“Tell me your business in this realm now,” I say as calmly as I possibly can when I see my brothers.

Warren turns around first, then the brothers do.

“Gavin!” Dylan exclaims. “Thank goodness we found you!”

“Explain, before you lose your lives.”

“What’s wrong?” Dylan asks. “We’ve been looking for you, and-” I summon a Magic Bolt, and he pales. “Why are you so hostile to us?”

“After Christopher tried giving me rings with a bounty on them?” I ask. “After lying to me about how the order was dying? Did he think I wouldn’t know he was lying? I told him I had Lie Detection! Now I see two members of the order wandering around town, looking for me? I am not going to allow myself to be fooled.”

“Dad what?” Dylan’s eyes widen in shock. “I swear, Gavin, we had no idea he’d come to you! We’ve been on the run for months!”

“Why?” I ask as Warren walks around them to behind me. The Spirit with him is powerful, now that I’m actively trying to sense it. I’m curious about its Gifts. “Why not run to your daddy and ask him for help?”

“Because he’s the one killing everyone!” Dylan answers. “Dad killed Mom and our brothers! He stripped them of their stats and Affinities, taking what he could for himself to make himself stronger! He went after the rest of the order, and has wiped pretty much all of it out! He’s trying to make himself a Divine! As soon as I realized what was going on, I opened up a Rift and escaped, bringing with me anyone I could. Unfortunately, the only one of us still alive was Eli. We’re running from Dad, Gavin. We can only hope it takes him a long time to realize we’re here. We can’t defend against him – neither of us have access to the System. We came seeking your help. You’re the only other Wizard we know of.”

“Archwizard,” I state. “Level 21 Archwizard. I’ve also reached Level 5 of my Bloodline, but it is so powerful that it had to be bound, lest I suffer ill effects from Leveling it too quickly. If that man is draining people of their power, he will suffer the same ill effects I did, despite his age. He’ll need to rest for awhile.

“That said,” I say. “The two of you need to swear a Blood Oath that you are not my enemies, and are not allied with that man. Prove you are here with pure intent, and I will let you live.”

“I swear,” Dylan says. “On the blood and power that flows within me, I am here seeking refuge and aid from you, and that I am running from our father for fear of my life.”

Eli repeats the swear as Dylan glows with a crimson light touched with Divine power, then the same light glows around him. A sense within me flashes, telling me that they really are running from Christopher, and that they really do want protection and my help. The glow alone confirms it, but this… did the Divine Being that enforces Blood Oaths just confirm it for me? Is he telling me to let them be my allies?

That sense touches me again, Divine power within it.

“It appears,” I say. “That a Divine Being is siding with you on this. I will keep an eye on you, until you can fully prove yourselves. That said, I can’t allow you to run around this world without access to the System.”

“Even going to places with full access,” Dylan says. “We didn’t gain it. You have to be selected to gain it if you’re from a realm that way, and we’re from a realm without access.”

“The Grimoire has a method for granting access.”

I turn and start walking, ordering them to follow me. They do, and Warren sticks by my side.

“What did they swear to you?” He asks.

“That they are not affiliated with my father.”

“The spirits told me that.”

“Elikar?” I ask, and he stops walking. I stop and look at him. “What?”

“How do you know that name?”

“Elikar?” I ask. “Why?”

“That’s the name of the first fairy,” Warren says. “How do you know his name? Humans shouldn’t know it.”

“I can see any buffs my party members have,” I explain. “You have a gift from a spirit named Elikar that’s granting you a thousand-percent bonus to Experience gained from kills.”

Warren’s eyes widen, and he slowly turns his head to where the spirit is hovering.

“You… are Elikar?” He asks.

“You didn’t know the name of the spirit you contracted with?”

“I didn’t contract with him,” Warren says slowly. “He hovers around me, harassing me all the time. He’s the one who unlocked your Spirit Affinity.”

“So the first fairy is a spirit?”

“He was smote by a Divine Being,” Warren nods. “Apparently, that turns you into a spirit. He apparently forgot about Party Leaders being able to see that. He’s now making up various excuses as to why he’s hovering around a kid fairy. He sounds flustered. He better be. Why are you harassing me? You’re an ancient spirit who was the original fairy! Don’t you have better things to do than harass me about my crush on Gavin?”

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Uh… what? He has a crush on me?

I’m… going to pretend I didn’t hear that.

“Let’s return to the inn,” I turn and walk, then speak in Silvar. “Thank you, for unlocking my Spirit Affinity. If you would like to contract with me, I’d be more than happy to feed you Spirit.”

I have plenty of Gifts I can contract with you with, many of which are good for a being of your power and Spirit Pool, though might I recommend waiting until you’ve a fair bit more Spirit? I have Gifts that cost more than three hundred Spirit to cast, and even for those that cost less, it’d be best to not burn up all of your Spirit at once.

“Alright,” I respond. “Do you know of any spirits who would be willing to contract with me?”

Several. Steve. Steve! Get over here. This is Gavin. Contract with him, and be nice about it.

Why?

Ever seen a Divine Nuke before?

Yeah.

Want to be the first spirit contracted to someone who will one day be the first mortal to have the power of a Divine Nuke?

He seems too weak and flimsy for that.

For now. He’ll eventually have that much power. Why, it won’t be too long before he’s going from Archwizard to Mage, I’m sure! Wouldn’t you love the bragging rights of being able to say you were contracted to him before it was a cool thing to do?

I don’t know him well enough to contract with him. You know my standards. Plus, he seems weak and flimsy.

He’s more powerful than almost any mortal you’ve ever seen before.

Pretty sure he’d crumble if I breathed on him.

Nah. He’s tougher than that. And he’s too stubborn to die, too. I know, I’ve tried.

Uh… what?

“You know I can hear you, right?” I ask, and Warren laughs.

“I am so glad they’re doing it to someone else,” he says. “It’s annoying how they’ll forget that they’re allowing us to hear them and start discussing stuff like that. I have to wonder what, exactly, he tried. Especially since a being such as him would be far too powerful for something to just fail. You looked shocked and confused, so I’m sure you didn’t even know.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“That makes it even funnier,” he giggles, and I look back at my brothers.

“Spirits are talking to us,” I say in English. “Or rather… to each other, and forgot that they’re letting us hear them. Well, they stopped, now, but they’re probably still arguing. We’re almost there.”

They nod, and we resume the trip.

Up in my room, I open the Grimoire and go to the page that discusses how to grant access to the System to others.

“If I’m going to grant you two access,” I look at them. “You’ll need to grant me information.”

“Like what?” Dylan asks.

“Do you know the Advancement Quest for Mage?”

“Yeah,” he nods. “Dad couldn’t do it, and he’s power hungry. It’s probably why he’s doing what he’s doing. You have to kill a Scaled Wyvern and complete a Tier II Dungeon solo.”

I am so glad I decided to train Scout these last few days, instead of taking Archwizard up to Level 25. I stopped in the Dungeon after bringing Scout to Level 25 today, even though I probably could’ve worked on Archer a little bit. But I was getting tired, and didn’t want to overexert myself.

“Alright,” I say. “What I want from the two of you, in exchange for access to the System, is knowledge of various magics and Expansion Techniques. Right now, I have Health, Mana, and Spirit. It needs to be good spells, and powerful enough spells, and enough spells.”

“Why?” Dylan asks.

“A Mage can do it without the sacrifice,” I say. “But anyone else requires spending 500 Mana and sacrificing 10 LIF. While it might not seem like much in comparison to my 192 LIF, 20 LIF is a hundred years of a natural lifespan, and more than ten percent of my current Lifespan. Since my Bloodline is locked and I’ve switched my Class Experience over to my other Classes, it’ll take me awhile, especially with Human being almost to Tier II, and while I’ll Level that fast, it’s still a decent sacrifice.”

“Switching where Experience is going?” Dylan frowns. “That’s… not possible. Only inhuman Species can do that.”

“I can do it without a problem,” I say. “Have people actually tried?”

“Yes,” Dylan states. “Dad did, before reaching Level 25 Archwizard, so he could focus on his other Classes. That’s why people take Classes as soon as they’re able, so that they slow down the progress of their Primary Classes and gain other boosts for when they take the Advancements. It’s exclusive to the inhuman Species.”

“Uh,” Warren says. “The spirits are telling me that Gavin shouldn’t be able to do it, and don’t know why he can.”

Really? That’s interesting.

“Though I have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about,” Warren says, and I snort and tell him I’ll explain later.

“What’s your Bloodline?” Eli speaks up for the first time since we reunited, apart from the Blood Oath.

“Same as yours,” I say. “Though since you haven’t unlocked it, let me warn you: don’t bother trying. Mine was bound to prevent me from getting too powerful too fast. It buffs itself, granting plus four hundred percent Experience from most sources each Level, including Level 1, and its stat bonuses are powerful. +25 to all possible stats each Level. Gaining more than one Level to it every few years is dangerous.”

“Yeah,” he nods. “That’s dangerous.”

He’s a lot calmer than he was when we met a year ago. He was a hyper kid who ran into the house and tackled Christopher just to say hello. Now, he’s calm and quiet. What happened to them to cause that?

Then again, I’m a lot different than I was back then, and I didn’t have my family murdered so that my father could grow stronger and try to become a Divine Being.

“Do you have paper?” Dylan asks, and I nod, gesturing to the table where I keep it. “Mind if I use it to write down the spell formulas and what their runes mean?”

“Feel free to,” I sit down on my bed and close my eyes, rubbing my temples.

I haven’t tried expanding my Mana Pool or making it denser these last few days, since my Bloodline was bound. My body has been feeling weird, and my mind’s been hurting a little bit. I need to let it rest, past the boosts I gain from Levels. That’s part of why I decided to focus on my Secondary Classes, instead of Adept of Kar.

And that leads me back to wondering which Divine Being I should ask for a Blessing. I’ve done a little research the last few days, and the ones commonly held by Adventurers who go for them – and succeed – don’t really appeal to me.

As I think about that, my surroundings change, and I find myself in a black space. Apart from a pedestal with a bowl on it – both black – there’s nothing around me, save the smooth black floor and the horizon, where it meets the black nothingness that fills the air.