“I expected the world to be far more subjugated by now,” I commented as Master Kairos – Kai and I flew over the forest separating the closest city with a portal to the city in which Ros and his new team had last registered.

The vibrant, warm colors below should have implied the current season was mid-fall. However, I’d already been informed that was not the case.

In fact, this world didn’t have the normal four seasons that most planets shared. At best, it had three – Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Instead of the greens and occasional blues that many mana-infused planets produced, the flora on this particular planet had leaves and stalks of red, orange, yellow, and the occasional purple.

It was beautiful.

However, the colors also implied there was a different balance in the world’s mana than I was used to. If I had to guess, I’d hypothesize the world had far more volcanoes and lightning storms than the worlds I’d visited.

It probably also had a far lower percentage of water.

“The world was completely uninhabited when it was integrated,” Kai said as he looked out the window. He was controlling the flying vehicle we were using since it was his, but it didn’t take much effort with the assistance of his Interface Assistant.

“Wouldn’t the rift beasts cull each other?”

“They do, to some degree,” Kai replied. “But the rifts continue to overflow, so the problem continues. Now that the Alliance is actively subjugating the world, it’ll probably only take another half-millennia or so to get Agirock roughly in line with the rest of the populated mid-tier worlds.”

“That long?”

My mentor nodded. “It isn’t a quick process unless the Council opts to use higher-tier subjugation teams. Since that would cheat the Tier Four and Tier Five citizens out of a valuable opportunity for progression, they won’t do it unless there is a really pressing need. And since there is no real risk of overpopulation at the moment, they’d probably let the process drag out indefinitely.”

I returned my focus to the landscape below. “I never mentioned this, but we planned to come here after I collected the materials I needed for the formation on Olym,” I said after a moment.

“That would have been good for you,” Kai said. “Planets like this provide a lot of opportunities. Your party leader was smart to realize that.”

“He is a smart guy,” I said with a grin.

My disguised mentor turned to face me. “He might be different,” he said solemnly. “They all might. I hope you’re prepared for that.”

“I know,” I said, my grin slipping. “It’s the butterfly effect. Small changes make big impacts that compound.”

After staring at me for a moment, Kai nodded once. “As long as you understand.”

He focused his attention forward, leaving me to my thoughts.

We arrived at a much smaller city a couple of hours later. It was probably closer to a town, really.

The walls still towered over the structures within, protecting them and the resident adventurers from the untamed wilds outside.

Instead of bothering to ask around, I extended my senses to locate my old friend’s familiar energy signature. It had been… a while, but I still hadn’t forgotten it.

After taking a moment to process the feedback, I tracked Ros to an area outside of the town near a well-deserved rift.

Based on his trajectory, he was on his way back to the city with four other people.

About a half-hour later, the familiar energy signature entered the town’s gates. I watched as a ghost from my past walked down the street surrounded by unfamiliar faces.

He looked healthy and in good spirits, though that wasn’t unusual.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

I watched with interest as a woman exited the Adventurers’ Guild and wrapped her arms around the Arcane Mage before kissing him soundly on the lips. Ros had never gotten serious with anyone during the time that I knew him, so seeing such an affectionate display surprised me a little.

There was a small pang of jealousy, but I ruthlessly crushed it as I monitored the group from a distance. Ros and I never had a relationship like that, mostly because Ros was adamantly against intimate relationships within a party.

He said it caused too many problems, and I understood his perspective.

I could easily see how even a healthy relationship could cause problems in a party where danger was a very real part of the equation. How could the people involved keep themselves from putting each other ahead of the rest of the party?

Such emotions complicated party dynamics. It was much easier to avoid them altogether when other people were also involved.

If it was just the couple adventuring together, that would be different. But on a five-person team? Relationships had too much potential to cause problems.

“He seems to be doing well,” my mentor commented with a barely suppressed grin.

“He does. I’m glad,” I said as my eyes followed the couple into the largest building in the town.

“Do you feel the need to remain any longer?” Kai asked several minutes later.

Ros and the others – including the girlfriend – had already done their business at the Adventurers’ Guild and left. They were now heading into one of the nearby residential buildings.

“No.” I turned to my mentor. “I know it’s silly to spend so much time and money to travel around checking on them, but I still feel guilty about not personally ensuring my promises were kept. I really do appreciate your help with that.”

After agreeing to enter the dungeon, I’d originally planned to just send detailed letters to each of my former party members. However, Master Kairos had reminded me that telling people about my trip through time was not a good idea, no matter how trustworthy they might have been in another life.

Instead, asked me to hand-write a short warning to each of them, providing only the information they needed to know to avoid the events or situations that had caused them regret in the other timeline.

Ros was actually one of the easier ones since Master Kairos had purchased the mana well and leased it to an allied sect. Since it was impossible for him and Jonas to accidentally stumble upon the resource, there was no risk of Jonas dying.

Instead, I’d simply extended an invitation for Ros to visit the site and potentially unlock an Arcane affinity. Because the invitation officially came from the Epikairos Sect, the message was automatically given legitimacy.

“It was easy enough,” the old Time Mage said. “Besides, I’m sure the Fate Mages tasked enjoyed the opportunity to earn a few contribution points.”

The mental image of a robed Fate Mage waiting outside the Training Tower for Ros to show up made me smile. With their affinities, it wouldn’t have been hard to narrow down his arrival time, so I doubt they waited very long.

= = =

After leaving the frontier world, Kai and I continued our journey, heading to the ocean world of Osana.

The planet was mostly covered in water, with dry land only accounting for about a quarter of the world’s exterior. Consequently, there were more aquatic races than those based solely on land.

That didn’t mean there weren’t huge cities on what little land they could use.

There were also numerous large underwater cities, though they were difficult to get to without the right manatech or the ability to breathe water.

“She’s at the hospital,” I said after locating Jorenda, the party healer from my time with Ros. Aside from him, Jorenda was my closest friend in the other timeline.

But unlike in the previous timeline, this Jorenda was not an Adventurer.

She’d always lamented not attending an academy due to finances. She hadn’t wanted to become indebted to an academy for a decade or more just to learn healing spells she could potentially buy via the system.

But between the difficulty of learning to heal without specific spellforms, the limits on system purchases, and the cost of spells, she realized that just attending for a year and copying everything she needed to know would have been a better option.

Of course, commoners typically didn’t know about the upgrade, and trying to manually learn healing spellforms was beyond what most could accomplish.

When I told her my plans to travel back in time, she jokingly asked me to tell her to get the interface upgrade and attend an academy for a year to copy and learn everything she needed to be successful. She claimed that two or three years of service to the academy would be a small price to pay for such an advantage.

It seemed she was right since Jorenda appeared to be doing very well for herself.

I watched from [Stealth] as my former healer friend taught one of the newly awakened healers how to use his magic to heal a broken bone.

She’d always had a soft spot for kids.

Jorenda had never really wanted to become an adventurer. She’d only gone down that route because it was the only way she knew to make a real difference with the affinity she’d been blessed with.

While some hospitals and clinics might be willing to hire untrained healers (or at least apprentice them), most wouldn’t bother without proof of their abilities. Knowing Jorenda, she’d used her academy’s service obligation to build a good reputation for herself.

Coupled with a variety of effective healing spells, it really was little surprise that she’d landed a position in a respectable facility.

“It’s good to see someone so obviously happy with their life,” Kai said as he watched from nearby. Because we were wearing linked [Stealth] talismans, we could see and hear each other without issue, though nobody else could sense us.

“It is,” I agreed. After watching my old friend for a short while longer, I sighed and turned to my former Master. “Are you ready to go?”

“Sure. Where to next?”

I stepped closer. “Why don’t we explore Osana for a bit before leaving? I’ve never seen an underwater city in person before.”