The ground had gone through a marked change in quality over the last day of work.

With the lack of abyssal frogs stopping by, Egosum had gone full tilt into changing the base of his newfound kingdom.

Every bit of bog and muck had been thoroughly infused with his Qi in a bid to bolster its presence and it had been going exceptionally well.

He found himself enjoying the process far more than he was expecting.

The sphagnum took on an iridescent sheen that constantly drew his attention now that they had been altered.

The shallow roots that anchored them to the matrix below seemed to suck in his Qi like a sponge. It brought him peace like he never expected.

The huts had been a place of refuge for him after seeing what true purity looked like, but truthfully it was just an escape from his problems.

Little spots of reprieve from the real world.

Now he saw them for what they truly were and refused to relax in one before he made a real change.

The very same change was spreading out across the plains.

He hadn’t been able to extend his Qi permeation very far yet, but he was determined.

‘This must have been what Master felt back when he was creating his own little plot of land that grew into what I called home.’

His daydreams carried him along as he went to work.

The tendrils of his power laced through the world and cemented themselves in a bid to make the world better than what it once was.

“Hey Egosum! When do you think you’ll be done? I want some help with something.” Cinera shouted out from her oven.

He opened his eyes and took in the newly changed world.

A bit of comfort entered his body as he breathed the air.

The world had gotten better with his influence and the success was ultimately fulfilling.

He lifted himself from the soft ground and turned back to the bundle of huts.

Cinera was waving over to him with her stubby arms flailing through the air.

“What did you want to try out?” She turned to her oven and channeled a spell towards the uncomfortably warm exit.

His enhanced sight powered on and he was treated to a strange spectacle.

Natural energies flooded into her spell circle like water pouring into a funnel.

The heat fled from the oven and hid away in the spell’s structure.

He watched it race around the geometry in bursts of action.

“What is that for?” He turned to the salamander as she finished collecting the energy.

It buzzed around her hand with life.

“This should empower the base spell. The school always spoke about the advantages you bring with you being the most important in victory but I never really knew how I could utilize that given my specialty, but I might have just found the answer to it.”

She pointed the spell to the sky and activated it.

He watched as the heat merged with the ash and excited it to the point of creating static.

“This is only possible because the spell isolates a pocket of space to expand from and grow into the world using my power. That first little influx of energy needed to kick the spell off is always the point of failure for the attack and I am thinking if I can utilize enchantments in my clothes then I could become more efficient at casting.”

The spell sputtered off as she choked the energy from its channels.

“And you need my help with what exactly? I don’t think I am really known for my technical expertise amongst my peers.”

She scoffed as she turned to the oven once more when the heat had quickly returned after being funneled away.

The energy was sucked into her spell formation once more.

“I am the only peer you got, and I think you can help me so you’ll just have to stick with it for now.”

He agreed to help in whatever way he could and followed after her as she entered the spell testing bunker they had built only days prior.

“Can you dry the walls out for me? I want as few distractions as I can possibly get. The longer I can go without needing to worry about balancing, the faster this will go.”

He listened to her commands and siphoned the water away from the mud walls.

They changed from a deep, dark brown to a lifeless grey.

“Perfect.” She channeled the heat into the spell work once more.

The same process played out but the power in the bubbling ash was worlds apart from what it was in the grips of the swamp.

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“It’s a weak spell normally and what you saw above is much more in line with what I would expect from a full cast strength without the heat, but I only put in a quarter of the ‘required mana’. Now I am doing only an eighth.”

He was beginning to see the benefits.

“It’s the same reason amphibians are so hard to beat in their native fields. Where other races must build up their seats of power to be able to fight off attackers, we only need to be on land that is aligned to our spells.”

She began stripping the clothes from her body and laying them across the floor.

“Is that why my civilization was crushed? Because they were scared that the further, they pushed, the more land that would be impossible to retake?”

She moved her head side to side.

“That’s partially it. You also wouldn’t want a neighbor that is spreading its borders incessantly with the goal of world domination. Hey, can’t blame them for trying. Now-” She scuttled away to retrieve something from above only to return with a bundle of vibrant sphagnum.

“I want you to suck every bit of moisture out of these.”

He followed her command and watched them shrivel into a shadow of their former glory.

“Perfect.” She tossed them onto her clothes and summoned a small spell structure in the air.

A tiny zap of electricity lit the plant material up like a bone fire.

The heat came off it in waves as she stoked it with another spell that pulled air through it. The clothes were quickly covered with a fine grey ash that was blown away with a wave of her hand.

Egosum could tell the difference immediately. The intense heat energy trapped within the coat was far more than he remembered ever seeing before and whatever was being used to keep it contained was working extra hard.

She threw her ushanka on and summoned her spell once more.

It came out with a very similar intensity as before.

“Yes!” Cinera shouted in excitement. “Same output even without the pre-stored heat given optimal environment and I only needed to funnel a small portion of the trapped warmth of my clothes.”

He looked at the sweater that was positively glowing with energy. It outshined the hat she was using by many times.

The clothes quickly returned to her body as she went to work testing how long it would last.

“This far exceeds anything I was expecting. It might get a little worse in the swamp, but I have a really good feeling about this.”

They repeated the moss part of her experiment and ventured above ground.

The sparks came out slightly stronger than their very first time but failed to match the bunker experiments.

“Alright. I think I have the hang of this. I just need to get better at funneling it though the structure and avoid overusing it and it is gonna be deadly when I need it to.”

The rest of the day slowly passed with the area around their huts growing at a crawling pace. Night slowly fell over the area and Egosum retreated to the hut, satisfied that he had achieved a portion of his goal.

The view of his core was just as mesmerizing as the last. The idea that it was physical and ethereal in the same space was hard to wrap his mind around but that would come in time.

For now, he just wanted to become as familiar with it as possible. Let the energies imprint onto his mind so that he can return to the waking world better than he left it the day prior.

His time admiring it soon ended as the sun broke through the moon's embrace.

He had been getting up later and later ever since seeing his core from the outside.

Undoubtedly an effect of its radiance.

“They're here!”

Natan’s shrill voice called out over the marsh.

Egosum scrambled to his feet and jumped out of the freshly repaired hut.

He saw Cinera stumbling out of her hut with every bit of exhaustion she had from the long night of testing she had performed while he dozed off to sleep.

“Where are they?” He scanned the horizon for any signs of them.

The pale head of his friend made itself known as she peaked out up above the surface.

“Where else would they be? Near the abyssal pools.” She disappeared after the snarky comment and refused to return as she slipped deep underground.

Egosum let it go and turned towards their goal.

The pair of amphibians traveled to the pools with an excitement barely contained by their actions.

They grew closer and closer by the day to rescuing their friend.

A horrible thought crept through his mind.

Or getting revenge.

As they got close enough to see the party of frogs, Egosum could immediately tell something was wrong.

They were thrashing around like something was trying to grab them.

“Let's hurry up, something isn’t right.” He took a few bounding leaps before catching sight of the cause.

The whole group was retreating from the pools as a barrage of arms flailed from the edges.

They were spiked along the entire length and were trying to grab everything within its range.

Three of the six frogs were in various states of entrapment.

He didn’t waste another second, leaping with everything he had to reach them as quickly as possible.

“Back up! I’ll go in!” He caught the voice of one of them shouting. The bravery they showed was in direct contrast with every other one of his kind he had ever met.

“We’re all gonna die! The familiar fear of Tecolotl screamed out in complete hysteria.

One more large hop and he made it to them.

“You-You’re here! Please, help me save my men!” He turned to the tentacles slowly dragging the frogs back into the abyssal waters.

He leapt forward grabbing one of the tentacles with his hand while his Qi went to work corralling the earth to his will.

The large, webbed fingers gripped the spongy fleshy with every fiber in his body. The spines covering it offered little resistance as they disintegrated under the force.

The tentacle began to flail as the pressure began to become too much for it to bear.

The end released the trapped creature and reeled back to attack Egosum.

Before it could even get within range, he yanked his hands apart, tearing the meaty appendage in two with one quick move.

Purple blood splashed into his face as he chucked it away and released the other end.

The injured beast quickly withdrew its arm while the others grew nearer to the pond's edge.

The Qi locked into the earth answered his calls.

Swells of the ground rose up and encompassed the beasts.

With the death grip, he had on them, they were unable to do anything but struggle in place while the frogs fought back to be released.

One by one he cinched the ends of the tentacles off and watched as they flailed around the ground, pouring out far more blood than should have been contained in the small bits of flesh.

With all of the members saved, he turned to their leader.

He had rushed over to the first creature he had saved and was checking his injuries

“Good going.” Tecolotl shouted out from behind a raised mound of earth in the distance.

Cinera had just entered his sight on her flight spell, speeding through the humid air.

He took a deep breath before addressing the frog.

“Welcome to the edge of your people’s world. I guess it was worse than you were expecting.”