Heading into the sandstone dungeon, Felix knew he didn’t have time to wander around, although he was seriously wondering why he hadn’t been tracked down yet. Still, he didn’t want to make it easier for them. So, he followed the wards as much as he could which meant tracing them far enough along the outside wall, that he could find the center of the dungeon.
The issue, was that the dungeon was a complete mess. It wasn’t labyrinthine but more like it was built to be confusing and ridiculous.
By the time he had mapped enough of the outside ward to form an arc, an hour had passed.
Judging by the arc’s radius, it would take him days to reach the center so, he headed back to the Rokrunor facility.
He had the coordinates for the dungeon mapped and knew based on the dungeon registry which realm it was in so he wasn’t worried about getting back there. What he was worried about, was a whole facility worth of guards chasing him down.
Back outside of the sandstone dungeon, Felix was honestly shocked to find no one around chasing him. He cautiously but quickly moved through the facility back the way he came and the entire way, he didn’t find a living soul anywhere.
It was only once he reached the precipice of the next floor where he finally saw a guard, and not just one of them but what realistically looked like it could have been all of them. He sensed their presences though and didn’t just rush headlong into them. Instead, he cautiously approached and got as close to them as he dared.
Felix was never very good at being stealthy, especially given the loudness of his Soul. He knew that and knew that they would notice him eventually, if they weren’t already aware of where he was at all times.
At the same time, they never approached. Never even took a single step onto the floor he was on.
Are they… not allowed on this floor? Is that what’s happening?
While he didn’t want to approach them, he had to confirm his suspicions because it heavily changed his behavior going forward so, he stepped out into the hall leading to the stairs. At the top, he made eye contact with a number of very angry looking guards but none of them even tried to attack him with anything.
Well, that’s convenient I guess.
The residents are wary that this will not last.
Yeah, good call. I’ll leave some constructs behind, keep me updated.
Affirmative.
With that out of the way and Felix suddenly having much more time than he had expected, he headed back towards the sandstone dungeon and in towards the center. His progress was almost entirely gated by how often he could Aether Tunnel as the walls and halls were completely illogical.
As far as Felix could tell, the dungeon was either a work in progress or just used as a vault as it was completely void of traps or enemies though, it was laid out in a way where he expected there to be traps.
Finally reaching the center of the dungeon, he sighed when he found it empty and didn’t sense anything nearby. He searched around for a few hours before finally heading back.
Well, that was a complete waste of time.
He searched just a few more dungeons briefly before deciding to ignore all the ones on his current floor for the time being. With no one chasing him directly, Felix was able to fly around, map the floor, examine the dungeons and memorize the wards within them.
When he finally found the shaft leading downwards, he was happy to see that it led not just to the floor below him, but all the way down tens of floors.
So, he immediately dropped down to the lowest floor, or wanted to but couldn’t. At the bottom of the shaft, there was an orb.
It was entirely black and screamed Oblivion into the Ambient Anima.
Dropping a disposable construct down, Felix wasn’t surprised to find it was immediately cutoff from Mark even before it fell into the orb and vanished, without a trace. Cautiously approaching it himself, making sure he didn’t get sucked in, Felix was rather surprised to find the orb didn’t actually pull him in at all. It pulled on him but so weakly even a normal human wouldn’t have had much trouble pulling themselves free.
The rest of the room was completely empty which was a bit disappointing but Felix was starting to get the idea. The shaft was effectively a disposal shoot where each floor would dump their hazardous garbage, not a shaft meant to fly through.
In fact, if there had been anyone working on any of the floors, it likely would have been extraordinarily dangerous to fly through the shaft as Felix had, especially if anything hazardous was tossed down.
After a bit of experimentation, Felix concluded that the orb obliterated anything falling into it and then ejected Mana and Anima back into the atmosphere, keeping some of the Anima for itself. It wasn’t efficient enough to to be a method of Mana Regeneration as it was slow and inefficient with all the released Mana being chaotic and tainted, bound to the Curse of Oblivion.
What it did do however, was somehow contain and control the Curse of Oblivion, which was something Felix didn’t even really know was possible.
He left the orb where it was for the time being and headed up to the next floor where he found empty workshops and labs, much like the dungeon he had found earlier.
Picking one of them at random, Felix opened his Pocket Home and the Sphinx’s Vault allowing his Residents to pour through. He also had everyone from Wanderer’s Lab join him through an Aether Tunnel and finally let Nova out of his Soul Space but insisted she remain on the current floor no matter what.
Speaking to all of them at once, despite some of them being on the other end of the floor from him, I think it’s time I upgrade my gear.
Felix didn’t need to say any more than that as the Residents spread out and got to work. They moved through the floors, used constructs to scout and began experimenting with materials they found and techniques they knew.
Most important to Felix at the moment, were new robes because his were providing him essentially nothing. They were made to be peak C grade robes and Felix was mostly fighting mid to high A grade enemies or, in the case of The Dragon, low S grade Ancient enemies.
While he hadn’t actually evolved at all, Felix knew he was much closer to at least the peak of the B grade due to everything that had happened to him in the Realms. As soon as he left, he knew his Class and Profession would upgrade while his Race would either evolve as well or just display as at least B grade on his Status Screen.
He wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted his new Robes to be so, he let his Residents experiment with that while he, focused on the second most important upgrade, a weapon.
Before The Realms, Felix had been convinced he would end up creating a wand like Mera’s for himself. He would likely use better materials and more Anima but something in the same vein, possibly with Concepts. Moving through the Realms though, he grew less and less sure of himself.
A wand that just helped him Attune Mana or weave Concepts into his Spells felt like a shortcut. It was something he felt he should be able to do and using a wand to do it for him, would just stunt his own progress and ability to do the same. At most he wanted a weapon to enhance something he was already doing, not do it for him. The issue was, he didn’t know what else to do with a weapon, or rather, what a weapon could do for him so he didn’t have any direction.
The branch Kerix had given him changed things though. At least, Felix hoped it would.
Pulling it out of his Soul Space, Felix began poking, prodding and examining it. Using his Identify revealed nothing, as he had expected, initially. It relied on his own ability to examine something and he knew barely any more than Kerix had told him. It was a stick from an Ancestor of the World Tree. Other than that, it contained a massive amount of Anima, all of it rich with experience.
While extracting the Anima was an option, Felix wasn’t sure it was worth the effort at the moment. Not only would it be difficult but the wood of the stick was easily the strongest material he had ever encountered and he didn’t think Nova would be able to reproduce it easily, if she could at all. On top of that, Felix wasn’t confident he could properly utilize the Anima within the stick as even with Hollow Claw’s Soul, he hadn’t really done much with the experience in there.
It had gone into improving the simulation accuracy of his Mental World but apart from that, he hadn’t really used it for much.
The stick on the other hand felt too important, too significant for him to not have a use for it and he was worried even if he did extract everything, he wouldn’t be able to store it within his own Soul. The sheer richness of experience and Anima within the stick was easily greater than the Sub-System Chunk he had harvested and without actually breaking it open, he couldn’t accurately judge its contents.
So, instead of breaking it open and harvesting it for parts, Felix began experimenting with it. The obvious use for it was a staff, considering its form factor so, he started by casting Spells through it.
It took him a few hours to nail down exactly how he should be doing that because he could run the Mana through the stick then form a Spell, form the Spell around the stick, form the Spell within the stick, or store Mana within it and draw from it to create a Spell.
Each method had its advantages and disadvantages but none of them really wowed him in terms of effectiveness. Running Mana through the staff seemed to imbue it with a small amount of the wisdom and experience from the stick but that didn’t change his Spells much. Casting a Spell on or within the stick caused them to shift slightly but it was an improvement of less than a percent in terms of Spell stability and it didn’t change the actual form.
The biggest issue was that he didn’t know anything about the stick, not really. He also didn’t have any control over it, in terms of manipulating how it affected his Spells.
To remedy that, he decided to at least bind the stick to his Soul by embedding a small piece of his Soul within it. Much like he had the Star Metal long ago, Felix moved a piece of his Soul into his hand then pushed it into one end of the staff, pulling on it from the other end where his other hand was.
Except this time, his Anima didn’t go anywhere. The stick didn’t want it and wouldn’t let it in.
He tried to slow down and pushed slowly and carefully with more Force and more intent but yet again, he could not push his Soul into the stick. He tried again and again but constantly felt like he was trying to cut a brick with not just a butter knife, but a knife made of butter.
Okay then…
While it didn’t necessarily mean the stick was stronger than his Soul, it could. His Soul was also almost entirely defensive so it wasn’t a great way to compare but, it did cause Felix to wonder.
If the Spirit in the stick was solid enough that it could resist him completely, just how strong was it?
His first test, was to start hitting it with his Soul. He didn’t completely reassemble his Spirit Avatar as he didn’t have the spare Anima to do so but he did recreate a few planets. Once again, no matter how hard he hit it, the stick didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.
Being protected by having a bound, physical body, meant he couldn’t just push it up against his Core Soul because with a physical body, anything stronger than the A grade wouldn’t really be affected at all. He already knew it was stronger than that.
A Curse on the other hand, was a much better test. It was a little extreme as he went from smacking something with a fraction of his nascent Spirit Avatar to touching it to a Curse but he didn’t really have anything else in between. It also came with a significant risk of destroying the stick which was a worry but at the same time, Felix decided if it couldn’t survive a Curse, it wasn’t worth his time.
So, he took the stick and very carefully pushed one end of it into each and every one of the Curses he kept orbiting his Core Soul. Not a single one seemed to damage or even affect it in any way.
This stick is… seems way too impressive. Why did Kerix just give it to me so easily? Is it not as awesome as it seems?
He continued testing it for a few hours before realizing nothing he had done affected it in any way. At that point, he just stared at it, thinking, for quite some time.
If this stick really is this strong…
Kerix had already mentioned that Felix likely wasn’t getting into the Soul Vault without the pattern to open it but, given how strong the stick was, he felt he had to try anyways. So, he placed the Soul Vault on the ground then, stuck one end of the stick in between the various Soul Plates of the vault and began using it like a giant pry-bar.
At first he was getting no where then, slowly, the plate began to give until finally he fell over and the plates that moved on the outside of the Soul Vault expanded out and formed a massive sphere. He excitedly looked towards the center but, found more plates there. As soon as he did, the layer he had expanded shrunk back down, undamaged.
It wasn’t that he had opened anything, it was that the Soul Vault had adjusted and accommodated. Realizing he hadn’t gotten any closer, he gave up on that for the time being and realized there might have been another use for the stick.
There was no way for him to be certain but, it seemed like the stick was stronger than his Soul was, or at least it was more stable and rigid. Meaning, it was more capable of containing something than his Soul was.
Hey, Grim… I know you might still need some time but there’s something I need you to do for me.
What?
I guess you aren’t watching my thoughts anymore-
You started hiding them.
Oh, right. I thought I stopped doing that but I guess it just became instinctual. This stick from the World Tree’s Ancestor is stronger than my Soul, more rigid and unmoving…
You want to use it to-
Yes.
Grim sighed, And I’m the only one that can…
Because Nova isn’t intelligent enough and any of the Residents would be compromised, yeah.
As much as I thought it was idiotic for you to put that thing in your Soul, taking it back out might be even stupider.
Yeah, maybe. If it works though…
Grim sighed once again, Okay.
Really?
Yes. I have conditions though.
You’ve figured out what you want me to do?
Yeah, I think so. There aren’t any good solutions, none I can think of.
So what do you want me to do?
3 things. Actually, 4. First, you need to listen to me, and potentially others. Use us to gauge things. You need to ask before you do something that affects others.
I can’t possibly ask eve-
You know what I mean. You probably don’t actually care about anybody which means you should never make decisions that affect anybody. Given how strong you are, that’s inevitable so, we need a different way.
Fine. I can ask you, I won’t always ask and I won’t always listen though.
Of course. I’ll also stop you if I feel the need.
Okay, what else?
Second, you need to help Nova.
What? What do you mean?
You haven’t been paying any attention to her, which is fine you’ve been busy and she’s old enough but you also haven’t noticed. Ever since you told her she couldn’t do what you did, Spatial Translocation, she’s spent every spare minute pushing herself, trying to get stronger.
That’s a good thing.
Kind of. She’s smart enough that she thinks you’re testing her. That you telling her she couldn’t do it, was you saying she had all the tools necessary to get there herself already. She’s too stupid or immature to realize that really, you’re just too busy and occupied to help her. You also need to do a better job of communicating the reasoning behind your intent when you communicate with her, that would have avoided all of this.
Okay, this is something I should have done anyways. You could have told me.
Yes. Some introspection is good, this has just gone on long enough now.
Stowing the stick in his Soul Space, Felix followed his Soul Bond to his familiar who, was eagerly helping his Residents. They weren’t actually getting her to do anything, but she was watching and trying to learn Spell Forms from them.
She wasn’t very good with them, she didn’t have the Intelligence to be even if Felix gave her a new brain. She just used her brain in a different way so no matter how big it was, unless he forcefully preprogrammed the brain he gave her, she wouldn’t ever be capable of complex Spell Forms.
On the other hand, her ability to Instinct Cast, considering she was closer to a beast, should have been much better than Felix’s.
As soon as he entered the room, Nova meowed at him and her tail began quickly wagging back and forth, pulling her whole bottom half along with each wag, as she turned back to what the Resident’s were doing.
Nova, come on.
She leapt across the floor and flew around his body and face, excitedly following him down the hall to an empty room. When they arrived, Felix grabbed her body and Spatially Translocated them both across the room. She was instantly in awe and wasn’t paying any attention as Felix sent her the entire experience of him casting the Spell, as detailed as he could muster, through their Soul Bond.
It took her a few seconds but once she realized what he was communicating to her, she went very still as she focused and examined the experience.
A few minutes later, Felix sensed the Mana within her building up, saturating her body and Attuning itself to a Spatial Location. She didn’t have the instinct required to pick a specific destination like Felix did, after building it up with Rathelius, and she didn’t understand that aspect of the Spell so, she used the same coordinates Felix had.
Nova’s Mana Control wasn’t where it needed to be though and so as she attuned the Mana to a location across the room, Felix felt the Mana was off. Each part of her current body was targeting a different point and none of them were in the same room. Some of them were even all the way across the Realm because of how precise she needed to be, and wasn’t.
Reaching into her body, Felix grabbed hold of her Mana and tore it free from her control, causing her to look up at him confused and slightly fearful.
He gently soothed her through their bond then directed her to create a small ball made of the same material as her body, to make things simple.
She did so, placing it in front of her, then he told her to do the same thing on the ball this time.
Attuning and infusing the Mana into the ball, she immediately complained how much harder it was but Felix insisted she keep at it. He monitored and gave her tips but she quickly got frustrated with the balls completely vanishing, instead of appearing across the room from her.
Felix knew the balls were being translocated randomly into the Realm but she didn’t really understand what or why it was happening.
While practice and training could build her instinct to measure locations and cast faster, her Mana Control was severely limited by her Soul which meant Felix would either have to teach her to cultivate and improve it herself, or do it for her.
Should I teach her-
Grim cut him off, No. Just do it for her.
Thank god.
Reaching out, Felix grabbed Nova and reached into her Soul with his Soul Tendrils. She immediately let him in and he started by compressing her Soul down until it was a tiny dense little marble. He added Anima and reignited the Spark of Life within her Core Soul before implanting a number of experiences of his own along with a few Concepts and a sizable chunk of his own Soul.
Finally, he constructed a whole new set of Soul Layers around her Core Soul including a new second layer to control her body, fashioned from the remnants of her old one, since Felix didn’t have much to improve there. There were also a number of defensive layers including a replica film layer, like the one he maintained around his own body and an Aura on the outside.
She was unconscious for the entire process, as Felix had made sure, and when he was done he woke her back up with a prod and a nudge.
Nova startled back awake and immediately melted into a puddle before reassembling herself and staggered around the room while she got used to the new connection between her body and Soul. It took her a few minutes and even then she still looked drunk but, she didn’t even seem to notice as she asked Felix if she could try again.
He encouraged her to and this time, there was a marked improvement. Instead of somewhere random, because the sphere had different coordinates embedded throughout it, the entire sphere had the same coordinates. She didn’t however, know how to get those coordinates yet though so she was only capable of moving something to the exact same place over and over again.
She didn’t realize that at all that and as soon as she sensed the sphere on the other side of the room, she switched to moving herself.
When she moved across the room herself, which was much easier than moving an inanimate object, she bounded out of the room in excitement. A moment later, she reappeared on the exact same spot before bounding back out of the room.
A few seconds passed before she returned, to the exact same spot, and repeated that in her excitement, showing off to Residents on the floor and unable to control herself, literally and figuratively.
The twentieth time she reappeared, Felix grabbed her and told her to move herself to the other side of the room. She nodded then reappeared, just beneath his hand. As soon as she realized that, it was like a light had flipped in her head and she whined to Felix about telling her why she could only go to one spot.
It took almost a dekad, which was far faster than Felix was expecting, for Nova to build up the instinct to measure coordinates. He had embedded his own experience within her which helped a lot but she still had to learn from and adapt it. Even then, she needed practice and needed to make it second nature.
Being nearly a beast though, she was almost completely driven by instinct and so, it was much easier for her to ingrain something within her in that way.
The biggest contributing factor though, by far, was Reaper’s Bond.
While Felix could push experiences to Nova himself and even embedded some within her Soul, he realized a few days in what the point of the Skill actually was. It didn’t just let her tap into his experience and use his Skills, it acted as a translation layer adapting the experience to her so she could use it immediately.
Once he realized that, he began using it to its full potential and even though he shouldn’t have been upgrading anything, due to the weakness of The System in The Realms, the Nucleus’ trickery showed him what had happened anyways.
Ding You have upgraded the Class skill: [Legendary] Reaper’s Bond (Expert IX) => Class: [Ancient] Experience Nexus (Proficient XIV)
Profession: [Experience Nexus (Ancient) Adapt the experiences from one creature to another, making it indistinguishable from a native experience. Your level of familiarity with the host and destination creature as well as the familiarity with the experience itself dictates the effectiveness of the adaptation. Related experiences and Anima from the host or destination can serve as an effective proxy. This skill is passively enabled for all directly bonded creatures, allowing them to access all of your experiences, and you to access theirs so long as neither actively blocks the other.]
Huh. That’s-
Before Felix could finish his thought, Nova began instinct casting each and every Spell Felix had actively trained to be instinctive. She didn’t pour enough Mana into them to harm anything or anyone, but it was more than enough to be annoying, especially when she sent multiple explosions down the halls.
Felix sighed, Anything else I should do for her?
Not now. She needs to get used to everything that’s changed first.
Okay, what’s your next requirement?
I need you to remake my body.
Okay, easy enough. I probably would have done that anyways. You want a real biological body or-
No. Armor and a Construct, something like Zero.
Show me what you were thinking and we can start working on the plans right now. Then, we can start work on the body as soon as Nova is done casting Fire Balls all over the place.
Grim’s new body was similar to his old one and from the outside, he looked like a ten foot tall man in matte black plate armor. In reality, inside the armor, was a complex set of Construct engineering that combined robotics and Construct making with Soulful materials allowing him both better control over the body and granting him the ability to regenerate.
On top of that, even without touching his Soul, which Felix still couldn’t do anything about given the complexity of the False Convictions binding him, Grim could now cast Spells, due to Felix’s Experience Nexus.
They didn’t just make him a body either, they made him the strongest form Felix had ever created. The armor was fashioned from a Hunger Cursed set of plate armor that consumed the bodies of those the wearer killed, along with the wearer’s body itself. In Grim’s case though, there was no biological body for it to consume so it was a perfect fit.
It was then further strengthened by Felix destroying The Blood Devouring Ring and fusing its Anima into the armor along with the Soul Devouring Ring which was embedded within the body. He managed to preserve both ring’s functionality somewhat and although Grim wouldn’t have a Persona, he would have a set of Skills much like his Persona had had through the rings.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
The Construct body within used Asphellum and charged Demitium along with other alloys to create something nearly indestructible with multiple ways to move each limb. The different ways all had differing amounts of leverage allowing Grim to maximize either his strength or his speed.
On top of all that, Felix embedded the entire thing with a Soul, using the Anima from the ros Wanderer’s Lab had collected. It was a puppet Soul but it was stronger than nearly every Soul Felix had encountered outside of The Realms, and most of the ones he had encountered in it. The most important part, other than the defensive layers, was that it allowed Grim to use Reaper’s Movement through Experience Nexus.
Okay, you said you had 4 conditions, that was 3. I take it the last one is your main request? The one that addresses the Residents lives?
Yes. Grim sat, curled up due to the size of the room, staring at Felix from his new body, I know we can’t move everyone out of your Soul, your Soul is what makes everything work.
Right.
You could make everyone bodies but that’s not realistic. It took me some time to figure out what my biggest problem with this whole situation is and I realized it’s not that you risk their lives, it’s that they didn’t choose this.
Okay, how do I remedy that then?
You give them a choice. You need to tell them, all of them, that they live inside you and if you die, they die. Then, give them the option to leave on their own if they want to. Everyone that agrees to leave, you provide them with a body and a way out of this Realm.
No matter how stupid and reckless I may be… they almost definitely have a better chance of living inside my Soul than outside of it.
Yes. I agree. You need to give them the choice though.
Okay. Felix sighed, I’ll tell them.
Grim nodded and followed Felix into his Mental World, specifically his Soul Garden, where he began changing his appearance. He still didn’t want to be recognized if he ever decided to wander around and hated the idea of being worshiped as a God, at least directly, so he took on the appearance of the statue in Arkade’s main square.
He switched out his Robes for robes that looked almost like rags, like no clothes could ever do anything for him and he only wore them to appease the masses. He also swapped his head for a mass of arcane lines which, was actually just a projection of the Fractal Mana Form within his Soul, unknowable knowledge, undiscoverable truths and the most arcane of secrets.
Lastly, he made himself taller, lankier and extended the length of his limbs, pushing his body right to the edge of human.
Then, he projected himself across the entirety of his Mental World and spoke to every Resident inside, his voice echoing out within their minds.
I am The True Wizard, the creator of this universe. I am the one who has given you life. Your universe exists within me.
No matter where they were in the Mental World, every Resident saw Felix’s form projected up in the sky, directly above each and every one of them. He wasn’t actually there and each Resident only saw him once, but every single one of them saw him.
I am here to offer you a choice. If you so choose, you may continue to live within my Realm. Doing so, you are subject to my whims and your fate is bound to my own. If I fall, so will you. However, if you choose to leave, I will grant you a body in the universe I live within and your fate will be unraveled from my own.
He paused for a moment to let things sink in then finished his speech.
Those of you that wish to leave, I will meet with you personally and we will begin creating your body on the outside immediately. Everyone else, I cannot guarantee I will have time to entertain this choice in the future.
Felix removed the projection of his form from every Resident’s mind and turned to Grim, “How was that?”
He nodded, “Much less biased than I was expecting. I wouldn’t have minded you making the option of staying seem more attractive, I think it’s the better choice.”
“I agree but I want to be fair to what you’re asking so I tried to be as objective as possible. Now, they have the agency to make whatever decision they want. I’m surprised you didn’t make me tell them I was going to fight The Dragon again.”
Grim sighed, “You’re still planning on fighting that thing? You really think you’ll be strong enough?”
“I have no idea. I don’t think I can not fight it though.”
“Just… make sure you have a proper escape plan this time.”
Felix nodded, “That’s a good idea.”
“Either way, they don’t need to know about and approve of every decision you make. They just need to have the choice to say no if they want to.”
Logically, Felix could understand what Grim was getting at. At the same time, he didn’t care that he was essentially subjugating and trapping his Residents within his mind so, he listened to Grim and followed his suggestions so long as they were reasonable.
After his speech, Felix wasn’t exactly sure how many would agree to his proposal. As it turned out, far more than he had expected had agreed and so, he began meeting with each and every one of them.
He was able to split his consciousness and project himself to multiple of them at once, which made all the difference. Especially when he realized his mistake.
In a city that consisted entirely of large, single floor buildings that looked like churches or cathedrals, all connected into a single network, Felix had a few thousand people that had accepted his offer. When he arrived in the center of the city, an open park, the entire city stood before him.
“Procreator, it is our pleasure to welcome you to our city.”
“You wish for me to grant you a body so you may leave this Realm.”
“Er… No.”
Felix looked at the woman with confusion, though it didn’t show on the sphere of pulsating arcane spell work that had replaced his head.
After a few moments of silence, she continued, “Ever since The Prophet Melody introduced us to your reverence, our Orgion has dreamed of the day we might share our worship with you.”
Felix sighed internally, not outwardly showing his disappointment, “Does anyone here actually want a body to leave?”
Not a single soul in the Orgion raised their hand or otherwise made their presence known.
The woman he had been talking to smiled, “Would you prefer we demonstrate our worship with real bodies in your universe?”
“No.”
“Excellent, let us begin.”
What followed was about what Felix expected from a city where the founding religion had been started by a bored Melody. He refused to participate but that didn’t seem to bother them much as they believed the orgy that followed, was somehow showing their dedication to and worshiping him.
He left, moving his projection of consciousness over to the next Resident that had requested his presence.
Out of the millions of Residents that had accepted his offer, a fraction of a percent of them actually wanted to leave. Some of them just wanted to meet him, others asked him to destroy their enemies, grant them power, give them arcane secrets. Others, just wanted to talk, wanted him to justify their moral decisions, reinforce their beliefs, argue with him that he wasn’t real or even complain about reality.
Once he was finally done meeting with everybody and ignoring everyone who didn’t actually want to leave, Felix recollected his projections and reverted his appearance in his Soul Garden.
“Did you know that would happen?”
Grim actually chuckled, “No. I thought about having you regularly meet with anyone who requests your presence but that’s not reasonable.”
“Thanks. How about, we put something in place so anyone can leave at any time.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“We put a gateway, at the top of a mountain or deep in a forest or something. Make it hard to get there so anyone going through is absolutely certain of what they’re doing. When they go through, Mark pauses them and their Soul enters a queue to leave that some Residents on the outside will manage.”
Grim nodded, “That’s a great idea.”
“Okay, it’s done.” Felix smirked, “Now, let’s get this thing out of me.”
Returning to their bodies, Felix and Grim left the small room they had chosen and moved a few floors up, to a larger room where Grim could actually stand. Felix summoned Nova who happily roamed the relatively empty floor, testing her new Spells while Felix and Grim prepared themselves as best they could while waiting.
Once all the Residents who had requested to leave had bodies and were sent off into the Realms, they got started.
Felix handed Grim the stick then laid down in the middle of the room. Then, he began rearranging his Soul temporarily to expose his Core Soul by moving the planets out of the way and readying himself to open the outer layers.
Grim positioned himself above Felix, kneeling over his stomach with the stick pointed down into his chest.
“Ready?” Felix asked.
Grim sighed, “I still think this is stupid.”
“I clearly can’t control whatever this is right now and containing it is consuming a massive portion of my will power and focus. Taking it out of me will make me a lot stronger.”
“Yes but this thing almost killed you when you put it in there now, it’s mostly stable. Poking it just seems like a bad idea.” He shook his head, “Ready.”
Felix took a breath then closed his eyes and disconnected himself from his body, paralyzing himself temporarily so he didn’t move. Then, Grim took a large knife and stabbed it down through Felix’s chest, pulling it back and splitting him open before tilting it to the side and prying open his chest cavity.
Using a few metal bars Nova had created, Grim placed them to hold the chest cavity open then placed both his hands on the stick and began lowering it.
As soon as Felix felt the stick poke at his outer Soul Layers, he broke them open, damaging his Soul for the time being. First the film he maintained over his skin that facilitated his Mana Skin all the way through to the lattice layer that surrounded his Core Soular System. As soon as it was opened, Mark put all the Residents to sleep and Felix knocked out their Souls then Mark gave Grim the signal to continue.
The end of the stick poking into his Core Soular System was a weird feeling, it wasn’t painful but it was uncomfortable in an indescribable way. As it touched his Core Soul, there wasn’t any pain initially but Felix knew the stick had to pierce his Core Soul, not all the way in but just enough that the Fractal Mana Form wouldn’t escape.
He relaxed and slowly pulled back on his Core Soul, letting the stick slowly pierce it. The only way he could do that was to convince his Core Soul that the stick wasn’t an attack. As it began to pierce it though, the intense pain he experienced, that completely eclipsed the pain he had felt from pushing the Sub-System Chunk, made it nearly impossible.
It wasn’t really harming him, he knew that. Penetrating his Core Soul was completely antithetical to its nature though. He was letting it in, pushing things aside so it could sink into it. It was also the worst pain he had ever felt both in intensity and in the way it pulsated through his Core Soul directly.
Once the stick had pierced just below the surface of his Core Soul, he focused his consciousness and began pushing the Fractal Mana Form out of his Core Soul. It resisted at first, unwilling to leave but then slowly, it began to move towards the edge of his Core Soul.
Felix kept pushing on it until finally, the very edge of the higher dimensional Spell Form touched the stick. The instant they made contact, the Fractal Mana Form vanished, sinking into the stick and Felix pushed it back out of his Core Soul.
Grim immediately pulled the Staff back out and Felix closed his body and Soul in a matter of seconds with his renewed will power.
He felt instantly better as his Core Soul snapped down to an even smaller, denser mass now that the Fractal Mana Form wasn’t pushing outwards on it. His will power was no longer occupied and he felt like a massive weight had been lifted from his Soul.
Using his Matter Control, Felix lifted himself to his feet and took a deep breath, unable to contain the smile on his face.
He looked over at Grim who had dropped the Staff but instead of falling to the ground, it simply floated next to him. Nova sat in one corner of the room, worried and scared initially, until Felix looked at her and she experienced a wave of relief.
“Are you okay?” Grim looked at him seriously.
“So much better than okay.” Felix said as he snapped the Staff into his hand.
He didn’t even have to use his Matter Control to move it as he felt an intrinsic connection to the Staff, likely due to how long the Fractal Mana Form had spent within his Core Soul.
The Staff had morphed the stick. It was straighter, slightly longer and the small branches on the end had shifted and grown small leaves, making the entire staff look like like a bonsai tree with a really long trunk. It still seemed to be made from a weave of roots or branches instead of a solid stick but now, the branches and roots forming it twisted and moved slowly. Finally, in between the shifting grain of the Staff, a slight blue glow pulsated and crackled outwards every once in a while.
“Well, that w-”
Before Felix could finish, the staff interrupted him, asking for Mana and Anima through their bond. Felix obliged, providing it with both from his reserves, waiting for it to be satisfied or full but it never was. He ran out of Mana first at which point he cut off both streams. He could feel that the Staff wasn’t any more sated than it had been, he wasn’t filling some battery or pool. Instead, it was growing stronger as he fed it. He would never get that Mana or Anima back but, the Staff was stronger than it had been a moment ago.
It can’t just grow infinitely… can it?
There was no way for him to verify that at the moment so he looked to Grim, who just nodded to him, before he rushed out of the room to test the Staff.
Nova followed him eagerly to one of the more open dungeons they had found that seemed empty. He released the Staff which remained floating next to him and let Nova sniff, bite, lick, chew and otherwise examine it while he explored the extent of his bond with the Staff.
Their Soul’s were bonded, just like Felix’s Soul was bound to Grim and Nova but it felt different. It wasn’t quite the same way his Soul was bound to Mark’s Soul, in that Mark was created from his Soul. In some ways it felt like a stronger, more fundamental connection, if that was even possible, and in others it felt like a weaker connection. The Staff was alien to him in a way Mark wasn’t but at the same time, it felt like it was a part of himself or just an active extension of his own Soul, while Mark and the Residents didn’t.
Trying to communicate with it was a bit like communicating with Nova, if they were talking through cans connected by a string. It was like they didn’t speak the same language or even existed in the same universe on top of the connection between them also being spotty. They couldn’t have a conversation and sometimes Felix would say or ask things and it just didn’t react, other times it responded instantly. As if some of what he was trying to communicate just never arrived.
Even when he did get responses, they were cryptic and confusing. The Staff communicated through intent but sometimes, Felix just didn’t understand what it was responding to him with.
Beyond communication though, Felix knew he could summon the Staff at will, seemingly from anywhere. He teased Nova quite a few times with that. He could also send it Mana and Anima through their connection, or more accurately, he could feed it from anywhere.
He had Nova create him a training dummy and whacked it a few times but the Staff didn’t do anything special, nothing an ordinary stick wouldn’t have done.
Finally, Felix tested the most important thing, casting a Spell.
Before the Fractal Mana Form had merged with the Staff, Felix had tried casting spells through the stick with mixed results. He not only wasn’t sure how he was supposed to cast through it but also, none of the ways he tried seemed to do much.
Holding the Staff now, Felix instinctively knew what to do.
He pushed the Spell Form into the Staff through their connection, which was orders of magnitude easier than creating it outside of his body, then he pushed Mana into the Staff.
Cautiously, Felix started with a simple Fire Bolt which was one of the Spells he was the most familiar with.
Casting it through the Staff with just 10 Mana, the blue crackles and pulses quickened for just a moment before a small bullet of Fire appeared within the leaves at the top of the Staff. The bullet raced out of the leaves without touching a single one or diverting from its path then shot out and smacked against the far wall.
The Fire Bolt cast through the Staff didn’t seem to have any special effect. It looked just like the Fire Bolt Felix could cast without the Staff. It felt completely different but Felix couldn’t even begin to compare them. It was like the two weren’t even made from the same thing, like his was cast with Fire and the Staff had cast with something else entirely.
Huh. That’s a bit disappointing.
Next, he moved on to instinct casts before he ran through every Spell he knew. He wasn’t entirely sure what he expected out of the Staff considering an Instinct Cast was essentially his Soul tapping into his raw experience of casting a Spell.
Still, if it was possible he wanted to know.
He didn’t have an instinctive understanding of what to do the same way he had with the traditionally cast Fire Bolt so, he started by just casting an Instinct Cast Spell. Using a Force Burst to move himself across the room, the result was exactly what Felix expected but the actual process was weird.
The Staff had essentially done something through their Bond to somehow affect the Cast but, Felix couldn’t tell what it had done at all.
Mostly confused, Felix began running through every Spell he could think of along with every one he could cast as an Instinct Cast. By the end, though none of them seemed too different, he felt a bit less disheartened. The Spells he cast were ever slightly more accurate in their output but it was hard to tell because Felix’s Spells were already nearly perfect in terms of accuracy.
If he Instinct Cast a Force Burst, he never cast it with too much Force or too much Mana.
His Spells just being more accurate would have been disappointing but, Felix had also started to get the sense that the Staff wasn’t doing anything because he didn’t need it to. There was no need for him to hit the dummy across the room with a Fire Bolt that could obliterate it.
The Staff wasn’t listening to what he wanted it to do, it was determining what he needed it to instead.
He would have to test it in real combat if that was the case and he wasn’t ready to do that at the moment. Instead, he turned his attention to other things.
Firstly, now that his will power had been freed up and subsequently strengthened, he took a look at his Mana Core and began experimenting.
Before, it had taken Felix a few seconds to Attune Mana which was a massive improvement from when he had first created his Attuned Cores but was still far too long to be usable in combat. Testing it after creating the Staff though, he couldn’t help but smile as he pulled raw, unattuned Mana from his central core and attuned it at will, instantly.
Well, looks like it’s time to do some cleanup then.
Since he didn’t need the Attuned Cores anymore, Felix completely removed them from his body, tossing them to Nova who was sitting and begging for them.
Then, he was just left with one singular Core of 10 billion Mana.
With the Fractal Mana Form now extracted, there was something he had been thinking about trying along the same vein but he asked Grim first, just to be sure.
Moving my Mana Core into my Core Soul. Bad idea?
Don’t know. That seems safe to test though.
Cool. Thanks.
Taking half the Mana in his Mana Core, Felix siphoned the Mana towards his Core Soul where it resisted at first. Felix had plenty of recent experience letting things into his Core Soul though and so he slowly relaxed it and let the Mana in.
Once a small portion of it had made it inside, it was like his Core Soul had realized Mana wasn’t a threat because suddenly there was no more resistance at all. 5 billion Mana poured into his Core Soul forming a tiny bead at the very center.
Then, Felix pulled Mana back out of his Core Soul and used it to cast a simple Fire Bolt.
It was, significantly slower than pulling out of his normal Mana Core. When he pulled the Mana out and through the Staff though, it was even faster than his normal Mana Core because the Staff was connected to his Core Soul.
While he wasn’t willing to completely rely on the Staff, Felix decided to move his Mana Core to his Core Soul because there were too many benefits to doing so. At the same time though, he created a planet of pure Mana, the size of his old Mana Core, orbiting his Core Soul that he could use as a backup, just in case.
Once the backup was in place, he began channeling Mana into his Core Soul, filling up the new Core which wasn’t any different than the old one except that it was now in his Core Soul and therefore it was easier for him to compress it down.
He managed to get 5 times as much Mana into his Core Soul as he had had in his last Core before it seemed like anymore would start negatively affecting him. He was pretty satisfied with that.
Then, the Staff reached in and began moving and shifting the Mana.
Felix desperately reached inside himself to tear apart the connection between them as the Mana in his Core Soul shifted from a bead of highly compressed Mana to a three, or even potentially higher, dimensional fractal of Mana. If it cloned itself within him, he would lose all the will power he had just freed up.
Before Felix could take any action though, it was already done. The Mana within his Core Soul, his new Mana Core, was a higher dimensional fractal that he couldn’t completely sense, let alone understand.
It didn’t however, affect him at all. In fact, he felt just as good as he had.
He calmed himself down, realizing it wasn’t trying to clone itself then took an objective look at what had happened. Even though he couldn’t grasp what was inside of him, it was stable and required little to no will power for him to maintain. Either it was just stable, or the Staff was maintaining it itself.
On top of that, it no longer felt full. It was simultaneously less volume, more mass and significantly less dense. It shouldn’t have been physically possible except that Mana wasn’t matter and didn’t abide by physical laws.
He didn’t have the Mana on hand to keep filling it so he instead took a look at the backup Core he had created and began morphing it to match the core the Staff had created.
While he didn’t understand it, he could replicate it because he had a perfect template. He knew he never could have created it from scratch but just replicating it was much easier. It took him may tries but eventually he succeeded and proved that it wasn’t the Staff doing anything actively. The shape was simply stable entirely on its own.
Huh. What else can you do?
Next on his list, especially now that he needed Mana to fill his new Cores, was finding a way to equip the bracers he had stolen without constantly losing his arms. He pulled the two bracers out of the Kryptos Repsitory with only minor damage to the room as he had learned from last time and had placed them in the smallest possible space.
They immediately started pouring Rich Anima and Chaotic Mana into the room so he cast a Mana barrier to try and contain it. If he could find a way to create a barrier that could, he could use that to protect his own body while he siphoned the Mana and Anima into himself.
The barrier that came out though, was nothing like the barrier Felix had intended. He had intended to cast a simple Mana Barrier so he could examine how it degraded.
What instead appeared, was a barrier of woven Mana and Anima producing a wall of tiny shapes all interlocked together, like a giant puzzle. The barrier that appeared, wasn’t degrading at all and contained the Anima and Mana in the room perfectly.
Looking down at his left arm, Felix lowered the staff towards it and as it approached, his Mana Skin shifted. Within a small area around the staff, his Mana Skin was no longer a thin film of Mana, instead it looked almost like the barrier he had just cast. They were smaller though and the shape was different, they were closer to scales or leaves but tiny, almost imperceptible.
Once the area he had touched had shifted, the change began to spread, transforming the Mana Skin next to it and accelerating out across his body until his Mana Skin was completely gone, replaced. In its place, was a skill Felix was dubbing Mana Scales, due to their visual similarities.
He didn’t immediately test them though, first he destroyed the barrier he had cast and stepped into the room, the Chaotic Mana and Rich Anima no longer affecting him, before he equipped both of the bracers.
They cinched themselves down onto his body but his Mana Scales still lay between them and him so his arms were completely unaffected.
That also meant he wasn’t siphoning anything from them just yet though so, he let one of them through, sinking beneath his Mana Scales, which reformed above the Aether Bracer. As soon as it was through, Felix’s arm began to deteriorate faster than he could ever hope to heal it. Instead of trying to create some kind of channel though, he let the Staff guide him.
He moved the Staff towards the bracer and focused on his Soul in his arm. It didn’t directly change anything but through their connection, Felix knew what to do. He followed the instructions accurately and created a path down his arm and into his Mana Core where his Core Soul easily handled it.
Then, he did the same with the Anima Bracer.
Since both of them were really just stable portals into a higher pressure area, Felix could only pull so much from them before the pressure equalized but, the Staff had thought of that. The path the Staff had directed him to create somehow maintained a virtual vacuum around the bracers to constantly pull from them, before pumping everything through his body.
That meant he had an unlimited supply of both, restricted only by how quickly he could pull from the bracers which, was far better than any manual regeneration relying on the weak Aether around him.
He allowed his new Mana Core and his Backup Mana Core to fill up before directing the excess into the Staff that happily fed on the streams. That way, the Staff would constantly be growing stronger as it fed on the Anima and Mana and he wouldn’t be wasting anything. When he needed to regenerate Mana or Anima, he could and when he was full, the Staff would consume the rest.
With his Mana Regeneration solved, Felix began practicing his Spells. He wanted to get used to the Staff and casting through it as well as using his own will power to attune Mana instead of his Cores.
Specifically, he wanted to make Spatial Translocation an Instinct Cast, now that he wasn’t reliant on Attuned Cores and had much more Mana at his disposal.
It took him nearly 3 terms to finally get to a point he was satisfied with. He had managed to make Spatial Translocation an Instinct Cast in a matter of days. That wasn’t enough though, he wanted to be able to cast the Spell instantly, including the time it took him to gather and Attune the Mana so, he kept practicing.
Once he had finally mastered it, the Spell was no longer a Spatial Translocation. He had mastered it to the point where it was officially, Blink.
The only downside to the Spell once he had mastered it, was that he couldn’t use it too many times in succession. The more he used it, the more detached his physical body became from physical reality. It took time for him to reconnect and so if he Blinked any more than 5 times in a minute, his body would fall out of reality and into the Aether which, would likely kill him since even if he could find his way back, he had no way of reattaching himself. At that point his body would just slowly degrade until it was nothing more than a disperse cloud of Mana in the Aether.
With his training complete, and given how long it had taken, Felix Blinked down to the main floor his Residents were using to check on their progress.
“We have many iterations. None have been deemed acceptable.” Arysha informed him.
Felix nodded and looked at one of them, “This a recent prototype?”
She nodded, “Realtively.”
He reached over and touched the end of his Staff to the cloth, expecting something magical to happen. Instead, nothing happened at all. The cloth remained exactly as it was.
“Huh. Thought that would do something. Alright, I’m going to see if I can raid some vaults or dungeons for materials then.”
She nodded, “Have you attempted to open the Soul Vault with your renewed will?”
His eyes widened, “No. I have not.”
Felix Blinked out of the room without another word and excitedly pulled the Soul Vault from his Soul Space. He didn’t even bother trying to open it with his own will as he was pretty sure breaking into it was nearly impossible. Instead, he held it in one hand and touched the Staff to it with his other.
The Soul Vault brightened and suddenly the plates that formed the protective outer layer began to shift and rearrange themselves. The outer layer retiled itself and produced a hole the size of Felix’s finger then, the layer beneath that began to shift. One by one, the layers were rearranged and solved until the hole that had formed on the outer layer went all the way through the protective shell of the vault.
Then, the layers all spun around the hole in various directions and the vault began to grow until it was big enough that Felix could fly through the hole.
He smiled widely as he floated into the vault, noticed it was much bigger on the inside and it was completely full of items and artifacts.
Felix and his Residents tore through the vault, examining and cataloging everything. The vast majority of it went to either Nova or the Residents to break down because they were too weak to bother with. There were some standouts though.
Only one of those Felix took for himself. It was an amulet, a black chain with a disc hanging from it, like a coin with a hole drilled in the middle. The disc was completely black with runes carved around the outside that Felix didn’t recognize. It didn’t look or feel like anything particularly special but his Staff had pointed to it directly so, he took it.
Having it equipped, didn’t seem to change anything and he tried poking and prodding it in various ways but it didn’t seem to react at all. At the very least, it was durable enough that it wasn’t going to melt the second he got in a fight though so, he had time to figure it out.
The last thing left before Felix left to fight the Dragon then, were his robes.
His Residents were still working on them though so, Felix went and raided the dungeons all throughout the facility. With his new Blink ability, raiding the dungeons became rather trivial. His increase in will power had come with the usual increase in Matter and Mana Sense range so he was able to Blink anywhere he knew was empty with his Senses.
Nova happily followed along with him but kept getting frustrated that she wasn’t as fast as he was.
She had the Matter Sense range she just didn’t have the same training he did and even with Experience Nexus translating everything for her, she didn’t have the same will power as Felix did. He could have manually modified her Soul but, his Staff once again, provided him with a different solution that honestly, made him feel a little stupid for not thinking of it.
Nova. Don’t just move across the room. Shrink your body down as small as you can first, then move, then grow again.
She meowed at him then tried it, moving nearly instantly. As soon as she appeared she insisted on a race which Felix accepted. Her overall movement time was way faster than it had been, nearly instant but, there was now a delay where she had to shrink her body and regrow it. Nova could do that nearly instantly, but nearly instantly and instantly were two completely different things.
Felix slowed himself down a little so he didn’t win by too much which made Nova mad, but determined.
It didn’t take more than dekad for the two of them to raid all the dungeons and vaults, biting quite a few of them along the way. They found some interesting materials and items but nothing Felix equipped for the time being.
Instead, he handed all of it off to Arysha and the Residents who sent them off to where they needed to be.
“You figure out the Amulet I see?” Arysha asked as he finished handing her the loot.
Felix frowned, “What? No, I haven’t looked at th-” As he looked down at the Amulet, he realized it had changed. No longer was it just a black disc. Now, all of the 16 runes on its face were glowing white.
“Huh.” Felix said as he reached down and poked at it with his finger.
The weirdest part was that he hadn’t noticed it change with his Matter, Mana or Anima Senses and even now, it seemed exactly the same.
He looked up to respond to Arysha but realized he was in a completely different room. He was in one of the dungeons he had just finished raiding somehow, in the exact spot he had left the dungeon from. He looked around curiously and Blinked back into the Rokrunor facility just a short distance away.
Picking another rune on the amulet, he touched it and was instantly transported to another dungeon.
Holy shit.
To confirm his suspicions, Felix tapped through all of the runes on the amulet. It drew massive amounts of Mana from him but he had such an absurd amount now, it barely put a dent in his Core.
It records the last 16 universes or spaces or something I’ve been to? Hey Grim, how’s this as an escape plan?
See if you can make it so you don’t need to touch it with your finger.
Right. Good call.
The amulet required he touch it with something physical, as neither a Tendril nor his Matter Control worked but, turning it around and using his bodily control to touch it with his chest was easy enough. All he had to do was fasten it tight. The other side of the disc looked identical except that the runes there were different and weren’t glowing.
They either did something else, as Felix had visited more than 32 spaces since equipping it, or they didn’t mean anything.
Either way, he was very happy with the Amulet.
Using the Anima regeneration from the Anima Bracer, Felix recreated his Spirit Avatar then finally headed to see if he could help the Residents.
He had long since accepted that they were more capable than he was at most things. He tried his best to simply not get in their way and only help when asked.
“How are the robes going?”
“We test many threads and weaves. None are sufficient.”
“Show me the best candidates.”
Arysha nodded and walked him through a few hundred cloth prototypes. By the end of it he was simultaneously very impressed and slightly disappointed. The amount of knowledge and experience that had gone into their work was astounding. All of the prototypes he had seen would be more than sufficient for anyone in the A grade.
The issue, was that he was planning on fighting The Dragon next which, was an S grade that was stronger than it should have been.
While Felix didn’t have nearly the same knowledge and experience as his Residents had, he did have full access to his own brain and all of their knowledge so, he sat down and tried to process through everything. He quickly realized there was no point though because Mark had done the same. The Staff still didn’t seem interested in helping with that specifically so, there wasn’t really anything he could do.
“What if we just have Nova create some Asphellum and I make robes like Peace’s? They should be a decent temporary set.”
She nodded, “That is something we consider many times.”
“You’ve already tried recreating the robes the Ano Matriarch was wearing, right?”
“We try many ways to weave Anima into solid.”
“Okay, we’re not there yet then. I take it it wasn’t an issue of will power then?”
“No.” She answered simply.
“What if we do some kind of hybrid approach? We infuse a material with Anima and make threads from that?”
“We also try this.”
At that moment, Felix finally felt something from the Staff. A pull on their connection.
He had no idea what it wanted but just assumed it had something to do with the conversation they were having so, he summoned Nova, who blinked directly to him, and had her create a small ingot of Asphellum. Then, he took some Anima from some ros they had lying around and stacked them on top of each-other.
Finally, he touched his staff to the both of them but, nothing happened.
It pulled again on their connection with no clarifying information, no information whatsoever in fact. He tried again a hundred different ways by first turning the Asphellum to thread, weaving them himself, running the Staff along them, holding the Staff against them and even hitting them.
Each and every time he got the same pull from the Staff until finally, he threaded the Asphellum thread into the leaves of the Staff. Then, it pulled on him again but this time, on the Mana and Anima he was supplying through their connection.
Felix pushed and let it draw from him as much as it needed and finally, the thread appeared on the other side where it looked, completely different.
Instead of Black and Navy, like Peace’s Robes, the thread was completely bright white with an ethereal glow.
It better damn well glow considering how much Mana and Anima I just had to pour in to make a single damn inch of this stuff.
The expense was both annoying and exciting, given what it implied. Felix had a source of both Anima and Mana that were, as far as he knew, infinite so all it was going to take was time.
As the staff created the thread, somehow, his Residents spooled it up and began experimenting with different weaves of cloth. It didn’t matter too much what they decided on because Felix, too excited to just sit and wait, had done some experimenting and found it was trivial for him to rearrange the threads at any time.
That meant theoretically, he could have different weaves for different situations.
For the time being though, they settled on just creating one while some of his other Residents, created sample robes for him to try from other materials so he could evaluate the fit and feel. Given his ability to rearrange the threads, that also wasn’t a huge deal but he wanted to at least have a favorite of some kind.
It took multiple terms for them to create enough thread to create a full set of robes which, was a bit annoying to Felix. The time was irrelevant but the fact that he was once again limited by his regeneration, even after just upgrading it, was a bit annoying.
At the same time, he could hardly complain considering just how much Anima and Mana had gone into the robes themselves.
In terms of weave and fit, he settled on a thinner weave for the time being because it felt less restrictive. The trade off was that there was more material because the thread needed somewhere to go. The robes were similar to his previous robes with multiple layers, large sleeves and a hood. He even changed the color of the layers, which he could also do at will, so that they weren’t all white because he felt too much like a priest.
Instead, he made the top layer black, the next layer blue and the last white. It wasn’t particularly fashionable, as a number of his Residents had pointed out numerous times but he didn’t care for the time being.
Once they were done, there was nothing left for him to do in the 2499th Realm except test his Spells before he fought The Dragon.