“Now that you’ve had time to get used to it, are you still happy with your new assignment?” Robert asked as I used Gravity Bomb to decimate the weak bat creatures that swarmed us in the first section of the Space-dominant rift. As often as we delved this rift, the mobs were no longer much of a challenge, even if everything had gotten a bit stronger with the shift from low-Tier One to mid-Tier One a couple of months before.

The increase in experience gained from the stronger mobs was nice.

I stabbed the half-dozen creatures still moving with the spear Robert had given me months earlier. I didn’t bother activating any enchantments I’d added since it wouldn’t take much to defeat the weak creatures.

That, and I was trying to complete the rift without using enchantments at all.

“I am. I still have access to the upcoming expansions if I feel like exploring on my off time, but I’ve enjoyed pushing my Enchanting skill, even with the limited skill growth. I can feel the improvement, even if my status isn’t showing it,” I said as I checked the bodies for any more survivors. “I’m also doing something much more important than most beta testers' busy work. I’m not even sure what the point of ‘beta testing’ these new expansions is. I mean, I got it with World Junction since there were a lot of things that could be incorporated to make it better, but it isn’t like we can change how existing worlds work for these new expansions.”

I hadn’t really noticed it before in the other timeline since I’d been a lot more focused on healing during the first year or so after the neural interfaces activated, but there was only so much I could push my skills using the simulation as training. Though my skills would gain levels in the game, the growth did not transfer to my real-world status once I reached the Intermediate stage in a skill.

Unfortunately, that meant my actual skills were significantly higher than my status displayed. But that was already the case, I supposed.

“I wouldn’t know. It’s not really my role in the whole process,” the Nature Mage said as he watched me wipe off the spearhead.

I looked at my guardian. While he appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties, I’d learned in the months we’d been delving together that he was closer to thirty in Earth years. He'd recently shaved the sides of his head, leaving just the top long enough to gather into a ponytail or man-bun. His dark hair would probably fall just below his shoulders if he left it unbound.

The look suited him.

“What is your role? You’ve never really said…” I trailed off as I began collecting the remains of the low-level mobs. Delving the Space-dominant rift gave me plenty of material to make Space-related enchantments, including a functioning storage ring with [Stasis]. However, the low tier of the materials meant my creations were inherently limited in the amount of space I could incorporate.

A burst of vines swallowed the remaining bodies, transferring them directly to Robert’s storage ring. Though I hadn’t created his ring, he had allowed me to modify it to add [Stasis] after I proved I was capable. I didn’t blame him for being leery when I initially offered. Storage devices were expensive.

“For now, I’m just working as a mundane shop clerk in the local Atlas retail store when I’m not delving with you. As the reintegration gets closer, I’ll be doing a lot more as a Nature Mage to ensure the population doesn’t starve during the transition period.”

It was about what I expected.

“Is it a good position for a Mage Academy graduate?” I asked, unsure.

Robert barked out a laugh. “Working for the Alliance Council? Yeah. It’s pretty much the best kind of job someone could hope for. Even members of the nobility compete for postings like this, even if it seems like something they’d ordinarily see as beneath them. Doing jobs like this earns a lot of contribution points in the Alliance.”

That was something I hadn’t heard of before. At least, not in this context.

“Contribution points?” I asked as we walked through the tunnel leading out of the caves. Robert looked surprised at my lack of knowledge.

“Yeah, you can earn points for doing things on behalf of the Alliance. The points can be traded for currency or benefits and items. It’s a lot like how sects do things. You do know about sects, right?”

I rubbed my neck uncomfortably. I’d read cultivation novels that mentioned sects before the reintegration in the first timeline, but that was a long time ago. Since cultivation wasn’t really a thing, I wasn’t sure the novels would apply. I had heard of sects after leaving Earth, but the information I gathered was always vague and unclear.

Probably because I hadn’t really cared enough to ask for clarification.

I’d seen signs for sects in the newest expansion scheduled to release over the winter. However, I hadn’t bothered attempting to ‘test’ that aspect of the game since I’d only just gotten access to the Andolia/Atlantis expansion.

Not to mention that I didn’t want to spend the little time I had in-game playing the poor protagonist of some wuxia novel.

“They’re like specialized schools, right? Don’t you have to win tournaments to even get in?” I asked, thinking back to the novels I’d read and the recruitment tournaments I’d seen advertised when I’d checked out Atlantis a few days earlier.

“What? No! Why would you think that?” he asked, aghast. In his surprise, he’d stopped moving forward, pausing just a few meters before the exit.

I didn’t have a good answer to his question.

When I only shrugged, he sighed. “Sects are like schools in many ways, but they focus more on martial training and only allow people with specific affinities to join. They are unlike schools in that you don’t just attend and graduate. If you join a sect, you are a member for life unless you somehow get exiled or ascend. I’ve heard some sects exist in the higher realms, too, though. I’m not sure how that works since it’s so rare for someone to ascend and even rarer for them to contact someone in our realm after they leave.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Is it really?” I asked, fascinated. Though few people claimed to personally know someone who had ascended, every adventurer I’d talked to in the previous timeline seemed to think it was something they could do, given enough time. Ros and the rest of my former party had held the same belief, so I’d never really questioned it.

“Well, yeah. If it was easy, everyone would do it.” He stepped through the exit and into the overgrown forest. Following him, I immediately felt like Alice again as I examined the closest oversized flora.

“The only reason it’s even possible is because we have a Tier Ten planet in the Alliance,” Robert continued, drawing my attention away from the huge flower that nearly reached my hip. “Otherwise, the slow grind to gain enough experience would take so long that only elves and other long-lived species would even have a chance.”

The conversation dropped as the sound of buzzing caught our attention. Seeing the flying purple hornet-like creatures approaching in a loose formation, I readied my batons. This time, I wasn’t going to use my cheat spell to pull all the flying mobs into a clump. Instead, I cast Barrier and decided to directly engage the bladed astervespid swarm.

“Want me to immobilize them?” Robert offered.

“Nah,” I said as I tapped my batons together. “I need to work on my aim.”

Had I not improved the spell’s efficiency through regular practice, my Barrier likely would not have held up to the assault. Though they were only mid-Tier One creatures, a swarm of even weak mobs would eventually wear down most barriers within the same tier.

It was a good thing I didn’t give them long enough to do so.

When the last creature fell, I cast Cleanse on my weapons to remove the attached bits of blood and viscera before connecting the two pieces to create a staff. By the time I finished my task, the bodies had already disappeared into Robert’s larger storage space.

I’d wavered on getting the spell, but the ability to quickly and easily clean up after myself won me over. With Transmute and Alchemical Flame, I’d purchased all five of the spells I got at Tier One. I wasn’t worried, though. As soon as I got Lisa back, I expected I’d be able to learn most of the general spells below the Expert difficulty.

“Thanks,” I said gratefully.

We continued, ducking under the oversized branches and leaves and quickly dispatching the lone wandering mobs that approached. None were stronger than those in the earlier assault, so there was little risk as long as we weren’t caught off guard.

We pushed through, defeating the astervespid guards at the stairwell before descending to the tree canopy. Space-magic shenanigans were still weird.

I was pleased to see both Time and Void variants of our next set of opponents, even though it required me to activate Restore twice to heal from injuries. The Void variants tended to have some mana-neutralizing abilities, which would have been particularly annoying had I not trained in melee combat.

Handling the level-five creatures alone wasn't too difficult since they attacked in pairs or the occasional group of three. Still, it was comforting to know that Robert was watching the engagement closely, ready to step in if it seemed like I was getting overwhelmed.

When we reached the final section of the rift, I didn’t bother trying something new with the vine creature that served as the rift boss – aside from limiting myself to actual spells instead of using manatech. While my spells were more expensive than enchantments, and my mana pool was not huge by any means, I’d kept enough mana in reserve to comfortably defeat the boss with my favorite combo of Gravity Bomb and Bolt.

It helped that my offensive spells were a little bit overpowered.

“Congratulations. You finished the whole rift without using a single enchantment,” my protector said with a grin. “I almost called you out when you started using the spear and then the batons, but since you didn’t actually trigger any of the enchantments…”

“All of my equipment is enchanted. I wouldn’t have anything to fight with if I only used non-enchanted items,” I replied deadpan.

“How tragic,” Robert said sarcastically. “I would comment about it being a high-tier-world problem, but that isn’t exactly accurate in this case.”

I grinned as I pulled a steel dagger from the chest that had appeared by the exit. It wasn’t enchanted, but it was made of Tier One materials. It would make a good base.

“Want me to enchant this for you?” I asked, holding out the short, bladed weapon.

“Nah, keep your loot. I was just kidding,” he said with a friendly smirk. Having delved together for just shy of a year, Robert and I had had plenty of time to chat and get to know each other. While he’d opened up and was generally pretty quick to joke around, he still managed to maintain a professional enough presence that I doubted anyone would be able to find fault.

He certainly wasn’t like the flirty guys I often interacted with.

Which reminded me…

“Hey, Robert?” I said, drawing his attention before we exited the rift. “You know how I invited you to grab dinner before we head out?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “What, you have a secret boyfriend you want to go out with one last time instead?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, it’s just that my parents will be meeting us, and they…kinda think I have a secret boyfriend that I’ve been traveling to St. Louis to see…”

“Hahaha! That’s too funny!” he laughed before suddenly growing serious as he realized the implication. “Oh, they think I’m your boyfriend?”

I was so completely mortified.

I really thought I’d moved beyond this already, but it seemed my teenage body was interfering with my brain more than a little. I didn’t even like Robert like that. He was handsome and nice…and a Mage who protected me and kept me safe while I did potentially dangerous things…but it wasn’t the same. I knew enough to recognize that, at least.

Surprisingly, he grinned.

“So, you’re asking me on a date? I thought that was culturally the male’s role.”

I gasped in fake outrage while internally sighing in relief that he hadn’t made the situation more awkward.

“Women’s rights…and equality…and stuff!” I said in mock indignation as I stuck my nose up before chuckling. “But seriously, I can’t explain who you are except to tell them that we’re friends, which is what I’ve been claiming, by the way – that I’m hanging out with a friend who works at the Atlas store. They obviously don’t believe me.” I groaned and lowered my head. “It probably doesn’t help that I told them we were taking a road trip on the way to Florida.”

“I don’t mind,” he said, still chuckling. “I’m just a friend riding along with you, so you aren’t making a multi-state trip alone. Definitely, no reason to bring up the rifts we are stopping by on the way there.”

That was the real reason Robert was riding along. Since a slightly circuitous route would put at least two higher-leveled rifts directly in our path, it made sense to bring my delving guardian along so I could gain some extra experience and materials along the way.

I was actually quite lucky that Rhona treated me so well. I doubted I would have gotten such preferential treatment had I not been the first native to awaken. Then again, nobody else had naturally awakened yet, so I didn’t know what kind of treatment others would get.

We quickly dismantled the mobs and harvested the valuable parts, dumping the excess offal into the composing box for me to use Transmute on when we were finished. The bits of discarded materials were usually transported to specialized containers to manipulate the material into something that could be more useful, but since I had a spell that could do it for me…

“Clay?” I asked. I hadn’t reacquired the Ceramics skill yet, but it wouldn’t take much for me to get it since I already knew how to shape and mold clay, as well as a few different methods of curing it. Clay talismans were also really handy, though they tended to break if I didn’t infuse them enough.

When he nodded his assent, I cast the spell and focused on turning the Space-attuned offal into Space-attuned clay. When that was finished, I repeated the process for each mana type represented, leaving myself with several clumps of elemental clay.

“So…I’m going to head over to the baths and clean up. I’ll meet you outside in about an hour?”

“Sure. That’ll give me plenty of time to change and finish packing,” my friend and guardian said before departing with a wave. I watched him go with mixed feelings. It was too bad he worked in Missouri and not Florida.