John sat at his desk, looking at his books, wondering if any others might possess some form of magic. And some did, he found, though none of which he was able to identify the purpose of. It didn't bother him, knowing somebody might be seeing his shop right now. If anything, he welcomed it. It was free advertising, he thought.

His thoughts wandered to the other universe he had witnessed. Without magic, he wondered how he would be able to effectively communicate with them. Telepathy would be off the table, the humans here struggled with it, let alone in a universe with so little magic.

He wondered what their defences would be like, anyway. If they had no need for magic, would they be less resilient to magic? Or would their very being reject it, immune to the ill effects of one such as he? It was so different from anything he had known before, anything could happen, he thought.

But at the very least, he needed to be able to speak to them. Communicate with them, and he figured telepathy wouldn't work either way. They would be destroyed by the memories, or unable to process them. Neither conducive to his goal of learning about their lives.

And so he thought about his voice magic. He felt pretty good about it at this point, though a few letters still seemed to give him pause. 'F', 'V' and 'G' weren't replicable for him yet, and he would often omit the sounds in the hopes that people could piece together what he meant anyway.

Perhaps he could find a similar sound, but he wondered what would be considered a similar sound anyway. Depending on the species and their language, or even just how their ears worked, would the same sounds be similar for everybody? He wasn't sure, and it made more sense to just omit them.

John had been paying attention to the people who came into his shop, trying to figure out the sounds, and he thought he had a good working theory. 'F' seemed to be a more open 'S', less harsh and piercing, the air flowing a little more freely but still restricted enough to sound sharp and present. 'V' was the same sound but with the muscles in the throat restricted to vibrate at the same time. And 'G' was a vibrated 'K' sound.

He formed his spatial voice construction and practiced all the letters in the alphabet, and he found that each one sounded passable. To him, at least, and he hoped that meant the same for others. He would need to test it at some point, but even so far it seemed as though he was getting the job done well enough.

It was pleasing to him, knowing how frequently he had been conversing with people, with speech. Actual voiced, audible words. To the people he spoke with it might seem like such a small thing, and yet to John, it was something to be proud of.

It was time for another visit to the other universe, he thought. He wanted to meet a person and see how they reacted to him. Would they be scared? Would they be able to communicate with him? Would they even speak the same language, or was he wasting his time learning this one? The people looked the same to him, so at worst, he would already know how to produce a voice, if not the language itself.

He wondered what it would mean for his universe if this other one did speak the same language, for that matter. What were the chances that two separate universes ended up creating identical languages? Miniscule, John thought. And so if they did speak the same language, what exactly did that mean? A coincidence? John thought it much more likely that his universe would be manufactured by someone in their world. Or perhaps vice-versa.

John summoned his large crystal, the space once more warping to contain it within his building. And he let it charge, teleporting it to his point in the forest and then himself as well when his mana recovered.

The scenery was identical, he found. Though he hadn't been gone for very long either. His awareness extended, looking for somebody alone who he could speak to and maybe garner some useful information from. He found one girl, walking through the forest not too far from where he was.

John appeared in front of the girl. "Hello, I'm John."

The girl screamed and ran away. The people here would be afraid of him, he supposed. It made sense, if the universe didn't have magic a being like himself wouldn't be able to sustain themselves and they would never have to interact with much more than mundane animals. To suddenly see John would be a shock, he thought.

Though that didn't stop him, as he returned to his crystal and expanded his awareness once more to look for another he could speak with. There was a man in the forest as well, and he teleported in front of the man.

"Hello, I'm John," he spoke.

The man also screamed and ran away. Frustrating, John thought. Knowing these people were so close, and yet he was so far away from communicating with them. He couldn't even tell if they would understand him or not. Perhaps the language he was using was what was scaring them, and not his form, though he doubted it.

Still, he wanted to test it and repeated the process. Finding another man walking through the forest and teleporting in front of him, with the same result.

Disappointing, John thought. But he would find a solution at some point, if nothing else he could eventually find a way to survive here more long-term and watch them from a distance. But for now, his mana was draining and the crystal was running out. He drained what little was left, and stored it away, teleporting himself back to his shop.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

A familiar customer was there, browsing through his books.

"Oh hey John, where've you been?" The Vampire asked him, exuding a power unlike any he had felt on this planet before. He had met more powerful humans even, and yet she stood with such confidence. Something about her just oozed power. It was curious, John thought.

John wasn't sure how to respond. Did he want to tell the girl that he had been to her world? That he could travel there freely now, even if he couldn't stay forever? Would she want to return? He wasn't sure, but he again felt a strange pull. Something urging him not to share it with her.

"I was exploring the universe," John said. He wasn't lying, he just didn't mean this universe.

"That sounds exciting. I've been sitting in a cave practicing my magic for a while." A surge of cold expanded out from her before it quickly dissipated. "Not quite as exciting but I like seeing the numbers go up.

"You've been closed for a while, and I just heard tale of a monster opening up a bookstore again. Thought it might be you, and it was. You left the door unlocked y'know?" She looked up from the book she was reading.

"Oh. Thank you," John was thankful nothing had seemed to be stolen while he was gone. "Did you need a book?"

"Oh, no. I guess I'll buy one just to share another story. But honestly, I'm more interested in these vials though if they're up for sale?" She walked over to the shelf holding vials of various liquids.

"Yes," John said.

"Awesome, any of them got some super cool effects? Make me really strong, or fast, or something? Or good for resistances maybe?"

"I don't know, sorry."

"That's too bad. Guess they're all just as good then," She grabbed one of the dull blue vials from the back of the shelf. "This one, I guess. Hope they're not more powerful the brighter they glow."

"I wouldn't know," John said. Potions and elixirs had never really interested him, made for beings much lesser than him. Poisons would hardly affect him and even if they boosted his power, the effect would be minimal if it even affected his body in the first place. Perhaps if he had many many potions, but he didn't strive for power anymore, his level long since having stagnated even with the constant destruction.

"Guess I'll find then, that sounds exciting. Think it'll kill me?"

"I don't know."

"Wow you really just don't know anything about the stuff you sell, do you? Is this just a hoard you stole or something?"

"Mostly, yes."

"Oh. I didn't actually expect that. Huh. Do you still go stealing stuff these days?"

"No."

"Well that's good then, don't have to worry about my vast wealth being ripped from my hands I guess." She pulled out a small almost empty pouch and laughed. "Not that I have much at the moment anyway.

"Alright, so a story. I've got a good one saved up just for you. But I think every story is good for you, it's not even about being a great story, is it? You just want to learn more, right? If it's something you haven't heard before, it must be interesting?"

John nodded his head.

"Hah, yeah I thought as much. You probably have no idea how much that means to people, y'know? We always lack somebody who can just genuinely find everything we talk about interesting. Always wanting more, never interjecting with their own thing.

"But anyway, I've got a good one for you. Had a lot of time to think about it."

A flood of thought pressed into John's mind, as the girl smiled.

"Surprised?" She asked.

John nodded his head. He remembered her shuddering, convulsing in pain over a much smaller packet of information being sent to her. And yet here she was, perhaps a hundred years or more later capable of so much. He felt almost proud, in a way. To see her at the beginning of her journey, and to see where she had ended up.

"Well, you have fun poking through all that. I'm gonna go drink this blue glowing mud stuff." The girl vanished, but John wasn't bothered. He had something else to focus on.

He worked through the thoughts, a jumble of memories. Little organization, though it seemed that was almost intentional. Each piece he broke up revealing something new about the girl's world.

The machines that flew down the roads were vehicles. Cars, trucks, vans. Even motorcycles. Signs to label the streets, and the speed limits.

The large square he saw was a parking lot, outside of a mall. The vehicles would be parked in designated spots, and the people could leave to go shopping for whatever they needed. All available at the tips of their fingers.

He saw the smart light she mentioned much earlier on, a bright bulb powered by electricity that she could control via her smartphone. A kind of brick with near-unlimited potential held within it.

Televisions, computers, wars, internet. It was overwhelming, to see so much of this other universe. They lacked magic, and yet they had progressed so much in other matters. John wondered if he could replicate half of what he saw, and he thought it unlikely.

Much of it was worse than what they had here. The wealthy had holograms, which were vastly superior for the display of information. A map on a screen was great, but a three-dimensional replica of it was significantly more useful.

Same with the vehicles. They were fast without the use of magic, but this world would hardly benefit from their introduction. Enchanted carriages pulled by strong horses were far faster, and people could often teleport or run faster. Besides, in this universe, there was no need for significant long-distance transportation available to the masses.

Everything a person would usually need was within their town. And if they needed to leave, they usually had the money to pay for faster transportation anyway. Though, if it were more accessible, perhaps the wilderness would be more inhabited. But would that be a good thing?

The girl's world seemed overrun by humans, few other species able to remain in the face of their absolute reign. In this world, there was much more diversity. Though also much more dangerous. He wondered what most people would think about it. The safety of being on top, or the excitement of being in the middle? He thought most would prefer the safety, very little outweighed one's desire to live.

Electricity seemed interesting to him, not being a replacement for what they already had but a side grade. Mana could probably do anything it could do, perhaps even better. But in a situation where the mana is already being used?

Her memories of the mana in her world were non-existent. John wasn't sure if she just didn't share them, or if they weren't there in the first place. But it made him question how she survived in the world without mana. Did they just require so little mana that they could survive off what was present?

He thought back to the girl, and how she affected the mana around her. He didn't recall her ever pulling in mana, but there was always a sense of power that seemed to ooze from her. He thought it was her auras, but perhaps it was her releasing excess mana? Did her species slowly create mana, filling the air around them with it? If they could do that, then so could he.

He focused inwards, cancelling all of his auras and dropping his mana usage as far as he could. He tried to focus on recycling the air around him, turning it back to mana.

*Ding* Your understanding grows. Level 51.

John smiled.