Achievement got: Gravity, who's she?

(Discover the true extent of the builder suite.)

Rewards: 500xp; 1 Exp. Candy M

The achievement notification arrives a little late. The rewards instantly distract me from the new pokemon in the clearing. That seems quite a lot for such a simple achievement.

The zoroark is too enthralled by my gravity defying constructs to notice my sudden surprise. He slowly approaches the floating line of cobblestone blocks. As I toss the candy to Mewtwo, the vulpine pokemon touches the middle of the line. I almost shout to stop him, realizing it is already too late to stop him, but nothing happens. The line of blocks keeps floating. He pushes it, jumps on it and even tries to scratch the material. This last attempt works... in leaving scratching marks on the block. Nothing else. That fox got sharp claws.

Finally, with normally triangular shaped eyes opened so wide they appear round, he turns to us. He points at the blocks, then at us. I nod and Mewtwo dismissively points at me. The zoroark looks at me, his vulpine face a mix of bewilderment and awe.

He throw his arms to the side in pure astonishment. 'How' he seems to be screaming. I simply point at my arm and then shrug. "That's just something I can do I guess?"

Mewtwo joins in the wide eye boat, not because of the 'stones are floating' situation, that boat has sailed for him, but for my gall to declare something like 'it's just something I can do I guess'. Yeah I stick my tongue to him, if you have a better way to explain it, please go ahead.

The zoroark opens and closes his maw for a long minute, trying to come up with something or anything to have me explain more, but gives up in the end. He rubs his face, and growl in frustration. He then explain why he has come to us in the first place.

Multiple yips and growls later, Mewtwo translates to me. Her highness Princess is ready to formally welcome us in her domain. He is here to guide us where the ceremony will take place.

"Thank you." I answer the zoroark directly, I almost add for him to lead the way, but look at my little endoflame set-up, "Wait, let's see if the endoflame works first."

Looking at the mess of stone now clogging the space around the set-up, I take out my iron pickaxe. Let's clear the space a bit.

I approach the end of the line of cobblestone and swing. And a new neat little trick reveals itself.

I have, to this point, only picked up objects I made, or mined already existing terrain. Never have I tried to destroy something with my tools. I was able to pick up the smeltery manually.

As I swing on the first block, little glitchy cracks start to cover the entire block, but only the one of the blocks I struck, exactly a one meter cube block. I stop, startled, and after a second they disappear. I strike again and the cracks return, same patterns and same locations. I keep striking, and the block soon dissolve into a shower of pixels. The pixels are then absorbed by the opening in my left hand, and a new block of cobblestone joins those I already had in my inventory.

Oooookay? I turn to Mewtwo, who is patting the zoroark on the back. Said zoroark is stuck in a pose of pure indignation. His arms are before him as if saying both 'How?' and 'that's not how that should work' at the same time. His vulpine face is a mix of incomprehension, anger and disbelief. Mewtwo is gently shaking his head, as if saying it is not worth it. Come on it's not that strange right?

To me? No. After how we arrived, and what I have seen you do, it is just another for the list. To any that have lived here and obeyed this world rules? You are literally breaking every previously preconceived rules they though as immutable. You are blowing this poor mon mind Astra. I hope you are proud of yourself. I can feel the sarcasm in his closing thoughs.

"Ahah, hilarious. Let me finish here." I grumble.

Alright, Maybe I have capabilities that are a bit-

A LOT!

FINE! Capabilities that are a lot more mind-boggling than I initially though. Maybe I am incredible in my own way.

You sure are! Thanks Mewtwo.

Soon, all the blocks are removed. Only the endoflame remains, with the mana spreader above it and the mana pool right in front of the spreader. Good, now I jus need to feed that little flower coal and it should start right?

I get out a piece of coal out of my inventory and put it right next to the flower. Lightning fast, a root shoots from the ground, grabs the piece of coal and deposits it straight between the flower petals. The piece of coal hoover above the stem, gently rotating. Slowly, it turns from black to red, and soon flames engulf it. I look at the spreader expectantly. If I have set up everything correctly, it should soon start shooting a beam of mana which should be collected by the mana pool.

Ten seconds pass, then thirty, then a minute. Nothing happens.

Is the flower connected to the spreader? Mewtwo asks me.

"Shouldn't it be automatic... Oh wait." I get the wand of the forest. It should show me the connections. Indeed it does, or more exactly it does not show any connections. The moment I hold the wand of the forest, little bars appear over each of the three parts of my little set-up. The one above flower shows that it is full, while both the mana spreader and the mana pool show empty. A little symbol on the flower confirms the reason mana is not flowing. The flower is not linked to any mana spreaders. Ah...

Holding the wand of the forest, I gently tap the endoflame. A rainbow halo surround the plant. I then tap the mana spreader. The halo turns into a line linking the endoflame and the spreader. Green light erupt from the copper cube within the spreader. It shoots forward in a stream of misty green bubbles straight into the mana pool. The moment it impacts the rim of the pool, the bubbles pop, and liquid blue light cascade into the pool, slowly condensing into a shining blue puddle. After a few seconds, the stream slows, and soon, the spreader only shoots once every few seconds.

By this time, the coal is almost completely consumed. I drop another one and at first nothing happens. The untouched coal stays next to the endoflame, but the moment the flower finishes consuming its previous fuel, a new root shoots to the sitting coal and brings it to the flower petals. The process repeats, and the mana spreader continues to send mana into the mana pool, although at a more sedated rate.

Satisfied, I leave a pile of coal next to the flower, and turn to the once again astonished zoroark. "We are done here, we can get going." I smile at the upright gray and red vulpine.

He yips at me, pointing at the entire set-up, then at the petal apothecary and the portable smeltery. It seems he is slowly realizing there are multiple pieces of furniture and structures that were not present yesterday. He is about to question further, but suddenly freezes. He looks down and a full body shiver visibly traverses him. A little green vine has grabbed his foot.

The zoroark instantly gets on all four and starts apologizing in his guttural language. Once he his done, he gestures for us to follow.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I guess her highness is getting impatient. Mewtwo comments. I nod with him. We did just make royalty wait... Not that good of an idea. Especially since I am unsure how far we may be able to push Princess' hospitality.

The zoroark bounds into the woods and we follow it at a fast pace. Soon we reach the massive tree standing at the center of the forest.

I know it is at the center because my map shows us at the center of the forest. With our travels within the magical forest, I now have a rough idea of how big this forest is.

The magical forest is a large oval patch of trees, almost a dozen kilometers in length by roughly seven in width, with the massive one at its center. From above, it appears almost as an eye, with the tree easily covering a almost a circle almost two kilometers in diameter by itself. A new overlay on my map shows that the Sanctuary encompasses the forest in its entirety. Small clearings opened to the sky sparsely appear in the forest from above, one having the Sanctuary visible within it.

The large tree casts shades upon the trees below it, yet it seems the lack of sunlight does not stop them from growing almost to the large tree's trunk. A circular clearing, about a hundred meters in circumference, surrounds the tree. The tree trunk, hundreds of meters large, support its far reaching canopy. Something I had not noticed during our little passage here is the presence of a lake right next to the tree. It is well hidden from the sky under the tree thick canopy. Upon its calm waters, birds and bird pokemons swim.

From the big tree base, roots extend. they cover a good couple of dozens of meters all around the tree before they go underground. I spot an opening close to the trunk. Maybe a cave or Princess chambers?

Aster claims it is an access to the underground beneath the forest, but there is hesitation. Who knows what changed since his death.

All around the tree, patches of colored flowers form paths to different patches of grass. Even with the false morning light from the Sanctuary, I can see the clearing does not get too much sunlight. These flowers should not grow as they do. And they do not grow alone indeed.

As the zoroark guides us down a path flanked by colorful blue and white flowers, we can soon see the hunched form of Princess. Little wisps of green and pink flow around her as the flowers slowly gain vitality and visibly grow. Most flowers are ordinary ones, but I do spot a couple of mystical flower patches here and there. Once we reach Princess, we stop, waiting for her to finish.

She moves to different spot on the patch she is tending. Every time, she extends her powers and the wilted flowers grow lively again, then the lively ones grow a bit more.

After the fourth patch, she turns to us. She does not speak, simply observes us.

I can see the zoroark slightly trembling, the smirk he had displayed yesterday is gone now. He expect punishment for his tardiness.

Princess speaks to him first, vocally. Mewtwo almost starts to translate, but a quick glare from the elder florges stops him. The zoroark pitifully yips, his body on a low crouch, his read mane splayed all around his hunched body. His forehead touching the floor. After a minute, vines extend from the florges orange collar of flowers. They dig into the ground, and her eyes become unfocused.

Seconds later, they refocus, and turn to us. Mewtwo instantly points at me. I look at him in mock indignation. How dare you betray me like that?

You're the one making absurd things here, not me. I am just a legendary pokemon. He smirks.

I groan internally, and look at Princess judgmental look. We were about to harshly punish our aide for his tardiness, but his excuses are sound. We too would have balked at the sight thou has left at our savior's house. Thou shall explain thyself. Now.

"Not to appear rude, but do we not have a party to attend?" It is not that I do not want to answer her questions, but more that I do not know how to answer her questions.

The party can wait, and will only begin later. We wished to discuss things with the both of thee. But what we have witnessed takes precedence. Now, Explain! Her ice cold tone cut short any attempts at avoiding the subject.

Argh! How do I explain this? What is even causing it? Wait... Maybe... "Please give me a moment to gather my thoughs your highness." I say, bowing slightly. Good thing I only sweat when my body need to cool itself.

The tutorials. Please let there be an explanation! PLEASE!

I open the menu, looking through it as quickly as I can. There! Wait no, that's just the manual. Does it have anything anyway? Nope, just I already read.

Princess inquisitive gaze lingers on me, before she turns to Mewtwo. What is he doing? We can see his hands move, but not what it is he is moving. She asks Mewtwo.

The psychic alien-cat is lounging on the air, a smirk on his face at my situation. He is looking for an answer your highness, and he is not finding it.

"You know you could help me!" I retort.

I am certain you will find it on your own. We should be reading more of these entries anyway.

I restrain myself from insulting him. I can still hear your thoughs. Yeah? Well fuck off and fuck you then, I am working.

Princess raises an eyebrow at our banter, but still wait for my answer patiently. At least I am mostly certain that is what she is doing. What she appear to be doing is getting ready to vaporize me on the spot should I fail to present an adequate answer.

No... no! No. No... Yes! Ah, no. AH! HERE!

I clear my throat. "Your highness, right before we met, by the simple act of piling blocks, the Trio bestowed upon me a certain... power." Alright, good start, let's keep going. My voice grows in confidence as I continue to read and simplify what I found in the 'How it works' entry for the Builder Suite. "I can now precisely place most blocks, certain materials and even some forms of vegetation. What I was not aware of before yesterday, was that I can do so in almost any directions. As long as I have what is referred as an anchor point, I can extend structures in any of six directions. All four cardinal directions from any faces of the selected anchor point, as well as up and down. There seems to be a limit to the high I can build up to, but none on any of the other directions as long as I have the space for it. Anything I place with that power will be fixed and remain where it was placed even if the anchor point is removed? Hold on WHAT?" I sputter out as I read that little tidbit of data. I read it again, and again. Yep, I have read that right.

Run that one by me again? Mewtwo asks, as he brings up the entry to read it himself.

Are thou implying... Thou could make... floating structures? Princess thoughs are filled with uncertainty. As much as I tried to simplify it, it is still quite a technical system. Still she seems to have understood most of my explanation. Good job me I guess.

The zoroark once more has his jaw on the floor in bewilderment.

Demonstrate. Now. Princess orders.

"As you command." I say, although I am also curious. It should not surprise me, there was a gap between the mana pool and the block above it, but there was still some sort of support in some way. I had put it under, it just works like that.

I start with a tower of three cobblestone blocks, The speed at which I assemble it already astonish both Princess and her aide. Mewtwo helps me by making me float above the second block so I can place the third. Once the tower is done, I start expending from the third block. Two blocks south, two blocks east, and four more to make a three by three blocks square platform. Already the structure should have fallen down due to the unbalanced way I built it, yet here it stand in defiance of gravity.

Before I can move to destroy the two blocks supposedly supporting the entire structure, Princess stops me. We wish to try a few things first. Obviously you want to try and make it fall uh? We tried already, and it did not move in the slightest. I refrain myself from voicing those thoughts out loud.

Vines shout out from the ground and ensnare the tower of blocks. I can see when they start to pull one way then the over. The green vines extend like rubber bands, but the tower does not move. One vine even tears under the strain, much to everyone surprise.

We are satisfied. Please proceed.

I nod, and get my pickaxe out. A vine stops me and princess takes my steel hand, observing it for long minutes. How?

"I... can turn almost anything into light and store them in my arm?" I answer with a shrug. "That is something I was able to do from the start." I add.

Do so again.

I dismiss my pickaxe, taking out a petal instead, then switching to a wood pattern. The dance of blue pixels of light enthralls Princess.

Fascinating... Master would have had a field day with this... A shadow of longing passes over Princess expression, but vanishes in seconds. Proceed. She declares, distancing herself once more.

We will be reading more of Aster's journal in our stay. But for now, time to defy the laws of gravity more than ever before.

I stand next to the pillar. Which block do I break? The upper one or the lower one? Let's go for absurdity. Lower one it is. Hoisting my pickaxe, I swing to the side. Glitchy cracks appear and I keep going until the block shatters into blue pixels.

The platform is still here. It is still floating. The grey blocks of cobbled stones hoover above the ground in absolute defiance of gravity.

Thou... art a mage. That is magic, that can only be magic! We saw some master elements, but never to such an extent. None ever showed powers other than destructive ones. How?

And that is the question uh? How did the Trio make this? The true explanation is only stated as 'It just works' when you remove all the flourish yet I can feel there is more to it. What I have is akin to the power to reshape the world. With enough time, I could make buildings, roads, so many things... We could get safe spots for nights! Large floating platforms with walls to prevent skeletons from seeing us. We could make small houses along our way.

I stop my daydream. Princess said something and I somehow missed the words in my head. That's a first. Indeed it is. Out of my mind Mewtwo!

I do not miss his snort at my reflection and look at Princess. "Could you... repeat that?"

She looks at me in surprise. Getting ignored when your words get straight into your target's mind must not come up too often.

Thine powers are truly astonishing, however, there is more as well. What sort of botanical wonder have thou created? What is that strange flower that consumes fire?