In the next days, the rest of the glitchlings levelled up and learned how to do Serenity well enough that Arikan and Shtiljit were able to enter the Black Waters with Kiresula, Mayana and Kju just standing by in case something went wrong. After this had been established, Kiresula and the rest bid goodbye to bring the Ilkshehirian glitchlings to the Black Waters. Arikan, Shtiljit and the rest of their group wished them good luck. When they had learned about Kju helping Hsie Makajj and Kieki to gain classes, their disposition changed a lot: They were always eager to go after the groundsnarlers. They were eager to level up and relive their halcyon days. Their retirement always had been involuntary and so they were happy to get back into the game, even if it would require starting from, if not the bottom, then at least a far lower level than before.

The group travelled well and, in the evening, returned back to Ilkshehir. As they did, they encountered a situation: A glitchling was fighting two ruffians and doing a surprisingly good job at keeping them at bay. They used synthic barriers that held spikes that flashed up just moments before the ruffians kicked or beat them. Only for them to try again and again with vigour. Kju snarled at the ruffians: "Stop it right now!"

The bigger of them aggressively gloated: "Or what‽"

He leaned forward to the glitchling, who squirmed away, and tried to punch them again, but lost his balance and fell on the floor. Kiresula's elemental awareness saw that this was Kju's doing.

Kju responded, while trying to keep a serious facade: "Or you might overextend and lose your balance." He turned to the glitchling, who looked confused at the group: "Songul, are you okay? Do you want to come with us?"

"Oh, Kju? I didn't recognise you. These folks just bothered me for no reason. Drunk lowlifes looking for trouble is never a pleasant encounter, even when you have gained a class."

Songul nodded: "Can we get to the sewers? I kinda live there!"

Kju asked: "In the glitchling settlement? That's where we planned going."

Songul smiled: "Yeah. We live there, though recently folks were talking about leaving. The Holy Order started random searches of the place. Especially at night. It's frustrating."

Kiresula nodded sadly. She didn't speak as she didn't want to incriminate herself.

They arrived in the settlement a few minutes later, and instead of a thriving place, like in the last visit, they saw a dump: furniture was broken, walls had gashes in them, the ground was full of debris. Songul didn't react to the devastation, indicating that this was not new. Kiresula asked: "What happened?"

Songul made a sad noise: "Holy Order searches. They had been thorough. They had been searching our settlements every night during the last few days. Not sure what they are even after… there were no arrests or anything, they didn't take anything, they just destroyed a bunch of stuff and left."

Mayana made a sad noise: "It's about intimidation. They have seen you level up and panicked. They see all of you excelling and want to get in on your secrets."

Songul looked scared: "But… that secret was Kju."

Kju shook his head: "The secret is the second system, not me. I am just helping folks access it. I actually had assistance from my group myself."

Songul chewed on their, no, her lower lip for a moment, then said: "I see. So,… can I help people get classes as well?"

Kju made a vague sound: "The secret is to get folks to use synthic magic to affect things. Make spells, or use it to… interlink yourself with something, like, elementalists do."

Songul nodded: "So, I need to learn to do this? Can you help me?"

Kju made a vague gesture: "I think Kiresula is better at teaching spells. She used to be a teacher before she glitched."

Kiresula smiled: "I would need to explain a lot of things, but yeah, I could help with this."

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

Eventually, they arrived in the mess hall. Arisha and Barish were distributing food on stone shards. The gruel, that was normally almost liquid, was now cooked to a much more firm texture, probably because the plates had been destroyed in one of the last searches by the Holy Order.

Kiresula waved to Arisha, whose eyes lit up. "Hey, Arisha, how do you feel about all of us getting the eff out?"

Arisha looked tired: "Sure, and go where? There's nowhere we can run to, no place to go…"

Kiresula smiled: "The area is named the Black Waters. It's in the middle of nowhere, synthic magic is abundant, hopefully enough to keep the blue system users out, and a dungeon that has recently learned how to use synthic magic."

Arisha looked at Kiresula: "Is that true?"

Kiresula nodded: "It is. The problem is that there might be groundsnarlers, but a group of adventurers is handling these right now."

Arisha nodded: "Do you think it is reasonably safe?"

Kiresula nodded: "I would trust the area with how Arikan, Shtiljit, Kieki, Makajj and Hsie are working on cleaning them up. We often went for long times without encountering any of them on the last trips."

Arisha raised an eyebrow: "I see. Would you sleep there?"

Kiresula nodded: "I would."

Arisha looked into her eyes and, with a quiet but strong voice asked: "Would you let Mayana sleep there? Alone?"

Kiresula bit her lips and took a few steps before responding, wanting to pace but catching herself from doing so: "I would have a bad sleep and insist on using my Beacon spell so that she can find me at any time. I would not enjoy any second of it and could only hope that the night passed quickly. But… yeah… I guess so…"

Arisha smiled: "You are as transparent as the glass in the palaces of the duarchy. Can we depart tonight? I don't want to have our place raided again."

Kiresula looked at the others, who didn't share her Fortitude. Kju looked unhappy but nodded, Mayana looked at her and asked: "Can I have some Fortitude for the journey?"

Kiresula nodded: "No problem. I was conservative with my magic on the way."

Mayana smiled: "Then it's fine. This is important."

Arisha and Barish called out to other glitchlings and asked them to take just what they could carry. Some folks with pets interpreted this liberally by putting items onto their backs. Others used cloth or their clothes to create makeshift bundles or even backpacks. Someone mended people's blankets and other items for the new location. Yet, people got ready relatively fast. As the light faded, the group departed the city. Led by an [Illuminate], the group left Ilkshehir in a large group through a clandestine exit outside of the city walls. The huge group walked slowly but steadily. Kiresula had enhanced the Fortitude of Mayana, Kju and a young glitchling in the group whose name she had forgotten by using the [Magic Prism], which was a very neat thing: It allowed her to cast a spell which normally only had one target to several ones. It still cost the magic, but it allowed her to have the same spell up for several people which generally would be impossible. The problem was of course that their buffs depended on her own status, so if she dispelled one, she dispelled all. And the magic cost was higher than the sum of the individual spells would cost.

At about 50 grains into the night, Songul reached the top of the group and asked Kiresula and Mayana: "So, can you teach me synthic magic? Kju said you can… and I want to help folks without a class even when I cannot become a [cleric] anymore."

Kiresula smiled and explained the concepts to the group. As the night progressed, she held an ad hoc class for anyone in earshot, taught while walking at a slow pace (not everyone had a class that buffed Fortitude and not everyone had levelled up yet). Eventually, Mayana replaced Kju as the rear of the group and Kju explained how to get a nonmagical class by binding your own magic to a place or an object. A farmer binds some of their magic to their field, a woodcarver to their tools, a blacksmith to their anvil or their hammer. Kju explained this process, which sounded difficult. This made sense to some people who previously had classes around their work. Some glitchlings took out tools that they owned and tried to create a link to them. Kju saw that and warned them that synthic magic was the other missing component. Kiresula could also explain that the green system was able to keep a ledger on the changes and actions and generally sent notifications and level ups when someone returned into synthic magic.

As the sun rose, the group was feeling quite miserable, they were at the bottom of their Fortitude stats. Kiresula called out a rest and people sat down next to the road. Kiresula was still feeling okay, just tired, but some of the group seemed to be close to giving up.

Kiresula looked at them and asked for peoples' Fortitude values in order to, after a reasonable pause, help those with the worst stats. There was a commotion, as some people didn't want to disclose their stats. Kiresula explained her plans to assist folks, but even then, some were more hesitant. Kiresula was not good at social things, so she just threw up her hands and said that she realised it was a bad idea, she just wanted everyone with Fortitude below 100 to step up. She already knew that she probably had destroyed her standing in the group, but as long as they would follow her to the Black Waters, she'd cope.

As she was thinking about this, a girl, barely 14 years old if she assessed this correctly, tiredly waved her arms and mumbled: "Mine's 5. What to do?"