What a beautiful morning it was. The sun was bright out, the birds were chirping, the roosters were roosting. And I, I was kicking open Bianca’s door, “Time to wake u–” my sentence got cut short by the sight of her naked body. “So,” I entered and closed the door behind me, my feathers not at all ruffled, “before you proceed to kill me, I’d like to speak my last words. Bianca, you look really damn delicious right now,” I said with a grin, then closed my eyes in defeat. “Okay, you may begin execution. Tell my family and friends I love them.”
I heard the draw of her sword out the sheath. Her footsteps were light and slow, making my death that much more suspenseful. I swallowed. An itch took hold of my throat, as if preparing me for a ruthless decollation. “How long are you gonna stand there, magic boy?”
I opened one eye, “Uh, would you prefer to kill me lying down?” and my head tilted.
She rolled her eyes, “Do I actually look good?”
Both eyes opened now. “Hmm, well, I’m not a huge fan of an athletic body on a woman, but I do appreciate it whenever I see it because I knew the person worked hard. So yes, you look great. Why that question though?”
Lyn kicked in the door just like me, and this time the lock couldn’t survive. “That’s because she went and got herself a man! Could you believe it?” She began fake-sobbing, “My little girl’s all grown up!”
This broad was eavesdroppin’, wasn’t she?
“And what about you? When are you gonna get one?” Bianca retaliated.
The former Sword Paragon held her heart in agony. “Ouch!” she dramatized. “You’re a cruel person!” Suddenly, her gears switched up, “By the way,” she faced me, “the Liam’s been looking for you.”
“Eh?” I placed a hand on my hip, “The hell’s Liam?” Turned out, he was the groundskeeper dude Anjali hired. No idea why he’d need me. I left them there after fixing Bianca’s poor lock.
He was outside, trimming some hedges. So, I floated over to him, “Hey, wanted to see me?”
“Sir, yes, I did.” He got off the stepladder. “It’s actually a favour that I wanted. Or a request, rather.” His disposition was one that said it was a big request.
“Mhm, I’m listening,” I created a couple chairs to lounge around in. After he took his seat, he revisited how he’d word this request of his in his mind.
“You see, my sister and I–”
“Are getting married?” I cut him off. His brows furrowed and he looked at me like I was an idiot. Well, I won’t deny that. “Sorry, I just like teasing you two about that. Carry on.”
“Uh, yeah. Well, thing is, our parents’ house was destroyed in a fire recently. They’ve been renting an inn, but we don’t have enough coin, so it’s not viable as permanent residency. I wanted to ask for any help you could spare!” He pleaded, and even bowed a bit to me.
“Raise your head, man,” I told him. But after that, I went silent with thought, wondering what was the best course of action in a case like that. “Uhm, what did you want to do about it?” He was slightly startled by that question. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ll help you. What I meant is, do you want me to give your family money, or do you want me to rebuild the house. If it’s rebuilding, then do you want it to be in the same place or somewhere else? I’ve got plenty of land to spare.”
“Uh,” he placed a hand on his chin in question, “hmm,” then looked into the sky, “perhaps if…” he took a pause and dismissed whatever he was thinking of, “nah. I don’t want to be so indebted to you.”
“Debt? Ah yeah,” I realised that what I offered was actually a pretty big deal. “I’ll do it anyway. I know the perfect way you can pay me back.” He was shaking his head, clearly uncomfortable by the idea of owing others, but I proceeded to speak my mind anyway. “Tell you what. I build houses for you, your sister, and your parents. In return, be my land dude.”
“Your what?”
“Shit, I literally can’t remember the job title. But it’s like this: I’ll build a small community where only trustworthy people can live, charge them a small fee to live like rent, and you’ll be my collection dude. But that means you’ll have to take notes of whatever complaints they have and stuff. It’s a promotion, to a whole other field, if you want.”
He chuckled weakly, and after his bout of laughter was over, he settled down. “You’re serious?”
“Very,” I answered promptly. I pulled a clone into being, “He’ll give you the details of what I have in mind.” With other thoughts pulling my mind away from the conversation, I stood up with plans to visit Tyrr and speak with the rebels of the five big families.
Their goals and ambitions crossed my mind. When I met with them, it was to hand over the missing half of the synthesized mana crystal recipe. That meant they could practise their families’ craft without restraint, leave their families and provide those services to everyone in Tyrr. They basically wanted to undercut their families in order to break down the monopolies that said families had. Good intentions by all means.
Now how could they benefit me? How do I build a bridge between worlds in the first place? I pondered, then I remembered the Cey family. They were responsible for magical constructs, including teleporters. Maybe it could work across worlds? I wondered. It was something I had to consult Qora, the spirit lord of space, in order to know. It should work, right? I told myself. After all, the Diadem of Lunacy and Urn of Life are probably magic constructs themselves.
With a great sigh, I emptied my mind. I’d often think of things I had to do, and the list would go on and on until there were so many things, I could do nothing but empty my mind in order to really focus. Priority is what? I asked myself, then came to a couple of conclusions. Staffs. I teleported to my study and ate, then spent the next twelve hours Levitating in a meditative pose, drawing mana from the staff. Boy, that was a lot of damn mana, but I finally had a chance to do it nonstop.
Most of my leisure hours would be spending time with my family. Outside of that, there was only time to siphon mana into me and sleep. Clones took care of other random things that would come up. Two entire months passed by like that. Three out of the five gemstones floating above the staff were sucked dry of mana and my mana power was at an astonishing nine hundred percent. I could hardly believe it, but considering all that’s happened in Earth-Sky Tower, I chose to believe it.
Getting the overwhelming urge to rid myself of this constant dedication to absorbing mana, I decided to spend a few days with my family and just have as much fun as possible. Of course, I grabbed Steyza from Jynnak. After that mini-vacation was over, I set my mind to absorbing the last two gemstones of mana, completing it in a month’s time. That feat was not easy though. With only five to six hours of sleep per day, the rest of my waking hours were spent eating, siphoning mana, and drowning my blood in alcohol or caffeine.
The gemstones were finally back to their non-luminating white. My beautiful mana sat at a comfortable one thousand percent. Ten times the usual. I snickered to myself, shouting at the top of my lungs in victory. I’d finally achieved a milestone I never thought was possible. A spell as common as Fireball would decimate my enemies now. My speed with Avatar of Wind was freaking outrageous. Hell, it was so fast, I’d began using the arcane dragon I now had as a pet for flight instead. Its speed felt just right. Turned out, it wasn’t Arcana’s father, but just a look-alike. It didn’t have sentience anywhere close to Arcana. In essence, it was just like a horse; I called him Skyer. And don’t you dare say I’m not creative.
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Finally, I could move my focus from the staff of Scien to the witch’s staff. I stretched, and had Skyer take me to the Order of Mages. It seemed like they expanded the grounds. Mages were flying about with gliders and void magic here and there. The open yard was alit with spells of all kinds. The Ingen orcs and human mages bonded amazingly. It only cemented the idea that welcoming the elves into Methelia would be a great idea.
I followed Donna’s location and skydived off Skyer, using Levitation to slow myself and Voidwalk to phase through the requests building of the Order. Donna was there with Gabrielle and Kira, whilst Pyro gave a tour to a young group of aspiring mages. He certainly had the gregarious personality to pull it off.
I appeared through the walls behind him, startling the children and gliding toward him. He turned around, wind magic wrapping around his hands, ready to slice me into pieces or blast me away. “Oh, dude. Long time no see! Hey guys,” he turned around at the kids, “Let me introduce you to one of Methelia’s great heroes! This is Eric Archibald!”
One of the kids folded his arms, “Hmph! He doesn’t seem so great!”
I deactivated Levitate and looked the kid dead in his eyes, “If you beat me in a fight right here and now, I’ll admit you’re a better mage than me.”
Pyro went quiet. Kira went quiet. Gabrielle looked at me like I was an idiot. Donna scoffed and continued chatting.
The kid, unable to resist the taunt, accepted shakily. Everyone else made room for us. Even the workers in the Order who managed the requests stopped what they were doing to witness the greatest mage they ever knew face off with a pubescent kid.
With fire manipulation, I let go the world’s most okay Fireball. The kid dodged the lame spell and retaliated by using Invisibility and wind magic to help him move faster, then he suddenly appeared really close in front of me. Can’t maintain it and use other spells, huh? In one hand, was fire, in the other, wind. He combined them to make an explosive fire spell. When it hit me, I pulled myself back with void magic and pretended to slam into the wall, using earth manipulation to bust the wall. “Ah, okay! I surrender! You’re way stronger than me!”
I healed myself and went back to them. The kid had a beaming grin on his face, but immediately got shot down by a girl who seemed to be his sister. “Don’t award him for mediocrity!” she scolded me. “He’s going to get lazy!”
My eyes widened in shock. That was an interesting statement she made. I ruffled her hair, “That’s some really good advice,” but she brushed my hand off. “I’d be really disappointed if you don’t become a teacher!” I snickered.
“Wait, so…” the boy squinted his eyes.
“He let you win, you dolt!” His sister palmed her face.
With a chuckle, I strolled over to the two Apostles. “So, any of you know where the staff is?” I questioned, to which Kira raised an eyebrow.
“Come with me,” she led me outside. A small white light, no longer than the top phalange of a finger, emanated from the tip of her finger. She was leading it to her face when I grabbed her wrist.
“Fuck are you doing, Kira?”
Her eyes rested on me, “You can’t enter the sanctuary without a direct connection to it.”
More question marks floated above my head until Donna intervened, “It’s alright, Kira. I’ll give him mine.” The queen did the same spell Kira just did, and made a tiny incision below her left eye. It was where the witch had her crescent moon birthmark. She flinched just a little initially and a bubble of blood formed, as if stuck with a pin.
In her hand, was a small, pebble? “Is that a piece of rock?” I questioned.
Donna nodded without the slightest hint of comic written on her face. She was serious. “Why do Apostles have a rock in their face?”
“I mean, buddy,” she placed a hand on her hip, “you act like that’s one of the weirder things you’ve seen.”
Hah, well, it certainly isn’t. With that realisation, I just went along with it. She placed the pebble, probably no more than a millimetre big, into the fleshy tissue of my face. With some light manipulation, the little cut closed right up. “So, how do I do this?”
“It’s just like a world-travelling artefact. Just pass mana through it, but envision where you want to go in that world for a more accurate teleport,” she advised and tapped me on the shoulder.
“Alright,” I pecked her on the lips, “I’ll go grab that staff real quick.”
~
Here I was, standing in the magnificence of the boulder that the witch once sat on. My suspicions from before were correct; this place was indeed another world. It was probably created just for Emily. She has a lot of connection with the gods, huh? My mind was swept up by the two gods I met whilst circling the boulder. God of life and god of death? Are there any other gods? I wondered, my fingers touching the giant rock.
With some earth manipulation, I looked for where there was an absence of earth within the boulder and could get a clear image of the staff’s shape in my mind. I split the boulder in half and behold, a staff made of gold rested within the crevices of the halved boulder. With some void magic, I wiggled it out and brought it to me. I didn’t particularly feel any different with it, so I decided to mend the rock back together and get my ass home to check on August.
I knocked on his door and one of his servants opened up for me. August was sleeping on the chandelier with a bottle of booze in his hand, snoring away. Melissa was playing with Tara and a couple other servants were passing a broom along the floor. “So, does no one see this?”
“Yes, sir, we do. But we’ve since grown accustomed to Sir King’s shenanigans,” a butler-like old man with perfect posture told me. “Please, make yourself at home. If there’s anything you want, you need not hesitate to ask me, sir Archibald.” He bowed and walked away to handle whatever business.
I flew up and floated, looking at August in pity. Even in his sleep, I couldn’t yank the bottle away from him. An alcoholic through and through, huh? My eyes watered, I’m so proud of you! But, time to wake up…
A renew fixed him up, then I shook him awake. His eyes opened slowly and he breathed a little heavier, “Is that you, Melissa? Damn, you sexy.”
“The first half of your statement is false,” I answered. My voice made him really get up, and with just enough movement, the chandelier fell. Could I have saved him and the chandelier? Yes. Did I save him and the chandelier? No.
The many intricate parts of the over-glorified lamp scattered upon the ground, spreading easily on the tiled floor.
“Dammit August!” Melissa yelled over yonder. “That’s the third one!”
“Yeah but,” he rolled over, “have you ever slept on it? It’s really comfy.”
Melissa palmed her face in defeated frustration.
“You have my sympathies,” I placed a hand of comfort upon her shoulder.
Some minutes later, August and I finally sat down to talk in his blacksmithing station. It felt so homey, talking with him in a place like that. We were onto our third glass of mead and small-talking until I finally got to the reason why I visited. “How’s the quint-sucking coming along?”
He spat a bit of his mead out, unable to contain his laughter, “You can’t tell me you don’t realise how nasty that sounds.”
I grinned, caught red-handed. “I dunno what ya talkin’ about, buddy,” I feigned ignorance. “So? You didn’t answer the question.”
“Ah, quint?” He grabbed some rags in a box off to the corner, “Yeah, I finished a pretty long time ago.” The mead was wiped off the table and he also refilled his near-empty glass. “But when I went to tell your ass about it, Anjali told me you cooped yourself up in your study. So,” he finally sat down and made that old man noise that old men make when they finally sit down to relax, “I take it you’re finished too?”
I nodded, “Yep. Just over a thousand in mana power now. You?”
“Five hundred,” he said, in a tone that sounded like he devalued the importance of what he just said.
August at one hundred percent quint usage was quite frankly, a beast. At two hundred, he basically killed me in our duel. And now you’re telling me you got to five hundred percent, huh? “Hydra’s ass, does this mean your magic resistance is over a hundred?”
“Oh, nah,” he shook his head. “Doesn’t seem to go above ninety-five. This amount of quint is great, but when I’m nearing five hundred, I can feel that my body starts to become the limiting factor.”
That didn’t make sense, did it? How could the body of a quint user become the thing that holds him back? I thought about that for a long while before answering. “I, kind of know what you mean. Somehow, it feels like there’s a place I can’t get to, because in the end, we’re still human.”
“Mhm, so where to next?”
“You bastard,” a mischievous smile crept along my face, “you love these adventures, don’t you?”
He shrugged, admitting defeat with a grin as well.
“I’ll be going back to Steyza’s world. But it’s more business than adventure this time.”
“Doesn’t matter. Let’s go fuck some shit up!”