I dip my quill into an inkwell and once it's drawn in some of the reddish-orange ink from within the small glass jar, I pull it out. The gold-yellow shaft of the quill being so thin as to nearly be translucent makes it easy to tell how much ink is inside, the vane itself nearly the same color as the ink.

With quill and ink ready, I begin drawing on the blank, orange-tinted scroll in front of me. The first part of the process to craft a magic scroll is to draw the center point, which defines the core aspects of the spell and provides connections to the rest. Sitting on a stand is a piece of paper with the scroll spell drawn on it in black ink and pressed between two thin pieces of enchanted glass to keep it upright and flat as I use it as a guide.

It's always better to draw it on a plain piece of paper, with normal ink, first. This is especially true if it's a spell I'm not used to making.

Once I finish the core section, I begin working on the portion which stores and regulates mana. That forms a sort of ring around the central portion and is important for the scroll to work. Every part of it is, but this is the most volatile part as it contains the fuel. Spell scrolls aren't activated by the user supplying the cost. Instead, they're activated by unrolling the paper after it's been sealed once.

The ink used for this section looks the same as the rest but contains a massive amount of mana. That necessitates drawing the section swiftly but accurately to ensure minimal leakage before it's completed and the storage aspect properly begins.

I finish the mana storage and regulation section and use a separate quill for the other ink for the scroll as I start outlining the parameters of the spell. The central portion defines the core aspects, but the area around the mana storage and regulation is what actually creates the parameters. Direction, magic type, shape, distance, strength, and more.

Last but not least, I create the final ring around the spell circle. This will stabilize the scroll so that it lasts a long while instead of simply activating. It also sets the parameters for what can activate the spell.

Once all of that is done, I bind the scroll with a reddish-orange ribbon and seal it with matching wax.

[Scroll of Flamethrower] Tier: 1 A scroll which unleashes a jet of flames to incinerate all within its path. Strength: 20 Magic

This will conjure a flamethrower which flows ten feet in distance when activated.

I set the scroll to the side and begin working on a second. It takes me seven minutes to make one of the scrolls thanks to my experience crafting scrolls in general and I want thirty of these. That time should reduce a little as I get into the patterns during this work session.

"Stay off the table, please," I say during my seventh scroll, and Aster gives me a curious look from where he's positioned to jump up. "If you shake the table or my hands, or knock over the inks, it could cause a disaster. This is delicate work."

Aster lets out a soft whine, then walks over and curls up against my left leg. I'm not sure what he was doing all day, but it seems he's decided to return here. Once I finish the batch of scrolls, I clean up my station and move the scrolls into the shop's stock room, then log them into my database.

The next task for me is to prepare a batch of low-level scrolls for my stock. It's one I've made more than a hundred times, so I already have a template created. I place it between two sheets of glass and set it onto the stand, then head into the basement to grab the appropriate scroll papers before returning to my scroll desk.

"That's alright," I tell Aster as I sit down, and the mouse-form Celestial gives a happy squeak before coming out from behind the inkwells he was peeking out at me from between. "Just make sure you don't move too much."

"Squeak!"

A mouse's squeak doesn't normally sound that much like the word, but I decide not to let the pup know and instead, begin work on this next scroll. With how often I've crafted this scroll before, it takes only three minutes for me to make each one. Even with the quicker work pace, I manage to craft them flawlessly.

This one's page is a pale, cream color with brown ink. Nothing too telling of its design, but many scroll shops catering to novices sell them. It's considered an essential for newbie teams.

[Scroll of Near Paths] Tier: 1 A scroll which reveals the layout of the area around its activation. Strength: 15 Magic Distance: 45'

While this might seem like it's not too useful due to that lower range, this kind of scroll is often used by newer adventurers still learning how to spot the actual entrances to hidden passages. Usually, it's used when they're certain there's a path in the area, and this scroll will even "highlight" on its generated map the locations of the triggers for the hidden passages, if there is one and it's within range.

I craft fifty of these scrolls, then begin working on another, similar one. The paper and ink are identical in appearance but slightly different as this spell is more potent and has a little bit more nuance to it.

[Scroll of Near Paths] Tier: 3 A scroll which reveals the layout of the area around its activation, with its strength dependent on the Magic of the one who activates it. Cost: 50 MP Distance: 3' per 1 Magic, up to 50 Magic (150')

I don't need to bind these with a brown ribbon and wax seal like I did the other one, but I do so anyway. It helps the scrolls keep longer and avoids accidental activations.

"These scrolls are meant as cheaper alternatives," I tell Aster. "To slightly-more experienced parties who can afford them. If I were to make one that can go up to fifty yards on their own, the cost would be $675 for a Tier 1 one. Instead, this one is only $45 at Tier 1."

"Woof?"

He must have forgotten that he's a mouse right now. That actually sounded like a proper dog's "woof", too.

"It's usually better to do something like this as a ring or bracelet or other object," I tell him. "But either way, it's cheaper to create an object that uses the user's own power and MP to activate after a certain level of power. Let me get these put away and logged."

After I do that, I check the time and notice that it's nearly nine in the evening.

"Whoops," I rub the mouse's head. "I got a bit too absorbed in my work today, after brewing up potions and new inks. There was one more scroll I wanted to craft a batch of, if I had the time, but it seems I don't."

"Squeak?" Aster tilts his head to the side.

"I can make one to show you, though," I tell him. "I'll be right back."

I retrieve a single sheet of the correct lilac-colored scroll paper from downstairs, then return to my workshop and spread the scroll on the table. This is one I've crafted enough to have the pattern memorized, though it takes me almost twenty minutes to create it.

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A much more delicate technique is required, especially since the ink I brewed up for it earlier is a lot more potent than I normally make. I do have several of the lower-level version of this scroll in stock, so this was just meant as an addition to my higher-level stock.

When I finish drawing with an ink which resembles liquid lapis lazuli, I present the scroll to Aster.

[Scroll of Find Friend] Tier: 9 A scroll which reveals the location of a friend, with its strength dependent on the Magic of the one who activates it. The user must clearly visualize the friend they wish to locate. Cost: 2,250 MP Distance: 10' per 1 Magic

Not all of my trusted customers and friends are a high enough strength to be running Dungeons of a higher Category than this can survive in. This is something those of a lower Level would find useful – for a comparatively small cost in MP, they can find missing allies in a Dungeon or out in the wilderness.

Important, if said ally might be wounded or trapped.

This one also includes the map-creating feature of the last two scrolls I crafted. Once activated, the runic pattern on it will change and a map will form on the scroll with highlighted markings showing the missing friend, as long as they were visualized properly.

I can make one which updates itself automatically over time and lasts for up to half an hour, except those require even more expensive papers and inks and will cost the user must more MP as well.

This one will cost almost $4,000 to buy, which isn't really much when compared to saving someone's life and how much would be earned from such a hunt in the first place, should someone be running up against monsters worth the scroll's Tier.

Looking at Aster and how sad he seems, an idea comes to me.

With how much I've earned this past week from my hourly rate, commissions, and selling of loot, I can part with this scroll for free and not take a hit to my finances.

"Here," I push the scroll toward Aster, who sniffs it for a moment before looking up at me with his purple mouse eyes. "I'm not sure what the upper limit on range is for this as it never mentions, but I'm sure you'll be able to see if your king is nearby with it. Just… use mana instead of aether, alright? It won't be able to work if you use aether instead."

As a Celestial, he uses aether – which is what all magical energies of the universe originate from. That's a bit too strong for something like this and would simply destroy it when channeled inside.

I'm sure that even a child as ancient as he must be knows how to convert it into mana, though, so the scroll should be fine as long as he does that.

Aster nods, then transforms back into his pup form before placing a paw on the scroll. The blue markings glow, then fade away as the paper takes on the appearance of a starry sky, a violet dot shining in the exact center of it.

Did… it just work to span a part of the universe? I was expecting it to cover maybe the city at the most. There's not a chance the scroll could span part of the universe on its own, something else must have affected it. The only obvious explanation is that Aster did.

He lets out several happy barks, then picks up the scroll in his mouth and vanishes.

Once he's gone, I begin cleaning up my supplies. That scroll actually working is surprising to me, but so is the fact that Aster seemed to have never done something like that before. If the King of the Celestials is missing, then how could a scroll like that locate him? The other Celestials have surely looked for him using their powers before.

Unless… Aster is one of the few who didn't think of something like that and he's just never tried before. He does seem to be more of a child, and the magical communication he uses has a more childlike feel to it. It might be possible that Celestials with older minds have thought about it in the past with varying degrees of success. Since the scroll was clearly altered in some way by the pup, I'm not sure how well it will have actually worked.

As I finish cleaning up, Aster reappears, holding in his mouth a small, clear jar containing a bundle of fur – fur with the dusk-like appearance of the pelt of the King of the Celestials.

[My Fur] Tier: ∞ I gave this to Aster. If you are not he, please return it to where you found him and make a tribute in high-quality meat and sweets. Especially meat. Do not touch without permission. You have been warned.

If the notes on Aster were just a sign that something is able to edit the informational windows, this one's a blatant statement that the King of the Celestials can edit them as he pleases. He's just straight-up giving a warning in this one's informational window.

"That was a short trip for you to see him," I say. "I'd have expected you to hang out with him for awhile. Maybe climb on him a bit."

Aster sighs, but his tail starts wagging like crazy as a message comes to me. Not an image of the King of the Celestials, but a memory of him appearing somewhere, ready to play, only to find the small jar with the big boy's fur in it.

Which means that my scroll probably couldn't detect the King of the Celestials directly. More than likely, he knew it was getting used since he's watching me and deliberately allowed it to locate that little bundle of fur so that Aster would know he's around.

"Is it okay if I touch the fur?" I give Aster a slight rub on the head. "Or is that not allowed?"

The lid of the jar unscrews and plops onto the table. I'm going to assume that's a "yes" so I put my hand out to confirm. Aster turns his head so that the opening of the jar is facing my hand, then tilts the jar a little bit to let the bundle drop onto it.

It's incredibly soft and feels unlike any fur I've ever felt before. I'm barely able to register that before I'm flooded with memories and knowledge.

The universe, in its vastness. All which exists within and outside of it. The pathways which travel through the universe, connecting the various worlds, realms, dimensions, planes, and other together. Animals and monsters of all varieties, from the smallest to the largest and the weakest to the strongest. Peoples of a wide variety, including humans, elves, beastkin, and fairies. Universes forming and ending.

The creation of the Mythic Forest, of a pocket dimension in a place which never existed until then, with not even a nothingness or void present. An island which came to be and an immense tree grown from it, nearly a thousand feet in diameter and several miles in height. Of a lake which formed around it, rivers and streams flowing into and out of it.

Magics mortals could only dream of flow through my mind, knowledge of techniques no human should ever know. The power to create and destroy in absolutes. How to alter anything without knowing the science between the two and have it work as if the change were natural. The flow of time and its secrets, knowledge which allows one to live outside of it.

The images and memories and new information all continue to flash by, picking up speed over and over until they suddenly stop, the last memory feeling much more slow than the rest, as if watched in real time rather than a quick flash.

In this one, I'm staring up at an immense beast with lilac-colored eyes and fur in oranges and yellows and pinks and purples, reminiscent of the skies at dawns and dusks. It lowers its head toward me and I lift up my hand, touching its muzzle with my tiny baby hand. We're on a field of dry, dead dirt with a faint fog all around and thicker fog in the distance, the corpses of goblins scattered around without a mark on their remains.

Just as quickly as the flood of memories and knowledge came, it disappears. I don't retain any of the knowledge I suddenly acquired through the rush, just a lingering awareness of what I did know. Most of the memories are gone as well, but the remnants of them remain.

Along with the awareness of just how vast existence itself is… and that Celestials can exist outside of it, as illogical as that sounds.

That last memory, though… was that me at the time I was found in the Dungeon? Or rather, right before then? Something about that memory felt more personal than the rest, as if it were my own rather than that of another being.

If I'm right, then I've actually met the King of the Celestials before. He felt… almost fatherly in the way he moved during the memory.

I look at Aster, who's moved the fur back into the jar and screwed the cap back on. Him moving it must have been what cut off the flow of knowledge and memories.

While I don't still have the magical knowledge I received during that flood, I do know a few things now. One of those is just how much power the Celestials have. A being with a childlike mind like Aster's, but the power to alter matter on a fundamental level, is dangerous.

Yet he uses it to change his form and travel between worlds and dimensions and such. I suppose his interests are more in eating and playing than causing problems or creating universes.

"The King of the Celestials," I say, and Aster looks up at me with a slight tilt of his head. "He's a very kind being, isn't he?"

Aster nods, his tail wagging happily. I think my encounter with the big boy is why I survived in the Dungeon I was abandoned in – he may have been the one who killed the goblins and shielded me.

I'm feeling a bit dizzy, though, so trying to remember more about our meeting will have to wait. Food and rest is more important.

"Come on, Aster," I say. "Let's head up to my house now."