Amber, finished with the letter, picked up a stick of four white squares that looked like a fun-sized white-chocolate candy bar to her. She said, “Jeez. I thought they’d be bigger. Or look more…I don’t know…important? So much wealth in such little things.”

John forced himself not to look at Amber’s beautiful face. His body was in a tremendous amount of pain, but his spirits lifted. This gave them a chance. He said, “You get a body for all five of your animal forms at Bronze, right? If I take two and you take two, we’ll both be Bronze.”

Amber’s smile nearly took up her whole face. “Yeah! That’s what Party-pooper said. He’s not certain, but that’s when most animals get body formations. On ascending to Bronze. You’ll really share with me? That slaps! And if I get two, I’ll keep my lead over you!”

John wished he could stop holding Amber. His arms weren’t tired, but he felt he shouldn’t touch her as he was, and his injured hand was throbbing. He hoped she didn’t realize he was excited. She trusted him. He would not have her think he’d abuse the trust, or know that his body wanted him to. And whenever he did look, the crazed look in her eyes made him worry about her a little. He watched the scenes of humans getting massacred, hoping to see more of Stretch.

“You still with me, John? Earth to John.”

“I’m with you.”

Amber was silent for a moment. “Want me to break two pieces off and set them up? Make them purple? Are you ready or did you wanna wait for something?”

John said, “Yes. Please. The sooner the better. Many humans are slaughtered each second we wait. And the stupid thing hasn’t shown Stretch again. I will destroy the floating ball once we’ve escaped from this energy cage.”

“You tell ‘em, buddy,” said Amber as she broke the stick in half and pressed the two halves together until they turned purple. “Quick, hold it up to your head…I mean your Third Eye.”

Amber’s arm went back around John’s neck. He needed his other arm, and she held the two purple Level Capsules up to her Third Eye as John did the same. She smiled at him as they waited, and John looked only at the scenes playing out on the floating ball.

After some time, John’s vision warbled, and the world shrunk until his vision stilled and he stood on short grass on a flat field that went on as far as the eye could see. The grass was blue, and the sky was a bright orange color, but there was no sun. No clouds. Or trees. Or anything. The only other living thing besides the grass John could sense was Amber.

John placed Amber down and turned away from her, hoping she hadn’t noticed his excitement. He twisted his head around further and sighted a building off in the distance.

Amber asked, “John, can I tell you something?”

“Of course.”

“Please turn around.”

John turned to face Amber. He had no choice but to look at her beautiful face. “Thank you, John,” said Amber. She moved in close to him, put her hand on his chest, and got on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

John said, “You’re welcome.”

“Just FYI, when I have the essence, I’m gonna switch to my demon form. I’ll probably stay in that form when I’m not meditating.”

That surprised John. He asked, “Why?”

Amber smiled and said, “It…it’ll just make things easier. Demons don’t…they don’t have to worry about…some things. It’ll just help with…focus. And stuff.”

Amber giggled and ran off towards the building. Since she would soon be only in her frog or demon forms, John didn’t hold back from enjoying the sight of her while he could, and he zoomed in on her backside with his orb-eye.

Amber stopped and turned back to look at John. She smiled at him brightly and it sent butterflies flying around his insides. He slowly followed her towards the building, noticing the energy suffusing the air of the pocket plane seemed heavy and strange. He was too injured and hurt too much to run anyway.

A worry hit John – he’d have to use Amber as a source of vital essence if he could find no other life in the strange new place. He wasn’t sure how she’d feel about that.

Amber reached the building long before John, and he could sense her running around inside of it. The building was large and had a giant square section that looked to be attached to a strange type of house. The house had three levels of windows, so he assumed three floors, while the giant square section had only one set of very large windows high up on its wall.

Shortly before John reached the entry, he sensed Amber stand to the side of the door. As he walked through, she jumped at him and yelled, “Boo!” She then laughed as if a great joke was played on him. He didn’t get the joke, but the good humor was infectious, and he couldn’t help but smile.

“This place is awesome! I mean it slaps. There’s a buncha bedrooms and a small cafeteria and a big…gymnasium…thing.” Amber grabbed John’s uninjured hand and began to lead him towards large and opened double doors. “I’ll just show you. This is a…what do they call it…foyer? Maybe a lobby.”

The entry room was somewhat like a foyer, John thought. It had many cabinets labeled with dots starting from one and going up to twenty. There were also two other doorways and stairs leading up.

As Amber led John towards the double doors, to distract himself from being uncomfortable due to holding the hand of a woman not his wife, he reminded himself Amber was a good friend and checked to see if he had access to his NCS.

The world blurred by, and John stood before Avatar. He said, “Greetings, Avatar. I was just checking to see if I had access to you on this strange world.”

Avatar said, “Plane. As you see, you do. And congratulations on earning such wonderful gifts! Four Level Capsules! I told you the physical rewards would be worth it.” She smiled warmly. “As usual, I was correct. We need to talk about a training regimen while you’re here.”

John said, “Certainly. Just let me get situated and I’ll return.”

“Bye, John. And remember your duty and the collective mission. Your actions and inactions help or hinder the collective mission. We shall achieve core.”

“Thank you, Avatar.”

John exited his Mind’s Eye. “We have access to the NCS while here. It’s no longer blocked.”

Amber turned back to smile at John and said, “I know.” Entering through the double doors, she said, “This is the gym. Gymnasium.” She let go of his hand and spread her arms out and said, “Ta-da!”

John did his best to stop focusing on what his orb-eye looked at to view the room. The room was gigantic and had a hard, waxed wooden floor. There were many devices and items placed throughout the gym, including some very large machines, as well as many soft mats on the floor.

The tour continued and there was a small cafeteria that had two large and long tables, some other strange tables, and many odd-looking chairs. There were indents in the wall to get trays, cups, bowls, and various types of eating utensils. One wall had many indents and generic and ambiguous pictures of what John assumed was water, an animal, a vegetable, a fruit, a grain, an insect, possibly a fungus, a rock, and many other pictures he couldn’t figure out.

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In the house proper, other than the foyer, there was only a room with mostly strange sofas and chairs, but also a few normal ones. The second and third floor had ten bedrooms each, and communal waste and bathing rooms.

John chose a bedroom on the second floor. Amber said she wanted the whole third floor for herself.

John couldn’t figure out the waste room, and there were no chamber pots, so when he went to find a place to dig a pit latrine, he also found a meditation area with runed-mats as well as another training area with many targets, pells, and other training aids behind the house and to the side of the gymnasium.

John showed Amber the areas he found and told her since there was no sun, in order to orient themselves they should consider the entrance side of the house facing south and he’d build the pit latrine on the east side off of the gymnasium.

Amber said, “Why? There’s a bathroom with two toilets humans can use. Half of one wall is a standing urinal.”

After a moment, John said. “I thought that part of the wall was for that, but I didn’t want to take a chance with being wrong.”

Amber laughed. “I’ll show you how the toilets work. There’s no TP but the good toilet has something like a bidet and another that’s kinda humanish has a spray hose. Hey, before we…before I change into my demon form, since there’s no rush or time limit, any chance you wanna celebrate and have, like, a formal dinner…or something?”

“Sure.”

Smiling, Amber said, “Great. I’ll go get changed. Wear something nice. It’s gonna take me a while to get ready. Wait, I’ll show you how to work the toilets first. Please take a bath too. I’m sorry, but you stink real bad. I probably don’t smell so great either.”

“You smell nice.” It annoyed John that people thought he smelled. From early in his life, he took care to ensure he never smelled too much, and he knew he smelled better than most. He did have to admit that the people he met lately did not smell as bad as most people had throughout his life, but they wore far too many artificial smells that overwhelmed his senses.

“Thanks, buddy! But I know I don’t. I like to be super clean and feel super fresh, you know? You should try it. It feels so good to be…you’ll see. I’ll set up the bath on your floor for you. Oh, wait, did you need me to dress your wounds? Try and stitch some of them? Sorry, I shoulda thought to ask earlier.”

John grunted. “No. Thank you, but I’m fine. I can control the bleeding. I heal much faster now than I ever have before, especially since I got my body [Perk].”

Amber showed John how to work the toilets and set up the bath for him, pointing out some items to wash with. He enjoyed soaking in the hot bath, though it did no favors to his many wounds. In Rome, people would slop oil all over themselves and then rub a stick over their body before entering water. He thought that was a strange way to clean. He preferred to clean in a fast-moving river, but he had always found hot baths relaxing too.

When John finished bathing, he donned the cultivation robes he stole from Diamond Garioch, the other set than the black and red ones he usually wore. They were white and light green and had their runes shown on the outside of the robes, and the hem went down much lower. He thought they looked nice and fancy.

John waited and waited for Amber. Without a sun he couldn’t tell how long he waited. The sky was the same orange color as when he first arrived. It was cooler in the shade of the building than away from it. It felt like a sun warmed his skin when he stood in the open. He thought about visiting Avatar, but that wouldn’t kill any time, and he wanted to immediately start training after he visited her.

Not having the mind to do anything else at the moment, John did what he had always done to kill time, and entered into himself, what was now considered meditation. His dantian wasn’t all that empty since he couldn’t get any spells off fighting the g’athu, but he did use his ring a good amount. He quickly filled his dantian, converted half his essence to shen, and all his shen to empty.

Emptiness, not empty, Thought John. Instead of shen, should I call it spirit or vigor as others do? I dislike the inner and outer-spirit distinction. And some call inner-spirit vigor too. It makes little sense. No. Shen is better. I like what I’ve called things – dantians, meridians, shen, spirit. I’ll stick with these terms.

John continued gathering energy and refining essence and turned the essence into shen and then emptiness. He didn’t use a cultivation mat since he waited in the area that was somewhat of a foyer. Amber finally finished getting ready and he stood when he heard her coming down the stairs.

Before Amber could be seen, she called down, “John! Sorry it took so long. My friend…well, she’s not really a friend, just some girl I met. She got the right sizes, but nothing fit right. I’m wearing a sundress and they…sundresses are usually informal so…so please pretend this is a formal dress. Okay?”

John thought Amber had to know he had no idea what a sundress was, or what was formal and informal for a woman. Especially nowadays as he thought most women dressed more provocatively than common nightwalkers. He said, “I shall.”

Amber yelled down, “Okay. Here I come.”

Amber walked down the stairs with a huge smile plastered across her face, and slowly, like she was a wedding bride.

John thought the dress she wore showed far too much of her. It had thin shoulder straps and showed a lot of chest and only covered her legs to the middle of her thighs. She wore the same type of ridiculous shoes Lilly wore in her Mind’s Eye, where she looked as she did in her first body, with very long heels, but Amber’s shoes had open toes and only a few straps covering the tops of the feet.

John thought Amber looked extremely attractive, and he liked the flower pattern on her dress. He noticed her lips were redder than usual, her eyes were surrounded by a soft bluish color, and her finger and toenails, or finger and toe claws, were painted the same color as her lips. She wore her hair down and he could tell she spent a lot of time on it.

“You look beautiful. And your skin looks very shiny. I like your hair too.” John had a lot of experience with women, so he knew to comment on what it looked like they spent a lot of time on.

Amber managed to somehow smile even wider. “Thanks, buddy! I hope you mean shiny in, like, a good way. Did you see my nails?” She wiggled her fingers and toes. “You have to pretend they’re not claws too.”

“Of course. They look wonderful. I noticed they matched your lips. And I meant shiny in a good way.”

Upon fully descending into the foyer, John offered Amber his arm and she took it, and he then escorted her into the small cafeteria.

There was a small vial of life essence on a counter with a note he’d receive one vial a week. Plenty enough to keep him topped off but not nearly enough for strengthening. Phew, he thought.

John set his tray on the table and stood while waiting for Amber. He only had water and some sort of paste in a bowl that came from the animal-like picture dispenser. Amber said, “Oh. I think I get it. I thought some of these were empty, but I think it won’t let you get food from the things that are poisonous to us. I think that one’s Nether. Good to know for when I’m in demon form.”

Amber sat her tray across from John. He took his seat after she did. She said, “I only got some fruit and vegetables. I think. It looks the same.” She drank from her cup. “The water’s good.”

John wasn’t all that hungry. He always needed less food than humans, but he found he needed even less and less the higher he ascended. He tried the meat slop and found it was tasty. “Very good,” he said.

“Yeah. It looks gross but actually tastes pretty good. The fruit kinda tastes like a dessert. Wanna try some of mine?”

“No, thank you.”

“Oh. I never told you how nice you look. And you smell nice too.”

John laughed. “I noticed I have some good stubble for eyebrows now. I look a little less ridiculous.”

Amber said, “Yeah, your hair grows fast! Mine doesn’t. It takes forever to grow my hair out. Don’t worry, your beard will be back soon, and you’ll be hot again.” Blushing, she added, “Sorry, I shouldn’ta said that. I just forget since…you started looking at me without looking at me again.”

John said, “I think I know what that means now, but usually I just pretend to know what people are talking about. I make a lot of assumptions from context too.” He stopped looking at her with his orb-eye.

“No! Don’t stop. Just for tonight. No one ever sees me, and I got all dressed up. I wanna be seen. Please.”

John nearly scoffed. His orb-eye went back on her, but he bit his tongue on the comment he wanted to say about all the strange men that had seen her illicit pictures. He knew, for whatever reason, Amber wanted this to be a nice night, and he wouldn’t spoil it.

The two companions continued to talk and dine and enjoy each other’s company. They talked a lot about Lilly, and even talked a lot about the old days, before John met Lilly. John tried to pry more information from Amber about her age and her earliest memories as a human. She was very evasive and gave him little.

Amber did talk some about the time when she was ugly. She stated she was so ugly and deformed children would cry and run when they saw her, and everyone thought she was a monster and would attack her or throw rocks at her to get her to flee. She was forced to fight all the time.

Since Amber had a time limit in her human form during that period, she was caught transforming often, and there were many stories about her doing so. She only liked to remember the ones saying she was beautiful, not the ones saying she was a horrible monster.

Long, long after they both finished eating, they decided it was time to plan. And they planned, and then went to meditate. When Amber had the essence, she turned into a frog, and that was the last John saw of her human form for a long time.