Rewards flashed across Saul’s vision as the ambassador disappeared through the portal. He was now respectably advanced along his magical path. Normally, the experience points and Arcane Dust that were his rewards for fighting and defeating enemies just absorbed to the Workshop without his input but, this time, for some reason, he saw them for a moment just as he had done when he’d first been exploring his system.

They flickered across his vision, dreamlike forms, stacks of brightly colored XP coins and shining vials of heavy crystal filled with golden Arcane Dust. Satisfaction spread warmly though him; that looked like enough rewards to level up to Level 25.

“I need to gain better control of that Firebrand spell,” Brand said. His voice was a little shaky. “I knew you were going to overpower the Squad Fire Specialism, but I didn’t expect it to make my spell quite that strong. I was almost bowled over!”

“It was effective, though, even if it was difficult to aim. I don’t think the ambassador would have been so quick to flee if he hadn’t been on fire from your spell. You did well, too, Zorea. That healing spell was great. I swear the ambassador’s lightning would have taken Brand and me down if you hadn’t kept healing us.”

“I couldn’t have kept it up for long,” Zorea said. “It was a strong spell, but the casting took a lot more effort than usual.”

As they were speaking, Saul picked up the severed wrist and hand he’d cut from the ambassador. The flesh was encased in a beautifully made gauntlet and glove, hard steel plated with gold. As Saul held the armored gauntlet up, the ambassador’s hand dropped out and landed on the ground.

“A perfectly normal human hand,” Brand observed. “He may have had a skull for a face, but at least the ambassador seems to have been a flesh and blood man otherwise.”

Saul turned his attention to the portal. The stones had returned to their previous form, with no sign of the doorway of arcane red light that had been present a moment before. He gazed up at the stones and activated his System’s scanning function, directing it at the stones.

Portal Crafting:

Elements required:

Portal Stones: Present

Blood of the Enemy: Present

The Waning Crescent Moon: Not Present

Select: Craft Portal Sigil (Unavailable)

“Waning crescent moon,” Brand said, looking at the sky. “We’re nowhere near that phase of the moon tonight. The System needs a waning crescent moon to be present to bring this portal under your control, but that’s probably about four weeks away.”

“And until then,” Saul said, “we have to accept that our enemies will keep the ability to use this portal.”

“We can put a guard on this hill,” Zorea said. “Until we know more about this Keljek empire and what it has to do with us, we can’t take any chances.”

“Blood of the enemy,” Brand said thoughtfully, looking at the quickly drying splashes of blood on the stones. “We’ll need to find a way of getting that again when we come back to this portal in a month.”

“Unless…” Saul said as an idea struck him.

He squatted and, grimacing in distaste at the grisly relic, lifted the severed hand of the ambassador.

Taking a little glass vial from the pouch at his belt, he dripped blood from the ambassador’s severed limb into the bottle and then corked it tight. “We’ll mix this with distilled alcohol when we get back to Jillin, that will keep the blood from deteriorating over time,” he said. “Then, we’ll be able to pour the preserved blood on the stone when the time comes to activate the portal.”

He slipped the small vial back into his pocket and then turned his attention to the strange Siglilized item that the ambassador had used to cast his spells. It was a flat, circular stone disc a few inches across, fixed to the wrist of the gauntlet with a thick leather strap. The strap had cracked in the heat of the fire from Brand’s spell, and as Saul tugged at it, the device came loose in his hand.

He held the stone disc, looking at the Sigil that was imprinted into the smooth surface. The Sigil glowed faintly, but it seemed to have lost its potency. There was something unsettling about it, something sickening. It gave Saul the same feeling as he’d felt looking at the severed stump of the ambassador’s hand, only worse.

The Sigil made him feel like it had been cut from a person. But was that possible?

“Ugh,” Brand made a noise of disgust as he looked over Saul’s shoulder. “There’s something ugly about that.”

“I agree,” Saul said. “Let’s see if we can take it to the Workshop and have a closer look.”

He took one more glance around the hilltop, but all was quiet. The corpses of the snakemen had disintegrated into dust, and there was no more sign of them now than there was of the ethereal wraiths. Apart from the scorched patches on the ground from Brand’s fire spell, the blood on the stones, and the grisly relic of the ambassador’s hand, there was no sign that a battle had taken place here at all.

System options:

Select: Activate Workshop

Select: Travel Solo

Select: Transport Fire Squad to Workshop

Saul selected the option that would transport the whole Squad to the Workshop. With that smooth, pleasant sensation that now accompanied the transition from the real world to the System space of the Workshop, Saul, Brand, and Zorea were lifted up smoothly from Sprite’s Corner hill. There was a moment of darkness, a sensation of flying forward at great speed, and then the Workshop materialized around them.

Sarkur the trickster god had designed the Workshop, as far as Saul knew. The space reflected the taste of a wealthy eccentric nobleman, with a healthy dose of mad scientist, and from what Saul had seen of Sarkur, that fitted his character.

Wood paneled walls stretched up to a dark, carved ceiling. A generous hearth held a crackling log fire at one end of the long, rectangular room. At the other end, a bank of tall, arched windows showed a never-changing vista of gray cloud. Falling rain beat steadily on the glass. The floor was carpeted with rich red rugs over polished wooden boards.

The first strange thing one noticed about the room was that it had no door. The second was the array of bizarre, otherworldly machines and crafting workspaces that it contained.

Everywhere you looked in the Workshop there was some strange, arcane contraption. Each of these represented part of Saul’s unique way of interacting with magic; his System.

Some—such as the Sigil Crafting Table and the Resource Display Table—were fundamental to his use of his powers. Others, the potion brewing machine in the corner by the window, for example, simply represented a power that Saul could use in the world.

In the center of the room was the foundation of his progression, the magnificent spell tree. A trunk made from five gently spinning spheres represented the five foundational Schools of Magic he had unlocked so far. Above these were another two spheres, wreathed in concealing shadow; the magics of the School of Metal and the School of Water. These two advanced Schools of Magic were shrouded in mystery, and Saul had still to unlock them.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Above the spheres that represented the Schools of Magic, a host of branches reached out in every direction, each one with a host of bright leaves. Some of the leaves gleamed brightly like polished silver, each with a glowing Sigil imprinted upon the surface. Around these leaves were many others shrouded in shadow. The leaves represented all the divergent facets of magic that were revealed once the foundation schools had been unlocked. The shadowed leaves showed all the many facets of magic that remained to be discovered.

The whole tree gave off a ghostly silver light, and the metal leaves shivered and swayed as if moved by a phantom wind that no one but the tree itself could feel.

“Look,” Brand said. “The obsidian gate is glowing!”

Saul looked. In one corner of the workshop there was—as there had always been—a tall black slab of obsidian, glassy and roughly hewn. Brand insisted on calling it the obsidian gate though, to Saul’s mind, there was no reason to think it was a gate or a doorway of any kind.

True, it was tall and rectangular, kind of like a door, but there was never any suggestion that it could move, and it never changed in any way. As far as Saul knew, it was part of the wall, nothing more. But for all that, it was eerie. Everything else in the room had a unified aesthetic—dark wood, elegant carving, a feeling of faded luxury. And everything—except the window, the fireplace, and the chair beside the fire, represented some part of Saul’s interaction with the magic of the System.

But the obsidian slab in the corner did not fit either the aesthetic or the magic of the System. The slab had always been there, but it was ugly, crudely finished, had a menacing air to it, and certainly did not fit with any polished wood, the comfort and eccentric luxury. It also—as far as Saul could tell—bore no relationship to any element of his magic.

And it had never changed, until now.

Now, it was glowing.

They all went and stood looking at the slab. Now that there was a light shining through it, they could see that it was several feet thick, but there was definitely something on the other side; a glowing light, pale and white on one side, with red on the other. Saul tilted his head this way and that, looking at the strange glow on the other side.

The obsidian was way too thick and warped to see any detail. All that they could make out was that there were two light sources shining through. Saul was about to say something when they all gasped in amazement.

A shadow passed across the light, obscuring it for a moment.

“That was a person walking past the light!” Brand said in a hushed whisper.

“How can you tell?” Zorea said. “It’s not clear enough to say.”

“No, that was a person,” Brand insisted.

“I think I agree,” Saul said. “It was unmistakable, the way it moved. Zorea, can you feel anything present with your magic senses?”

She frowned for a moment, then her eyes went wide with surprise.

“No, I can’t!” she said. “And it’s very strange, I’ve never felt quite such an absence of any feeling from anything. It’s not unusual for me to feel little or nothing from a source, but I’ve never felt such a complete lack as this. It’s very odd, almost as if there’s some masking spell in place…”

“I don’t like it,” Saul said.

“What can it mean?” Brand asked. “I always thought this Workshop was inside you, Saul, an indistinguishable part of your System. How can that be if there’s a doorway through to a room with some other person?”

“I don’t know, Brand,” Saul said, “but we need to be careful about making too many assumptions about the location of my Workshop. I don’t know where it is, really, and the more I use the System, the more I realize that there are depths to this magic I don’t yet understand.”

He shook himself. “Come on, friends,” he said. “There’s not anything for us to do about it now. We can’t open the obsidian gate, and we can’t communicate with whoever is on the other side of it, and we have to assume that whoever he is, he can’t either, if he’s even aware of us. So, we’d better just keep an eye on this and carry on with our task.”

With a last suspicious glance at the glowing obsidian slab, he returned to the center of the room, moving to the rewards table and examining the resources on display there.

The bright colors of the different XP coins glowed against the rich black velvet of the Resource Display Table’s surface, Gold for achieving his base levels, light blue for Squad magic, green for Glade and potions, and a deeper blue for Builder magic. Next to them, the Arcane Dust in its heavy crystal vials sat ready to unlock a new spell.

Saul ran his hands over the resources. As he leveled up and unlocked new spells, the amount of resources needed for each new level grew ever higher but, as he advanced, the rewards for his actions increased as well. Strong as he may have been in the early days of this new timeline, he’d have been unlikely to have survived against an opponent like the ambassador of Keljek, or even the snakemen. Now, he was able to take them on, win, and reap the high XP rewards they gave.

It was the Squad magic, the advanced spells, and the ability to combine and choose different powers that gave him the necessary levels to defeat such a foe. In time, he would advance to the point where he could defeat the very gods themselves. Then, he would get some serious XP rewards.

He smiled. How much XP for defeating seven elemental deities?

The other XP types were lesser, but there were also less uses for them. So far, the Squad XP was used for creating Sigils to share potions. The Glade XP and the Builder XP were rewards for using those areas of magic, and also for the effects that the results of that magic had but, he wasn’t aware of any use he could put those XP types to.

For now, though, the next Level Up was his only goal, and he at last had enough and to spare craft the Sigil that would move him up the level.

Picking up the Gold XP, Saul moved to the Sigil Crafting Table, laid the heavy gold coins on the Level Crafting segment and picked the option to craft the Sigil from the Sigil Crafting Table’s options. A moment later, red smoke rose from the Crafting Table’s central crystal. Magic flashed from the crystal, and a Level Up Sigil arose gleaming like molten gold from the smoke.

Saul absorbed the Sigil, feeling the familiar rush of the level up flowing through his mind and body, flowing through his System.

New Crafting Options Available:

Spell Sigil: School of Metal

“I’ve been looking forward to this,” Brand said quietly to Zorea. “This is an advanced School of Magic. I was wondering when we would get to this.”

Saul heard Brand’s words as he concentrated on the crafting magic. He reached toward the Resources Table and held out his hand. The Arcane Dust vials lifted from their place on the black velvet and floated through the air to land in Saul’s outstretched hand.

That was new. Normally, Saul had to carry the resources in person over the distance between the display table and the crafting station. But, at the same time, it felt expected. There was no sense of surprise in him.

He felt the heavy, welcome weight of the thick, full crystal vials in his hands. The gold Arcane Dust inside was so fine that it moved almost like thick liquid. He’d never managed to open one, though he had tried. This Dust was the reward for casting spells, and it was the only resource that could be used to unlock new ones.

All the other XP types could be applied for very specific uses related to their magic types, but Arcane Dust was the only one that could be used to unlock new Schools of Magic.

His heart beating steadily with the excitement that came from a big level up, Saul laid the heavy dust vials on the crafting table segment and enacted the spell.

The Sigil for unlocking the School of Metal was heavy and gleaming like the quicksilver Saul had once seen in an alchemist’s shop in the Trader City of Golden Ford. The metal of the Sigil swirled like liquid metal in a solid form, a beautiful, otherworldly Sigil of immense complexity, radiating power.

With a reverent slowness, Saul moved to the Spell Tree, bowed, and then leaned forward to place the Sigil in place on the sphere that represented the School of Metal. But when the details of the newly unlocked School of Magic appeared, Saul got a surprise.

School of Metal: Level 1 (Lore of Iron)

Metal spells: Tier 1

Steel Skin (Armor)

Spell (Locked: Achieve Lore of Metal Level 2 to Unlock)

Spell (Locked: Achieve Lore of Metal Level 3 to Unlock)

Custom Spell Slot (Locked: Achieve Lore of Metal Level 4 to Unlock)

Metal Spells: Tier 2

Molten Death (Melee)

Spell (Locked: Achieve Lore of Metal Level 2 to Unlock)

Spell (Locked: Achieve Lore of Metal Level 3 to Unlock)

Custom Spell Slot (Locked: Achieve Lore of Metal Level 4 to Unlock)

“That’s different!” Zorea exclaimed. “You have to unlock the spells one by one with this School of Magic.”

“Lore of Metal,” Brand said thoughtfully, reading over the stats. “What do you think you have to do to unlock the higher lore levels?”

Saul moved to the Resources Display Table and gestured to the new space that had opened up. He examined the table’s stats and was rewarded with what he had expected. At the bottom of the Resources Available list, there was a new category: Lore of Metal XP.

“There’s your answer,” he said, “or at least part of it. But this is advanced magic, and I have a feeling there’s going to be more to unlocking the higher levels than just gathering XP.”

“The Custom Spell Slot is interesting,” Zorea said. “That’s new, too, isn’t it?”

“We’ve had a hint of it from the ability to create combination spells,” Saul said, “but, yes, this is the first time the System has offered me the chance to get a completely custom spell into my inventory.”

She looked excited, but Saul smiled and held up his hand. “We’ve a long way to go before we get to that point,” he cautioned. “One step at a time.”

“What is your next step?” Brand asked.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Saul answered. “We’ve delayed at Jillin to help them rebuild, and also to give ourselves time to think and to regroup. That’s the right thing to do, no doubt about it. But the time has come to take the next step forward. We know that Baraz Karak is in the world again, and we know we need to link up with him, but we’ve not known how to do it. But this Lore of Metal has given me an idea.”

“An idea for what?” Brand asked breathlessly.

“For how to find the other man with the System. For how to find my old friend, the former Emperor Baraz Karak of Keldor.”