John sat at his desk, his mind wandering back to how he could sustain himself in a universe without enough mana. He supposed he could take his time and slowly fill the universe with enough mana to sustain him, but what would that do to this universe?

If he transferred the mana over until it was enough, would it drain this universe? Or did this universe have some mana creators that would fill it back up with enough time? He had never thought about the origin of mana before, it had always just been present. Were the beings in this universe slowly consuming the mana, and we'd eventually run out? Is that what happened to the other universe?

Or was it being recycled, maintaining equilibrium for eternity, and the other universe just happened to have less of it? Or perhaps the other universe didn't have less of it at all, but only the spot where he made it through had less. He couldn't extend his awareness out very far, all of his focus was on closing the rift and returning safely. Perhaps he could send a large mana crystal over just to have something to draw from as a first venture, letting him view the area around him more safely.

He summoned a large blue, near-transparent crystal into his store, the space warping and expanding to accommodate it in his small building. The mana in the area rushed forth, filling the crystal as it slowly became bluer and more solid.

When the crystal was filled, the mana settled. And John pushed the crystal to his reference point in the other universe, draining almost all of his remaining mana.

A customer entered the store, a taller man with black hair reaching down his back.

"Hey, you got any gardening books?" The man asked John.

John was perturbed. On the one hand, a customer was here. On the other, he just sent a giant crystal through space to another universe and desperately wanted to check on it. His store came first, though, and he waved his hand to fill the nearby bookshelf with everything he had on gardening.

"Woah, alright cool. I'm looking for like, novice ones? Do you have those?"

With another wave of John's hand, the majority of the books floated back to him, vanishing once they were near.

"Nice. Thanks, man." The man walked over and picked up a few of the books, flipping through the pages quickly and pausing on any illustrations that showed up. He settled on one and brought it to John's desk.

"This one seems good." The man placed a book in front of him. A book authored by a lady who really loved her flowers, helping people take care of their own, and spreading the love of plants. A faint aura of magic seemed to surround it. He couldn't tell what it did, but it didn't seem harmful.

"I never used to care about the plants and stuff, to be honest. Like, they were just green stuff on the ground, y'know? But then I saw this one flower and it just, like, enraptured me? It was beautiful.

"I still don't really care about most of the plants though. I mean I guess I have a new appreciation for them but grass is just grass, y'know? But I guess I realized that there are more too, and some of them are super cool. I wanna grow some of them, but every time I tried they died.

"So I was like hey why don't I start really slow at the start and do something more simple, and then work my way up right? That makes sense. So here I am. One day I'm gonna have a really beautiful garden, with trees and flowers and bushes and it'll be awesome. But for now, I guess I grow grass or something. I don't really know, that's why I want the book." The man looked around the store as he talked, his gaze settling on the shelf of flowers John had set up.

"Woah! What are all of those?" The man asked, his voice filled with excitement.

"They're 'lowers," John said.

"Yeah I mean I get that but like, what kind? Where'd you get 'em? Those are super cool. How are you keeping them alive when they're picked up like that?"

John hadn't thought about it. They were just flowers, but he supposed it was strange that they never seemed to lose their beauty. Most organic things tended to die when left alone, and yet these were still fine. Well, he kept them in his [Storage] for most of the time, but it wouldn't have been strange to see some manner of decay by now, he thought.

"I don't know," John said.

"Wow, they're super cool though. Maybe I can grow some of them someday. That'd be really cool." The man said, walking towards the door. "Well for now I gotta get started on grass or whatever though I guess. Thanks for the book man, see ya around!"

John watched him leave. A strange fellow, he thought. But everybody had their thing. John liked to sell people books, the man liked to grow grass? He wasn't really sure what the man's goal was exactly. A big garden, he thought. But he seemed to have an obsession with grass too.

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John had never tried gardening before, there was no point to it he thought. The flowers looked pretty, but interesting stories were much prettier. Would people pay for flowers, he wondered? The man seemed interested in the flowers he had on display but didn't try to buy them.

His mana filling up reminded him of what he was doing. He had a giant crystal sent off to another universe that he had to check on. John got up and locked his door once more, and then focused on creating a new reference point in his shop. Something to return to, in a known place instead of out in the middle of the forest. And then he teleported himself to the other universe.

The mana crystal didn't quite fit in the room, he noticed. The top of it displaced some of the ceiling, revealing the sun shining through above. The pain set in immediately, but John was prepared and he slowly drained mana from the crystal. It wouldn't last forever, but it would give him enough to last a while.

As the mana surged into him from the crystal, the pain subsided, and his awareness extended. He was in a house, he realized. A very large house, a mansion, perhaps? There weren't any people inside at the moment though.

His awareness extended even further, the mansion surrounded by other similar-sized mansions. Each one was just as big, and few had anybody inside. There were people outside, however. Walking down the... road? There was some gray stone between the mansions, with a slightly depressed section in the center that had lines drawn down the center of it. People walked on some of the raised gray stone at the sides but stayed off the center. Some kind of machine propelled itself down the center, though John couldn't tell exactly what they were.

Everything felt mundane to him. There was a distinct lack of magic anywhere he looked. Even as he extended his awareness further, it was just more of the same. Strange gray roads flanked by mansions. Eventually, something different appeared. A large gray building with hundreds, maybe thousands of people walking around. A large black square with many lines, the same machines sitting still within the lines. Strange, he thought.

Interesting, but strange. It was all so very different from anything he had seen before. The density of the population was incredible, there were more people in that one building than the entire town John's bookstore was set up in. And yet, even as he extended his awareness further and further, the mana seemed constant. Low. Unsustainable.

It saddened him, but he would find another solution then. The knowledge that the mana seemed to be consistently low was still progress, he thought. He searched for an area with a low population, somewhere that he could place another reference point without it being inside somebody's house. There was a forest nearby that he saw. Animals prowling it, searching for sustenance of some form or another. But n people.

He drained the crystal, its blue quickly fading to translucent, and then placed it in his [Storage] and teleported to the forest. Another reference point was formed, and then John teleported back to his bookstore and unlocked the door.

The thing that interested him the most was that he never saw even the faintest remnants of magic. He didn't think that he had seen the entire world, perhaps in other sections of the world magic was present. Or perhaps the rest of the universe. But the mana was far too limited for him to see very far. Even still, it was the first time John had ever seen an area with life—creatures, but no magic.

And yet, the world seemed so advanced. So very many people, and not one seemed malnourished or dangerously ill. They seemed even overnourished at times, he thought. For that many people to be fed in such excess without the use of magic. It was incredible. He wished to see more of it, but unless he wanted to keep hopping back and forth with a crystal, slowly inching his way around the world, he needed to find a more permanent solution.

It was good to know that for sure, no more doubts, or thoughts that maybe he could find a place that would sustain him. Even if he could, he would still wish to explore the lower-density areas himself without risk of death.

Another customer entered his store, a taller woman. Her short blonde hair was tied in a small ponytail behind her head.

"Hello," John greeted her.

"Oh, hi there. I heard you have flowers on display? Where are they? Ah, I see over here." She walked over to the display, gently touching the silver flower that stood prominently at the front. "Are these for sale, too?"

"Not that one but the rest," John said.

"Oh lovely, they're quite beautiful you know. I think I'll take this one, then." She grabbed a yellow flower with blue thorns and brought it to John's desk.

"One story please," John said.

"Ah yes of course. Well, I wrote a book many years ago. You sold one quite recently, I understand. My class allows me to see the area around any book I author, while it is being read, you see. Most of the time I ignore it, but today I took a peek. And I saw some quite beautiful flowers, so I came by to take a look for myself. Divination is never quite the same as seeing something with your own eyes, but you'll rarely hear one of us admit such a thing. I'm glad I did, these are remarkable. Where did you get them from?"

"I don't know."

"A shame, that. Well, I will have to content myself with just this flower for now I suppose, then. Thank you." The woman vanished.

John realized that was the magic he felt from the book, the woman peering through it at his shop. He wasn't sure how to feel about that. Of course, anybody could enter his shop if they wished and look around. But for it to be done through one of his books? He wondered if any of his other books were also looking at him.

Of course, he had no doubts that when he locked his store their attempts would be blocked. So it was only when he was open that they could see. And was that a problem? He was open, after all. He decided it wasn't, if it led to more people coming to share stories with him. Though if their stories were just that they're spying on him, perhaps it would no longer interest him.

For now, it was certainly interesting. A thought he hadn't had before pleased him, even if it concerned him as well. He wondered if he took the book with him to the other universe, if the woman would be able to see through it while he read still. He hadn't thought about divination magic before, but perhaps it could be used to explore another world without actually having to be there yourself. His [Runic Inscribing] may be able to help him there, if he could find some way of creating a divination rune. His awareness had always been enough for him so he never tried it, but maybe he would give it some thought if he couldn't think of another option.