I buried the fish-spirit rock in a pile of my witchy earth to see how my domain power would affect it. It felt… weird. Like a little fire that was invading my territory, a small electrical current that constantly tickled at my senses.

It confirmed to me that I was well connected with and could actually feel my domain, which was an entirely new experience, like having a 5th limb or a 3rd ear that I had never used before.

The fish-spirit belonging to River Glinka somehow clashed with my domain, was foreign to it like an invader, felt like a piece of popcorn stuck in a tooth that my tongue couldn’t quite reach.

I dug the fish-spirit rock out and stared at it.

The fish that floated above the rock sparked with silver-blue fire and radiated annoyance, which was incredibly weird because it was a fish. How could a fish even show emotions, human emotions at that?

I contemplated this absurdity. Perhaps there was more to spirits and crystalline matrices that contained them. It was indeed strange that my domain performed a variety of jobs for me, many of which required a high level of function. Surely a task such as steel hardening could not be performed by a mere crab?

If I was to get to the bottom of this mystery, I would have to sift through my entire soil pile and separate it by placing different crystals into different parts of the pub, to see whether specific crystal matrices perform specific functions.

Stormy went to paw at the annoyed looking, silver-blue fish.

I sat on my pile of earth, made a few notes in my Codex and attempted meditation for the 48th time as I did every morning and evening, hoping that the sensation of the fish-spirit clashing with my domain could unlock my inner eye or whatever. Alas, this attempt resulted in failure too as the only thing I could sense was a mildly annoying dull spark buried in my domain. The spiritual senses of my body just didn't seem to be growing in the slightest.

Maybe the Yaga was right about men being unable to simply observe nature spirits with their eyes, maybe there was genetic deviation of some kind, a magical or biological split between Nordstaii men and women. Maybe unlocking the inner eye required eating some mushrooms or licking a poisoned frog?

Alas, it was winter so there were no frogs around and my glade didn't grow any mushrooms, its biodiversity rather poor likely due to the cold and the white blight damaging the local ecosystem.

----------------------------------------

Day 33

This morning, I was preoccupied with recording the outcomes of various gemstone arrangements. It appeared that my hypothesis concerning the gemstones was accurate. Within the crystal lattice, there seemed to be a rudimentary consciousness responsible for executing different tasks. By scratching out numbers on the surfaces, I carefully labeled and marked each stone to systematically track them.

Gemstone number 24 possessed an astral projection shaped like a long, ghostly millipede. The primary function of this gem boosted the saponification process, improving soap’s ability to clean hard-to-remove grease from bacon pans. When I buried Gem 24 by itself in an earth-filled chest, I discovered that spearmint plants began to grow around it.

Limonene was a naturally occurring compound found in spearmint, known scientifically as Mentha spicata. I knew that the addition of D-limonene to soap improved its performance when fighting oils and grease stains. The emergence of these spearmint plants led me to suspect that Gem 24 facilitated the extraction of spearmint as well as its constituents from the Astral Plane and encouraged their integration with soap at the molecular level. I surmised that this might be achieved through the gemstone’s astral projection, which could traverse through a bar of soap.

Gemstone number 62 possessed the ability to strengthen metals. It had an innate capacity for intricate manipulation of the crystalline structure within the iron, which enhanced the metal's mechanical properties. Though I couldn't directly observe the process as it occurred while I slept, I managed to study the results using a magnifying glass I crafted by separating and polishing the bottoms of small bottles with the smithy's grinder.

Gem 62 appeared to modify iron possibly by means of grain refinement. Typically, this process involved regulating metal to create tiny, uniformly-sized grains or crystals. Alas, my incredibly crude magnifying glass and water microscope could not see iron grains. The iron bar placed next to Gem 62 did exhibit distinctive transformation in color that I could see with the naked eye. Intriguingly, 62's astral projection appeared like a small bird.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Gemstone number 112 displayed an astral projection resembling a large beetle. It had the unique ability to alter liquids inside glass bottles, transforming them into energy drinks. Through careful experimentation, I had developed a strong understanding of the gemstone’s specific functions. By adding a minuscule amount of vodka—found in the pub’s storage—to water and heating the solution on my water microscope glass shard slide, it generated beautiful, flower-like crystals. This observation indicated that the gemstone not only deionized the water, but it was also able to extract natural amino acids, such as Beta-Alanine and Glutamine, from the Astral. I was well aware that the formation of these specific crystals was typical when certain amino acids interacted with high-degree alcohol.

Additionally, when I placed food items next to Gem 112 within a glass jar, they became enriched with the same valuable amino acids, further demonstrating the gemstone’s absurd ability for harnessing essential nutrients from the Astral Ocean.

Gem 51 located in a pickle jar seems to have done something to the glass itself, making the surface of the jar softer, more like rubber.

The experiments with the various gemstones were quite fun. I decided to dub their effects 'The Unified Theory of the Radiosynthesis of Magic'.

I theorized that numerous other gems within my possession passively protected, healed, and enhanced me through their astral projections. Owning them was akin to having an unusual assortment of exceptionally specialized tools. For reasons I couldn’t quite understand, when I handled the gemstones, I was inclined to trust the spirits attached to them.

The crystals themselves felt warm to the touch and instilled in me a sense of connection and reassurance, as though I was a child clasping my mother's hand. I couldn’t help but ponder over whether the souls of Ioan’s parents or friends somehow became recorded within these crystals, allowing them to profoundly impact the physical world via the life-rad system as Astral Projections.

Considering the healing and supportive properties of my crystalline matrices, I couldn’t help but wonder if cursed domains exhibited similar effects, such as inducing cancer or injecting harmful chemicals directly into people’s bloodstreams through the power of astral projections. It was a rather morbid hypothesis, yet it somehow made sense considering what Yaga Grandhilda told me.

It was somewhat disheartening that I had no way to uncover the specific functions of the hundreds of other gems in my possession. However, by employing diligent testing and experimentation, I at least managed to understand the primary aspects of crystalline life. I felt confident that if I kept at it, I would uncover more evidence.

The witch’s words about sinking through the earth gnawed the back of mind as I eyed the violet-tinted floorboards beneath my feet. The floorboards felt warmer, like they belonged to me. I cleared the earth away from the floor, sliced off a piece of wood and examined the wood fibers with my magnifying glass. There were visible fibrous crystalline structures within the wood now.

Could the floor become more malleable now? I had to know.

Pressing my palm against the floorboards, I focused my will on them. I imagined the packed earth, the roots and stones, and willed the wood to part, to allow my hand to pass through. Nothing happened.

Annoying.

I grabbed gem 51 and squeezed it in my hand while trying to sink my hand through the floor. It felt like the wood beneath my hand felt marginally softer, but it didn't actually allow me to sink through it.

Bah!

I shoved gem 51 into my pocket and began to pace across the floor, pondering what I had to do to sink through solid matter.

----------------------------------------

Day 36

Another few days drifted by like a lazy snowflake reluctant to reach the ground.

Thanks to domain magic, my sleep became rather short, reduced to only 4 hours a night. With more free time to spare, I increased my meditation times to several times per day to no result.

I toiled tirelessly, my mind a whirlwind of theories and experiments. The barrels, once home to the earthly remains of the ill-fated bandits, now stood empty, their gruesome contents reclaimed by the relentless march of nature.

I had exhumed the bodies of the bandits from the barrels. Only meticulously cleaned bones remained, stripped bare by the rapidly reproducing bacteria and microorganisms within.

The bones gleamed under the dim light of the pub, their surfaces no longer the dull off-white of calcium, but a vibrant, almost otherworldly, semi-transparent violet. I held my breath, my heart pounding with apprehension, as I used my Astralscope to thoroughly examine the bones.

The spaces within the ribcages, where hearts had once beat, now housed clusters of violet crystals that were pulsing faintly like miniature violet stars. I wondered if this was the essence of the bandits, their life force, distilled and concentrated into crystalline formations.

Stormy rubbed against my leg. The kitten had grown noticeably fluffier, fitter and more energetic since donning her crystal-studded collar.

I considered that my witch Master was wearing an elk skull mask. Perhaps there was a scientific reason for her barbaric outfit?

Using the blacksmith’s equipment, I painstakingly began to shear and shape the crystalline bones into thin, flat plates. The plan was to gradually weave them into a full-body outfit that resembled Siberian Laminar Armour.

After working on that for a while, a big pile of violet-tinted dust remained in the workshop.

Stormy, ever curious, batted at the pile of the bone dust with a paw, violet-silver eyes gleaming with feline fascination.

“Don’t play with that,” I chided her gently, scooping the dust into a leather bag. “Who knows what kind of weird side effects it might have.”

The kitten, her tail twitching with disappointment, climbed onto my shoulder and began to groom herself.