That was the bulk of his training done, Zane supposed. It was time to head home. He was looking forward to it.

When he left the dojo, he saw a spray of stars twinkling high above. It was nice and quiet this time of night.

He wondered just how long he’d been in there.

He strode across the little grassy courtyard just outside, fenced off with a low wall of warded Spirit Steel. There were guards at the gate. Both Warriors, one wielding a scimitar, the other a spear gleaming fiery yellow at the tip. They both saluted as he came near, going nervous stiff—“Sir!”

They were Level 200s, World Rankers. There were quite a few floating around Luminous Faction ground nowadays. They weren’t there to protect him—Zane wasn't sure there was anything left on Earth that could threaten him much. But they did do a pretty good job clearing the little route Reina had set up between their home and his dojo.

“What time is it?” said Zane.

It turned out it had been a few days since he’d gone into training. He found some updates waiting for him when he made his way back to their wood-and-stone skyscraper home.

Reina had made their front yard a quaint little field, full of pastel flowers and little translucent succulents, growing in widening spirals. A few butterflies drifted by, trailing a dreamy dust. He found Reina herself in the yard, her Spirit Weapon, an ancient-looking wood staff, in hand. The gemstone at the end of it shone a dazzling green. She let out a cry. Waved the thing.

The ground at her feet began to shake. The soil began to swirl like an unsteady ocean, and giant mossy boulders emerged, breaching the surface, rucking up dirt in roiling waves. They started to stack atop each other, welded together by some mysterious Law. Building bigger and bigger, making a torso, then arms, then a blocky head, until—

Stone Golem

Essence Level 300

The eyes glowed grass-green. Its craggy maw hung open and earthy Laws seeped out. It had an earthy smell too, a whiff of moss. Its huge closed fists looked like clubs—not unlike those Zane had made in the Astral plane, dense with hard-packed essence and Law swirling under the surface…

It gave a gravelly bellow. Lifted its fists, and sank them deep into the belly of the earth. There was a mighty crash, a shuddering. A smoking crater lay in its wake.

Reina nodded, satisfied. She waved her staff again and the earth started stitching back together, fresh grass sprouting in quick patches. In seconds it was whole again.

Then she saw Zane and brightened. “Zane!”

She rushed up and kissed him and smiled up at him, all flushed, which was quite a thing to experience up-close.

“You broke through,” he mumbled, looking around. She nodded.

“It’s a Concept called Life-Giving.”

She could now make true summons—not quite new life. She was borrowing souls from the Cycle of Reincarnation and giving them a temporary existence. But she could still throw up her own little Nascent Army at will. They were not the strongest of Nascent Souls, but they would grow stronger as she did, she said.

She showed him a few summons she could make: roots rucking up from the ground, growing into living trees shambling about, boughs shaking. She could summon nature-spirits too, ghostly creatures made of fog and mist that knew Wind- and Water-Laws she didn’t.

“But I like this one best,” she said. She made another stone golem, a big bulky thing. Its knuckles almost dragged on the ground. She pursed her lips at it, scrutinizing it. She wasn’t sure why she liked it so much. “Something about it…” She patted it affectionately.

Zane blinked at the golem. The golem blinked at Zane. It seemed oddly familiar.

…Hmm.

He looked down, noted how close his own knuckles were to the ground. He stood up a little straighter.

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“How’s your training been?” said Reina.

Zane thought about it. “I feel…strong,” he told her. “Ready.”

He looked up at the silent stars.

He wasn’t sure what could be coming. But he had trouble imagining anything without some serious higher-order firepower challenging him. They had just a few days left until when the System said their offers would come. And when those ‘Named Monsters’ and ‘high-tier Dungeons’ would come, after that…

He wasn’t much worried—after the offers he had a feeling things would turn out just fine.

It was still nice to carry a big stick, just in case.

Reina took his arm and led him back inside.

Avery caught up with him later that night—she had snagged her own mid-grade Concept too, and she was currently showing it to anyone who would listen.

She dragged him to a sparring room. Then she threw up a mirror, and another mirror, and another mirror, stacking them together too, until there was a little box of the stuff surrounding him. Every shot you threw bounced back at you until you broke the mirror.

“Neat, right?” she said with a grin.

Zane gave one of them a light punch, and felt the novel sensation of being punched in the face by himself. He inspected it.

“That is neat,” he said, a bit more muffled than usual, massaging his nose.

His ears were ringing. He frowned down at his knuckles.

He hit harder than he thought. He could see why all those things he hit exploded as messily as they did.

“Hey I have a question,” said Avery. “If you punched yourself as hard as you could, could you knock yourself out?”

“What kind of question is that,” said Zane.

“Eh,” she said, side-eying him. “I think you’d hit yourself hard enough, but you’d be too stubborn to actually black out. You’d just be all ‘grrrrrr…’ and get back up again.”

Zane frowned at her. “…I don’t make that noise.”

“Anyway.”

Avery was pretty sure she’d get an offer from this ‘Thousand Seas Tribe’—it was the Water Faction of the Nine Great actions. “Not sure what I'm gonna do with it though…” she said. “I kinda wanna just go out on my own, y’know? Poking around and exploring and seeing what I can find.”

She called it ‘Project Helpful Hobo.’ She would go around bumming food off folks of all shapes and sizes, and beating up any bad guys she came across, and sleeping in her hoodie anywhere where there wasn’t a serious risk of being run over.

She was fifty-fifty on it. She figured she would decide when the time came.

***

He spent the rest of his week brushing up on the last few upgrades he had to make. Leveling as much as he could with the treasures he had left—and spending some quality time with Reina too.

Level up!

Essence Level 339 -> 340

He also spent time in the newly upgraded state-of-the-art Earth S-grade soul sauna. And just ambled about, enjoying the peace and quiet.

He went fishing with Evan again the day before the offers came in. Evan couldn't wait; he could hardly sit still all day.

***

Then one night, shooting stars filled the skies all over Earth. Over each of the major continents. They were sighted over the grand ice castles on the tundras of Siberia. Over temples with burning roofs in inland China and regal stone castles at the horn of Africa, over islands in the Pacific and the Atlantic too. No more than a few dozen in all. But each lit up vast swathes of the sky—visible for all humanity.

A handful made their way to the East Coast. And a fair few fell over the West Coast of America too.

Three landed over the Azure Flame Faction.

The first one to arrive shone hues of earth brown and lush grass green. It exuded strong Earth Laws too—and when it dropped in the middle of their front yard, there was a neat magical effect. Faint flower petals unfurling in the air, revealing a single treasure floating in a pool of warm gold light. A scroll.

Living Letter [Earth (S)]

Addressed to: Reina Torres

Reina took a deep breath, looked up at him, squeezed his hand.

Then she strode up to it and grabbed it with confidence. She unfurled it and started to read.

As she did, her eyes began to glow—her pupils flushing bright green. An unseen wind blew across her fluttering strands of hair. Her eyes glazed over, like she was sinking into a dream… she stood there still, breathing deeply until the light faded.

She came out looking a bit dazed.

“It showed me a vision,” she mumbled. She started telling him what she saw.

The letter came from two elves. Two Ancestors of the ‘World Tree Faction.’ A regal white-haired old lady who called herself ‘Ancestor Rowan.’ And an old elf-man with thick braids of white hair who called himself ‘Ancestor Valoran.’

They were meant to be two of the most powerful figures in the World Tree Faction.

The World Tree, Reina said slowly, was the source of all life and vitality in the Dragon Spiral Galaxy and its many sectors. It underpinned the flows of its very essence, the cycles of reincarnation… it had its roots in the fabric of the Universe. It was a legendary treasure—and the World Tree Faction was its caretaker. Its disciples lived in harmony with this tree.

“I saw it, Zane,” she breathed, wide-eyed. “From root to canopy… it just kept going—the trunk must’ve been as wide as a planet! It zoomed in, and I saw whole kingdoms, civilizations, perched on a single branch… the disciples live in the highest boughs.”

Apparently it was also the main supplier of all elixirs made in the Dragon Spire Galaxy—all the best alchemists came from there too.

The letter was basically a warm congratulations to her, she said. And a lot of basic information. It ended with a contract—the maximum contract they could offer.

Because of her Signature Title, she would become heiress to the High Priestess position, she said. It was like their queen. She would come into the role once she reached Level 500. And they, as a Faction, would support her until then.

“I also got some answers as to what’s coming for us,” she told Zane, and here she bit her lip.