01/14/ AWAD 201

Jania asked to cast a couple of diagnosis spells the day after Jay told her his status as an otherworlder. At Jay’s nod, she took out eight spell templates and went through a series of spells scanning him exceedingly methodically. Her eight spells burnt through half the day as she bombarded Jay with questions.

Jay winced, remembering Jervoh’s lecture on the stupidity of using spell templates in battle. Templates offered higher precision in exchange for casting spells almost sluggishly. If anyone fought using spell templates of combative spells, the templates would degrade before they finished and end up as unknown spells. Unknown spells wasted mana, a potential death sentence.

Casting combat spells piece-meal would work, but the research required to break apart even only one spell into manageable parts took at least a year, worked only in the area the research took place, and cost obscene amounts of mana.

Wait, that seemed exactly the sort of thing the rulers would use. Kings or queens were largely ‘sedentary,’ probably had plenty of retainers to assign as researchers, and had access to ridiculous amounts of mana. The very same kings and queens he would be antagonizing...

Jay started to sweat profusely. Attacking castles would probably be close to suicide.

“What was the theoretical speed perfected spell-template-piece systems cast spells?” he nervously asked Jania before remembering how quiet she remained all morning.

Jay sighed. Jania was probably understandably shocked from yesterday. Spell casting while going through sword drills was what he would work on while he waited.

An hour later, his muscles felt nice and loose but his progress frustrated him. Casting spells with one of his swords in a sword drill let alone a fight required compensation for the actions deviating from spell formation he made. And if he was forced to call on his aura to tank a spell attack before he finished casting his spell’s progress would be scrapped.

Jania called out, “can you describe your summoning?”

Jay humored her and recounted bursting through a black material. After experiencing a mana bath, he could make the connection how the material felt like more powerful and wild mana.

Jania paced back and forth when he was done.

Puzzled, Jay asked, “what’s wrong?”

Jania shouted into the sky, “Lafia’s whorishness, I’ll just be blunt. The stuff you burst through was a mass of primordial essence, the source of past otherworlders’ power. The summoner you saw probably siphoned away a considerable amount of primordial essence from you, making you much … weaker than usual.”

Jay fell to the ground and snickered for a bit before yelling in a burst of anger, “not only am I stranded in a world stuck in the middle ages and also somehow dystopic, my first friends massacred, but the bastards who killed them will come after me while overestimating me?”

Jania looked worried.

“Don’t worry I wasn’t planning on inciting chaos by fighting,” Jay walked over to the cart he appropriated and took out a handful of the wooden pieces he had carved. “I’ll be using these to spread ideas.”

Jania asked, “I don’t see how such a plan would lead to chaos? We already have a spell capable of doing such a thing. Why would we use mundane means? Sure the contraption wouldn’t be detected like the spell, but you wouldn’t be able to supply enough copies for anything to spread.”

“I only need this to spread to kick things into gear,” Jay laughed and handed her a piece of paper.

Jania’s eyes widened but then she scoffed, “you are terrible at writing schematics, but I see you plan to have the serfs help spread ideas.”

Jay nodded.

“Then you realize there will be a lot of blood soaking the ground with this plan?”

Jay flinched but hardened his gaze, “better they die helping break the yokes on them than in endless wars.”

“We should try to track down your summoner to try and retrieve the primordial essences he stole from you, though,” Jania said while putting away the last of her spell templates.

“I suppose, but only if we can find a lead,” Jay replied and began casting the earth spell he puzzled out to make a path.

Jania asked, “where are we going? You have a map so you should know where the nearest city is.”

Jay shrugged, “I figured we should head back to the cave where I summoned. Might give us a lead and I left a lot of gold there.”

Jania growled, “you don’t even know the exact direction do you? Let me cast a divination spell using some of your memories. Send me an image of the place and area.”

Jania pointed a little more north than Jay had intended to head. If he had continued his course, he probably would have missed the cave by miles. Jay blushed.

01/28/ AWAD 201

“Cast the divination spell again. I feel like we are going in the wrong direction,” Jay said.

Jania looked at him incredulously and replied, “I already did that two more times. We’re fine unless the layout you saw was an illusion, which would be impossible to cast so quickly on you without you noticing.”

She trailed off before giving him a more scrutinizing look.

“Send me an image of the town you stayed in.”

Jay complied with her request but then felt hostility rise in him.

Why? There was no reason to fight Jania.

Jania broke into a fast paced jog… towards the village? Why did he know that? She didn’t pointNo the method didn’t matter. Why was heHe couldn’t let her see the village! Why?No, the reason didn’t matter!

Jay picked up his pace to catch up to Jania when a blow struck the back of his head. How had he not noticed?

“Sorry Jay but you seem to have been tampered with mentally.” Jania said from behind him.

The blow shouldn’t have been nearly strong enough to knock Jay out, but his mind became hazy as he fell on the ground.

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“I hope a second shot from this won’t kill you.” Jania uttered before a second blow to him stole his consciousness.

When Jay woke up he found himself in a small clearing sprawled out onto a… block of stone? It was absurdly flat and engraved with layers and layers of ritualistic spells. They were loosely themed as spells involving freedom? Wait what was he doing before? Jay clutched his head at a surge of pain from a headache.

“You’re awake. Come on we’ve lost enough time.” Jania called out. appeared to have foraged a little for food.

Jay squinted at her from the pain he was in and growled, “I vaguely remember you knocking me unconscious... with an enchanted tool of some kind. I want an explanation.”

Jania sighed, “do you not remember what you were doing?”

Jay frowned. What did she mean? He was…. Wait why couldn’t he remember?

“I believe you had a compulsion on you.” Jania drawled.

What?!

“By who? And what kind of compulsion?!” Jay yelled, but he had a sinking suspicion.

“The compulsion is most effective as an enchantment engraved into an object.” Jania pulled out a book, no, his book! But it looked different, covered in engravings he didn’t remember. “This served to create and keep the compulsion intact.

“That would mean…” Mage Silvia put the compulsion on him, so she was somehow connected to his summoner.

Did that mean some others were also lying? No, people always eventually slipped up, and compulsions to hinder his perception would have hurt her efforts to turn him into a weapon. Silvia was the only one who kept interactions with him at the minimum.

Jania held her hand up, “I wasn’t finished. From what I can tell the first portion was for getting you to come to a cave a couple miles away from the town you were staying at.”

That explained why the monsters he ate were balanced in variety for his aura. Mage Silvia and Seran had set up the area.

“That makes no sense. It was after several days that I finally got there.” Jay exclaimed.

“The engravings should seem rather ragged even to amateurish eyes like yours.” Jania said.

Now that she pointed it out, Jay noticed how messed up the carvings in the book were especially in mana sight. The mana seemed to leak everywhere.

“I messed up the enchantment but only enough to free you from the effects. Most of the damage seems to be from overcharge.” Jania explained then smiled, “you’re lucky you met me. I’m one of the only people capable of altering such complex enchantments without breaking the one for your book. You need it for your ‘idea plan’ right?”

“Thank you.” Jay hollowly thanked her and held out his hand to be handed back his book.

He looked back at the stone block. “So the stone block was used to dismantle the compulsion on me? What were the other parts of the compulsion other than not wanting to go this way?” Jay asked.

Jania grimaced. “The other part was to get you to go to a certain place. Couldn’t figure out where, though...”

She went back to putting away her stone block, muttering how she only wanted pure knowledge in the end.

“Seeing you haven’t betrayed me, you intend to stick with me?” Jay asked her tentatively.

“You came from an experimental hero summons right? I don’t see the sort of person doing that not touching into messing with the slave contract spell. I wanted to research something like that and you can easily rat me out to any Guardian people or anyone for that matter and I would be screwed. I was tired of chasing after research prizes just for more funds.” She took a deep breath, her eyes bright, “people who ally themselves with otherworlders have a chance at ridiculous wealth and power.”

Her shoulders slumped, “as you said before, I was ousted by the “established” order.”

Jay replied, ”thank you for joining me.”

Jania appeared not to have even heard him, though.

“Javus Lofest?! He doesn’t even have a single scholarly bone in his body! Scholars like my father always end up having to marry into the nobility if they want to aim for ambitious projects. Your world seemed marvelous compared to our… I realize backwards society. In the kingdom, no republic you will probably make will allow me to research pretty much anything I want right?!”

Jay, feeling a little overwhelmed, spoke up, “I never said anything about establishing a country.”

Jania began muttering, clearly not listening, “well the only thing I'd want to do would be research. You don't have any issue with that. In fact, you yourself used to...”

Jay tuned her out at that point. He felt the honesty spell fade out of existence. Whatever the objective they needed more gold.

01/30/ AWAD 201

The next couple days had gone by uneventfully with only the occasional monster attacking them. They all appeared to be mutated forms of animals that would normally cower away from intruders.

"We should be pretty close. Those monsters from before must have been stragglers from the fight with an Ancient I mentioned." Jay said, breaking the silence. There were only ambient sounds for extended periods of time, but that was only because their rather fast pace made conversation difficult. They both agreed they want to get to civilization as fast as possible.

Deep in thought, Jay didn't notice they entered a charred forest, at least until a branch crumbled like charcoal under his feet. In the distance, he could see the blast zone and took a deep breath.

Conceptually, Jay knew that the smell of vaporized flesh had been washed away long before. Still, he felt he could still smell it.

Why? Why could something so terrible happen? Rule of the jungle? That was for animalistic savages!

"I think I realize why your master tried to make it impossible for you to come here. Even if you wouldn't know what this was, someone with you could potentially. And that someone that could be me." Jania looked like she felt queasy, shocking Jay.

"Why?" Jay almost felt he was opening Pandora's box with that question.

Jania grimaced before continuing, "you see even researchers like me have ethics. We wouldn't gawk at most things not even at messing with slave magic if not for it being outlawed. This mage Silvia you speak of had all the mana released by the deaths gathered and sent to something..."

"Probably her last act of defiance. Maybe she sent a massive spell attack at the capital or something." Jay suggested.

"No, the preparations required are what is terrible. You need an obscene number of sacrifices to set up the capture field required. For a village of this size, you would need at least ten sacrifices a month maybe more if you consider how perfectly the barrier formed integrated with this country's barrier." Jania shuddered.

“Well, my summoner could have and probably used hundreds of unfortunates he kidnapped from other worlds for his summoning experiments.

Jania continued, "I don't know what your mentor's purpose was but I think she meant to unleash a calamity. We'll have to hope she failed. Let's go grab some gold."

The walk to the cave that Jay first found himself in was short. Only charred remains were left of the forest, so a more direct route became possible.

Looking around the 'cave' revealed it to be artificial. Although still rough, the texture of the walls were consistent, and there were doors to other rooms. No visible supporting mechanism for the main cavity was in sight, so an enchantment for bolstering the structural integrity existed as a carving somewhere probably.

Jania let out a shriek of delight, "with that many pouches of gold...," and her voice trailed off into muttering.

She scowled at the awful stench. Bodies left to rot for almost three months made a horrible smell. Jay also found himself scowling.

Jania yelled obscenities before she took out two masks and cast a multitude of spells on them

. "These should keep out the smell and show any ongoing magic," she explained when she handed one to Jay. "Now go gather all the pouches. They should be filled with hundreds of pieces of gold. I will make sure whatever keeps this place intact will last long enough for us then take a look at what this crazy dude was trying to do and catch the attention of the Guardians."

Jania's face was filled with delight as she skipped into one of the rooms.

Jay put on the mask and looked around at the bodies liquified from decay. Seeing the pouches soaked sent a shudder up his spine.

Jay emptied his stomach outside after he finished getting all the pouches together. Even without the smell, handling the pouches was awful.

"I found an amazing amount of data and a strange beast. Maybe the data will say something about it," Jania yelled in excitement as she burst back out of one of the rooms.

Jay grunted, "cool," as he looked up squatted in front of the pile of pouches. At least they no longer had currency issues.

Jania wrinkled her nose when she walked up to the pile. It seemed that Jay wasn't only imagining that the effects of the masks were diminishing. Jania cast a spell that removed the gunk, thankfully. She then moved towards one of the separate rooms with a bag she found and her ritual board in hand.

"Are you making one of those spatially expanded bags? Then make another one for me." Jay asked. The guardians probably had some method by which they identified the belongings of comrades. He had wondered what they were going to do about that possibility.

"Yes. Fine, I'll make another you so be quiet and don't interrupt me," Jania replied. "Clean up this room. You saw the spell I cast before right?"

Jania had indeed cast the spell for removing the gunk off the pouches slow enough for Jay to get the gist. He could muddle through forming the spells as long as he kept his intent in mind but that could take days.

As Jay cast the spell, he noticed the spell didn’t work too well on bones and might have to move them all to one of the rooms. Pilling up all the bones was going to be disturbing.

He guessed they were spending the night here then. Jervoh and Shannah did mention that enchanting took a long time.

01/21/ AWAD 119

"So you're done making the spatial bags?" Jay asked Jania seeing her wake up.

He offered a helping of the breakfast he prepared. Having already had a portion, he couldn't help but think he did a damn good job. Jax’s lessons helped him...

"Thank you," Jania muttered as she took the bowl Jay offered her. "Thank you for cleaning the room, but how did you manage doing so quickly?" Jania asked with her post sleep daze clearing.

"Casting the spell for the first time went slowly for me, but I noticed I could tweak a portion to increase the range. The mana cost was a bit much, though." Jay explained smugly.

Jania's expression didn't remain that of disinterest, turning into one of irritation, "I shouldn't have to remind you, but when you alter spells you end up heightening the risk of miscasting. Especially with the amounts of mana you throw around.“

Jay's smugness didn't disappear and he replied, "If any of my spells starts 'misfiring,' then I can just make all my mana in that spell crunch up and nullify the effect. I’m always casting within my aura."

Seeing Jania's unamused face, Jay held his hands up in surrender, "ok, I will make sure to be more careful and ask you when I want to mess with spells."

Pouring out all the gold from the pouches took a whole half of an hour. The amount of gold they gained reached a ton. Seeing all that gold fit in two bags felt even more absurd.

"Come on let's get going. The way back to the city my uncle lives takes a week. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can solve each other's issues," Jania chided Jay.

Jay nodded and followed Jania outside after he looked around the cave one last time.