I overheard my dad and my mom talking about it this morning!¡± Iselde said. She was almost bursting with excitement.


    It took me a few seconds to process Iselde¡¯s words, before I blinked in surprise.


    ¡°The war is ending?¡± I asked.


    As we got older, the teacher had started to teach us more about countries of the modern era. As a result of that, we had also covered the current war between Verne and Enallia. He had dumbed it down a bit, and neglected some of the atrocities that occurred during the war. But he had still taught us about the conflict, and the coalition that had formed against Verne. The three of us had kept ourselves updated on the day to day progress of the war.


    And that very knowledge and familiarity with the war was the reason I was so surprised. The war had escalated year after year, but nobody had any advantage over the other side. Some reporters estimated that half a million soldiers had died in the war already. And in that time, neither side had managed to hold on to new territory for longer than four months. Both sides had started using everything and anything at their disposal. From wild new inventions, to ancient Zelyrian technology, everything was on the table.


    Most wars in this world continued until one side gained a decisive advantage. Then, the losers would fork over some money and land to the winner. The alliances on the continent would reshuffle, and a decade later they might be right back at it. If a country ''took too much'' then the other nations of the continent would beat them down.


    This had baffled me at first. The way the continent self-regulated the strongest nations felt weird. But I had realized that no nation wanted to absorbed by its neighbors. So the natural result of any nation getting an advantage was that the rest of the continent worked together to break that advantage.


    The more I became familiar with this continent¡¯s history of struggle and warfare, the more I empathized with Old Mo¡¯s disgust for the process. It seemed pointless and endless.


    And this war had gone on for far, far longer than most wars on this continent. The addition of new technology, such as improved airships, had drawn the war to the skies. Old Zelyrian technologies, such as artificial babies, had made the war bloodier on the ground. Assassination had become commonplace. Zelyrian magic was routinely used to tip battles in favor of one side. Recreations of old Zelyrian magic were also used frequently. It was a total mess, and part of me had wondered if the war would ever end.


    ¡°Is the war really ending?¡± asked Anise, sounding just as shocked as I felt. ¡°I mean¡­ I guess it had to end at some point, but¡­¡±


    Iselde nodded. ¡°I¡¯m shocked too. My dad always said that they might keep fighting forever.¡± She sighed. "It''s much better in Damilius."


    ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m shocked that it took this long,¡± Felix said. ¡°Most wars on this continent end within a year. This war is pretty unusual for its length, as well as the use of industrial weapons and machines."


    "Yeah, but with how much both sides seem to hate each other, I figured one side would need to end in complete defeat," I said. "After all, the biggest reason for the war is that Verne is more industrialized than everyone else. Heck, they fought the rest of the continent almost alone. And they stalemated with them. That shows how scary the Vernese military is. With how the continent regulates itself... I''d be shocked if the loser of this war had a nation afterwards."


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    "True," said Felix, after a few moments. "Do you know which side won the war?" he asked Iselde.


    "I don''t," she said.


    A few moments later, I heard someone else take a seat next to us. I turned around and grinned, as I saw our other friend.


    ¡°Hey Vance!¡± I said.


    ¡°Hey Miria,¡± he said, giving me a friendly smile. ¡°And Iselde, Anise, and Felix. What are you guys talking about?¡±


    ¡°The war ended!¡± said Iselde. ¡°Or, well, my dad said it¡¯s going to end soon. The Vernese called for peace and the other side accepted¡­ or something.¡±


    I suspected there was a lot more to it than that, but that was as much detail as I was going to get from Iselde.


    ¡°Huh. That¡¯s good,¡± said Vance. ¡°But it seems¡­ I don¡¯t know. Sudden. They¡¯ve been fighting for so long. The idea that the war is about to end feels strange to me.¡±


    Iselde shook her head. ¡°My dad says that they¡¯re still kind of fighting. Until the peace treaty is signed, you never know what might happen. And they might keep shooting until a final treaty exists.¡±


    I felt rather surprised that Iselde and Vance were so interested in the state of the war. That was something I expected adults to care more about. Just a few moments ago, I had assumed that Iselde would only know surface information about the war. She had almost immediately disproven that idea. I scratched my head, and started quietly adjusting my idea of what a normal ten year old was like. By the age of ten, children were aware enough of the rest of the world to take an interest in it.


    Before I could fish for more information, Mr. Delmont walked into the room. He mentioned that the war might end soon, but didn''t elaborate much before moving on to other lessons. I felt a little disappointed by the quick dismissal of the topic. I wanted to know more.


    During lunch break, I asked Mr. Delmont to lend me a copy of the daily paper, (which he was happy to do), and read it during lunch. It might mark me as a little odd, but Old Mo said I was a passable kid at this point, so it wasn''t too big of a deal. As long as I only occasionally seemed odd, nobody would think of me as anything more than a weird ten year old.


    Iselde and Vance didn¡¯t seem that interested in reading the news, but Anise and Felix read the paper with me. I grinned to myself. At least my understanding of ten year olds wasn''t totally off. They didn''t want to read the newspaper with me. They wanted to gossip about the end of the war, but not learn the specifics.


    ¡°So the Vernese surrendered, but not completely,¡± I said, as we read through the headline of the paper.


    Felix nodded. ¡°A conditional surrender is still a surrender. They''re only willing to lose a little bit of land and money. It looks nothing like the total demolition of the country I was expecting. I wonder why the other nations accepted it.¡± Felix frowned.


    I also frowned. I kind of agreed with Felix''s earlier assessment. With how dangerous Verne was, the rest of the continent normally would have ripped the nation apart. Losing a little money and territory was nowhere near ruining the nation.


    ¡°One of the pieces of land they mention in the article is a big iron and copper mine,¡± said Anise. ¡°Without that, Verne''s industrialization progress will slow down. The war reparations will also weaken them. Maybe the other nations think they can outgrow Verne with more metal?¡± Anise shrugged. "It''s the best guess I can come up with."


    I thought about it, before nodding. Anise''s guess made as much sense to me as any other reasoning. I wasn''t an economist or a war strategist, after all.


    As I continued reading through the paper, I started to pay less and less attention to the state of the continent. Instead, my attention was drawn to one other fact. Something that concerned our group a bit more directly. The second half of the article had details about the Vernese surrender. It prefaced this section by talking about the impact of artificial babies during the war. Apparently, normal artificial children were very strong and smart. At six years old, they could outperform regular soldiers. And most people felt sympathetic towards children. They weren''t on guard against them the same way they were against adults. Both sides had used them heavily during the war for those purposes.


    That wasn¡¯t what surprised me. We had seen occasional newspapers featuring information about this. But as we kept reading, I started to get a bad feeling in my heart. Why was the newspaper talking so much about artificial children?


    As we got towards the end of the article, my bad feeling was confirmed.


    The coalition wanted Verne to surrender all ancient Zelyrian artifacts and technology. The coalition didn''t just want to slow down Verne''s industrialization. They also wanted to remove their path towards Zelyrian research. And Verne had agreed. They had also agreed to turn over all artificial children and research related to them.


    There was no way Felix''s information wouldn''t be included. I didn''t think anyone would be able to connect Felix the artificial baby with us. After all, Felix and I had spent a lot of time changing the way he looked. The only thing that remained the same was his name - and Felix was a very common name. But even if I knew that it was unlikely, I still felt nervous.


    Felix''s origin wasn¡¯t going to come back to bite us¡­ right?

 Chapter 240: Lost Children

    Slippy, one of the artificial children, scuttled through the shadows. Soon, he reached the roof of a nearby building, and observed the war-torn city.


    The battle between the coalition and Verne had not been kind to the inhabitants. Even now, the middle of the city was a hotly contested area. Neither side had successfully seized control of it, and Slippy could hear occasional cannonfire in the distance. Both sides may have called for a truce, and the war may be winding down - but the fighting wouldn''t stop until the treaty was signed. Slippy grimaced as he took in the devastation around him.


    Many of the buildings in the city had turned into rubble. The coalition forces had also put the civilians on their side of the city to work in the factories. The men, women, and even children on their side looked thin and anxious. Many of them carried bruises on their body.


    The civilians on the Vernse side looked better. They didn''t have the same haunted faces as the other side''s civilians. But they still looked thin and cold. If this city were originally a coalition city, it would look the same, thought Slippy. The only difference would be which side abused the civilians more. Such was the nature of the war.


    Then, he shook his head with a mixture of disgust and resignation. In any case, it didn''t matter to him anymore. He had been far more concerned about the war when it was a matter of his survival. But after tonight, the war wouldn''t have anything to do with him ever again.


    Slippy clambered down the side of the building and moved to another rooftop. He paused for a moment, and scanned his surroundings. It would be bad if either Verne¡¯s troops or the coalition¡¯s troops noticed him.


    He didn¡¯t think Vernese soldiers were trying very hard to catch him, but he didn¡¯t want to take any risks.


    It took him a few moments to verify that nobody had noticed him. There wasn''t anyone who had noticed a little shadow making its way through the city yet. He picked up the pace, and started moving forward again.


    As he moved forward, his thoughts started to drift. He wondered if the first artificial child had done the exact same thing as him, in the distant past. His superiors hadn''t spoken of him very often, but he still knew of ''Felix'', the first artificial child.


    Unlike ¡®Felix,¡¯ Slippy had fought in the war for two long years. He had successfully killed seventeen men. His shadowblend ability and his exceptional physique made it easy to assassinate people. When he was younger, Slippy had dreamed that mysterious children would break him out and free him. Just like they had Felix.


    Unfortunately, reality was cruel. Rumor had it that Felix had been born with two abilities. It was as if Felix had drunk multiple ability potions while still in the test tube. Sometimes, Slippy wondered if that was why nobody had ever rescued him. Unlike Felix, every other artificial child was born with no abilities. They were strong and had exceptional regeneration - but no actual abilities. At the age of six, he could arm-wrestle an adult and win. And he could recover from fatal wounds that no normal person could survive. If he was shot in the lungs or the stomach, he had a chance to live when no normal man would. When artificial children drank ability potions, they also displayed unmatched expertise with it. They could adapt to their new abilities dozens of times faster than a regular soldier.


    But none of them ever reached the standards of the first child. Sometimes, Slippy hated that every single artificial child was compared to Felix. Being compared to someone they could never see or meet was frustrating. Slippy didn''t understand why none of them were ever good enough, either.


    Slippy froze for a moment, as he heard the sound of a pair of boots making its way across the street. I got distracted, he thought with a curse. Getting distracted in the middle of a risky action wasn''t like him. He listened more closely to the sound of footsteps as they approached.


    Military boots, he thought with a grimace. Maybe I underestimated how much attention Verne would pay tonight. Or maybe Jack lied to me about the guard being lax tonight. He activated his ability. The shadows in his surroundings wriggled towards him, almost as if they were alive. A moment later, his form melted into the nearby shadows. A few seconds later, the footsteps reached his location.


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    To Slippy¡¯s complete bewilderment, he saw a malnourished child walking towards him. The child couldn''t have been older than four. She had bright eyes that stuck out of her skull, and her cheeks were as thin as paper. She looked hungry. Somehow, she had gotten a pair of military boots. It was the very reason Slippy had been so on guard against her moments earlier.


    The girl shivered in her rags, and looked in both directions. Moments later, she made her way towards a nearby trash can and started rifling through it. Slippy took that as an opportunity to slip away, while the child was distracted.


    But his heart was still hammering in his chest. He felt a moment of wariness. Had he misjudged the situation?


    Both sides of the war had agreed that Verne had lost and needed to pay the winners. But Verne hadn''t lost by much - the bigger reason peace was possible was because both sides were exhausted. Verne wanted to lose as little as possible, and give as few tools as possible to the winners. The winners wanted to take as much as possible, and weaken Verne as much as possible. He shouldn''t be wrong.


    Slippy shook his head, and focused. He couldn''t afford to doubt himself now.


    Soon, he approached the center of the Vernese half of the city. He avoided the patrols of the soldiers and climbed past the roadblocks. The soldiers seemed unusually lax, which he was grateful for. It took him less than fifteen minutes to reach his destination.


    Slippy quietly infiltrated the camp, and then located the building he wanted. It was the building where he had spent the last two years of his life returning to. And today would be the last time he saw it.


    As Slippy crept towards his target, he heard a few voices.


    He froze again, and blended back into the shadows.


    ¡°-Hope that it ends soon. The war has bled us dry.¡±


    ¡°At least they¡¯re suffering just as much as we are,¡± said the other voice, followed by a derisive snort. ¡°Hard to believe that those little weasels actually won. Even if it wasn''t by much.¡±


    The other voice sighed. ¡°You know the war isn''t over yet. The war doesn''t end until the treaty is signed. Don''t get distracted until the higher ups confirm we''re going home.¡±


    ¡°Still, some of the conditions they''ve imposed on us are too much. Losing so much of our research on Zelyrian ruins and artifacts might set us back decades -¡±


    Slippy stepped by the two chatting commanders, and continued on his way. They probably wanted him to succeed. But they might still stop him if they saw him.


    Two rooms away from the chatty commanders, he found a little trap door that led underground. It was completely unguarded. Normally, there were four guards set next to the trap door. Today, there were none.


    Well, if that wasn¡¯t an obvious invitation, Slippy didn¡¯t know what was.


    He cracked open the trap door, and then hauled himself into the darkness. Just like above, there were none of the usual guards or security checks.


    Slippy grinned. He was correct. Verne wanted the children to escape before the treaty was signed. Or at the very least, his commander was giving him every opportunity to slip away.


    The coalition had demanded that Verne hand over all of its experimental children and research. Verne would, indeed, comply with their demands once the treaty was signed.


    But what if all of those children escaped on their own before Verne handed them over?


    Well, in that case, that wasn¡¯t Verne¡¯s fault, was it? They just had an unfortunate desertion problem. They would still be complying with the peace treaty''s terms perfectly.


    It was an exceptionally petty move. It probably wouldn''t actually matter much, either. But it fit Verne''s policies perfectly.


    At least, that was what Slippy suspected the higher ups were thinking. It would certainly explain why the barracks of the experimental children was unguarded.


    Slippy put away his suspicions. In any case, it didn¡¯t really matter now. Whether it was a scheme by Verne or not had nothing to do with him anymore. He was free.


    ¡°Mint. Are you there?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I¡¯ve already packed everything,¡± she said. ¡°The others are also ready.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go,¡± said Slippy.


    He heard shuffling sounds as the others grabbed their bags, and spent a few moments gathering everything he owned. Two pistols. One dagger. A few water bottles. A book that he had stolen from a child in a fit of jealousy. Slippy ran his hands over the book''s cover. When he had seen the child, he had been so jealous. That child had a mother who lived him. Slippy wished he could have the same.


    Slippy shook his head. They needed to move. Verne would still capture them if they were seen. And so, seven figures slipped out of the special barracks and into the night.

 Chapter 241: The Lost and Seeking

    Another two weeks passed by. Despite my initial concerns that part of Felix¡¯s past would haunt us, nothing happened. The three of us kept going to school, I continued my research on my magic, and I kept working with doctor Trish to improve my healing. Anise and Felix kept working on their research for star-paper and trying to perfect it. I often stepped in to help out with Felix¡¯s experiments. So far, we hadn¡¯t found a way to get a piece of star-paper above sixty percent efficiency, but we kept trying.


    Not that a sixty percent efficiency star paper was anything to sneeze at. Previously, Anise could only work on her spell constellations four hours a day. With the star paper, she could now make use of an extra five or six hours a day. She still couldn¡¯t work on Zelyrian magic in the middle of class, but she could work on it after school. With the extra time, she estimated that she could form simpler spell constellations in about half a year, instead of nine to ten months. Her current focus was on a basic magic eye spell.


    On the fifteenth day after peace negotiations started, there was still no word about a finalized treaty. However, we found Old Mo waiting for us after school. He had a rather thoughtful expression on his face, and his gaze settled firmly on Felix once we left the building.


    ¡°Old Mo?¡± I asked, uncertainly.


    ¡°The four of us need to talk,¡± he said. ¡°I learned something that might affect you. We¡¯ll discuss more once we reach my bakery.¡±


    The three of us followed Old Mo through the streets of town. Old Mo was silent during the walk, which set me a little bit on edge. Was something bad happening? Was Old Mo in trouble? Maybe someone had found out about his past and wanted to put him in prison?


    All sorts of terrifying scenarios surfaced in my head. I found myself scanning our surroundings with spatial and soul-sight, and jumping at shadows. After twenty minutes of anxiety, we arrived at Old Mo¡¯s bakery.


    Old Mo led us into his shop, before he pushed his bed aside. He opened a trap door underneath his bed, and gestured for us to enter. As we climbed down the ladder, I realized that Old Mo had repurposed some kind of basement. It was now a large room, with a good amount of food and weapons stored inside. I took a seat on one of the crates of jerky, and Anise and Felix did the same. Old Mo made his way down last.


    He took a few looks around, knocked on the walls a few times, and then nodded. ¡°It doesn¡¯t sound like there are any tunnels nearby. It¡¯s unlikely, but you never know.¡±


    I wondered if there was some sort of ability potion that let people tunnel through the earth efficiently. Old Mo had briefed me on healing abilities, so that I could make my healing more believable, but I didn¡¯t know what other abilities existed. A tunneling ability was the only reason I could think of to check for new tunnels.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s talk,¡± said Old Mo. He pulled out a copy of the daily newspaper, before he glanced at Felix again. ¡°Felix, when you were born in this world, you were an artificial child, right? Made from Zelyrian technology?¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I was made from Zelyrian tech, yeah. Miria, Sallia, and Anise broke me out when we were six. After we escaped, Miria used one of her abilities to change my appearance. I kept my name, but Felix is a pretty common name, so I figured it was fine.¡± Felix shrugged. ¡°Nobody seems to have ever connected the dots.¡±


    Old Mo nodded. ¡°There aren¡¯t any abilities I know of that could make it easy to track you down. And there aren¡¯t exactly a shortage of six year old children in the slums. Connecting you to the ¡®Felix¡¯ who escaped Verne¡¯s labs should be very difficult. Normally, that should have been where the story ended¡­¡± Old Mo pulled out a newspaper. ¡°But there¡¯s something interesting that happened last week. It just made its way to our newspapers today.¡±


    I grabbed the newspaper and tilted it so that the others could also see it.


    Escape of the experimental children!


    I read the headline, and then blinked in surprise. I reread it.


    ¡°So¡­ the other experimental children escaped?¡± said Felix, scratching his head as he read the newspaper. The three of us spent a few minutes flipping through the newspaper.


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    Apparently, a lot of the ¡®special assassins¡¯ of Verne had been deserting the army recently. It seemed like dozens of artificial children had fled once the peace talks started. I quietly cheered for them. We didn¡¯t have the ability to locate the artificial children, but I hoped they could find a normal life after this.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that¡­ a good thing?¡± asked Felix. ¡°Well, good for them, at least? I don¡¯t see how it affects us. And I have to admit, I''m actually a little glad for them. Being an artificial child isn''t pleasant. And there''s no difference between their souls and everyone else''s souls.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ yes,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°Theoretically, it¡¯s a good thing. I hope that they don¡¯t get caught and get to live real lives, away from the war. But their escape does mean something else. Most of the experimental children have drank ability potions. Unlike regular people, artificial children always gain an ability after drinking a potion. Ability potions are rare and hard to make, so nations funnel them towards people likely to get abilities from them. So a disproportionate number of artificial children have abilities. And their physical abilities are so great that it¡¯s practically equivalent to another ability potion. No six year old should be able to win an arm wrestling match against an adult and win.¡±


    I nodded thoughtfully, unsure where Old Mo was going with this conversation.


    ¡°With a bunch of former assassins fleeing everywhere, you can expect a lot of scrutiny for weird children.¡± said Old Mo. ¡°The three of you are a lot better at acting your age now, and I did my best to cover up your origins. But someone might still poke around a bit if you do anything odd. I like to think that the backgrounds I¡¯ve woven for the three of you will hold up, but there¡¯s always a risk.¡± He paused, meeting each of our eyes in turn.


    ¡°So¡­ here¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°First of all, you need to be extra careful not to show anything. The good news is that Miria is pretty well known and popular in town. And frankly, she''s the last person anyone would ever suspect of being an assassin. She''s a healer who gets along well with almost everybody. She''s very empathetic towards patients, and everyone who talks about her describes her as a kind little girl who likes healing people." I felt myself flush at Old Mo''s words. "Not to mention, she openly uses her healing ability all the time. Since it''s a well known fact that you can only have one ability, nobody will ever suspect that Miria has other powers. As for you two, Felix and Anise¡­ well, Felix has demonstrated his ¡®mental communication¡¯ powers¡­ which he doesn¡¯t actually have. Anise has demonstrated the ability to fire bolts of force.¡± Old Mo sighed. ¡°Both of those are at least somewhat usable for assassins. But your association with Miria will shield you two a bit. Just be careful. If people start getting suspicious about one of you, it won¡¯t take long for that suspicion to spread to all three of you. While your backgrounds can hold up to some scrutiny, the best background is one so ¡®obviously true¡¯ that nobody checks it.¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°One other thing, though. Miria, you¡¯ve mentioned a few different ¡®long term¡¯ goals to focus on this world. But you never sound very committed to them. You¡¯ve also mentioned that Anise needs to do something impressive with her magic to get a keyword ability. Felix sounds like he already has plans for trying to revolutionize alchemy. The two of you don¡¯t seem to have a good plan for how to proceed, though. Is that accurate?¡±


    I hesitated for a few moments, before I nodded.


    ¡°I suppose it is,¡± I said. ¡°In our last two worlds, I was kind of the reckless one. I pushed our group to explore interesting and dangerous places¡­ but there aren¡¯t many of those in this world. So I¡¯ve been trying to figure out what to do with my future. I¡¯ve been thinking about being a great doctor, or making public schools more widespread, or¡­ well, I don¡¯t know. Living a normal life and farming Achievement for skills and stuff, I guess?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Apart from healing my mother and improving my understanding of alteration magic, I don¡¯t have any concrete long-term plans.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ this is just an idea of mine. When you get a little older, if the experimental children are still on the loose, you could try something with them. Maybe help them integrate into the populace, or something like that? Or handle them if they become dangerous? A bunch of escaped assassins could turn towards regular lives. But they could also mix into criminal elements and become untapped dangers,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°It''s hard to say, but if you keep an eye on the situation, maybe you could find an opportunity to step in. I¡¯m just trying to keep you up to date on directions you could prepare for. It¡¯s up to you, of course, but I''ll keep you up to date on ''interesting'' situations to look into. Besides, helping a bunch of lost children integrate into society sounds like something you would enjoy, Miria.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s an idea,¡± I said thoughtfully. "I would need a way to communicate with them, but if I see an opportunity, I think I would like that." Then, I hugged Old Mo. ¡°Thanks for talking about this with us. I appreciate what you¡¯ve done to help us.¡±


    He smiled gently and ruffled my hair. ¡°No problem, Mir. All right, those are the two things I wanted to mention. Let¡¯s get out of here.¡±


    The four of us left Old Mo¡¯s basement, each lost in our own thoughts.

 Chapter 242: Cube

    Slippy and his group continued walking through the wilderness, slowly approaching the mountains. His group had dodged six different groups of coalition soldiers over the past week. Despite the danger lurking in the area, Slippy had never felt more alive.


    The two weeks he had been free had been eye-opening. He wasn''t a soldier or an assassin anymore. He was free to live his own life and make his own decisions. Nobody ordered him to go to the lab and run tests. Nobody ordered him to wake up at the crack of dawn for training. Nobody made him infiltrate enemy camps and kill soldiers or leaders. He was in charge of his own life now. And Slippy was starting to love that feeling.


    Which was also why he had chosen the destination for the group.


    The mountain range on Verne¡¯s southern border.


    Rumor had it that a few years ago, there had been some sort of catastrophe that decimated the area. Both sides had fought over something, only to have it blow up in their faces. Most of the mountain range had collapsed during a massive earthquake. Once the battle had ended, both sides had ignored the area afterwards.


    Slippy figured both sides had probably fought over a Zelyrian artifact that caused earthquakes. Some madman had then activated it in the middle of battle. Probably the losing side. Having worked with the military, he knew how spiteful the generals were. The moment they started losing, they threw a temper tantrum and blew everything up.


    It was part of the reason that the civilian casualties were so high during the war.


    Either way, no soldiers went into the area anymore. No civilians risked travelling through the area either, because it was dangerous. But all seven children in his group had abilities and exceptional physiques. They might be able to survive where others couldn''t. And the biggest threat right now was being captured by the coalition.


    ¡°The mountains really do look awful,¡± said Mint, breaking Slippy out of his thoughts. "Are you sure


    Slippy looked up, and couldn¡¯t help but agree. The mountains barely looked like a mountain range now. Entire mountain had turned into rubble or sunk into the earth. It looked like a giant had carelessly knocked over children''s wooden blocks. The once towering mountain range had been leveled.


    Slippy looked at his best friend, and sighed, before he nodded.


    ¡°It may look awful, but that also means nobody will find us for a while. We can hide out there until we grow up. After that, we won''t have a hard time blending into a city anymore,¡± said Slippy, before sighing. ¡°Well, for now, we need a place to hole up and get our bearings,¡± he said. "We can make more concrete plans after that." The food that they had taken with them was starting to run low. One of their group members could gather water from their surroundings, so water wasn''t a problem. But without food they would still starve sooner or later.


    Mint sighed, but nodded. ¡°All right. I¡¯ll trust your judgment. But we need to be careful about landslides. Only Vim can survive being buried alive.¡±


    "We don''t have much of a choice. If we go somewhere else, we¡¯ll get caught by the coalition. Besides, there haven¡¯t been any reports of landslides or earthquakes in the past three years. Whatever destroyed this mountain range should have been a one-time thing. We¡¯ll be safe for a while if we hide out here.¡±


    Mint sighed, but she didn¡¯t say anything else as the group continued walking. Slippy could feel anxiety radiating off of his best friend, but couldn''t think of a way to reassure her. Despite his confident attitude, he was also a little worried about landslides.


    Soon, they reached the foot of the mountains. Mint scratched her head as they got a closer look at some of the damage done to the mountain range.


    ¡°Slippy, are you sure that earthquake magic did all this?¡± She asked, as she pointed at a nearby crater.


    Slippy looked at the crater and frowned. The crater that mint was pointing at was a perfectly spherical chunk of missing earth. There were no nearby objects that could have fallen and created an impact crater. And Slippy didn''t think impact craters could be so perfectly spherical, either. It almost looked like the ground itself had vanished into thin air. He had no idea what he was looking at.


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    He scratched his head in confusion. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know. That doesn¡¯t look like earth manipulation. I was so sure it was earthquake magic¡­¡± he said. Maybe he had been too confident about their destination? He started to feel more nervous. If he had misled the group, he would feel awful.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it was earthquake magic either. Maybe the earth was teleported away?¡± said Del, taking a step closer to the giant crater. ¡°I remember a kid I worked with a year ago could teleport earth around. When she used her ability it looked kind of like this.¡±


    Slippy looked at the spherical crater, before he nodded. ¡°That¡¯s not something I thought of, but it makes sense to me. It would also explain all of the landslides and destruction here...¡± he trailed off, as he tried to imagine bits of mountain teleporting away. Part of him wondered where the random chunks of mountain went if they teleported away. Maybe they got teleported into the ocean? A moment later, he shook his head. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter to us now. In fact, that makes me a lot more confident about hiding out here. There''s no way teleportation can happen without a lot of essence. There''s no chance of it happening accidentally. So if we hide here, we just need to worry about more mundane landslides.¡±


    A few of the other group members hesitated, before some of them nodded in agreement. Slippy turned towards another of the group members.


    ¡°Melody, can you get me some eyes in the sky? I want to see if there¡¯s a particularly stable-looking area,¡± said Slippy. Melody nodded, and Slippy felt a surge of essence leave Melody¡¯s body before it drifted into the air. A few moments later, she grinned.


    ¡°If we can make our way over that mountain, there¡¯s a little valley on the other side. It''s less than two kilometers away." Then, she gasped in excitement. "I see berry bushes and rabbits in the valley!  I can also see some wild carrots. We can definitely forage for some food there. Maybe we can even settle and start stocking up for winter. We still have plenty of time to get food reserves ready, as long as we work fast,¡± she said. Then, Melody turned towards Will. ¡°Hey Will, can your ability help plants grow?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know. I could try..." said Will. ¡°It¡¯s not what I usually use my ability for. Once we get there, I''ll give it a shot,¡± he said.


    "If it doesn''t work, don''t worry about it," said Slippy. "I know you''re a lot better at using vines to strangle people. You could still help us catch rabbits, even if it doesn''t work for growing berries.¡± Will looked a little less nervous after that statement.


    Slippy grinned as he imagined settling down for a few days, or even a few months. It was all coming together. Food and water were secure. They could build a few huts with some time and effort. As long as they all pitched on, they could survive here. Someday, they could leave and really live lives of their own.


    ¡°All right, let¡¯s keep moving. I want to get there in an hour or two if we can,¡± he said, before leading his group forward.


    A few minutes later, Slippy spotted a purple-green rock sticking out of the soil. It looked like a miniature pyramid, and stuck out like a sore thumb. Slippy frowned.


    Gold-purple wasn''t a type of rock he had ever encountered before.


    Caught by curiosity, Slippy walked a little closer. After a few moments, he realized that he wasn''t looking at a rock or a pyramid at all.


    Instead, he was looking at the edge of a buried cube of metal. Next to the cube, there were also a few tattered pieces of clothing. Slippy had no idea what happened to the owners of that clothing.


    How odd, he thought, as he leaned down to touch it. He could only see a corner of it, but when he tried to move it, he realized that the cube must be quite large. It might even be the same size as he was.


    ¡°Can you help me dig it out, Vim?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I got it,¡± said Vim, as her arms started to shimmer with essence. A few moments later, she plunged her arms through the dirt, almost as if it were air, and then grunted with effort. ¡°It¡¯s way bigger than I thought,¡± she said, before she managed to drag a large metal cube out of the ground.


    Slippy looked at the weird metal cube, and his confusion deepened. The cube''s exterior had intricately carved symbols on it. The symbols crackled with a weird type of essence that just felt wrong to him. The cube was nearly half the size that he was.


    It was a Zelyrian artifact.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± said Slippy, as he inspected the weird cube ¡°What the heck is this thing?¡±


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s the artifact that made this mountain range blow itself up?¡± asked Mint, as she squinted at it. ¡°I don¡¯t know if messing with it is a good idea. If we cause another earthquake to start right on top of us, we could die.¡±


    Slippy nodded. Mint was right. He was curious, and he even had thoughts of using a Zelyrian artifact to keep everyone safe. But activating an unknown Zelyrian artifact was dangerous. ¡°Let¡¯s bring it with us, but make sure not to feed it any essence or touch the surface of the cube. Only touch the mud caking most of the exterior. In fact, Vim, could you smear some more mud on the uncovered metal?¡± he asked. Vim nodded, and added some mud to the only uncovered parts of the cube. Slippy grinned. ¡°Let¡¯s make sure we don¡¯t push a button and kill ourselves.¡±


    They could always inspect the cube later, when they had settled down for the night. Slippy wasn''t dumb enough to feed an unknown artifact essence - but he still wanted to see what the cube did. It might turn out to be a valuable way to keep the group safe later.

 Chapter 243: Shapeshifting

    The next month passed peacefully. The three of us continued going to school, while my magic research also progressed. My illusions, in particular, made excellent strides forward. However, I kept hitting problems when I tried to improve my shapeshifting abilities. Even though I knew what I wanted, I just couldn¡¯t quite make it happen. Finally, I decided to take a more aggressive research policy.


    The biggest problem with my research on shapeshifting was how to keep the body stable. There were a lot of bones, muscles, and blood vessels involved in the human body. If I adjusted it without proper planning, the whole structure would fall apart.


    Normally, that would have dissuaded me from experimenting on the human form at all. After all, my experiments on animals and plants were nothing short of disastrous.


    However, my understanding of the human form had improved dramatically over the past few years. My time in the clinic, as well as my study of the human body in school, had brought me to the level of a novice doctor. Even without magic, I was now qualified to help heal patients. Even if I couldn''t shapeshift plants or animals very well, I might have more success with humans. And I needed to grow quickly - the fight to procure more lives would come soon, and we only had a few lives to grow.


    So I finally decided to try strengthening my pinky finger. I felt that was a good way to experiment with my shapeshifting powers. If I messed up, I could just cut off my hand and regrow it. It would definitely hurt a lot... but I could stomach some pain. My pinky finger was also far away from the vital parts of my body, so it was unlikely I would kill myself by accident.


    So one night after school, I asked Anise and Felix to watch over me in case something went wrong. If I made a huge mistake, Felix and Anise were to chop off my hand and rush me to doctor Trish. Anise seemed a little uneasy at my request¡­ but she acquiesced when I talked about what I was doing and why. None of us wanted to fail our battle to get more lives, and the stronger we were, the safer we would be when the time came.


    That night, the three of us gathered in my apartment. My mother was temporarily moved to Doctor Trish''s clinic, in case she needed something. We also prepared a lot of medical equipment, just in case I needed it.


    I stared at my pinky finger, and focused on the muscles, blood vessels, and nerves that I had knew about. I had already healed these muscles several times while working with doctor Trish. The practical understanding I had, as well as the knowledge I had gained in school, guided my actions.


    I started strengthening the tendons at the base of my pinky as well as the muscles related to them, expanding them and increasing the power they could exert. I also expanded the blood vessels, making sure that the new muscle fiber I had the blood flow needed to work. Finally, I anchored the new strands of muscle fiber to the other muscle fibers and bones. As a final touch, I reworked the way binding essence connected everything together. As I reorganized my body, I also paid careful attention to my hand. I wanted to catch any problems before they grew bigger.


    I almost immediately lost concentration when I felt unbearable pain radiate from my pinky. I doubled over, and nearly started screaming my lungs out.


    ¡°Miria! Are you all right?¡± asked Felix, as he raised the sword in his hand. Right before he swung at my hand to cut it off, I felt the pain start to subside.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m fine,¡± I said, gasping. Felix stared hesitantly at my hand and the sword, before he put it back down. I sent a small pulse of healing magic through my arm, and felt the strained muscles and nerves relax.


    And then I frowned. I felt something in the middle of my palm. I blinked in confusion.


    Why did it feel like something inside of my palm? I hadn¡¯t messed with my palm at all.


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    I sent another pulse of healing magic through my arm, and felt the healing mana get stuck in the middle of my hand.


    I remembered the issue I had when I was thinking about healing my mother¡¯s brain. I had no way to extract the little chunks of hardened mold in her brain, which was why I couldn¡¯t heal her. Maybe there was a similar issue with my palm?


    I scratched my head, and then turned towards Felix. "Hand me the sword, would you?" I asked. Felix gave me the blade, and I used it to slice open my palm. After a lit bit of rooting around, I fished out a small blob of flesh and muscle fiber. My hand also bled all over the carpet, which made me wince. I resisted the urge to frown at the mess I had made.


    When I had changed myself, it seemed that I had accidentally detached some of my muscle fibers from my pinky finger. These muscle fibers had somehow made their way into the center of my palm. I wasn¡¯t sure how they had gotten there - perhaps they had been carried by my bloodstream? Or perhaps I had accidentally opened a hole in parts of my muscles while I was messing with everything? I was honestly baffled. Either way, the process of fishing out a small blob of flesh from my body was¡­ rather gross.


    Felix and Anise watched as I extracted the tiny bundle of muscle fibers and blood, before Felix shook his head. ¡°That¡­ doesn¡¯t exactly look as safe as you were hoping it would be, Miria.¡±


    I winced. ¡°I know. I was trying to create a safe shapeshifting procedure, but if the results are like this..." I sighed. "Well, it''s just my first attempt. The important thing to do is learn from it. The real question is whether I succeeded - did I actually improve my pinky, or is it weaker than before?" I grinned. "If I did succeed, I can start figuring out where I went wrong. I don''t know why it hurt so much, or why I dislodged the muscle fibers... but that can be fixed." Then, I tried bending my pinky finger, and grinned.


    I could still move my pinky. After I saw the bundle of muscle fibers lodged in my palm, I had suspected that I had totally ruined my pinky. But I could still move it. So at the very least, I hadn''t completely destroyed my finger. The worst case scenario, cutting off my hand so that I could regrow it correctly, hadn''t happened. In fact, my pinky felt a little bit stronger than before.


    ¡°Anise, could you give me the dynamometer?" I asked, indicating one of the pieces of equipment I had prepared for today. Dynamometers were capable of measuring people''s grip strength. It would help me measure my ¡®improvements¡¯ to my pinky finger and see if my improved strength was an illusion.


    After that, I started squeezing the measuring instrument. I hadn¡¯t noticed any changes to my Status Screen¡­ but I was still hoping that I would notice a little difference in my strength.


    After a few tests, my smile grew much wider.


    With my Grade 8 strength and the body of a 10 year old, my grip strength had previously been around sixty kilograms. This exceeded the average grip strength of adult males, who had a grip strength fifty kilograms. While this was already impressive, after my modifications, my grip strength had grown. It was about one and a half kilograms stronger than before.


    Of course, that wasn¡¯t a huge increase. but I cared more about what it symbolized.


    Even if there were some issues, I had figured out how to do a very permanent improvement to my body! I still had a lot of things to work out - for example, the little blob of muscle fibers and nerves that I had dislodged. But even though there were some problems¡­ I had still taken the first step towards mastering shapeshifting. I had finally conducted my first successful experiment. It would take a lot of work, but I could already imagine how useful this would be in the future. In the future, I might be able to enhance our body in every new world. Or I might find a way to enhance the lifetime of our bodies in the Market. I might even make it possible to shapeshift into animals, or something like that. Being able to become a mouse or an owl would make scouting and spying much easier in future worlds. There were all sorts of applications for proper shapeshifting, if I mastered the art. I still intended to mostly specialize in magic - but I didn¡¯t mind having a few other options when the situation called for it.


    At the same time, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if I could take any of the lessons from this shapeshifting session and convert it into healing my mother. Obviously, my shapeshifting wasn''t safe to use on other people yet. It wasn''t even really safe to use on myself. But if I kept expanding my knowledge... perhaps I could shapeshift the bits of mold out of my mother''s brain. It was an alternate solution to my previous line of research, and might take less time to develop successfully.


    I couldn¡¯t help but grin at the idea. Tomorrow, I would take another look at my mother''s brain, just to see if I had any new insights on her condition.

 Chapter 244: Souls and Dimensions

    The next day, after school, I started investigating my mother¡¯s condition again. Since brains and souls were so deeply intertwined¡­ I really needed to understand how they worked with each other before I could safely heal my mother. But after my first successful shapeshifting experiment, I had a little bit more hope. Maybe if I investigated my mother''s mind again, I could figure out a faster way to cure her.


    Felix and Old Mo hung out with me while I looked over my mother again, half to offer suggestions as I worked.


    After I got set up, I started by observing my mother''s brain with my spatial sight. From this perspective, the chunks of crystalized mold in her brain looked like tumors. I didn''t see an easy way to extract them, though. I might be able to shapeshift away the tissue surrounding some of those ''tumors'' - but I had no idea how to keep my mother''s soul attached to her body in the process. Through my soul-sight, I could still see that my mother''s soul was firmly attached to her brain... but I had no idea how the two were connected.


    ¡°Could you just cut out the chunks of hardened mold in your mother¡¯s brain?¡± asked Old Mo, as I stared at the organ in question. "If you get doctor Trish to use a scalpel or something, that could work."


    ¡°Well¡­ some of the chunks of crystalized mold are pretty close to the center of her brain,¡± I said. ¡°I don''t know if there''s even a way to remove them without killing her. If I knew how souls connected to brains better, it might be possible to just... stuff my mother''s soul in a jar for a bit and fix her brain. Or something. But I have no idea how that works.¡± I frowned. ¡°And if I try to use essence to dislodge the crystalized mold, the chunks of mold have a good chance of entering my mother¡¯s arteries. Which would then cause a stroke and possibly kill her on the spot. Right now, my mother¡¯s brain is already filled with layers of crystalized mold, and I doubt her health is good enough to handle several strokes. Heck, if I didn¡¯t constantly heal her, she probably would have had several strokes and died already."


    ¡°Well... if she should have had several strokes, but hasn¡¯t, maybe that¡¯s a good avenue for research," said Felix, thoughtfully. "I mean, your healing is obviously able to heal the symptoms of a stroke - but as far as I know, you possess no ability to handle the ¡®root cause.¡¯ Despite that fact, your healing has somehow fixed the problem. This might be a good point of investigation,¡± said Felix.


    I frowned. Felix actually made a pretty good point. I started paying closer attention to the way my mother''s brain looked. I spent several minutes comparing it with what I thought would look ''natural,'' as well as the way most human brains looked. Eventually, I realized something.


    ¡°It looks like my healing magic has slowly rewired where some of her arteries go,¡± I said. ¡°Not very well¡­ after all, she''s almost never conscious. But I suspect that this is the best possible route for her blood to travel now. My magic just kept moving things around, step by step, until it found a path that kept her alive. Or at least, I think that''s what happened," I said.


    "So it''s possible for your healing magic to change blood flow without killing the patient," said Felix. "If you can work with that, you just need to find a way to get rid of the crystalized mold itself."


    I nodded. ¡°The issue is doing so without causing her to have a stroke, or breaking everything horribly and killing her on the spot.¡± The difference between my magic fixing something and me understanding it had never been clearer to me. I hadn''t even realized that my healing had moved my mother''s arteries around until Felix mentioned it. I sank into thought. If my magic could do it, that meant I could, too. I just needed to figure out what was happening behind the scenes, and then replicate it...


    While I was discussing my progress with Felix and Old Mo, Sallia sent me a message that caught me by surprise.


    <Anise says that you¡¯re investigating how souls and brains work, right? I didn¡¯t think about this until now, but I could help,> she said.


    <How?> I asked. Sallia wasn''t really able to do much these days, since she was dead. She was mostly moral support these days.


    <Miria, have you perhaps forgotten where I am?> asked Sallia. <Currently, as a disembodied soul, I can see the ocean of souls from here. I can share my vision with you when you want to observe souls in their ''natural form.'' Right now, I¡¯m also using an artificial, magically generated brain from the Market to think. If you reverse-engineer how my magic brain works, you could learn about brains. Then you can run some tests on lab rats to verify your research. I think you could learn a lot from sharing my vision> she said. Even though I couldn¡¯t see her, I could still hear the smile in Sallia¡¯s voice as she spoke.


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    <That''s... a really good idea,> I said. Now that I actually had a rough understanding of human biology, I could experiment a little. I was no longer the novice who barely understood how the human body worked together. Researching souls and brains was now possible for me, especially if Sallia provided a foothold for me.


    <Thank you, Sallia,> I said. <I would love to take you up on that offer.> I grinned. I had finally found a doorway to learn about souls


    * * *


    Somewhere far away, a worldstrider made its way through a tiny crack in reality. It was freshly made, which the worldstrider thought was quite unusual. It was also barely the size of a melon. Even with the worldstrider''s ability to compress its body, fitting through the portal was difficult.


    But it was still able to make its into the spatial tunnel.


    As it continued traveling through the portal, it felt the insistent tug of something trying to wrench it back. It resisted the urge to curse.


    The damn Zelyrians had been vicious when they had created the pocket dimension. Every single crevice in the pocket dimension also worked as a tether. The further away the worldstriders were, the more their tether dragged them back. But still, the worldstrider struggled to make its way towards the outside world. It hadn¡¯t ever seen the sunlight, or felt the wind. Even if it knew its tether would drag it back, it wanted to see the outside world.


    Moments later, it felt the spatial tunnel start to collapse while it was still inside. The worldstrider panicked, and fled towards the outside world as fast as it could. It strained against its tether, even as the spatial tunnel grew tighter and tighter. The little worldstrider knew that if it didn''t escape in time, it would die. The spatial tunnel would crush it into paste.


    Moments later, it exited the tunnel¡­ and not a moment too soon. Right as it escaped, the spatial tunnel collapsed completely. It spent a few minutes lethargically drifting through space. It had strained so hard against its tether that it was about to collapse from exhaustion.


    But it was finally out. It had left the pocket dimension it had been born in.


    After it regained some energy, the worldstrider took a proper look around. It saw a group of seven children working nearby in the valley. It resisted the urge to flee in terror. Were these people the ''Zelyrians'' that had imprisoned its elders? A moment later, it realized something was wrong. These people... didn''t feel like Zelyrians. It drifted a bit closer, to confirm whether these people were the ''enemy.'' But their essence didn''t feel similar to the tether that imprisoned it.


    As it moved closer, it could see one of the children holding a large metal cube in his arms. The worldstrider felt something¡­ familiar about that cube. Unlike the children, the cube felt similar to its tether.


    It nearly hissed in disgust and leapt towards the metal cube, before its mind won over its instincts. Lashing out thoughtlessly might put it in danger. It had no idea what the boy and the other children were capable of. Being cautious was best.


    A few moments later, the worldstrider watched in fascination as the boy and his companions dripped a tiny, insignificant amount of essence into the cube.


    Moments later, a small portal appeared near them. The worldstrider noticed that it was barely the size of a tennis ball - it was a tunnel that even a worldstrider would struggle to fit inside of. But it was clearly a portal to the pocket dimension.


    The worldstrider fell into thought.


    Could the metal cube could open passages to the pocket dimension?


    The worldstrider even closer to the children to get a better look.


    And then it realized something else. Something that should have been obvious from the beginning.


    Moving was easier than before. The pull of its tether was weaker. Not gone... but diminished.


    The worldstrider circled around the area several times before confirming it wasn''t dreaming. The tether had really gotten weaker.


    The worldstrider blinked in surprise.


    Was it possible that being outside of the pocket dimension had weakened the tether¡¯s hold on it? Or perhaps being disconnected from the pocket dimension had weakened the tether? The worldstrider wasn''t sure. But either way, it was the closest to freedom it had ever been.


    At once, the worldstrider¡¯s mind flickered with possibilities.


    During the initial chaos a few years ago, when a bunch of portals opened, none of the worldstriders had managed to leave. A few had tried, but they had been crushed by the unraveling spatial tunnels. However, if there was a more stable way to escape that damned pocket dimension¡­


    If the cube could be controlled...


    Perhaps everyone could finally leave.


    It was a dim hope... but it was more than the worldstriders had had for generations.


    All it needed to do was find a way to snatch the metal cube.

 Chapter 245: Field Trip

    Author¡¯s Note: I feel the need to preface the chapter with this.


    DO NOT MAKE THIS ABOUT REAL WORLD POLITICS.


    There¡¯s part of this chapter that is devoted to the mechanics of souls and babies. This is NOT intended to be in any way related to real world politics. Do not take it as such. This is a fantasy story where magic, souls, and reincarnation are easily verified, observable parts of reality. Obviously, there has to be some kind of system governing it. This is what made the most sense for the story, and is not meant to be related to the real world in any way. It¡¯s just what made sense with the rest of my worldbuilding. So no political discussions. Political discussions never go anywhere and just make everyone unhappy. Okay?


    Time passed, and before I knew it, we turned twelve. Five years had passed since we entered alchemy prep school.


    During that time, Iselde, Vance, and the three of us from the Market had grown closer. I had also continued my research. I learned a fair amount about the human body¡­ but much more importantly, I had learned about the soul.


    With Sallia¡¯s help, my research had finally started to advance in the right direction.


    After a few days of observing souls in the ocean of souls and brainstorming, Sallia had an idea. She suggested that I try observing pregnant women, to see how souls connected to newborns. Doctor Trish''s clinic had a few pregnant women as patients from time to time, so I asked for permission to sit in. I was already a well known healer with an ability, so only a few of them objected to my presence. Through that, I was able to get some fresh data.


    As it turned out, babies did not have souls from the moment of conception. Instead, when I looked at newly formed fetuses, it was almost as if there was a¡­ tiny void in their brains. It was hard to spot at first, because it was so tiny.


    As the babies grew larger and older, this void grew more noticeable. Then, once the baby reached a certain level of development, it started to sort of¡­ tug at something. It was something like a signal beacon. It radiated tiny waves of energy towards the void. It took me a bit of time to realize what was happening.


    The unborn babies past a certain size were somehow pulling at the ocean of souls. If I used both my sight abilities at the same time, I could somehow use the ocean of souls as a fresh set of eyes. Since my spatial sight let me use nearby water as my eyes... that meant that I was somehow near the ocean of souls right now.


    From there, it wasn''t too hard to figure out what was going on. Somehow, when babies started ''calling'' for a soul, they opened a window to the ocean of souls. It didn¡¯t appear to be made of essence, or mana, or any other type of magic at all. It just¡­ existed. I could only see it when I used both of my special visions at the same time, but it was clearly there. And I hadn''t the faintest idea what it was or how it was made.


    After the little window between the ocean and the fetus was formed, the signal from the fetus grew much stronger. It started trying to absorb a new soul directly from the ocean. In one observation, I saw one of these little windows to the ocean directly grab a soul and drag it into the baby''s brain.


    I noticed something interesting during this process.


    First of all, the ¡®suction¡¯ force of the unborn baby only influenced souls that were silver-colored. I had noticed in the past that humanoids always had silver colored souls, while plants and spiders had differently colored souls. Now, it was clear that bodies somehow knew which kind of souls they wanted. It also meant that people wouldn''t just reincarnate as random plants or animals from one life to another. I didn''t know exactly how much leeway there was for the connection between a body and a soul - but there must be a limit. Humans would probably always reincarnate as humanoid creatures, spiders would always reincarnate as spiders, and so on. There was never any risk that I would reincarnate as a fish or something in another life.


    I didn¡¯t observe any other changes immediately after I saw a baby''s body snatch a soul. But I made a mental note about what I had seen.


    On one other occasion, I watched a soul get formed instead of dragged in from the ocean of souls. In this case, a baby was born¡­ and the little void inside of its brain was still empty. The little window between the ocean of souls and reality still hadn¡¯t snapped shut, even after the baby was born. There was no soul in the baby''s body, either. For whatever reason, this particular baby had exceptionally weak suction force. However, it still ended up with a soul. After a few hours, the void in the baby''s brain sucked up a bunch of¡­ ocean of souls water. Over the course of the next few hours, I saw the water start to go through several processes I didn¡¯t understand. Whatever was happening was so alien to my knowledge of the multiverse that I couldn''t figure out what was happening. It almost looked like the ocean water was heating up and cooling down... but it also kind of resembled molten metal being poured into a cast.


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    Whatever was happening on a deeper level, from my viewpoint, the soul gradually turned silver over the course of a few hours. Afterward, it looked exactly like a normal, silver-colored humanoid soul.


    Apparently, if a newborn didn''t have a soul, it would drag in a bunch of ocean water instead. I knew that when souls didn¡¯t have enough achievement between lives, they would collapse in the middle of the ocean of souls and turn into ocean water. The fact that the ocean water could turn back into souls probably shouldn''t have surprised me as much as it did.


    The final thing I learned from observing babies was the time limit. If a baby was born and more than four hours passed without it obtaining a soul, it died. Its organs and brain would all simultaneously fail, and even if I tried to heal it, nothing would happen. I had the strangest feeling that I was trying to pour water into a leaky bucket. Everything I did just fell out of the baby''s body without accomplishing a thing.


    Unfortunately, while this was interesting, it wasn''t quite what I was hoping to learn. I mostly wanted to focus on how souls and brains interacted with each other. This information was useful, but wouldn''t help me cure my mother. So I slightly changed the research direction.


    I knew from the information we had found in the Market that souls had four layers to them. The outer layer was where Achievement was stored, the second layer contained memories, the third layer helped pilot the brain, and the fourth contained our personality.


    So I worked hard to observe souls through the images Sallia sent via friendship bracelet, until I finally the third layer of a soul. Eventually, a soul floated near Sallia that had already lost the two outer layers of its soul. The ocean was eating away at the third layer already, but I managed to get a few glimpses of the third layer before the soul collapsed.


    From there, I had a better idea what to look for. With Sallia¡¯s help, I kept looking at the souls in the ocean again and again, until I found a few more souls with only a third layer left. I compared this with babies I had observed to refine my understanding of souls. However, the opportunity to study souls that were in the midst of disintegration was very rare. And I felt awful every time I saw it happen. Eventually, I found another way to observe ''weakened'' souls. Coma patients.


    In coma patients, the souls I observed were usually hanging on to the brain by a thread. This meant that more of the soul was exposed for me to analyze. I also didn''t feel anywhere near as bad about observing them, since I could actually help. In this world, people didn''t have very good treatment methods to keep coma patients alive. I couldn''t do anything to help the coma patients reattach their souls to their brain, but I could help them survive. My healing magic could compensate for most other problems the patients experienced, giving them hope of waking up someday. Through coma patients, I was able to observe many of the tethers that linked souls and brains. My understanding was still shallow, but it was advancing with every patient I saw.


    Apart from my studies of souls, coma patients, and babies, my shapeshifting also improved. I corrected the muscle-detachment problem that my first experiment had. After a year of experiments, I completely strengthened my hand. Combined with my own natural growth as my body, my grip strength increased to about 80 kilograms. I was nowhere near the limits of my strength yet, since my body was still growing¡­ but it was still an improvement. By strengthening the fingers, hands, and related muscle groups, I had increased my grip strength by 15% with no obvious side effects. Naturally, once I confirmed there were no side effects, Anise and Felix also got hand improvements.


    Felix and Anise¡¯s star paper research continued, but had yet to improve beyond 60% efficiency. Whatever we tried didn''t solve some sort of fundamental problem with our star paper. Luckily, Anise didn''t need perfect starpaper. Her progress in spellcasting was still coming along well, and she had formed a third, more complicated spell map: fireball. Anise could now lob fireballs, making her much more of a terror on potential battlefields in the future. It was only a poor imitation of the fire magic she''d had access to during {Phoenix''s Last Stand}, but it was still useful. Especially since her sword still gave her very weak control over fire, even without {Phoenix''s Last Stand} activated. It wasn''t even at the level of a basic grade ability, but it let her do things like adjust the trajectory of fireball spells and spend less mana on each fireball. It was minor, but useful.


    Of course, Anise using fireballs also presented its own problems. Anise¡¯s ability was supposed to be force manipulation. Anise couldn¡¯t use fire magic where other people might notice, or we would have a lot of explaining to do. Still, it was better to have the option if it was necessary.


    About two months after we turned twelve, much to my surprise, our teacher had a new idea.


    ¡°All of you are a lot older and more mature now. And everyone has learned how to at least do some basic alchemy,¡± said Mr. Delmont. "Most of you have even started more advanced exercises." He eyed me.


    I tried not to blush. My talent for binding essence was truly abysmal.


    ¡°Anyway,¡± said Mister Delmont, ¡°I think that all of you would benefit from learning more about the past. Specifically, I want to talk about Old Zelyrian artifacts. Much of what we know about Alchemy claims that the feats the old Zelyrians are impossible. Yet, there are dozens of historical records verifying them. We do not know how they accomplished half of the things that they did. Their artifacts and technology are a source of endless debate and confusion in scholarly circles. I think that looking at the Zelyrians might give you a fresh perspective on alchemy. How would all of you like to go on a field trip to the Zelyrian museum on Friday?¡± he asked.

 Chapter 246: Field Trip (2)

    The next day, our class walked to the Zelyrian history museum. A security guard from the school came with us. Anise seemed very excited about it, and had a little excited bounce in her steps as she walked. It almost made her look like a real kid. Vance seemed almost as excited as she was. Knowing that Vance had a thing for swords and this world¡¯s version of the middle ages, I wasn¡¯t surprised.


    I was also excited about our trip to the museum. After all, the Zelyrians had clearly studied space in far greater detail than I had. Even if they had failed at the last step, they had still created a massive pocket dimension. I still had a lot to learn about space. I hadn''t given up on figuring out the strange state I entered when I used 3 spatial runes at once. The odds were slim, but I might get lucky and find a clue in the museum. Even if I didn''t find any information, I could have a fun day hanging out with my friends. That was also a good outcome in my eyes.


    After fifteen minutes of walking, the class reached the Zelyrian museum.


    ¡°Welcome!¡± said a tour guide once we arrived. She looked to be in her late twenties, and had platinum hair and a bright smile. ¡°My name is Mary! Nice to meet you! You guys are a few minutes early, so you¡¯ll have to wait until the last group finishes their tour. While we¡¯re waiting, can I get you guys anything to eat? You can¡¯t eat once we start visiting the exhibits, but you can have something before the tour starts!¡±


    Mister Delmont nodded. ¡°How much time do we have?¡±


    ¡°Approximately ten minutes, last I heard.¡±


    ¡°Do you have light food that we can finish quickly? I don¡¯t want to rush the kids, but I also don¡¯t want to delay the next group.¡±


    ¡°We have options for that,¡± said Mary. She led us into a small caf¨¦ near the entrance of the museum, and we were given several small cakes and snacks to eat.


    As we were eating, we saw another group of people make their way to the exit of the museum. Much like our group, they appeared to from a school. Mary also noticed them, and grinned as they walked out.


    ¡°The last group is done. You can start now!¡± Mary said. We finished our last bites of food, before we got up and made our way out of the caf¨¦. Mary started leading us through the museum.


    The first fifteen minutes were nothing special. The museum seemed to have dedicated specific exhibits to each caste in Zelyrian society. The first room was focused on normal Zelyrian citizens. In other words, the lower class that had done farming, mining, and metalworking. They were the natives of this dimension who had been conquered by the Zelyrians. Since I wasn''t that interested in normal history, most of Mary''s words went in one ear and out the other.


    The second area managed to grab more of my attention. It was focused on the Zelyrian ¡®nobility''. Naturally, I was much more interested in the outsiders than the natives of this world. However, as I listened to Mary''s description of the Zelyrians, I started to feel that something was very... off.


    Mary first talked about Zelyrian ¡®spellcasting,¡¯ which she believed was the precursor to ability potions. She stated that the Zelyrians must have had some special form of ability potion. This was her explanation for why Zelyrian spellcasters could use multiple ''abilities''. She also mentioned that many historical sources said their essence felt wrong. Enemy kingdoms had believed the Zelyrians had made pacts with ''evil gods'' to get their power.


    I had to try very hard not to laugh at this description. Mary''s descripttions were probably the mainstream beliefs of scholars in this country. But since I knew more of story, Mary''s explanation made me chuckle. To the people of this dimension, who only had binding essence and absorption essence, the underlying complexity of different essences would seem unintuitive. But for the three of us, the idea that different magic systems had different rules was much more normal to us. At the end of the day, the scholars of this world had done their best, but they were missing a lot of information.


    Mary¡¯s introduction to Zelyrian spellcasters ended with a description of the ¡®unholy parties¡¯ that they held at night. Enemy kingdoms had believed that these parties were meetings with their dark gods.


    ¡°Most of the descriptions of these ¡®evil parties¡¯ were written by enemies of their kingdom, sadly,¡± said Mary. ¡°We may never know what the Zelyrians were really doing when they met at night. Perhaps they were ordinary parties, to discuss politics or deals. Perhaps they were some sort of religious rite. Maybe moonlight was critical in allowing the Zelyrians to use multiple abilities,¡± said Mary. ¡°Unfortunately, the Zelyrians never recorded the true meaning of their moonlight parties. A few of their books for children reference starlight. Those books all seem to be nonsense though, and talk about things that don¡¯t work. We¡¯re uncertain why these books were written in the first place. Perhaps they''re mistranslated, or we''re missing a subtext of religious descriptions. Either way, their spellcasting textbooks for children clearly aren¡¯t meant to be taken literally.¡±


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    I saw Felix eye Anise from the side.


    ¡°Well Anise? Do you feel any desire to worship strange, evil gods while working on your nonsensical spellcasting?¡± he whispered. "Preferably at night while consorting with the moon?"


    Anise giggled at Felix''s words, and had to clench her jaw to prevent Mary from hearing her.


    As we continued going through the exhibit on Zelyrian Society, I noticed that Anise started to perk up in excitement. Finally, she gave me a wide grin.


    ¡°Miria! Even the ancient Zelyrians don¡¯t seem to have had anything like star paper!¡± she whispered. ¡°There wasn¡¯t a single mention of any equivalent object or artifact in the museum! You and Felix really created something new and amazing!¡±


    ¡°True,¡± I said, before I frowned. ¡°I wonder why they never made anything similar. You would think that they would want to create an artifact like star paper the moment they had the option. It makes training vastly more efficient. And honestly, if three kids can make it, it can''t be that hard to figure out.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s probably because of class differences,¡± said Felix. ¡°During the golden age of the Zelyrian empire, the natives of this dimension were treated as second class citizens. Without the extensive systems that support alchemists today, native alchemy was weak. It took hundreds of years for alchemy to develop into the pillar of civilization it is today. Back then, they couldn¡¯t do transmutation, and affixation was inferior to Zelyrian artifact creation. The Zelyrians probably thought of the natives as inferior item craftsmen,¡± he said. ¡°Who would ask inferior craftsmen to create new, revolutionary ideas?¡±


    I nodded. Felix¡¯s words made sense.


    In the next room, we saw more ¡®religious¡¯ icons about the ancient Zelyrians. I realized, with some amusement, that the Zelyrians apparently worshiped the flaming giant with dozens of eyes. From the murals we had found in the pyramid, I knew that the flaming giant had driven the Zelyrians out of their home dimension. Rather than worshiping it, the Zelyrians probably hated it to death. But in the eyes of the natives, the flaming giant was a Zelyrian god, instead.


    The tour guide, Mary, even told us that the flaming giant could broach the gaps between worlds in Zelyrian mythology. Mary believed that the ¡®gaps between words¡¯ referred to the worlds of the living and the dead. The flaming giant was apparently some sort of grim-reaper style religious figure.


    Finally, after a few more rooms, we found an exhibit that made me much more excited.


    Because I learned that I wasn¡¯t the only one to study souls.


    The ancient Zelyrians had clearly had some of their own studies on the subject. Those studies were faithfully recorded on a stone tablet in the museum. Only a third of the stone tablet was present, and it was fuzzy from age. Even with how much of the tablet was missing, I could see a few things on it.


    The first picture was a study of the souls and abilities of worldstriders. It looked like the Zelyrians had been studying how souls and worldstrider abilities interacted, and a comparison between Zelyrian souls and worldstrider souls.


    The picture showed a worldstrider¡¯s soul, right next to a Zelyrian soul. It compared the two, and noted that both souls had 4 layers to them. More importantly, the Zelyrian tablet showed that the worldstrider souls had something¡­ extra to them. Something I had never considered before.


    The souls of every single human I had ever studied was pretty firmly locked into the brain it inhabited. It used the brain as a sort of control panel, through which it operated the rest of the body.


    However, the innate ability for worldstriders to flee from one dimension to another had fascinated the Zelyrians. It looked like they had been trying to figure out if this ability came from the worldstrider''s souls.


    The Zelyrians had found something interesting. When a worldstrider was preparing to use spatial magic, their souls would sort of ¡®pop out¡¯ of their body for a bit. It almost looked like worldstrider souls turned into a sort of tunnel for a few seconds when they moved between layers of reality. After they finished teleporting, the soul would return to its normal state, as if it had never changed shapes in the first place. I was sure that my soul didn¡¯t do anything similar, no matter what spatial abilities I used.


    After that, the next few lines of pictures and text were missing, so I couldn¡¯t see anything else. But I realized something as I looked over the tablet.


    I finally had an idea how to progress my own spatial studies.

 Chapter 247: The Soul of Success

    The rest of the museum tour passed by in a daze. Instead of focusing on the exhibits, I kept thinking about souls and spatial magic.


    After the end of the tour, Mr. Delmont led us to a restaurant, where we had a late lunch. Afterwards, he led us back to the front of the school, before dismissing us so that we could find our guardians. Our homework was to write a three-paragraph essay on the differences between modern alchemy and Zelyrian magic. When I heard about the assignment, I couldn¡¯t help but roll my eyes.


    The normal expectations for twelve year old children were very easy to handle as a former adult. Felix, Anise, and I had written several pages of notes while trying to upgrade Anise¡¯s star paper. My own research notes on how to shapeshift my hand were thirty pages long. A three paragraph paper felt underwhelming in comparison.


    Once we returned home, I got to work on my new idea. I had a new source of inspiration, and I wanted to make use of it before I forgot.


    The Zelyrian museum had inspired me. The Zelyrian soul research itself hadn¡¯t been anything too remarkable, but when I saw the image of a worldstrider¡¯s soul shifting out of its body, I had an idea.


    In the past, when I experimented with my spatial runes, I always felt that something was missing. I lacked a core realization that would let me expand my three spatial runes into a proper Ability. I had always found this puzzling, since I had never felt a barrier in my learning quite like this before. The only other time I recalled getting ''stuck'' was when I was trying to upgrade an ability past advanced grade.


    From my study of souls, I also knew that souls become more ¡®rigid¡¯ after they solidified. Water from the ocean of souls was like raw metal. If it was heated up and poured into a mold, it would become a new shape. But once a soul finished forming, it was far less flexible. It could still bend and stretch a little bit to accomodate adjacent species, but there was a limit.


    The Zelyrian museum had made me think about the interactions between magic and the soul. I had never been able to understand the strange state I entered when I used three spatial runes at once. But what if my attempts to activate three runes at once just¡­ didn¡¯t quite fit what my soul was capable of? Every time I used all three spatial runes at once, it felt like I was being stretched and warped in directions that my brain wasn¡¯t capable of processing. I felt different, alien, and less human than before. I felt my emotions start to change, and it almost felt like I was being bent into a new shape that didn''t fit me.


    What if that feeling wasn¡¯t an illusion?


    What if I was trying to stretch my soul in ways that it couldn¡¯t stretch? After all, the first thing I knew about souls was that they made me aware of my surroundings. They let me think, feel, and act. The fact that I could use water as my eyes already made me think that my rune abilities to do something unusual. My rune abilities might be built around literally stretching my soul to do things it wasn''t innately meant to do. Using all three at once might be trying to push my soul beyond its limit.


    I wasn¡¯t sure if this was a valid line of thought - after all, my understanding of souls was shaky. I only understood the basics. I didn¡¯t know if it was possible to have abilities that were incompatible with my soul. But it would explain why I had never been able to advance my spatial magic.


    Furthermore, that wasn¡¯t the only piece of evidence.


    In our previous world, it had been a well known fact that the Orukthyri had been humanoid once. After the Ortha had experimented on them, the Orukthyri had changed greatly in intelligence and temperament. They had became slightly intelligent monsters instead of people. I didn¡¯t think the Ortha of our previous world had understood much about the soul, so I suspected that the Orukthyri had run into other problems. Perhaps Orukthyri souls didn¡¯t quite fit the bodies they were piloting. This might have been why the original Orukthyri had been so mindless and violent.


    Of course, a lot of this was just guesswork. I couldn¡¯t exactly go back to our previous world and check to see if my theory was correct. But I felt that it made sense. And if it was possible for souls and bodies to become incompatible via magic, why wouldn¡¯t it be possible for me to have a similar problem now?


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    When I talked about my theory with the others, Felix and Sallia both thought that I might be onto something.


    <I think your idea has merit,> said Sallia. <It might be wrong, but... there''s no harm in experimenting a little. Maybe it''ll finally fix the issues you''ve been having. The bigger question is what to do to fix it. The way I see it, you have two avenues forward. First of all, you could try making your soul fit the ability. You¡¯re already researching how souls work, and it might be possible to give your soul a little more ¡®flexibility''. But I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea. Souls are delicate, and I hate the idea of you messing up and permanently killing yourself. There are too many things that could go wrong. Instead, what if you start tailoring your rune abilities to make them more compatible with your soul? It sounds like your soul is hitting a limit to how much it can ''stretch''. So if you reduce the strain a bit, maybe you can go further. If you can devise a version of the three-rune activation that fits your soul a bit better, you might finally form a new ability or skill.>


    <I like Sallia''s idea,> said Felix. <If you succeed, you might end up with a new keyword ability. And a pretty good one at that.> I could almost hear him grinning over the communication bracelets. <Most keyword abilities are formed from doing something impressive with your abilities. Tailoring the rune magic system into a custom-made magic system might qualify.>


    <I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll get that lucky,> I said. <It¡¯ll probably be a new skill. But it would be nice if I got a new keyword ability instead. There''s a chance.>


    I grinned at the thought. Thus far, I hadn¡¯t gotten any major upgrades in this world. I had gotten a fair amount of Achievement, so at the very least, I could upgrade my attributes when we returned to the Market. Every upgrade to a keyword ability represented a much bigger increase in strength, though. I would obviously prefer to improve my keyword abilities if I had the option.


    <So what do you think I should do to tailor the spatial runes to my soul?> I asked.


    <Well, you could try to prevent the runes from pulling you into an out-of-body experience? That seems to be the most ¡®unnatural¡¯ part of the experience. Or maybe you need to control the effects while using your rune abilities. The fact that your ability warps the way you feel and think is probably a bad sign. Finding a way to control that, or remove it, should be beneficial.> said Sallia.


    I nodded.


    <That¡¯s a good idea. Thanks for the brainstorming help,> I said.


    <No problem! Let me know if I can help in some other way!> called Sallia. A few moments later, I felt the other two disconnect from the friendship bracelet communication.


    I sat back down and got to work.


    The next few months, I dove into a long series of experiments. I constantly activated my spatial runes, fell into the same strange, out of body state that I usually fell into, and then tried to find ways to tamp down the side effects. One of my friends always accompanied me, so that I could use my illusion rune.


    The process was far more difficult than the minor alterations to my runes I had used in our previous world. I was trying to do something very complicated and delicate, and I wasn¡¯t entirely sure what I was doing.


    Luckily, my extreme aptitude for alteration essence made progress far easier than it should have been. After several months of research, I had my first minor success.


    I managed to tweak the way my spatial runes worked just right, by cramming the idea of ''humanity'' into all three of my spatial runes. When I activated them, I found that the effects of each rune ability were reduced - but they were still usable. Most importantly, instead of having my consciousness sucked into a strange, out of body experience, I remained myself. But I also became more.


    Every single drop of water in my surroundings felt like it was part of my body. Every single trace of water vapor became another of my eyes. Every single drop of blood in my body also felt like it had undergone a subtle shift, becoming not only blood, but a vessel for my consciousness. Even if every single one of my rune abilities had weakened, they no longer grated on my consciousness. I could use them in synch with each other in a way I had never been able to before.


    Despite each rune providing less, when all three of them syngerized completely with each other they became more. I grinned. The worst part of this ability, and the reason I had originally avoided it, had been successfully removed. I had succeeded


    A few moments later, a cascade of System notifications interrupted my excitement.

 Chapter 248: System Notifications

    The first System notification was simple.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Raise your understanding of Eldritch Soul to [Basic] Grade


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +400


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Unfortunately, I only got 400 Achievement for pushing a magic-related skill to basic grade this time. Last life, it had felt much harder to push {Ocean¡¯s Duality} to [Basic] grade, and I had earned 500 Achievement for it.


    When I saw the next System notification, I felt far more confused than before.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Raise your understanding of Eldritch Soul to [Intermediate] Grade


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had¡­ raised the skill to [Intermediate] grade in one go?


    That was very unexpected. I had never seen a skill increase by two grades at once before. Usually, skills increased at a much more consistent rate. It was my first time seeing something like this.


    After some thinking, I theorized that it had to do with the way abilities worked. I had theorized that my spatial abilities were incompatible with my humanoid soul. Perhaps that incompatibility also made it hard to form abilities and get Achievement. If it was impossible to get Achievement from incompatible skills, that would also explain why I went straight to [Intermediate]. After all, I had been using my spatial soul-manipulation for years already. I had just run into problems whenever I tried to advance it beyond a certain level. I had probably reached [Basic] grade a long time ago in {Eldritch Soul}, and was only getting the reward now.


    I sighed, before I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Either way, I had earned a hefty amount of Achievement. The 1400 Achievement I had earned pushed me from 8,372 Achievement to 9,772. It was a nice addition to my earnings from this world.


    After I checked my new Achievement total, I focused on my next System notifications.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained Eldritch Soul to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Eldritch Soul] as an ability, for the cost of 2000 Achievement.


    Note: because this ability permanently modifies your soul, you may NEVER remove this ability if you take it.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Soul, Space, Madness (3 keywords).


    Your soul is changed in the following ways:


    You may divide your soul into smaller fragments. You may attach these soul fragments to any type of water within your surroundings. These soul fragments retain some of your intelligence and personality. They can move, think, and attack autonomously, and they lose essence every second. They create lesser copies of your abilities.


    Glut Penalty: 30


    Note 1: This ability permanently modifies your soul away from the ¡®basic humanoid¡¯ template. It will not severely impact what species you reincarnate as in the future on its own, but with more abilities, this might change. If your base species changes beyond recognition, you will be moved to a more suitable nursery.


    Note 2: Turning your soul into fragments means peeling off a small layer of the outermost layer of your soul. It is best to avoid doing this more than once every few months. If you use this ability more frequently, it may cost Achievement. If you do so without enough Achievement, permanent soul damage may occur.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This ability was interesting.


    First of all, it sounded like this ability would allow me to leave a fragment of my soul behind in each world, so long as I maintained its essence reserves. I had no way of doing that yet. But the soul fragment in the Zelyrian ruins had told us that this was a way to farm achievement without being present in a dimension. Even if there were some logistical issues I needed to solve, it could be a worthwhile future investment. Earning Achievement from across the ocean of souls sounded excellent.


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    Of course, that wasn¡¯t the most immediate use of this Ability.


    More importantly, I would be able to turn nearby water into a miniature clone of myself. Having clones fight an enemy while I fled would provide amazing new tactical options. My clones could also scout for us. There were dozens of other scenarios where clones would be useful. Even if I could only use the ability once every few months, it was still an amazing tactical option.


    The first note attached to the ability was very interesting. Not only did it confirm my suspicion that souls were somehow tailored to fit certain species, it also stated that if my soul changed enough, I would move to a new nursery in the Market.


    The abilities and items that we had seen in the nursery were useful for humans, but not other species. We had found swords, and backpacks, and clothes that fit us. We had never found anything that would help us... say, maintain our fur, or clean our scales. Which, now that I thought about it, was pretty weird. I seriously doubted that the multiverse was populated only by humans. Since that was the case, why didn''t the Market have non-human products for sale?


    The Market valued money more than anything else. I didn''t think that the Market would refuse to sell to nonhuman life.


    If species were divided into nurseries based on their biology, things made more sense. The fur-cleaning products existed, they just weren''t in our nursery. After all, humans had much less need for that sort of thing.


    The final thing I noticed was that I didn''t get a new ability for raising [Eldritch Soul] to intermediate grade. I only got a reward for raising it to [Basic] grade. That was a bit disappointing, but I shrugged it off. Getting 30 more glut capacity was already going to be hard, if I wanted to buy this ability. I wouldn''t be able to afford an intermediate version even if I unlocked one.


    I waved my thoughts away, and turned towards my final System notification.


    There was another ability I had unlocked.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Blood of the Ocean] as an ability, for the cost of 1000 Achievement. This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Blood, Space (2 keywords).


    Each drop of your blood will transform into an ocean. (You must drink extra liquid to fuel this transformation).


    These oceans will be comprised of a mixture of essence and water. Each drop of blood that is transformed into an ocean will increase your essence storage abilities. They will also enhance your physical attributes. (Attributes can be raised by up to 1 Grade per life through this method).


    These spatial drops of blood will not weigh more than a normal drop of blood.


    For a small amount of essence, you may force these drops of blood to temporarily regain their proper weight. You may also transfer this weight to other nearby liquids.


    The extra essence storage offered by this ability will not increase your essence regeneration rate.


    Glut Penalty: 10


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This one was less flashy, and had a considerably lower glut penalty. However, it also had some rather interesting applications.


    Having each drop of my blood turn into a literal ocean of essence and water meant that my ocean keyword would always be active. More importantly, I would have a much higher amount of essence storage. The extra grade in all of my physical attributes wouldn''t hurt either.


    The fact that it didn¡¯t increase my essence regeneration meant that it wasn¡¯t quite as good as increasing my essence stats. However, a literal ocean of essence in every single drop of blood made it sound like I would have more essence storage than I could ever hope to fill. In a combat situation, my essence regeneration didn¡¯t matter - only how much essence I had on hand. This might not help me train any faster than before, but it could make a massive impact on what kinds of threats I could handle. Extinguish was an incredibly powerful attack, but it also suffered from severe limitations. If I tried to use it on enemies that were much stronger than me, they could just shrug it off. It was also rather expensive to toss out extinguishes left and right, making it hard to handle crowds. This ability could at least partially overcome these weaknesses.


    The weight transfer part of the ability might also be useful. If each drop of my blood weighed as much as an ocean, I could crush weaker enemies with pure weight. I imagined this would be useless against stronger enemies, but it was still interesting. I was having a hard time figuring out when exactly I would want to use that ability, but more options never hurt.


    As I finished looking over my new ability options, I grinned.


    I wasn¡¯t sure whether I would take these abilities once we returned to the Market. They were both expensive, and I was already at 6/10 keyword slots used. But I finally had an option for big upgrades once we finished this life. My study in souls and how to use my alteration essence was also coming along nicely. Seeing my new keyword abilities felt like an affirmation of my progress thus far. I felt warm and fuzzy as I called my friends over the bracelet and told them about my new ability options.

 Chapter 249: Ability Discussion

    <I think that the water-clone ability has much more promise than {Blood of the Ocean},> said Sallia. <It has much more growth potential and value in a variety of situations. Don¡¯t get me wrong, the other ability isn¡¯t bad either - but it¡¯s a lot harder to use. Accessibility is huge on a battlefield. One of the biggest innovations in my first world''s technology was medical kits than people can open with one arm. It made it easier for soldiers to get their wounds sterilized if medics weren''t available. That''s how important accessibility is on a battlefield. And your {Eldritch Soul} ability gives you a lot of new things that are easy to use, unlike the other ability. You don¡¯t have enough keyword slots to take both skills, and I don¡¯t think {Blood of the Ocean} has the same potential.> Sallia paused, before she continued. <It has some uses, but you could get similar effects by increasing your Alteration stat. It doesn¡¯t offer anything unique. {Eldritch Soul} offers you capabilities you¡¯ll never get any other way, while {Blood of the Ocean} is something you''d get with more stat points.>


    I absently flipped through the workbook that mister Delmont had given to the class, as I thought about Sallia''s words. Eventually, I nodded, before I realized Sallia couldn''t see me nodding.


    <I think so too,> I said. <I¡¯m just trying to figure out how to make the numbers work. I would need room for 30 more glut penalty if I want to buy {Eldritch Soul}, and right now that¡¯s¡­ challenging. I don¡¯t want to abandon either of my magic systems. They¡¯re both very useful, and fit me well. The only other ability I have that I could abandon would be the swordsmanship ability. And that¡¯s only 2 glut. I would still need to make up the other 28. Not to mention, we haven¡¯t found a Skill Center yet. I imagine those are in the more dangerous parts of the Market¡­ which means gaining access to them is hard. Finding a way to get 30 glut capacity is very hard.>


    <I suppose,> said Sallia. <But missing out on {Eldritch Soul} would be a huge waste. If you had it, we could possibly even scout out whatever is guarding the lives in the Market. And we would have a much easier time surviving and thriving in future worlds. After all, we''re a team. If you''re stronger, everyone is stronger.>


    I froze.


    I¡­ hadn¡¯t thought of that.


    One of the biggest issues we had right now was that we lacked information. It was obvious that Lives in the Market were guarded by something terrifying, but we had no idea what that terrifying thing was. If we knew what we were going to fight, we could spend future lives building up the perfect skills to counter it. That could make a massive difference.


    <Guys,> I said, expanding the conversation between Sallia and I to include Felix and Anise. <Sallia made a pretty good point about the keyword abilities I unlocked yesterday. With the clone ability, I could scout out whatever is guarding more lives. Then, if we¡¯re lucky, we could spend a world or two building up a perfect toolkit to counter it. What do you think? Is it possible?>


    Anise and Felix froze. Their pens stopped in midair as they stared at their worksheets blankly, and I could see them struggle to keep their self-control for a moment.


    <If it works¡­That would make a huge difference,> said Felix. <How much glut penalty is it again?>


    <30,> I said.


    <Oof.> Felix winced, causing Iselde, who was sitting next to him, to give him an odd look. <That¡¯s¡­ rough. Especially for a basic-grade ability. If I recall correctly, your Intermediate Grade ability is at 40 Glut, right?>


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    I also winced, and nodded. When Felix put it that way, my new basic grade ability was pretty expensive.


    <We¡¯ll see what we can do,> said Felix, after a few moments. <The ability to scout without dying could make all the difference for our survival. If need be, I can lend you some Achievement again. But I still want to wait until I see what I can buy at the end of this world.>


    <Only lend to me if it doesn¡¯t cost you a keyword ability from this world,> I said. <Sallia and I already have our primary magic systems nailed down. You and Anise getting keyword abilities would make a massive difference on future worlds. With a few keyword abilities, it''s much easier to earn more Achievement.>


    <I can give you some Achievement too, if you need it!> said Anise. <I still haven¡¯t gotten a keyword ability that I want, but right now I have a good amount of glut capacity. I won''t need to buy stats after this life. I can give you some Achievement if you need it!>


    <Lend,> I said. <I don¡¯t want to just take the Achievement you¡¯ve earned without giving anything back.>


    I saw Anise hesitate, causing Vance to give Anise a dubious look. Iselde and Vance were staring at the three of us now, as if wondering why we kept making weird expressions. I took a few moments to compose myself. Old Mo had been cracking down on us making weird expressions recently. He said it was an obvious sign that something weird was happening. I had been so excited that I slipped up. I spent a few seconds getting my face back under control.


    <Fine, if I give you some and you want to pay it back you can do that, I guess,> said Anise. <But I don¡¯t mind just giving you some. The three of you did a lot for me during our first¡­ erm¡­ our previous life. If you need something, just ask. I want to help too.>


    <I¡¯ll think about it when the time comes,> I said, even though I knew that I would never take my friend¡¯s Achievement for free. They were working just as hard as I was to earn more and improve. It wouldn¡¯t be fair if I got all of the rewards.


    As I got lost in my thoughts, I felt a shadow loom over me. I looked up, and saw Mr. Delmont standing over my desk.


    ¡°Are you having problems with the worksheet, Miria?¡± He asked, sounding a bit concerned.


    ¡°No, Mr. Delmont,¡± I said, wincing.


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± he leaned in a little closer, so that none of the other nearby students would hear him. ¡°I know that you struggle a lot with essence manipulation, but you can still get somewhere with your education. Alchemy prep school doesn¡¯t just train future alchemists, even if that¡¯s the primary goal. We teach a lot of other things, too. Reading, writing, history, math¡­ you¡¯ll use these skills in the future, no matter what career you have. There isn''t a single job that won''t benefit from a little more knowledge of the world and basic literacy. Don¡¯t give up on yourself or your learning. Even if you aren¡¯t that great at binding and alchemy, you can still become a great healer.¡± Then, Mr. Delmont gently smiled at me. ¡°In fact, I hear you already are.¡±


    I felt the urge to bury my head under the table. Was that what all of my behavior looked like? Giving up on myself?


    ...Admittedly, I had started talking to my friends more often in class. Especially Sallia. She didn¡¯t have a chance to go to school, and I didn¡¯t want her to feel left out. So I often livestreamed our classes whenever Sallia was awake. I also frequently chatted with her whenever she was awake, because I didn''t want her to sit in the void and feel bored all day. I really hadn¡¯t expected Mr. Delmont to give me a pep talk because of my frequent distracted behavior. I tried not to blush as I nodded.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing a decent job, Miria. Keep up the good work and don¡¯t get distracted. You can do it,¡± said Mr. Delmont, before he moved off to help another kid with the math worksheet.


    <So, Miria¡­ what did Mr. Delmont want?> asked Anise.


    I found myself blushing harder. <He¡­ uh¡­ gave me a pep talk. I think he saw that I was getting distracted and wanted to encourage me.>


    Anise gave me a speechless look, and I resisted the urge to wince.


    <Let¡¯s not talk about it, all right?> I said, feeling an even stronger urge to bury my head under my desk.


    The three of us continued working on our worksheets in silence until the end of class came. I made a mental note to work harder on Old Mo''s suggestions. As much as I was getting better at acting like a normal kid, I was clearly still messing up.

 Chapter 250: The Great Migration

    The worldstrider looked at the little group of children, and smiled to itself.


    It had succeeded.


    It had taken a great deal of time, effort, and patience, but the worldstrider had stolen the cube. It could free its people from the pocket dimension.


    As the worldstrider fled into the night, it thought about the effort it had taken to steal the cube.


    The children had been very wary of letting the cube slip out of their sight. The leader, in particular, watched the cube as if it were a grenade that might explode at any moment. The worldstrider honestly wasn''t sure why the boy was so wary of the artifact. For months, the body had even placed it under his pillow before he slept.


    Luckily, his vigilance hadn¡¯t lasted forever. After a year of the cube doing nothing, he had started leaving it in the base when he hunted for food.


    From there, the worldstrider had only needed an opportunity to divert the children from the house. It had found a small herd of mountain goats and driven them towards the children by stinging them with magic. Eventually, the creatures had lost their temper and started chasing the worldstrider. All it had to do after that was lead it towards one of the children. Its body blended in perfectly with the night sky, so the children hadn''t noticed its existence. All they had seen was a herd of mountain goats charging towards them. The children had taken one look at the herd and decided to get out of the way - followed by a hunt for meat. That hunt, naturally provided the perfect opportunity to steal the cube and flee.


    After the worldstrider left the area, it found a small crater in a nearby mountain. It was shallow, but it would still block the view of nearby animals and people. The worldstrider took out the cube and got to work.


    It spent three days messing with the cube before it finally figured out how to activate it.


    The first thing the worldstrider discovered was that the damned Zelyrians had added safeguards to it. They had tried to make it impossible for worldstriders to use at all.


    Fortunately, nobody had maintained or repaired the cube for several centuries now. The anti-worldstrider measures built into the cube had started to fall apart. Even though it took a great deal of time and effort, the worldstrider managed to get it working.


    The second thing the worldstrider realized was that the cube wasn''t made of pure metal. It was closer to a mixture of manifestation essence and physical matter. The worldstrider had no clue how the Zelyrians had created it. The Zelyrians may have been ungrateful, backstabbing wretches, but they were exceptional mages. The cube was a work of art that the worldstrider could barely understand.


    Luckily, the worldstrider didn¡¯t need to understand it. It just needed to know how to operate it.


    After the worldstrider injected some of its own essence into the cube, the cube projected an image of a desolate void into the worldstrider¡¯s mind. In the midst of this empty void, there were dozens of tiny, purple stars. The worldstrider realized that those were ¡®unopened portals¡¯ after tinkering with the cube.


    Unfortunately, the cube was more damaged than it had realized.


    Several of the little ¡®stars¡¯ inside of the cube had cracked, like glass thrown off a building. Nearly a third of the portals were broken. With that many portals missing, some worldstriders might not be able to escape. Their tethers would limit their movement too much to flee.


    The worldstrider grimaced at the thought, but shook its head. Maybe the elders of the clan or the local leaders would know how to fix that. Even if they didn¡¯t, it was better for some to escape than none.


    The worldstrider fed one of the ¡®stars¡¯ in the cube some essence. The cube sputtered and churned, like a machine trying to work with a broken cog. Moments later, a small portal appeared a few meters away.


    The worldstrider spent several seconds inspecting it, before it made its way through the portal.


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    It took almost an hour of flying to make its way through the other side of the portal. The worldstrider winced. This cube really was breaking down. The worldstrider was pretty sure that the cube was supposed to instantly teleport the wielder instantly. There shouldn''t be any travel time at all. But the cube was so close to broken that the spatial folding was messy. Luckily, it still worked.


    The worldstrider felt a bit worried once it realized how much the cube had deteriorated. If a spatial tunnel collapsed while its people were leaving, this would become a bloody catastrophe. Anything inside of a collapsing spatial tunnel usually died. Hopefully the cube would hold up for long enough for everyone to escape.


    The worldstrider felt a tug of bitter amusement at that. It had never thought there would be a day where it hoped that Zelyrian technology would work better.


    Once the worldstrider made its way to the other side of the spatial tunnel, it spent a few seconds examining itself. Then, it grinned even more widely than ever.


    The tether hadn¡¯t grown any stronger, even after it returned to the pocket dimension. One of its bigger fears had been the idea that the tether would reassert itself once it returned. If that had happened, things might have gotten more complicated. But this worry was a moot point. Once the tether had been damaged by leaving the pocket dimension, it seemed that it wouldn¡¯t repair itself.


    The worldstrider saw a few other worldstriders look at it in shock as it crossed back into the pocket dimension. The worldstrider wiggled its greetings at the others, before it floated over.


    ¡°Where is the organizer for this area?¡± It asked.


    One of the nearest worldstriders pointed it in another direction, and it flew away.


    It only took a few minutes before the worldstrider met with the local leader. When the worldstrider looked at the eagerly wobbling body of the local leader, it felt even happier than before.


    The leader of this area had seen it enter the pocket dimension through the portal. And clearly, the local leader was as eager as it was to leave this broken place.


    The worldstrider told the local leader its plan to flee this world. The organizer only spent a few minutes verifying its claims, before it called a meeting for all of the nearby worldstriders. Some of them couldn''t make it that far, because their tethers limited their movement. Fortunately, over half of the nearby worldstriders were able to attend the meeting. Those that hadn''t joined would still hear of what had happened today.


    The worldstrider and the local leader spoke of their plan. A way to leave this broken place and enter the rest of the dimension. They also talked about the risks. The cube could fall apart, or the spatial tunnels could collapse and kill everyone. Despite the risks involved, the consensus was nearly unanimous. Almost everyone wanted to take the risk and flee. The worldstriders at the meeting wanted to see sunlight and feel wind again.


    The worldstrider activated the cube again, and a few portals opened up nearby. The first worldstriders swarmed through the portal.


    And then, about two hours later, the first escapees were dragged back to their original spots. They dragged most of the people behind them back into the pocket dimension as well. The spatial tunnels weren¡¯t big enough for more than one worldstrider to fit through at once. If one worldstrider was dragged back, they dragged everyone else with them.


    The worldstrider frowned. Its own tether had grown much weaker once it left the pocket dimension. Why was there such a big difference?


    The worldstrider and the local leader brainstormed, until the worldstrider realized what had changed.


    The worldstrider had felt the tether weaken after the portal between the pocket dimension and the real world broke. In other words, being completely cut off from the pocket dimension was what weakened the tether.


    After that, the worldstrider and the local leader created a new escape plan.


    This plan was much slower than the original escape plan. Only a few dozen worldstriders left through the portal, before the worldstrider with the cube closed the portal again. On the bright side, this worked perfectly. Once the portal was closed, everyone¡¯s tether weakened, leaving them free from the pocket dimension.


    After the first group successfully escaped, the worldstrider eyed the cube.


    Only a few dozen worldstriders could flee every two hours. This was far less than it had been hoping for. Could the cube hold on long enough for everyone to escape? If it broke, was there any other way to let the worldstriders escape?


    After that, the worldstrider gritted its teeth. At the very least, some of its people would be able to leave. With any luck, the cube would hold out long enough. Even if it didn''t, some would still escape. It would be the very last one through the portal. It wanted as many to flee as possible. The group continued evacuating.


    After a month, the first major prison had evacuated. It was going slower than it would have liked, but there was one, undeniable fact that kept the worldstrider moving forward.


    The worldstriders were able to leave. The great migration had begun.

 Chapter 251: Soul Clamp

    More time passed. We turned fourteen, and began preparing to graduate from school.


    Felix was determined to go to the town''s alchemy university after graduation. At first, I thought that was because of its proximity. However, I learned that was only part of the reason. The university had offered Felix a full ride scholarship - and something far more important. A research team recruitment offer.


    Universities weren¡¯t just centers of learning. They were also research centers. Due to his excellent results in school, two research teams with promising projects wanted to recruit him.


    The first research team was researching a new, epoch-making invention: the railroad. Railroads didn''t exist in this world yet, but people were already working on prototypes for it. Felix''s first life had been in a world where railroads were just starting to develop, and he spoke highly of them. I also vaguely remembered railroads being important in my first life. If Felix contributed to the invention of railroads, he would definitely get a keyword ability. I also imagined that he would get a truly obscene amount of Achievement. I had no idea how much Achievement the invention of the railroad would be worth, but I was hoping for tens of thousands of Achievement. Enough for Felix to buy multiple grades of stats and abilities. If Felix got much stronger, it would be good for all of us.


    Of course, it was too soon to expect an amazing result. But all four of us were hopeful about Felix''s prospects.


    The other research team focused on the human body. They were trying to find ways to upgrade humans beyond their limits. Most prosthetics were created to replace lost limbs, but some people also wanted to replace their weak, fleshy limbs with steel. This team was the natural result of that train of thought. They worked on maximizing strength increases while minimizing essence costs.


    Felix felt that it would be a great direction to take binding essence magic in the future. Combat-wise, Felix was going to struggle in future worlds. Creating items let him help the rest of the team - but in an upfront battle, alchemists didn¡¯t have much to rely on. Felix wanted to try to fix this problem using mechanical limbs and subdermal armor. With a bunch of metal upgrades, he might be able to hold his own in a physical fight.


    We were more than happy to cheer him on. I wished that Felix didn''t have to fight at all, but the multiverse wasn''t always kind. Felix having a way to protect himself sounded like a great idea to me.


    Amusingly enough, the research team had also contacted me. They wanted me to set up a special limb-regrowth deal with them. The research team often experimented with weird, out of the box modification plans. Having my ability prepared was important if they needed to ''undo'' some sort of major mistake. I had told them that I would think about it, but I was leaning towards saying yes.


    If Felix and I both worked on the team together, we might get a huge Achievement payout. It could also help Felix form another interesting keyword ability if we got lucky.


    Anise didn¡¯t slack off while Felix and I prepared for university. Even though she hadn¡¯t done much research, she had worked hard on improving her magic. Felix and I had never managed to improve her star paper further than 60% efficiency. Still, Anise made use of every single moment of time to grow and improve. She had mastered her most complicated spell yet: a spell called Mend. It allowed her to repair simple damage to inanimate objects. In other worlds, this spell wouldn¡¯t be too powerful. In fact, it probably wouldn¡¯t even be worth the effort to create. The spell map was ludicrously complicated, after all.


    But in this dimension, it gave her an easy way to restore damaged prosthetics. Anise and I were planning on registering a second identity for Anise, using my illusion magic. After that, Anise would have a new job as a skilled mechanic. Having a second identity for Anise would also let her register her new ''ability'' without any problems.


    With any luck, it might even let her form a keyword ability for Zelyrian magic. Even if it didn''t work, Anise could probably get some influence Achievement and money out of it. Anise also mentioned that it could help Felix and I with the second research team. That one was a bit of a long shot, since we would need a way to get Anise''s name out there... but it wasn''t totally impossible. We had been brainstorming ways to help Anise get a keyword ability for a while, and any idea was worth a shot.


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    Of course, Anise''s main identity wasn''t going to go to university. She didn''t have outstanding enough results for a research team to recruit her. She also didn''t have any real interest in alchemy itself. So she decided that she would duck out of school after this year.


    Vance and Iselde planned to go to university with Felix and I. Iselde wasn¡¯t an outstanding student, but she could make it into university, at least. Vance had started to show some interest in medicine and healing over the past year. He wasn''t outstanding yet, but he had a good level of diligence and focus on the subject. Apparently, his interest in medicine had started once one of his sisters got injured. It wasn''t a major injury, but his sister had ignored it until it got infected. She had gone to Dr. Trish''s clinic and got it healed, but the memory stuck with him. I couldn''t help but wonder if I had treated his sister, or if someone else had helped her.


    Either way, Vance now intended to study medicine with me in university.


    As for my own growth over the past year... I had made some progress in healing my mother. With some research and observation, I had figured out a few of the basics behind how souls stuck to brains. My understanding was very patchy¡­ but I was at least able to confirm the existence of ''soul glue'' in greater detail. I still had no idea what it was made of or how it worked, but I had picked up a few details about how to move souls around. Even if I didn''t know how things worked ''normally,'' I could mimic a few minor details after years of study.


    With my patchy understanding of how soul-glue worked, I created an inferior version of it. I used my soul-sight and my shaping magic to create a new ability, much like extinguish and renewal. I called this new spell ¡®soul clamp.¡¯ It let me move souls around without damaging them. That wouldn''t be too important on its own, but I had made another observation. As long as the connection between the soul and the body wasn''t totally severed, the connection mended itself. It was an agonizingly slow process, but it did happen. And if I moved the soul closer to the brain it inhabited, the process sped up considerably. I also suspected that I could reduce the impact brain injuries had on the connection between the soul and the body, if I used soul clamp well.


    I tested this on a variety of insects and animals, to see if my spell did what it was supposed to. The first time I used soul clamp on a spider, I confirmed that it felt like I had grabbed onto something. When I hit the spider with an extinguish, severing the connection between the soul and the body, I held the spider¡¯s soul in place for over an hour.


    Of course, it still drifted off the moment I stopped holding it there. The spider¡¯s body was dead after I extinguished it, after all.


    My next test was on a rabbit. I tried soul-clamping its soul, then stabbing it in the brain and healing it. The rabbit spent two days in a coma-like state¡­ but afterwards, it went back to hopping around like usual. The connection between the soul and the body was weakened when I stabbed the rabbit¡¯s brain, but if I held its soul in place, it healed much faster than normal.


    After a few more tests, I got confident enough to try it on a coma patient. The coma patient hadn¡¯t woken up in over two years, and his family had lost hope of him ever waking up.


    My first attempt at using soul clamp as a healing spell was rather absurd. I took the coma patient¡¯s soul and stuffed it back into the patient¡¯s brain for several hours. Over time, the patient''s soul, which had originally dangled half in and half out of his brain, started to reconnect.


    It took another two weeks before the connection was even half-rebuilt, but it was progress. Most importantly, the patient woke up afterward.


    The restoration process wasn''t perfect. The soul-glue between his soul and brain was nowhere near as resilient as a normal soul-glue. I suspected that it would be exceedingly easy for him to slip back into a coma if he got another head injury. He also had a few minor issues, like getting fatigued more easily than normal. It was still better than never waking up at all. I also noticed that coma patients that woke up ''naturally'' had the exact same issue, meaning it wasn''t a problem with my spell. It seemed that it was impossible to create a perfect soul bond after birth, at least for now.


    After another few rounds of tests and observations, I had no clue how to improve soul clamp further. I suspected I needed a higher grade ability to keep improving.


    Since I didn¡¯t see any hope for improving my spell further in the near future, I decided that it was time. I was going to try to heal my mother.

 Chapter 252: Brain Surgery

    The next day, I carried my mother to Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic. Dr. Trish had offered to help me during the operation - which was a relief. Even if she was less experienced with the magical side of healing, I trusted her proficiency with scalpels and bone saws. Dr. Trish was also very familiar with how my ability worked, so we worked well together. For my mother''s surgery, I wanted the best doctor I could get access to.


    When I arrived, I saw Old Mo, Felix, and Anise waiting for me. Anise gave me a reassuring hug, and Felix gave me a light pat on the shoulder.


    ¡°Good luck,¡± he said.


    I nodded, and grinned nervously. Then, I turned towards Old Mo.


    Old Mo gave my mother a disgusted look, before he shook his head. I tried not to wince. Old Mo had expressed his disapproval of my mother multiple times. He seemed to feel that she prioritized drugs over me.


    I couldn¡¯t say that he was wrong. My mother had disappeared into her addiction years ago, and almost never came out. Still, seeing him frown at her stung a bit.


    Before I could feel too disappointed, Old Mo turned towards me, and gave me a hug. Unlike the look he had given my mother, he gave me a warm smile. I felt a bit better.


    Even if Old Mo didn¡¯t like my mother very much, he had still come to support me when I was trying to heal her. His actions spoke louder than his words. Whether he agreed with me or not, he was still here to offer morale support and hope for my success.


    ¡°Thank you for coming,¡± I said, giving him a firmer hug. ¡°It means a lot to me.¡±


    ¡°I know you can do it,¡± he said. ¡°You''re an amazing healer, and you have all kinds of weird, Market abilities. There is no one in the world more qualified to do this than you.¡± Then, he released me.


    ¡°I appreciate the faith," I said.


    Old Mo looked at my mother, before he sighed. ¡°I just hope that when she wakes up, she extends the same care and affection towards you. Addicts have a hard time controlling themselves, and your mother¡­¡± Old Mo trailed off. Finally, he shook his head. ¡°Well, she has already proven where her priorities are. But for what it¡¯s worth, I hope this ends the way you dream of. If it doesn¡¯t, I¡¯ll be here for you. Until the day my age catches up with me and I return to the ocean.¡±


    I winced at the thought of Old Mo dying. He was getting older.


    Before I could sink too deeply into my thoughts, Old Mo chuckled and ruffled my hair. "Don''t worry. I still have quite a few years left in me. You won''t be rid of me that easily."


    Before I could reply, Dr. Trish cleared her throat. I turned towards her, and saw her positioning my mother on one of the patient tables. Dr. Trish was ready to start.


    <Miria? You¡¯re starting now, right? Good¡­ good luck,> said Sallia. I could hear her stifling the mental equivalent of a yawn.


    <Thanks, everyone,> I said. <You being here means a lot.> Then, I cleared my throat. ¡°I think I¡¯m ready,¡± I said.


    ¡°Excellent,¡± said Dr. Trish. She eyed the others. ¡°If you guys aren¡¯t part of the healing process, I¡¯d like you to step out of the room. I find crowds distracting during delicate operations. This is something I¡¯ve never tried before, so¡­ I¡¯m nervous,¡± she said. I could feel a few waves of anxiety radiate off of her, and I winced. Doctor Trish usually wasn¡¯t this nervous when handling a patient. Then again, this was something a new kind of surgery for her.


    Brain surgery existed in this world, but it was far more limited in scope. There were a few rare cases where someone got a piece of shrapnel lodged inside of their skull or something, and survived. In that case, doctors might remove the shrapnel so that the patient could heal. But brain surgery hadn¡¯t developed beyond that point yet. Trying to cut open the surface layer of the brain, remove things deeper inside the brain, and then heal everything up was a step further than that. It was natural to feel nervous when trying something this new and untested.


    Felix, Old Mo, and Anise glanced at each other, before they nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± said Felix. ¡°Good luck.¡±


    Then, the three of them shuffled out of the room.


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    The two of us got to work.


    Dr. Trish used her bone saw to make an incision in my mother¡¯s skull. Her hands were sure and steady. There wasn''t a single excess movement or trace of clumsiness in her actions.


    Meanwhile, I directed Dr. Trish''s cutting. Since I could see using water, I could see inside of my mother¡¯s brain with my spatial sight. This was one of the reasons Dr. Trish was willing to try this operation - my abnormal spatial sight.


    Of course, she had given me a very strange look when I had discussed this ability with her. I had said it was part of my healing ability, and she had barely accepted that reasoning... but I knew I was stretching things here. Still, I needed her to be aware of what I could do. Otherwise, this surgery might fail.


    ¡°Am I cutting in the right direction?¡± she asked, as she showed me where she intended to cut next.


    "Cut about a millimeter to the left," I said. "Otherwise, you''ll just miss the closest piece of mold."


    Dr. Trish nodded, and repositioned her cut. She asked me for confirmation, and then her scalpel sank into my mother''s brain.


    My mother''s soul start quaking. Even the tiny incision that Dr. Trish had made seemed to damage to the connection between my mother¡¯s soul and her brain. It was almost like there was a miniature earthquake happening inside of her skull. I started getting very nervous. I had thought the impact would be smaller.


    I activated soul clamp and started holding my mother''s soul in place. It wasn''t a perfect solution, but if my mother''s soul tore free of her brain, she would be dead. I needed to keep it from drifting off or jerking out of place.


    This was much harder than it had been when I was trying to heal the coma patient. In that case, I only moved things around and let the connection heal on its own. This time, the connection was squirming and thrashing as if it were a fish in a net.


    Every single movement of Doctor Trish¡¯s scalpel gnawed at the connection. Still, I said nothing as Dr. Trish pressed onwards.


    Finally, Dr. Trish''s careful incision reached the first chunk of Fizz mold.


    "Stop," I said. "You''re right on top of the first target now."


    Doctor Trish froze in place, as if she were an ice sculpture.


    I grabbed a pair of tweezers, and used them to seize the piece of mold. I started extracting it from my mother''s brain as Dr. Trish held my mother¡¯s head steady. It only took a few seconds to finish the first step. Then, I turned towards my mother, and focused on my soul sight.


    I grimaced. The connection had destabilized more than I expected. It didn''t look like her soul was about to tear free of her brain, but the connection was weakened.


    ¡°Get everything away, from her skull,¡± I said.


    Dr. Trish pulled the scalpel as far away from mother¡¯s head as possible. Then, as I kept soul clamp in place, I started throwing healing magic into my mother¡¯s body.


    The connection between my mother¡¯s brain and her soul kept shuddering. For almost a minute I was terrified that I had made a horrible miscalculation. My mother''s soul was about to return to the ocean, and it was all my fault.


    Luckily, after a minute healing, things stopped quaking. Her soul stopped quivering. Finally, it settled back into her brain.


    I checked the state of the ¡®soul glue¡¯ in my mother¡¯s body, and sighed. The connection between my mother¡¯s brain and her soul was strained. Removing another piece of mold was a bad idea until it had some time to repair itself. Still, the thought of waiting longer made me grit my teeth. There were dozens of little pieces of brain mold to get rid of. If we had to wait multiple days after every removal operation, this could take months to finish. Worse, some of the Fizz crystals were so deep in my mother¡¯s brain that she might die if we tried to remove them. Even a small cut to the brain did a lot of damage to the glue holding the soul in place.


    Then I sighed, and checked my essence reserves. My alteration essence had taken a pretty significant hit during the operation. If it took longer to heal my mother, than it took longer. She wasn''t going anywhere, and I wasn''t in a hurry. Besides, I wanted enough essence to be ready for an emergency. Rushing wasn''t the right way to handle patients.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s safe to try again today,¡± I said. I held up the piece of mold we had removed. It was about the size of my pinky fingernail, and it looked and smelled foul. ¡°We should wait a few days for her to heal up and do the next piece.¡±


    "Doesn''t your healing magic restore injuries almost instantly?" asked Dr. Trish.


    "For the most part, that''s true... but my gut is telling me we should wait a bit," I said.


    Dr. Trish thought about it, before she nodded. "It''s your ability, I suppose." Then, she took a closer look at my face. "Well, look on the bright side. We removed a piece, and nothing went wrong. And now you have a working test to prove that it¡¯s possible to remove mold like this. That¡¯s more than the medical community has had for centuries. Once she''s ready, we''ll do it again. It might take a while, but we can heal her.¡±


    I nodded.


    I had still successfully done a small bit of brain surgery. Even if the wait time was longer than I had hoped for, we had still succeeded. That was something.


    I checked my mother¡¯s eyes and reflexes, to see if one piece of mold removed had made a big difference. Her reflexes weren¡¯t much better than before¡­ but they were slightly improved. I didn¡¯t think my mother seemed particularly more aware of her surroundings than before, but any improvement at all was heartening. Maybe we needed to remove more pieces of Fizz mold before she actually woke up. Still, we had succeeded. We just needed to repeat this process until she was healed.

 Chapter 253: News from Verne

    The next few months were a blur of constant healing and schoolwork. Whenever the connection between my mother¡¯s soul and brain repaired itself, Dr. Trish and I removed another piece of mold. Then, we let my mother recuperate, and once she had stabilized, we removed more mold.


    And there were results.


    Slowly, my mother''s strength started to recover. Her dexterity improved. Previously, she would sometimes wobble around while walking or doing things. She had the mental capacity to firmly grip things when she wanted to move them around.


    But even more importantly, her mind started to heal. She was capable of understanding her environment in a way that had been impossible just a few months ago.


    The first signs of bigger changes came when I saw my mother avoid a hot surface on her own. Normally, I had to keep her away from anything hot. My mother wasn''t capable of avoiding hot stoves on her own, so I had to be careful. Her brain seemed to be incapable of linking stovetops to heat. But after a month of healing, my mother started keeping her hands away from hot surfaces on her own.


    Then, she started to have frequent, recurring bursts of awareness. They didn''t last long, but for a few seconds every day, my mother would realize where she was and talk coherently. Previously, my mother only regained awareness of her surroundings every few months. To see her aware of her surroundings a few times every day was a huge improvement.


    After a month and a half, my mother managed to make herself a meal.


    While I was doing my homework, she made the connection between the food cabinets and cooking. Instead of just shoveling raw ingredients into her mouth, she actually made a sandwich and ate it.


    Little things like that started to become more regular occurrences. My mother started using tools, cleaning up messes, and doing things on her own. Even if she was still a dim shadow of her former self, I could see her mind returning every day.


    Two months into the healing process, Dr. Trish and I removed the last chunk of easily accessed Fizz mold. The only remaining pieces of Fizz mold were too dangerous to remove, unless I got better at handling souls or figured out how to use my spatial abilities inside of people¡¯s bodies.


    A week later, I smelled flatbread in the morning.


    At first, I thought that Old Mo had come to make me a meal. Since he was half of a parent to me in this life, I had given him a key to my apartment. Sometimes he made me breakfast, or asked me to heal the aches and pains in his joints if he was having a bad day. I was more than happy to soothe and strengthen his body whenever I could, so I saw him often.


    But that morning, it wasn¡¯t Old Mo who made me a meal.


    It was my mother.


    I saw her in the kitchen, cooking, and I felt tears well up in my eyes.


    ¡°Mother,¡± I said.


    My mother turned towards me. There was still some haziness in her eyes, but it was faint. She looked at me, and she saw me, instead of a hallucination. She was actually present when she looked at me.


    ¡°Miria,¡± she said, before she knelt down and hugged me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It must have been hard without me. I¡¯m¡­ sorry for not being there,¡± she said.


    I hugged her back.


    For the rest of the day, I kept a cautious eye on my mother, but the spark of intelligence in her eyes didn¡¯t disappear. She retained awareness of the world for a full day. Another day passed, and she didn''t slip back into a daydream.


    The last few months of effort had paid off.


    My mother was better.


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    * * *


    I took the next few days off from school, citing a family emergency. My grades in everything except Alchemy were at the top of the class, so the teacher didn¡¯t object. Now that my mother was awake, I wanted to spend some time getting to know her.


    We also spent those few days talking. I told my mother all about the things the three of us had done while she was unconscious. I told her about our flight from Verne, and the run-in with the worldstriders. I told her about when I had met Old Mo. I told her about Markus and Dr. Trish.


    The only thing I didn''t tell her about was the Market. I loved my mother... but I didn''t trust her enough to tell her everything. She had been absent from my life for too long. I wasn''t ready to tell her about secrets that could actually hurt me. People learning that I was actually from Verne might be inconvenient... but at this point, it wouldn''t matter too much. I was very well liked in town, and if people learned that I had lied about my country of origin they might not care much. But having our transmigrator identities exposed might draw in the government.


    Still, my mother seemed shocked when I told her about some of what we had accomplished in the last decade.


    ¡°You found an ability potion?¡± asked my mother. She seemed more shocked by that than anything else.


    I nodded and grinned, before I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and made a small cut on my fingertip. I healed it immediately afterwards, and showed my mother my perfectly healed fingertip.


    ¡°It¡¯s the biggest reason I could keep you alive,¡± I said. ¡°Dr. Trish says that people who reach that stage from your¡­¡± I almost said addiction, but I stopped myself. I didn¡¯t know what might trigger her. ¡°People with your condition usually have several strokes and then die. But since I constantly healed you, you survived,¡± I said. ¡°Of course, it wasn''t perfect. A bunch of mold died inside of your brain, and then got stuck in little clumps. My healing magic kept you alive, but never removed those. Dr. Trish and I had to get those out with surgery. Half of them are still there, because we can''t remove them safely. But you''re awake now!¡± I grinned.


    My mother patted her forehead with a worried expression, before she slowly nodded.


    "So you really found an ability potion," said my mother. "It sounds like a really strong potion, too."


    ¡°It was very lucky," I said. "If we hadn''t... uhh... found that corpse... of a man carrying ability potions... things would have been dangerous." It took me a few minutes to remember the cover story we had given everyone, to explain our abilities. "But it worked out really well. I can earn a lot of money as a healer,¡± I said. ¡°I sent Felix, Anise and I to school, and I¡¯m paying the rent for this apartment. It¡¯s nothing too fancy, but¡­¡± I gestured towards our surroundings. ¡°Most kids can¡¯t pay for an apartment at all, much less a comfortable one like this. We have six rooms to ourselves, and some luxuries like chocolate and machinery. Things are good now.¡±


    My mother looked at our apartment as well, and nodded. Our living conditions had taken a huge step up from the moldy, rotting apartment in the slums. We had a comfortable life now.


    My mother took a few steps closer to me, and then sighed. ¡°I appreciate what you¡¯ve done for me, Mir¡­ my daughter.¡± My mother sounded awkward, as if she weren''t sure how to address me.


    I nodded. "It was really hard. But it all worked out." Then, I made a stern expression as I stared at her. ¡°Just make sure that you don¡¯t¡­ fall back into your condition. I don¡¯t want to see you like that.¡± Watching my family member die of a drug addiction hurt. I hated it.


    My mother glanced at me, as if she were hesitating for a moment. I felt a surge of anxiety. What was there to hesitate about? My mother¡¯s addiction had already nearly killed her. Without my healing magic, she would have died. Even with my healing magic, she had nearly died.


    Before I could stew on that thought, my mother nodded. ¡°No more,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll cut Fizz out of my life. It¡¯s¡­¡± she shivered, and didn¡¯t finish her thought. "I''ll stay away from it."


    I relaxed a little bit. As long as my mother got better, it was fine.


    ¡°Oh, if you want to fit in, I can also help you learn Damilian,¡± I said, as I realized that my mother would struggle to fit in here. The rest of the group had already learned Damilian. I could speak it as fluently as a native now, and I had almost forgotten that it was a problem at all. But my mother hadn''t spent years studying the language. I would have to help her with that. ¡°I know learning a new language is hard, but¡­ this is our home now. Honestly, it''s a good thing we left Verne. The city we used to live in got shelled a lot during the war. They also had some food shortages several times. The city may have never completely fallen, but I hear things got bad there for a while. Learning a new language is a small price to pay for avoiding cannon fire, right?¡±


    My mother nodded, and I let myself relax as I continued to tell her about our experiences here. My work with Dr. Trish. Old Mo and his bakery. School. Harmless little stories about daily life to tell my mother about our support network, and the life our group had built here. I wanted her to know who else she could ask for help, if she needed it.


    It was¡­ nice. Being able to finally converse with my mother. I went to sleep that night with a smile.


    And in the middle of a particularly nice dream, I was woken up by panicked shrieking from Anise.


    <Miria! The worldstriders appeared outside of their pocket dimension!> she said.

 Chapter 254: Vance and Anise

    As Anise headed to school the next day, she felt a tight pit in her stomach. In her backpack, she carried the newspaper that had caused so much panic yesterday. Her mother had been terrified when the ''evil monsters'' from the pocket dimension reappeared in the newspaper. Anise didn''t feel much better about the situation.


    Anise took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself down. She hated seeing her mother and father so nervous, but there was nothing Anise could do about it. She could only hope that Miria and Felix had a solution to the situation. Because if nobody had a good idea how to handle the Worldstriders, Anise was very aware of the fact that they might track her down and kill her.


    Of course, that was the worst case scenario. Even if the Worldstriders had appeared outside of their pocket dimension, they might not find her. The worldstriders had reappeared in the middle of the mountains, and they were nowhere near Damilius. But relying on luck felt foolish. Even if Anise wished that the worldstriders would just go away.


    But Anise¡¯s wishes wouldn¡¯t change reality.


    Anise walked into the classroom as if she were sleepwalking. She realized, with some surprise, that Vance was already sitting down. Normally, Anise would have talked about books with him, but today, her greeting died in her lips. She just¡­ couldn¡¯t focus on Vance right now. Even starting a conversation with him felt hard. The reappearance of the worldstriders had rattled her more than she thought.


    Anise''s silence didn''t stop Vance from noticing her, though.


    ¡°Anise?¡± said Vance, as he carefully scanned Anise.


    ¡°Yes?¡± she asked, trying to shake the swirling thoughts and emotions out of her head.


    ¡°Are you all right?¡± asked Vance. Anise saw worry and concern in his eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m sorry, there¡¯s¡­ a lot going on right now,¡± said Anise. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea to keep talking at all. If she spoke too much about her fears, Vance might notice something. But saying nothing alsoe felt wrong. She considered Vance a friend, and lying to him wouldn''t feel good. Eventually, she decided to share a few details, but not many. ¡°I learned something scary yesterday, and I haven¡¯t been able to get it out of my head since then,¡± she finally said.


    ¡°Something scary?¡± asked Vance, frowning. ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡± He cleared his throat and glanced away. ¡°I mean¡­ if you want to. If you don''t want to tell me, that''s fine too. But I thought I would offer.¡±


    Anise hesitated. Was it¡­ a good idea to talk about the past with Vance? Thus far, the group had kept quiet about their encounters with the worldstriders. Anise''s parents and Old Mo had never wanted to bring Sallia''s death back up. And it was still a sore subject for the three of them.


    But now, the worldstriders had reappeared. Telling others about them might help the rest of the world prepare. Or at least, it would make Anise feel better.


    <Miria, Felix¡­ do you mind if I talk a bit about the worldstriders with Vance?> She asked.


    <If it will help you feel better, do whatever you need to,> said Miria. Anise felt as if Miria''s words were bathing her in warm sunshine. She realized that Miria was intentionally packing as many positive feelings as she could into her message for Anise. <We¡¯ll handle the consequences later as a team.>


    <I don¡¯t mind. Just don¡¯t talk about the Market,> said Felix. <And make sure to tell us what you¡¯ve told Vance, so that our stories line up.>


    Anise nodded, and turned back towards Vance. Then, Anise showed Vance the newspaper.


    Vance scanned it, before giving Anise a curious look. ¡°Why is this so frightening? I mean¡­ I know that a lot of Zelyrian experiments can be scary, but not all of them are harmful. Plenty of Zelyrian artifacts provide useful or helpful services. And if it turns out that these are dangerous, they¡¯re nowhere near Damilius. Verne will deal with it if these things are dangerous.¡±


    Anise shook her head, and shuddered.


    ¡°They''re definitely not friendly," said Anise. "When we were fleeing to Damilius, we ended up traveling through a lot of different areas. One of those areas was the mountain range mentioned in this newspaper. There, we met some creatures that called themselves worldstriders¡­¡± Anise began to narrate everything the group had gone through. She cut out a few parts - specifically, those that pertained to the Market. In her narration, she didn¡¯t mention {Phoenix¡¯s Last Stand} at all, or any of Miria¡¯s non-healing related abilities. Most of the ''combat'' portions of the story were also assigned to Sallia, who Anise pretended had access to a very special sword ability. But she kept the narrative as close to reality as possible. She also mentioned the unnatural hatred the creatures had towards her. Anise''s story ended with Sallia''s death.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    "After that... we managed to escape," said Anise. "It was a really close call, but we lived. Most of us, anyway." Anise felt sad as she thought about Sallia''s current state. Sallia, who loved moving her body and training her swordsmanship, was stuck floating in the void. She couldn''t hold a sword, or talk to people, or do anything at all. Sallia would eventually return, of course... but that might be years or decades from now. And the group couldn''t afford to commit suicide and return to the Market together. They didn''t have the lives to spare for a mass return to the Market.


    Vance''s expression became sad, and he gently reached out to Anise. Then, to her surprise, he hugged her. He patted her back a few times, before he released her.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry you had to go through something like that,¡± he said. ¡°I¡­ the three of you never talked about it, and so I¡­ never knew. I can''t imagine losing a friend like that.¡± He paused. ¡°Your friend¡¯s name was Sallia, right? The one that didn¡¯t make it?¡±


    Anise nodded.


    ¡°She was an amazing swordsman,¡± said Anise. ¡°You¡­ I think you would have gotten along well with her. She loves¡­ I mean, loved melee combat more than anything else in the world. She would have definitely helped you get a lot better at fencing, too."


    Vance nodded. "Do you three do anything special to remember her?"


    We talk to her on a daily basis and try to make her feel better about being stuck, thought Anise. Then, she winced. The weird Market mentality towards death would definitely strike other people as weird.


    Anise shook her head.


    "We don''t do anything like that," said Anise. "It''s still a sore subject. Especially for Miria."


    Vance sighed, and then patted Anise¡¯s shoulder a few times. ¡°Well, I won''t intrude on how you three want to treat her death, but... I''m sorry. I guess you don''t need me to tell you this, since it''s already been almost a decade. But it sounds like Sallia was a lovely girl. I wish I could have met her."


    Anise nodded.


    ¡°As for the newspaper....The creatures described here definitely sound like the creatures mentioned in your story. That being said, they might be less scary than you think they are.¡±


    Anise blinked.


    "How so? I remember them being almost immune to physical attacks. It almost felt like they existed in a different layer of reality, or something," said Anise.


    Of course, she knew for a fact that they existed on a different layer of reality. But she didn''t know how to explain that to Vance.


    Vance nodded. ¡°Even if that''s the case, maybe there¡¯s some kind of solution in modern alchemy? As a group of refugees, you guys would have had very limited resources back then. While guns might not be able to hurt the worldstriders, Sallia''s attacks mean there are definitely ways to hurt them. There are a lot of different ability potions that each nation produces annually. There must be a few abilities that interact with the worldstriders. Not to mention, alchemical creations. Alchemy has two major branches, but most people focus on transmutation today. But that doesn''t mean we''ve lost knowledge of how to do affixation. It''s just not an effective use of resources. But affixation can let people create the solutions to new problems if transmutation fails. I seriously doubt that alchemists are incapable of making weapons to hurt worldstriders. It''s just a matter of figuring out how they avoid physical damage, and then countering it. The worldstriders might be almost invincible right now - but I bet that will disappear quickly. The worldstriders might manage a few exceptional battles... and then every single nation on the continent will start researching how to counter them. I give them maybe five years of superiority before modern alchemy strips away their biggest advantage." Vance frowned. ¡°Of course, I might be too optimistic. I might even be totally wrong about how long it would take to counter the worldstriders. But historically, our ancestors excel at creating new items to solve new problems. I don''t see why this would be any different.¡±


    Anise felt a little comforted by that. She had mostly been thinking about the current capabilities of nations, and thinking that the worldstriders could bulldoze everything. But she had overlooked the fact that no nation remained stagnant.


    Of course, Anise was still afraid. Even if the worldstriders would eventually fall, that didn''t help her now. If the worldstriders came for her, there was still nothing Anise could do yet.


    A minute later, Miria and Felix entered the classroom, before they sat down next to Anise. Then, Anise felt herself pulled into a much stronger hug.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to be all right. I won¡¯t let them hurt you,¡± Miria whispered, so quietly that Anise could barely hear it. ¡°If they try to take away another one of my friends, I¡¯ll make their species extinct.¡±


    Before the group could talk more, Mr. Delmont entered the classroom and started his next lesson.

 Chapter 255: Be Prepared

    It wasn¡¯t until lunchtime that the group continued their discussion. As the group of three, plus Vance and Iselde, sat down with their meals, Miria spoke into Anise''s mind again.


    <We could try slipping information to a bunch of officials from different governments,> she said, as she stuffed a spoonful of soup into her mouth. <I could use my illusions and teleportation to deliver my messages anonymously. If the government is prepared and knows about the worldstriders, the worldstriders will have a harder time. Especially if they intend to attack everyone.>


    <I think the government would be more worried about how you slipped past security,> said Felix. <I¡¯m not sure if they would take your message seriously, even if you didn''t get caught.>


    Miria winced, and Anise felt a pang of guilt. If she weren¡¯t here, Miria and Felix wouldn¡¯t be so worried about the worldstriders, and Sallia wouldn¡¯t have died. She had already watched one of her best friends die keeping her alive. She didn¡¯t want to see Miria and Felix die the same way.


    Miria suddenly leaned over and hugged her, causing Anise to jolt in surprise.


    <You aren¡¯t thinking about something dumb, like this is your fault, are you?> asked Miria, sounding a bit accusatory. <It was the decision of the worldstriders to go crazy for revenge when they saw you. It is not your fault that they decided to be massive jerks. If you¡¯re feeling guilty, I¡¯ll stuff you full of chocolate and hugs. You better not be thinking something dumb.>


    Anise was caught off guard by Miria''s statement.


    How does she do that? Anise wondered. Sometimes, Miria¡¯s ability to read people¡¯s emotions was eerily accurate.


    Miria¡¯s arms tightened, and Anise saw Iselde and Vance raise an eyebrow at them. Since the three were talking mentally, the table wasn''t very lively, unlike usual. Anise wondered whether the other two could tell that they were talking.


    Of course they can tell, thought Anise, as she glanced at Iselde¡¯s face. Vance had noticed something was wrong almost immediately this morning. Both Iselde and Vance knew about Felix''s ''mental communication ability.'' However, neither of them said anything about being excluded from the conversation. Anise felt bad about that... but she also felt grateful. When Anise saw Iselde¡¯s face out of the corner of her eye, she looked worried, but not angry. Despite Iselde''s general obliviousness, she was a good friend. When Anise looked directly at her, Iselde schooled her expression back into a normal, happy smile. Anise slipped Iselde her pudding as an apology for the group¡¯s silence today. Including Iselde and Vance would be hard for real Market matters... but Anise still felt guilty.


    Iselde eyed Anise, before she took the pudding and started eating it.


    <Miria is right, Anise. Don¡¯t blame yourself for the fact that the worldstriders chose to be jerks. That¡¯s on them, not you,> said Felix. <Sallia died to try to save you. Don''t feel guilty about her decision. Otherwise, the next time Sallia is awake she''ll definitely yell at you.> Then, Felix snorted, although Anise could detect a great deal of fondness in his voice. <That battle junkie probably didn''t even mind dying that time.>


    Anise sighed, but nodded. Knowing Sallia''s personality... Felix might not be wrong.


    <The biggest problem with the worldstriders is that their body exists on a different layer of reality,> said Felix, after some more thought. <That makes a lot of the more conventional weapons of this world pretty useless. Shooting a worldstrider with a cannon or a rifle will just cause the bullet to pass through their body. That makes it difficult to handle with conventional weapons.>


    Miria also pursed her lips in thought, while Anise frowned.


    <Vance said that the alchemy of this world might be able to develop a way to fight against worldstriders,> said Anise. <Obviously, they don''t have any countermeasures ready right now. Knowledge of Worldstriders seems to have been lost with the collapse of the Zelyrian empire. But once a fight or two happens, people will start inventing ways to handle the new threat.>


    Felix frowned. <That¡­ might be true. But it doesn''t help us right now. I''d be happier if we had a way to keep you safe if they track you down tomorrow.>


    Anise sighed, and nodded.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    The biggest problem with the worldstriders was that they were on a different layer of reality. Different layer¡­ different layer¡­


    Anise started wondering how, exactly, the layers of reality worked.


    <Come to think of it, do you guys know how layers of reality work at all?> asked Anise. <Was that a topic you covered while you were talking with the soul fragment while I was going through my surgery?>


    <It is,> said Felix, after a moment. <It wasn¡¯t covered in great detail, but¡­ I believe you¡¯ve heard the analogy that dimensions are like snow globes with cracks in them, right?>


    Anise nodded, and caught Iselde and Vance giving her weird looks from the corner of her eye. She straightened her head.


    <I¡¯ve heard of it,> she said, making very sure not to move her head this time.


    <Well, within these snow globes, sometimes, multiple compartments of reality form. All of them operate off of similar laws of reality, but they might have subtle variations. Gravity might be weaker or stronger, or things might be more prone to igniting. But they''re still almost the same. The Worldstriders should be residents of a different ¡®compartment¡¯ of this dimension. They¡¯re obviously very close to the ¡®normal¡¯ compartment, as well. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t be able to see us, and we wouldn¡¯t be able to see them.> Said Felix. <This dimension might not naturally have another compartment to it. The worldstriders could be using some shallow version of this dimensional division. If they have a few worldstriders who were at higher grades of skills, feats like creating an artificial compartment are possible. I can¡¯t think of a way to exploit that fact to kill the worldstriders, though. If that''s what you were going for, it''s a good idea, but I don''t know how to implement it.>


    Anise sighed, but nodded. That had been exactly what she had been thinking of. Realizing it was hopeless felt rather disappointing.


    <Are there any old Zelyrian artifacts that can hurt the worldstriders?> asked Miria. <I didn¡¯t think about it at the time, but we still have all of those binding-essence lightning bolts we stole. We got them back when we were busting Felix out of the research facility. We never actually tested whether they can hurt worldstriders, did we?>


    <We got too caught up in researching other stuff, like Anise''s star paper,> said Felix. <But that''s definitely something to consider. If we can use knockoff Zelyrian artifacts to hurt worldstriders, we would be in a much better position. The world would already have tools to combat the enemy.>


    Miria frowned. <You know, now that I think about it... I doubt that Zelyrian artifacts are incapable of hurting worldstriders. The worldstriders are poorly understood to the modern world - but the Zelyrians knew of them. They were very intimately familiar with the worldstriders before their empire collapsed. There''s no way that they didn''t have ways to hurt the worldstriders if they fought. The lightning bolts are modern-day knockoffs of Zelyrian artifacts. But original Zelyrian artifacts should definitely be able to hurt worldstriders.>


    <That¡­ is distinctly possible,> said Felix. <I mean, the Zelyrians use a very different method of creating magic artifacts, so people can''t copy them. But if we have at least a few tools that can hurt worldstriders, modern armies won''t be totally helpless. And once people are motivated, they''ll find more ways to innovate and improve.>


    <What would those methods even look like?> asked Anise. <I wish we knew how to make more Zelyrian artifacts. But most of my textbooks are on actual spellcasting.>


    Anise saw Felix pause for a moment, before he turned towards Anise.


    <You know¡­ speaking of Zelyrian textbooks,> said Felix. <Now that I think about it, on that mural we saw in the pocket dimension, we saw that the worldstriders and Zelyrians fought each other when they first met. And the Zelyrians crushed the worldstriders. This happened during the first contact between the two species. The Zelyrians wouldn''t have special anti-worldstrider weapons then. How did they still win?>


    Anise froze.


    That¡­ was a very good question. One that she hadn¡¯t thought about before.


    Anise doubted the Zelyrian empire could have won against the worldstriders if only a few Mages could hurt them. The worldstriders were reasonably intelligent and capable of combat, after all. So the Zelyrians should have had a commonly-used spell or artifact that hurt the worldstriders. If Anise could figure out what it was¡­ that might create a decisive advantage if the worldstriders came for her again.


    It also provided a bit more context for why the worldstriders were so determined to kill her. If Zelyrian magic had an easy way to counter the biggest advantage of worldstriders, it made much more sense for them to hunt her down and try to kill her. Removing their greatest weakness was just a logical thing to do if they had the chance.


    There might be an accessible tool to fight against the worldstriders. She felt a glimmer of hope and excitement at that thought.


    The worldstriders reappearing in the real world had felt terrifying. She had felt so stressed that she had revealed some secrets to Vance. But now, Anise had a different idea. One that was just forming in her mind.


    The worldstriders had returned to the planet, and they might be coming for her. But Anise wasn¡¯t going to be helpless this time.


    She was going to find out how the Zelyrians had fought against the worldstriders. And if the worldstriders tried to hunt her down again, she would be ready.

 Chapter 256: Graduation approaches

    Our final year of school passed by both slowly and quickly. As if he were trying to test our qualifications, Mr. Delmont gave us a huge mix of tests and projects. The workload wasn¡¯t unbearable for our group, but many other students struggled to keep up. However, the constant stream of tests and projects took a backseat for us, because we had other things to worry about.


    Namely, monitoring the worldstriders. Over the next few months, more and more worldstriders appeared in the mountains. A few people who lived in the mountains were driven away, and brought tales of talking blobs of ink to the cities. At first, people discounted these claims as rumors. Most Zelyrian creatures weren''t intelligent enough to talk, after all. But as more and more people reported that the worldstriders had talked to them and driven them away, people gradually began to believe it.


    The Vernese government didn¡¯t take kindly to the presence of the worldstriders. After four months, Verne launched an expedition into the mountains to get rid of these ''monsters''.


    The expedition army returned with half of its members dead. The others claimed that the worldstriders were very much sapient. They demanded that Verne recognize them as a new, independent country. They claimed the mountain range they had appeared in, as well as most of the surrounding land. Verne did not agree. The fact that an intelligent, organized group of ''monsters'' were negotiating with them seemed to enrage Verne. Things devolved into an all-out war two months later.


    For our part, the three of us found it surprising that the worldstriders were engaging in diplomacy. This made me realize, grudgingly, that the worldstriders truly weren''t monsters. They were an intelligent species of people. They hadn''t killed people randomly, or just squatted in the mountain range. They had a civilization and a culture that they wanted to preserve.


    Not that I cared much. They wanted to kill Anise. That meant they didn''t need to exist. It was as simple as that.


    The first few months of fighting went catastrophically for Verne. They sent a few armies towards the mountains, but they were annhilated. The survivors claimed that the worldstriders were invincible. No gun or blade could harm them. No modern weapon could even interact with them. The Vernese soldiers couldn''t find a way to fight back against the worldstriders at all. Instead, the worldstriders quickly spread across the south of Verne. In less than three months, they occupied more territory than the coalition army had taken.


    Of course, we had no way to figure out the finer details of how the war was going. The Damilian newspapers seemed to think it was Verne''s problem. We also didn¡¯t get any hints about possible ways to fight back against the worldstriders. We didn''t even know what Verne had tried, and how or why everything failed. All we knew for sure was that Verne was losing.


    The rest of the continent¡­ was content to sit back and watch. After the industrial revolution, most nations still felt threatened by Verne. In their eyes, Verne growing weaker was a good thing.


    Of course, I wasn¡¯t pleased to see anyone getting defeated by the Worldstriders. The more successful they were, the more potential they had to hurt Anise.


    The advent of the worldstriders also had incredibly unfortunate timing. After Verne had lost during the last war, they surrendered their Zelyrian artifacts. I doubted that Verne had fully complied with this demand, but they had certainly lost a lot. Since their Zelyrian artifacts were so rare, they didn''t try to use them against the worldstriders... which meant we had no clue whether Zelyrian artifacts were useful against worldstriders. One of our best opportunities to gather information was being completely wasted.


    Still, there was nothing we could do to help. None of us were eager to go face an army of worldstriders all the way over in Verne. Instead, we immersed ourselves in research. Anise and Felix, in particular, started researching ways to counter the worldstriders. Felix focused on affixation and alchemy, while Anise focused on Zelyrian magic.


    I frequently helped both of them with their testss. Since we didn''t have any worldstriders to test new items on, I instead set up target dummies using my {Fragmented Space} Skill. It was the best way we had to test whether a new spell or item could hurt worldstriders.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Unfortunately, none of Anise or Felix''s tests bore fruit. If the Zelyrian magic system had an easy ''worldstrider be gone'' spell, we were missing it. Felix''s attempts to create new anti-worldstrider weapons also failed. The only ''victory'' we had was when we tested the lightning bolts left over from Felix''s rescue. When we tried hitting one of my target dummies with a binding-essence lightning bolt, the target got singed. It was nowhere near the normal effect of getting hit by a lightning bolt, but it was a start. Felix used that as the foundation for a lot of his own item-creation attempts. They had yet to bear fruit, but at least we knew it was possible to hurt the worldstriders using alchemy. That lightened our mood considerably.


    I also grew during our final year of prep school. Through a great deal of effort, I had condensed my sixth magic rune.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form your sixth rune (Note: this dimension does not have the laws to support runes, although it does somewhat support absorption spellcasting. moderate Achievement penalty).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +420


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This pushed my Achievement total from 9,772 to 10,192.


    Once I formed my sixth rune, I realized that I wasn''t finished yet. The [Ocean] keyword consistently activated, due to the presence of my dress and the fact that we were in a coastal town. That approximately doubled the rate at which I regenerated absorption essence. Furthermore, I no longer had quite as large of a maintenance penalty for creating extra runes, due to the ability upgrade I had gotten last world. With these two factors combined¡­ I suspected that I could actually push out another rune or two. It was more than I had expected out of that magic system.


    Just like with my fourth and fifth rune, creating another rune gave me the chance to upgrade a sensory organ. For my final sensory organ evolution, I chose my nose. I had already evolved my ears and my skin, and every single new rune brought about a small upgrade to my eyes, as well. I felt that my nose was useful for detecting any would-be assassins. It was hard to say if or when the worldstriders would come for Anise. Having as many ways to detect intruders as possible would make her safer.


    During this time, I also reconnected with my mother. My mother spent another month recuperating at home, and I spent time with her every day. I kept a close eye on her, to make sure she didn¡¯t lapse back into her addiction, and I also tried to get to know her better. We had missed the best years to form a bond, but I wanted to make up for that lost time. Getting to know my mother was... odd, and it brought home how little I knew about my mother this life. Still, we were trying to form a real bond.


    After a few months, my mother started looking for a job. My mother didn¡¯t have any skills, so she struggled to find something. The only openings she found were for factory workers - but I had seen plenty of horrific injuries from factory workers during my time as a healer. I wasn¡¯t exactly excited at the prospect of my mother losing an arm and bleeding out after a machine took her arm away. It was entirely possible for her to die if she worked in a factory. After a few months, I started encouraging her to just find a hobby instead. I was making enough money to support our lifestyle already, so I didn''t mind my mother relaxing. But I thought a hobby would still be good for her. If she had something she enjoyed to occupy her time, she might not get pulled back into Fizz.


    My first suggestion was singing, since I also enjoyed singing, and I had been hoping for an activity we could do together¡­ but my mother didn¡¯t enjoy it. She gave it a fair shot, but after two weeks of singing lessons, my mother ducked out. She seemed to enjoy knitting much more. Weaving and knitting were declining, since spinning-machines produced so much more fabric per hour. Still, if my mother was enjoying herself, that was good enough for me.


    There was one final thing that concerned me. Old Mo was getting¡­ well, old. His joints were starting to act up and his body was struggling to stay alive. Old Mo was nearly seventy now, and most people in this era died around sixty. I constantly healed Old Mo, to keep him healthy, but there was only so much I could do. I suspected that if I pushed my abilities further, it might be possible to ¡®heal¡¯ old age¡­ but right now, I couldn¡¯t do it. The one time I tried, I went from a full essence pool to nearly empty.


    By my and Old-Mo¡¯s reckoning, I healed away about one minute of age. This was an atrocious exchange rate. Even though it was apparently possible to heal old age, my essence pool was a few dozen grades too weak to support longevity. It was something to think about for future lives... but it was useless for Old Mo.


    Despite my concerns about Old Mo¡¯s age, my healing magic kept him pretty healthy for his age, and he was very physicall active. I just hoped that he would stick around for another few decades. During the times when my mother had been lost in her addiction, Old Mo had stepped in and acted like a father for me. I didn''t want to say goodbye to him at all. A small part of me hoped that he would somehow make it into the Market, although I suspected that was unrealistic.


    Still, I could hope.


    Finally, as the year drew to a close, the tests, research, and business of life started to slow down. We had turned fifteen, and finished our final year of alchemy prep school. It was time to graduate.

 Chapter 257: Graduation

    As I walked up to the auditorium doors, I couldn¡¯t help but feel melancholy. This would be the last time I ever set foot in this building.


    I would never hang out with Iselde and Vance before class started again. I would never listen to Mr. Delmont''s lectures again. Anise wouldn''t even be going to university with the rest of us, because she intended to focus on her spellcasting.


    Iselde and Vance had confirmed their university registration with us¡­ but the four of us were in three different majors. Vance was going into medicine with me, Iselde was going into potion production, and Felix planned on studying machinery. We wouldn¡¯t have much overlap for our classes. Everything that I had grown used to in school was changing or ending.


    Of course, I would still make efforts to see everyone. Nothing would stop me from seeing the people I cherished. But it also wouldn¡¯t be the same as it had been up until now.


    ¡°Are you all right?¡± asked Felix, poking me in the arm.


    I blinked in surprise, and then nodded.


    ¡°I was just thinking that this will be the last time we come to this building,¡± I said. ¡°It feels¡­ weird. We¡¯ve been learning under Mr. Delmont for eight years now. The idea of learning from someone else is bizarre. And we¡¯re all going to be working on our own projects, too. Anise is going to be preparing for worldstrider fights, you''ll be researching railroads...¡± I sighed. "I have very mixed feelings about this, now that the time has come."


    Felix laughed. He looked around, to make sure nobody else was too close to us, and then grinned. ¡°I think that¡¯s part of growing up,¡± he said. ¡°You have less time to spend with your friends, and you have to spend more time working and researching.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± I said. ¡°I guess we¡¯ve just¡­ never experienced it before.¡±


    Felix took a step forward, and then pulled me into a hug.


    ¡°Miria, we¡¯ve never lived to the point where we were proper adults before. It has been so long since I was last a ¡®real¡¯ adult that I¡¯ve almost forgotten what it¡¯s like. But there¡¯s one thing I¡¯m sure of.¡± he paused for a moment. ¡°No matter what, you¡¯ll find a way to keep everyone connected. That¡¯s who you are. You might be a reckless, crazy girl who loves plunging into danger. You''re also one of my best friends. Anise and I will help you make sure that we''re always around. Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll never drift apart, no matter what happens.¡±


    I felt something inside of me unclench. I hadn¡¯t even realized that I was afraid of things changing until Felix said it. For almost sixty years, the three of us had been stuck as children. We never lived to adulthood, so I had gotten¡­ used to being a kid. To never needing to think about jobs, or separate projects. Instead, I had grown used to playing, training, and learning about magic. Most importantly, I had worried about how to spend more time with my friends before. It was normal for kids to play together, after all. Soon, we wouldn''t be considered children anymore.


    But that didn¡¯t mean we would drift apart from each other. I still cherished and cared about Sallia, even though we hadn¡¯t had an outing in almost a decade now.


    I smiled, and hugged Felix back.


    ¡°Thanks, Felix,¡± I said. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize I needed to hear that until you said it.¡±


    ¡°Anytime, Mir. You¡¯ve been there for us more times than we can count. I¡¯m happy to be there for you, too,¡± he said.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    After that, he released me from the hug, and I stepped through the auditorium doors.


    The inside of the auditorium was heavily decorated. There were banners hanging on the side of the wall, all with the words ¡®Congratulations to the graduates¡¯ emblazoned on them. The bleachers and walls had all been cleaned until they looked new. The auditorium had little decorative gears hooked onto the walls, to symbolize machinery and progress.


    The seats in the auditorium were over halfway full already. I estimated there were at least eight hundred people here, and more would arrive soon.


    Felix and I scanned the auditorium until we saw my mother and Old Mo sitting near the middle of the room. It looked like they were¡­ arguing? I frowned, and stepped closer. I couldn¡¯t quite make out what they were saying over the rest of the din, but Old Mo was giving my mother a dismissive frown.


    ¡°Old Mo? Mom?¡± I said, as I stepped closer to them.


    ¡°Sorry Miria,¡± said Old Mo, as he tousled my hair and looked away from my mother. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to intrude on your big day. I shouldn''t have said anything." I frowned, and Old Mo winced, before he sighed. Then, he took a step closer to me and tousled my hair, before turned towards Felix. "Good to see you, Felix."


    My mother huffed and glared at Old Mo, before she snorted and turned away from him. She didn¡¯t say anything to either of us.


    I glanced at the two of them, and then quietly encouraged my mother to get up and shuffle over two seats. After she got up, I sat between Old Mo and my Mother. If they were going to fight whenever they talked, I would just separate them. I sighed.


    I had gotten used to the fact that Old Mo and my mother didn¡¯t get along¡­ but I didn¡¯t want to spend the ceremony watching them argue, either.


    A few moments later, Anise and her parents made their way into the auditorium. I relaxed, and started waving at her. They made their way towards us, before Anise sat down right behind me.


    ¡°Hey Miria,¡± said Anise, as she smiled at me.


    My mother gave Anise a curious look, before she turned towards me.


    ¡°Is this your other friend?¡± asked my mother. This was the first time my mother had met Anise since I had cured her.


    "Yeah. I''m Anise! It''s nice to... erm... met you? We''ve met before, but you were... not present," said Anise. She held out her hand for my mother, and my mother awkwardly shook it. Anise gave me a quick hug, before she leaned back in her seat.


    I saw Anise¡¯s parents give my mother odd glances.


    ¡°So you¡¯re Miria¡¯s mother¡­¡± said Anise¡¯s father, after a few moments. ¡°It is good to see you¡­ well again.¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± said my mother. "I was... not present for a lot of my life. I''m sorry that you''ve seen such a poor side of me."


    ¡°Your daughter carried you along while we were fleeing to Damilius,¡± said Anise¡¯s mother. ¡°It''s rather shameful that a mother was relying on her six year old daughter to keep her alive.¡±


    My mother flinched, almost as if Anise¡¯s mother had slapped her. She took a deep breath, before she closed her eyes. I thought that I could hear her¡­ counting?


    When she counted to ten, she opened her eyes again. ¡°You¡¯re right. It was embarrassing. My daughter deserved better, but I¡­ had my own difficulties,¡± finished my mother weakly.


    Anise¡¯s mother didn¡¯t say anything else, while Anise¡¯s father didn¡¯t seem keen on interacting with my mother at all.


    I sighed, and rubbed my mother¡¯s back. I could see that Anise''s mother had hurt her. I didn¡¯t think that hurting my mother like this was good. If my mother felt like everyone wouldn¡¯t let her move past her mistakes, she might fall back into a haze. I didn¡¯t want to see my mother slowly kill herself using drugs again.


    ¡°My mother is doing better now,¡± I said, as I turned towards Anise''s mother. ¡°She messed up a few times in the past, but we should look to the future, not the past. Tomorrow will be better as long as we make it better. I... I''d appreciate it if you were nicer."


    Anise mother looked at me, and then looked at my mother. Finally, she sighed, leaned over to me, and ruffled my hair.


    "If we don''t acknowledge our mistakes, we''ll never move past them either, kid. But sure. Today, let''s just look towards the future." She smiled. "You''re a sweet kid. I''m glad my little girl has a friend like you."


    My mother didn¡¯t say anything else as Anise''s mother pulled away. She just looked at Anise¡¯s parents and Old Mo, and fell into silence until the ceremony started.

 Chapter 258: Graduation (2)

    ¡°Today, we celebrate the achievements of the students who have persevered for the past eight years. They have studied, learned, and improved themselves, not just as alchemists, but also as well-rounded learners. They have expanded their understanding of the world, and in doing so, have reached a new step in their lives. First of all, I would like to applaud them for their efforts. It isn¡¯t easy to persevere for eight years and grow.¡± The headmaster clapped for us a few times, and after an awkward pause, the parents started to join in. The headmaster let it continue for a few moments, before he resumed his speech.


    ¡°From here, the paths these children take will be different. Some will attend a university, and some will join the workforce. Some may even take a completely different path. Regardless, we should be proud of their unwavering efforts¡­¡± the headmaster of the academy said.


    The headmaster had only been speaking for a few minutes, but I already found myself zoning out.


    I usually didn¡¯t have too much trouble paying attention in class, but the headmaster¡¯s speeches had a powerful soporific effect. And unlike Mr. Delmont¡¯s classes, the headmaster¡¯s speeches usually contained zero meaningful content. It was fancy sounding fluff. While some of the parents in the audience looked like they were eating it up, it wasn¡¯t my thing.


    I felt my eyelids grow heavier, and I felt myself process less and less information...


    <Miria, you¡¯re starting to drift a bit to the left,> said Anise. <And I can see a bit of drool near the corner of your mouth.>


    I jolted awake, and tried to discreetly wipe at the corner of my mouth.


    There was no drool there.


    <Anise!> I said.


    <I was trying to wake you up,> she said.


    I winced. <Thanks. I didn''t even realize that I was drifting off,> I said.


    <Miria? Are you falling asleep during a speech?> asked Sallia.


    I perked up. Sallia was awake!


    <Sallia, you¡¯re up!> I said. <How long have you been awake?>


    <A couple minutes,> said Sallia. <Felix was updating me on what the ceremony has been like so far. Then after that, I heard Anise mention that you were nodding off?>


    <Yeah. The principal of our school is great at making long, dull speeches,> I said, trying not to chuckle. <Here, let me show you.>


    I started broadcasting the principal¡¯s speech so that Sallia could watch along with us.


    After a few minutes Sallia sent me a wave of amusement. <Yeah, his speech is pretty boring.> Then, Sallia¡¯s mental voice became thoughtful. <You know, during my first life, I had to listen to quite a few boring speeches. I even had a class on it, if you can believe it. Nobles need to listen to a lot of boring speeches and digest content from them anyway.>


    <Really?> I asked. I tried to imagine Sallia taking a class on paying attention to boring speeches... and failed. Somehow, the image of Sallia challenging the teacher to a practice duel came to mind instead.


    <Hey!> said Sallia. I blinked in surprise, and realized that I had attached some of my disbelief to the word ''really.''


    <Sorry. I always have a harder time picturing you in academic settings,> I said.


    I could practically feel Sallia roll her eyes at me.


    <Well, what I was going to say was that I had a trick you could try. Try imagining yourself as someone in a debate class. In a few minutes, you''re going to need to argue with whoever is making the boring speech. If you do that, instead of listening to the boring speech, you start to pick up their points and think of counterpoints. It makes it feel like you have some interaction with the speech, and makes it way easier to concentrate,> said Sallia. <It¡¯s just my personal mental trick, so I don¡¯t know if it¡¯ll work for you. But you could try it?>


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    <Hmm... I''ll give it a shot,> I said. I started listening to the headmaster''s speech and tried to think of ''counterarguments.''


    Counterargument one was that most of his speech had almost no content...


    I sighed, and settled into a rhythm as I picked apart sentence after sentence. It wasn''t perfect... I still felt myself drifting off from time to time. But it did help.


    <Thanks, Sallia,> I said, as the headmaster''s long speech finally started to wrap up. <It actually helped a surprising amount.>


    <I''m glad it was useful,> she said.


    As I spoke with Sallia, the headmaster finally moved on to the next part of his speech.


    ¡°We now call upon the students of the academy to come and receive their awards,¡± said the headmaster. ¡°First¡­ Aliya Madraeya, the aspiring engineer.¡±


    A tall, blonde girl made her way to the front of the room. The principal shook her hand, before handing her a small diploma.


    Then, the headmaster continued calling names. Anise was the seventh student called.


    ¡°Anise, the aspiring witch,¡± said the headmaster. His eyes crinkled into smile lines as Anise made her way to the stage.


    Felix, Anise¡¯s parents, Old Mo, and I cheered wildly as she stepped onto the stage. As she kept moving, I realized that she was walking a bit fast. Her hands shook with nervousness as she shook hands with the headmaster. When he handed her the certificate, she snatched it from his hands. Then, she started speedwalking back towards us.


    <Anise, slow down a bit,> I said, trying to send a wave of both amusement and exasperation at her.


    She slowed down a little, but still looked a bit nervous as she made her way back towards us.


    <Stage fright?> asked Sallia.


    <I think so,> said Anise.


    Instead of sitting between her parents, she flopped next to me and stretched out her arms for a hug. I pulled her into a hug and patted her back a few times.


    ¡°Well done, Anise,¡± I whispered. ¡°Your part in the ceremony is over. You graduated from a school! How do you feel?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­" Anise spent a few moments thinking. Finally, she smiled. "I had fun here.". Then, she swapped to using her communication bracelet to talk instead. <I made a few friends, and I learned a lot. I wish that these ¡®schools¡¯ were available in other worlds. I even made a few friends from outside of the Market,> she said, as she eyed Iselde and Vance from across the room.


    I ruffled her head. <I''m glad to hear it. There are a lot of memories that we''ll be leaving behind here. But we''re also ready to move forward, and I think that''s important too,> I said. Anise nodded.


    While we chatted, several more students collected their diplomas. Until finally, it was my turn.


    ¡°Miria, the aspiring healer. Please come up,¡± said the headmaster. I made my way up the stage. I turned back to the crowd for a moment, and smiled as I saw my friends smiling at me and clapping in their seats. I saw Old Mo give me a grin, before giving me a thumbs up. My mother also gave me a smile, and while it looked a little strained, there was genuine happiness in her grin. I waved at all of them. It might be a bit unorthodox... but it wasn''t like the school could punish me for it anyway!


    Then, I shook the headmaster''s hand, took my certificate, and made my way back to my seat.


    Soon afterwards, the headmaster got to Iselde. ¡°Iselde, aspiring alchemist.¡± Unlike some of the other students, Iselde hadn¡¯t really done much to earn the attention of others in school. ''Aspiring alchemist'' was a bit of a generic description for students who hadn''t distinguished themselves. The three of us cheered all the harder for her to make up for it as she took her diploma. Iselde stopped by my seat to get a hug afterwards. I grinned.


    Right after Iselde, Vance got called up.


    ¡°Vance, the aspiring fencer and healer,¡± said the headmaster.


    Vance also got his certificate and a quick hug.


    And then finally, it was Felix¡¯s turn. Interestingly enough, he was the last student to be called.


    ¡°And finally, Felix, one of the most promising alchemists this academy has taught in the past decade,¡± said the headmaster. Unlike most of the other statements he had made over the night, he sounded quite animated this time. He even winked at Felix as he walked up to the stage, which was totally unlike the prim, proper, dreary headmaster I was used to. ¡°By now, instead of just graduating from an alchemy prep school, you could probably graduate from some universities. Well done, young man. You''ve worked hard for this. I look forward to seeing what you accomplish in the future.¡±


    Felix grinned.


    ¡°Count on it,¡± he said.


    Felix returned to his seat, where I gave him his celebratory hug. And then, at last, the ceremony was over.


    ¡°Come on. I made some chocolate cake for you,¡± said Old Mo, grinning. ¡°It should be ready by the time we get back to my bakery. It''ll be a great treat to round off the day. Well done!¡±


    I smiled, and hugged Old Mo.


    ¡°Thanks, Old Mo,¡± I said. ¡°I appreciate you coming today. It means a lot to me.¡±


    ¡°Anytime, Miria,¡± he said.


    Then we all started making our way out of the auditorium for the last time.


    Our education at prep alchemy school was over.

 Chapter 259: Amelia

    After graduating, we decided to spend two weeks celebrating. We had spent eight years wrestling with tests, projects, and homework. We could spend a few weeks celebrating before we started preparing for university.


    The first thing we did was organize an outings with Vance and Iselde. After all, we would be seeing a lot less of each other once we entered university. We decided to organize a picnic. Old Mo packed us some sandwiches, and the five of us walked up a little trail near town that had a nice view of the ocean. We had a tasty lunch, played some board games, and admired the view of the ocean. It was nice.


    Near the end of the outing, Felix and Vance ended up making a few wooden swords and fencing. When I saw Vance and Felix battle, Vance''s skill surprised me. The three of us who were part of the Market had spent decades working on our swordsmanship. We''d had Sallia teach us and spar with us during that time, and her skills were no joke. Vance couldn''t trade blows evenly with Felix... but he was still able to sneak in one hit against Felix out of twelve matches. Granted, Felix was toning down the overwhelming difference in stats... but it was still impressive. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how good he might have gotten at actual fighting, if this world treated fencing as a combat technique and not a sport.


    Anise and I also ended up dueling Vance a few times, although he didn''t manage to hit either of us. The four of us still had a lot of fun, and Iselde cheered everyone on during the duels. We had a great time.


    We spent the next few weeks arranging similar outings, before going to the university to fill out our paperwork. We spent over a day filling out forms before we left.


    After that, Anise and I started prepping for her future.


    After all, Anise wasn¡¯t going to be attending university with us. She had decided to prepare for a possible confrontation with the worldstriders. She felt that if she found a weakness of the creatures, she would try to exploit it to drive them back. It would be a great way to earn a keyword ability, and it would also remove the greatest threat to her life. But she needed a way to practice spellcasting, farm achievement, and grow until she found a weakness. After all, she was fifteen now. In this world''s standards, she was bordering on being a real adult. It would be odd if she didn''t go to university or find a job.


    Anise had already floated the idea of opening a repair shop to me. Her mend spell could heal prosthetic limbs, and there was plenty of demand for prosthetic repairs.


    Of course, there was a problem with that - Anise was known to have a force manipulation ability. She had used force manipulation several times in public. If she started using her mend spell, people would realize something was wrong. While we might reveal the existence of Zelyrian magic, we didn''t intend to do so now, at least. So Anise needed a way to openly use her mend spell.


    We decided to create a new identity for her. If Anise couldn''t use the mend spell openly, we would create a new personal for her that could use a mending ''ability.''


    For that, I intended to lean heavily into my illusion magic. Anise, unlike Felix and I, preferred to have very pale skin. I suspected this was because the first world she remembered was the world of the black sun. There, everyone lived underground, so nobody really had a tan. Either way, Anise''s skin was very pale, unlike Sallia, Felix, and I.


    So I gave her alternate identity a tan as the first big change. Then, I helped her change her hair color to silver. Her pink hair was one of Anise''s most distinctive traits, while silver hair was a relatively common color on this continent.


    Then, I helped her increased her height a little bit (this time using stilted shoes and illusions). I used even more illusions to change her facial structure, giving her a slightly larger forehead and bigger eyes. Then, I made some of her limbs look a little longer and more slender.


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    Finally, we went to Old Mo for help. After all, Old Mo was a former assassin. He should obviously know how to disguise his identity. And that was where we found a veritable gold mine.


    Old Mo had forgotten a lot of the finer aspects of being a spy, since he had retired decades ago. Despite that fact, he was a former spy and assassin. A lot of the information he gave us proved critical to help Anise differentiate her identities. He taught her how to walk differently. He taught her how to vary the way she spoke, from her voice to her word choice. He taught her how to alter her posture seamlessly.


    After a few weeks of training, even I could have been fooled by Anise''s disguise.


    Of course, that moment was broken when ''Amelia,'' Anise''s alternate identity, gave me a big hug and burst into excitement.


    "Miria! I did it! Even you felt like I was unrecognizable for a moment, right? Right?" she said.


    I laughed and ruffled Anise''s hair. "You did amazing, Anise."


    "I''m going to go fool Felix!" she said, before she left for Felix''s room.


    The next day, I found a grumpy Anise glaring at Felix. Felix had mistaken ''Amelia'' for an intruder and had tried to whack her with a floating blob of metal. Anise had revealed her disguise before Felix managed to hit her... but it was a close call. Felix was embarrassed by the whole thing, and I couldn''t stop laughing when the two recounted what happened.


    After that little event, we went back to Old Mo for help getting Anise a second background.


    Having a person we knew and trusted who understood the full details about the Market made life much easier.


    It took a week to get everything set up, and then Anise went to an ability registration center. ''Amelia'' was now a seventeen year old girl who had fled from the worldstrider invasion of Verne. She possessed the mend ability, and was looking to open a prosthetics repair shop. The ability registration went well.


    Then, ¡®Amelia¡¯ went to Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic, to ask for a checkup. Of course, there was no real issues with her body - we just needed a pretext for ¡®Amelia¡¯ to become friends with us.


    From there, we presented an illusion of becoming fast friends. Amelia got to know Felix, Old Mo, and my mother. For bonus points, I also created an illusory Anise to join in a few of our outings, to make sure that nobody thought Amelia and Anise were the same person. The illusory Anise wasn''t a perfect imitation of the original. She didn''t talk much, and some of her movements were a little awkward. We kept these outings to areas where people wouldn''t have a reason to directly talk to Anise, such as restaurants with private rooms. It wasn''t perfect, but it would hopefully keep Anise''s two identities separate.


    After a few weeks of this, ''Amelia'' opened up a prosthetics repair shop (using some money that I gave her). ''Amelia'' hired Anise and I as assistants to help keep the shop running.


    It only took a few days for our first few customers to come in. Anise met the patients first, without any of her illusions or masks to disguise herself. She would then ¡®adjust¡¯ a few internal parts of people¡¯s prosthetics, to ''set it up for Amelia''. Then, she guided the patient to another room, changed into her Amelia disguise, and used her mend spell to fix the deteriorating prosthetics. Afterwards, I gave them a final dose of healing magic, to make sure everything was still connected and working with their physical body.


    It proved to be a massive success. Anise¡¯s job, and future, was set up, as long as I was nearby to maintain her illusions and body transformations.


    Of course, that wasn¡¯t a permanent solution. Once we left for university, Anise wouldn''t have me on hand to maintain her suite of illusions and body transformations all the time anymore. Luckily, Felix and I already had a plan to solve that problem.


    We spent the next two weeks developing a special bracelet that would let Anise apply her ¡®Amelia¡¯ illusion as needed. It was surprisingly easy to set up, once Felix and I got the right idea. Felix was already used to ¡®affixing¡¯ ideas to shapes¡­ so he had me create the image of ¡®Amelia¡¯ and then he affixed the idea of an ¡®Amelia illusion¡¯ to a simple bracelet. With a detailed illusion to work with, and Felix¡¯s talent for binding essence manipulation, we finished the project in two weeks. It was the first research project we''d done in this world that hadn''t run into a mountain of surprise issues, and I was very happy to have an easy success.


    After that, I spent a week hovering near Anise, to make sure nothing went wrong. But nothing did. Our bracelet worked as intended, and Anise could swap to her Amelia disguise at will. Anise¡¯s shop, as well as a way to farm Achievement and keyword abilities, was secured.

 Grandmother Died - No Chapters For A Bit

    My grandmother on my father¡¯s side died in her sleep last night. We¡¯re still not sure why, but she¡¯s gone. Half of my grandparents are now dead. I remember a few years ago, when I was just starting to write Budding Scientist, I felt like the months of Covid were particularly bad because every few months another family member went to the hospital. It usually wasn¡¯t even Covid related, it was just random catastrophes falling out of the sky. Last year I thought I beat the curse, since it over 12 months since anyone I cared about had an emergency, but here we are again..


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    I was a lot less close with my family on my father¡¯s side than my mother¡¯s side, but I still don¡¯t feel very good right now. I¡¯m probably going to take the rest of the week off. I¡¯ll see you next week when I¡¯m hopefully in a bit of a better headspace.

 Chapter 260: University

    As Felix took his first step into the university, the first thing he noticed was how spread out everything was. He had grown used to the prep academy, which only had a single building and a fence. The prep academy had been built to serve around 5,000 or 6,000 students.


    The university seemed built to serve at least four times that number. Given the fact that the town only had a population of 100,000 or so, Felix wondered how many people enrolled in the university who lived out of town.


    More importantly, the university wasn''t a single massive building. It was a collection of dozens of buildings. Felix could see dorm buildings in the distance, as well as classrooms and research labs. There were even a few restaurants and gardens, for people to take a break between classes. This place felt like a city within a city.


    The second thing he noticed was the people. There were hundreds of people clustered around the entrance to the academy. At first, Felix thought they were all new students. However, he quickly realized that wasn''t the case. Some of the people clustered near the front of the gates were clubs that were trying to recruit new members.


    The group closest to him was a group of men and women wearing fancy suits and dresses. In front of them was a wooden sign with the words ''Ballroom club'' written on it.


    Standing behind them was a group of girls, all wearing skirts that were scandalously short, at least by this era¡¯s standards. At least half of their thighs were exposed, and they wore sleeveless blouses. In this era, most women wore dresses that covered their knees, so Felix was rather shocked by this. Their clothes were silver and orange, the two colors of the school...


    <Notice anything, Felix?> asked Miria, shocking Felix out of his stupor. Felix could hear her amusement. <The ¡®cheerleading¡¯ club has pretty interesting attire, don''t you think? You''ve been staring at them for a while.>


    <I, uhh¡­ didn¡¯t. Didn''t see anything, that is,> he said, trying not to let his embarrassment seep into his mental voice. He could feel his cheeks burning as he looked away.


    <I¡¯m sure,> said Miria, sounding even more amused. <Well, I¡¯m also pretty surprised. Their fashion is pretty outlandish by this era''s standards. But I¡¯m surprised you paid attention to them. Aren¡¯t you usually more interested in crafting?>


    Felix felt his blush intensify, and decided to change the subject.


    <I wonder what cheerleaders are. I¡¯ve never heard of the word before.>


    <I think I remember them being sort of like¡­ dancers for sports events? Or something like that? My memories are a bit fuzzy, but I know I''ve heard of them before,> said Miria. <They might serve a different cultural role here, though. Does this university have a sports team? What sports are even played in this world?>


    <I remember seeing a few kids kick a ball around when we were younger,> said Felix. <I don''t know exactly what the rules are, but I could see that becoming an official sport of some sort.>


    <Hmm... that makes sense,> said Miria.


    Felix breathed a sigh of relief as the topic finally drifted away. He also thanked the stars that Anise and Sallia weren¡¯t listening right now. If both of them heard this conversation too, he would die of embarrassment.


    Felix scanned the clubs again, and noticed several other clubs recruiting new members. The other four that were nearby were the tea club, the study of history club, the alchemy club, and the modern era club. Felix wasn¡¯t quite sure what the ¡®Modern Era¡¯ club did, but the alchemy club could be interesting. He made a mental note to look into it later.


    "Any of you see a club that you want to try out?" asked Miria, as the group looked at the clubs. "I''m not seeing much that appeals to me. I was hoping for a ''medicine club'' or something like that. I''m not seeing one though."


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    "I see a fencing club that looks fun," said Vance, grinning. "I wouldn''t mind a few duels to keep in shape and have some fun. I still need to pay you three back for the thrashing you guys gave me a few months ago."


    Felix chuckled. He doubted a few years of practice would make that big of a difference - but he still wished Vance the best of luck. Without Sallia to keep the group in shape, he definitely didn''t train his swordsmanship as rigorously as should. Having a new training partner would be a good idea.


    "I''ll look into the alchemy club later," said Felix. "I''m not sure what their standards are, but if I have time I''d like to check in with them."


    "I''ll go with you," said Iselde. "I have a hard time studying on my own. Having a club might help me focus."


    The group finished looking over the clubs, before Iselde looked at the map. She frowned, and glanced at the clocktower in the distance. "We should get moving. Orientation starts in half an hour, and I want to make sure we don''t get lost along the way. This place is huge."


    "Sounds reasonable. Good luck. See you two at dinner," said Felix. Then, the group split up. Felix and Miria started heading towards their research group, while Vance and Iselde walked in the opposite direction.


    Unlike Iselde and Vance, the university had told Felix and Miria to first meet with their research team. They wouldn''t be attending the regular orientation with the other students.


    ¡°What do you think it¡¯ll be like?¡± asked Miria.


    ¡°Through my interactions with them, their research seems promising. The one that I sent letters to was named Sebellum. He seemed nice enough," said Felix. "We''ll have to see whether there''s any difference in person."


    Miria nodded thoughtfully, as the two finally reached their destination. The prosthetics lab.


    The two made their way into the facility, where they encountered a suited gentleman wearing a rather fancy top hat. Felix gave the hat an appreciative nod. He could appreciate a nice suit and top hat. Maybe next world he would try a more thin body shape. He liked his current look, but he also liked the suited gentleman type of look. Some variety in his body shape from one life to another might be fun.


    ¡°You two must be Miria and Felix! We¡¯ve been waiting for you!¡± he said, before giving them a quick gentlemanly bow. ¡°My name is Sebellum. We''ve written to each other for the past year, yes?"


    Felix smiled at the man.


    "Now that you''re here, let me introduce you to the rest of the team. They''ve been eager to meet you," said Sebellum, as he stepped ahead of us.


    As he walked, Felix noticed that his gait was unusual. The man¡¯s steps were a bit too sure. AToo stable. Felix grinned.


    ¡°What did you do to your legs? They look like they work incredibly well!¡±


    ¡°You have quite the keen eye, Felix!¡± said Sebellum. He gave Felix a much wider grin. ¡°In one of the colonies, a type of substance that is both resilient and stretchy was recently discovered. It forms in small quantities on the bark of a special breed of tree. Turning them into a material for prosthetic nerves and tendons has been my personal project for over a year. We first tested it on a few patients who had problems using normal prosthetics, and well, the results were marvelous! Afterwards, I just knew that I had to try it for myself. We¡¯ve been working on new iterations of the material, and trying to find ways to improve it. For the version I''m using, we boiled the bark, then mixed in some molten steel to give it a bit of rigidity. It works quite well, although I''ve been trying to find something to reduce the rididity of the steel. One of the best traits of the original tree substance was its incredible flexibility. It feels like a bit of a shame to lose most of that,¡± said Sebellum thoughtfully. Then, he gave Felix a cheery wink. "Hopefully you can give us some new ideas, Felix. I''ve already seen some of your test and project results, and I have high hopes for you." Felix felt as if he had discovered a kindred spirit. Messing with items, trying out different results, experimenting¡­ these were the things he liked the most in crafting.


    ¡°I believe that might involve trying things out with different muscles,¡± said Felix. ¡°There are a mixture of ligaments, joints, and muscles involved in things like walking and jumping, after all. Lots of muscles from the hips to the ankles work together for things like that. Did you do anything with the other parts of your body, or did you just upgrade your tendons and nerves?¡± asked Felix.


    ¡°Of course, I upgraded the other relevant muscle groups. However, I¡¯ve been pretty light on the enhancements. There''s still some debate on what exactly each muscle and nerve in the body does when it comes to simple actions like walking. We''ve been trying to nail this down more precisely. That would make it easier to help people improve their body with minimal essence costs," said Sebellum. ¡°Mixing and matching enhancements together is becoming a field of study of its own.¡±


    Felix grinned as he sank into the conversation. He and Sebellum started talking about different materials and muscle groups as they walked towards the rest of the team. And Felix couldn''t have been happier.


    Miria might have looked a little bored with the conversation¡­ but Felix felt that he would fit right in with this group of people.

 Chapter 261: University (2)

    We spent four hours touring the research facility and getting to know everyone. Felix seemed incredibly excited every time he saw one of our future co-workers. To my surprise, so was I. Every single person in this research team had done some sort of innovative modification to their body. Furthermore, it was obvious they were passionate about their research. Every single one of them was very animated when they talked about their body modifications. It seemed to resonate with Felix''s passion for crafting.


    The most successful modification we met was a woman named Ella. She had given herself an extra two fingers on each hand. They were attached to her wrists, and looked kind of like two extra thumbs. Furthermore, these two extra fingers were metal, giving her an incredible grip.


    Her other fingers were also strengthened far beyond regular human fingers. All fourteen of her fingers had agility and strength that regular humans couldn''t match. She showed us her ability to grip different tools and manipulate them at tricky angles, and I was impressed. She could probably outperform normal doctors in surgery by leaps and bounds.


    My suspicion was borne out when Sebellum told us she was the team''s surgeon. Someone had to help people actually swap out their muscles and tendons... and that person was Ella.


    I also found it interesting just how much better her artificial hands were, compared to my shapeshifting attempts. My shapeshifting attempts had given us about a 15% boost to our base strength. The woman¡¯s hand modifications had instead boosted her grip strength around 700%. She had a grip strength almost five times that of a normal adult male. She could crush a few thinner metal pipes just by gripping them.


    Of course, I also had no idea whether her hands could naturally grow stronger. Last world, I had observed a few swordsmen improve the grade of their skills during training, and seeing their stats improve afterward. I had no idea whether Ella could still benefit from this kind of training, now that her hands were artificial.


    At least in this world, it was a moot question. Ella''s hand strength was about equal to grade 10. There was no way people in this world naturally reached grade 10 in strength. The world tier was too low to make skill improvement easy.


    Even more interesting, the essence consumption was pretty low. Ella spent 8% of her essence on her hands - and that was as a surgeon. She had to be making extensive use of her hands every single day. When I saw Ella, I realized that the research team''s goal wasn''t some distant, far off dream. At that very moment, I was already looking at a successful ''enhanced human.'' Ella had only taken a small step beyond humanity - but she had found a way to improve beyond human limitations. If one person in this research team had already succeeded, others would as well.


    Ella also made me wonder if this world would have cyborgs in the future. The benefits of melding steel and flesh were clearly excellent when people knew what they were doing. I could imagine people in the future having subdermal armor, enhanced senses, and bodies made of metal. The only real limitation was binding essence generation, and this team was designed to fix that very problem.


    I also wondered what Felix would turn into after a few worlds, if he kept delving deeper into this magic system. The ways that Felix might improve could take him even further than the natives of this world. After all, in this world, there weren¡¯t many ¡®natural¡¯ magical objects. Apart from the ingredients for ability potions, every other ''magic'' object was man-made. But in our first world, the ocean itself had a certain mental effect if we looked at it. What would happen if Felix used a similar material to improve his muscles? There had to be some that were compatible with the human body.


    Of course, the research team wasn¡¯t filled with success stories like Ella.


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    Two of the researchers, named Dellia and Marvin, were examples of what happened when people tried things and failed. Dellia had attempted to replace her eyes with a series of intricate glass lenses. She claimed that human eyes were ludicrously terrible. She had dreamed of replacing them with something better. She had longed for the ability to zoom in on distant objects when she looked at them, as well as the ability to view smaller objects.


    In short, she had tried to turn her eyes into both telescopes and microscopes.


    Instead, she had gone completely blind in both eyes. Her attempts at making a delicate series of sliding lenses had gone catastrophically wrong. The only thing her new eyes did was devour essence at an absurd rate.


    One of the first things she asked me to do was regrow her human eyes. I was more than happy to oblige, since that was what the research team brought me in for. Still, I took it as a stark reminder of how wrong prosthetic research could go. Without a safeguard, any attempt at modification could become a catastrophe.


    Marvin¡¯s problem was similar, although harder to fix. He had tried replacing several muscles in his arm, similar to Ella¡¯s hands. Unfortuantely, he hadn''t cooled down the metal mixture quite enough. Instead of enhancing his muscles, he had grafted semi-molten metal to his bones. After that, his arms had been almost completely ruined. Worse, he didn''t have enough binding essence generation to just replace his arms. Until I had come along, he had made do with only one arm.


    In total, the research team had about 30 people in it. Most of them sported a successful modification, but nine of them needed my healing instead.


    Still, even though the injuries were sometimes horrific, I could tell the team was very passionate. Even the ones that had horribly injured themselves hopped right back to their research notes once I cured them. It was far more drive than I had expected to see from people who had nearly become disabled. And Felix was drinking the atmosphere up.


    I was happy that he was having such a good time.


    However, there was one sour note to my thoughts. Something that started to cycle through my mind as we kept looking at new limb modifications and failed experiments.


    Sallia might have been really interested in this magic system as well. Sallia''s second magic system was the manifestation magic system. She used that magic system to access a lot of self-strengthening spells. However, these researchers seemed to have gotten better results using their prosthetics. She might have enjoyed mixing this into her combat style somehow. I could imagine Sallia ripping through hordes of enemies with a metal arm, moving far faster than a normal limb ever could...


    Sadly, she wouldn''t ever have the chance to try out this magic system. That made me a little sad.


    After we finished meeting the research team, Felix and I split up. Felix still had one more research team to meet. He sounded almost as excited about making railroads as he was about prosthetics. I hadn''t been invited to the railroad research team, so I headed back to the dorms to see if Iselde and I were roommates. We had filed out an application for becoming roommates during registration, but didn''t know the results yet.


    It took me a few minutes of knocking on random doors before I heard Iselde¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Miria! We''re roommates!¡± she said. ¡°Come in!¡±


    I grinned, and opened the door.


    Inside of the room, I saw a pair of beds stashed in the corner of the room, as well as two desks, two closets where we could stash our clothes, and two bookshelves. There were also two trunks stuffed in the corner of the room, where we would be able to store other items. Finally, there was a single window stationed at the edge of the room, with some curtains for if we decided to expel the sun from our room. The room looked rather bare bones, but it was surprisingly roomy. I had expected the dorm rooms to be a bit less spacious.


    "I''m glad we ended up as roommates," said Iselde, grinning. "I was nervous."


    "I''m glad we''re roommates too," I said. "It''ll be much easier this way."


    Iselde nodded. ¡°Definitely. Do you have your schedule for tomorrow?¡±


    I checked the items the university gave me, before I nodded. ¡°The university already included it in my packet.¡±


    ¡°Then it¡¯s time for something even more important,¡± said Iselde, glancing at our barebones room. ¡°Decorating!¡±

 Chapter 262: News From Afar

    It took us a few hours to decorate our room.


    Iselde''s had covered her half of the room with natural landscape paintings. Everywhere I looked, I could see lakes, forests, and mountains. I was surprised that a farmer''s daughter liked natural landscapes so much, but it created a nice ambience.


    As for me, I hadn¡¯t brought any paintings with me. Instead, I had tried something a bit more odd for my decorations. First, I made a quick trip to one of the nearby stores and bought a little aquarium. I didn¡¯t add any fish to it - what I wanted was the water itself. Then, I added a lot of toy boats and fake fish to the water. Finally, I used some wires to make the boats hover in the air, as if they were flying.


    It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it still looked a lot like something from the islands. If I squinted, I could pretend that I was still standing on the shore, watching the flying boats go to hunt fish. It made me feel a bit nostalgic for a home I had lost. Still, looking at it made me happy.


    ¡°Why did you make the little boats look like they¡¯re flying? Airships don''t look like that,¡± said Iselde, as she studied my aquarium.


    I hesitated for a moment. Should I tell Iselde about the Market? I paused¡­ and then shook my head. I didn¡¯t know Iselde as well as I had known Old Mo and Anise. I cared about Iselde and Vance, but I also didn''t think it was a good idea to constantly tell people about the Market. I should only tell people I deeply trusted about our true past.


    ¡°It¡¯s from a fantasy novel that Anise made me read,¡± I lied. ¡°I ended up liking it. The story is about a bunch of fishermen who man flying boats and hunt giant fish.¡±


    ¡°Flying boats and giant fish?¡± Iselde shrugged. ¡°Sounds weird. But I''ve never been a big fan of fantasy novels either. Anyway, we should go to dinner. The boys should be ready for us by now."


    I nodded, and the two of us left for the cafeteria.


    We met up with Felix and Vance, before we grabbed our meals and sat down together, just like we had done during prep school.


    Iselde and Vance told us about orientation, and I talked about the research team. Felix talked about both of the research teams he had been invited to join. There wasn''t any crucial information passed between us - just friends enjoying each other''s company.


    The next day, we split apart for our classes¡­ and over the course of the next week I started to feel lonely.


    I could only see Felix if we met for dinner or when we went to the prosthetics research team. I could only see Iselde when we were in our room together. Vance only appeared in two of my classes, despite us sharing a major. During The rest of my classes, I was surrounded by strangers. I still made some efforts to get to know new people and be social¡­ but it was harder to make new friends than I expected. People in university were busier, and had less time for hanging out. I still found a few people I got along with, but our friendships didn''t develop to the level of closeness I was used to. I got a few drinks and played some board game with my classmates, but I wouldn''t desperately miss them once I left this world. Due to lack of time and the business of everyone, my friendship with these people was more shallow than my important relationships.


    At the very least, the classes themselves were easier. Medical classes focused on the human body and mundane medicines, so I didn¡¯t have to do any alchemy in class. Without my poor talent in binding essence manipulation dragging me down, I had a much easier time.


    The days I helped the research team weren''t that difficult, either. My job was to heal researchers when they got too enthusiastic and broke something in their body.


    That weekend, I left the university dorm room to visit my mother and Anise, and to work at Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic. I also checked in with Dr. Trish''s information about my mother. I''d asked her to check in on my mother once a day, to see if she lapsed into a fit or had any other issues. Since I hadn''t been able to remove all of the fizz chunks from my mother''s brain, I always worried that she would have a stroke or other problems. Luckily, nothing had happened.


    The next month at university passed in much the same way. The only notable occurrence was Dr. Trish and Marcus. Three weeks after I entered university, Marcus proposed to Dr. Trish, and she agreed. After that, Dr. Trish started planning her wedding, and had less time to focus on other things. She also asked all of the workers at her clinic if they wanted to come once the wedding began. Since I liked Dr. Trish and Marcus, I was happy to say yes. It would be several more months before the wedding happened, but I was looking forward to it.


    The only other thing that we really focused on was clubs. Felix ended up joining the Alchemy club and having a great time with it. Iselde joined him, while Vance joined the fencing club, much to no one¡¯s surprise.


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    I ended up trying out a few different clubs, but didn¡¯t find one that really spoke to me. The Tea club had tasty drinks and snacks, but I didn¡¯t love tea - I just enjoyed drinking a nice pot of tea from time to time. The music club was more focused on instruments, and while there was some crossover between singing and playing instruments, it wasn¡¯t as much as I had been hoping for when I tried out the club.


    For some reason, Anise had encouraged me to join the cheerleading club, and Sallia had egged me on for a few days, which resulted in me constantly sending them pictures of me frowning at them using the friendship bracelets. I was not wearing a skirt that short.


    Unfortunately, the two of them seemed to find the whole situation hilarious, and kept teasing me with their own images of what they thought I would look like in a cheerleading uniform. The images looked good¡­ but I wasn¡¯t doing it!


    A month after I enrolled in the university, I encountered something far more worrying.


    ¡°They''ve left Verne?¡± I asked, looking at the newspaper Felix had brought me.


    ¡°It seems so. The worldstriders are spreading,¡± said Felix as he frowned with worry. ¡°I was hoping that they would keep beating up Verne.¡±


    ¡°Me too,¡± I said as I shuddered.


    Originally, we had predicted that the worldstriders would rip away a chunk of Verne¡¯s territory, and then settle down for a while. After all, they had just escaped from the pocket dimension. I had hoped they would be weakened, or wouldn''t want to expand. And for the past few months, they had seemed pretty content to rampage through Verne and ignore the rest of the world. This had been ideal for us. If the Worldstriders spent a bunch of time rampaging through Verne, they wouldn¡¯t get anywhere near us. They would also give other nations a chance to study their unique biology and invent countermeasures. Then, in a decade, the worldstriders would no longer be a threat. They would either form a small nation or disappear into history textbooks.


    Unfortunately, the worldstriders appeared to have realized that time was against them. As a result, they had spread to the east and expanded the war. They had also sent out a few diplomats to other nations, with the explicit goal of pissing everyone off. The worldstrider diplomats had claimed that the mountains of the continent were theirs. Anyone who objected would find themselves at war with the worldstriders.


    Almost every country on this continent had at least a few mountain ranges in their territory. Even Enallia, which was mostly a frozen tundra, had a mountain range that encompassed a third of their western border.


    ¡°Do you think they¡¯re trying to provoke the rest of the continent?¡± asked Felix, as we read about the incendiary diplomatic message.


    I frowned.


    That¡­ made a twisted sort of sense. The worldstriders knew that it was possible to develop countermeasures against them. They had lost the war against the Zelyrians, after all. But after fighting the Vernese, they should also know that they were very hard to hurt right now. What if they wanted to take advantage of this and hamstring anti-worldstrider research? If they crushed all nearby nations, and then assassinated the relevant research personnel... they might be able to stifle any threats to their species in the cradle. It was a very risky way to approach diplomacy, but I could see it working if the stars aligned. If things went really well for the worldstriders, they might even create a new hegemonic empire within a few decades.


    When I reached that point in my thoughts, I grew alarmed. I contacted Anise, and then shared my guess with Felix and Anise via friendship bracelet.


    <We have to stop that from happening,> Felix said. <It''s impossible to know for sure what they''re thinking, but it might be possible. Anise, how is your research for anti-worldstrider Zelyrian magic coming along?>


    she said. <I can¡¯t figure out what the Zelyrians used to beat the worldstriders at all. it must exist somewhere in this magic system¡­ but I have no idea what it is.> Anise sounded uncertain of herself.


    <Don¡¯t give up. If anyone can find it, it¡¯s you,> I said encouragingly. <I know that you can do it.>


    Anise fell silent, until Felix cut back in.


    <Well, here¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking. If our nation actually does go to war with the worldstriders, we should find a way to help out. Right now, your extinguish and ability to switch between layers of reality is very useful. Weapons to hurt worldstriders are lacking for most nations, but that won''t be true for long. We just need to contain their expansion for a while.> Felix sounded incredibly reluctant. <I''m not enthusiastic about giving up my place in the research teams... but we might need to go hamstring worldstrider expansion.>


    <I don''t think it''s quite that extreme yet,> I said. <Still, the idea of containing the worldstriders makes sense. How about we see what they do next? If the situation keeps escalating, Anise and I can try to find ways to contribute to the battlefield without being noticed. But if the worldstriders slow down, we can just wait for the alchemists of the continent to develop the weapons they need.>


    Felix hesitated for a moment. <Are you sure? I could come with you...>


    <You should focus on your own keyword abilities, no matter what happens,> said Anise. <I could benefit from this situation, in a twisted way. I need an opportunity to form my keyword abilities. You already have an opportunity right in front of you. Don''t throw it away.>


    I nodded in agreement.


    <All right,> said Felix reluctantly. <We''ll wait and see. But if you need my help...>


    <We''ll keep you in the loop,> I said.


    It wasn¡¯t time yet¡­ but if the situation escalated any further, we would be ready.

 Chapter 263: Hunting Plans

    That weekend, I left the college dorms to go visit everyone else. My first stop was the shop run by ¡®Amelia.¡¯ I wanted to see her, and to brainstorm solutions. While I could have asked her over the communication bracelet, being face to face was nicer. It made it easier to hug each other and relax together, after all.


    The front door opened with a pleasant chiming sound as I walked into her shop.


    ¡°Hey Amelia,¡± I said as I looked at Anise.


    ¡°Hey Miria! Said Anise, as she gave me a cheery wave. She was wearing her ¡®Amelia¡¯ disguise right now, so she looked different than usual - but her smile was as bright as ever. The first thing I did was pull her into a hug.


    ¡°How have you been?¡± I asked, as I released her.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I have mixed feelings about everything,¡± said Anise. ¡°On one hand, the worldstriders are scary. I don''t like how much they''re expanding on the continent. But I also have really good news. This morning, I got a reward for fixing 100 prosthetic limbs using ''lost magic.'' And it came with a useful ability. It isn''t a keyword ability... but it''s an option,¡± said Anise. "It gives me the dimensional laws related to Zelyrian spellcasting. It doesn''t have a way to change my biology to make me compatible with Zelyrian magic, or generate essence. Even so, it''s a solid plan B!" she said. "Still, since it''s not a keyword ability, it''s not very cost effective. If I buy it, I would be paying 20 glut penalty for only 1/3rd of what I need.¡± Anise sighed. ¡°Say, with your healing magic and shapeshifting... Do you think that in the future, you could help me perform a ¡®surgery¡¯ to change my biology into that of a Zelyrian? I hope it isn''t needed, but as a backup option...¡±


    I frowned in thought. ¡°Well¡­ maybe? I haven¡¯t tried making that extreme of a change to someone¡¯s biology before. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s possible, but I can''t pull it off yet. The complexity is way higher than just changing our hands a bit. How about this? On future weekends, let¡¯s do some tests, and I¡¯ll see what I can learn. The first thing I would need to do is actually understand Zelyrian biology, after all.¡±


    Anise hugged me again, before burying her head into my shoulder. ¡°Thanks Miria. If it works¡­ I¡¯ll have a way to keep the Zelyrian spellcasting System. Essence generation seems like the easiest problem to solve, and if you can help me, that would fix the other problems I have.¡±


    I grinned. ¡°Let¡¯s keep aiming for a proper keyword ability¡­ but now you have a plan B!¡± Then, I fell into thought. "Since you got the ability for healing prosthetics, does the ability have any restrictions? I remember Felix''s shaping magic has some restrictions on it..."


    ¡°Yes. It restricts the kinds of spells I can learn. If I take this ability, I would only be able to learn repairing, healing, and force related spells. It has far less variety than I want out of my magic system.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Out of curiosity, what ¡®image¡¯ of a witch do you want to pursue?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ In my mind, the ideal sup- erm¡­ the ideal mage is someone who has a lot of variety in what kinds of spells they cast. They should be able to command the elements with their minds, turn invisible, teleport, and heal, all with a thought. They should have a spell for every situation.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ it doesn¡¯t sound like the flawed version of Zelyrian magic quite fits that ideal, then. Well, we¡¯re only 15. We still have a long time to live and get a better option.¡± As long as the worldstriders don¡¯t cut that short, I thought. I felt a shiver of anxiety run through my thoughts as I worried about the worldstriders.


    ¡°Hey Miria¡­ do think the worldstriders are going to win? They''ve taken a huge chunk of land already, and the nations of the continent aren''t fighting back very effectively.¡± asked Anise, breaking me out of my thoughts. Unlike before, she looked thoughtful and morose.


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    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know,¡± I said. ¡°I hope not.¡± Anise needed more time to develop. If the worldstriders beat down all of the nations on this continent, it would be a catastrophe. There was no way we could fight them off by ourselves.


    Anise nodded. ¡°I wish I could figure out how the Zelyrians won against the Worldstriders. If only they included that in their basic magic textbooks¡­¡±


    ¡°Life sure would be easier if that were the case,¡± I said, before I shook my head. Then, I had an idea. ¡°Do you think you might be able to figure out a solution if we tried it on a real worldstrider?¡±


    "What do you mean? I mean... I guess it would be easier to continue my research with a live target. But how would we accomplish that? You guys have university. And even if you didn''t, charging headlong into the Worldstrider army seems like a bad idea."


    ¡°We have a break in a month and a half,¡± I said. ¡°We have two weeks off. If we rent an airship, we can move near the battlefield in a day or two. Airships are expensive¡­ but we aren¡¯t poor anymore. We can move to the edges of the warzone and pick off a few isolated worldstriders. That should work fine, as long as we were careful. As long as we don''t run into a huge mass of enemies we''ll be safe."


    Anise nodded. ¡°In that case, we can think about it. It¡¯s not a bad idea to do some live testing of Zelyrian magic. I don''t know if it''ll help me break through on my research, but it''s worth trying.¡±


    As we spoke, another jingling sound interrupted us. I glanced at the front of the shop, and saw a customer. ¡°Looks like you¡¯ve got a customer. That''s what I wanted to say, so I¡¯ll leave you to it. Let''s work out more final details with Felix tonight,¡± I said, before giving Anise a final hug. Then, I made my way home.


    I opened the front door to my house, and glanced inside. My mother was home, and she was set up near the corner of the apartment in a cozy nest of blankets, along with a variety of sewing supplies. I could see needles, scissors, and bolts of cloth strewn about the area in a haphazard mess.


    ¡°Hey mom,¡± I said, giving her a cheery wave. The barrier between the two of us hadn¡¯t disappeared yet, but it was getting better. We were closer than we had ever been before, and we were starting to form a genuine bond. Even if it was slow, I was happy to see any progress at all. Anything was better than the vacant husk I had spent so many years with.


    ¡°Hey Miria,¡± said my mother. She gave me a quick, warm smile, before I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug. After that, I released her and sat down next to her while she got back to her knitting.


    ¡°How have you been?¡± I asked, as I watched her work. ¡°Is this a scarf? It looks pretty good!¡±


    My mother nodded. ¡°I was trying to sew a little pattern of some birds into it. I was thinking that I could give you, Anise, and Felix a scarf when winter comes around¡­¡± my mother gave her work a scan, before she sighed. ¡°Well, the birds aren''t coming along very well. They look a little lumpy,¡± she said, before chuckling.


    I smiled as I looked at the scarf. It wasn¡¯t great, but it wasn¡¯t bad, either. I could at least tell what the birds were supposed to be - which was more than I could say about my own drawings. My visual artistic skills were quite dubious. There was a reason I stuck to singing.


    ¡°Even if it''s not perfect, it doesn''t look bad at all. I can at least tell that they''re birds,¡± I said as I basked in my mother''s presence. Sitting next to each other and just... relaxing was nice. ¡°Did anything happen recently that I should be aware of?¡± I asked absentmindedly.


    ¡°The, umm¡­ the rent for next month increased a bit. The landlord told me last week¡­¡± said my mother, hesitantly. She looked a bit¡­ embarrassed?


    I shrugged. It wasn¡¯t that unusual for my mother to feel embarrassed - most parents took care of their children, rather than the other way around. But I didn¡¯t mind. I was already an adult mentally, and my job at Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic paid very well. It wasn''t a big deal to me as long as the people I cared about were safe.


    ¡°That guy''s a bit greedy if he''s raising the rent so much. Do you want to move?" I asked.


    "No... I like it here," said my mother.


    I shrugged. That was fine. If the landlord raised the rent again, I would move out. But I could afford a small rent increase.


    "That¡¯s fine then. How much did it increase by?¡±


    ¡°20%,¡± said my mother, grimacing.


    I sighed, but shrugged again. It was a bit expensive. Maybe some families would move out next month. Still, if my mother wanted to stay, we could stay.


    ¡°Should I pay it now?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give it to the landlord next time he comes around,¡± said my mother.


    "That works for me," I said. I smiled, and gave my mother the money for the month, as well as a little extra in case she wanted new sewing supplies. Bolts of fabric and needles weren''t free, after all.

 Chapter 264: Fizz

    Two more weeks passed before I started to get suspicious. The source of it all came from a rather unexpected place.


    ¡°My parents were saying last month that rent prices around the city were getting cheaper recently,¡± said Anise. She stuffed another forkful of cake into her mouth, and grinned. ¡°With my shop open, and rent prices decreasing, I''ve been thinking about changing where I live. Do you think the three of us could get an apartment for ourselves? It might be fun to live together for a while. Well, maybe including Felix is a bad idea. This society¡¯s a bit strict about men and women mingling before marriageable age¡­ but still. I could line the walls with those alchemical papers you and Felix make for me, and I wouldn¡¯t need to hide any of my activities anymore. I could also live a bit closer to my shop. What do you think?¡± asked Anise.


    ¡°I¡¯m not opposed to it, but¡­ you said rent prices decreased last month?¡± I said, frowning.


    When my mother had claimed that the rent for our apartment had been raised, I hadn¡¯t thought much about it. If the price got outrageous, we would move, but I wasn¡¯t that hung up over a small rent hike. But now, Anise was saying that rent prices had decreased in most of the city last month? That didn¡¯t make sense.


    "Yeah, rent prices started dropping across the town. Some alchemist invented a new invention called alchemist''s greenwall. I have no idea how it works, but it makes constructing new houses a lot easier. So a bunch of new houses are probably going to be built soon, and the prices for existing ones dropped a bit." Anise shrugged. "Or something like that. I don''t know much about the market, but that''s what Old Mo told me when I asked him to explain."


    "I see..." I said. A horrible suspicion started to rise in my heart.


    "Sorry Anise - we can talk about this later, but I just realized something."


    "Is it an emergency? Can I help?"


    "Not this time. It''s personal, and unlikely to lead to violence," I said.


    Anise nodded, and I excused myself. I abandoned the uneaten half of my cake, and started running to Old Mo''s bakery.


    ¡°Old Mo!¡± I said as I ran into the shop.


    ¡°Yes, Miria?¡± he asked. He frowned when he saw me. ¡°You don¡¯t look so good. Is everything all right?¡±


    ¡°Last month! Did the rent increase for our apartment last month?¡±


    ¡°No, it didn¡¯t.¡± said Old Mo, as he gave me a baffled look. ¡°Rent prices for our building remained the same. But I expect it to drop next month. I expect that rent for residents in our building will also decrease in a month or two. Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I have to go,¡± I said, shivering. "It''s... Sorry." Old Mo raised a hand towards me, before he lowered it.


    "Good luck," he said, as I exited the shop. My thoughts started to swirl around in my head.


    My mother had claimed that rent prices increased last month¡­ but they hadn''t. What was going on? I made my way back to my home to ask about it, but realized nobody was home.


    My mother usually stayed at home on Saturdays, but today, it looked like she had gone out for some reason. I felt a bizarre mixture of relief and disappointment, when I realized that I didn¡¯t have to confront her yet. But the horrible suspicion gnawing at my thoughts didn¡¯t go away. I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should just wait for her to return. But I couldn''t help myself.


    I started searching through the house. I checked beneath the sofa cushions. I opened up pillow cases. I looked underneath everything. I used my spatial sight to check inside of little crannies I usually ignored.


    And after half an hour of searching, I found it.


    There was a small packet hidden in the mattress lining of my mother¡¯s bed. I fished it out¡­ and realized exactly what was wrong.


    Sitting in my hand was a packet of Fizz.


    The exact same Fizz that had nearly killed my mother, and that she had promised me she was staying away from.


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    I felt the world start to spin.


    I had spent years curing my mother. I had helped cut the embedded crystals of Fizz out of my mother¡¯s brain with Dr. Trish. She had¡­ she had seemed receptive to treatment. I hadn¡¯t managed to remove the deeper Fizz crystals in her brain, but she had been able to function. She had lost a bit of motor skills, but she had been fine. She had survived something that should have killed her. She was getting better.


    And less than two months after I started going to university, she had started taking Fizz again. The moment I left the house, she started her habit anew. All of that hard work, gone. All of my desperate attempts to save her. Gone.


    Every hope of a better life as a family.


    Gone.


    My hands started shaking as I looked at the packet of drugs, and I felt tears start to trickle down my cheeks.


    I wiped them away, and tried to think positively.


    Maybe my mother was¡­ was studying how to cure fizz addiction. She had almost died from it, after all. If she was... researching fizz addiction, maybe that was why she had Fizz. I didn''t think my mother knew anything about research, but maybe she had learned behind my back.


    Or¡­ or maybe Fizz was useful for other things besides getting high. That was¡­ that was risky, considering my mother¡¯s past, but it was plausible, right?


    Right?


    I knew I was grasping at straws. But I kept hoping that one of them was correct. That something would make sense.


    I felt myself start to shake harder, as my thoughts warred with each other.


    <Sallia? Are you awake?> I asked, hoping for her to say yes. I didn¡¯t know what to do. Was it starting again? Had everything been for nothing?


    <I¡¯m¡­ awake¡­> said Sallia. She sounded very sleepy.


    <What do I do?> I asked. I sent her an image of the Fizz that I had found in my mother¡¯s mattress.


    <Are those what I think they are?>


    <It¡¯s Fizz.>


    Sallia paused. I sat down and stared at the little package of drugs.


    <Where did you find it?>


    <In the lining of my mother¡¯s mattress. She hid it from me.>


    <I¡¯m sorry, Mir,> said Sallia, finally. <I don¡¯t know what to say. If you love someone, they have to love you back. If you treat someone well and they treat you like shit, it just hurts.> Sallia¡¯s voice became gentler. <But I guess that¡¯s not what you want to hear right now.> Sallia sent me a wave of emotions over the friendship bracelet. It was a mixture of warm, soothing feelings. Love, friendship, happiness¡­ Sallia was pouring her emotions into me through the bracelet.


    But it didn¡¯t help the pounding in my head or the roaring in my ears. My mother was taking Fizz again.


    <What do I do?> I asked.


    <What you want to do is up to you,> said Sallia. <But personally¡­ I don¡¯t think your mother is going to change. She almost died, and right after getting healed, she started again. She values drugs more than she values you, and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good relationship dynamic. Have you thought about just... distancing yourself from the situation? I don''t think this is good for your mental health, Mir.>


    <How can you say that?>


    <Well¡­ based what she¡¯s done so far, I think that your mother values the drugs more than she values you. She threw away years of your hard work. She reminds me of my first and second families,> said Sallia. <My first family tried to marry me off to some bastard I had never met before. My second¡­ treated me like I was useless, because I didn¡¯t have enough absorption essence. They still loved me, but they treated me like I had no value at all. And they ignored a lot of my feelings on the topic. I know that things were hard for the islands, and so they did their best¡­ but it still felt awful. Now, your mother is throwing away everything you¡¯ve done to get high again. Even if you love her... there are some times when you need to distance yourself from the situation.>


    "But she''ll die!" I yelled. It took me a moment to realize I hadn¡¯t just sent that message to Sallia. I had screamed it out loud. <I can¡¯t just¡­ family doesn¡¯t just abandon each other! How would you have felt if I just left you to suffer alone on the islands? What if none of us had each other while facing the nightmares in the Market? What if we didn¡¯t have each other?> Part of me knew that I was starting to lose my rationality. That I should stop and take a deep breath. But I just couldn''t seem to control myself.


    <It¡¯s not the same!> Yelled Sallia. <Even you know that! You¡¯ve never told your mother about the Market, because deep down, you don¡¯t trust her either!>


    <I can¡¯t leave her to die though! Without my healing, if she takes more Fizz, she''ll drop dead one day.>


    <But you also can¡¯t fight a battle for your mother if she¡¯s on the other side,> said Sallia. <If you constantly try to help your mother, and she kicks your efforts out the window, things will never improve! You can¡¯t make someone get better if they don¡¯t cooperate with you! I don''t want to see you fighting a battle you can never win. You can''t make someone live a better life if they don''t want to. You would just be suffering pointlessly. I don¡¯t want to see that..>


    I closed my eyes, and felt a few more tears spill out as I thought over Sallia¡¯s words.


    Before I had time to think of a response, I heard the front door open. My mother was home.

 Chapter 265: Addiction

    I wiped away the messy tears from my face, looked at the bag of fizz, and then walked out of the room. As I did, I heard my mother start rifling through the food cabinet in the kitchen.


    I slammed the door to my mother''s bedroom closed. It made a loud banging sound as I stomped into the kitchen.


    ¡°Mom,¡± I said trying to calm down as I strode into the room.


    I wasn''t very successful.


    ¡°Miria¡­ you¡¯re back early,¡± said my mother, as she nervously swallowed a slice of bread. When she looked at me, her eyes were slightly downcast, and she had a hard time meeting my eyes. She looked¡­ guilty?


    ¡°What is this?¡± I asked, holding up the bag of fizz.


    My mother froze as she looked at the bag of fizz in my hand.


    Then, her eyes widened, and then narrowed.


    ¡°You went into my room without permission?¡± she said.


    ¡°You¡¯re taking Fizz again!¡± I felt my eyes grow hot, and realized that I was crying again. ¡°You almost died. I spent years healing you. Why? What is it about this damn drug that makes you want it so much? I went through your room because I realized you were lying about the rent.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t give you the right to look through my room without my permission! My space is private!¡± My mother didn¡¯t even sound like an adult - she sounded almost like a teenage daughter pissed off that her mother had searched her room.


    Somehow, that made it worse. It drove home how much I needed to be the adult of the situation - and how much my mother was unwilling to try to get better.


    ¡°You started taking drugs again.¡± I said. My voice was softer and calmer now¡­ but there was an edge to it that hadn¡¯t been there before. Because I was starting to realize that Sallia was right. In some respects, at least.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m not taking them. They¡¯re¡­ for other purposes,¡± said my mother. ¡°There¡¯s a research foundation that I¡¯ve discovered that researches Fizz abuse. I¡¯m just¡­ getting samples for them. They''re helping me. It''s a type of therapy.¡±


    For a very, very brief moment, I felt something like hope. It sounded ludicrous, but I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe that my mother hadn¡¯t restarted her drug habit. With a faint sense of hope, I carefully looked at her face. With my Grade 12 perception, it wouldn''t be hard to spot anything unusual in her expressions. I could also pick up the telltale streaks of blue discoloration that all fizz users got after enough drug abuse.


    If I couldn¡¯t find any, I would look into this so-called research center. While it sounded far-fetched, I wanted to believe my mother.


    But after two seconds of searching, my hope died.


    The blue discoloration was very, very faint¡­ but I could see a little bit of it near the corner of her eyes. It was subtle, but it was there. It had disappeared during my years of healing treatments, but it was back now.


    There was only one explanation.


    There wasn¡¯t a mistake. My mother had reverted to Fizz usage again.


    I hiccoughed as I realized that I was crying again.


    ¡°You¡¯re lying to me too,¡± I said. ¡°There are blue marks at the corners of your eyes. Every fizz user develops them. You¡¯re taking drugs again, and you¡¯re lying to my face about them. Don¡¯t you care at all?¡±


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    I was incoherent. My words were messy and tangled up. I couldn¡¯t understand. Why was it like this? Why had she started her habit again right when things were getting better?


    ¡°I¡­¡± my mother¡¯s face contorted as she looked at me, and I couldn¡¯t tell what she was feeling at all. My vision was too blurry. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Being angry wouldn¡¯t fix anything.


    ¡°I just felt so empty,¡± she finally said. ¡°I don¡¯t feel happy anymore. I feel bad¡­ for what I did. I left you alone for so long. I felt guilty about that. But it wasn''t enough. I felt guilty for what I did, but... I don''t feel happy when I spend time with you, or with anyone. I just¡­ I don¡¯t know,¡± said my mother. ¡°I felt so empty inside, and I felt bad, and I never felt anything else. So I started craving something that would make me feel better. And so I thought that I would just take a little dose¡­¡±


    I took another deep breath, and tried to think calmly about my mother¡¯s words.


    She said that she couldn¡¯t feel happy anymore? Maybe it was some sort of side effect of her previous fizz abuse. Drug use could warp the brain in weird ways. It might even be because of the fizz crystals that I hadn¡¯t managed to extract. My knowledge of how exactly people felt things like ''happiness'' wasn''t perfect. After all, this world''s medical knowledge still had some major holes in it. But I knew that certain chemical reactions related to the brain made people feel ''happy.'' Maybe those were messed up because of the Fizz crystals lodged in her brain.


    Still, I didn¡¯t find myself calming down completely. Regardless of why she had done it, my mother had started taking fizz again. Those reminded me of the worst days in this life. Days where I sat inside of our moldy apartment, watching my mother twitch and shiver as she lost herself in her drugs. Days spent wondering why my healing magic wasn¡¯t fixing everything, the way it usually did.


    ¡°Just¡­ stop it,¡± I said. ¡°Please. Stop taking fizz. If you keep taking it, you¡¯ll die. I barely managed to heal you even with my ability. It was so hard, and I felt so happy when you were back with us. How could you start again after knowing what it almost cost you? Please, just¡­ quit it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my decision!¡± said my mother. ¡°You had no right to look through my room in the first place! I just¡­ don¡¯t want to feel so empty anymore.¡±


    ¡°I want you to be healthy. I don¡¯t want to find out you¡¯re dead in a ditch somewhere in a few years because I wasn¡¯t paying attention. You lied to me about the rent, and then you lied to my face when I asked you if you were taking Fizz again. If you keep taking fizz, it''ll just get worse. I want to move on. But we can''t move on like this.¡±


    My mother¡¯s expression finally changed, and she looked at me again. I could see haggard lines at the corners of my mother¡¯s eyes. Her gaze drifted downwards, and her eyebrows sagged.


    For a moment, I hoped that she would listen.


    And then the moment passed. Her gaze pulled itself back upwards, and she glared at me.


    ¡°So what if I took more fizz? It¡¯s my choice! I can¡¯t stand the empty feeling! I need to make it go away.¡± In her last sentence, some of the heat in her words died away. It sounded hollow. Almost like she was trying to convince herself instead of me.


    ¡°But you can¡¯t be healthy if you keep taking Fizz,¡± I said. ¡°I want you to be healthy. I can manage our financial situation on my own, so I don¡¯t need you to work, or do anything risky. The only thing I want is for you to be there for me. You spent years in a drug-induced coma. You only woke up once every few months, and only for a few hours. I was alone for almost all of that time. I wanted us to make up for lost time and become real family. But you can¡¯t do that if you¡¯re high all the time.¡±


    ¡°Miria. All the other adults in your life think that I¡¯m some unsalvageable wreck. When we went to the graduation party for your school, they looked at me like  I was dirt. Old Mo is practically your real parent anyway, isn¡¯t he? You weren''t alone. Just leave me alone!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not¡­¡±


    My mother snarled, almost like a feral animal, before she quieted down. She transitioned between rage and guilt in seconds, before she simply stared at me. Then, she shook her head. ¡°I just¡­ need it.¡±


    I felt something inside of my break.


    Even though my mother seemed to feel guilty, even though she seemed to be aware, on some level, that her actions were wrong¡­ she wasn¡¯t going to stop.


    Not now, at least.


    ¡°Mom¡­ I love you,¡± I said, feeling hot tears start to slide down my face again.


    I didn¡¯t think Sallia was completely correct, but in a sense, she was right.


    ¡°I love you¡­ but I can¡¯t sit here and watch you destroy yourself. It hurts me when I see you falling into your drug episodes. I can¡¯t stand the thought of you dying while I desperately try to keep you alive. I can¡¯t keep helping you pay for your drugs, either. I¡¯m trying so hard to fight a battle to keep you healthy¡­ but I can¡¯t win that battle if you¡¯re fighting against me. If you want to keep taking fizz¡­ fine. I¡­ contact me if you want to change,¡± I said. ¡°I can¡¯t fight for you if you won¡¯t fight for yourself. I love you. Goodbye.¡±


    With those words, I turned around and left the apartment. I needed to be alone for a while.

 Chapter 266: Apologies

    After I left my apartment, I started walking through the city streets.


    I wasn¡¯t quite sure where I was walking to. I kept moving for the sake of moving, without a goal or direction. As I walked, I felt the frustration and anxiety start to bleed out of my heart. I wasn''t... happy about what had happened. But at the very least, I was starting to calm down and think clearly again.


    I sighed, and realized I had something I needed to do. Something that would eat at me until I made it right.


    My conversation with Sallia hadn¡¯t gone well. And now that I had a bit of time to cool off, I realized that was my fault. I had gotten too heated and let my frustrations get the better of me.


    I still stood by my sentiments during the argument I¡¯d had with Sallia earlier. I didn¡¯t think it was right for close friends or family to abandon each other.


    But I also didn¡¯t think that Sallia was wrong. If I kept trying to help my mother, and she ruined my attempts at helping, it would be awful for me mentally. Sallia had been trying to point that out, and at the end of the day, and I had ignored her advice because I didn''t like it. But that wasn''t a good way to treat my friend, especially since I had asked her for advice in the first place. It wasn¡¯t right for me to ask her for advice, and then yell at her because I didn¡¯t like what she said.


    So I contacted Sallia. If I did something wrong, I needed to apologize first.


    <Sallia, I¡¯m sorry,> I said. <I asked you for advice and then yelled at you for giving me advice I didn¡¯t like. That was a crappy thing to do, and I shouldn¡¯t have done it..>


    I felt Sallia¡¯s mind push back against mine from the other side of the communication bracelet. Luckily, she was still awake. It seemed like it was one of the better days for her. She sent me a wave of reassurance and comfort.


    I relaxed slightly. It didn¡¯t seem like Sallia was angry, at least. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean I would just forget about how I had acted. I wanted my friends to derive the same comfort from me that I got from them. Yelling at them when they were trying to help me wasn¡¯t the right way to do that. I needed to do better in the future.


    <I''m not mad at you. You didn''t even say anything particularly bad,> she said. <Honestly, even when you''re angry you''re still a good friend, in a weird kind of way. You didn''t say anything that actually hurt my feelings or touched a nerve.> I blinked. I... wasn''t sure if I agreed with Sallia''s assessment. Before I could say anything else, Sallia continued speaking.


    <How did it go?> she asked. <You didn''t update me on what actually happened after you stopped talking. I assume your mother got back. What happened next?>


    <I¡­ left. My mother kept talking about how¡­ she felt empty, and how she needed drugs to feel something again. And she kept talking about why she was taking more drugs, and I just¡­ I couldn¡¯t take it. I walked out. I felt like she was making excuses for why she slipped back into her habits. And while there are circumstances behind her actions¡­ I¡¯m frustrated. I keep trying to help her get better, and she never seems to improve. I spent so long trying to make her better, and I was so excited when I saw progress. And then she threw it away. Like it didn''t mean anything at all to her. As if all those years I spent healing her comatose body were for nothing.>


    I felt a wave of guilt as I said that. In a way, it felt like I was abandoning my mother to her own devices. I knew that she was likely going to suffer a lot without my healing magic. I knew that she might die, or even go back to selling her body to fuel her addiction. Even though I was frustrated, I still didn''t really want to abandon my mother. She was family, and I could still go back and try to work things -


    <Miria I can feel the guilt you¡¯re projecting. So let me set this straight. Your mother is suffering because of HER choices. Not yours,> said Sallia. <She had a chance to get better. You spent years healing her. You can¡¯t ruin your entire life because someone you care about decides to ignore your good will. Your mother wants her drugs more than she wants to be healthy. That''s obvious based on her actions. You shouldn''t try to change things that you have no control over. Your mother''s decisions are not something you can control.>


    My first instinct was to argue. To say that I could still help her, even if she kept making bad decisions.


    But I took a deep breath.


    I had just resolved to listen to my friends, even when I thought they were wrong.


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    That didn¡¯t mean I could never disagree with them¡­ but it meant I needed to listen to them and think about their words.


    <Miria. Part of this might come from our different experiences throughout our time in the Market,> said Sallia. <But I genuinely think that you''re too hung up on birth parents. In my first life, before I joined the Market, my family tried to get me into a marriage I didn¡¯t want. In my second life, my family was nice to me, but they also treated me like I was useless. They weren''t mean to me... but they didn''t treat me well, either. Your birth parents are just the people that gave birth to you. They are not your family if they treat you like shit. I don¡¯t think your mother is capable of caring about you more than her drugs. Unless she herself decides to change, you can¡¯t save her from her addiction. And you shouldn''t try to help families that don''t give a crap about you. Just treat them as strangers and walk away.>


    I didn¡¯t like Sallia¡¯s words. Sallia''s words were harsh, and I wasn''t sure if I agreed completely with them.


    But I knew, deep down, that at least some of Sallia¡¯s words were right. If my mother didn¡¯t want to get better, nothing I did would actually stop her. I couldn¡¯t lock her in a metal room to prevent her from taking drugs for the rest of her life. That was unrealistic. It was also obvious that without extreme measures, there was no way to prevent her from getting more drugs. I couldn''t monitor her every second of every day. If she wanted drugs, I had no good way to stop her.


    <I¡¯ll try to listen to you. I¡­ already did everything I could to help her,> I said. <And I¡¯m sorry. I know I already said it, but I''ll say it again. I shouldn¡¯t have yelled at you the way I did. You were trying to give me honest advice, and I reacted badly. I->


    <I¡¯m not going to yell at you for freaking out, Miria,> said Sallia. <You spent years curing her. I don¡¯t think a single person alive wouldn¡¯t feel frustrated and upset when that happened. I do hope that you learn more about who to care about¡­ but I¡¯m not going to get mad at you for this. Hmm¡­ if you want to make it up to me, how about you sing for me? Give me nice big concert as a singer. Show me all the songs you¡¯ve been working on. You''ve been training your singing skills for years now, right? I think it''s time that you show them off. How about that as a punishment?>


    I realized Sallia was trying to help me de-stress, and rolled my eyes. But I still did as Sallia requested. I started making my way towards a secluded spot outside of town. During my aimless wandering, I had already gotten close to the wilderness. It took me less than fifteen minutes to reach a little field of flowers that looked uninhabited.


    Then, I started to sing for Sallia. I spent a full hour going from one song to another as I showed Sallia the fruits of my effort. While I wasn¡¯t at the standard of a professional singer, I had still spent a lot of sweat and effort to learn how to sing.


    The first song was one that I had been preparing for Anise. It was a heroic ballad about a witch saving a village from a group of bandits.


    Of course, the original song had been about a knight saving a village from bandits. But I figured Anise would appreciate it if the main character of the song was a witch instead, so I had swapped out a bunch of the lyrics. It had taken a lot of time to replace so many parts of the song without changing the rhythm, but I thought Anise would like it.


    Then, I sang a different song. This one was an introspective song, about the way that society and morality were changing with the times. It had caught my fancy when I first heard it, and I had also figured Felix would get a kick out of it.


    Then, I followed up with a different song, one that traced its roots all the way back to the Zelyrian empire. The song spoke of a flight across the stars, from one dimension to another to escape an angry, flaming giant. Since the song had originally been Zelyrian, some of the lyrics had been translated. Still, the song held up surprisingly well.


    Then, I followed up with a song about two swordsmen dueling each other. I had prepared this one for Sallia. It was a song that focused on a battle between a knight and a baron. At the end of the fight, the knight learned that the baron had been his uncle... but only after his blade killed the other combatant.


    Song after song, I kept singing until my throat started to feel raw and sore. Meanwhile, Sallia played the role of an enthusiastic audience member, giving me a little round of applause and cheers in between each song.


    <Miria! Your singing skills are so good! I''m surprised! I had much lower expectations, but you''re better than some of the bards I''ve heard!>


    I blushed. <Thanks. I''ve been working hard at singing.>


    <It definitely shows!> Then, Sallia stifled a yawn. <I appreciate the performance. But it looks like my time is almost up. I''ll... talk to you... later...> Sallia''s voice trailed off as she grew sleepier. After a few more moments, her voice faded away completely. I felt a smile spread across my face as I relaxed.


    It wasn¡¯t what I had expected to do after apologizing to Sallia. I had expected her to be mad, or tell me to improve, or... something. Instead, I''d had a nice day singing for her. Part of me knew that Sallia had made me sing as a way to help me relax... and it had worked. I felt a bit better about the situation than before.


    I was still frustrated and upset. My mother returning to drugs made me feel like I was about to lose my mind out of frustration. But I felt better than before. Which meant I needed to do a few final things. I had left my apartment because I was frustrated and angry. Now, it was time to figure out what the future would look like.


    And so, I headed towards Old Mo''s bakery. I needed a few final pieces of advice.

 Chapter 267: Final Decisions

    As I walked towards Old Mo¡¯s bakery, a few thoughts ran through my head.


    There were things I needed to settle. Things that I hadn¡¯t thought about in the heat of the moment. And for that, I wanted some advice.


    I walked into Old Mo¡¯s shop, only to see him closing up for the day. He was cleaning up a few soup spills. I ran towards him, and gave him a brief hug.


    ¡°Miria? I¡¯m surprised to see you again. You ran off pretty quickly when we talked earlier,¡± he said. ¡°What happened?¡±


    I grabbed a cleaning rag, and started helping him with the soup spill as I sighed.


    ¡°Can I talk with you for a while? I need some advice,¡± I said. ¡°Serious advice, I mean. Some things happened, and¡­ well, I want your opinion.¡±


    ¡°Sure. What do you need?¡±


    ¡°My mother¡­ started taking fizz again. I found her stash of drugs earlier, and we had a big fight."


    Old Mo sighed, before he bent over and gently ruffled my hair.


    ¡°Miria¡­ I¡¯m sorry to hear that. I won¡¯t lie and say I¡¯m surprised¡­ I always thought that she might start taking drugs again. I¡¯ve seen a lot of junkies during my lifetime, and, well¡­ your mother didn¡¯t make me think that she would be able to kick her habit,¡± he said. ¡°Some people have the strength to change themselves¡­ but some don¡¯t. Your mother doesn''t strike me as someone who can change. I was hoping she would prove me wrong, but... well, I never really believed in her.¡±


    I sighed.


    ¡°I was hoping that she would get better.¡±


    Old Mo looked at me thoughtfully.


    ¡°Have none of your previous families had problems with addiction?¡±


    ¡°No. On the islands, we didn¡¯t have drugs. Technology was still in the stone age in that world. In the next world, I don¡¯t know if there were drugs. I admit, I never looked into it much. We had alcohol, but nobody in my last family was too crazy about drinking,¡± I said. ¡°I think I remember my dad drinking a bottle of wine once? But it wasn''t a big deal. So this is the first time I''ve had a family work out so... catastrophically.¡±


    Old Mo laughed. "Families are complicated. Sometimes they bring you happiness. Sometimes they bring you sorrow. Sometimes... a bit of both." Then, he turned towards me. "Out of curiosity, why are you so attached to your mother in this lifetime? You were responsible for taking care of yourself for almost this entire lifetime. Your mother hasn''t done much for you, and hasn''t even been awake long enough to shower you with love. I could understand a normal kid wanting to take care of their parents. After all, they don''t know anything else. But in some senses, you''re older than your mother. Why spend so much time trying to help her?"


    ¡°I don''t know¡± I said. "I just feel that families and friends should always stay together. And seeing my family not work out this lifetime hurts a lot. I would give a lot to make it better... but it''s just not working out."


    ¡°Here,¡± said Old Mo, handing me a loaf of bread. ¡°You¡¯ll feel better on a full stomach.¡± I took a look at it, and realized it was one of the types of bread Old Mo¡¯s bakery specialized in. There was cheese melted on top, and a little bit of garlic mixed into the bread. It wasn¡¯t quite as good as a nice fish meal, but it was close.


    I sank my teeth into the loaf of bread, and smiled. I could feel the hours of effort Old Mo had spent honing his baking skills. His bread was quite tasty.


    Then, Old Mo sighed. ¡°You left your mother behind, right? Did you totally cut off contact with her? You said you wanted advice from me.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ she¡¯s still in my apartment,¡± I said. "And I''m not quite sure how to handle everything from this point onward. I could kick her out, or I could find a new apartment to live in. I also don''t know how to handle her addiction. Should I keep healing her, but refuse to talk to her? Should I sneak into her room every night to heal her, but refuse to see her? Should I go back and try to ignore her drug addiction?" I could afford a second apartment, but it would strain my budget a bit. I could afford one apartment pretty comfortably, but two was pushing it.


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    Deep down, a big part of me hoped that me leaving would serve as a wake up call for my mother. I wanted her to stop taking drugs¡­ but I wasn¡¯t optimistic. Which meant I needed to figure out what to do.


    ¡°Well¡­ you¡¯re in a tough position,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°I don¡¯t like your mother, and my first instinct is to tell you to kick her to the curb. She¡¯s never going to be good news for you. But¡­ I also think that you would feel terrible if she died. You''re not the kind of girl who has an easy time abandoning people. Even if they deserve it. The fact that you¡¯re the breadwinner of the family makes this more complicated than it should be. Hmm¡­ how about this? You can still shut her out of your life¡­ but let her stay in your apartment? You could have someone from Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic check up on her every week and handle necessary stuff like food and water, as well as keep an eye on her. The people from Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic are more than qualified to give basic medical checks on your mother. However, you could also refuse to see her, and leave her to handle paying for her¡­ habit on her own,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°That might force her to stop taking drugs¡­ or it might push her into another path to look for money. She¡¯s a bit on the older side now, so I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s able to return to her previous profession. If she tries to use sewing to pay for her drug habit, she might be able to manage it. Fizz is dirt cheap, unfortunately. But your money won''t go towards supporting her habit. After that, you can see her again if she quits.¡±


    Old Mo hesitated, as he ruminated on my words more.


    ¡°You could also sneak in and provide healing magic for her every night. But I don¡¯t think that would be the healthiest option for you. Maintaining some distance between the two of you would be good for you, in my opinion. This is my suggestion, so you can take it with a grain of salt. But this maintains a healthy distance between the two of you, without abandoning her to die.¡±


    I thought about it. I wasn¡¯t sure if Old Mo¡¯s idea was correct or not. If I helped my mother with her living expenses, in a sense, I was still supporting her lifestyle. After all, I knew that my mother would find ways to keep getting drugs if she had the option. Did I want to keep helping her, even though she wasn¡¯t helping herself?


    At the same time, she was still my family. I would feel guilty if she went back to prostitution, or died from a drug overdose. Completely abandoning her didn¡¯t feel right to me, even though I was frustrated with her. And I also didn''t want to live in the same apartment with her anymore. It didn''t feel right, to live with her and ignore her addiction. If I was nearby, I would try to make her quit. I didn''t have the ability to stand near someone I cared about and just watch them die.


    ¡°I guess that''s the best idea I''ve heard so far,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll make arrangements with Dr. Trish later.¡± Normally, Dr. Trish¡¯s facility didn¡¯t do any sort of home-visit service. But she would be willing to make an exception for me. Having a member of the clinic check on my mother once a week wasn''t too much to ask for. And since the members of the clinic were emotionally detached from my mother, they wouldn''t hurt if they saw her destroying herself. They would see her as another patient, and nothing more than that.


    ¡°Thanks for talking with me, Old Mo,¡± I said. ¡°I just¡­ I wish that she didn¡¯t return to her drug habit.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t control the actions of other people. It would have been nice if she hadn¡¯t started taking Fizz again, but don¡¯t blame yourself for that. Whatever happens, it¡¯s on her,¡± he said, before ruffling my hair gently. ¡°You don¡¯t have a place to stay for the night, do you? You can sleep in my guest room tonight, and figure out your living arrangements later. Or you can even stay there until you finish university. You''re practically the daughter that Mary and I never had, after all. You''re always welcome to stay here.¡± He smiled at me, and I smiled back.


    Having a definite plan felt¡­ nice. I still wasn''t happy about what had happened. Part of me still wondered if I was making the wrong decision. But right or wrong, I at least had a plan now. That was... something.


    After that, I went to set things with one of Dr. Trish¡¯s workers. Dr. Trish was more than willing to help me set up a check-in system for my mother. Once a week, a worker would check up on my mother. They would bring food, clean the house, pay rent, and check up on my mother''s health. They would also contact me if a medical emergency happened and my mother needed urgent healing magic. As much as I was disappointed in her, I wouldn''t leave her to die if she was overdosing. Meanwhile, I went to find another apartment to stay in. My budget was a lot tighter, since I was paying for two apartments now¡­ but it was manageable. I also needed much less room, now that I only needed space for one person.


    After I set everything up, a month passed by. My mother didn''t quit her fizz habit, and she also didn''t ask to see me again. I felt a stab of pain when I realized that my mother really wasn''t going to change. However, I kept moving forward. If my mother was unwilling to change... I couldn''t make her.


    Soon, school break came about. As we had already planned, Anise and I started making arrangements to head towards the warzones to the west of Damilius.


    It was time to start our worldstrider hunt.

 Chapter 268: Liftoff

    The process of getting to the edge of the worldstrider territory ran into a hurdle at the very first step. Buying an airship ticket wasn''t difficult... but we couldn''t find an airship going right to the border of the warzone.


    We only had a few weeks of break before school started back up again. I didn¡¯t want to miss out on any potential Achievement from helping the research team. Anise also had her shop to look after, and it had already given her a plan B. Both of us wanted to make sure this trip didn¡¯t take too long. However, if we couldn''t travel directly to the border of the warzone, this trip would take much longer.


    ¡°What do you mean the closest city is Mirlen?¡± I asked the ticket distributor.


    ¡°Unfortunately, we don¡¯t ferry passengers to Eldrim or Malikus anymore,¡± said the ticket distributor. ¡°The strange black monsters that have been terrorizing the Vernese mountains are just too close to those cities. Normally, that might not be too big of a deal. It''s too difficult to fight over control of the skies, so countries at war usually don''t bother. But the strange black creatures can fly. And worse, the human nations of the continent are struggling right now. I¡¯ve heard that a few ancient Zelyrian artifacts can hurt the monsters¡­ but they aren¡¯t common enough to turn the battlefield on their own. In other words, the strange black monsters could very well swarm our airship and kill all the passengers. We don''t dare to get too close to their territory unless they''re dealt with."


    Then, the ticket seller gave me a curious look. ¡°Why did you want to go to Eldrim and Malikus, anyway? Do you have family there or something? If you have family near the territory of the black monsters, you should tell them to get away. Nobody knows what those creepy monsters are planning."


    I blinked. It would be a bit too awkward for me to say that I had wanted to go mess with the worldstriders. However, I also didn''t want to lie and say that I was visiting family.


    I sighed. ¡°I''ve heard a lot about the strange black monsters that came out of the mountains,¡± I said. "I sympathize with the people that were killed by them. I want to take a look at what''s happening and see what I can do to help."


    The ticket salesman gave me a curious look, before he shrugged. "Those are noble goals miss, but I don''t know if I would have the courage to step up like that. I''m just a ticket salesman. Besides, how are you planning to help? No offense, but you seem a bit young. You''re what... fifteen?"


    "I''m indeed fifteen, but I''m also a competent healer. I work at Dr. Trish''s clinic."


    "Oh, I didn''t realize you were a doctor," said the ticket salesman. His tone became a lot more respectful. "I wish you the best of luck. People like you make the world a better place."


    I smiled at him. ¡°Thank you. I hope Two tickets to Mirlen, please.¡±


    The ticket vendor didn''t say anything else as he took my money and gave me two tickets. I walked away from the vendor, and as I did, I also shot a mental message to Felix.


    <Hey Felix, we¡¯ve got our tickets. We¡¯ll leave soon,> I said.


    <Good luck to both of you!> said Felix. <And while I shouldn¡¯t have to say this, stay safe. If you two leave me behind as the only one alive in this world, I¡¯m going to be mad.>


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    <We¡¯ll stay safe,> I said. <I have much better sensory abilities than the worldstriders. They should have a hard time ambushing us. And we''re only going to attack small groups. If everything goes well, we''ll attack them a few times and then return to school. They won''t even have time to develop a plant to counter us.> I grinned. <With any luck, maybe the worldstriders will prove more cautious in their expansion after we leave. The biggest reason they can expand so confidently is because they don''t think anyone can hurt them. A few missing groups might slow them down a bit.>


    <It seems unlikely, but we can hope,> said Felix. <Anyway, I¡¯m going to keep working on the railroads and the prosthetics.>


    <Sounds good to me,> I said. <Good luck, and I hope you get the keyword abilities you¡¯re looking for.>


    <You too! Give Anise my best regards. I know she can do it!>


    A moment later, I arrived at the restaurant where Anise was waiting for me. Unlike other passengers, we had already packed our luggage into my backpack. So we had decided to have one last meal in Damilius before we left.


    Specifically, we decided to go eat at a nice seafood restaurant. Fish was still my favorite food, and I doubted we were going to have much access to fresh fish after we left. The area we were heading towards wasn¡¯t coastal, after all.


    The two of us met and had a nice meal. To my surprise, the store was also selling hot chocolate, which I hadn¡¯t seen in this world before now. Anise and I both had a lovely cup of the new beverage and chatted for over an hour.


    Until finally, it was time to board the airship. The two of us made our way back towards the boarding area. I saw the ticket salesman give me a thumbs up as an older man opened up the entryway for the airship. Then, we shuffled on board.


    My first thought as I boarded the airship was that it was¡­ different than I had expected.


    There were several rows of windows lining the walls, giving me a good view of the world outside of the airship. We were also completely insulated from the outside. The inside of the blimp was decorated with several rows of luxurious sofas. All of them were bolted to the ground, along with several rows of tables and plates. Rather than a travel method, I could almost mistake the blimp for a high-class restaurant if we only looked at the interior.


    Even more bizarre, however, was the row of cannons on the side of the airship.


    I didn''t know much about how airships worked in this world. However, I was pretty sure the entire construct was flammable. Putting a cannon onto an airship seemed like a very poor choice to me.


    The only thing that prevented me from jumping right back out of the airship were the signs of affixation tethered to the sides of the blimp. Affixation wasn''t a very popular school of magic in the modern era, but it hadn''t completely died out. I hoped that the affixations made the blimp fireproof, because otherwise this blimp felt like a floating tinderbox.


    Still, even more strange was the reasoning for the cannons. Why bother adding in cannons to the blimp design at all? It just seemed like a very strange choice. It was probably near impossible to aim at ground targets from the air, and I didn''t think there were any air pirates in this world. What was the point of adding cannons to the design? I was very confused.


    I looked at the airship cannons dubiously, before I sighed. In any case, it didn''t matter too much to me. Anise and I found two seats near the front of the airship and settled down.


    Then, we waited for the rest of the passengers to board. People shuffled onto the airship one after another. It took nearly twenty minutes for rest of the passengers to board.


    A flight attendant closed the hatch leading outside of the airship. She let everyone know that the airship was taking off, and five minutes later,, I heard the sound of objects and air shifting around. Bursts of binding essence resounded throughout the airship, along with the hiss of flames and the release of air. I felt the airship lurch beneath our feet, and Anise and I grabbed onto each other. Then, out of the windows, I saw the ground start to pull away from us.


    We were airborne.

 Chapter 269: Air Ambush

    For the next few hours, Anise and I had a good time looking through the windows. It was interesting to see the land so far below us. We were far enough in the air that the town we lived in looked like a little postcard. Mountains, forests, and factories also looked tiny from our height. It was an enjoyable experience.


    The flight also had a meal that they offered two hours into the flight. The food itself wasn''t great - after all, it was probably hard to cook a proper meal in midair. But it was okay, and coupled with the view it was still a good experience.


    About an hour into the flight, we also figured out what the ¡®cannons¡¯ attached to the airship were for. I had thought that they were weapons, but they seemed more like alchemical chimneys. Every couple minutes, they spat a cloud of binding essence and some sort of waste product into the air.


    After a few hours of observing our surroundings, we got bored. There was only so long we could marvel at the feeling of being in the air before it wore off. After four hours, Anise and I settled into our seats to take a nap.


    We awoke to pandemonium.


    ¡°The strange Zelyrian creatures have been spotted!¡± yelled the captain. "Please remain in your seats. We will attempt to turn around and outfly them! If any passengers have brought guns with them, please do not attempt to shoot them! Placing a hole in the ship will cause us more problems than the Zelyrian monstrosities. I repeat, please remain in your seats!"


    I heard a few panicked screams and yells from the passengers, as well as a lot more assorted tense and heavy breathing. However, most of the passengers remained seated as they stared out the windows. I shot to my feet and looked outside.


    There, in the distance, I saw a horde of worldstriders flying towards us.


    I resisted the urge to curse.


    We hadn¡¯t even landed yet and we had already run into the worldstriders. Why were they here? Had the range of the worldstriders expanded? Were they trying to take over even more territory?


    Then, right afterwards, I felt my heartbeat speed up.


    These guys came right as we were approaching them. Can they sense Anise at a distance? Maybe they didn''t come because they were trying to take more territory. Maybe they came for us.


    If the worldstriders were capable of sensing Anise at a distance¡­ then we would have a major problem.


    The reason we took this trip was because my spatial sight and soul sight, coupled with my Grade 12 Perception, gave me absurd threat detection range. As long as I kept my eyes open, we would have total freedom to avoid larger groups of enemies and attack smaller ones. The worldstriders would never be able to hurt us if we only ever ran into small groups of them. But if the worldstriders could sense Anise, our greatest advantage would become moot. We would need to cancel this trip and flee back to Damilius.


    I shook my head, and tried to wipe my thoughts away. I could think about what this meant afterwards. Right now, we had a fight on our hands. I looked at Anise, and saw that she was also awake.


    <Ready?> I asked.


    She nodded.


    I dropped both Anise and I into the worldstrider''s layer of reality, then used my spatial and soul sight to scan the area. At the same time, we started to fall through the floor of the airship, which took me by surprise. This hadn''t happened when we were on the ground of Damilius, or in the pocket dimension.


    Still, it wasn''t too hard of a problem to solve.


    I grabbed Anise, and then used my umbrella to help us fly along with the airship. Most of the other passengers were too busy screaming to notice us falling through the floor.


    <Around thirty worldstriders,> I said, as I breathed a sigh of relief.


    There were only thirty enemies. My previous speculation, that the worldstriders could sense Anise, was probably wrong.


    If the worldstriders had come for us, they should know that only thirty worldstriders wouldn¡¯t threaten us. I had more than enough essence to extinguish all of them. I didn''t see any other surprises the worldstriders could bring to the table. I relaxed.


    I started checking ranges and prepping my spells, before I unleashed a bit of payback for Sallia''s death.


    I started out by targeting the ones at the back, so that it would be harder for the others to notice they were being attacked. Before they had time to realize they were being attacked, five worldstriders dropped.


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    And then, my sixth extinguish missed.


    The worldstriders had finally realized they were being attacked, and started dodging. Worse, they had started thinning their bodies out like sheets of paper. This made it easier for them to create holes in their body when they needed to dodge another extinguish.


    I frowned.


    The ease which which worldstriders could deform their bodies to dodge attacks was a huge pain in the neck.


    I still probably had enough essence to extinguish them all, but it would be more costly than anticipated.


    <Let me try something,> said Anise, after she saw my seventh target dodge my attack.


    <What are you planning on doing?>


    <The worldstriders have very soft, almost jelly-like bodies. That makes it easy for them to deform their bodies and dodge attacks. But I might be able to use that to my advantage as well. Let me see if I can squish them into one spot with Mage Hand and make it easier for you to hit...> said Anise. She frowned in concentration, and I felt a bit of essence ripple out of her body.


    A moment later, I noticed a spell start to take effect. The worldstriders had thinned out their bodies as if they were sheets of paper, to make dodging easier. However, after Anise¡¯s interference, the worldstrider closest to us was smashed into a ball shape.


    I immediately tossed an extinguish at it, and it died.


    The other worldstrider¡¯s gazes snapped towards us, as if they had found their sworn enemies.


    I heard one yell something that I couldn¡¯t make out. I prepared to fire an extinguish at the vocal one.


    And then, before I could do anything, the vocal worldstrider split in half.


    I blinked in surprise as the worldstrider¡¯s corpse tumbled out of the sky.


    The creature had¡­ died? Just like that?


    What happened?


    Anise started laughing.


    <So that¡¯s what it is! I figured it out!> she said.


    <What is it?> I asked.


    <Mage hand!>


    <... I¡¯m sorry, what? Isn¡¯t that a beginner spell? How did you kill a worldstrider with it?>


    <Their bodies are so soft! They¡¯re as sturdy as wet paper! Normally, Mage Hand can¡¯t rip materials apart, because it¡¯s incapable of exerting much force against anything. But the worldstrider bodies are so squishy that even mage hand can rip their bodies in half! Especially if they stretch themselves out like this!> said Anise.


    <Is that so?> I blinked in surprise.


    Was it that simple?


    Could one of the most basic spells in Zelyrian spellcasting kill the Worldstriders?


    <Well, I still need to be in the same layer of reality as them. Otherwise, there¡¯ll be plenty of issues with the spell. And if they bunch themselves up, they''re harder to get rid of. But at least for us, it''s good enough!> said Anise, as she ripped apart a few more worldstriders.


    Some of the worldstriders started to bunch themselves back into thicker shapes, and I fired a few extinguishes at them. Most of the worldstriders died, although one managed to dodge my first extinguish. I followed up with a second one, and this time it died.


    <How well does it work?> I asked.


    <Mage hand is almost instantaneous! It has very high activation speed, and very low essence cost!>


    <And if I kill the ones that reshape themselves into thick shapes, they have no way to escape,> I said. I grinned. <Either they get killed by mage hand, or extinguish.> I started to laugh. <I don''t know if this is what the Zelyrians used to win against the worldstriders... but either way. We don''t need to copy their exact method of winning. We just need a way to beat down the worldstriders!>


    <Exactly!> said Anise, as the two of us kept working our way through the attackers. Nearly two thirds of the worldstriders had died by now, and the remainder was no longer approaching the airship. Instead, they had started to flee. Not that it helped them much. Anise and I both had massive attack ranges with our chosen spells.


    Within a few minutes, the last worldstriders died, and I pulled us back to the normal layer of reality.


    The other passengers looked at the falling corpses of the worldstriders with confused expressions. None of them seemed quite sure how to process what had just happened. For seemingly no reason, the dangerous threat to their lives had just dropped dead.


    ¡°Passengers¡­ the threat appears to have been¡­ dealt with?¡± said the captain, sounding as if he couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. ¡°We, umm... we will... resume the flight?" There were a few scattered murmurs from the other passengers, but no one contested his decision. "We are two hours away from landing. Please remain seated and enjoy the ride¡±


    Meanwhile, Anise and I looked at each other as our eyes sparkled.


    We had finally found a way for Anise to contribute a lot to each fight. It probably wasn''t the way the original Zelyrians had dealt with the worldstriders. But we had a good way for Anise to fight. And that meant two things.


    We had already achieved our first objective in coming here. And if we wanted to push a bit, we might have finally found a way for Anise to get a keyword ability that she wanted.


    <I have a new idea,> said Anise. <How about you shapeshift both of us a bit first, so that the worldstriders don¡¯t link us to the attack on their pocket dimension all those years ago. Then¡­ how about we find a way to mess with the worldstriders a bit more? We can also make sure that the worldstriders don¡¯t come looking for me again. In fact, I have a few other ideas. Since the worldstriders probably remember me from our first encounter... we could fake my death with some preparation. And we could also terrify the worldstriders. It''ll take some setup and brainstorming, but I think we can set up something amazing if we do it right...>


    I grinned as the two of us talked over Anise''s ideas. It wasn''t perfect, and we might not fool the worldstriders... but I felt that our odds were pretty good. If things went well, we could deflect any attention from the worldstriders and get Anise her keyword ability.


    And so, for the final two hours of the flight, we plotted.

 Chapter 270: Change of Plans

    When we touched down at our destination, Anise and I finished hashing out our new objectives.


    Anise now had a way to hurt the worldstriders, as long as I pulled us into their layer of reality. If their bodies were stretched too thin, Anise could rip them apart with Mage hand. If their body was too bunched up, it made it hard for them to dodge my extinguishes. In other words, we had accomplished our original objective.


    But that didn¡¯t mean there was nothing we could accomplish here.


    One of the other big reasons we had come here was because Anise had almost no way to form a good keyword ability. If she stayed in her shop, she would probably end up with more abilities like her ''repair'' ability. That wasn''t what Anise wanted. It would be much better if she got a keyword ability with lots of growth potential.


    Since both of us had very high lethality against the worldstriders, this was probably the best chance we would get for her to form a good keyword. If we missed this chance, Anise would need to form a keyword ability by fighting in the army, or taking some other desperate action. While that was possible, it certainly wasn''t the best outcome. Armies in this world were hundreds of thousands of people. Even with unusual magic, Anise wouldn''t be able to make a difference there. Even surviving might be hard.


    So this was our best chance.


    As we continued talking about what we wanted to accomplish, I had another idea.


    ¡°Anise,¡± I said. ¡°I know you said earlier that faking your death to the worldstriders might be a good thing. It would keep them from looking for you after we''re done here. But I have another idea. How about we make them think that there¡¯s a giant enclave of Zelyrian mages hidden somewhere?¡±


    Anise looked at me, as if shocked by my question. She pursed her lips in thought, and then grinned.


    ¡°Your illusions?¡±


    I smiled. ¡°Yup. It¡¯ll be a bit hard to manage, but we can do it if we put in some legwork.¡±


    ¡°Do you think we can pull it off without dying?¡±


    ¡°I do,¡± I said, as I grinned. ¡°I have a rough idea how we could accomplish this. We do need to confirm a few things first, of course. I need to know where the main worldstrider base is. And we also need to know if the worldstriders can be fooled by illusions. If they can''t, this idea won''t work. But we can do something incredible if everything goes well. And get you a really good keyword ability.¡±


    "In that case, how about we split up for a few hours and kick around the city?" asked Anise. "We can ask locals about what they know, and see if we can find an information dealer or someone of the sort. We might also find good information if we sit around in pubs and listen in. I imagine lots of soldiers hang out there. With how close we are to the front line, at least a few soldiers should have the information we want."


    The two of us broke up and wandered through Mirlen to collect information. I spent the next two hours listening in on local pubs. Since we were only two days away from the front lines, there were plenty of sloshed soldiers to listen to. Eventually, I also used a few illusions to make myself look a bit older, before I settled in to talk to a soldier who was more... drunk than the others.


    "Hey therrrree," he said, slurring his words as I slid into the seat next to him. He spent several seconds staring at my face, before he started grinning.


    "Hi there! My name is... Millie," I said. "I couldn''t help but overhear you talking about the fight against the worldstriders earlier. I was really impressed by the fact that you fought on the front lines against them. What''s it like on the front lines?"


    The soldier spent several more seconds staring at me, before his grin grew wider.


    "Yeah... they''s... they''s gotten trickier now. They were bunchin'' up at the start. But now they''rr fightin'' in smaller groups. Real tricky they are, always watchin'' and waitin''. But my friends an'' I... we scared em off!"


    "How did you manage that?" I asked, more curious than ever.


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    "One of my friends''s... a carrier! He was carryin'' a bolt, and it hit one of ''em. The little bast-errrr... punks are scared! They don''t fight''n they can get hurrt!" he said.


    I felt that the soldier''s slurring was getting worse, and decided to push a bit harder. With how drunk the soldier was, I seriously doubted he would remember this conversation tomorrow.


    "How many worldstr-erm.... Zelyrian experiments are there per fight, do you think?"


    "There''s... there''s lots of ''em! I can only fight''em off cuz I''m real strong!" he said, puffing out his chest proudly. With how drunk the man was, he overbalanced a bit, and nearly fell out of his chair as he spoke.


    "So... are we talking hundreds per fight?"


    "Naww... they''re grouped up in groups of.... thirty or forty? Ah... I mean, there are hundreds of them purr fight," said the soldier, as he tried to puff out his chest again.


    "Only thirty to forty?" I said, curiously.


    I had expected something very different. Giant hordes of worldstriders wandering around in massive groups, ready to pounce on Vernese soldiers. Or something along those lines, at least.


    "Hmm... you mentioned that one of you friends was a carrier. What does that mean?"


    "He''s carryin'' Zelyrian tech. He can actually hurt ''em!" said the soldier grinning as he spoke.


    "Ah, I see," I said. That made more sense. The soldier had also mentioned that the worldstriders tended to back away from fights where they could actually get hurt. If both sides fought large, pitched battles, the Vernese would know exactly where to bring their Zelyrian artifacts. If they had split into smaller groups...


    I grinned.


    While it would be a huge pain for the Vernese to fight guerilla warfare with the worldstriders, it worked to our advantage.


    Originally, Anise and I had been planning to pick off small scouting groups and try to enact our plan that way. But if the worldstriders were spread out, we would face much less danger of being swarmed.


    ¡°Thank you for your information,¡± I said, as I stood up. "Hey, two of this guy''s drinks are on me," I said, as I handed a bit of money to the bartender. Since the soldier had provided me with useful information, I could at least pay for a few drinks.


    "Hey, wait... Mill... Millie. We can... meet later?" asked the soldier.


    "Thanks, but I have to go," I said, as I walked out of the bar.


    When I met back up with Anise, the two of us recounted everything we had discovered while investigating the city. The two of us had found out the same thing - the worldstriders had split up into lots of small groups. With my biggest fear addressed, we started heading towards the front lines.


    There was one last thing we needed to check, and then we could get started.


    * * *


    The final thing we needed to check was simple.


    The plan Anise and I had developed relied on my ability to manipulate information. Normally, illusions would work pefectly for this. However, the worldstriders were a completely different species. It was hard to say whether an illusion that could trick a human would work on them.


    If it didn¡¯t, we would have to return to Damilius. I didn''t think we would get a better opportunity for Anise to make a good keyword ability... but if we died, we wouldn''t get the keyword ability Anise wanted either. So we needed to test whether my illusions could fool the worldstriders.


    I used extensive illusion magic to create a new set of people. I first created an illusion that made looked like a bald, slightly overweight forty year old man. Then, I created another illusion, of a thirty year old woman with bronze-colored hair and metallic, iron-gray eyes.


    Then, we walked up to the edge of the area the worldstriders were known to be active.


    Then, the two of us hopped into a patch of bushes. I followed that up by applying a second layer of illusions to us, which helped us blend into the scenery. It wasn¡¯t perfect - there were a few patches of our body that stood out if someone looked closely enough. But it was good enough that the worldstriders shouldn''t notice it while fighting for their lives.


    Afterwards, I started sending our two illusions around the area. At the same time, I monitored the area with my special types of sight. Then we waited.


    It took six hours of waiting before a worldstrider group appeared near the edge of our sight. Upon seeing the two illusory people, the worldstriders stopped and yelled at each other in old Zelyrian. After a few seconds of bickering, the group started flying towards our illusions.


    I grinned. They were flying towards the illusions. Not us.


    I made the two illusions gasp in horror, before the turned and started fleeing from the worldstriders.


    We waited for a few more seconds, to see if anything changed. However, the worldstriders remained fooled by our illusions. The worldstriders started lobbing spells at the two illusions... and kept ignoring our actual bodies.


    I sent a wave of joy towards Anise through our communication bracelet.


    <They can be tricked with illusions,> I said.


    With our final test completed, Anise and I looked at the worldstriders and grinned.


    It was time to begin.

 Chapter 271: Deathtrap

    As the group of worldstriders attacked my illusions, we stepped into the Worldstrider layer of reality. Then, I sent a few extinguishes at the worldstriders.


    My extinguishes caught them completely off guard. Three of them died before they realized they were being attacked.


    After they realized what was happening, the worldstriders started thinning out their bodies. At the same time, half of the worldstriders¡­ kept attacking our illusions. The other half floated up and started scanning the area, as if they were looking for their ambushers.


    I grinned.


    If the worldstriders were still attacking our illusions, they had definitely been fooled. I focused on making the illusions dodge, weave, and roll around. I didn''t want to break the illusion.


    Meanwhile, Anise got to work. The worldstriders that had thinned out their bodies started to collapse as Anise ripped them apart. One after another, they collapsed like soggy cardboard.


    Seeing their comrades die, the worldstriders started to panic. A few of them started flying around and shooting at random bushes and trees. Meanwhile, the others kept attacking our illusions.


    Some of the other worldstriders started thickening up their bodies again, making it harder for Anise to hurt them. I made sure to throw a few extinguishes at them, dropping a few of the thickened worldstriders.


    <Ten down. About thirty to go,>  sent Anise.


    I grinned. This felt like a sharp contrast with how hard the first encounter with the worldstriders had been. There, the worldstriders had besieged us and killed Sallia. Here, two of us were ripping a hunting squad to pieces with little effort.


    When about half of the worldstriders had died, the worldstriders started to flee from the battlefield. In their blind panic, they didn''t return the way they had come. Instead, they fled in random directions.


    And that¡¯s when Anise and I were unpleasantly surprised.


    One of the fleeing worldstriders flew near the bushes we were hiding in. When it got within about thirty meters of us, it froze.


    ¡°Zelyrian Mage!¡± it yelled, as it turned right towards the bush Anise and I were hiding in.


    The other fleeing worldstriders froze, as if someone had stopped time itself.


    Then, some of them continued fleeing, while others stopped fleeing and flew towards us.


    I blinked in surprise. Then, I frowned.


    I had thought that the worldstriders had no way to detect Anise¡­ but it seemed that wasn¡¯t accurate. If they got close enough to her, they could detect her.


    Luckily, there was a massive range limitation. We had also found this out before it could cause us any major problems.


    I used my teleportation ability redirect a few attacks, sending them towards the fleeing worldstriders. I didn''t want them to carry news of our presence yet. Then, I followed up with a wave of extinguishes, killing another five worldstriders.


    But two of the worldstriders were still fleeing. And they had managed to dodge multiple extinguishes. I gritted my teeth as I kept teleporting attacks towards them, but the stubborn creatures just wouldn''t die.


    Anise frowned, and then turned towards me.


    ¡°I¡¯ll throw some fireballs. You teleport them on top of the worldstriders. Then I''ll detonate them,¡± she said.


    I nodded. Anise lobbed two fireballs into the air. I teleported them in front of the two flight risks, and then the fireballs exploded. Flames engulfed the two fleeing worldstriders, killing them on the spot.


    The final half a dozen worldstriders kept throwing attacks at Anise and I for a few more seconds, but their struggle was futile. I could teleport their attacks around at whim, and they didn''t have the numbers to overwhelm our essence pools. After a few more rounds of extinguishes, mage hands, and teleportations, the final worldstrider died.


    I spent a few seconds using spatial sight and soul sight to scan the area. Then, I relaxed.


    None of the worldstriders had escaped.


    Anise and I looked at each other thoughtfully.


    ¡°Well, it looks like the illusions aren''t perfect," said Anise. "They can be fooled, but they''ll notice me if they''re nearby."


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    I nodded.


    ¡°The range seems to be about thirty meters?¡±


    ¡°Best to think of it as fifty,¡± said Anise. ¡°After all, whatever sense they are using to detect me could be more or less sensitive in some Worldstriders. No need to take risks.¡±


    I nodded. Then, after a few moments of thought, I shrugged.


    ¡°The fact that they can detect you from a certain distance isn¡¯t too important, actually. Now that we know it¡¯s a risk, we can just stay farther away during fights. Extinguish and {Mage Hand} both have huge ranges. We can stay a few hundred meters away and pick them off from a distance.¡±


    Anise nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t think this affects our overall plan. We just need to know what the risks are, and stay cautious.¡±


    I smiled, and then pulled up the System notification I had gotten during the battle.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Worldstrider for the twenty-seventh time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +240


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This fight was brief, but it tipped me over the edge of another milestone for worldstrider kills. It also pushed me from 10,192 Achievement to 10,432 Achievement.


    It wasn''t a huge amount of Achievement, but more was always welcome.


    After that, Anise and I spent a few hours resting and recovering our essence. Once we were back to a healthy essence pool, we stood up and looked at each other. ¡°So it¡¯s time to really put the plan in motion?¡± I asked.


    Anise grinned. ¡°Looks like it."


    "Let¡¯s teach them a lesson for killing Sallia. And get you your keyword ability.¡±


    The two of us moved to a new location, and then I set up the same ambush we had used earlier. However, this time I only made one of my illusions visible to patrolling Worldstriders. The other illusion went into another, different set of bushes... and then adopted a confident sneer. He was now here to ''lay in ambush'' and surprise the worldstriders.


    It took two hours for another group to appear.


    This one was smaller than the previous group - there were only twenty worldstriders, instead of forty.


    Anise and I ripped apart the group with little suspense. The worldstriders died en masse during the initial ambush, and panicked. This time, they found the ''ambushing mage'' pretty quickly, and focused fire on him. With an obvious ''ambusher'' to focus on, they didn''t flee in random directions like last time. Instead, they kept trying and failing to hit my abnormally agile illusion.


    Of course, that didn''t last forever. When the eleventh worldstrider died, they started to grow tense. By the time the thirteenth died, the worldstriders looked ready to flee. Finally, when the fifteenth died, the worldstriders bolted.


    Two more died to extinguishes. Then, Anise and I did a teleporting fireball, and made the air in front of the survivors turn into a pillar of flame.


    "Stop!" yelled my ''ambusher'' illusion. "If you flee, I''ll kill you all!"


    The three worldstriders reeled back in surprise, and then looked at my illusion fearfully. My illusion jumped into the air, before it floated in front of the worldstriders. My illusion smiled gleefully.


    "We''ve come for you! Where are the other worldstrider camps?" My illusion asked. As it spoke, it also raised a hand towards the worldstriders, as if threatening to kill them on the spot.


    "I''ll never say. Die, damned native!" shrieked one of the worldstriders, before it launched a final attack at my illusion.


    My illusion teleported the attack right back into the creature. I followed up with an extinguish. The worldstrider died.


    The last two worldstriders looked at my illusion with a fearful expression, and didn''t follow their dead companion.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you! Don¡¯t kill me!¡± Said one of the worldstriders. Its voice quivered, and for a moment, I felt bad.


    For all that the worldstriders looked inhuman, they were still sentient, sapient beings. Hunting them down and then slaughtering them like this felt wrong.


    But as soon as my guilt started to appear, an image of Sallia dying rose to my mind.


    My sympathy disappeared.


    Since these monsters had tried to murder Anise, and had killed Sallia, they didn¡¯t need to exist in this world. Besides, the last worldstrider group had tried to forsake their survival to kill Anise. If the worldstriders existed, Anise wouldn''t be safe.


    I extinguished the other worldstrider, and then my illusion smiled at the remaining worldstrider. "Lovely. Lead the way."


    The worldstrider looked at the corpse of its friend and shivered. Then, it began to float in another direction. Every minute or so, it glanced at my illusion again, to make sure that my illusions were following it.


    Naturally, our real bodies followed far behind the illusion. We moved slowly, because I wasn¡¯t good enough at illusions to keep us invisible while we walked¡­ but I didn¡¯t think that the worldstrider saw us. After nearly an hour of travel, we finally found it. A large camp, inhabited by worldstriders. There were about three hundred of them. Fewer than I had expected, but still a good number of them.


    I also noticed that a few worldstriders were hidden underneath the surface of the earth. Normally, they would have been almost impossible to detect¡­ but with my soul-sight, they stuck out like fireflies on a moonless night.


    I immediately extinguished all of them. They were hiding under the earth, so they didn¡¯t have any chance to respond before they died.


    But as I did so, the worldstrider that had ''surrendered'' to us shrieked.


    "Enemies! They have weird abilities! They might be Zel-"


    I extinguished it, and then stared at the camp of worldstriders. Honestly, I had kind of expected the worldstrider to have a trick up its sleeve. It would be absurd for it to help us when it probably knew we would kill it afterwards.


    My illusions made grim expressions as they saw the worldstrider camp stir. Worldstriders got up from the ground where they had been resting, and floated into the sky. Other worldstriders prepared for a fight, swarming like hornets after their hive was disturbed.


    But even though my illusions looked desperate, I grinned.


    Just as planned.

 Chapter 272: Smoke and Mirrors

    As Worldstriders started to swarm out of their camp, my two illusions started to flee. A few moments later, they dove behind cover. In a moment of inspiration, I then had one of the illusions ''teleport'' away.


    I knew from Anise''s textbook that Zelyrian teleportation existed. It had very limited range, but it was a spell that better mages could use. Since that was the case, one of my illusions was now going to be proficient in the spell. I wanted the worldstriders to feel threatened by my illusions.


    My illusions watched the Worldstrider camp as more of them started to swarm the area. My non-teleporting illusion waited a few breaths, for the worldstriders to clump together.


    Then, he raised a hand, and tossed a fireball at the densest cluster of worldstriders.


    The worldstriders seemed shocked as the illusory fireball flew towards them. I heard one of them curse.


    ¡°They are Zelyrian! Kill them!¡± It shrieked, as it started to fly away from the fireball.


    All hell broke loose.


    Over a hundred worldstriders started firing spells at my illusion. I made the illusion start dodging and weaving around. It was hard for me to track so many different attacks and ''dodge'' them all. However, it needed to be done to sell the idea of a Zelyrian attack.


    At the same time, the ¡®fireball¡¯ started homing in on the fleeing worldstrider. It tried to flee up, down, and then zigzag around the illusory projectile... but I wasn''t having it. With a burst of speed, the fireball zoomed forward, and hit its target.


    The ''fireball'' exploded in a flash of light. At the exact same time, Anise launched a real fireball, which I teleported right into the worldstrider.


    The fireball expanded outwards with a loud bang, and four worldstriders turned into charcoal. I added to the attack by extinguishing a few more worldstriders who touched the edge of the fireball.


    However, my teleportation shenanigan wasn''t without cost. While I had been distracted, a worldstrider finally hit my illusion. I made the illusion yell in pain, and then duck behind cover as he nursed his now-bleeding arm.


    Trying to manage so many different things at once was very difficult. There were too many projectiles to keep track of. So I decided to change things up a bit. I had my illusion use a ''healing spell'' to heal up his arm. He popped back out of cover, and smiled at the worldstriders.


    Then, he pretended to use a flying spell, before lifting into the air and fleeing.


    ¡°He can fly!¡± Yelled one of the worldstriders. The group started chasing after him as they launched more essence at him.


    With my illusion airborne, it was much easier for him to ''dodge'' attacks. I spared a bit more of my attention to watch the worldstriders themselves.


    Unlike previous fights, this time the worldstriders weren''t thinning themselves out. Since my illusion had used a fireball, they were more worried about compacting their bodies. That would make it easier to avoid a large projectile... but it also made them very vulnerable to extinguishes.


    I started throwing my next wave of attacks onto the battlefield. Six worldstriders were extinguished before the worldstriders realized someone else was attacking them.


    "The female mage is missing!" yelled one of the Worldstriders.


    A group of them broke off from chasing my illusion, and started flying higher. They began scanning the area for my teleporting illusion, and also started thinning out their bodies.


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    Anise started tearing them apart, and within seconds, another six Worldstriders died. Finally, the Worldstriders spotted my ''teleporting'' illusion.


    The swarm of worldstriders divided in two. Half of them kept chasing my flier, while the other half focused on my teleporter. My teleporter gave the worldstriders a cheery smile, and then disappeared again. I set her up just behind a few trees, where she continued throwing fake spells at the creatures. Meanwhile, Anise and I continued to snipe the worldstriders from the distance.


    My flying illusion proved to be the more difficult one to manage. There were just too many projectiles to dodge, and my concentration wasn''t perfect. Another ball of black essence hit him in the head, and I realized that there was no way he could survive.


    The ''flying mage'' shrieked and dropped out of the sky.


    I debated how my other illusion should react, before I settled on making her smirk. Plenty of allies didn''t like each other on the battlefield. Then, she teleported closer to the worldstrider who had struck the finishing blow, and shot a bolt of silver force at it. Before the worldstrider could react, it was hit. I followed the illusory attack up with an extinguish, and the creature died. Before the other worldstriders could react, she blinked away.


    However, I made sure that she reappeared near the same spot. I didn''t want the worldstriders to look too closely at their surroundings. If they found Anise and I, the jig would be up.


    It only took a few seconds for the other worldstriders to notice her again, and then they started firing at her.


    With the excuse of ''teleporting,'' it was much easier to keep this second illusion from touching projectiles. Furthermore, I spruced up her movements with constant dodging and weaving. Since the flying mage was dead, Anise and I stopped using fireball spells... but extinguish and mage hand were deadly enough. After two minutes of fighting, almost thirty worldstriders died. But by that time, I was starting to get worn out. Keeping my illusion from getting hit was difficult. There were just too many enemies to track.


    <Starting to lose focus. Let''s retreat,> I told Anise.


    She nodded. We had already accomplished our first objective during the fight. There was no need to stick around.


    My illusion teleported to the ''body'' of her companion, gathered it up, and then blinked away. Then, she started running. The worldstriders quickly located her and started chasing after her. Her teleportation and dodging skills made her very hard to hit, though. Anytime the worldstriders got too close to her, she vanished into thin air. Anytime only a few worldstriders were firing at her, she dodged their blows. The female illusion kept well ahead of the pack. Meanwhile, Anise and I prepared our next trick.


    The worldstriders were immune to most attacks. However, that was because most attacks were on the wrong layer of reality. Combined with their exceptional dodging abilities, they were very hard to kill. But Anise and I had a way to fix that.


    We took out a barrel of dynamite and the bolts of lightning we had stolen from the Vernese. I wanted the worldstriders to think that the natives of the continent had effective weapons against them, after all. The best way to do that was to use real Vernese knockoff technology, and just fix its effectiveness.


    Then, my illusion turned to the worldstriders and giggled. She waved at them, and then blew them a kiss... before she tossed a match at the barrel of gunpowder. She blinked away several times in quick succession, putting as much distance between her and the gunpowder as possible.


    At the same time, Anise cast a fireball spell, which I teleported inside of the gunpowder barrel.


    A thunderous boom shook the area. I saw bits of lightning and gunpowder mix together into something far more explosive than I had expected. Even though Anise and I were standing pretty far away, I still felt the shockwave.


    About twenty worldstriders died on the spot, and I could see that several more of them were injured. Their bodies weren''t destroyed, but they were missing a lot of mass.


    My illusion turned around, and fired a few more spells at the worldstriders before they could recover. Many of the wounded Worldstriders went down.


    Three more worldstriders died before they managed to reorganize themselves. I decided it was time to completely end the raid. My illusion drank a potion, and then started running ridiculously fast. She sped into the distance so quickly that even a horse would struggle to follow her. I had no idea whether or not this world actually had any sort of ¡®haste¡¯ potion¡­ but I was betting the worldstriders wouldn¡¯t know, either.


    The worldstriders shrieked and yelled in frustration as my illusion sped away, holding the corpse of her dead companion. However, they simply couldn''t keep up with her speed. After all, the woman had zero mass or physical components to her. Soon, she vanished from the battlefield, and Anise and I also started sneaking away. We had finished our first raid against the Zelyrians.


    Now, we just needed to keep it up for a few days.

 Chapter 273: Hate and Mercy

    That night, we set up camp quite a ways away from the Worldstrider camp. We didn''t want to fight without my illusions and the ability to flee if able. When we returned the next day, we saw something unexpected.


    Funerals.


    The Worldstriders were taking the corpses of their dead, and lighting them on fire. Each pyre had a wooden carving of a creature I didn''t recognized added to it. One by one, the worldstriders sent their dead off.


    The worldstrider bodies didn¡¯t burn with the fervor I had expected. Instead, they melted like ice cubes in the sun. As the voidstrider bodies burned, little bits of essence drifted out of their bodies and towards the sky. It was beautiful, in an alien sort of way.


    The Worldstriders holding funerals for their dead made sense. It shouldn''t have surprised.


    And yet, it did.


    It would be easy to start extinguishing more worldstriders. To just fall back into the same pattern I had been trying to get into before. But it felt wrong to me.


    Seeing the worldstriders act so¡­ human threw me off. I hated them for what they had done to Sallia. She was like a hospital patient right now. She was stuck floating in the void, without the ability to live her own life.


    Not to mention, the worldstriders were invading the continent. While they claimed they only wanted the mountains, they had already pushed far beyond them. They had murdered tens of thousands of Vernese troops, and seemed bent on conquest.


    But at the same time¡­ was killing every Worldstrider we could get access to the right thing to do? Was every worldstrider deserving of death? It was easy to see them as a monolithic species, since I didn¡¯t understand their society or culture. It was also obvious that each worldstrider was an individual. They didn''t seem to be some sort of hive mind. Each Worldstrider had its own name and identity. Trying to remove their species from the planet felt wrong to me.


    I looked at the worldstriders again.


    Many of the worldstriders in the camp behaved just like human soldiers. They patrolled the area, dug trenches around the camp, or assembled hunting groups to go kill the Vernese. But there were also some worldstriders doing other things.


    Far away, I could see a small worldstrider weaving together flowers. Near the center of the camp, I could see a few worldstriders making wooden carvings. They seemed to be the same wooden carvings that the worldstriders were burning with their dead.


    For the first time, it struck me how little I understood about the worldstriders and their culture. As much as I hated them¡­ I didn''t think ending their species was the right thing to do.


    <Anise. Are we doing the right thing?>


    Anise hesitated. For a long time, she stared at the camp, just like I was. Finally, she sighed.


    <I don¡¯t know.> she said. <The worldstriders we¡¯ve killed so far¡­ didn¡¯t feel bad for me to fight. When we were in the pocket dimension, they wanted to hurt me for what I was. And they killed Sallia. And when we encountered the next few groups, they were the soldiers of the Worldstriders. I know that the worldstriders have spent a long time hunting down and killing Vernese troops. So I don¡¯t feel bad getting rid of them.> Anise frowned harder at the camp, before she shook her head. <But I wouldn¡¯t feel right if we killed some of these worldstriders. We shouldn''t hurt the flower-weaver or the carver. They look like human civilians.>


    I paused, and then nodded.


    I didn¡¯t really feel guilty for killing the worldstriders we had hunted down so far. But I also didn''t want to kill the flower-weaver or the carvers.


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    <I don¡¯t think I¡¯d feel right killing the civilians either,> I said, finally. When we had come to this battlefront, I had been thinking about just fighting every worldstrider we found. But now that I saw some of them living regular lives... my beliefs were shaken.


    Anise tucked a few unruly strands of pink hair behind her ear, before she shook her head.


    <Thinking about the way the river of souls works¡­ I don¡¯t think it¡¯s ¡®bad¡¯ to end the life of someone evil. A bandit, or a serial killer, for example¡­ and I don¡¯t think killing soldiers is wrong either. After all, they¡¯ve signed up to fight and kill other people. That''s their job. When they''re part of a war machine that''s trying to hurt us, defending ourselves make sense. But I¡¯m not comfortable killing civilians.> Anise hesitated. <I know that killing them might get me more Achievement, and make it easier to get my keyword ability. But I don¡¯t want to become someone bad, either. I''m sorry.>


    <You don''t have to apologize. I don''t feel right killing civilians either,> I said. As I said it, I felt a tension I hadn''t realized I felt start to disappear. Trying to avoid civilian casualties might be dumb. It might get us killed. It would make it harder to get Achievement.


    But it felt right. Achievement wasn''t everything. I didn''t want to become like the members of the Old Market. I had been horrified when I learned that some Market members had slaughtered worlds for Achievement. By having a code for who was okay to hurt, I felt... better.


    <Then from now on, let¡¯s never hurt a civilian,> I said. <We can hurt soldiers and monsters, and bandits¡­ but let''s avoid civilians.>


    I felt Anise send a wave of relief through the friendship bracelets. I smiled.


    It resonated with me, in an odd sort of way. On the islands, during our first life, we would always use up every single part of a fish that we hunted. It wasn¡¯t just a matter of practicality - it was also a form of respect for the giant fish who gave their lives so that we could eat. A lot of my sense of identity and self came from that life, and so paying homage to it in this way made me feel more¡­ myself. It made me feel good in a way I hadn¡¯t felt since Sallia¡¯s death. It made me feel like I was regaining some of the bits of humanity I had lost over the decades of reincarnation after reincarnation.


    After Anise and I made our decision, we spent a few hours observing the worldstrider¡¯s camp. Originally, we had been planning to attack immediately. But now we needed to sort out the civilians and the soldiers first.


    It took a while to separate all of the civilians from the soldiers. That was because the worldstrider combatants didn¡¯t obviously carry around weapons. Human soldiers were easy to tell apart - just find the people with guns. But after a few hours, we successfully made a list of which worldstrider did what.


    The first group of worldstriders were the soldiers. They often left camp to fight the Vernese. They were the easiest group to sort out, because they talked about war strategies, and they left camp in groups of 30-50.


    Second, there were the ¡®carvers.¡¯ These worldstriders made wooden carvings. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure why - I couldn¡¯t find any sort of practical purpose for their wooden carvings. It probably served some sort of cultural or religious need? Either way, Anise and I both decided that the woodcarvers were civilians. We would make sure that our attacks didn¡¯t kill them.


    The third group of worldstriders were farmers. Not that this was obvious without enough observation. The worldstriders didn¡¯t seem to need traditional food at all. Instead, the ¡®farmers¡¯ produced giant drops of glowing energy. They did this by stretching themselves out and exposing themselves to sunlight. It looked like they were imitating tree leaves.


    At first, Anise and I had thought that the drops of glowing energy were weapons. We had even debated whether weapon craftsmen were soldiers or not. Both of us had leaned towards ¡®no,¡¯ since I would feel guilty killing a human blacksmith from an enemy kingdom. But before we finished our debate, one of the other worldstriders came over and slurped up a drop of energy. That was when we realized the glowing drops of energy were food.


    That made it a very easy decision. I wasn¡¯t going to kill a bunch of farmers. Anise heartily agreed with me.


    Finally, there were a few smaller worldstriders who zoomed around the camp. I suspected they were children. Anise and I had no idea why they were here. The idea of bringing kids to a battlefield sounded bizarre to me. Who would bring kids to the front lines? But regardless of my thoughts on the matter, the little worldstriders seemed to be children. They ran around camp, made a ruckus, wove flowers together, and played. They were also the easiest group to figure out what to do with. No matter what, we would avoid hurting them. Even in the deepest throes of my hate after Sallia died, I wouldn''t have killed children. That was a level of wrong that I would never sink to.


    With our new resolutions finalized, and our new assessments finalized, Anise and I started our next operation.


    And this time, we made certain that the civilians were left out of it.

 Chapter 274: Kaboom

    The next time a group of worldstrider soldiers exited the base, we followed them. The worldstriders seemed a bit more wary of their surroundings today. A few of them detached from the main group to scout the area, and the group jumped at shadows. To make sure they didn''t see us, Anise and I stayed very far behind them. If it weren''t for the range of my soul-sight, we would have lost track of them.


    The first few worldstriders died to extinguishes. Then, as usual, the worldstriders started to thin their bodies out - only for Anise to get started.


    Within seconds, six worldstriders fell. Afterwards, they finally found my illusion. She gave them a cheery wave as worldstriders continued to drop. I heard one of them curse, and the group started firing dark essence balls at my illusion.


    And then the Worldstriders brought me our first surprise. A worldstrider reached inside its body, and pulled out an unexpected weapon.


    A Vernese rifle.


    I saw a tendril of black essence worm its way into the rifle. Then, the creature pointed the gun at my illusion and pulled the trigger.


    Luckily, my reflexes were on point. Even though the soldier''s weapon caught me off guard, I still teleported the bullet away. Out of habit, I returned the bullet to the shooter...


    Only for the bullet to whiz right through the creature¡¯s body, as if it weren¡¯t even there.


    The worldstrider had countered my ¡®return projectiles¡¯ ability perfectly. I couldn''t kill the worldstriders with their own attacks anymore.


    I killed it with an extinguish instead.


    Right afterwards, six more cracks of gunpowder sounded through the air.


    The shooter wasn''t the only one who had stolen a gun from the Vernese.


    This time, I was prepared. My illusion teleported to a different location, and then launched a few spells at the worldstriders. I used a few extinguishes to kill the worldstriders who were ''hit.'' The number of shooters dropped from six to three.


    The remaining worldstriders with guns were much more cautious. They wove left and right as they peppered my illusion with shots. However, I kept having my illusion ''teleport'' around. I wanted it to be as hard as possible for the worldstriders to keep track of her.


    It took me three rounds of exchanges to finish off the ones with rifles. From there, the fight got much easier. Within half a minute, thirteen worldstriders had died, and none of them had hit my illusion yet.


    That was when the worldstriders gave us our second surprise of the battle.


    One of the creatures threw a match at our surroundings, causing the grass to catch on fire.


    I immediately teleported a huge clump of water out of my dress and onto the flaming grass. As I did, a part of me shivered.


    Why were the worldstriders trying to light the grass on fire?


    Had the worldstriders buried gunpowder under the grass, or something? How could they have prepared an ambush for us? This group hadn¡¯t even left the base since our attack yesterday!


    My thoughts grew more paranoid as the fight wore on. I kept a careful eye on the remaining twenty-seven worldstriders for any new tricks. However, it seemed like they were out of ideas. By the time the twenty-fifth worldstrider died, the worldstriders started to look desperate. Finally, they broke and started to flee.


    Anise and I kept attacking the fleeing worldstriders. After all, the worldstriders didn''t let fleeing Vernese troops live. I felt it was fair to adopt the same war code against them.


    Within a minute, the last worldstrider died.


    After that, I walked over to the patch of grass that the worldstrider had tried to light on fire, and frowned. I couldn¡¯t find any hidden barrels of gunpowder or other traps in the grass. What had the worldstrider been trying to do?


    <Anise, do you see something I''m missing? Why did that one worldstrider try to light the grass on fire?>


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    Anise leaned down next to me, and started touching the grass, before she frowned. <I can''t see anything unusual. Hmm... maybe they were just trying to start a fire? The grass here is pretty dry right now. It might not be hard to start a prairie fire.> said Anise. <That''s my best guess, at least. I could be wrong though.>


    I blinked. Had Anise caught something I missed?


    <What do you mean?> I asked.


    <Well, this area hasn''t had much rainfall recently. All of the plants here are quite dry. The worldstriders probably aren¡¯t very bothered by heat in our layer of reality, either. So if they manage to start a big prairie fire, we''d be in a lot more trouble than them,> said Anise.


    It finally clicked for me.


    The crazy bastards had just meant to start a fire for us.


    If the fire got big enough, that could be a problem for even our main bodies. I wasn''t sure how fast fires spread... but I didn''t want to test it out either. I could heal burns, but I had no idea if I could outheal being burned alive. It would definitely be painful and distracting, even if I could.


    I grimaced. The Vernese rifle and the attempted prairie fire reminded me that we weren¡¯t fighting unintelligent monsters.


    The worldstriders weren¡¯t stupid. If we kept ambushing squads of worldstriders, they would keep trying new ways to fight us until they found one that worked. We had survived this fight, but they would find a useful tactic sooner or later. We weren''t invincible. We needed to be careful, or we might still die.


    <The worldstrider with the Vernese gun also caught me by surprise,> said Anise, after a moment. <I didn¡¯t even see it before the battle started.>


    <It must have looted it from a Vernese soldier after a battle,> I said. <Although I¡¯m a bit surprised it managed to cram it inside of its body and still fly around. Having a body that is as soft as jello has its advantages, I guess.>


    <Worldstriders with guns... what a scary combination> said Anise. <I guess it''s inevitable that they''ll steal war spoils from the Vernese. Still, the worldstriders using gunpowder is worrying. What if they use a bomb against us?>


    I paused.


    I¡­ did not have a good way to handle bombs, if the Worldstriders blew it up before I noticed it. It was possible teleport it away before it exploded... but if I missed it, I couldn''t teleport away a shockwave. At that point we might join Sallia until Felix died.


    <How good is your force shield spell?> I asked.


    <I might be able to handle a few bombs? But if they toss enough explosives into an area, I don¡¯t think I would be able to deflect it,> said Anise. <Granted, any bombs they detonate should target your illusions, instead of our real bodies¡­but it¡¯s a risk. Especially if they prepare a trap or something. After all, they don¡¯t need to worry about friendly fire from bombs. That makes a huge difference in the kinds of tactics they can employ.>


    I paused, and then nodded.


    <If that¡¯s the case, we should be very careful. I can handle cannons and guns fine, but bombs won¡¯t be especially noticeable to my soulsight or spatial sight. If they decided to just send an entire valley into the ocean of souls, we could actually die.>


    Anise nodded. <So we need to check and see if they prepped the battlefield anytime we fight?>


    <Seems like it,> I said.


    It wasn¡¯t something that we had run into yet, but it was a good reminder.


    We had an advantage now, but ultimately, our plan was to help delay the Worldstriders for a bit. We were buying time for the continent - not fighting an army alone. And every time we fought, the worldstriders would learn and improve. Just like the continent, they wouldn''t remain stagnant forever.


    I just hoped the continent adapted to them faster than they adapted to the continent.


    * * *


    After that fight, Anise and I spent some time regenerating our essence. Then, we returned to the worldstrider camp again. And to my surprise, we saw something else. Like Anise had theorized, the worldstriders hadn''t just sat around and waited for death.


    Instead, I caught several squads of worldstriders burying bombs beneath their camp. I hesitated for a moment. Anise frowned, and put up a force shield around us. Then, after some hesitation, I decided to finish what we had come here for.


    It was time for the first round of ¡®Zelyrian Mages¡¯ to die.


    First, I summoned the illusion that hadn''t ''died'' yet. It was the same female illusion I had been using for the past few days Then, I added in another illusion. This time, the illusion looked somewhat similar to Anise - it had pink hair, short height, and eyes that crinkled from smiling a lot.


    It didn''t look exactly like Anise. After all, I didn''t want the worldstriders to recognize the real Anise if they saw her. But it still looked sort of similar. Besides, pink hair was a very uncommon trait here. The worldstriders also hadn''t seen Anise in a decade. It was good enough for our purposes.


    My two illusions crept towards the camp, remaining out of sight. It wouldn''t make sense for them to just charge to their death, after all. Still, it wasn''t long before a worldstrider spotted them. I immediately extinguished the scout that found them - but it was too late. The other worldstriders turned towards our illusions, and grinned. None of them said a word.


    Instead, a few of them immediately lit the bombs up. The peace remained for a single, tenuous moment as my illusion''s eyes widened.


    Then, the valley erupted into gouts of flame and sound.

 Chapter 275: Illusory Deaths

    The two of us were a little closer to the blast than I had thought we would be. The gouts of flames and crackling booms were quite a bit more spread out than expected. Clearly, the worldstriders had tried to prevent my illusion from teleporting out of the explosions.


    Luckily, we¡¯d been overcautious. Anise and I had stayed at the edge of the valley, and we were quite a ways away from the Worldstrider camp. The explosions were still unpleasant, but nowhere near deadly.


    Even so, my ears were ringing as the explosions ripped the world asunder. I completely lost control of my illusions, and the collapsed into flickers of light. At the same time, I started to feel the distinct presence of manifestation essence. The worldstriders had done something to boost the explosions, although I had no clue what.


    After the rattling of the world started to slow down, I saw the worldstriders fly higher and start to examining the area. Unlike us, and the now-charred prairie, they were completely safe from the explosions. They went to work putting out the fires they had started with their explosives. More concerningly, they started looking for something else.


    It didn''t take much though to realize they were looking for my illusions, or their corpses. Anise and I took out a few animal corpses, and then used magic to shred the corpses to pieces. We had originally planned for the illusions to die in a different way, but we could make adjustments.


    After about thirty seconds of prep, I teleported several bits of rabbit bone and flesh into random parts of the valley. I sincerely doubted the worldstriders would expect an intact corpse after the explosions, so this would do well.


    Then, we turned around and left. My illusions had already harassed this camp for days. Now seemed like a good time for them to make their exit. Besides, the Worldstrider camp was almost out of soldiers. There wasn''t much left to do if we wanted to keep our moral code.


    We spent the next half hour sneaking away from the camp. The dimensionally prolific creatures didn''t notice our exit, and so we didn''t run into any trouble. We also got a few System notifications as we departed the area.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Make a [???] Contribution to the Vernese-Worldstrider war


    Note: Since the conflict is still ongoing, the impact your actions have had on the war have yet to be determined. Please wait until the conflict ends to receive payment.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked at the unpaid Achievement total and shrugged. I wasn¡¯t worried about waiting another year or two to get my reward. I was happy that we now had confirmation our actions had done something. And we had managed to stick to our moral code and still impact the war a bit. Figuring out which Worldstriders were soldiers took up a lot of extra time¡­ but we had still accomplished something. I felt much better about our actions, and we had still succeeded.


    I started to think about how much time we had spent fighting this camp, and how much time we had left. We had originally started with about two weeks of break. If we wanted to return to school on time, it was a good idea to leave Verne within the next five or six days.


    That was still plenty of time to hit another camp or two, but not enough time for more than that. As we walked and searched for another camp, I decided to call Felix. I missed talking with him. It only took a minute before he responded to my communication bracelet call. I smiled as I felt Anise join in.


    <Hey Felix. How are things going over there?>


    <Not great but not bad. The railroads are still underway, but our group hit a funding problem. Some of the investors have started to question whether railroads will ever outclass airships, which is¡­ annoying. Airships don¡¯t even haul goods, just people. The lifting capacity of an airship is too abysmal to actually matter for shipping purposes. Whichever investor asked that doesn''t seem to really understand what we''re doing...> said Felix, before he sighed at us. <It¡¯s a little infuriating. It¡¯s mostly something the team leader deals with, luckily. If I had to deal with people asking dumb questions all day I would go crazy. On the bright side, we have most of a working engine now, and I think we¡¯ll have a proper proof of concept within a year or two. If we¡¯re lucky, we¡¯ll see trains start to spring up everywhere within a decade. The prosthetics team is also making good progress. The country is paying a lot of attention to some specific hand modifications the team has made.> I could hear pride in Felix¡¯s voice, and it made me smile. Inventing trains in a new dimension was no small feat, and Felix had every right to be proud of himself.


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    For a moment, the conversation fell into an awkward pause after that. I waited for Felix to say something else, but it took him almost a minute to continue speaking. When he spoke next, he sounded uneasy.


    <What about you two? Run into anything dangerous?>


    <So far, most of our fights have been under control,> I said. <Anise hasn¡¯t gotten the keyword she wants yet, but we have gotten some promising System notifications. Oh, the worldstriders also blew up my illusions,> I said, trying to inject a bit of humor into the conversation. <To stay safe, we haven''t actually fought the worldstriders head on once. That saved us last time, since the shadowy blobs decided to light up a whole valley. They stole a bunch of gunpowder, and then spruced it up with old Zelyrian tech.>


    <Sounds dangerous,> said Felix.


    <It wasn''t too bad. We''ve decided to ''play dead'' for that group. The illusions are keeping us safe. It''s working surprisingly well so far.>


    <As long as you two are safe,> said Felix, after some hesitation. <I admit, a part of me feels bad for not being there to support you two.>


    <Don¡¯t worry about it. Focus on the railroads. Right now, you should focus on building yourself up!>


    <Yeah, Felix,> Anise said. <You don¡¯t need to feel bad for not being with us. Someday, you¡¯ll find a way to make Alchemy work well in combat, but right now, you should focus on your research! Every tool you polish now will serve you well for the rest of your life! That''s what my teacher last life told me about magic!> Then, she hesitated. <Also, something you might want to know. Miria and I decided on a¡­ code of sorts. For what enemies it¡¯s okay to hurt and which ones it¡¯s not.>


    <Even after what happened last time we met them?> Asked Felix. He didn¡¯t sound scandalized, but he also didn¡¯t sound happy about it. He sounded almost¡­ confused?


    <It¡¯s because we shouldn¡¯t let hate control us,> said Anise. <And because killing noncombatants is wrong. That¡¯s what we decided. It¡¯s okay if they¡¯re soldiers. But if any sapient enemy isn¡¯t a warrior, we should try to avoid hurting them.>


    <The Worldstriders have noncombatants?>


    <We found a lot of smaller ones zooming around the first camp we found. As well as a few¡­ farmers? And a few carvers. Not quite sure why the Worldstriders have such a specific need for lots of carvings, but I¡¯m guessing culture or religion. Either way, they weren¡¯t military,> I said.


    <I see.> Then, Felix sent a wave of confusion through the bracelet. <Wait, they brought kids to a warzone? That doesn¡¯t make any sense.>


    <I¡¯m also baffled. I can¡¯t figure out if it¡¯s due to some sort of¡­ biological quirk about their reproduction¡­ or some sort of culture thing. I don¡¯t know,> I said. <They looked like children. I have no good explanation for why they''re here. Ask the worldstriders.>


    Felix sent me a sigh. <That is¡­ odd. Do the two of you plan to keep up the code in future worlds? I don¡¯t think I¡¯d mind that, actually.>


    <I intend to keep following the code in the future,> I said. <I kind of like having a code to keep our heads straight. I don¡¯t want to become like the old Market. They did some awful things for the sake of Achievement, and I don¡¯t ever want to become like that.>


    <I like it,> said Felix. <Being able to revive after death makes death less... scary, I think. We know what''s coming after death. We know that most of the time, it isn''t truly the end. But that doesn''t mean that we should treat death casually. It''s still a full memory wipe most of the time. Anytime people die, they lose all of the connections they''ve built over their lifetime. They lose everything but their continuity of self. I don''t mind trying to respect that as much as possible.>


    <Can you think of anything we should add to it?> I asked.


    <I¡¯ll have to think about it,> he said. <I¡¯ll let you know if I come up with anything new. For now, stay safe. And Miria,> he said. <I¡¯m glad that you and Anise made the code for combatants and noncombatants. Sallia¡¯s death hit you the hardest, so I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re starting to move past it. I know she isn¡¯t really dead - after all, we can still talk to her, and we¡¯ll see her again when we die. But you don¡¯t seem to like being away from any of us for too long. Or being unable to hug us.>


    <I¡¯m a very physically afectionate friend?> I said sheepishly. <Besides, if you don¡¯t hug someone, how will they know how much you care about them?>


    <I don¡¯t mind that Miria hugs everyone a lot,> said Anise. <It feels nice.>


    I smiled. Anise got it!


    <My point is that I¡¯m glad your moving forward,> said Felix. I could almost hear him projecting laughter through the bracelets. <As for hugging people all the time¡­ I¡¯ll take it under advisement. I gotta go. Research team meeting soon. But I''m glad you two called me for a bit. Stay safe out there!> Felix disconnected.


    I turned towards Anise. <Well, I have seven days left before school starts back up. We should leave in five or six, to make sure we get back in time. Are you ready?>


    Anise nodded.


    <Let¡¯s make the rest of our time count.>

 Chapter 276: Survival

    We spent the next day finding another Worldstrider camp. It took until sunset to find the next one. This one was situated right next to a ruined Vernese town, and from the stench of decay, I got the impression the previous inhabitants had died.


    This camp was a little larger and more well-organized than the previous one, but I also got a certain sense of¡­ laxness as I observed it. This group had fewer patrols, despite having more people. It gave off a certain sense of overconfidence.


    We spent the rest of the day observing the camp, to figure out which worldstriders were off limits. We eventually came to the conclusion that the camp had 350 combatants and 150 noncombatants.


    After that, it was time to start hitting them. The first few groups of soldiers were easy to get rid of. The moment they were half an hour away from their camp, we demolished each group with a quick ambush.


    To our surprise, this camp took almost three days to start innovating on their tactics. The fact that it took them three days to try using Vernese guns made me wonder what their commander was doing. The entire camp seemed sloppy and unprofessional. I was also starting to suspect that most worldstriders struggled to set up lots of explosives. The worldstriders didn''t have much in the way of production, so most groups couldn''t set up big gunpowder traps. Their only real source of explosives was to swipe them from the Vernese.


    Of course, that wasn¡¯t enough for my illusions to escape death. On the fourth day, the worldstriders set up an ambush for us. Right after my illusions attacked another group, enemy reinforcements flooded the area. My illusions were surrounded by four hundred angry worldstriders and demolished. There was no way the worldstriders had gotten that many warriors from the base we were harassing. Anise and I decided that they must have gotten reinforcements from nearby camps. If we were sticking around, I might have tried to target another one of those camps afterwards - but with only one day left, Anise and I ended our hunting. Having two groups of Vernese Mages ''die'' was more about all we could accomplish. Then, we snuck out of the area, and started heading back towards unoccupied Verne. We had defeated four hundred Worldstriders during our excursion. While there were still tens or hundreds of thousands of them¡­ we had at least done what we could. The rest was up to the people of this continent to figure out.


    The System also agreed that we had made some sort of contribution to the battlefield.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Make a [Minor] Contribution to the Vernese-Worldstrider war


    Note: Since the conflict is still ongoing, the impact your actions have had on the war have yet to be determined. Please wait until the conflict ends to receive payment.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As Anise and I were leaving the Worldstrider camp behind, she also started mentally cheering.


    <Miria! I got it! I got a good keyword ability!> She said.


    <Did you? Really?> I grinned.


    <Yeah! It gives me access to the Zelyrian magic system, and it also gives me boosts for force type magic. It also lets me increase my mental stats and Manifestation essence stat as I train my spells,> said Anise. <There¡¯s an upper limit of one grade for the stat boosts, but that¡¯s still amazing!>


    I felt my smile grow wider. One of the biggest reasons to come here had been getting Anise the keyword ability she needed. Hearing that she had finally gotten it¡­ well, it made me happy. All of our hard work hadn¡¯t been for nothing. She finally had the ability to pursue her dreams in future worlds.


    We spent our last day in Verne making our way back to one of the cities that still had airship service. The entire time, I felt a strange mixture of elation and fear. Part of me expected the worldstriders to jump out and ambush us as we left. But nothing went wrong as we bought our tickets. Twelve hours later, we boarded an airship and flew back to Damilius.


    The flight was tense. Anise and I kept eyeing the windows, waiting for a swarm of angry worldstriders to descend upon the airship. None of them showed up. I kept waiting for something to go wrong at the last second. I kept my guard up. I felt my nerves growing more taut with every minute that nothing went wrong.


    But for the first time in three worlds¡­ things went according to plan. I felt disbelief as we finally touched down in Damilius, and a I realized that we had made it back. We had completed our objectives, done something risky, and lived to tell the tale.


    The first thing I did was go to Old Mo¡¯s place, give him a hug, and spend some time with him. Now that I had spent two weeks away from Old Mo, I wanted to spend some time catching up. Next, Anise and I went to see Felix, and the three of us had a nice dinner to celebrate our return. I gorged myself on fish, and waddled out of the restaurant afterwards. It was a lovely night.


    Two days later, school started. I finally started to realize a deep, underlying truth. The worldstriders weren¡¯t coming for us. They hadn¡¯t figured out where we lived, or killed us, or done anything else. We were truly safe.


    From there, life started to settle back into a routine. Months drifted by, as we continued our education, and Anise continued to run her shop. Finally, after about six months, the time for a much happier event came.


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    Dr. Trish¡¯s wedding had come!


    * * *


    The venue of Dr. Trish¡¯s wedding wasn¡¯t packed with people, but there were still eighty other people there. That was more than I had expected, since Dr. Trish had said she wanted a small wedding. The three of us had also put on rather unusual clothing, at least by our standards. All three of us were decked out in flowers.


    In Damilius, flowers were thought to symbolize life, hope, and spring. Flowers were also deeply tied to their wedding culture. My dress had so many flowers woven into it that it resembled a flower bouquet instead of actual clothing. Part of me felt that the wedding clothes of this world were quite wasteful. The flowers sewn into the dress would die within a week or two, and then the dress would be unusable. Still, I did have to admit that the effect was quite pretty. Having every single dress and suit drowned in fragrant foliage also improved the smell considerably.


    Felix, in particular, seemed most annoyed by the flowers.


    ¡°I can¡¯t help but feel like this is absurd,¡± he whispered as the three of us sat down. ¡°Why does everyone weave flowers into their hair and clothes? It''s so wasteful. I can''t imagine how many growth potions one wedding needs. Before the alchemical revolution, how did they sustain this at all?¡±


    ¡°Maybe flowers used to be something for nobility, and then spread to commoners after the industrial revolution?¡± I said. "I wouldn''t be surprised if it was a ''thing people envied'' in the past. The dawn of mass production has a way of spreading culture and ideas."


    "I suppose," said Felix thoughtfully. "I still feel that it''s a bit of a waste. So much energy spent cultivating things that aren''t particularly useful."


    Anise shrugged. ¡°I really like them, honestly. I wish that we''d had more things like flowers back in the caves. I guess nobody had time to waste on them when everyone was focused on food production. Still, it''s a bit of a shame that we didn''t have them.¡±


    The three of us continued to chat and joke about previous worlds for several minutes. We avoided explicitly market-based terminology, but we had a lot of fun talking. After some time, a nearby conversation dragged me out of the conversation with my friends.


    ¡° - think that those weird Zelyrian monsters will hit us? If so, Markus¡¯s wedding might be the last happy event we see for a while. I''d hate to think about staying on the front lines of an actual warzone for months on end."


    ¡°I doubt it. I¡¯ve heard they¡¯re slowing down in recent months,¡± said the other man that he was talking to. ¡°I heard a few people say that they should have started hitting us this year, but they ain¡¯t even reached us yet. They¡¯re still messing with former coalition countries and Verne.¡±


    I hesitated, and then decided to join the conversation.


    ¡°Are you talking about the world-erm¡­ the weird Zelyrian creatures?¡± I asked.


    One of the two men, a gruff-looking man who was wearing a few military medals, turned towards me and then grinned toothily. ¡°That¡¯s right, miss¡­?¡±


    ¡°Miria!¡± I said. ¡°I work with Dr. Trish at her clinic.¡±


    ¡°Ah, the healer girl, right? I''ve heard of you,¡± said the gruff-looking man. ¡°My name is Jackson. I''m stationed at the same fort as Markus."


    ¡°Nice to meet you!¡± I said, before I turned to the other soldier. Upon meeting his eyes, I felt a flash of recognition. ¡°I remember you! You were there when we first entered the country, weren¡¯t you? Your name was¡­ Tom?¡± It was a bit fuzzy, but I still remembered the soldiers at Markus''s fort. They had been very kind to us back when we were still refugees.


    Tom cackled. ¡°You¡¯re right, little Miria!¡± then, he squinted at me. ¡°Well, not so little anymore. You''re almost grown up now. I''m glad to see that you''ve been doing well! I was a bit worried when I saw your bedraggled group of survivors limp their way past the border. But it looks like things worked out well!¡±


    ¡°Yup! Felix and I are attending university now, and Anise has her own repair shop for prosthetics. But I want to know about the strange black monsters.¡± I shivered. ¡°What I''ve heard of them makes them sound pretty terrifying...¡±


    ¡°You probably don¡¯t have to be that worried. Even if something does happen, its our job to handle it,¡± said Jackson. ¡°Besides, I¡¯ve heard they''ve run into more problems recently. Most of the nearby nations have started pooling their Zelyrian artifacts together. The cooperation is helping the human nations slow the Zelyrians down quite a bit. I don''t know if anyone can manufacture more artifacts, but it''s having a big impact on the war."


    ¡°Are Verne and the other countries fighting them off successfully?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ it¡¯s hard to say. I don¡¯t think Verne is winning¡­ but they aren¡¯t losing, at least.¡± He chuckled. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that a few of their monstrous diplomats demanded that Verne turn over their Zelyrian mages. Verne has just been brushing them off though. Keeps claiming that they don¡¯t have any Zelyrian mages. The idea really cracks me up.¡±


    Tom snorted. ¡°It is a pretty ridiculous demand. As if there are still pure-blooded Zelyrians around. Most of the pure blooded ones died when their empire collapsed. All that¡¯s left is a few slivers of bloodline here and there. They must think that since Verne is using Zelyrian artifacts, they still have Zelyrians somewhere. What a ridiculous idea."


    ¡°Is that so?¡± I asked, trying not to chuckle. It sounded like Anise and I had caused the worldstriders a bit more trouble than I thought.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not all good news,¡± said Jackson. ¡°I did hear that the creatures were smartening up, too. They started stealing guns and cannons to use against the Vernese. They don''t use them often, though."


    "Probably because they can''t make gunpowder," said Tom. "They don''t seem smart enough to make tools the way humans do." I shrugged. I didn''t think it was a matter of intelligence, so much as biological need. The worldstriders seemed perfectly intelligent to me. They just had confidence in their ability to overwhelm the continent even without tools. Although, I was glad to hear that their overconfidence was setting them back.


    ¡°Sorry, anyway. Even though the news from the front lines is a bit sketchy, I don¡¯t think they¡¯re gonna be real problems for us,¡± said Jackson. "You don''t need to be afraid."


    I smiled, even as the actual wedding ceremony started, and the crowd quieted down.


    It wasn¡¯t much, but Anise and I had made a difference. We just needed to hope that the continent made use of the time we had bought them.

 Chapter 277: A New Era

    One month after Dr. Trish''s wedding, Felix stood in the middle of a large, open demonstration field. He felt a surge of glee as he waited for his friends and the onlookers to appear. It was almost time.


    The research team had finished building a train prototype. The engine worked like a dream. The body of the train had no issues. The small set of sample tracks the team had built could bear the weight of the train with no issues. They had ironed out all of the problems with the train, and run it through hour after hour of tests. All they had left to do was present their results to the world.


    About ten meters behind him sat the fruit of the research team¡¯s years of work. A beautiful, shining behemoth of steel, alchemy, and steam. The train stood three time as tall as he did, and shone as though it had been polished. That was because it was polished, of course. Felix and a few of the other researchers had given it a final cleaning the night before.


    The train tracks they had prepared were made of iron and wood. Felix would have preferred steel, but Damilius''s steel output couldn''t handle that yet. So the team had been forced to use iron and wood instead. Still, Felix saw the team''s product as a thing of beauty.


    As Felix stood, scanning their work for any final flaws, one of the other researchers slapped Felix on the back. "It''s been great workin'' with ya, kid. You might be young, but you have a bright future ahead of you. Now, look sharp. The officials and the reporters are comin¡¯.¡±


    As if on queue, Felix saw the first people who had been invited start trickling into the testing field. Near the front of the group was Miria and Anise. Felix waved at them, and they waved back. A few of the other researchers had raised an eyebrow at him when he asked for spots for the two of them in their big reveal. One of them had even asked him which one he was dating, which had caused him to roll his eyes and leave. But despite the absurd misunderstanding, Felix was glad to see his friends. And he was excited to show off the results of his hard work.


    <Felix! I''m excited to see everything! Good luck!> said Miria.


    <You can do it!> cheered Anise.


    Felix grinned. Hearing them encourage him felt reassuring in a way no amount of preparation could match. <Thanks. We''ve already done all the hard work. We''ll do our best!>


    Felix''s attention snapped back to the team as the leader started to speak.


    ¡°Well¡­ it¡¯s time, everyone,¡± said Orin, the leader of the research team. Orin scanned the faces of the other researchers. ¡°All of us have been slaving away at this project for¡­ gosh, four years now. I know that there were hard times, and I know that we had some days where we all wished this damn monster of a project would come to an end. The railroad tracks broke during our first test. Our engine model started to melt after we ran it through its fifth test. We ran into funding issues twice, and nearly had to can the whole project. The department of research and budget kept harassing us. But today¡­ I''m proud to have worked with all of you lovely men and women. We made it.¡± Then, Orin grinned, and clapped Felix¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Thanks to all of our hard work, and Felix¡¯s insight!¡±


    A few of the other researchers laughed and cheered at Orin¡¯s words. ¡°To Felix, our little genius researcher! To our own hard work! And to a better tomorrow!¡± A few of them yelled. Felix smelled alcohol on their breaths, and resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose. It was a bit early to be celebrating. They still had the rest of the day to get through. It would have made much more sense to get drunk after they finished presenting their work. But he decided not to say anything. There was nothing he could do to remove the alcohol from their bodies, after all. Not unless he asked Miria to help. He put them out of his mind, and smiled as he looked at the train again.


    He gave the crowd a quick headcount. There were about two hundred people in the crowd now. There were reporters, government officials, family, and friends. Everyone that was supposed to be here had arrived by now.


    He and the other researchers stepped onto the raised platform near the center of the stadium. Orin stood at the front of the group, and looked at the attendees of the big reveal, before he smiled one more time. As the attendees settled in, Orin¡¯s booming voice started to echo through the field.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°Ladies! Gentlemen! Everyone who has come to see our hard work! I¡¯d like to thank all of you for taking time to come here today. For three years, my research team and I have worked hard to build this fine machine! For many years, our transportation network has had an unresolvable problem. Getting supplies inland. Moving supplies by steamboat can help cities on the coasts, but for inland cities it can be difficult to supply them. We hope that what we¡¯ve created today will solve this problem forever. For a better future!¡±


    Felix resisted the urge to grimace. Orin¡¯s speech wasn¡¯t awful, but Felix had to say, it wasn¡¯t great either. The man had practiced a much longer speech with the rest of the research team yesterday. Had he forgotten it when he walked on stage? Still, it wasn''t that big of a deal. He decided to ignore it.


    At the end of the day, the speech wasn¡¯t the important part. What mattered was the train itself. The product of their years of research and testing. Unlike the others, Felix had a pretty good idea how revolutionary railroads were. The research team seemed to think of railroads as a solution to a minor problem. However, due to Felix¡¯s memories of his first life let him know just how revolutionary trains were. A mediocre speech wouldn¡¯t be enough to stop the tide of a new era - Felix didn¡¯t think anything would, except perhaps a Worldstrider invasion.


    Orin didn¡¯t say anything else, and instead, he walked up to the train. A few researchers helped to shovel some coal into the engine. Once it was full, Orin flicked a few levers and dumped a potion into the engine. Felix felt the whirr of binding essence make its way through the engine of the train, and seconds later, the train roared to life. Several of the onlookers covered their ears as the train bellowed loudly, and started to chug forward. Its pace was akin to a crawl at first, but with each second, the massive piece of artifice picked up speed.


    The onlookers stopped covering their ears, and Felix saw them start to point and take pictures as the train kept moving along. For demonstration purposes, the research team had also attached a single car filled with steel to the back of the train. Felix felt a few oohs and aahs from the crowd as the train carried an ¡®obscene¡¯ amount of weight easily.


    The newer steamships could also carry huge loads of materials, of course. But the train represented something different. They represented a new era.


    Felix felt his smile widen one final time as the train finished warming up. It moved at a mere 30 kph - but it was only the first generation of trains. Once people realized just how useful they were, they would build better and better models. It was the birth of a new era.


    As he admired the giant steel machine in motion, a System message appeared in the corner of his eyes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Make a [Moderate] Contribution to the invention of the railroad (and associated machinery).


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +10,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have made an astounding contribution to the world by combining machinery and alchemy. Upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Alchemy and Industry] as an ability, for the cost of 4000 Achievement.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Alchemy, Binding (2 keywords).


    You retain access to the alchemy magic System. You will generate binding essence any time you are neat metal. Your body will automatically create an affinity for binding essence within the first few days of your soul inhabiting it, so long as you have the binding essence to fuel this transformation.


    Your affinity for machinery is drastically enhanced. Whether it is bringing machinery to life, or creating new inventions, or simple blacksmithing, you have the ability to ¡®feel¡¯ the way that metal works, both when it is in front of you and when you imagine it.


    Any mechanical prosthetics you make will give significant attribute bonuses to their user. Furthermore, the essence cost of using a mechanical prosthetic decreases considerably.


    Your ability to bind concepts and metal together is drastically improved, allowing you to do things that may not normally be possible.


    Every time you make a new invention that changes your current world in a revolutionary way, you will gain an extra Achievement reward, AND if the invention is revolutionary enough, you will be able to permanently increase your number of item slots (up to one time per world). (These extra slots disappear if you ever remove this ability).


    Glut Penalty: 15


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Felix took a look at his new System notification, and tried not to laugh in glee. He wasn¡¯t quite as impressed with some of the earlier parts of the Ability, although he did love the fact that he could retain access to the alchemy System. But the final part of the ability? That was amazing. Permanent increases to equipment slots was something he hadn¡¯t seen in any other ability before. It was more than worth the rest of the ability being just ¡®okay.¡¯


    <Miria! Anise! Sallia! I got my Keyword ability!> he said.

 Chapter 278: Celebration

    A year passed. To commemorate Felix''s achievements, the three of us held a celebration at Old Mo''s bakery.


    I was the first one to arrive. The moment I walked through the door and sat down, Old Mo passed me a bowl of soup and laughed.


    "Glad to see you''re the first one here, Miria," he said. "I made you a bowl of fish soup. Let me know how it tastes." He winked at me, and then gave me a loaf of cheesy bread to go with the soup.


    "Thank you, Old Mo," I said, as I started to dig in. Old Mo sat beside me, and pulled out a bowl of his own soup. It smelled like onions and vegetables.


    ¡°So what¡¯s the occasion?¡± asked Old Mo in between bites. ¡°All you said was that we were celebrating. Is it about Felix¡¯s railroads? I heard that they¡¯re starting to take off recently.¡±


    Before I could respond, Felix and Anise walked through the doors. Felix gave both of us a quick tip of his hat, while Anise smiled and waved at us. Recently, Felix had gotten into the upper-class clothing of this world. He now favored suits, top hats, and canes. I wasn''t sure if it was a ''perfect'' look for him, but he was having fun with it.


    ¡°It''s the railroads," confirmed Felix. "I thought the initial payout was all I was going to get, and I was pretty happy with that already. But recently, I got some influence Achievement for contributing to the development of this world. It looks like the railroads really are going to keep paying dividends for a while. I''m definitely happy about that.¡± Felix winked at Old Mo. "Not only do I get a keyword ability out of it, but I can bankroll our advancements next time we return to the Market. Or I can get a massive pile of stat points. Either way, I¡¯m excited."


    Old Mo frowned as he listened to Felix¡¯s words. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my memory seems to be failing me. Keyword abilities were the important ones, right?¡± As he asked, he also got up and started making his way back towards the kitchen. He returned with two more bowls of soup and two loaves of bread, which he set down in front of the others.


    Anise nodded as she eyed her own bowl of soup and her bread. ¡°Yeah! Keyword Abilities are the core of what makes us strong in future worlds. Felix¡¯s new ability, for example, will let him do Alchemy in all worlds. It''s really important, because without a keyword ability we lose all of our training and progress after each death.¡±


    Old Mo nodded thoughtfully, before he turned back towards me. ¡°That¡¯s how you do healing magic, right?¡±


    ¡°Yup, that''s a keyword ability. It lets me use the shaping magic system from our last world,¡± I said, smiling as I spooned some fish soup into my mouth. ¡°We¡¯re celebrating everything we¡¯ve accomplished in this world so far.¡±


    Old Mo¡¯s eyes widened, and he started looking at us with a hint of anxiety in his eyes. I frowned. Why was Old Mo feeling anxious? ¡°If you¡¯re celebrating everything you¡¯ve accomplished¡­ Does that mean you¡¯re leaving soon?¡±


    I finally realized why Old Mo looked worried, so I stood up and wrapped Old Mo in a hug.


    ¡°Of course not. I don¡¯t want to lose any of the friends I¡¯ve made in this world. Iselde, Vance, you, Dr. Trish, Markus¡­ I want to stay with all of you as long as I can. Even if I haven¡¯t gotten many rewards in the last year, I don¡¯t want to lose my connections until I¡¯m forced to. I won¡¯t stop pursuing ways to grow and improve. We could die early, but I''m going to stick around until we die.¡± I said. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m actually an adult again for once! You have no idea how frustrating it is to be stuck as a kid all the time!¡±


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    Old Mo chuckled, and ruffled my hair. ¡°How often do you guys die before turning into adults?¡±


    ¡°Usually, we die right before or after turning into adults," said Felix. "So... hopefully this doesn''t end up becoming a recurring pattern. I''d like to see what old age feels like someday."


    Old Mo chuckled. "I imagine you''ll get fed up with it rather quickly. Being old is... frustrating. Even if you have an amazing healer to cure most of your little chronic pains and aching joints, I don''t recommend it." He ruffled my hair again, before he raised an eyebrow at Felix. "It sounds like you accomplished your major goals. What are your plans now?¡±


    I saw Felix fall into thought, so I decided to answer instead. ¡°Well, I still want to keep working with the prosthetics team,¡± I said, before searching for a loaf of bread. ¡°The Worldstriders don¡¯t seem to be letting up on their invasion, despite the scare tactics Anise and I used on them last year. It''s important to develop more weapons to fight against them. I¡¯m rubbish at alchemy, so it¡¯s not like I''m crucial to the research, but I can make testing safer, at least.¡± I kneaded my forehead in frustration. "It''s not like I matter much in direct combat here. Too many people on the battlefield for my limited essence reserves to mean much."


    ¡°On the other hand, I can more directly contribute,¡± said Felix. ¡°I''m starting to get a lot of money from my hand in creating railroads. The government gives everyone in our research time a chunk of money whenever they use our design... and they have started using our design a lot recently. So I can fund the prosthetics research team, and do some research myself. I''m thinking that we''ll try making prosthetics capable of hurting the worldstriders. That could lead to a change in the overall battlefield.¡± Then, Felix grinned. "Apart from that, I also intend to start a new research team. Almost a decade ago, Anise gave me a pretty neat idea that I had a hard time following up on. I wanted to see if it was possible to use an Affixation as a storage container for another affixation. Kind of like one of those nesting dolls. I''m not sure if it''ll work, but if it does it would be amazing. I could make some amazing items in the future with that."


    "The first goal sounds reasonable. I have to admit, I have no idea how to evaluate the second goal. It would definitely be a game changer if it works, but at the same time, I have a hard time wrapping my head around it," said Old Mo. "I guess I''ll have to see what you manage. Still, are you sure that affixed prosthetics be enough to change the situation? Things are... bad right now."


    Felix and I looked at each other and sighed. Old Mo''s words weren''t wrong. Right now, the human countries were losing ground. As Anise and I had hoped, countries were developing anti-worldstrider weaponry. Once Alchemists had nailed down which Zelyrian weapons worked, they had learned to create knockoffs. It appeared that affixing ''space'' concepts to weapons let them hurt worldstriders.


    However, production of these weapons was limited. Only skilled alchemists could make a weapon with spatial attributes. Thus, demand far outstripped supply. In armies of hundreds of thousands of men, less than one in ten had an effective weapon. The rest were there to pick up the weapons and keep fighting if their comrades died. The Worldstrider''s advance was slower than before, and they lost troops as they advanced. However, the Worldstriders seemed to have a very high reproduction rate, and the human countries were losing ground. Right now, over half of Verne was occupied. The worldstriders were no longer talking about ''holding onto their mountains'' at all. Most of the countries on the continent were waging total war.


    ¡°Well, I wish you the best of luck,¡± said Old Mo. ¡°I have to admit, I think my days of conflict are long, long behind me¡­ but I know the three of you. If anyone can do it, you can.¡± Then, he patted Anise and Felix¡¯s heads as well. ¡°I¡¯m just glad you decided to visit me today. It¡¯s not often I get to host a party. Most people thinking of throwing a party go find a dessert shop instead.¡± He cackled. "Here, you look like you''re almost out. Let me go back and get you another bowl." He made his way towards the back of the shop.


    The three of us kept chatting and laughing. Since it was a day to celebrate our accomplishments, we enjoyed our food and soup. At least, until I heard a loud crash from the back of the shop.


    I shot to my feet, and a sudden bad feeling crept its way into my heart.


    "Old Mo?" I asked.


    Nobody responded.


    My heart started thumping as I started running towards the back of the shop. There, I found Old Mo, slumped over a counter. A bowl of fish soup was spilled everywhere, but I barely saw it. Old Mo wasn¡¯t moving.

 Chapter 279: Accident

    The moment I saw Old Mo crumpled over the counter, I rushed to his side. My vision started to turn black as terror wormed its way down my spine like tendrils of ice. It took me mere moments to make physical contact with him and pour some water on him, allowing my healing magic to take effect. Moments that I wasn¡¯t sure Old Mo had.


    My first wave of healing magic was sloppy and unfocused. I poured far more essence into it than was reasonable. I was barely even thinking about what I was doing - all I knew was that I needed to funnel healing magic into Old Mo¡¯s body.


    My heart leapt into my throat as I felt my healing magic start to slip through Old Mo¡¯s body, as if it weren¡¯t there. It was exactly the same as when I had tried to heal a baby that had been born without a soul - it felt like there was nothing to heal. But before despair could rip through me, I felt my healing magic catch on to something.


    There was still something to save. I finally snapped out of my haze, and checked the state of Old Mo''s soul. Old Mo¡¯s soul wasn¡¯t gone. I could see it drifting about in his brain. It barely looked attached to his body, but it was still there. I used Soul Clamp to grab his soul and keep it from drifting away further. It wouldn''t fix the connection between body and soul, but it would stop the situation from getting worse.


    I spent the next few minutes throwing healing magic into his body while I tried to figure out what had happened. With the help of my knowledge of medicine, I pieced together a rough picture of why Old Mo was hurt.


    The root cause of Old Mo¡¯s condition seemed to have been his heart giving out. It wasn¡¯t particularly shocking - Old Mo was over eighty years old now. The average lifespan in this world was about sixty or so, and Old Mo was getting on in years. My healing magic had kept him healthy, but I couldn''t reverse aging yet. I couldn''t figure out why Old Mo''s heart had acted up - it didn''t look like a regular heart attack. His symptoms were baffling. But his heart obviously had problems now. After his heart shut down, the rest of his body had started collapsing. Luckily, I had arrived before his soul departed.


    I kept pouring healing magic into Old Mo''s body. But after several seconds, I started to realize something disturbing. Even though I was pouring healing magic into his body, Old Mo¡¯s heart wasn¡¯t restarting. I had no idea why. But it was a fact that his heart wasn¡¯t fixing itself. Normally, my healing magic could even regrow lost limbs. Why wasn''t Old Mo''s heart fixing itself?


    I started cycling through my medical knowledge, but came up blank. This world¡¯s medicine wasn¡¯t advanced enough to understand what the issue here was. I felt tears of frustration start to build up in my eyes. Old Mo¡¯s body wasn¡¯t getting better, and I didn¡¯t know why, or how to fix it.


    ¡°Miria! What happened?¡± asked Felix, as he and Anise barged into the room. I had rushed ahead of them mere moments ago, but it felt like hours had passed as I poured healing essence into Old Mo.


    ¡°Old Mo¡¯s heart gave out!¡± I yelled. ¡°His heart isn¡¯t restarting! My healing magic isn''t fixing it! He''s not getting better!"


    Felix immediately strode over to me, and patted my shoulders. It brought me out of my chaotic thoughts for a few seconds.


    ¡°Calm down. You can do this. You¡¯ve studied medicine for years, you have magic that doesn¡¯t belong in this world. This situation is unusual, but you''ve found ways to fix much bigger problems. What do you need to do? What do you need us to do?¡±


    I took a deep breath, and let it out. Meanwhile, my healing magic continued to funnel its way into Old Mo¡¯s body, fixing the symptoms but leaving his heart silent and dead. Every single second that passed, my essence reserves got lower while I tried to think.


    For some reason, I couldn¡¯t fix Old Mo¡¯s heart. I didn¡¯t know why, but it was a fact I could not change. Just like when I had tried to heal my mother¡¯s brain, healing magic alone couldn''t solve my problems. How else could I fix Old Mo''s heart? Transplant?


    I paused, as I realized something. In this world, it was entirely possible for metal to replace any limb. Furthermore, these mechanical prosthetics didn''t need to be very high quality. It didn¡¯t matter if the creator of a prosthetic limb knew how nerves mapped into each other, or perfectly replicated joints. If someone lost a ¡®hand,¡¯ and stuck a tree branch on their stump wrist, they would be able to move the tree branch as if it were a normal hand. The intricacy of the limb just changed the essence cost to use it. Could we do the same thing with the human heart?


    <Felix, can you try making a prosthetic human heart?> I asked. I had no idea if it would work, but I was willing to try anything right now.


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    ¡°Got it!¡± Felix immediately ran over to Old Mo and took his pulse, before he started rooting around in his backpack. ¡°Get me an image of his heart and the surrounding blood vessels. I need to know where his arteries and veins are." I nodded, and started trying to use my spatial sight to map out Old Mo''s arteries. It was hard work, but I sent all of the images I could get to Felix via friendship bracelet. As I worked, I turned towards Anise.


    <Anise, you have {Mage Hand}, right? When I make a cut in Old Mo¡¯s chest, help me lift his heart out of his body and replace it. Try to avoid damaging other things.>


    <Got it!>


    A few moments later, I took a dagger and cut under Old Mo¡¯s ribcage, before opening a path to his heart. I also cut through a good chunk of his lungs, but those were still healing fine with my healing magic, so I wasn¡¯t worried about them. Moments later, with Anise¡¯s help, we removed Old Mo¡¯s heart, while my healing magic kept the rest of his body from dying further.


    Felix immediately grabbed Old Mo¡¯s heart, and inspected it, before he grabbed a hunk of metal and closed his eyes. Shaping magic poured out of his fingers, slowly molding it into a replica of a human heart.


    I had never been as glad that both of us were in the prosthetics team as I was right now. If Felix hadn''t had so much practice doing this, it would have cost precious minutes. Minutes where my essence reserves wouldn''t have been able to hold out.


    Every second felt like an hour as I waited for Felix to finish. But as minutes ticked by, Felix managed to fashion a new metal heart. When he finished, he looked ready to pass out from exhaustion, but he handed it back to me with a grin.


    ¡°I got it. Put it in and try it,¡± he said.


    Anise and I put Old Mo¡¯s new heart into his body. Lining it up with his veins and arteries was difficult, but we needed everything to line up properly. I wasn''t willing to bet on Binding Essence fixing every single problem for us. Even though I wanted to hurry, Anise and I still took our time lining everything up. Once it was set up, I used my healing magic to start rebuilding the rest of his flesh.


    Once everything was rebuilt, I kept pouring healing magic into his body. Now that his new heart was in place, I waited and hoped that my shaky idea would work. I waited for one second. Two seconds. Five. Finally, after ten seconds, Old Mo¡¯s new, artificial heart started to pump.


    I laughed in delight, as my healing magic started to take hold of the other parts of his body and repair them. Within about two minutes, most of Old Mo¡¯s body was back online. But I also started to realize that we hadn''t solved everything. Most of his organs were working again... but his soul was still hanging by a thread. It didn''t seem to be repairing itself, either. I frowned.


    I... wasn''t sure how to fix this yet. It came back to the same issue I''d had when healing my mother. The way souls and bodies connected was beyond me right now.


    "Is he stable?" asked Felix.


    "For now," I said. "I don''t think I can do anything else right now. He won''t die immediately." I checked my essence reserves, and tried not to wince.


    During my freakout and healing session, I had burned almost all of my alteration essence. I didn''t even have enough to kill a spider with an extinguish anymore. I was tapped out.


    "Let''s get him to Dr. Trish''s clinic," I said, after a few seconds of thought. "I can''t do anything else for him, and getting him with medical professionals is the best idea I have." Anise and Felix nodded, and the three of us started carrying him out of the bakery and towards the clinic.


    It didn''t take long to reach Dr. Trish''s clinic, but when we arrived, it seemed empty and cold. There were still a few nurses and doctors buzzing about, but they seemed... harried. Stressed.


    I didn''t have the time or energy to inquire about what was happening. Old Mo came first. A few of the nurses who recognized me gave Old Mo concerned looks, and then helped me carry Old Mo to one of the rooms near the back of the clinic.


    "What happened?" asked one of the nurses.


    "His heart gave out. My healing ability didn''t fix it," I said. "Felix made him an artificial heart, but... he''s not waking up."


    The nurse grimaced. "Sorry to hear that, Miria. Hopefully we can take care of him. I know you two are really close..."


    I nodded as we finally got Old Mo into a room of his own. The two nurses helped me set him up on one of the beds, and then left to get Dr. Trish.


    A minute later, Dr. Trish entered the room. But she looked like a complete mess. Dr. Trish usually took great care with her clothes. She did her best to present the image of a prim, well-mannered doctor. Now, her eyes looked red and weary, as if she hadn''t slept in a day. Her shoulders were hunched together. It almost looked like she had been crying recently.


    ¡°Dr. Trish?¡± I asked. I was now suddenly far more worried. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Miria. And Felix and Anise,¡± she said, shaking her head and shuddering. ¡°Sorry, I¡­¡± she looked straight at me for a few seconds, as if she was thinking carefully about something. Then, she shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s Markus. The fort he mans is part of the front lines now. I''m just really worried about him. We''ve been getting a lot of soldiers from the front lines flown back here recently, and the clinic is really busy, and I...¡± She shook her head again. "Sorry. It won''t impact anything. I''ll make sure Old Mo has the best chance I can give him."


    My heart froze, as my mind caught on her first statement. The fort Markus manned was no longer directly on the border. He was situated a few days behind the front lines. The fact that his fort was now under siege meant one thing.


    The Worldstriders had breached the front lines of the country. I didn''t know exactly how successful Damilius was at slowing down their approach, but one thing was certain. The worldstriders were getting closer. Unless something changed, the Worldstriders would reach us soon.

 Chapter 280: Onslaught

    The news came like a bolt from the blue. The worldstriders had punched through the front lines? Part of me felt horrified¡­ but another part of me wasn¡¯t surprised.


    There weren''t enough weapons that could hurt worldstriders. Alchemists were trying, and utterly failing to keep up with demand. Anise and I had tried to buy a bit of time, but it had been nowhere near enough.


    Did I regret it retreating so quickly? I wasn¡¯t sure. If Anise and I had pushed harder¡­ maybe things would have been different. If we had abandoned school entirely, it might have been possible to make a real difference on the battlefield. But it was also likely that the worldstriders would have adapted to our tactics and killed us if we had pushed our luck. We had decided not to take that risk.


    Either way, it was too late now. The Worldstriders were knocking on our door and pouring over the border. At this point, nearly a seventh of the continent was under Worldstrider occupation, and their population was swelling. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was possible to stop them anymore. Even if it was, it certainly didn''t rely on our efforts anymore. I closed my eyes, contemplating the situation for a few moments, and then opened them again.


    I had no great ideas for how to turn the tables. So I wouldn¡¯t worry about it. I would do what I could, and try to protect the people I cared about. Old Mo, Markus, and Dr. Trish were the three people I could try to help. Iselde and Vance were also people I could work to keep safe. While I was hesitant to see her again, I would still take action to keep my mother alive if it came down to it. Everyone else came second.


    ¡°Is Markus all right?¡± Anise asked, while I got lost in my thoughts.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just got the news. There¡¯s no information at all on whether he¡¯s okay. All I know is that the worldstriders are attacking his fort. The airships and trains are working overtime to move people and supplies around. It''s making it hard to get specific news,¡± said Dr. Trish.


    I stepped up to her and gave her a reassuring hug.  Her arms tightened around me, and I could feel the anxiety in her grip.


    ¡°It¡¯s going to be alright.¡± I didn¡¯t know if my words were true or not. But I wanted to reassure her as much as I could. I felt Dr. Trish lean into my shoulder for a moment, and then I felt a bit of dampness spread across my bare skin. I let Dr. Trish stress-cry into my shoulder as I stroked her back, until she started to settle down. ¡°I¡¯m sure Markus is all right. All we can do right now is focus on what''s in front of us.¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± said Dr. Trish. She looked... a bit more put together. She still looked like a mess, but there was a bit of iron in her eyes again. ¡°Sorry. I shouldn¡¯t have been rambling about this. it was unprofessional of me.¡±


    ¡°Nobody sane would expect perfect professionalism from you right now. Do your best, and if you need help, let us know,¡± Felix said.


    ¡°Still, I should have focused on the patient first. All right, I think I¡¯ve pulled myself together. What happened to Old Mo, anyway?¡± She looked like she was forcing herself to move onto a new topic. I didn''t call her out on it. Having something to take her mind off of things might be a good thing for her. ¡°Usually your healing ability fixes most problems. Does he have a problem like your mother did?¡± Dr. Trish looked baffled as she examined Old Mo. "I don''t think Old Mo took any drugs, did he?"


    I shook my head. "It wasn''t drugs. Or at least, I don''t think it was. it looks more like his heart gave out. I don¡¯t know why, but my healing ability didn¡¯t fix it the way it normally did. None of my healing worked. Instead, Felix had to make him a prosthetic heart.¡±


    Dr. Trish gave Felix and I a startled look.


    ¡°A prosthetic heart? How does that work? How did you make sure that the valves and whatnot line up with the arteries of the heart? That¡­ doesn¡¯t seem like it should work, even with the correction that essence would give you.¡±


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    ¡°I kept him alive with my healing ability while we lined it up," I said. "It ate most of my essence reserves, but with my healing magic, we had a lot of room for trial and error."


    "I helped too!" said Anise. "I moved his old heart out of his chest once Miria realized she couldn''t fix it, and put in the new one. It helped reduce any further stress to his body. Much easier to move things around with force manipulation, instead of tools," she said.


    ¡°A way to replace missing organs,¡± said Dr. Trish, as she shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ amazing. I know that you can already heal missing organs, Miria, but if there''s a way to replace missing organs for people across the whole world...¡± Then, Dr. Trish stopped. "Actually, the real issue would be someone surviving long enough for the transplant to happen. Without your healing magic, I have no idea how to keep a patient alive during the process." She shook her head. "I guess there''s no way to put it into practice without your help anyway."


    ¡°We¡¯ll write a report about it later,¡± said Felix. He shrugged. ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll spur research in a new direction.¡±


    I nodded. It was unlikely, but if anyone did get something out of our method, we might get a lot of free Achievement. It was worth a shot.


    Dr. Trish fixed her attention back on Old Mo.


    ¡°Why do you need me to look after him, anyway? Your ability outclasses a lot of what modern medicine can do. If you can''t heal him back up, nobody else in the clinic can heal him either.¡±


    ¡°I want someone to keep an eye on him. I know that you guys can''t help him recover to full health, but you can at least stop him from getting worse. It''s much better than just leaving him laying around, at least. Also...I¡¯m going to go take a look at Markus¡¯s fort,¡± I said.


    ¡°Miria, you don¡¯t have to. Going to the front lines is dangerous. If those monstrous creatures attack you, you might die. I don''t want your deaths to be on my conscience," she said.


    ¡°We can keep ourselves safe,¡± said Anise, as she grabbed a scalpel with {Mage Hand} and then floated it in front of Dr. Trish. "I have my mag-ability. Miria is part of the prosthetics research team. A lot of prosthetics research focuses on how to hurt the Zelyrian monsters using prosthetic limbs. Miria can heal us if we get hurt, as long as we don''t die instantly."


    Dr. Trish looked at the floating scalpel, and then turned towards me. She frowned in thought. Then, she lowered her head. ¡°Thank you. I... don''t know how I feel about this. Part of me says that I should tell you to stay. But another part of me wants you to go and keep Markus safe. Just... stay out of trouble, okay? Prioritize yourself first. If a situation looks bad, give up and run away. Those who live the longest have the last laugh. If Markus got you three killed, he would never forgive himself."


    I shook my head. ¡°Felix will be staying back. He¡¯s not as combat- foc-¡±


    ¡°Screw that, I¡¯m coming too,¡± said Felix. ¡°You think I¡¯m just going to wait here while the two of you charge into danger?¡± Then, he said the next sentence via communication bracelet. <I already had enough of waiting around while you two are in danger. Besides, I have some ways to fight against the worldstriders now. I haven''t added it to my body yet, but I''ve been preparing a few prosthetics that should let me fight against them. I was planning to give them a few more examinations before I added them to my body, but I clearly need them installed now."


    I hesitated. Now that Felix had so much to lose in this world, I wasn''t sure if letting him join us was a good idea. Anise and I had already hit most of the low-hanging fruit in this world. Any keyword abilities or Achievement we got would have to come with some amount of risks. There just weren''t many easy sources of Achievement left. But Felix had so much more that he could lose. He had a promising future as a researcher, this world had exactly the magic system he wanted, and he had loads of resources at his disposal. It was basically a dream scenario for him.


    On the other hand, if I said no right now¡­ it wouldn¡¯t be right. If I was going to put myself in danger for the people I cared about, I had no right to tell my friends they couldn¡¯t do the same.


    ¡°Fine.¡± I turned towards Dr. Trish again. "Keep Old Mo safe until we get back.¡± There was nothing I could do to help Old Mo right now. I had done all I could for him right now, and I had no way to fix souls yet. But there was someone else I could save.


    Dr. Trish nodded. "I will. I promise," she said. Then, she gave us all one final hug. "Stay safe."


    I smiled as I hugged her back. "We will."


    We left her clinic right afterwards. Anise and I went to see about getting airship or train tickets, while Felix went to install his prosthetics. Soon, we would face the Worldstriders again.

 Chapter 281: The Front Lines

    The three of us had a harder time than expected grabbing train tickets to the front lines. At first, I tried to go for an airship ticket instead. However, they were even more overloaded than the trains. With how desperate the situation was, trying to get to the front lines was difficult.


    Eventually, I managed to secure a ticket for myself by volunteering as a healer. I was well known in town for my healing abilities. Once I signed an agreement to heal soldiers who were injured, the trains were more than happy to give me a ticket. It proved to be impossible to get two more tickets, unfortunately. With how strained supply lines were, everyone needed to get their own ticket.


    Anise had a harder time securing a ticket than I did. Her abilities weren''t quite as useful. Anise had to claim that her force manipulation ability could hurt the worldstriders before she got a ticket. That wasn''t a lie, but it was dependent on me bringing us to the worldstrider layer of space first.


    Felix got the strangest response when he showed up to get a ticket. Unlike Anise and I, Felix was pretty well-known now. The researchers in the railroad team had all been featured in various newspapers and academic papers. While they weren''t household names, they were still public figures. And Felix, as the youngest ''expert researcher,'' was unusually well-known among the team. When he showed up and asked to buy a ticket, the soldier gave Felix a wide-eyed look that reminded me of a deer looking at a car''s headlights.


    ¡°Umm¡­ Felix?¡± asked the soldier, giving Felix a surprised look.


    ¡°Yes?¡± asked Felix.


    "Are you the one who helped create railroads?"


    "I am. Why do you ask?"


    ¡°Why do you want to go to the front lines of a warzone? I assumed you were working on some sort of new invention. Even if you aren''t, the front lines aren''t a good place for a researcher and inventor. It would be a loss for the whole country to lose a bright mind like you. You could be accomplishing much greater things in a research lab.¡±


    Felix laughed, and held up his hand. Unlike before, several chunks of his hand were now made of metal. His knuckles, as well as the front of his palms, looked as if they steel instead of skin. Felix''s quick prosthetic additions looked menacing and natural. If I didn''t know the truth, I might have believed he had been born with part-metal hands.


    ¡°I¡¯m not joining the front lines on a lark. I¡¯m here to test out a new invention.¡±


    ¡°Testing a new invention?¡± The soldier frowned. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you leave battlefield testing to soldiers? You¡¯re too valuable to do risk losing in a fight. I can''t approve of letting you buy a ticket. My superiors would have my head once they go over the ticket list.¡±


    ¡°Some things need field testing to work. I need to do some fine-tuning for the prosthetics if they¡¯re going to be of any use. Besides, I have Miria and Anise to keep me safe. There''s nobody in the world I would trust more with my safety." Felix''s lips quirked up in a small, amused grin as he said that. "I don''t intend to return from the front lines in a body bag. I just need to do a bit of testing."


    The soldier gave Felix a hesitant look¡­ before he sighed. ¡°Fine. I¡¯m not entirely sure if this is a good idea, but... you can also buy a ticket. But you two better keep him safe," he said, as he glared at Anise and I. "If he gets hurt during this expedition, I''ll make sure you two suffer the consequences. Our country needs extraordinary researchers and inventors." I gave the soldier a solemn nod, which seemed to satisfy him. With that, all three of us had tickets for the train. Two hours later, the train arrived, and we got on board.


    Unlike the prototype Felix and his team had developed, this train looked sleeker and more refined. It was obvious that other teams of inventors had streamlined and improved the previous model. There was a thick layer of armor on the outside of the train - possibly to ward off worldstrider attacks. There were also several carriages of supplies on the train, carrying a variety of things. Everything from eerie black swords, to stones, to medical supplies and food was present.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The insides of the train were spartan, and packed with people. I felt like a sardine in a can as I squished into my seat between a few other soldiers. Anise and Felix squeezed in behind me. My seat was hard and uncomfortable, and unlike the airship, there were no windows in the train. There were a few artificial lights, but they weren''t enough to dispel the gloomy darkness.


    <The passenger experience for trains needs some improvement,> said Anise.


    <I imagine things will get better as people test new models for trains. But this is much worse than the blueprint my team and I drew up for passenger trains.> commented Felix. <I imagine the military was trying to maximize efficiency. I''m not sure if this is the way to go about it, but it is what it is, I guess.>


    I sighed, and decided not to comment on the utilitarian travel conditions. A few minutes after we boarded, I felt the train lurch beneath me as we started moving. We rode in silence. With more time to think about what we were travelling towards, I found my thoughts spinning in circles. Old Mo was in Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic. There was nothing I could do to help him recover right now. Markus might be dead or dying under the onslaught of the Worldstrider horde. The country was struggling to stay afloat. I felt sick and anxious about the future of this world. About half an hour into the ride, Anise leaned closer to me and gave me a comforting hug. I dragged Felix into the hug too, which Felix endured with good humor.


    Finally, after several hours of travel, we stopped. The doors of the train opened, and soldiers started shuffling out. I looked out of the doors, and realized that we had reached the first row of forts.


    I quickly realized that the forts were very different from what I had expected. Rather than more star forts, these forts seemed almost¡­ medieval. As I saw the near middle-ages fortifications, complete with wide platforms and excessive amounts of cover, I sighed. The total lack of cannons or guns made it almost feel like we had returned to the middle ages. But with effective weaponry being as scarce as it was, I supposed the country needed to change its tactics if it wanted to win.


    I also realized that the defenses of the front lines were far more complex than anticipated. The lines of forts weren''t the only defense the country had set up. Instead, it looked more like the country had tried to make the terrain as complex as possible.


    On either side of us, I could see rows of forts, stretching into the distance. There was only a small bit of space between each fort, and those gaps were filled with their own smaller fortifications and trenches. In front of us, I could see train tracks stretching further into the distance... and an absurd number of smaller fortifications. Further ahead of us was yet another row of forts. I could also see that one of the forts in the distance was under attack from a group of Worldstriders.


    The worldstriders had abandoned their pack-hunting tactics. Now, they massed together like a regular human army as they assaulted one of the forts. The humans were responding with new abilities and weapons. Some soldiers were shooting strange projectiles out of their hands, which actually hurt the enemy. Others were trying to stab the worldstriders with dark, eerie-looking swords. Despite the aerial advantage the worldstriders had, I still saw a few of them die as they besieged the fort.


    Unfortunately, the number of dead worldstriders was far lower than the number of dead humans. For every worldstrider that died, dozens of humans went with them. Whenever a soldier wielding a dark, eerie sword fell, their companions would grab the weapon and keep fighting. But it was far from enough. I grimaced.


    If the war continued like this, I didn''t think the human nations of the continent would win. Even more frustrating, I saw the worldstriders wheel around and start fleeing after a while. Before the human reinforcements could actually give the worldstriders a blow, they had turned around and left. Hit and run tactics would drag things down into a war of attrition... but the worldstriders were very well positioned to win a war of attrition right now.


    <The continent has adapted less than I hoped they would,> said Anise, as she also frowned. <This is nowhere near enough. There are still tens of thousands of worldstriders left, and they''re multiplying over time. If human armies are facing this level of casualties every battle, it¡¯s no wonder the Worldstriders keep pushing forward.>


    <Yeah, I don''t see the humans winning if things continue like this,> said Felix. <I don''t even know if the prosthetics would be enough to turn things around. The biggest issue is trying to hit flying enemies with a sword. Hmm...> He lapsed into thought as our surroundings continued to clear out. <Something to think about. If I can find a solution for this, I could probably turn the war around. But I don''t know how to fix this in a reasonable way.> Felix sighed.


    I looked around, and then stood up. "I think things are clear enough. Let''s get off," I said. As we alighted from the carriage, I glanced at one of the forts in the distance. Fort 2-73. The fort where Markus was supposed to be stationed. I just hoped it wasn¡¯t too late.

 Chapter 282: Bloodied Battlefields

    As we stepped off of the train, I noticed that we were right next to several other workers bustling about. It looked like they were unloading the materials the train had shipped to the forts. many of the soldiers who had traveled with us were stretching and taking breaks. We had stopped right next to one of the forts. I frowned.


    "Why did we stop here? I can see that the train tracks still go on for a while," I asked, as we joined the soldiers.


    "I heard that the Zelyrian abominations blew up the tracks again," said one of the nearest soldiers. "Real pain in the neck. Means we need to take some supplies walk the rest of the way. Should be a one hour march."


    Worldstriders blowing up the train tracks was a variable I hadn''t anticipated.


    "Are we going to carry over all of the supplies by ourselves?" I looked at the train carriages. There was far more luggage than we could carry, even if we took several trips.


    The soldier snorted. "We''re not going to carry over all of the supplies. We''re going to carry over weapons and medicine. We''re also going to carry over messages to coordinate the reconstruction of the railroad. I''m sure it''ll get blown up again sooner or later, but..." the soldier shrugged. "Better to have it sometimes repaired than never repaired, I guess. You should take the opportunity to stretch and get ready. Commander said that we''re leaving in fifteen minutes."


    I glanced at Anise and Felix, who both looked exhausted at the thought of a one-hour jog. I sighed.


    <I''ll heal muscles if needed, but try not to ask unless you need it. Better to keep my essence reserves as high as possible in a warzone,> I said.


    <Got it,> said Felix.


    The three of us took several minutes to stretch, warm up our muscles, and get ready for our journey while we eyed the skies. I also took the opportunity to douse all three of us with a cup of water, in case I needed to apply some healing in a hurry. Right as we were getting ready to leave, I saw a few other soldiers from the fort we had stopped near exit the fort and come out to meet us.


    "Are they coming with us?" I asked the soldier.


    "Yeah, they''re supposed to help if we actually get attacked. There are quite a few more of them than I expected," he said. I counted the number of soldiers who were joining us, and nodded. Five hundred troops had left the fort to jog with us. Combined with the troops from the train, we numbered nearly a thousand. It was a sizable number of people to move from one fort to another. One of the people from the fort walked to the front of the group, and I noticed that he had several shiny stars pinned to his uniform. He gave everyone a brief scan, before he grunted.


    ¡°All right everyone, I''ll be in charge for the next hour or two. Until we reach the forts in the second line of defense, you listen to me. Got it?¡± I saw a few soldiers nod, while several more said ''yes sir!'' I followed the rest of the crowd, and the commander at the front grinned in satisfaction.


    "Good! Now, those inky bastards have a high chance of attacking us while we try to move to the other base. So we''re going to keep an eye out for them. Those of you from fort 3-16, I expect you to be ready for a fight. Those of you with the supply team... help if you can, but stay safe. Everyone, keep up a good pace. Let''s try to get our supplies and messages to the forts in the second line before the little monsters kill us. Let''s go!" with that, the man turned towards the forts in the distance and began moving forward.


    The first forty minutes of marching were nothing special. Thanks to our physical abilities all being at Grade 6 or higher, we had no difficulty keeping up with the march of the soldiers. The only thing that made me wary was the distant battles between humans and worldstriders. Although they were distant, I could see constant battles in the distance. It seemed like forts were almost always reinforcing their neighbors or under attack. The front lines were far more chaotic and dangerous than I had expected.


    The trouble came during the last stretch of our march. Right before we reached the forts, a group of worldstriders descended from the sky like a malevolent sheet of darkness. I heard a few curses, before the soldiers who had been traveling with us pulled out swords and shields and stepped forward. I readied a few extinguishes as the commander started barking orders at the troops. I did a quick count of the worldstriders. There were eight hundred of them. Since we had about a thousand troops, we outnumbered them - but most of our troops weren''t effective combatants. I tried not to feel uneasy as the troops prepared to fight. Then I realized a problem.


    ¡°How are the humans going to attack?¡± I asked. ¡°The enemy is in the air, and the soldiers have swords. Unless the worldstriders descend and let the soldiers stab them?¡±


    A moment later, several soldiers with swords flew into the air. The worldstriders started firing at flying humans while I blinked in shock.


    Flying ability potions. No wonder the humans were using swords.


    Stolen story; please report.


    The worldstriders started to fly back towards the clouds as the human swordsmen approached them. However, the human soldiers were faster than the worldstriders. The distance between the two groups rapidly narrowed. However, it wasn¡¯t without cost. Several of the fliers got killed by gunshots or black projectiles as they advanced. Nearly half of the flying soldiers died as they pursued the enemy. I started trying to deflect some of the attacks using my portals, but I had no way to handle the sheer number of projectiles. I felt my heart tighten as I watched the human soldiers drop out of the sky.


    That was when the human forces gave me a second surprise. A group of worldstriders dropped dead as a volley of grey and purple projectiles ripped through them. I looked back at the ground, and saw thirty human soldiers aiming their palms at the worldstriders. They were ability users, and it looked like their ability was specially designed to hurt the extradimensional inky blobs.


    I resisted the urge to grin.


    ¡°Looks like we didn¡¯t give the continent quite enough credit,¡± I said. ¡°They''ve adapted far more than I thought they had.¡±


    The worldstriders turned much of their attention towards the ability users. The flying soldiers started to take fewer casualties as the worldstriders split their attacks.


    In well-rehearsed movements, the soldiers near the projectile-ability wielders formed a shield wall. The attacks of the worldstriders bounced off of their shields. More surprisingly, the shields also deflected bullets. I felt my grin grow wider. There were still only 130 soldiers on our side that could actually hurt the worldstriders. However, the human forces had found ways to adapt and improve. With these shields, even the non-ability users could help a great deal with the battle.


    "I see a few targets," said Anise. She smiled, and pointed at a few worldstriders, and a few ripples of manifestation essence exited her body. Then, four worldstriders near the edge of their formation were torn apart. The worldstriders seemed to think that the attacks had originated from the ability users, and didn''t pay us any mind. However, a few soldiers from the shield wall fell to the next wave of attacks. I frowned.


    The shield wall still had flaws in it. It was very good at handling the worldstrider attacks... but it wasn''t perfect. I started using my portals to interfere with the worldstrider volleys. I didn''t dare to reflect the attacks back at their attackers, since that might give away Anise''s identity as a Zelyrian mage. But I subtly adjusted the angles of attacks with smaller portals, to keep the other soldiers healthy. I also teleported a few cups of water onto the shield wall, and then started healing soldiers up.


    A few seconds later, the human fliers finally reached the worldstriders. They dove into the enemy like a flock of predatory birds. Their blades started to tear into Worldstrider flesh, as the worldstriders tried to duck out of the way. The eerie black blades proved effective against the worldstriders, and several of them fell. The worldstriders had a much harder time dealing with the human fliers now - they were too close for the worldstriders to aim carefully.


    As the worldstriders struggled to dislodge the human fliers, I started sprinkling in a few extinguishes. With how distracted the worldstriders were, they probably wouldn''t notice a few of them dropping dead. I concentrated on worldstriders that were fighting back too effectively.


    Within a few minutes, the fort we were supposed to deliver supplies to also sent soldiers to reinforce us. The worldstriders seemed to realize things were getting dangerous, so they started flying upwards. The fliers harassing them, but disengaged once the worldstriders got out of range of the ability users. If they were surrounded by worldstriders with no ranged support, they would probably all die. Thus, the skirmish outside of the fort ended.I frowned as I started to count the casualties of both sides.


    ¡°Nearly 140 dead humans, about half of which are shieldbearers. Seven dead projectile ability users, sixty three dead fliers. In contrast, it looks like we only killed 200 Worldstriders,¡± I said, grimacing. ¡°Not a good fight when their effective combatants outnumber ours by so much.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m actually more surprised that the human armies are this effective,¡± said Felix. ¡°In this kind of fight, I expected the humans to fare much worse. 130 effective combatants against 800 is nearly impossible odds. Even with you, Anise, and the shieldbearers helping out." Then, Felix frowned. "I need to think more carefully about our prosthetic limbs, too. Ranged attacks just seem too important to the war situation right now. But projectiles run into the problem of affixing every piece of ammunition... damn." Felix looked like he had chewed on a mouthful of sawdust as he looked at his prosthetic limb.


    Meanwhile, I was distracted by a System notification popping up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Make a [Minor] Contribution to the Continental-Worldstrider war


    Note: Since the conflict is still ongoing, the impact your actions have had on the war have yet to be determined. Please wait until the conflict ends to receive payment.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +???


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With my new reward, I now had 3 different [Minor] influence rewards waiting for me. The war between the humans and worldstriders hadn''t ended yet, but I was looking forward to getting my Achievement.


    As we regrouped, and I started healing soldiers who were injured but not dead, the reinforcements from the fort finally reached us.


    ¡°Are you the supply troop that was supposed to come today? For Forts 2-73 through 2-76?¡± asked one of the soldiers.


    The leader of our group smiled. ¡°Yes.¡±


    "Did the damn inky blobs blow up the train tracks again? Damn it." The soldier from the reinforcements glared at the skies. "Bloody creatures have an excellent vantage point. Makes it very hard to hide supply lines from them. Worse, we can''t hit them in the skies, so they always have a safe retreat line. It''s so frustrating..." the soldier kneaded his forehead with his palm, before he sighed. "Well, let''s get inside the fort. We can sort the rest of this mess out in private."


    We finished making our way into the fort, before many of the soldiers dropped to the ground, exhausted after the 1-hour march and the fight. The three of us were more excited by the fact that we had reached the second defensive line. We had reached Markus''s fort.

 Chapter 283: Songs in the Silence

    Inside the fort, dozens of soldiers bustled about. The first thing I noticed was the weaponry. One in fifteen carried special shields, while about one in sixty had one of the eerie swords. The rest of the army had regular shields that looked well-made, but no affixations. I wasn''t sure whether those shields would be useful in battle, but it was better than nothing.


    The second thing I noticed was the sick bay. Just to the side of the entrance lay dozens of soldiers squeezed into a large room. Some of the soldiers looked sick, which caught me by surprise. Potions that cured specific diseases were easy to manufacture, so I had almost forgotten illnesses existed. To see disease rampaging through the camp made me realize just how bad the supply situation was. Even basic disease-curing potions weren''t abundant. If it was that hard to secure basic medical supplies, how hard was it to get other materials?


    There were also two doctors and a nurse tending to the patients, but they looked exhausted. There were three medical practitioners, and over a hundred patients. They were severely understaffed and running on low supplies. The sick bay was a disaster zone.


    No wonder the military was eager to get me to the front lines. If their medical situation was this bad, they needed any help they could get. Someone like me, who could cure most diseases with few supplies, must have seemed like a godsend.


    I looked at the rest of the soldiers who had traveled in the supply train, and then gave them a quick nod. ¡°I¡¯m going to get started on healing. I spent a lot of my essence, but I still have some left," I said.


    "Sounds good. Please keep as many of the soldiers alive as you can," said the leader of the logistics team.


    "While I''m doing that, can you help me look up a friend of mine? He should be in this fort. His name is Markus, and he''s a soldier," I said.


    The logistics leader nodded. "I''ll look through the books for you. I probably won''t have time right away, but I''ll have someone give you the results by tonight." With that, I made my way into the makeshift hospital.


    One of the doctors turned towards me and frowned as I stepped into the sick bay. ¡°This isn¡¯t the place for soldiers who aren''t injured. If you want to visit someone, please fill out a form. We don''t need any more diseases spreading around. I still need to check -¡± the man frowned. ¡°Why in the world are you wearing a dress of all things? Shouldn¡¯t you be in uniform?¡±


    I looked down at my {Lake-Gazer¡¯s Dress} and winced. In a warzone, my blue dress stood out much more than usual.


    ¡°I¡¯m Miria. I came to volunteer. I have a healing ability.¡±


    The doctor¡¯s gaze sharpened, as if he had seen a rare treasure, and he gave me a smile that was probably supposed to look kind. However, with the obvious fatigue on his face, and with the way his eyes shone unnaturally, his smile looked horrifying.


    ¡°A healing ability? Fantastic! Nice to meet you, Miria!¡± he stepped over to me and pumped my hand up and down a few times. ¡°How much essence do you have? When can you get started? I can lead you to the worst-off soldiers immediately. What are the limits and specialties of your ability?¡±


    ¡°I can heal most wounds, and I can even regrow limbs. There are a few conditions though. First, my healing ability is a bit high on essence cost. Second, the patient needs to be touching water or my ability won''t work. Apart from that, there are some wounds I can''t heal.¡± I started listing injuries I couldn''t fix. As I spoke, the doctor''s grin grew wider and wider. It almost looked like he wanted to pick me up and hug me.


    ¡°That¡¯s it? Those are all of the restrictions?¡± he asked.


    I nodded.


    ¡°Your ability is amazing! Who made the potion for you?¡±


    ¡°Sorry, but I can¡¯t talk about that.¡± Mostly because they don''t exist.


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    ¡°Hmm... well, I suppose it''s your business. Still, it''s a shame. I would have loved to get another twenty people with the same ability. Well, forget it! We have patients to save!¡±


    With that, the doctor started leading me towards the injured patients. I got started on the healing process. The doctor helped me remove any debris remaining in wounds before I started healing. He also carefully observed every single patient I healed, as if he was trying to analyze how my ability worked. I wasn''t sure if that would give him any results, but I wished him good luck.


    Most of the patients had an eclectic mix of wounds. The types of injuries they had sustained were far more varied than I had expected. There were gunshots, strange burns, and wounds that looked like part of their body had suddenly died. There were also several different types of nerve damage.


    ¡°What caused these wounds?¡± I asked, as I healed my eighth patient.


    ¡°Those black balls of essence the enemy likes to throw around during fights,¡± said the doctor, grimacing. ¡°Well, and some gunshots. The enemy has changed and adapted their attacks several times during the war. It''s an incredible pain in the neck. Sometimes they obviate one model of shield completely and force the alchemists to create something new. Other times, they just make it hard to heal the wounds. It''s never a good thing when new types of wounds start appearing again."


    ¡°I see,¡± I said. The worldstriders adapting and improving wasn¡¯t outside of expectations, but it didn¡¯t lift my spirits much. An intelligent, experimenting enemy was an enemy that had more room to grow.


    Around my fifteenth patient, I started to run out of essence. Luckily, I had treated most of the severe injuries by then. Most of the soldiers were still injured, but there were no patients in critical condition. Everyone would survive until I regenerated some essence.


    ¡°Thanks for healing me, miss doctor. Your ability is amazing,¡± said one of the soldiers, catching me off-guard.


    "It''s what I came here to do," I said. "It''s too bad I couldn''t heal everything, I ran out of essence."


    ¡°No shame in that. Everyone has their limits.¡± The soldier¡¯s expression turned sour, as he grimaced and looked at the other injured. ¡°Things have been hard to keep stable ever since the damned Zelyrian monsters started attacking supply lines instead of forts."


    ¡°The Zelyrian creatures are quite adaptable,¡± I said.


    ¡°Ain¡¯t that the truth. Recently, some of their balls of black essence are lethal enough to kill soldiers with even a minor injury. If you don¡¯t amputate the cut limb on the spot, the energy crawls through your veins until it reaches your brain, and then you die.¡±


    I shuddered at that statement. I hadn''t realized the worldstriders had made their attacks so lethal. I sighed, as I thought about the history of the war so far. Human forces had lost over and over again. The humans on the continent had adapted¡­ but their adaptions still weren¡¯t enough. Humans were losing ground, and I had no idea if there was a way to break the stalemate. The three of us couldn¡¯t turn the war around by ourselves, and the humans here were struggling to manage the war.


    ¡°Is there any hope at all for our human forces?¡± I asked, not expecting the soldier to answer me. Deep in my heart, I started wondering when we would die this time. I was reluctant to say goodbye. Dr. Trish, Old Mo, Markus, Iselde, and Vance¡­ they were precious friends and family members. But soon, I might not have a choice anymore.


    ¡°There might be hope. Recently, I¡¯ve heard rumors of battlefields turning our way,¡± said the soldier. His eyes shone with a certain level of excitement that I found surprising.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked. "Did the human nations find a way to fight back more effectively?"


    ¡°I''ve heard that recently, on some battlefields soldiers have heard eerie singing in the middle of the night. The next morning, several of the enemy will be fond on the ground, comatose. They don¡¯t fight back, even if soldiers just stroll up to them and stab them. I haven¡¯t heard any official announcements, but I¡¯ve heard the military is working on some sort of super weapon to turn the tables. If the rumors are correct, the military should be in the final testing stages of their secret weapon. Otherwise, there''s no way it would show up on the battlefield." The soldier''s eyes grew more excited as he spoke. "That would explain the weird singing, followed by the unconscious enemies. Either way, we just need to hold out long enough. Once they finish testing that weapon, the entire war will turn around. So don''t give up hope, miss doctor.¡±


    I nodded thoughtfully as I ended the conversation with the soldier and moved out of the sick bay. I wasn¡¯t sure whether to believe the man¡¯s words - after all, rumors passed between soldiers were hardly a reliable source of information. Still, the soldier''s words did make me feel better. If the rumors were correct, maybe there was hope for this war. I had been thinking that the humans were adapting to the worldstriders surprisingly slowly. Perhaps they had been focused on creating a trump card instead?


    I felt a smile tug at my lips at the thought. If the war ended, we wouldn''t have any major threats left to us in this world. Anise and Felix had already gotten their keyword abilities, so all we would have to do is farm Achievement until we died. We could avoid taking any more major risks, and we could just enjoy life. It would suck that Sallia wasn''t with us, but I wouldn''t mind having some time to relax and train. I felt a little bit more hopeful than usual as I made my way to one of the resting areas and drifted off into a light nap.

 Chapter 284: Markus

    After I ran out of essence, I got another System notification. I had once again influenced the war between the worldstriders and humans by a [Minor] amount. I had to admit, I was glad to see the notification. However, running out of essence didn''t mean I could rest. Even without my essence, I had spent years learning about medicine. I could still do basic field treatment for the soldiers, even with lacking supplies. Thus, I continued moving around the room, changing bandages for wounds and stitching up wounds.


    Towards the back of the room, I found someone I knew well.


    Markus.


    Markus was laying in one of the beds for injured soldiers. He was alive, but he wasn¡¯t in great condition. He was missing one of his legs. Whoever had treated him afterwards had given him a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. There was also some bruising on his head, although it didn''t look life-threatening.


    I ran over to him as I felt my heart start to pound. I had already spent all of my essence on the ''worst'' injuries in the makeshift hospital. What if Markus needed healing and I couldn''t provide it? I felt deep anxiety well up in my heart. The idea of a friend dying because I didn¡¯t have enough essence to save them made my stomach churn.


    The first thing I did was check his heartbeat. His pulse was stable and strong, which quelled much of my fear. It didn¡¯t seem like he was about to die. After that, I swapped to my soul sight, to see if he had any soul injuries or problems.


    His soul was still stably attached to his brain. There was no sign of disconnection at all. Markus''s soul looked completely normal. I breathed a sigh of relief. Markus may not have been in perfect condition¡­ but he was still alive. All of his injuries were easy to heal using my healing magic, so I didn''t need to fear long-term problems. I could heal him after I regenerated some essence.


    Until I regenerated some essence, I would need to do more basic things. I started out by checking his bandages and bruises. The bandages were a little bit dirty, but that wasn''t a surprise, given the supply shortage. I also sent in a few drops of alteration essence, just to see what happened when I tried to heal him. This led me to find a few very small pieces of shrapnel still lodged in his leg. Since I would need to cut them out, I decided to ignore them for now. Removing them would cause more harm than help, unless I had my essence ready to fix the wound.


    I spent a few minutes sitting down and letting my body regenerate some essence, before I started dribbling essence into Markus¡¯s body.


    Some smaller aspects of Markus¡¯s wounds started to zip closed. It was nowhere near regrowing his leg, but I was still determined to help reduce the scope of his injuries as much as I could.


    As I was finishing up, Markus¡¯s eyes fluttered open.


    ¡°Miria?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Markus? You should go back to sleep.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d see you here. How¡¯s Trish? How are the others?¡±


    ¡°Dr. Trish is worried out of her mind. As for the others...¡± I hesitated. "Old Mo had an accident."


    Markus¡¯s forehead furrowed. ¡°What happened? Is he all right?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. His heart gave out while we were visiting him at the restaurant. He also seems to have suffered some brain damage after his heart gave out..." I shuddered. "We managed to replace his heart with a prosthetic one, so he isn''t in immediate danger of dying. But he isn''t waking up, and I can''t heal whatever is wrong. I did everything I could, and Dr. Trish is looking after him, but¡­¡± I shuddered as I trailed off. Finally, I sighed. ¡°At least you and Dr. Trish are alive. Your injuries are completely fixable. My ability doesn¡¯t have any problems with regenerating limbs like your leg, unless you wanted to swap it out for metal.¡±


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    ¡°I¡¯d prefer to keep my legs made of flesh. I was born with a small essence pool, so prosthetics would be hard for me to use.¡± Then, Markus leaned over to me, and wrapped me in a hug. ¡°Sorry about Old Mo. I know that he means a lot to you, but sometimes, old age creeps up on people. He¡¯s¡­ what, eighty?¡± Markus shook his head as he released me from the hug. ¡°Still, I hope he pulls through. Dr. Trish will take good care of him, and your healing will also help. He''ll get through this.¡±


    ¡°I hope so,¡± I said, as I leaned into the hug.


    ¡°Though, that brings to mind one other question. If Old Mo is hurt, I would expect you to be by his side. Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°To confirm your safety, and to chip in,¡± I said. ¡°I did everything I could for Old Mo, but my healing ability can¡¯t fix him. Sitting there and feeling helpless feels¡­ bad. Once I learned that you were hurt too, we rushed over here. I want to keep you safe if I can. Since there''s nothing I can do for Old Mo right now...¡± I sighed. "Besides, I''m surprisingly good in a fight." At least, as long as I use extinguishes to help out.


    ¡°Damilius lucked out when you moved here, then. You¡¯re a sweet girl, Miria.¡± Markus closed his eyes and then grinned. ¡°I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re here¡­ even if I¡¯m also not glad that you¡¯re here.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean?¡±


    ¡°It means that a warzone is no place for a sixteen year old with a healing ability and no good ways to defend herself,¡± said Markus, as his gaze narrowed. His grin disappeared as he glared at me. ¡°You might think you''re ''surprisingly good'' in a fight, but these things are monsters. They''ll hurt you and they''re hard to hurt back." Then, Markus''s glare turned into a frown. "Wait, you said ¡®we¡¯ rushed over? Did Anise and Felix come too? Did you drag Amelia along with you as well?¡±


    ¡°Just Anise and Felix. Amelia is¡­ busy.¡± Busy being Anise''s alter ego, that is.


    Markus sighed, before he shook his head. ¡°You three should have stayed away from the warzone. But I still appreciate you coming out here to help me. On the bright side, the front lines look like they might become safer pretty soon.¡±


    ¡°Safer?¡± I asked, perking up. ¡°Do you know anything about the ¡®secret weapon? One of the other soldiers told me about how some soldiers heard eerie singing in the night. Whenever the sound appeared, all of the worldstriders fell unconscious.¡±


    Markus laughed. ¡°The secret weapon? Is that what they¡¯re calling it? I suppose.¡± He sighed, before he looked at the missing half of his leg, and sighed. ¡°When I got hurt, we were trying to guard the technicians while they repaired a railroad. The worldstriders dropped a freaking bomb on us. Killed a couple soldiers, and also sent me flying." His gaze became oddly thoughtful, as he looked at his missing leg again. "As I was in the air, I remember thinking that some poor fellow had lost his leg, because I saw it flying through the air. Then I realized it was my leg. It took a few more seconds for me to hit the ground, and then the pain finally registered.


    "I was bleeding a lot, and I thought I wasn¡¯t going to make it. But then, I heard a rather¡­ unnatural sound. It was similar to a rough, squelching sound, mixed with metal gears groaning against each other. I saw¡­ something moving around the battlefield right afterwards. It was... fast. It looked unnatural, too. It almost looked like a woman, but... wrong. It was like a woman with no eyes or mouth, stitched together like a makeshift puppet in a sloppy, hand-me down workshop. She had no nose, either¡­." Markus actually shuddered. "It was unnerving. But whatever the secret weapon was doing, it worked. After she joined the battle, those Zelyrian abominations started to drop out of the sky. All the sword wielders needed to do was run up to the sleeping creatures and stab them. It was the easiest fight I''ve ever seen, even if whatever I saw was disturbing." Markus paused. "If it works, I guess the military paid more attention to that than the aesthetics of their secret weapon. At least they found a way to turn the tables."


    I found myself increasingly curious about what the military¡¯s secret weapon was, but I didn¡¯t have any further information. I asked Markus a few more questions, but his memories were too patchy and vague to get more information from. I sighed, but decided to just wait until I could learn more about the situation. If the military was actively deploying their secret weapon to the battlefield, it would probably be revealed soon. Still, something about Markus¡¯s description struck me as a little¡­ off.

 Chapter 285: Nightsong

    Anise and I ended up sharing a room with two other female soldiers for the night. The room seemed like a repurposed broom closet - it could barely fit all four of us. It was unpleasant and cramped. Still, it was a place to sleep. Given how bad supply problems were for the front lines, I wasn¡¯t surprised that our sleeping conditions were this bad.


    When we woke up the next morning, my essence reserves had almost recovered, so I made my way back to the medical bay and started healing. To my surprise, I found a few new faces in the hospital. There must have been another battle last night while I was asleep. Most of their injuries were light, but there were a few severe injuries. Once the patients in critical condition were healthy again, I moved on to Markus. It might have been a bit selfish to prioritize Markus, but I wanted him to be able to walk again. It only took me a few minutes to regrow his leg. After that, I woke him up. Normally, I would have just accepted that he was healed, but I was growing more wary of problems with my healing ability. Even though it could heal most injuries, there were clearly some cases where it didn''t work.


    ¡°Trish? Oh, Miria. Good morning.¡± He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and then blinked as he looked at his legs. "It''s back."


    ¡°I healed everything,¡± I said. ¡°But I''ve been noticing corner cases where my healing ability doesn''t work perfectly. Can you do some exercises for me, so that I can make sure the healing worked?"


    "Sure."


    With my guidance, Markus started running through a series of tests for his leg. He flexed his leg, poked the regrown parts, and then started applying weight to it. Finally, he stood up, walked around, and did a few hops. Then, he grinned, and pulled me into a hug. ¡°It feels just like before. Thank you.¡±


    I smiled, and didn''t say anything.


    Markus spent a few more minutes marveling at his regenerated leg, before he finally stopped. "All right, let''s go get breakfast. The commanders will definitely start hollering at the other soldiers soon. Since I''m healthy, they might drag me along again. Might as well get a bite to eat first. Nothing is more miserable than trying to exercise on an empty stomach.¡±


    The two of us left the medical bay. When we reached the meal hall, I saw Anise getting out of line with a tray of food. I waved at her, and she beelined towards us.


    "Miria! I thought you would take longer in the hospital before coming to eat. I was going to save you a spot in line after I finished eating. Also, Markus is up!" She said.


    "Yeah, I finished healing him," I said. Then, I swapped to the communication bracelet. <Where¡¯s Felix? Have you seen him yet?>


    <Not yet. I think he might still be sleeping,> said Anise, as she caught up to me and Markus and started standing in line again.


    I paused, and tried to figure out whether I should contact him via bracelet. I didn¡¯t want to disturb his sleep, but if the commanders were going to wake everyone up soon anyway, he might be more miserable if he didn''t have breakfast. Eventually, I decided to contact him.


    <Felix, where are you? Anise and I are getting something to eat, if you want to join us. Also, Markus is up and healed. The commander of the fort might do some sort of wake-up call soon, so if you want to eat, now is the time.>


    <Sorry, I''m busy right now. I got a great idea for how to solve some of the issues the soldiers on the front lines are facing, and I need to try to make it before I forget!> said Felix. <I can eat later! Oh, could you bring me a few magnets? I can¡¯t find any. I think they would be the best material for what I''m trying to do.>


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    <Magnets? Are there magnets in this fort? I can''t think of why a military fort would have any in the first place.> I said.


    <I don''t know either. When I asked for some earlier, I couldn''t find any, so I''m hoping you can get ahold of some,> he said. <If not, I''ll try something else, but it might not work as well.>


    ¡°Hey Markus, do you know where we could find a magnet here?¡± asked Anise.


    Markus gave us a blank look. ¡°Why the sudden request for a magnet?¡±


    ¡°I saw Felix this morning, and he asked me for one. He was saying something about them being a solution to a problem he was having?¡± Anise shrugged.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if you can find any magnets in the fort. Hmm¡­ maybe one of the base commanders has one? You could also try the soldiers. Some soldiers might have a magnetic badge or pin or something. It¡¯s unlikely, but you could always try.¡± Markus shrugged. ¡°As a healer with a strong ability, they¡¯ll be happy to accommodate you if you ask.¡±


    ¡°Good enough for me,¡± I said with a shrug.


    ¡°Where is Felix, anyway? Is he coming to eat with us?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said Anise. ¡°He seemed pretty wrapped up in his work.¡±


    ¡°What is he working on, anyway?¡±


    <Felix, what are you even trying to do?> I asked.


    <I was thinking about trying to make a magnet that works kind of like a gun. It could shoot out the anti-spatial swords, and then recall them. It¡¯s a bit of a clunky idea, but it might work. The lack of ranged weapons seems like a huge problem for the front lines. I have no idea whether this will work at all, but it could be interesting.>


    ¡°Some sort of magnetic gun that shoots out and returns the spatial swords,¡± Anise said. ¡°You¡¯d have to ask him for more details.¡±


    Markus frowned. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if we have enough magnets to sustain large-scale magnet guns. I can see how it might work, but..." Markus shrugged. "Well, any idea is better than no idea. I hope it works."


    "He might not succeed, but there¡¯s no harm in trying, right?¡± I said, shrugging. I wasn''t sure if Felix''s idea would work either, but anything seemed worth a shot these days.


    ¡°I suppose.¡± Markus sounded doubtful, but didn¡¯t say anything else as we finally reached the front of the line. The chefs gave Markus and I a tray with a few wilted fruits and potato residue on it. I glanced at my meal dubiously. It didn''t look very appetizing.


    Markus also winced as he looked at his meal. "Supply shortages really are hitting us hard," he muttered, before he shook his head. "Whatever. Food is food." The three of us made our way to a nearby table, before we sat down to eat. In between bites, I decided to interrogate Markus about the military¡¯s secret project. He was the only one that had seen it up front, and I still had the subtle feeling that something was weird about his description of the secret weapon.


    ¡°Sorry, Miria. I already said everything I remember,¡± said Markus, in response to my queries. I sighed, but nodded. If Markus didn¡¯t know anything else¡­ I would just have to wait and see, like everyone else. At the very least, the military had some kind of plan, which was reassuring to know. Still, I wished I had a little bit more detail to go off of. If the military''s plan was likely to backfire, I wanted to know now. That way, we could potentially flee the continent and leave for the colonies or something. It wasn''t an ideal plan, but it would keep us alive, at least.


    After we finished eating, Anise and I went to go find a magnet for Felix. Luckily, after some thinking we realized that compasses were faintly magnetic. It was a weaker material than Felix had been hoping for, but it was good enough. The military had a small supply of compasses available, so Felix broke one down for parts.


    After that, I spent the rest of my essence healing the soldiers, while Anise started joining combat missions. Since the worldstriders would detect her Zelyrian magic if she got too close to them, Anise had to be very, very careful on battlefields. Luckily, most fights between the worldstriders and the military were ranged battles anyway.


    Life at the forts started to settle into a routine. Every day, I healed soldiers, Felix worked on his new project and Anise started joining smaller combat missions. A week passed before I heard an announcement from the captain of the fort.


    The military¡¯s secret project, ¡®Nightsong,¡¯ had finished its testing phases, and was now being officially deployed to the front lines.

 Chapter 286: Abomination

    Shards of metal and hardened dirt crunched under Anise''s feet as she followed behind the group of soldiers. It was dark enough that it was hard to see, but Anise was starting to get used to moving at night instead of daytime. Ever since the military¡¯s secret weapon started joining battles, every combat operation happened at night. The only time human soldiers fought during the day was when the worldstriders attacked a fort.


    <Careful. There are a few sharp pieces of metal mixed in with the dirt and craters,> said Miria. <I don''t think it''ll puncture your shoes and stab you, and I¡¯ll heal you if anything goes wrong. But I¡¯d still prefer to keep my essence ready for an emergency.>


    <I''ll be careful,> said Anise, as she started watching the ground she stepped on more closely. Normally, she would pay much more attention to the skies, to check for a worldstrider ambush. But with Miria here, Anise didn''t need to worry about it. Miria''s spatial sight and soul sight could catch worldstriders from much further away than Anise.


    <The land out here is really messy and broken,> said Miria, after a few more minutes of walking. <I mean, it looked bad when we were sprinting to the fort, but it looks even worse recently.>


    <The worldstriders have been ramping up the scale of their attacks. Ever since ¡®Nightstong¡¯ started joining battles, the worldstriders have been desperately trying to make the land irreversibly hard to use,> said Anise, grimacing. <That means lots of bombs and land destruction.>


    <I see,> said Miria, thoughtfully. She nearly tripped over a small crater in the ground, and Anise saw Miria grimace. <Not only do I see the destruction, but I also feel it. Particularly in my ankles.>


    Anise nodded sympathetically, before Miria¡¯s eyes suddenly darted towards the skies. Then, Miria stopped using the communication bracelet entirely.


    "I see the enemy!" Miria yelled, as she pointed towards the sky.


    Several soldiers, as well as the engineers, grimaced.


    "How far away?" asked the leader of this team.


    "Not quite in gunfire range, but getting close! They¡¯ll probably start firing on us soon!¡±


    Several other teammates squinted at the sky, trying to pick out what Miria was seeing. Anise did the same, but even after straining her eyes, she still couldn''t pick out any worldstriders.


    A few moments later, the first worldstriders finally drifted into range. Several of the extradimensional invaders pulled out guns and started firing at the soldiers. Most of the bullets were blocked by the anti-spatial fields, but Anise heard a few men scream as bullets hit them. She wasn¡¯t sure whether they had been injured or killed - but she hoped that they hadn¡¯t died.


    The soldiers responded with their own projectiles. For a few seconds, the two sides exchanged a hail of bullets and essence, as the ranged combatants tried to pick each other off. Meanwhile, the fliers in the combat group pulled out their swords and some shields, and then started flying towards the enemy.


    But before the fliers could get far off the ground, several worldstriders dropped large metal balls towards the group.


    "Bombs!" yelled Miria. At the same time, Anise noticed several of the more well-aimed bombs simply disappeared, only to reappear in the distance. Had Miria done that?


    Anise felt a sinking feeling in her gut as she realized that Miria had just used a second ability in front of the soldiers. They might not have noticed, with how chaotic it was - but it spoke to how bad the situation was. How many worldstriders were attacking them for Miria to risk exposure like that?


    Anise did her best to shake her thoughts away, and used her own spells to help out. She erected a few {Force Shields} as far above the soldiers as she could, in hopes of getting a few bombs to detonate early. Some of them punched through her barriers like they didn¡¯t exist, but seven more bombs were detonated before they hit the soldiers.


    Then, the remaining bombs hit the shield wall. There were several flashes of light, and Anise spent a few seconds blinking away the stars left in her vision. When she could see again, there were several dead soldiers on the field. Several others were screaming in pain, and there were a few ragged gaps in the shieldwall where some of the projectile ability users had been standing. Worse, a few of the fliers had also been caught in the blast. Seven fliers had died before they could even start flying towards the enemy.


    <They have almost four hundred worldstriders. We have less than eighty combatants left,> Miria said. <Anise, if things go bad, stick near me. If the worst case scenario happens, I¡¯ll pick you up and try to run away.>


    Anise nodded, and inched closer to Miria as the other soldiers started to recover. The worldstriders had exhausted many of their bombs in the initial volley, so for a few seconds, the sides kept exchanging gunfire and essence attacks. A few worldstriders tried to pepper the defenders with bombs, when they thought they could get away with it. However, without the critical mass of bombs the first wave had, Anise and Miria had an easy time getting rid of the explosives before they caused problems.


    Within twenty seconds of the fight starting, Anise had started to get a handle on the battle again. She started targeting worldstriders that thinned out their bodies too much, and then ripped them apart with {Mage Hand}.


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    It was nowhere near enough to retake control of the battlefield. When Anise glanced at the fliers, she realized that a quarter of them were dead or incapacitated. Of the original sixty, only forty-five had reached the worldstriders and started swinging their blades. Worse, the worldstriders were noticing something. They were keeping their bodies compact and controlled, meaning that {Mage Hand}, Anise¡¯s most energy-efficient spell, was doing very little.


    After a few more seconds of exchanging abilities and bullets, Anise gritted her teeth.


    <Miria! Pull us into the worldstrider layer of reality!> said Anise. At this rate, {Mage Hand} wouldn''t do enough to help anyone in this battle. She needed a way to use her other spells. Miria didn¡¯t hesitate. Anise felt Miria¡¯s hand clamp onto her shoulder, and then the two of them dropped from one layer of reality into another.


    Anise felt the dimension start to eat away at her body, as if she had stepped into a puddle of acid. Her Market-empowered Vitality fought back against the corrosion, but it hurt.


    She spent a few seconds stunned, before she managed to focus again. As a witch, she needed to be able to push through this much pain - even if it was hard. Then, she locked on to a few nearby Worldstriders and started throwing {Magic Missiles} at them.. A few of them ignored her attacks at first, likely thinking that they weren¡¯t threats.


    Three worldstrider collapsed under her spells before they realized she was an actual threat. Twenty worldstriders swung towards her and tried to spray her with a swarm of gunshots and essence balls. The bullets all disappeared into thin air long before they could reach Anise - Miria had obviously teleported them away.


    <Stop attacking for a moment,> said Miria, as she stopped in front of Anise. Then, Miria unfurled her umbrella. The wave of essence balls was easily deflected away by Miria¡¯s umbrella, before Miria grinned at the Worldstriders. A few of them dropped dead, with seemingly no cause at all.


    Then Miria stepped back from the fight, giving Anise a clear firing line again.


    For a few minutes, the two simply worked on taking control of their corner of the battlefield. With Miria¡¯s umbrella and teleportation, it wasn¡¯t hard to stay safe against smaller groups of Worldstriders - however, the better they did, the more the worldstriders noticed them. At first, the two of them were only fighting twenty Worldstriders. Then, the number ballooned to thirty, and then forty, and then hit fifty. The two seriously struggled by the time they were fighting thirty. As more and more worldstriders joined the fight, the two were forced to retreat farther away.


    Then, Anise turned towards the rest of the soldiers, hoping that a few of them would be able to lend them a hand somehow. Instead, her heart froze when she saw what the rest of the battle was like.


    She and Miria were doing well enough, but the rest of the battle was going catastrophically. Nearly half of the effective combatants were dead, and the other soldiers were slowly being encircled by the worldstriders. It wouldn¡¯t be long before everyone here fell. Even the fliers were struggling to stay alive.


    They weren''t helping enough.


    Anise felt panic start to set in. The two of them could probably escape from here¡­ but what if they failed? Anise didn¡¯t want to let these soldiers die, either. Many of them were soldiers she had gotten used to talking to and laughing with at the fort. She didn¡¯t want to abandon them to their fate.


    At the same time, the worldstriders were overwhelming them. The other first weren¡¯t reinforcing them quickly enough for the group to survive.


    Just as Anise was starting to panic, she heard something.


    It was an eerie, clanking, thrumming sound. It was like machinery, struggling to work with rusted gears and broken components. It was like the whisper of leaves, falling from trees in autumn. It was like the threads of a musical instrument, snapping one after another with the sharp, broken notes of an instrument being cut into pieces with a knife.


    It was wrong.


    The sound drilled into her ears and made Anise want to tear out her eardrums. She wanted something, anything, to stop the awful sound she was hearing. Dimly, she was aware that there was some sort of essence mixed into the sound - but it hardly mattered when it felt like someone was driving metal spikes into her brain with a sledgehammer. Anise just wanted the sound to go away.


    Just as Anise collapsed to her knees, she felt someone touch her shoulder. A moment later, she felt herself shift back to the normal layer of reality. The sound became less horrible. It was still unnatural and sounded awful, but it no longer wriggled through her ear canals and made her want to throw up. Anise shivered, and then looked up. There, she saw the thing making the noise.


    It looked like a poorly put together puppet. It was shaped kind of like a woman - but with large, pieced together chunks of flesh constituting large swathes of its body. Its lips were stitched together in a gruesome facsimile of a smile. The sight of it made Anise''s skin crawl. Something about the creature was wrong on a fundamental level.


    For a brief moment, Anise suspected that the Worldstriders had brought out a secret weapon to finish them all off. A moment later, she heard a thump as something landed right next to her.


    She blinked, and looked down. Laying on the grass next to her was a Worldstrider. It looked as if it were unconscious - it wasn¡¯t moving or attacking her at all. Anise still felt like puking, but she managed to rip the Worldstrider apart with {Mage Hand}. A worldstrider that close to her was a guaranteed problem if she didn¡¯t handle it.


    Anise sucked in a few breaths of fresh air, trying to quell the nausea and the roiling of her gut, before she managed to get her senses working again. She turned back towards the creature that had helped them, and was met with the sight of the odd creature politely bowing at the two of them. Then, it turned around and leapt away, quickly vanishing from Anise¡¯s sight.


    Anise hesitated, as she tried to figure out what had just happened. Part of her was relieved that they had made it out of the fight alive. But a deeper part of her was starting to suspect that Miria was right. After seeing the military¡¯s secret project, many parts of its biology felt like they were stitched together, like Frankenstein¡¯s monster. Even weirder, now that Anise had some time to process the creature¡¯s sound attack, she realized that the puppet-thing had used some insane mixture of Binding, Absorption, and Manifestation essence to launch its attack. It hadn¡¯t felt¡­ natural, though. It felt more like binding essence had been used to force everything to stick together, even as the artificial essence fought itself and tried to unravel.


    Anise hoped she was overthinking it, but she felt that something was incredibly unnerving about the essence that creature had used.

 Chapter 287: Tube Gun

    Over the next week, it became easier and easier to find soldiers who had fought with Nightsong. It wandered from battlefield to battlefield. Every night, there were at least a few squads that Nighstong saved from destruction. As much as the stitchwork monstrosity creeped me out, I couldn''t argue with results. On the battlefield, the stitched abomination was single-handedly turning the front lines around.


    At first, I thought that Nightstong was just focused on this area. It would make sense. After all, this was the biggest battlefield in Damilius. Then, I stated hearing reports of the soldiers on other fronts encountering Nightsong. Many of those reports showed that Nightsong had showed up to multiple battlefields a night. Not only that, but different countries also had ¡®Nightstong¡¯ appearances every night. That was when I started to realize things were more complicated.


    There were only two ways I could explain this. Either the creature could teleport, or there were multiple Nightsongs. I wasn''t sure which explanation was correct, but either way, the fact that Nighstong helped every front line was a clue. It meant that Nightsong hadn''t just been the result of Damilius''s research. it was probably a collaborative effort between every country trapped in this war.


    At the very least, that was cause for celebration. The continent had been locked into a cycle of endless conflict for generations now. Old Mo and the girl he had liked were torn apart by this very cycle of hate. So it was gratifying to see human nations actually working together for once. On the other hand, it also made me feel even more uneasy. Just how bad was the situation if it could get the human nations to work together?


    Apart from that, I had even more reservations about the creature itself. When Anise and I had encountered the creature last week, I had looked at it with soul sight. The conclusion I had reached was that the creature had no soul. Despite that fact, it seemed to act with some level of intelligence, leaving me confused. It wasn¡¯t an artificial person, the way Felix had been. Instead, it seemed to break every principle I knew about souls and life. I wasn''t sure if my unease was just because I didn''t understand the creature or not, though, so I tried to put my worries aside. Either way, the military wouldn''t change its decisions based on my suspicions. I would just have to keep an eye on things and be ready to step in if something went wrong.


    But on Thursday of that week, I focused on other, more exciting news. On that day, Felix called Anise, Markus, me, the base commander, and a few soldiers to observe his invention. After a few weeks of tinkering, he had made something new. He called it the ¡®tube gun.¡¯ He claimed it would solve the problem of ranged weapons on the front lines.


    With some trepidation, eight of us stepped into the training grounds near the front of the fort. I constantly scanned the area for worldstriders, to make sure they didn''t descend out of the sky and try to kill us. There was a reason the training grounds were nearly abandoned on the front lines.


    After we lined up to see Felix¡¯s presentation, he grinned at us, and then held out¡­ a dark gray tube with a few levers and switches on the sides. It looked more like a pipe than a gun. In fact, saying it looked like a pipe was generous. If I was honest, it looked more like scrap metal. I glanced at Felix doubtfully. Even though I wanted to believe in him... I was a bit more concerned about this invention. Felix caught my eye, and then gave me a cheerful wink. Instead of nervous, it looked more like he was enjoying himself.


    Since he was that confident in his project, I decided to reserve judgment. Even if the tube looked like junk, Felix knew what he was doing. Or at least I hoped he did.


    Felix cleared his throat, and then looked at us.


    ¡°Welcome! Thank all eight of you for coming to my little demonstration. Especially you, commander," said Felix. The base commander gave Felix a courteous nod.


    "You managed to invent the railroads. I''ll give you the benefit of a doubt. What am I looking at? It looks like scrap metal."


    Felix''s grin only widened.


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    "One of the things I¡¯ve noticed from my time at the front lines is that the soldiers are short on effective weapons. I thought that my team was working on solving this problem. After all, creating prosthetics that can hurt the enemy sounds like a great idea. But upon coming here, I''ve realized we''re fixing the wrong problem. What we need to do is make more ranged weaponry. After all, the swords are useless if a soldier doesn''t have a flying ability. I seriously doubt the production of new ability potions is keeping up with the number of fliers that die each year. If this keeps up, within a few years the current combat strategy of the military will fall apart.¡±


    ¡°The number of fliers has decreased pretty quickly," said the commander, grudgingly. "The hope was that by then, we would manage to whittle down the numbers of the invaders. Or for the military''s secret projects to swing the war in our favor. Which seems to be working. Project Nightsong is doing a great deal of work on the front lines." The man shrugged. "But more tools in our arsenal is never a bad thing."


    Felix''s grin widened even further, and for a moment, my mental image of Felix overlapped with that of a mad scientist. He looked like he wanted to cackle and dance with glee.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to fix the ranged weapon issue. The biggest issue is that ammunition is hard to manufacture. If we used regular guns, each bullet would need to be individually affixed. There are nowhere near enough competent alchemists in our country to do that. So instead, I decided to create a gun that uses the same ammo, over and over again. This is the tube gun.¡± Felix¡¯s maniacal grin grew even wider. ¡°Have any of you ever heard of railguns?¡±


    None of the other soldiers raised their hand. Even the base commander looked bewildered. Felix looked a bit disappointed at that.


    ¡°Well¡­ fair enough. It¡¯s an idea I saw in one of Anise¡¯s science fiction books. I created this tube based on inspiration from that, as well as a way to recycle ammunition.¡± Felix turned towards Anise.


    ¡°Anise, could you hold up that pile of straw for me using your ability? I need a target, and an airborne target would showcase what this can do to our enemies."


    Anise floated a pile of straw into the air for Felix. Felix pointed his tube at the target, and his grin grew even more maniacal. He sent a surge of binding essence into the tube, and it started cycling through it. The cycling grew faster and faster with every second, until it bound itself with something inside of the tube.


    All at once, the clump of binding essence was sucked towards the bottom of the tube, before it dissipated into nothing. At the same time, something shot out of the tube at a speed that even I could barely see. Oddly enough, I could tell that there was still... something connecting the object to the tube. It was like a thin, nearly invisible string that kept the two together.


    A moment later, something tore a large hole in the pile of straw. I finally caught a glimpse of one of the fort¡¯s anti-spatial swords flying into the distance.


    ¡°Now, let me show you how the tube recycles ammunition,¡± said Felix, as he cackled in satisfaction. He flicked the levers on the tube, and then started channeling essence into the rusty pipe again. The essence started to cycle around the tube again, but this time, I could tell it was doing something different. The essence in the tube latched onto the ''string'' connecting the tube to the sword, and started to reel the blade back in. It looked like the world''s most awkward fishing attempt. The sword started flying back towards Felix.


    ¡°It¡¯s like a boomerang,¡± Felix said, grinning. ¡°It¡¯s a bit slow, so you can only get off about one shot per minute¡­ but the ammo is not lost or wasted. The hardest part was making sure that the sword returned without impaling the shooter. The first prototype nearly took off my hand when the sword came back. It was moving way too fast.¡± Felix''s maniacal grin dimmed a bit at that memory. ¡°It also takes a bit of skill to use. Before shooting, the user needs to establish a sort of ¡®temporary link¡¯ between the sword and the tube. It¡¯s nowhere near as hard as proper affixation, but it¡¯s still an unusual use of binding essence. But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s too hard to learn. Shouldn''t take more than a week or two for the average soldier to get it down. After that, the military will have a ranged weapon to work with. Most importantly, this tube is much cheaper than an ability potion. What do you think?"


    "Hmm..." the base commander looked at Felix''s makeshift weapon, before he took it into his hands and started turning it left and right. "Well, the rate of fire is a big problem. One shot per minute is... not amazing. Still, it''s much better than nothing." The base commander started laughing. "How many can you make a week?"


    "Now that I know what I''m doing, I can probably make 10 a week. I just need the materials to work with."


    The commander''s booming laughing grew louder. "Well, that''s not half bad. It''s far from a perfect solution, but... I think it''s a good weapon. Well done!"

 Chapter 288: Finality

    Over the next week, things started to improve on the front lines. The Worldstriders grew hesitant to ambush soldiers at night. During the day, humans hid in the forts, where the Worldstriders couldn¡¯t reach. There was one attempt to break into a human fort - but it ended disastrously for the Worldstriders. Without their aerial advantage, ordinary soldiers cut down several invaders with anti-spatial blades. I don''t think even the humans in the fort expected their counterattack to go as well as it did. Either way, the Worldstriders didn''t attempt to attack a fort during daytime after that.


    Felix¡¯s tube gun also started to show results, as more were made and soldiers got used to them. Many soldiers still complained about how hard it was to use - leading them to joke that tube guns were the worst guns that no soldier could do without. It was a backhanded compliment, but Felix took pride in how useful the tube guns were. Even if they were clunky and difficult to use, having ranged weapons still made battles much easier.


    The biggest problem with Felix¡¯s tube gun was the usage conditions. It was harder than Felix had expected for regular soldiers to form an affixation ¡®bond¡¯ between the sword and the tube gun. It was easy for Felix to manage, but other people didn¡¯t have Felix¡¯s talent in manipulating binding essence. Luckily, most of the soldiers spent extra hours each day learning to use the tube guns anyway. Weeks of getting shot at with no way to fight back had left its mark on the soldiers. Now that they finally had a way to shoot back, they were eager to learn how to use their new weapons.


    With the first few weapons built, the military started to show more interest in Felix''s invention. Felix opted to sell the blueprint to the military for only a token sum of money. Most inventors probably would have tried to charge the military much more for the blueprint. However, Felix''s objective was to maximize Achievement gain, rather than monetary gain. That meant that he wanted the tube guns to spread as far as possible.


    Right after Felix sold the blueprints to the military, they started shipping supplies to every fort for more of them. The newly restored railroads started showing exactly how useful they were.


    Felix hadn¡¯t gotten the actual Achievement reward for it yet. But he had gotten a notification for contributing to the war a [Moderate] amount. We were expecting Felix¡¯s reward to be quite hefty.


    That made me very happy. After all, if we couldn¡¯t win the most important battle of our lives within the next few worlds, we would permanently die. With Sallia¡¯s early death, I had been very worried about our rewards this world - but Felix was doing a nice job of counterbalancing that. I had a strong suspicion that next world, Felix might actually have the best Status screen out of all of us. A lot could change before then, but I was looking forward to Felix''s growth after this world.


    Saturday was when the situation started to change.


    It started out as an ordinary day. That changed in the middle of breakfast, when the base commander rushed into the cafeteria with a tense look on his face.


    ¡°Those who are combat ready, form up! You have two minutes! Shovel down whatever¡¯s in your mouth and get moving!¡± Soldiers started swearing, but did as they were told. Anise, Felix and I looked at the fort commander in confusion.


    I hesitated for a moment, before I sped towards the commander. He might have time for a quick question. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Attack on a nearby fort,¡± said the base commander. He looked frustrated as he answered me. ¡°Nothing that concerns you, miss healer. Just stay put and be ready to heal people when they come back.¡±


    The Worldstriders were raiding a fort again? But the first time they had tried to raid a fort, it had gone catastrophically for them. Why were they trying again? That didn¡¯t make any sense. I blinked in confusion as Anise gave her meal a sad farewell, and then struggled out of her seat.


    ¡°I can help too,¡± she said. The base commander eyed her for a moment, before he nodded. "You''ve earned that much, I suppose. You have one minute and thirty seconds."


    Anise nodded, and started dashing towards the door.


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    ¡°Anise! Wait!¡± Felix halted her for a second, and then tossed her a tube gun. ¡°For you. This one will fit with your... umm... ability.¡±


    ¡°Got it. Thank you for making it for me!¡± said Anise.


    ¡°Good luck,¡± Felix said. Anise grinned, and then gave Felix a quick thank you hug.


    ¡°Go beat a few World - uhhh¡­ Zelyrian monsters,¡± I said. ¡°Stay safe.¡± I hesitated. even though I knew it was a bad idea, part of me wanted to go with Anise, just to make sure she stayed safe. The idea of Anise going out to face a volatile and unpredictable situation alone worried me. I did not want to see Anise get hurt.


    ¡°I will.¡± Anise gave me a bright smile, and then leaned in closer and gave me a quick, reassuring hug. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I can take care of myself. I¡¯ll leave if things get too dangerous. Stay in the hospital and heal soldiers, all right? I have to stand on my own sometimes.¡± With that, Anise smiled at me, and then hurried out of the cafeteria.


    Less than a minute later, I heard the soldiers start to shuffle out of the fort. I felt worried, but I tried not to let it mess with me as I finished up my meal and then headed to the makeshift hospital. I had a strong feeling it would be flooded with soldiers soon.


    About ten minutes later, Anise contacted us.


    <We reached the first fort,> she said. <But the Worldstriders aren''t here.>


    <They aren''t? I thought they were attacking the fort,> said Felix.


    <It looks like they already left. Also, the top of the fort is trashed,> said Anise. She shared a picture of what she was looking at, and I was forced to agree with her. The top of the fort looked like a mess. The fort''s roof was pulp and rubble, and I could see a few chunks of red paste mixed into the ruins. There were also several worldstrider corpses strewn about the area, but they were outnumbered by the human corpses.


    As I took in the sight Anise had shared with us, I frowned. Last time the Worldstriders attacked a fort, they had lost a huge number of troops and killed very few human troops. Why was it so different this time? What had changed? And why did this attack seem so much more successful than the last one?


    Before I could think about this more, I saw a soldier move towards the commander in Anise''s vision. The soldier handed the commander another message, and the commander cursed.


    <There''s another fort being attacked,> said the commander, sounding as baffled as I was. <We''ll... move to reinforce.>


    Anise troop moved to reinforce the next fort that was under attack.


    But when Anise¡¯s troops got there, they found yet another pulped fortress. There were no living worldstriders in sight - only a mixture of human and worldstrider corpses. The sight was rather similar to the first fort.


    I glanced at the roof of our own fort, and tried not to feel anxious. I started flicking my soul-sight on and off again, just to see if I could catch any nearby worldstriders. I wasn''t sure how the Worldstriders were destroying fort ceilings, but I didn''t want to be buried alive.


    Right after that, Anise¡¯s squad got news that Fort 2-72 was under attack. By the time they got there, the Worldstriders were gone, but the fort was ruined again.


    This was followed by news of Fort 2-81 requesting help, because it was under attack. And then Fort 2-79 was under attack. Every single time Anise''s soldiers arrived at a fort, they found a ruined battlefield and corpses.


    By the time Anise was reinforcing her tenth fort, Felix and I were frowning.


    <This is different from their previous tactics. The worldstriders also seem to have found a way to render forts ineffective,> said Felix.


    <I don''t like it...> said Anise, as her vision drifted towards the wounded soldiers and damaged fort roof. <The Worldstriders finding a way to nullify forts is really dangerous.>


    I grimaced, before checking the area for Worldstriders again.


    <I don''t like it either,> I said. I had been hoping that project Nightsong would end the war, despite my misgivings about it. However, something had changed. The worldstriders had changed tactics.


    Before project Nightsong, the Worldstriders had been set to win the war as long as they didn¡¯t do anything dumb. They had suffered few casualties as they decimated human soldiers and supplies. Their victory had been nearly certain.


    But now, things had changed. The human forces had revealed a dangerous trump card that was causing Worldstriders to lose battle after battle. So the Worldstriders had decided to flip the table.


    The Worldstriders had suffered massive casualties during these battles, but they didn''t seem to care anymore. Even though they were losing soldiers faster than ever, they seemed determined to blitz down the human forts. Since they couldn''t win the attrition game anymore, they had thrown caution to the wind.


    I couldn''t help but feel like the war had entered a desperate, final stage. The war had changed again, and both sides were revealing their trump cards and ignoring casualties. I had an unsettling feeling of finality as I looked at the ruined forts and field of corpses in Anise''s vision.

 Chapter 289: Overload

    Hours drifted on, as the Worldstriders attacked fort after fort. They avoided confrontation with the human reinforcements, but they never stopped their attacks. Twice, the worldstriders fled the moment Anise''s group caught up to them. Every single time the human forces bunched up, the Worldstriders fled. Every single time the human forces dispersed, the Worldstriders attacked again. As Anise moved from one fort to another in an endless stream of failed reinforcement attempts, I started to feel anxious.


    What were we supposed to do about this? The flight of the Worldstriders had always been troublesome, but this was even worse than usual. The human forces had no way to engage the enemy at all. If it was nighttime, Nightsong could have handled the Worldstriders¡­ but it was nowhere near night yet.


    I felt anxiety creep up in my stomach, fueling my fears about the direction of the war even further. However, as the day progressed, I had less and less time to worry. Because every hour, more soldiers arrived in our hospital. Many humans turned into paste or got shot by the worldstriders, but plenty survived their injuries. It was our responsibility to treat those who were injured close to our fort.


    Unfortunately, my essence reserves weren¡¯t infinite. After several hours, I stopped using my shaping abilities to treat smaller wounds. My actual medical skills played a larger and larger role as the day wore on. I was more thankful than ever that we had a functioning supply line again. If we hadn''t received medical supplies, it would have been impossible to save everyone.


    By nightfall, I was exhausted. My hands and legs hurt from moving around so much. My brain felt like it had placed into a pressure cooker. I had a mild headache pulsing at the edge of my temples. My alteration essence was gone. The other doctors and the nurse in the medical bay looked even worse than me. In ten hours, we had seen a hundred and fifty patients. Over half were dying, and needed my healing magic to save them. The rest of the soldiers had less dangerous wounds, but had still needed a great deal of work to treat. For three doctors and one nurse, it had been almost impossible to keep up with the inflow of patients. My healing magic could only speed up the process so much, and the waves of patients seemed endless.


    After a particularly taxing wave of emergency treatments, I cast my weary eyes upon the door. I knew it wouldn¡¯t be long before another wave of dying patients were carted through the door. I had long stopped thinking - I just moved when more patients came. But strangely, no new patients appeared. Finally, I finished stitching together my current patient¡¯s wound and blinked in surprise. There weren¡¯t any other patients in need of care. We had finally caught up.


    I hesitated for a few moments. After hours of constant motion and healing, not doing anything felt wrong. But my legs felt like they were made of jelly, and I was tired. After a few moments of struggle, I flopped onto a nearby chair. I felt my mind drift off, and started drifting off to sleep before I caught myself. Now wasn''t the time to sleep when more patients could arrive at any moment.


    ¡°Where are the new patients?¡± I asked.


    One of the other doctors also frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t know either. It feels like the enemy should have finished another battle by now. I''m surprised that we haven''t gotten new patients... or had our own fort attacked."


    Another of the doctors frowned in thought. "With how things have been going over the past few weeks¡­ maybe they decided not to attack us at night? After all, Nightsong is available during nighttime, but never daytime. It would make sense if they decided to shift the war to daylight hours. Nightsong seems to be unbeatable during the night, but it has a huge, obvious weakness.¡±


    I winced, and then nodded. The doctor¡¯s words made sense. For a strange moment, I found myself wishing that the next wave of patients would arrive. If more patients arrived, that would mean the Worldstriders were still fighting, even as night fell. I remained tense for several more minutes, but nothing happened. No new patients arrived. I sighed, as I felt a strange mixture of bitterness and relief wash through me. The enemy had learned to exploit our weaknesses. That was terrible. But at the very least, it meant I could rest for a few minutes...


    I closed my eyes, intending to give them a quick rest...


    I woke up to find one of the other doctors shaking my arm. I blinked myself back awake.


    ¡°Miria. Go back to your room if you need to sleep,¡± said the doctor. ¡°I¡¯ll keep watch over the patients and wake you up if you''re needed. You worked hard today. You need to take some time to rest too. Catch sleep when you can.¡± The doctor gave me a strained smile, and for a moment, I tried to tell her that I would stay awake for a little longer. Before I could speak, a yawn escaped my lips. I realized that my body was at its limit.


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    I stifled another yawn as I got up and nodded, before I looked at the full room of patients. I grimaced. Too many had died today.


    ¡°What do you think will happen next?¡± I asked.


    The doctor I had been speaking with sighed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°The military of Damilius relying on Nightsong. This change is bad... but I also doubt the leaders didn''t think of this. After all, Nightsong has such a massive, obvious weakness. The military should have some sort of plan to compensate for it. I guess we¡¯ll just have to wait and see.¡±


    I sighed and nodded, before I made my way back to my room. Then, I realized I hadn''t spoken with Anise in a while. I had lost track of our conversation during the chaos. <Anise, how are you doing? Are you still safe?>


    <I''m fine. We did catch the tail end of a skirmish while you were busy, but the Worldstriders fled too fast. We''re patrolling the area right now, and hoping to catch a group of Worldstriders off guard. I don''t think any of them are coming, though. The moment it started getting dark, the enemy stopped showing up,> said Anise.


    <If I were the worldstrider commander, I would do the same,> said Felix.


    The three of us started chatting about more mundane things, as Anise occasionally complained about the cold and the patrol. After a few minutes, I started to drift off to sleep again, so I tried to terminate the connection. Before I could, Anise''s mental voice resounded again.


    <Nightsong is active again! It looks different from before!> Anise started showing us what she was looking at, and it made me frown in confusion.


    One of the strange, stitched-together women were standing just outside of a fort. However, there was something new on its body. Something that hadn''t been there before. It was a pair of bloody, stitched-together wings.


    <Wings?> asked Sallia, catching me by surprise. I had missed her the last few times she was awake, since she had woken up while I was asleep. <I don¡¯t remember those things having wings in the descriptions you guys gave me. Also, what happened? You guys sound a lot more stressed out today.>


    I filled Sallia in on what we had experienced over the course of the day. Afterwards, Sallia sighed.


    <That does sound bad. I do think the military commanders must have some sort of plan in place, though. It would be too strange if they didn''t have a way to compensate for such an obvious weakness. But back to Nightsong... did these things always have wings?>


    <They weren¡¯t there last time,> said Anise. <Also, Nightsong¡¯s eyes look a lot more¡­ creepy than before? I don¡¯t know how to describe it, but they¡¯re different.>


    I frowned, as I looked at the creature¡¯s eyes. Anise was right. Nightsong¡¯s eyes seemed a bit more expressive than last time. They seemed¡­ hungry.


    <Do you think they always had wings, and never used them before now?> said Felix. <I mean, one of the biggest advantages of the Worldstriders is the fact that they can fly and most human soldiers can¡¯t. It would be odd for the military not to plan some sort of way to counter that problem. The bigger question is why they never tried flying before now.>


    <The military could have also granted Nightsong some way to spend energy to form wings. Or maybe some way to add new parts to its body?> said Sallia. <If I take the way the creature looks as a guide, maybe it can add new body parts to itself. After all, you can add new parts to a puppet by ''stitching'' them on. That''s just a guess, though. I have no idea how these things were created, so I could be wrong.> Sallia sighed. <Well, either way, Nightsong can fly now. I''m not sure how that helps the current situation. It''s still impossible for Nightsong to appear during the day.>


    I sighed, before I shook my head and tried not to think about it. At this point, the impact the three of us who were still alive could have on this war was minor. There were too many people and too many resources involved. Felix didn¡¯t have time to invent any new weapons for the human side, either. It was all up to the military''s plans at this point.


    Still, the wings bothered me. Had the stitchwork monsters added those after their creation? Secret weapons that could grow on their own sounded very dangerous to me. I spent a few more minutes thinking about all the ways things could go wrong, before I sighed and shook my head. Whatever happened now, it was out of my control. I just hoped the military leaders who pushed this project through knew what they were doing.


    I kept watching through Anise¡¯s eyes as the Stitchwork monsters took to the skies, before I shook my head. I had no idea why they were flying around now, when the Worldstriders weren''t present. In any case, at least the Worldstriders weren''t present right now. Anise and the other soldiers could get some rest, at least. But despite the friendly forces taking control of the situation, the pit of anxiety gnawing at my stomach just grew worse.

 Chapter 290: Dawn

    The next morning, when I went to breakfast, I was glad to see Anise and Felix eating their meal together. Anise seemed a little tired, but I couldn''t see any wounds on her. After I got my food, I moved over to her table and gave her a big hug.


    Anise gave me a tired smile when she saw me, and then returned the hug before turning to her meal.


    <Anise! Are you all right? Did anything happen after I went to sleep?> I asked.


    <Nothing much happened. We returned to our rooms after marching back to the fort.> Anise grimaced as she slurped down a few noodles from her breakfast. <After project Nightsong took off, the fort commander that we were reinforcing told us to go home. We had finished our part in the battle that night.> This time, Anise looked distinctly unhappy. <I didn¡¯t even have some sort of edge role in a battle. We just marched around and fought nothing. I can¡¯t help but feel like the entirety of yesterday was just¡­ a waste.> She grabbed her bowl of soup and then tilted it towards her mouth to drink the broth.


    <On the bright side, your reinforcement squad still scared some of the Worldstriders off,> said Felix. <You still contributed in a way. Without the help of you and your squad, many more soldiers would have died yesterday.>


    <I guess that''s true.> Anise brightened up a bit at Felix''s words, before she set down her bowl. <Where do you guys think the military¡¯s secret projects went last night, anyway?>


    I started thinking. Project Nightsong had only appeared to ¡®reinforce¡¯ a fort before flying off last night. Where had it gone after scaring off the worldstriders? Had it gone to reinforce other forts?


    But Anise¡¯s squad had been sent back after Project Nightsong appeared. If that was the case, it was hard to imagine that the Worldstriders kept attacking forts during the night. Especially since Nightsong had trounced them every time daylight faded.


    <Maybe they decided to attack one of the Worldstrider¡¯s camps?> Said Sallia, as she jumped into the conversation. <I mean, the worldstriders also need rest and places to rest and resupply. You ambushed several of their camping sites when you went to Verne. If the military found some camps, Project Nightsong might have attacked them yesterday.> Then, Sallia fell into thought. <I doubt the Worldstriders are unaware of this. They must have some sort of counterattack planned. Perhaps they will blow up the camps that Nightsong attacks, in order to rid themselves of this threat? Or they could have other plans. It''s hard to guess.>


    Sallia''s guess made more sense than mine, so I shrugged. Instead of thinking about it, I gave Anise a second hug.


    <That makes more sense than my guess. Either way, I¡¯m glad you came back safe, Anise. I don¡¯t want you to die too.>


    <Yeah, I can confirm, being dead sucks,> said Sallia. <I want to swing a sword again. I¡¯m so bored every time I wake up.>


    I winced. I had already assumed that being stuck in a void with only our conversations and TV to distract her was boring. Still, hearing Sallia complain made me wish I could do something for her. Sadly, I wasn''t sure what I could do for her. If I had the option, resurrecting her would have been the best solution. But I had no idea how to resurrect someone. I suspected it was possible, based on how the Market worked and how Felix had been born in the body of an artificial baby. But knowing something was possible and knowing how to do it were two different things.


    Before I could sink further into thought, Sallia started asking us other questions about what she had missed while she was asleep. The four of us caught her up to date on the war. Then, we chatted and speculated about the military¡¯s recent movements as we finished breakfast. After eating, Sallia fell back asleep, and I headed towards the makeshift hospital.


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    Nobody had died while I was asleep, which was a relief. A few patients had taken turns for the worse, but I didn¡¯t run into many cases where my healing magic was useless. However, I did run into one case where a patient had problems I couldn''t heal. While I was asleep, there had been some sort of issue that cut off blood flow to his brain. It hadn''t totally shut it down, but it had definitely caused some problems. The resulting brain damage had weakened his soul-body connection. I felt more than a little guilty when I saw that, even though I suspected there was nothing I could have done to fix it yesterday. There had been way too many patients to give every patient my full attention. Still, even if it had been unavoidable, seeing a patient with permanent injuries felt terrible. Next time we returned to the Market, I needed to up my Alteration essence capacity.


    Most of the other patients were much more treatable. After a few hours of healing, I felt exhausted again, but most of the patients had stabilized. Within another few days they would make full recoveries. I also got another System notification, saying I had contributed to the war between the humans and the Worldstriders. I had no idea when all of these System rewards would turn into actual Achievement, but I was looking forward to it.


    As I melted into a chair and started relaxing, a smiling soldier made his way into the hospital room. Seeing the four of us resting, he waved at us. He had far more energy than soldiers usually did on the front lines. That alone piqued my curiosity.


    ¡°Are the four of you done treating the patients?¡±


    ¡°We are, at least for now,¡± said one of the doctors. ¡°Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°Come to the field in front of the fort. It''s good news!¡±


    I blinked in surprise, before I grinned. It seemed like we would finally learn what Project Nightsong had done last night.


    One of the doctors volunteered to stay behind, and the other three of us made our way to the front of the fort. There, we saw a congregation of hundreds of other soldiers. Standing in front of everyone was the fort commander, with a strange expression on his face.


    It was glee. The man had a look of barely-restrained glee and excitement on his face as he gazed at us.


    As more soldiers drifted out of the fort, the man started cackling, almost like a witch.


    ¡°All of you have spent a long time fighting on the front lines. We¡¯ve seen many brothers and sisters die fighting the enemy. For the first weeks of the invasion, we suffered defeat after defeat. In the past few weeks, we¡¯ve finally found some breathing space. But it wasn¡¯t enough on its own, as many of you may recall from yesterday. Two forts were destroyed, and many others suffered major damage.¡± I saw a few of the soldiers who had marched yesterday shudder at the commander¡¯s words. However, the man¡¯s barely restrained glee remained, making me wonder why he was so happy. The Fort Commander was beaming like he had won the lottery.


    ¡°Today, I¡¯m here to convey the words of the higher ups. The primary base of the enemy in Damilius has been destroyed! Last night, Project Nightsong and a major assault force attacked their primary camp. The enemy has many smaller camps, of course, but the biggest one has is gone. This doesn¡¯t mean an end to the fighting - but it is our first major victory against the enemy. This isn''t a mere skirmish or ambushing party that we wiped out. We have won a proper, solid victory!¡±


    I blinked in surprise, and then I also smiled. Sallia¡¯s speculation had been right. The military had raided one of the Worldstrider¡¯s camps last night. Perhaps it had only happened last night because the military finally tracked down the enemy¡¯s base?


    It was also possible that the military had always known where the enemy¡¯s main base was. yesterday may have simply been the opportune time to attack. After all, yesterday the worldstriders had exhausted themselves attacking several human forts. There was no better opportunity to attack an enemy than after they were exhausted.


    ¡°Not only that, our country isn¡¯t the only one that struck a decisive blow against the enemy last night. Most allied nations managed similar victories on their fronts. While Verne failed in their counterattack, everyone else has pushed the enemy back. The war is finally moving in the right direction.¡±


    I blinked as I analyzed the commander¡¯s words. Verne''s attempt to take down the Worldstrider primary camps had failed. So the enemy had created countermeasures against project Nightsong. They had simply failed in most cases. I grinned. The fort commander''s words weren''t wrong. The war was finally moving in the right direction.


    There was silence, as the other soldiers absorbed the commander¡¯s words. Then, unbridled cheering started to spread through the soldiers.


    Despite my misgivings about Project Nightsong, I was also happy. For the first time, humanity was winning against the extradimensional invaders.

 Chapter 291: Fracture

    Over the next few weeks, things on the front lines settled down. The worldstriders no longer spent much time focused on regular soldiers. They had a much more important target - Project Nightsong. Every single day, they tried to remove the military''s project before it ended them. They tried swarming it with numbers during the day. They tried catching it in a bonfire and turning it into charcoal. They tried shooting it to pieces using guns. They tried far more unorthodox solutions, like trying to get human ability users to friendly-fire it to death.


    The closest they got was blowing up an entire camp while Project Nightsong was in it. Somehow, they timed the explosions to happen right after Nightsong walked into the camp. How they managed to set off the explosives after falling asleep was beyond me. However, the Nightsong they targeted was gravely injured. It fled quickly enough to avoid the worst of the explosions, but still lost several pieces of its stitched-together body. It was forced to flee the battlefield, leaving the soldiers to fight a camp of Worldstriders at night. After most of the soldiers fled or died, the next three days were hell. The Worldstriders tried to press their advantage and smoke out Damilius''s project Nightsong. Fortunately, they failed. Three days later, it reappeared and put the Worldstriders back on the defensive.


    Not all human countries fared so well. One of the other countries, Semurria, lost both of its Nightsongs when their Worldstriders dropped a building on it. On that particular warfront, all of the gains that the human forces had made started to dissipate like smoke. I had expected that other human nations would step in and help them, but I was wrong.


    When things had been desperate, and it looked like humans would lose, we had been united. Human nations had actually put aside their centuries of squabbling and worked together. The situation was different now. With Project Nightsong, the war seemed sure to end in a human victory. Thus, most nations were happy to see their competitors get kicked down. It would make their position on the continent more stable once the war ended. I felt more than a little disappointed by their actions - but not surprised.


    Luckily, in Damilius we didn''t face a similar situation. Apart from the single time the Worldstriders injured Nightsong, our front lines remained stable. For the soldiers in the forts, as well as healers like myself, it was a surprisingly restful period. Project Nightsong was such a powerful weapon against the worldstriders that it just won most battles it was part of. After the Worldstriders were knocked unconscious, they inflicted few casualties on our forces.


    Anise, Felix and I had less and less to do each day. With more free time, we started to relax more often. We spent some time playing cards and swapping stories with Markus and the other soldiers each night. With each day that passed victory for Damilius seemed more certain. It seemed that most of the soldiers shared my sentiments.


    The only thing that worried me was Project Nightsong itself. As time passed, the strange abominations continued to grow ever more bizarre. When Anise and I had first seen them, they resembled stitched female dolls. They might have also looked like some unholy mixture of necromancy and mad science, but they had still resembled humans. By the end of the first week, they resembled grotesque abominations. The originally humanoid figure had been padded out with extra limbs and strips of random flesh. By the end of the second week, rather than human women, they resembled balls of flesh and tangled limbs. Instead of two legs, Damilius''s Nightsong walked on seven. By the end of the third week, Our Nightsong wasthe size of a two-story house. It had more more limbs that some squads of soldiers. It was a disturbing sight.


    At the end of the third week, we got together with Markus and some other soldiers to play cards and relax.


    ¡°When do you think the war will finally end?¡± asked Markus, as he inspected his handful of cards.


    ¡°It¡¯s hard to say,¡± I said. ¡°I mean, there are still plenty of Zelyrian creatures acting as stragglers and fighting. It¡¯s a lot different from the days when they could mass together and wipe out squads of soldiers in an ambush. But even though things are better, I don''t think they''ll go down this easily. I¡¯ve heard that some countries have offered to let the creatures surrender, but they aren¡¯t going for it.¡± I frowned. ¡°At the beginning of the war, they were more than happy to send out diplomats, but now that they¡¯re losing, they refuse to talk. I figure that means they have something up their sleeves still. Otherwise, they would be happy to negotiate the best terms they could at the negotiation table.¡±


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    Markus grunted in acknowledgement. "That''s a good point, and one I hadn''t considered. If they don''t want to talk, it means they think their bargaining position will improve soon. Just like a merchant trying to get the best deal." His nose wrinkled up as he said those words.


    Rolf cackled at Markus''s expression. He threw his hand onto the table, and I resisted the urge to groan as I realized his hand was unbeatable. He divvied up the ''gambling chips'' that we had been using as a wager. In this case they were cookies. Now that the supply lines were intact, the military had made the food situation dozens of times better. Even the occasional baked treat made its way into the cafeteria.


    "I figure the enemy might also be stubborn. After all, they were winning the war for so long. They''ve tried and failed to kill our secret projects several times. Just because they think things are about to get better for them doesn''t mean it will." Rolf grinned.


    I thought about it for a few seconds, before I decided not to say anything. Rolf''s view was optimistic, but it could be correct.


    ¡°I cannot help but feel that there is something quite unnerving about the military¡¯s secret project. I¡¯m glad they¡¯re on our side, but I cannot help but feel that there is something... grotesque about them.¡± said James, the other soldier Markus had invited to play cards with us.


    I grimaced.


    ¡°They creep me out too,¡± I said. ¡±Their bodies make no sense. They do not seem to be sentient or sapient either, but mimic it somehow. I know that Zelyrian magic can skirt the rules of how regular alchemy works, and I''m also not that great at Alchemy. Even so, they''re weird.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. The military wouldn¡¯t use a weapon that can backfire on us¡­ probably,¡± said Felix. He didn''t sound very sure of his statement.


    ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure if the military is in a position to be choosy about their secret weapons,¡± said Markus. To my surprise he sounded like he was taking my suspicious rambling seriously. ¡°With the state of the war before Project Nightsong, it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if the military rushed Nightsong out of the lab. They wouldn''t have had much of a choice if they wanted to turn the war around.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if -¡± Anise¡¯s words were cut off when I felt a sudden, strange quaking sensation ripple through the air around us. It wasn¡¯t detectable to any of my mundane senses, but to my essence senses, something fractured in the world.


    ¡°What was that?¡± I asked.


    ¡°It felt like¡­ an earthquake?¡± said Rolf, as he frowned. He didn¡¯t sound like he believed his own words.


    I scanned our surroundings, trying to detect any other signs of danger - and a moment later, I felt my stomach drop, almost as if I had vertigo. It felt like things were lurching and falling around us, but I couldn¡¯t see anything moving at all.


    I looked at Anise and Felix, and without a word, the three of us pulled closer together. Felix started grabbing random bits of metal from our surroundings with his shaping magic. In moments, he had a thin shield structured around us. Markus and the other soldiers looked at Felix and Anise with confused looks, and I winced. Manipulating metal like that would definitely look weird. Later on, we would need to pretend Anise had done that with her force manipulation. But now wasn''t the time to worry about that. I splashed everyone with water, in case I needed to heal anyone in a hurry.


    A moment later, another set of shudders and quakes tore through the world. Moments later, I saw something open in the sky well above the fort. I didn''t see anything else happen for several seconds, but I finally realized what had broken.


    It was space itself. Something about the overlapping layers of reality in this dimension was splintering apart. It reminded me of the spatial quake that had dragged us into the Zelyrian pocket dimension all those years ago.


    But this time, the effects weren¡¯t limited to a mere mountain range.

 Chapter 292: Collapsing Reality

    As my brain finally processed what was happening, I felt a flash of horror. The spacequake that had dragged us into the pocket dimension had resulted in Sallia''s death. I couldn''t imagine this leading to anything good.


    I swapped between my soul sight and my spatial sight, hoping to get some more information on whatever had just broken on the world. I didn¡¯t see anything interesting with my soul-sight. However, my spatial sight gave me a nasty eye-ache when I used it. It felt like someone had jammed a needle through my eye and into my brain whenever I tried to look northwest with it. When I tried to look more closely, I got the strangest feeling that I was looking through a blurry, cracked eyeball. The pain was bad enough that I quickly gave up. The pain in my eye made it too hard to focus on what I was seeing.


    A few moments later, I glanced at the massive hole in the sky again. I realized that it was starting to vaccuum up the air in its surroundings - but it wasn''t just pulling things in. At the same time, it also disgorged a huge pile of energy into our surroundings. The energy felt similar to the four essences, but not quite the same. Sort of like the difference between a mother and her children. They resembled each other, but they weren''t quite the same.


    The massive glob of energy fell to the ground just outside of the fort, where it melted through the grass like a bolt of lightning. Some of the blades of grass were killed instantly, while other blades of grass seemed perfectly fine. I watched in horror as the glob of energy simply sank deeper into the earth. It seemed as if it completely ignored physical objects - which made it even more dangerous than a worldstrtider raid.


    Markus and the other soldiers also noticed the giant glob of energy, and seemed nearly as unnerved as I was.


    I looked at the paltry shell of metal that Felix had constructed around us. I felt a glimmer of anxiety as I realized that it wouldn''t defend us at all. Whatever was going on, Felix''s abilities weren''t capable of defending us from it.


    ¡°We need to go,¡± I said. I turned towards Markus and the other soldiers. "Are you guys... coming with us?"


    ¡°Coming where?¡± Markus asked, as he also looked at the skies. There was a hint of panic in his eyes, but he looked like he was trying to suppress it. "Where can we even go? What was that... glob of energy? It just fried half of the plants in front of the fort!"


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is, but we need to get away!¡± I said, before I glanced back into the distance.


    "Is there even anywhere we can go to get away?" Asked Markus dubiously, as he glanced at the sky again.


    "Whatever broke seems to be in the Northwest. If we head southwest, we can get further away... I think," I said. "After that, maybe the layers of reality will stop collapsing into each other. Or maybe there''s a range limitation, or... something." I shook my head. "We can try heading to one of the colonies if things keep breaking. They''re further away, so they might be safer.¡±


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    ¡°The Northwest is where the current battles between the enemy and humans are taking place. We were... just talking about how the enemy might have a final trick up their sleeve. Something to reverse the situation. Do you think this is it?¡± asked Markus. His expression of hazy confusion was morphing into an expression of dread. "What''s going to happen to Damilius?"


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We can figure it out later, but we need to go now," I said, hoping to snap him out of his confusion.


    Anise and Felix dropped their defenses and started running downstairs. <How much time do we have?> asked Felix as he disappeared from view.


    <I don¡¯t know,> I said. <The cracks in reality are spreading, but not very quickly. We have some time, but not very much.>


    <Miria. Calm down, take a deep breath. Now, look to the Northwest. Neither Anise nor I can see things as clearly as you. Knowing how much time we have can change things a lot. If we have ten minutes, our evacuation plan looks very different from if we have ten days. Do you have any estimates?> Felix said. His mental voice was calm and reassuring, and helped me quell the anxiety that had started to warp my thoughts.


    I closed my eyes, and took a few deep breaths, before I looked to the Northwest again. Every 10 seconds, I activated my spatial sight again, and tried to analyze how quickly the cracks in reality were spreading. It was an incredibly crude way of assessing damage to the two layers of reality, but it was all I had to go off of right now.


    After a few seconds, I grimaced.


    <I don''t think any more huge cracks in reality will appear for a while,> I said. <I can see that the cracks are spreading, but not very fast. We should try to be far away from this fort within two hours though.>


    I was mostly guessing here - I didn¡¯t have very acute senses when it came to dimensional insight, or at least, not in comparison to what I needed right now. But I could at least tell that the barrier between the two layers of reality was deteriorating at a slow pace.


    <All right. Two hours. Let¡¯s take the time to pack our bags then. We can spend¡­ ten minutes on it. Then, we need to be out of the fort.> Felix frowned. <We don¡¯t have anything that will let us move as fast as we might like, but we should be able to grab a train. I know that one of the railroads stop near our fort at around this time every night. We can hitch a ride on it, with some luck.>


    It was as good a plan as any, and I didn''t have any better ideas. I nodded, before realizing Anise and Felix couldn''t see me. <Got it.>


    <We can take the railroad back to town, then grab Iselde, Vance, Dr. Trish, and Old Mo. Then, we can take a ship to the colonies, if we keep ahead of the collapse. Do you think that the ocean will pose any sort of barrier for the collapse of the two layers of reality?>


    <I doubt it. I can think of no reason why the ocean would matter. We''re just relying on pure distance and hoping things don''t get worse.>


    <Not the best plan.> Felix''s mental voice was tinged with a layer of worry, although it was well-concealed. <But it''s what we have to go off of.>


    At the same time, I turned back towards Markus.


    "We have ten minutes. Meet in front of the fort afterwards. There''s a train we need to hitch a ride on, and then we need to get out of here. If the train doesn''t show up, or if we''re too late... we might be dead."


    Markus and the other soldiers looked grim at my words, but they nodded. The four of us that had remained near the card table abandoned the game as we rushed towards our rooms. I just hoped we could move fast enough.

 Chapter 293: Midnight Train

    The train screeched to a halt in front of us. Markus fiddled with the command token he now held in his hand, looking more than a little nervous as he did so. He looked... uncomfortable as he held it.


    After hearing my words, Markus and the other soldiers had gone to pack their supplies. The fort commander had noticed them moving around, and asked them what they were doing. Markus and the other soldiers had told the fort commander what I had said... and the commander had spent a while pondering their words. Then, the commander had come to me to verify my words. I had pointed out the large hole in the sky... not that it was very visible in the darkness. The hole in space was pitch-black, and didn''t stand out much when there wasn''t any sunlight to illuminate it.


    The commander had spent a few minutes squinting at the patch of sky I had pointed out, before he finally sighed. Then, he had commanded Markus and the others to report my words back to town.


    I thought that was a bit odd. After all, the military had dedicated messengers. However, while his behavior was strange, I was grateful for it. I didn¡¯t want to leave Markus behind while we fled. I had promised Trish that I would check on Markus. How could I explain abandoning him at the last step of our journey away from the front lines?


    When I saw the commander''s expression, I realized that he believed me. Which made it all the more disconcerting when he refused to leave with us, or gather more soldiers to flee. Instead, he wore a grim, empty expression as he stared at the night sky.


    A part of me suspected that he knew he might die here, and was trying to give at least a few of us a way to flee. A bigger part of me wondered why he didn''t save more, or save himself. But I didn''t have time to understand his psyche. The catastrophe was coming, and we needed to move. With the commander''s orders, and a new command medallion, the seven of us left the fort and headed for the trains.


    I tried not to let my last sight of the fort commander weigh on me as I saw a conductor step out of the train and frown at us. His eyes swept over my dress, before he took a closer look at my, Anise, and Felix''s faces. Finally, his gaze settled on Markus''s command token. Then, his gaze settled back on me.


    ¡°Who are you? You don''t seem to be here to help unload the train."


    ¡°I¡¯m Miria! I¡¯m here because I have a healing ability, and I''m studying medicine. I was volunteering on the front lines as a healer. But now that things are starting to settle down, I want to go home and see my family. My¡­ grandfather is in a pretty bad state of health right now, and I want to check up on him.¡± Old Mo wasn''t technically my grandfather, but he might as well have been. He had taken far better care of me in this life than my real family.


    The conductor¡¯s expression softened a bit as he looked at me.


    ¡°How old are you?¡±


    ¡°Almost seventeen.¡±


    The conductor sighed, and rubbed his temples.


    ¡°Young enough that you think the ''almost'' matters." He sighed again. "The trains are meant to ship people to the front lines, but I guess there¡¯s no harm in bringing medical volunteers back either. The front lines are no place for a kid anyway.¡± Then, he looked at the soldiers that had come with us. His gaze settled upon the token in Markus¡¯s hand again, and he raised an eyebrow. "What about you four? You definitely don''t seem like volunteers, or doctors." His eyes narrowed as he looked at the token. "You aren''t looking to desert, are you? Did you steal that medallion?"


    Markus winced, but stood his ground.


    ¡°We¡¯re carrying a message back to town. Something has happened on the front lines, and I¡¯m to bring word back.¡±


    The conductor frowned.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t the military have messenger networks for that? Why would your commander send you to carry word back?¡± the man gave Markus and the other few soldiers a severe frown. Markus stepped forward and patted the train conductor on the shoulder.


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    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± he asked.


    The conductor looked at Markus with an expression of confusion.


    ¡°My name is Matthew.¡±


    ¡°Matthew, then. The four of us have fought on the front lines for months. We¡¯ve risked our lives to keep the country safe. Less than an hour ago, something¡­ broke. I don¡¯t know what it is, but Miria and her friends say that it has to do with space itself. Our commander told us that we¡¯re to bring word back to town¡­ and a part of me suspects that¡¯s because the fort is about to collapse. If we were going to desert... wouldn''t we have done so weeks ago? Why would we desert just as the front lines are stabilizing?¡± said Markus. ¡°Every single minute we waste is a minute where the disaster creeps closer¡­ and a minute we could be organizing relief efforts. I know that it¡¯s irregular¡­ but we need to go now.¡±


    The train conductor¡¯s expression softened somewhat. He didn''t look like he completely believed us... but he also didn''t look like he was staring at deserters anymore. He sighed.


    "Fine.. You can get on. After we finish unloading the train. I don''t know what kind of disaster you think happened, but the front lines need these supplies now. And I''ll walk you to the military base.¡±


    I frowned. It definitely didn''t sound like the conductor actually believed us. That was... frustrating. But what mattered was that we were moving away from the front lines. Even if the conductor was being obnoxious, what mattered was getting to safety. Within a day or two, the veracity of our statements would be obvious enough anyway. With that thought, I felt a wave of relief flow through me. We had found a way to get Markus to safety.


    The seven of us boarded the train under the watchful eye of the conductor. Then, we waited. Every single second that the men spent unloading supplies made me want to scream in anxiety. Unloading supplies and people wasn¡¯t what we needed to do right now. We needed to turn around and move towards town as fast as possible. Unloading troops here was basically throwing them into a raging bonfire. If my fears about the spatial collapse were true, they probably wouldn''t make it back to their hometowns. But since the conductor didn''t believe us, there was nothing we could do. I just sat there and watched men and women march towards pointless and avoidable deaths and agonized over their fates.


    Half an hour later, the train finished unloading. After that, it started moving again, and we started to charge away from the front lines.


    We spent the next few hours on the train, as I kept an eye on the distant skies. As I used my various special sights to keep an eye on things, I realized the cracks were still spreading. However, they weren''t spreading as quickly as before. It seemed that the further away the crocks got from the epicenter, the slower they spread. This helped quell my anxiety even more. We were making progress. The train was moving away from the calamity faster than it was approaching us. By the time we drew closer to town, I could only see the little cracks in the far distance. I started recalculating how much time it would take for the cracks to reach town, and breathed a small sigh of relief. We had a day or so until the spatial collapse reached us. At least for now, it seemed like we had outrun the collapse.


    Markus and the other soldiers gave me a quick nod as I made my way towards the exit of the train. The obnoxious conductor eyed Markus and the others with a frown. Markus sighed, and gave me a quick hug.


    ¡°I¡¯ll make my report to the base here as fast as I can,¡± said Markus. ¡°I¡¯ll meet up with you and Trish afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll head straight to Trish¡¯s clinic. I''ll also grab Iselde and Vance, if I can convince them to come along. We should have about a day to get away from here. Stay safe. See you there.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll work on securing some tickets,¡± said Felix. "It''s late, but there should still be a few larger ships selling tickets off the mainland. Do we have a specific destination in mind?"


    I thought about what I knew about the colonies, and came up blank. I knew that our continent had conquered most of the rest of the world, and that some of the colonies had darker skin colors. I also knew that the colonies exported a lot of raw materials to our continent. That was it.


    I sighed.


    "I have no idea. Just find whichever ticket leaves first, and make sure it isn''t heading west. I would prefer if the ship headed southeast, to make sure we''re moving in the opposite direction of the catastrophe."


    "Got it," said Felix. "Anise, can you come along with me? It¡¯s quite late, and I wouldn¡¯t mind having a second pair of eyes around to keep me safe. Right now, you¡¯re better at direct combat than me.¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± chirped Anise. With that, the group of refugees from the front lines broke apart. I made my way towards Trish¡¯s clinic, and hoped that Trish wouldn''t be opposed to leaving with us. I didn''t want to leave a single person that I cared about behind.

 Chapter 294: Responsibility of a Doctor

    Trish was less than enthused by my plan to flee the continent. Part of that might have been because I woke her up at 2AM before dragging her to her clinic. Dr. Trish looked frazzled, and kept blinking and rubbing her eyes like an owl. But the real problem was her ethics as a doctor.


    ¡°I¡¯m not leaving until my patients are settled,¡± she said, putting her hands on her hips as she stared at me. ¡°People in this town rely on me to keep their loved ones safe. I can¡¯t leave without a word one night. Some of the families of these patients won¡¯t even know that danger is approaching them. If your suspicions are correct, everyone in this town might die. It''s not much, but... I want to find a solution for my patients and their families, at least. We should give them a chance. I''m not saying that I''ll sit around and die with them, if they don''t have an escape route. But I feel obligated to let them know what''s going on, and make sure the patients can survive a few days without my help."


    I winced. That was¡­ actually a fair point.


    Dr. Trish ran a well-known and respected medical institute. Plenty of people came to deposit their injured loved ones and seek medical treatment.


    Normally, if Dr. Trish left, it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to notify people in advance and handle the aftermath. People could send their loved ones to other medical facilities in town for a few days, and Trish would stop accepting new patients. That was exactly what she had done during her wedding.


    But we only had a day before we needed to be off of this continent. The sooner we left, the better. But trying to contact everyone in the middle of the night was unlikely to end well.


    ¡°How long is it going to be until you and the others leave?¡± asked Dr. Trish, frowning. ¡°I need to track down the families of the patients. I also need to wait for Markus. I''m definitely not leaving without him.¡±


    <Felix, do you have tickets for the boats yet?> I asked.


    <I found a boat that had several passenger slots available. I¡¯m checking their destination right now. Why do you ask?>


    <What time is it departing?>


    <Tomorrow at noon. That¡¯s about ten hours from now, so we would still have fourteen hours to spare when we leave. It should give Markus enough time to finish reporting to the military base in town.> I could practically hear Felix roll his eyes through the bracelet. <However much good that will do. We will even have a couple hours to sleep and pack up. And... we could also track down your mother. If you want to.>


    I hesitated. Did I want to track down my mother? After she had chosen to fall back into her drug dependency, I had left her to her own devices. Hearing about her, and how her life was going, had become painful. Unless she started literally dying, I wanted as little contact with her as possible. Part of me had hoped that if I cut her out of my life, she would finally make better decisions. But... that had never happened. Now, I wasn''t sure what to do. How final was my separation from her? Should I drag her along, even if she might never change her ways? Or leave her to die on this continent?


    I didn¡¯t know which course of action was correct. Thinking about it... hurt. I pushed it out of my thoughts, and decided to think about it later.


    ¡°We¡¯re leaving tomorrow at noon,¡± I said, as I turned back to Trish. ¡°I estimate that the catastrophe will reach here in about a day, give or take a few hours. As long as we leave tomorrow at noon, we should be well out of the way before the crisis hits. That also gives us enough time to grab some emergency supplies and sentimental items.¡±


    ¡°Got it." Trish started tapping a finger against her chin as she fell into thought. "If that¡¯s the case, here¡¯s what I think we should do. We can go to sleep for about four hours. You look like you haven''t slept all night, and you seem exhausted. It''s better if you don''t need to rely on your healing ability to stay awake, so you should get some sleep. When we wake up again, the rest of town should also be up. After that, we have four hours to track down the families of the patients. From there, we can let them know that we¡¯re leaving, as well as the danger of staying. I can also administer a bit of last-minute medical assistance. Are you willing to help with that?"


    I didn''t hesitate. "Of course. I don''t know how useful it''ll be, but if it makes your conscience hurt less, I will heal everyone back into shape."


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    "Good. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t believe you when you speak of the danger... but it''s also possible the government has a plan for this situation. Of course, the country might have no idea how to fix this, in which case, fleeing the continent is the right choice. But as a doctor, I still need to make sure my patients are taken care of if I''m wrong. That means making sure that they¡¯re in good enough condition to go to a different facility while I¡¯m away. After we explain the situation, it''s up to the patients and their families. What happens after that isn¡¯t my responsibility anymore.¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s see what last-minute healing we need to do.¡± Then, I paused as an idea struck me. It wasn''t something I felt I was obligated to do... but it felt right. It might even give me a bit more Achievement.


    <Felix, how many passenger seats are available on that boat?>


    <The ticket seller says there are a total of thirty more seats available. This is AFTER I bought tickets for you, me, Anise, Trish, Markus, and Old Mo. Why? Do you want to add a few more people? I can buy a ticket for your mom if you want.>


    <Buy those tickets, would you?> I asked.


    <All of them?>


    <Yes.>


    <Do we have thirty more passengers?>


    <Maybe. If it doesn¡¯t work out, we can give the tickets away as we leave. But I¡¯m hoping we can save a few more people. I also suspect that rescuing a few more people from this calamity will be worth a bit of Achievement. I get Achievement for healing people and curing permanent disabilities. It stands to reason saving lives in a crisis is also worth something.> I smiled as I turned back towards Dr. Trish.


    ¡°We can bring the patients, and their families with us if needed,¡± I said. ¡°We can bring up to thirty more people along.¡±


    ¡°Thirty, huh¡­¡± Dr. Trish glanced at the occupied parts of the clinic. ¡°We have eleven patients that are staying overnight in the clinic. We¡¯ll see how many people want to come along from their families. I doubt we''ll fill up all thirty seats, at least.¡±


    I nodded. With that, I made my way into the clinic, and administered some magic healing to everyone in need of it. In eight cases, I was able to outright cure the patients on the spot - which would have freed Dr. Trish from her self-imposed obligations. The ninth patient was Old Mo. I spent a few minutes looking at him, but... I still couldn''t do anything for him. He was healthy, at least in body - but his soul wasn¡¯t looking any more attached to his body than it had been before. He was still in a coma, and I had no idea if or when he would ever wake up.


    I sighed as I saw the man who had treated me like family lay in bed, dead to the world, and then shook my head. ¡°Hope you wake up soon,¡± I said, as I brushed his hair back from his old, wrinkled face.


    After that, I tended to the last two patients. One of them was a heavily pregnant woman, who was liable to give birth at any moment. She wasn''t ''injured,'' so there was nothing for me to heal. We would just have to take her along, if she was willing to come. The final patient had a head injury, and their soul was lightly detached from their body. It was nowhere near as bad as Old Mo''s condition, but it was still enough that they were in a coma. I did my best, but couldn''t actually heal his condition.


    After that, I curled up in Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic on an unused patient bed, and went to sleep.


    * * *


    The next morning, after getting about four hours of sleep, I stepped out of Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic. Rather than the usual sounds of the town waking up, the town had an uneasy air to it. It didn¡¯t take long to figure out why.


    In the skies to the Northwest, there was now a visible smudge in the sky. It looked kind of like a stormfront rolling in¡­ but not quite. It looked more like two planes of reality were mashed together in an inglorious, incoherent blob. Bits of sky were in places they shouldn''t be, and bits of ground were in places the sky should be. I wasn''t even quite sure what to make of the phenomenon anymore. If I were strong enough, I would have been very interested in studying the catastrophe further. It would definitely improve my understanding of space and dimensions by leaps and bounds. But now wasn''t the time for that. I wasn''t strong enough to survive studying the catastrophe right now.


    I scanned the skies for a few minutes, before I relaxed. At the very least, it didn¡¯t look like the dimensional collapse was moving any faster than I had expected. We still had around 20 hours before the catastrophe reached us.


    ¡°Are those the cracks in reality you were telling me about?¡± asked Dr. Trish.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I said. "They look worse than I thought. I wonder if anyone else from the forts managed to escape." I felt a certain heaviness in my words as I said that. I wanted to believe that some of the other soldiers I had chatted with had made it out, but... I doubted it.


    Dr. Trish grimaced. ¡°Markus didn¡¯t come last night while we were asleep. He better show up quickly, or else I¡¯ll¡­¡± She trailed off, sounding unsure of what she would do.


    ¡°If need be, we¡¯ll go collect him later,¡± I said. ¡°I won¡¯t leave him behind to die. He deserves better than that.¡±


    Dr. Trish didn¡¯t look completely reassured by my statement, but she at least looked better than before. I glanced at the clocktower in the center of town, before I schooled my face into a determined expression.


    We had four hours. I intended to make them count.

 Chapter 295: Departure

    Once the patients woke up, I explained what I knew about the cracks in reality. I also did my best to emphasize its catastrophic nature on reality and people. A few of them seemed skeptical, even after I pointed out the black ¡®fog¡¯ in the distance. However, most of them seemed worried by my words, much to my relief. Even though the black fog in the distance resembled a storm front, it was different enough that people could tell something was wrong with it. Then, Trish and I divided up the patients. She would go to speak with those who lived on the eastern side of town, while I would focus on the western side of town.


    When we stepped out of the clinic, I saw a few members of the military standing on the corners of the road. They were holding up flyers and yelling at passerby, although it was hard to make out their words over the din of everyone else.


    I moved a little closer, before I frowned.


    "Warning to all citizens! There appears to be some sort of anomaly to the northwest, with unknown effects! People are advised to take shelter in their basements, and to stock up on food and water while the government gets things under control! Thank you for your cooperation!"


    That... was not a very good plan. Basements wouldn''t do anything at all to keep people safe from the spatial collapse. At most, it might protect people from some debris, if something got dragged into the sky and then fell back down... but that was a questionable scenario. The military''s attempts to maintain order would also make people far less likely to flee... and fleeing was exactly what people needed to do in order to survive.


    I debated trying to argue with the man sitting on the side of the street, before I shook my head. Most people would probably choose to believe the military messenger over me, so I doubted I could do anything here. I grimaced, and turned towards Trish. She gave the military messenger a doubtful look, before she rubbed her temple.


    "Forget it. Let''s just do what we can. Oh - I almost forgot." Trish dashed back into her clinic for a moment, before I saw her scribble a few messages to the clinic workers. It was an abbreviated from of the explanation I had given her about the spatial breaks. Trish hung them near the front of the clinic, in spots where they would be easy for the workers to find. Then, Trish nodded at me. "All right, let''s go. Meet back at the clinic in four hours or less."


    The two of us broke apart, as the patients who were willing to listen led us towards their families. The patient families were less receptive than I had hoped for. Some of them agreed to follow us out of town, but an unfortunate number of them kicked me out while I was talking. The military''s messenger had already given people a ''solution'' to the problem at hand, and moving out of town would disrupt their lives. They would have to give up their jobs, their homes, and many other things. Thus, they chose to remain, since they believed they would be safe as long as they stayed. I could understand where they were coming from, but it was frustrating to be shooed away when I was trying to help them. There wasn''t much I could do to change their minds, so after discussing with them, I left.


    After three hours of running around, only three of the families I visited were willing to follow us. I also stopped by to pick up Iselde and Vance, who, thankfully, were much more willing to listen. It was less than I had hoped for, but I had done my best.


    When I returned to the clinic with the three families, I found Felix, Trish, and Anise waiting for me. There were also three medical workers and their families, as well as one more family from Dr. Trish''s patients. Seeing the families of the medical workers brightened my mood.


    One of them was also carrying a woman I recognized.


    My mother.


    I gazed at her, and noticed that some of the characteristic blue discoloration associated with Fizz abusers had returned to her face. She was unconscious, and a faint smile lingered on her lips. I sighed, and injected a small trickle of healing magic into her body. It was enough to help... but not enough to completely heal her. There was nothing I could do to completely heal her, especially when she refused to change her lifestyle. I couldn''t change that... but I would at least bring her with us when we fled.


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    I turned away from my mother and back towards Trish, before I gave her a brief hug.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I tried to convince everyone I could, but I only convinced three families agreed to leave with us.¡±


    Dr. Trish sighed. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ not as many as I was hoping for, but I had bad results on my end too. I only got one family to agree. Four out of eleven is a bit low, if the catastrophe is going to be as bad as you fear it will be.¡±


    I sighed. ¡°There isn¡¯t much I can do about it, unfortunately. It¡¯s not like I can drag them with us, kicking and screaming the whole way."


    Trish shook her head. "It''s unfortunate, but it happens. Even in a clinic, patients have the right to make their own decisions. Even if they choose to refuse lifesaving treatment, as long as they''re of sound mind, they are the ones who make choices. It''s their body, after all. It''s a shame, but their choice is made. I¡¯ve done everything I need to as a doctor. Old Mo is also stable, so we can move him as needed. Your mother is here as well, although she doesn¡¯t seem like she¡¯ll wake up anytime soon.¡± then, she turned towards Felix and Anise. ¡°Where¡¯s Markus?¡±


    ¡°He said last night that he was going to make a report to the military base near this town. He said he would meet up with us today,¡± I said.


    ¡°How long until the ship leaves?¡±


    ¡°We have about two and a half hours left,¡± said Felix.


    ¡°Let¡¯s wait one hour then. If Markus isn¡¯t back by then, we¡¯ll break into the military base and drag him out, regardless of the situation. I¡¯m not leaving a friend to die here,¡± I said.


    ¡°Break in?¡± Dr. Trish gave the three of us suspicious looks. ¡°I¡­ appreciate the sentiment. But breaking into a base of armed soldiers is foolish. If you try, the military will lock you up, and then we¡¯ll all be stuck on the continent when the catastrophe hits. If Markus gets the three of you killed with him¡­¡±


    I hesitated, but decided not to say anything. While breaking into a military base seemed outrageous, we had done exactly that once before in this life. With all of our abilities, while breaking into a military base wasn¡¯t easy, it wasn¡¯t anywhere near as risky as one might expect. With my ability to teleport bullets around, Felix''s metal manipulation, and Anise''s force manipulation, even a base of soldiers wasn''t a huge threat. But explaining that to Trish was difficult. Unless things started really going wrong, I didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to reveal our ¡®unusual¡¯ nature.


    Luckily, things didn¡¯t go that far. Forty minutes later, Markus appeared at the door of Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic. He looked tired, and more than slightly irritated, but he was present. He schooled his expression back into a tired smile when he saw us.


    ¡°I see you¡¯ve got everyone,¡± he said. ¡°This is a bit more crowded than I thought it would be. Do we have a boat willing to carry everyone?¡±


    "We do," said Felix. "We still have two tickets left, in fact. If you have anyone else you care about and want to bring along... now is the time?"


    Markus shook his head. "My parents died when I was eight. Factory explosion." Markus grimaced. "Factories weren''t as regulated back then."


    Trish touched his arm gently, and Markus seemed to relax a little bit. Trish also shook her head.


    "Mine died of illness. It''s why I became a doctor."


    So neither of them had families to bring along. In that case, two tickets would go to waste. I sighed, before I shrugged. Only wasting two tickets was quite lucky, all things considered. With nine families, I would have actually expected us to need more tickets... but it seemed that we had lucked out in the number of people coming with us. We didn''t need to smuggle more people onto the ship somehow.


    "Well, at least we managed to get four patient families, Iselde and Vance, and three clinic worker families with us," said Markus. "More would have been better, but it is what it is." He made his way to Dr. Trish, and then planted a firm kiss on her lips. ¡°Can¡¯t save everyone, love. Though I know you want to.¡±


    Trish sighed, but didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Felix.


    With that, everyone assembled their luggage and carefully wheeled the patients out of Dr. Trish¡¯s clinic. We made our way through town, in what must have looked like one of the strangest processions of people ever. However, as we walked through town, I felt a surge of relief. We were moving. We were going to get out of this continent alive.


    We made our way to the ship without any major incidents. A little under two hours later, the ship raised anchor and sailed into the boundless blue sea.


    We had escaped the continent, and fled from the catastrophe.

 Chapter 296: Refugees

    For two hours, the sea remained calm. We watched as the continent faded into the distance, while Felix admired the binding essence coursing through the ship. The water surrounding us made me feel at ease, and with everyone I cared about with us, I felt good. The only complaint I had was our speed.


    The ship didn¡¯t move very quickly. I wished that it moved at a faster pace. However, when I had asked one of the sailors about it, had told me this was a regular coasting speed. Steam ships that ran on coal and alchemy had replaced sails, but they weren¡¯t optimized yet. Thus, many steam ship engines overheated if they were pushed to their limits. As a result, steam ships moved at slower speeds unless they needed to.


    Still, it wasn''t too bad. Even if we weren''t moving as fast as I had hoped, we were still making good time.


    Eventually, as I watched the ocean pass us by, my mind drifted off. I started to think about our destination.


    We were heading towards an archipelago that lay south of the Zelyrian continent. It was formerly known as ''Zanna'' by its inhabitants, and was conquered by Damilius 50 years ago. It was a large archipelago, about three times the size of Damilius. It exported a lot of different plants, such as cocoa beans and medicinal supplies. It was also rather sparsely populated. Despite being three times the size of Damilius, it only had ten million inhabitants. Rainforest covered most of the archipelago, and so much of the inner continent was ruled by poisonous plants and animals.


    I was glad Felix had chosen this colony as our location. The prevalence of disease and poisonous animals meant that doctors would be highly valued there, so Trish and I would be very welcome. Furthermore, the area had large metal reserves, so Felix would have plenty of materials to experiment with. It was a good new home overall¡­


    As I was drifting off into thought, I saw a few black dots on the horizon. That was enough to shake me out of my contemplation.


    At first, I thought  that they were bugs that were flying near us, or Worldstriders flying across the ocean. So far, the Worldstriders had ignored the sea, but that didn''t mean they were incapable of leaving the Zelyrian continent. I had no idea whether they could fly across an ocean without collapsing from an exhaustion, but perhaps it was possible. But as I continued to observe them, I realized the black dots weren''t Worldstriders. They were boats. And they were getting closer.


    I tensed up, wondering if pirates were about to attack us. Then, I realized the boats weren''t very... seaworthy. I suspected half of them would collapse after a day or two at sea. They looked more like civilian fishing boats than ocean-traversing vessels. Soon, I started to hear the faint voices, although it took me a while to piece together what they were saying.


    ¡°Help us! Please!¡± yelled a woman. Even with my absurd Perception, I could barely make out her voice.


    I guess they''re not pirates, I thought as I observed their ship. Pirates wouldn''t be trapped in ships that might sink at any moment. I started to feel nervous for a different reason. Would the people in those boats sink before they reached us?


    I squinted at them, and started trying to figure out a way to save them. It might be difficult, but with my healing magic, I could heal them while they were drowning. Swimming to each person and saving them would be difficult, even with help. The closer they got to the ship, the easier rescuing them would become...


    I froze when they got close enough for me to see something more... peculiar on their ship. The little dinghy of a ship had an engine, but it was very different from a proper steamboat engine. It looked like someone had slapped together a clunky mess of alchemical affixations onto a pre-existing sail. Then, instead of adding a normal steamboat engine to it, they had strapped a train engine to the sail. Somehow, they had linked the two together using affixation. However, even though I knew almost nothing about alchemy, I could tell the entire setup was a mess. The fact that it worked at all was a minor miracle. I suspected it would fall apart at any moment.


    "Felix, do you see that?" I asked, pointing towards the boat.


    Felix frowned.


    "Vaguely. It looks like a couple small civilian ships. What are they doing here?"


    "Take a look at the engine," I said, before using the communication bracelet to share my field of view.


    ¡°That¡­ looks like some of the messiest affixation I¡¯ve ever seen,¡± he said. It sounded like he was caught between awe and disgust. ¡°I can¡¯t tell if that¡¯s genius, or the worst craftsmanship I¡¯ve ever seen. What the heck?¡±


    ¡°Will it hold long enough for them to reach us?¡± I asked. Unlike our boat, they looked like they were making full speed towards us, and their eyes held a gleam of hope and desperation in them. They were straining their engine beyond what it could handle, but they didn''t seem to care.


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    ¡°It should,¡± he said. ¡°The connection between the engine and the sail is very fragile. Affixations aren''t usually used that way, because it''s a terrible link. But it¡¯ll hold for another hour before it gives out. They''ll reach us in half an hour or so.¡± Felix squinted. ¡°At least, that¡¯s my guess.¡±


    I started to relax. They would reach us alive, then. We could figure out what to do from there.


    It took another few minutes before other people noticed the enlarging black dots. A few of the sailors started frowning and glancing into the distance, before one of them blinked in surprise.


    ¡°People! There are people in the distance!¡± He frowned. ¡°What is a civilian craft doing this far off shore? I thought those boats weren¡¯t made for anything this far out. They don''t look like lifeboats either. I don''t remember any ships passing through this area, so they shouldn''t be refugees from a shipwreck. What in the world...?¡± The man shook his head, before turning towards one of the other sailors. "I''m going to get the captain. I see civilian ships, and they''re in trouble." Then, the sailor dashed below deck.


    A few minutes later, the captain appeared. He gave the refugees on the dinghy, waterlogged boat in the distance a frown, before he sighed. ¡°Turn the boat towards them, and slow down. We¡¯re only a few hours away from shore. We can ferry some people back if need be. It''ll be inconvenient for everyone, but I won''t let civilians drown.¡±


    A few of the other passengers nodded at the captain¡¯s words. It would inconvenience everyone a bit if the boat sailed back to shore before starting, but most people on the ship weren¡¯t heartless. It was only a four or five hour detour anyway, at least in theory.


    I had a sneaking suspicion things wouldn¡¯t be so simple.


    I confirmed my suspicions once the smaller boats caught up to us and we helped the passengers board the ship.


    ¡°What happened?¡± asked the captain, as he helped the last of the passengers onto the deck. ¡°Did you get into some sort of accident? Your boats don¡¯t look like lifeboats. What are you people doing out here?¡± The captain frowned. ¡°Sit tight, we¡¯ll turn the boat around and get you guys back to the mainland in a few hours. You can tell me about the details below deck. We¡¯ll also get you warmed up with a nice bowl of soup, so -¡±


    One of the civilians shuddered at the captain¡¯s mention of the mainland.


    ¡°No! Don¡¯t bring us back to the mainland! It¡¯s dangerous!¡±


    The captain¡¯s frown deepened.


    ¡°Dangerous?¡±


    One of the other passengers nodded so frantically that they resembled a bobblehead. ¡°The mainland is dangerous now! We have to get away from it!"


    The captain''s confusion grew, and he frowned. "Explain."


    The rescued civilian shivered again, and then looked at the sky. "The sky turned darker and darker. At first, we moved towards our basements, like the town criers told us to... but that didn''t help at all. After an hour, we started to hear this awful singing. The closer the darkness in the sky got, the louder it was. Then, people started screaming and covering their ears. A few minutes later, people started bleeding out of their eyes and nose. People tried to help them, but then they started getting hurt too. Then, the air started shaking, as if it were an earthquake.¡± The passenger shuddered. ¡°We need to get away from the darkness in the sky!¡±


    I frowned. Weird singing sound? How... odd. I was reminded of the sound Project Nightsong made during battle, and how it had incapacitated Anise and I in the Worldstrider layer of reality. Was this related?


    The captain bit his lip, and then eyed the direction of the mainland again. It was obvious that he was thinking about what the passengers had described. At first, he seemed disinclined to believe them¡­ but after several seconds of silence, his gaze hardened. Finally, he sighed.


    ¡°What you describe sounds unbelievable. But I won¡¯t risk the lives of my passengers. Welcome aboard. We¡¯ll continue to our original destination and wait for news.¡± He grimaced, and turned towards one of the sailors. ¡°Also, check for fishing gear and any ways to whip together rain collectors. We brought some extra stock of food and water, but we should start preparing for any supply shortages in advance. We have twenty more mouths to feed.¡±


    A few sailors started helping the new passengers situate themselves. Several people were asked to share a room, and luggage was shifted around. Trish and I volunteered to give them medical checks, which the new passengers gladly accepted. Then, I started thinking about supplies. Our ship only had about a hundred and fifty people on it to begin with. Adding twenty mouths for a two week voyage would strain our supplies. However, while that would normally be a problem, I resisted the urge to grin.


    I used my soul-sight to check the ocean around us, and saw dozens of little fish-souls in the ocean below our feet. I hadn¡¯t bothered searching for them before, but with my soul-sight, finding edible food wasn¡¯t hard.


    As for water¡­ my dress had plenty of freshwater in it. Explaining where I got it would be a challenge, but with Felix¡¯s knowledge of alchemy, we could make something up. People probably wouldn''t think too much about where we were getting the extra drinking water from. Saving a few dozen people¡¯s lives would also be a good source of influence Achievement. Every little bit helped.


    I was also glad that I had moved us when I did. I had no idea exactly what had gone wrong, but it was obvious the worldstriders had done something, and Project Nightsong had gone haywire. Even if I didn''t understand the details, I was glad we had left when we did. We could figure out the details when we heard news later, but getting to safety was what mattered the most. And with my help, we wouldn¡¯t even need to struggle to feed the new passengers of the ship.


    Although the sailors and the captain seemed worried by the sudden news of the mainland catastrophe and the new passengers, I relaxed. I couldn''t hear or see any spatial disturbances, and we were getting further away from the continent. In addition, we got the chance to save some people and earn a little more Achievement. It was a good sign of things to come as we sailed towards our new home.

 Chapter 297: Zanna

    The day after the refugees had joined our boat, I decided to demonstrate what I could do to the captain and sailors. After all, I didn¡¯t want people to panic for nothing. After they settled down, I demonstrated how we could get food and water for the new additions to the boat. Of course, since I was known to have a healing ability, Anise was the one that actually ¡®caught the fish.¡¯ I killed a bunch of fish with extinguish, then teleported their bodies near the surface of the water. Then, Anise lifted them the rest of the way onto the deck using {Mage hand}. We claimed that Felix¡¯s mental communication ability also let him sense other minds in our area.


    I wasn¡¯t sure if the captain believed us, but he was more than happy to see a large pile of fish float onto the deck, ready for consumption. The sailors hadn¡¯t brought much cooking oil with them, but there was still enough for some basic cooking in the kitchen. If we got desperate, the captain also said that there were ways to process raw fish into fish oil using alchemy. It was much easier with proper machinery, but it was possible. Felix started experimenting with that after the captain mentioned it - more as a way to alleviate boredom than out of need.


    After that, Felix ¡®invented¡¯ a way to purify moderate amounts of water using his alchemy. Of course, in reality, I was pulling water out of my dress and tossing it into a bucket, before we boiled it.


    Combined with my healing, the logistical issues for the new passengers were resolved. I wasn¡¯t capable of resupplying the entire ship, but I could take care of twenty extra people.


    About a week into our journey, we also finally got a System notification I had been expecting for quite a while. I had honestly expected it the moment I saw the spatial rift appear in the Northwest, but it had taken a full extra week. I didn¡¯t know why that was the case, but I decided not to think about it too much. Perhaps there had still been some unresolved factors, or there might have been some other factor in play. In any case, I was happy to finally receive my rewards for influencing the war between humans and worldstriders.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence (Resolution of previous notices): Have a [Minor] impact on the war between Worldstriders and humans.


    Special note: Since there were several smaller instances of unresolved impact on the war, they have been combined into one notification for the sake of brevity.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +6,120


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The reward was wonderful. It pushed me from 10,432 Achievement to 16,552 Achievement. Anise also got a comparable amount of Achievement, bringing her to about 14,000 Achievement. She was also making a decent income in this world.


    Of course, our ¡®sizeable¡¯ Achievement reward was nothing compared to Felix¡¯s. I had healed a bunch of soldiers for a few weeks and helped a fort or two, as well as wiped out a few Worldstrider camps. I had some impact on the war¡­ but not much. After all, every action I took was on the level of an individual. I didn¡¯t do anything that changed the way the war was fought, or warp the outcome in any meaningful way. My impact was very limited in scope since the war involved millions of soldiers. It was questionable whether I had impacted more than one or two thousand of them.


    Felix, on the other hand, made a much bigger contribution. He had helped invent railroads, and invented tube guns. Railroads fundamentally changed the way supplying the front lines worked, so it was a massive contribution. Tube guns had a much smaller impact, since the war ended shortly after their creation. However, they still had a small but noticeable impact on the front lines. Even if he hadn¡¯t done much besides that, those two things had given him a [Moderate] impact on the war. He got a about 15,000 Achievement, bringing him up to 38,000 total. It was such an absurd amount that I gave him a celebratory fish feast the day he got his rewards.


    38,000 Achievement meant that Felix had a LOT of chances to become stronger after this world. He would gobble up stats, and maybe even new non-keyword Abilities. We hadn''t picked up very many of them so far, since we hadn''t even finished our keywords yet... but with this much Achievement, Felix might finally have a bit of leeway for utility abilities. Next world, he might be stronger than the rest of us. I was happy that my friend was doing so well, even if I wished that Anise, Sallia and I had reached the same level of success in this world. Having Felix get more Achievement than the rest of us combined made me wish I could do more.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The rest of the voyage passed uneventfully. We didn¡¯t run into any pirates, or other trading ships, or unexpected crises. With my help, we resolved our supply problems before they even became real problems. Our greatest threat during the voyage was boredom.


    Two weeks later, we arrived at Zanna.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Have a [Major] impact on saving several refugees from the destruction ravaging the Zelyrian Continent


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +540


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    540 Achievement was a bit less than I was hoping for, but it wasn¡¯t a bad amount. It brought my total from 16,552 to 17,092. Besides, Achievement was more of an afterthought this time. Regardless of what happened, helping people still felt nice.


    After looking through my new System notification, I spent minutes observing our destination.


    The first thing I noticed was the wilderness. There was a single massive town on the coastline. It sprawled out like building blocks scattered by a giant. At least in width, it nearly resembled a city from the Zelyrian continent. However, the buildings were much shorter and squatter. More notably, the city was surrounded by green in every direction. Outside the city, trees stretched into the sky, and plants that I didn¡¯t recognize stretched into the distance. Animals that I had never seen before rustled the leaves of distant trees, and the area was hot and humid.


    It actually reminded me of the island world, in a weird way. The port city we were arriving in was larger than the villages of the islands¡­ but the blue sea and endless green reminded me of home. It made me smile as we disembarked.


    That smile quickly turned into a frown as I looked at the city we had arrived at.


    The city was separated into two districts. One district was the area we had docked at - it was a small, walled off inner region of the city. It was small, and had paved roads and expensive-looking decorations hung off many of the houses. The houses were sturdy, well built, and made of a type of rock that resembled marble. The people inside of that part of the city looked healthy, wealthy, and well-fed.


    The problem was the rest of the city. Outside of this little, walled-off section, was a massive slum. It was filled with hovels and scattered factories, all strewn haphazardly across the area. Those factories leaked pollution into the city¡¯s only river, and spewed smoke into the rest of the city. The people in that area of the city had darker skin tones, and many of them looked far less healthy than the Damilian colonists.


    There was a massive problem in how the natives were being treated here.


    ¡°Is this what the colonies look like?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I suspect so,¡± said Felix, frowning. ¡°I admit, I haven''t looked into the way the colonies are run, but... this is not great." He shivered. "I wonder if we would have been treated the same way, if the Megailians from our first life had succeeded in invading the islands."


    "This is almost as bad as the slums of Verne. But this time, it feels... more oppressive," said Anise. "I don''t like it."


    Felix nodded.


    "Now that I think about it... with how the natives are treated... what happens once they learn that Damilius has suffered huge losses? Worse, what if Damilius has been entirely destroyed, and the people here learn of it?"


    I frowned. I felt that the answer was self-evident.


    The people here didn''t seem like they were treated with any real dignity or respect. The moment they could escape the control of their colonial oppressors, they probably would. I doubted that process would end well for anyone who seemed to be from Damilius. I couldn¡¯t even say that I blamed them.


    When the Megailian empire invaded the islands, I had fought against them precisely to prevent an outcome like this. I didn''t want to fight on the other side of a similar war in this world. If I did that, I felt like I would lose something far more precious to me than a few more decades here. After all, if I we had reincarnated in a slightly different area, we could have easily been one of the natives living in the slums here. I wasn''t willing to become a colonial oppressor just to ensure my comfort.


    I rubbed my forehead, and then motioned Anise and Felix aside. We needed to find a way to get out of here before things went wrong.

 Chapter 298: Daldyr

    ¡°I agree,¡± said Trish, as she looked over the massive, sprawling slums that lay outside of the inner city.


    "Really?" I asked, as I tried not to grin.


    ¡°Trish and I both agree. The current situation is unstable,¡± said Markus, as he grimaced. ¡°This situation is a barrel of gunpowder. All it''s missing is a match."


    ¡°I¡¯m also happy getting out of here,¡± said Anise. ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t know who¡¯s in the right here, if things explode like this. On one hand, most of the people of Damilius didn¡¯t directly participate in the injustices committed against the people here. I don''t think they deserve to get hurt because of that. But on the other hand, I don''t think the Zannans are wrong either. If they want freedom from this, I would sympathize with them. So I don''t want to participate at all. It''s best to leave things alone and find our own path."


    I smiled. Anise''s words echoed my own sentiments. I didn''t want to participate in a war that didn''t feel ''just.'' In this case, I wouldn''t feel good about helping either side. I turned towards Iselde and Vance¡¯s families, to see if they objected, but they didn¡¯t have any words of rebuttal. They were less active in the conversation, but they still seemed to agree with us.


    "Then we''re all in agreement?" I asked. "We''ll find a quiet place to settle down and wait for everything to pass?"


    "Sounds like it," said Vance.


    ¡°In that case, we¡¯ll have to find a place where we can stay out of this,¡± I said, thoughtfully. ¡°How about a small, out of the way village? Somewhere that the natives were less harmed by Damilius¡¯s colonial policy? If the population is lower, it would also make it easier to escape if something goes wrong, since we can fight off a good number of combatants on our own. I¡¯m happy with being a village healer for a while, if nothing goes wrong.¡±


    Trish¡¯s eyes lit up.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind being a doctor for a small village, either. It may not be quite the same as my old clinic, but¡­ I wouldn¡¯t have studied medicine if I didn¡¯t like healing people. And I miss having a clinic under my name," she said. "I put a lot of years into the last one, and losing it feels bad."


    Markus nodded. ¡°I could find a job as a woodcutter or something. I¡¯ll have to look around a bit and see what jobs are available, but I¡¯m sure I can figure something out. I have a pretty strong body, from all of the training in the military. Since factories are far less widespread on this continent, manual labor is more valued here. I can leverage that.¡±


    After a few more vague planning for what kinds of jobs and environment we wanted for our new home, we broke apart. Then, we started hitting up the local shops. Money from Damilius might become useless soon if things blew up, but it wasn¡¯t useless yet. We used every single scrap of money to buy supplies. The three of us prioritized materials for Felix¡¯s experiments and medical supplies for a new clinic. We also bought a bit of chocolate, since it was cheaper here, and some books for Anise. Finally, we bought supplies such as tents, food, and water, for if we ran into some sort of problem acquiring those outside.


    Then we bought a map of the rest of the archipelago, as well as a few travelogues and introductory guides to the continent. We regrouped near the dock, and spent the next few hours trying to match our needs against the descriptions of various towns and villages. Eventually, we found a few towns we were satisfied with. All of them were on the smaller side, with populations lower than ten thousand, and were rather rural. We avoided plantations, because those would likely also be pits of resentment. The towns we looked at were also close to metal deposits, so that Felix would have materials to play with.


    Through reading the travelogues, Trish and I also realized that there was a smaller, hidden benefit to settling in a rural town. There were a lot of poisonous bugs and plants on this archipelago. Thus, there were a lot of diseases and dangerous injuries that appeared here. In a rural town, it was unlikely that there would be any truly exceptional clinics or healers, meaning Trish and I would be much more appreciated. This would also make our position more stable if things erupted in a dangerous way. It might not be a perfect guarantee of safety, but it was the best we had.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    The final thing we did before leaving town was find a few books on the language and culture of this archipelago. I wouldn¡¯t be able to learn how to speak Zannan in only a few days, but I could at least learn some basic phrases and cultural customs. The people here would definitely feel better about us if we learned their language, so I intended to add it to my to-do list.


    We spent a little longer hashing out exactly which town to head to, and settled on Daldyr. It had a population of 7,000, and exported a modest amount of wool and meat. After choosing our destination, we started walking. It took us three days of hiking across dirt roads, but with the help of Soul Sight and Anise¡¯s magic, we didn¡¯t have any major problems during the journey. We hunted down a few smaller animals to eat as we traveled, and our tents were decent enough quality to keep us comfortable.


    My mother started suffering from withdrawal symptoms as we travelled, and I healed her each time. I still had very mixed feelings about her. While it had hurt, I had accepted a long time ago that my mother was not going to be a part of my future. She didn¡¯t want to be. Or at least, she didn¡¯t want to be a part of my life as much as she wanted to keep taking drugs. The only thing I wanted from my family in each world was for them to love me. Sometimes, I felt that from my mother - but much more of the time, I felt like she had forgotten about my existence. I didn¡¯t want to subject myself to a relationship where I tried to help someone and they spat on my efforts over and over again.


    On the other hand, I had brought her to this continent. Leaving her to die had still felt wrong to me, so I had brought her along. But I didn''t think that would change our relationship. I spent much of the hike trying to figure out where the line between my mother and I should be. What was and wasn''t okay. What I was willing to do to help her, and what I wasn''t willing to do.


    Coming to conclusions was hard when the problem was so complicated. So eventually, I settled on leaving things be for now. I would distance myself again once we got to town, and take things one step at a time after that.


    Once we arrived at the new town, it looked more peaceful than I expected. While people didn¡¯t exactly look prosperous, they weren¡¯t poor, either. Our group stood out among the local populace, but not very many of them looked resentful of us.


    I smiled. The lack of resentment was a good start. Some of the people who had showed up seemed wary of us, but nobody seemed outright afraid or hostile. If they were, things could have spiraled out of control much more easily. But since nobody here seemed to care that we were from Damilius, things would be easier.


    As we continued walking forward, a short, scruffy-looking man with skin the color of ebony and an easy smile stepped forward. He gave us a brief nod, as his eyes swapped from person to person. It looked like he wasn¡¯t sure who to talk to.


    I glanced at the others, and they gave me slight nods. With their approval, I stepped in front of the group, and held out my hand in the Zannan hand gesture for ¡®respectful meeting.¡¯ Zanna had a lot of emphasis placed on some physical motions, such as the first hand gesture one makes when meeting a new person. Since I had learned about it, I would definitely use it.


    Upon seeing my hand gesture, the man¡¯s eyes lit up. He made the same gesture back at me, and then smiled.


    ¡°It¡¯s rare to see someone from Damilius use a proper hand gesture,¡± he said, in perfect Damilian. I blinked in surprise, and the man laughed. ¡°I can speak the language of Damilius pretty well. I handle exports from the village, and we have a few business dealings with companies from the mainland. Since that''s the case, I learned the language so that nobody could cheat me. What brings you folks here?¡±


    ¡°My name is Miria, and these are my friends and family members. We¡¯re looking for a place to move to. Does this town need someone with a healing ability, a doctor, and a few workers?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Ability?¡± The man gave me a much more interested look. He chuckled. ¡°We don''t have an ability user in town. Can''t say I''m that familiar with how abilities work what their limits are. Are you willing to give a demonstration? You can settle here either way, but I''m curious.¡±


    I grinned. "Of course!" In my thoughts, I cheered. The first step towards building up good will seemed like it would be easier than expected.

 Chapter 299: Healing the Town

    My plan was simple. Resentment against Damilius might explode soon. Since that was the case, we needed to build up goodwill with the locals, in case something went wrong.


    What was a good way to make people like us?


    The answer was simple: healing. Dr. Trish was a medical expert with years of experience, and I was no slouch either. In addition, I had a healing ''ability'' that allowed me to fix all but the most serious of problems. Not only was healing people obviously useful, it was also hard to replicate. The universities on this continent weren''t very developed, due to colonial exploitation. Furthermore, ability potions were rare, since materials for them were exported to Damilius. Thus, medical experts and healing abilities were both very rare here. That meant my magic would have a strong competitive edge.


    Of course, just healing people wasn''t enough to establish the goodwill I wanted. So for the first week here, we would provide healing services for free. That way, everyone would think about how nice it was to have us around whenever they thought about us. Through this, Trish and I would build a protective halo for our group. It might not be the most stable protection against a disaster, but it should help a fair amount. Furthermore, this town was on the smaller side, and only had a population of 7,000 or so people. It was the perfect place for our group to fit in and still receive meaningful goodwill from the community. If we tried to move to a village, they would probably be too insular of a community for us to ever properly blend in. If we moved into a city, any goodwill we garnered would be meaningless, since we would still be strangers in an ocean of people. Here, as long as we were careful and diligent, we could fit into the community.


    Of course, free healing wasn¡¯t the only part of my plan. In the travelogues we had read about various towns and villages, one of the travelogues written two years ago had discussed this town¡¯s ruling body. It stated that the town had a council of five elders, elected once every five years by the rest of the townsmen. The man who had greeted us outside the village was the son of Veldym, one of the five elders.


    Veldym had a daughter who was plagued with a painful chronic illness. The author of the travelogue hadn''t specified what illness she had, but had described its symptoms in some detail. Trish and I were pretty sure she had been born with the cushioning between her spine discs missing. I wasn''t sure if I could replace the missing vertebral discs, but I could still help alleviate pain. As long as I kept healing her, one of the five village elders would be in our corner if anything went wrong.


    It was a simple but effective plan.


    The man who had met us near the entrance of the village, Veldym''s son, started out by leading Trish and I to a few villagers. It looked like they had various minor injuries and illnesses. The first patient was a middle-aged woman with a deep gash in her arm. It looked like it was less than a day old, and it had been bandaged already.


    The second patient looked to be about the same age as me - somewhere between fourteen and eighteen. He walked with a limp, and he winced every time he bent his leg. He had some sort of leg injury, although I didn''t see any obvious wounds on him.


    Finally, there was a woman who had gnarled, ruined hands. Her fingers were lumpy and misshapen, like the roots of a tree, and her skin was red and irritated. I wasn''t sure if she had been born that way, or had been injured, but it looked like she was in a lot of pain. Even basic tasks like opening doors would be painful if her hands were this injured.


    "I''ll take the woman with the gash. Can you treat the other two?" asked Trish.


    "Of course," I said, as I stepped towards the teenage boy. It took me a few minutes to pinpoint exactly what was wrong. The first thing I noticed after I investigated was an odd lump in his knee. At first, I thought it might be a bite of some sort. With the number of venomous creatures on this continent, having lingering pain from an irritated bite made perfect sense. However, after investigating further, I realized I was completely wrong. The lump wasn¡¯t from some sort of venom at all - instead, it was a literal shard of his bones.


    "What happened here?" I asked. The elder''s son translated my question, and after some questioning I got the full story.


    A few months ago, the boy had fallen from a tree while trying to pick fruit and impress a girl - and had shattered his knee upon the fall. The local doctor had pieced his knee back together, but hadn¡¯t managed to fix all of the lingering problems left behind. Somehow, a shard of his bone got lodged inside his knee, and a lot of the other parts of the knee didn''t work as needed. The boy was considering cutting off his leg and replacing it, but was hesitant to take that step. His essence reserves were on the lower side, and people here couldn''t afford high quality prosthetics. Thus, a replacement leg would seriously limit his mobility. That was when our group had arrived at the village.


    After hearing his problem, I got to work. First, I told the boy what I wanted to do and got his permission. Then, I used one of Dr. Trish''s numbing agents to keep the boy from thrashing around while I worked. I used a scalpel to cut open his knee, then used Trish''s pliers to remove the bone fragments still inside his kneecap. Less than fifteen minutes later, I finished removing everything, and then started using my healing magic. In seconds, the missing parts of his bone and his cut knee healed, until it looked like a normal knee. Then, I used a little more healing magic to remove the numbing agent from his system. The boy blinked in surprise when feeling returned to his knee, and he gave me a curious look.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Try it. It should work just fine now," I said.


    ¡°How @#$& @#$&@#, Bell?¡± Asked the elder''s son.


    Bell stretched out his leg. He blinked in surprise, and then started moving it a bit more vigorously. Finally, he tried putting some weight on his leg, and then grinned. Finally, he started laughing, before he jumped up and down a few times. Then, he stepped closer to me, and gave me a big hug.


    ¡°No@#$@# anymore! She @#$#@$ (&%( !(@*#&@!(*#!¡± said Bell, before he gave me another hug. ¡°@#*$(#@&$ you!¡±


    The elder''s son smiled at me, and then swapped out of speaking Zannan and back to Damilian. ¡°It looks like you healed his leg. Bell wanted to say thank you, although we should still wait a few days to make sure no other problems crop up. But¡­ it looks like your healing ability is even stronger than you said it was.¡± He turned towards Trish, who was bandaging the middle-aged woman''s arm, and then raised his eyebrow. ¡°Out of curiosity, is there a reason the doctor is healing that gash, instead of you? I had intended to get you to demonstrate your ability a bit more, so that I can learn what you¡¯re capable of.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s because her injury isn¡¯t serious,¡± I said. ¡°I try to reserve my ability for issues that can¡¯t heal without it. I have a limited amount of essence per day, so I try to save it for emergencies. If there¡¯s a minor injury, Trish and I try to heal it using mundane healing methods. I know that this is a test to see how my ability works, but it¡¯s also important to show how we manage mundane injuries. After all, we¡¯re here to display our medical abilities, not just my healing ability.¡±


    The elder''s son nodded thoughtfully. ¡°I suppose that makes sense. How does @#*($&@# @#%%@ @#$, Red?¡± he asked.


    ¡°@#$*(%(* ^$(*)%&$ @#$.¡± said the woman Trish had been working on, before giving Trish a hand symbol I didn¡¯t recognize.¡±


    The elder''s son grinned at Trish. ¡°She says the bandage feels all right, and she¡¯ll give it a day or two before reassessing.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good,¡± said Dr. Trish. ¡°If she has any other problems, send her back to me or another doctor as soon as possible.¡±


    The elder''s son nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll call her healing completed for now, then. What about her?¡± He pointed towards the woman with gnarled hands.


    As I was about to answer, I realized that the elder''s son was paying very close attention to my actions. There was a mixture of hope and worry etched on his face, and it didn¡¯t take me long to figure out why.


    He¡¯s worried about his sister, I thought. I smiled to myself. As long as things went well, his sister would be much better soon.


    "I haven''t tested how my ability works with chronic illnesses," I said. I saw his face fall, but I smiled. "No matter what, I can still treat symptoms, though." I stepped closer to the woman, and then splashed a cup of water on her. I sent a trickle of essence into her body. I could sense that I was healing¡­ something afterwards. As my essence flowed away, the woman¡¯s expression softened, as if a bit of longstanding pain was gone. Some of the gnarled, irritated appearance of her hands started to fade away. In a slow, unnatural-looking process, her warped hands started to straighten themselves out. After nearly ten minutes, her hands looked almost the same as a normal person''s hands. She laughed, as she touched her palms and ran her fingers along her hands.


    "@#*($) pain @#*$&$#," she said, before she also gave me a hug. This one was much tighter and fiercer than Red''s hug, and I could feel her crying into my dress. I gave her a fierce hug back - after all, I was glad that she liked my healing so much.


    The Elder''s son''s gaze sharpened, as he looked at me.


    "@#*$ )!@(#*?" he asked the woman I had just healed.


    "@#*()%," she said, nodding fiercely.


    I saw the elder''s son look at me again, and this time, the hope in his eyes blazed like a bonfire. Then, he hesitated for a moment, before he nodded. There was some measure of caution in his gaze, but there was still a much greater amount of hope.


    ¡°Well, it looks like you two have sufficient medical skills. Feel free to set up a clinic in the village. I¡¯m glad that your group decided to settle here. We''re always in need of good doctors.¡±


    Then, the man grinned at us. ¡°If things go well for a few days, I might also have a more personal request for you. But we''ll wait a little longer to see how things go.¡± With that, the man left.


    Trish, who was already aware of my ¡®build goodwill through healing villagers and the elder¡¯s daughter¡¯ plan, smiled at me. Now that the elder''s son had approved of our healing abilities, it would be easy to heal other villagers and build up some goodwill.


    The two of us moved back towards the rest of our group, where we found the elder''s son chatting with a few other villagers. After the conversation, a few of them approached us, with questions about how much we charged to heal, and what injuries we could or couldn¡¯t treat. The two of us answered honestly. I also snuck in a few mentions of how we would heal people for free at first, in order to be ''neighborly.'' Some of the villager¡¯s eyes lit up after hearing that, and they left shortly afterwards.


    Most of them returned within an hour, bringing along their sick and injured friends and family members. Trish and I cured them free of charge, and they thanked us as they left. Over the next few hours, more and more villagers came to get help with various illnesses and injuries. Their problems ranged from poisonous bites, to broken bones, to more odd injuries and lacerations. Trish and I healed them all.


    After hearing that we weren¡¯t charging, more people came. After a while, it reached a point where it was hard to manage everything. My essence and Trish''s energy were limited. But we still managed to heal several dozen people, and promised to keep healing people for free for the next few days. The villagers who got treated seemed grateful for our free healing. At the end of the day, I felt exhausted, but satisfied. Based on all of the villager¡¯s responses, the first step of building goodwill was complete. The villagers might not stick their necks out for us yet, but they seemed more at ease with us. As long as we worked hard for a few weeks, I was confident that we could build a proper new home here.

 Chapter 300: Maela

    Three days passed. Trish and I continued our healing spree, and in that time, we saw over a hundred patients. Most of the problems we treated were on the smaller side. With a population of only 7,000, there weren¡¯t exactly thousands of injuries a week. Of course, there were still emergencies that cropped up. We lived in the middle of a rainforest filled with venomous and disease-carrying insects, after all. There were still people who got sick or poisoned and needed help beyond what a potion could provide.


    However, the ratio was lower than I had expected. The alchemists of this town were very used to whipping up antidotes for this area''s venomous creatures. In addition, people didn''t hesitate to remove poisoned limbs if the situation was desperate. In this world, it wasn¡¯t hard for people to replace limbs if needed. That meant that people were more willing to cut off an arm or leg if a poison was too dangerous. Then, they would replace the limb with a prosthetic after returning to town.


    For that reason, we had less patients to treat each day than I had first expected. It also meant that we needed less time and essence per patient. After all, many of the injuries we ended up treated were minor.


    Even so, we maintained a grueling pace to make sure the villagers who needed treatment all saw us. After three days, we were exhausted - but the results were satisfying. Now, most of the villagers smiled when they saw Trish and I. I had even heard a few off-handed comments about how Markus was a lucky guy, having married such a kind and beautiful healer. A few other people sometimes mentioned that they had a few sons my age, if I wanted to meet them. They didn¡¯t seem entirely serious when they said that - probably because there was still a divide between our group and the rest of the town. But after three days, the elders felt comfortable enough to joke around with me and tease me. Even though I had no particular interest in romance right now, I took that as a good sign. It wasn¡¯t quite the deep sense of trust and community I hoped to build, but it was a step in the right direction.


    Meanwhile, the others in our group had also started to find ways to blend into the community. They didn¡¯t have access to a healing ability, the way I did. That made it harder for them to build goodwill at the rapid pace Trish and I worked at. However, they still worked hard to build footholds of their own. Markus ended up connecting with an old lumberjack, who had served in the Damilius military during a previous continental war. A day later, Markus started working as a lumberjack.


    Felix started a job of his own as a ''simple'' alchemist. The industrial revolution hadn¡¯t fully swept through this town yet, so potion production was actually on the lower side. The local alchemists thus focused on anti-poison and disease potions, because they didn''t have enough time to make potions for more complicated problems. Felix immediately started working on filling in the gaps. With some help from Markus, Iselde¡¯s family, and Vance¡¯s family, we set up a larger potion-mixing vat. It still wasn¡¯t quite the same size as the ones we had seen underneath the sewers of Verne, where the vat produced hundreds of gallons of potion per day. However, it was larger and more streamlined than the setups the local alchemists were using. Normally, that required special metals to set up, since the metal needed to conduct binding essence. Felix Felix could sidestep that requirement with his absurd affinity for Binding essence. With these advantages, Felix started mass-producing potions to cure weirder poisons and diseases.


    Anise, meanwhile, ended up helping people move around heavy objects. Her ''force manipulation ability'' was perfect for it. She didn¡¯t seem thrilled about her job, but she was willing to do it while she searched for a better option. The upside that Anise found about our new home was practicing her magic. We were surrounded by rainforest¡­ which also meant that there were huge swathes of private, deserted land near us. It was perfect for Anise to try out new spells and play with her magic. She just had to make sure nobody was peeking on her during her practice.


    My mother¡­ sat in the house that we had rented, and acted like a walking corpse. Even the previous dim intelligence in her eyes was starting to fade. When I investigated her brain, I saw that it was far more clogged with dried fizz clumps than before. Especially near the center of her brain, where I couldn''t extract the fizz safely. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was going to wake up again. There wasn¡¯t much I could do to help her, either. Part of me felt sad, for a family relationship I had always wanted from my mother but hadn''t gotten this life. A bigger part of me was unsurprised. With how my mother had acted in this life, this was the expected outcome. I had tried to give her every chance to change things, but her willpower and my healing skills both proved insufficient. I hoped that in the future, I wouldn''t have to face this kind of problem again. I also hoped that in her next life, my mother would lead a happier life. For now, there wasn''t much I could do but make her comfortable and see how long she lasted.


    Vance and Iselde, meanwhile, ended up helping Felix with his alchemy business. Both of them were competent enough at Alchemy to scrape by, and with Felix¡¯s help, they could at least help mass-produce simpler potions. I doubted it was their dream job, but it was a stable job in an unstable situation.


    At the end of the third day, the elder¡¯s son approached me after I returned home from Trish''s clinic.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°The two of you have been working hard,¡± he said, giving me a curious look. ¡°I expected you to only offer free healing for a little while. But you and the doctor have been healing people for free for three days now. If you don¡¯t mind answering, can I ask why?¡±


    ¡°We want to build goodwill, and a sense of community,¡± I said. ¡°Moving to a new town isn¡¯t about money, or belongings. For something to feel like home, the people are the biggest part of the equation. We¡¯re different from the people who were born in this town. We didn¡¯t grow up with everyone else, and¡­ erm¡­ we look a bit different,¡± I said, indicating my tan-colored skin. While it had stood out a little bit in Damilius, it stood out much more here, where the sun was hot and people''s skin colors were darker. ¡°Also, we have accents that people from this town don¡¯t, and we don¡¯t speak Zannan very well yet. Not all of the townsmen here even speak Damilian, so we can¡¯t even converse with everyone. I want to fit in more. I want to have a real community here. That starts with showing goodwill. For people to accept us, we have to accept them first, right? I also want to show them that despite being outsiders, we''re good people.¡± I smiled. "That''s the reason. Nothing too special, but it''s my goal.¡±


    The elder¡¯s son nodded thoughtfully. ¡°I suppose that makes sense. Why did you folks move here, anyway?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ there was a small catastrophe on the Zelyrian continent, and we ended up fleeing from it,¡± I said. I launched into a retelling of the events that had led us here, starting with our time at the fort on the front lines.


    As I spoke, the elder¡¯s son started to give the distant horizon more careful looks. I couldn¡¯t tell whether he felt uneasy or just thoughtful, but he had a rather peculiar expression on his face. Finally, he nodded.


    ¡°What happened on the Zelyrian continent sounds horrifying. Do you think the catastrophe will spread?" He asked.


    I paused. "I don''t... think so? The catastrophe was spreading slower and slower as it got further away from the epicenter. I suspect it will outright stop at some point." I paused, and for the first time since entering Zanna, I tried sensing the sub-layer of reality. However, it didn''t seem to be present in Zanna at all. It wasn''t that it had broken... it was as if it had never existed to begin with.


    I frowned. Was the weird sub-layer of reality something that only existed on the Zelyrian continent? That was... odd. And also implied that the sub-layer of reality might be rather artificial in nature. That could explain why a single catastrophe could shatter it... but more importantly, it meant that the catastrophe wouldn''t spread here.


    "We''re probably safe here," I said.


    The elder''s son patted me on the shoulder. ¡°I hope so too. I''ll bring it up with my father later, to see if we can think of any countermeasures. Either way, that nightmare is behind you. You¡¯ve done a lot of good work in the village so far, and I hope that nobody gives you a hard time for being from a different continent.¡± Then, he frowned. ¡°Though, I do have a more personal question to ask. Are you¡­ all right with healing someone else? My sister was born with a rather unusual disease, and I wanted to know if you''re willing to take a look at it."


    I suppressed the urge to grin. This was exactly what I had been waiting for.


    ¡°Of course. I''m happy to help,¡± I said.


    The elder¡¯s son led me to his house, making small talk as we moved along. Finally, when we reached his house, he led me to a room, before he knocked on the door.


    ¡°Maela, there is a visitor. Are you feeling up to seeing her? She might be able to help,¡± He asked.


    ¡°Brother, you don''t have to keep searching... fine, forget it. She can come in,¡± came a whispery voice from inside the room.


    We entered, and I scanned the room. It didn''t take me long to find the patient.


    True to the details in the travelogue, Maela looked like there was a problem with her back. She flinched anytime she moved, and it looked like her spine was inflamed. Maela herself looked to be in her late teenage years, but she was laying in bed like an elderly patient. It looked unpleasant.


    However, the travelogue had left a few rather important details out. Perhaps the author had never actually seen Maela, or perhaps they just hadn''t cared enough to talk about her more. Either way, the problem was far from simple.


    In addition to the inflammation in her back, there was something wrong with her legs.


    They were far, far too thin. It almost looked like severe malnutrition¡­ but it was only her legs that seemed as thin as skin and bones. There was almost no muscle on her calves and shins at all. I tried not to wince. It looked very painful.


    ¡°Can you heal her?¡± asked the elder¡¯s son, as he gave me a hopeful glance.


    "Let me check how my ability interacts with her condition," I said. "May I?" I asked Maela.


    She nodded. I splashed a few drops of water on her leg, then sent a little bit of essence into her body. A moment later, I grinned.


    A small part of the essence made its way towards her spine, healing away some of the inflammation. However, another part of the essence made its way towards her legs. A moment later, her expression brightened. She turned towards me, and I could see a mixture of shock and a faint, nearly undetectable trace of hope in her eyes.


    ¡°I felt something,¡± she said. ¡°My back and my legs felt better. What did you do?¡±


    ¡°I used my healing ability,¡± I said. ¡°I''m pretty sure I can heal you.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can get your legs working again, okay?¡±


    Maela eagerly nodded, almost like a chicken pecking at rice, and I smiled. Seeing patients happy always felt good. Then, I poured a full cup of water on her legs and got to work.

 Chapter 301: Death Zone

    It took two hours to finish healing the elder''s daughter. The process started out slow, as I tried to what was wrong with her body and maximize my healing efficiency. However, after an hour of constant failure, I only had a rough understanding of the situation. I could tell that her body had two problems. The first problem was lack of cartilage in her spine. That was easier to fix - my healing magic could even regrow lost limbs, so I could regrow the cartilage with little difficulty. After that, her spine was as good as new. Her legs were the confusing part. For some reason, her body refused to send the correct amount of nutrients to her legs.


    Why was that the case?


    I had no idea.


    It might have been some sort of quirk in how her digestive system linked to the rest of her body. It might have been a problem related to the biology of this world''s humans. It could have been a problem with her digestive system itself. I had no way to figure it out. So after an hour of frustration, I gave up and threw more essence at it.


    That did the trick. Once I started throwing essence at the problem, her legs started to heal. That made me appreciate, for the first time in a while, how powerful my healing spell was. I was capable of healing injuries and maladies that I didn¡¯t have the slightest understanding of. Of course, there were some injuries that I seemed flat-out incapable of treating. Soul related injuries, and whatever had dropped Old Mo, were unhealable. However, most ¡®normal¡¯ injuries were fixable regardless of whether I understood them or not. This made it much easier for me to work as a healer when I want to.


    After I started throwing essence at Maela''s legs, I did my best to observe it. As far as I could tell, my healing spell treated Maela''s legs kind of like how it treated a missing limb. It started out by rebuilding missing muscles and bone density, at the cost of ludicrous amounts of essence. The cost wasn¡¯t quite as bad as when I regrew a missing limb, but it was close - which showed just how bad of a state her legs was in. Once her muscles, bones, etc. were rebuilt, I felt my ability link her legs up to the rest of her body.


    That made me wonder whether I had actually healed the root problem. The biggest issue was that her digestive tract wasn¡¯t sending nutrients to her legs. My healing magic had manually replaced those missing nutrients, but I had no idea whether the disconnect had been resolved. If not, she would have the same problem in a few days. However, as long as I was around and kept tossing more healing magic her way, she would be able to live a normal life.


    It wasn''t a perfect solution, but it was the best I could do. I still had no clue what the actual problem was, so I had no good way to fix it. Maybe in the future I would find a ''perfect'' healing solution, but at the very least, I could treat the symptoms for now.


    ¡°I¡¯ve restored your legs and spine as much as I can," I said after I finished working. "I think your spine should be in perfect working condition again. How does everything feel?¡± I asked.


    Maela tried massaging her legs, gently at first, and then with increasing firmness. She smiled. ¡°They don¡¯t hurt at all! Are they¡­ can I walk on them?¡±


    ¡°You should be able to, once you get reacquainted with your legs. Give it a try. Slowly, though. If it has been a long time since you last walked, your coordination probably won¡¯t be great. Be prepared to trip and fall if you aren¡¯t careful,¡± I said. "Actually, here - hold on to my arm. I''ll catch you if you fall."


    "I''ll do it," said her brother. His eyes were alight with anticipation as he looked at his sister. I hesitated, since part of me felt like I should do it. I was the medical professional here, after all. But then, I smiled and stepped back.


    I had incredible strength and reflexes. I could catch her in time. And Maela would probably feel happier if her first steps were done with the help of her family.


    Maela nodded, and her brother helped her climb off her bed and to her feet. Maela leaned against the wall and held onto her brother¡¯s hands as she took an unsteady, wobbly step forward. Her legs gave out partway through, and I stepped forward at superhuman speed and caught her. She looked at her legs again, and then started laughing. Her laughter grew louder and louder, until she started crying. At first, I thought she was frustrated, but then I looked at her, and realized she was smiling.


    ¡°I can feel them,¡± she said. ¡°Balancing is¡­ hard. I keep feeling like I''m going to trip over my feet. But I can feel my legs moving. They feel so much stronger than before. My back feels fine. My legs feel fine.¡± She reached up, and then hugged me. She buried her face into my shoulder for a moment, and then released me. "Thank you."


    I smiled. Seeing Maela so happy made me feel good about healing her. Still, I had some advice left to give her as a doctor before I celebrated for her.


    ¡°All right, your legs are weak right now. I''ve rebuilt all of the muscles, but your body doesn''t quite know how to use those muscles. I¡¯m going to start you off with a bit of physical therapy so that your brain and your legs can get reacquainted. These exercises are the same ones I give patients who lose their legs in an accident and then have them regrown, okay? Try them for a few days, and then we¡¯ll see what shape your legs are in and how the exercises are working for you. That''ll also give me a chance to see whether your legs start shrinking and deforming again. I might need to apply healing magic every few days to keep you healthy." I winced. "Sorry. I know it''s not perfect, but it''s the best I can do right now."Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Maela shook her head. "It''s still so much better than before. Even if I need a bit of treatment every few days... it''s worth it. Thank you, Miss Miria. I haven''t been able to walk since I was eight."


    I smiled, and then impulsively rubbed her head. Even though she wasn''t my sister, she kind of reminded me of a little sister. "That''s what I''m here to do. Now, let me walk you through the exercises I want you to do..." I started giving her a list of different exercises to help rebuild her coordination and strength.


    The elder¡¯s son grinned as he helped his sister back to the edge of her bed, where she started massaging her legs again. She didn''t seem to be sore, or worried about them. She just seemed to be reveling in the sensation coming from her legs when she poked them.


    ¡°I appreciate what you¡¯ve done for my sister, Miria,¡± said the elder''s son. "Are you sure you don¡¯t want payment? My father and I have been looking for someone who can heal her condition for years. We¡¯ve offered as much as we can afford, and while it¡¯s not enough to hire the expensive doctors, it isn¡¯t a small sum of money either. You deserve some form of compensation for what you''ve done."


    I shook my head. ¡°Right now, we¡¯re trying to build friendship with our new neighbors. I want the people here to treat us like members of the community. That¡¯s all.¡± I smiled. ¡°But we¡¯ll start charging for medical services next week, so don¡¯t take the free healing for granted. Okay?¡±


    His face changed to one of worry. "How much will it cost per healing session?"


    "Not too much," I said. "I''m not going to charge you some crazy, extortionate price. I admit, I still need to figure out the local currency, but it shouldn''t cost too much more than a regular medical treatment."


    The elder¡¯s son relaxed and nodded. ¡°That should be fine." Then, he hesitated for a moment. "How about you stay for dinner? My parents will want to meet you. Maela''s condition has been on our mind for a long time." He grinned at me. "My mother will probably make a celebratory feast when she sees my sister walking around, and you definitely don¡¯t want to miss her herbs and mutton stew. It¡¯s rare that she¡¯s in the mood to make it, but it¡¯s delicious.¡±


    I felt my smile widen. Dinner with one of the families in this town sounded like an excellent way to get to know people more.


    ¡°Sure."


    It took another hour before the elder and his wife got home, while I walked Maela through her physical therapy exercises. The elder was a man in his late forties or early fifties, but he had muscular arms and calluses on his hands. He was surprisingly robust and fit for a man his age. He wore a suit, indicating that he didn''t do hard physical labor anymore, but I suspected that was a recent development.


    The elder¡¯s wife looked to be in her late forties, and had smile lines in the corners of her eyes. She looked like a young version of a kindly old granny that would feed you excessive quantities of baked goods. I liked her at first sight.


    ¡°You must be the new healer everyone has been talking about.¡± The elderly man glanced at his son, before his eyes darted to the room upstairs. ¡°How did it... Did you¡­¡±


    I smiled. ¡°She can recover the ability to walk and live a normal life. She''ll need to work at it, and she will need occasional healing from me... but I can fix most of her problems.¡±


    The elder and his wife both dashed upstairs without another word.


    Ten minutes later, they emerged from their daughter¡¯s room. Both of made hand signs that I vaguely recognized. My Zannan hand signs were shaky, but I knew they were conveying gratitude. After that, I received two more invitations to dinner.


    The food was fantastic. It didn¡¯t feature fish, but the food was almost enough for me to change my favorite food.


    Almost. There was no beating the taste of home, after all.


    After dinner, we had a few glasses of some sort of fruit juice. It tasted a lot like strawberry juice, although the texture was far more pulp-y. It wasn¡¯t my favorite, but washed down the stew nicely. It was a fun night, and the elder and his wife invited me to come back anytime I wanted. I counted that as a win.


    The next week was peaceful. Trish and I continued healing people, although we switched from free to paid healing after a week.


    Everyone started to settle into their new life. A week and a half wasn¡¯t enough time to completely build a sense of community, but things were moving along on that front. Most of the townsfolk smiled when they saw a member of our group, and the elderly took a particular liking to Anise. We were starting to pick up more Zannan hand-signs and words. It was beginning to feel like we were actually home.


    Finally, near the end of our second week in town, the news I had been expecting and dreading came when we read town¡¯s daily newspaper.


    We learned the fate of the Zelyrian continent.


    The Zelyrian continent hadn¡¯t completely collapsed, the way I had feared. However, most of the nations near the front lines had disappeared.


    The strange black void from the skies had spread. Those who heard the sounds emanating from the voids mostly died. Large chunks of the sky had also collapsed during the catastrophe, heightening the devastation.


    About two thirds of the continent was now a death zone, including most of Damilius and all of Verne. The country that was least impacted by the disaster was Ennalia, which was perched on the Northeastern tip of the continent. There were also some bits of Damilius left, on the southeastern tip of the continent. However, there wasn''t much left of the former Zelyrian continent.


    That damage exceeded what I had expected. So many lives had been lost. It didn¡¯t sound like the Worldstriders had fared any better than the humans in this disaster. Both sides neared extinction in all of the affected territories. The disaster had broken the continent.


    And with the news reaching our town, that meant one other thing.


    The Zannans now knew that their former oppressors had little power left. Damilius could barely help itself now, much less control its colonies. The crisis I had felt brewing would erupt soon.

 Chapter 302: Gunpowder Barrel

    ¡°So the Zelyrian continent faces near total extinction,¡± said Felix. As he scanned the morning newspaper, he looked contemplative. ¡°I suppose it didn¡¯t completely fall, but enough people died that it''s a near thing. Ennalia is the only country from the continent that is still functioning. With these kinds of losses, the colonial era is over.¡± He shook his head, and then sighed. ¡°Well done for getting us out of there so fast, Mir. If we were still there I suspect we would have joined Sallia during the chaos.¡±


    Anise shuddered. ¡°I¡¯m glad we got out in time. But I feel bad for the people who were still on the continent. It¡¯s a shame that the Zelyrian continent is so disconnected from the rest of the world. Every direction is an ocean, and the distance to even the nearest colony is quite long. A lot people might have lived if boat space wasn¡¯t so limited.¡± Then, she moved closer to me, and gave me a hug. ¡°At least we got everyone we care about out of there. We even managed to rescue a lot of other people. It might not have been perfect, but we did everything we could have done.¡±


    I also sighed. ¡°It is what it is. I wish we could have done more, but¡­ we¡¯re too weak right now.¡±


    It felt strange for me to say that we were weak. At least by this world¡¯s standards, we were strong. If the three of us worked together, we could fight a few dozen soldiers on our own without threat to our lives. My healing abilities were even more abnormal, allowing me to cure most ¡®normal¡¯ injuries with minimal difficulty. I could heal dozens of life-threatening injuries per day and still have my absorption essence left over. In every sense, we ignored this world¡¯s upper limit on how strong people ¡®should¡¯ be.


    And yet, in the face of natural disasters, history, and armies, we were still tiny and insignificant. We could keep ourselves safe, but we couldn¡¯t do a thing to change the outcome of big events. I could heal several dozen people a day, but I couldn¡¯t influence the front lines of the war. I saved the people I cared about, but couldn''t stop the catastrophe from destroying the continent. I could do so much more than a normal person, but felt powerless in the face of large events.


    It was a sobering realization. For all that we had accomplished so far, we had so much further to go.


    I remembered that earlier in this life, we had come across that old soul fragment from the Market. It had talked about how some transmigrators from the Market destroyed weaker worlds they encountered. Their actions disgusted me... but their level of power spoke for itself.


    The four of us had come a long way from who we had been in our first lives. In a tier 2 world like this, we could stand out and do remarkable things. We utilized external magic systems, and that gave us massive advantages over the locals. But we were a very long way away from being able to destroy or save a world by ourselves.


    Was that the level of an ¡®average¡¯ wanderer in the multiverse? And how much longer would it be before the four of us reached that level? One where we could make a difference when things like this happened? The level we needed to reach felt far away when I looked at the newspaper.


    Finally, I shook my head.


    ¡°Someday, we¡¯ll be strong enough to prevent tragedies like this,¡± I said. "It''ll be a long time before we reach that point... but I want to reach it someday. So that tragedies like this don''t have to happen."


    Anise smiled at me and gave me a comforting hug.


    "Don''t worry. We''ll keep working towards it. It''ll take a lot of worlds... but I also want to be able to solve catastrophes like this. Being able to save continents with a single spell is the essence of a super witch!"


    I laughed, and felt some of the tension in my mind fade away. "You''re right," I said. "That does sound like a pretty super version of a witch."


    Felix rolled his eyes, but I saw the corners of his lips curl up. The tension in the room was gone.


    ¡°Did you notice anything different this morning in town?¡± I asked Felix, once my thoughts settled. While not all of the townsfolk read the morning paper, there should still be enough for word to spread. Within the next few days, we would have a clear idea of how the townsfolk would treat us after this news spread.


    Felix shook his head. ¡°I saw a couple of townsfolk giving me odd looks, but I don¡¯t think they were hostile. It seemed more like they were¡­ pitying.¡±


    "It¡¯s better than hostility, at least. I¡¯m glad that, at least so far, the villagers still seem to accept us,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯ll have to keep an eye on things. But for now, things are stable. If things go well, we can avoid the aftermath of this catastrophe.¡±


    After breakfast, I went to Trish''s new clinic, as usual. Before we opened, I pulled Trish aside to talk about what I had seen in the newspaper.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Has so much of the Zelyrian continent fallen?¡± asked Trish, shuddering. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize it would be this bad. I was expecting that several cities might get swallowed up, at most.¡± She sighed. ¡°I guess I''ll have to start reading the morning paper again. I''ve been trying to pick up Zannan, but the language is too different." She gave me a curious look. "I''m surprised you kids can read it so fast."


    I blushed. I had a very unfair advantage, with my Grade 8 [Intelligence] stat. Even so, I definitely hadn''t mastered reading in Zannan yet.


    "Umm... there are two versions of the newspaper. You can order it in either language," I said.


    Trish paused.


    "Oh. Could you, umm... could you help me set that up later?"


    "No problem."


    Trish cleared her throat, and looked distinctly embarrassed. "Was there a reason you were bringing the topic up?"


    ¡°I wanted you to keep an eye out,¡± I said. ¡°If the townsfolk start to give you nasty looks, tell me. I want to make sure we keep an eye on the danger level in town. If things get scary, we should leave before they get violent."


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye out. But I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll come to that. The people in this town are a lot wealthier than the average town in Zanna,¡± said Trish. ¡°Since their lives are better, they¡¯ll be less resentful of Damilius. I didn''t realize it at first, but this town has a rather good climate for some specific herbs and crops.¡±


    "Is that so?" I hadn''t found that information in the travelogue either, but it would explain the elder''s son knowing Damilian. Come to think of it, the houses and people here did seem better off than those in the city we had landed in. "Well, keep an eye on things anyway. Just in case."


    ¡°Will do,¡± she said. With that, we opened the clinic for business.


    At least on the surface, nothing changed for the next few days. Nothing exciting happened in town.


    Of course, that was only in our town.


    In the daily newspaper, as well as by word of mouth, the three of us started to hear of various incidents that would have been improbable before. Refugees from the Zelyrian continent started to arrive at various colonies. I assumed that most of the refugees still made their way to Ennalia, because that was the easiest to reach. However, a surprising number of people arrived in Zanna''s ports as well.


    The natives did not respond well to the influx of refugees. For decades, they had been held in check by the guns of Damilius, but Damilius hadn¡¯t fostered any sense of goodwill with the natives. People here were resentful of their unfair laws, discrimination, and bad management from Damilius. Now, most of Damilius was gone.


    So the natives started to push back.


    At first, it was minor. A few Zelyrian people were robbed and beaten in back alleys after arriving on the archipelago. They cried out for justice¡­ but the way they did it was rather high handed. A story that the papers focused on claimed that all Zannans were thieves. The interviewee said that the natives were nothing like the ¡®noble and kind Zelyrians.¡¯ Then they went into a long rant about the superiority of the people of Damilius.


    Of course, the newspaper focusing on this specific incident was¡­ interesting.


    The interviewee''s words were stupid, but I doubted that they were representative of the average refugee from Damilius. Furthermore, the way the story was framed made the entire story inflammatory. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was to sell more copies of the paper, or because it the newspaper had some sort of anti-Damilius bias. Probably the former, but in any case, it was problematic.


    Over the next month, things started to heat up. We heard of more and more ¡®street justice'' happening, as Zannans started to transition towards open rebellion. The local government had been backed by Damilius, but it was very unpopular with the people. Meanwhile, some Zannans started calling for people to replace the corrupt government. At first, these voices weren¡¯t very loud. As the weeks passed by, they became louder and louder. People started to realize that replacing the government wouldn''t be impossible. The current government had survived because it was backed by Damilius - but Damilius didn''t exist anymore.


    After a few more months, our group was still settling into the town well, but outside of the town, I could feel tension building up. It was like a gunpowder barrel, set to erupt with a single spark.


    But fortunately, Trish and I felt none of that in the town of Daldyr. While a few people started giving us nasty looks, most people still gave us polite nods and warm smiles on the streets. Markus didn¡¯t face any overt discrimination at his job with the lumberjacks, and Felix, Iselde, and Vance¡¯s alchemy shop still had regular traffic. They received fewer customers than before¡­ but we didn¡¯t face any real violence or overt backlash. I got the sense that our town was still pretty calm, rather than being a gunpowder barrel on the verge of exploding.


    Finally, after about six months, the situation in Zanna erupted. Many Zannans revolted against the government, while people from Damilius and the government tried to resist. I didn''t think the situation was optimistic for the current government, but I had no way of knowing who would win yet.


    It didn''t matter to us, though. While chaos erupted elsewhere, in town, nobody did anything to us. A few of the townsfolk left town to go join the rebellion, but none of them tried to hurt our group. They just disappeared one day. People kept visiting Trish¡¯s clinic and Felix¡¯s alchemy shop. The elder whose daughter I regularly healed praised my medical expertise to her friends. Our patients had nothing but praise for Trish and I. Most of the town still treated our group with respect and dignity. Everyone seemed content to stay out of current events. That was perfect for me.


    After a few more months of observation, I smiled. Right now, I wanted to stay tucked away in my little corner of the world, with the people I cared about. Luckily, the rest of town seemed to feel the same way. Our town was well away from any strategic points or areas of importance, so the Zannan rebellion and the government ignored us. They had better places to send their troops. Because of how hard it was to get to our town, and the low population, they didn''t even come to raise taxes or conscript people. They had bigger fish to fry. We had avoided the whole mess.

 Chapter 303: Dreams of Brass and Steel

    As the months continued to pass by, the civil war began to intensify. Small conflicts became large, and soon, the rebellion grew to the level of a civil war. The native Zannan people rallied together, with the goal of kicking out the corrupt colonial government. At first, Felix thought that the old government would lose instantly. However, the colonial government held on surprisingly well at first. They had large stockpiles of supplies from Damilius''s factories, which made them quite powerful. The production capabilities of an industrialized nation were way too different from that of a colony. However, the initial advantage of the colonial government dissipated after a few months. The supplies from Damilius were formidable... but Damilius was gone. Without the homeland to keep sending ammunition and potions, supplies started to run out. Within four months, the colonial government was low on ammunition, potions, and food. That was when the war started to turn against them.


    Local factories couldn''t keep up with their needs at all. Once the rebels and the colonial government had similar supply levels, the number advantage of the rebels came into play. The colonial government started losing more ground than they won. Each month, they lost battles and territory as the rebels overwhelmed them. After a year, Felix confirmed that the colonial government was on its way out. They had fought better than expected, but they had no way to turn the war around.


    Luckily, the war avoided their town. Felix suspected suspected this was due to Zanna¡¯s scattered population. Apart from a few large cities, the rest of Zanna was small towns and sparsely populated rainforest. Thus, the combatants in the war focused on the major cities on the coastline. The population and resources of Daldyr were meaningless for the overall war, so nobody bothered them. The group had chosen their new home well. The only real change in their life was the daily newspaper.


    Originally, there were a few different newspapers. The colonial government published one, while others were written by Damilians who had settled in Zanna. However, as the rebels became more active, a new paper called ''Good Morning, Zanna¡¯ started circulating.


    As the rebel forces spread, ''Good Morning, Zanna¡¯ started to become the easiest newspaper to read. This was because many other newspapers faced various circulation problems. Felix had a sneaking suspicion that the rebel army was suppressing negative news. The newspapers that had the most ¡®problems¡¯ getting their products out were the papers that criticized the rebel army. Meanwhile, papers that criticized the old government faced far fewer logistical problems. It was a bit frustrating to have the Zannan rebels clamp down on free news so much... but Felix had to admit, he wasn''t that surprised. Controlling the press was an easy way to establish legitimacy for the new government, and this world didn''t have any ideal of free press. As much as he would have preferred a better environment for newspapers, he supposed it was normal here.


    The other thing Felix noticed was news about factories. Both sides of the war were in desperate need of supplies. However, factories on this continent struggled to function. This was because of constant saboteurs with bombs. The level of bombing and subterfuge was absurd. Felix wasn''t even sure how both sides kept blowing up the other side''s factories. But they obviously had some way to consistently pull it off. This was one of the reasons the supply shortage got so bad for both sides - nobody could keep a factory running for any reasonable length of time.


    Felix took that as a strong reminder not to build any factories yet, even though he wanted to. Miria and Anise seemed tired of wars and conflicts, and Felix suspected that a factory would bring an army to their doorstep. The supply situation for both sides was that abysmal. A town with no resources was worthless, but a town with several factories might be worth fighting over. Felix didn¡¯t feel that was a terrible opportunity to grow, but since Miria and Anise didn¡¯t want to participate in the war, he wouldn''t do it.


    Instead, Felix took that time to work on his inventions. Since it was dangerous, Felix didn¡¯t build any factories. At least, not yet. Instead, he focused on one thing - setting up for when the chaos settled down.


    Recently, as he started to find a niche he was comfortable with, Felix had started to think about what he could do for the group in this world. He had come to a conclusion: right now, his focus was to generate the most Achievement he could. This was based on a simple thought. One of Felix''s biggest potential weaknesses was his lack of combat strength.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    How could he resolve this? One way was to throw more Achievement at his Attributes after returning to the Market.


    He might be weak now, but what if he spent enough Achievement to push all of his attributes to Grade 100? In that case, Felix suspected he could steamroll most lower-level worlds. Heck, with Grade 100 in everything, he could probably flatten the guardian that stopped them from buying lives. Felix would never reach that level in a few worlds - but he wanted to get as close as possible.


    So Felix wanted to milk the most he could out of this life. This world was a golden opportunity for him to farm resources and grow his strength. What was the best way to do that?


    In his mind, the best path forward was to start another industrial revolution. The progress the Zelyrian continent had made had disappeared after the spatial collapse. The Zelyrian continent was ruined. Ennalia was the only country that still had a functioning government. However, they were also the least well-positioned in terms of colonies, only owning a few smaller and weaker colonies.


    Right now, this world was in the midst of a big power vacuum. If Felix strengthened Zanna''s economy, he would warp the direction of the post-colonial world. That should be worth a crazy amount of Achievement. He just needed to make use of this opportunity and not let it slip through his fingers. However, to do so safely, he needed Zanna to settle down and give him space to develop. And, unfortunately, that was something that wasn''t happening right now.


    So Felix spent the next two years preparing. He used his exceptional talent for alchemy to build precise cutting and measuring tools. He grabbed block after block of metal from the nearby mine, preparing for the future. He prepared machine parts. He saved money from his alchemy, and stored it away for future cash needs. The moment the chaos settled down, Felix was ready to start his march of factories and railroads.


    Luckily, after two years the civil war finally started to settle down. The rebels finally seized the old capital. While there were still remnants of the old colonial government, they had lost their biggest industrial center. While they might still put up a fight, Felix suspected that would end the civil war. The old government didn¡¯t have the means to continue fighting. The old government was no longer a power in Zanna.


    That was when Felix ran into an unpleasant surprise. He had been expecting that after the old government disappeared, things would start to settle down. He had been hoping for it, and yearning for the day when he could start his plan.


    However, the long-awaited peace did not come.


    Once the old government was gone, the coalition of Zannan rebels collapsed. From one unified faction of rebels emerged three new groups. Less than a week after their victory, they started fighting each other. This left Felix grinding his teeth in frustration when he read about it in the news.


    The rebel forces had divided into three factions. The first faction was built around hatred. The leader''s philosophy advocated extermination of the devils from across the sea and total return of Zanna to its native people. The second faction was a group of ¡®naturalists,¡¯ who opposed any sort of industrialization. They believed that Zanna should return to its ¡®natural¡¯ ways. This group of people seemed to believe in one of the old religions of the continent. Felix wasn''t that familiar with old Zannan religions, but he was fairly certain he wouldn''t get along with the group anyway. As someone who dreamed of kick-starting a new industrial revolution, he was totally opposed to their goals.


    The third group of Zannans believed that Zanna had changed forever after Damilius''s arrival. Rather than rejecting industrialization, they wanted to mimic their former overlords. Their grand goal was to establish a monarchy and build a new set of factories. Felix actually liked those goals, at least to some extent. However, he was less of a fan of the man leading the group. The man leading the faction was named Edmund, and he styled himself as a new king that would lead Zanna to glory.


    Felix wasn¡¯t sure if it was a good idea to join with any of the factions. The third faction promoted industrialization, so the would probably welcome him. However, some of the rhetoric of the third faction made him uneasy. They implied that they wanted to follow their former overlord in more than one way. Rather than simply being free, it almost seemed like they wanted to establish their own colonial empire. Felix wanted to overhaul the industrial standards of Zanna and make it a power that could keep itself safe - but he didn''t want to set up the next overlord. It was hard to figure out how to achieve his ambition without doing so, but Felix felt it was possible to find a balance. He just needed to be cautious and try to support a less power-hungry government.


    Sadly, it didn''t seem like there were any options that he would be satisfied with. Once again, all of the sides in this civil war sucked.


    As Felix pondered the unfortunate second round of the civil war, news came that distracted him from the whole mess. News that shocked him, but would matter far more to a certain other member of their group.


    After two years in a coma, Old Mo had awakened.

 Chapter 304: Departure

    Old Mo didn¡¯t look good. That was my first thought as I stepped into his room. His physical body looked like a withered, rotten apple. The skin on his arms and legs was wrinkled and desiccated, and his stomach was shrunken. I resisted the urge to grimace.


    I had been healing for years Old Mo to keep his body in peak physical condition. However, over the years, his body had started to deteriorate, despite my efforts. These outward problems were symptoms of the disconnect between his soul and body. I remembered when I had tried to heal an infant with no soul, and it had felt like I was trying to pour water into a bucket with no bottom. My essence had slipped out, as if there was nothing to heal. Old Mo¡¯s body was in a similar condition - my healing still helped, but I couldn¡¯t ever heal him back to a perfect state.


    Unlike his body, his soul looked vibrant today. For years, I had been nursing his physical body, hoping for exactly an occurrence like this. It was obvious why Old Mo had woken up - the connection between his soul and body looked almost normal again.


    Almost. The problem was that his body was decaying like a frayed rope. It wasn''t that the connection between his body and soul had healed. Instead, it was more that he was waking up one last time before the end.


    I stepped forward and grabbed his hand, before I started to pour healing magic into his body. However, my essence leaked out, like water poured into a cracked clay pot. I smiled bitterly.


    With my healing magic, I couldn''t save him.


    Old Mo was awake for the first time in years. In a few hours, or perhaps a day, he would close his eyes forever.


    ¡°Is that¡­¡± Old Mo broke into a fit of coughing noises, before he cleared his throat. ¡°Is that your special ability? The one you obtained from¡­ outside this world?¡± Old Mo glanced at the room, as if nervous of having missed someone who had entered with me. But there was nobody in the room but me.


    I nodded. ¡°It is. I¡¯m sorry. I want to heal you. But I can¡¯t¡­ my healing ability isn¡¯t working. Ssoul connections are complicated, and I... I don¡¯t know how¡­¡± I choked back a sob. I didn¡¯t want Old Mo to die, but I had no way to stop it.


    Old Mo beckoned for me to come closer. I stepped towards him, and then he grabbed my hand.


    ¡°Miria,¡± he said. ¡°You don¡¯t have to feel bad. It¡¯s just¡­ cough cough. It¡¯s just my ability and my old body failing.¡± Partway through his words, he was interrupted by a fit of coughs, but he recovered his voice soon enough. It was almost enough for me to forget that he was dying.


    Almost.


    ¡°Ability?¡± I asked.


    ¡°When I was born, I had some problems with my heart and lungs. It was possible to survive¡­ but not very well. I was¡­ cough cough. I was always sick. Do you remember what I told you about my family?¡±


    I tried searching through my memories. The conversation I¡¯d had with Old Mo about his past as an assassin felt like it had taken place decades ago.


    ¡°They were¡­ wealthy? Influential? Something like that¡­¡± I said, as I wracked my brains for details that didn¡¯t matter.


    Old Mo laughed, but soon enough, his chuckles broke into a fit of coughs.


    ¡°Right. They were wealthy. So they searched and searched for an ability potion to cure me. It would be possible to replace it with prosthetics¡­ cough cough. It would have been possible, but surgery wasn¡¯t reliable back in those days.¡± Old Mo cough again, breaking up his words as he tried to speak. Instinctively, I tried to pour more essence into his body¡­ but just like before, it leaked away. I tried not to scream in frustration as my healing ability failed me.


    Old Mo smiled at me after he finished his coughing fit. It was as if he couldn''t feel his life slipping away from him. ¡°As I was saying¡­ my family got me an ability that heals my entire body. It focuses on my heart and lungs¡­ but it also keeps everything else strong and powerful. A mixture of a self-healing and a self-strengthening ability.¡± Old Mo sighed, before coughing a few more times. ¡°It looks like that¡¯s failing. Based on your descriptions... cough cough. Based on your words, I suspect it''s something to do with brains or souls. Abilities themselves might be... cough cough. Might be related to brains or souls.¡± Then, he smiled, and ruffled my hair. ¡°So don¡¯t be sad. I don''t think you could have healed it anyway. And I got an extra eight decades beyond what I should have had. I got to meet Mary. I got to see you grow up. That¡¯s¡­ enough.¡± His smile grew wider. "It... it wasn''t such a bad life, all things considered. I just wish that Mary and I had... a little more time."


    I leaned over him, and hugged him. I swallowed back a few more tears, and, with great difficulty, managed to straighten my face. ¡°I¡¯m not used to the people I care about dying before me.¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    ¡°In all that time¡­ you¡¯ve never managed to outlive the people you care about? You¡­ really are a rather reckless individual. You should¡­ cough cough¡­ treat your own life with a bit more care. I¡¯m sure in the last few worlds, you¡¯ve left behind people who cared a lot about you. They must have been sad¡­ cough¡­ to see you go.¡± Old Mo gently ran a hand along my head again, and I leaned down so that he wouldn¡¯t strain his arms. He stroked my hair, as gently as a parent, and then let his arm fall back to the bed.


    I wanted to tell him that he would be all right, that I would find a way to cure him¡­ but I had no idea where to even start. As a doctor, I knew that Old Mo should have died a long time ago. As a market resident who used magic from outside this world, I knew that Old Mo¡¯s soul was barely hanging on by a thread. As a healing mage¡­ I knew I could reverse old age. But not enough to make a real difference. Making Old Mo a few seconds younger didn¡¯t matter. Making a noticeable difference was far beyond my current level.


    I didn¡¯t lie to my patients. I had no way to help Old Mo. If what he was saying was true, and his heart and lungs were reliant on his ability to keep working¡­ then I had even less of a way to treat him than before. I didn¡¯t know much about how essences worked behind the scenes. Just another thing that I had never learned how to heal. Sometimes, my healing ability felt omnipotent, like it could cure anything. Even if I had no idea what I was trying to fix, my healing ability could do incredible things like regrow limbs.


    Other times¡­ it could do nothing at all. This was just another case where I couldn¡¯t fix anything. My healing ability, that had seemed so omnipotent sometimes, was failing me again. And I didn''t even have the slightest clue how to change that.


    Old Mo laughed.


    ¡°You¡¯ve turned into a fine woman, Miria. You¡¯re eighteen now, right? You look... about that age.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m two years past being an adult, by this world¡¯s standards. I''m eighteen.¡±


    ¡°Have you found anyone you like? What have you been up to after my accident?"


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to fall in love until I find some way to take the person I cherish back to the Market with me. So for now, romance is off the table. As for what I''ve been up to... we all moved. Some things happened to the Zelyrian continent, but we managed to escape. Trish and I started a new clinic.¡± I said. I smiled, although it felt forced. "Life is good here. The people have accepted us. We have friends. Things are peaceful here. It might not be the best for my growth as a Transmigrator... but I''m happy here."


    Old Mo paused for a moment, before he nodded.


    "I''m glad... that life is so good for you, despite my illness. I still worried... but you look healthy. I hope that someday you find someone special to you, like my Mary.¡± he smiled. ¡°Well, what I wanted to say...cough cough... I¡¯m grateful for meeting you. You may not have been my real daughter¡­ but I¡¯m glad to have met you.¡± He gave me another hug. ¡°Thank you for being here with me, Miria. I hope that in future worlds you go to, your lives are happy, and that you meet people you cherish. Friends or romantic partners... it doesn''t matter which. Cough cough. Don¡¯t forget what I taught you about pretending to be a child. You¡¯re terrible at disguising yourself, but this could determine life or death someday.¡± Old mo¡¯s smile became gentler, but the light in his eyes started to dim. ¡°I love you like the daughter Mary and I never had. I hope that perhaps, someday in the future¡­ cough cough...we can meet again. Maybe that''s a silly wish from an old man... but as I lay here, I think about what really mattered. All of the war and hate were so pointless... cough cough. The time I spent with Mary, the time I spent with you... those were the things that mattered. In another life, it would be nice... cough cough... if we could do this again.¡± Old Mo started coughing again, and this time the coughs were so forceful that the seemed to contort his body. Finally, he sighed. Then, his lips curled up into a final smile, and he pulled me a little bit closer. ¡°My ability¡­. cough cough¡­ is fading. It shouldn''t be long now. Before I go¡­ there¡¯s an old cache of money. I hid it under the bakery. You can¡­ cough cough. You can have it. It has a few sentimental items, too. You can¡­ cough cough¡­ you can take them or leave them, if you want. It¡¯s¡­ up to you. But nothing too important. You say that... cough cough... that you left the continent?" Old Mo chortled, although it sounded like his lungs were collapsing as he did. "Well, if it''s impossible to get, it''s impossible to get. It''s nothing too important anyway."


    Under the bakery? I felt my eyes grow hotter.


    We were in Zanna now. Most of the Zelyrian continent was an uninhabitable death zone. There was no way to even find the ruins of Old Mo¡¯s bakery, much less check the basement. Whatever inheritance he had left me under the bakery was gone. I felt a bitter, ashy feeling well up in my heart, but I pushed it down.


    ¡°It''s probably impossible to retrieve. The Zelyrian continent suffered quite a bit during the war."


    "I always... cough cough... knew some foolish war would be the end of the nations there." Old Mo shook his head. "Well, that''s... all I wanted to say. Live well, Miria. Both now, and in the future."


    Old Mo¡¯s smile widened, and he stroked my head. As he did so, his hands started to slacken. Like roots withering on a tree, his arms drooped. As I hugged him, he leaned back onto his patient bed. His heart and lungs started to fade away, one second at a time.


    The essence in his body started to dissipate into nothing. A few seconds later, the soul in his brain started to lose its connection to his body. it only took a minute for it to shuffle off the connection to Old Mo¡¯s brain. Then, the soul escaped, before it started to float higher. I saw a very faint image of the ocean of souls start to appear, as the soul drifted forward. Then, his soul returned to the Ocean. The connection between the ocean and our dimension closed, leaving me with nothing but a sack of uninhabited flesh and memories.


    Old Mo was gone.

 Chapter 305: Peace

    After Old Mo¡¯s death, I stopped interacting with other people for several days. I still healed others and worked at Trish¡¯s clinic, but I withdrawn. The world felt gray. I didn''t feel like talking to people. Even though I had known that Old Mo would die soon... I still wasn''t prepared for it. Being left behind while someone I knew disappeared was a horrible feeling. I spent nights hugging Anise and Felix, drawing comfort from my two best friends who were still alive. I had a newfound respect for the quiet, something I had never valued before. I felt empty.


    Luckily, our standing in town didn''t take a hit while I took a break from people. Two years of hard work had put us in a strong social position. A few patients expressed their sympathy when they heard of Old Mo''s death. A week after he passed, I found a small row of gifts outside of my door. They were small presents - a few pieces of candy, a few novels, and some handmade arts and crafts. Even though they weren¡¯t amazing, seeing them touched my heart. This was the kind of community I liked belonging to. One where people cared about each other and stuck up for each other. We were truly part of the town''s community, in a way I''d always hoped to be. But I wasn''t in the mood to appreciate it.


    After asking around, Anise told me that Maela, the daughter of the town elder, had organized the gifts. That made me feel a little better, at least. I was thankful for the effort Maela put into making me feel better. Our relationship had been a normal doctor-patient relationship... but after she put so much effort into organizing a gift basket, I felt a little better. I started to get closer to Maela, not as a doctor, but as a friend. Having a new friend to pay attention to helped wash away some of the sorrow of Old Mo¡¯s death.


    As a thank-you gift for her, I tried to learn more about her condition. I studied the human body, trying to figure out exactly how her illness worked. Right now, I still needed to heal her legs every few days to keep them functional. I wanted to see if I could change that. I had no idea how to cure her, and it might take years to develop a ¡®true¡¯ cure¡­ but I wanted to improve my healing abilities. I was running into too many situations where I couldn¡¯t fix problems. I could heal a lot of difficult or problematic injuries with little effort, but I was beginning to realize that had made me lazy. I had stopped learning how to improve my healing abilities in recent years. It was time to change that. I would start by finding a proper cure for Maela.


    Of course, research was slow. The destruction of the Zelyrian continent also ruined millions of educational books. The most advanced unversities in the world were now rubble and corpses. Pursuing any high-end technical knowledge was far more difficult than before. But things weren''t hopeless. Ennalia still had a functioning government. It was difficult to secure book imports during the civil war, but Felix helped find a route for me. With his help, I started importing professional medical books from Ennalia. All of the books were in Ennalian, which I started learning from scratch.


    If Old Mo had still been alive, I was sure he would have loved to help me learn it. But now he was gone. I didn¡¯t have a language teacher anymore, and that made things harder. It took far longer to learn Ennalian than any of my previous languages.


    Meanwhile, the civil war continued to rage on. The split between the rebel factions only got worse. Factories continued to explode on a weekly basis. Artillery shells continued to rain upon cities as armies battled over the husk of Zanna. By now, hundreds of thousands of people had died in the fighting. Half of them were soldiers, and the other half were civilians who got unlucky and got caught up in the fighting.


    Luckily, we were still isolated from the fighting. Our town was too remote and unimportant for anyone to bother with. However, the state of Zanna continued to deteriorate. In newspapers and by word of mouth, I could feel how weary the archipelago was. Right after one civil war, the people had been dragged into another conflict. And unlike the previous one, most people felt that this factional dispute was pointless. Most people were as disgusted by the endless fighting as I was.


    I was glad our group had decided to stay out of things. The revolution turning upon its children and devouring them wasn¡¯t exactly unexpected. Many revolutions turned on the revolutionaries once the dust settled. Still, I was sad. I wanted things to get better for people - but it didn¡¯t feel like things were going to improve anytime soon.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    After a year of renewed fighting, the remnants of the old government snuck back into the fray. Somehow, they had held onto a few scattered groups of soldiers. With the civil war now a three-way factional battle, they found a spot to sneak back into the fray. They managed to retake a major city from the naturalist faction, much to everyone''s surprise. The naturalists found themselves facing all three other factions. Meanwhile, The monarchists and extermination advocates started to focus more on each other. With the naturalists busy trying to kick the old government out, they were more free to kill each other.


    I was actually kind of sympathetic to the people who supported the rebel factions. The original goal of all of this was to kick out Damilius. I felt that was a reasonable desire. Damilius''s government had been corrupt and discriminatory. However, the result of their labor was rotten fruit. The rebellion they had fought for turned into another fight for dominance and power. There wasn¡¯t much I could do to change the situation, sadly. The only thing we were capable of doing was hunkering down in our town and keeping ourselves safe. I had already learned how helpless we were against an army. We could keep ourselves safe, but overturning the outcome of a war was impossible for us.


    More time passed. The year we turned twenty, Felix stopped working to acquire more materials. I wasn''t sure whether he had run out of funds, or run out of storage space. Either way, he seemed satisfied with his preparations. I suspected that the moment the civil war settled down, he would rake in Achievement hand over fist. I was more than a little excited to see the results. If he ended up with over 50,000 Achievement, next world he might become the strongest member of our group. Anyone growing stronger was a cause for celebration.


    I didn¡¯t have anywhere near the level of preparation for our eventual return that Felix did. However, I had still made strides towards earning more Achievement over the years. I kept up with my rune training as well, and the year we turned twenty, I got a new Achievement reward.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Condense your seventh Rune.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +490


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That brought my total from 17,092, to 17,582.


    This was the first time I had reached seven runes. After reaching seven runes, I realized that seven runes wasn''t quite the limit for me. As long as my keyword were activated, my essence generation was higher. That also meant I could create and sustain more runes. I wasn''t sure how high my rune total could reach... but it was definitely higher than it would have been before the ability upgrade.


    Even the seventh rune provided me with a rather interesting upgrade. The rune helped me attune my body to the concept of space. It decreased how much air resistance affected me, and also made me a bit more... other. It was hard to put my finger on exactly what was different about me, but I knew that I was a bit different than before. If the second layer of reality existed on the Zannan dimension, I suspected I would be able to interact with it, even without a Skill. I could also perform short-distance teleports, even without using my rune ability. It was no longer an ''ability,'' so much as an innate function of my biology. However, perhaps it was because I had only condensed my seventh rune, but the efficiency was quite bad. I suspected that with a rune ability focused on teleporting people, I could probably pay 20% of the essence for the same effect. But even if the efficiency was poor, I suspected it would improve with more runes.


    In the future, this would be something worth paying attention to. In future worlds, if I could reach seven runes in a timely manner, I could save my rune ability slots for other abilities.


    Combined with the reduced impact of air resistance, and the ''otherness'' that I didn''t fully understand, I was much more agile than before. It was almost the same as adding an extra two Grades of Agility - although it wasn''t quite the same. It was more like space bent itself around me, assisting me in moving... although the benefits weren''t much different. I couldn''t help but think that with 9 runes, my flexibility and speed would become terrifying.


    At least for now, I had no real use for my personal combat strength. I had decided to stay out of the mess of a civil war. But at the very least, the Achievement was still nice.


    A few months after we turned twenty, things started to change on the continent.


    The ¡®royalist¡¯ faction knocked out the other biggest faction in the civil war, the faction that hated the people of Damilius.


    The royalist faction was now very well positioned in Zanna, having over 65% of the major population centers and industrial output of Zanna. The naturalists and the old government kept fighting each other. Since they didn''t unite against the strongest faction in the civil war, I suspected the outcome was now determined. The civil war was finally coming to an end with a royalist victory.

 Chapter 306: Succession

    ¡°Do you think the fighting will finally stop?¡± asked Maela, as she sat next to me on the porch. Over the years, Maela and I had grown close. Not close enough for me to tell her everything. She still didn''t know about the Market, or Felix and Anise''s specialties. However, I had shown her my ''second ability.'' She had grown into a friend of mine, and I felt she deserved at least a little trust. Of course, Felix and Anise''s secrets weren''t mine to give away, so I only told Maela about me. After several years of physical therapy, Maela''s legs were also better. She no longer had any issues controlling her legs. She could walk, run, and climb as well as any other member of town. She still complained of the occasional pain if I went more than a day without healing her legs. However, by and large, she could live a normal life now.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said.


    On one hand, the civil war looked like it was finally about to end. On the other hand¡­ that might not mean peace or prosperity. Especially after four years of civil war, Zanna was not in good shape anymore. It wouldn''t surprise me if something went wrong and another civil war started right after this one ended. Perhaps in five years, people would be rebelling against the tyranny of king Ferdinand or something.


    If the other former colonies had been in a better state, we would have already left for a new home. However, Zanna wasn¡¯t unique in its circumstances - most former colonies had found themselves in the midst of their own revolutions. Even Ennalia found itself dragged into the fighting, as its colonies sought to break free during the global chaos. Everywhere was a mess.


    ¡°Well, the civil war is finally about to end. Right?¡± said Maela. ¡°The king of the monarchist faction is well positioned to win. Unless the monarchists do something dumb, they should have an easy time winning the civil war from here. After that, don''t you think things will settle down?"


    ¡°Well, things look good for the monarchists," I said. "That¡¯s why I would be more cautious. The other two factions are still fighting each other, but¡­ they aren¡¯t stupid. They¡¯ll try something to spike the wheels of the monarchist faction. It could be as simple as assasination, or as complex as making a new alchemical superweapon. They might fail... but they won¡¯t sit back and let the monarchists win the civil war.¡±


    ¡°True. I guess the other factions are still trying to win the civil war, even if they''re unlikely to salvage the war."


    ¡°That¡¯s not the only risk. The civil war is bad, but a single faction ruling the archipelago might not be any better. They might initiate a round of ¡®purges¡¯ to remove disloyal people after winning. It''s hard to say who they''ll consider ''loyal''.¡± The self-proclaimed ¡®king¡¯ didn¡¯t give me good feelings, at least if the newspapers were anything to go off of. The newspapers could be misrepresenting him¡­ but I had my guard up. Anything could go wrong before things stabilized again.


    ¡°I hope that doesn¡¯t happen,¡± said Maela with a shiver. ¡°I was hoping that things would finally settle down after all this. All of the fighting needs to stop. Zanna needs time to heal. I wish the revolution and the civil war would just... end.¡±


    I leaned back, and gave Maela a comforting hug. ¡°Me too, Maela. Me too.¡±


    The two of sat back in silence, relaxing in each other''s presence. A few hours passed by, before I heard a knock at the door. I opened it up, only to find Felix on the other side of it. He was¡­ smiling?


    He held up a newspaper. It was from a few days ago, but due to logistical issues, we hadn''t received it until today. I squinted at it, and then blinked in surprise.


    Ruler of the Monarchist faction, King Ferdinand, has died under assassin''s bullet. His son, Villdym, survived a second assassination attempt later the same day! Is it a conspiracy from the Naturalists, or the Old Government?


    I looked at the newspaper, and frowned.


    King Ferdinand was dead? Was that true?


    In fact, was that even a good thing? Wouldn¡¯t this lead to another round of splintering? Zanna had already endured a revolution, followed by a civil war. Now, things looked like one faction had been set to finally win the civil war. As much as I feared a dangerous new government, I was also looking forward to the fighting settling down. Now, King Ferdinand was dead, right before he achieved victory. If we were unlucky, the monarchist faction might break into another set of new factions. I wasn¡¯t sure why Felix was smiling, either. He had seemed as tired of the civil war as I was. Was there something I didn''t know.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Is there a reason you¡¯re so happy?¡± I asked. ¡°If I¡¯m not wrong, this means another round of wars, right? The faction that was set to win the war collapsed at the finish line. I haven''t heard much about Ferdinand''s son, so it will be hard for him to keep the faction together. Doesn¡¯t that mean the fighting will stretch on?¡±


    ¡°It might have, under normal circumstances,¡± said Felix. ¡°But things are a bit different in this case. The king¡¯s son escaped the assassination attempt, so the monarchist faction still has a figure to rally around. The son isn''t as competent as Ferdinand... but he''s also not incompetent. The monarchists will probably still support him to prop up their faction. King Villdym also has a rather¡­ different policy towards a lot of things. The previous king was always talking about how he wanted to build a new colonial empire under Zanna.¡± Felix grinned. ¡°Villdym is more focused on internal development and industrialization. He¡¯s not perfect¡­ but I can support his policies. Of course, the other two factions might pounce on the monarchist faction while they¡¯re weakened¡­ but I¡¯m thinking this is also an opportunity.¡±


    ¡°An opportunity for what?¡± I frowned, before I felt my facial muscles relax. ¡°Oh, I see. Are you planning on leaving?¡± That was the only way I could see Felix turning this new round of chaos into an ''opportunity.''


    Felix nodded.


    ¡°I have a faction I actually like in the civil war now. The faction is also in a strong position to win the civil war, but has a few glaring weaknesses. I can help mitigate those weaknesses, and Villdym might be very interested in my help. The path to getting in contact with the leader of a large political faction might be rocky¡­ but I have some social capital to burn.¡± Felix grinned. ¡°After all, I¡¯m one of the inventors of the railroad. I also have a few interesting alchemical inventions that I¡¯ve made over the past few years. That should spark some interest. If it works, I can start to build factories and set everything up. As long a Villdym isn¡¯t too opposed to a former citizen of Damilius helping him, this could work.¡±


    Maela shifted as she listened to Felix''s words. ¡°That seems¡­ risky. Are you sure you want to participate in this mess? You might also get assassinated... or Ferdinand''s son might not be as good as you think. If he''s pretending to be a good person, but is just as power-hungry as Ferdinand... it won''t end well."


    Felix grinned at Maela. ¡°It might be a bit risky, but¡­ it¡¯s not too bad. I have the means to protect myself, and I¡¯ve always had a few hopes and dreams for the future. This is a good way to fulfill them. As for Villdym turning out to be a wolf in sheep''s clothing...¡± Felix shrugged. "If so, I''ll leave. I don''t need to give my help to a warmonger."


    <If you need help with that, I''ll help you too,> I said to Felix over the bracelet. I wanted to get away from all of the fighting, but I would always step in if my friends needed me.


    <I appreciate the offer, but I don''t think I''ll need your help,> he said. <I actually have a bit of confidence in this world. I want to see if I can stand on my own... although I''ll still ask for help if I need it.>


    I nodded.


    With Felix¡¯s access to the shaping magic system, he would have a big advantage in keeping himself safe from potential assassins. Especially since he had made several smaller upgrades to his hands over the years. While he might not be quite as well suited to scouting and finding hidden enemies as I was, he was still a Transmigrator. He had an unfair stat advantage, an extra magic system, and extraordinary talent in binding essence. This was a situation where Felix could definitely excel. I smiled at him.


    ¡°So you¡¯re planning on participating in the last rounds of the civil war?¡±


    ¡°I am. I came to say goodbye,¡± said Felix, before he gave me a hug. ¡°I assume you don¡¯t want to come with me?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve had enough of war and killing for a while. If there¡¯s a monster outbreak, or something like that, I¡¯ll jump into the front lines immediately. But¡­ during the battles with the Worldstriders, I was fighting to keep Anise safe. I don¡¯t feel like I have a stake in this war. I¡¯m happy healing people in town and hanging out with my friends.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I expected as much. In that case, this is where we part ways. I¡¯ll see you again later.¡± He winked at me. ¡°If all else fails, then I¡¯ll still see you again when you get old enough. I have a feeling you¡¯ll be making it to old age this time.¡±


    I smiled at him, while Maela gave us a rather confused look. I chuckled, and gave Felix another, tighter hug. ¡°Stay safe. But you can do this. You have a lot of advantages that you can make use of. I trust you to do what¡¯s right¡­ and to kick some butt along the way. This is a real chance for you to make a big difference in a world. For the first time.¡±


    Felix grinned.


    ¡°I already said goodbye to Anise, so¡­ see you later.¡± With that, Felix walked out of the house. I watched him go, before I nodded to myself. I hoped that this would turn out well. Part of me still whispered worry for my friend, but... another part of me was proud and hopeful. Felix had done exceptionally well this world. If he could play a big role in this war, he would have an even larger stockpile of Achievement when we returned to the Market. I wasn''t sure if he would succeed, but he had a chance. I just hoped it would turn out for the best.

 Chapter 307: Peace

    After Felix departed, life in the town settled back down. Our town was still unimportant, so nobody bothered us. However, Anise and I kept an ear out for any news from the war. We were curious to see what others thought of Felix. We also wanted to see when the war finally ended.


    The news we heard was promising.


    The monarchist faction did, indeed, suffer some turmoil after the death of its leader. However, the son of the king proved more capable than expected. Based on Felix''s assessment, as well as the newspapers, he was rather charismatic. He also had a decent grasp of politics and military tactics. He was inferior to his father... but not by much. If he had helmed the monarchist faction from the beginning, he might not have won. However, his father had already placed the monarchist faction in an excellent position. They controlled over 65% of the archipelago. The old government and the naturalists were also busy fighting each other. As long as he wasn''t an idiot, he had a good chance to win the war.


    Rather than rush in, Villdym seemed to be focused on consolidating and repairing the territory he controlled. He focused on repairs and reconstruction, while ignoring the other two factions. In other circumstances, this might have given them a window to recover. In this case, they seemed more interested in killing each other, though.


    Meanwhile, Felix started to show up in the newspapers as well. Papers started to mention a mysterious fellow named ''Felix,'' Villdym''s newest advisor. When I saw that, I resisted the urge to smile.


    It looked like Felix was doing well. I didn¡¯t know how his first meeting with Villdym had gone - but he had managed to secure a spot as an advisor to the king. That couldn¡¯t have been easy. Of course, public response to Felix wasn''t always positive. I saw some newspapers criticizing the king for hiring one of the ¡®oppressors¡¯ from the Zelyrian continent. Luckily, most people didn''t seem to care. After all, Felix wasn¡¯t trying to become a king or a governor. He was the industrial advisor. He could give advice to the king, and manage some laws regarding industrial standards. He had some power, but much of it was derived from the king.


    With Felix''s oversight and Villdym''s focus, Zanna entered a factory-building spree. The security in major cities started to improve. Soon, a variety of materials flooded the archipelago as factories were rebuilt.


    Felix¡¯s little stockpile of supplies drained away rapidly. That wasn''t a surprise - after all, he was just one person. Rebuilding all the factories in the archipelago would have been impossible. However, the newspapers latched on to a interesting fact. One that Felix hadn¡¯t mentioned to Anise and I. He had built something called the optimizer. It had some of the credit for the rapid reconstruction of factories in Zanna.


    When I asked Felix about it over bracelet, he confirmed that he did, indeed, have a tool called the Optimizer. It was one of the tools he had built for his ''great industrial leap.'' It was some sort of measuring and cutting tool. He had used shaping magic to get the whole thing working. It was far less miraculous than newspapers made it out to be. However, it did make it easy to measure and cut metal with precision. Felix used it to build a lot of machinery parts far faster than the factories of Zanna could manage. After all, the factories of Zanna were in a sad state after all of the bombing and sabotage. Felix had an easier time kick-starting industry than most other people would have. It was a small advantage, but Felix had milked it for all it was worth.


    Of course, the Optimizer wasn¡¯t Felix¡¯s only contribution. He also had considerable expertise as an alchemist and an inventor. As one of the inventors of the railroad, he was also familiar with the process of researching new technology. With his many fields of expertise, the factories of Zanna flourished.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    The newspapers quickly caught on to Felix¡¯s ¡®wondrous contributions¡¯ to the archipelago. Over a few years, his position started to become better and better in the eyes of the people. The year we turned 22, I also started hearing rumors that Felix had somehow saved the new king¡¯s life. Anise, Sallia, and I questioned him over the communication bracelets about the incident, and Felix confirmed the news. An assassin had managed to sneak in... only for Felix to deconstruct his gun using metal manipulation. The assassin had been unprepared for Felix''s ''ability'' and had thus failed to even scratch the king. It had exposed the fact that he was ¡®lying¡¯ about his mental communication ability¡­ but it had also earned him a fair amount of trust with the new king. By now, Felix¡¯s position was unshakeable. The king, and most of the monarchist faction, felt that Felix was the right man for the job.


    Of course, while Felix said that, I suspected that he was hiding some things. It was impossible for a man of rising influence to have such a smooth road to success. If there was one thing i was sure of, it was that any successful person drew jealous gazes. Sallia also mentioned that Felix had asked for her expertise as a former noble a few times. But at the very least, Felix seemed to be overcoming any challenges in his way. That was good enough for me.


    Time continued to pass by. The year that we turned twenty-three, I got my next Achievement reward for healing villagers.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Restore 1,000 Permanent, debilitating injuries.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +2,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This reward¡­ had taken far more time and effort than expected.


    The last time I had gotten an Achievement reward for healing permanent injuries, it had been after healing 100 people. I had expected to get another reward at 200, or maybe 500 injuries. However, for some reason, there had been no new rewards for healing people until I got to 1,000 injuries. Luckily, my reputation as a healer who could regrow limbs had spread to a few nearby towns. Some people had come to our town to seek out my healing services. They were rare, since prosthetics were cheap and powerful - but I still had some extra customers. And they were exactly the types of injuries I needed to get this reward.


    Apart from the influence reward for healing permanent injuries, I did get another, much smaller reward. This one took me by surprise.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Play a [Very Minor] role in the civil war of Zanna


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +17.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This one baffled me. The reward was tiny. I had no clue how I''d earned it, either. I had avoided the war. Why was I getting rewarded for contributing to it?


    After brainstorming with Sallia, Felix, and Anise, our best guess was my healing. While I didn''t directly participate in the war, I had healed a lot of people. That, in turn, would also impact the economic prosperity of our town... which would, in turn, impact the amount of taxes we paid each year.


    That was our best guess, at least. It seemed a bit far fetched to me, but none of us had a better guess for why I had gotten this reward. Either way, Achievement was Achievement.


    These two Achievement rewards brought me from 17,582 to 19,599 Achievement in total. It wasn¡¯t a bad haul, all things considered. We had a far less proactive stance towards adventure and risks this life, but we were still getting good rewards. This world¡¯s magic system wasn¡¯t very good at direct confrontations. Because of that, our combat-oriented magic systems and above average stats gave us a huge advantage here.


    Time continued to pass. The year that I turned twenty five, the war finally came to a close. The naturalists and the old government had reduced their territory to rubble during the fighting. Meanwhile, the monarchists now controlled a rebuilt, prosperous territory. That year, Villdym decided it was time to end things. The monarchist army crushed the other two factions in about four months of fighting. Contrary to my fears of a potential ¡®reign of terror¡¯ after the government won, things wound down after the final battle. There might have been more going on behind the scenes¡­ but it had nothing to do with me. Felix was thriving, and nobody seemed to be afraid of disappearing in the middle of the night. All in all, things were looking up. The civil war had taken many twists and turns, but I felt things went as well as they could have. After years of fighting, the war was over.

 Chapter 308: Age

    Time continued to pass.


    After years of hard work, I finally identified the root cause behind Maela¡¯s illness. The problem was the binding essence in her body. The way the digestive system worked in this world was quite unusual. After the intestines absorbed nutrients, binding essence dragged them into a series of tubes. These tubes were filled with liquified binding essence, and transported nutrients to the rest of the body.


    Maela¡¯s body didn¡¯t produce enough binding essence. It seemed like the body had some sort of ¡®priority¡¯ system for what got nutrients first, and Maela¡¯s body had put her legs last on the list. Thus, her upper body got nutrients fine, but her lower half was starving to death. It didn''t matter how much she ate, because her body couldn''t transport the nutrients.


    Unfortunately, learning about the origin problem only brought me frustration. This was because I had no way to solve this problem. I could fix many things, but I had no idea how to correct a lack of binding essence. How was I even supposed to improve someone''s binding essence generation?


    I had no clue.


    Once again, I realized that my ability had a very limited effect on essence-related injuries and problems. I now understood the issue¡­ but I had no way to fix it. When I told Maela that I had no way to cure her, I felt like crying. I didn¡¯t like feeling helpless in the face of injuries and illnesses. My healing abilities were wonderful¡­ but every time I couldn¡¯t heal someone, I felt awful.


    Maela didn¡¯t seem to mind it anywhere near as much as I did. When I told her she would be reliant on my healing forever, she shrugged and thanked me for trying. She seemed¡­ unbothered. Instead, she gave me a hug and told me that it was all right. Even if she was reliant upon me to keep a ¡®normal¡¯ lifestyle, I had already given her the ability to walk, run, and move on her own. Even if she needed to receive an infusion of healing magic every few days to keep that going, she was happy that I had done this much for her.


    Hearing that made me unsure how to feel. On one hand, I was glad that Maela could take her continued illness in stride. She didn''t seem to be putting on a brave face. She seemed genuinely unconcerned. On the other hand, I felt guilty that I couldn''t heal the last parts of her illness.


    Maela seemed to realize I was feeling glum. She invited me to go into the rainforest. There, we found a nice little clearing and relaxed for a few hours. The only interruption was a pair of venomous fanged toads fighting over a berry bush. It was a nice day, even if it did make me question what was wrong with the animals of this continent.


    A year later, my mother passed away. I had been expecting it, and a part of me had known that there wasn¡¯t much that I could have done to change it. Still, I felt bad. I didn¡¯t mourn my mother - after all, I had never gotten a chance to know her very well in this life. Instead, I mourned a relationship that could have been. I had been close with my last two families, so my poor family situation this life stung. But at the end of the day, I had done everything I could. There wasn''t anything I could have done to create a different outcome.


    Meanwhile, Felix continued to thrive. Anise and I had settled down in the town, becoming unremarkable on a global stage, but Felix was now famous throughout Zanna.


    After the king finished re-uniting Zanna, he settled into a period of reconstruction. The people of Zanna were grateful for that. The scars of the civil war had left plenty of people mourning their lost businesses, friends, and family members. The archipelago needed time to heal.


    That¡¯s where Felix thrived.


    Factories started to spring up left and right. Those factories pumped out materials to make more factories. Those factories, in turn, made more factories¡­


    Originally, Zanna had a hard time expanding its industrial strength past a certain point. Damilius sucked away resources and manpower like a butcher dissecting prey. Without Damilius, Zanna finally had the space it needed to grow. Within a few decades, this continent might catch up and become a new industrial powerhouse.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Five years after the civil war ended, Zanna even started to make steps to address the rainforest. For centuries, the rainforest had been a development roadblock. They were dense, venomous, and difficult to navigate. However, it wasn¡¯t impossible to expand into them - just very expensive. With no oppressive overlord, and the rest of the world in chaos, Zanna started developing the rainforest.


    During that year, I also made my final accomplishment in rune magic.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form your 8th rune.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +560


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This brought my Achievement from 19,599 to 20,119 Achievement. It was also the limit of runes I could make this time. My rune maximum had increased after my ability upgrade, but this was my limit.


    The upgrade for forming an eighth rune were similar to the seventh. I could move even faster than before, and air resistance and my own agility constrained me less. I could sense that I was on the verge of something. If I managed to push to my ninth rune, I suspected something interesting would happen.


    Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have the essence to build a ninth rune, even if I had my keywords active. So it was a pointless ¡®what if¡¯ scenario, at least in this life.


    Apart from that, my teleportation ability got cheaper and more efficient. It still didn¡¯t catch up to my rune ability, but it was closer than before.


    Time continued to pass. I started to delve ever more deeply into souls. I wanted to understand them. I wanted to figure out what made them tick.


    But progress was frustratingly slow. I kept running into barriers left and right. I got the distinct feeling that my soul-sight just wasn¡¯t good enough for my needs. I couldn¡¯t see what was happening. Worse, the magic of this dimension was completely unsuited for viewing, measuring, and interacting with souls. The natives had no idea what souls looked like, and I had no good way to learn more. I ran into wall after wall as I tried to conduct my research and improve my abilities further. I made frustratingly little progress, no matter what I tried to do. Part of me was tempted to try to ¡®farm¡¯ a bunch of low-rarity skills for Achievement¡­ but that felt like a much more narrow path of growth. Worse, it probably wouldn¡¯t actually give me very much Achievement. To get a skill to ¡®basic¡¯ grade could take years, and might only reward me with a few dozen points of Achievement, or even less.


    In simple terms, I started to feel stuck. I was still working to grow, still working to get more Achievement¡­ but the things I tried just weren¡¯t working out.


    Unlike my frustrated attempts at growing, Felix¡¯s time was going incredibly well in this world. Ten years after the civil war ended, most Zannans had forgotten Felix was from Damilius. Instead, they referred to him as the Honorable Minister of Industry. Most people had respect for him. Around that time, people also started to show up and ask Anise and I if we could ¡®get in touch¡¯ with Felix. Most of them wanted us to get Felix to promote various sketchy political agendas. Anise and I refused, of course.


    It was annoying, but I decided to take it as a sign of how much Felix had grown. Most of these visitors didn¡¯t push too hard. They didn''t seem to hold much hope for our ¡®inner contact¡¯ with Felix. At least on the surface, we didn¡¯t visit Felix that often. Anise and I usually met up with Felix once a year for a nice lunch and a relaxing day among friends. We didn''t even exchange letters, or telegrams.


    Of course, that was because we had communication bracelets. They didn¡¯t have any range limitation, so Anise and I talked with Felix at least once a week. Felix was more than a little bemused when he heard about our visitors with sketchy agendas. He also asked me to help him heal a few important people when he wanted to build a few connections. Both of us took great pains to mask my identity during those times, and while it wasn''t perfect, it seemed to fool the patients.


    Time continued to pass. Outside of Zanna, the freed colonies and Ennalia started to have major conflicts. Ennalia tried to build a new, stronger colonial empire. The old colonies sent swarms of soldiers to tell Ennalia to get bent. Ennalia lost more than they won in those wars, although a few smaller colonies did get reconquered.


    Zanna, however, was left out of the mess. There were some safe sea passages between Zanna and the Zelyrian continent. However, the death zone left after the Worldstrider-continent war left many of them unusable. Combined with Zanna''s expanding navy, Ennalia seemed more interested in picking on weaker targets. Thus, our corner of the world remained peaceful.


    By the time I turned forty, I was starting to realize something unusual.


    For two lives, we had died pretty young, relative to our species. But now, there were no real threats to our lives besides disease and old age. The country was stable. There weren¡¯t any major catastrophes happening. We weren¡¯t under any serious threat from venom or disease, thanks to my healing. Most people lived to around sixty or so. Anise, Felix and I were now forty.


    For the first time ever, I was growing old.

 Chapter 309: Old

    My prediction came true.


    By the time we turned fifty, I was starting to feel the frustration of being an old lady. My joints started to hurt, my muscles started to deteriorate, and my absurd senses started to drift back towards ¡®normalcy.¡¯ My Market stats were doing a lot to supplement my physique and health¡­ but I could feel that they were starting to fail. If my stats were like weightlifters, then as my body aged, the ¡®load¡¯ they needed to bear was growing. My healing abilities took the edge off of my growing weakness, but couldn''t fix the root problem. I was also realizing that people here had shorter lifespans. I felt more like a 70 or 80 year old woman, despite being just over fifty. Getting out of bed in the morning was a struggle.


    This was similar to the weakness I felt when we were newborns. Despite our stats, the underdevelopment of our bodies still weakened us. It wasn''t quite as noticeable - but it was still very unpleasant.


    Over the bracelets, Felix complained about his own joint problems. Anise and I were right next to each other, so I healed her joint pains all the time. On the other hand, Felix was stuck in the capital. I couldn''t heal him very frequently. Felix felt more and more frustrated by all of his little aches, pains, and weaknesses each year. He said that his mind didn''t work as well as it used to. He started to find politics a strain to keep up with. The year he turned fifty, the old King died. Felix had disagreements with the new king. Finally, he retired at age fifty two, and returned to our town. From that point onwards, it was a lot easier to hang out with Felix and get a drink if we wanted to.


    The three of us often reminisced about how much the world had changed since we were children. Telegrams had started popping up over the past decade, and by now they were commonplace. The world was recovering. Former colonies had started to catch up to the former industrial levels of the Zelyrian continent. Paper was cheaper than ever. Books and works of fiction became even more common and widespread. Telegrams conveyed information from one continent to another in record time. Newspapers were almost always up to date on the latest news. Steel ships completely replaced wooden ones, at least for military and economic use.


    But all of that meant little to us now.


    Felix sighed, as he looked at the house Anise and I had set up for him.


    ¡°Seeing something like this¡­ brings me back,¡± said Felix, thoughtfully. ¡°It has been too long since I last lived in a smaller town like this, away from the bustle of the capital. Having so few neighbors around¡­ it¡¯s nice.¡± He cracked a grin at me, stretching the lines on his old, wrinkled face.


    ¡°You should have joined us earlier,¡± Anise said. ¡°It would have been a lot of fun to practice spells with you! My research is slowing down these days, but I''ve learned lots. Next life, I''ll make my spell maps faster than before. I''ll also be able to cast spells much faster!¡± She smiled, and then tried to wobble over to Felix for a hug. Instead, she grimaced. ¡°Miria, could you heal my knees? Something about them feels wrong!¡±


    Felix chuckled. ¡°Anise, somehow you don¡¯t feel much older than before. Even though your body looks like an old lady, you still feel like the six year old who wanted to be a super witch.¡±


    Anise flushed. ¡°Hey! I¡­ I object to that! With all of the wisdom that comes from being elderly! I¡¯ve grown way older and more mature! I mean, I¡¯ve lived for almost eighty years now in total! That¡¯s almost half a lifetime! I¡¯m an adult by last world¡¯s standards! By this world¡¯s standards, I am ancient!¡±


    Felix chuckled. The wrinkles on his face stretched into laugh lines as he smiled. Then, he stepped forward, and gave Anise a hug.


    ¡°I like it. Stay the same forever, Anise. One thing I¡¯ve learned during my time in politics is that someone working hard for their dreams is a treasure. You bring out the best in the rest of us. Truly.¡±


    Anise flushed as Felix laughed.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    ¡°Oh dear, Felix is learning from politics. Should we run in fear?¡± I asked, grinning. ¡°Next thing you know, you¡¯ll be as corrupt as the former prime minister.¡±


    ¡°I learned some things from politics, but I definitely didn¡¯t learn how to embezzle money,¡± said Felix, as he rolled his eyes. ¡°Especially not 5% of the national budget. It¡¯s a wonder he didn¡¯t get caught earlier.¡± Felix¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°I doubt it was by accident that he didn¡¯t get caught. The new king¡­ is not quite as clean or well-meaning as the old one.¡± Felix shook his head in disappointment. ¡°Oh well. It doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me anymore.¡±


    ¡°How much Achievement did you end up with?¡± asked Anise, as if she were trying to take Felix¡¯s mind off of the new king. ¡°I mean, I guess you aren¡¯t dead yet, but¡­¡±


    Felix relaxed. ¡°I doubt I¡¯ll be earning much more this lifetime. It''s pretty hard to earn Achievement once our bodies get to this state. Even purely mental work starts to deteriorate. Very annoying." Felix snorted, and shook his head. "I ended up with about 75,000. An excellent haul.¡± Felix grinned. ¡°How about you two?¡±


    ¡°I still haven¡¯t earned any last bits of Achievement from healing people. I also haven''t gotten a reward for strengthening the town in a while,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m at around 20,000 right now. Not great, but not terrible?¡±


    Anise shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m at about 15,000. Since I don¡¯t have healing, I had a harder time contributing to things like wars. But I got a few rewards for strengthening the village. I also tried experimenting with earning a lot of money for ¡®wealth¡¯ Achievement. It didn¡¯t work out as well as I was hoping, but it¡¯s something to try again in the future. The weirdest part of my earnings was the rewards for strengthening this town. I can''t figure out the ¡®timing¡¯ rules for rewards for making a town or village more prosperous. It¡¯s baffling. I got rewards for two years in a row, followed by nothing for a decade and a half, then another Achievement reward last year...¡± Anise shrugged. ¡°I don''t get it at all. Either way, next life I''d like to get access to a few healing spells too. That way I can help out towns more." Anise grimaced. "Although, more than that, I hope next world doesn''t have such a restrictive ability potion system. It makes it much harder for me to do things openly. Being a witch that can''t use her spells is very annoying!"


    Felix laughed. ¡°You used to get so embarrassed when we mentioned super witches. I remember when you were an adult last time, you asked us not to talk about it, and we used to tease you about it all the time. Has that changed?¡±


    Anise sighed, as she looked at the ceiling of the house. ¡°Something I¡¯ve learned as well¡­ it¡¯s not a bad thing to have a dream you want to chase. I know that my parents just wanted to give me something to look up to... but it came to mean a lot more than that. At least, for me it did. So I''m just going to pursue being the best super-witch in the multiverse.¡± She smiled, and I hobbled over to her, before I enveloped her in a hug.


    Felix laughed. "Well, I''m glad. I look forward to seeing you work towards being a real super witch someday." Then, he paused, and glanced at the sky. "You know... something I¡¯ve been thinking about recently. Sallia is still stuck in the void until we all die,¡± said Felix. ¡°I doubt the three of us have any real opportunities to do much in this world. Not to mention, everyone we care about is starting to die. I¡¯ve been wondering¡­ once both of you hit the last few capstones for your Achievement progress, how about we return to the Market a little early? We''ve done almost everything we can here, and I feel bad for Sallia. There¡¯s not much keeping me tied to this world anymore, either.¡±


    I hesitated. I thought about Iselde, Vance, and Maela. Just like us, they were getting old. Trish and Markus were over sixty now. Their grandchildren were getting jobs now. I doubted they would live much longer, even with my healing. I didn¡¯t want to leave all of the friends I had met in this world behind¡­ but Felix¡¯s point about Sallia was also valid. Sallia had been waiting for almost five decades. During that time, she had been able to do nothing but talk with us and watch movies and tv shows. I had always felt bad that I didn¡¯t have some way to let her do more, but we had needed to make as much out of this life as we could. Otherwise, we might permanently die. But now¡­ there wasn¡¯t much left to do here. My friends were getting older, I was getting older¡­ things felt like they were coming to an end soon.


    ¡°I¡¯ll wait until the other three kids we grew up with die, and Trish and Markus too. I want to see everyone off," I said, finally. ¡°After that, I wouldn¡¯t mind an early return to the Market.¡±


    Felix and Anise nodded. We spent the rest of the night looking up at the sky, all lost in our own thoughts. However, in my heart, a long forgotten bubble of excitement started to appear. It might be another few years, or even a decade¡­ but soon, we would return to the Market. While I was still afraid of my friends dying permanently, I was also a little excited to do something again. A new world, with Sallia alongside us and young, strong bodies. Having only gotten old once, I could now confirm that getting old sucked. I was ready for a new adventure.

 Chapter 310: Return

    When I turned fifty-seven, Felix died. I had been expecting him to live a little longer, with our Market stats supporting us. However, the year he turned fifty-four, he started having organ problems. One after another, his organs tried to shut down. I healed them, of course - but the problems kept returning. I couldn''t find any reason for his organs to shut down. After investigating, I began to suspect that this was due to his nature as an artificial baby. The technology that created Felix had been experimental. It wouldn''t be odd if there was some sort of flaw with his body. It also explained why the same problems kept reappearing, no matter how many times I healed them. I could fix the symptoms, but I had no way to fix the core problem. When I told Felix about my guesses, he shrugged, and said it wasn''t a big deal either way. It seemed more like a relief to him when he finally died.


    To my and Anise''s amusement, Felix sounded relieved when we spoke to him next. He said that life was better, now that he wasn''t constantly in pain. He did complain about being unable to do anything but chat and watch TV, but he said it was still an overall win, as long as he wasn¡¯t stuck for too long.


    A year later, Vance died. Vance had never gotten married, so he didn¡¯t have any children or family members to see him off. Anise and I buried him without another soul to see him off. We spent the rest of the day in silence, to commemorate our friend and wish him well on his journey back to the Ocean of Souls. Felix and Sallia managed to wake up and say their own goodbyes a few hours after we finished burying him. Sallia only had a little bit to say about the subject. She had never actually met Vance, after all. Felix sounded quite a bit more sad about Vance''s death.


    I could tell that Sallia felt a weird mix of emotions, based on what she projected through the communication bracelets. Part of what she felt was sadness, especially after Felix died¡­ but there was also a big part of her that seemed excited. Sallia knew that the end was coming for us, and while she seemed to feel bad about it, she was also excited. I didn¡¯t blame her. Being stuck in the void and only waking up for an hour or two every day must have sucked. Especially after living that way for fifty years. It sounded bizarre for one of my friends to hope I would die, but I could understand where Sallia was coming from. That next day, I told her not to feel bad about whatever she felt. In any case, we would all be together again soon.


    Iselde and Maela were the next ones to go. Maela had never married, but Iselde had married one of the former customers of Felix¡¯s alchemy shop. She died surrounded by grandchildren. Both of them died on the same day. I watched both of them return to the ocean of souls, and hoped that they would have a safe journey to their next lives.


    I wondered if there was anything I could do for the souls of the departed, but couldn¡¯t think of anything I could do. I had no idea how to help souls move through the ocean of souls, or how to help people reincarnate. It was something I decided to look into it next time we were in the Market. With any luck, it might even give me inspiration for how to improve my own alteration abilities further. I had spent a lot of time this life researching how to enhance my shaping, but had run into a wall after we moved to Zanna. I suspected that the Market had ideas to help us improve - if we could find them. I also thought that helping my dead friends would be nice. Maybe in the future, I could ¡®bless¡¯ people I cared about, giving them better births in future worlds?


    It was something to think about, and I found it occupying my thoughts more and more as I grew older.


    When I turned sixty-one, I got the final Achievement rewards I had been expecting.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Restore 5,000 Permanent, debilitating injuries.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +3,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That reward brought me from 20,119 Achievement to 23,119 Achievement. And along with that reward, I got one final, unexpected reward.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Influence: Play a [Very Minor] role in strengthening Zanna and improving its position in global politics.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +213.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This reward brought me from 23,119 Achievement to 23,332 Achievement. It was a surprise Achievement reward, so any amount was welcome.


    With those two rewards, I felt that I had exhausted my final bits of potential in this world. There was almost nothing left for me to do. I intended to wait for Dr. Trish and Markus to die, so that I could spend the last bits of time I could with them. However, my intentions started to wane as time passed. They were unusually healthy. Dr. Trish was a doctor, and had always taken excellent care of herself. Markus was a former soldier, and had an excellent level of physical health for his age. Everyone else I knew was already dead, and Felix and Sallia were waiting. I didn''t want to say goodbye to them... but I also felt pressured to move on.


    A year later, Anise got a final reward for strengthening Zanna, putting her at about 16,000 Achievement.


    Finally, I made my decision. I had enjoyed every moment of time with Dr. Trish and Markus in this world. I had cared about all of my friends. But everyone else had passed on. There were only two people still tying me to this world. I felt lonely and tired. I was ready to move on. Anise and I decided to end our lives in this world and return to the Market.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Besides, Felix and Sallia weren¡¯t the only ones who were getting impatient as time passed by. At sixty-two years old, I felt like my body was a cracked clay jar. It was full of holes and tiny fractures. Every single day, my body creaked and groaned in pain. Even with my healing magic, it was a miserable experience. I couldn''t do half of the things I found fun anymore. Even singing, my only hobby, started to get difficult. My voice just couldn''t keep up with my needs anymore. I couldn''t play board games or get a drink with Felix or Sallia, because they were dead. I couldn''t do anything I loved. Age had seeped into my life, taking away everything that made me happy. If I was being honest with myself... I was looking forward to being young again. When we returned to the Market, we would get bodies that matched our ''perceived'' age... and I was ready to be in my early twenties, and have a strong, athletic body and voice. I was ready to move on.


    As one final blessing to the town that had sheltered us for decades, I healed every single person in the town over the course of a month. I had zero expectation that I would get a reward for this - either monetary or Achievement related. I just wanted to leave a final gift behind before I died. This town had sheltered us for years, and I felt a final ''thank-you'' was in order.


    Then, Anise and I told Markus and Dr. Trish that I felt my time was coming. We spent a final day together, just the four of us. We had a little picnic in the park in the middle of town. We spent the day laughing, reminiscing, and talking about everything we had been through together. It was a lovely day. That evening, I bid them farewell. The two had been good to me, and I hoped that they would live happily for the rest of their lives. They had earned it. I double checked my will, where I had left Trish and Markus most of my things and donated the rest to charity.


    Then, I asked Anise if she was also ready to go. After getting her confirmation, I used Extinguish on both of us. We passed away that night.


    It was time to return to the Market.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Death Statistics Report:


    Power:


    [Basic] Grade attunement


    + 50 Achievement


    [Intermediate] Grade attunement


    + 100 Achievement


    [Advanced] Grade Attunement


    + 150 Achievement


    [Expert] Grade Attunement


    + 200 Achievement


    First Rune:


    + 70 Achievement


    Second Rune:


    + 140 Achievement


    Third Rune:


    + 210 Achievement


    Fourth Rune:


    + 280 Achievement


    Fifth Rune:


    + 350 Achievement


    Sixth Rune:


    + 420 Achievement


    Seventh Rune:


    + 490 Achievement


    Eighth Rune:


    + 560 Achievement


    Skill


    [Basic] medicine


    + 30 Achievement


    [Basic] Eldritch Soul


    + 400 Achievement


    [Intermediate] Eldritch Soul


    + 1,000 Achievement


    Slaughter


    Kill an Ordinary Human for the first time


    + 60 Achievement


    Kill an Ordinary Human for the fifth time


    + 100 Achievement


    Kill a Worldstrider for the First time


    + 80 Achievement


    Kill a Worldstrider for the Third time


    + 150 Achievement


    Kill a Worldstrider for the Ninth time


    + 210 Achievement


    Kill a Worldstrider for the Twenty-Seventh time


    + 240 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Worldstrider for the First time


    + 30 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Worldstrider for the Third time


    + 60 Achievement


    Assist in killing a Worldstrider for the Ninth time


    + 90 Achievement


    Kill Aplos


    + 450 Achievement


    Kill a Human with an Ability for the first time


    + 300 Achievement


    Influence


    Hamstring Vernese attempts to study Artificial Humans


    + 2,400 Achievement


    Restore 2 permanent injuries


    + 90 Achievement


    Restore 10 permanent injuries


    + 300 Achievement


    Restore 25 permanent injuries


    + 450 Achievement


    Restore 100 permanent injuries


    + 700 Achievement


    Restore 1,000 Permanent injuries


    + 1,000 Achievement


    Restore 5,000 Permanent injuries


    + 3,000 Achievement


    Have a [Minor] impact on the war between Worldstriders and Humans


    + 6,120 Achievement


    Have a [Major] impact on saving several refugees from the Zelyrian continent


    + 540 Achievement


    Have a [Minor] impact on the civil war in Zanna


    + 17 Achievement


    Have a [Minor] role in Strengthening Zanna


    + 213 Achievement


    Wealth


    Own 5 Ancient Lightning Bolts


    + 250 Achievement


    Own 1 Kg of Alkulsteel


    + 100 Achievement


    Crafting


    Exploration


    Explore the Heart of the Zelyrian Pocket Dimension and return alive


    + 500 Achievement


    Family/Disciples


    Misc:


    First time Achievements:


    (Market-Produced Achievements cannot be repeated in subsequent lives. They are paid for by Eluxia and the Market, as a means to encourage new Transmigrators, and not linked to the dimensional laws of any world besides the market).


    Total at start of the world: 542.08


    Equipment Maintenance Costs: 89.1


    Taxes: N/A  (Error - no tax skill detected. Please consult with your local city administrator for further details. Tax evasion is a capital offense, and trying to avoid paying may result in execution!)


    Final Total: 22,349.98


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 311: Epilogue of Steam and Brass

    The world moved on. The death of Miria and Anise went almost unnoticed in history. The two of them had never made a huge impact on the world, after all.


    Felix was a different matter. Felix¡¯s efforts to bring industrialization to Zanna were well-remembered by the people. After Felix¡¯s death, the new Minister of Industry in Zanna declared a day of mourning for him, with the reluctant agreement of the king. The man who brought trains, factories, and proper safety standards to the archipelago was gone. The minister delivered an impassioned speech about Felix''s achievements the day of his death. Of course, most Zannans only had a vague understanding of who Felix was - but at Felix''s death was far from unnoticed.


    While many members in the government sought to commemorate Felix, others had little interest. After all, Felix had made plenty of friends, but he had also made some enemies. Some, like the king, tried to devalue Felix''s accomplishments. Others simply didn''t care now that he was dead. In the end, while Felix¡¯s name lived on in history textbooks, his achievements were glossed over by many of them. However, he still secured a place in most history textbooks.


    His name resurfaced a century later, when his notes on using affixations as a ¡®container¡¯ for affixations reappeared. Many alchemists were intrigued by Felix¡¯s ideas, even though all of Felix¡¯s notes recounted failure. However, while Felix¡¯s old research notes sparked academic interest, due to a lack of results, this interest died down again after a decade. Nobody could quite figure out how to make Felix¡¯s ideas work. Many Alchemists thought they should be feasible... but nobody could ever get them to work in practice. Thus, using an affixation to hold more affixations became a kind of legendary theoretical achievement. However, its impact outside of academic circles was minimal.


    Time passed. Zanna took the factories that Felix built, and used it to build a stronger presence in the untamed rainforests. After decades of development, Zanna didn''t remove all of the rainforests. However, the smaller islands were converted into hubs of industry and commerce. The endless poisonous animals and plants disappeared, at least on some islands. Zanna became a major industrial power as the world changed.


    Of course, Zanna never reached the level of a great power that could change the world on its own. After all, Ennalia still had decades of industrial development that the rest of the world did not. They wasted some of their ¡®head start¡¯ trying and failing to suppress their former colonies, but they still had a huge advantage. Several other colonies also had more advantageous geography. Zanna had plenty of natural resources... but most of them were in the rainforest, where they were hard to use. Furthermore, Zanna''s natural metal deposits were much lower than in some other parts of the world. However, Zanna still managed to carve out a position in global politics, even if not as a leader.


    Of course, industry wasn¡¯t the only thing that advanced after the deaths of the group. As decades passed, the ¡®death zone¡¯ on the Zelyrian continent started to fade away. It did not disappear, but it did shrink and became less dangerous. A century after Miria¡¯s death, people started to explore the ruins of the old empires that once dominated the globe.


    What they found was a ruined wasteland. After a century and a half of neglect, most of the human architecture in the area had crumbled. However, people started to learn rather interesting facts about the Worldstriders and the old world from the ruins. Specifically, they found some written records left behind by the Worldstrirders.


    From this, people discovered a shocking secret: the worldstriders claimed that they were not from this dimension. At first, archeologists thought that this was a metaphorical statement. The consensus at the time was that the Worldstriders were talking about their ''birth'' in Zelyrian labs. A few archeologists instead claimed that they had found some sort of religious text. Nobody took their claims at face value, though.


    After all, it was common knowledge that the Zelyrians had created the Worldstriders in a lab. Decades later, an alchemist debunked this claim by accident. She managed to make contact with the ocean of souls while trying to study ¡®teleportation.¡¯ Rather than creating a ''portal,'' she pulled water from the ocean of souls into her lab. Nobody was quite sure what she had done at first. The water she teleported in had a variety of odd properties, such as making anybody who touched the water feel weak and dizzy. At first, the alchemist believed that she had successfully created a portal with an unknown ''exit point''. But after more testing, she realized she had reached outside of the world itself and grabbed a bucket of water.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    This allowed people to put more information together. Eventually, they realized that the worldstriders had not been making grandiose claims. They had been describing their origins in a very literal way.


    From there, research into the Worldstriders and Zelyrians developed at breakneck paces. Many nations felt that extradimensional exploration might be the future. New dimensions could give nations endless space to expand and colonize. Interest in Worldstrider and Zelyrian technology, history, and culture rose like never before. People even started to understand the nature of ''essence.'' This led to a new realization, that in the wider multiverse more types of essence existed. Finally, people discovered how the worldstriders had lived, and how they had died.


    Long ago, the Zelyrians had betrayed the worldstriders. They used the bodies of the worldstriders as a sort of ¡®battery,¡¯ shackling them to the pocket dimension that the worldstriders had been trapped within. Through this energy source, the Zelyrians created two extra layers of reality. First, they created the worldstrider''s ¡®prison.¡¯ It served as a prison, which also digested the worldstrider''s bodies and broke them down into energy. This was why this layer of reality had acidic properties. The other thing the Zelyrians had created after betraying the Worldstriders was the pocket dimension. The Zelyrians had intended for this to be a sort of second world. It was meant to be abundant in resources, safe, and filled with manifestation essence.


    Somehow, the Worldstriders had made the final step of this process backfire spectacularly. The process was never written down, but the results were evident. The Zelyrian empire had collapsed at the pinnacle of its power. However, the Worldstriders hadn''t escaped their prison. After that, the Worldstriders started using leftover artifacts to improve their situation. They started to change their biology. They turned their acidic prison into an advantage. Hundreds of years later, for unknown reasons, they escaped.


    After the worldstriders had escaped the pocket dimension, they had waged a one-sided war against the rest of the continent. Most historians didn''t know exactly what they planned. There were too many cultural and biological differences to fully understand them. However, most historians believed that the Worldstriders wanted to rebuild the Zelyrian empire. But this time, instead of being the right hand of the Zelyrians, the Worldstriders wanted to take over for themselves.


    During the war, the human militaries created Project Nightsong together, as a means to fight back. However, Project Nightsong had interacted¡­ poorly with the Worldstrider¡¯s subset of reality. At first, Project Nightsong was a desperate attempt to attack ¡®unkillable monsters¡¯ from the human military. The way it did so was by tearing at the layer of reality the worldstriders were imprisoned in via the use of sound. This proved incredibly effective. Thus, the worldstriders developed countermeasures. They cobbled together a bomb from old Zelyrian artifacts. It was meant to kill any Project Nightsong within a massive range, ensuring that the Project wouldn''t escape destruction.


    What happened next was... complicated. It remained a topic of dispute for years, before humans got a better understanding of souls. However, through research, Alchemists started to claim that life needed a soul to work properly. Whether it was a plant, insect, or animal, it needed a soul to live. Since Project Nightsong did not have a soul of its own, but still mimicked several functions of a ¡®living¡¯ creature, it was likely unstable. The fact that project Nightsong had been able to work at all was a sort of miraculous fluke. The military had essentially created a ''fake'' life form that had a bunch of pre-coded responses built into it. However, without any understanding of souls or replacement for a soul, Project Nightsong was like a ship held together with duct tape. It worked fine short term, but it was already on the verge of falling apart when the Worldstriders made their bombs. When the special anti-Nightsong bombs were detonated... everything imploded at once.


    Each Project Nightsong tore itself to pieces, taking several chunks of the secondary layer of reality with them. With such huge holes in the extra layers of reality, the whole thing started unraveling. Within weeks, the whole thing fell apart, killing most life on the Zelyrian continent.


    This dampened enthusiasm for extradimensional exploration for a time. Most nations were wary of a repeat of the Worldstrider incident. However, eventually, people still stepped into the wider multiverse. There were too many reasons to explore, even if it was ''risky.'' But that was a story for the distant future.


    While Miria and Anise were forgotten by history, Felix¡¯s accomplishments were remembered. In Zanna, he was always mentioned as one of the ''founding fathers'' of industry in the archipelago. He wasn''t quite as popular as many other historical figures, but most children of Zanna recognized his name. It was still far from the heights Miria and her friends had hoped for... but it was certainly a step in the right direction.

 Chapter 312: Planning

    When I came to, I was floating in a sea of darkness and souls. A golden lasso of energy appeared, and began dragging me forward. I spent a few moments adjusting to my situation, before I checked my surroundings. To my left were three other golden lassos. I relaxed. We were returning to the Market again.


    But this time, there was something different about our journey. The journey back to the Market was usually quiet and depressing. We couldn''t communicate, because we had no mouths. We were silver blobs of mana with no way to interact with our surroundings. This made each return trip to the Market quite dull. This time would have been no different¡­ if we didn¡¯t have the communication bracelets.


    <This is the second time I¡¯ve seen it, but the ocean of possibilities is quite strange, isn¡¯t it?> Said Anise, as another patch of distorted scenery whizzed by. <I can feel the laws of reality and physics breaking as we move through the ocean. But I can¡¯t understand how anything changes. It¡¯s like staring at a color that my eyes can''t process.> Anise paused, as if she was thinking about her words. <I wonder if there''s some way to use this as inspiration for forming new spells in the future. It''s at a much higher level than I''m currently at, but the idea is exciting.>


    <There almost certainly is. The market itself seems to be built upon the foundation of manipulating the laws of reality. I doubt that Eluxia just dreamed up the Market from thin air when she created it. She must have taken inspiration from the way laws change from one dimension to another.> Felix sighed. <Well, it''s quite far away from us now. We should focus on more immediate goals. What do we need to do when we return to the Market?>


    <The first thing I want is to get a better understanding of how souls and bodies connect to each other. I also need detailed information about how to heal souls,> I said. <I was trying to do some research projects during our downtime last life, but¡­ I didn¡¯t have a good way to proceed. The only ability I¡¯ve managed to develop that affects souls is soul-clamp. I want to learn how to develop my skills further, but I just can''t find the right direction. I have decided something, though. I want to evolve my alteration ability to make it better at interacting with souls. As a member of the Market, soul manipulation is always going to be relevant. I want to specialize in that, so that we always have a soul specialist in our group. But I need a research direction first. Trying to find it on my own was a total failure.>


    <That¡¯s a good idea, although it might be difficult,> said Sallia. <After all, we haven¡¯t found too much information in the Market about soul manipulation.>


    <But that information has to exist in the Market.> said Felix. <Soul manipulation is the core identity of the Market. It''s the foundation the entire thing is built off of. Hmm... Do you guys remember how the Market cities are divided into districts?>


    <Yeah. Why?> said Anise.


    <Sallia did bring up a good point. We haven''t found much info on souls yet. Maybe all that information is stored in one of the inner districts of the city,> said Felix.


    I thought about Felix¡¯s words. They made sense. But that also posed a new problem. The one time we had gotten near one of the ¡®inner districts¡¯ of the Market, it had been very dangerous. Were we strong enough to mess with the dangerous side of the Market right now?


    <I have a rough idea for how we try exploring the inner districts,> said Felix. <Miria''s new ability should give us a safer way to explore dangerous regions. We need to make our purchases first, of course. Miria doesn''t have enough Glut Penalty to grab her new Keyword ability yet. But once she has it, we could finally start scouting and exploring.>Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    <That makes sense to me,> I said. <I was already hoping to scout out whatever defends the life-purchasing area. The inner areas of the Market could help us get stronger on the way there.>


    <Yup,> said Felix. <I''m also really glad that you got that keyword ability, Miria. We only have two lives left. In three lives, we haven¡¯t even found the building where we can buy lives yet. We also haven''t explored any of the real ¡®mysteries¡¯ of the Market. We¡¯ve only scratched the surface. Each life is spent the moment we die, thus returning us to the Market¡­ so in total, we have two more worlds after this. Then, we either buy lives, or die permanently. Our situation is dire. We need to start learning more, and growing faster. If possible, we need to spend more time in the Market, too. It should be possible to spend more than a few months in the Market. We just haven''t found the method to do so yet.> Felix paused for a moment, before I felt a wave of excitement flood the communication bracelet. <I also remember there being some sort of shop that could modify skills, or even remove skills. There are a lot of other things that should exist in the Market, but that we haven''t encountered yet. I bet all of them are in the inner districts.>


    At Felix¡¯s words, I started to feel a twinge of excitement as well. There were numerous things I wanted in the Market, but had yet to see. With any luck, we could find them this time. On top of that, I also faintly remembered an advertisement from the first time I had returned to the Market. There, I had seen ads for bodies that we could rent or buy¡­ which should let us stay in the Market for longer. The Market was a goldmine of Achievement, but one that we could only stay in for a few months before things got dangerous. If we could find a way to extend this time, that might provide us with a critical edge in our fight for survival. I couldn¡¯t help but think about the other things Felix had mentioned. Skill modification shops. Soul manipulation shops. Bodies. Lives. Information about evolving my abilities the way I wanted to develop them. All things that should exist in the Market, but that we hadn¡¯t come across yet. I hoped Felix was right, and that we would find them in the inner districts of the Market. If so¡­ as long as we could raid the inner districts of the Market, we could grow exponentially faster after this.


    <I like the idea,> said Sallia. <Let¡¯s do it. First, we should buy stats, then buy abilities, and then we¡¯ll charge at the inner districts.> Then, she paused, and I felt a twinge of embarrassment flow through the communication bracelet. <Well, first, we need to spend a few hours getting reacquainted with having physical bodies. I''m pretty rusty after all these years.>


    <Don¡¯t worry, I need some time to adjust to having a body again too,> said Felix. <We should set aside a few hours to get used to our new bodies. Then we should be ready to start?>


    <I wouldn¡¯t mind some time to get used to our new bodies as well,> I said. <I was over sixty when I died. When we get to the Market, my body is going to be much younger and stronger. I''ll need time to adjust to my new physical abilities.>


    <So we have a plan,> said Felix. <We all agree to get reacquainted with our bodies, then buy skills and achievements, then charge at the inner districts?>


    <Let''s do it,> said Anise.


    The four of us continued talking about what information we needed, what opportunities we wanted to capitalize on, and so on. It was a far cry from the lonely, silent voyages to the market that I had endured the past few deaths. And as we continued making plans, I felt that we were moving forward. Our first few explorations of the Market had been incomplete. We had barely known what we were doing, or what we needed. We had been grasping at straws as we tried to search for a way to survive. Now, we had a plan. It was risky, and it might lead us into trouble... but I felt like things were finally moving in the right direction.


    I couldn¡¯t help but wish I had a mouth to smile with as we voyaged through the ocean of souls.


    Time passed. Finally, a giant, seventeenth-century pirate ship came into view. As we got closer, it grew larger and larger, until it was clear that the ship was the size of the galaxy. Perched upon the deck and railings of the ship were various ruined cities. I felt a stirring of both excitement and anxiety as we drew closer.


    We had returned to the Market.

 Chapter 313: Young Again

    As usual, we drifted towards a city on the railing. Our souls drifted closer to the ground, until finally, we were just above the street. Then, mana swarmed my soul. Seconds later, I was in the middle of a fresh physical body. A few System notifications appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Welcome newly Deceased!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have been detected to be (dead), and your soul was no longer housed inside of a physical vessel. You have been returned to the Market, and one life has been deducted to grant you a (basic) physical vessel.


    Two lives remain.


    Warning: Upon returning to the Market from another dimension, some of the ¡®dimensional laws¡¯ of your former world will remain attached to your soul. If you attempt to reincarnate before these dimensional laws are purified, you may experience severe injuries or death immediately after being born. The Market will automatically fix this problem, so long as you remain for at least 30 days. You may also pay a fee at a decontamination center to speed this process up. Or, if you have a Heroic Grade or above Ability, this time may be reduced, or removed entirely! Please consult an expert at a decontamination center for more details.


    Warning: Basic Physical vessels will begin to deteriorate within a few months. If you want a more permanent vessel, please buy or rent one. Otherwise, please enter a pool or river of reincarnation before deterioration occurs.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Right afterwards, a deluge of advertisements bombarded me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Tired of hopping from world to world alone? Do you want a group of friends to journey with? Do you have a hard time interacting with others, or a hard time meeting people? Are other people not good enough to keep up with you?


    Build a new friend at Build-A-Soul today!


    Instead of trying to make a friend by conversing with them, why not create a new friend from scratch? Build-A-Soul will help you create a new friend with a personality you control! With hundreds of customization options and the help of our team, you can build a friend that''s perfect for you!


    *Disclaimer - Build-A-Soul is creating a friend, NOT mind-controlling them. If you treat your pal poorly, they may abandon you or betray you. Please remember to keep this in mind when interacting with your new friend.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After I finished reading the advertisement, I felt dumbfounded.


    This advertisement was even more bizarre than the usual Market ads. Building a friend from scratch... made sense, once I thought about it. Last world, I had noticed that water from the ocean of souls worked as a material for making new souls. This seemed to happen if a baby couldn¡¯t pull in a ¡®proper¡¯ soul, but still had enough suction force to drag water out of the ocean of souls. Doing the same thing with magic or technology made perfect sense. Especially since the Market clearly had an excellent understanding of souls.


    However, I wasn''t sure how I felt about it. It felt kind of wrong to me¡­ but when I tried to figure out why, I wasn¡¯t quite sure whether it was actually a problem. In a sense, it was kind of like creating an artificial intelligence via magic. The ad itself mentioned that there was no mind control involved, so I didn''t hate the idea as much as I otherwise might have. But at the same time, it felt very weird to design a new ¡®friend¡¯ from the ground up. On the other hand, I didn''t think that designing an AI to be someone''s friend was ''wrong.'' The whole thing made me feel like it was wrong, and then made me wonder if it was perfectly fine and I was just being oversensitive about it.


    After a few moments I decided to ignore the question of morality. In the first place, the Market wasn''t exactly a bastion of morality. If it didn''t do immoral, shady things, that would be the real surprise. Instead, I focused on how complicated it was to create a soul. I had no idea how to create a soul from scratch, but for the Market, it was easy. It was so commonplace that I got spam advertisements about it.


    At the very least, this did verify some of our speculation from earlier. If we searched the right parts of the Market, I would find the right direction for my ability upgrades. If I wanted to focus on soul manipulation, there was a path. I just needed to find it.


    The next ad was less interesting.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Charm inc - the secret to a better you!


    A lot of ordinary natives in lesser worlds rely upon things like makeup and fashion to look better. You don''t have to rely on such inferior methods to look great!


    The secret to a perfect body and face is easy if you use our products! Charm inc sells Abilities that sculpt your body to look your very best! Best of all, our abilities come with a FREE analysis of the local beauty standards each transmigration!


    For more Achievement, you can even buy access to one of our pools of reincarnation, and make sure that you end up in a world with the beauty standards you want!


    Become the best you that you can be right now!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After reading the second ad, I snorted. I didn¡¯t care of the rest of the planet agreed with my beauty standards. I had a pretty specific idea of what I wanted to look like, but I didn''t care what other people thought of me as long as I didn''t stand out too much. If our circumstances changed I might rethink that, but for now, it was fine as long as I liked how I looked.


    After clicking away the Market¡¯s advertisements, I finally had a chance to inspect my new body. Before dying, I had felt old. My joints had creaked when I moved. My body had felt as weak and fragile as melting ice.


    The body given by the Market returned me to a young woman in her early twenties. I felt fit. Strong. Like I could run a marathon without any problems. I had always appreciated how vibrant my body felt in the Market, but after getting old, I appreciated it far more. It was hard to describe how frustrating it was to be trapped in a body that didn''t work when I needed it to. Now, I was free again.


    I looked at the street around me, and saw everyone else experimenting with their bodies as well. I grinned, and then pulled everyone into a group hug.


    ¡°I''d almost forgotten what it was like to be young and healthy," I said. Then, I did a double take as I noticed that a few things were different about our group. Sallia¡¯s hair had become blue, almost the same color as my eyes. ¡°Sallia?¡± I asked. ¡°Why did your hair color change?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m trying out a new look. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll like blue hair, but¡­¡± Sallia shrugged. ¡°This body is only going to last a few months anyway. If I don¡¯t like it, I¡¯ll change it next life. It seemed fun to experiment a little. I want my body to keep becoming more balanced towards swordsmanship and fitness... but that doesn''t mean I want my looks to stay totally the same. I thought your eyes are pretty, so I''d try out your eye color for my hair color." Sallia paused, as she examined my eyes. She frowned, and then shrugged. "I think my hair color is a bit off from your eyes, but it''s close. What do you think of my eyes?"You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    I squinted at Sallia¡¯s eyes, and realized that they had also changed. The first time I had met Sallia in the Market, she¡¯d had eyes that looked almost like they were chunks of amethyst. They didn''t have whites or pupils - they were solid purple orbs. Now, Sallia had pupils that were star-shaped, while the whites of her eyes were tinted a faint purple color. It looked rather unique, but it suited her face well.


    "I like it," I told her. "I''m not sure how well it goes with your new hair color, though."


    "Yeah, I''m also not sure if I like this hair color," said Sallia. "I''m probably going to settle on red. I think it fits me the best. I wanted to try other colors out first, though."


    I nodded, and checked my other friends to see if they had made any changes to their body. Anise looked much the same as she had last time we returned to the Market. She also appeared to be in her early twenties. She was on the shorter side, and had bright pink hair and four eyes. However, there were still a few small changes to her body. The two eyes on her temples had shrunk. Maybe Anise still wanted the extra vision, but didn¡¯t want the extra eyes to be as noticeable? We had spent decades in a world where two eyes was the norm. It wouldn¡¯t be strange for Anise to feel unused to having four eyes again.


    Either way, Anise was still Anise. Her smile was bright and happy, like always.


    As for Felix, he looked much like he had last life. After we had helped Felix escape from the military facility he was born in last time, he had asked me to change his body shape around. Clearly, he had liked his new look, since he had kept it. He looked like a scholar who occasionally worked out, but had a distinct bookish look to him. I couldn''t help but think that he looked totally different from the first time I had met him. When Sallia and I had first run into him, he had looked like a humanoid bear. Now, he looked more like an elegant scholar. His current look fit him better.


    Since the other two hadn''t made any major changes to their bodies, I didn''t comment on them. Instead, I took a moment to glance at my Status Screen, to refresh my memory on how it looked in the Market.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (30+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    6/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 68/68


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (40 Glut Penalty) (Intermediate Grade)


    Echoes of the Deep (Ocean, Death, Duality, Alteration) (Basic Grade) (25 Glut Penalty)


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    Weapon Abilities:


    Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Birth related Abilities:


    Body Control (0 Glut Penalty)


    Identity (1 Glut Penalty)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 22,349.98


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Items: 5/5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    1. Simple Friendship Bracelet with Distance Chatting (7 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    2. Cursed Tarot Deck (9.2 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    3. Lake-Gazer''s Dress (22.8 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    4. Breath of the Storm (47.8 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    5. Storage Pack (2.3 Maintenance)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Total Maintenance cost (per life): 89.1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have abilities available for purchase! Please click this notification to examine them! They will expire in 71 hours and 30 minutes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It had been a while since I had seen my ¡®Market¡¯ status screen. After checking my stats and abilities, I nodded to myself.


    I had three abilities I had the option to purchase, and nowhere near enough Glut to do so. We needed to move.


    Sallia grinned.


    ¡°Let¡¯s find a house and take it over for a few hours, so we can all get acquainted with our bodies again.¡±


    The four of us nodded, and started walking towards the residential district. Since it had been sixty years since we were last here, my memory of the city layout out was disjointed. I remembered bits and pieces of how everything worked - but my memories were still a bit fuzzy. Still, with some struggling, we managed to navigate to the right area.


    As we entered the residential district, we ran into our first skeleton. It was stumbling down the road, completely oblivious to our presence. I almost attacked it on the spot¡­ before I glanced at Sallia.


    ¡°Do you want a sparring partner?¡± I asked her.


    Sallia looked at the skeleton, and then pulled out {Mirror¡¯s Edge}. It was a sword that hadn¡¯t seen use in almost six decades. She grinned. ¡°I¡¯d love a sparring partner.¡±


    She stepped forward, and the skeleton took notice of her. It charged towards her, and Sallia immediately stepped into its range, before she took an experimental swing at the creature.


    To my shock, Sallia missed. It was only by a few centimeters - but Sallia didn''t instakill the skeleton.


    The skeleton swung its own hammer at her head, and Sallia ducked under the creature¡¯s swing. Her movements looked clumsy, almost as if she had never fought before.


    I immediately tried to prepare an extinguish, only to realize I hadn¡¯t rebuilt my attunement yet. I panicked, and pulled out {Breath of the Storm} to blast the skeleton into ashes with a lightning bolt - but before I could, I heard Sallia¡¯s mental voice.


    <Wait. I¡¯m fine,> she sent. I hesitated, but stopped.


    Sallia¡¯s movements looked clumsy, but she hadn''t gotten hurt yet. Sallia moved into a more defensive posture. The skeleton took another swing at her, but Sallia dodged out of the way. This time, her movements seemed much smoother. I relaxed. Sallia might be rusty, but she had always been our best close-quarters fighter.


    Sallia spent five minutes exchanging blows with the skeleton. With each minute that passed, her movements looked smoother and more coordinated. Finally, she beheaded it with her sword, before she grimaced. "I am very rusty," she said. I resisted the urge to wince.


    Sallia was indeed very rusty. After five minutes of combat, she no longer seemed like a novice, but she was a far cry from the terrifying swordsman I remembered.


    ¡°Sorry for the poor showing. Being out of practice hit me harder than I thought,¡± she said.


    I gave her a reassuring hug. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Your fighting style is the most physical one. The rest of us have an easier time coping with changes to our physical body, since we rely more on spells. You were getting the hang of it after only a couple minutes. With a few more days of practice, you''ll be back to your previous skill level.¡±


    Sallia sighed. ¡°We might need to stay away from stronger enemies for a while. I didn''t expect it to be this hard to fight after sixty years of taking it easy." She pouted. "Let¡¯s just go. I need to get some real practice in."


    I nodded, and we continued to the residential area. It only took us a few minutes to find an uninhabited house that was large enough for our needs, which we promptly took over. There was nothing interesting in the building besides what appeared to be a dysfunctional computer. It was either long-broken, or I had no idea how to turn it. After spending a few minutes messing with it, we ignored it as we set up inside of the house.


    It was time to start training. Based on what I¡¯d seen from Sallia¡¯s performance, we would definitely need it if we wanted to face the horrors of the Market again.

 Chapter 314: Rebuilding

    With a house secured, we spent a few hours familiarizing ourselves with our new bodies. At first, we had thought that would be enough time.


    We greatly underestimated how hard it would be to adapt to our bodies. It was nothing like integrating a new Grade of physical stats. It was almost as hard as adjusting to a totally different body plan. My balance, strength, and reflexes were all completely different from my previous aging body. Even for simple things, like dodging or swinging a weapon, I needed to relearn everything from the beginning.


    In the end, we needed a full day and a half to finish getting used to our physical abilities. After a day, I started to feel anxiety. My Keyword abilities would disappear if I didn''t buy them within 72 hours. But even though I wanted to rush, we needed to get used to fighting again. Last time we had attacked a higher level shop in the Market, we had run into a fairly powerful magical creature. We needed to be ready for another big fight, just in case.


    Of course, I didn''t only reacquaint myself with my body. I also worked on building up my magical abilities again.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a [Basic] Grade attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Condense your first rune out of absorption essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +80


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My first rune and my [Basic] Grade attunement weren¡¯t too hard for me to rebuild. After multiple lifetimes of using both magic systems, I was very familiar with them. Thus, it only took me a few hours to get both set up. I even managed to push a bit further with my attunement during our second day of training.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form an [Intermediate] Grade attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +200


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Combined, this gave me 380 Achievement, for a new Achievement count of 22,728.63. I had lost a little bit of Achievement for being in the Market, but it wasn''t much. I was losing about one Achievement a day - just like always.


    For my first rune ability, I decided to go with teleportation again. It was useful against projectile attacks, and I was also very familiar with the ability now. I was confident that I could use it well after spending an entire lifetime handling it.


    At Sallia¡¯s insistence, I also rebuilt [Basic] Grade one-handed Swordsmanship. After decades of disuse, my sword skills were quite rusty. Sallia relearned her combat skills much faster than I did... and then proceeded to chase all of us around our training room with her sword while constantly whacking us in the head. It had been a long time since I had gotten beaten up by Sallia during training. It felt nostalgic, and also painful.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: Gain [Basic] Mastery of a one-handed swordsmanship technique.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +30


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This brought my Achievement from 22,728.63 to 22,758.57.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Due to your {Basic One-Handed Swordsmanship} Ability, reaching Basic Grade in one-handed swordsmanship gives extra rewards


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength +5, Agility+5, Fortitude +5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The others also used this time to rebuild their own strengths and abilities. Sallia went for her usual mix of body-enhancing spells for her manifestation spellcasting. However, she opted for something rather new for her first rune ability. According to Sallia''s description, she was trying to create a sort of anti-magic rune ability. It was an ability aimed at disrupting essence itself. She wasn''t entirely sure how well it would work in real combat... but I felt it was a good direction for her. If Sallia learned how to disrupt essence manipulation, it could become an incredible tool later.


    Felix focused on acquainting himself with his new ability. Unlike me, he had plenty of open glut penalty, so he bought his new ability the moment we returned to the Market. Then, instead of trying to make prosthetics, he started making electricity bombs. They weren''t anywhere near as good as the bombs from our last world, but they were serviceable. Felix made them from the computer we had found in the house, before using an affixation to substitute actual gunpowder. The bomb that he tested ended up about as effective as a small, poorly made grenade.


    These grenades were then handed off to Anise. After all, Anise didn''t have quite time to rebuild her spell maps. For now, Anise was going to lob bombs at enemies, and rely on her items. With her {Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes}, {Phoenix Sword}, and {Finger of Magic Missiles}, she was set up to do something in a fight.


    I suspected that we were actually a bit weaker than when we left the Market last time, but it should be good enough for now. Since time was ticking, after 36 hours of training and bomb-making, we set off. I needed to buy my stats and get enough glut for my ability before 72 hours passed. Otherwise, I would lose {Eldritch Soul} forever.


    Our journey towards the less important districts of the Market was smooth. We found a few skeletons on the road, but now that we were familiar with our bodies again, they posed little threat to us. We took turns killing the skeletons, in order to maximize our group¡¯s Achievement gain. The skeletons were sparse, but they were still enough for each of us to get a few kills.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    You have slain an invading low-level troop. As defined in article two of the emergency city defense fund act, Eluxia distributes your rightful rewards.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    (Error ¨C Entity ¡®Eluxia¡¯ cannot be found.)


    Achievement distribution failed. For further information, please contact the administrator of  your current city.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Killed a skeletal foot soldier for the first time. Assist in Killing a Skeletal Foot Soldier for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +20, Achievement +2, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The extra 22 Achievement brought me from 22,758.57 Achievement to 22,770.51. It wasn¡¯t a substantial increase, but it was better than nothing.


    Since we were in a rush, we skipped smaller shops. Normally, we would attack them and loot them for Achievement, but we weren''t sure how much time we needed to get {Eldritch Soul}. Smaller shops might not have Tier 2 and Tier 3 Soul Fragments... in which case the essence we spent clearing out a small shop might cost us.


    After a few hours of searching, we finally found a promising looking shop. It was on the smaller side, but it looked large enough to support Tier 2 and Tier 3 soul fragments.


    It was named ¡°Saul¡¯s Soul Solace - the Emporium for the new, successful transmigrator!¡± It looked well off, at least for a shop in the outer district of the nursery. It was promising enough for our intents and purposes. Just as we had feared, it was guarded by an odd monster that we had never seen before.


    This monster looked like a giant, moving colony of moss. I could see little bits and pieces of its body crawling around as it moved. It didn''t look human at all - it looked like a mound of green. When I looked at it with soul-sight, I realized that I wasn''t looking at moss. Instead, the creature was probably some sort of... animated fungus. There was also a chance that it was a golem of some sort. Either way, I had never seen anything quite like it. Rather than a single enemy, the creature was a colony of small creatures. Through soul-sight, it looked like billions of tiny little souls clumped together.


    ¡°It¡¯s a colony of monsters,¡± I said. ¡°Extinguish isn¡¯t going to be very useful against it, since I can only target one living creature at a time. I doubt it would even notice if I spent days hitting it with extinguish. I''m going to swap to {Breath of the Storm}. Lightning should cook a lot of the creatures with each hit," I said.


    Sallia also grimaced. ¡°If it¡¯s a giant colony, I¡¯m not sure how useful swordsmanship is. I wish I knew more fire spells." Sallia squinted at the creature, before she grinned. "Actually, it looks like essence plays an important role in its biology. Maybe my essence disruption ability can get its first proper field test.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Felix frowned. "I only have metal manipulation right now. I don''t think there''s much I can do here. If we need to box it in, maybe I can whip something up?" Felix shrugged. "I''ll see if there''s somewhere I can help once the fight starts."


    The four of us spent a few minutes trying to work out a battle plan. Since we didn''t know what abilities the creature had, it was a bit hard. However, after a few minutes of planning, I felt that we had a reasonable battle plan. After that, the four of us marched up to the side of the shop, before we glanced at our surroundings one more time. There weren''t any other creatures in our surroundings.


    <Are you ready?> I asked the others.


    <We''re ready!> said Sallia.


    <Miria, get ready,> said Anise. <On the count of three, I¡¯ll throw in Felix¡¯s bomb.>


    I nodded. Anise counted to three, and threw in a lightning bomb. A moment later, I used most of my alteration essence to chuck a massive bolt of lightning at the fungus golem.


    With a roar of fire, half of the creature disappeared. The mound of moss quivered for a moment... before its entire body seemed to dissolve into thin air. I blinked in surprise. Had it died? That had been incredibly easy.


    Then, I realized I hadn''t gotten a kill notification. I turned on my soul sight.


    ¡°It¡¯s not dead! Its body is in the air all around us," I said. "Felix, get me a wall. It doesn''t need to be thick. Just keep that thing from touching us. The air around us is filled with spores. Sallia, I''m going to share my vision with you. If you see any spores get too close to us, use your anti-essence sword and see what you can do." I said. At the same time, I started sharing my vision via communication bracelet.


    Felix immediately erected a metal wall in front of us. It was barely a thin sheet of metal, and it was only half as tall as me... but it did succeed in blocking off some of the spores. A moment later, Sallia stepped forward, activated her rune ability, and swung her sword. I noticed that a clump of the fungal spores near her blade seemed to wither and die... but it was nowhere near enough. It was like trying to put out a forest fire with a cup of water.


    I felt the urge to curse, before I realized something. The spores drifting through the air... were not moving very quickly.


    A moment later, a clump of spores landed on Felix''s wall. In seconds, they ate through the thin sheet of metal like they were made of acid. My eyes widened.


    They might be slow, but if a group of them touched us, it would be bad news.


    "New plan. Just back up and shoot them," I said, as I glanced behind us. There still weren''t any other souls near us.


    From there, the fight became much simpler. Since I could track the fungal spores, and we moved much faster than them, we just kept backing away. After a while, the creature seemed to get irritated, so it started clumping its spores together again. That made it faster... but it also made it much more vulnerable to attacks. Anise immediately tossed another fire bomb at any clumps of spores. I occasionally used small lightning bolts to take down smaller clumps of spores. Sallia also darted to the edges of the battle and used her anti-essence sword to kill a few smaller groups of spores.


    The battle was tense... but only in the sense that a mistake would cost us dearly. However, the creature lacked any way to close the distance with us. We stayed out of range, while the creature grew smaller and smaller, and more and more spores died. Finally, when it was over 70% dead, the final spores grouped together, and tried one last, desperate charge at us. One lightning bolt, followed by a few swings from Sallia, ended the last of the creature. I held my breath, waiting to see if the creature was finally gone, and breathed a sigh of relief after I got a System notification.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Killed a Fungal Menace for the first time. Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +60, Achievement +0.02


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Fungal Golem for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fungal Resilience - Parts of your body can survive without any connection to your ¡®main¡¯ body for a much longer period of time.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The reward brought me from 22,770.44 Achievement to 22,830.46 Achievement.


    I decided to equip the skill that I had gotten. I had no particular use for it right now, but maybe it would come in handy later. Then, we made our way back to the shop and entered. I only needed to look for a few moments, before I found my target. I grinned.


    Saul¡¯s Soul Emporium did, indeed, sell Tier 2 and Tier 3 Soul Fragments.


    I pulled up the System notification for {Eldritch Soul} one last time, just to double check how much Glut I needed to get it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have trained Eldritch Soul to [Basic] Grade for the first time, upon your death you will have the option to purchase [Eldritch Soul] as an ability, for the cost of 2000 Achievement.


    Note: because this ability permanently modifies your soul, you may NEVER remove this ability if you take it.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Soul, Space, Madness (3 keywords).


    Your soul is changed in the following ways:


    You may divide your soul into smaller fragments. You may attach these soul fragments to any type of water within your surroundings. These soul fragments retain some of your intelligence and personality. They can move, think, and attack autonomously, and they lose essence every second. They create lesser copies of your abilities.


    Glut Penalty: 30


    Note 1: This ability permanently modifies your soul away from the ¡®basic humanoid¡¯ template. It will not severely impact what species you reincarnate as in the future on its own, but with more abilities, this might change. If your base species changes beyond recognition, you will be moved to a more suitable nursery.


    Note 2: Turning your soul into fragments means peeling off a small layer of the outermost layer of your soul. It is best to avoid doing this more than once every few months. If you use this ability more frequently, it may cost Achievement. If you do so without enough Achievement, permanent soul damage may occur.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Currently, I was at 68/68 Glut Penalty. I needed 30 more to buy {Eldritch Soul}. I started doing math in my head.


    Each soul fragment cost 80 Achievement Grade 2 fragments, and 130 Achievement for Grade 3. Bringing a stat up to Grade 2 would give me 3 glut, and I would get another 15 for making all of my stats grade 2 or higher. If I first brought all of my stats up to Grade 2, it would take 5,600 Achievement. Then, I just needed to bring one stat to Grade 3, which would cost another 2,600 Achievement. That would let me purchase the Ability I wanted. Then, I needed to actually buy the Ability I wanted, which would take 2,000 Achievement¡­


    So I was looking at a total of 10,200 Achievement to get this ability and bring my stats up.


    The stat I would prioritize was obviously Alteration. It was my primary stat, and it empowered my Extinguishes and my healing abilities. There was no other stat that I would consider prioritizing over more Alteration.


    After purchasing all of my Soul Fragments and absorbing them, then buying my new ability, my status screen changed dramatically.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (40+100+5)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (40+100+20)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (40+100+5)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+100+20)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+100+5)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (40+100+20)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Lives Remaining: 2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    9/10 Keyword Slots used


    Glut: 98/99


    Abilities:


    Keyword Abilities:


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (40 Glut Penalty) (Intermediate Grade)


    Echoes of the Deep (Ocean, Death, Duality, Alteration) (Basic Grade) (25 Glut Penalty)


    Held Abilities:


    1. Fungal Resilience


    2.


    3.


    Eldritch Soul (Soul, Space, Madness) (Basic Grade) (30 Glut Penalty)


    Weapon Abilities:


    Basic one-Handed Swordsmanship (No Keywords) (2 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)


    Birth related Abilities:


    Body Control (0 Glut Penalty)


    Identity (1 Glut Penalty)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement: 12,630.45


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With half of my Achievement spent, and only one glut open, I thought about my remaining Achievement. I had been somewhat interested in the healing Skill I earned last life¡­ but did I actually want to buy it? Getting the glut for it would cost another 2600 Achievement. That would drop me to about 10,000 left. Normally, I wouldn''t have hesitated. However, we were about to raid the inner districts of the city. Once we got there, I had no idea what we would want to buy. Spending all of my Achievement before getting there would be pretty silly. If I bought the medical skill, I might regret it right after we entered the inner district.


    After a few seconds of thinking, I sighed and shook my head. A few more stats, as well as the [Basic] Grade medicine skill from last life, weren¡¯t that important. I had great hopes for whatever we would find in the inner districts of the nursery. I decided to save the rest of my Achievement for later. It felt like a bit of a shame, but I could always re-earn the healing skill later. I glanced at my friends, and saw that they were still thinking about their own purchases. I had already finished mine, so I walked out of the store. There still weren''t any other enemies near us, so I grinned. It was time to try experimenting with my new ability.

 Chapter 315: Ability Testing

    After integrating my new ability into my soul, I also gained an instinctive understanding of it. I didn''t have a complete understanding of the ability - but I had some ''hints.'' This was the first time it had ever happened, and it left me scratching my head.


    Why was it so different from the first two times I had bought a keyword ability?


    I wasn''t sure why there was such a stark difference. My best guess, after several minutes of thought, was that I had no pre-existing knowledge this time. The first two keyword abilities I bought gave me access to magic systems I had used before. I didn¡¯t need an introduction to them, because I had used them before.


    As for whether my guess was correct... I had no way to verify. In any case, after a few minutes of confusion, I put it aside. It didn''t matter too much to me. Instead, I focused on exploring my new ability.


    The first thing I realized was that my ability worked a bit differently than I thought. The System notification for my ability had only said I would need a few months to recover after each use. That was true... but also false. It depended on how big of a piece of my soul I split off into a clone.


    If my soul was like a boulder, I could take anywhere from a fist-sized clump of rock to a few tiny grains of stone. Naturally, this influenced the strength and longevity of the clone - but it also influenced recovery time. If I removed a large piece of my soul, I would need a few months to recover. If I used a few grains of my soul, I could recover in less than a day. There was nuance to my ability that the System hadn''t told me about.


    I grinned. I had thought that I would need to ration out my use of this ability very carefully in the Market. I had even worried about how often I would be able to use the ability in new lives. That was still a concern... but if I could control my recovery time, the problem became much smaller. I still needed to be careful, but I could use the ability when I needed it. I could also be a bit more free with my experiments than I had first planned.


    After I finished assessing my new ''instincts,'' I got to the testing phase. I split off the smallest quantity of my soul that I could, and attached it to a drop of water. The result was¡­ odd.


    Based on the System notification, I had assumed that I would make some sort of¡­ water-based clone. One that would work for me as an extra combatant or scout. I had assumed that each clone would have a mind of its own, sort of like an autonomous AI.


    After splitting, I realized this was wrong. The moment I separated my new soul strand from me, I was two. It was more like my brain expanded. I was looking at myself¡­ and I was also looking at myself again, from a different perspective. I hadn¡¯t created an autonomous scout or an artificial intelligence. Both fragments of my soul were me. Both bodies sent me the same sensory feedback, and both felt like me. I wasn''t cloning myself - I was creating a second body and inhabiting both at the same time.


    But not completely. I realized that I could still give my ''second body'' orders, and it would carry them out autonomously. The clone was me, but at the same time, it could become partially independent. This feeling... was very peculiar. It was like I had grown a new pair of arms, and then they had fallen asleep. Then, after falling asleep, they had popped off of my torso and started wandering around on their own.


    Although the feeling was quite disturbing, I tried to keep an open mind. Having an autonomous helper during battles could be incredibly useful.


    After several seconds of observing my clone, I realized something else. My clone had a separate essence pool. The moment I had split off a part of my soul, I had expected that I would need to spend essence to keep it alive. However, the clone wasn''t pulling off of my essence pool to exist. I had the clone toss a few tiny extinguishes at random slabs of concrete, before I realized what was happening.


    The clone ability was converting water itself into essence. There was a limit to it... but when I created a clone, part of my soul was used to create the clone, and then another part was used to convert water into essence. My clone had started off with a decent reservoir of essence. If I created the largest possible clone, I would be doubling my essence pool. It was an incredible backup plan when something went wrong, and one that I hadn''t expected to get. I grinned. {Eldritch Soul} had a lot of hidden useful features.


    ¡°How is your new ability?¡± asked Sallia, catching me by surprise. I blinked, and realized that I had gotten caught up in my testing. I hadn''t noticed Sallia when she exited the store.


    ¡°It¡¯s not bad,¡± I said, as I rubbed my forehead. ¡°I¡¯m still trying to get used to it, but it''s very useful. Though several aspects of the ability work differently than I thought they would.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Sallia, as she sat down next to me.


    ¡°Well¡­ I was expecting to create some sort of autonomous clone, which I could command. Instead, my ability somehow split me in two. My clone is still intrinsically linked to me. I also need to finish adjusting to having two fields of vision at once.¡± I rubbed my forehead and laughed. ¡°It''ll be useful in future worlds, though. My clone has a separate pool of essence. In a bad situation, I can nearly double my essence pool."


    Sallia laughed.


    ¡°That¡¯s a pretty good emergency response. Combined with Extinguish... you could do some pretty scary things on a battlefield."


    Sallia sat down next to me, before she leaned closer to me and gave me a hug. I smiled and hugged her back, before spending a few seconds relaxing. My little water clone kept marching in circles, as I experimented with what it could do on its own.


    ¡°What did you end up buying with your Achievement,¡± I asked, as I kept observing my new ability.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t get much this time,¡± she said, before she shared her Status Screen with me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+100)This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked over Sallia¡¯s status screen, before I tried to remember what it looked like last life. I didn¡¯t think it had changed much¡­


    Sallia sighed as she looked at me. ¡°Yeah, it didn¡¯t change much,¡± she said, answering my doubts. ¡°I died pretty early last life. Not much Achievement to spend. Still, I got a few upgrades. I spent half of my Achievement on raising Fortitude and Willpower to Grade 7. Both of them were at +30 before, so I only bought 20 stat points in total. I still have quite a few attributes to go before I finish getting everything up to Grade 7, but¡­¡± Sallia shrugged. ¡°Progress is progress. I will need to rely on whatever we loot from the Market to build up my abilities further. I only have about two thousand Achievement left.¡± Sallia grimaced. I also winced. Two thousand Achievement wasn''t a lot to work with. Would that even be enough to get something useful from the inner district of the Market?


    I hesitated, before I sighed. The inner districts should also have some reserves of Achievement. With any luck, we could loot more from there.


    I looked back at my clone, before I realized that I had forgotten to ask about Sallia''s new rune ability. During the fight, we had focused on winning. Her ability had worked... but I wanted to know how she felt about it.


    "How is your new rune ability?" I asked.


    Sallia snorted. ¡°It kind of works, but it has a major issue. Resistance. Every time I tried to use the rune ability to mess with the Fungal Menace''s essence, it felt like I was trying to cut through wood. I managed to punch through, but I suspect the problem will get worse the stronger the enemy is. I''m hoping I''m wrong, but I doubt it.¡±


    I winced. The ability still had some use, but it would be way more limited than expected if it had such a huge limitation.


    ¡°Enough about my abilities," said Sallia, as she grimaced. It sounded like the topic annoyed her. "How about your ability? How does it look through your soul vision? If both bodies are ''you,'' that might give you an interesting hint about how souls and space work."


    I blinked. I hadn''t checked that yet. I turned back towards my little miniature clone and activated my soul sight.


    For a moment, I had a strange feeling of double vision. On one hand, I could see what I now deemed my ¡®regular¡¯ soul vision. There, a vast, empty world appeared, with bright, colorful lights and shapes denoting souls. At the same time, I saw a vast, twisted world of broken geometry and misleading ripples in space. It was... chaotic. It gave me a headache when I looked at it... but at the same time, I could understand it.


    Through that layer of broken geometries, I could see a connection between myself and my clone. I had believed that I had ''cut off'' part of my soul, but that wasn''t what I had done. The soul strand in my clone was still attached to me... even though I could barely understand how. It was like I had cut off my hand, and then started making my hand crawl around like a hand spider. The mechanics of how or why it worked were baffling.


    At the same time, the image of the twisted geometry reminded me of something. It took me a few seconds to remember it, before I burst out laughing.


    ¡°Hey, I think those giant fish from our first world together were eldritch. The twisted geometry connecting my soul together reminds me of it." I shared my vision with Sallia over the communication bracelet.


    Sallia didn''t laugh. Instead, she groaned, and started massaging her temples.


    ¡°My head hurts. What the heck is that? It¡¯s like¡­ It¡¯s like I¡¯m looking at a still image, but my eyes kept playing tricks on me and made me think it was moving,¡± said Sallia. ¡°Or something like that. My brain isn''t built to understand what I''m looking at.¡± She ended the connection between our bracelets, and then winced. "That was bizarre."


    "Sorry," I said, taken aback.


    "Don''t worry about it. You had no way of knowing." Sallia''s expression eased after a few minutes. "It doesn''t look like the headache lasts long." Then, she grinned. "Now that I think about it, the ''Eldritch'' keyword is quite interesting, though. Your new ability has a lot of alternate uses, if you''re clever enough to figure them out."


    I nodded. ¡°I get the same feeling. If you can''t understand the ''eldritch,'' even when I''m showing it to you, then that keyword might have some useful advantages to it. I already have a lot of effort invested into understanding space. Understanding these... twisted geometries might be an amazing way to keep progressing. I have a research direction I can pursue next life.¡±


    I kept playing around with my soul sight and my vision while the two of us sat in companionable silence. Occasionally, we broke the silence when Sallia tossed out a new suggestion for how to use my ability. Most of her ideas didn''t work out, but it was nice spending time together playing with magic.


    Several minutes passed, before the door to the store swung open again. This time, I noticed it, and turned towards the door. Anise and Felix had joined us.


    ¡°Did you get all of your purchases done?¡± I asked.


    Felix grinned. ¡°I brought everything up to Grade 8.¡± With that, he shared his Status Screen with me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked at Felix¡¯s attributes, and felt a bit of excitement. Felix had reached Grade 8 in all of his stats. He had a huge advantage over ''normal'' people now. I was jealous, but I was also glad that my friend had gotten such a huge improvement in his strength.


    ¡°The store didn¡¯t have the materials to push things further than that, but I feel amazing," said Felix. "I still have about forty thousand Achievement left, too. If any of you need to borrow some, let me know. I can definitely afford it right now.¡± Felix cackled. ¡°I even have over a hundred Glut free. If we find any cool non-keyword abilities, I can buy them.¡±


    Anise smiled. ¡°I only improved a few stats. I want to keep a healthy amount of Achievement laying around, for whatever we find in the Inner Market. But I still boosted Willpower and Fortitude up.¡±


    She showed us her Status Screen too.


    ¡°I¡¯m a little poor after buying my keyword ability, since it ate a big chunk of achievement. But I still have 9,000 kicking around,¡± she said.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+100)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I looked at my friend¡¯s status screens, and smiled. We were still very weak in the context of the greater multiverse... but we were improving. Even though there was a long way to go, we were getting closer to where we needed to be.


    ¡°Are we ready?¡± asked Sallia, as she glanced at the others.


    ¡°There''s nothing else of interest in the shop,¡± said Felix. ¡°I checked, and all of the items and Achievement inside were looted already. Some other group might have hit this store before us. Either way, I''m ready to move on. Do you have your new ability worked out, Miria?¡± I nodded.


    ¡°I have a basic understanding of it. It should be fine to use for scouting. I just need to keep an eye on how much of my soul I split off each use."


    "That''s not too bad," said Felix. Sallia and I stood up, before I brushed off a few specks of dirt that had gotten stuck inside of my dress. I grinned as I looked at the Market in front of us.


    It was time for the next step of our plan. We needed to find one of the inner districts of the nursery.

 Chapter 316: The Inner Districts

    After we confirmed that we were ready, we started sprinting. Our bodies didn''t get tired or sore, so there was no reason to walk. Meanwhile, I sent my clone in a different direction. I didn''t think that it would find an inner district, since it was less mobile than us and had to avoid skeletons. Our group could just blast through them as if they were minor obstacles, while my clone needed to be careful. Still, it didn''t hurt to try.


    As we sprinted, we ignored the shops we passed by. It felt bad to pass by all of the Achievement the shops had... but we needed to keep moving. The essence we spent taking over a shop would delay us, and we only had a few months to work with before we needed to reincarnate again.


    To my surprise, as my clone explored, I realized that the skill I had picked up with {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} was useful. {Fungal Resilience} made pieces of my body survive for longer after  being separated from my main body. This also applied to my water clone, making it consume less essence per second to stay alive. It was a small but useful skill.


    Of course, even with {Fungal Resilience}, my clone didn''t last long. About twenty minutes after we started moving, the water clone''s soul ran out of energy. Once its soul fragment ran out of energy, the conversion of water into essence stopped. The water clone held on for a few more minutes, before it died. Accompanying its death was a profound sense of separation and loss. I felt as if a friend I cherished had died in front of my eyes. It was like a part of me had disappeared forever.


    After it died, I gasped, and nearly collapsed in shock. It was a miserable feeling.


    ¡°Miria?¡± asked Anise. She sounded alarmed as she dashed to my side, before she knelt next to me. <Are you okay? What happened?> Anise started scanning our surroundings, while Felix and Sallia fell into defensive postures. Sallia''s sword appeared in her hands. I realized my friends thought I was under attack.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± I said, gasping in pain. <I¡¯m fine. It''s just my newest Skill. After my clone died, it... didn''t feel very good,> I said, as I struggled to get my emotions back under control. <It hit me really hard, but I should be fine. Just give me a minute or two.>


    I saw Anise¡¯s tense shoulders relax, although she didn¡¯t look entirely relieved. ¡°Is that normal for the skill?¡± She shuffled, and then leaned closer to me, before putting a comforting arm around my shoulders. <If the ability hurts you every time you use it... you can stop using it while we run, at least. It''s fine to save the ability for situations that call for it.>


    <I just need to get used to it,> I said, after a moment of hesitation. <I think that if I use the ability enough, it won''t give me this kind of reaction in the future.> Part of what made me feel such a profound sense of loss was the intimate feeling of death I had experienced. I had died before... but my connection to the Market made those deaths feel rather fake. After all, I would be fine after I died. On the other hand, my clone''s death had felt much more like a ''real'' death.


    I wasn''t 100% sure that I would feel less bad the second time I experienced ''death,'' but I hoped it would get better. I wasn''t going to tell my friends that, though. I didn''t want them to worry, and we needed this scouting ability. Unless something got worse, I could push through this much to keep everyone safe.


    ¡°Is your soul all right?¡± asked Felix, after I had a few minutes to calm down.


    I... hadn''t thought of checking that. I activated my soul sight to take a look. What I saw was rather surprising.


    My soul looked diminished. I had only taken a tiny, strand of my soul out to turn into a clone. However, that tiny strand had made the entire color of my soul change. My soul was usually a bright silver color, just like other human souls. Now, it looked as if it had been bleached. The usual silver color looked faded and dim. I hadn''t realized it would cause such a large impact.


    On the bright side, the damage wasn''t permanent. After using soul sight for a few seconds, I could already see my soul starting to repair itself. In a while, it would be back to normal.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    "It looks a little less colorful than usual, but it''s healing," I said. "I doubt it''ll be a big issue." I sent them an image of what I had seen over the communication bracelets.


    Felix also looked uncomfortable at that. "Just... keep an eye on it," he said, finally. "And you should probably take care when splitting off larger pieces of your soul. If the color dimmed that much from losing a little hair-sized strand of soul, splitting off a larger portion might do permanent damage."


    I hesitated for a few moments, before I nodded. I didn''t think an Ability would permanently damage my soul, but there was no harm in taking things slowly. I should test my limits in a safe environment to make sure there were no major issues with {Eldritch Soul} before pushing the ability to its limit.


    The others gave me a few more minutes to recover, before we started running again. After all, we only had a few months in the Market unless we found a way to stay longer. We had to keep moving.


    For hours, we kept running. Every time my soul recovered enough, I sent another little clone off to the side. To my relief, the ''death'' of each clone hurt me less. Each time I did it, my soul seemed to recover faster, and the impact of each death was weakened. It was still very painful... but I started to consider it a form of training instead of torture. I even started to suspect that this would stick around between reincarnations, although I wasn''t sure yet.


    Along the way, we also ran into a few skeletons on the road. Over the next day and a half of our mad sprint forward, we collected a few more tidbits of Achievement.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Killed a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time. Assist in Killing a Skeletal Foot Soldier for the fifth time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +60, Achievement +5, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    65 Achievement didn¡¯t make much of a dent in my current Achievement count, but it still boosted me from 12,629.01 to 12,694.01. Every bit helped, so I wasn¡¯t going to complain.


    Finally, we found what we were looking for. Near the end of the second day, the clone I had sent to the left of us ran past a store. Then, instead of turning onto another street, it looked like reality... broke. I blinked in surprise, as my clone looked around. It looked like my clone had teleported, since its surroundings had shifted drastically after a single step forward. However, when my clone looked behind itself, I could still see the store it had just walked past. It was located hundreds of meters behind my clone, even though it had only taken one step forward. My clone scanned its surroundings, although it took several seconds before I noticed a large sign hanging in the sky.


    ¡°Welcome to the Spatial fair! Those who have space-related Keywords, come and see the latest wares from Dimension corp, Spatial corp, and Void corp! An amazing collaboration between the giants of spatial magic and technology! Come witness and buy the abilities and items of the future!¡±


    Space magic? Suddenly, things made much more sense. My clone scanned its surroundings, and I quickly realized that things were bent in this area. I was pretty sure that the creators of this area had some understanding of the ''eldritch'' or at least something similar. The way that geometry worked here didn''t line up with the way it worked outside of this street.


    The buildings inside had far more distorted geometry than the ones outside. There were several city blocks that stretched into the distance, even though I was sure they hadn''t been there before. Even more bizarre, many of those buildings were skyscrapers. However, when I sent my clone a few steps backwards, the skyscrapers vanished from sight again. It was almost as if the street was a compressed city of its own, squeezed onto a single street. Outside of the street, it was impossible to even see the skyscrapers. They were somehow shorter than even the first story of nearby shops if my clone was standing outside of the street.


    It was a terrifying display of spatial manipulation¡­ but it was also a promise. It told me that if we explored the area, we could find something amazing.


    ¡°I found something,¡± I said, as my main body halted mid-step. ¡°It looks a bit different than the first inner district we saw, but it should have some useful things in it.¡± I sent my friends a barrage of images that I had just collected from my clone.


    Felix, Sallia, and Anise grinned. We had been sprinting nonstop for almost two days now. We had lost two days that we could have otherwise spent looting Achievement and finding new items. But at long last, we had found what we were looking for. Even though I was nervous about what we would find inside of the inner district, I was also excited. It was time to see what one of the inner districts of the Market was like.

 Chapter 317: Malice

    Chapter 317: Malice - Markets and Multiverses


    Our group spent several minutes backtracking, before we met up with my clone. During that time, I had my clone cycle between soul sight and regular vision. Despite my efforts, I couldn¡¯t find any enemies or traps in the area. Based on what I knew about the Market, there was no way the inner district didn''t have a defender or ten. Since I couldn¡¯t find the danger, that meant it had yet to reveal itself.


    Once we got there, I scanned the area with my real body¡¯s vision as well. It didn¡¯t help. No matter which body I used, I couldn''t find the threat in the area.


    I sighed, and then sent the clone back into the distorted area. Once again, I saw a bunch of skyscrapers and massive buildings appear in front of me. I ignored them. They were too far away to matter right now. Instead, I focused on what was right in front of my clone.


    Our group set ourselves up right at the edge of the spatial fair, giving us an easy retreat. It also let us observe my clone as it moved, so that we would at least know what killed it if it died.


    As my clone moved further into the spatial fair, I started to notice that the area was very... quiet. In the Market, there wasn¡¯t much sound, but there was usually still a little bit of noise, and it had become more obvious as my [Perception] grew higher. The shuffling of skeletons in the distance and the distant hum of electronics were the norm.


    And yet, in the spatial fair, these sounds had disappeared. It was as if someone had hit a giant mute button in the middle of the area. I frowned. What was the reason for this silence? Were things destroyed if they made sound? If that was the case, the monsters here might hunt by sound. That was valuable information.


    <I think something in here hunts by sound. Make sure to use the communication bracelets. We don¡¯t want to get caught up in whatever kills the clone,> I said.


    <Got it,> said Sallia, followed by Anise and Felix a moment later.


    My clone continued forward, and the odd silence continued to settle around my clone like a heavy, suffocating blanket. After another minute, I started to feel like the silence was growing... suffocating. Something was starting to feel wrong.


    <Take a few more steps back. I''m getting a bad feeling,> I said. As a group, we retreated a few steps, putting ourselves outside of the range of the spatial fair. We lost sight of my clone... but we also moved away from any hostile monsters. We might get less data from my clone dying, but that was much better than one of my friends dying.


    My clone froze, while I frowned. The feeling of creeping anxiety continued to get worse, but after a few seconds, I realized it was targeting my clone. My real body didn''t feel safe, but I didn''t have the same suffocating feeling of dread.


    <How is it that there''s no sound at all in the spatial fair?> asked Felix, after a few more moments. <I would still expect there to be some shuffling sounds from the occasional skeleton wandering in. The total lack of sound is a bit odd. If you think it''s safe, could you try making a bit of sound, and see what happens?>


    I focused on my clone again, and used a portal to teleport a loose piece of rubble a few inches upwards. The chunk of rubble fell soundlessly upon the road. I realized that I was wrong.


    It wasn''t that ''anything making noise is killed.'' Instead, it was as if there was some sort of spell, dampening or outright silencing the spatial fair.


    <I teleported a piece of rubble up, and it made no sound when it hit the ground,> I said.


    <Is it some sort of sound-dampening enchantment?> asked Felix. <Can you see anything?>


    I scanned my clone¡¯s surroundings with essence, before I shook my head. <I don¡¯t detect any unusual essence in my clone¡¯s surroundings. It''s either hidden, or not accomplished using essence.>


    <Hmm¡­ maybe it¡¯s something to do with the acoustics of the area?> said Felix. <Normally, that kind of sound-suppression would be impossible. However, I have no idea how ''eldritch'' things work. With enough geometry manipulation, maybe you can silence an area perfectly.>


    <Maybe,> I said. I started scanning the area with my clone''s eyes, to see if I could get a better grasp on how the world was bent in this area. Then, I froze.


    Something was watching my clone. I couldn''t see it, but I could feel cold, ancient eyes, staring at my clone like a snake watching a mouse. My clone whirled around, using its soul sight to scan its surroundings¡­ but there was nothing. Not a single soul or speck of essence was present in its surroundings. And yet, I was sure that my clone was being watched. It felt like my clone had crossed some sort of invisible threshold. Like a fly setting foot in a spider¡¯s web.


    The feeling of creeping dread started to grow more suffocating. At the same time, my clone''s vision of its surroundings started to fade into nothing. It was as if it was being dragged into endless darkness. A moment later, it felt as if the silence itself was reaching towards my clone, like a grasping pair of hands.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Then, like a candle in the wind, my clone was snuffed out. I felt a horrible sense of loss, as my clone died¡­ and more than that, I felt a deep terror.


    Before my clone died, I had swapped to my soul sight. However, I still hadn¡¯t seen a thing. My clone hadn¡¯t run out of essence and soul energy - there was still a minute or so left before that happened. Instead, it died for no reason at all. No sign of another nearby soul, no sign of an attack. Somehow, it had just died, without any rhyme or reason behind it.


    <My clone died,> I said. < I have no idea how. There was nothing nearby, and no sign of a magical attack.>


    Felix frowned. <That¡¯s unnerving. Did you have any sort of unusual sensations beforehand, t least?>


    I frowned. <I suppose so. It felt like a blanket of silence wrapped around my clone. Then, it felt like the clone lost sight of its surroundings. Everything grew darker and darker. I felt like something was watching me. Then, the clone was dead.>


    Anise glanced warily at the spatial fair street, before she grabbed my hand and pulled me a little further back. <Let¡¯s stay away from it, in case whatever killed your clone tracks us down and attacks us.>


    I nodded, and our group moved a few streets away. After we walked, I shared all of the memories I had of my clone moving around. The others ran through my memories, before we spent a few minutes in silence, digesting the events that led to my clone¡¯s death.


    <I¡­ don¡¯t know what to make of that,> said Sallia, after a few minutes. <It almost seems like silence itself is what killed the clone?>


    Felix¡¯s eyes lit up.


    <That might actually be the case. Do you remember the living universe from a few worlds ago?> asked Felix. <I¡¯m kind of reminded of that thing. This is far less powerful, but at least on a conceptual level, they might be similar. You said that you had a hard time making sound in the fair, right? So maybe ''silence'' is the first problem we need to solve.> Felix shrugged, and grinned. <I could be wrong, of course. But it''s something we can try. With Miria''s clones, we don''t have to worry that much about the lives of our scouts.> Then, Felix frowned. <We should move further away while testing, though. Whatever monster killed Miria''s clone by looking at it, we need to thoroughly understand it before messing with it.>


    I thought about Felix¡¯s words for several seconds, before I finally nodded. Perhaps there was some sort of creature that hunted down things that were ''silent?'' It had felt kind of like my clone was being dragged to another layer of reality before it died... so maybe being silent caused one to fall into that layer of reality. There, the hunter would instantly kill the new prey... or something like that.


    <The problem is how to survive long enough to explore further, then,> said Sallia. <We can¡¯t leave without at least finding a shop or two, even if they¡¯re near the outskirts of the spatial fair. Otherwise, it would be too much of a waste of time and growth opportunities. Miria, do you think the silence is impossible to fix? You said that the piece of rubble you dropped didn''t make a sound. Is there a way around that issue?>


    <I¡¯m not sure, but we can run some tests and see what happens,> I said. The entire purpose of grabbing the clone skill was to have disposable scouts and test subjects.


    My clones didn¡¯t have vocal chords, so they couldn¡¯t speak. Thus, we decided to go find some sort of instrument. If that didn''t work, I would try using shaping to ''force'' sounds to exist, and see if that helped. We moved away from the inner district, and spent a few hours searching our surroundings. It didn''t take long before we found an instrument shop. There weren''t any monsters inside, so we didn''t have a problem stealing some instruments. I didn''t recognize any of them, but that didn''t matter. I grabbed something that looked kind of like a 20-stringed banjo with twelve flower petals attached to it and gave it a strum. It sounded awful, but it was loud. It was perfect for our purposes.


    After acquiring our instruments, we also made sure to check the store for Acheivement. We found 42 Achievement in the cash register, before dividing it 4 ways, giving us 10.5 each. This brought me to 12,703.85 total. After that, we returned to the spatial fair and worked on our magic systems until my soul finished recovering. Then, it was time to send the next clone in.


    This time, my clone brought along the stringed instrument, while our group backed away from the area again. My clone started moving into the inner district again, this time playing its instrument as it walked. I grinned.


    The sound of the instrument was very, very faint. Through my clone''s ears, I could only hear it if I focused. But even though sound was dampened in the spatial fair, I could still make sound. It was possible to test whether silence itself was lethal here.


    My clone kept moving forward. Soon, it reached the point where my previous clone had died. I hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded to myself. I didn''t feel the same creeping dread I had felt last time. My clone hadn''t died, either. It seemed fine.


    It seemed like our first guess was correct. Anything that wasn¡¯t wrapped in noise would die while within the spatial festival. We could work with that.


    Though I had to say, whatever had destroyed the Market and made it very difficult for new Market survivors to crop up. I suspected that most groups would try to be quiet when they saw an area like the spatial fair. After all, monsters hunting by sound instead of sight wasn''t a very novel idea. In this case, any group that tried that would be walking into a deathtrap. If a group didn''t have a cloning ability, such as {Eldritch Soul}, trying to figure this out would be nearly impossible.


    And then, my smile faded. I saw a bright soul zip towards my clone at speeds that I could barely process. Before I could even finish taking a look at it, something beheaded my clone. I caught a brief glimpse of blind, sightless eyes, attached to a glowing silver spider. It glared at my clone''s head as it sailed through the air, before my clone turned back into ordinary water. I lost sight of the area.


    I finally realized what the trap of this area was.


    If you were silent, then the strange creature in another layer of reality would drag you into its turf and kill you. If you made noise, a blind silver spider would hunt you down and kill you. There was no ''correct'' way to move through this area. It was designed to lure in new transmigrators and kill them. Whoever had designed this trap didn''t intend for anyone to survive an attempt at exploring it. The outer districts of the Market were dangerous, but at least most monsters had weaknesses we could exploit. Here, I could fully sense the malice of whoever had destroyed the Market. They didn''t want anyone to get the resources from the inner districts. They wanted us dead, and they had set up this area to make it happen.

 Chapter 318: Preparation is Key

    <We need to rethink our strategy,> I said. I spent a minute replaying all of the things I had seen through my clone¡¯s eyes, before I shared my speculation about the ¡®design¡¯ of the Spatial Fair. As I relayed my memories and speculations, I saw the others grimace.


    <This place is a death trap, isn¡¯t it?> said Sallia, as she frowned. <I didn¡¯t even see what killed your clone. It looked like a blur of motion. If I hadn¡¯t seen the little silver spider at the end, I would have thought a projectile killed the clone. This inner district is far too dangerous.>


    <Even if it¡¯s a death trap, we only have two lives left. That gives us two worlds and one and a half more Market visits before our final chance. We need some kind of breakthrough point,> said Felix, also frowning. <Otherwise, we¡¯ll reincarnate two more times, then die permanently. If we can¡¯t even beat the inner districts of the Market this time, I don''t see how we can get strong enough before we lose everything. Not to mention, the inner districts being so heavily guarded isn¡¯t 100% bad news. It means that whatever is in here, it¡¯s worth guarding. The outer districts don''t have this level of care put into their defenses.>


    Anise didn¡¯t say anything, but I saw her squinting at the Spatial Fair. Her eyes were scrunched up in thought, and she looked as if she were trying to solve a difficult problem.


    <All right, first question. Which enemy do we want to challenge?> asked Felix. <We still have to get into the inner districts of the nursery. One enemy attacks us if we make zero noise, and the other tracks down noises. Which one do we have the best chance of defeating?>


    <I think the enemy that¡¯s attracted by noise is a safer bet,> I said, after a few moments of thought. <At least I could actually see that one. Being able to understand what¡¯s attacking us is important. I don¡¯t understand what killed my clone when it didn¡¯t make noise. It felt like something was wrong, and the clone was being dragged into another layer of reality. Then the clone was dead. For the spider, we need a way to see faster and match the thing¡¯s absurd stats. It¡¯s hard, but I can at least understand what we need to do.>


    Anise nodded. <I agree with Miria. We should challenge the spider. It¡¯s fast, but at least we could see what attacked her clone and how her clone died. We have zero useful intelligence on the other threat besides the fact that silence is deadly.>


    <Felix, you¡¯re the best when it comes to estimates and numbers,> said Sallia. <The monster was moving too fast for me to process. Do you have an estimate for what grade of Stat Miria would need to land an Extinguish? If it¡¯s only another Grade or two, she could hyperfocus on making her second rune and then buy more [Perception]. Her first three runes all boost her mental stats by one grade each, and if she buys another grade of [Absorption] too, the second rune will come quickly. She even managed to form her first rune way faster than last time we were in the Market. With more familiarity with the magic system and more stats backing her up, it should work.>


    Felix frowned. <Well, if you wanted to have a good chance of hitting it¡­ I am guessing you would need about Grade twelve [Perception]? Assuming that the way stats work doesn¡¯t change past a certain threshold. But at Grade 10 you might be able to land an extinguish on it, if we used some other means to slow it down. I think that it would be down to some degree of luck at Grade 10. Of course, it¡¯ll still have a notable stat advantage. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s sitting at about grade 15 or 16 for [Agility], at least for the memory we saw of Miria¡¯s clone dying.>


    Then, Felix turned towards me and raised an eyebrow. <What do you think, Miria?>


    <Sounds like a plan to me. I could also focus my second rune ability on vision again. That should help.>


    <I could build my next rune ability to support the fight against the spider monster,> said Sallia. <That should help us get other ways to slow the damn thing down.>


    <You could also use your Tarot deck!> Said Anise. <That item can help you curse the spider first! You would have to sacrifice a clone, but it would let you set up for the actual fight! Does your water clone share your stats? As long as its [Perception] is high enough, it should work.>


    <It seems to copy my mental stats, although its physical stats are all around Grade 2 or 3, if I¡¯m not mistaken. Its essence-related stats rely on how much of my soul I give it,> I said. <So if I give it the tarot deck, it should be able to get off a curse before it dies. All that really matters for that purpose is [Perception].>


    Felix nodded. <In that case, we have a rough plan. If we pull it off, the rest of the exploration will get much easier. {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} should help you set up for any future problems in the area.>


    I nodded. I felt some of the pressure I''d been feeling start to dissipate. It was going to require some tricky timing on my part, but we had a plan.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Since we knew what we needed to do, we got to work. To start with, I needed to buy more stats. We scouted the area, killing a few skeletons along the way. After about ten hours of searching, we found another intact shop that looked as wealthy as the Soul Emporium.


    There was no Guardian inside of this shop, which was unusual for higher end shops. Furthermore, all of the items and the cash registers in the shop were empty. The only thing we found was a corpse of a monster in the front. It looked kind of like a giant mole rat, although the head was missing. I frowned. We had found a corpse of a monster and an unguarded shop. That was... odd.


    Monsters in the Market seemed to know when an area was undefended. Last time we had been in the Market, skeletons had come to replace the ones we killed after we cleared out a pool of reincarnation. It hadn''t taken very long, either.


    That meant one thing. This mole rat monster had been killed recently.


    ¡°This thing was decapitated with a sword,¡± said Sallia, as she touched its neck. ¡°The swordsman wasn¡¯t very skilled. I see lots of little wounds on the creature¡¯s body, so the fight went on for quite a while. The swordsman inflicted several small wounds until they managed to strike a decisive blow."


    The four of us scanned the interior of the store again, before Anise sighed. ¡°I wish we had caught the other group. The people who did this must have been other Market residents, right? It would have been nice to see if they had any information we didn¡¯t have. Or if there was a way to work together. I wouldn¡¯t mind having more allies in the future.¡±


    ¡°They might not have been friends, though,¡± said Felix, frowning. ¡°The Market doesn¡¯t care about the morality of people who join. Otherwise, people of the Market wouldn¡¯t have gone around exterminating worlds for Achievement.¡±


    Anise, Sallia and I flinched at his words. I had no interest in meeting someone who would massacre a world just for Achievement. They would probably consider us free money if they met us. We would fight back, obviously. But that didn''t mean we would win.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just buy what we need and get out,¡± I said. I was no longer interested in trying to meet up with the other group of people. The sooner we got out of this area, the better.


    The cube selling third tier Soul Fragments for Perception was easy to find. I immediately boosted my Perception up another grade, spending 2,600 Achievement in the process. I also bought a grade of Absorption essence, for another 2,600 Achievement. This brought me from 12,703.42 Achievement to 7,503.42 total. This raised my [Perception] to Grade 9 and my [Absorption] to Grade 8. I was a bit regretful about spending so much Achievement right before entering the inner districts. However, I needed to condense my second rune as fast as possible. Every day I wasted was a day we could have spent hitting up shops in the Market or the inner district, gathering supplies and Achievement. I knew for a fact that a higher [Absorption] stat would make my rune creation faster, so even if it felt a bit bad, I was willing to spend Achievement on it. I just had to hope that I would still have enough Achievement for something useful later. Worst case scenario, I would borrow from Felix.


    After that, we moved out of the inner district and took over a nearby house. I got working on my rune, while Sallia, Felix, and Anise got to work rebuilding parts of their own magic systems.


    Time began to pass. We spent a few weeks training, in order to rebuild what power we could. Spending so much time training was frustrating, when our objective was right in front of us... but we needed to be careful. Thankfully, nothing unusual happened during our training. We didn''t run into any other groups of market members, or any powerful monsters.


    The first one to build more of her magic system was Sallia. Since we knew the spiders had incredible speed, Sallia focused her second rune on countering that ability. Sallia¡¯s second rune let her ''harden'' nearby air. She could make an ordinary patch of air into something that felt more like thick, sludgy gelatin. It also slowed us down, but it didn''t slow down Sallia. That made it a little bit prone to getting in our way, but that was fine. Our plan was to get off a curse with my tarot deck, then blast the spider down with spells from afar. Sallia was the only person we expected to fight on the front lines anyway.


    Felix, meanwhile, made several more batches of bombs for Anise to throw. Sadly, Anise¡¯s magic system would take too long to rebuild. This was a problem we would need to address by next world. Hopefully, after an ability evolution or two, Anise would have a faster and more optimized magic system. In the meantime, she would still be able to use magic missiles, her sword, and all of the bombs Felix was giving her.


    Felix built himself a pair of prosthetic knees, which gave him the ability to unleash a massive burst of speed. For having such a short time to work with, and lacking materials, he had done a pretty good job of improving himself where he could. Most of his time was spent building more bombs for Anise and himself to throw, though.


    As for me, after two weeks, I managed to build my next rune. I didn¡¯t work on anything else, because I knew what I needed to focus on. For my rune ability, I rebuilt my dimensional sight. I had used it often last world, and I felt it was a pretty good choice for our current needs. Since the spider was so fast and hard to track, giving myself a bigger range to see it was the obvious solution. If I got really lucky, maybe I could kill it before it noticed us.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Condense your second rune out of absorption essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +160


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After two whole weeks, our group was getting antsy. Time was ticking away, and we had only barely scratched the outskirts of the spatial fair. We had a little less than a month and a half left before our bodies would start to deteriorate. By that time, we needed either a way to extend our time in the Market, or a way to reincarnate. We had to get moving.


    It was time to see if our plan worked.

 Chapter 319: Speed

    The first step was simple. I created a water clone, using the smallest possible amount of my soul that I could, and then sent it into the Spatial Fair with an instrument. This instrument sounded kind of like someone banging a metal bat against a bag of marbles. However, even though it sounded awful, it was noisy. That was all it needed to be. As it walked into the spatial fair, the clone strummed its instrument.


    Meanwhile, it also used dimensional vision with reckless abandon. It would shorten its lifespan, since every second of dimensional sight cost essence.


    I didn¡¯t care.


    All I needed the clone to do was to use the tarot deck before dying.


    Much like before, the silver spider took a few minutes to track down my clone. However, with the help of my dimensional vision, and my heightened [Perception], I was able to spot the spider before my clone died. I only saw a brief glimpse of it, but I saw a silver bullet speeding towards my clone about two seconds before impact. The moment I saw the silver hand-sized monster, my clone started activating the deck of Tarot Cards. It was a close call, but a fraction of a second before death, it managed to pull three cards off the top.


    Then my clone died. As my clone¡¯s head spun away from its body, I could make out the three cards I had drawn. The Lovers, Judgement, and The Tower.


    The spider seemed to sense something. It glanced at my deck of tarot cards, and then vanished from sight again. My last image of the spider was of the monster pulverizing my deck of tarot cards.


    As my clone collapsed back into water, I felt a pang of regret.


    Items only repaired themselves when we returned to the Market - not when we left. In other words, my tarot deck was now useless for our next world. I would probably be better off replacing it before we exited the Market. Still, it had done its job. I had managed to get the curses off. If I could exchange my deck of tarot cards for access to the inner district, it was an amazing trade.


    After my clone died, our group settled in to wait for my soul to recover. We had no idea what other tricks the spider had up its sleeves, so everyone decided to make sure we had every card available. After all, this was an inner district. It would be surprising if speed was the only power the spider had.


    After several hours passed, I finished recovering. We moved to the edge of the Spatial Fair, before I split off another clone. This time, I used a much larger chunk of my soul. I would need a week to recover, but I wanted my clone to have more essence for this fight.


    The clone marched into the inner district, much like its predecessors. I expected it would take a few minutes before the spider reappeared...


    I was wrong.


    This time, the spider seemed like it was waiting for my clone. Mere seconds after my clone entered the Fair, a blur of silver appeared. However, the spider seemed slower than before. Last time, I had barely been able to track it with my eyes. This time, while its speed was still overwhelming, I could at least see it as it moved.


    Odd.


    However, even if the spider¡¯s speed had dropped, it was still far too fast to handle. It moved like a raindrop in a hurricane. Its movements were rapid, erratic, and hard to respond to. Even though the creature was slowed, fighting it head-on would still be hopeless.


    And then¡­ I saw the three curses in its body. I grinned when I saw the first curse activate.


    The first card, the Tower, glowed brightly, before an image of a tower appeared in front of the spider. The spider slammed straight into the now-solid object, and nearly bounced off. Unfortunately, the spider seemed more pissed off than wounded. A moment later, I saw a flash of movement, and the top half of the small tower collapsed into a pile of rubble. The spider launched itself out of the rubble again¡­ which was when the second curse came into play. The Lovers. For a brief moment, the spider froze in midair. It was as if the creature had simply¡­ halted. For some reason, it reminded me of a regular insect flying into a pane of glass.


    The creature strained against an invisible bond, and after another few fractions of a second, it broke through the invisible bond. It was free.


    But that split second was long enough for my clone to get an extinguish off.


    A drop of deadly water materialized in midair, and touched the murderous arachnid''s body. The flame of life in the eight-legged horror''s body dimmed slightly, and it squirmed in agony. It hadn''t done much damage - but I confirmed it this time. The furry abomination was slower than before.


    As the creature sailed through the air towards my clone, I felt a burst of relief surge through my body. After seeing my extinguish hurt it, I confirmed something. The monster¡¯s stats weren''t all ridiculous. Its speed was incredible, and whatever it used to decapitate my clones was also deadly¡­ but its other stats were weaker. It still had an advantage over us in every aspect, but it was less overwhelming than I had thought. Its life force was still ludicrous, but it wasn''t overwhelmingly resilient. It was beatable.


    I stepped into the Spatial Fair with my real body, and my friends followed behind me.


    I pointed towards the spider with my real body¡¯s index finger, and activated another extinguish. This time, I put 90% of my alteration essence into the attack.


    At that time, my third and final tarot card activated. I felt a wave of judgment enter my extinguish, and my extinguish changed. The drop of water turned into a miniature streak of lightning. It crackled through the air and slammed into the spider, blasting it away. The spider was knocked into the air like a baseball, saving my clone from a grisly death.


    I grinned in delight. I hadn¡¯t expected to toss the spider around like that. its candle of life hadn''t gone out, but it was nearly a tenth of the way dead. That was far more than I had expected to accomplish.


    Anise lobbed a grenade at the spider, while Sallia took a step forward and prepared to cleave the creature in two.


    That was the moment everything went to hell.


    The spider shuddered, and shed a layer of its exoskeleton. Underneath the creature¡¯s silver exoskeleton was a dark blue layer of shell. Then, the damn thing somehow found a foothold in midair and dashed to the side, completely avoiding Anise¡¯s bomb. Sallia was also caught off-guard by this, and suffered a nasty cut to her forearm as the monster swung past her. Only Sallia¡¯s reflexes saved her from losing an arm.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Somehow, the spider¡¯s soul stabilized. It recovered from all of the damage I had inflicted upon it, and even launched a counterattack.


    I cursed as I realized its candle of life had somehow expanded several times. It dashed towards my clone again. A second later, my clone''s head sailed into the air. The only thing I confirmed was that it had used manifestation essence to attack - but by the time I confirmed that, my clone was gone.


    The creature could regenerate, shrug off damage by shedding its exoskeleton, find footholds in thin air, and use magic. It was also so fast that I couldn''t see it well. Whatever had put this thing in the Market, it wanted us dead, and it wasn¡¯t screwing around.


    Sallia started to harden the air around her, which slowed the spider down a bit. The spider immediately turned towards her, and darted towards her legs.


    I fired a lightning bolt at it using {Breath of the Storm}, which forced the eight-legged abomination to dance away. However, I had wasted a tenth of my absorption essence, and had accomplished nothing but forcing the creature to dodge. Sallia swung her blade at it, but she wasn''t quite fast enough. Even her superhuman combat sense couldn¡¯t make up for the raw difference in speed. The creature darted towards her face.


    I panicked. If Sallia died here, she would lose another life. That would mean we only had one world to save ourselves instead of two. Any of my friends dying permanently was unacceptable. I poured my last remaining drops of alteration essence into a final extinguish. It dodged, but Felix took the opportunity to ram a spike of iron into one of the creature¡¯s eyes. Two of them popped as the creature was knocked away.


    The spider didn¡¯t flinch, or scream, or even slow down. It caught itself in midair again, before it launched itself towards me like a shadow of death. I reached towards my absorption essence, and opened a portal right in front of me.


    I didn¡¯t have time for words, but I sent an image to my friends. I showed them exactly where I intended to open the other side of the portal - right in front of Sallia. If it was Anise or Felix, the spider might kill them before they responded. But Sallia¡­ if she knew in advance, she might be able to end this fight.


    Sallia didn¡¯t disappoint me.


    Right as the spider flew into the portal I had opened, Sallia swung a massive overhead swing at the other end of the portal. The spider fell through the portal, just like I had hoped. It popped out of the portal¡­ and somehow managed to dodge Sallia¡¯s sword swing. However, it wasn¡¯t perfect. Even though the creature dodged death, two of its legs flew away.


    The spider¡¯s exoskeleton turned green, and both of its legs immediately started growing back.


    <Are you kidding me?> said Felix, as the spider started to regrow its missing appendages. Felix grunted, and a large block of metal ripped itself out of the ground. It tried to wrap around the spider, like a collapsing prison, but the spider darted away. I opened a portal right in front of the creature to try to trap it in Felix''s metal sheet. If Felix could squish it, this fight would finally end.


    Somehow, the spider dodged the portal. Once again, it somehow found a foothold in midair, and then flung itself to the side before it fell into the portal. I tried to open another portal in front of it, to catch it, but the agile arachnid rocketed away before I my portal was even half-formed.


    Its legs were half regrown now. I felt panic start to sink it, and it only grew worse when another flash of manifestation essence left the spider¡¯s body. This time, a wave of plants tore out of the ground beneath my feet. I dodged out of the way, right before a razor-sharp vine tried to grow through my legs. I saw Anise¡¯s eyes flash for a moment, and then the plants halted for a single second, giving me enough time to untangle myself from the area.


    <{Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes} are finally coming in useful,> she said, as a few more waves of vines tried to follow me. However, Anise managed to slow them all down as I escaped.


    Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the spider fling itself towards Anise this time. It managed to avoid Sallia''s interception attempt, and began closing in on Anise. I felt a surge of horror as the monster closed in on Anise. I threw another lightning bolt at the spider. It dodged it, but I bought enough time for Anise to react. She shot a {Magic Missile} at it, and this time, the spider didn¡¯t quite dodge in time. The {Magic Missile} slammed into the creature... and did almost nothing. The spell was way too weak to penetrate the creature''s bizarre, crab-like shell... but it was enough to knock it away from Anise.


    Unfortunately, the spider caught itself in midair again. Its body swung unnaturally in midair, before it settled on me as a target.


    It dove towards me, dodging another poorly made portal in the process. Sallia started sprinting towards me, but she was a bit too far away to react. I managed to scramble backwards¡­ but not quite enough.


    The hem of my dress disappeared, and both of my legs fell off. My eyes widened in pain as I felt two stumps where my legs were supposed to be. I flopped backwards, and saw the spider whizz towards my head. I rolled around, desperately trying to keep my neck safe, and felt a burst of pain on the side of my head as something cut into my skull. Before I had time to wonder if I was dead, I felt someone grab me and toss me backwards with ridiculous strength. I slammed into the ground, and felt my vision darken in pain - but I was away from the spider.


    My head hurt, but I forced myself to focus on the battlefield again.


    Felix was missing both of his arms. He was stumbling away from the spider. Thankfully, Sallia had managed to get there after Felix tossed me out of the fight. She had batted the spider away again. It was already making its way back towards us, but she had at least bought a few seconds.


    <Here, stay still,> said Felix, as he dove towards me. I felt something metal clamp onto my head. Even without arms, he was surprisingly delicate when he manipulated metal with his ability. <I don¡¯t think your head injury is lethal, but just in case, this should help keep you skull together. It definitely didn''t get your brain.>


    I glanced at the battlefield again. The spider was flipping through the air, flying towards Anise. However, I noticed something.


    The spider was¡­ slowing down. It had started out the fight by zipping through the air so fast I could barely see it. Now, it was still fast, but... very much traceable with my eyes. It seemed like it was getting weaker as the fight went on.


    Right as Anise unleashed another {Magic Missile} at the spider, the creature effortlessly wove out of the way. I immediately mustered my willpower, and blasted it with the strongest lightning bolt I could muster. This time, I popped open a portal just behind it. I wanted to knock the damn thing right next to Sallia¡¯s sword. I sent Sallia another image of where I was sending the spider, and she swung her sword at the spot like our lives depended on it.


    At the same time, I felt Sallia burn every single drop of absorption essence in her body. The air hardened. Essence near her sword was disrupted. And most importantly, her speed increased drastically.


    This time, the spider didn¡¯t dodge fast enough. My lightning bolt, which had eaten the rest of my absorption essence, tossed it through the portal like the hand of a giant. It was flung though the portal, and Sallia¡¯s sword sliced straight through it. In a second, the devastating monster was bisected. I watched with a mixture of terror and hope as the spider¡¯s soul wavered¡­ and then its soul detached from its body.


    The spider, which had nearly killed Felix and I, was finally dead. I saw a few System notifications pop up, but I couldn''t even muster up the energy to look at them. Instead, I sagged in relief. We had won. It had been a nightmare, and there were several moments where we nearly died, but we had won.


    I used the last dregs of my absorption essence to check our surroundings, hoping to see a shop nearby filled with amazing items. Instead, I saw something that made my heart stop.


    There were two more bright, silver colored spiders approaching us in the distance. They didn''t look like they had spotted us yet, but something had clearly alerted them. They were heading towards us, and they would reach us in less than a minute.


    I finally realized something.


    The spider wasn¡¯t a powerful guardian in this area. It might not even be a particularly strong monster. As I saw two more spiders crawl towards us, I realized that we had nearly died fighting this area¡¯s version of a skeleton foot soldier.

 Chapter 320: Hunted

    As I saw the horde of spiders dart towards us, I resisted the urge to start swearing in frustration.


    One spider was stronger than most guardians for better shops in the outer district. It had access to offensive magic, healing, incredible speed, plant control, and some way to create footholds and maneuver around in midair. Worse, it was intelligent. Every time I used a certain trick or ability against it, the damn thing adapted to it shortly afterwards. Now, there two of them heading towards us. My essence was gone, I was missing two legs, and Felix was missing both arms. Anise¡¯s grenades had turned out to be nearly useless, and Sallia wasn¡¯t fast enough to cut the spiders without help. How were we supposed to handle this?


    As light bled out of my missing legs, I looked at my friends.


    <We need to get out of here,> I said.


    <Let¡¯s be quiet, and hope the monsters don¡¯t catch on to us,> said Felix. Anise and Sallia started scuttling back towards us, before Sallia picked me up and tossed me over her shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes. I kept an eye on the two new spiders with my soul sight as our group moved as quickly and silently as we could towards the exit. I kept expecting one of them to notice us and launch itself towards us, or for the strange creature that fed on silence to drag us into its domain and kill us.


    As seconds ticked by and I bounced off of Sallia¡¯s back, my heart hammered like a drum in my chest. But the spiders didn¡¯t notice us, even as we crossed the threshold and left the Spatial Fair again. My view of the incoming spiders disappeared along with the rest of the Spatial Fair.


    <Did we lose them?> asked Felix as he glanced behind us.


    <These things are intelligent. Your arms and Miria¡¯s legs are still left in the area, along with the corpse of the other spider. They¡¯ll figure out what happened soon enough,> said Sallia. <We need to be out of the area before that happens. Or hidden.>


    I nodded. Our group started sprinting down the street as fast as we could, dashing along for nearly thirty seconds. Then, without a word, Sallia jerked to the left, kicking open the door to a shop filled with rubble, and then we sprinted towards the second floor. To round it off, we jumped into the closet of one of the rooms upstairs. It felt childish¡­ but we were in no condition to fight right now. We just had to hope that the spiders didn¡¯t see us.


    I turned my attention back towards the spatial fair, and activated my soul sight. Thirty seconds later, two bright, silver souls peeled out of the spatial fair. One of them stayed right next to the entrance, while the other began to slowly skitter around. I immediately shared what I was seeing with the rest of the group.


    <They¡¯re less dumb than the skeletons. They¡¯re actively hunting us. They even split up. They must have realized that we were hoping to get resources from the Spatial fair¡­ so they¡¯re guarding the entrance?> said Sallia. <They¡¯re actively making sure that we can¡¯t get a reward for our fight.>


    I grimaced. Intelligent enemies were far more difficult to deal with than brainless skeletons.


    <Miria, did whatever Skill you got from the first one give you an advantage?> asked Anise, breaking me out of my frustrated spying.


    I frowned. In the chaos of losing my clone and the desperate rush out of the Spatial fair, I had forgotten to check my System messages. I popped them open, and saw two new messages waiting for me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Killed a Wanderer of Lost Silence for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +600, Achievement +6.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The Achievement was more than expected for a single kill, and brought me straight from 8,492.72 Achievement to 9,098.72 Achievement. However, Achievement wasn¡¯t going to help us here. There was no way we could generate enough Achievement to out-fight these spiders in the short month and a half we had left. Instead, the second System message was the one I was hopeful for.


    Unlike the first System message, this one delivered something amazing.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Wanderer of Lost Silence for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Silence Lost - If you have not heard any sound for an extended period of time, and a sound disturbs that ¡®silence,¡¯ gain a temporary boost to the [Agility], [Strength], and [Manifestation] Stats. The longer you have spent in silence before it was disturbed, the larger the stat boost. (Maximum boost - 4 Grades of stats. 1 Grade requires about 4 hours of silence, 2 grades is about 24 hours, 3 Grades is about 72 hours, and 4 Grades is about 336 hours). Temporary boost will start to decrease after 3 minutes, and will completely vanish after 20 minutes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This skill, in and of itself, wasn¡¯t necessarily amazing for our current situation. After all, we were in a dangerous position right now. I was missing both legs, so my [Agility] was pretty useless. I wasn¡¯t a great melee fighter either, so the [Strength] boost wasn¡¯t as useful as it would have been for someone like Sallia. [Manifestation] was even more useless, since I didn¡¯t even have a magic system to pair with the stat. I wouldn¡¯t mind trying to swing the sharp end of my umbrella around and help out the group, but we didn¡¯t have time to let the Skill fully build up if we wanted to make reasonable progress in the Spatial Fair. It took two weeks to prepare for one fight, and I doubted we would be done exploring in 20 minutes.


    However, this was important for another reason.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} typically stole some trait or ability from an enemy, and gave me a weakened version of it. Which meant that the spiders had a similar ability.


    All along, I had been thinking that the spiders just had overwhelming physical abilities. That no matter what, they were so utterly fast and strong compared to us that we had no chance in a frontal battle without resorting to desperate measures. After all, the first spider had been so ridiculously fast that I couldn¡¯t even track it with my eyes. I had noticed that the spider was slowing down as the battle progressed¡­ but I had still been thinking that it was some sort of essence related ability. Even if the spiders weakening over time was good, it definitely didn¡¯t give us a way to exploit their vulnerabilities. They were just too dangerous to fight head-on, even if we were only trying to stall.


    This skill meant that we had a way to strip off their stats before each fight. I could send in my clone, and then blast music at the spiders before we fought. Or Anise could lob in some grenades first. After that, we just had to withdraw, wait for the spider to weaken, and then attack before it rebuilt its temporary buff. There was a way forward.


    I quickly sent a description of the ability to my friends, so that they would have a rough idea what we were dealing with. However, as they were reading, Sallia¡¯s mental voice interrupted them.


    <One of the spiders is getting closer to us,> said Sallia, interrupting my thoughts. I frowned, and focused on my soul-sight again. Sallia was right. The spider wasn¡¯t quite locking onto our position¡­ but it was getting nearer and nearer to us. It must have had some way of tracking us, even if it wasn¡¯t very precise or efficient.


    We might have had a path forward, but if we died right now it wouldn¡¯t matter. Who knew where the Market would send us if we died and had to use another life? We might end up on the other side of this nursery. With how massive this city was, it could take years just to walk from one end to the other. There was no way we would find the Spatial Fair again before we had to leave.


    <Anise, can you use the {Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes} as far away from us as possible? Just make a few plants rustle around. If we¡¯re lucky, the spiders might go kill a bunch of skeletons and ignore us,> I said.


    <I don¡¯t have the range to lure it in a totally different direction. But I can try to make a few rustling noises in random streets and hope that distracts it,> said Anise.


    <Do what you can,> said Felix. Anise nodded, and then started squinting. In the distance, I saw a few plants start to grow and twitch. It was nothing amazing - in most other circumstances, Anise had struggled to find a real use for her eyes. However, in this situation, we didn¡¯t need to do much - just distract the spiders until their physical boost ran out. If the spiders were still nearby afterwards, Sallia might be able to kill them, instead of the other way around. Felix and I were incapable of fighting right now, but Sallia was a terror with a sword in her hand. If the spiders were weakened, I felt Sallia might be able to win against them. Anise still had plenty of grenades, too.


    The spider kept creeping towards us. When it was finally within a street of us, Anise started making the nearby plants rustle. She could only manage a block or two away¡­ but it was enough to confuse the spider. I saw the little soul start jerking and twitching, before it darted towards one of the nearby streets, seemingly at random. I breathed a sigh of relief as it started to move away from us.


    I saw a flash of motion from the spider, and then one of Anise¡¯s plants collapsed as it was bisected. Perhaps its tracking ability was reliant upon sound, as well?


    Anise immediately picked another few plants, and started rustling them. The spider flashed towards the plant and once again cut it in half.


    This continued for a few more plants¡­ before the spider stopped responding to the rustling of plants entirely.


    <Damn it. They¡¯re not stupid enough to keep falling for the same trick.> said Felix.


    <I liked fighting the skeletons much more. They never got smarter no matter how many times we pulled off the same trick,> said Sallia. <Still, we¡¯ve bought more time. Do you think the spider will find us?>


    <Since we don¡¯t need to breathe or shuffle around, we might be safe?> I said, cautiously. <Oh, I have another idea. Anise, I¡¯m going to open a port just a bit to the left of you. I¡¯ll send you an image of the exact spot. I¡¯m also going to open a portal to that shop a street away. Can you fire a magic missile through the portal? Then, I¡¯ll close it.>


    Anise did as I asked. I summoned the few wisps of absorption essence I had regenerated in the last few minutes, and managed to crack open a tiny portal. It snapped shut almost instantly, but Anise fired a magic missile through it before it closed. There was a small clunk as the magic missile splattered against a shop wall in the distance, followed by a return to silence.


    The spider whirled towards the shop and then flashed away, making the four of us sigh in relief. The spiders really did respond mostly to sounds.


    A few moments later, the spider reached the shop. It seemed enraged, and started cutting apart the shop¡¯s walls after it found nothing there. If we had been hiding in the shop, I would have been sweating at that point. The spider¡¯s magic cut through the stone and wood in the shop as though it were rice paper. If we had been hiding there, it would have found us and killed us instantly.


    But we weren¡¯t there.


    Finally, the spider seemed to realize it wasn¡¯t getting anywhere. It started wandering back towards our area, but it was no longer drifting perfectly towards us. It seemed lost and confused.


    We waited in tense silence for several minutes, as Anise and I worked to keep the spider distracted. Finally, after about ten minutes, the spider that had been searching for us returned to the entrance of the spatial fair. At first, this puzzled me, before I realized the blasted things were even smarter than I thought.


    They knew that their sound-related boost was wearing off, so they were retreating before we could ambush them and kill them. That was¡­ frustrating, but at least for now it meant we were safe.


    True to my thoughts, a few moments later the two spiders withdrew into the spatial fair.


    <Wait, don¡¯t move,> said Felix. <It might be a trick.>


    We froze.


    About ten seconds later, one of the spiders popped back out of the spatial fair, and I shuddered. The spider had been hoping we would expose ourselves after it left. It had¡­ faked leaving in order to trick us.


    These things weren¡¯t just intelligent. They were actively capable of tricking and manipulating us. If we were careless¡­ this had a huge chance of going horribly wrong.


    The spider, seeing nothing, returned to the spatial fair after a few seconds. After that, we waited in the closet for nearly half an hour, just to make sure. During that time, I also worked on patching up my and Felix¡¯s wounds anytime I regenerated a bit of essence. Finally, we decided it was safe to come out and get moving. As we left the area, I breathed a sigh of relief.


    It had been dangerous. This might be the most terrifying enemy we had encountered in the Market so far. But we had found a hint.


    Even if we had suffered disastrous wounds, this fight hadn¡¯t been a loss. We had found a path forward.

 Chapter 321: Skill Center

    Now that we had a rough idea why the spiders were so terrifying, we didn¡¯t need long to think up a countermeasure. The spiders had an obvious weakness. Their ridiculous speed and offensive power were reliant on their [Agility] and [Manifestation] stats. Both were temporary. If we kept them in a noisy environment, they would become very manageable foes. All we had to do was to stay away from them while they weakened. The creatures were smart, so I doubted our plan would work long term¡­ but we didn¡¯t need a long-term plan. We just needed to raid one or two buildings and get out alive. With any luck, that would help us progress fast enough to survive the fight for lives we would encounter in two worlds.


    After finishing our planning, we spent two days recovering from our injuries. Unfortunately, this wasn¡¯t enough time for me to regrow my legs. However, we decided to push forward anyway. There were two reasons for this.


    First of all, Felix didn¡¯t need my help to heal up. With the help of his magic system, anything hand-shaped could work as a prosthetic. I had always thought that my ability to regrow limbs was exceptional, but Felix¡¯s ability made me wonder if I valued it too much. Felix only needed some metal manipulation and four hours to get a new set of hands. They weren¡¯t perfect - in fact, they were a bit on the clumsier side. However, they were also made of some kind of magic steel. Everything they lost in agility, they more than made up for in strength. That was a terrible trade for a craftsman, but it was fine in the Market. Making big tools and objects required a lot of time and knowledge. Right now, Felix was missing both of those things. We only had a month and a half left before we had to reincarnate. Thus, Felix¡¯s personal strength mattered more, and his items mattered less here.


    Meanwhile, after two days of recuperating, I was still missing both legs. I had healed the injuries to my head, since they seemed potentially lethal if left unattended. That had left me with little time to actually rebuild my legs. After two days, I still needed someone to carry me around. However, my fighting abilities weren''t very reliant on my mobility. My contributions in most fights relied on extinguish, lightning bolts, and healing. While being carried around was unpleasant, it didn''t actually weaken me much. If I tried to use the Skill I had gained from the spiders, we would need too much time between each exploration. We were already working under multiple time constraints - needing two weeks between each fight would only make it worse. With that in mind, we decided that waiting for my legs to grow back was time we couldn¡¯t afford to waste.


    Instead, we spent one more day preparing what we needed.


    The spiders needed silence in order to power up. Anise had a bunch of grenades laying around. Originally, we had planned for Anise to toss the grenades at spiders during fights, but the spiders were too fast. They could dodge the grenades so easily that Anise couldn¡¯t even harass the spiders. Thus, Felix repurposed the grenades a bit. He made the fuse longer, and designed them to make long, drawn-out bursts of noise.


    Two days later, we returned to the edge of the spatial fair. I peeked inside while Felix held me up. I then used my soul vision to confirm there were no enemies nearby. After that, we got started.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡± I asked Anise.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m ready,¡± said Anise. ¡°How about you two?¡±


    Sallia and Felix nodded. ¡°We¡¯re ready to run,¡± said Sallia.


    ¡°All right, I¡¯m throwing it on three!¡± said Anise. "Three... two... one!" Then, she activated and threw one of the noise bombs into the spatial fair.


    Everyone turned and sprinted into the distance. My chin bumped into Felix''s back as he dragged me along like a sack of potatoes. A minute later, after we found another store and hid inside. We heard a crackling sound in the distance right as we finished cramming ourselves into a closet. The distortion between the Spatial Fair and the rest of the world muffled the sound, but I was glad to know our grenade had worked.


    I activated my soul sight, and waited. Soon, three spiders crept out of the spatial fair. I suspected two of them were the same spiders that had driven us out of the spatial fair last time. Something about the way they moved just gave me a sense of familiarity. Just like last time, one spider guarded the entrance, while the other two started searching for us. The two spiders searching for us seemed jittery, almost as if they had imbibed too much caffeine before starting their search.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The abnormality in the spider''s movements put us on guard. I stared at the spiders as they moved out of the Spatial Fair, ready to start making distractions with Anise if needed. However, this time, the spiders didn¡¯t seem to have a very good idea where we were. Last time we had done this, the spider tracking us had always moved in our general direction. It had obviously used some kind of tracking skill, even if it wasn''t very accurate. This time, the spiders didn''t seem to have their tracking skill active. Both spiders started searching random buildings as the minutes ticked by. Occasionally, one of them clawed at the floor and walls of a shop, as if they were hoping we would jump out for them to catch. However, we¡¯d had a few minutes to put some distance between us and the fair. There were a lot of shops for the spiders to search, and nowhere near enough time for them to hit every shop. The spiders had little luck tracking us down.


    After about ten minutes, the spiders stopped searching for us, and started to withdraw. We waited ten more minutes, before we crept back towards the spatial fair.


    There were three spiders instead of one this time, and I didn''t have legs¡­ but we had removed four Grades of their stats. I was full on essence, and our group was ready for a fight. If we caught the spiders after they were weakened, we had a better chance of winning than they did.


    We re-entered the spatial fair twenty-five minutes after we had tossed the noise grenade, and I gave our area a cautious scan with soul sight. Then, I frowned.


    There were no signs of any nearby souls besides the four of us.


    Had the spiders gone into hiding?


    For some reason, I had expected them to just sit inside of the spatial fair, waiting for us. But they were gone from the area.


    I started to feel a bit anxious. The spiders weren¡¯t stupid. They had demonstrated advanced tactics and cunning multiple times already. What if they were hiding while they were weakened? In that case, in a few hours they would recover some of their strengthening boost, and then come after us. If that happened, we might be the ones to die instead of them. I could still remember the horrifying speed of a powered-up Wanderer of Lost Silence.


    However, if we backed off now, we would have no way at all to make progress in the Spatial Fair. The spiders were smart, so they would definitely wise up to our tactics if we repeated this a few times. They were already hiding, instead of waiting to die. What if next time, they found some way to block our sound grenades, then ambush us when we thought we were safe? If that happened, we would die. We only had one chance to make this work before the spiders wised up. We needed to hit a store now, before we lost our only chance.


    We crept along the silent streets of the Spatial Fair, as I hummed a tune to keep us from entering complete silence. However, as we advanced, I started to notice that sound was becoming more and more suppressed. It felt almost like the silence in a blizzard. With every step we took, the world was buried in a wider and denser blanket of nothing. Even though I wasn''t feeling cold, exactly, I still felt the urge to shiver. I had a strong feeling that the deeper parts of this Spatial Fair housed something far more dangerous... something that we weren''t ready to provoke yet. I hoped that we weren¡¯t making a mistake as I sang and our group marched forward.


    Before I could settle into my feelings of unease, our environment changed. 100 meters into the spatial fair, I nearly flopped out of Felix¡¯s arms in surprise.


    With no forewarning, a brand new structure appeared in front of our group, almost as if it had always been there. The sudden, wild change in terrain definitely didn¡¯t inspire confidence, since I hadn''t noticed it with my spatial vision. I was clearly far from truly mastering space, if I could somehow miss such a massive distortion of space. However, the moment I read the name of the shop, I felt my eyes widen in delight. We had entered the Spatial Fair to find ways to strengthen ourselves, and the shop in front of us definitely qualified. I read the sign in front of the store, and felt the urge to grin.


    Skill Center - customize and manipulate your skills to best fit your future!


    Do you have Keywords that you don¡¯t want to keep? Do you have Abilities that just aren¡¯t useful anymore? Do you want help figuring out the best way to evolve your Abilities? Do you need a special environment, for that last push to Heroic Grade?


    The Skill Center is here to solve your worries and needs! Get unwanted abilities removed to free up glut, remove parts of abilities that aren¡¯t needed anymore, and customize your Abilities! Get advice on how to improve your Abilities, or buy an entirely new ability from our wide catalog of non-keyword abilities! Over ten thousand abilities are available for purchase!


    Disclaimer - the Skill Center cannot totally overwrite a keyword ability. We can emphasize certain aspects of your abilities, but we cannot make a totally new ability out of your keywords. Please keep this in mind when asking about Skill Customization.

 Chapter 322: Skill Center (2)

    As I read the sign in front of the skill center, I thought about what we needed.


    Removing Skills had potential, but also came at a cost. Removing an ability or part of an ability would weaken us. However, it would also free up more room for other abilities or Keyword abilities that we needed. It was also likely much cheaper than buying stats to create more glut. In addition, this downside wasn''t as severe as it first appeared to be. After all, there were parts of some Abilities that I had no use for.


    For example, I was pretty happy with most of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. However, it had an ability that let me collect Achievement from an enemy as if I had killed it whenever I drove that enemy mad. That ability¡­ had yet to come up even once in two entire lifetimes. That was a pretty good indicator that I had little use for it. At no point had I even found a good way to drive enemies mad - and I had no real intention of finding one in the future, either. Right now, I was happy supporting our group with Extinguish, healing, spatial manipulation, and scouting. I would be more than happy to remove this part of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, especially if it gave me another Keyword slot and more Glut.


    Similarly, {Echoes of the Deep} had a few parts of the ability that didn¡¯t feel that useful to me. The ability to embody ¡®life¡¯ or ¡®death,¡¯ for example. Embodying death gave me several abilities, but the only one I actually made use of was empowering my Extinguishes. Embodying ¡®life¡¯ was nice¡­ but I only used it when I wanted more [Fortitude]. It only gave me one Grade of Fortitude, which was nice... but I doubted it justified the coast of the ability. Especially since I had lost a rather useful-looking keyword ability last life. At the time, I hadn¡¯t had enough keyword slots to take both abilities that I wanted. If I could free up a keyword, then I could get a much stronger replacement in the future. Not to mention, I had noticed last world that it was very difficult to get my Alteration ability to upgrade. Running into bottlenecks and problems while I was trying to research new abilities and grow had felt frustrating. Perhaps it would be easier to keep growing and improving if I had my abilities customized? If I could find a few useful non-keyword abilities, that would also be incredible. I had gained six more Glut after pushing [Absorption] and [Perception] to Grade 3. If I removed my Swordsmanship Ability as well, that would give me at least 11 Glut to work with. In addition, I would get an unknown amount of extra Glut from removing parts of my keyword abilities. Surely I could find something useful to do with all of that extra Glut.


    I was sure that my friends would also find the Skill Center very useful. Market Abilities were powerful, but they also felt like lists of random, useful skills and magic effects tossed together. Having a more optimized, focused build would pave the way for a better future. We could always grab a few niche utility skills from non-keyword abilities if needed. We didn''t need those random, minor useful effects to take up our precious keyword slots.


    Then, I snapped out of my thoughts. I was hopeful that we could dramatically improve our future progression here¡­ but we still needed to get in, use the facility, and leave with our lives. I needed to stop daydreaming about all of the things we could get out of the Skill Center. That could wait until we succeeded.


    I glanced around, and started using my soul sight and spatial sight. I didn¡¯t see any of the spiders in the area, but it was hard to see inside of the building. The walls seemed to have some sort of material that stopped my spatial sight and soul sight. I sighed. Hopefully the spiders were inside, so that we could finish what we''d started.


    <Let¡¯s go in,> said Sallia, after a few moments of hesitation. <This facility looks useful. I doubt we can track the spiders down in a reasonable timeframe. If we can use the facility and get out, we''ll have a much smoother path forward in the future.>


    <I need an upgrade for my keyword ability,> said Anise. <My Zelyrian spell maps take way too long to make. That''s fine for reincarnations, but I don''t want to be useless when we fight for more lives. We only get two months in the Market. That''s not enough time to do anything with my magic system. I want to fix that problem, and this building might help.>


    <I could also use some modifications to my alteration essence ability,> said Felix. <Some parts of the shaping magic system are convoluted and impractical. Miria seems to make good use of them, but I want to focus on item construction. The stuff that borders on dimensional terraforming is damn near impossible to use in a fight. I don''t know how Miria pulls it off.>


    Since the others also wanted to go inside, I stopped hesitating. We probably wouldn''t get another chance to scout out another building in the Spatial Fair before the spiders wised up to our tactics. I just had to hope that my friends and I were making the right choice. With our minds made up, we stepped into the building.


    The first room we stepped into looked like it had once been some sort of reception room. There were a bunch of computers in front of a desk, which was near the back of the room. The computers had fallen into disrepair eons ago. There was also a series of moldy ropes, forming a convoluted line that led to the receptionist desk. Finally, there were a bunch of seats occupying half of the room, offering people a place to sit while they waited.


    Dust caked everything, except for a few lines of clean wood that looked like spider tracks. I blinked in surprise. Why were the spider tracks so obvious? It made it rather easy to track down the hiding area of the spider. I followed the line of spider tracks, and, indeed, found a little spatial contortion underneath one of the chairs. The spatial contortion wasn''t quite the same as an alternate layer of reality. Instead, it was more like a little pocket dimension. It was formed by bending the geometry of the area, to create a perfect den for the spider. I squinted a bit harder, in order to see past the twisted geometry. Then, I grinned.


    Inside of the little spatial contortion, I could see a spider. However, my grin didn''t last long. In addition to the spider, there was something rather unusual in the spider den. It looked like a fishing line. One part of the fishing line ''hooked'' the center of the spider''s den. The other half of the line extended far into the distance, in a series of broken fragments of space and geometry. I couldn''t tell what the line was, or what its purpose was. It appeared to be made out of essence, although I couldn''t identify which type. It almost felt like all four types of essence were rolled together, but... different.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    How strange.


    <I found the spider,> I said. <It¡¯s hiding underneath that chair.>


    <Has it seen us?> asked Sallia.


    I glanced at the spider. It was vibrating in tune with my singing, so I was pretty sure it could hear us. However, it wasn''t making any move to attack us. It almost seemed afraid.


    Was it waiting for its stat boost to return? Perhaps it was hoping that we wouldn¡¯t notice it until it had regained its strength?


    I grinned.


    The Wanderer of Lost Silence didn''t seem confident in fighting us. Once its extra four Grades of stats were removed, it seemed far less confident than before. When we were outside of the building, I had worried that the three spider monsters might recover and ambush us. Now, we had an opportunity to get rid of one of them.


    <I found one of the spiders,> I said, sending an image of the spider I had located to my friends.


    <Do you know what that line of essence behind the spider is? I can''t tell what it is or what it''s doing. Too much twisted geometry for my head,> said Felix.


    <I''m not sure,> I said, frowning. <I''m thinking it might be some kind of way for the spiders to signal each other? If so, I need to stop it from touching the string if we start fighting.>


    <That''s plausible,> said Felix. <I do remember that when we were fighting the first spider, two spiders came to reinforce it right after we killed it. If it sent a signal right after the fight started, that would make sense. Alternately, it could be something like a ''web.'' This spider seems more like it has a den instead, but there could be a bigger spider in this facility. In that case, we need to make sure not to disturb the big web or we''ll die.>


    <If it''s a method of contacting others, it might have already contacted its friends,> said Anise. She sounded worried. <Maybe it''s already waiting for backup?>


    I frowned. If we fought two of the spiders at regular strength... I didn''t think we would live. But leaving without any gains would also make this trip a waste.


    <Let''s kill this spider first. Miria, can you use a portal to pull the spider out if it tries to jump for the line?> asked Sallia.


    <Got it.>


    <Good. Miria, start out the fight by hitting it with an extinguish. Save most of your essence - I just want to scare it out of its nest. Give us a few seconds to reposition first.>


    Sallia and Felix started shuffling their position in the room. Felix first moved me over to an open spot on the floor, so that I could wriggle around a bit if needed. Anise took up a position nearby, in case someone needed to grab me and flee. I raised myself up to a sitting position, and then aimed my umbrella at the spider den.


    The spider¡¯s little spatial contortion looked had three exits. Felix took the metal from the backs of each chair, and used them to form a few arm-sized cubes of metal. Each cube was positioned in front of one of the exits of the spider¡¯s den, and had a small pocket for the spider to exit into. I waited with bated breath, to see if the spider responded to Felix¡¯s preparations¡­ but it didn¡¯t move. Odd. Perhaps it could hear outside, but couldn¡¯t see?


    I hesitated, as I wondered whether we were about to spring an unknown trap. However, time was running out, and we needed to keep moving. So I slammed a low-power extinguish into the spider. Its candle of life flickered under the assault, before a bit of its life force disappeared. I prepared to teleport the spider away if it made for the thread of essence, but it didn''t move towards it at all. Instead, it launched itself out of its spatial tunnel¡­ directly into Felix¡¯s block of metal.


    Felix immediately forced the block of metal to collapse on itself. The spider¡¯s body lit up with manifestation essence, and then I heard a horrible, grinding sound. It was the first time I had heard something in the Spatial Fair produce sound besides our group. It only lasted for a split second, but the sound drilled into my ears. Then, I blinked, as I saw the block of Metal Felix had used to seal the spider and try to squash it.


    The block of metal looked like it had run through a woodchipper. Before Felix could reform it, the spider cut a passage through the block of metal, then dashed out.


    It looked none the worse for wear, but Felix''s metal block had bought time. Sallia swung at the creature, and the arachnid tried to spin out of the way. However, with four Grades of [Agility] missing, the speedy monster wasn''t anywhere near as fast. Instead of dodging Sallia¡¯s sword and counterattacking in a blur of motion, it barely managed to squeeze out of the way. It leapt towards her legs, afterwards, but its movements almost felt slow in comparison to before. I had plenty of time to track its movements and blast it with some lightning. The smell of burnt hair invaded the room as the spider was knocked onto a chair.


    Then, before it could do anything else, Sallia swung her sword again, splitting the spider in half. The two halves tried to wriggle back together, as the spider''s exoskeleton disappeared and it glowed blue. Sallia didn''t give it time to regenerate. She started wildly hacking at the spider''s body until the eight-legged terror stopped moving.


    A moment later, I got a System notification.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a Wanderer of Lost Silence for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +80, Achievement +1.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement went from 9,096.67 to 9,177.67 Achievement. I was gratified to see the increase¡­ but more than that, I wanted to celebrate something else.


    We had killed another Wanderer of Lost Silence, and this time it hadn¡¯t taken us multiple limbs and several near-deaths to achieve. We had actually deal with one of the spiders, with minimal losses. We had entered the Skill Center and overcome the first barrier.


    Moments after I started mentally celebrating, I saw the spider''s den start to unravel. And with it, the little thread of essence in the center of its den started to unravel. If before, it had resembled a fishing line, now it looked like a fruit with its skin peeled off. My eyes widened in horror, as I reached towards it with my alteration essence.


    My heart tightened, as I realized I had celebrated too soon. We had dealt with one threat, but killing a spider had its own dangers. And we were about to find out what happened when a Wanderer of Lost Silence died.

 Chapter 323: Skill Center (3)

    I reached out with my alteration essence and touched the string of fraying essence. Nothing else happened. The string of essence continued to fall apart. I felt a wave of panic as I realized something.


    The thread of essence that was unravelling in front of us was meant to collapse the moment the spider died. I had always thought that the spiders could hear particularly well... but there was more to it than that. This was the alarm system. Whenever we killed a spider, a thread of essence in their den would unravel and let something know a spider had died. Then, more spiders would come.


    And if we were attacked by a fresh group of spiders, we would die.


    In that moment of panic, I found a solution. I could touch the strange, decaying thread with my mind, but I couldn¡¯t ¡®hold it together¡¯ the way I needed to. It felt like trying to grab hold of a live eel. It was slippery, and difficult to touch with a mind that could only see regular geometry. Too much of the thread''s existence was buried in twisted, eldritch bits of reality.


    I couldn''t touch it normally... but my clone could.


    I resisted the urge to scream as I reached for my still-damaged soul, and ripped out another piece of myself from me. It felt like I had taken a hammer to my head, and I got the feeling that I was not supposed to be doing this. That my soul wasn''t ready for more splintering. But I had no choice. If that thread called more spiders to us, we were dead.


    Then, as I felt the pain start to lance through my soul, I felt Achievement rush to fill in the gaps. It was like I had nearly lit myself on fire, and then the Achievement had surged into to cool it down. The Achievement was like a soothing balm after a horrible sunburn. My soul stopped screaming in pain.


    Then, I became two. My clone reached for the thread, and unlike my main body, it had no problem touching the unraveling thread. I watched for a moment as my clone wrapped its arms around the thread, and then sighed in relief. My clone had stopped the thread from unraveling. I grimaced as the last bits of pain in my soul subsided, and then checked my Achievement.


    I had dropped from 9,177.67 Achievement to 8,155.09 in an instant. About a thousand Achievement was spent to create a clone that would only last a day or two. However, while it stung to lose so much Achievement, it was worth it. We weren''t about to face a horde of angry spiders. I sighed in relief. Then, I checked the clone¡¯s essence reserves, and winced.


    <Did you manage to stop it?> asked Sallia. <I saw you using a lot of essence, and it looked like you were panicking.>


    <The thread in the spider''s den started to unravel after we killed it. My clone is holding it, but it ate a bunch of my Achievement to make the clone.> I said. I tried not to wince as I remembered the tearing pain before my Achievement had worked to patch up my soul. <If you can, try to trap the next spider without killing it. I don''t know if it''ll be worse if I try to use a second clone. But don''t compromise your safety too much. If it''s impossible, I''ll see what I can do.>


    <We¡¯ll do our best,> said Felix. He sounded a bit worried. Had I let more of my emotions through the bracelet than I thought when I mentioned my clone? The pain had been truly unbearable for a few seconds.


    <Let¡¯s try cutting off all of its legs next time,> said Sallia. <If it''s one that got weakened by the sound grenade, it should be doable.>


    <If it''s one that wasn''t weakened, we''ll be running away anyway.> Felix sent a sense of amusement through the bracelet. <I sure don''t fancy our odds of fighting another one of those things in a cramped area like this. So either way, you won''t have to make another clone.> Then, his mental voice got a bit more serious. <How long until the clone dissipates?>


    <A day.>


    <That¡¯s enough time to work with. But let¡¯s get moving. I want to be well away from the Spatial Fair before the clone dissipates.> Then, Felix picked me up and we started moving again.


    Luckily, we didn¡¯t run into any other spiders in the next hallway. Unfortunately, we didn''t find anything useful, either. There was one room off to the side of the hallway, but it was filled with old administrative documents. All of them had crumbled to dust, so we couldn''t even read any of them. I resisted the urge to sigh, as we left the room and continued on.


    The next hallway had two rooms branching off from it... and a spider den right in the middle of the hall. The spider twitched the moment we entered the hallway, and I felt a rush of fear as I saw it stir. Was it an empowered spider? If so, we would have to flee.


    Right as I was preparing a desperate extinguish, I realized the spider was moving slowly. It seemed hesitant. I breathed a sigh of relief, as I realized the spider was another of the weakened spiders.


    That meant that Sallia and Felix could probably kill the horrid little abomination.


    Since the spider wasn''t coming out to attack us, we decided to take the same approach as we had the previous time. Felix set up blocks of metal at each exit to the spider''s den. Then, Sallia prepared to start dicing the monster into pieces. After they were ready, they sent me a signal and I poked the spider with a weak extinguish.


    The spider dashed towards the exit to its den. As it exited its pocket dimension and entered reality, Felix tried to squeeze it into paste with his block of metal. The spider cut its way through, then leapt towards Sallia.


    Which was probably the worst choice it could have made.


    Sallia burned essence, then cut towards the spider so fast that it nearly died right there. It managed to dodge out of the way, but lost two legs in the process. I took advantage of its distraction to blast it with a bolt of lightning. As the spider tried to recover, Sallia cut off three more of its legs.


    The spider paused for a moment, then its exoskeleton started to fall away. At the same time, it seemed as if its missing legs were regrowing.


    Sallia swung her sword at the spider, but hit managed to shuffle out of the way as its legs started to grow back. I blasted it with lightning again, but it seemed as if my lightning blasts had become less effective. Somehow, the little horror shrugged the blast off.


    Anise hit it with a few {Magic Missiles}, tossing it into the air towards Sallia.


    That was when the spider''s regrowing limbs all disappeared, along with the rest of its legs. In seconds, it went from having three legs and five half-legs to having nothing at all.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    This seemed to enrage the spider. It stopped shedding its exoskeleton, and turned bright green. A moment later, the hallway started to turn green as little sprouts of plants and moss started trying to kill us. Anise stopped paying attention to the spider, and started using her dryad''s eyes to stop the plant growths. Meanwhile, Sallia and Felix kept stabbing, cutting, and smashing the spider, to weaken it without killing it.


    The spider fought back, but pain and rage seemed to keep it from realizing what our plan was. Two minutes crawled by, as the spider tried to regrow its missing limbs or kill us with plants. The spider didn''t get any good attacks off - instead, it seemed to grow weaker and weaker as time passed.


    I grinned.


    It was working.


    The four of us kept working to control the spider. Anytime it tried to kill us with vines, Anise held them back. When it tried to regrow its limbs, Sallia cut them off. Felix kept it contained when it managed to start moving. It was slow, careful work¡­ but after a few minutes, it finally ran out of essence. I breathed a sigh of relief as I looked at the little fishing line in the spider¡¯s den. It hadn¡¯t unraveled and alerted the rest of the facility about our intrusion. It seemed like keeping the spider alive was a viable strategy.


    Once the spider ran out of essence, Sallia whacked it a few more times with the flat of her blade, just to keep it stunned. Then, she took of one of her Market-made shoes, stuffed the spider inside, and had Felix seal the opening in the shoe with lots of metal. I had no idea whether that would serve as an effective prison, but it was better than nothing.


    After that, we started moving again. We moved more slowly than before, since we needed to keep an eye on Sallia''s boot. However, the spider showed no signs of escaping.


    Finally, we made our way to one of the two rooms in the hallway. Felix carried me inside, before we took a few moments to observe the room we had found. Unlike the first room we had seen, this one wasn''t filled with long-decayed documents. Instead, there was a single bed inside.


    The bed looked¡­ odd. Physically, the bed didn¡¯t look much different from the type of bed most doctors used. There was room for patients to lie down in, as well as a few tools laying around. However, when I looked at the bed with my soul sight, it looked quite different. There were small bits of metal that only appeared in my soul-sight, which lined the edges of the bed. They looked¡­ almost like robotic arms, except for the fact that they crackled with essence.


    I looked at the metallic arms in confusion, while Anise, Felix, and Sallia also glanced around the room. I sent them an image of what I was seeing in my soul-sight, to make sure they knew what we were looking at.


    <That bed looks strange. I guess they said that they could do soul surgery in the building, but still! Tools that don''t seem to exist in reality, only in your soul sight. That''s way more strange than some of the stuff that existed in my world!>


    <How do we get it to work?> asked Sallia.


    <I don''t know,> said Felix. <We''ve seen a lot of other items in the Market with automated responses to certain types of input. Like that book we found last time. Maybe it''ll respond to a vocal command?>


    We tried several vocal commands to get the bed to ''wake up,'' but none of them worked. Finally, Felix frowned. <I don''t think it''s a vocal command that makes this thing start working.> he said.


    <Maybe something will happen if we lay down on the bed?> asked Sallia.


    <I¡¯ll do it,> I said. I had the best ability to defend my soul against attacks, especially now that I had {Eldritch Soul}. Worst case scenario, if I felt like something was wrong, I could try to open a larger portal and then teleport myself out of the bed. However, I suspected this bed was what we were here for. It was the opportunity to change everything and turn everything around.


    I laid down on the bed, and a new System popup appeared. Unlike the usual Status Screen or random ads, this one was way more complicated.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Hello New user, and welcome to the automated Skill Improvement Shop! This Skill Bed is sponsored by the sponsors of the Spatial Fair! Please thank Dimension Corp. Spatial Corp., and Void Corp for creating this wonderful fair!  To continue, please select an option from below. After that, our automatic ¡®Skill Bed AI¡¯ will take the most appropriate follow-up measures.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Remove an Ability - Sometimes, you pick an ability and realize three worlds later that it just doesn¡¯t fit your style. We get it! With our specialized skill bed, we can remove these Abilities so that they no longer take up your glut penalty or keyword slots.


    Disclaimer: Some Keyword Abilities cannot be removed. This bed will give you an error message if you attempt to destroy one of these Skills.


    Cost - 10 Achievement per glut penalty to remove a non-keyword ability, or 50 Achievement per Glut penalty for a Keyword ability, multiplied by the number of Keywords within the ability. Removal of a keyword ability may also cause extreme pain. Rooms in this building are soundproofed for the convenience of other customers.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Remove PART of an Ability - Some Abilities are useful, but have unnecessary components to them. Removing that part of the skill can allow you advance the Ability only in the direction that you want, or just free up some Keyword slots and Glut Penalty for other needs.


    Cost - varies, but typically far less than removing an entire ability.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Modify an Ability - Some Abilities are very useful, and you don¡¯t want to remove ANY part of them. However, you might still want to redistribute some aspects of that ability, emphasizing some parts over others. If that¡¯s what you want, this option is for you.


    Cost - Since this does not necessitate anywhere near the level of energy manipulation that keyword ability removal entails, the cost is typically about 100 Achievement. Please remember that if you modify a skill, it may not be a good idea to use it for a few days after the modification, so that your soul has time to heal up. Also, keep in mind that this cannot outright change the way an ability works - it just changes some details behind how it operates.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Hints - Have the bed scan your Keyword Abilities to give you hints on the ¡®best¡¯ paths forward for that skill. Many members of the Market evolve their abilities practically at random, taking whatever improvements are offered - but that is almost never the ¡®best¡¯ path forward. Especially if you travel with a team. If that¡¯s the case, having each member evolve their abilities towards certain specializations is usually much better. Tell our artificial intelligence the path forward that YOU want, and the AI will help you design an optimized path of progression to fit your needs! This also comes with a bunch of information on how to make ability evolutions easier and more effective, and can even provide information on what law an Ability is closest to. This is critical for those seeking to push an ability from Master Grade to Heroic Grade and leave the nursery.


    Cost - 100 Achievement for consultation with an AI. 500 Achievement for further consultation with a specialist. 1,000 Achievement for hints on entering Heroic Grade. Some better specialists may be requested for a higher cost (See pricing options by focusing on this option)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Add a Spatial Ability - Get a catalog of every non-keyword ability our sponsors sell, and choose which ones fit you best! All at a 10% discount for as long as the Spatial Fair lasts!


    Cost - varies wildly, depending on what Abilities you buy. Lowest price is 100 Achievement, with highest cost for a single ability being 1,000,000 (See options by focusing on this part of the menu)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Soul Modification and Surgery - Call for a doctor to assist you in changing your soul the way you want. Have you ever wanted to try being a squid person for a few lives, but got born as a human in your first life?  Do you want to visit one of the non-human nurseries of the market and fit in? Do you just want your soul to be a bit more malleable to other, more interesting shapes? Or perhaps you wish to guarantee that you will be born in one of the more ¡®interesting¡¯ dimensions, where physical bodies are flimsy failures of perception and concepts rule reality? If you have any of these desires, look no further! We can change your soul to make it more compatible with other species, types of magic, or different body structures as needed! All with our Market-acclaimed nursery doctors!


    Cost - 15,000 Achievement, plus an additional fee if you wish to shake off the need for physical bodies and transform into a conceptual entity.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As I read through the options, I grinned. Some of the options were baffling and confusing, but I was happy anyway. We had finally found a payoff for the risks we had taken in getting this far..

 Chapter 324: Skill Removal

    The first thing I did was click on the ¡®remove an ability¡¯ option. Before messing with ability customization, I needed space. That meant getting some Glut free, to see what I was working with. I also needed to make sure the bed wasn''t broken after centuries of neglect. Thus, I wanted to see what happened if I tried to remove basic-grade swordsmanship. This ability had long outlived its usefulness. With the exact same stats and level of skill, Sallia could utterly crush me with her incredible combat instincts. I could reach a moderate level of competence with a sword, about equal to someone who had some talent and worked hard. However, my swordsmanship was nowhere near as useful as my other skills by now. Extinguish, my teleportation and space related abilities, and my healing were much better uses of my limited training time. I hadn¡¯t used my swordsmanship for anything practical last world. Furthermore, abilities seemed to improve when I did something ''impressive'' with them. That was much harder for me to manage when it came to physical combat, where my natural talent was lacking. Since the prospects for swordsmanship were dim, I decided to cut my losses. I had better uses for my Glut, and 20 Achievement wasn''t a high price to pay.


    I started navigating menus. After I selected ''Remove an Ability'' from the previous System menu, a new screen popped up, listing my Abilities. I scanned over them.


    {Identity}. {Echoes of the Deep}. {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. {Eldritch Soul}. And, finally, {Basic One-Handed Swordsmanship}. All of my abilities were listed, one by one.


    Or were they? I frowned, as I realized an ability was missing from the list.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see {Body Control} on the list of abilities,¡± I said, ending my singing for the moment. I was hoping to hear Felix or Sallia''s theory about why that might be the case. To my surprise, before my friends could comment, the bed answered me.


    ¡°Replying to user: {Body Control} is not a real ability.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I asked, baffled. It took me a moment to realize that I had heard correctly. Had the bed replied to me? However, it only took me a few moments to realize I was being silly. The previous menu had mentioned an AI was present in the bed. Why wouldn''t the bed be capable of speech? I had seen other signs of the Market¡¯s advanced technology and magic before. A talking bed wasn¡¯t very surprising in light of the other things I had seen. I mentally shrugged, before I focused on the bed''s words.


    ¡°{Body Control} is listed in my status screen along with all of my other abilities. Why wouldn¡¯t it be an ability?


    ¡°Replying to User: All abilities are, foundationally, built upon ¡®glut penalty.¡¯ Glut penalty is, in a sense, a penalty. However, it is also a numerical representation of how much an ability warps reality. It is a calculation of how much burden your abilities place on your soul as you warp the world to suit your needs. This is why every Ability costs Glut. How does {Body Control} escape this problem? The simple answer is that it doesn''t. {Body Control} isn¡¯t even a proper magic effect... at least not from the user. {Body Control} lets you tell the Market what type of body you want to reincarnate in. It is a menu option. Then, the Market records your preference and manually cuts off any connection you form with a body of the wrong type. If you are familiar with the idea of ¡®magnets,¡¯ then think of it like this: all empty bodies and souls have magnetic attraction to each other. Empty bodies pull in souls until they are filled up. {Body Control} makes the Market manually stick a block of mana between your soul and the empty bodies you don¡¯t want. You will note that the MARKET is doing this - your soul is not. Thus, {Body Control} is a fake Ability. It''s you asking the Market to do something - not you yourself doing something. Of course, there are many, many other ways to accomplish the same thing. If you wish, you can even get an ability to control bodies manually, instead of having the Market do it for you.¡±


    I blinked in surprise. I¡­ hadn¡¯t thought about that before. The idea that {Body Control} cost 0 Glut was actually pretty indicative that something was odd about the ability. After all, every ability cost Glut besides that one.


    "Why does the Market give new Transmigrators {Body Control} for free?" I asked. It seemed... rather different from the Market''s usual money-grubbing behavior.


    "Query not found in database."


    I sighed. I should have expected that. Why would an AI be privy to the decisions of the Market¡¯s upper management? Either way, I was still glad I had {Body Control}. Being left to the whims of fate was bad enough when it came to my stats and parents. Flipping a coin to see if I ended up with a body I hated every reincarnation would have been miserable. If I had ended up in a male body during our first world, I would have felt completely off-balance the entire life.


    That being said, {Body Control} did highlight a rather interesting facet of the Market¡¯s culture. The Ability {Body Control} let me make ¡®requests¡¯ to the Market¡­ but it didn¡¯t specify that I had to stick with the type of body I had first entered the Market with. If I ever wanted to try being a boy for one life, all I had to do was hit a button, and the Market would switch me over. I couldn¡¯t imagine ever wanting to do so, since I was much happier remaining a girl¡­ but it did indicate that the Market didn¡¯t care much about so called ¡®gender.¡¯


    On the other hand, why would they? The Market was a society of souls that hopped from one body to another. A physical body was like a pair of clothes - you could swap them or toss them out at will. Changing gender for one life was kind of like trying on a new color of clothing here. There were no ''fundamental'' differences between male and female souls, at least as far as I could tell. In light of that, it made perfect sense that swapping gender was so easy in the Market. In the end, we were all humanoid souls. Those who weren¡¯t part of the Market had a 50% chance of being born ¡®male¡¯ and a 50% chance of being born ¡®female¡¯ each life. Chances were that most people who had once walked these streets had been both male and female countless times before joining the Market. From the perspective of the Market''s upper management, being ''male'' or ''female'' was like preferring the color blue over the color red. If they found that giving people {Body Control} for free increased how much people earned, and thus how much they could tax... I could see why the Market''s upper management would give the Ability away for free.


    I shrugged, and then stopped thinking about it. I had no intention of ever changing my preferred body type. We could debate how and why the Market acted the way it did... some other time. For now, I had to finish my Ability removal. I selected {One Handed Swordsmanship}, and another System popup appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to remove the Ability {One-Handed Swordsmanship} (Basic Grade)?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Doing so will cost 20 Achievement and free up 2 Glut. You will also lose 5 points from all of your physical attributes.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Yes


    </td>


    <td>


    No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Yes, I thought. 40 Achievement drained out of my body, and then seemed to enter a series of invisible pipes. Through geometries I couldn''t understand, the Achievement shot towards the center of the building. I blinked in surprise. Maybe it was possible to go ¡®recover¡¯ our spent Achievement later? That would be nice. When I bought Soul Fragments to boost my stats, my Achievement transformed into the Soul Fragments that I wanted. In short, it was used as a crafting material. There was no way to go grab my Achievement back after spending it. The bed did not work the same way. My Achievement had clearly gone somewhere else. In fact, there might be quite a bit of Achievement hidden in this building, as long as we could retrieve it...


    My thoughts were interrupted by stabbing pain in my gut. I felt like someone had plunged a knife into my intestines. I gasped in pain, and my humming cut off, plunging our group into silence. Sallia immediately started humming for me as I felt something exit my body. I swapped to my soul-sigh, and made sure nothing was wrong with my soul. I relaxed a moment later, as I felt something being carefully extracted from my soul. A few moments later the pain stopped.


    I checked my Status Screen, and grinned. Basic Swordsmanship was gone. I moved my limbs a few times, and confirmed that nothing was wrong. I had 4 more glut than before. The bed might have been covered in dust, but it was still working just fine. I navigated the menu until I reached the next option I had been interested in: Partial Ability Removal. The next screen asked me to focus on what ability I wanted to modify, so I focused on {Echoes of the Deep}. It was the ability with more Keywords to it, and I was more than happy to remove a few of them.


    The next System menu looked different than I thought it would. It showed the same screen I usually saw when I read the ability¡¯s description, but it had a few rather important lines of text added to it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Echoes of the Deep (Basic Grade)Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Alteration, Ocean, Death, Duality (4 Keywords.)


    Glut Penalty: 25


    (Ocean, Alteration): So long as you are dimensionally adjacent to the ocean of souls, or in contact with any body of water, your body will generate Alteration Essence.


    (Alteration): Furthermore, any brain and body you are inhabiting will support alteration-type spellcasting the moment your soul takes over the body.


    (Alteration): You retain access to your previous world¡¯s shaping magic system in its entirety.


    (Duality): You gain access to an innate connection to the duality of life and death, and may at any time choose which to embody. Swapping between being an embodiment of life and death will take several minutes of concentration.


    (Duality, Ocean, Life (fragmented Keyword ¡®Life¡¯, supplemented by Glut Cost to compensate)): If you are embodying ¡®life,¡¯ healing spells will be cheaper and stronger. Your body will naturally regenerate more quickly and without any long term scars or permanent injuries. Sunlight will generate extra alteration essence for you. Your Fortitude will be improved by 1 grade while embodying life. You will be able to breathe underwater.


    (Duality, Death:) If you are embodying ¡®Death,¡¯ the ¡®extinguish¡¯ ability you have created will become drastically enhanced if you have access to it. You may attack the lifeforce of any creature you are physically touching without needing a spell or ability to use as a medium. (This attack¡¯s cost may be paid using any essence, and will only trigger if you try to activate it). Making direct eye contact with a creature will allow you to inflict fear upon them.


    Glut Penalty: 25


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After seeing this System screen, I had a much better understanding of how Keyword Abilities worked. Every single Keyword wasn¡¯t just something that amplified my ability. Each and every keyword was also responsible for a part of my Ability. In other words, if I cut out a keyword, I would lose part of that ability¡­ and also free up a keyword slot. I had suspected it worked that way, but there were also some surprises in the Ability. I was also more than a little curious about what a ¡®fragmented keyword¡¯ was, although I had a rough guess after reading through what it did. It looked like a ¡®fragmented keyword¡¯ gave me some sort of extra ability¡­ but since it wasn¡¯t complete, it cost a bunch of extra glut penalty? I was basically paying more Glut to keep a keyword slot free. I didn¡¯t know if there were any other ¡®notable traits¡¯ of a fragmented keyword, but it was useful information, either way. I sent my friends a few of my guesses about what I had seen and what it meant, before I got back to focusing on ability removal.


    I already knew what I wanted gone. I focused on ¡®Duality¡¯ and ¡®Death.¡¯ Neither of them were useful enough to keep around. The actual benefits I had derived from it were a mild boost to extinguish, or one Grade of Fortitude. The boost to Extinguish was weaker than upgrading my attunement by another grade, and while it was somewhat useful, it wasn''t amazing. I certainly didn''t think it justified losing an entire keyword slot. The one Grade of Fortitude was even less impressive. Altogether, these abilities consumed two whole keyword slots. I wanted them gone. As I focused on the Duality and Death Keywords, as well as the fragmented Life keyword, another System popup appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Would you like to remove the Duality and Death Keywords from {Echoes of the Deep}, and remove the fragmented keyword Life?


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Doing so will cost 700 Achievement and free up 15 Glut. You will lose all portions of the ability flagged with the keywords Duality, Life, or Death. You will also free up 2 keyword slots.


    Warning: Removing Keyword abilities is very painful! Please be warned!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <I¡¯m about to do something. If I start screaming, don¡¯t do anything unless I ask for help over the bracelet,> I said.


    <Got it,> said Felix. <But make sure to send everything you see and feel over the bracelet too. That way, we can make an assessment of if we need to pull you off the bed or something.>


    That sounded like a good idea, so I did as Felix asked. Then I hit yes.


    The world turned into fire. I screamed for several minutes as something punched into my soul like a hot poker. Through my soul-sight, I could see the arms of the bed, reaching through my skin as if it weren''t there to touch the soul underneath. The arms of the bed cut, stitched, and removed. However, at no time did I feel like I was in danger of death or any dangerous injuries. Finally, the bed stopped. I sighed in relief, and checked my new Ability.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Echoes of the Deep (Basic Grade)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Alteration, Ocean (2 Keywords.)


    Glut Penalty: 10


    (Ocean, Alteration): So long as you are dimensionally adjacent to the ocean of souls, or in contact with any body of water, your body will generate Alteration Essence.


    (Alteration): Furthermore, any brain and body you are inhabiting will support alteration-type spellcasting the moment your soul takes over the body.


    (Alteration): You retain access to your previous world¡¯s shaping magic system in its entirety.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The ability was simple, clean, and useful. Everything that I needed, and nothing that I didn¡¯t need. I turned to my other ability¡­ and grimaced. It was far more complicated than the previous one.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Intermediate Grade)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.)


    Glut Penalty: 40


    Ocean: While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.


    Absorption (Fragmented Keyword, supplemented with glut): Absorption essence may be spent to create runes, which have the following effects:


    (Space, Absorption) (Both Keywords fragmented, supplemented with Glut): The first three runes will grant you +20 to your mental stats AND an ability. This ability MUST be related to space, and use the ocean or water as a medium. You will have significantly enhanced control over what ability is formed here.


    (Space, Absorption) (Fragmented Keywords): The fourth through sixth runes will now fundamentally alter one sensory organ, providing +10 Perception per level, and also giving you improved vision when trying to see space. Additionally, each rune will provide you with a significantly increased ability to resist external spatial manipulation targeting you or the area directly around you.


    (Space, Absorption) (Fragmented Keywords): The seventh through ninth runes will now grant +10 to each physical Stat and begin attuning your body to the power of space, allowing your body to innately interact with the idea of space, regardless of which dimension you are in. This will replace the standard fusion and condensing boosts that runes 10 through 12 would give you, and give benefits such as decreased wind resistance, the ability to teleport without reliance upon rune abilities at all, and increased ability to sense space using your skin.


    Madness: In addition, every keyword activated within the past week and every rune you have condensed will also give you a moderately increased ability to control madness, as well as madness-adjacent magic such as illusions and mental attacks.


    Madness: Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive something insane, you will collect Achievement as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.


    Hunger: (Fragmented Keyword): Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first time in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.


    Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only three abilities from this effect may be ¡®held¡¯ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one.


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had always thought this ability was unusually expensive, but now I had a better understanding of why. I had three ¡®fragmented keywords¡¯ in here¡­ and every single ¡®fragmented keyword¡¯ cost me extra glut. No wonder I was paying 40 freaking Glut for this Ability! The problem was¡­ most of those fragmented keyword abilities were the best parts of that ability. The ability to steal abilities from monsters I killed was insanely useful, even if I only got limited versions of each ability. It helped me gather intelligence about enemies, and helped me adapt to each world. I didn¡¯t want to lose it. Space was also very useful, since it was hard to fight back against Space-related abilities with a space ability of my own.


    I sighed.


    ¡°Is there any way to build a fragmented keyword into a full keyword?¡± I asked, hoping the AI would answer.


    ¡°Of course! Two or three ability upgrades in the right direction will add a fragmented keyword and upgrade it into a full keyword! You can also choose to keep a fragmented keyword ability as a fragment, if you don¡¯t want to pay the extra keyword slot! You can find more detailed options if the situation arises in a future world,¡± said the AI. "Keyword abilities aren''t static - that''s part of what makes them so important! They evolve to fit the user''s needs and actions with every upgrade!"


    I sighed, and decided to keep both fragmented keywords for {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. Maybe in the future I could get Hunger and Space as actual keywords, or maybe I would find a better ability later. Madness, on the other hand¡­ Madness was not useful enough to keep. So I removed that, at the cost of another 400 Achievement. However, I freed up another 8 Glut, giving me even more room to grab new abilities or keyword abilities in the future. With that final expenditure paid, my Achievement had dropped from 8,175.09 to 7,035.04 over the course of my time on the bed. My Glut was now at 73/105, and I had lost very little actual power in exchange for that. Most importantly, I now had four keyword slots free, instead of one.


    I glanced at my friends, to make sure the spider was still contained. After I made sure everything was still all right, I opened up the next menu that interested me.


    I had finished cleaning up the unwanted bits of my abilities. Now, it was time to find new abilities and ability customizations to fill my glut back up. I was weaker than I had been when I walked into the building¡­ but I now had room to play with some upgrades. It was time to see what ability customization looked like.

 Chapter 325: Skill Customization

    The Skill I decided to focus on was Endless Hunger of the Ocean. It had a lot of fragmented Keywords, which I suspected would give me interesting results.


    The next moment, the System screen moved to the Skill customization menu. It was... complicated. When I looked at the Skill Customization menu, it didn''t look like a clean list of things I could change. Instead, every time I focused on a single word of the Skill, I saw dozens of ''branches'' split off. Each branch seemed to indicate a way I could modify the skill. The problem was that there were so many options that I felt dizzy just looking at them. After entering the menu, I scrolled through an endless stream of possibilities, jumbled together in a salad of eldritch chaos. Trying to find anything was a headache, and the user interface was... cluttered. Very cluttered.


    I rubbed my forehead as I looked at the cluttered menu, before I started poking around. I started looking at different ''branches'' of the Ability, and was treated to a dizzying array of possibilities. The largest number of ''changes'' I could make to the Ability were rooted in the ''hunger'' part of the Ability. The ability that let me steal up to three abilities from monsters I had hunted and killed.


    However, there were several ¡®other¡¯ ways that the ability could work, if I was willing to change some of the mechanics of it.


    The first ¡®possibility¡¯ I saw was unusual. Instead of absorbing a skill every time I killed something with water, the skill¡¯s requirements would change to ¡®drowning¡¯ a creature. No other method of killing a creature with water, including extinguish, would allow me to absorb abilities. In exchange, the abilities I actually absorbed would improve. I could create stronger versions of the abilities I stole, and even surpass the original creature.


    Another possible customization went even further in this direction. Not only would I have to drown a creature to steal an ability, but I would also need to feed the water itself my essence. In exchange for this penalty, I would be able to pick and choose what ability I stole, and how it ''upgraded.'' However, I would also lose an Ability slot, dropping me to two. That benefit was appealing, but I wasn¡¯t sure if it was worth the need to drown enemies in essence-soaked water. The only way I would ever be able to pull that off was if I was far stronger than the creature I was hunting... which meant I would never get any great abilities from it in the first place.


    That wasn''t the only way my ability could be ''customized.'' There were dozens of other possibilities. For example, I could emphasize the ''hunger'' aspect of the ability over the ''water'' aspect of it. In that case, I would need to eat any creature I killed to steal an ability and I would need to kill it with water. In exchange, I would be able to store 4 Abilities, instead of 3.


    As I clicked through the cluttered mess of a user interface, I found more and more weird directions that I could take my ability absorption. I found options that would made hunger overtake my rationality, in exchange for greater power. I saw options that would make stolen abilities temporary, in exchange for making them stronger. There were even options that let me take the physical form of things I killed with water and then ate, almost like a body-snatching ability. The possibilities were so numerous that they felt overwhelming.


    After several minutes, I started to get a better idea of what I wanted. Ability customization almost always had an upside and a downside. At its core, Ability customization would never offer me a perfect upgrade. Instead, it was more like a sculptor. It would take the building blocks that comprised my Abilities, and then tweak them to fit my needs.


    However, Abilities were limited in how much customization could happen - I couldn¡¯t outright change an ability from the ground up. All modifications still needed to operate under the same ¡®framework¡¯ as the original. I could also only customize an Ability once per Ability evolution. Any more than that, and the Ability would grow fragile and unstable.


    As I looked through endless lists, I started to notice the best use for customization. The biggest upside of Ability customization was that it could build ¡®synergies¡¯ between abilities. Normally, every single ability existed in a vacuum. My abilities were all incapable of ¡®looking at each other¡¯. That wasn''t the case when it came to Ability customization. After customization, some Abilities would grow reliant upon each other.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    For example, the ability-stealing component of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. In its current form, I stole abilities by contributing to a fight enough, and harming an enemy with water. However, if I made it so that I could ONLY steal abilities through extinguish, I could make huge improvements to the Ability as well.


    I spent half an hour going through every possible change I could make to my two abilities, before I finally settled on what I wanted.


    For {Echoes of the Deep}, I decided to change nothing. The ability had been trimmed to a very bare-bones form. I liked that, because it meant I wasn¡¯t dealing with excessive clutter and costs. It would make upgrades to the Ability cheaper and more efficient. That was what I wanted from my primary magic System. I could support it with other keyword abilities, but I didn''t need a crazy amount of clutter in my primary ability source. However, It also meant that I had very little to work with for ability modification. I didn¡¯t think that was a bad thing. I would pick up more materials for Ability modification next time the ability evolved.


    However, {Endless Hunger of the Ocean} had a lot more moving parts to it, most of which I was happy to tinker with. After looking at the many, many variations to the ability that I could create, I kept coming back to the ability stealing component. It had so many potential uses, and there were many ways I could make it more useful to me.


    Eventually, I found a variation of the Ability that fit my needs perfectly.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Hunger: (Fragmented Keyword): Killing an enemy with Extinguish for the first time in each body will allow you to form an enhanced skill related to that creature. You have a moderate level of control over what ability is formed, as long as it¡¯s based off of a biological characteristic of the creature you just killed. (Some ¡®abilities¡¯ may be unavailable if they require fundamentally distorting your biological functions or shape). You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.


    Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only five abilities from this effect may be ¡®held¡¯ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one.


    Held Abilities:


    1.


    2.


    3.


    4.


    5.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Sure, the ability had a few more restrictions now. It worked with extinguish, and ONLY extinguish. I could not get new Abilities through any other source. In theory, that was a huge limitation on the Ability. I could no longer drown enemies, or crush them with water pressure, or kill them in any other way with ¡®water¡¯ or ''ocean-related things''. In theory, that was a huge downside in exchange for the upsides I had gotten.


    In practice? I basically only ever got this ability to work using ¡®extinguish¡¯ anyway. There was almost no practical difference between the old and new activation condition. In exchange, I could now hold two extra abilities, and I had some level of control over what I stole. It was a huge upgrade for the ability, in exchange for an extra cost I would almost never notice. The only real time I could think of that it might be a problem was if I developed something better than Extinguish. However, I didn''t think that would happen for a while.


    The whole thing cost me an extra 700 Achievement to pull off, dropping me from 6,032.09 Achievement to 5,332.09. My Glut costs didn''t change at all. It was completely worth it.


    After that, I spent a few minutes skimming through my Status Screen, before I nodded to myself. I was happy with the changes I had made. I still wanted to look at new non-keyword abilities, and get hints on how to evolve my abilities¡­ but I felt it was time to let my friends have a turn. I had hogged the skill customization bed for almost an hour already.


    <I finished my first round of upgrades. I might still grab an ability, and ask the ability bed for ¡®hints¡¯ on how to upgrade my ability, but I¡¯ll come back to that after you have a turn. You three should spend some time figuring out what you want. We¡¯ll assess what else we have time for after we¡¯re all done,¡± I said, as I crawled back out of the bed and flopped onto the ground. I winced. I had tried to stand up, but I had forgotten that my legs were missing. Felix moved to my side, and helped me into a more comfortable sitting position. <Thanks, Felix. I¡¯ll take over singing duty again. Let me know what changes you three make, okay?>


    <Got it,> said Sallia. The three of them spent a few seconds debating, before Anise moved onto the skill bed next. It was time for the rest of the team to customize their abilities and builds.

 Chapter 326: Group Changes

    My friends spent about four hours choosing their own ability modifications. After that, they gave me an update on what they had changed.


    Sallia had trimmed some of the ¡®extras¡¯ from her Absorption essence Skill, dropping it from 30 to 23 Glut. It still kept most of its core functions. It still generated essence when she trained with a blade and allowed her to create runes. However, she had removed the ''Training'' keyword from the Ability. While the related parts of the ability had been useful at [Basic] grade, at Intermediate grade better alternatives had appeared. Thus, Sallia decided to scrap the Training keyword entirely and open up a keyword slot. She hadn''t changed her rune-related Keyword ability through customization at all. None of the options had seemed like a worthwhile trade, since they had greater downsides than upsides.


    I thought that was reasonable, since Sallia used her rune Ability for a wide variety of things. Customizing an ability wasn¡¯t always a net positive - it was a way to reshuffle the components of an ability. Every single upside gained through customization also had a downside. For some abilities, this meant that there were amazing tradeoffs we could make for almost no cost. That wasn''t the case for every Ability, though.


    Her manifestation essence Ability had undergone much greater changes. First of all, Sallia had removed the Knowledge keyword. After that, she had customized the Ability in a rather extreme way. As a result of these two changes, the Ability could now ONLY be used to cast physical boosts on herself. It was now set in stone that Sallia would never be able to toss fireballs at enemies.


    In exchange for the lost versatility, Sallia had gained the ability to ¡®innately¡¯ use a few spells in ways that weren''t normally possible. Sallia could now ¡®strengthen¡¯ things beyond just herself. She could now strengthen any weapons she used, and other things, such as us or the air itself. In practice, this meant she could create a variety of shields, barriers, and improvised weapons in the middle of a fight. Since Sallia was already positioned as our group¡¯s front line, her having a way to keep us safe was a great addition to her toolkit.


    Furthermore, the magic system Sallia was dozens of times faster and easier to use. Previously, any spell required Sallia to spent a great deal of time constructing magic symbols into a coherent spell. It was a cumbersome and difficult process. Now, she could only use strengthening spells, but she could activate them at will. There was almost no delay between her deciding to cast a spell, and that spell activating. It was essentially a trade of versatility for speed and ease of use.


    That wasn''t the biggest change, though. The biggest upgrade to the Ability was its impact on her stats. Previously, Sallia could get perhaps a Grade of stats out of her various boosts. This required using her spells from manifestation, as well as burning some absorption essence through her runes. After her ability customization, this had become far more substantial. By her estimation, she should get about two grades worth of boost from her strengthening spells alone now. After that, she could get about another half a grade from burning the essence in her runes for a physical boost. She could get three more ''passive'' grades by constructing her first three runes. That meant she could add around five and a half grades to her physical attributes after some time passed in each world. If things went well, Sallia could exceed a Wanderer of Lost Silence, if we removed their ''extra'' boost first.


    To be honest, I didn¡¯t think that Sallia had lost much. She might have lost a bit of the versatility that she potentially had in her manifestation essence system. However, in practice she almost never used things like fireballs anyway. Losing a clunky, rarely used ability in exchange for an extra grade of stats was an excellent trade. If Sallia needed a ranged attack, she could always carry some throwing knives or something. However, each Grade of stats cost more than the last one. Her Attribute boost, faster spells, and her new shielding abilities were excellent changes.


    In all, Sallia was now using 34 out of her 62 Glut. She had about 2,000 Achievement left, and she was in an excellent position for her intended role in the group.


    Anise¡­ had gone in a very different direction.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    According to Anise, the biggest problem with her magic system was the fact that spell maps took forever to build. Each one took nearly a year to construct. During reincarnations, that was theoretically fine. After all, we had a long period of infancy to work on rebuilding our strength. However, our time during the past two worlds was a stark reminder that the world wouldn¡¯t sit around and wait for us to rebuild our strength. There was always a chance that something would invade our home, or that a monster might attack us. Furthermore, in the Market, we wouldn¡¯t have anywhere near as much time to build up. We had about two months per entry to the Market. That wasn¡¯t even enough time for Anise to even start rebuilding her spell maps. That meant that Anise had no way to help us when we went to fight for lives in the future.


    Anise had customized her ability to resolve this problem.


    Instead of forming in her brain, spell maps now formed inside of her soul. In other words, she would keep all of her spell maps from one life to another. She wouldn''t lose any of her spellcasting strength when we returned to the Market. This was one of the best customizations our group had found - it directly solved dozens of problems at once. I couldn''t help but wish that I had been able to find a similar option for my own Ability evolutions.


    Of course, this came at a cost. In exchange for this amazing ability, Anise¡¯s spell maps now took Achievement to build. Anise¡¯s process of creating a spell map no longer relied on starlight at all. It would instead chew through Anise''s funds like a wildfire tearing through kindling. That stung a bit, since it meant we would need more than just time for Anise to grow stronger. But the sheer potential of her new customized Ability was still very impressive.


    Unfortunately, this ability customization had nearly bankrupted Anise. She was left with only 500 Achievement after this customization. If Anise were alone, that might have been a fatal problem for her.


    Luckily, none of us were alone. The moment Anise mentioned her new Achievement total, Felix offered to give her some money. According to him, sponsoring Anise wasn''t just being nice. It was a way of preserving his own life. After all, we were a team. We would succeed or die as one.


    In practice... seeing my friends support each other still made me happy. If I had ended up in the Old Market, I doubted that scenes like this would have happened very often. The Old Market had seemed obsessed with earning more and more money. I somehow doubted that one of the souls who massacred worlds to earn more would be willing to help out their friends like this. In a twisted way, I was glad that I had joined the Market after the collapse, instead of before. At least this way, I could be part of a wonderful group of friends.


    In any case, Anise had a way to get the funding for her spell maps. After modifying her one keyword Ability, Anise¡¯s Glut penalty hadn¡¯t changed. Unlike Sallia and I, Anise didn''t remove any keywords. She remained at 16/53 Glut, with 3 Keyword slots occupied.


    Felix underwent the fewest changes among the three of us. He didn''t outright remove any keywords. He did, however, delve heavily into Ability customization. He ended up removing some of the more ''odd'' parts of the shaping magic system, since he claimed to find it difficult to use on the fly. In exchange, Felix gained the ability to infuse Achievement into metal objects while he was working on them.


    According to Felix, he suspected this was one of the most important parts of creating Market items. It was also a technique that had left him scratching his head for multiple lives now. He didn¡¯t sound completely sure that this was the right direction¡­ but he wanted to try it. I didn''t think it was a bad idea to focus on it. Felix''s Alchemy ability could theoretically provide him with extra item slots. If he could create his own items, he would always be able to make great use of his item slots. It was a good way to prepare for his own future needs, and to contribute to the group.


    As for his Alchemy keyword ability, Felix said he wanted a life with it. It was hard for him to figure out which parts he needed and which parts he didn''t need, at least right now. In total, Felix was left with 3/10 Keywords slots used, and 31/155 Glut.


    After everyone finished customizing their abilities, Anise said that she wouldn¡¯t be buying any new abilities. She had almost no Achievement left, and what little she did have was going to be used for spell creation. Sallia also seemed uncertain about whether she would buy new Abilities. However, Felix and I were definitely going to find a new Ability or two to take with us. There were too many useful Abilities that the bed might be able to offer us, and we had Achievement and Glut to spare. But first, I had one other thing I wanted from the Ability bed. I wanted to see what hints it could provide about evolving my Abilities in the direction I wanted.

 Chapter 327: Hints

    Now that I knew what everyone had as their final ¡®setup,¡¯ I started my final session with the bed. I had 6,335.09 Achievement, and I was pretty comfortable spending down to about 200 if needed.


    This time, I focused on the ¡®Hints¡¯ button in the bed¡¯s menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Hints - Have the bed scan your Keyword Abilities to give you hints on the ¡®best¡¯ paths forward for that skill. Many members of the Market evolve their abilities practically at random, taking whatever improvements are offered - but that is almost never the ¡®best¡¯ path forward. Especially if you travel with a team. If that¡¯s the case, having each member evolve their abilities towards certain specializations is usually much better. Tell our artificial intelligence the path forward that YOU want, and the AI will help you design an optimized path of progression to fit your needs! This also comes with a bunch of information on how to make ability evolutions easier and more effective, and can even provide information on what law an Ability is closest to. This is critical for those seeking to push an ability from Master Grade to Heroic Grade and leave the nursery.


    Cost - 100 Achievement for consultation with an AI. 500 Achievement for further consultation with a specialist. 1,000 Achievement for hints on entering Heroic Grade. Some better specialists may be requested for a higher cost (See pricing options by focusing on this option)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A moment later, 100 Achievement disappeared, leaving me with 6,235. I grimaced as a slight feeling of loss gnawed at my mind, but a moment later, a new System message appeared, distracting me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    What Ability would you like to get hints about Evolving?


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A new menu appeared, with a list of my Keyword Abilities. There were only three listed. {Echoes of the Deep}, {Eldritch Soul}, and {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. I thought about it for a moment. Did I want advice for all three Abilities? I had originally only planned to get advice about {Echoes of the Deep}. I hesitated, before I decided to wait and see. I would first check how useful these ''hints'' were, and then go from there.


    I selected {Echoes of the Deep}. A new series of questions appeared. This time, they appeared almost like an essay-response test question. They asked me about what I wanted my Ability to look like in the future. It also asked me how many people I was reincarnating with, what they excelled at, and what they planned to do with their own abilities. I frowned. The form was way more in-depth than I had expected. That wasn''t a bad thing, though. It meant that the AI was designed to take my question seriously.


    I filled out the form before a new popup appeared. This time, it didn¡¯t ask me what I wanted my Ability to be - it provided a lot of more in-depth questions about my Ability. What issues I had run into in previous worlds. How I earned Achievement in each life so far. Whether I tended to fight a lot when I reincarnated, and whether I tended to fight monsters or humans. There were two dozen questions that went into exhaustive detail about my experiences with my Ability.


    The questions made me think about what I was looking for. I loved a lot of aspects of {Echoes of the Deep}, but it also had some major weaknesses I wanted to cover.


    I had thought for a while that the ¡®best¡¯ path forward for me was to focus on Souls. They were a big part of what I felt was missing from the Ability. Right now, I couldn¡¯t heal any soul-related injuries, and I barely understood how souls worked in the first place. I also felt that souls were important for our development. The Market itself was based on souls, and although I hated some parts of the Market, I also admired some parts of it. The level of strength and freedom Market residents had previously enjoyed seemed amazing to me. Even though I didn''t want to turn into a soulless monster who eradicated world after world, I wanted my friends to enjoy safety and freedom. The Market had achieved that, before it was destroyed. If I wanted to keep my friends safe, learning about Souls was critical to achieving the same level of freedom the previous Market had.


    However, after the bed''s AI spent a few minutes processing my request, it didn''t recommend that I study souls, much to my surprise. It offered a suggestion for how I could get my Ability to evolve to focus on souls, but that wasn''t all it suggested.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Hints - ¡®Optimal¡¯ paths for your Ability evolution:


    There are a few ways that you could develop the Ability {Echoes of the Deep} in order to fit your desired role in your group and fill out your needs. First, as you initially mentioned, yo ucould focus on a soul-related Evolution. This would solve many of your weaknesses.


    To get a soul-related Ability evolution, you should try using your ¡®Shaping¡¯ magic to create a substance that can interact with souls. Essence itself is not very good at interacting with souls, but Achievement is essentially a form of food and nutrition for souls. It is practically a custom-build substance for interacting with the soul. By mixing the two together, you can create a substance that interferes with souls.


    The AI also recommends a different path. That is, instead of focusing on souls, the user could focus on the Eldritch. Eldritch Keywords are harder to acquire, but your other Ability, {Eldritch Evolution}, would make this much easier. You already have a ¡®foot in the door,¡¯ so to speak. The Eldritch is an Ability evolution path that combines madness, souls, space, and several aspects of dimensional terraforming. It is exceptionally potent¡­ and more importantly, it also makes you exceptionally hireable! Many companies in the Market would love to hire a competent Eldritch user! Eldritch users are one of the most critical ingredients needed to make and maintain a ¡®Garden¡¯ world, and they have a variety of other Abilities that are just incredibly useful! With a good Eldritch keyword Ability, many companies will offer you a massive salary if you ask for a job! It also fits your needs perfectly!This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I frowned. The bed had provided more than I had expected. One was a direct pathway to my goal, which was what I had expected. The bed AI''s other suggestion was... interesting. Was focusing on the Eldritch actually a better path? The AI had mentioned that companies were always looking to hire good Eldritch users, and that was no longer relevant. The bed''s AI might be recommending the Eldritch path due to the interests of a long-dead company, rather than my own well-being. However, it did seem to have a compelling argument that the Eldritch path was a good one. In addition, I was interested in pathways that had ''more potential.'' Since keyword Abilities were so important, and so limited, I wanted to get as much as I could out of each one.


    There was, however, a problem. I didn''t understand how I ''should'' get started on either path.


    "Umm... bed AI, would you go into greater detail about how I could start working on either recommendation? I would like a list of possible steps for how to get what I want. How would I even extract Achievement from my soul without help from something like a cash register from the Market?" I asked. I was a bit worried that the AI wasn''t going to give me any more detail, but luckily, I got a response.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Hints - Responding to user question.


    In order to extract Achievement from your soul directly, without the help of an intermediary, you should focus on mana.


    All four essences are derived from mana. They are like tools that allow you to interact with mana. However, they are not mana. The Soul is made of mana, and Achievement is also, in some sense, made of mana.


    Mana is everywhere in the multiverse - in fact, every single law of reality, such as ¡®gravity,¡¯ and ''electricity,'' is made of mana. It is the raw foundation of the entire Multiverse. Similarly, once mana comes into contact with a certain kind of ¡®idea,¡¯ such as ¡®swordsmanship,¡¯ it tends to become ''flavored'' by that concept. This mana then flows back into the greater Multiverse. Once mana has a certain ¡®flavor,¡¯ it is drawn to other, similarly-flavored mana. This is why it¡¯s possible to absorb a bit of mana when doing something like practicing your swordsmanship. Similarly, when something ''changes'' a world, it interacts with laws related to ''change''. This is where Influence Achievement comes from.


    The Market then takes this form of mana and converts all of it into Achievement, which does not decay the way most ''flavored'' mana does. Without this step, most Market Achievement would simply disappear over time, which would be disastrous for the economy.


    By understanding the true nature of Achievement, you can start to see how you might extract it from the soul. Pushing Achievement directly out of the soul is very difficult... but it''s possible if you have something that ''pulls'' the Achievement away.


    To pull Achievement out of your soul, you should constantly do something related to a certain concept. Then, when you connect with that concept, try to siphon away some mana before the Market converts it to Achievement. This would be easiest to accomplish when you do something simple, like push [Swordsmanship] or [Knitting] to basic grade. Then, you will need to store this mana somewhere. The easiest way to store mana is to use some sort of spatial or conceptual container. There are hundreds of items and Abilities in the Market that can do this. Then, use this blob of mana to accomplish something. If you have a glob of Swordsmanship-related mana, you could try enchanting a sword with it, or using it to attack someone. So long as you accomplish something that ''changes'' a world in a notable way, you should get an Ability evolution.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After reading the AI¡¯s explanation, I grinned.


    This was¡­ this was amazing. This was everything I had been hoping for, and then far more. It gave me valuable insight into how Achievement worked, and how a lot of the Market operated. It was like a crash course on the underlying principles of... well, everything in the Market. It also gave me a path to learn soul manipulation.


    ¡°What about gaining some control over the Eldritch?¡± I asked the bed. ¡°Why do you recommend that?¡±


    To my disappointment, the explanation this time was much less detailed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Hints - Responding to User Question


    The most effective way to get access to an Eldritch keyword is to terraform a dimension. The Eldritch is, inherently, a method of warping reality to fit itself. This can be in a minor way, such as twisting and bending the distance between two objects. It can also be in a more major way, such as directly changing how solid objects hold themselves together, thus breaking all physical objects.


    It is worth noting that you do not need to terraform an entire dimension to make this a ¡®success.¡¯ You only need to terraform something, and then accomplish something with it. AI recommendation is to create a lethal environment, then kick a powerful monster or influential person inside.


    It is recommended that you dimensionally isolate the space you intend to terraform. Otherwise, the dimension will drift back towards its regular state of existence. Permanent modification of a dimension requires hitting a certain critical mass of transformation. You have no plausible way to hit that state given your current strength.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A few moments later, the System screen closed. It was apparently done giving me tips. I was more than happy with my purchase. I debated spending another 100 Achievement to get hints on my other Abilities¡­ but I wasn¡¯t sure if I needed them. When it came to my ''main'' magic System, I wanted a clear direction to go in. Something that would maximize the potential of each Evolution. However, my other two Abilities were mostly a method of supporting my main Ability. They didn''t need to be ''optimized.'' Instead, it might make more sense to let them organically grow to fit my needs. That way, I would never have a build filled with Abilities that didn''t work together. If my intended ''organic growth'' didn''t work, I could use the bed''s hints next time we returned to the Market.


    Thus, with the ''Hints'' settled, I turned my attention towards the final thing I wanted.


    A few new Spatial abilities. It was time to finish messing with my Abilities, and then finish shopping with the Skill bed.

 Chapter 328: Spatial Abilities

    The interface for buying new abilities was bloated. It was ludicrous. It was so long that I would need days to read through the entire list. Heck, it would probably take me a day to read the name of every Ability. While I was happy that there was such a huge collection to choose from, I was also a little bit worried. With that many Abilities, would I be able to choose the ¡®right¡¯ Ability before we ran out of time? I hadn''t forgotten that I was on a timer. Once my clone dissipated, we needed to be out of this building.


    Luckily, after a bit of poking through the menus, I found a search option. I could tell the menu what type of ability I wanted, or what type of characteristics I was looking for. I could even tell the list about my current abilities and what I wanted to be able to do, and the list would recommend Abilities for me. There were also several buttons that let me define my budget. There were even a few ''starter packages,'' that listed Abilities such as ''the best spatial Abilities for a new Swordsman!'' Out of curiosity, I clicked on it, and saw three generic, non-keyword Abilities that were all cheap. One of them was a slight variation of the one-handed swordsmanship Ability I had thrown away. The second Ability was a very similar one, but it helped with footwork, instead of raw swordsmanship. The third Ability was one that let the user strengthen and sharpen any sword they were holding by spending life force. That Ability seemed a lot more situational than the first two, but I could kind of understand the logic behind it.


    I shrugged, and stopped messing around with the search features. I didn''t have enough time to waste on things that weren''t relevant to me. I started filling out all of the relevant search features. A few moments later, a list of useful-looking Abilities appeared.


    This time, the list was much shorter than the first, dizzying list. There were only two dozen Abilities left. Six of them were ¡®recommended,¡¯ by the bed, while the other 18 Abilities were the ones that fit my search parameters. That was enough to give me some options to look at, without being too overwhelming.


    The first thing I confirmed was that the list didn¡¯t include any Abilities that solved my lack of soul-related Abilities. I had added that as one of my ¡®desired Abilities,¡¯ since I had been holding out some hope that a non-keyword Ability would solve my needs. If I could find a soul-related non-keyword Ability, I could get the best of both worlds. I would evolve my Keyword Ability into an Eldritch Ability, and still have a soul-related Ability. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t find any relevant Abilities in the list. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was because this was the Spatial fair, or if there was some other reason I couldn''t find what I wanted. It was even possible that what I wanted was available from this bed, but way outside my budget. Either way, I couldn¡¯t find an easy solution to my problem.


    I also didn¡¯t see any Abilities that worked like Anise''s Ability customization, either. I had been hoping to find a way to keep Abilities from one life to another, without needing to rebuild everything. Sadly, there weren''t any options for that. That was unfortunate, but not wholly unexpected. I would have to keep an eye out in the future.


    The third thing I confirmed was that there weren¡¯t any space-time related abilities. I had seen the idea that Space and Time were the same thing tossed around a few times in our last world, as a sort of ¡®out there¡¯ physics idea. It kind of went over my head, but lots of that world''s scientists had believed it was true.


    Either way, as far as magic and the Market went, there didn¡¯t seem to be any sort of link between the two. There was spatial magic, and there were a few Abilities that referenced time-related keywords. However, there were no Abilities that referenced ''spacetime''. I had been hoping to find something overpowered that controlled both in the list of Abilities. Sadly, my search results related to ''spacetime control'' hadn''t produced any results.


    However, I had still gotten one rather interesting result when looking for ''spacetime control.'' I wasn''t sure if it was a good fit for me, but it was certainly interesting.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Glitch Capsule (Advanced Grade)


    Revert space and the minds of nearby living creatures.


    Once per lifetime, if you take a fatal blow, use the power of space and healing to revert your body to a fully healed state, then revert all physical objects within five meters of your corpse to their previous states. Finally, if a living organism killed you, remove their memories of the last seven seconds of time. (Deaths from things like diseases, old age, etc. will not revert).


    (Note: this is an advanced grade ability, not a total override of reality. Creatures more powerful than this ability can usually resist the attempt to move them back in space and wipe their memories. You will still heal and rewind fine. However, the enemy might perfectly remember killing you and then seeing time rewind. This usually requires that they at least reach Law Grade in a Skill, though, or have an item of equivalent rank).


    Glut cost: 20


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    When we had spoken with the soul fragment last world, it had told us a bit about the greater Multiverse. One of the things it had mentioned was the fact that time travel was impossible. Or, at least, it was impossible to send yourself back into the past. However, it was possible to revert time for objects. When Felix had asked about what the difference was, we had learned that time travel was less ''impossible'' than the soul had led us to believe.


    With the right Ability, it was completely possible to revert time for an entire dimension. While very rare, there were dimensions where someone had re-lived the same period of time over and over again as they tried to change something. it was just that the rest of the Multiverse didn''t go back in time with them. If someone relived the same decade 100 times, the people inside of the dimension wouldn''t notice anything. However, an observer watching the dimension would see the whole dimension rewind every decade.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The other major thing we had learned about time in that conversation was that time did not pass equally across the Multiverse. Plenty of dimensions had time pass a little bit more slowly or quickly relative to the rest of the multiverse. However, there tended to be certain limits to how different time passage was - at least under natural circumstances. A natural-born dimension tended to be, at most, ten times faster or slower than ''multiversal average time.'' Of course, some Mages or civilizations had managed to go far beyond this ''natural limit...''


    In any case, I found this Ability pretty interesting. It was pretty similar to a ''time-reversal'' type Ability. Obviously, it was far more limited in scope and utility... but it was, in a sense, reverting time. But it was still a very potent ability in the right circumstances. It gave one a ¡®free¡¯ extra life, and it also messed with the mind of whatever had killed the user.


    The price tag for this ability was exorbitant. It was 5,000 Achievement. It was more expensive than some keyword abilities, and took up almost as much glut cost as a keyword ability. However, for some people, it would be worthwhile.


    Unfortunately, the Ability wasn''t a good fit for me. The Ability would restore the BODY of the user... but not their essence reserves. Since I was focusing on being a mage-type fighter, that meant this Ability was way less valuable for me. Still, someone like Sallia would get a lot out of an Ability like this.


    I made a mental note to remind my friends to look at {Glitch Capsule} later, and see if they were interested in it. Then, I continued scrolling through the Abilities the bed AI had recommended to me. Eventually, I narrowed down what I wanted. I found three Abilities that I ended up buying.


    The first Ability was a simple one, which I usually wouldn¡¯t have given a second glance to. However, it fit my current needs too well to pass up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Space Capsule (Basic Grade)


    Gain the ability to spend any essence to form a small, 1 m X  1 m X 1 m capsule of space which will maintain itself until destroyed. This can be used to hold anything and isolate it from the rest of the world. Strong physical force or mana will disrupt this capsule, causing it to ¡®vomit¡¯ its contents back into the world. This capsule cannot be moved. This capsule requires essence to keep functioning (it can store up to one week of energy.)


    Glut cost: 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This Ability seemed pretty useless most of the time. I was not worried about whether it was useful ''most of the time,'' though. It was exactly what I needed for creating a glob of mana attuned to a certain concept. It would also be useful if I wanted to create an Eldritch Ability Evolution. No matter what path I ended up taking, it would make it much easier. More importantly, it was cheap. The Ability only cost 30 Achievement. I only needed this Ability for my next Ability Evolution, so being cheap was important. This Ability was easy to pick up, and just as easy to throw away. When I didn¡¯t need this Ability anymore, I would only need to pay 10 more Achievement to get rid of it.


    The second Ability was more of a utility Ability than a combat-oriented one.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Inventory (Intermediate Grade)


    Gain a 3m x 3m x 3m dimensional storage space. Time passes at about a 1:10 ratio inside of this storage space compared to outside. Living things will die if stuffed inside of this storage space for an extended period of time.


    Glut cost: 10


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Right now, I already had access to something like this in the form of my backpack. However, I had 105 Glut, while I only had 5 item slots. In my mind, Item slots were now more valuable than 10 Glut. Thus, exchanging 10 Glut for 1 free item slot was a decent trade. It also had a larger space than the backpack, meaning I could store quite a bit inside. 3 meters was almost twice my height. It was practically a large closet. As long as I didn''t try to stuff everything inside, I would have an easy time storing everything I needed.


    The Ability itself cost 500 Achievement, which was a bit pricey, but wasn¡¯t bad.


    Finally, the Ability I was most excited about.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Spatial Rifts (Basic Grade)


    Whenever you manipulate space, especially for portals, eldritch warping of space, or direct tears in space, you may spend a bit more essence to leave behind a ¡®tear¡¯ in reality. Whenever other life comes into contact with this ¡®tear¡¯, it will cut through flesh and bone. It will also mildly warp the laws of physics, occasionally causing mild Eldritch contamination. Good for creating invisible, deadly tripwires.


    Spatial ¡®tears¡¯ dissipate after about twenty seconds.


    Glut cost: 15


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This final Ability also cost me a pretty penny, at 3,000 Achievement. With these three purchases, I spent 3,530 Achievement, dropping me down to 2,705.00 Achievement and 6 free Glut. However, I was more than happy with my final purchases. I was already well versed in using portals to ¡®dodge¡¯ projectiles, and my clone inherently warped space in an eldritch way. This ability let me spend a bit of essence to turn the connection between my clone and myself into a kind of razor-sharp tripwire. I could also turn my portals into miniature magic landmines. With this ability, I was heavily incentivized to keep investing into better spatial manipulation, but I was fine with that. This Ability had a lot of potential for letting me weaponize my Absorption essence in new and useful ways.


    After I purchased my third non-Keyword Ability, I looked over my Abilities again. I had about the same amount of Glut and Stats as before. However, I was much stronger, I had an extra item slot I could swap out anytime, and I had a clear path towards my next Ability evolution. I felt like I had undergone numerous upgrades during our time here, even though I had the same amount of Glut used up as before. Combined with my other purchases, my three new Abilities cost 26 Glut in total. I was once again left with 99/105 Glut used. However, I was far stronger than before.


    After I got off the bed, I told the others what I had bought, and then Felix started his final round of shopping.


    After he finished up, it would be time to make a final decision. We had a little over twelve hours before my clone dissipated, thus alerting whatever else was inside of the facility to our presence. In that time, we needed to figure out whether we were pushing further into the building, or if we were leaving. But at the very least, either way, I was satisfied that we had benefited from this incursion into the inner district of the Market.

 Chapter 329: Final Abilities and Decisions

    After Felix finished using the bed, a total of twelve hours had passed since I had made my clone stop the collapse of the nest earlier in the facility. Sallia took a quick look, but decided that any Ability she wanted was outside of her budget. That meant that the four of us were done with the bed.


    Felix had purchased several new tricks. First, and most interesting, he had grabbed a ¡®spatial factory¡¯ Ability. This was sort of like my own storage space, turned up to eleven. The first component of the Ability was storage. It could store an entire house inside of it. However, that was only the first layer of the Ability. The space inside wasn''t just for storage - it was an actual factory. Specifically, it had an assembly line inside of it, with several robotic arms to assemble things. These arms were intelligent, at least in a very rudimentary fashion. They could also be changed to fit Felix''s needs. By default, they were robotic ''hands,'' with four fingers and a thumb, but they could be easily swapped to hammers, or needles, or any other basic tool. The assembly line itself could also be modified on a whim, to heat up, change elevation, or do a dozen other things. The whole thing could also do some things a ''normal'' assembly line could not. For example, using magic to melt metal into putty, before reassembling it into pure ingots of metal.


    As long as it was a simple operation we needed, Felix¡¯s factory could do it. Even if it was something a bit more complicated... Felix''s factory could do it. It could turn scrap into metal, and then turn that metal into swords or grenades. It was like a mobile logistics center, as long as we could manage our own food and water.


    Even better, the space would repurpose itself to match the physics of each world. We didn¡¯t need to worry about items falling apart because a new dimension didn''t have atoms in it, or some other ludicrous problem. The factory would adapt to any ''minor'' issues such as the laws of physics being totally different. Even better, the Ability would create a starter kit of materials to work with, giving Felix a base of materials to work with. Any reincarnation would now start with Felix owning a factory and some startup materials. As long as he was clever in how he used it, that could be the basis of a financial empire in some lower-tech civilizations. It was a fantastic boost to our kit for future worlds.


    Of course, there were limitations. It couldn¡¯t do anything too complicated or precise. There were limits to how small of a component it could work with. The factory also couldn¡¯t do anything ¡®magical¡¯ to the materials, such as enchanting them. It could only mess with physical properties. The pocket dimension factory didn¡¯t let any living organisms inside of it, so we couldn''t hide inside if things went wrong. However, the upsides of the factory were huge.


    Of course, the Ability was also very expensive. Felix had dropped 10,000 Achievement on it, and it ate 30 Glut. It was more expensive than his freaking keyword Abilities. It was understandable, but it still made me wince.


    On top of his dimensional factory, Felix grabbed another three Abilities. These ones were more defensively oriented. His first new Ability let him teleport himself and any nearby creatures up to one hundred meters away. He could ''exclude'' anything he wanted to from the teleportation, and the Ability could be used once an hour. It took up eight Glut. Not bad for a useful self-protection Ability. Being able to teleport out of danger was never something we would be sad to have on our side.


    The second Ability allowed him to fend off ¡®spatial locks and curses.¡¯ Felix, Sallia, Anise, and I all remembered the monster from our second world that nearly digested us. Even after escaping from its maw, it had still been feeding on us after several days of travel. The thing had been a major problem, and the reason I started investing so heavily into spatial manipulation. I was more than happy to have a redundancy in our group to ward off such attacks. After all, there was always a chance I would die in a given world and leave my friends unprotected.


    Of course, the Ability had a week-long cooldown, and took a hefty amount of essence to activate. It also did nothing to stop an enemy from locking back on to the user after the Ability shut off. However, it was cheap. It only took up two glut and five hundred Achievement.


    Finally, Felix had gotten an Ability that made a hardened shell of space around his body. This would deflect smaller attacks on its own, and would slow down bigger attacks. It was fragile, in that it would break after deflecting too much force and then take a week to rebuild. However, the amount of ¡®force¡¯ the Ability could deflect was quite hefty. According to Felix¡¯s very rough estimate, the barrier could withstand one of his grenades before it shattered. The barrier repaired itself when it wasn¡¯t under stress, and was powered by heat. At the end of the day, Felix said it was useful because it would keep him from getting killed by a surprise attack. He hadn¡¯t had anyone try to assassinate him during his time in the government at the end of last lifetime. However, he had been in the government for a while. If he did the same thing in the future, having a guarantee was a good idea.


    All in all, Felix¡¯s three new Abilities cost him 17,000 Achievement and 45 Glut. That put him at about 23,000 Achievement remaining, and 81 Glut out of 155 used up. Even afterwards, Felix had a completely ludicrous amount of Achievement. He had adapted to our last dimension like a fish in water. Felix had ended his session by promising Anise that he would donate another 10,000 Achievement to get her spell maps started. Even after that was factored in, he still almost as much as the rest of the group put together. I hoped that our next dimension suited him as much as the previous one had. If all four of us could make that kind of income each world, we would be much better positioned to survive long term.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    After Felix introduced his new Abilities to us, our group had a hard decision to make.


    ¡°Do we want to push for more, or do we leave?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°Miria¡¯s soul is still weakened, and any further uses of her clone are going to be pricey. She''s also still missing her legs. The rest of us are in better condition. We can handle monsters like the spiders by keeping it de-limbed,¡± she said, knocking the de-limbed spider around for emphasis. ¡°However, there¡¯s a limit to that. The more we carry around at once, the more danger there is of things going wrong. These little monsters are very persistent, and something could always go wrong if we''re controlling several of them. We still don¡¯t know what the bigger monster in this facility is, either. So there is danger in continuing to explore and raid.¡±


    Anise looked at the rest of the facility, and shivered.


    ¡°I personally think we should leave,¡± she said, after a few moments of thought. ¡°We¡¯ve gotten the crazy benefits that we were hoping for. We all got something out of our mix of customizing and cutting weaker parts of Abilities. We have way more room to grow than before. Also, I don''t think we have a good way to deal with the biggest protector of this area. One wrong move, and all of us are going to lose a life. We only have two worlds left before the three of you die, and I only have three worlds left myself. It¡¯s so easy for something to go wrong, and we''re running out of time. I don¡¯t know what else we¡¯re even hoping to find in this building.¡±


    ¡°Achievement,¡± I said. ¡°When we buy things like Stat points, all Achievement we spend turns directly into the product we use. There¡¯s no way to ¡®cheat¡¯ and get our money back, at least not that I''ve noticed. However¡­ that is not true for these beds. I saw the Achievement going somewhere. In other words, not all of our Achievement is spent creating skills or powering the bed. If we could find wherever this building stored Achievement, we could find a huge amount of Achievement.¡± I chuckled. ¡°Maybe we¡¯d even be as rich as Felix afterwards. Then, we could buy enough stats to make us hit Grade 4, or even Grade 5 Stats across the board. It might be a bit of a pipe dream¡­ but if it did happen, I would feel much better about our odds. Heck, if we had stats like that, we could crush this building''s defenses. The biggest reason the spiders are so dangerous is that their speed is impossible for us to match. If we had high enough stats, that wouldn¡¯t be the case. Besides, we need stats to improve our Glut and have more room for powerful Abilities.¡±


    Sallia nodded. ¡°We only have two worlds left. That means we have this time in the market, and then the next time to really prepare. The final time we come to the Market, we''ll need to be ready. So this is our second to last ¡®relaxed¡¯ Market visit. If we don¡¯t maximize our time, we won''t survive.¡±


    ¡°Worse, whatever destroyed the Market clearly didn¡¯t want new Market members cropping up,¡± said Felix. ¡°The outer areas of the Market have never felt¡­ well, designed to kill us. In hindsight, I can¡¯t help but wonder if the monsters in the outer Market districts aren¡¯t even an ¡®intended¡¯ enemy for us. The skeletons and such that we¡¯ve found there are pretty weak and uncoordinated. They might even be the remnant of some sort of weapon or spell, rather than a proper defense. The Spatial fair is designed to kill us. This area isn¡¯t an accidental spell byproduct, or a chaotic mess of minor monsters. This is more like an organized fortress. There must be a reason for that. They don¡¯t think that anything from the outer districts of the Market poses a real threat of allowing new Transmigrators to survive. However, those who destroyed the Market fear people who have made use of these inner districts.


    ¡°Besides, if the defenses for this area are so threatening, I can only imagine how much worse the defenses will be for buying Lives. Two worlds and one and a half remaining Market visits doesn¡¯t feel like enough time. We need to push further, even if we risk something going wrong. I don¡¯t see any way we survive long-term without taking some risks.¡±


    Anise hesitated, and then looked at the three of us.


    ¡°So¡­ is everyone besides me in favor of going deeper?¡±


    I hesitated. Anise looked afraid, and more than a little wary of whatever lurked deeper in this building. I was also afraid. But I didn¡¯t think that shying away was a solution either. If we weren¡¯t strong enough, then we were dead. This building represented a golden opportunity to grow. We needed to seize it.


    Anise sighed, and then frowned. "All right, I''m in. You guys have made good points. But let''s be careful, all right? I don''t want anyone to get hurt..." Anise trailed off, as she looked at my still-missing legs. "Well, I don''t want anyone to lose a life."


    ¡°Don''t worry, I''m not suggesting we rush headlong into our deaths," said Sallia. "We do need to move quickly though. We only have twelve hours until Miria¡¯s clone dies. I don¡¯t think we¡¯re equipped to rush down the stronger guardians of this building, so we''ll need to do something else.¡±


    Anise looked a little relieved at Sallia¡¯s words. ¡°Then what do you think we should do?¡±


    Sallia thought about it for a moment, before she looked at the Wanderer of Lost Silence that we had incapacitated. Then, Sallia grinned. ¡°It¡¯ll be a bit messy, but I do have an idea. We could start a sort of hit and run tactic with this facility, as long as Miria¡¯s clone doesn¡¯t run out. We could use some soundmakers to trigger a bunch of spiders, while at the same time we avoid killing this spider. Then, we could keep taking prisoners instead of killing them, to keep the rest of the facility from getting alerted to our actions. As long as we move quickly enough, we could shred a few layers of defenses and investigate further. With any luck, that''ll let us grab what we need without alerting the entire facility to our presence. If it works, we get what we need and get out without ever seeing or alerting the main defender of this building. It''s a bit risky, but I think it has a chance of succeeding.¡±


    ¡°Would that work?¡± asked Anise, as she frowned in thought.


    Felix and I fell into thought. Sallia¡¯s plan had risks¡­ but then again, every plan to raid the facility was going to have risks. That was a consequence of attacking a facility filled with monsters that were stronger than us. After a few more minutes of discussion, we decided that we didn¡¯t have any better options, so we made up our mind. We would give it our best shot.

 Chapter 330: Tricksy Tricksy spiders-es

    After discussing Sallia¡¯s plan, the four of us agreed that it had enough merit to be worth trying. None of us were sure if it would work, but we didn¡¯t have any better options. We only had two worlds left, and we needed to grow stronger. Even if going deeper into this building was risky, not going deeper into the building was also risky. It was a question of whether we preferred to take a risk now, or end up in an unsalvageable situation later.


    The first thing we did was hand Anise¡¯s soundmaker bombs over to Felix, along with a few pieces of scrap metal we found in the room. Felix lengthened the fuses for the soundmakers, and also made a bunch of backup grenades for an emergency. Thanks to the factory, the work was much faster, only requiring five minutes to produce everything. Then, we crept back into the hallway, carrying the half-dead spider with us. I had noticed that the spider was still thrashing and squirming. A human captive would have given up by now - after all, we had been cutting the creature¡¯s legs off for hours. Surely the creature must have realized what would happen when it regrew its legs? Why was it still struggling? I knew the creature wasn¡¯t dumb. The chilling intelligence of its brethren had already made me realize how smart they were.


    Was it just struggling because of its instincts? Did it have some sort of mental compulsion to guard the building, which it would never break? Or did it have a plan?


    That idea chilled me as I thought about it. In some of the books Anise and I had shared with each other last world, there had been plenty of prisoners who followed a ''useless'' routine. Once they lulled their captors into a false sense of security. Those were just stories, but that didn''t mean it was impossible for it to happen in real life. I resolved to keep a closer eye on the spider.


    <Let¡¯s see how many we can get before retreating,> said Sallia.


    <All right,> I said. <Keep an eye on the spider, too. It might be planning something. These things are too smart to keep squirming around pointlessly for twelve hours.>


    Sallia, Anise, and Felix frowned in thought, before they nodded.


    Now that my friends were alert, we continued with our plan. Felix started lighting the soundmakers, before handing them to me. After that, I teleported each soundmaker into one of the hallways we hadn¡¯t explored yet, especially the ones blocked by doors. I made sure to teleport them right next to the ground, so that the clattering of the soundmakers wouldn''t make any noise. I just hoped the building''s soundproofing was good enough to prevent them from hearing my singing. We didn''t want to fight any empowered spiders, after all.


    In total, we hit six hallways, before we decided the other areas were too risky. We would come back and hit them next time, when we had deal with the first wave. Then, we crept out of the facility. I felt tense the entire way, half-expecting something to go wrong. Our group kept an eye on our surroundings.


    The problem didn''t come from outside. Instead, right as we passed the hallway, I realized that our prisoner''s vital signs had started to fade away. It''s regeneration had sped up, but somehow, its candle of life was on the edge of dissipation. I blinked in shock, as I realized what the creature was doing. Every time it healed itself, it must take from its own life force. Every time it regrew its legs, it got closer to death. Worse, the creature had been waiting for the right time to die. It had probably planned to kill itself right as we entered another fight with a monster. That would have alerted the other spiders in the building, and gotten us swarmed. However, once we started retreating, it realized its previous plan was failing.


    I wasn''t sure if my guess was correct, but there was no time to waste. I couldn''t let the spider die before we were out of this building. I started slamming healing magic into the damn thing. For a moment, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation. One of our enemies was trying to kill itself right in front of me, and I was desperately keeping it alive.


    Luckily, my healing was good enough to keep its candle of life from going out. However, the accursed creature was eating into my essence reserves. We would need to change our plan a bit. If this thing kept trying to die, the other spiders would do the same.


    But first, we needed to put more distance between us and the Fair. My friends and I dashed away from the area, making sure to get as much ground between us and the Fair as possible.


    I was broken out of our sprint when my clone died. I didn¡¯t see what had killed it, but I knew that something had beheaded it.


    <The soundmakers must have gone off. Something killed my clone,> I said. I stared at our arachnid captive.


    <Got it. Let''s duck into a house for now,> said Felix, as he hopped into an empty house. We followed him in, as Felix started to barricade the door. <We can ->


    Before Felix could finish his thought, I felt¡­ something stir in the center of the spatial fair. I felt something try to look at us, its gaze dripping ice and hate as it tried to lock onto our very souls. I felt a flash of pure terror as I realized that we had still underestimated the building. Somehow, despite our precautions, the major defender of the building had noticed us. Deaths weren''t the only thing that could alert the biggest threat in the building. The soundmakers had awakened the beast.


    As I froze in horror, I felt a pulse of essence from Felix''s body. A moment later, the chilling gaze disappeared, as it felt like our group had been surrounded in a bubble of broken space.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    <I shielded us from spatial attacks. Miria, if it happens again, can you take over?> he asked.


    I tried not to shiver in fear, as I realized what had happened. Not only had our soundmakers alerted the enemy to our presence, but somehow, it had nearly killed us from inside of the fair. I didn''t think it knew our location, but we had almost died.


    <I don''t have a good ability to keep us shielded. We''ll have to hope it can''t use that attack again, whatever it was,> I said. <But if an emergency happens, I''ll try to bend my magic system and keep us safe. No promises, though.>


    <Good enough,> said Felix.


    A moment later, I blinked, as a new System notification appeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a Wanderer of Lost Silence for the first time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +100, Achievement +1.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    My Achievement increased from 2,704.95 to 2,805.95. I dismissed the notification, and frowned. Where had this notification come from?


    A moment later, I realized our captive was no longer alive. Sallia had bisected it.


    <There was no point in keeping it alive. That thing knows we''re here. I figured it was best to stop it from transmitting our location somehow,> she said.


    <Good thinking,> I said.


    Our group stewed in silence for a few seconds, as I processed what had just happened. Our plan had failed. We had nearly died.


    <That was terrifying,> said Anise. <I don¡¯t think we can take on whatever that was. I could feel it looking at us. It was like all of my senses went haywire right afterwards. I don¡¯t know what that was, but it¡¯s bad news.>


    <I think our plan to raid this building¡¯s Achievement stock is shot,> said Sallia with a grimace. <I was hoping we could fly under the radar of the rest of the facility¡­ but I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s going to happen anymore. That thing is aware of our presence now. Trying to steal more from the building is suicide.>


    I felt a mixture of frustration and anxiety well up in my heart. I also agreed. Our plan to steal from the building was not going to work out.


    I had been so hopeful. If we could hit the Achievement storage for this building, we could have grown far, far more powerful. I could have increased my base stats to crazy levels, then used those stats to perform better in our next world, making it easier to evolve Abilities. That would have also helped get Ability evolutions, making us stronger next world.


    But now, we had to change our plans. I wasn¡¯t sure if we would grow strong enough to survive without the other supplies in the building, but we had no choice. I just hoped that what we had gotten already was enough.


    Just as I was wallowing in my frustration, I realized we had underestimated the danger we were in. The enemy was doing more than long-distance attacks.


    A huge swarm of spiders exited the spatial fair. A few of them looked like they had activated their temporary boost, moving almost too fast for my eyes to track. However, others of them looked¡­ slow. It took me a moment to realize that the little monsters hadn¡¯t sent out a few spiders this time, or only the ones who were empowered.


    There were eighty of the damn things. Three of them were fast, while the other seventy-something looked like they were in their normal state.


    Luckily, we had expected some kind of response. We had moved as far away from the area as we could. Even though we had only moved thirty minutes away, the Market was very densely packed. We were so far away that I could barely see the enemy. Originally, we had planned to hide out for several minutes, before going back and killing the spiders who had the buffs stripped off. Now, our caution might save our lives.


    However, I started to get nervous.


    We hadn¡¯t expected this level of response. The spiders were organized this time. They looked like soldiers in the military. Last time, they had missed us, but would that happen again?


    I frowned.


    My frown deepened as I watched the progress of the little monsters through soul-sight. The spiders were leaving nothing to chance this time. They were checking every single building in the street, one after another. Every time they finished searching a building, they used their magic to claw apart the insides of the building. It looked like they were checking for hidden shelters or lucky survivors. They were determined to find us at all costs. Worse, just like the first group of spiders, they seemed to have some idea where we were, even if they only had a vague direction.


    Was it right to leave and run? However, the spiders reacted to sound. They might notice us if we ran down the streets. I shared everything I saw with my friends, who started debating whether it was correct to run or to stay put. After a bit of chattering, we decided to stay put. The spiders only had twenty minutes of their strengthening before they slowed down. Even if we decided to run, it was better to wait until their boost wore off first. We might even be able to hit them with some sort of trap if we got lucky, and gave Felix time to set up.


    Minutes ticked by, as the spiders searched one building after another. However, their methodical searching also made them slow. I started to relax, as I realized that the first wave of spiders should have their buff fall off soon. The rest of the horde was still a threat, but perhaps it was a manageable one.


    Then, I noticed something that chilled my heart.


    Right as the first group of spiders started to have their buffs fall off, they moved over to a few other spiders at the edge of the group. The other spiders moved away, making sure that they were just out of earshot. A few moments later, some of the spiders did a few things that I couldn''t quite track with my soul-sight. A few moments later, the new group of spiders near the edge of the group started moving as quickly as the other empowered spiders. I finally realized what the group was doing.


    They were controlling the use of their ''buffs''. Anytime one group of spiders was about to lose their boost, they activated another group. With about three spiders ¡®boosted¡¯ at a time, and around eighty total spiders¡­ we were in for a very long hiding session, if we wanted to wait this out.


    As I told the others what I had seen, I heard the others start to curse over the communication bracelets.


    The enemy might not have developed a precise countermeasure for us, but they were prepared for a long, careful hunt. Making a break for it might not save us, but staying put was a death sentence. If we wanted to live, we had to find a way to break the deadlock, preferably without alerting the horde. We needed a solution, and we needed one fast.

 Chapter 331: Control

    The spider army surged forward, methodically searching each street. Meanwhile, our group¡¯s anxiety continued to spike. If we stayed here, we would probably die. If we moved, we would also probably die. I swapped between my soul sight and my spatial sight, to see if I could find a solution to our dilemma.


    As I stared at the spiders, I noticed something unusual. The spiders all had a sort of vague, rippling quality to them in my spatial sight. It was almost like I was looking at something through a foggy window, or a cracked pane of glass. However, it was difficult to see exactly what I was missing - all I had was the impression that something was wrong. And whatever the cause of the ¡®wrongness¡¯ was, it seemed as if it were all around the spiders. However, when I looked at the area with my soul-sight, I couldn¡¯t see a thing.


    <Something is weird about the space around the spiders,> I said.


    <Do you think it¡¯ll interfere if we teleport away, and then start running?> asked Felix. <I could pop us down a few streets with my group teleport, and then we could try moving faster than the spider horde.>


    <I¡¯m not sure,> I said.


    <Miria, show us what you¡¯re seeing. I can¡¯t figure out what the problem is if you only tell us about it,> said Sallia.


    <Oops. One sec,> I said, as I shared my spatial vision.


    Our group fell silent for a few minutes, as everyone analyzed what I was catching with my vision, before Sallia spoke into the bracelet again.


    <Try turning your head a little bit? Don¡¯t look directly at the distortion anymore, angle it so that you¡¯re only looking at it out of the corner of your eye - there! Stop! Don¡¯t move your eyes at all!>


    A moment later, I saw what she had seen. The vague, blurred bits of air seemed to hang above the other spiders¡­ and if I looked at it from the corner of my eyes, it looked like a giant, semi-translucent spider made of warped space.


    <What is that thing?> asked Felix.


    <Maybe it¡¯s some kind of projection spell? Or the main guardian of the skill center is using some kind of stealth ability to lead its horde?> said Anise. <It looks like a giant spider. In retrospect, I probably shouldn¡¯t find that surprising. A mother spider would be a perfectly reasonable leader for a bunch of other magic spiders.>


    <I don¡¯t see a soul, so a projection spell seems more likely,> I said, as I swapped back to soul-sight for a moment. <Although it could also have some kind of way to cloak its soul, I suppose.>


    <Either way, it¡¯s trouble. We were already trying to find a way out, and now we learn that this thing is watching us. It probably wants us to focus on its minions, and then strike and kill us while we¡¯re unprepared,> said Felix.


    I resisted the urge to knead my forehead in frustration. Why couldn¡¯t things ever be easy?


    I continued searching the air with my spatial sight, and after a lot more careful scanning, I spotted something attached to the giant, translucent spider. It looked kind of like the little eldritch tethers that we had found inside of the Skill center, although it was much thinner and sneakier. The other end of the tether looked like it was still connected to something inside of the Spatial Fair.


    <I might be able to disable it,> I said, after a few moments of thought. I could see essence constantly flowing from the spatial fair and towards the projection, and I was pretty sure another clone could cut off the connection between the two. My soul was still injured from my previous clones, so I would need to pay a lot of Achievement to make another clone. However, if it got us out of this situation, I was fine with losing all of the Achievement I had left.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    <If you can disable it, we still have to deal with the rest of the horde or escape somehow,> said Felix. <I can only teleport us once, and these bastards are very reactive to sound. They¡¯ll probably catch us if we start running.>


    <I can try to teleport a few spiders around, but then the rest will get used to that trick. And I would need to take down the projection spell first.> I said, hesitantly. The giant projection and the horde of spiders felt like a suffocating pressure, weighing down on me as I tried to find a way out.


    A moment later, Anise seemed to fall into thought¡­ before she gently jiggled her bag of explosives. Felix had whipped her up a few new ones, although not many. They were mostly a guarantee that Anise could help get some assists during fights, rather than out of any strong belief that Anise would play a vital role in a fight.


    <I have an idea. Can you make a lot more of these, Felix? How fast is your production with your dimensional factory?>


    Felix frowned. <I can¡­ probably make about one every minute. I left you with some emergency grenades already though. Do you need more?>


    <I¡¯m thinking I¡¯ll use them, as well as my sword¡¯s once per lifetime effect to create some chaos,> said Anise. <They¡¯re too fast to get caught by a regular bomb, but we could drop a bunch of explosives on them with portals right before they activate. That might work, if Miria can take down the spell projection without a sound. That¡¯ll kill some of them, and set the rest of them into their ¡®heard a sound recently¡¯ boost. Then, you teleport us away, and we wait the monsters out. They won¡¯t be able to control which spiders have heard a sound recently, if we do that. They¡¯ll probably retreat on their own once their boost starts to run out of time. If they don¡¯t¡­ well, maybe we can teleport a second round of explosives onto them, and hunt them instead of being hunted. We¡¯ll have to hope the best in the Skill Center doesn¡¯t come out personally, but as long as it doesn¡¯t intervene, it has a chance of working.>


    <In that case, maybe the best way to handle it is with Miria¡¯s clone. If she makes a small one, it could teleport itself around without making any noise, then untangle the connection and drop a bomb. After the chaos settles down, we attack if they haven¡¯t fled?> said Sallia.


    It wasn¡¯t a great plan, but it was better than anything I¡¯d thought of so far.


    Felix thought about it for a few moments, before he turned towards me. <Miria, how long until they find us?>


    <At their current movement rate, and how they¡¯re searching houses one at a time, I figure we have an hour?>


    <Got it. Let¡¯s go with that idea, unless someone has a better plan?> Asked Felix. Nobody said anything. He nodded. <I¡¯ll make about 40 grenades then, just to make sure we don¡¯t run out of time. Wait, nevermind - let me change the design a bit. I have an idea for how to make this work a bit more smoothly.> After that, Felix got to work.


    Minutes ticked by, as the monster horde kept searching houses and stores, one after another, for the slightest trace of us. I only grew more and more nervous as I watched them. The monster hode wasn¡¯t letting any sound, or any potential trace of us go. I even watched in mute fascination as the activated spiders killed a few nearby skeletons, to make sure nothing made a sound and caused them to lose control of when their boosts activated. These creatures were even willing to kill other monsters to make sure their hunt went well. They were here for blood.


    Half an hour later, Felix grinned, and turned towards Anise. He handed her a single, large object. It looked kind of like an egg, but it was enchanted. I didn¡¯t understand alchemy well enough to figure out what the enchantment did, but I could tell it was something that involved fire, sound, and light. Felix grinned.


    <Just hit the case with as big of a blast of fire as you can manage,> he said to Anise. <You¡¯re still planning to use your sword, right?>


    <Right,> said Anise. <How long do we have after I hit it with a wave of fire?>


    <It¡¯ll explode about ten seconds after you hit it.>


    <Got it,> I said, as I made another clone. I winced as agonizing pain wrenched through my soul, followed by another thousand Achievement disappearing as my soul-injuries faded. I sighed as I dropped to 1,905.82 Achievement. I only had enough Achievement for one more clone.


    <Ready?> Felix asked.


    <I am,> I said. My clone also nodded.


    <Go.>


    Anise stabbed herself in the heart with her sword, and after a few moments, flames started to ripple through her body. She slammed one massive gout of fire into the flame, while I kept an eye on the spider army in the distance. Luckily, none of them noticed.


    <It¡¯s lit,> said Felix.


    I nodded, as I saw the bomb start pulsing with energy. My clone took it, and started dashing towards the spiders.


    Time to see how well our desperate plan worked.

 Chapter 332: Translucent Terrors

    The moment my clone got in range, it dumped a huge chunk of its absorption essence into my second rune ability. A portal appeared right in front of it. My clone leapt through it. The portals I could open were too small for me to move through - but my water clones had far more adjustable size and shape, since they were made of water. Even though it was a tight squeeze, my clone managed to slip through.


    From the eyes of my main body, I saw the translucent spider apparition whirl towards the portal the moment it opened. For a moment, I panicked, as I thought the translucent spider would pop my clone before it got the bomb through the portal. After all, these portals were two way.


    However, even as I started to process just how dangerous the situation was, my clone reacted. Despite being me, I could feel the clone¡¯s mind, straining to react in time as I processed the imminent collapse of my plan. Instead of just one portal opening in front of the translucent spider, nearly two dozen appeared. The spider¡¯s limbs cut towards the portals, confirming that the monster had some sort of connection to space. It could see the portals my clones were opening, even before the portals finished forming. However, the raw quantity of portals seemed to startle it, delaying its attack by a second.


    That second was enough for my clone to dive out of the portal. The giant spider¡¯s legs snapped towards my clone the instant it appeared, but its aim was off. Instead of bisecting my clone, it ripped away a huge chunk of its body. My clone had suffered nearly-fatal damage, but it had enough time to do what it needed to do.


    My clone reached out towards the ¡®tether¡¯ that connected the translucent spider to the horror that lay unseen in the spatial fair. Unlike the fishing line my clone had held together while inside the spatial fair, this time, my clone had an easier job.


    It took every single drop of essence it could muster, and tore.


    The tether between the translucent spell impression and the spider¡¯s main body shuddered for a few moments. It was far less of a result than I had been hoping for. I had hoped that the spider¡¯s translucent body would collapse entirely, but even with my clone¡¯s entire essence pool, the spider¡¯s translucent body was still intact. However, it looked as if it were lagging - its movements were disjointed and uncoordinated, as it took another swing at my clone.


    Before its second attack could connect, the bomb finally exploded.


    In a flash of fire and light, my clone¡¯s surroundings became filled with the heat of a bonfire. For a few moments, I couldn¡¯t even process what had happened. My clone disappeared, erased from existence, and the sense of loss sent me reeling in shock.


    When I regained my senses, I glanced into the distance. The spider army was still there, but smaller.


    Twenty of the spider souls had winked out. Furthermore, I could see a few more spider souls that looked like they were on the verge of disappearing. The previously strong spider souls looked like candles on the verge of winking out - which I was half-tempted to take advantage of. A big part of me wanted to start launching extinguishes at the creatures, and mop up a few more of them - but I restrained myself.


    There were still over sixty spiders. If they caught us, we were dead. Wasting my essence attacking them would be a huge blunder, even if I found myself wondering how much Achievement killing a few more spiders would be worth.


    Then, another part of my brain caught up with what had happened.


    Twenty spiders had died.


    Twenty spiders had died.


    Originally, I hadn¡¯t hoped for such good results. I had been hoping the bomb would set off the spider¡¯s boosts, and then they would flee before their buffs ran out. However, Felix¡¯s bomb had done more than that. It had outright killed a quarter of the enemy¡¯s forces.


    When the spiders had their sound-related Ability turned on, it wasn¡¯t too hard for the little monsters to dodge grenades and shrapnel. They were so fast it was nearly impossible to hit them with fast-moving projectiles. However, Felix¡¯s bomb had hit them before they could turn on their ability. In other words, we had caught them at speeds where dodging wasn¡¯t so easy for them.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    <Miria, what do you see?> asked Felix.


    I shared my vision with my friends again, and Felix cackled in joy.


    <It worked!> He said.


    <What did you do?> asked Anise. <When I used {Phoenix¡¯s Last Stand} to hit the bomb with flames, it felt like something ate my fire. It was weird.>


    <I turned the whole bomb into a fire amplifier. It doesn¡¯t make much sound anymore, and it also doesn¡¯t do much on its own. Instead, it takes any flames it touches, ¡®eats¡¯ them, and then grows them. Then, ten seconds later, it explodes. Most importantly, it doesn¡¯t make much sound - meaning it takes an extra second or two for the spiders to get their physical boosts and react,> he said.


    A moment later, however, the delight in our conversation disappeared.


    The massive translucent spider, which had been disoriented and half-functional after my clone¡¯s attack, started to stabilize. I saw the spell construct start to rearrange its limbs with the same fluid dexterity as before. A moment later, I felt essence surge, and the flames in the distance winked out like a candle thrown into the ocean. I blinked in surprise.


    The giant spider was far more dangerous than expected. The amount of essence it had used felt like it was an order of magnitude greater than my pool of essence - at least. Worse, the spell construct didn¡¯t even seem winded or injured as it brushed off the fire attack Anise and Felix had put their all into.


    The spider didn¡¯t wait for me to finish assessing its abilities. Instead, as if it realized it had lost the element of surprise, it started leaping towards the building we had hidden in. With how far each leap took it, the creature was practically flying through the air, like an arachnaphobe¡¯s worst nightmare.


    The other spiders were no longer holding back, either. The bomb might have killed several of them, but it had also created a noise and activated their temporary stat boost. The spiders seemed perfectly aware of that - so they were rushing. Since we had stifled any chance for them to leisurely hunt us down and kill us, they had decided to find us and kill us before their time ran out.


    <I¡¯m teleporting us in a slightly different direction. I¡¯m hoping that the enemy will rush right by us. Once I teleport us, make sure not to make a sound, all right?> said Felix.


    <Got it,> Sallia said, quickly followed by Anise and I.


    A moment later, it felt like the four of us were surrounded in a comforting bubble of darkness, before we teleported away.


    It was a process that was entirely different from my portal ability. We hadn¡¯t opened a gateway between two spots, and then stepped between them. We hadn¡¯t somehow stepped out of the conventional laws of physics, either, or at least not in a way my brain could interpret. Instead, we had simply snapped from one spot to another, like a rubber band stretched to its limit and then released. I got the faint feeling that Felix¡¯s teleportation skill worked on an entirely different set of principles, compared to my own portals and eldritch teleportation.


    I quickly realized that Felix hadn¡¯t perfectly controlled where we landed, either. The four of us found ourselves sitting in the middle of a hallway, and I spent several seconds scanning our surroundings and reorienting myself. I wasn¡¯t even sure whether we were in a house or a store anymore. However, it didn¡¯t matter right now. What mattered was whether we had dodged the spiders. I glanced back towards the spider army, and grinned.


    Felix hadn¡¯t teleported us directly ¡®away¡¯ from the spiders. Instead, he had teleported us to the right of them, and a bit behind them. We had essentially gone from right outside their search area to an area we had already searched. Being this close to the spiders made me nervous, since even a small sound would give us away - but we were in the Market. Our bodies didn¡¯t have needs the way most normal bodies did. We didn¡¯t even need to breathe if we didn¡¯t want to. Most importantly, Felix had also teleported us up, into what I finally realized was a rather densely packed apartment complex. That would make navigating out of the building a pain later on - but it would make us much harder to find right now.


    We sat with bated breath, waiting to see if the spiders would notice us. However, to our surprise, and joy, the spiders didn¡¯t seem to notice our new hiding spot. Over the next fifteen minutes, they tore apart all of the houses and stores in the direction we had travelled, constantly searching for us. They even found the house we had originally hidden in, and ripped up the building - but they seemed baffled by our teleportation afterwards. Whatever sense the translucent spider had for portals and spatial manipulation, it hadn¡¯t managed to detect us as we fled. I wasn¡¯t sure whether it was limited by range, or some other factor - but I was willing to accept any lucky break we could get right now. After ripping up our previous hiding place and finding nothing, the spiders started fanning out from that house. However, this region of the Market was too densely packed with buildings and houses. The spiders came alarmingly close a few times, but none of them managed to find us.


    Finally, when the spiders had two minutes left on their speed boost, they started to retreat back towards the Spatial Fair. They had given up.


    I felt a surge of hope well up in my mind, until I noticed something.


    While the sixty small spiders had started to retreat towards the Spatial fair, one of the spiders had instead remained in the area.


    The half-translucent spell construct spider had remained behind.


    It hadn¡¯t found us yet, but unlike the smaller spiders, the damn thing wasn¡¯t leaving.

 Chapter 333: Whispers Drifting in the Wind

    Each leap of the monstrous spell-spider made my heart quiver. I had thought we were out of the woods for a moment, but this thing had other ideas. Worse, whatever relay the thing used to communicate with its main body was eldritch in nature. My clone was the only eldritch ability I had, and while I hadn¡¯t checked m ySystem notifications yet, I could probably only make one clone before I ran out of Achievement. The translucent spider was also the largest threat in the area. The small spiders were terrifying enough, but they were like children compared to this abomination.


    It was moving nearly as quickly as a boosted Wanderer of Lost Silence. Unlike them, I had no idea what mechanics the translucent spider operated off of. Was its ability conditional in some way? Were its base stats just that much higher than ours? Was there some way to sabotage its boost, like there was for the smaller spiders?


    I had no clue, and that lack of knowledge made our situation all the more dangerous.


    After a few moments of hesitation, I turned back towards Felix. He looked at me, and then glanced back at the giant, translucent spider.


    <What do we do?> I asked.


    Felix frowned.


    <Opening a portal and trying to make noise is a bad idea. We don¡¯t know what kind of range or conditions its senses have, and it reacted to your clone opening up portals earlier.>


    <Agreed,> I said. <But it¡¯s not leaving. Is there a way we can distract it somehow?>


    <Let me think,> said Felix.


    The giant translucent spider continued crawling around the area. It wasn¡¯t leaping through the skies like a flying spider anymore, but that was only a small relief when it was still less than 500 meters away from us.


    <It¡¯s not heading directly towards us, at least,> said Felix, sounded torn between fear and relief.


    I said nothing, as I continued to cycle through the items and Abilities I had on hand.


    None of my items seemed very useful right now, with the possible exception of {Breath of the Storm}. That could help me fly away, or toss lighting bolts around. I couldn¡¯t think of a way either of those abilities helped me, when flying would just make me an obvious target for this thing and lightning bolts would give away our position.


    None of my Abilities were useful here, either. My spatial runes seemed to be countered by the spider¡¯s senses, since it had reacted to my portal earlier. My clone could weaken the spider for a few seconds, but my clone would either need to charge out of our room, giving away our position, or portal out of the room, possibly giving away our position.


    I gritted my teeth as I realized that there was nothing I could do to make our position safer. I had no way to distract the spider, or redirect it, or attack it. Anything I did would make our situation worse.


    A moment later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Felix¡¯s eyes brighten, before he materialized an item I had nearly forgotten about.


    It was¡­ the origami kit?


    When we had last been to the Market, Felix had found an origami kit and added it to one of his item slots. However, at least so far, the origami kit hadn¡¯t played a very big role in any of our adventures. It had just kind of sat around. I wasn¡¯t sure how it helped our current situation, but if Felix was pulling it out, he must have an idea.


    While the spider crawled around the area, Felix carefully folded and unfolded his piece of paper, before he pulled a few pieces of metal out of his dimensional factory. He started adding in little bits of metal to his work, as I tried to figure out what he was doing. Before I had any clue what he was working on, Felix turned towards Anise.


    <Anise, can you help me by using your {Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes}? I need you to make a few rustling sounds with the plants a block or two away, and keep the rustling sounds going. I need a bit of cover noise.>


    <Got it,> she said. Anise closed her eyes in concentration, and while I didn¡¯t hear anything, the spider reacted to something a moment later.


    Meanwhile, Felix stood over his little origami creation, furiously folding and unfolding it while he did something with his essence.


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    I didn¡¯t have to wait long to figure out what he was doing.


    Soon, Felix released the little paper crane in his hands. Instead of simply falling to the ground, the paper crane started to flap its wings, almost as if it were a real bird. Despite the amount of metal attached to the bird, somehow the little creature managed to keep itself in the air, and even started to fly faster and faster as it adapted to its surroundings. It started out silent as it flew down the corridors of the apartment complex we had landed in. A few minutes later, the little origami crane flew out of the apartment complex¡­ before it split in half, releasing two origami cranes. Both of these origami cranes started to make a very quiet buzzing sound as they both flew away from the apartment.


    Then, both cranes split again.


    <It worked! I wasn¡¯t sure if that would work,> said Felix, as I watched two of the origami cranes drift out of view.


    The two that I could still see split again a moment later. At the same time, I heard each paper crane start to make different sounds. What had started out as a soft buzz was now a cacophony of random noises, all echoing throughout the area at totally random intervals and times.


    The spider went berserk, and started leaping towards the little paper cranes. However, by now, the paper cranes had already scattered quite a bit, and every few seconds, each of them split in half again. Even more importantly, the paper cranes were capable of flight. The spider was only capable of leaping. It was able to move through the air quite quickly, but it had limited maneuverability once it left the ground. The little paper cranes had no such disadvantage. The paper cranes weren¡¯t intelligently dodging the spider, of course - they moved in totally random directions.


    But it didn¡¯t seem to matter. Within a minute, there were over sixty paper cranes in the air, despite several of them crashing or getting caught by the spider and ripped apart. The noise was overwhelming, even to my ears.


    <Now¡¯s our chance! Miria, use {Breath of the Storm} to fly us out the door! Don¡¯t go out the window or above ground - I just want to avoid the sounds of our footsteps alerting that thing. We can shuffle a little further away while the creature is distracted!> said Felix.


    I immediately complied, and used {Breath of the Storm} to get myself airborne. My friends grabbed onto my arms, which made things rather claustrophobic. It was also rather heavy - my Strength was only at Grade 7, which made it hard to carry the weight of three adults at once. Luckily, a moment later, Sallia managed to get a better grip on my umbrella itself, alleviating some of the weight concerns.


    Then, I gently flew us down to the first floor of the apartment, before I used my sight to check on the spider. It was still going crazy, ripping apart the flying paper cranes. The cranes had stopped multiplying, but they were still serving as admirable distractions - for now.


    I quickly flew us down a few streets, making sure to avoid our feet touching the ground and making any sound. Then, before the spider finished wiping out the cranes, we ducked into another building. We hadn¡¯t moved as far away as I had hoped - but we had put a lot of distance between ourselves and the spider.


    The spider didn¡¯t give up. It wiped out the rest of the cranes, and then kept crawling around the area - but it didn¡¯t seem to have any good way to track us. It grew more and more frustrated as the minutes passed by, while I started to relax. It looked like Felix¡¯s trick had worked.


    Finally, the spider did something¡­ incomprehensible. For a moment, it was like geometry and space twisted in the house the spider was searching, and I felt my eyes start to hurt as the spider¡¯s actions warped towards total incomprehensibility.


    I had a rudimentary understanding of the eldritch, but as I saw the spider twist space like it was a plaything, I realized that was all it was. My understanding of the eldritch was like a child playing with sand, compared to this thing. I felt a moment of panic, as I thought the spider would somehow locate us. It might twist space, and drag us directly into its waiting maw. Or perhaps it would find the spot where we had teleported to, and then track us down and kill us from there.


    Instead¡­ it seemed like nothing happened. Whatever the spider had tried to do, it didn¡¯t work.


    The spider finally let out a screech, like the sound of an angry dragon preparing to soar into the sky. The sound itself was shocking, since I hadn¡¯t heard these silent creatures make any sound at all up until now.


    Then the spider withdrew. It stomped angrily away, almost like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum as it moved back towards the Spatial Fair.


    It hadn¡¯t found us. After nearly an hour of searching, the creature had given up. It seemed to have decided we had already fled the area¡­ or perhaps it had just decided we were more trouble than it was worth.


    As the spider started to surge away from us, I felt the urge to giggle madly. I managed to suppress it, worried that I might give our position away, but I felt glee as the invincible monstrosity started to leap away from us.


    We had escaped.


    We had stepped into one of the inner districts of the Market, got a few rewards that would make our builds stronger and more effective, and left with our lives.


    Even if the situation had been desperate, I felt a little seed of confidence sprout in my heart.


    The things that had destroyed the Market were terrifying. They wanted us dead, and they had made sure we had almost no space to grow. But despite those odds, we had managed to secure a few rewards from the Market and leave alive.


    We might still be woefully unprepared for securing more lives. Heck, there was no way I could even fight that giant spider and survive. We were still weak. We couldn¡¯t win yet.


    But surely after a few more lives, we would have a way. We had taken a step that should have killed us, and we had lived. That would make our next life easier, leading to better rewards, leading to a better next life. We had taken our first real step towards survival.

 Chapter 334: To the Victors

    We waited several more minutes after the translucent spider left, just to make sure that it wasn¡¯t waiting to double back and catch us moving around. However, as time passed, we started to grow more and more confident that it had left. We spent a few minutes conversing with each other, before we decided we needed to leave. The spiders had retreated, but they seemed hellbent on killing us earlier. If we didn¡¯t get out of here now, there was no telling whether the spiders would try to hunt us again tomorrow.


    I was still missing my legs, so Anise offered to carry me. She didn¡¯t have very many ways to contribute to fights, so for now, we decided to leave Sallia and Felix as our combatants. Meanwhile, Anise would lob grenades, and I would provide whatever ranged support I could manage.


    With our decisions made, Sallia took a very hesitant, very careful step out into the hallway. The quiet sound of a human footstep echoed through the area, and our group tensed as we waited for the spider to come back.


    Nothing happened.


    Finally, I smiled. Our last, final safety check was done.


    We made our way onto the street, and I swapped to my various special sights.


    <I don¡¯t see or hear anything unusual,> I said. There were a few skeletons in the distance, but I ignored them. Skeletons weren¡¯t even threats anymore - they were minor inconveniences that we could ignore.


    Sallia grinned. <I don¡¯t see anything either. I think we¡¯ve made it out.> Then, she paused. <Since it doesn¡¯t seem like we¡¯re in a dangerous situation anymore, let me go over my System notifications. I got a few during our flight from the spiders, but I was too busy to take a look at them.>


    <Me too,> I said. <I should have gotten a bunch of assists from transporting the bombs, but I didn¡¯t even have a chance to look at what I got.>


    <I¡¯m also pretty interested in seeing what I get,> said Felix.


    Our group spent a few minutes popping open our Status Screens, to see what System notifications we had missed.


    I had a few pretty interesting ones.


    First off were the most generic System notifications. I had expected these.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Assist in killing a Wanderer of Lost Silence for the fifth time. Assist in killing a Wanderer of Lost Silence for the twentieth time.


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by a [Negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300, +500 Achievement +20.05


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The only thing I noticed that surprised me was my ¡®contribution to the defense of the Market.¡¯ Usually, when I got this kind of notification, it said I had contributed to the defense of the Market by an extremely negligible amount. This time, the word ¡®extremely¡¯ had been removed. I doubted it meant much - after all, the Market was huge, and creatures like the Wanderers of Lost Silence were probably still quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I seriously doubted we had made a lasting difference here. Still, it was nice to see the System acknowledge my improvements, however small they might be.


    I was also quite happy to get a restock on my Achievement. Last time I had used a clone, I had dropped to 1,805.95 Achievement. With a bit of time passing, I had lost a few fractions of a point of Achievement, but getting 820 Achievement brought me back into a more healthy Achievement total of 2,625.95. If I needed to, I could use the Achievement to make another clone, or I could also use it to buy some more stats if I thought they would make a difference. In fact, I probably would buy some more stats before we reincarnated again. I wanted a bit more of a safety net for the next world, and more stats were never a bad thing to have.


    However, the next Achievement notification surprised me a bit more.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Exploration: Explore the Spatial Fair, claim a (minor) benefit, and return alive.


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Disciples and Legacy: Chip away at a threat to one of the Market¡¯s inner districts, leaving a lasting legacy in the Market. Future Transmigrators will have an easier time re@*#($ this district, if they ever *@#($&@#


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +400, Achievement +20


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I hadn¡¯t expected that districts of the Market itself would qualify for exploration-based Achievement rewards. Even after hearing an explanation of roughly what Achievement was, some of the nuance still baffled me. I had no idea what did or didn¡¯t qualify as a place valid for exploration. Still, I was glad to see it.


    The other part of the Achievement notification was more baffling. This was the first time I had ever seen a Disciples and Legacy Achievement reward - and it was for inflicting minor damage upon the spider hive, of all things. Damage that I suspected would be regenerated pretty quickly, if the giant spider was capable of birthing more spiders. I had no idea why some of my actions in previous worlds hadn¡¯t qualified for Disciples and Legacy Achievement, while this particular bout of fighting did.


    Either way, I wasn¡¯t complaining. With the extra 420 Achievement, I sat at a healthy 3,045.95 Achievement total. Just enough to make two clones in an emergency.


    After we finished checking our System notifications, we started moving. None of us wanted to be around if the spiders returned. So we spent a few hours running. We wanted to be as far from the Spatial Fair as we could before we ended up in a major mess.


    After a few hours of running, we decided to settle down and plan our next moves. We found an abandoned store, which only had a cash register and nothing else inside of it. Perhaps the owners had been setting up the store, before the collapse of the Market started? I had no idea. Either way, the lack of skeletons guarding it meant we could save our essence. First, Felix hopped over to the cash register, before transferring 10,000 Achievement to Anise. Finally, Anise had the leeway to start making some spell maps. Then, it was time to think.


    ¡°By my estimate, we have a little over a month left before we need to head to our next world,¡± said Felix. ¡°What do we want to do with that time? The Market is an amazing place to gather resources, so wasting our time here would be a huge shame.¡±


    I gleaned at the inner district of the Market, and wondered if we could survive returning. If we could survive a different inner district.


    Eventually, I shook my head.


    I had no confidence that we could pull off the same feat if we tried again. The spider hive was alerted to our presence now, and provoking them again seemed suicidal. However, if we tried to raid another inner district of the Market, I had no clue if we could survive. The Spatial fair had gone somewhat well, but it had been far from perfect. More importantly, we weren¡¯t completely healed yet. I was still missing both of my legs, and my Tarot Deck would take years before I could use it again. Anise had used {Phoenix¡¯s Last Stand), so she was missing her biggest trump card. Trying a new area was likely to end up with all of us losing another life.


    ¡°I think¡­ we need to take it easy for the rest of our time here,¡± I said. ¡°As much as I hate to say it, if we raid another inner district, we don¡¯t have the power to survive yet. I need to replace a few items, and Anise might benefit from swapping out her sword as well. It¡¯s already used up, and Market items only seem to recover when we die and return to the Market. In a world or two, Anise will probably outgrow it anyway.¡±


    ¡°I agree,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I still have a pair of boots using up one of my item slots. Extradimensional boots with unusual sturdiness are nice, but there has to be something better I could put into that item slot. We need some item replacements. More importantly, we could also do with some Achievement farming. Miria and I are almost tapped out, and I would like a few more stats before we go into our next world.¡±


    ¡°So we¡¯ll raid shops, take it easy, and build up some Achievement while we prep for our next return to the Market?¡± asked Anise. ¡°I think that sounds good to me.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me as well,¡± said Felix, after some thought. ¡°I¡¯m a bit curious about testing some things with my dimensional factory, anyway. I want to see if I can keep items inside of it in between lives. If I can, that would open up a lot of possibilities for transporting items around. If it works, we could have a huge armory of Market items on standby.¡±


    I blinked in surprise, and thought of my Tarot deck again. The biggest weakness of that item was that it took up an item slot, but could only be used once every five years. However, if Felix could carry it around while it was on cooldown, that would be a different story. At that point, the Tarot Deck would no longer waste an item slot on an item I had to think carefully before using. I could just unequip it when it was on cooldown and toss in something else.


    I grinned at the thought, and then nodded. I didn¡¯t know if it was the ¡®right¡¯ thing to do or not, but it looked like we had made up our minds. We would take it easy, gather more items and Achievement, and then prepare to reincarnate. Truthfully, part of me was relieved that we didn¡¯t have to face anything terrifying like the Spatial Fair until we had another world behind us.


    I just hoped that we were making the choice that we wouldn¡¯t regret in a few worlds, when it came time to gather more lives.

 Chapter 335: Replacements

    We spent the next few weeks raiding lower-level shops. We had two objectives in mind - first, acquire a good stock of Achievement, in order to shore up any weaknesses in our stats or abilities. We could always make one final round of purchases before we reincarnated, and last-minute stat boosts were always welcome. However, our biggest objective was to replace our less useful gear.


    The first shops that we hit made our group nervous. We found more evidence of other people hitting up the shops, taking items, and looting the cash registers. We even found another fresh monster corpse. However, we didn¡¯t encounter any other people, which was a relief.


    The lack of Achievement was less of a relief. We needed as much Achievement as possible in order to survive, and if the other members of the Market were taking all of the Achievement, that meant there was less for us. I didn¡¯t begrudge other groups their attempts to grasp a path to survival - after all, we were all in the same boat. But I did think we needed to change our hunting grounds.


    Because of this issue, we started moving west. After a week, we seemed to move out of the hunting range of the other group(s) of people. By that time, I also managed to regrow my legs, returning me to my previous level of mobility. Once we stopped running into looted stores left and right, we finally started raking in Achievement.


    Last time we had been in the Market, we had only been able to safely hit up three or so shops a day. The limitations on our essence regeneration, abilities, and greatly hindered our Achievement gathering. This time, we had a bit more padding to our stats to back us up - and we also had a variety of new abilities to try out.


    The first time I used my new {Spatial Rifts} Ability, the results caught me off-guard. A group of four skeleton soldiers dropped dead in seconds - and the cost was about a tenth of what I would have needed to pay if I had extinguished similar-power human enemies. Most interesting of all was the ¡®eldritch pollution¡¯ that the rips and cuts my spatial tripwires inflicted. This ¡®eldritch pollution¡¯ would stick to anything I cut, and then start to take over the rest of its body like a virus. I suspected that there were ways to counter that - after all, the ability was only [Basic] grade. However, against weak enemies like skeletons, a single cut was essentially lethal. Even more interesting, I could see that the eldritch pollution was trying to do something¡­ else to the skeletons. However, they died before I could finish assessing its effects. Either way, my new Ability¡¯s first test run was very pleasing.


    Felix¡¯s factory also constantly churned out new small grenades and ranged weapons for us to use, which Anise was given priority for. Sallia was as terrifying as ever at close range, and Felix tied up our group¡¯s abilities by giving us occasional teleports and ranged weapons.


    Any item that seemed vaguely useful but inferior to our current items, we tossed into Felix¡¯s factory, in hopes that it would stick around between lives. Any item that seemed really useful, we equipped for ourselves, in case Felix¡¯s factory did not keep items in between lives.


    At the end of a few weeks of looting, we had hit up nearly one hundred and fifty shops in the outer district of the nursery.


    As far as raw Achievement went, we had gathered around 16,000 Achievement - not bad, considering how many of the shops had been empty at the start of our search. We divided that up four ways, giving each of us a little over 4,000 Achievement.


    Naturally, I also managed to get a fair amount of kills for Skeletons worked into the mix, along with a bone spider that showed up in one of the stronger shops we raided. The once-terrifying monster of bone proved far less intimidating once my spatial tripwires ripped apart half of its body during its first charge towards us.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a warden of bone


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,700, Achievement +0.06


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time, Kill a Skeletal foot soldier for the 25th time, Kill a Skeletal foot soldier for the 100th time


    Slaughter: Assist a fellow transmigrator in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the first time. Assist a fellow Transmigrator in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the fifth time, Assist in killing a skeletal foot soldier for the 25th time, Assist in killing a Skeletal Foot soldier for the 100th time


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +60, Achievement +120, Achievement + 200, Achievement +2, Achievement +5, Achievement +10, Achievement + 25, Achievement +0.05


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    With these extra kills, as well as the slightly over 4,000 Achievement from looting shops, my Achievement reached a solid 8,203.02 Achievement. Not bad at all. Of course, most important of all were our items.


    I saw no reason to replace {Breath of the Storm}, {Lake Gazer¡¯s Dress}, or my {Friendship Bracelet With Distance Chatting}, so those three items remained unchanged. However, in the shops we found, I got decent replacements for my Tarot Deck and my dimensional backpack. The tarot deck was given to Anise, which she immediately used to remove her {Finger of Magic Missiles}, just in case Felix¡¯s factory didn¡¯t keep the item. At the very least, cursing one enemy every five years was far better than letting Anise cast a spell she would soon be able to cast with no assistance. Meanwhile, my dimensional backpack was tossed into the factory.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    The first item I got was an odd one, and at first, I hadn¡¯t been sure how to use it. However, the more I thought about the item, the more excited I was about it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Dream of Hunger (nonphysical item)


    Effects: Once per lifetime, you may enter a dream of ¡®hunger.¡¯ This will allow you to drag a single creature from anywhere into the world into your dream in a greatly weakened form. (note - this is a dream-related magic item, so creatures which have resistances against this type of effect may be able to resist it. Creatures above Heroic Grade also have considerably stronger bonds between their soul and their body, meaning it is almost impossible to separate their soul and drag it into a dream.)


    (To activate this item, you must have some sort of medium related to the target. It is best to use things like blood, hair, or saliva - but other things, such as scales, straw from a nest, or other things can also be used. The more related the medium is to the target, the better the effect of this item).


    Maintenance cost - 40.7 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I wasn¡¯t quite sure if I was understanding this item correctly¡­ but if I was, this item let me basically drag something into a sort of dream-world in soul form, while also vastly weakening that creature while it was in the dream. This might be hard for most people to take advantage of¡­ but my primary combat spell was extinguish. A spell that was built on the idea of cutting away the flame of ¡®life¡¯ of another creature. In other words, a spell that killed the body and weakened its connection to the soul.


    I was willing to bet that this item would make extinguish hundreds of times stronger. Even if tt was a one-use only item, and I would need to wait until we returned to the Market before I could use it again, I could kill one very strong enemy every world.  Then, with the help of {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}, I would steal part of that enemy¡¯s abilities, giving myself a huge boost in strength. I could absolutely see how this type of item would be ridiculously powerful with the rest of my build. It would probably also work wonders against the guardian that stopped us from buying more lives, as long as I could find a medium to attack it. This item was far too useful to give up.


    The other item I got was a bit more normal.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Essence Core


    Effects: Allows you to store extra essence, equivalent to the storage capacity of approximately Grade seven.


    Note - can only store one type of essence at a time. Since this is an external object, it does NOT increase your essence regeneration.


    Maintenance cost - 6.5 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This item was pretty self explanatory. Extinguish¡¯s biggest limitation was on how much ¡®damage¡¯ each drop of my essence did, and how much essence I had. Each time I used extinguish, if I wanted to, I could dump my entire alteration essence pool into a single attack. Having a bigger storage meant I could unload bigger extinguishes on powerful enemies. It wasn¡¯t the most exciting item, but it provided a substantial boost to my abilities.


    Sallia ended up keeping most of her items, since she hadn¡¯t gotten to see all of the effects of {Wandering Robe of the Swordsman} last life due to her early death. However, she did end up replacing her boots with something a bit exciting.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Second Heart


    Effects: Give all of your physical abilities +20. Your body regenerates far more quickly - wounds that would previously take days to heal will now take hours to heal. Your stamina will also see a major improvement. Also improves the speed at which you gain stats from any other type of ¡®training¡¯ equipment, assuming those pieces of equipment grant you stat improvements.


    To install, you must cut open your chest and then stuff this heart into your body. It will automatically connect to your new form and then heal the wound on its own.


    Maintenance cost - 18.5 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    +20 to every physical stat was an incredible boost. After I helped Sallia put her new {Second Heart} into her body, Sallia¡¯s already terrifying physical prowess took another leap forward. It might not have been flashy, but it was a major boost to Sallia¡¯s abilities.


    Finally, we found one new item for Felix. He ended up dropping his {Origami Kit} for a {Craftsman¡¯s Hammer}.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Craftsman¡¯s Hammer


    Effects: Whenever this hammer hits an item, it will leave a ¡®craftsman¡¯s mark¡¯ upon the item. Each mark makes the item slightly more malleable to other alterations in its shape, form, and essence. The item will ¡®shift¡¯ to fit the user¡¯s desired outcome, but the influence each can exert is limited. Only ten marks can be maintained at once, and each will fade after ten minutes have passed. (any object, material, or item can have multiple craftsman¡¯s marks on it).


    Maintenance cost - 14.9 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This item had pretty obvious uses in crafting - but it also had high potential in combat. The hammer said that it would make any item struck by it more malleable to change, in whatever way Felix wished. That could help Felix make a really amazing gun or sword¡­ or it could also help him make an enemy¡¯s gun or magic sword into a useless hunk of scrap metal. Combined with Felix¡¯s defensive spatial Ability and his teleportation spell, Felix was uniquely well situated to remove enemy items during a fight. Combined with Felix¡¯s ability to serve as a mobile logistics base, his value to the team felt like it was growing with every trip to the Market.


    Unfortunately, Anise didn¡¯t find very many useful upgrades. At least, not until near the end of our searching, right as we were debating what we wanted to do for our next reincarnation pool.


    At that time, we found a rather unusual shop. Its name was simple.


    The Witch¡¯s amazing accessory shop! Everything needed to become an amazing spellcaster! (manifestation and alteration essence users only - this shop does not focus on items for alteration or binding users, although you are naturally free to browse!)


    The moment Anise saw the shop, she had stars in her eyes. I took one look at her, and then sighed, although I also felt my lips curl upwards into a grin.


    Before figuring out our reincarnation pool, it looked like we had one more shop to hit. And hopefully, this one would fix Anise¡¯s equipment.

 Chapter 336: The Witch鈥檚 Amazing Accessory Shop

    The moment Anise showed interest in the shop, I used a clone to check it out. Inside, I saw a lump of glowing, orange green-flesh that looked to be about the size of a person.


    ¡°There¡¯s a guardian,¡± I said. I checked it over with my soul sight, and then examined the size of its ¡®candle of life.¡¯ Then I relaxed. ¡°I can¡¯t kill it in one hit, but it shouldn¡¯t be that dangerous.¡±


    A moment later, the lump of flesh seemed to notice my clone. Its glow intensified, and then, a ray of fire shot out of the wriggling lump of flesh and vaporized my clone. I winced.


    ¡°It has some sort of fire beam ability, but it takes about a second to activate.¡± I paused, and thought over the lump of flesh¡¯s movements. ¡°Also, it¡¯s not very fast. Its physical body is probably sturdy, but slow.¡±


    ¡°That should be manageable,¡± said Sallia. ¡°I could use {Mirror¡¯s Edge} to handle an attack, and your umbrella could also manage it just fine. As long as it doesn¡¯t have any other dangerous attacks, it shouldn¡¯t be a real threat to us.¡±


    ¡°Wanna see if you can get a neat ability from it?¡± asked Felix.


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    We spent about an hour in preparation. Even if we were confident the shop¡¯s guardian wasn¡¯t a huge threat to us, there was no reason to get complacent. We were still facing an unknown enemy, and losing a life here would be catastrophic.


    Once Felix finished manufacturing a special item, he handed a bag to Sallia. I lent her my umbrella, and after she finished swapping out her {Noodle Bowl} and equipping {Storm¡¯s Breath}, she dashed into the store.


    The monster glowed bright orange, but just as Sallia had suspected, my umbrella blocked the heat ray with no problems. Sallia crept closer to the creature, wary of a potential problem¡­ but the monster just wriggled forward, as if it were a giant slime.


    Sallia tossed the bag of Felix¡¯s items towards the monster, and the bag bounced off of the creature¡¯s flesh. The creature¡¯s body undulated like the waves of the ocean, and the flesh pustule fired another heat ray at her. Sallia deflected it with my umbrella again, and then left the shop.


    ¡°It¡¯s ready,¡± said Sallia, as the glob of flesh tried to slowly make its way towards the entrance.


    ¡°I¡¯ll push it away from us,¡± said Felix. ¡°See how much damage you can do before extinguishing it.¡±


    I nodded, and Felix sent a pulse of essence towards the bag of ¡®tether bombs.¡¯


    The tether bombs unfurled, revealing a variety of half-physical, half-magical ¡®tethers¡¯ inside. One end of each tether attached themselves to the monster, while the other half of each tether hooked on to various items on the other side of the building. I opened several portals and activated {Spatial Rift}, creating a deadly field of tripwires.


    The tethers collapsed, hurling the monster towards the wall at breakneck speeds. The tripwires cut, rended, and ripped at its flesh, nearly killing the monster on the spot.


    ¡°Almost overshot it and killed it by accident,¡± I said, as I focused on the creature¡¯s ¡®flame of life.¡¯ I activated Extinguish, and a moment later, the last life force in the monster¡¯s body disappeared.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Pustule of Unwoven Embers


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,000, Achievement +0.02


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That brought my Achievement from 8,202.94 to 9,202.94.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Pustule of Unwoven Embers for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Resilient body - your Agility is decreased by 10, and your Fortitude is increased by 40.  In addition, your regenerative abilities will be considerably enhanced.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    So the monster had been supposed to be abnormally tough and resilient? I¡­ hadn¡¯t noticed. {Spatial Rifts} was far better at inflicting damage than I had thought it was.


    Sallia and I swapped our equipment back as I pondered whether I wanted the new ability.


    I decided that two full grades of [Fortitude] and boosted regeneration was probably worth losing a grade of [Agility], and added in the new skill.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    After that, I checked over the shop again to see if there were any other dangers I had missed the first time. Seeing nothing, we made our way into the shop.


    ¡°So, do you think this shop will finally have something useful?¡± asked Sallia, as we stepped through the old, dilapidated doorway.


    I glanced at Anise, who was making her way to the cash register. I lowered my voice, so that she wouldn¡¯t hear me. ¡°I hope so. Most of Anise¡¯s items aren¡¯t very useful anymore. The three of us have pretty good gear, and I feel kind of bad,¡± I said. ¡°If we don¡¯t find anything here, I¡¯ll give her one of my items to make sure she has a good tool kit to work with. But this shop matches Anise¡¯s preferences really well, so it¡¯s promising.¡±


    Sallia chuckled and nodded, before Anise¡¯s voice interrupted us.


    ¡°There¡¯s about 400 Achievement in this shop. It¡¯s still well stocked,¡± said Anise. ¡°I grabbed 100, you guys can split up the rest!¡± then, she dashed towards one of the nearby shelves. I grabbed my own share of Achievement, bringing me from 9,202.98 Achievement to 9,302.98. After that, I scanned the store, and my grin grew wider.


    Whoever had set up this shop would have gotten along well with Anise. There was a row of witch hats set up along the first row of the shelf. Most of the witch hats also had small accessories or decorations added to them. Some of them looked more mature, like something a wizened, seasoned old witch would wear. Other hats looked more like something a kid who admired witch aesthetics would gravitate towards. Anise moved towards the shelf with the more mature-looking hats first, but since Anise had opted for a shorter, cuter body, it looked kind of like a kid sister trying on hats that were too big for her. I resisted the urge to laugh and give her a hug as I saw her struggle to reach the highest shelf of the shop, before she finally managed to snag her first prospective hat and give it a look.


    After that, Anise started checking one hat after another. There were nearly thirty hats in the store, and Anise set most of the hats into two piles - one much larger pile of hats that didn¡¯t seem very useful to her, and the other made of hats that she seemed to like. After a few rounds of deliberation, Anise finally settled on one hat. It was a slightly lighter shade of black, and looked just a bit too big for her head. If she moved too quickly, the hat would probably drop over her ears and cover her entire head. It looked far too large for her.


    Does Anise like huge witch hats? I wondered, as I gave the item a scan.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Witch¡¯s Hat


    Effects: Hat grants the user +20 Intelligence. When casting spells, the hat will ¡®empower¡¯ spells to a certain extent, so long as they are recognized as structured spells (for details on what is or is not a structured spell, please see user manual). This empowerment is approximately equivalent to raising the relevant Ability by a quarter of a grade (cannot raise beyond Heroic Grade).


    Maintenance cost - 14.5 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I hadn¡¯t seen an item that just¡­ directly multiplied the power of all structured spells before. However, it matched very well with what Anise¡¯s magic system originally seemed to be based on - the ability to cast a few spells with a high level of expertise.


    ¡°Do you know if your spells count as structured spells?¡± I asked.


    Anise winced.


    ¡°I don¡¯t. I can¡¯t find the user manual anywhere. Either it was lost, or it turned into dust hundreds of years ago, or¡­¡± she sighed. ¡°But I suspect my magic system probably counts. Once we reincarnate, testing it will be easy. I can just take the hat off and see if my spells get weaker. Even if it doesn¡¯t work, I still appreciate a +20 boost to my [Intelligence], and the other effect is too useful to miss out on.¡±


    I nodded.


    After that, Anise went to the other side of the store, where various wands were located. After spending another hour rummaging, she picked out a wand that she liked. This one looked like a branch of a tree, except for the fact that it was made out of bits of metal and wood sewn together in a way I couldn¡¯t understand.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Item: Wand of the Witch


    Effects:


    You may store a spell inside of this wand, along with the relevant essence to pay for casting the spell. Upon activation, the spell will immediately activate. (There are some limits to the amount of essence each spell can use - anything below Heroic Grade is typically fine. Ask store owner for more details, or check the user manual).


    This wand is made from a special material that naturally feeds off of manifestation essence. The more essence you feed it, the stronger it will become. This can raise the number of ¡®stored spells¡¯ inside of this wand.


    Maintenance cost - 30.1 Achievement per reconstruction.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This wand was also pretty useful. I imagined that Anise would form some pretty expensive spells later on. Normally, she would only be able to cast more expensive spells a few times per fight before she ran out of essence. This wand would solve that problem. It was naturally impossible to check the user manual for the wand, or ask the store owner for more details¡­ but we were nowhere near Heroic grade yet. Therefore, the limitations of the wand probably weren¡¯t very relevant to us right now.


    Both of Anise¡¯s items suited her very well.


    Anise quickly swapped out her gauntlet and her {Shadow Dryad¡¯s Eyes}, since those two items weren¡¯t that relevant to her anymore. Unfortunately, the shop didn¡¯t have any other items that were useful. Thus, Anise¡¯s final item slot remained occupied by the {Tarot Deck}. However, I was pretty pleased with our results. Finding two useful items in one shop wasn¡¯t a bad use of our time at all.


    Once Anise finished swapping out her items, the four of us started conversing again.


    It was time to figure out what pool of rebirth we were going to use this time.


    The last few times, we had taken pools of rebirth that didn¡¯t have very many specifications. After all, we weren¡¯t strong enough to fight off the guardians of more powerful pools. This time, we only had two lives left, and we needed to make them count. It was time to figure out just how ambitious we could be for our next reincarnation.

 Chapter 337: Pool of Reincarnation

    ¡°All right, what do we need out of our next world?¡± I asked. ¡°We should make a plan before we start wandering around the Market again. We have¡­ a week or two? Before our bodies start decomposing with us still inside of it. We have enough time to do some searching.¡±


    ¡°I think we should aim for a Tier 2 world,¡± said Sallia. ¡°That kind of world should be easy for us to handle, especially if it has a weaker magic system. It strikes a good balance between profitability and growth potential, since we¡¯re not strong enough to tackle really high tier worlds. Also, if we can find a pool of rebirth that guarantees we end up in a less technologically developed world, that would be ideal. I would have some time to shine near the beginning of the world, while Felix would have some time to shine as he pushes the world towards an industrial revolution. Miria could set herself up as a great magical healer, and Anise would have time to develop her spells. I think it¡¯s the best possible setup we could have. More importantly, anything defending such a low-tier pool of reincarnation is probably manageable for us.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the best path forward,¡± said Anise, as she shook her head. ¡°It would be better if we ended up in a higher Tier world. At least Tier 5 or 6. If we go to a really high-power world, we¡¯ll have a much more developed magic system to draw upon and learn from. In addition, there will be a much higher density of essence in the world, which will make it way easier for us to develop our own abilities and do more research. We won¡¯t get as much influence Achievement, since we¡¯ll be weaker relative to the rest of the world. However, it¡¯s worth it, because we¡¯ll probably get better ability evolution options and have a higher growth potential overall. Besides, as long as the world isn¡¯t too absurd, Felix should still be able to do something based around founding an economic empire.¡± Then, Anise frowned, and wriggled uncomfortably. ¡°Umm¡­ if you¡¯re okay with that, Felix? I was originally thinking that we could focus on ability development, and then you could focus on doing the same kind of thing you did last world. Focusing on economics and governmental positions is useful, but you should do whatever makes you happy. If you don¡¯t want to help fund your Ability evolutions, that¡¯s also fine. It¡¯s your Achievement.¡±


    Felix snorted.


    ¡°I¡¯m perfectly happy funding all of your growth if I get another really good world. We¡¯re a team. I just don¡¯t know if I can pull something like that off again. Last world, I was able to slip into the government because I had a lot of passion for the subject, and we were located in a colony that had just thrown off its previous government. They had a desperate need for people with the right expertise, and we were university students in a world were education was just starting to become more accessible. Basically, the circumstances all turned out just right for me. I don¡¯t know if I can do that again - but I¡¯m willing to try.


    ¡°But you guys can definitely count on me if you need Achievement. I¡¯m not the best at direct combat, and even though I¡¯m fixing that, I doubt I¡¯m ever going to do the same amount of damage Sallia can with the same amount of Achievement investment. I¡¯ll do my best with what I have¡­ but I don¡¯t have the same talent for combat you three do. I¡¯m just glad I can still help.¡±


    I took a step closer to Felix, and engulfed him in a hug. ¡°You¡¯re always helpful, Felix. You¡¯re good at planning and items.¡±


    Felix smiled as I pulled away, and I felt a smile tug at my lips. I couldn¡¯t have asked for a better group of people to traverse the multiverse with.


    ¡°All right, I personally think that both ideas have some merit,¡± said Felix. ¡°The real question is whether the benefit of going to a higher tier world is really that significant. It¡¯s true that having more essence and a stronger magic system is useful¡­ but I¡¯m not sure if that outweighs the extra difficulty we would face.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve also been thinking about our next world, and I had a different idea,¡± I said. ¡°I think there are two types of worlds that would fit us well.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked Sallia. ¡°All right, what¡¯s your idea?¡±


    ¡°The first type of world that I thought would fit us is a world with some type of native ¡®Status Screen.¡¯ I remember that one or two Market visits ago, we saw a world claiming that worlds with their own System were the best for new transmigrators. I didn¡¯t think about it very much at the time, but I did think about the topic while we were hitting up stores. Why would ¡®Status Screens¡¯ be so important?


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    ¡°I figure it¡¯s growth potential. Most magic systems that we have encountered have some sort of ¡®natural limit¡¯ to them. The rune magic system, for example, has a specific upper limit to the number of runes we can manifest, based on the grade of the Ability and the Absorption essence stat. Felix¡¯s binding essence Stat will always limit how much alchemy he can do, and how creative he can get with his prosthetics. None of these magic systems have an innate way to upgrade our essence stat, either. Whatever we¡¯re born with, we¡¯re stuck with until the following world.


    ¡°However, if the world we were reincarnated into had its own Status Screen, that might not be the case. It would probably depend on the specific world we landed in, but regardless of how it worked, a ¡®native¡¯ Status Screen could let us ignore our natural growth potential and just keep improving. Of course, that also means that the natives would probably be stronger¡­ but we wouldn¡¯t suffer a disadvantage from being ¡®newer¡¯ transmigrators with weaker stats. In short, it would give us a level playing field. If we can outperform our natural limits, we should have the best of both worlds. We would have a strong, useful magic system to use for our Ability evolutions, and we would also avoid suffering huge penalties for being way weaker than the stronger members of the planet.¡±


    Felix looked thoughtful.


    ¡°That¡¯s a good point,¡± he said.


    Sallia and Anise also looked thoughtful at my reasoning. Finally, Sallia nodded. ¡°All right, I¡¯m sold. That sounds like a way better idea than my own plan. It incorporates the best of Anise¡¯s idea, and the best of my idea. But you said you had two ideas?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°The other idea I had was going to a Garden world.¡±


    Felix frowned. ¡°Garden worlds? You mean, the worlds where the Market artificially messed with the laws of reality somehow, making it particularly easy to learn a specific type of Ability? I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve seen any pools of reincarnation that lead to Garden worlds, have we? And even if we did, odds are that the world would be built around making some ridiculous Ability ¡®easy¡¯ to unlock. What if we go to a Garden world, and we learn that it¡¯s built around making it easy to learn dancing skills, or something like that?


    ¡°Not to mention, Garden worlds were based around the Market keeping control of them. The Market has been destroyed for an unknown amount of time. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if most Garden worlds have fallen into disrepair, or even collapsed entirely.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± I frowned. ¡°I didn¡¯t think about the Garden worlds possibly collapsing. We¡¯ll have to be careful about that. However, I doubt that Garden worlds are ¡®random.¡¯ The Market is all about advertising, so I imagine most Garden worlds will tell us exactly what kind of Abilities they¡¯re focused on.¡± Then, I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not saying it¡¯s a perfect solution. As you said, we haven¡¯t seen a pool of reincarnation that leads us to a Garden world yet. A System world is probably more realistic. I just think we should try to find one that fits us, and then settle for a System world if that proves impossible.¡±


    ¡°I think Miria¡¯s plans both have merit,¡± said Anise. ¡°For a Garden world, we do need to be careful. However, most worlds seem rather hard to destroy entirely. Otherwise, people of the Market would definitely advertise all sorts of ludicrous ways to survive dimensions collapsing.With how mercantile the Market was during its heyday, I don¡¯t believe for a second that they wouldn¡¯t have tried to profit off of this. So while a few ¡®Garden¡¯ worlds might have collapsed, most should still be fine¡­ just in some level of disrepair.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I suppose that makes sense. I don¡¯t know if a Garden world would be useful for us after falling into disrepair, though. Even if the only thing that falls apart is whatever makes it ¡®easy¡¯ to learn certain Abilities there, it would still become a major issue for us.¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s fair. We don¡¯t know much about how things like dimensional terraforming work yet.¡±


    Anise shrugged. ¡°How about we keep an eye out for both? We can consider a world with a native System our first plan, and a Garden world our second plan? And then we just see which one we find first?¡±


    Sallia frowned, and then nodded. ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± she said.


    I nodded, and turned towards Felix. ¡°What do you think?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s a good enough plan for now,¡± he said. ¡°We can always reassess when we start finding a few more pools of reincarnation.


    I smiled.


    Our goal was decided. Now we just needed to find what we were looking for and defeat the defenders. I had enjoyed our time in the Market, but I was ready for a new world. It was almost time to set out on our next journey.

 Chapter 338: Heroics

    We spent the next few days searching the Market for an appropriate pool of reincarnation. We didn¡¯t stop to raid shops anymore. We avoided monsters, because the rewards from a fight didn¡¯t outweigh the danger of not finding the pool of reincarnation we needed. A unique guardian or two would give us a good chunk of Achievement, but it would also slow us down while we regenerated essence. A few hours spent regenerating essence might be the difference between a ¡®perfect¡¯ reincarnation pool and a basic one.


    Unfortunately, for the first two days of searching, we couldn¡¯t find anything. The other times we had been to the Market, it hadn¡¯t taken us very long to at least find a basic pool of reincarnation. However, in this area, we couldn¡¯t find anything at all. It was baffling - and also more than a little concerning.


    By the third day, all four of us were tense and anxious. If we didn¡¯t find any pool of reincarnation, we would be in a terrible position. We would waste a life dying and reincarnating in the Market, and lose an entire world of growth.


    Luckily, halfway through the day, we finally saw something.


    <I see a big advertisement that might be relevant to us,> said Felix, as he gazed towards the sky.


    I glanced upwards, and felt some of the tension and anxiety drain out of my shoulders.


    ¡®Thelimo¡¯s street of pools! The one-stop shop for your next life!


    Normally, finding an appropriate pool of reincarnation takes a lot of effort. You have to use your desired version of a search engine to look up all the reincarnation pools in your area, know what you want before you even set out, and then walk or take a teleporter to your destination. That cuts out half the fun of window shopping!


    Here at Thelimo¡¯s friendly corporation, we decided to put some of the fun back in shopping! We made a deal with all of the corporations in zone 11425-B to put all of the reincarnation pools on this street! Now accessible for only one hundred Achievement per entry!¡¯


    I had no idea how big zone 11425-B of this Nursery was, but at the very least, I now understood why we hadn¡¯t seen any other pools of reincarnation.


    Sitting right in front of the advertisement was a toll gate, with a little cash register for collecting Achievement from visitors. The toll gate itself had fallen apart over centuries of neglect. At this point, it was little more than scrap metal.


    <Well, we finally found what we need,> said Sallia. I could hear a hint of relaxation in her mental voice.


    We stepped over the rusted gate, and spent a moment checking the cash register to see if there was any Achievement to loot. Sadly, it was picked clean - some other group must have gotten to it first. Since there was nothing we could do about it, we moved on, and found ourselves in a large, enclosed street. In every direction, there were large, metal walls - build to keep visitors out, I assumed. The street itself had a few smaller shops lined up inside of it - they looked kind of like cheap gas-station shops, except that they sold last-minute soul fragments or Abilities that people might want. On the other side of the street, we saw our first pool of reincarnation.


    The first pool that we saw strongly resembled the first pool of reincarnation we had ever used. It looked like a giant greek temple, and was guarded by a few dozen skeleton soldiers and mages. The sign floating above the building noted that this pool of reincarnation was a generic one - it wouldn¡¯t change the outcome of where we landed at all. Without a word, the four of us ignored it. It wasn¡¯t useful enough for us to use.


    The second pool of reincarnation was only slightly better. It advertised that it would send us to a world where ¡®the gender ratio of males to females is 1:100! The best place to vacation for a (male) transmigrator in need of a break! (World is guaranteed to be Tier 1, or your money back!)


    Shockingly, the defenders for that building were even lower than the generic pool of reincarnation. Which told me everything I needed to know about how useful that pool of reincarnation was for us.


    I saw Sallia roll her eyes at that one, and then give Felix a glare when he looked ever so slightly interested for a few seconds.


    ¡°I was just curious to know how that was biologically possible,¡± he said, shifting uneasily. ¡°A population with such a ridiculous ratio of males to females should die out, right? I can¡¯t think of how enough babies are born each year to compensate for the death rate that simple old age would cause.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Said Sallia, sounding extremely unimpressed. ¡°I¡¯m sure that¡¯s the only thing you were interested in.¡±


    Felix turned slightly red, and then cleared his throat awkwardly and shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s keep going. These two clearly aren¡¯t of interest to us, and I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any meaning in fighting off the security for either building.¡±


    I also rolled my eyes, although unlike Sallia, I was trying not to laugh. We ignored the two buildings and kept moving - although we did start to notice that skeletal patrols were coming closer to us. We hadn¡¯t needed to hide from any of them yet - but if the skeletons kept increasing in density, we would need to either start fighting or hiding soon.


    The third pool of reincarnation we saw was a bit different. Unlike the first two, which were styled like greek temples, the third building was styled like a glamorous palace made of gold. It looked tacky. However, the guards in the building were far more dangerous than they had been for the first two buildings. I could see a few glowing red eyeballs peeking out of the corners of the building, with flickering bits of light and hunger inside of it. I had no idea what the creatures were, but they made my hair stand up. I didn¡¯t feel like they were overwhelmingly powerful, but I felt like we would be in for a real fight if we went against them.


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    Sallia grimaced.


    ¡°Shame. If the world was focused on something different, I think it would have been useful for us,¡± she said.


    I checked the billboard floating above the building.


    ¡®The golden trade shop! Enter our pool of reincarnation, and we guarantee that you¡¯ll be born as a noble in a world with technology approximately equivalent to the ¡®iron age¡¯ (see user manual for more details on exact tech parameters and limitations. Please keep in mind that some variation from one world to another is to be expected, but we can still guarantee a rough technology level. This pool will only consider landed nobles to be proper nobles, so customers don¡¯t need to fear being born into a family of impoverished knights or anything like that!)¡¯


    ¡°Huh,¡± I said. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize pools of reincarnation could get that specific.¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I have to say, I actually wouldn¡¯t mind using this one at some point. Starting out as nobles in an iron age world would give us a lot of interesting potential. As long as it¡¯s possible to do so, I could start some sort of technological revolution to harvest Achievement. It isn¡¯t what we currently need, but it¡¯s something to think about in the future. Besides, I wouldn¡¯t mind being born as a noble. It would give us plenty of starting resources, and smooth out our childhood quite a bit.¡±


    Sallia snorted. ¡°Noble houses are less pretty than you think. If you end up as the firstborn child, or if your family had unusual inheritance laws that benefit you, you¡¯ll have lots of potential. But you¡¯ll also have a lot of limitations. Nobles are shackled by a lot of things in their surroundings - the standing of their noble house, prestige, income, neighboring nobles¡­¡± Sallia sighed, as she drifted into thought for a few moments. ¡°In my first world, before I entered the Market, I often wished I was born as a commoner instead. I would have had less freedom, but I would have at least guaranteed that I could pursue my dreams in peace. Being born as a noble is both a blessing and a curse, and if we don¡¯t have very specific plans and abilities, I wager it would be more of a curse than a boon for us.¡±


    Felix nodded thoughtfully. ¡°I didn¡¯t think about that, I suppose.¡±


    ¡°Neither did I,¡± admitted Anise. ¡°I always read about nobles in books, but they were usually portrayed as having pretty relaxed and glamorous lives. Then again, in our last world, nobles were a fading relic of a bygone era. I suppose it makes sense for people to make things up about them, since most countries didn¡¯t have nobles anymore.¡±


    Sallia shrugged. ¡°Anyway. Let¡¯s keep moving.¡±


    The next two pools of reincarnation were also housed inside of greek-style temples, and advertised reincarnation conditions that didn¡¯t interest our group. The first one guaranteed that we would reincarnate in a Tier 20 world. I had no idea why the heck someone had decided to open that pool of reincarnation in a nursery of all places. It was baffling. Would most people in this area just die the moment they reincarnated in a Tier 20 world?


    I suppose, if it was very easy to buy lives back then, some newer members of the Market might be willing to waste a life just to satisfy their curiosity. At least, that was my best guess for why this pool of reincarnation existed at all. Either way, it was worthless for us.


    The other pool of reincarnation advertised a guarantee that all four essences would be present at once. That was interesting, but all four of us had our primary magic systems set up already. Thus, having fewer magic systems in the world was more of a blessing than a curse - after all, any advantage we had over the natives would make it easier to get more influence Achievement.


    The sixth temple was where things got interesting. It once again deviated from the Greek temple style of building, and instead had opted for creating a very small artificial island. At first, I thought the building just had a moat around it, but after a few moments of observation, I realized that the building wasn¡¯t surrounded by a moat. The island it stood upon was literally floating on the water.


    The reincarnation pool itself was less interesting - it advertised a Garden world that was in the ¡®early galactic age.¡¯ I had no idea what that even meant - I had never reincarnated in a world that had developed any real way to colonize other star systems. I certainly found the idea of a galactic civilization interesting - but it wasn¡¯t really anything we needed right now. Perhaps some other time, seeing a real galactic civilization would have filled me with a sense of wonder and excitement, but we had other priorities.


    The next pool of reincarnation was more interesting. On the outside, it didn¡¯t look like much. All I could see was a dirty, rundown little cabin, surrounded by a few scraggly, artificial-looking trees. I couldn¡¯t even see any skeletons, or other monsters hovering around the area to defend it. Initially, that made me wonder if the pool of reincarnation was useless - but the ad floating above it piqued my interest again.


    ¡®A Garden world for someone who wants to be a hero!


    Many garden worlds are oriented towards growing a specific set of abilities. They allow the user to focus on swordsmanship skills, or spatial magic, or science. However, few garden worlds have a full experience baked into their world!


    This garden world sells a proper experience of being a ¡®hero.¡¯ (a variety of limitations and oddities may apply, see user manual for more details).


    Note - this world is perpetually trapped in an era analogous to the bronze era, with a few differences. Since fire does not exist in this dimension, metalworking is not very prevalent. Some ways to create metal weapons still exist within the magic system, but metal weapons are far more expensive to create than in most worlds. This world is especially focused on a variety of magical skills, and it is built to make it easy to form ¡®traditional mage¡¯ skills. (See user manual for more details). Those who are less interested in these skills might wish to turn to other worlds for their next reincarnation.


    I glanced at the rest of the street. There was only one other pool of reincarnation present, and it advertised a reincarnation in a world that was between Tier 2 and Tier 6 in strength. That was a useful pool of reincarnation, but it didn¡¯t fit our needs anywhere near as well as this Garden world.


    I turned towards my friends, and they shrugged.


    This world might not fit our needs¡­ but we could at least see if there was a remaining ¡®user manual¡¯ to give us more information. This world certainly seemed more useful than the other pools of reincarnation we had seen on this street, and time was running out.


    Thus, the three of us started walking towards the dilapidated cabin.

 Chapter 339: Into the Darkness

    Even after walking up to the entrance of the cabin, we still hadn¡¯t seen any monsters. This made me more than a little nervous. All of the other pools of reincarnation were swarming with monsters. This was true for even the weakest and least specific of reincarnation pools that we had used in the past. This cabin was empty - and none of us had any idea why. The decorations were also odd. When we saw most Market buildings, they were either reduced to rubble or in a state of disrepair. However, in most cases we could still tell what they had once looked like. The Market had gone all out on some pretty crazy construction projects - they had created magical, futuristic buildings that would have put a child¡¯s fairytale book to shame.


    This building wasn¡¯t like that. The dilapidated cabin looked like it had been in disrepair long before the Market had fallen. It had no real coherent decoration theme, or anything that made it look fancy or magical. If it were a store, we might have assumed that it just hadn¡¯t been very financially successful. However, this was supposed to be a gateway to a Garden world. Would the people capable of transforming an entire dimension struggle to refurbish a single building in the Market? The idea seemed ludicrous. In other words, the way this building was decorated was intentional. It had to be. And none of us could figure out why.


    The only thing that brought me comfort in these anomalies was Sallia¡¯s theory - that the reason this building had no monsters was because of its impoverished-looking decorations. We hadn¡¯t figured out how, but the monsters of the Market always congregated around expensive items. The more expensive something had been during the Market¡¯s heyday, the more defenders it had. New monsters even drifted in to replace the dead after they were slain, keeping a constant level of threat up for any new transmigrators. However, the monsters clearly had to have some way to assess the ¡®value¡¯ of any building or item. Otherwise, there  was no way they would congregate around expensive areas. Sallia theorized that this cabin was abandoned because the decorations were so impoverished that monsters just¡­ didn¡¯t think this was worth protecting.


    It was a theory that felt a bit forced, but it was our best guess for how a Garden world had remained unguarded by any big, powerful monsters. Assuming that this place was, in fact, unguarded, at least. The other theory Sallia had was that there was a Guardian here, and we hadn¡¯t noticed it yet. A much more terrifying - and plausible - theory.


    <Should we go in?> asked Anise, as she hovered in front of the old, rotten door.


    Sallia swallowed nervously, and readjusted her grip on her sword. <We should, I suppose. We can¡¯t just sit around and hope that the pool of reincarnation walks out of the cabin to meet us. But¡­ maybe I should go first?> Sallia said, as she gently nudged Anise out of the way. <Just in case there¡¯s something dangerous inside.>


    Anise hesitated for a moment, before she nodded and moved to the back. She pulled out a few of Felix¡¯s grenades, and I readied an extinguish. Even though I couldn¡¯t see anything inside of the cabin using soul-sight or spatial sight, there was no reason to be unprepared.


    Sallia swallowed nervously again, and then kicked open the door, before immediately pointing her sword at the interior of the cabin.


    Nothing sprung out at us from the darkness. Instead, we were greeted with more silence and emptiness. Sallia took a cautious step inside, followed by the rest of us.


    The inside of the cabin itself was also small and cramped, at least by Market standards. It was still much larger than a real cabin - but over half of the floor space was taken up by a pool of reincarnation at the center of the room. The pool was situated right in the middle of the room and the other parts of the floor were cramped and unsteady. If one of us tripped, it would be easy to fall into the pool by accident and take an early trip to the next life. On the other side of the room, one of the floor components was a bit larger, leaving just enough space for a large metal chair that was bolted to the floor.


    ¡°Is this really it?¡± asked Sallia, as she glanced at the pool. ¡°I was expecting more.¡±


    I also frowned. I had expected that perhaps the interior of the cabin would look different, but it also looked like a dump.


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    Anise and Felix gave the area cursory inspections, as they started to circle the room. Sallia kept her sword at the ready, but none of us could see any danger in the area.


    ¡°The lack of monsters is kind of disturbing, if you ask me. Do you think maybe this ¡®Garden World¡¯ is a scam?¡± asked Felix, a few moments later.


    ¡°A scam?¡± I asked, as I swallowed nervously.


    I hadn¡¯t thought very much about it before. However, the Market had seemed like a rather chaotic environment during its golden age. Where there was chaos and profit, there were also people who skimmed a little money off the top. I didn¡¯t know if the Market had any sort of countermeasure in place for handling thieves - but if they didn¡¯t, it was entirely possible that there were counterfeit products in the Market. Such as reincarnation pools that didn¡¯t send people where they were supposed to. If we had used a fake pool of reincarnation during the Market¡¯s heyday, it would have been a huge inconvenience to us. However, it wouldn¡¯t have been the end of the world, even if we couldn¡¯t recover the Achievement we lost. If our findings from last visit to the Market could be believed, lives hadn¡¯t been that expensive before the collapse.


    However, that was only true before the collapse of the Market. Now, we had no easy way to purchase more lives. Reincarnating in the wrong world would cost us far more than a few thousand Achievement - it had a high chance of costing us any chance we had of our continued survival.


    Just as my heart rate started to spike, and I wondered if I had led my friends into a dead end, I realized something was odd about Felix¡¯s theory.


    ¡°If this was just a scam, it doesn¡¯t make sense for it to be located on this street,¡± I said. ¡°After all, the corporation that set up this street seems to have bribed all of the corporations in the area to keep everyone in line. Having a defective reincarnation pool would tarnish the reputation of this street, and then all eight reincarnation pools would lose business. Unless the company had some way to silence criticism of any users¡­ but I¡¯m not sure how they would accomplish that. The Market makes it very easy for people to ¡®escape¡¯ and give warnings to others, because the moment someone dies, they return to the Market and start sounding the alarm bells. Even if the companies that set this street up were somehow ¡®in on it,¡¯ I think they would place a scam product somewhere else. Maybe a few streets away, so that any complaints wouldn¡¯t lead back to them. Instead, it would reinforce people¡¯s beliefs that they should use this street, with its high entry fee, and avoid using untrustworthy external pools of reincarnation. So I don¡¯t think this building is an outright scam, at least.¡±


    Felix relaxed slightly. ¡°That makes sense. Then what gives? Why is this building so¡­ run down? Surely a company that can afford to set up a Garden world can afford basic decorations? I can¡¯t imagine that it costs more to do some basic decoration than it does to terraform an entire dimension.¡±


    ¡°Let me check something,¡± said Anise. ¡°There was a series of books that I really liked last world, and while it might not be the same here, I could always give it a try.¡± I blinked in surprise, but nodded as Anise started to test various walls, odd latches, and oddities in the room. A few minutes passed by, as she continued to fiddle around. Just as I was about to ask what she was doing, Anise moved to the metal chair, and her eyes lit up.


    She shifted something, and I heard a few clinking sounds, followed by a hiss. Then, a hidden door popped open, right next to the chair.


    I blinked in surprise. Anise turned towards the three of us, and gave us a smug, happy grin. I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug, which Anise returned with a giggle.


    ¡°There was a similar situation in a book I liked!¡± said Anise, enjoying her moment in the spotlight. ¡°In that book, a Zelyrian mage had a¡­ I forget the name the author of that book used. But basically, a Zelyrian mage used magic to create a sign. To people who used a certain spell in front of the sign, it would reveal its real nature - a set of instructions for how to get to a hidden room, where you could buy the real wares of the shop. Then, there was a fake store front for guard inspections and regular customers, and that part of the shop had regular wares. I know we didn¡¯t use any spells in front of the advertisement out front, but I figured that the Market could have a much more effective way to find customers. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if the advertisements here can directly sense what we ¡®want,¡¯ or maybe the entire district overheard our conversation about what we wanted for our next life.¡± Anise shrugged. ¡°Either way, I thought it was worth trying.¡±


    ¡°Well done,¡± said Felix, as he gave Anise a quick headpat. ¡°I didn¡¯t think in that direction at all.¡± He turned towards the empty chair. ¡°The chair is probably to show interested customers the way to the ¡®real¡¯ wares of the shop.¡± Then, Felix frowned. ¡°However, we still don¡¯t know why this shop felt a need to hide the Garden world.¡±


    Anise glanced down the secret hatch she had found.


    ¡°Maybe the answers are down there?¡± she asked.


    I nodded, and glanced down. I couldn¡¯t see the bottom - it just looked like a gaping abyss, with only a flight of stairs to show us the way. Somehow, the stairs existed without any source of light, or walls, so it looked like the stairs just led us out into the middle of space. Even more confusing was the fact that I couldn¡¯t see the end of the stairs - the area was definitely messing with space somehow, because my all-too-human senses could not make heads or tails of the area.


    But even though the sight made me nervous, this Garden world was too valuable to pass up. So the four of us began making our way down the dark, spatially contorted staircase and hoped for the best.

 Chapter 340: Back into the Ocean

    The flight of stairs felt like it stretched on into infinity. Every single step we took felt like an empty footstep into a long-distant, lightless world.


    A few moments later, I started to see souls approaching us. However, there was something odd about them. Most souls that approached us did so in full view, but when I looked at these souls, I felt almost like I was watching something through thick, foggy glass. Something was weird about them.


    <I see souls approaching us, but I can¡¯t see them well,> I said. <I¡¯m going to try to extinguish them. Keep an eye on what happens, especially in the more physical side of the world.>


    <Got it,> said Sallia, as she prepared her sword.


    A moment later, I finally saw the physical form of the odd souls. A swarm of tiny creatures flew out of the dark abyss, looking almost like flying worms the size of my arm. I felt a shudder pass through my body as one of the worms grew a human ribcage, before the ends of each rib ripped open and started crawling through the air like a bony spider. Another of the worms grew fleshy tumors, which popped like bubbles and spurted green pus at us.


    I slammed an extinguish into the pus-spitting flesh worm, and grimaced as the creature survived. I had thought I loaded in enough alteration essence to kill it on the spot, since it had about a third of my life force - but somehow, my extinguish felt like it was trying to push through something the moment I aimed it. As if the creature had some sort of shell or spell protecting it.


    I gritted my teeth, and used more alteration essence to push at the creature. My essence drained away, but a moment later, whatever had protected the creature cracked. My extinguish finally touched the creature, and it died instantly.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Fleshling of the Lightless Void


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +400, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That bumped my Achievement from 9,298.46 to 9,698.46.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Fleshling of the Lightless Void for the first time. New Skill created.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Resilient body - Warped Flesh: Upon cutting off part of your body, it will exhibit abnormal mutations that will always somehow attack whatever you were targeting before the new piece of your body was separated. Mutations are random.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I immediately rejected the skill. I got the feeling it wouldn¡¯t work with {Eldritch Soul}, and I didn¡¯t think chopping off my limbs to use them as offensive weapons was a very good use of my skill slots.


    The other three worms flew towards Sallia, who swung her sword at them with inhuman strength and grace. Her blade halted for a moment at the same shell I had encountered, and bounced off. Before the bone-spider-worm could take advantage of that opening, Sallia activated her physical boosts, twisted her blade, and swung again. This time, the shell provided little resistance as Sallia chopped through the three worms like they were made of hot butter.


    <A bit tough, but not too hard to kill,> she said.


    I grimaced, as I noticed several more souls in the distance as they started to move towards us.


    <Incoming,> I said.


    We started running down the staircase, moving as fast as possible to reduce our encounters with the annoying worms. The worms seemed to sense our agitation, and swarmed us wave after wave. However, they weren¡¯t that much of a threat. They were somewhat scary, but manageable. We just needed enough strength to punch through their shell in order to deal with them.


    Within a minute of starting our mad dash, we found the other end of the staircase. The endless, lightless void, as well as the thin staircase that threaded through space, ended in a giant metal door that looked almost like the exterior of a nuclear bunker. Just outside of the bunker, there was a large wheel.


    <How do we open this thing?> I asked.


    Felix stepped forward, and touched the wheel. A giant set of glowing letters appeared on the wall.


    ¡®Please wait for the shop attendant to open the wall, valued customers. As a final reminder, you must pay the shop attendant before they open the door. Thank you for using our services and have a nice day!¡¯


    I felt a sudden urge to hurl an extinguish at the metal wall.


    Felix snorted, and started poking at the metal wall itself, before he shook his head.


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    <Looks like the wheel itself is some kind of¡­ magically encoded key. I doubt I could figure it out.>


    I felt my heart sink.


    So this was all for nothing?


    <Luckily, I don¡¯t need to figure it out,> said Felix, a hint of mischievous glee appearing in his thoughts. <This thing hasn¡¯t been maintained in centuries, or possibly millenia. I can just break the rest with brute force. Give me a few minutes.>


    Our group killed another two waves of flying worms while Felix used his binding essence to ¡®bind¡¯ parts of the enchantment to the staircase. With each action, he seemed more tired¡­ but he also successfully ripped out parts of the enchantment with each action. Finally, he grinned.


    <Way harder than I thought it would be, but it worked. Opening it now!>


    he pushed on the wheel, and the wheel sank into the wall with a flashing red error message. A moment later, the giant metal bunker doors slid open, and we rushed inside. A few seconds later, Felix fiddled with the door again, and even though it flashed more error messages at us in giant glowing letters, the door did close again.


    <I doubt it¡¯ll hold for long, but it should keep them out for a few minutes,> said Felix. <And if we need to flee from a second layer of defenses, I can open it again pretty fast.>


    I relaxed, I took a few seconds to review the other System notifications I had ignored during the fight.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Fleshling of the Lightless Void for the fifth time, assist in killing a Fleshling of the Lightless Void for the first time, assist in killing a Fleshling of the Lightless Void for the fifth time


    Influence: Contributed to the defense of the Market by an [extremely negligible] amount.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +600, Achievement +100, Achievement +300, Achievement +0.00


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Those three rewards gave me a neat 1,000 Achievement, bringing my total from 9,698.46 to 10,698.46.


    Then, I started taking in our new surroundings.


    The inside of the magic bunker was very different from the aboveground part of the facility. Above ground, the pool of reincarnation had looked like a rotting dump. The underground facility looked much better. It wasn¡¯t amazing - it certainly didn¡¯t look as fancy as some of the other buildings for pools of reincarnation that we had seen on the street. However, it still had a certain level of quality to it that made me feel at ease.


    We were now standing in a massive hall, filled with soft blue and gold light that trickled in from the wall. It looked distinctly magical, in a ¡®children¡¯s fairytale¡¯ kind of way. I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on what the walls were made of - or even where they were. It was almost like we were standing inside of a cloud.


    I scanned the area, and confirmed that there were no other souls in the area. It seemed that the rusty lock outside had kept any enemies from infiltrating the inner part of this pool of reincarnation - or perhaps I was just failing to notice the enemy.


    <This is more what I was expecting from a Garden World. I wonder why the decorations on the surface are so bad, though. And why they have this two-layer reincarnation pool. Very odd,> said Felix.


    A moment later, I heard a new voice enter the room, which caught me off-guard and nearly made me jump in surprise.


    ¡°Attention customers, if you are listening to this, you acknowledge the risk of piracy from stealing reincarnation slots in Garden world ¡®Hero¡¯s journey,¡¯ run by the corporation ¡®SwordSplosion,¡± said a mechanical voice. I couldn¡¯t pinpoint the source of the voice - it seemed to emanate from every wisp of the cloud we were standing in. I searched for a soul, and couldn¡¯t detect anything. Whatever we were dealing with was either shielded, or not alive to begin with. Since we had seen a bunch of other artificial intelligences in the Market, I suspected this was another AI.


    ¡°Piracy?¡± asked Anise.


    Unlike many of the other artificial intelligences we had encountered in the Market, this one didn¡¯t respond to Anise¡¯s question.


    ¡°However, by seeing the correct sign at the top of the building, and being screened by the attendant, you have already earned the right to use our amazing pool of reincarnation. Most Garden Worlds charge truly extortionate prices, and creating a backdoor entrance without being noticed is truly difficult. However, we¡¯ve done the hard part. Please proceed at your leisure,¡± said the voice.


    I heard a humming sound, and then, right in front of us, I saw a new pool of reincarnation appear.


    ¡°Backdoor. Piracy,¡± muttered Sallia. ¡°So that¡¯s why this part of the facility is hidden.¡±


    I resisted the urge to snort. At least one question was finally answered.


    This place looked like a dump because it needed to be camouflaged. Otherwise, the real corporation that owned this Garden world would crack down on the reincarnation pool here. I wondered if the other buildings also had their own, hidden sides to them - places where Market residents could get illicit reincarnations at a fraction of their normal price, as long as they kept mum about this street¡¯s real business. It was hard to say - there was still a lot about the Market that we didn¡¯t know. I looked at the pool of reincarnation. Was it¡­ safe to use a pirated pool of reincarnation?


    On the other hand, did we have any choice? We had two worlds left. We needed to grow as fast as we could. Otherwise, we would have no chance at all of securing more lives. Compared to the risk of entering the fight that would determine our fate empty-handed, using a pirated pool of reincarnation seemed like a much lesser risk.


    ¡°The attendant should have discussed all of the details of this world with you already. Do you still have a reason to hesitate? Please proceed. If you have any further questions, please bring them up with the shop attendant.¡± said the synthetic, artificial voice.


    I grimaced. This thing was definitely an artificial intelligence - and not a very bright one, at that. Hearing that we should have had more details, but didn¡¯t get any because the shop attendant was gone felt a bit disheartening. But we still needed to move forward. We were almost out of time before our bodies started dissolving, and we needed to move on to our next life.


    Besides, while we didn¡¯t know everything, everything that we knew made it seem like this world fit our needs perfectly. There might be unexpected wrinkles in our new world, or things that we had to explore for ourselves - but I still felt that this world suited us far better than any other.


    I sighed, and stepped into the pool of reincarnation.

 Chapter 341: The Dayless Isles

    After we jumped into the pool of reincarnation, as usual, we were punted into the ocean of souls. I felt as if a giant hand had grabbed me, and quickly found myself being dragged in a very specific direction. I looked around, and saw my friends trailing behind me, connected to me by a giant thread of light. I relaxed.


    I had been a bit worried about this pool of reincarnation, but at least so far, it looked like things were turning out fine. Nothing seemed out of place.


    Time passed. after about an hour, we arrived at our destination. I felt something reach out to me, and my soul latched onto it like a sailor clutching a piece of driftwood after a shipwreck.


    I was quickly dragged into stillness, softness, and darkness as my mana-brain started to collapse.


    Then, I felt a pushing sensation. I realized I was being born, and tried to open my eyes as wide as possible to get a look at my parents. My eyes were still rather undeveloped, so I didn¡¯t manage to take in very many details - however, I could faintly hear my mother grunting and laughing, while a man I assumed was my father stroked my head and laughed in delight. My mother¡¯s hair seemed awfully bright, and something seemed rather unusual about it - but before I could get a better look, I felt myself fall back into sleep.


    Time passed. I occasionally woke up for brief periods of time, but my brain was too undeveloped to support me. Thus, as usual, I felt thick, fuzzy headaches and swollen eyelids over and over again, pushing against my thoughts and making it hard to concentrate. My body fell into autopilot as I tried and struggled to make sense of my surroundings.


    Despite that, I still managed to make out a few things. First of all, I spent a lot of time in a room that was fairly brightly lit. I could tell that there were glass jars in each corner of the room, emitting both light and heat. Normally, I would have found it annoying to sleep in such bright light - but oddly enough, my eyelids seemed much better at shutting out light than usual. Even though I knew I was in the middle of a bright room, when I closed my eyes for sleep, I had no problem with the brightness.


    Second, I sometimes got glimpses of a city, with either my mother or father holding me. Both of them held me like I was made of glass, but they sounded cheerful as they spoke with the other residents of the city. My eyes were still nowhere near as developed as I ¡®expected¡¯ them to be, but I could definitely tell that the people of this city had some rather unusual features. Some people seemed to have rather¡­ fuzzy ears on top of their heads, and others had pointed ears, making me think of elves and beastkin.


    Finally, I was aware of one final thing. A warmth that was attached to my side, and also made happy giggling sounds from time to time. It didn¡¯t take me long to realize what this meant.


    I had a sibling. I was pretty sure they were my twin - although they might have been a year older or younger than me. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure, since my periods of consciousness were so scattered, but my twin stuck to me like glue.


    I felt a bit happy at the thought of having a twin. I had never had one before, but having a twin sister or brother sounded fun.


    Through several months of hazy, fluttering consciousness, I noticed a few other things about my living environment. I always felt warm and well fed. I often heard the sound of a man and a woman laughing when I woke up. I was usually held in someone¡¯s arms when I woke up, and I could usually feel my twin nearby.


    My family situation this time seemed to be good.


    The other thing I noticed was light.


    This world¡¯s light, as well as the way my eyes worked, seemed very different from before. Even though I could barely think straight, I rarely felt hungry or tired. I felt pretty good.


    I felt a bit relieved when I realized that.


    I had tried so hard to get close to my mother last life. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was because she just had a different outlook on life than me, or if she just couldn¡¯t beat her addiction, but¡­ I had never felt like my overtures towards my mother were returned. I always felt like no matter how much love I tried to give my mother last life, it was never returned. That felt bad.


    My parents this time seemed to love both my twin and I a lot, which felt far more relaxing. I didn¡¯t think I needed to worry about drug addiction, or the cold, or finding ways to feed myself because my mother was high again.


    Then, I felt guilty for thinking that way. I did think my mother had tried to kick her addiction last life - she just hadn¡¯t been able to do it. Was it wrong for me to feel relieved that I didn¡¯t need to grapple with that kind of problem this time?


    Finally, after a few years of drifting in and out of consciousness, my brain stabilized enough that I could properly return to being awake for an extended period of time. When I woke up, I was greeted by a series of System notifications.


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    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Congratulations on Successfully Transmigrating!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Analyzing this world¡­ Analysis complete!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essences Present in this dimension: All four essences present (No essence is mixed with any other essence.)


    Estimated tier: 4 (according to the Market¡¯s standardized power evaluation scale)


    Special Notes: Garden world. Owned by __________ ?@#*%


    (error detected. Please notify ______ that world is in need of maintenance. Error detected. Please die and return to the Market so that information can be returned to @#($*. You will be rewarded heavily for returning early!)


    World is focused on a variety of magic skills (see user manual for details). (User manual can be referenced at any time by thinking ¡®user manual.¡¯


    Error - User manual data not found. Please try again later.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I took a look at the System notification, and resisted the urge to sigh. Of course the world was in need of maintenance. And the user manual was mentioned to, which got my hopes up only to bring them crashing back down. I seriously doubted the corporation that owned this world was in any condition to do maintenance here. It was an open question whether there were any surviving employees of the corporation in the first place.


    We would be on our own this time.


    Still, that wasn¡¯t terrible. We had been on our own every other world we reincarnated in, too. We would just have to make our way without any guidance, just like always.


    I shrugged, and then opened my Status Screen. It was time to see how capable this body was.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength: (40+97)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence: (40+125)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption: (40+126)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility: (40+111)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower: (40+70)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation:  (40+90)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude: (40+107)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception: (40+100)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (40+107)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (60+112)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After looking at the physical attributes this body had, I grinned. I had no complaints about my rolls, except for Willpower. On one hand, my two most important essences had both rolled above average. My Intelligence was also nothing to scoff at - I was probably the first of the four of us to be awake, unless someone else had been luckier with their rolls. Since I could expect to get several more stats after rebuilding my runes, I felt I had gotten pretty lucky this time.


    My physical stats were fine as well. My strength was a bit below average, but I didn¡¯t really care about any of my physical stats besides Fortitude. I didn¡¯t rely on my physical stats for combat anymore. Teleporting attacks away from me was far more reliable than dodging, and extinguish hit far harder than any fist against most enemies. I could definitely work with this.


    Basically, I had nothing to complain about this reincarnation. My family seemed at least reasonably well off, my body had no major deficiencies, and my runes could resolve my low willpower and perception.


    After that, I started to look at the room I found myself in. True to my earlier observations, I was in the middle of a brightly lit, warm room. All of the light and heat seemed to come from four glass containers, which hung at each corner of the room. I was sitting in the middle of a soft crib, with padded wooden bars to keep me or my twin from rolling out and hurting ourselves. The top of the crib was carved with a variety of birds, and while the workmanship wasn¡¯t exquisite, it still looked better than average. There were a bunch of toys scattered around the room, although most of them looked like they hadn¡¯t been played with much. There were also a few decorations that were plastered on the walls and ceiling, although I had to admit, I had no idea what they were decorations of. The only one that made sense to me was the picture of a giant tree.


    I giggled. Either way, decorations in our room was a good sign. It seemed like our parents really weren¡¯t worried about food and water, at least. They could meet basic needs without difficulty.


    I scanned the crib, and my eyes quickly alighted on the other inhabitant of the crib. There, I saw a girl who also looked to be three or four years old. She had bright pink hair, was a bit shorter than me, and she looked awfully familiar. I stared at her in surprise, and then blinked.


    <Anise? Is that you?> I asked.


    The toddler in the other crib stirred, and it almost looked like she was trying to lift her head and look around. I heard a sleepy voice come across the communication bracelet. <Miria? Head¡­ slee¡­ spell¡­>


    The baby I had been observing flopped over and rolled back into her resting position, but that action only cemented my suspicion.


    For the first time ever, two members of our group had reincarnated as siblings.


    I was now Anise¡¯s twin.

 Chapter 342: Foxes and Elves

    After seeing Anise roll back over, I smiled. I moved a little bit closer to her, and with some difficulty, managed to give her a nice hug. I checked Anise¡¯s ears, and confirmed my suspicion. Anise had pointy ears, just like some of the other people I had glimpsed in my brief moments of consciousness. My limbs were still clumsy and awkward, so I had a hard time feeling my own ears, but I suspected I had the same ears as Anise.


    Then, I wrapped my arms around my twin and settled back down. Anise clearly wasn¡¯t awake yet, so I had probably rolled a higher Intelligence stat than her. I checked with the others, but nobody else seemed awake yet. Maybe I had woken up first this time?


    I spent the rest of the day rebuilding my [Basic] grade attunement, so that I could use extinguish or healing spells at a moment¡¯s notice.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form a Basic-Grade Attunement for the first time


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Seeing 500 Achievement for forming a basic grade attunement was a huge shock to me. I had never gotten so much Achievement just for taking the first step before. In our second world, where I had first gained my Alteration Ability, I recalled getting around 250 Achievement for reaching Basic-Grade attunement.


    Was this the impact of reincarnating in a Garden world? If so, I could understand why people valued them so highly. This was double the Achievement I usually got, for the exact same amount of effort. And the biggest impact of a Garden world was making it easier to form certain types of Ability, a benefit I hadn¡¯t even seen yet.


    I felt myself start to smile as I realized just how beneficial this world could be for us. My first step alone had already brought me from 11,701 Achievement to 12,201.


    The next few days passed quietly. Even though I was pretty sure I was going to make portals my first ability rune, I still decided to give myself a few weeks to get a better feel for this world. I couldn¡¯t undo an ability rune after I formed it, so I wanted to make absolutely sure I knew what I wanted before I jumped into rune formation.


    I also confirmed that none of the others were awake yet. If I tried to call out to Sallia, Anise, or Felix, I would get sleepy mumbling and murmuring from them - but nothing very coherent. It resembled sleep-talk more than real speech. Felix¡¯s sentences sounded almost awake, so he was probably going to wake up soon.


    I remembered that last world, we had confirmed that the [Intelligence] stat had some sort of role in how quickly we ¡®woke up¡¯ after reincarnating. The higher the Intelligence stat, the faster our brain grew and adapted to our existence as reincarnation, allowing us to start functioning again. Based on that, I imagined that Felix might even have the same Grade of Intelligence as me, with just a few less points. However, Sallia and Anise were still barely conscious. It would probably be several months before they truly woke up. They were probably one or two grades of Intelligence lower this time.


    Apart from confirming the condition of my friends, I started to explore the house we lived in more and get to know more about my parents this time.


    Just like I had first assumed, my family was at least reasonably well off. We weren¡¯t living in the lap of luxury - we didn¡¯t have servants, or anything else that screamed wealth. But we weren¡¯t hurting for money, either. Anise and I were wearing new, clean clothes. My parents also had clean, tailored clothes that looked new. We had plenty of food to eat. My mother and father both looked well-groomed and well-fed.


    I also noticed a much more glaring inhuman feature, now that I had more mental acuity. My mother had two fuzzy ears on top of her head, and a large, fuzzy tail. She was a Kitsune, or at least strongly resembled them. She had thick, reddish hair and generous curves. She was gorgeous.


    I had slightly tailored my physique to match my idea of ¡®beauty¡¯ over the past few lives - not to make myself outrageously beautiful, but certainly enough to look pretty. I enjoyed looking nice, as long as I still kept certain limits to it and avoided attracting too much attention. My mother easily surpassed every modification I had ever made to my face and body over the past few lives. I wasn¡¯t sure if my mom was unusually attractive, or if that was the norm for this world, but my mom was definitely a looker.


    My father was also rather handsome. He had pointy ears, like many other residents of the city, a trait that Anise and I had seemingly inherited. He had dark green hair, with a color that bordered on black but didn¡¯t quite reach it. Despite having the ears of an ¡®elf,¡¯ his body was larger and sturdier than the stereotypical elf. He looked more like a male lead in a romance novel - he had thick but not grotesque muscles that were visible through his shirt, and a large, vibrant face.


    He smiled a lot, and his laughter boomed through the house several times a day. Despite having the ears of an elf, he resembled a friendly giant more than anything else.


    I also noticed that our house always smelled like bread. I hadn¡¯t finished learning the language yet, but I was pretty sure my parents owned some kind of bakery. I had no idea how that was even possible, since I thought I remembered the advertisement in the Market claiming this world didn¡¯t have fire. That confused me, but for now, I decided to wait until I had a better understanding of this world. However, the fact that we were probably living in a bakery made me smile sadly once I noticed it.


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    If Old Mo had been here, he would have loved seeing a bakery in an entirely different dimension. Unfortunately, he had returned to the ocean of souls decades ago, and unlike the four of us, he wasn¡¯t part of the Market. In all likelihood, I would never see him again.


    The final thing I noticed was our physical development. I was pretty sure I had woken up sometime between the ages of three and four. Despite our age, Anise and I looked very small and childlike - we strongly resembled human toddlers. Normally, I might have been worried - after all, there were all sorts of problems that could cause a child to grow more slowly. However, since both of my parents were clearly not human, and I also vaguely remembered people having lifespans of around 200 in our second world, I reserved judgement for now. It was possible we were entirely normal-sized for our age, at least when the parents were a fox-girl and an elf.


    Apart from that, Anise and I were mostly left in our crib. Our mother came to check up on us every hour or two, and then paid more attention to us each night after they finished working - but we didn¡¯t leave the building. Most of the time, we didn¡¯t leave the room.


    This made me more than a little curious about what the outside world looked like. I had vague memories of being outside before, but now that I was fully awake again, I was practically bursting with curiosity.


    Finally, a few days after I ¡®awakened,¡¯ my father picked me and Anise up, before nuzzling his head against both of us.


    ¡°It¡¯s been a few days since you two had any $@#$ air, hasn¡¯t it? How about we take a @#$@ ^$%? Your mom always ^%$% to keep you in the $^$% with the (* ^& ^&***, but it¡¯s not good to spend so much *%& indoors.¡± The man smiled, and then carefully strapped both of us into some sort of¡­ basket. It felt like a carrier for children, but it was woven entirely out of leaves and wood. I noticed that the leaves were far larger than I was used to - each leaf was nearly the size of a regular adult male¡¯s torso, and they looked incredibly sturdy. My father planted a sloppy kiss on my head, then another on Anise¡¯s head, and then fasted us to the little basket using a few strings of plant fiber. Then, my father led us down the stairs and into another, much larger room.


    At the bottom of the stairs, just as I had suspected, there was a bakery - but an incredibly odd one.


    The smell of bread, spices, and other add-ons for bread permeated every single corner of the kitchen. Sacks of flour, salt, and to my surprise, sugar were laid out everywhere. I had thought sugar would be rare in this world, but clearly, I had been thinking too much. Sugar was as plentiful as salt, and both were available by the sack, even though this world was supposed to be stuck in some weird mixture of the bronze age and the stone age. However, not a single oven was present in the kitchen. Or at least, nothing that I recognized as an oven.


    Instead, in the corner of the room, there were several giant crystal boxes that were filled with light. Somehow, the light was just¡­ sitting in the box. It wasn¡¯t moving around, the way light was supposed to, and it wasn¡¯t¡­ doing anything. Even more bizarre, somehow, I could see a faint, residual glow seeping into the rest of the room from the beams of light. I realized that I had seen something similar in our room before - the room Anise and I shared had little jars of light and heat that were attached to the corners of the room. However, it was only now that I realized a fundamental truth - these jars weren¡¯t some sort of magic device, or anything of the sort. They were literally vessels to contain light - which seemed somehow tied to heat in this dimension.


    I had no idea what I was looking at, but I was aware of one thing. My brain hurt.


    The physics of this world were already wildly different from what I was used to. Even the ring-shaped world had been downright normal compared to this one.


    Heedless of my confusion, I saw my mother, humming a song as she quietly took a stone tray, tossed five loaves of bread on top of it, and then crammed it into one of the light containing-cubes. A few seconds later, the smell of baking bread started to emanate from the oven.


    ¡°Be careful, dear! Don¡¯t burn your *@*(!¡± said my father.


    My mother turned towards him, before she rolled her eyes and nodded. ¡°Yeah yeah, I¡¯m being *#&$#. They have so many safety #*(&#$ added to them that #*%&#*$ myself is nearly #(%*#$ anyway.¡± A dinging sound rang through the kitchen, dragging my mother¡¯s attention towards one of the other cubes of light. ¡°Looks like that one is done. Could you deliver *@#(% to @#$* %$%$*? Her loaf of bread is ready,¡± she said.


    ¡°Of course. Love you dear!¡± my father said. He moved over to my mother and gave her a quick peck on the forehead. My mother giggled, and gave my father a quick return peck before my father moved away. He smiled, and moved to the dinging cube of light.


    My father grabbed a glove that looked like it was made of literally darkness, slid it over his hands, and then reached into the bowl of light. A moment later, he pulled out a tray with five more loaves of bread. These ones looked like they had chocolate inside of them, which made me rather happy. This world looked like it had chocolate in it! The loaves of bread also smelled heavenly.


    My father carefully set the tray down, before he pulled away one of the loaves of bread - and I realized the loaf of bread was literally glowing. My father, who saw nothing wrong with this, wrapped it in a bag, before he picked up the basket-carrier with Anise and I in it, and walked out of the kitchen. Just outside, I saw an older lady with a pair of elven ears, waiting patiently as she sat in a chair near the entrance. I quickly scanned the rest of the room, and realized this was some sort of mixed dining room and waiting area. My father smiled at the customer, and handed over the loaf of bread. The lady smiled, handed my father a few tokens, and then left.


    My father looked around, then raised his voice to a yell.


    ¡°Taking Miria and Anise out for some #%*& #*$! We¡¯ll be back in a bit!¡±


    ¡°Okay!¡± yelled my mother.


    My father hefted the basket again, and then strode towards the doorway.


    I grinned. It was finally time to get my first proper look at the city or village we lived in.

 Chapter 343: Children of the Leaves

    The first thing I saw when we set foot outside of home was the tree. It was so massive that it dominated everything. The sky was nearly covered in leaves. The branches of the tree blotted out the rest of the sky, making it nearly impossible to tell what lay beyond its leaves. Water constantly fell from its lowermost leaves, single-handedly creating rivers and lakes where the water fell. The tree was everything.


    My father, who was still gently holding the basket, smiled as he noticed my interest.


    ¡°Do you see that, Miria? That¡¯s @#*$&, the *%(&#$ of our world. All water and warmth comes from %*&$ and the #*$%&$#.¡± Then, my father rubbed the top of my head, before he turned towards Anise. Anise, unlike me, wasn¡¯t awake yet, so he laughed, and gently tapped her nose. ¡°Are you also *#(&%#$, little Anise?¡± Anise gurgled, and my father laughed.


    I blinked again, this time in awe. I had no idea whether this tree was naturally a part of this world, or whether the Market had added it in later. Regardless, this tree was like nothing I had ever seen before. I giggled happily. We had come to this world to grow stronger, but I was also glad we had come to this world for a different reason, now. Seeing amazing and wondrous sights like this was one of the things that made each life exciting.


    My father started walking again, finally tearing my view away from the massive, towering spire of wood and leaves. I took that as an opportunity to look around the city. This was my first time being fully conscious while I was awake, and I was determined to gather as much information as I could.


    I quickly noticed that the city had several species living in it. My father was an elf, and my mother was some sort of fox-woman. However, there were a lot of other species living here as well. I saw a well-dressed orange and grey insect man chatting with a short, childish-looking woman that I almost mistook for a child at first. There were a few other people who had four eyes, or one eye, and even a few people with green skin and tall, muscular physiques.


    However, while there were plenty of species in the city, two species were especially prominent. One species, like my mother, had fox tails and ears. The men and women looked especially attractive, with model-like good looks and varied quantities of tails. The highest number of tails I saw was three, but I suspected there might be fox-people with more.


    The other prominent species was a group of people were those like my father - people with pointed ears and earthy, deep hair colors. Unlike my father, most of them had more slender, willowy physiques - but there was plenty of variation from person to person.


    Together, elves and fox people probably made up 80% of the population, at least in this district of the city. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was representative of the rest of the city we lived in, but I suspected that Elves and fox people might be the two biggest species in this population.


    The other thing I noticed about people¡¯s bodies was that everyone, without exception, was stunningly attractive. The people with green skin and muscular physiques had bodies like one might find in a statue of a mythological hero. They had handsome, sharp faces and admirable bodies. The elven men were handsome and slender, and the elven women were slender and curvy. No matter where I looked, the only people I saw that didn¡¯t look attractive were the few ¡®bug-people¡¯ - and even then, I suspected that was more a matter of preference. From a certain angle, even they didn¡¯t look too bad - they just didn¡¯t match my aesthetic preferences very well.


    I could already feel some of the artificial nature of this world, just through that. How in the world could everyone be attractive in a normal world? Obviously, the people who managed this ¡®Garden¡¯ world must have done something to make people more attractive in this world.


    I also realized that my mother was not exceptionally attractive, at least by this world¡¯s standards. She was basically average. If anything, the rest of my friends and I might end up being a bit below average by this world¡¯s standards, since we had invested far less energy into making ourselves look ¡®perfect¡¯ than the designers of this world.


    The other thing I noticed was the tools. People walked around with a variety of stone tools - however, these stones weren¡¯t ones that I was used to. Some of the stones were pure black or green in color, and many of them were shaped almost as exquisitely as proper metal tools. I wondered if this world had advanced down some sort of stone-technology path. Rather than learning to make different kinds of metal tools, perhaps the people of this world focused on different kinds of stone?


    Not everyone carried around tools, though. Plenty of people were instead carrying around weapons - mostly bows. I had kind of expected that from the elves - after all, elves were associated with archery in most stereotypes. However, out of every three weapons I saw on the street, two of them were bows, regardless of the species. I frowned.


    This many people being armed didn¡¯t seem normal. Perhaps this world was more dangerous than I had thought. I swapped to soul sight for a moment, and gave our surroundings another scan, just to see if I could detect any lurking threats. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t find anything dangerous - the only unusual thing I noticed was that each leaf of the giant tree seemed to have a soul. I found that interesting, but not particularly relevant right now.


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    I gurgled at my father, and then frowned. I had actually been trying to do some basic baby-talk, but my throat was less developed than I thought. I had a hard time making proper word sounds.


    ¡°Do you #*$&$#, Miria? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good time yet. Wait until you¡¯re a little older,¡± said my father. I wondered what he thought I had been trying to say, before I mentally sighed.


    I had originally wanted to say ¡®bow¡¯ and see how my father responded, but I would just have to wait a while longer. Hopefully I could get a better idea why so many people were walking around with weapons before some crazy danger popped out and killed us all.


    My father continued walking forward at a steady, measured pace. I continued to look at the city, but I didn¡¯t see anything new that caught my eye. We moved past buildings made of stone and wood. True to the Market¡¯s introduction, I didn¡¯t see any metal in the city. Instead, I just saw more wood and stone.


    After a few minutes of walking, I felt something moving in the distance. It felt like someone was moving essence around. I giggled as loudly as I could, to attract my father¡¯s attention, and then, with some difficulty, managed to maneuver my head so that I was looking in the direction of the essence manipulation.


    My father stopped, and frowned, before he laughed.


    ¡°Do you want to go in that #(*$@# , Miria? That¡¯s fine, we don¡¯t have any real %#(*$,¡± he said. ¡°We can take a #(%*)#$ if you want.¡± He frowned. ¡°I hear there¡¯s a #%(*#$ in #*(%&#$ today.¡±


    My father started making his way towards the source of unusual essence manipulation, while I tried to quell my excitement. Was I about to see what magic looked like in this world? I had to admit, I was incredibly curious. This was a Garden world. I would be shocked if the magic system here wasn¡¯t tailored to be appealing to Market users. What did an ¡®amazing¡¯ magic System look like?


    After turning past a few street signs, my father ended up in the middle of a crowd of other people, many of whom were standing around. The crowd felt charged with energy, as if they were gawkers in the middle of the street.


    In the center of the crowd, there was a row of ruined houses. I couldn¡¯t tell what had happened to them - it looked as if they had been hit by giant fireballs, before a dragon had sat on them. Had there been some sort of monster attack here? That would explain why the members of the city were all armed. The idea made me nervous. If the city was constantly under threat of monster attacks, that would put us in far more danger than originally anticipated.


    However, the existence of monsters wasn¡¯t entirely a bad thing, either. I didn¡¯t like fighting people very much - last world had taught me that. I constantly felt like I had to make sure I was doing the right thing. I needed to understand why both sides of a war were fighting, who I felt was ¡®right,¡¯ and then avoid hurting people I felt weren¡¯t involved in the fighting. I was never going to betray my conscience, the way I almost had when fighting the Worldstriders from last world - but it was still a huge logistical mess to figure out who I could attack.


    Monsters were much simpler. They were animals that used magic and wanted to eat people. Unless I saw solid evidence they had more to their morality than ¡®hungry, time to eat humans,¡¯ I felt pretty comfortable killing them on sight. I felt way more comfortable fighting monsters over humans.


    Before I could sink further into my thoughts, I felt another surge of essence, and realized that in the center of the crowd was a tall woman, sporting the same fuzzy ears and tail many other city residents had. She stood in front of the ruined houses, and sang.


    It wasn¡¯t a type of singing I had ever heard before - nor was it like any of the casual singing I had learned in my own time as a hobby. It was more directed than that. Each word and sound in her song seemed to carry a weight to it, as if her song alone would pick up mountains and move canyons.


    And the world responded.


    As the woman sang, I felt binding essence pour out of her. Every single drop of essence felt like it was bringing something with it - something as light as a feather, and yet dense enough to crush stone under its weight.


    With every single lyric, the area around the woman pulsed with light and essence, and I saw pieces of stone pop into existence from thin air.


    Binding essence can be used this way? I thought. Thus far, we hadn¡¯t seen very many ¡®repeat¡¯ types of essence before, so I hadn¡¯t gotten a very good idea of just how different one magic system could be from another. Last world, I had seen Felix ¡®bind¡¯ ideas to items, thus allowing him to create ¡®enchanted items.¡¯ I had also seen him make various types of material, by binding and unbinding specific parts of matter to each other.


    However, binding essence in this world took on a very different nature. Just by singing and manipulating binding essence, the woman in front of us was literally singing materials into existence.


    Soon, the woman finished her song, and gave the crowd a tired smile. The nearby people clapped and applauded, before several of them walked up to the woman and gave her a few gift baskets filled with food. And just behind them was a newly made pile of stone bricks, wooden beams, and rocks that looked almost exactly like nails.


    I grinned. Felix was going to love this. I might even hate it less than the previous system of binding magic - after all, even if I didn¡¯t like messing around with math and equations, I did enjoy singing. Maybe my abysmal talent for binding essence wouldn¡¯t hinder me as much this time?


    As I was thinking, I heard a distant ringing sound. It started out soft, but quickly grew louder and louder, until I realized that it sounded just like a giant bell being run in the distance. I saw plumes of fire start appearing in the distance, and people around us started muttering and unstringing their weapons. The woman who had been proudly standing in the center of the crowd and singing materials into existence made a sharp sound that resembled a dog¡¯s bark. My father grimaced, and then reached towards the underside of our baby basket, before whipping out a shortsword made of a dense-looking black stone.


    I swallowed.


    It looked like I was about to find out why so many people in this city were armed.

 Chapter 344: Monsters

    As my father pulled out his shortsword, I felt the tension in the area spike. The people around us seemed nervous, in stark contrast to the excitement they had felt moments ago. They quickly bunched together, quickly forming a circle of archers. Just outside of the circle of archers¡­ were the melee weapon users, though they were few in number. Everyone¡¯s eyes drifted to the skies, scanning them for an unseen foe.


    Everyone except for the spellcaster, that is. Instead, she turned towards my father, and frowned.


    ¡°You have kids! Get in the center of the damn circle!¡± she hissed at him.


    ¡°I have a sword!¡± My father protested.


    ¡°And you have kids! They have to be¡­ what, two? Three? I doubt they¡¯re any older than ten, and that¡¯s if they¡¯re slow @#$*&#!¡± hissed the woman. ¡°I¡¯m not going to let your kids have their first #*%#$ be of their father¡¯s corpse! Or worse, for one of them to remember their #*$&#$ sister! Get in the center of the #*$&# circle!¡±


    A few other people nearby glanced at him, and then glanced at us as well, before they started adjusting their positions. While it wasn¡¯t very wide, they created a narrow walkway to allow my father to get into the middle of the circle. The safest spot. My father glanced at the skies again, before he started shuffling into the center of the group. Even though he looked nervous, he also looked a bit relieved. Clearly, my father also didn¡¯t want to be in a position where he - or Anise and I - might be in danger.


    As I watched the crowd pressure my father into moving to the safest spot, I felt strange. We hadn¡¯t been to that many worlds so far¡­ but in the ones we had been to, experienced spellcasters were valued. In this world, I had only felt a few other spellcasters - so they were probably more valued here, due to their rarity. The woman in front of us should have been something akin to nobility. Furthermore, this woman didn¡¯t seem like a combat mage. Unless she had access to a second essence or her abilities had other uses, she was clearly more on the support side of things.


    Despite that fact, the very first thing she did when danger struck was usher my father into the safest spot in the circle. I had to admit, she had made a good impression so far. I just hoped that other people in this world had similar mindsets. If so, we might end up enjoying our time in this world a lot more. Dealing with people being jerks was never fun.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± my father said, after a few moments of hesitation. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to %#*(&$@ much to the #($*$# this way, but¡­ ¡° he looked at us, and smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t want my girls getting hurt more.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t #%*&#$ about it. Kids should be *#%&#$,¡± said the woman. Her eyes darted to the nearby street, before she pointed at one of the nearby houses. ¡°I don¡¯t see any enemies yet. Let¡¯s get under some cover. We can always leave if #*$&#$.¡±


    The other people seemed fine heeding the spellcaster¡¯s commands, so as a group, we migrated towards the house she had pointed out. The spellcaster knocked on the door. It only took a moment for a man to open it, holding a bow and a quiver. When he saw the size of our group, he seemed relieved.


    ¡°A big group! You¡¯re #$(*&#$# welcome right now! We have four #%*(#$ spots in the house, with another six #%*#&$ for archers! Does anyone need a weapon?¡±


    A few people raised their hands, and the man rushed towards a closet, before pulling out a few bows and arrows. He gave them to the people raising their hands, and then glanced at us again. He grinned.


    ¡°I think -¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, I heard two more rings of the distant bell. Unlike the first bell, which had served as some sort of warning, this time the bell had a much deeper tone to it. The group listened carefully, and then, a few moments later, sagged in relief.


    ¡°Only two rings. Nothing too %(*#$#, then. If another ##*$&#$ came, who knows how many people would get hurt,¡± said the singer with a shudder.


    ¡°Glad to hear it¡¯s only two rings. One would have been even %#)!, but we can¡¯t always be lucky,¡± said another woman.


    I listened to the parts of the conversation I understood, and quickly got a rough idea what they meant. After the initial ring of the bell to indicate danger, the second, deeper bell would ring a certain number of times, indicating how ¡®dangerous¡¯ the incoming danger was. Based on everyone¡¯s words, one bell was the lowest possible danger, and two was still very manageable. I wondered how high the ¡®maximum¡¯ danger was rated. Five bells? Ten? Some other number entirely? Either way, I had a baseline to assess danger on my own now. I was also glad that this attack wouldn¡¯t be too horrible. My build wasn¡¯t online yet, and I wanted to keep any truly scary fights for later, when I was grown up and prepared for them.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    My thoughts were interrupted when I heard an unearthly hissing sound in the distance. Even though we were inside a house, and we were far from the origin of the sound, I could still hear it clearly - and half of the city probably also could.


    A moment later, I heard the beating of distant wings, thrumming as they moved steadily closer to us.


    My father rushed to one of the slits in the wall, and I swapped to my soul-sight to get a better idea what we were facing.


    In the distance, I got my first glimpse of the enemy. It was¡­ odd.


    I saw a great, amalgamated mass of souls in the distance, slowly flying towards us. I could tell that there were huge clusters of individual souls - but I could also tell that there was some sort of connection between each soul. Perhaps the monsters here had some sort of hive-mind-esque link? Or perhaps they simply had a communication connection of some sort? I wasn¡¯t quite sure what I was seeing.


    At least I finally understood why everyone here was using bows as a weapon. Every single monster I saw in the distance was flying. Swords wouldn¡¯t do much against a monster a hundred meters in the air.


    I blinked, and glanced at my father. If all of the monsters here were flying, why were some people carrying around swords? I was missing something here. I stared more carefully at the monsters, until I found the oddity.


    All of the monsters in the distance were airborne, but if I looked closely enough, it looked almost like some monsters were inside of other monsters.


    These monsters weren¡¯t a disorganized flock of flying monsters. They were acting like cargo ships. Many of the flying monsters were carrying other monsters inside of the city. I frowned. That hinted at a lot more organization that I was hoping the monsters would have.


    ¡°I see them in the #(%*#$! Looks like it¡¯s a bit larger than the #%*&#$ two-bell #%&#. But we should still be mostly safe. Is anyone here from the #(*#$#?¡± asked the singer woman. Nobody responded for a few seconds, so she nodded.


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll take #*#&$. Does anyone object?¡± Again, nobody spoke, so the woman relaxed. ¡°The enemy will probably #*&#$ above the city, and then start air-dropping #*&#$ on us. We don¡¯t have the reach to hit the flyers, but we can hit some of the #*$&# before they hit the ground. Those who are #*#&$ in their aim, take the best #*$&# spots in the house. On my #*(&#$, release your arrows.¡± People started scrambling into positions, getting their arrows ready, and concentrating as the monsters in the sky moved closer to the city.


    A moment later, I saw several huge balls of fire fly out of the center of the city, each of them tracing a distinct, winding path through the air. I blinked in surprise.


    There may not be many spellcasters in this world, but the ones that did exist seemed very impressive.


    A moment later, several of the massive pillars of fire detonated. I heard a thunderous roar, as about half of the flying monsters in the air turned into piles of ash. However, the rest of the monsters continued towards the city, undeterred by the deaths of their comrades. The singer gritted her teeth.


    ¡°They only got half of them. I was hoping they would get at least two thirds. #*&#$ it.¡± She stared out the window again, and then grimaced. ¡°Looks like one is moving near us. Archers, prepare to loose in about a #*$&#$! Melee weapons, I want you near the #%*&#$ and the #*&$#! It¡¯ll take a while before the #$*&#$ are ready with their next spell, so be prepared to hold out for a while! You!¡± She pointed at my father, who blinked in surprise. ¡°Make sure the archers have arrows! Refill the quivers if someone runs out!¡±


    My father nodded, and started checking the quivers of everyone in a good sniping position.


    ¡°Get ready!¡± Yelled the woman.


    Seconds ticked by as everyone eyed the sky through the slits in the wall. Finally, about a street away, one of the flying monsters stopped. I got a better look at it for the first time with my physical eyes, instead of my soul-sight.


    It had three heads, and each of them looked wildly different from each other. The first head looked kind of like what I would have expected a dragon¡¯s head to look like - except for the fact that it had fur instead of scales, and two different mouths. The second head looked more like that of a human¡¯s head, but it was horribly distorted. Even if it hadn¡¯t been attached to a monster, the face was stretched so thin that it would have triggered an uncanny valley effect. The distance between its chin and forehead was larger than the distance between the ceiling and the floor of this house. The third head looked like some kind of fish head - although I couldn¡¯t identify a species for it.


    It had ten paris of wings, and its body looked like a twitching, squirming mass of flesh.


    The creators of this world had really gone out of their way to give the monsters a heavy ¡®horror¡¯ vibe. They had succeeded. This thing looked like a horrible monster.


    A moment later, the stomach split open.


    ¡°Loose!¡± Yelled the singer. All of the archers released their arrows into the sky, right as the squirming mass of flesh opened. A moment later, nearly forty souls dropped out of the monster¡¯s stomach, falling almost fifty meters to the city below. Nearly two thirds of them got hit by arrows and died, as all of the nearby houses launched a volley of arrows at the falling monsters. I noticed something strange about how the arrows flew - they seemed to have more accuracy than they should have. But I couldn¡¯t observe it very well before a heavy thump dragged my attention towards the street outside of our house.


    Two thirds of the monsters had died, but the final thirteen or so had hit the ground safely. And from what I could see, five of them had decided our house was their target.

 Chapter 345: Gardens

    Through one of the arrow-slits in the house, I got my first good look at the physical forms of the creatures that had landed in front of the house.


    They were some of the most bizarre and creepy-looking monsters I had seen, and that was in comparison to the madness of the Market.


    The first monster looked like a ball of hands, all clutching onto each other. The way it moved was wrong - it resembled a colony of worms writhing across the ground, or something similar. The monster¡¯s soul was even more bizarre. It only had one soul, despite the fact that it looked like a walking colony.


    The next two monsters were somewhat more normal looking. They had scales on the outside of their body, like that of a dragon. They had large, muscular frames, reminding me of some of the green-skinned men of the city. They might have been possible to mistake for particularly odd-looking residents of the city, save for the cold, dead eyes in their skull, or the twisting, writhing flesh underneath their scales. These had the lowest life force of them all, although I suspected that their scales would make it hard to pierce their body with arrows.


    The final two monsters were even more strange. They looked like half-melted dolls made of clay. Their bodies twitched and squirmed when I looked away - but when I stared directly at them, their bodies looked like simple, half-shaped lumps. I couldn¡¯t tell whether it was some sort of illusion or a different kind of ability, but something about them was off. However, their bodies weren¡¯t made entirely of clay. For some reason, they had incredibly long, luscious hair. It would have been beautiful enough to make me a bit jealous, if it didn¡¯t seem so utterly out of place on the grotesque, inhuman abominations. These creatures had the highest life force in the group, which probably meant they were the strongest.


    The five monsters sprinted towards the house. I heard the singer yell something, and another volley of arrows snapped towards the monsters.


    I had to give them credit. The archers of this city were fast.


    And accurate.


    Four out of every five arrows found a target, which was a level of accuracy most archers would never reach when firing at enemies on a chaotic battlefield through tiny slits in the wall.


    Most of the arrows even punctured the flesh of our enemies.


    The monsters with scales on their bodies got an eyeful of arrows, with one of them dropping dead on the spot, and the other yowling in pain and collapsing on the spot. A final arrow hit him and killed him a moment later. The colony of hands was violently ripped apart by a shower of arrows, and while the hands did start reassemble in a few seconds, its lifeforce was severely depleted, and nearly a quarter of the hands stopped moving.


    The clay dolls proved the most troubling. The arrows punctured their bodies, but didn¡¯t seem to do much. The clay monsters kept running, as if they didn¡¯t even notice the arrows.


    The archers didn¡¯t have time for a third volley before the clay monsters reached us. One of the clay golems kicked in the door, and the wooden doorway collapsed like wet paper. The clay golem leapt into the room - and immediately took an axe to the face, as a green-skilled fellow smashed into it with practiced ease. The clay golem didn¡¯t seem too bothered, and lunged towards the man, but he clearly had experience fighting. He slid out of the way, before using the axe as a handle to wrench the monster around.


    I realized that the green-skinned man wasn¡¯t even trying to kill the monster. He was using the axe to drag it around and throw it off - balance.


    The strange hair on the clay monster whipped towards the man, like a head full of daggers and whips. The man ducked out of the way, then shoved the monster into the wall. A moment later, another warrior stepped next to the monster, and the two started working on beheading it.


    The second clay golem was only a few seconds behind the first. I heard the singing mage start a new song, right before the clay monster impacted the wall. It crashed into the stone and wood frame of the wall - and then bounced off. It reeled back, caught completely off guard, and got another head full of arrows. Even if it didn¡¯t die, it seemed slowed down - either because its head was a weakness, or from accumulation of damage. I wasn¡¯t sure which.


    The colony of hands leapt towards one of the archers hiding in an arrow slit, and the man stumbled backwards. The archers were still pelting the hands with arrows, but they seemed distracted by the multiple threats. I decided to simplify the battlefield a bit.


    The colony of hands had a lot of life force - but my extinguishes were terrifying. Some creatures could survive an extinguish to the face - but the colony of hands was nowhere near that level of strength. My extinguish hit the creature, and instantly, about 70% of its life force vanished. I left the last bit for the archers, so that it wouldn¡¯t be too obvious I was helping out. I would probably prove my spellcasting abilities later on - but highly practiced, lethal spellcasting as a three year old would make anyone feel something was wrong.


    The hands slowed, and another wave of arrows finished it off. The archers seemed a bit baffled by how quickly the creature died, but immediately redirected their attention to the two remaining clay monsters.


    The clay monster that had been tangling with the green-skinned man was finally starting to slow down. I could now confirm that they were less terrifying than they first appeared. They had some kind of limited ¡®reserve¡¯ of regeneration, but once they took enough injuries, they got slower and weaker. With a final cut, the other man who had been helping split the creature in half, and it stopped moving.


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    The final clay monster charged towards the ruined doorway, but another volley of arrows crashed into it with the same unnatural power and accuracy every archer in this world seemed to have. Right as it stumbled through the doorway, the green-skinned man gave it another axe to the face, and it died before I could sneak in another extinguish for some Achievement.


    I felt a bit regretful about that, but I suspected it wouldn¡¯t matter much in the grand scheme of things. It looked like this city got attacked frequently, so I could always pick up more abilities next time.


    Most of the other houses in the area also seemed to be doing fine. They held off their monsters, dispatched them swiftly, and then assisted other houses that were still struggling.


    Within four minutes, there were no surviving monsters in the area, and as far as I could tell only a few people got injured.


    Five minutes later, another wave of massive fireballs caught the fleeing passenger-carrying monsters, eradicating the final monsters in the city.


    I grinned. Two-bell incursions really weren¡¯t that bad.


    Now that the danger had passed, I opened up my System messages to look at my rewards for the fight.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Slaughter: Kill a Formless - Stage 2 (Grasping Hands Variant)


    Influence: Assist in defending ¡®Palynthia¡¯ against a second-stage invasion by a [Minor] amount


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,000, Achievement +30


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I blinked in surprise as I evaluated my Achievement earnings from the fight. Getting 1,000 Achievement¡­


    Well, it definitely didn¡¯t feel like I had earned that. At all. Most monsters that gave us 1,000 Achievement were at least capable of ripping off our heads at a moments notice. However, the ¡®Grasping Hands Variant¡¯ of the Formless had given me 1,000 Achievement for a monster that I would kill with a single attack. I could probably handle four or five of them easily -and that was with a basic grade attunement. This thing gave way more rewards than I should have gotten for its threat level.


    However, that wasn¡¯t my biggest reward from the fight. Not by a long shot. Even though it had single-handedly propelled my Achievement from 12,201 to 13,231


    My second reward from the fight was far more interesting.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Formless - Stage 2 (Grasping Hands variant) for the first time. A new Skill has been created


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Unwoven Hands - your ability to manipulate your hands far exceeds what should be possible for your Grade of Agility. Your hands can even operate without being connected to your body! (essence must still be paid to activate this ability - any essence is usable).


    Your Agility is increased by 3 Grades, but only for your hands (wrist and below). You may also control your hands even if they are no longer connected to you. (Note: No more than 10 hands can benefit from these boosts at a time.)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I blinked in confusion. I integrated the new Skill into one of my skill slots - after all, right now my slots were empty, and this skill had no downside. At the same time, I wondered how this skill actually worked.


    It claimed that I could control up to ten hands at a time, and that I could control them even if they weren¡¯t connected to my body. In other words¡­ would I be able to control an extra eight pairs of hands, if I chopped off my hands and then used my healing magic to regrow them?


    The idea was interesting.


    Though, in practice, I couldn¡¯t really think of a use for that. My hands wouldn¡¯t get any extra Grades of Strength, and Grade 6 strength wouldn¡¯t accomplish much in a Tier 4 world. Any enemy that actually cared about my extra hands was probably going to be weak enough that I could kill it easily anyway. Paying essence for a useless ability was just silly.


    I tried to shrug, although my infantile muscles made the motion rather awkward. Even if I didn¡¯t have a use for the ability now, maybe I would find one later. I could always replace it with something better if I found the option.


    Then, I moved on to my third reward from the fight. This one was wholly unexpected - in a very pleasant way.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill: You have raised your understanding of [Death Magic] to Basic Grade!


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +2,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Since you have raised your understanding of [Seperation] Magic to basic grade for the first time, you have earned a new Skill! Upon your death, you will have the option to purchase [Basic Seperation Magic] as an ability, for the cost of 4000 Achievement.


    This Ability has the following effects:


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Keywords: None


    Your spells and abilities that would cause instant death in a given target are enhanced by a moderate amount (approximately a quarter of a skill Grade.) It is easier to raise ¡®splitting magic¡¯ to Basic Grade (if relevant). (considerably less effective when trying to raise a skill beyond Heroic Grade).


    Glut Penalty: 15


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had gotten an at least somewhat useful-looking Ability just for killing a random, rather weak enemy. It took me a couple seconds to realize what the System meant by ¡®separation¡¯ magic, but I got it after some thinking. The core ¡®idea¡¯ behind extinguish was to put out the flame of life, thus kicking the soul back into the ocean. While I typically thought of that as ¡®death¡¯ magic, it was also, in a sense, separation. I was both surprised and pleased with seeing a new, unexpected ability pop up.


    Granted, I seriously doubted this Ability was worth 4,000 Achievement and 15 Glut penalty - the price was a bit high for the benefits the skill gave me. Still, I was impressed by the ¡®Garden¡¯ aspect of this world. I had gotten a new Generic skill from a single fight. Granted, it was my favorite spell, which I had been using for two lives and about a century now, so the barrier to higher skill levels was probably way lower than usual. Still, it was excellent progress. Not to mention, I had earned 2,000 Achievement in the process. That was¡­ exceptional growth speed. My Achievement total had gone from 13,231 to 15,231. In less than a day, I had earned over 3,000 Achievement in this world. That was even better than the rate of Achievement we got per hour in the Market!


    A few moments later, I felt something¡­ stir. it took me a moment to figure out what it was - it wasn¡¯t anything that I could see around me, nor was it part of the physical world at all. Instead ,it had sounded from my communication bracelet. It was Felix. He hadn¡¯t sent any actual words through the communication bracelet, but he had sent a sort of mental sigh, letting everyone know that he was awake.


    <Felix! You¡¯re awake!> I said. Right after my first battle in this world, one of my friends had woken up.

 Chapter 346: Islands in the Void

    <Oh, so I¡¯m not the first one awake,> Felix said. <My Intelligence is almost exactly average given my modifiers. You must have gotten a pretty good Intelligence score to beat me?>


    <I got 165 total,> I said.


    <Ah, that explains it. I¡¯m sitting at 162 total,> he said. <102 from my roll, and 60 from my soul fragments. Want to see the rest of my status screen? We can compare rolls.>


    Felix and I quickly shared Status Screens with each other, to get a feel for how our bodies looked and what adjustments might need to be made to our group combat style..


    Felix¡¯s Status Screen was jealousy inducing.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (60+126)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (60+102)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (60+128)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (60+109)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (60+100)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (60+76)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (60+105)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (60+116)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (60+126)


    Grade 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (60+87)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <Your stats are amazing this time,> I said. The only roll that was even sort of bad was Alteration. Manifestation was awful, but Felix hardly ever used the stat. Almost every other roll was excellent. His primary magic stat was Grade 9! While Sallia had gone above Grade 9 in her stats plenty of times before, that was only after boosting herself with spells and equipment. Felix had exceptional base stats.


    <Yours are decent too, although your Willpower could have been a bit higher,> said Felix. <Luckily your runes fix that problem pretty neatly. You seem distracted, though. Are you doing something important?>


    <No, just finished a battle. Or, well, spectating a battle. Right now I¡¯m in the middle of some guy¡¯s house. It looks like this world is a bit more troubled than I thought it would be,> I said, before I described the past week I had experienced. I spent a lot of extra time outlining the attack on the city, as well as my speculation about what the rest of this world looked like.


    <Interesting,> said Felix. <So we¡¯re basically in a world where aerial attacks should be expected frequently? That¡¯s¡­ not great, but I suppose it¡¯s better to know now. One of us needs to make sure we tell Sallia the moment she wakes up, though. That way she can make one of her rune abilities something that lets her deal with aerial combat. If she doesn¡¯t have a way to compensate for it with her other abilities and items, at least.>


    <How about you? What does your situation look like?> I asked.


    <Well, I¡¯m not too sure yet. Just woke up a few minutes ago. Oh, here¡¯s my mom. She looks¡­ Oh.> Felix sent the mental impression of awe at me. <She looks very rich. She¡¯s wearing a necklace out of some sort of¡­ glowing rock? I don¡¯t know what it is, but it looks fancy. And her dress is very nice too. The materials look kind of like silk. I can also feel someone using essence in another part of the house, although it¡¯s hard to tell which type. She has a bit of a cold expression, though. I¡¯m not sure how she feels about me. Maybe she¡¯s a maid or something?> He said. <That might explain why she seems to have little affection for me.> I frowned. The woman who was potentially Felix¡¯s mother didn¡¯t like him very much, that would be bad. However, Felix being born into a wealthy family meant that he would be well-taken care of, at least.


    <The woman is picking me up, so I might get a better look at our surroundings. Let me see what the tour of the house looks like.> Felix started to show me what he saw in his surroundings, and I started to relax. It seemed like Felix really was in a wealthy family. There were nearly half a dozen servants scuttling around, doing various chores, and an older man who had a somewhat stern expression moving around the house. The man had a gentle expression when he looked at Felix, and mentioned something about the lady of the house being sick again. That caused both Felix and I to breathe a sigh of relief. Apparently, the cold-faced woman was a maid, not Felix¡¯s mother.


    Finally, the man took Felix from the maid¡¯s arms, and walked Felix outside - where Felix¡¯s mental images and narration abruptly cut off. For a moment, I was afraid that something had happened to him, before his mental voice returned, although he sounded somewhat shaky.


    <Miria? What in the world is this dimension?>


    He sent me a mental image, and I also blinked in shock.


    Felix wasn¡¯t in the city. Instead, I could see the city walls, a fair distance below him. It looked as if he were standing on a massive leaf, with a clear stream of water ripping its way out of the plant before dripping onto the city below. I glanced up, and realized that Felix¡¯s family was probably living in the canopy of the giant tree.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    But that wasn¡¯t the strange part.


    Since Felix was so far above us, he had a much better view of our surroundings than I did.


    I had assumed the faint light trickling into the city was from the sun, half-covered by the leaf foliage. I had noticed that the ¡®sun¡¯ seemed to hang around for a lot longer than I was used to, but I hadn¡¯t thought much of it. Different dimensions could have different day and night cycles, after all. However, my assumption was dead wrong.


    Though the half-glimpsed sky above the tree, there was a vast, yawning abyss. It was as if we were in the middle of space. The only sources of light were giant, human eyeballs that glowed faintly in the distance - so far away that they were almost impossible to make out. Each eyeball emitted light like a small sun, beaming light towards us and several other trees in the distance.


    I also quickly realized that we weren¡¯t standing on land. We weren¡¯t on a continent, or an island, or even a planet.


    Instead, from Felix¡¯s position, I could see the edge¡­ of the floating island we were standing on. Far, far below us, I could see writhing, twisting black mist, almost like the faint echoes of a drowned god. There were little holes in the layer of mist, barely visible in the distance. They looked like passageways into the abyss itself. I could also see that the layer of mist below us wasn¡¯t entirely made of water vapor. Instead, it looked almost like it was some sort of half-ethereal flesh. Even though I wasn¡¯t looking directly at it, I felt¡­ malice from that layer of fog. As if it knew we were there, and it wanted us dead.


    In the distance, I could see a few other ¡®flying islands¡¯ just like ours. Each one had a glowing tree somewhere on the island, followed by a few cities nestled near the trunk of the tree, and a surrounding layer of dirt and roots. Most islands had dozens of smaller trees nestled atop the roots of the massive tree, like fungal growths on a giant. Felix could see four of them, although it was entirely possible that there were more in the distance that we just weren¡¯t noticing.


    I also froze in shock.


    <That¡­ is a very good question,> I said.


    I felt a faint movement from the real world, jostling me out of my conversation with Felix.


    I realized that my father was talking with some of the other people in the group. It didn¡¯t sound like they were afraid - more like they were exchanging contacts and preparing for a friendly outing. I relaxed¡­ right up until I heard something strange.


    ¡°I thought I felt someone using essence during the fight too,¡± said the singing mage. She frowned.


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible,¡± said one of the other members. ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone in this area can afford essence food, right? That stuff¡¯s %#(*$#.¡±


    The singing mage frowned. ¡°Maybe I was mistaken? Or maybe one of the #%*&#$ were passing through and gave us a hand.¡± She glanced around the room again, and then sighed. ¡°Well, I suppose there really isn¡¯t very much chance that a #%*&#$ is here. Regular mana food is also far too pricy for even the simplest of spells or magical abilities.¡± She laughed, and scratched the back of her head. ¡°I guess it doesn¡¯t matter now. I¡¯m glad that everyone is all right, but I think it¡¯s time I returned home.¡± She smiled at everyone, before she left the house. After a few minutes of awkward chattering, the rest of the group started to disperse. Meanwhile, I frowned.


    Essence food?


    Even the simplest spells were expensive?


    How odd.


    All of this time, I had assumed that the actual, biological ability to cast spells was limited. That was the way it had worked in our second world - people who could interact with an essence were rare, and thus valued. This world seemed similar at first glance, because there were only a few spellcasters. But based on the bits of the conversation I had overheard, it didn¡¯t sound like biology was the only limitation on spellcasting here.


    I frowned, and realized something I hadn¡¯t noticed earlier.


    I didn¡¯t have binding or manifestation essence.


    In our second world, even without any sort of magic system to back it up, I had constantly regenerated a bit of alteration and manifestation essence. Every second, small wisps of it gathered inside of my body, refilling whatever I had spent. Here, I knew for a fact that all four essences existed. Based on our understanding of how the Market¡¯s system interacted with biology, that SHOULD have meant I would have four essence pools, two of which would be basically unusable without training. Instead, I had two essence pools, and two empty ones.


    I frowned more deeply. My alteration essence was regenerating just fine. That was probably because it was fueled by an ability, so it was no longer subject to the biological limitations of the people here. On the other hand¡­


    A suspicion started to form in my mind.


    <Felix, can you tell me what essences you have available?> I asked.


    <Hmm¡­ how odd. I only have alteration essence available. My other three essence pools seem to exist, but they¡¯re completely empty.>


    <Can you try pulling out a small chunk of metal from your dimensional factory and tell me what happens?>


    There was a momentary pause. Then, Felix¡¯s mental voice sounded in my mind again.


    <I am now regenerating a small amount of binding essence. I only regenerate binding essence from my ability when I¡¯m near metal, but¡­ aren¡¯t all four essences present in this dimension? Why am I not regenerating anything?>


    My suspicion was confirmed. I didn¡¯t know whether everyone in this dimension had access to all four essences, but I now knew something for sure.


    <This dimension might be a bit more resource reliant than I thought,> I said. <It seems like people here don¡¯t naturally regenerate any of the four essences at all. I suspect that they only get essence by eating special types of food - or perhaps some other method. But either way, essence regeneration seems to be a huge logistical problem for people in this world, if we¡¯re several years old and don¡¯t have any essences that we don¡¯t ¡®naturally¡¯ generate from our Abilities.>


    <So that¡¯s how they make people from the Market ¡®special¡¯ in this world,> said Felix. <That¡¯s¡­ brilliant. In a twisted way. Most people from the Market seem to have Abilities that give them essence regeneration - after all, plenty of people expect that some worlds won¡¯t have an essence. Since essence is like the fuel a train needs to move, nobody sane grabs a new Ability without some way to power it. Then, in this world, people from the Market show up with these ways to generate essence. People know they¡¯re special the moment they can spend essence without needing local expensive food supplies. This makes it way easier for people from the Market to handle logistics for everything, ranging from fighting monsters, to fighting other people.>


    I felt a sense of understanding settle in my mind.


    So that was how the Market kept this world under control. They cut off natural essence regeneration for the local populace, then propped up incoming Market people as ¡®heroes¡¯ by simple virtue of logistics.


    I frowned, before I shook my head. How long ago had people from the Market stopped coming to this world?


    If my suspicions were correct, and people here couldn¡¯t regenerate essence naturally, we would need to think very carefully about how we managed things. If we revealed our magical abilities, we might be accused of stealing precious materials, rather than applauded as new mages. I hoped my suspicions were wrong, but I had a sinking feeling that things in this world were a lot more complicated than they normally would have been. We would need to tread carefully before we got the full story. Either way, our new direction was clear.


    Before making any moves, we needed more information.

 Chapter 347: Heroes

    My father and I returned to the bakery, where we found my mother sitting in one of the upper windows. She had a half-emptied quiver of arrows next to her, as well as a bow that laid near the side of the wall. I looked at her, to make sure she was safe - but I didn¡¯t see any wounds on her. I breathed a sigh of relief. If my mother was injured, I would have needed to heal her - but it definitely would have resulted in some awkward questions afterwards. Fortunately, my family was largely unscathed by the attack.


    As my mother saw my father and the two of us through the door, she ran up to him, and then gave him a kiss. Then, she gave Anise and I a kiss as well, before she wrapped her arms around all three of us.


    ¡°You¡¯re back! Are the girls safe? Are you safe? Is anyone hurt?¡±


    ¡°No injuries on any of us,¡± said my father. ¡°We saw a #%*&#$. She kept us out of the fighting.¡±


    ¡°A #*$#&$?¡± asked my mother. ¡°What¡¯s one doing here?¡±


    ¡°Singing some materials into #*&#$. It looks like there are still some damaged streets from the six bell incursion last month. She was working on repairing some of the worst of the damage when the attack started.¡±


    My mother sighed in relief. ¡°Thank the #*%&# for that. If any of you got hurt, I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do.¡± My mother relaxed. ¡°You say that a #%*&#$ kept you out of the fighting?¡±


    My father nodded. ¡°She said that I had to stay out of it, since I was carrying kids.¡±


    My mother smiled. ¡°Do you know her name? We should send her a thank-you gift later.¡±


    My father laughed. ¡°I know what she looks like. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to track her down and express our thanks later. As for a gift¡­I know it¡¯s a bit expensive, but we could use essence-wheat for a special loaf of bread. That would actually give her a bit of essence back. She used a bit during the fight, so I think it¡¯s a good way of showing our #*&$#.¡±


    My mother winced. ¡°Well¡­ it¡¯s expensive, but we¡¯re doing well. We can afford a loaf of essence bread. I like the idea. Tomorrow, I¡¯ll order the ingredients we¡¯ll need. I¡¯ll make it, though. I love you, dear, but if we¡¯re using essence-wheat, I¡¯d like to make sure the bread is perfect.¡±


    My father laughed agreeably, and my mother seemed to sigh in relief.


    My ears perked up, as Felix and I listened to the conversation. I understood most of the words in my mother and father¡¯s conversation - except for one, which I decided to label ¡®essence-wheat¡¯ since I had no better context for what it was. However, based on the conversation, Felix and I could confirm a few things.


    1: People here didn¡¯t recover their essence naturally.


    2: The way people recovered their essence was by eating food that contained essence. It seemed that in this world, some part of people¡¯s digestive tract could seize essence and convert it into someone¡¯s personal storage of essence instead.


    3: This food was available to the wider citizen population, but at a very high price. My mother and father seemed reasonably well off, but they were still worried about the price of enough mana-wheat for one loaf of bread. I wasn¡¯t sure how well-off my family was, so I had no clue how hard it was for the average family in this world to get access to essence. I was lacking some context. Either way, I could assume that having access to essence was either rare, or very rare in this world. However, the fact that it was accessible at all was good.


    If I started busting out powers in an emergency, it wouldn¡¯t be totally unbelievable for me to have gotten some essence-wheat without stealing it. I still wanted more context, and to grow up a bit more before I started using any type of magic here. However, I could make excuses for my abilities if I wanted to keep them under wraps for a while.


    Of course, that didn¡¯t change the fact that magic was rare here. Worse, mages here were probably not very good at using magic. After all, if access to essence here was expensive, every single practice session with magic would be like lighting money on fire. Depending on how expensive it was, it might be ludicrously hard for mages here to practice using their essence at all. If my family struggled to afford one loaf of essence-bread, it would be odd if I could naturally use complex spells like Extinguish. I would reassess my situation once I knew more - but at least for a while, I would pretend to be an ordinary kid.


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    <So essence is this hard to get here?> asked Felix, startling me out of my thoughts. <Interesting. I can feel someone manipulating Essence in my house right now, although they seem far away from me.>


    <Oh?> I asked.


    <Yeah. I am having a hard time pinpointing where they are, but they¡¯re close. I wish we knew how much essence a single loaf of essence-bread can restore, and what your family¡¯s financial situation looks like. But either way, a spellcaster in my immediate family is a good sign.> Felix chuckled. <It seems like my family might be a bit more well-off than I thought. I can even extract some information on the different magic systems here, once I¡¯m a bit older.>


    Things started to click in place inside of my thoughts. Felix¡¯s family had definitely seemed wealthy - after all, they had several servants doing things around the house. However, in this world, wealth was even more important than usual - because it directly implied how much access one had to the magic systems. Felix would be a great opportunity for the rest of the group to learn more about this world¡¯s magic systems.


    As Felix and I chatted, my mother and father spent a few minutes just relaxing in a corner. Finally, the two of them brought Anise and I to bed, before they went to sleep themselves.


    Time passed.


    Little happened for the next couple days, so I worked on building up my intermediate-Grade attunement. Apart from that, I also rebuilt my first rune. I went for small portals again - after building this rune twice, I was growing very fond of it. I wasn¡¯t sure if it would be quite as useful in this world¡­ but I still saw a lot of possibilities, with the commonality of arrows in this world and my spatial tripwires.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form Your First rune (Absorption Essence)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +300


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    300 Achievement was a nice reward, bringing me from 15,231 to 15,531. It was a good reward.


    Apart from that, Felix and I started listening in on all of the conversations near us, in order to extract more information.


    One of the basic things that Felix managed to overhear the next day was about the average lifespan of people here. People in this world lived very long lives, at least by the standards of our previous worlds. Every single ¡®species¡¯ of humanoid in this world had a lifespan of about 500 years - regardless of what they looked like. A muscular man with green skin had about the same average lifespan as an elf. That struck me as a bit odd, but it was probably related to the artificial nature of this world - perhaps the corporation was afraid of Market-souls being annoyed if they got unlucky and were born into a species with a short lifespan.


    Either way, it explained why my body felt so underdeveloped. In this world, people didn¡¯t reach ¡®adulthood¡¯ until they turned about fifty years old. Then, their physical age seemed to basically freeze, until they turned around 450 and started aging again. There was practically no visible difference between someone who was 100 and someone who was 400 in this world - both would look like healthy adults who were around 20 years old.


    At slightly less than four years old, my body was about the equivalent of a human child who was between one and one and a half. It was also no wonder my parents still treated me like a baby in almost every sense of the word. As far as my parents were concerned, I was probably right at the stage where I was getting ready to take my first steps and say my first words.


    I didn¡¯t need to think for long before I decided to speed up this timeline a bit. Old Mo had taught me how to blend in and look like a normal kid - but that didn¡¯t mean I wanted to be stuck doing a frustrating act for years, nor was it realistic to never make a single mistake. Old Mo had taught me how to look normal - but he had also told me that I had a lot more leeway than I thought. When most people saw a kid acting a few years older than their age, they usually thought ¡®my kid¡¯s a genius¡¯ before they thought ¡®my kid¡¯s a dimension-hopping soul.¡¯


    Based on that information, I started calling my mom and dad ¡®mama¡¯ and ¡®papa¡¯ a week after the attack. After this, I planned to start ¡®learning¡¯ more words at a faster and faster pace, so that my parents got used to me being a bit precocious.


    Two weeks after that, I managed to take my first steps. Combined with my growing vocabulary, my parents seemed exceptionally pleased with my development. I decided that my parents were used to me being a bit precocious. It was time to start pushing for information I actually wanted. Felix and I were still baffled by many aspects of the history of this world, and we needed more information. My father also seemed to enjoy telling Anise and I bedtime stories - which made it a perfect time to ask for more information. That night, I used a few words to start conveying basic requests.


    ¡°Story! Papa! Magic story!¡± I said.


    My father gave me a surprised look, before he laughed. ¡°You¡¯re so smart, Miria! You can even ask for things you want!¡± He gently patted my head, before he and my mother exchanged knowing looks.


    ¡°Well¡­ if you want a story about magic¡­ hmm¡­ I don¡¯t know much about modern magic, honestly. Too expensive for me to study.¡±


    ¡°You could tell a story about heroes instead, dear,¡± said my mother, who was resting in a chair at the side of the room. ¡°It¡¯s probably much more interesting than talking about prices anyway. Ever since people fled to the sanctuaries, we haven¡¯t had many ¡®exciting¡¯ stories either - at least, not the type that would interest kids. A story about the hold days is probably more interesting.¡±


    My father¡¯s eyes brightened.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a good idea.¡± My father turned towards me, and then grinned. ¡°Would you like to hear about the heroes of old?¡±

 Chapter 348: The Days of Old

    ¡°In the old days, while the four essences were still limited, it was far more plentiful than it was now,¡± began my father, as he looked into my eyes. It almost seemed like he was trying to figure out how much of his words I understood.


    <So mana has always been a limiting factor in this world,> said Felix, as he watched the ¡®story¡¯ through my eyes. <Interesting. I wonder if this was a natural part of this world¡¯s magic system even before the Market turned this into a Garden world, or if it was added in later.>


    <I think the Market probably added it in later,> I said. <It just¡­ lines up too well. It gives almost everyone from the Market a huge advantage, since most of us don¡¯t rely on any sort of local resource to give us essence regeneration. I guess it could have appeared by coincidence, but I wouldn¡¯t bet on it.>


    Before Felix could reply, my father sighed, and ruffled my hair. He smiled at me.


    ¡°Back in those days, we hadn¡¯t been #($* from the continent yet. Instead, the world existed in a constant state of #$*&. The flying islands were made to serve and memorialize the heroes, rather than to serve as living spaces for millions of people. Every time a hero #$*&#@, if they wished, they could retire here with whatever men or women agreed to join them as #%*#&..¡±


    <Banished from the continent?> Felix asked.


    <Is that what that word meant?> I asked. <I suppose it makes sense.>


    <Either way, your father¡¯s words imply that these giant islands were basically retirement homes. Heroes would show up, probably from the Market. Then, they would¡­ do whatever it is they were supposed to do. Defeat the demon king? Or something? And then they would retire here to relax with their harem, if they wanted to. I suspect that¡¯s the ¡®normal¡¯ way this world functioned.>


    I thought about the incredibly abnormal state of the people in this world - no matter what, every single person here seemed attractive. I was inclined to agree with Felix¡¯s assumptions.


    <So what happened?> I asked.


    <Well, most likely, too long went by without a hero. So the demon king won. Or, well¡­ whatever threat the Market set up here. Probably, some sort of hive-mind monster that now inhabits the main planet?> Felix said. <Or something like that.>


    I thought about what Felix had seen last time a maid had taken him outside of his home to observe the world. When he had looked at our surroundings, all I had seen below us was a layer of writhing, oddly sentient mist.


    Had this world¡¯s planet turned into that? That was¡­ horrifying. But it also made some amount of sense. If the creators of this world had set up the ¡®Heroes¡¯ from the Market to have an overwhelming advantage of some sort, then it made sense for people of this world to fail without that advantage.


    ¡°Papa! Banish?¡± I asked, hoping he would elaborate a bit.


    ¡°Yes. They say that a long time ago, we lived down below, in a giant, flat world. As far as the eye could see, it was endless soil, with blue skies above us, and the #*$&#$ confined to the #*$&#$@ beneath our feet.¡± My father sighed. ¡°But too many years passed, and no new heroes were born. Nothing worked - and eventually, the ##$*&@# escaped. At first, it was manageable, but the outbursts grew worse and worse. Eventually, those that survived fled to the skies.¡±


    ¡°World gone?¡± I asked my father, hoping that he would fill in the blanks.


    My father laughed.


    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. We can¡¯t survive there anymore. You¡¯re so smart for someone who hasn¡¯t even turned four yet, Miria!¡± My father stroked my head, before he sighed. ¡°The world still exists, but¡­ well, it would be better if it didn¡¯t, honestly. At least then, there would be no more raids where #($*#@ fly to our islands and try to kill us.¡± Then, he ruffled my hair. ¡°Not that it matters much for you. I wish you could have been born before these times, back when heroes were still common. But¡­ well, life isn¡¯t so bad these days, either. There is always hope, even after the end of @#*$&#@.¡±


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    <So the air raids are the enemy, trying to deal with the last survivors,> said Felix. <I wonder why it¡¯s taking so long for it to win. You would think, logically, that with an entire planet of resources, it would be easy for it to finish off the last survivors.>


    <Maybe it¡¯s contained, somehow?> I said. <Or perhaps the people who turned this world into a Garden had some sort of backup plan. One that kept the enemy from being likely to wipe out the last survivors. After all, I imagine it would be annoying to rebuild a stable ecosystem in this dimension if something went wrong.>


    <Maybe.> Felix¡¯s voice sounded uneasy. <I can¡¯t help but feel like we¡¯re living in a soap bubble, though. If anything goes wrong, the bubble will pop and we¡¯ll plunge to our deaths. This world is in far worse condition than I was hoping for.>


    I also scrunched my face up in frustration. This situation was far less stable than expected. The good news was that our deaths didn¡¯t seem imminent - but I couldn¡¯t help but feel that if the hive-mind on the planet ever wanted to, we would all die within a week.


    My thoughts wandered back to the ¡®maintenance needed¡¯ I had seen in my first Status Screen after reincarnating. I shivered. Now that I thought about it, there was also some chance that something ¡®outside¡¯ of this dimension had interfered, sprucing up the power of the enemy. I really hoped that the weird hive-mind monsters were part of the ¡®original design¡¯ for this world. If they weren¡¯t, we might be in even more danger than we thought.


    <Ask your father about heroes,> said Felix. <Let¡¯s see if we can learn anything new about how the Market actually managed this world. People from the Market have natural essence regeneration, but I don¡¯t understand why that made them such a critical part of this world¡¯s survival. It doesn¡¯t seem like it should have played such a huge role here. Maybe we can learn more?>


    I blinked. I hadn¡¯t actually noticed that, but Felix was right. Having natural essence regeneration was a huge benefit - but it seemed odd that heroes were so significant in this world¡¯s history. How would essence regeneration help against the massive monster that had swallowed a whole planet?


    ¡°Papa! Heroes?¡± I asked.


    My father blinked. He seemed to be starting to realize I was a bit more¡­ thoughtful than most children. I decided that should be my final question for the day. If I kept asking coherent questions at my age, my father might realize something was up.


    ¡°Long ago, heroes were constantly born into this world. They were born better. Stronger. Each of them had a ¡®blessing¡¯ that allowed them to regenerate at least one type of essence #(%*#, without any need for external supplies. Only this allowed them to survive the long, difficult journey into %*#&$#, where the could collect #$*#&$#@. Combined with #%*&#$, this allowed the world to stave off the threat of %*#&$,¡± said my father.


    <Difficult journey into %*#&$#?> Felix sent me the mental equivalent of a frown. <Interesting. It looks like there is something else to this ¡®hero¡¯ business, but we¡¯re missing a few words and some context here. I don¡¯t know what that word means either.>


    I sighed. Not knowing the whole language was frustrating.


    ¡°When heroes go?¡± I asked, forgetting my earlier resolution not to ask any more questions. This one was on topic, at least, and my parents seemed like very loving parents so far. I felt I could push a little more.


    ¡°The heroes stopped appearing over 7,000 years ago, give or take a few years. Historical records of that time are a little unreliable, because during the flight to the sanctuaries, a lot of #*&$# got lost. But as far as most @#($*&@#$ can tell, that¡¯s the time heroes stopped appearing.¡± My father gave my mother a look, and she smiled knowingly at him. My father cleared his throat.


    ¡°I think that¡¯s enough storytime for now, sweetheart. Look, your sister is already sleeping,¡± he said, as he gave Anise a kiss on the forehead. True to his words, Anise was already happily drooling onto her side of the pillow. ¡°I love both of you. Sleep well.¡± With that, my mother and father left the room.


    After my parents left, I sighed. At least we had confirmed a few of our earlier ideas now. We knew how the market had handled things in the past, how things had changed, and even had a rough timeline when the Market had disappeared from this world - about 7,000 years ago. I wasn¡¯t sure exactly how time worked from one dimension to another - the soul fragment we had met in the last world had briefly mentioned that time passed at different rates in different worlds. However, it still gave us some context for the fall of the Market, however limited that information might be. My father¡¯s bedtime story had also told us that heroes were, for some reason, inextricably linked to the rise and fall of this world. I wasn¡¯t sure how the Market had accomplished that, but we would need to investigate that in the future.


    For now, the information we had gained would have to do.


    Felix and I spent nearly an hour bouncing ideas and theories off of each other, before my own eyelids started to droop. Before I knew it, I also fell asleep.

 Chapter 349: The Awakening of the Super Witch

    Months started to flow by. I finally achieved mastery of the language, meaning I no longer had awkward parts of each conversation that I didn¡¯t understand. At the same time, I worked on progressing both of my primary magic systems. I was still a bit curious about this world¡¯s various magic systems, and if I liked the local alteration and absorption systems, I might try to integrate them into my own style. However, there was no harm in establishing a baseline level of power to work with, in case something went wrong and I needed to help out during a raid. As for this world¡¯s binding and manifestation systems, since they would require expensive food to power, my interest in them had decreased a lot. Unless I could find a way to circumvent the problem, a magic system that relied on external supplies just wasn¡¯t that useful for me, either locally or in other worlds. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder why the corporation that created this world had designed the magic system this way. After all, grabbing new magic systems and integrating them into a larger combat style was one of the bigger advantages of the Market - making a magic system that sucked was terrible for marketing purposes. Perhaps there was some sort of detail we were missing?


    Either way, it wasn¡¯t my focus. Instead, over the course of the next year, I settled into my new life as a baker¡¯s toddler child, and worked on rebuilding my runes and my alteration magic system.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form Your Second Rune out of Absorption Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +600


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form an [Intermediate] Grade Attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Power: Form an [Advanced] Grade Attunement


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Achievement +1,500


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Combined, these three rewards brought me from 15,531 Achievement to 18,631 Achievement.


    I spent far more time and energy focusing on my attunement, since that was my primary magic system. The higher my attunement got, the stronger my Extinguishes and Renewals would be with the same amount of essence. With lethal threats constantly appearing in the skies, I wanted to make sure I could defend myself and my family in a pinch.


    This was also the reason I created my second rune, even though I was half-tempted to hold off on creating it until I had a better idea what powers I wanted. For my second rune, I decided to go for the same power as last world - the ability to spend a bit of essence to sense all nearby objects. It paired very nicely with my portals in previous worlds, making it possible to teleport around most projectile attacks and return them to their sender. It was also useful in a world where monsters could potentially sneak up on us with little warning if we were away from a city.


    However, I held off on creating a third absorption rune. I couldn¡¯t change my rune abilities once I made them, so I wanted to be sure of what power I wanted before I made my next rune. This world still had a lot of unknown factors, and with a lifespan of 500 years and low chance of dying in the near future, I wasn¡¯t in a rush. I could take my time and make sure I knew what I wanted.


    During those six months, we experienced two more raids - one two bell raid, and one three-bell raid. The three bell raid was a bit more dangerous than the two bell one - but luckily, there weren¡¯t any fatalities on the street. By eavesdropping on my parents, I finally learned a bit more about the ¡®bell¡¯ system.


    There were scouts positioned at the edges of the island and in the leaves that constantly watched our former home. They had access to different ways of enhancing their senses, and spent years learning to recognize all of the types of monster our former home tended to throw at our island. Every time a group of monsters got close enough, they rang a bell to let everyone know a raid was coming soon. Bells ranged from one to ten bells, with ten being a near extinction event and one bell being a raid that posed almost no threat. Below five bells, people didn¡¯t even bring out the real magic weapons, because the essence cost was too high to justify using on a swarm of weaklings. Instead, the weaker mages attacked low-danger raids, to hone their skills and aid the defenders.


    When I heard that, I couldn¡¯t help but think of the fireballs I had seen during my first raid. In five minutes flat, they had wiped out several groups of moderately powerful, flying monsters. Those were the trainee mages of this world?


    As much as I disliked the limited regeneration of essence in this world, I had to admit, the actual power of the magic systems used here were impressive.


    Of course, after six months, something far more important than just gathering information happened. The third member of our group woke up.


    <Miria!> said Anise, as her movements rapidly became more controlled and balanced. If a few hours ago, she had looked just like a flailing toddler, now she looked like an adult trapped in an awkward body. A moment later, she squirmed over to me, and I engulfed her in a hug. <I¡¯m awake! And we¡¯re sisters now! I can¡¯t believe it!>


    I giggled, and my mother, who was reading a book in the corner, smiled when she saw her children getting along.


    <I¡¯m surprised too! The odds of us being born together are pretty low!> I said, as I leaned closer for a hug. <But even though it¡¯s unlikely, I¡¯m not disappointed. Being sisters with you will be fun!>


    <You two are making me jealous,> said Felix, who sounded sour. <Half of my siblings don¡¯t like me. Despite the fact that I¡¯m basically a toddler right now, and haven¡¯t interacted with them at all yet. I get the feeling that this family is very wealthy, but not very close. I might have to watch out for assassins in the future.>


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I grimaced. Felix wasn¡¯t wrong. Over six months, we had carefully observed Felix¡¯s family. His family reminded me of a family from one of the dramatic stories written about nobles in our previous world. They constantly schemed and fought over attention, resources, and pride. Felix hadn¡¯t been very involved with them yet, and they seemed to maintain certain boundaries - neither of us had seen any siblings die or get maimed as a result of infighting. However, the household Felix was born into seemed like a harsh one.


    Felix¡¯s parents were a little bit better - his father was stern, but not overtly cruel. However, he still seemed a bit on the colder side - he reserved his smiles and affection for the siblings who excelled the most. Even though he maintained some boundaries, there was a reason his household was like this.


    His mother seemed much nicer. Unfortunately, she was very sick. She was basically bedridden most of the time, so her influence on her children was minimized. While Felix was probably joking about assassins, we would need to keep an eye on his situation. If possible, I also wanted to heal his mother - I suspected that would improve his family situation a fair bit.


    The two of us started telling Anise about Felix¡¯s family, and I saw her little face scrunch up in distaste afterwards.


    <Your family doesn¡¯t sound very fun,> said Anise. <I think our family is much nicer, even if we won¡¯t have as much information about magic.>


    <Me too.> Felix mentally sighed at us. <At least I have an easier way to get some Influence Achievement? My family seems at least somewhat important. I can probably get some income from playing family politics.>


    <What do your stats look like this time, Anise?> I asked, as I tried to change the subject. Felix didn¡¯t seem very happy about his family situation this time, so it was probably time to move to a new subject.


    <Let me show you!>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+107)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+105)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (20+130)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+107)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+88)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (40+104)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+116)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+109)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+97)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+84)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A moment later, Anise¡¯s status screen appeared in front of me. I took a look at it for a few moments, before I shrugged. Anise¡¯s Status Screen was neither great nor terrible - it could be considered weirdly average, if anything. Still, it could have been much worse.


    <If this world¡¯s absorption essence system is useful, it might be worth looking into, as long as you¡¯re interested, Anise.> said Felix, while sending the equivalent of a mental shrug. <Your related stat is pretty good after all. Still, your rolls aren¡¯t that interesting overall.>


    <At least my manifestation essence stat is all right,> said Anise. <I wish I could swap the absorption and manifestation stats related to my body, though.>


    <Any idea how long it¡¯ll take to make spells, or what the cost will be?>


    <I haven¡¯t checked yet, give me a moment,> said Anise. She closed her eyes, and scrunched up her face in concentration. After a few minutes, Anise opened them again.


    <All right, the first thing I can say is that the cost will definitely vary from spell to spell. However, the cost for a magic missile spell map should be about 400 Achievement, and around two or three years to create the spell map? The time cost is a bit higher than I thought it would be, honestly. But I guess that¡¯s the price for having my magic system ready the instant we return to the Market,> said Anise.


    <It might be pricy now, but don¡¯t forget, we almost never reach the ¡®height¡¯ of our power when we¡¯re in the Market,> said Felix. <There¡¯s just not enough time to rebuild our full setup before our bodies start collapsing. The extra price you¡¯re paying now allows you to completely ignore this problem.>


    <True,> said Anise. She sounded far more cheerful once Felix pointed that out.


    <Hmm¡­ so if you only tap in to the 10,000 Achievement I gave you, and somehow never earn any Achievement while here, that gives you enough room for about 25 spell maps?> Said Felix.


    she said. <I¡¯ll focus on force manipulation and fire spells first.>


    <Sounds good,> I said.


    From there, the three of us chatted for several hours, as we caught Anise up on everything we had seen and learned about this world so far. As we talked, I moved into a better hugging position, and Anise managed to drape one of her arms around my back as well. It was a bit of an awkward position, but it felt nice to hug one of my friends and have them hug me back. I hadn¡¯t even seen Felix in the flesh yet, but at the very least, I could hug one of my friends again. We chatted well into the night, long after my parents went to sleep, about our plans for the future. We still didn¡¯t know enough about the world to make any concrete plans for the future yet¡­ but we were starting to get a structural framework for what we wanted.


    Based on the information Felix and I had discovered so far, this world truly was in a desperate state. The people of this world had been kicked off of the continent, and were banished to a few flying sanctuaries. Worse, the number of sanctuaries didn¡¯t seem to be very high - Felix hadn¡¯t seen more than ten of them during the few times the maid took him to observe our surroundings. Each sanctuary could probably house a few million people, because they were absurdly oversized compared to their original purpose - but that was tiny compared to the original size and population of this world.Worse, even if we somehow reclaimed the continent and followed the path of the ¡®old heroes,¡¯ after a few thousand years any gains we made would probably collapse again. That wasn¡¯t something I was satisfied with.


    I wanted to provide this world with real hope. Since the Market was gone, it was obvious that this world couldn¡¯t expect any heroes to reappear in the future. We were the last wave that was likely to appear.


    So I didn¡¯t just want to learn how ¡®heroes¡¯ worked and then copy their actions. I wanted a way to end the cycle. We just needed to figure out how to do it.

 Chapter 350: Astral Tides

    After Anise woke up, she started adapting her own actions to suit her age. She quickly spoke her ¡®first words,¡¯ before she rapidly progressed her linguistic skills to meet my own. My parents seemed delighted that Anise was finally ¡®catching up to her older sister.¡¯ Anise and I started to carefully coordinate her ¡®mental development,¡¯ to make sure that she didn¡¯t seem too outrageously fast in picking up new things, but didn¡¯t seem to be far behind me, either. We planned to make sure she ¡®caught up¡¯ over the next few years, and make Anise look like a late bloomer. By that time, our parents should be used to us acting more and more mature for our age. As Old Mo had taught me last life, the trick wasn¡¯t to act like a ¡®totally normal child.¡¯ It was to make sure that any oddities I revealed were regarded as personality quirks.


    As Anise and I gradually acclimated our parents to our ¡®unusual development speed,¡¯ time passed by. Soon, a few months had passed. It was at that point that a new, unexpected change occurred.


    <Um¡­ do you guys know why the skies are suddenly rainbow-colored? Also, I hear cheering and music, which is unusual. It sounds like people are drinking, as well? I didn¡¯t even know we had alcohol in this city.> He said, as he used his bracelet to show us an image.


    True to Felix¡¯s words, the endless darkness that surrounded our island had erupted into a giant, cosmic rainbow. The weird, human eyes in the distance seemed to glow like radiant gems, which made them almost not creepy anymore. As much as I was usually unnerved by the endless expanse of darkness around us, right now it looked almost pretty. Furthermore, just as Felix had noted, I could hear people cheering and glasses clinking against each other in another room.


    I looked out of the arrow slits in our house, and confirmed that it wasn¡¯t just Felix¡¯s area that could see the cosmic rainbow. In every single speck of skyline I could set my eyes on, rainbow lights had flooded the area. It was like a giant, cosmic light show. Since I couldn¡¯t see the eyeballs while sitting under the tree, I could appreciate the beauty of the sight without the unnerving factor. It was beautiful.


    I could also sense that there were little bits of something present in the sky. It felt kind of like a soup made of all four essences, chaotically swirling around and around. For some reason, my body was unable to absorb it, the way I typically could absorb ambient essence. However, the four essences were still clearly present in the world right now. I wondered if this sight was somehow related to the production of essence-related crops.


    I rushed to my parents, and found my mother preparing a sack of spices and cheese.


    ¡°Mom! There are rainbows outside!¡± I said. Over the past few months, I had been using bigger and bigger sentences and words, and by now, my parents were used to me stringing together basic sentences.


    My mother blinked, and then turned to my father, who was grabbing a chunk of glowing light and stuffing it into one of the ovens.


    ¡°It looks like it¡¯s the first day of the Astral Tides, dearest,¡± she said, before she smiled and leaned closer to him. ¡°Do you want to take the day off and go have some fun? We could bring the kids along and go to that spot we had our first date in. I think they rebuilt it two months ago, and it¡¯s a good place for a picnic.¡±


    My father paused, lookin at the chunk of glowing crystal in the middle of the oven, before he turned around and grinned.


    ¡°Why, my lady, are you asking me out on a date?¡± He asked.


    My mother¡¯s smile grew wider. ¡°Why, I just might be, good sir.¡±


    ¡°Well, if a lovely lady like you asks me out on a date, how could I refuse?¡± he asked, before he stepped closer to my mother and gave her a deep kiss. My mother returned the kiss, before they separated. She glanced at the ovens, and then laughed.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get the picnic ready. I¡¯ll close the shop for the day. You get the food. Do we still have that blanket we use for picnics?¡±


    ¡°I think it got destroyed last year during an unlucky incursion. The one where a few streets got destroyed.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right. All right, we can use the other blanket then. It¡¯s a bit less soft, but it should do well enough.¡± My mother grinned. ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to this.¡±


    She turned back to me. ¡°Miria, get your sister, all right? We¡¯ll be ready to go in a few minutes. Let¡¯s do something nice for the rest of the day and have some fun..¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± I said. ¡°What weapons should I bring?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t bring weapons,¡± said my mother. ¡°There aren¡¯t any raids during the Astral Tides. Something about the light show in the sky disrupts the flying abilities of the enemy.¡±


    I blinked.


    So the giant light show in the sky meant we were safe?


    ¡°Are the Astral Tides always safe?¡± I asked.


    My father grinned. ¡°Yup. The first day the Astral Tides come is always a big celebration. Everyone has some sort of celebration each time. They usually last around 100 days, although sometimes they¡¯re a bit shorter or longer. But the first day of the Astral Tides is always a blast. Everyone goes out of their home to have fun and relax - except for some merchants, of course. Most taverns stay open because they make a week or two of income each time the Astral Tides roll around. But we aren¡¯t hurting for money, so we can just relax.¡± He leaned over, and ruffled my hair.


    I quickly understood why people in this world celebrated the Astral Tides. If these cosmic rainbows meant that no monster raids would appear for several months, it was no wonder people felt it was worth celebrating. The first thing my parents had taught me, when they realized I was starting to understand the world around me, was to never go outside without weapons. With air raids happening every couple months, someone without a weapon might not return home. They hadn¡¯t taught me to use a weapon yet - but they had drilled the idea that we needed to be armed at all times into my head. Now, I learned that for a few months each year, people could let their guard down and just enjoy life. That sounded like a pretty good cause for celebration to me.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I went up to fetch Anise, while my parents also rushed to their rooms and food storage containers to get ready. When Anise and I went back downstairs, I found my parents in attire I had never seen them in before. My mother wore a lovely pink dress that showed a bit more of her legs than I was used to, and had a comfortable hole in the back for her fluffy tails. My father got a type of clothing I had a harder time identifying - it looked kind of like a formalwear version of armor, except all of the metal parts were instead made of stone. However, it was clearly made for formal occasions, rather than actual combat - there were a variety of colorful decorations attached to all of the ¡®armor,¡¯ making it dead weight in a real fight. Even though the clothing looked odd, I had to admit that it suited my father. With his rather large build, he already sort of looked like a warrior - the formalwear armor completed the image perfectly.


    After that, my mother turned to Anise and I, before deciding our own wardrobe just didn¡¯t suit the occasion. She pulled us back to our room, before she changed our regular clothes out for a pair of cute, overly frilly dresses. After we got changed, I put {Lake Gazer¡¯s Dress} back on underneath it, just in case. After my mother checked Anise and I over a few times, she grinned in satisfaction.


    ¡°Both of you look lovely. The neighbors will definitely find you adorable,¡± she said, before she grinned and rubbed both of our heads.


    Then, our family set out. I immediately realized we were heading towards the trunk of the giant tree. As we walked, I saw dozens of other people also dressed up, moving with their kids, parents, or lovers. The city seemed abuzz with excitement and energy, and I saw people laughing. Some enterprising merchants had even set up little stall games in the streets, where people could do things like toss balls at targets and compete for prizes. All in all, it looked like the city was in full festival mode. It was something I had never seen before, and I couldn¡¯t help but grin as we moved through the herds of people. Seeing everyone enjoying their time was¡­ nice.


    My parents said hello to plenty of neighbors and customers as they wove through the festivities, and after nearly an hour of walking, our family arrived at the base of the tree. Unlike the city itself, the area directly around the tree was soil. Great, ancient roots dug deep into the earth below the tree trunk, holding together the soil and stone that made up our flying island. Fields of green grass, flowers, and smaller trees grew on the roots of the massive tree, like barnacles clinging to a leviathan. The trees themselves faintly smelled of fruit - they weren¡¯t ripe yet, but I could tell that they would be ready to eat in a few weeks. The dazzling rainbow lights and sweet smells contributed further to the festive atmosphere.


    As we moved closer, I noticed that the flora and people weren¡¯t the only things present. At the base of the tree, there was a strange, ethereal staircase that led up the trunk of the tree, like a stairway to the dense foliage above. I blinked in confusion. That was¡­ an odd detail. Was this how people moved between levels of the tree?


    I looked around, but didn¡¯t see anyone else looking at the staircase or interact with it in any way. Instead, I saw a few other boxes of stone, rope, and wood, that were making their up and down the sides of the tree. It looked like there were several sub-platforms scattered along the sides of the trunk, keeping things as stable as possible. I blinked in confusion. If everyone was using the weird elevators, why bother adding in stairs in the first place? Furthermore, the ethereal-looking nature of the stairs were very strange. It almost seemed like they were made of essence¡­ which was ludicrously wasteful in this world, where every drop of essence was an important strategic resource. Something was wrong here.


    ¡°Mama, why do people go up to the leaves?¡± I said, pointing at one of the elevators as it made its way up. Even if it wasn¡¯t quite the topic I was hoping to learn about, it was at least related to it.


    My mother looked at one of the elevators, before she shrugged.


    ¡°People go up the tree for a lot of reasons, Miria. It¡¯s pretty complicated. Umm¡­ the two basic reasons are defense and status. Those who live in the leaf layer are the children of those with magical talent, or those with magical talent themselves. They get access to magical knowledge a little bit earlier, since they¡¯re more likely to inherit magical talent. And, of course, the most important thing is to defend the tree. If the enemy ever destroys the tree, our island will fall to the ground below, which would be the end of the island. The enemy doesn¡¯t always attack the city - a lot of attacks are directed at the leaves and branches of the tree. So people have to live there to make sure the enemy doesn¡¯t hurt the tree anywhere,¡± she said.


    ¡°Are the moving platforms the only way up?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Probably,¡± said my mother. ¡°Legend has it there¡¯s a special stairway somewhere on the tree. One that only heroes can see. Apparently, there used to be a similar staircase in almost every city and town - and anywhere heroes were likely to frequent. It was supposed to give them some sort of benefit if they walked to the top of the staircase.¡± My mother laughed. ¡°I doubt it¡¯s true though. Nobody has used it in over seven thousand years, if it exists.¡± I glanced at the staircase, and then looked back at my mom, and nodded to myself.


    I had been wondering how heroes did so well in this world. This¡­ explained part of it, at least. If the company who used to run this world had set up a bunch of free stat points for any transmigrators, that would definitely give any Market dwellers a huge leg up in this world.


    I looked at Anise, who also looked at the staircase.


    <Anise, do  you see the stairs too?> I asked.


    < I do.>


    I smiled. <Whenever we¡¯re ready, if we decide to announce our hero status, we can use the stairs,,> I said. <It would prove that we were ¡®heroes,¡¯ and also give us¡­ whatever benefit the company who ran this world set up for us. Probably a permanent stat boost or something.>


    Anise paused, and then smiled.


    <I like the idea,> she said. <I don¡¯t think it¡¯s time yet. I want to spend a bit more time growing up and getting to know the situation in this world. But once we¡¯re ready, we can ascend the staircase and start¡­ whatever training program they put together for us. I imagine we¡¯d get some sort of beneficial treatment for being the first heroes in thousands of years. If we really want to fix this world for good, and end the broken ¡®cycle¡¯ of this world, we¡¯ll need every drop of power we can get.> She laughed. <Not yet though.>


    I nodded. I glanced at my parents, and did my best to focus on our fun day out again. Still, my thoughts swirled around in the back of my head. While it wasn¡¯t time to get moving yet, I was beginning to think there was a real chance the four of us could make a big impact on this world before we died. I didn¡¯t know if we had a way to really accomplish our ambition yet, of ending this world¡¯s ¡®cycle¡¯ and removing its reliance on heroes. However, with every way we found to gather more power, our odds got better and better. We just needed to keep searching for ways to improve.

 Chapter 351: Four Reunited

    After Anise and I took a few more moments to admire the staircase with some kind of powerup on it, our parents seemed to get tired. They took us on a leisurely stroll around the greenery, before we finally settled in a secluded garden area. Unlike most other parts of the green field surrounding the trunk, this one had a higher density of flowers, and also had a few statues overlooking the area.


    Two of the statues were old, worn out, and more than slightly charred looking. The third statue was of an elven woman smiling at us as she raised one hand into the distance, and held a book with her other hand.


    ¡°Why are two of the statues scorched black?¡± I asked.


    ¡°They¡¯re recreations of the original three heroes,¡± said my mother. ¡°During the flight to the sanctuaries we lost a lot of things - including records of what two of them looked like. There were still some old statues of them, but they were very worn and faded¡­ such as the two in this garden. Since nobody knows what they look like, we decided to leave the statues as-is. Sadly, they got even more ruined a year ago during a high level incursion.¡±


    My father sighed. ¡°It really is a shame. Losing the faces of two of the original three heroes makes it easier for us to forget our past. But there¡¯s no turning back time.¡±


    I nodded. As much as I knew the ¡®heroes¡¯ were probably semi-complicit in the problems of this world, I could still feel the way this world¡¯s history had slipped away after the Market¡¯s collapse. It was a state that was more than a little depressing, and it weighed heavily on my mind as I turned my gaze away from the old statues.


    It seemed that I wasn¡¯t the only one inspecting the ruined statues. There were two other families also present in this flower field - luckily, there was enough space that it wouldn¡¯t feel too cramped.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad they rebuilt this area,¡± said my mother, as we moved to sit directly under the statue of the elven woman. ¡°It was such a shame that it got ruined during the raid.¡±


    My father grimaced. ¡°Along with several swathes of city,¡± he said, shivering. ¡°I thought we were going to lose the bakery for a few hours when I heard that our portion of the city caught fire. I¡¯m just glad we were visiting your parents at the time, or I would have been worried about losing you and the girls, too.¡±


    My mother laughed. ¡°That really was a stroke of luck.¡±


    My interest was piqued. My mother¡¯s father?


    Come to think of it, I hadn¡¯t had much interaction with ¡®grandparents¡¯ in most of our previous lives. Life was just too short in most of them for grandparents to stick around - or too likely to come to a swift, violent end. At least so far, I had yet to be in a family with living grandparents. However, while this world appeared to be beset by violence, it was also far more resilient against it. Otherwise, life wouldn¡¯t have continued on for thousands of years after the Market disappeared. While monster attacks were common, our city didn¡¯t seem to have a hard time beating back most of them. Did I actually have grandparents this time?


    My mother¡¯s smile grew. ¡°I think a big part of it is because we got married so young. In my Grandfather¡¯s time, kids didn¡¯t start dating until they were at least sixty or seventy. For us to start dating at only fifty must have been a huge shock. My father always complained that the two of us lacked patience.¡±


    My father snorted. ¡°I can definitely imagine that.¡±


    My mother laughed. ¡°When you asked me to join you in the rite of flowers and formalize our relationship, he started yelling about how we should wait another decade. That way I could kick you to the curb if I changed my mind.¡±


    ¡°Mama, we have grandparents?¡± I asked.


    ¡°We¡¯ve seen all of your grandparents before! You must have been too young to remember,¡± said my mother. ¡°My parents live in the leaves, so we usually see them once or twice a year. You father¡¯s parents live in one of the island¡¯s other two cities, so they¡¯re even harder to visit.¡±


    I blinked in surprise. So my parents and my grandparents were all still alive? That was genuinely surprising for me.


    My mother laughed. ¡°It¡¯s part of why we can live so well, despite running a simple bakery. We might not live with my father, since he¡¯s on the leaves layer and I¡¯m married, but he still loves me very much. It made it far easier to get the initial money for the bakery, and since my food is good, things grew from there.¡± My mother looked very proud of herself, and actually puffed out her chest a bit with pride. Meanwhile, Anise and I shared a look.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    So grandfather lived on the upper layer of the city, in the leaves? That meant he was also a spellcaster, or directly related to one. it seemed that our birth was also pretty lucky this time - even if we hadn¡¯t been born directly into the upper crust of society, we were in pretty good shape.


    ¡°Grandfather does magic?¡± I asked.


    My mother nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t have any affinity for any of the four essences, sadly. But grandfather is a competent manifestation essence user of the Hylian spellcasting system. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll see him again soon - we usually visit sometime during the astral tides, although we occasionally visit at other times of the year. If he doesn¡¯t send us an invitation soon, I¡¯ll send him a letter.¡±


    I nodded, and stopped asking my parents questions. Instead, I thought about the conversation.


    So grandfather was also a spellcaster. We could gather more information from him when I got a little older. I doubted he would take any questions from me seriously when I was this young - but later on, he might be more open to a serious talk about spellcasting. I was also more than a little amused by the cultural differences longevity could grant. In our last world, at fifty years old, someone was usually settled down with grandchildren. In this world, fifty years old was a bit young for dating. The difference in expectations was mind-boggling..


    I glanced at Anise, who chuckled softly.


    <Cultures in each world sure are different, huh?> she said.


    <They sure are,> I said.


    Since our parents shooed us away while they started setting up the picnic, Anise and I did our best to weave some flower-crowns. It wasn¡¯t exactly my favorite activity, but I didn¡¯t hate it - and more importantly, it was something a normal kid was likely to do. Anise¡¯s flower-crown turned out far better than mine, since I had a harder time visualizing how to keep the whole thing together.


    Right as I was starting my third attempt at weaving a nice flower crown,  a mental communication interrupted me.


    <Hello?> Said Sallia.


    I resisted the urge to grin.


    Our fourth member was back! All four of us were awake again!


    <Sallia! You¡¯re the last one to wake up! How are you?> I said. <What¡¯s your situation like?>


    <Oh, Miria! Umm¡­ not too sure about my situation yet. I smell earth, and vegetables. I might be on a farm?> said Sallia. <There is no immediate danger near me. I don¡¯t think this room is just for me - I see two other beds, so I probably have siblings? Or my parents sleep in different beds and we only have one room. It¡¯s hard for me to guess right now,> she said.


    <What do your stats look like?> asked Felix.


    A moment later, Sallia showed us her Status Screen.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical


    </td>


    <td>


    Mental


    </td>


    <td>


    Essence


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Strength:  (20+121)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Intelligence:  (20+81)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Absorption:  (40+124)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Agility:  (20+99)


    Grade 5


    </td>


    <td>


    Willpower:  (40+125)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    <td>


    Manifestation: (40+122)


    Grade 8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Fortitude:  (40+116)


    Grade 7


    </td>


    <td>


    Perception:  (20+71)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    <td>


    Binding: (20+118)


    Grade 6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    </td>


    <td>


    Alteration: (20+78)


    Grade 4


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <Your perception is terrible,> said Felix.


    <Yeah, it is,> said Sallia. <My runes could fix that, but it¡¯ll always be a bit of a low number. Hey Felix, I remember that in the market, we were trying to see if your Factory could hold on to items in between lives, right? I remember we found a few items that can boost Perception. Did those items stick around? If so, I can toss out my noodle bowl after I finish using it, and adopt some stat boosters afterwards.>


    Felix paused. <I forgot to check. Give me a moment.> A few minutes passed by, as we waited for Felix¡¯s response. Finally, he mentally sighed. <Nope. It didn¡¯t work. It looks like the factory rebuilds itself from the ground up when we reach a new dimension. Interestingly enough, it does still have a few bits of metal for me to play with. However, most of my dimensional factory is filled with different types of stone, and I don¡¯t see any of the items we stored from the Market. I wonder where they ended up.>


    <Hmm. Well, that¡¯s a shame.> Sallia sighed. <Well, what else do we know about this dimension? Since I¡¯m the last one up, I hope you four have made some progress in learning more. Also, what do your family situations look like? And what about your status screens? Bring me up to date on your situations!>


    The three of us started working to fill Sallia in on what we knew, while Anise and I watched our parents set up our picnic. Even though Sallia¡¯s stats were on the weaker side, I still couldn¡¯t help but smile.


    It was nice to have all four of my friends awake again.

 Chapter 352: Grandparents

    The rest of the picnic with my parents was peaceful. We had a nice lunch, and then we strolled around the field of flowers. Our parents encouraged Anise and I to play with the other children we met along the way, and so we were pressured into joining a few other children playing some sort of ball game. By the end of the game, I still didn¡¯t entirely understand the rules, but Anise and I had some fun kicking it around. Since Anise had fun, the whole thing was a good use of time, at least in my opinion. After that, our parents took us to a nice restaurant, where we had a tasty meal before we returned home for the night.


    After that, not much happened for a week and a half. The city spent a few days celebrating the start of the astral tides, before life returned to normal. A week and a half later, however, my mother woke us up early. She had an excited grin on your face, and she was holding a letter in her hands. I glanced at the letter with a confused expression, and my mother laughed.


    ¡°It¡¯s your grandparents. It¡¯s time to see them again,¡± she said. ¡°I bet they¡¯ll be shocked by how much you¡¯ve developed in the last year - both you and Anise!


    ¡°Oh?¡± I said, as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I had to admit, I was a bit curious. My mother had mentioned my grandparents earlier, and had also let slip that at least one of them was a spellcaster. Since it was also my first time interacting with our extended family since waking up, I was hopeful that our grandparents would be nice.


    My mother and father got into their nice clothes again, and then our mother helped Anise and I get dressed. After that, we made our way back to the trunk of the tree, before we moved towards one of the moving platforms.


    Getting onto the platform was more complicated than I expected. There were three different security guards who asked to see some sort of identification. My mother had her documents in order, so they waved us through quickly enough - but I could tell that these people took the security of the platforms very seriously.


    After the three rounds of security checks, we finally got onto a wooden platform, before it started to move upwards. However, once we reached the first layer of branches, I was jolted out of my complacency. This was because I noticed something unusual.


    Several of the branches had farms on them. Considering how large the flying island was, I thought it was pretty unusual to place farms on the branches of the tree - it didn¡¯t seem to make sense. Even more strange, after some careful analysis I realized that the crops inside of those gardens had essence in them. I could also see that the leaves on each branch near the farms were sucking in the rainbow lights from the sky, like someone slurping up noodles in a restaurant.


    I gave them a second curious look, and started thinking. I decided to share this picture with Sallia and Felix - I had a sneaking suspicion it might be useful later.


    <I found something interesting. Take a look at this,> I said. <I suspect whatever is happening here is related to the growth of essence-restoring crops. We¡¯ve been tossing around ideas for how to break this world out of its reliance on heroes, and I¡¯m thinking that a way to mass-produce essence restoring foods could do it. What do you guys think?>  I said.


    <It might make sense,> said Felix. <The lack of easy access to essence is a big part of why these people lost contact with the continent, based on my understanding of history. Even in the sanctuaries, there are usually plenty of people that have affinity for an essence, but don¡¯t have the money to generate some essence and practice a magic system.>


    <This image could be useful too,> said Sallia. <I¡¯ve been wondering why people don¡¯t just grow the essence-producing crops en masse. After all, magic gives any society a bunch of new paths it can use to develop and improve. Prioritizing magic would make a lot of sense, and it seemed odd people here didn¡¯t do it. If the essence crops HAVE to grow on the tree branches, it makes far more sense. Limited special farmland, meaning that most food is unable to produce essence.>


    <If we¡¯re still thinking about ways to permanently break this world¡¯s dependance on heroes as we leave, we might need to find a way to replicate these farming conditions,> said Anise.


    <Or we could try to find a way to make the crops up there grow even in ground conditions. Or make a new type of plant, that doesn¡¯t have these restrictions?> said Felix. <There are a few ways we could try to take this, and most of them make sense.>


    <Do you know anything about plant breeding? Or, uhh¡­ whatever it¡¯s called for plants?> I asked.


    <Unfortunately, I do not,> said Felix. <I could learn, though. We have a lifespan of five hundred years in this world. That¡¯s a lot of time to learn miscellaneous skills. Or Sallia could teach us? Your family is a farming family, right?>


    <I can confirm my family is definitely a farming family,> she said. <I expect I¡¯ll learn more about farming than I ever wanted to know, whether I want to learn or not.> There was a trace of amusement in her thoughts.


    <I could do some research too!> said Anise. <I wouldn¡¯t mind focusing on learning about plant breeding and the farms on the branches. Felix could focus on getting the crops into a useable state, and Miria could use her alteration essence to set up areas where the laws of reality work differently. She¡¯s already working on creating weird environments this life, to evolve her ability in the ideal direction. If she can replicate that and make it happen on a wider scale somehow, we could create more usable farms, even if our other ideas don¡¯t work.>


    <We¡¯ll need to reassess when we get more information, but at least one of those directions might work,> said Felix. <If we really do manage to drastically empower the people of the sanctuaries, it should be worth a ridiculous amount of Achievement. I¡¯m looking forward to it.>


    As my friends and I discussed plans for the future, our platform kept moving higher and higher up the tree. Finally, after nearly fifteen minutes of travel, we reached our destination.


    The branch we had arrived at was quite a bit thicker than the other branches at this elevation. I followed behind my parents as we disembarked from the platform and started walking along a street made of stone and thin, palm-width branches woven together to keep everything stable. There were smaller walkways along the side that led to houses and stores on the street, and there was also a thick and sturdy safety railing spanning the sides.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    I was curious about our surroundings, but my parents didn¡¯t seem interested in lingering. After passing several houses, we walked up to a house made of a dark blue stone. My mother knocked on the door a few times before someone opened it.


    The man standing in the doorway looked to be the same age as my mother. If I didn¡¯t know the biological characteristics of people in this world, I would have pegged him as a twenty year old man. Like my mother, he had multiple fox tails and a fuzzy, inhuman set of ears, although his hair was a dark orange. He gave my mother a warm smile when he saw her, and pulled her into a hug. ¡°Elli. Daughter. It¡¯s been months since I last saw you. How have you been? How is the bakery?¡± Then, he saw Anise and I, and his smile grew even wider and warmer. ¡°And little Miria and Anise, too! How have you two been? Are you already so good at walking now? I didn¡¯t expect that for another few years.¡± He turned towards my mother. ¡°Did they walk all the way here from the elevators? They¡¯re remarkably steady.¡± He leaned closer to us, and ruffled both of our hair.


    My mother laughed. ¡°They walked all the way here from our house, actually. I¡¯m amazed at how fast they¡¯re developing. They¡¯re really talkative now, too. Miria can even say simple sentences and chat with adults for a while.¡±


    My grandfather laughed. ¡°Wonderful. I remember that last year, you were starting to get a bit worried that they were taking so long to get their first words and steps in. Looks like they¡¯re just late bloomers.¡± He grinned, and then winked at my mother. ¡°I remember you were also a bit on the slow side, actually. Didn¡¯t say ¡®papa¡¯ until you were five years old, and didn¡¯t take your first steps until you were six. Your mother and I were really worried that you took an extra two years, compared to your brother. Didn¡¯t stop you from being a tiny terror by the time you were eight. Used to drive your mother crazy. She checked the safety railings near our house at least five times a day to make sure you had no way to fall over the edge.¡±


    My mother blushed.


    Then, my grandfather gave my father a more measured look. ¡°Good to see you as well, Samuel. It¡¯s been a year. Are you taking care of my daughter?¡±


    ¡°Of course, sir,¡± said my father, as he gave my grandfather a firm handshake. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t dream of mistreating her. She¡¯s an amazing woman.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you forget it,¡± said my grandfather, with a nearly imperceptible snort. The man looked at Anise and I again, before he sighed. ¡°Forget it, at least you were half responsible for bringing Anise and Miria into this world. Come on in. Your grandma also missed you.¡±


    We walked into the house. There, sitting in the living room, was another lady that looked twenty. Unlike my grandfather and mother, she didn¡¯t seem to be related to foxes - instead, she had scales centered around her eyes and forehead, and reptilian, slitted pupils. She gave all four of us warm smiles, followed by a few hugs.


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind old Eddie, he¡¯s just a bit of a grump,¡± she whispered as she approached my father. Then, she picked Anise and I up and gave us much firmer hugs. ¡°How have you two been? You¡¯re so cute. Both of you are growing up so fast.¡± She planted a kiss on each of our foreheads, before she put us back down.


    After that, our grandparents sat us down, and started fussing over my mother, Anise and I. As my mother talked about the bakery, I noticed a bookshelf near the back of the room.


    ¡°Grandpa, what are these books about?¡± I asked as I pointed at them. I hadn¡¯t forgotten that my grandparents were related to spellcasting, and I was really hoping some of the books were basic spellcasting manuals. Unfortunately, I had yet to learn how to read, so I couldn''t just look at the books myself.


    My grandfather, who had been caught up in one of my mother¡¯s stories about an unusual customer, turned back towards me.


    ¡°Oh? I didn¡¯t realize you were interested in reading. I thought it would take a decade or two before you reached that point.¡± He smiled, and walked over to me. ¡°There are a lot of different types of books here. The one you¡¯re currently pointing at is a story book - your mother was interested in it when she was in her early thirties. The ones near the top are magic books, and there are also some reference books and history books near the bottom. I used to enjoy studying the history of the first queen of the Sanctuary, since her rule solidified so many of the customs we live in today¡­¡± My grandfather shrugged. ¡°Well, I bet you probably don¡¯t want to hear about ancient history. Maybe when you¡¯re older.¡± He grinned at me.


    ¡°Magic books?¡± asked Anise, drawing grandfather¡¯s attention back towards her. The moment grandfather had mentioned magic books, her eyes had started sparkling.


    Grandfather nodded. ¡°Magic books. Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°Can you teach me to read?¡± asked Anise. ¡°I¡¯d love to learn more about magic!¡±


    My grandfather paused, and gave Anise a more curious look. ¡°Are you really interested in magic? I thought most kids would be more interested in exciting stories, like the ones about heroes. Not dusty old tomes about the correct equation to use for a fireball in the Hylian magic system, compared to the fragmented records we have of the Evescent system.¡±


    Anise nodded her head so fast that her hair looked kind of like the blades of a windmill.


    ¡°I love magic!¡± She said.


    My grandfather laughed. ¡°You¡¯re a bit too young to get into the nitty gritty details, but¡­ if you¡¯re that interested, I guess I could give you some basic information. If you have a talent for one of the four essences, I could just pretend it¡¯s preparing you for the future. Even if you aren¡¯t, knowing more about the different magic systems can still net you a good job in one of the security offices. Those people need to know the math behind each spell down to the tiniest detail so that the city¡¯s essence budget doesn¡¯t implode. Why not? But first, you need to learn how to read and do basic math.¡± He picked up Anise, and gave her a big hug. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind an excuse to bring you two up here more often. I don¡¯t get to spend enough time with my children or my grandchildren.¡± He raised an eyebrow at my mom, who gave my grandfather a sheepish grin.


    ¡°I like spending time at the bakery too much. Sorry.¡±


    ¡°Well I like spending time with my daughter too much. So she should come home more often. It¡¯s not that hard for me to get a visitor¡¯s pass for you,¡± said my grandfather, as he rolled his eyes. Then, he turned his attention back towards Anise. ¡°What do you think? Want to help me drag your mother back here for some more visits, and learn some more about magic too?¡±


    ¡°That sounds fun!¡± said Anise, as she instantly sold our mother out.


    My mother twitched.


    ¡°What about you, Miria?¡± my grandfather asked, as he turned towards me. ¡°Are you interested in spending some more time with your grandfather and some books?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± I said. Inwardly, I grinned.


    We could finally learn a bit about this world¡¯s magic systems! I wasn¡¯t sure if we would end up using any of them, but I was at least interested in hearing some details. If I liked one of the magic systems here and naturally regenerated the essence for it, I would be more than happy to incorporate it into my fighting style.


    My grandfather gave Anise and I another big hug, before he set us both back down. I grinned, and shot Anise a mental wave of happiness.


    We had found a route to learn about magic and history before we started our actual education.