A.N.- If you're reading this story on anything but Royal Road, someone has thieved it!!
So, go to Royal Road and read it there! It is undoubtedly more awesome there!
Joram had a thought. It wasn’t a new one, but it was something that kept slipping to the back of his mind as other, more pressing, issues came to the fore.
‘Altaea?’, Joram sent through their connection. The network, as he called it, was so useful.
‘Yes?’ Altaea sent back.
‘Have you noticed that there aren’t really any animals about?’
Altaea glanced at him from where she was watching his favourite space opera about space wizards.
‘Hmmm, yes,’ she sent back. Something in her tone gave him pause.
Though, some days it was like puling teeth to get her to engage in conversation. Did he want to keep this one going,,,?
‘Why do you suppose that is?’, he sent back, trying very hard to concentrate. If he could sweat, he would be.
‘Probably because all the monsters kill them off.’
What the what?! Joram thought as he lost his balance and fell over, just barely managing to touch the post he’d been balancing on to slow his fall so that he wouldn’t break something.
Altaea audibly chuckled, somehow managing to make it sound like the most amazing sound in the world. He really needed to learn how to do that… But she was what she was, a being of unfathomable grace and beauty.
‘But where are the monsters?’ He sent and immediately regretted asking when he saw the glint in her eyes.
Yup, he should have kept quiet.
***
Half an hour later, Altaea was watching Joram as he ran from a screaming goat. Now she would normally find the sight hilarious, who wouldn’t? But it was not a normal goat that was chasing him.
For one, it was much larger than a normal goat had any right to be, closer to the size of a small horse. For another, it screamed. Not just a loud “BAAAAH” or some such. No, it screamed like a human; a human that was being murdered. Maybe like a banshee? Well, it sounded like that, but without the horrible side-effects one would normally associate with a banshee’s wail.
The other thing to note was that had very sharp and pointy teeth… that could chew through rocks and bite through steel.
Joram had unfortunately discovered that last fact when he had tried to block a bite with his bracers and it took a chunk out of not only his bracer, but his arm.
Still, though, he seemed to be doing well enough.
Sure, he looked as though he was running for his life, and the probably was, but was also using the terrain to his advantage, like slipping behind a large boulder to give himself the time to manifest a power; this time [Ectoplasmic Cocoon].
Altaea smiled as the goat failed to dodge this time and watched as it tumbled to the ground and slid to a stop in front of him.
‘What in the nine hells was that?!’ Joram sent, even sounding winded through their connection.
‘I call it a Murder Goat, but that is probably wrong. Who knows?’ She sent as she also sent a wave of healing through their connection, watching him as he healed at a miraculous rate.
‘Please tell me that we’re not finding more of them today?’
Altaea briefly thought of it then shook her head. ‘No, we’ll head back so you can practice more.’
A flood or relief came through their connection and Altaea had to stifle a sigh. For all that Joram learned quickly and progressed at an amazing rate, he wasn’t very… comfortable with live combat.
Sparring with her? No issues. Sure, he tried his hardest to actually hit her, but it was just sparring. For all he tried, he knew that he really couldn’t hurt her, so there was a kind of psychological safety net there.
That’s why she’d finally decided to bring him a fair distance down the mountain; for some real fighting experience. Well, baby steps as they say.
***
Joran sighed with relief as they walked back up the mountain. That goat-thing had been terrifying. Was it some sort of aberration or magical beast? How could something like that evolve naturally? He didn’t know of a single creature from back home that could chew steel up like that. Then eat it.
Then he froze as he heard another shriek behind him. He looked over his shoulder and just about cursed.
“Why is it chasing us?!” Joram demanded as his head swung towards Altaea.
“How should I know?” She asked with a note of reproach in her voice. “It is obviously not a grazing animal. Likely predatory in nature, so it will hunt down what it views as prey.”
Joram was too tense to sigh, the damn goat was closing the distance to them faster than he would have liked. He took a couple of deep breaths and focussed his mind, trying to get the timing right.
One failure later and the goat was once again wrapped up in a cocoon of ectoplasm, laying prone just a few metres away from him.
“So, are you going to finish it off this time?” Altaea asked, giving him The Look.
The thing was: he had always thought that it would be easy to kill an animal. Intellectually speaking, it should be. In a live setting, it was completely different. He could hear it trying to scream, but it instead only managed to make a horrific bleating moan through its breathing hole in the cocoon. Specifically, the nostrils.
He didn’t want to try to do something like push a pointy object through the breathing hole, as that would be just… Blargh! He thought of stuffing something over the breathing hole to suffocate it; but that sounded rather cruel… and would take way too long anyway...
About the only other thing he would do was to mentally destroy its brain.
That didn’t sound all that appealing either, but it did just barely beat out suffocation as the chosen form of execution.
It was surprisingly easy to kill it like that. Too easy. He needed a breather. He could feel each mental assault burst through its defenses and physically damage its brain. That wasn’t a pleasant thing to feel.
Altaea waited as Joram collected himself. He appreciated the quiet. He was still, after all, an introvert even with spending so much time with Altaea. Indeed, just being around only one person was much easier than, say, a few people.
Not that he minded the company, and he did indeed enjoy it quite thoroughly (minus the insane training regimen), but he was someone who recharged his mental batteries by doing something alone. And quietly.
It didn’t take them long to get back to the plateau where they resided. It was a pretty normal place, if you ignored the stone dome in the middle of the area; and the Olympian-level obstacle course. No, he wasn’t referring to a peak athletic course used by the world’s best human athletes. No, he was referring to the ancient Greek gods of Olympus. The thing was insane.
All his training, fourteen hours a day of grueling mental and physical exercises that left him a metaphorical puddle on the ground by the end of the day. The only reason why he had been able to keep up such an insane training routine was that Altaea was nice enough (or was it masochistic enough?) to wash away just enough of the fatigue throughout the day for him to keep going.
Two full months and he was barely able to manifest third level powers.
Heh. “Just”. Some would say that his progress was miraculous. Others would say that he’d never be able to do it on his own. They would both be right.
If not for Altaea personally overseeing his training, not to mention the “instruction manual” that she’d implanted in his mind that gave him the instinctual knowledge of what he needed to focus his training on, he would definitely just be your average High Elan.
He had to laugh at that: “average”. As far as he knew, you could count on one hand the number of High Elans in existence. And still have room.
He smiled as he watched Altaea walk ahead of him. Was his life torturous beyond anything that he could have imagined before arriving in this realm? Hands down, yes. Was it worth it? No question there.
Was it all about learning how to do mystical kung-fu like things? Nope. Was it all about learning to harness the powers of his now formidable psyche? Nope. He also had mundane homework.
Mundane in the sense of remembering everything he could of the sciences he had learned back home and teaching it all to Altaea. Now, it wasn’t much at this point, but then there were all the practical assignments that she would throw his way.
Aluminum? Easy enough to talk about. Harder to recreate a non-magical or non-psionic way of extracting the abundant metal from the earth. Especially if you didn’t want to have an excess of toxic waste left behind.
Then he had to share every single way that his world had found to use aluminum. Soda can? Yup. That pot over there? Yup. Though it was a cheaper pot. Translucent aluminum? Yes. That had blown her mind. Who knew that mixing aluminum into a ceramic mix, firing it stupid hot, then polishing it would result in a clear product? A very tough product.
Yay for his hoarding of random stuff!
Things like that. Sure, he remembered the labs he’d taken in university level chemistry, never mind the easier high school-level experiments. But Altaea demanded that he push himself with what he knew of the physical world.
He suspected that it would somehow help him with his psionic studies; help him to more easily control the world around him with his mind… But he also suspected that she just loved to learn new things and explore the world around her.
Heck, he’d had to practically twist her arm (figuratively speaking as he had no doubt that she could snap him like a twig just by sneezing at him) to get her to show him how to make magic items. The ever useful [Craft: Wondrous Item].
Now that was incredibly useful. Being able to make various utility items was almost infinitely useful. That is, if he could figure out how to go beyond the basics. As it stood, he knew the theory behind it, but it hadn’t quite clicked yet. But it would be supremely useful, especially after she had revealed to him the process by which Dust was created.
He was also still working on that…
Long story short, Dust was able to reduce the time needed to craft an item. Not to mention replacing the sometimes incredibly rare reagents needed to craft said item.
But that was also something he was working on: being able to substitute your typical reagents needed in crafting most items. Like, what did wyvern blood actually add to the process? Was it some peculiar mana trait? Or was it just the minerals found in the blood? Further investigation and experimentation needed.
Not that he was an expert or anything, but he just had an inkling that it could be done. If he could somehow attach the matrix of the enchantment to the item…
He snapped out of his musings when Altaea called to him.
“I think it is about time to help you to merge with your ring,” she said as she stood beside her table, idly twirling something on the table that he couldn’t quite see.
“Really?” Joram asked, eyes brightening. “I mean, sure! Let’s do this!”
He regretted his words as he saw that sparkle in her eyes.
Why do I always fall for that?
***
Altaea smiled down at Joram as he sat in a wooden reclining lawn chair, with comfy cushions made from the same stuff as foam mattresses, that she had made to sunbathe in. She could tell that he was nervous and would likely have been sweating if he could actually sweat.
“Now, don’t worry, it won’t hurt one bit,” Altaea said with her most reassuring smile. “If you recall, the process was painless for me after all.”
Joram blinked up at her and tried to give her, what he probably thought of as, a confident smile.
Sure, the process had been somewhat… uncomfortable, but far from painful.
“This will allow you to do all but a couple of things that I can inherently do. Well, the things associated with the ring anyway,” she amended. “It will allow you to more easily absorb and release magic items and magical substances. It will also allow you to change between forms with but a thought,” she held up a hand to forestall him. “You only have one form right now, but that is enough. Next, it will allow you to use your force of personality as a defensive measure, deflecting attacks from you.”
Joram grinned, then asked: “What about the storage component? You know, like being a walking bag of holding?”
Altaea nodded, frowning slightly at the crude comparison. “That will come a bit later once you learn the proper augments for [Genesis],” she replied. “For now, we will concentrate on what I just outlined.”
Joram raised his hand.
“But,” she once again forestalled him, “you will not get a second form any time soon. We both know how difficult it was for Dr Gally to create that elixir, and I don’t really have the know-how to replicate it, even after all this time.”
Joram seemed to droop, but also looked relieved at the same time. She couldn’t blame him; she had barely survived the elixir when she had taken it. It had been a gamble that had barely paid off.
“That said, the ring will keep your base form in its ‘memory’, just in case,” she explained. “Just like what happened to me.”
Joram’s eyes brightened. “So, if I somehow get horribly mutated, the ring would have my original form and I could get ‘cured’?”
Altaea blinked. “Well, yes. But it isn’t an easy process to revert, nor is it a pleasant one.”
“Suffer a horrible mutation for the rest of my natural life vs a not-so-pleasant experience…” he trailed off, holding up his hands like they were the scales on a balance.
Altaea snorted. “That’s fair.”
Joram grinned.
“OK, let’s get started,” Altaea said as she directed Joram to recline in the chair and close his eyes. She then picked up the item that she’d been playing with.
After a moment of staring at it, admiring how it caught the light, Altaea placed the swirling crystal on his forehead.
She had told a minor lie there, a mere shaving of a hair. She didn’t know how to make the elixir Dr Gally had given her, but she knew how to make an incomplete version, one that combined only half of what was in the original. No positive or negative elemental heritage for him!
No, it wouldn’t change him… right away. That was for when he figured out how to augment [Genesis] in the way needed to finish his transformation. Plenty of time to talk about it then.
Altaea smiled. Maybe, just maybe, Joram could be that one person…
Shaking her head to rid herself of peripheral thoughts, Altaea began.
***
Joram didn’t now how to describe the sensation.
Upon closing his eyes, he had immediately focussed on his body, mind, and soul, watching for any change, feeling for anything.
What he had gotten was beyond him.
The change radiated from his ring finger, quickly washing over his entire being. His body… tingled. It felt as if every cell in his body was both bursting with energy and having their cellular membranes fortified. There was something else, but he couldn’t quite understand what was happening as his internal perception was still lacking.
His soul, now that was interesting, for all he couldn’t perceive it well, nor really understand it. It… shifted. That was the only word he had for it. The ephemeral glow that always radiated from it didn’t change, but changed. His understanding was too shallow, and that was beyond disappointing. He made a mental note to do more soul-searching. Heh.
Then came the shift in his mind. If felt like additional… options had opened-up in him. That really wasn’t very descriptive, but at the same time, was.
If he could put it in a simpler term, a new app was added to the OS that was his consciousness at the same time as a system update had occurred, right after the BIOS update. He knew things had changed, but without a changelog to help him along, it would take him a while to figure out all the changes that had taken place.
Then things started to fall into place. Things started clicking.
How enchantments anchored themselves in the objects they were used on, how those enchantments needed to be structured, even how to implant knowledge, personality, intelligence into and item! How every particle of magic interacted with other magic and outside forces!
Well, maybe that last was an exaggeration, but the feeling of epiphany was the biggest rush that he’d ever felt in his life! The feeling of understanding was… wondrous.
Then he chuckled to himself. That’s probably what drugs did for people. Or maybe not. Who knows?
Soon enough the process was over, and he opened his eyes, then blinked.
It was now dark outside, and not just a little, but full night-time. Not that the darkness bothered him with his new sight, but much more time had passed than he’d thought. He absently reached over and began to spin the ring on his ring finger, then realized it was missing.
“How do you feel?” Altaea asked from beside him, that beautiful smile adorning her face.
He smiled, forgetting the ring and just enjoyed the moment, then answered. “Forty-two.”
Altaea blinked, then swatted him on the back of the head.
***
Altaea watched as Joram ran laps around their little dome, arms fully extended out from his sides, each hand holding a metal weight, a large metal shell on his back.
He even had enough breath to mutter something about “Master Roshi”. Maybe she was going to easy on him?
She had been looking forward to speaking with him after she had finished, enjoying a moment together and speaking of things inconsequential and profound. Of sharing insights and understandings.
Nope. How could he have managed to so completely ruin that moment? It must be some sort of hidden [Talent] or something.
Or maybe just a biproduct of being so young?
Sure, he was over forty years old, forty-two to be exact. Maybe that had also been part of his pun? Meaning that some sort of understanding came in that coincidental year of his life?
Either way, the moment had been ruined and she was more disappointed than she cared to admit to herself. The worst thing was that she wasn’t sure if it was because of what he had said, or her reaction to it.
One thing she hadn’t told him was that it had taken three and a half days to complete the process. She was, quite frankly, old and had not a little bit of pride in her. So, telling him that it took longer than expected because this was her first time doing this, not to mention just how complex it was…. Well, the pride in her refused such a thing.
Then again, he would likely see the date change on his phone or computer when he next used one.
Sigh.
Once Joram finished his laps she mentally called him over and let him know how long it took, and why.
He only blinked and shrugged, saying that that was understandable.
They then got to talking as they sat across from each other, Altaea in her recliner, Joram in one of those camping chairs, arms hanging limply at his sides, the metal shell laying on the ground behind him.
… and Altaea was impressed. His understanding was astounding, bordering on savant. Altaea envied him then. It had taken her much longer to understand herself and her psionic nature after her own… procedure.
Sure, she was a paladin at the time, focussed on saving the universe with her companions, with no time for any real introspection. She had just taken everything that she could to get stronger and went with it, not bothering to think much on things.
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Until she had been forced to.
With a mental shake of her head, Altaea got back to the conversation at hand.
Through his observation of the process, he had gained an epiphany: his own words. And it was. He had somehow managed to glean several truths as he underwent the transformation. Wondrous item creation? Check. Understanding how to create intelligent items and psicrystals? Check.
She was looking forward to seeing him when he finally figured out how to start the process of creating his first psicrystal. The process of creating a psicrystal was as much a conscious action as it was an unconscious one. Initially forming it was generally a very conscious effort, but he was a bit different as he hadn’t learned how to create one in the more traditional way. Namely, reading a book.
Much like if your psicrystal was destroyed, you didn’t need to focus on recreating it, you merely waited for it to form again as it was an unconscious process. It just happened. But it still needed that initial push to form it the first time.
Altaea smiled as the conversation wound down. This was what she had been yearning for. This quiet time where she could just talk with someone who wasn’t afraid of her power, her authority. Someone who just enjoyed speaking and being with her.
It had been so long…
When she noticed the peculiar look that Joram was giving her she cleared her throat.
“Well, it looks like you’re ready for your next bit of training: crafting!” She said with a smile.
Joram perked up at that. “What will we start with?” He asked excitedly.
“Well, I do remember you mentioning that you had dreamed of becoming a blacksmith one day, so I thought we could start there.”
Altaea felt her heart warm as she watched Joram’s eyes sparkle.
***
The first bit of blacksmithing training consisted of learning theory. Things like the melting point of various elements, the composition of various alloys, and more chemistry than one would initially think of when picturing a blacksmith pounding metal with a hammer.
Well, maybe not for him. It had been an on-and-off hobby of his to not only watch online videos of smiths in action, but to study a bit of metallurgy. So, yes, he knew just how much chemistry affected metalworking.
The first day in the newly built forge had been torturous.
Mentally, he knew that his new body was much better at dealing with extreme heat. But on the other side of that coin, he was also hung up on decades of trying to keep as cool as possible to avoid heat exhaustion and the inevitable heat stroke that followed it.
Sure, he had worked in a foundry pouring molten iron into molds with only a face-shield, a long-sleeved cotton shirt, a leather apron, and some leather gloves for heat protection (well, cotton pants too, but that was obvious). Fun fact: small amounts of splashing iron beaded up quickly as it flew through the air and would generally bounce off a cotton shirt and pants. No flames unless it fell into your shirt pocket or something.
Yup, that sucked.
Back in the present, Joram held the glowing iron with his tongs while he hammered the metal, trying to elongate it before it cooled too much and had to be reheated in the furnace.
Yup, a furnace, similar to what modern blacksmiths used. Except Altaea had had fun with the design.
It was a large, flat, rectangular box. She had made the body from heat resistant bricks, all fused together with [Modify Matter]. It was four feet wide, four feet long, but only two feet tall (ah, the joys of growing up in Canada where you learned both the imperial and metric systems). She had put sliding metal doors on the front to help keep the heat in, both to make the heating process faster and to keep the workspace cooler for him. She really didn’t care about such mundane things like temperature.
Envy.
Back to the furnace! Joram was impressed with the complexity of the enchantments used on it. Not that a heating enchantment was complex or anything. It was the manual dials, and even a display that showed not only the temperature inside the furnace but the temperature of whatever was placed inside that she had added.
Yup, he had a long way to go with enchantments, epiphany notwithstanding.
And time passed as Joram hammered and Altaea gave him pointers and taught him the subtle techniques used to shape the metal to the image in your mind.
Because it didn’t really matter what you made, all things branched from the base techniques that Altaea taught him. Down one branch, you learned to adjust to bronze. Down another, you learned to adjust for steel. So on and so forth.
Before he knew it, winter came in with the abruptness of an uninvited guest.
So, while Altaea didn’t mind the cold, they both knew that Joram did, along with his plants. So Altaea spent a few days playing with the heater and thermostat in the apartment while Joram continued practicing.
It wasn’t long before their little mountain was covered in snow. Not just that nice, light, sprinkling of snow that some places got that melted shortly after. No, this was proper mountain snow. The paths were almost knee-deep in the stuff, not mentioning how high the drifts had gotten, or how high it had piled up on the sides of their buildings.
‘Joram?’
‘Yes.’
‘I know that it is pretty easy for me to fly about, not to mention teleporting here and there,’ she started. ‘But I imagine that walking through all of this snow must be difficult for you.’
‘What? Nah. I’m from the land of wind and snow, this is nothing!’ He sent, full of bravado.
‘Oh?’
The tone alone almost achieved a biological impossibility in him: sweat.
‘You know? I could practice with shaping my astral constructs. You know, turn one into a snow plough...’ Joram sent with is second-best smile, trying to hide his nervousness.
Altaea seemed to relax a bit. ‘That would indeed be good practice,’ she sent as she looked out the window.
The dome was still there, but they had added an open doorway on the east side, directly across from his patio door. His actual “front door” was what led to what had been the hallway of his apartment building. Now? Now it just led north or south until it ended, but it also held a part of the apartment across the hall. Not that there had been much of interest there, and Altaea had just sort of turned the hallway into a closed space, with new doors to the north and south.
The portion of the apartment across the way? Well, Altaea had taken the materials from it and recycled them. They all now sat in a neat pile in the hallway, along with the piles of quintessence that he’d gathered.
The apartment upstairs? Another storage area now. The neighbours had, thankfully, been out when Altaea had… arrived. There hadn’t been anything particularly interesting in the apartment (even if it hadn’t been squished flat by the collapsed ceiling) so she had also recycled what she could, gathering various materials together for future use.
Heh. Altaea really put the true definition to the word “recycle”. With her new knowledge of chemistry and the periodic table, she was able to separate and then reform various substances. Broken glass? Now they had glass bricks waiting to be used. Framing that had been smashed to splinters? Now a nice pile of lumber. So on and so forth.
He really did enjoy watching her as she worked, trying to see what she did and figuring out how to do it.
Shortly after that, he found himself experimenting with the various forms of astral constructs that he could make.
It wasn’t easy, but with inspiration from his world he managed to do it before his energy was completely sucked dry. But now he had one finished construct, but another dozen or so “failed” attempts just sitting around, waiting to expire.
With a shrug, he gave them the mental command to clear away the snow and to dump the excess down the slope. They all got moving and worked at their communal task, with varying degrees of success.
Good enough. Joram thought to himself as he went back to the workshop, wondering if he could also make himself some Winter Boots. Would be handy, not having to worry about trudging through snow or being exposed to the elements… A project for another day!
***
While Joram tinkered about, Altaea pondered the mysteries of the, well, world she-they found themselves in.
They had already been here for almost three months, yet she still felt that she was no closer to the answers she sought.
She really wanted to go out and explore the world, tease out its secrets, but she was loath to leave Joram by himself before he managed to complete his training. If those rock titans were the bar for the creatures in this realm, then she wasn’t even sure Joram could survive venturing out and about by himself.
With a frown, Altaea began running through as many possibilities as she could think of, and that was a lot. But in a matter of minutes, she stopped and made a vexed sound.
However many scenarios she went over in her head, they all led to her needing to leave Joram at some point. Some had her leaving sooner rather than later, but it was basically all the same.
She knew that she could keep Joram in her collective wherever they were in relation to one another (even if he was in the next star system over!) but she also didn’t want to cripple his growth by being a crutch.
So, a clean break then. Knowing him, it would be harder being able to speak to her long-distance. She didn’t want to cause him undue stress, nor hold back his development by having him constantly thinking about her.
With that particular quandary behind her, Altaea worked on the next one: his training.
If she had to leave then she really didn’t want to leave him hanging, as he would put it.
Another smile.
Yes, the solution would be to prepare… something. Similar to a Crystal Mind, but not as… rigid. Maybe something like one of those holographic devices those space wizards used? Something to teach him, answer his questions, guide him as he learned. Yes, that would work. She could also queue up all sorts of knowledge into the artifact, allowing them to imprint into his mind when he was able to use them. Heck, she could even use it to store all of her accumulated psionic knowledge, just in case…
As Altaea thought about it more and more, she realized that it would be a colossal undertaking. But who was she?
Altaea Serephina Potentia, a goddess!
Well, one of greatly diminished power. If Joram was correct in what he thought had happened to her, then there were at least fourteen other versions of herself scattered across the multiverse, all in a similar situation as hers.
Another thing that gave her pause. If he was right about her and her story, then the dreams should start soon. He’d been particularly hesitant in sharing anything beyond what had already happened to her, but she’d managed to tease at least that out.
It was all so very… complex. She wasn’t sure what to think of Joram and his rather… extensive knowledge of her and her life, nevermind everything else about her.
What sort of connection did they share? Was it just some sort of astronomically far-fetched coincidence that he even knew that she existed, nevermind everything else?
Sure, Joram was a good guy. A rather normal human until she’d agreed to his request. But was there more to him than met the eye? How did he know all of what he knew?
He’d even shown her stories that he’d written of her, most unfinished. Did that mean that when they’d met, that that was how far he’d been able to “see”? He claimed not to know more, but she was almost certain that he did, and didn’t want to share, possibly due to a “paradox” that might occur. What that paradox was, he didn’t know, but he didn’t want to risk the possibility.
What she did know, though, was that some of the stories he’d written of her were tied to the pop-culture of his world. Did his whole world sit on some sort of cosmic nexus-point that allowed the residents of that world to see into other worlds/realms/universes?
It was all rather complicated, and quite frankly, beyond her at the moment.
But what she did know was that if/when the dreams came, if Joram was to be believed, she’d have more answers. Would they be the kinds of answers that she wanted? Or would they shake the foundations of everything that she thought she knew?
Because, the last thing she’d teased out of him about the “dreams”, visions would probably be a better word for them, was that knowledge would eventually begin to flow between herself and her other “selves”.
If the locations of her other selves that Joram spoke of were accurate, then she’d have some really fun stuff to play with.
Another sigh.
Altaea looked up at the sky and breathed in the mana rich air. Her next few projects would need a lot of resources. She would have to set up some Dust Condensers if she was going to succeed.
So, she got to work.
***
As it usually does, time passed on. For some it is slow as molasses in winter, for others a blur.
The duo continued their respective work and training, putting forth their best efforts, and they managed to surpass their limits from time-to-time.
Joram grew daily, either in learning various trades or in his gestalt class training. He eventually created his psicrystal, briefly wondering why it sounded somewhat like a snooty, British, butler. All things considered, it wasn’t as odd as it could have been and so he continued his daily life; training, studying, and meditating.
Altaea set up her Dust Condensers on the peaks of the surrounding mountains and checked on them daily, making sure that nothing disturbed the process. She also got to work on her Altaea V.I., as she liked to call it. She really enjoyed the “sci-fi” genre and gained much inspiration from the marvelous works.
One of the side projects she worked on was a magic version of an “omni-tool”. But only when Joram wasn’t around, otherwise, she was certain, he would pester her constantly about getting one of his own.
Not that she wouldn’t eventually give him one, or rather, the schematics for one, but she really didn’t want to deal with his enthusiasm while she worked. Not to say that she didn’t enjoy that about him, but she just didn’t have the time for the distractions, and delays, that it would bring. He would definitely turn “fanboy” on her.
As they worked, winter slowly deepened, then began to recede. It was amazing to see the versatility in the [Astral Construct]s that Joram made. He was, quite frankly, a natural.
Altaea was also pleased with Joram’s crafting progress. He was now able to craft decent weapons, armour, and various other tools, had figured out how to enchant weapons and armour, as well as how to construct an actual golem. But the most important part was when he learned [Genesis] and began to study the profound intricacies of that power.
Not the [Genesis] that people learned these days, a bare shadow of what it used to be; but the one she had learned from Dr Gally way back when. This version was what she considered the “true” version of the power. It didn’t just fade away after a short time, like some trumped up cubby-hole in the astral or ethereal plane. No, this one stayed. And grew.
If left alone long enough, the size of a created space could get to be the size of, well, a planet.
That said, that would take an absurdly long time to develop to that size… if someone wasn’t constantly working on it. Even then…
Well. Soon. Soon she could help him with his last step in becoming like her. Well, not the last-last step, but close enough. Soon he would be a “walking bag of holding”, as he so quaintly, and erroneously, called it.
Then winter ended, much to their relief due to their desire for more frequent sunshine.
Altaea watched as Joram went from smithing to sculpting to weaving and even alchemy. It was nice to see him taking such an interest in crafting, though she didn’t let him slack off in his other training.
Another year passed as Joram trained and Altaea worked on her projects, trying to fine-tune everything just so.
She’d managed to get him to a decent level in not only his class, but also in the various skills she thought he’d need along the way.
Sure, good cardio could get you out of many-a dangerous situation, but knowing how to sneak about quietly, or even hide, could save you even more trouble, and possibly your life.
Then there were what she called the “social skills”. That was both a pleasure to teach and an amazingly profound source of headaches. It took her nearly the entire first year to drill social graces, diplomacy, and such into his very thick head.
The man was ridiculously stubborn and getting him to acknowledge that knowing how to bow properly was quite possibly one of her greatest achievements in life to date.
Which was depressing.
Other areas were a pleasure to teach. He took a shining to Crystal Minds like a bee to flowers. They were handy, sure, but she wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about them as he was. Sure, one could take their accumulated knowledge and “upload” them onto/into a Crystal Mind and just access the information later as though it were still in your head.
Crystal Minds had been quite popular amongst her people as they were a much more durable, space efficient alternative to books and tomes which could get rather tedious to upkeep over the centuries.
Anyway, Joram had taken a good month making Crystal Minds of his entire library of physical books, but had stopped once he got to his digital collection due to her threatening to ground him.
Yes, grounding. Taking away his toys if he didn’t do his homework. Not her finest moment, but he really did need to concentrate on his training rather than getting distracted. Though, she did approve when he had shown her Crystal Minds of the various trades he’d learned from her. She knew that sometimes you just needed to clear your mind before you learned something new, and quite literally clearing it out for new knowledge by putting it into a Crystal Mind was particularly effective.
That way he’d managed to learn craft after craft, skill after skill, while keeping a fresh mind that was ready to absorb new information and after finishing each one, he absorbed (or as he loved to call it: assimilated) each Crystal Mind so that he could “access” the information at any time.
Why hadn’t she thought of that all those years ago…?
Sigh.
-
It was then getting late in summer again, almost two years after they’d arrived, when she felt a great surge of triumph over the network - he had corrupted her into calling it that, and indeed, knowing what the term actually meant, “network” was more appropriate - that usually meant he’d accomplished a great task.
So, she put away her latest project and teleported down to the meditation grounds that they had later added; after Joram had learned [Manipulate Matter] of course. It was much better to work for what you got.
Altaea grinned.
Well, most things. Gifts were a valid thing after all.
***
“I did it!” Joram called out to Altaea as she teleported in, a happy smile on her face.
“Yes, very good sir. Very impressive.”
“Shut up Jeeves,” Joram told his psicrystal as he dismissed Jeeves’ legs and stuffed him into a pocket.
Altaea’s eyes crinkled with amusement as she watched him, and he couldn’t help but blush a bit.
Clearing this his throat, he continued. “I figured out the augments for [Genesis]!” He said, unable to keep the huge smile from his face.
“Let me see,” Altaea said as she closed her eyes.
Joram could feel her mind touch his through their connection. He waited as she inspected the patterns in his mind that made up the power. He was quite nervous, he might add.
Hours seemed to pass as he waited, probably only minutes. But it was almost too long by the time Altaea finally opened her eyes and regarded him seriously.
“You’re sure you have it right this time? Because you really don’t want to get this wrong,” she asked, seriousness etched on her face.
Joram paused, hoping to get an inkling of something across the network, but nothing. Her mind was an impenetrable fortress. He gulped.
“Yes…?”
Altaea kept a straight face for another four seconds before she cracked a grin.
“Well done,” she said, a full smile now on her face.
Joram sagged in relief. It was so hard getting a read on her when she didn’t want you to know or see something.
“Should we get started?” He asked, his excitement barely contained.
Altaea shook her head gently. “We can do it in the morning after we’ve both rested. We’ll need it.”
Joram sagged a bit but nodded. “True. It’s not like it will be easy.”
“For you, maybe,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “Come, show me what you’ve been working on,” she said as she held her hand out for him to take.
His heart skipped a beat, but he hurriedly took her hand and showed her around the workshop.
It had grown since it was first created, first having a section added where he learned to carve and sculpt, then another section where he had learned to weave, and yet another for alchemy – with ample ventilation.
Well, not a workshop in the traditional sense anyway. By the time he got to those interests he had already learned [Matter Manipulation], so the work areas wound up being more a series of tables, bins to hold raw materials, and shelves to hold the finished product.
For his weaving, he had started with the fur of the murder goats and slowly worked his way up the scale. Now, he had a small field where he grew, with [Grow], several fibrous plants that he used for practice. It was an amazing power that he’d made. At first it had only allowed him to accelerate the grow of the plants, but as he experimented with augmenting the power, he had found that he could slowly alter the properties of the plants it was used on.
Yay for a psionic way to genetically alter plants!
Sigh.
One of the first things that he’d done was to make sure that they couldn’t reproduce in any way. No pollen, no seeds, and no spreading through its roots. The only way was to take a cutting from the plant and to use [Grow] on it to get it going.
Anyway! They had even gone on many expeditions to find other materials they could use for his weaving and had found, amongst other things, some massive spider webs.
That had been an experience. The bloody spiders had been the size of horses! Then the brood mother had come out. If he had been able to soil himself, his bowels would have surely done so at that point, because the beast was the size of a two-storey house; and that was just its body!
Joram shuddered at the memory and got a reassuring squeeze from Altaea. He smiled.
He had never really been afraid of spiders growing up, but neither had he gone out of his way to play with them. Nevermind diving into an over-sized nest of them…
If he’d been able to dream, he’d have likely had nightmares. So. Much. Ichor.
But! It had provided copious amounts spider silk! He still had a pile of it that he wanted to try hardening, to make it more durable. After removing the adhesive properties of course.
But he had made good progress. There were rows upon rows of shelving holding anything from a butter knife to a claymore, a knee pad to a set of full-plate armour, from a horseshoe to, well, you got the idea. And that was just the smithy section.
In the sculpting section he had used anything from wood to stone to gems to metals. There were even several pieces of scrimshaw made from the remains of several vanquished monsters that roamed the mountains.
His favourite pieces were the ones carved of his favourite stone. He wasn’t particularly good at identifying the various types of stone found in these parts, but Altaea told him it was a kind of marble. Whatever it was, it was gorgeous.
He had seen videos of how marble was mined, all focussing on the high-demand pure white marble. This stuff, though white, had veins of blue ranging to indigo and back running through it. Now, that wasn’t the best part: it was that the veins of colour shifted from blue to indigo and back, seemingly at random. It was, quite simply, stunning. Magical stone for the win!
But for most of his practice he used some standard white marble, not wanting to potentially waste the precious variant. With all of his practice, his little shop was full of his creations. He had even brought a few pieces outside to decorate their plateau. He’d even made a rock garden!
Over in the weaving room, there were bolts of cloth of various thread-counts. The oldest “rolls” of fabric made burlap sacks seem like the height of luxury.
It didn’t take him long to get better, and the quality just keep improving as he got more practice weaving with [Modify Matter]. He’d long since left the loom behind, never mind the spinning wheel.
The last area that was in the workshop was the lab. That was where he practiced using [Delve] and [Extract] to isolate various compounds and to practice his alchemy.
When he first started, he had just been able to [Extract] individual elements, but as his proficiency grew, he was able to target more complex molecules and eventually whole items like gemstones, or magic crystals.
Yeah, magic crystals!
At first, he hadn’t any idea what they were, only having found the load due to its highly magical nature. It had taken him nearly a week to dig down to the large deposit. It took him another week of experimentation to realize that it was kind of like a blank slate. It could take on various elemental properties, and even conceptual properties. Well, what he considered conceptual. Was “space” really an element?
It was very similar to Dust, but not quite. Dust was, well, Dust, but these magical crystals almost seemed like cognizance crystals, though he hadn’t quite figured out how to extract the energy from them for his internal use yet.
But it felt like he should be able to…
He shrugged. He was now living in a magical land so anything was possible, really.
The best discovery, related to the magic crystal, was that it was easily turned into Dust. The more vibrant the crystal, the higher the yield of Dust it provided. The opalescent ones gave a decent amount of Dust when converted, but then the ones that looked like smoky quartz gave an astounding amount of dust. He’d found a few that looked like sapphires, but both he and Altaea had stopped there because they felt… explosive.
Anyway, Altaea had almost kissed him for that discovery.
He was a little bit disappointed that she hadn’t…
But! It was progress! He had even managed to get a small stockpile of Dust for himself, and even condensed a few Dust crystals. He wasn’t sure if he could replicate the strange magic crystals yet, but he’d put that on his list.
He might even get to make those boots soon!
The alchemy portion of his workshop was another unusual scene. It shared his materials research area, but also had distinct features. Like having lots of jade.
They’d discovered that, for some reason, jade was able to keep many of the alchemical ingredients they collected fresh. Scientifically, it was strange. But it was yet another thing he chalked up to being in a magical world.
How accurate were the many tales from home…?
That said, he had a wall-full of ingredients they’d harvested in the surrounding valleys and even some of the monsters they’d killed. Yes, monster parts. And cores.
That was another thing that had him briefly wondering if he was in a coma-dream. In many of the xianxia and wuxia novels he’d read over the years, nevermind the multitude of manga he’d read, one of the many great “ingredients” was the fabled “monster core”, or some other name that described the same thing.
Between the two of them, [Delve]ing, and so on, they’d managed to find a few uses for the cores in alchemy, singling out some beneficial properties of the various cores they’d collected and stored.
It was, quite frankly, a new field for not only him, but also for Altaea. This veered off hard from what she was used to with the alchemy she’d learned in her world.
Was it tough? Yes. Was it frustrating having things blow up in your face because you had to experiment with everything? Indeed.
But it was awesome!
Back to the present, he noticed that Altaea had an approving smile on her face.
Even after almost two years together he never tired seeing her smile. It was quite possibly the most marvelous sight in all the multiverse for him.
***
Altaea’s smile widened as she noticed that vaguely vacant look in Joram’s eyes that told her that she had once again stunned him her smile.
The first few times that it had happened she had worried that something was wrong, so she had checked his mind to be sure that there weren’t any hidden complications from the transformation. Then she had blushed.
She could only describe it in one of his quaint colloquial expressions: butterflies and rainbows. “Happy Land”.
Now, she just enjoyed the fact that she could bring such happiness to him with a smile. Then her smile faded a bit as she recalled what would soon need to happen.
For now, she took in all his hard work. It was truly a prodigious rate of improvement. Sure, he had graduated from needing to manually manipulate the raw materials and instead used [Modify Matter] on an impressive scale, but he had still gained a reasonable proficiency with the basic tools of the trade, especially with forging and sculpting.
Was the colour selection of the various cloth and fabrics somewhat drab? Yes. But the varying earth tones had their own charm; and he had done it almost singlehandedly. Sure, she had taught him the basics of forging, but he had taken those basics and made them his own, improved upon them, and adapted them to each new metal or alloy that he worked with.
The man loved crafting.
He had even learned to work mithril and adamantine, and that was no easy feat! And now he could work those metals, and other alloys, even faster while using a combination of [Extract] and [Modify Matter] to make the highest quality products.
Was she proud of him?
A resounding yes!
Did it pain her heart knowing that she would have to leave him soon?
Absolutely.
She gave a mental shake of the head as she noticed Joram snapping out of it.
“Again, well done Joram,” Altaea said with a great deal of warmth in her voice.
Joram blinked, blushed again, and then cleared his throat. “I, ah, made this for you,” he said as he pulled a cloth off something on the bench.
Altaea blinked, then blinked again.
It was a statuette, no taller than her hand, of a couple embracing. They were of a height, so both of their heads were leaning on the others’ shoulder, nuzzling the others’ neck. Her heart skipped a beat. She reached out and gently picked it up to take a better look at it.
It was them. Joram’s figure had that short haircut that he liked and was wearing what he usually did, a simple shirt and pants, while she was wearing similar clothing, though what looked like a blouse instead of a work shirt.
The stone he had used looked like a creamier marble, though still quite pale. The detail that went into the textures was so fine that they could only be achieved through [Modify Matter], never mind what he did with her hair.
He had used a sapphire for the base of her hair then melded it to a ruby for the ends. She couldn’t help it, she [Delve]d it as she inspected the fantastic detail. She could even see their eyelashes!
He had somehow managed to fuse the sapphire and ruby in such a way that the gradient perfectly matched her actual hair.
He had even gone so far as to harden the entirety of the piece with [Matter Manipulation], making it as hard as mithril.
“Do you like it?” Joram asked from her side. She could hear the smile in his voice.
“I love it,” she replied with her most genuine smile yet and watched as he started to fall over, stunned into unconsciousness. She caught him before he could fall, easily cradling him in her arms.
For a few moments she just held him like that, taking in the moment. Then she reached into his pocket and retrieved his psicrystal.
It was time to get to work.
-
When Joram came to, Altaea was gone.