Naomeh looked at the mortals impassively, grateful that her form allowed her to conceal her emotions.
She hadn't expected the mortals to have any real knowledge of ascendancy, but they'd surprised her. Bob's use of pure mana manipulation to dispel her Create Earth spell had been another surprise, and one that she hadn't fully considered at the time. It was rare for anyone in the ascendant tier to attempt to master mana manipulation, and it was unheard of for a mortal.
Naomeh nodded to herself. She would enact a quarantine, preventing these mortals from spreading their knowledge and beliefs to the Eire on this world.
She was pulled from her thoughts as one of the group addressed her.
"Ma'am, are we permitted to bring our families here during the ten year period before the Lhorne arrive?"
Naomeh considered that question for a moment. It certainly wasn't prohibited by the agreement, anymore than the mortals' current presence. The real question was, did she want more of them here? Better asked, was the potential benefit of having the dark worlds in the blessed circle settled with a potentially neutral third party worth the risk of beliefs and knowledge the carried?
"It isn't prohibited," she began carefully, "however my concern is that those you bring might object to the need to abide by the agreement when the Lhorne draw near."
"Why bother?" The one named Bailli asked. "As I've heard Jack say, we're here for a good time, not a long time. If we were guaranteed the ability to navigate these wormholes, it might be worth considering, but as it stands, I think we should simply find another place."
"Can I use the stone to contact you again?" Bob asked. "We have a lot to talk about."
Naomeh nodded. "I'll leave you to it," she said before casting her Stone's Path spell, beginning her journey back to Krestor.
She was tempted to cast an Echo's of Stone spell before leaving, which would allow her to listen into their conversation, but they were not Eire, and as they hadn't submitted to Vorstach, she was limited in her interactions with them.
She'd lept at the idea of settling the dark worlds. It was well known through the ascendant ranks that one of the goals of continued exploration was to find a species unbound by the agreements. A species from outside their reality was an unheard of opportunity, and one she'd been eager to take advantage of. The rewards for succeeding, as a mere fourth step ascendant, would be beyond imagination. Sadly, the thing the mortals seemed to want, the knowledge of accessing and traversing the wormholes, wasn't available unless they claimed their ascendancy.
It wasn't impossible to advance two steps in ten years. She had taken only nine years herself to rise through both the eighth and ninth steps, but the process of ascendancy required many more shards. Bob was close to rising to the eighth step, but could reaching the ascendant tier might be too far for him to reach before his time on this seed expired. Once forced to leave, would they ever return?
----------------------------------------
"So, here's my deal," Bob began once Naomeh had left. "I need to tier up and reincarnate. I've been putting it off for a long time, and the one rule of the multiverse seems to be the hierarchy of tiers."
Eddi nodded. "I agree," he said. "I've spent a lot of time delving for crystals to help save everyone on Earth, and it kind of feels like I've been held because of it. Not that I regret it, or anything," he hastened to assure the group.
"I hate to set aside the possibility of wormholes," Amanda grumbled, "but you're right. We have ten years, and now that we know they exist, we can probably figure them out ourselves, right?"
That question had been directed toward Bob, who shrugged uncomfortably.
The thing of it was, Trebor was a reflection of Bob. The things that made Trebor a bad version of google, were same things that made Bob a bad version of google, and that was before the mirror protocol process had been cut off from the System.
"Maybe," he hedged.
"Regardless, we've got some time before we need to worry about it, so I propose we get back to grinding. Two days on, one day off, until we're all ready to reincarnate," Dave said.
"Then we leave, and go reincarnate back on Thayland where we know we can choose our own gods," Erick said adamantly.
"Everyone good with that?" Bob asked.
Looking around the table, he saw no indication of dissent.
"Alright, so we start tomorrow morning."
----------------------------------------
"I'm not asking for chocolate, but there has to be something you can do about the flavor," Amanda pleaded with Harv.
"Look, it uses moss, ash, ground limestone, salt water, and Flecks of Flame," he explained. "Frankly, I think it's only the System that allows it do anything but poison you, given the ingredients. It should be a slurry of noxious nastiness, but Alchemy takes the different bits of mana and combines them to form what is, from what Bob as explained, basically an almost completed spellform that remains in stasis it comes into contact with your matrix by means of ingestion, at which point it completes."
Harv shook his head. "I'm sorry it tastes bad, but anything I add has it's own bits of mana, and it messes up the pattern for the spell."
"Couldn't you try and freeform it?" Amanda asked helplessly.
"I don't know if even Bob could pull that off, but I know I can't," Harv replied. "The pattern is a lot more complicated than a fire resistance spell."
"Ok," Amanda said defeatedly. "I'm sorry, and I really do appreciate the potions, I'm just so tired of drinking them."
"Heh," Harv chuckled. "Not nearly as sick as I am of making them."
"It's the different aspects of mana," Bob's voice came from behind them, causing both to jump.
"You aren't fighting fire with fire, as it were," Bob explained. "With a resist fire spell, you're literally using fire aspected mana to sheild you from the fire. With your potion, your fleck of flame is the sheild, but the other ingredients are providing aspects of mana that form a structure to convert the users mana into the energy for the spell. It's actually amazing how many things have to work together just right for the potion to take effect," Bob continued earnestly. "For example, did you know that consent is a key component? If you don't want to take the potion, your matrix will instinctively refuse to flow mana into the pattern."
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
"I need to pick up mana manipulation," Harv said with a sigh.
"It really does help," Bob agreed. "I'm not getting the full benefits of it, and I can tell you that it's like going from working with mittens, to working with gloves."
"Yeah, rub it in," Harv grumbled as he handed Bob a rack of vials.
"How do you get Monroe to drink those?" Jessica asked, "I've been wondering."
"Steaks," Bob sighed. "I cut a pocket in a chunk of steak, pour the potion in, and plug the hole with a smaller chunk of steak. He's so big that it's pretty much a cat treat to him, and there isn't much chewing involved."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we're not in danger of being abducted, but I'll be glad to go back to Earth for a visit," Jessica said with a sigh. "I'm so tired of this Dungeon."
"Stars and stones, if I ever never see another Fleck of Flame, it'll be too soon," Harv agreed fervently.
"Well, I come bearing glad tidings," Bob smiled. "This last run put me over the top."
"Are you serious?" Jessica asked. "You're fucking done? I knew you had to be getting close!" She pulled him into a hug, burying her head in his chest. "I can't wait to get out of here," she mumbled.
Harv smiled and nodded his agreement. "Ten months delving the same Dungeon over, and over, and over again has been rough."
There had been some discussion about making a change to the Dungeon, but when they'd contacted Naomeh to confirm it would be ok, she'd replied that alterations to the trails between the time the Eire finished claiming a seed, and the arrival of the Lhorne was forbidden.
The overall sentiment amongst the group was that it might not be worth coming back. They planned to check in on Thayland, where Harv, Eli, Bailli, Erick, Wayna, and Eddi were planning to talk to their families about tagging along, then reincarnate. Bob, Amanda, Dave, Jack, and Mike were going to hold off on reincarnating until the visited Earth.
Bob suspected that Thayland would be less than hospitable, given the arrival of the Church of the Light from the neighboring planet of Parceus. He hoped that the various government agencies on Earth would have given up on prying his secrets out now that the System was so much more accessible.
"Wait, why did you take the potions if you're done?" Jessica asked as she released him and stepped back.
"I figure I'll get a few more runs in before we leave," Bob replied with a shrug. "Can never have too many crystals."
"Have you told anyone else?" Harv asked, not wasting any time as he started to disassemble his laboratory.
"You're the first two I've seen," Bob admitted.
"You should have messaged everyone straight away," Jessica said as she tapped out a message on her armband. "There," she smiled, "done. Now we just need to pack up and we can leave this place in our rearview."
"Assuming Earth or Thayland have calmed down," Bob cautioned. "There is a possibility we'll end up back here."
"If that turns out to be the case, you're going to grind your heart out, and as soon as you're able, we're going to start jumping around again, because I don't want to run this Dungeon ever again," Jessica said fiercely.
"What's this I hear about sweet, delicious freedom?" Jack's voice called out as he opened the door and stepped into Harv's laboratory.
"Hell, it's about time," Dave sounded off from behind him.
"Let's pack up lads," Jessica beamed, "we're going home."
----------------------------------------
The ISS Freedom had been redesigned and refitted over the course of their time on the Eire seedworld, and was ready for launch. They had stock piled two million mana crystals to power the ship. That sounded like a lot, and the thousand crystal a day expense of the ships system would mean that they could float for two thousand days, but the real cost came from the engines, which ran at one thousand crystals an hour. Bob's jumping the ship from dimension to dimension was almost nothing, costing less than a hundred crystals per jump. At least, it was nothing when you knew your destination.
There was just one more thing to do.
He pressed his thumb onto the stone, letting it pull in his mana. It pulsed, and he set the stone on the table.
It took almost five minutes for Naomeh to appear, but she finally flowed up from the stone floor, her marble form moving like flesh.
"Bob," she nodded.
"Naomeh," Bob nodded in return. "I wanted to let you know that we're leaving. We may return, but we've decided not to go to the dark worlds, at least not until we're able to get from here to there on our own."
"While I'm disappointed, I understand your reasoning," Naomeh replied.
"I do plan on making your offer known to two planets worth of people," Bob offered. "I don't know if any of them would be interested, but if they are, I'll guide them here."
Naomeh smiled. "Thank you. I can't see another path to amending the agreements and ending the conflict between the Irth and Eire without a third party beholden to none. One may exist, but I'm unable to discern it."
"If we do end up coming back after the Lhorne have arrived on this world, will this stone still be able to contact you if we're in space? We understand we won't be able to set down on the planet, and we respect your laws."
"Sadly no," Naomeh shook her head. "I'll be leaving this place when the Lhorne arrive. If you use it from the sky, it will send an alert for the garrison assigned to monitor the core of this world, and the Elloirial will come."
"Well, this is goodbye then," Bob shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm sure we'll see you if we get to the core worlds."
"Farewell, may the twins guide your steps, whatever your path," Naomeh said, then her form flowed back into the stone.
Bob looked around the Adventurers' Guild, taking in the empty fixtures. They'd decided not to leave working electricity in place, and pulled everything out.
With a shake of his head, he dropped through a portal, arriving on the bridge of the Freedom. He tapped his armband to open a channel to everyone.
"Everyone strapped in and ready to go?" He asked.
After receiving confirmation from everyone, he pushed mana into the pattern of a ritual portal spell.
The Freedom fell through the portal, emerging in orbit above the planet. With a smile, Bob tapped the console, engaging the engines and feeling the force push him back in his seat. They were on their way home.
----------------------------------------
Three months later
The ISS Freedom sailed through the portal at full speed, heading directly for Thayland.
"Stars and stones, it's good to be back," Erick said.
"I couldn't even tell that we'd jumped," Dave grumbled.
"That's because you're a filthy little heretic," Erick replied cheerfully.
"You have no idea just how filthy my little heretic can be," Amanda's voice was sultry.
"I sort of feel like introducing 40k to the group was a mistake," Jack sighed.
"Honestly, I liked reading the books better than playing," Eddi said.
"I maintain that the whole thing is just a little too depressing," Jessica added.
"Earth has so many great books," Wayna's voice carried a smile. "I love the Pern series. I need a sapient fire breathing dragon."
"I rather liked Star Wars," Eli said.
"You liked the light sabres," Harv replied.
"Who doesn't like laserswords?" Eli asked.
"Peace is a lie," Mike intoned darkly.
"No, no, we aren't doing this again," Bailli broke in. "No more sith versus jedi arguments. I'll zap you again."
Bob grinned as he listened to his friends. Bailli had developed a habit of zapping people with tiny bolts of lightning when they got too serious during a heated debate. It was something she'd figured out while working on her mana manipulation. It shocked the target, but didn't do any damage.
"Sensors are coming up," Bob said, scanning the rapidly appearing image of the planet. "It looks like there's still just that one ship in orbit. Based on what little I can see so far, I think it might be in the same place it was when we left."
"No other ships coming towards Thayland from Parceus?" Harv asked.
"Not that I can see, at least not yet. It'll take a few more minutes to get a clear picture, but nothing that could be considered in range," Bob said as he watched the image of the Freedom hurtling toward Thayland.
"If there's just the one ship, we should be safe to land, right?" Eddi asked.
"Assuming we don't pick up anything else, I'd say so," Bob agreed.
"Everyone get strapped in for decel," Bob said over the channel. "We're headed home."