Chapter 171, 1/2

Chapter 171, 1/2

Erick got out of the hot tub. He dripped water and steam as he cleaned up his meal and every bit of mess he had made while he sat there, eating scones and gazing across the mountains. It had been a good break, but it was time to move on, and even though the elder of the house wasn’t present, and likely only ever existed in the distant, distant past, if at all, Erick still wanted to be a good guest.

When he was once again dressed and ready to go, with his backpack on and his spellwork recast, Erick went out into the village and looked around one last time. He hadn’t been a guest for long, but it was a nice little place. Maybe he would be back later, but probably not.

He looked up and relaxed as he simply stood there, letting the cool white light of the blue Core soak into his face, and warm his body. And then Erick opened his eyes and lightstepped into the air above the village.

“Thanks for the hospitality,” Erick said one last time, before turning his gaze outward.

Where to next?

There were many choices. That mountain range with its cities. The dry lands over there in the center of that continent, with the little villages. The riverlands over there. The coast. The islands past the coast. The other continents. The giant cities on the other continent. Another small city nearby.

“Got a suggestion, Ophiel?” Erick glanced at the little guy on his shoulder.

Chirp chirp.

“Some place Yggdrasil would like.” Erick nodded. “Good idea.”

With that in mind... Where would Yggdrasil like to be?

“He’s already in two bodies of water. Perhaps something... less wet?”

Chirp Chirp.

“He likes the water so we’ll keep that the same. That rules out the mountains and the plains... Let’s fly around until we find something nice.” Erick looked up the bowl of the inner world, to where it vanished past the depth of air, and then completely disappeared beyond the blue curvature of the Core above. “The Core seems like an ocean of mana, but... Not there, either.”

Chirp chirp!

Erick said, “Ah! Right. I should test some basic spellwork, to understand if everything works the same down here before I explore.”

One of the nearby Ophiel got ready for testing, chirping as he hovered in front of Erick.

Erick smiled. Then he and Ophiel moved high into the sky to test out his magics.

After a few tests of basic spellwork, aiming at nothing in particular and canceling his spells before they reached very far at all, Erick quickly realized some important facts about the Outer Core to keep in mind going forward. Magic down here was the same as it was on the Surface. Even [Teleport] worked, which was a surprise. For some reason, Spatial Magic didn’t work in the Underworld, but it worked here, directly next to the Core.

But another test conducted on a cloudgate showed that there might be a problem leaving this place.

Ophiel blipped down, aiming for the tunnel Erick knew to exist beyond the cloudgate below. The ball of feathers and eyes ended up bouncing off of the cloudy surface, unable to pass through. Physically pushing didn’t seem to get Ophiel anywhere, either. Erick recalled Ophiel and frowned at the cloudgate.

He could certainly get through the cloudgate again, no problem, but the thought of fighting so many monsters so soon filled him with a small dread that sent him mentally recoiling. Either the thought of being trapped down here, or the thought of having to face an unexpectedly strong monster, or the idea of never seeing Jane again... He wasn’t certain which of his thousand and one thoughts sent him reeling, but he went reeling, for sure.

Several deep breaths later Erick calmed himself down, and he told himself that he could do what needed to be done, when it needed to be done. But not yet. Not so soon. There was still a lot to do down here.

And since Spatial Magic worked down here then maybe he could make [Gate] and get home that way, avoiding the monsters completely! Erick smiled as he had that thought. Well then. There was already a plan to work with Yggdrasil to make [Gate], so that plan moved to the front of his needs. He would conduct at least one of the tests he had in mind for [Gate] creation, and he might even succeed.

But there was a problem with that plan.

The Worldly Path ended with a visit from Melemizargo, and then the potential Walker got [Gate]. At least, this is how it was according to everything Erick had discovered so far. Because of that fact, Erick suspected that there might be a problem with completing this Quest in the Core. The mana down here felt different than the mana up there, but to be sure that his theory was correct, he ca—

He stopped.

Erick prepared to cast a spell in the same way that one prepares to touch a hot stove; hesitant, and then all at once. This time, he followed through. He cast a spell.

A cascading orb of white light flashed into existence overhead, spreading radio waves all over, and eliciting a white fog out of the air all around Erick. He had already input the searching target, and he was prepared to see the white fog turn deep blue the second [Cascade Imaging] started, but as moments turned to minutes and the foggy map turned more solid...

There was no blue.

Melemizargo was not in this land.

Erick... was not sure how to feel about that. He had touched the stove and found it cold.

But if Melemizargo wasn’t here... Were the other gods here?

To test this new theory, Erick thought up a good Particle Magic question about wormholes, so that he wouldn’t be in violation of Particular Insight’s requirement to ask about Particle Magic, specifically, and he called the god of The End and Time. A hundred mana vanished into the manasphere like so many scattered white glows.

The white glows were odd; that had never happened before. Usually it was a simple cast of mana that vanished into the manasphere, and then gold fire appeared. But...

Erick waited. He frowned. It never took this long before.

He eyed the inverted world.

“... Hello?” Erick asked, “Phagar?”

No response.

He checked the manasphere, casting his sight back in time, to see if Phagar was there like he usually was when Erick went looking.

No Phagar.

“Uh. Okay.” Erick said, “This is rather strange, Ophiel.”

Ophiel chirped; it was very strange!

Phagar could simply choose not to answer, as gods were wont to do, but that seemed incorrect.

Well.

Whatever.

Erick moved right along. He had the main plan already made; he just needed a place to plant Yggdrasil somewhere and then he could certainly talk to the people outside. Unless Yggdrasil couldn’t grow here? Or maybe Yggdrasil’s other bodies had popped when Erick went out of range? Ohh. That might be bad. Hopefully that hadn’t happened.

Erick picked a spot in the distance that looked good and headed that way.

- - - -

Upon seeing his chosen spot, which was a mountain, with a village and a freshwater lake at the base, Erick spotted a better location.

A city lay in the far distance, like a glittering patch of white buildings clinging to the space between a land of green, and the sparkling blue ocean. It didn’t take long to get there, and when Erick did, he knew this was the proper location for Yggdrasil. Something called to Erick as he eyed the place and judged it perfect—

Well. Not the city itself. More specifically, the patch of ocean next to the city. Erick would explore that later, but for now, he had a city to inspect.

... Purely to make sure this was an actually-good location. He’d get to Yggdrasil soon enough.

... He was gunshy about summoning his largest [Familiar], too, but he’d get to it soon enough. He just needed some time. Yes. That was all. A bit more time.

The city was a land of white towers and cathedrals and shorter, but no less well-made duplexes and single family homes, and apartment buildings. Almost every building had a picture window of some sort, made of rainbow stained glass, while some, like the cathedrals and governmental buildings had multiple windows of artful, crystal light. And it was crystal in the more expensive places, for sure; not glass. The streets were paved with white stone. Fountains bubbled everywhere. Bakeries were fully stocked with bread while beer halls and smokehouses and restaurants were all well provisioned, like the people who lived here had simply stepped out for a break.

Except there were no people at all. A [Cascade Imaging] helped to prove as much, and with some shifting of that Imaging, Erick found a few good places to look for answers. Searching for ‘books’ proved a great diversion, for the libraries had so very, very many books. Thankfully, they were not blank, or some shit like that. Erick had half expected that to happen. But, no. The books were real. But the books held a different problem. They were in languages that Erick had never seen before. There were passing similarities to Ancient Script in more than a few books, and once, Erick even managed to read half of a letter he found tucked into a desk by a window. Only half the letter, though. The rest made no sense at all.

And now, Erick stood in a dark wood library of some noble, for sure, for the room was three stories tall and about that wide, with walls made of shelves. Every shelf was packed full of non magical books, each bound in fine leather and organized in some arcane system that Erick had never encountered before. Parts of it seemed organized alphabetically, but only smaller parts, and Erick could only tell this much because of his massive Intelligence, for sure.

This library was organized oddly, but at least it wasn’t organized by color. He had found and dismissed four separate libraries of similar size to this one because they were organized by color. Massive wastes of space, for sure, but they were certainly pretty rooms to look at.

This library, in this massive house of white stone and towers and greenhouses, was probably the one Erick was going to study for a while, if he chose to stay here. This house didn’t have any active magic —there wasn’t any active magic anywhere, actually— but these books were clearly supposed to be of a magical nature. Erick recognized some formations on the shelves that should have been filled with magic, and almost every single book had smatterings of formation diagrams in them, too—

“Ah. I should check my Minor Entity of the Script access.” Erick almost slapped himself. “Maybe there are more people in this land with me.” And if not people, then Rozeta, for sure. He put the book back on the shelf and instigated—

A human woman of white everything, from hair to skin to eyes to her white pantsuit, stepped out of the air three meters away.

Rozeta semi-rapidly said, “Hello, Erick. Welcome to the Outer Core. I am exceedingly busy at the moment, otherwise I might have been here before now but since you’re forcing the issue: Is there some specific thing I can help you with?”

Erick nodded, then he rapidly asked, “Where are all the people? Can I plant Yggdrasil in the ocean in that direction?” He pointed toward the ocean. “Do you mind if I make some magic here? What’s going on with this place? What’s up with the [Luminous Beam] on the guardians? And can I get a cast of [Language Acquisition] to understand these books? But I don’t have any grand-rads on me at the moment.”

Rozeta nodded, then said, “Easy ones first, and not in the order you asked them: Make whatever magic you wish, but be respectful of this land. You were already respectful enough to solve the breach you caused, and you’re you, so though you have trespassed, I trust you enough not to force you out. Because I trust you, you may plant Yggdrasil wherever you wish.

“But know this:

“The Outer Core is a memorial to lost lands and a receptacle for replacement parts in case the worst should happen on Veird.” Rozeta said, “This land was not intended to become a holy land to my people, but it has, and the wrought feverishly protect it from all intruders. You are an intruder, but you are also a Minor Entity, which does hold a certain amount of sway. How much? I will not say, for that would be involving myself with mortal matters.

“As for the guardians possessing [Luminous Beam]: the Core is protected by the wrought, as previously explained. It’s complicated and I won’t go into all of the details of how, mostly because security is security, but those guardians and their cloudgates have been there for a very, very long time. They’re old, but they also get upgraded every so often. Recently, they’ve been upgraded with [Luminous Beam], and since [Luminous Beam] is a very good spell, they use it almost exclusively ever since it was added.

“I believe this is actually a bug in the formations which create the guardians, but it is only after your breakthrough that the caretakers of that magic are finally starting to agree with me that their system is bugged.

“Finally: Yes, you may have [Language Acquisition] cast upon you. Instead of the usual cost, I’ve already taken the liberty of removing the grand rads from the monsters you killed and left to rot. You now have a plus-395 grand rad balance. Use it as you wish.” She flickered with divine fire and magic settled over Erick. “This [Language Acquisition] is a good version that will last as long as you’re inside the Outer Core and a week past that. You probably won’t learn anything too interesting from these books since they’re all based upon reality that no longer exists, but I would never begrudge anyone their diversions.” She stood fractionally straighter, “And now that your questions are answered, I must tell you off.

“Normally, a breach is a lot more deadly for the breacher. Sometimes they get through, though, and they fail to stop the flood of monsters that come inside with them. Those monsters remove on average at least ten cloudgates, letting even more monsters flood into the Outer Core, before they’re stopped. If ever all the cloudgates should fall, which has happened before, then the Inner Core becomes vulnerable. With the Inner Core exposed, all life on this world is in danger of...

“Let’s simply call it ‘bad things’, because the failure states have looked different every time we’ve gotten close to them. But, on the plus side: The Core Defenses ramp up significantly if things look to be going that way.” Rozeta said, “Luckily, this time you prevented that entire series of problems from ever becoming a problem. So, with that, and everything else you’ve done taken into account, you get a pass, Erick.

“From me. I should clarify: You get a pass from me.” Rozeta stared a bit, saying, “But this shit here was dangerous. You have more than enough power to prevent the worst case scenario, and I’m truly glad you thought to do so, so you get a pass. But other people know what could have happened here, since they’ve lived through it multiple times before.

“Every time someone tries to reach the core, and succeeds, the world almost dies. The wrought understand this. Perhaps they’re too insular down here, in the Underworld. Perhaps some of them disregard fleshy life as frivolous and flighty, so they don’t treat with true mortals like they should. Perhaps they should have been kinder and asked you to meet with them inside their cities.

“But whatever.

“The wrought have a purpose, and that purpose is to protect the world from an unexpected End, and they do a very good job of that. Aside from that, they’re free to live their lives as they see fit, making their own governments and societies and decisions about those societies.” Rozeta breathed. Then she said, “I don’t control the wrought. I give guidance and support, and that’s it. So don’t expect me to get between them and you when they invariably come for you.”

Erick felt the weight of the moment upon his chest. “Okay. I get it.”

“I know you do.” Rozeta said, “And just so you know: Some of those wrought will arrive here in a few days to investigate everything that happened, but there are no easy ways to get here. There are no back doors to the Core. So they’ll have to wade through the monsters like you did, but since all the doors are closed and monsters fill the passageways, there’s not much of an actual emergency. A lot of the usual emergency response was not necessary.” Rozeta said, “The people that do show will want you to leave, but you’re free to do whatever you want, and they’re free to do whatever they want, too. I ask you not to kill them; I have already asked them not to kill you.”

A moment passed while Rozeta let that all sink in.

Erick said, “Heard and understood. Thanks for the warnings.”

Rozeta nodded. “Even with all that said, there is one more important thing to tell you, and then I must be going: I will not let you create a [Gate] in this land. You are a Wizard, so you could probably blow through a few of the protections against such a creation of magic, but I will not save you from the backlash when the defenses activate. There can be no back doors to the Core.” She paused. She continued, “But simultaneously, I wish you well on your creation of [Gate]. I can guide you on that, if you wish, but such guidance will not happen here, or now. Come to the Orrery in Nergal, instead.”

“Understood.” Erick said, “No back doors.”

“None.” Rozeta said, “Even the [Telepathy] you’ll get out of Yggdrasil isn’t something I would normally allow, but I’m planning for the far future, here, and I need to see what happens. So I will allow this, for a while. Yggdrasil will not be allowed to stay in the Outer Core, either.” Rozeta relaxed a fraction. “If you want a place for Yggdrasil, I can make a nice spot for him outside of the Core. I promise he’ll like it. I promise you will like it, too.”

“Okay. I understand.” Erick said, “I’ll replant him elsewhere. What sort of place were you thinking?”

Rozeta allowed herself a tiny smile, and a grateful sigh. “I’m not sure yet; I’ll probably ask some of my people to make a spot.” She said, “A final piece of advice: When you get out of here, don’t accept my father’s help creating a [Gate]. You don’t need him, Erick. You’re Wizard enough on your own, and I’m sure, with time, you will—” Her eyes flicked left with her head turning a moment later, but slower, and more methodical. She frowned at the empty space as she spoke to Erick, “You’ll come into your power soon eno— Bah.” She turned back to Erick. “I must go. Call me again in a few days when you have more questions.”

And then she vanished.

Erick looked at the space Rozeta had occupied for a moment longer, wondering if that had been a good interaction, or not. He leaned toward ‘good’, but he had apparently risked the world to break into this place, and Rozeta did not approve.

Erick wanted to rail against the injustice of not being let into a protected space, but that seemed childish. Security was security, for a reason, and the Core had a very good reason for being secured like it was.

Anyway. Next time Erick would ask Rozeta about what it meant to be a Wizard, and why the other gods weren’t able to answer him here in the Inner Core. There were a lot of questions that Erick would have to save till next time. And... yeah.

Rozeta was busy.

Erick was busy, too. He could talk to her again later, but in the meantime, he had no idea what was going on outside of the Core and he didn’t want to be separated from everyone else for too long. It was time to summon Yggdrasil. Even if [Gate] creation was blocked down here, there were many other reasons to plant the big guy down nearby. Erick wasn’t done with his exploration of the land down here, for there were certainly secrets laying in wait in thousands upon thousands of places, but he needed someone to talk to that wasn’t Ophiel just parroting him. It’d be nice to talk to everyone else on the surface, too. Just how long had Erick been gone, anyway? Hopefully not too long.

And besides that, Yggdrasil was probably worried about Erick, too. Erick knew he was certainly worried about Yggdrasil.

One final thing to do in this library, though. Erick scanned through the stacks, looking for a few books with lots of pictures to aid with learning the language. Such targets were easy enough to find; there was a whole shelf of little knickknacks for kids, including stuffed toys and leather balls and more than a few dolls, along with a whole row of colorful books on the second to lowest shelf. Knowing what he now knew, Erick suspected that this place was a copy of someone’s former home from the Old Cosmology, but translated to this New Cosmology.

Every single city down here was probably like that.

Erick copied every children’s book on that colorful children’s shelf, along with several dozen of the more expensive-looking probably-magic grimoires strung throughout the rest of the library. That would be enough reading material while he hung out with Yggdrasil for the next few days, or something.The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

Holding his new copies in his light, Erick and Ophiel took a lightstep to their next location, by the ocean.

- - - -

The white city had been built upon a jag of land extending out from the main continent. Past that jut of land, a string of smaller islands trailed off into the ocean to where they grew smaller and smaller until, after five islands, the bumpy land disappeared under the waves, and all that lay ahead was blue.

The city had developed onto the first three of those islands with a massive, arched, white bridge made of stone. For a brief moment Erick thought the bridge was an architectural marvel because stone couldn’t get that thin without magic, and he saw no magic, but then his second thought informed him that this was the Underworld, and gravity was only a suggestion down here.

The bridge was but one of three such bridges leading from the mainland to the nearest island. A similar bridge connected that first island to the second one, and then a third one connected the second island to the third.

The first of the islands held a massive, soaring white castle of several towers and a few curtain walls. Bright blue roofs and shining silver gates served almost as decorations, while private gardens and rooms upon rooms of plush bedding and couches and all the proper amenities of nobility served almost as showrooms, telling the story of the white city’s prosperity. Practically every room had a bit of rainbow stained ‘glass’, too, in the form of windows set above doors. There were a few masterwork sculptures of crystal in courtyards here and there, as well.

The second island had a wizard’s tower of some sort, with an orrery at the top and enough sculptures of wizards to give Erick pause. He didn’t spend too long there because that place was packed with secrets, and with the first sorts of traps that he had seen in this land. He could suss out all the little secrets of that place another day, though, for he had a mission.

But before he got to that mission, Erick checked on the third island. An obvious chapel stood in the center of that land, dedicated to gods Erick had never heard of, or seen before. He didn’t spend too long there, either, but mostly because it was one of the few places that seemed truly sacred.

And, he had other stuff to do. He had checked out those locations just to ensure that there would be no obvious problems with what he came here to do, for the ocean and Yggdrasil called to him.

Erick returned to the sky above it all. To the right of the islands lay a protected harbor. Boats bobbed in the gentle waves of that harbor, looking ready to unload their goods, or to accept loads of goods waiting for them on the docks. Those transfers would never happen though, for those boats had been sitting there like that for a very, very long time— Or? Ah. Maybe not?

They had likely only been there since the last time this land was ravaged by monsters and the Core almost fell. According to Rozeta’s implications, nothing here was actually 1,450 years old; dated to the time of the Sundering. Whatever the case, Erick wasn’t going to plant Yggdrasil in the harbor, anyway; that would be disrespectful.

To the left of the white castle and wizard’s tower and chapel and harbor, though, lay the open ocean. The ocean was freshwater, too, so saltwater wasn’t even a concern.

‘Pe— Perfectly... Perfectly fine, Archmage Flatt. Thank you.’ Shani rapidly sent, ‘The kids appreciate this.’

Erick pulled back from that conversation, but he continued to fix a few more things around Yggdrasil at Holorulo, while telling Yggdrasil how to maintain proper defenses. Yggdrasil learned quickly, casting spells how Erick told him to cast.

Then Erick dove across the world, to Candlepoint, to check on the surroundings. The lake at Candlepoint seemed fine. The sky could use some touching up, though, so Erick fixed the weather while Yggdrasil placed some defenses.

Erick pulled back.

Opening his real eyes one again, he saw Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye watching him.

Erick smiled, and said, “You did well when I was gone, Yggdrasil. I didn’t get any unexpected Kill Notifications from you. I’m very proud of you for not killing anyone.”

“I tried to be good, just like you said, Father.” Yggdrasil asked, “You won’t leave me again, will you?”

“I never meant to leave you in the first place. I’m very sorry for that. I hope it never happens again.” Erick picked up a children’s book, asking, “Want to learn a new language with me? Or would you like to watch me make some magic?”

“I don’t care about words on paper. I can’t read.”

Erick’s eyes went wide, but before he could say anything—

Yggdrasil said, “I want to do nothing. You sit there and do nothing, too. Okay?”

Erick nodded. “I’ll stay right here, Yggdrasil.”

“Good.”

Erick decided to read the book. He’d try teaching Yggdrasil how to read later, if Yggdrasil felt like it. Probably wouldn’t happen, though.

He sipped his tea, trying to understand the children’s book, and had a bit of bread and cheese while he was at it. Yggdrasil’s bright green foliage, kilometers away and waving like a dome of light and green fire, rustled a bit. A breeze flowed through.

This was relaxing.

... Erick wondered about Spur, though.

They were probably fine. Poi would have told him if he had to come home. Wouldn’t he? Yeah; he would. Honestly... Erick had spent too much time ‘vacationing’. It was likely past due for him to speed up this Worldly Path.

But if the end of this Path was Wizardry...

Erick had been hesitant about summoning another Yggdrasil, but he was absolutely against dealing with Wizards, because that would mean dealing with himself, and his true place in the world. People seemed to like him so far, but he was under no illusions about what would happen if people discovered he was a Wizard. Everything and everyone would turn on him in a flashing instant.

- - - -

Hours and hours later, Yggdrasil quietly said, “The light is always.”

Erick startled awake. He had fallen asleep while reading but he couldn’t have been unconscious for anymore than an hour or two. He plucked the open magic book off his chest and set it aside, next to the bed with all the others.

Learning the language hadn’t been that difficult and when the children’s books started making sense Erick had moved on to the grimoires, but reading those had been like reading Jabberwocky. Half the words were real, but the other half were arcane to him, both in sensibility and literally since they were about magical concepts that no longer existed. He barely recalled what he was reading, anyway, since he was barely awake at the moment. He eyed the fiery green sky of a canopy above, and the white lightning-like branches that held those flaming leaves far, far aloft.

He tried to make sense of what Yggdrasil had said.

He got nothing.

Groggily, Erick asked, “What?”

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye appeared in the air next to him; a small ball of prismatic light. “The light is always. And my roots don’t go deep. And everything pulls oddly.”

Erick stretched, yawning a bit as he dissected Yggdrasil’s words. Apparently he was still exhausted from the trek down here, and nothing made sense at that moment, but Erick came to himself quick enough. He got up, saying, “There is no sun down here, Yggdrasil. That blue planet-sized sphere above is the Inner Core of Veird. We’re in the Outer Core right now; the warehouse of Veird, where they keep their spare parts of the trappings of life in case anything should happen to the rest of the world. And so, this is a protected space. There’s a lock on this space to prevent people from easily entering, or leaving, and you’re brushing up against it when you send your roots deep. Gravity is also odd, since down here gravity always points toward the largest mass of stone. You might be experiencing a self-gravity of a kind, so yes, that would feel odd.”

“It’s not a sun?”

“Correct. That blue thing is not a sun.” Erick walked over to the kitchen he had set up and started preparing dinner, since it might as well be dinner time. “I’m not sure how it works either, but the Inner Core gives off light like a sun. I know the world looks a bit weird to you, and feels even stranger... Does the light of the Inner Core feel good? Or are you mainly using your own [Kaleidoscopic Radiance] for light?”

Yggdrasil took a moment to respond. “I like the light. I’m always in light. Down here I’m always in the light? It’s okay. Feels odd. I like real sun better. This sun not sun. Missing something.”

“I like the real sun, too.” Erick said, “Rozeta has informed me that neither of us can stay down here, but if you want, she has offered a space outside the Core. Somewhere close and probably always full of light.” Erick said, “She promised that you would like it. Would you like to be replanted out there?”

“Yes.” Yggdrasil quickly added, “We can leave together. Then you come build house in my branches at candle land and stay there. Okay?”

“I might have to go traveling again, to another land that is separate from the Surface.” Erick asked, “Do you remember the place in the Forest where your [Scry] eye could not follow?”

“No. You come home and stay.”

Erick smiled as he tossed some onions and beef on the grill, saying, “And let you explore the cosmos while I can’t move at all?”

“... I can’t explore cosmos.” Yggdrasil said, “I like staying in one place.”

“That’s what you say today. But what about tomorrow? Staying home is nice, but your home is going to be everywhere in the universe, as far as you can go, but to get there takes a bit of exploring of your own. One day you’ll find yourself on completely alien planets, supporting the growth of light and life.” Erick asked, “Or do you not want to see the places I told you about?”

Yggdrasil’s leaves flickered with unsure brightness. “... I want to see other worlds, too.”

“And I’ll help you get there, but this means that I will have to leave sometimes, so that you may follow.” Erick added, “And sometimes you will go somewhere, so that I may follow. This is life.”

A gentle groan of accepted disappointment moved through Yggdrasil like a very large branch gently bending in the wind. It wasn’t exactly a human sound, for it wasn’t born of a human mind or physiological reaction, but it was an approximate emulation based on human emotional reactions. Erick wondered how, exactly, he was connected to Yggdrasil, and how that connection influenced Yggdrasil’s growth. From everything that Erick could tell, the big guy was basically a child, and while Erick gave ‘birth’ to him, Yggdrasil’s other major ‘biological’ donors were gods and magic—

Huh.

Actually, magic was just possibility based on interpretations of mana as seen through the lens of a sapient mind, so perhaps Yggdrasil’s other major contributors were also orcols, and incani, and dragons, and monsters, and everything else that made mana on this world. Erick had never thought about it that way, but Yggdrasil had some rather radical genetic influences, didn’t he? Actually, they’d be ‘soul influences’; nothing genetic about them.

Yggdrasil stopped groaning in thought, and said, “I want to see rest of universe, but not today.”

Erick nodded. “Not today.”

“You can show the way, but I need you here most time.”

“I will be here for you, Yggdrasil. Forever and always.” Erick said, “And when I’m not directly with you, you can follow, like Ophiel.” Ophiel chirped on Erick’s shoulder. “I can’t support your body on my other shoulder, but I can support your sight.”

Yggdrasil’s small [Scry] eye set down on Erick’s other shoulder. With a small voice, he said, “Okay.”

A gentle wind blew across the inner world, and it was good.

Erick grilled beef and onions high in the sky, while Yggdrasil and Ophiel watched. Eventually, he added cheese, then he grilled some bread. The resultant cheesesteak sandwich was a bit different from what he normally made, but it was delicious and nutritious, and so Erick copied the other half of his sandwich so that he could have more.

When eating time was over, he was rested, and feeling good...

It was time to make [Renew].

Erick strode out of his put-together room upon Yggdrasil’s branches, up the slope to an empty area, saying, “I’m going to make some magic now. Okay? Watch how Ophiel looks over me, and don’t interfere. You’ll probably see some blood, but I can handle it.”

“Okay.” Yggdrasil said, “I see you bleed before. I not worried.”

Erick smiled.

And then he focused. He walked a bit further, and then he was far enough. In another twenty meters, Yggdrasil’s main trunk turned upward again, breaking off into more and more branches the further up it went.

Erick looked around at the perfectly clean manasphere, and realized this land would either be great for spell creation, or absurdly difficult. He leaned toward the former, but expected the latter. Anyway, he needed some targets to [Renew], so he cast a few; [Force Wall], [Teleporting Platform], a small area of [Domain of Light], and finally, he summoned his rad-retrieving minion, Jewels. The quartz-shaped torso-sized summon of a hundred floating stone knives just stood there, waiting for instructions.

Erick told it, “Do nothing, Jewels.”

Jewels did exactly that.

And Erick organized his thoughts.

[Renew] was a complicated spell of a countless thousands of moving parts, but only because magic itself was as varied as imagination itself. Thus, [Renew] needed to be a key that could fit into any lock; to renew any spellwork it touched. But this was a failure state of the spell, for such a spell would require at least tier 4 Tricking Magic. Erick had considered going that route a few times, but... No.

Erick needed to make a basic tier spell that anyone could use, so that everyone could contribute to defense. Actual mages and archmages would provide the defense, but the common person could still dump their mana into those defenses, ensuring that their beacons of civilization remained strong against the dangers of the wilds and the monsters.

Erick had tried manually shoving Light Mana into Light spellwork, and that worked a little bit, but not nearly well enough to make a spell. It wasn’t until he reached Enduring Forge, until he discovered how runes worked, until he saw how the Slime Spawner and Arcane Attuner turned normal mana into slimes and spellwork through a grand series of translation runes that he understood all the missing pieces of [Renew].

He had those pieces now.

He held out a hand and put those pieces together, speaking in Ancient Script, except for the last word,

“A bit of spell to start the drain.

“A flexing swell! Our mana trained

“and does like rain in lakes accrue

“trans-forged through veins

“The goal: [Renew].”

Erick flexed his lightform toward the floating [Force Wall], and though he opened his mana and prepared for the drain, for the channeling of magic into the pane of Force, reinforcing what was already present, he felt something break inside of him, instead.

A bit of his soul crunched in response to his voice; to his request of the mana.

The crunch spread outward like a shockwave that traveled down his arms and legs and struck his extremities like an interior explosion. Capillaries burst. Red spurted from toes and fingertips, spreading in all directions like Erick had been the center of a popped balloon of blood—

Gentle white light fluoresced from the wounds of his outstretched hands, which in turn became a gentle glow inside of his palm.

Erick relaxed as Ophiel hit him with a [Greater Treat Wounds] and blue boxes appeared, but he ignored the boxes for a moment and pressed his newfound power into the [Force Wall]. There hadn’t been much degradation in the spellwork, since he had cast the Wall not a minute ago, but that didn’t matter. Erick’s new spell turned to raindrops of light that soaked into the Wall like water into a sponge. He upped the channel, fully showering the Wall, seeing what would happen.

[Force Wall] normally cost Erick 5 mana, but as he dumped more and more mana through his new spell, into the Wall, it was like seeing a stone wall transmute from rock, to steel, then to something even stronger. But at a hundred mana poured into the magic, it could take no more. Erick’s white rain merely bounced off of the spell. The [Force Wall] was at full saturation.

Erick released the [Renew] in his hands. Light died. He breathed, and then he looked at his new blue boxes.

Congratulations!

You have created a new Basic Spell. Your spell has been added to your skills for free!

The spell you have created will appear in the Script after a year and a day.

Your spell is the alpha version, and will shift with time and use.

The spell that appears in the Script might be different.

Here is your spell:

Renew 1, instant + channel, touch, 5 mana + Variable

Rozeta thanks you for enriching the Script.

+3 ability points.

Congratulations, I suppose. I’ll be there to speak with you in person soon enough. We can talk more about this then, but know now that this spell will change how civilization functions the world over. But you already knew that.

You’re a Wizard, though, so this much is expected.

Here’s hoping for good changes.

Erick nodded, saying, “Here’s hoping for good changes.”

Yggdrasil asked, “Did you do it?”

“I did!” Erick happily cast his new spell and held his hand toward the [Teleporting Platform]. White magic guided bouncy mana through tiny raindrops until those drops struck the floating Platform. Magic guided mana inward, soaking into the spellwork, adding reinforcing bits here and there, strengthening the Platform. Conjured stone solidified into conjured steel. The Ancient Script symbol for [Teleport], brightly emblazoned in the center of the platform, glowed brighter, and deeper white. Erick moved on to the slightly degraded sphere of his [Domain of Light], asking Yggdrasil, “Want me to explain to you what I’m doing?”

“Yes. I want to hear you talk. What did you do?”

Erick laughed with joy and smiled wide, as he began explaining from the beginning, “Spells are cast with duration and other measures of strength, based on initial input of mana. Normally, spells end when those strengths break down. But with [Renew], I attune some of my mana with some ‘bounce’ and some ‘soak’ to survive the ‘translation’ process from my own mana to the mana of the spellwork, and in this way, my mana can repair existing spells by finding the broken parts and remaking them. It’s sort of like the opposite of [Dispel], but that comparison is a bit off, because...”

Erick spoke for hours upon hours. Sometimes, he stopped, and asked if Yggdrasil wanted him to continue. Every time, Yggdrasil said to keep going. Erick appreciated that. He hoped Yggdrasil got something out of all these lessons, but even if not, it was still nice to be near the big guy. Erick hadn’t done a lot of that, ever since he created Yggdrasil 5 months ago. He probably should have, but he had been busy with problems and [Gate].

A normal Arbor would have already turned real by now, too, which was its own set of issues that Erick didn’t feel like touching right now, either. In his own opinion, Erick was lucky that he could spend more time with Yggdrasil before Yggdrasil outgrew him. Erick really should have done this sooner, though.

It wasn’t long till Erick finished his talk on [Renew], but Yggdrasil asked for more words and more magic, so Erick continued, talking of gridwork. He eventually moved on to how he was going to make a [Renew] network that people could string through their houses, so entire cities could benefit from high-class spells inside their homes. The idea was that people could benefit from more than just the magics they could make themselves; they could hire out spell crafters and [Renew] those spells themselves, using the network.

“But you’re making [Gate] network, first?” Yggdrasil asked.

“A lot of magic is connected to a lot of other magic, Yggdrasil.” Erick said, “Exploring one side of magic can oftentimes help you to understand what’s on the other side, or what might be right next to your current explorations and you didn’t even know it.”

Eventually, though the sun never set, Erick got tired again and Yggdrasil was okay with more lessons later, because he was tired, too. Erick went to bed, and had some final thoughts for the day.

[Renew] would change everything, and more than how Erick had expected, too, because apparently his [Renew] strengthened existing spellwork. It didn’t just repair to full; it repaired beyond full.

And that had a lot of unknown implications.

That effect probably wouldn’t make it to the Open Script, though. Erick could already see this aspect of his magic being a major problem. You could turn [Fireball]s into [Perfected Fireball]s for damage, or strengthen [Ward]s far beyond full, or do any number of odd things that he hadn’t thought about right then. The range of 'touch' would preclude a lot of interaction if the spell to be [Renew]ed was dangerous to touch, but aura control could get around that restriction.

... Those were problems for tomorrow.

Erick went to sleep inside a [Prismatic Ward] cast by Yggdrasil, with Ophiel looking over them both, and it was good. He dreamed right alongside Yggdrasil, witnessing visions of big fishes, skies of light, and flowing land.