Aalam
Aalam woke up in a room he didn’t recognize, but, seeing as it appeared to be an oversized bedroom designed for someone 4 meters tall, with all the walls and furniture made mostly of crystal and violet metal—as well as the huge monstrous AI hovering in the corner—he was pretty sure he was somewhere in the blessed land.
He only had about half a second to register that, however, before Diana, who’d apparently been sitting next to him on the bed, immediately moved to sit on his chest and got into his face. “You tried to commit suicide again, little brother.”
The angry expression on her face brought up a lot of memories of fear from when he was a child, a preteen, and a teenager, and Aalam felt guilty more than anything else, as he really didn’t have a good excuse. Then, however, instead of yelling at him, forcing him to do chores, or just getting fed up and leaving the room, Diana kissed him on the forehead and gave him a hug. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
Aalam didn’t know how to react for a couple seconds, but then he realized what he was supposed to do was pretty obvious and he hugged her back. “I’ll try not to.”
Diana pushed against his chest and, even though he was now much, much stronger than her due to him having leveled up and her having not, he let her go, flinching a little as she glared at him. “I don’t want you to try. I want you to—”
Then, however, Diana stopped herself, took a deep breath, and muttered, “He’s being literal, Di. And you don’t want him to start lying to you.”
Diana then climbed off him and jumped off the bed. “Come on, Aalam, you need to get going.” She grabbed the Left Hand of the Runescribe and what looked to be a tailored non-artifact outfit of some kind off an oversized stepping stool and threw them at him. “I’m giving you two minutes to get dressed and come out. Any longer and there will be consequences.”
She then looked at the AI. “Jeeves, make sure he’s out in two minutes.”
Diana left the room and Aalam sat there for a few seconds, confusion overpowering the mix of sadness, grief, and excitement he would have otherwise been feeling. “Jeeves?”
“Yes, Master.” The AI teleported forward and hovered next to the bed, showing its teeth in an expression Aalam couldn’t really read. “Your chamberlain told me to follow all the orders of that human, so I’ve been doing so. And the human renamed me from my glorious title of Gith’Ilizanivarikal De Sorin to Jeeves.
“Should I disregard the orders of your chamberlain, Master, and maybe annihilate the human for daring to assault you?”
Aalam took a half second to absorb what the AI had just told him, still not 100% awake. Then he immediately said, “No.”
“In that case, Master, you should hurry.” Aalam wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure the AI sounded disappointed. “Ms. Diana gave you a task along with a deadline and you haven’t moved toward achieving the task at all.”
Thinking about the types of punishments Diana had given him in the past, such as having to watch her eat an entire chocolate cake in front of him without getting even a bite, Aalam hurriedly dressed in the new outfit, a dark orange battle robe like thing which made him think of the Chinese fantasy dramas Mila loved, and slipped the Left Hand of the Runescribe onto his hand. Then he hurried out of the room and found Diana leaning on one of the crystalline walls of the hallway.
“Alright. Come on.” Without explaining why she was in such a rush, Diana hurried at her max speed out of the underground, out of the blessed land, and to the nearest local teleportation platform. Then they teleported to the platform nearest to the universal teleportation platform on Ellis Island and flew over to land on the island.
There, standing around the universal teleportation platform, were Mila, Isaiah, and Irena. And, if Aalam wasn’t mistaken, Mila and Irena had been talking about a TV show before he arrived, nothing to do with work.
He also belatedly noticed Isaiah and Irena were wearing the same type of outfit as him, but he was distracted from thinking about that more by Mila walking up to him and summoning out Epecteos’s Vengeance from her spatial storage ring and holding it up for him to see. “I’ll be keeping this for now. You can modify it more when you’ve maximized your skills.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
As Mila desummoned the blade, Aalam watched through his sensory domain as Diana walked up to Isaiah, floated up about a foot and a half as she was still merged with her yang spirit, and kissed her boyfriend, saying, “Have a safe trip and make sure to come back at least once a month.”
“Are we going somewhere?” Aalam asked Mila.
And Mila responded by pushing him onto the universal teleportation platform. “You are. Yep.”
Then she turned to look at Isaiah and Irena as they joined Aalam on the platform. “Isaiah, learn well. Grandma, keep them both from being complete idiots.”
As Aalam was trying to figure out if he’d ever heard Mila call Irena grandma before—something he quickly realized he hadn’t—the teleportation platform activated and, the next thing he knew, he was on a planet where the Law suppression was far, far stronger than he’d ever felt before, and his own connection with the Laws of the universe was far stronger as well.
Also, out in front of him was a tree so large it could not possibly exist without magic, and the air smelled really nice, clean and somehow full of life.
Before he could fully adjust to the fact he was almost certainly on an A rank world, however, Irena and Isaiah quickly guided him to another teleportation platform and they all teleported again, this time appearing in what felt like a secluded garden, where there were two people waiting for them.
One of the two Aalam immediately recognized, the silver semi-translucent hair and inhuman fully black eyes both features he’d never seen on anyone other than Krysta La’Vordi. But the other attracted his attention far more as her aura, which felt like an exaggerated version of that huge tree he’d just seen, was by far the strongest he’d ever felt.
She looked like a slightly older version of Krysta, only with long mossy green dreadlocks down to the middle of her back and yellow eyes, but she had the same dark brown skin as her daughter and both were wearing matching yellow sundresses, far less formal than the getup his sister had forced him into.
“You must be Irena Krol.” Joma La’Vordi, the Alchemist of the Deep Woods, held out her hand to Irena. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“And you as well, Madam Alchemist.” Irena shook the alchemist's hand and then bowed.
“Your granddaughter and I set up the framework for a couple big deals, but part of one of those deals will be possibly hundreds of smaller deals which I will be negotiating with you.” The alchemist smiled warmly. “I look forward to working with you.”
The Alchemist of the Deep Woods then turned to look at Isaiah and reached out her hand again. “And you must be the mysterious Mr. Knight. I still have no idea who you are and it has been frustrating me to no end.”
From Isaiah’s aura, he was far more uncomfortable than Irena as he shook the alchemist’s hand. “That’s because I’m not important, nor famous, Madam Alchemist.”
“Still, seeing you in person, I can at least infer a lot more.” The alchemist took a step back, a smile still on her face. “You’re a Balance Dragon. I just have no idea if you are naturally born or had some kind of lucky encounter.
“The Forest Cauldron has plenty of monster members, so you won’t have any issues, but do make sure you’re careful, as we are not the only force on this planet.”
The alchemist then turned her eyes to look at Aalam and Aalam felt her aura move around him oddly, as if it was looking for something.
“Just like with Ms. Li, I can’t feel your aura in its natural state at all. Project it for me so I can confirm your Laws.”
Aalam was about to turn to Irena, who he was pretty sure had been sent at least partially to babysit him, but Mila, with whom he’d started sharing his senses ever since he’d arrived, sent him a message. “Joma La’Vordi is going to be your new master, but she needs to know your power in order to instruct you.”
So, Aalam just projected his aura in full.
“Okay.” Unlike with the others, when Joma La’Vordi talked to him, she was less pleasant, her voice reminding him of Epecteos in full teaching mode.
The alchemist then turned to look at her daughter. “Krysta, please keep our guests company until we’re done. These two will temporarily join the Forest Cauldron if I decide to accept Mr. Alvaro, so feel free to give them an introduction in advance.
“Mr. Alvaro, follow me.”
The alchemist then started to walk away and Aalam, still somewhat confused, followed her, but she kept increasing her speed to the point Aalam had to start using Telekinesis and wind Laws to augment himself to keep up with her.
“Your technique could be a lot better.” The alchemist stopped suddenly in front of a large building which looked like a mansion and Aalam almost hurt himself trying not to run past her.
Then she led him into the mansion, down a set of stairs, and down, and down, until they were probably about 18 kilometers underground. They then ran through an earthen hallway and into a large circular room, maybe 24 kilometers in diameter with a ceiling over 4 kilometers high.
When they started running within the room, however, their speed drastically increased, and Aalam realized there was no Law suppression whatsoever in the room, though he could feel the Laws just as easily as anywhere else on the planet.
They then ran to the center of the room, where there was what looked like a log cabin, and went inside. There the Alchemist of the Deep Woods led him into what felt like a living room, indicated for him to sit on a couch, and then sat down herself on a chair opposite him.
“You understand that I’m thinking of taking you on as an apprentice, correct?” the alchemist asked.
And Aalam nodded in response.
“But you’re confused as well, your force not having left you time to think since you woke up?”
“Yeah.” Aalam suddenly realized that Diana and Mila had been rushing and confusing him intentionally, likely because the woman in front of him had asked that of them for some reason.
“Good.” The woman’s aura spread out and all of Aalam’s bonds were suppressed, including the one he was using to share his senses with Mila, making it impossible for him to telepathically communicate with anyone. “Then let’s have a good talk before I make my final decision on whether I want to accept you, just you and me.”