Following a dramatic pause, "I believe myself to be something of a collector of Skills. And at the same time, I take pride in matching the perfect person with the right child… Today, your kindness will allow me to experience the pleasure of both." It ends its words with another one its sage-like smile.

I'm not sure about how I should react to this. "Uh, congratulations?"

"Please, save that for after we succeed. Assuming you're agreeable to this arrangement." It replies.

I see no reason not to accept the free item, it is something I need anyways. And foreseeing no obvious way this will backfire on me, not to mention this will save me the time looking for another option… Ah, who am I kidding? There are always ways in which something will backfire and just as much of a chance that things will work out, yet I feel getting this done with is more of a priority for me, despite the unpredictable chances. SYMPHONY itself is not destructive after all, and I have a feeling this person is more than what meets the eyes. His claim of creating the perfect match is tickling my zen-ney sense from every angle, and not in a bad way.

"Fine," I reply. "How do we do this?"

"Excellent choice, young friend!"

—

The sky up above is the color of warm orange; in a hue very similar to sunrise. I'm not sure what exactly happened—nothing bad for sure; as I am well aware that my spacious Mindscape is unscathed and nothing triggered the fight or flight instinct of my less human half—but I find myself sitting on the very same carpet Schisaturn had occupied, all alone. And now that I have time to think back, the name Schisaturn feels like the combination of a planet and a rude word, or was it some type of rock..? I cannot recall.

I can also feel—like how we can feel the position of our limbs, even in utter darkness—my half of the Sillimanite Cat's Eye inside if me. I can also, very vaguely remember a brief part of our conversation.

"So, what form do you wish for these beautiful childrens?" It asked me amidst our ongoing class.

"Hmm, maybe a ring?"

"Well, I fear that answer had skipped a few crucial steps." It said with a hazy smile, "first of all, where do you wish to have it nest. Externally or internally? Display to the world your treasure or keep it hidden and safe? Out of sight, out of mind."

I consider the question for a moment, "considering my reason for needing it in the first place. I would prefer to keep it out of sight."

"A wise choice. Now that narrows our list; would you rather it is attached to the insides of your flesh or your bone? Or maybe safely secured inside an organ?"

Now a subconscious part of me find the situation utterly bizarre. Wear an accessory internally? Inside one of my organs? But the fantasy creature part of me find the options perfectly sane. "Hmm, maybe attached to my bone… On my torso. I would hate to have it attached onto one of my limbs only to one day lose it by losing the whole appendage."

"Again, a wise choice." It says, now being less of an earthing—that is to say a creature made of earth, to somehow become an incomprehensible being of immeasurable might. Like, a divine entity? "May I suggest either a rib-bangle or a curved spine-band."

By its explanations; a rib-bangle will be a spiral shaped item coiled around one of my ribs, while a curved spine-band functions like a curved hairband, only worn on one of the spine. Though after further discussion, he suggested I use the rib-bangle as the area's around the ribs are more spacious and that the human spine is too sensitive of an area. I concurred with the divine expert and the final object looks a lot like a short rubbery spring with a bulb at its midsection; its rainbow hued cat's eye cuts all the way from one tip to the other. There are spaces between its coils. And unknown as to how this happened—believe me when I say this part of my memory is the haziest of all—we managed to get in equipped onto one of mine ribs.

"Should'a know that Earthling was no ordinary person!.. And I am never doing that again!" Though deep down inside, I know an empty promise when I hear one.

Shelving that part of my life into the deepest recesses of my memory, I—the chime of my VICOS interrupted my thoughts.

Rascarna your innocent friend: Yo, where are you!? Zen: Why is your name getting even longer? Zen: One moment, let me check Rascarna your innocent friend: Because, I am your friend! Rascarna your innocent friend: An innocent one! Zen: All that does is make you the final ultimate version of untrustworthy Rascarna your innocent friend: Aw, don't be like that ol' friend! Zen: I'm innocent Rascarna your innocent friend: Well anyways, so an acquaintance of mine is doing a live challenge versus the newcomers, you up for crashing that show? Rascarna your innocent friend: Assuming you got the means to Zen: Depends. Hate to promise anyone without knowing the whole deal Rascarna your innocent friend: Meet me at Area 100,000, section M. Zen: On my way

I was gonna write the abbreviation but thought better, describing what that means would render the act of abbreviating itself moot… Making my way to the nearest Teleportation Pad, I make use of the free service.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Greeting my friend. It is nice to finally meet you Zen!" A guy cosplaying as Sogeking from this old but very famous anime of around early 2000, just without the magnificent nose, bows in greeting while he addresses the person who had arrived just before I did. They are not exactly identical, but the similarities are present.

"Apologies, you are mistaken." The person said. Sogeking look-alike flashed over to the next person just beside the previous one and repeated the greeting.

"I have a boyfriend!" replied the girl, giving him the cold shoulders. Someone from our side of the world, obviously. I opted to stand there and give him the opportunity to have fun. And after the next dozen or so misses, he finally turns to look at me.

"That was fun! Thank you for waiting. Now then, no time for chit chat, please remain quiet and follow me." the guy's nuts, I cannot help but chuckle. He leads me down the main street onto a circle shaped square that sports a massive stage on its center space. The outer perimeter of said space is encircled by a river of sorts with decorative mini water sprouts. Above the river and connecting each road leading into the area are masterfully made bridges with carvings of flora and majestic beings that look so much alive you can smell the fragrant these beautiful flowers emit. No seriously, the flower carvings smell like actual flowers.

"They're enchanted." Rascarna the innocent friend explains without me asking, not that I was planning to ask. It was only a matter of time I figured that out with my Mana Sense and with how much mana those things are emitting.

"Thanks! And nice to meet you Rascarna, the ever changing nickname." I say in jest, "so mind telling me what's happening?"

"Please, just Rascarna will do!" He replies seriously, "well, you see that stage there. My fellow Spell Academic is up there challenging any spellsmith, artist, inventor… whatever! To make or present one before his presence where he will guess all that the Spell does and how it works, and all that complicated stuff. He kinda had to change the criteria to include anyone, as there were not enough of you new people who could make original Spells."

"Good for him, and?"

"I want you to go up there and embarrass him." He replies so cheerfully you'd think he's telling me to confer candies unto a bunch of kids on Christmas eve.

"What makes you think I can achieve that?" I quiz him.

He pshawed, "naw, what matters is that you believe in yourself!"

"That's not an answer!" He just grins, "alright! What's in it for me?"

"That I become less of an innocent friend, and more of a very supportive senior who totally adores this cute, loveable junior—kinda friend?" The way he smiles shifted. I cannot describe exactly how, though to put it as simply as possible; he went from being playful to utterly vibing; I can cause the end of your existence. All without another sound, not even a single twitch of his face… He's wearing a mask for System's sake!

But a very supportive senior and their junior… "I have a home planet I really, really like behind me." I tell him. All he implied was that he will assist me, not anyone else. That's not good enough.

"You're expecting too much from a little bit of prank-ish assistance." He replies instead, "there are less deaths in the multiverse as there are methods to inflict it. Ponder on it while you observe the other participants."

A cloaked individual sporting an impressively lush beard ascends the stairs, he steps on a spot marked with an X, turning to face the host; one Castor Arcapel. The host's voice booms across the spherical square. "Welcome! You may proceed anytime."

The man made some very exaggerated gesture which caused the surrounding wind to riot for a brief moment, before coalescing into a bow made out of the very wind itself. The bow itself seems solid, though upon closer inspection the material that makes up the green weapon fluctuates like one very restless cyclone who does not like being compressed into such a small space. Castor smiles at the sight, "very well. Shoot!"

The participant unhesitatingly lifts up his bow and pulls at the string. As a wind arrow manifests right where an arrow should be, 10 more manifests all along the bowstring. Upon release, all 11 arrows fly at Castor. Each follows their own curved trajectories. Only for every single one to slowly unravel into a harmless breeze that ruffled his hair. There was no reaction to both attacking our godly host and the offensive Spell being rendered absolutely moot, just casually un-existed. Proof that this is not the first time that happens.

"Very good, you replicated—not synchronized—the momentum of the one single arrows into all the others, causing every single one to fly at their maximum speed. I believe you did not even have to summon them along the string, and are also not limited to conjuring merely 10 extra arrows. A very creative application of Wind arrow combined with a glimpse of causality law. Not to mention the bow itself—made out of a large mass of your own mana no less—conjured said arrows for you. I suggest studying a bit on how to apply synchronized casting or at the very least; a way to borrow external mana. Or, if you're feeling extra prodigal, a touch of time to borrow more mana from yourself. Extending its short duration by working with the wind attune mana instead of strong-arming them might also help as that gives you time to recover your resources." Castor totally peeled that Spell, one layer at a time.

He listed ways one may improve the effect without increasing its mana cost, or how various metaphysical concepts may improve its functions… The Spell's function is to slay his enemy, and the number of ways that may be achieved are as numerous as the infinite Multiverse. There are more ways to cause death than the number of people who dies. But what does ways of dying have to do with protecting our planet?

The next creature to go on stage, non-human this time; some kinda humanoid carpet? Or a piece of cloth? Doing something with its own shadow, Castor mentioned something about reversing the laws of reality by making its physique be the shadow while its mind controls the actual shadow that had been made to be its body in order to achieve impossible feats. The fabric-man had lashed out hundreds of times within a second, each one accompanied by a sonic boom. Castor had little to say in regards to ways in which it may improve the spell. Only, "If you had actually applied a touch of light to help you manipulate the shadows, you might be able to go beyond breaking the speed of sound.

Shadow is the blocking of light, if you cannot change the thing blocking your light; then apply change to the light itself… So, if I cannot have Rascarna help by directly protecting my home, maybe I can have him assist me in things that will eventually help protect the planet. He can help by proxy.

Could it be that simple?