Chapter 004

Joram searched everywhere but didn’t find her.

He wasn’t even part of her network anymore.

As the sun rose, it found him in his rock garden, sitting as still as one of his statues, blankly staring out into the distance.

He had searched and searched. Nothing of hers was gone, not even the copy she had made of his main laptop. She was just gone.

The dawn turned into day, then faded into evening, and finally dark again.

He hadn’t moved. He hardly seemed to blink, let alone breath. He just stared, his mind blank.

More light happened; more darkness came. He didn’t know how long he sat there for, but by the time he got up he was covered in a layer of dust.

It tumbled off his as he stood and looked around, noticing that it seemed to be colder outside and that his little garden seemed to have gone wild. Well, it had significantly grown anyway. Hard to go wild when it couldn’t reproduce and spread after all.

He shook his head and walked back to the dome, entering his apartment.

Had he left the door open?

Shrug.

He looked around and noticed that his spider plants had managed to grow quite well, his feather fern had gotten bigger, and even the little spruce tree had managed to grow a fair amount.

But then it occurred to him: how were they still alive?

That thought, more than any other, managed to focus his mind back to a semblance of normalcy.

He looked around again, this time with fresh eyes.

He noticed the lack of dust even though the door had been open. Nothing else seemed to have been moved, but everything was just… clean.

He looked to the fridge and freezer that they had decided to coat in quintessence to help preserve the perishable foodstuffs.

Still coated, no change.

Then movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He quickly spun, adopting a defensive stance, then blinked.

“Hello Jeeves,” Joram croaked out. Huh, guess that’s what happens when you don’t speak for who knows how long. Then something occurred to him. “Jeeves? How are you moving?”

Well, it was no mystery how his psicrystal was moving as its spider-like legs were plainly visible. What was unusual was that he hadn’t willed them into being. As far as he knew, his psicrystal wasn’t supposed to be able to do that on its own.

“Well, there’s a story there,” Jeeves replied in a very not Jeeves voice.

Joram sat down on the floor.

-

Ater his shock had worn off, and he’d gotten most of the explanation out of Jeeves- no, Altaea V.I., he still sat there, dumbstruck.

For one, Jee- Altaea V.I., was able to project a cheesy-looking hologram right out of an iconic scene in his favourite space opera involving space wizards.

“As I said, please just call me Avi for short,” the hologram said patiently.

“So, you’re what? A holocr-“

“Yes, one of those,” Avi interrupted him before he could somehow infringe on copyright in this universe far, far away. “As I explained, this world is beyond strange, and I needed to leave to investigate it.”

“Why couldn’t you have taken me with you?” Joram asked for what seemed like the tenth time. Who knows, it very might well have been?

“Because I don’t know how dangerous this world is. I didn’t want to risk you,” Avi replied patiently, saying the same things she had said before. Or was it a re-played answer of a pre-recorded conversation that she’d somehow known would take place?

Joram paused. It really didn’t help him to understand what was going on if he just kept asking the same question, over and over again.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

“OK. Altaea left,” he started. “What now?”

“Altaea left me with the rest of your training package, as well as a few other things that will become useful in the future,” Avi replied, still using that hologram.

For all the cheese it represented from a bygone age, Altaea had put in a lot of detail.

“So, are you able to project an, I don’t know, normal image? This one is rather… crude,” Joram asked, feeling awkward as he asked her. He didn’t know why.

The hologram smiled, then changed. The “static” of the image cleared, then colour blossomed in the pale blue image until a perfect likeness of Altaea stood before him. Well, a slightly transparent likeness anyway.

“Altaea also gave me the improved ability to connect with your mind,” Avi said as she tapped the side of her head with her index finger. “It isn’t quite like her network, but it is much improved over the standard connection that a typical psicrystal, and its owner, possess.”

Joram blinked.

Of course she would have found a way to somehow alter his psicrystal. Was he mad? Nope. Was his brain now working a million miles per hour trying to figure it out? Certainly.

Then they got talking. Then, after deciding that that was too inefficient, they began communicating telepathically.

Soon he found out that he had a connection similar to that of her network, as Avi had previously stated. Gone were the pesky distance limitations for speaking with his psi-, with Avi. He even found that he could shift to using her perspective as naturally as blinking.

Overall, she was better, faster, and stronger than any psicrystal out there.

Altaea must have been planning this for a long time. Joram thought to himself as he tried to study the changes in Avi.

“Oh, and you needn’t worry,” Avi said, catching his attention. “Altaea performed the last ritual before she left.”

Blink-blink.

He really would have kissed Altaea if she were present. As it was, Avi got scooped up and became Altaea’s proxy and received the kiss. Kissing a crystal just didn’t quite do it for him though.

“Ahem,” Avi cleared her holographic throat. “I also have several schematics for items that Altaea thought you would find useful. Also, the locations of the Dust Condensers that she left behind, as well as a storage room that she secretly made underneath your workshop.”

Grin.

The next hour found Joram returned to his apartment with a stack of Dust Crystals laying on the table. From what he knew of the condensation rate, and how much had been condensed, Joram guess that he had been catatonic for about forty-two days. Or to be more precise, that Altaea hadn’t collected any Dust in the past forty-two days…

Huh.

Well, it was enough of a stack to get started anyways.

He then went over to his workshop and [Delve]d the area below the building. Soon enough, he found the chamber. There were many shelves built directly from the stone of the walls. It was also two levels.

With a bit of investigation, Joram found the section of the floor that hid the staircase down. Instead of just smashing through, or even teleporting, Joram used [Modify Matter] to make an opening, and even a guard rail around it. Not that there was anyone else around that he needed to worry about, but it just looked better than a hole in the ground.

Joram went down the stairs, Avi perched on his head, and activated an augmented [Touchsight] to help him navigate. Well, that was a lie. He could see perfectly in the dark after all. It was really just to make sure that nothing… unusual was down there and waiting. You could never be too careful.

But, much to his relief, nothing was waiting to tackle/maim/eat him. What he found, however, was a veritable treasury.

The storage wasn’t just limited to the built-in shelves in the walls. There were many free-standing shelves that reached from floor to ceiling, all stacked full of ingots of every metal they’d found while exploring.

Joram grinned at the stacks of pure iron, aluminum, magnesium, manganese, titanium, tungsten, copper, silver, gold, platinum, palladium, lead, and more. Not only those, but there were bins full of every gemstone he knew, from simple quartz to diamonds, and others filled with those strange magic crystals Altaea loved so much.

He shook his head at the sight of something any kingdom would kill for. And this was only the first level. Upon inspection, the second level contained more of the same, though it also contained oil drums filled with ingots of lithium and its family, not to mention glass containers filled with elements from groups thirteen through seventeen. There were even glass globes filled with the noble gasses.

How much time had she spent gathering all of this? And why would she leave it all behind? Was it that she didn’t need it? Or was it a parting gift? An “I’m sorry for leaving you in the night” make-up present?

Joram shook his head, ridding himself of that line of thought.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

“Well, if she performed the last ritual on me, I may as well test out what I can do,” Joram said with a slightly sad grin.

He then reached out to the shelf in front of him, this one holding stacks of what looked like diamonds. Bricks of them. He then concentrated on, well, storing it away.

Nothing.

Hmmm… That was embarrassing.

Too hasty.

So, he sat down on the floor and closed his eyes, entering a meditative state.

There, he explored his core, the centre of his being. It really wasn’t what one would normally expect.

Joram found himself in a familiar office space, filled with shelves on the walls, a large redwood desk and a very comfortable, reclining, office chair. The entire space was filled with nick-nacks of all kinds, books, paintings, doodles, and pictures. On the desk was the exact same laptop that he used for gaming, sitting open and ready to be used, his trackman mouse sitting to the right.

He sat down and powered up the laptop, watching it boot up in an instant. Ah, the perks of a purely mental space. He then found the new icon on the desktop and smiled. It was a chibi version of Altaea giving a thumbs-up while winking. He shook is head in wonderment; she’d even managed to affect what his mental representation of the ability looked like. Or was that just his subconscious?

He shook his head again then he double-clicked it and watched as the application opened for the first time, asking for permissions and parameters. His eyes widened.

Yes, he wanted what he stored to be in temporal stasis.

Yes, he wanted to be able to activate it at any time.

Yes, he wanted a separate space from the rest of his personal realm to be used as the storage space.

Yes, he wanted the option of consciously deciding to put something into his personal realm instead of the storage space allocated.

Yes, he wanted to be able to upgrade the size of the storage space any time he wished.

On and on. It took him several minutes to go through the options, accepting or denying as he pleased. It was surprisingly comprehensive as there were even options to further grow and customize his personal realm added in. Well, that shouldn’t have surprised him, as [Genesis] was designed to keep growing after all.

How was he going to repay Altaea for all of… well, everything?

He took a moment to send a silent prayer of thanks her way. He didn’t know if she got messages like the various gods he’d read about or watched in anime and such, but he hoped that the feelings were at least conveyed… minus the feeling of a gaping hole in his heart that is.

Then, with a flexing of intent, he opened his eyes and stood up.

“Conditions met. Activating first protocol,” Avi said from on top of his head.

Joram started, having briefly forgotten his passenger.

But before he could question her, Avi began to glow as bright as a [Daylight] spell, then sink into his skull. Everything first went white, then suddenly black.

Joram blinked and looked around. He was on the floor again, but this time it wasn’t intentional, given the vague throbbing coming from the back of his head and all.

He then checked his perception field to see if anything had changed round him. Nothing. But also, no Avi.

As he was about to call out, he was stopped by a voice in his head.

‘Good morning Joram.’

‘What happened?’ Joram asked as he sat up.

‘The First Protocol was activated once you finished configuring your personal space,’ Avi replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

‘And, ah, what exactly did that entail?’ He asked as patiently as he could. It really was like talking to Altaea.

‘While I am not needed, I will reside in your personal realm. I can also project a hologram of myself within close range if need be. I acknowledge the psychological benefit of speaking with another being in front of you, though I suppose that it would be limited to being holographic in nature for the time being,’ with that said, the life-like hologram once again appeared in front of Joram, smiling down at him.

He smiled. Well, that was at least something.

‘Well, maybe we’ll get you a body to use at some point,’ he mused, thoughts now racing.

‘Although that would be nice, it is not completely necessary. I am content residing in your psicrystal,’ she replied with a slight shake of her head.

“No,” he said out loud, shaking his head. “But it would be welcome for me.”

Avi once again smiled at him, but didn’t say anything this time.

He then got up and took a deep breath, concentrated on what he wanted, then smiled as a whole shelf, contents and all, disappeared. He then felt as it took up space in his storage area, non-stasis side. Next, he concentrated on shifting it to his personal realm, and sure enough, he felt it leave the storage space and take up residence in a corner of his personal realm. Not that it was very big at the moment, but it was something.

Another smile formed on his face as he began emptying the entire storage area. This ability was going to be very useful.

-

Now, even though Avi had bid him a good morning after she had taken up residence in his head- realm, only about an hour had passed, and even the looting of the storage area only took another half-hour or so. So it was that he emerged from the sub-levels and looked out a window to see bright sunlight streaming though.

The pain of Altaea leaving him behind was still there, he didn’t think it would ever really go away, but he did find comfort in the fact that she had created and left Avi with him as a, well, substitute Master – Teacher, Instructor, Mentor? -, and confidant.

‘Avi? What happens if your form is destroyed when you’re out in the world?’ He asked as the thought occurred to him. Normally, a psicrystal would just naturally reform after a day. But Avi was obviously more than just a standard psicrystal. Would she be like a golem that needed repairs if damaged? Or would she be gone forever because her matrix was tied to the body of the psicrystal…

‘There is no need to worry Joram. My core, essence if you will, has merged with you and your realm. Should the physical vessel be destroyed, I would still be preserved.’

Joram blinked and slapped his forehead.

That’s why the icon was like that!

‘Well, that’s good to know,’ he replied lamely. This felt like a cheat. But Altaea was, after all, a goddess; she could do things that no mere mortal could. Including unageing ones like him.

As he walked out of his workshop, Joram once again looked around. He noted the garden and its plants, his rock garden with its various sculptures and one set of footprints going to and from a central rock: one set almost invisible after so long in the elements.

He took in the obstacle course, much larger and more complex than it had been in the beginning. So much so that he doubted that anyone from home could hope to finish it, let alone do so while timed. Then he turned to the small forest of training dummies in a patch of smoothed-out ground. They had indeed served him well in his training. They had also beaten the crap out of him as Altaea had improved them to keep up with his progress.

He took it all in and let out a long breath.

Inside his apartment, he looked around for only a few seconds before he started storing everything away in his realm. Well, not the fridge and freezer. Those he needed to scrape the quintessence off first, then he stored them in his actual storage space, taking advantage of the temporal stasis. He then checked the rest of the dry goods and cans with a [Delve], found them to still be good even after so long, then also stored them away in stasis. He did the same with the rest of his cupboards, taking extra care with the multitude of herbs and spices that he liked to have. You never knew when you’d need some actual food after all.

He wondered if they had an equivalent to tacos here…

With another shrug, he then went from room to room storing everything away, taking extra care in his daughters’ room. Then he was off to his bedroom, the storage closet (taking out the enchanted electrical panel), then the bathroom. There wasn’t much there, but he supposed the various toiletries, the bottle of extra-strength Adwil, the laundry detergent (organic), static sheets, toilet paper, and paper towels might come in handy. He packed away his electric razor and beard trimmer with a grin. Not needing to worry about hair growing when you didn’t want it to did have its advantages. Once he was done in the bathroom, he went to the hallway and collected what was stored there, then what was stored upstairs.

Once the building had been cleared out Joram stood outside, taking it all in. He had spent several years in that place, including his time here. It was going to feel weird leaving it all behind.

Well, waste not want not.

Joram concentrated and activated [Modify Matter], using one of the augments that Altaea had taught him, and dismantled the building into its component parts. Stacks of cinderblocks formed beside stacks of lumber, concrete, and drywall. Pipes, wall plugs, fixtures, wires, and such all lined up as neat as can be. The blinds and screens even sat themselves down nicely. The glass, however, he just formed into bricks to save space as it was easy enough to shape; and recreating the “winter” windows was easy enough with access to noble gasses.

After it was all stored away, he turned to his garden and reached out with telekinesis to uproot every one of his modified plants and planted them in his personal realm, taking the time to adjust its environment to be more hospitable to life in general.

Next came the workshop. He paused at the bench where he’d shown Altaea the sculpture of them embracing. The cloth was still there, a little dusty, but carefully folded. The figurine, however, was gone. At least she took that, he thought to himself with a smile. After everything was cleared-out he decided to have one last sit-down on his thinking rock.

Yes, the very same one he’d sat on, catatonic, for over a month.

He hadn’t bothered to deconstruct the workshop itself as it was just made with the stone from the mountain, not even bothering with the glass from the windows.

His personal realm was starting to get quite cramped…

He looked from the dome to the training grounds to the obstacle course and had a thought. He’d need a lot more stone.

So it was that Joram took hold of the dome’s stone with his mind and began reshaping it, adding more and more stone from around the plateau.

He never grew tired of watching as whatever he was working on took the shape of what he imagined in his mind. The stone seemed to flow into place, thicker and thicker, adjusting its texture to seem as though the new structure was formed out of rough-hewn stone.

When it was complete, he found himself staring at a much larger chamber than what the previous dome had offered. It was large enough to contain all four areas: the rock garden, the workshop, the training grounds, as well as the obstacle course. There were many support pillars (mainly for aesthetics) under the dome, each sporting carved reliefs on them showing what each area was meant for. He then made each one glow with the brightness of day, then used [Incarnate] on them, making each light permanent.

With another thought, the sand in the rock garden smoothed out then formed lines as though someone had meticulously raked it into mesmerizing patterns. With another thought, a large set of double-doors formed at one end, the east side. He made sure to keep them the same texture as the rest of the outer wall, but added a line of script in cursive (about a metre and a half up), then used some Dust to make a basic lock/unlock enchantment with a keyword. It was in english, of course. He couldn’t help but chuckle when he finished. It read: “Speak, friend, and enter.”

Yes, he was still a geek.

-

A few hours later he was once again found in his workshop, a stone table pulled up from the ground to serve his needs. On it was a pile of murder goat leather. Beside that lay a small pile of Dust Crystals. It was time for him to make himself some boots.

And so the leather stood itself up and began to reform. There were no cuts, but simple restructuring of the leather itself. Soon the leather formed into three pairs of knee-high, soft-soled boots that turned down at the tops. Nothing too fancy, as they wouldn’t need to be seen to be useful to him.

Next came the enchantments. On one he applied an enchantment to improve his speed and mobility, on the next, one that allowed him to move across snow and ice with ease, not leaving any tracks behind but also protecting him from extreme temperatures. The last one was simplest. It allowed for him to always land on his feet, light as can be.

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Three hours later, he was staring at three very basic magic items; wondrous items, if you will.

Then he pulled an Altaea; he assimilated them.

Heh-heh-heh. *Cough*

No, he didn’t just store them away, but assimilated them into his being, just as he had practiced with his ring for months on end.

He felt the enchantments take hold and grinned.

-

He spent the next few weeks making the various magic items he thought he would need when he ventured forth. From defensive items like enchanted adamantine bracers to various stat-enhancing items. Some he absorbed, but several were too difficult, or just plain impossible. Like weapons and armour, or anything too powerful for him to assimilate.

Those had to be worn.

The next task he gave himself was to make himself a wardrobe. Well, he was really just making spare clothing as he was no fashion designer. Simple shirts, sleeveless and not (some button-up, all long-sleeved), pants ranging from loose kung-fu style to cargo style to what he’d normally wear (cut like blue jeans, though he had no blue dye), and even several pairs of cargo-style shorts.

He made boots, shoes, and sandals of varying styles, but all fairly plain-looking. Proper sandals though, not flip-flops. He had never liked those.

For a laugh, he even made a set of space wizard robes and boots. Well, three sets; each one designed after the three orders. All in varying shades, from white to darkest brown to grey so dark it was almost black. Would he be mocked for only dressing in earth tones at home? Probably. Did it really matter? Nope.

Once he was satisfied with not only the volume of what he’d made, but the quality, it was time to make it all more durable than they already were. So, he manifested [Matter Manipulation] on the pile, strengthening it all without sacrificing texture or suppleness.

“Because why not make sure they last?” Joram mumbled to himself as he stored his new attire away.

He looked around and noticed that Avi had activated her hologram and had been watching him.

“You know,” she started. “You can just [Repair] anything that gets damaged. Why the extra effort?” She asked, eyebrow raised.

He grinned. Guess Avi isn’t quite like Altaea after all.

“Because it saves effort in the long run,” he said with a grin.

“Ah, noted.”

“So, which direction do you think we should go?” Joram asked as he looked around, then walked out of the workshop, Avi following at his side.

“Any direction works,” she replied with a shrug.

That was true enough. He looked about, realized that he was still inside, then folded space to appear on top of the new dome, which really was more of an elongated dome, closer to the shape of an éclair, really.

He smiled as he took a breath of cool air and felt the stone underfoot. He was wearing a pair of soft-soled leather boots that fit like a glove. Well, no surprise there, he had literally made them to fit every contour of his feet and legs.

Looking about, Joram couldn’t help but feeling lost for the first time in a long time. He was, once again, about to venture out on his own and didn’t really have a plan beyond wandering around, seeing the sights, and learning about this new world.

He thought about the area south-east of where he was that had accumulated all of those clouds but dismissed it because he preferred more sunshine than not. Not that there were clouds there at the moment, but any strike against heading in a particular direction pretty much ruled it out for him at this point.

“Well, since I’m going for a positive spin on things, let’s head east,” Joram decided at last.

“What makes it so positive?” Avi asked, looking a bit confused.

“Why, because that’s where to sun comes up, of course.”

It took her a moment, but eventually she caught on as she followed Joram as he began hopping from boulder to boulder as he headed down and east.

-

“You do realize that you left the Dust Condensers behind, right?” Avi asked as she walked with Joram through a mountain valley. The walls almost vertical for several hundred feet making it almost seem that they were walking through a hall made for Titans.

“I do,” he replied, “but I can check on them whenever I need. Besides, Altaea warded them twenty ways from tomorrow. I don’t think anything will be disturbing them any time soon.”

Avi nodded as she walked with her arms up, hands behind her head, fingers laced together.

He didn’t know where she had learned that, but he supposed Altaea had probably programmed in many such quirks. He grinned, because who wanted a boring instructor/companion?

Joram enjoyed the scenery as he watched it go by, much faster than it would have back home. Part of his training had taught him to move faster and that extended to everything, including walking.

He had to laugh when he thought of how his ex had complained about how fast he used to walk, and that hadn’t even been considered fast, even back home. What would she say now with his current pace?

Avi merely glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, but she already seemed to be used to his random laughter, or chuckling, over the last few days of travel.

It had also been relatively peaceful. Sure, some murder goats had attacked them that first day, but they had been easy to leave behind without Altaea there turning it into a training exercise. Then there had been the gargoyles - because what else would you call giant rock beasts that looked like statues until they started trying to murder you? They had been a bit of a surprise when they’d all just started jumping down at him.

He’d thought that they might have been golems at first but was dissuaded of that notion after he’d punched one of their heads off and was treated to an orange-red fountain display. He’d been so shocked that he hadn’t thought to sidestep the macabre rain before he was soaked in it.

After an experience like that, he’d decided to try to avoid fights altogether.

It hadn’t been easy, as the mountains were populated by a surprising variety of monsters and such. He wasn’t sure if he should call some of them magical beasts or not, but he was pretty sure that the gargoyles qualified.

At any rate, it was a pleasant day, the sun shining down, and he had pleasant company, even if she was a hologram. The view was spectacular, featuring the occasional waterfall from cliffs of some dark stone, while the valley mostly held grasses, flowers, and a string of ponds that ran the length of the valley, it even a few trees towards the edges. Curious, but he supposed that since this was a world of magic and mystery, then plants could grow in unusual patterns if they chose to.

While enjoying the scenery, he suddenly felt the faintest of tremors through the soles of his feet.

“What could be causing that?” Joram asked himself as he paused to looked around.

“What’s wrong?” Avi asked, looking around.

“I thought I felt- There it is again,” Joram said as he felt another tremor, this one a bit stronger than the last.

“Ah. I, too, feel it,” Avi said with a quirked eyebrow.

Another pause, then another tremor.

“Time to hide!” Joram said in a slightly strained voice as he looked around.

There.

He spotted a tree, only a couple hundred feet away and dashed to it, seeming to skim over the ground as he ran. He was still impressed at the speed with which he was able to move. He had the impression that it was faster than standard. For one, it was about twice as fast as what the game manuals had stated about his class.

The important clue was that Altaea had seemed surprised with his new speed. At the time, he had just thought that it was due to the speed with which he learned and progressed. A humbling thought.

But what had caused the change? He was no expert in the effects of being in a magical world, even if he had been living here for almost two years. Or was it already two years?

Was it the unique properties of being a High Elan? Was it because he had grown up in, what he assumed to be, a non-magical world? Was it due to him having undergone the ritual here, in this world? Multiple rituals?

Joram shook his head as he crouched low behind the tree, looking left and right in an effort to find the source of the tremors. They were, after all, too spread out to be a minor earthquake.

His answer literally came around the corner. His jaw dropped.

Coming around the bend at the end of the valley was what he could only describe as a colossus. Titan seemed too small a word for it.

It must have been at least one hundred fifty feet fall. It looked as though it was made of stone, all crags and sheer planes. It was roughly humanoid in shape, but was almost as wide as it was tall, its arms as thick as its legs. If it sat down, he would have easily mistaken it for just another section of mountain.

Joram then understood why there was a zig-zagging line of ponds through the valley: those were its footprints.

And he was suddenly very glad he had decided to hide.

As the colossus drew closer the tremors also increased in magnitude, causing the trees to shake and rustle, and the ponds to ripple with small waves that splashed up and out of their banks.

He looked for Avi and saw her just standing there, ten feet away, not bothering to hide.

‘What are you doing?! Come and hide!’ Joram frantically sent to her, not wanting to attract the being’s attention.

‘It cannot see me,’ Avi said matter-of-a-factly as she studied the approaching natural disaster.

‘What?’ He asked in a deadpanned tone.

‘Did I forget to mention that only you can see and hear me like this?’ Avi asked as she looked over, eyebrows raised.

He had to stop himself from cursing. Then just laughed on the inside, because he really didn’t want to attract the attention of the passing colossus.

It was now halfway through the valley, seemingly enjoying its walk through the mountains. Well, that’s what he thought anyway, as it didn’t cause any undue destruction beyond just walking.

But Joram also felt the aura coming off the being now that it was closer, and it felt… ancient. Like it had been on this course since time immemorial, and it would continue to do so long after most beings returned to dust. The feeling of vastness, almost eternal, solid, that he felt wash over him nearly dropped him on his backside.

Soon enough, the walking natural disaster left the valley and the tremors stopped. But not the ones in Joram’s heart.

He felt things slide into place, shifting inside him. He had had a glimpse of something, quite frankly, greater than himself. Then he did drop to his backside, folding his legs and cupping his hands together as he began to meditate.

***

Avi watched as the colossus passed by. She used all the senses available to her, which in this form were those belonging to Joram, to observe and to learn.

Altaea had indeed left her with much knowledge, but this was outside of what had been left with her.

Sure, Altaea had fought a similar creature, but it had been roughly half the size of this one. It also hadn’t had such an impressive aura.

Avi nodded to herself as she watched it leave the valley, wholly approving of Joram’s decision to hide. That one was definitely not worth tangling with.

Then she felt a… ripple from Joram. She immediately focussed to see what was happening, brow furrowed, then smiled. He was ready, and if what she was sensing from him was any indicator, he was going to blow past that final barrier in his training.

And then… well, then she would have a lot of work to do. The Second Protocol was waiting.

***

Joram sat meditating as the feelings of epiphany and understanding washed over him in waves. He knew what it meant to have a rock-solid presence in reality, what it meant to be stable. Permanent.

It was the feeling of looking up into the night sky and realizing for the first time that those stars were there long before you came into the world and that they would be there long after.

It was the feeling of your parents holding you tight as a child, taking comfort in their comparatively vast experience and resilience.

It was the feeling of being in the presence of an immortal. In his case, it was when he was with Altaea. Though he suspected that she had withheld the majority of her aura from him.

But he knew then how to affix something into reality, make it stable, solid… enduring. It was far beyond making an enchanted item, a magic sword or armour. That was affixing the matrix of the enchantment into a physical object, anchoring it. This, this was taking something and anchoring it into reality itself.

As those thoughts, and many, many more, flowed through his mind, his body began to change.

It was subtle at first. Just a shimmer here, a small twinkle of light there. But as his understanding grew so too did the changes in him.

His skin slowly lightened in colour, going from the healthy sun-tanned look of a young farmer, to that of an alabaster statue. It wasn’t a sickly or unhealthy look, his skin remained as full of vitality as it ever had, if not more so.

His short hair went from a brown so dark it was nearly black to a fiery red. Not that of a normal red head from his home, but truly fiery in colour, a ruby similar to that of Altaea’s hair.

If you could see his eyes under his closed eyelids, you would see the colour of his irises going from being a mix of green, brown, blue, and gold, to that of a deep emerald, or that of vibrant leaves in late spring.

Probably the most surprising change was taking place on his back.

Light seemed to shimmer and coalesce, slowly talking the shape of wings, each one being nearly as long as he was tall.

Then came the flood of information that nearly overwhelmed him.

Knowledge of powers that he had discussed with Altaea came, burning themselves into his mind. The low-level powers were merely uncomfortable, but by the time the later-stage ones began etching themselves into his mind it was almost overwhelming. Then came the knowledge of crafting things he both knew of and had no experience with, causing even more damage, making his nose bleed like a tap.

Soon enough, or maybe too long, the flood of information ceased and he slumped over, then fell onto the ground.

***

As he lay there the hair on the top of his head waved slightly, then a crystal the size of a walnut fell to the ground. Once there, it sprouted a set of spider-like legs and stepped over to his face.

Avi regarded Joram as his nose continued to bleed, then reached out a leg and tapped him on the forehead, releasing healing energies to fix the not-so-minor aneurism. She then regarded the bloody mess that had been created by the ordeal and released a [Cleanse] to not only clean him up, but to avoid any potential predators or annoying insects from investigating.

With a mental sigh, Avi regarded the wings sprouting from Joram’s back. She would not only have to teach him how to fly, but how to stow them away. Never mind how to shift back to his elan form. It would likely take some time for him to learn how to merge his two forms together like her creator had, but that was a resource he had in spades. Time.

For now… it was guard duty.

***

Joram slowly opened his eyes and looked around, then closed them again.

“What on earth was that…?” He mumbled from his side as he opened his eyes again, taking in the grass in front of his face.

He tried focussing on it, but instead found a splitting headache as information swirled about in his brain, seemingly intent on escape.

“Why didn’t I make any healing items before leaving?” He asked himself as he lay there, trying to put order to the chaos.

“I have healed all of your physical ailments already,” Avi piped in from beside him.

He glanced over and wished he hadn’t.

“Then what should I do?” He asked through gritted teeth as it felt like some of the information punched a hole through his head to escape.

“Make Crystal Minds. That should reduce the strain.”

He blinked. He should have thought of that, but he gave himself a bit of leeway due to the overcrowding in his head, not to mention the epic-level migraine…

“Help,” was all he could mutter, hoping she got what he meant as his eyes once again closed.

It seemed as though she did because he then felt her through their connection as she shifted several small diamonds out of storage along with a sizable pile of Dust Crystals.

Soon he was following her directions, taking one category of information and willing it into a semblance of order, then into a textbook-like format. Once that was done, he could feel the textbook slip away, page-by-page through his link to Avi.

Each time a textbook vanished, he began working on another, the process smoothing out more and more as the clutter in his mind was reduced, not to mention the pain.

All the information hadn’t been captured though. He felt that he had probably lost about half of the knowledge that had crowded his brain. Some had gone before he knew what the knowledge was, but he had been able to catch glimpses of others, like knowledge of the various planes of existence, or of the many languages found on Altaea’s home world, even animal husbandry.

Now, what would he have done with that information? Well, probably nothing for the time being. But he had a very long life ahead of him and he didn’t know if he’d ever see Altaea again. So, it kind of stung more than he thought it would.

He just shook his head, finding that the motion no longer caused any sort of pain or dizziness. Which was a plus.

Another plus was the small pile of diamonds-turned-Crystal-Minds. He was astonished to find so many. There were subjects from how to craft various things to encyclopedic knowledge of various topics. And a couple that confused him.

Why would he need to know sleight of hand? Or even riding? With his land speed he could easily outrun a horse several times over. And why did he need to know about brewing and distilling? He didn’t even like the taste of alcohol.

Well, he shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. He reached for the first one and paused as he saw his hand.

“Why am I so pale?” Joram asked.

Avi, who had been piling up the diamonds into a little pyramid, turned to him. “That would be the final phase of your transformation.”

“My what?”

“You had told Altaea that you wished to become like her,” Avi explained. “Altaea implanted the necessary genetic, and magical, information when converting you to a High Elan. She regrets, however, that she was unable to completely replicate the process that changed her into what she is today as she did not know how to add in the last bit, as it were.”

“And why, pray tell, did it only take effect now?” Joram asked, more curious than angry. Though there was a bit of that. Why? He didn’t really know.

“It was set to trigger when you reached your final understanding along the martial path; when you ascended a half step and became an outsider. This allowed for a certain synergy in the transformation process, with minimal… interference.”

Joram sighed. As laid-back as he was, this was a little much to process at the moment.

So he shrugged, sat up, and began to assimilate the crystal minds in front of him, finding that the packets of knowledge were now very easily contained in his mind.

When he was done, he sat for a time, going through the new knowledge. It would certainly come in handy… at some point. Especially the knowledge of how to make other elans, even High Elans.

He looked over to Avi, who was now clinging to the side of a tree looking like one of the weirdest spiders he had ever seen.

“Do I look very different?” He asked, somewhat hesitant to look.

“Yes and no,” Avi replied. “But you certainly do look more handsome. And those wings are rather fetching.”

Joram blinked at the “handsome” bit, then blinked again at the wings comment.

Now his curiosity went from a candle to a bonfire. He concentrated for a moment, pulling raw ectoplasm from the Astral Plane, and formed it into a full-length mirror.

“I’m a ginger,” he said in a deadpan voice.

“I like the red,” Avi piped in.

“I’m damn pale.”

“I would say ‘exceedingly fair skinned’.”

“What are my wings made of?” He asked, trying to touch them, but only managing to pass his hand through them, though he did feel some resistance. They were red. A red that went from almost black at the base of the “feathers” to a deep, ruby red. Almost blood-red.

“I am not familiar with the exact terms, but to put in layman’s terms, they are hardened light.”

“My hair?”

“Are you going to ask me every little thing?” Avi demanded, though she sounded more amused than angry.

“Point taken,” he said, running a hand through his short hair. At least it didn’t feel any different. “So, ah, I know Altaea could shift between being an elan and an aasimar whenever she needed. Can I do the same?”

Avi hopped from the tree to land on the top of the mirror and seemed to look him in the eye.

“Yes.”

He waited.

And waited…

“Will you please teach me how?” He asked as nicely as he could. He really didn’t like that personality quirk.

“Yes, but first you should try to get used to that form. We’ll go with flying lessons first,” Avi replied, then sprouted her own set of wings. “Remember to go slow at first.”

“Ok, but first I should renew my [Astral Seed] in case there are any unfortunate accidents.”

Avi regarded him for a moment, then nodded. “A wise precaution.”

-

After that, the next several hours involved more grass in his face than he would have liked, not to mention his impersonations of George of the Jungle. At least the trees were softer than the cliffs.

Though, he had to say, none of those hurt quite as much as he thought they would. Thinking about it, he realized that peak-level monks became more resistant to physical damage. Maybe that was it?

Nevertheless, he still had many bruises by the time Avi deemed him “at least not a hazard to yourself”. Well, he’d take what he could get. It was, after all, flying!

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so happy! Well, he could, but this was right up there with those times. And to be fair, flying was in a completely different category.

I mean, who hadn’t dreamt of flying when they were kids? Never mind as adults….

So, he sat upon the clifftop enjoying the view. And the knowledge that he could FLY!!

Ahem.

Even with him fortifying his clothing, they’d managed to get a few tears, not to mention many, many, grass/mud/tree/I-don’t-know-what-that-is stains on them.

A moment later, a flexing of intent, and he was all clean. Another minute later, and his clothing was [Mend]ed right up.

Maybe he hadn’t needed to make so many sets of clothing?

Meh. He’d been told on too many occasions that he’d needed to expand his wardrobe. Sure, most of what he’d made was of simple cuts and plain earth tones. But at least he had several sets now! Progress!

Cough.

“Avi?”

“Yes, Joram?”

“I won’t be able to fly in my elan form, will I?”

“Nnnn-ope.”

Eyebrow twitch.

Why’d she have to copy that?

“Well, let’s get back to hoof’n it then,” he said as he jumped off the cliff.

After the many hours of practice, a controlled fall was comparatively easy. Soon enough, he was back to walking through the valley, avoiding the new craters formed by the passing of the colossus, most of them partially overlapping the existing ponds, muddy water now filling both.

Avi melted back into his head as he walked. He really didn’t know why she chose to do it that way, as he was pretty sure that she could just shift herself into is personal realm. Maybe it was just to weird him out?

Probably that. Even V.I.s seemed to need a bit of entertainment.

The walk out of the valley was predictably uneventful, as he was pretty sure that most of the local fauna was still in hiding after the passing of the colossus.

He really couldn’t blame them. But he was also grateful because it made for an uneventful “walk”. Yup, he was likely the fastest land based being back home. Well, if he ever got back home that was… The point was: he was crazy fast. Faster than what most people went on the Autobahn for sure.

*Cough*

Maybe not quite that fast. People were crazy. But still fast.

Was that crazy? Surely! Was he glad that his perception and reaction time had also improved to match his speed? Yes!

Good thing Altaea had been so… thorough.

The next several days passed in relative peace. Meaning he was able to hide, or run, from the annoying local fauna instead of fighting them. Each night he renewed his [Astral Seed], getting in the habit of doing so. He’d been lax in the past, especially with Altaea there, but now he needed to be sure he had a “safety net”, so to speak.

Sure, he’d lose any time/memories he’d accumulate from the time when he manifested [Astral Seed] to when he died, but it was better than outright death. A little “lost time” versus being able to come back? Deal.

The major question was: where would he store it?

Usually, one stored it in a secure location in the Astral Plane, but he hadn’t managed to get there and explore yet. Nor did he want to leave it in the mountains here, as there seemed to be many critters about and he really didn’t want to risk that.

At length, he decided to store it in his personal realm as Avi didn’t see anything wrong with that option.

Progress!

He was also able to get the hang of switching between his forms after a few days of practice. As cool as it was to have wings and extra abilities, he really didn’t enjoy looking like a vampire. Yes, he had looked: his incisors were more pronounced than they had been. Not to an unnerving degree but nonetheless noticeable. The “exceedingly fair skin” was another point in that direction.

He wondered if vampires existed here. Would they be like the undead versions in most pop-culture? Or would they be the genetic variants found in other pop-culture? Would it be a disease here? Who knows!

As a side note: Avi had said that he would be able to somehow retract his wings into himself, but he hadn’t managed to pull that one off yet. He was trying very hard with that one as he figured that having an alternate appearance might come in handy… except the wings. Wings were less than inconspicuous. Conspicuous, if you will.

It was a pleasant journey even with dodging monsters almost hourly, though he had also come across a fissure that opened-up into quite the nest of spiders ranging in size from miniscule to “Oh My Word!!!”. He really didn’t like knowing that the things could get to the size of a large house. Like, what did they eat to get that big?

The most interesting thing about the encounter, however, was their silk. Not only was it crazy strong (as it should be) but is also had an elastic quality to it that made breaking the webbing all the more challenging.

He was excited because he had effectively found spandex.

Yup.

What self-respecting geek/otaku who found themselves in possession of superpowers wouldn’t want to dress up as a superhero? And what did almost every superhero need?

Spandex.

So, the fissure in the mountain was soon depopulated and all the spider silk harvested.

As a bonus, the fissure led to a load of titanium and rutile. Score.

-

He spent weeks wandering about the mountains, mainly due to exploring, trying to find other unique materials, and testing the qualities of the various flora he came across. There was one neat bamboo-like plant that was as strong as steel, yet still retained a decent flexibility. He’d taken a good dozen of the shoots and planted them in his personal realm.

On that note, while he travelled, Joram had Avi on “realm expansion duty”. What was that you ask? Well! Seeing as how the realm was pretty small, and also grew at a very small fixed rate, he decided that having Avi help the process along would make things much more convenient in the long run. Especially with her guiding the growth. Want more rocky areas? Done. Need more farmland? Done!

Need more storage? There you go! Want to transplant more of those intriguing plants you found? No worries! Plenty of room!

*Ahem*

Back to exploring the mountains!

As he walked, though, Joram took more time to inspect the plants. Not that there was a huge variety yet, but there were a few shrubs and many wildflowers mixed in with the grasses that looked interesting. He took several samples of each, planning on studying them in more detail later.

He also used [Delve] as he walked, always interested to see if anything interesting lay below the surface. That was how he’d managed to increase his stocks of various minerals, crystals, gems, and especially high-quality jade.

Though, looking at the dwindling free space in his storage area Joram decided to just memorize the areas of greater interest with a mental note of what he’d found there. Being able to teleport made it easier to just come back and harvest things when he had more storage space.

With that in mind, he realized that he could just send Avi to harvest those deposits, as she could just planeshift to and from his personal realm, teleport to wherever she needed to go, and have at it.

He paused to appreciate just how amazing a helper/mentor/friend Avi was.

One thing that had been bothering him for a while was the geography. Well, not the landscape itself, but how things didn’t seem to fade into the distance like they “should”.

He was pretty sure that with the curvature of the Earth, things should disappear from sight at about five kilometres or so.

Now, he had never been great at gauging distance, but he was pretty sure the mountain with the cool striation patter on it that he’d passed by yesterday was more than a hundred kilometres away. Yet he could still see it fairly clearly. Not just clearly though, but it didn’t seem “shorter” at all. You know, the way you’d see the tip of a tower from far away, but not its base.

Sure, there were intervening things in the way, but that didn’t quite explain the view.

Joram looked around, found a lovely-looking rock, and sat upon it to think.

One: he was in a magical world. That much was obvious with the abundance of flora and fauna that shouldn’t exist, nevermind the magical crystals they’d found.

Two: Altaea. If Altaea existed, then did other things from his world, that people had imagined, also exist?

Like those crazy huge planets that every wuxia and xianxia novel had in them? Like: “Just go over to the next major city, it’s only 100,000 km away!”

Joram face-palmed.

Was he really in a world that had such ridiculous scales of distance? Heck, the Moon was only about 384,400km away from the Earth. Were we talking about a Jupiter-scale planet here? Wait, that one was only about 440,000km in circumference…

Damn.

Also, damn. Yay for remembering random trivia!

Those planets were ridiculous. The only way he could see planets like that existing without insane levels of gravity was magic.

Wow, that’s such an over-used plot point. Magic explains everything!!

Sigh.

Well, if he ever found civilization, he’d have to find a cartographer or something. Even with his insane memory, he didn’t quite remember how to measure the radius of a planet by using a stick and its shadow.

Nope, he was just going to enjoy himself. Take his time exploring, maybe have some fun sculpting a cliff-face and see what theories arose when someone eventually found it. Yup, sounded fun.

With that thought, he started keeping an eye out for an appropriate cliff.