Chronicles of the True Wizard

The week of the exams, a schedule arrived which Felix wasn’t expecting at all but looking through it, he more or less understood why. His exams had been compressed into just a couple of days except for Solo Combat which had its own day and Group Combat which had 7 days allocated to it. Otherwise though, they were grouped by recommendation meaning he had Mana Structures and Spell Formations back to back.

First was Mana Structures where he had to efficiently send an audible message to the opposite end of the planet. Felix had spent more time on this spell than he would have liked but ultimately, was rather happy with his solution.

He had initially tried all kinds of variations on portals and even anima spells but ultimately, as was often the case, the simplest solution reigned supreme. Taking a normal spell form to output sound, Felix simply shoved one of the most powerful and precise targeting component he could find into it then pushed it until it pointed to the other end of the planet.

The location the sound had to end up was precise but, they were given exact measurements as to the location so all he had to do was adjust the spell form with the computer in his mind.

Walking into the exam room, he waited for his turn then walked through the portal in the middle of the classroom and found a very similar setup to the evaluation room. This time however, instead of a large sheet of parchment on the table, there was every tool Felix could imagine, and many he had never seen before. Lastly, Director Amelia stood on a stool, just like last time.

As he approached the table, Director Amelia nodded to him, “Did you bring your spell with you or will you inscribe it here?”

“Actually, can I cast it myself?”

She nodded and held up a hand indicating he should wait, “Of course.”

Sifting through a drawer on her side of the table, she found what she was looking for, a huge machine that surrounded a small window. She slammed it-due to the sheer weight-down onto the table then set herself up behind it and indicated with her hand that he should begin.

Glancing over at the provided coordinates as they changed for each participant, Felix made some quick adjustments then carefully constructed the spell form in front of him. Even though, in total, the spell only required a dozen spell levels at most to be functional, Felix ended up using nearly 60 spell levels of focus, the excess entirely dedicated to the targeting component of the spell.

His solution relied entirely on his precision as even embedding this spell into a ritual, would require very specific materials and a lot of mana cleaning and normalization.

He felt a wave of gratitude towards Melody once again as what he was doing wouldn’t have been possible had she not accelerated his soul’s healing and he had no satisfactory backup solution. He hadn’t really spent much time worrying about his exams in general, especially not Mana Structures and so, he had left everything to the last few dekads. Had he not been forced to sleep for almost two dekads straight as well, he knew he would have come up with something better but he really didn’t have a choice on that front.

With almost 50 spell levels of focus on the targeting component alone, Felix made sure it pointed exactly where it had to and was as precise as could be then held its shape steady as he cast the spell. He strained to hold it not because he needed to but because he wanted to be as accurate as possible.

The cast was completely anticlimactic but he was pretty confident it had worked. Turning back to Amelia, she waited for a few moments then nodded as a source-less sound echoed back into their chamber from the Adept stationed at the other end. She confirmed that the message he had sent matched the one they got back then hopped up onto the table and walked around the massive machine she had used to measure.

“I measured… 97 mana, does that match what you consumed?”

Felix shrugged, “Yeah, my screen says 97.316.”

She nodded, “You are allowed to try a few more times if you wish, given you cast the spell yourself. You were about half a kilometer off from the target location.”

Oh shit, that’s not very close at all.

“Yeah, I’ll try again.”

Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm and center himself. He even briefly tried to engage his conviction but it just wasn’t applicable enough in this situation. There was no losing, just a grade that represented his performance.

He tried a few more times and managed to shave off another point by refining the rest of the spell form a little and pushed his target within a hundred meters, but didn’t get any further than that. Though he didn’t feel like he was being strained or experience any pain, he was still pretty sure he could have brought his accuracy within a meter were his will power and his soul at 100%.

He knew he was only at about 90% at the moment but he didn’t feel like it was limiting him before. Even now he didn’t feel limited but the logical processes of his brain noticed the difference. Every attempt, he pushed harder but there was a limit he just couldn’t push through there and so the spell wasn’t nearly as accurate as he would have liked.

After he-reluctantly-decided he was done, Director Amelia nodded to him then tapped at her clipboard a few times, “Could you draw out the spell form you used?”

Felix nodded and walked over to the table, Amelia hopped off onto a stool then Felix pulled over a piece of parchment and drew out the spell form he had used.

Amelia looked at it for all of a second then cocked her head, “Do you have any skills affecting your spell casts in any way?”

Felix shook his head, “Nope.”

“Would you mind following me?”

He shrugged, “I have another exam in a couple hours but otherwise I’m free.”

She nodded then waved her hand to open a portal and stepped through. Felix followed her through it and immediately recognized the hall they stepped into as the one he took to the Mana Control classroom and Professor Fin’s office. He wasn’t entirely sure that was where they were headed, but he had a feeling.

Sure enough, he continued following her all the way to the classroom where she knocked on the door.

“You probably don’t know this room but this is Professor Fin’s office. You’re in Mana Control, right?”

Felix nodded, “I am. I actually do kn-”

Felix was cutoff by the door opening on its own and he didn’t bother finishing as they walked in and right up to the front of the room where they met Fin, standing just outside the door to his office with a grin on his face.

Fin nodded to both of them in turn, “Director Amelia. Felix.”

She brushed by him, already knowing he would agree before she asked, “Mind if I use the mana board in your office?”

Fin stepped back and gestured for them to enter then closed the door behind them.

Turning to Felix, Amelia crossed her arms and gestured towards the board with her head, “Can you cast the same spell into this board, and don’t bother changing the targeting component.”

Felix looked at Fin who’s grin grew a little wider then shrugged and cast the spell into the board without moving.

It took Amelia a few seconds to realize he was done and she only caught on because both he and Fin were staring at her, Fin waiting to see her reaction.

She looked at the board then frowned, “This is the exact spell you cast? No batteries, skills or anything else that was disallowed?”

Felix nodded, “Yup. That’s the one.”

Sighing, she finally addressed Fin’s grin, “What am I missing? Why didn’t this explode in his face?”

Fin chuckled, “I know you’re busy and don’t pay much attention to everything happening at the school… Felix was pulled out of 3 classes due to his… unique abilities. Oh and Director Fen was very close as well.”

She sighed, “Explain.”

Fin locked eyes with Felix for just a moment, looking for permission because of The System contract he had signed.

Felix nodded his permission so Fin turned back to Amelia, “Felix is the reason Khidell is only a Grand Master now.”

Amelia rubbed her eyes and groaned, “He was actually demoted all the way to Expert but it happened gradually so not many know about it.”

The expression of shock on Fin’s face actually made Felix worried, “REALLY?”

She nodded, “Still sure it was because of him?”

Fin looked at Felix for a few seconds then nodded, “It’s more likely than Khidell having lost his abilities.”

She shook her head and sighed, “Okay, catch me up. How exactly are you casting that spell?”

“I ju-”

Fin cut Felix off with a forceful tap to his calf, “Mind if I take a stab?”

Felix shrugged and gestured his indifference causing Fin to happily hop over onto a rolling stool in front of the board. He used spells to move himself around so he could point at specific parts of the spell form, “You just stretched a targeting node to its limits… what a crude and oddly insightful solution. You must be stretching your own limits just keeping it stable enough. How accurate was it?”

Felix sighed and dropped his shoulders in disappointment, “I managed about a hundred meters off on my best attempt.”

He snorted then turned back to the board, “As for everything else-and to answer Amelia’s question as to why it didn’t explode-you’re normalizing and cleaning the mana yourself, right? Then you must also be managing the flow rate and suppressing transients?”

“Yup.”

He shook his head, “Hah.”

Amelia looked at Felix with a disgusted expression that completely threw him off then sighed, “Show me.”

Felix had no idea how he was supposed to do that so he looked at Fin who had already hopped from the stool to his desk where he retrieved a number of devices, “Can’t believe we never did this before. I didn’t know you could clean and normalize mana as well. What else?”

“I can change the attunement and energy levels but it’s… slow.” Felix winced a little, unhappy with the speed himself.

The look of disgust on Amelia’s face deepened as the wide eyed smile on Fin’s grew, “How slow?”

Felix sighed, “I’m down to just under 15 minutes to make the attunement as clean as I can manage, mostly because I wanted to attune mana directly for my Spell Formation exam.”

Fin grabbed one of the gadgets from his desk and tossed it to Felix, “Attune some mana into this.”

“What attunement?”

“Any.”

Felix nodded then got to work as the two Professors watched him for the entirety of the 16 minutes it took until he was done. It took longer than he had hoped and he wanted it to be as clean as he could manage and even then, he noticed it was less than he could have managed before his current injury. Not entirely satisfied, but knowing he wasn’t going to do any better even if he took an hour, Felix finally pushed the mana into the device.

As he did, it glowed briefly and Fin snatched it from his hands then connected it into another machine with a huge grid of lights on it. It looked almost like the scoreboard for a sports game with all the individual lights. After a brief moment, just one of the lights on the machine lit up.

Amelia stared incredulously at the machine and Fin laughed, “It took you just over 15 minutes to match building sized machines and rituals.”

“Efficiency?” Amelia asked without looking away from the grid of lights.

Felix cocked a brow, “What do you mean?”

She looked at him like he was an idiot, “Ratio of mana in to mana out. You’re in my class?”

He also kind of felt like an idiot but at the same time, felt justified in his confusion, “Right just… 100%? I didn’t… I just changed the attunement, nothing was lost. There was no… conversion process?”

She groaned which only made Fin laugh harder.

Felix waited a few moments but Amelia didn’t look like she was planning on moving, “Can I leave?”

She looked over at him, her face still painted in complete disgust, “What? No, you can’t leave. How am I supposed to grade you? You took out as many Mana Structures as you could in your Mana Structures exam.”

Felix shrugged, “It was efficient though.”

“I-” She groaned again, “How are there two of you in one cycle.”

Felix suddenly became very focused, “What? Two of me? Someone else can do what I do?”

She looked at him, “Wha- No. I mean students who make grading impossible. On the one hand, it was efficient. On the other, you didn’t have the worst accuracy but it was close. Also the spell form you created is complete trash and by far the worst in the class. Yet if I stick to my normal grading scheme of efficiency and accuracy, you’d ace the class… Then there’s… ugh.”

There was no point trying to contain his relief, “Oh. Who’s the other one?”

It looked like she wasn’t going to answer for a moment then she just sighed, “Adaline’s inscribed spell used 23 mana.”

Felix’s eyes widened in shock, “23? Holy shit. How?”

Amelia threw her hands in the air, “My question exactly. She threw so much spatial nonsense I don’t understand in the slightest into her soloution that… I don’t know how to grade her. I can’t grade her. Do I just give her an S and move on? That seems wrong because what she did, makes every other S I’ve ever given look like a C at best.”

Felix made a mental note to talk to her then shook his head to refocus himself, “What do you need from me for grading?”

She sighed, once again, her exasperation very evident, “Giving you a test on the spot without preparation isn’t fair but I need to submit my grades and you have your Group Combat expedition soon… Can you show me spells you’re particularly proud of that you designed recently?”

Fin spoke up before Felix could respond, “That might not be the best idea. Felix casts all his spells with his Mana Control directly and his biggest limiting factor is the complexity of the spell.”

She dropped her head back and groaned again, “So all your spells are like this.”

“You do any enchanting recently?” Fin looked at Felix hopefully.

He winced, “Not really. I’ve been focused on other things.”

Shaking her head slowly, Amelia took a deliberate breath, “Alright, you know what. Just show me whatever spells or enchantments you have that you created. Literally anything.”

Felix nodded then began pulling up every spell, ward and enchantment the had ever created.

It took nearly an hour for them to get through everything at which point Amelia groaned one final time before deciding she had had enough. Her annoyance was apparent the entire time but Felix was at leas 50% sure he wasn’t going to get a terrible grade. He also gave it a 20% chance she just failed him.

Man… what a bummer. If I had my full control, my spell would have been accurate and she might have just given me a good grade on the spot. Now, I honestly don’t know. She just seemed so…

Grim chuckled in his mind, Annoyed, exasperated and disgusted all at once.

He winced then sighed as he mentally moved onto the next exam on his schedule.

With his first exam finally done, he headed straight for his second exam and arrived almost an hour early. Taking a seat, he entered his Soul Garden and began running through his solution for Spell Formations once again. Despite the exam being in a real world hour, he ended up revamping the entire spell but, it still relied on his manually attuning the mana.

He wasn’t exactly rushed given the time dilation though.

Once it was his turn, he walked through the portal and waited for the professor’s signal before casting his spell. This time, it took him nearly 20 minutes to fully attune the required mana to cast the spell and even then, he was worried the spell wouldn’t pass. The box he was moving though managed to stay within the given path, albeit barely.

Professor Elkord was, despite looking amazing with an an organic metal body, rather boring. His lectures were straight forward and to the point, they weren’t particularly fast or slow. They were concise and understandable. They were also simply, boring. It definitely didn’t help that his face just looked like a blank metal sheet, like someone wearing a mask.

Despite knowing they were largely expressionless, Felix was still expecting something when he cast his spell. They were given a track and his spell moved the cube through it without it ever touching the sides-despite how close it had gotten-and he managed to use just 17 mana in total.

After casting his spell though, Elkord recorded how much mana Felix used then informed him, once again expressionlessly, that he could attempt to cast the spell twice more.

He nodded and did so once again, the second time taking only 16 minutes for whatever reason and halving the mana required to cast the spell down to just 8 points. His third attempt, he pushed as hard as he could and honed his focus but 17 minutes later, he could already feel it wasn’t the same. For whatever reason, he had found a groove in his second attempt that he failed to replicate with his third. As a result, his third attempt used 13 points of mana.

Once he was done, Elkord directed him to the table where he drew out the spell form on a piece of parchment. Looking at the completed drawing, Elkord nodded towards it, “This is your spell formation?”

The question was asked so blankly, Felix couldn’t help but grow a little nervous. Especially considering what had happened with Amelia just a few hours ago, he was worried he was going to be failed for cheating or something, “Yeah this is the spell I just cast.”

They nodded exactly twice, “Okay. Thank you.” Then gestured for the exit portal.

Sighing, Felix left the room, resigned to his fate as now that he was really thinking about it, as much as he may have been very efficient with his spell, he also did strip out as much actual spell formation as he could. Thinking back, though it would have been less efficient, he could have taken a page from Withrel’s playbook and used fractal channels to create a complex structure to really show off what he knew. it would have used at least 5 or 6 times more mana but it would have been more appropriate.

As much as he knew his grades didn’t matter a ton, he still wanted his grades to be great for no reason other than wanting to win against his classmates.

He was already pretty sure he could get a recruitment offer from Amatara and Tekragoraxius no matter what his grades were and those were really all he needed. Although, he was definitely interested in Edras’ recruitment given he was so big on open knowledge and his afterlife was a library.

Felix’s final exam for the day was Mana Control so he headed back to Fin’s office and they went ahead and measured everything they had before. Writing down all the values, Felix was a little disappointed at first because his Mana Control Range wasn’t as big as he would have liked. His Mana Control Limit never hindered him but precision directly affected the density of his computers and he just wanted it to be lower. His Mana Control Speed was directly proportional to his flow rate and the force he could apply with his Mana Control alone was so low, it was useless. Lastly his Spell Construction Speed for a 20th level spell wasn’t even close to as low as he would have liked.

Once they were done, Fin wrote out the original measurements next to the new ones though and despite feeling limited by the values and burning with a desire to improve even more, he couldn’t help but appreciate how much they had changed.

Mana Control Range 16m 40m

Mana Control Limit 11,327,921 42,012,368

Mana Control Precision 1E-5 2.1E-8

Mana Control Speed 14.1 m/s 53.4 m/s

Mana Control Force 8 N 135 N

Spell Construction (Lvl 20) 0.9 s 0.4 s

Felix looked over the numbers and nodded, he was happy but not ecstatic. Looking over at Fin though, he was beaming.

“The amount of improvement you’ve made in just one epoch is”, He struggled to find the word, “amazing.”

Felix shrugged, “Thanks.”

He noticed the lack of enthusiasm on Felix’s face and placed a paw on his shoulder from where he was floating in the air next to him, “It’s impossible for me to say if this is good or bad by your standards but most students in this class only improve by a factor of 2 at most. You’ve gone ahead and improved in some areas by orders of magnitude. Growth only slows as students improve their Mana Control roughly following a logarithmic curve. You have by far the best Mana Control I’ve ever seen and are growing at the rate of a child who is just getting started. You should be proud.”

Felix nodded, “Thanks. I am mostly satisfied with my progress I just know I could have progressed more if I had focused on it more. For most people, Mana Control helps with their casting but it isn’t everything. For me, Mana Control is everything. It defines nearly the entirety of my offense, defense, speed, utility and at least contributes to everything else.”

“If you think you could have done more then I believe you. What you focus on is ultimately up to you, you don’t have unlimited time. You just have to decide if what you did spend your time on was worth it instead of working on this.”

Felix nodded as he agreed, it was something he knew but it still didn’t change the fact that he wanted to have dome more, he just didn’t have the time, “I do.”

Fin nodded, “Well, I’m satisfied. Feel free to go and prepare for the rest of your exams. I’m going to go and see if I can catch the end of the other students examinations.”

They left the room together and Felix headed off to his dorm while Fin ran off to the actual classroom.

Heading to his dorm, Felix wanted to do some final preparations for his Constructs and Animancy exams the next day but he couldn’t. He was actively tired as his soul was still healing so instead, he headed to bed.

Grim woke him the next day shortly before his Constructs & Elementals exam.

He headed over to Ked’s lab-where his exam was to be held-a little early and spent the extra time he had making sure the final touches were ready on the construct he had made. He still hadn’t actually bound the soul to it because he wanted to wait until the exam itself to do so in front of his Professor.

With all the various pieces organized on the table in front of him, he began picking up and quickly running mana through each piece and manually examining all the inscriptions. He only got halfway through though when Professor Sal made her presence next to him known with a slight cough, “Is this what you are presenting for your exam?”

Felix nodded, “I have the soul prepared I was just waiting to bind it until now.”

She gestured towards the construct indicating he should proceed and so, he pulled the soul he had created out of The Soul Devouring Ring and placed it within the body. Piece by piece, Felix bound the soul to each and every binding point he had created as well as suffusing it throughout the body as much as he could. It would take epochs for the soul to completely affinize but he kick started the process manually.

Once it was all bound, he finally attached the brain he had created to the soul. He had already imbued the spark of life a few days before so there was nothing left for him to do but wake it up. Felix quickly nudged the construct with a soul tendril-hidden within his hand-and imbued some mana into the batteries then, stepped back.

It took a minute or so for anything to happen, which didn’t actually worry Felix because if something were to go wrong it was far more likely to happen after it woke up. Finally though, a metal sphere whirred and clicked a few times as it shifted around and calibrated itself.

A few more moments passed before Felix couldn’t help but grin as he heard a robotic, machine like voice, “All diagnostics passed.”

Felix glanced at Professor Sal who still wore her signature annoyed-she-has-to-deal-with-students-and-probably-shouldn’t-be-a-teacher expression.’

The construct that Felix had yet to name slowly rose up off the table and floated in the air before them, followed shortly afterwards by a dozen metal hands with various tools as fingers. Four of them were metal humanoid hands, two of them had five small metal tentacles each, two of them held clamps of some kind and the last four were each unique, designed specifically for some aspect of making constructs.

Felix had gotten the idea from the Infant Lich he had fought and with his growing knowledge of constructs and how they work, the collection of ideas in his head had only grown. His hope was that this might be the first step towards complete automation.

The construct moved each of its hands and manipulated all of its fingers then Felix placed the nearly complete body of his second construct on the table. Using the tools throughout the workshop, the construct Felix had just brought to life carefully finished the inscription work that needed to be done over the next hour, effectively completing the second construct. All that was left for that construct, was a soul.

Professor Sal had maintained her expression almost perfectly over the course of Felix’s demonstration but not quite. His perfect memory allowed him to realize that her frown had just slightly deepened over the course of the entire presentation.

Once it was done, he looked over at her and waited for feedback or questions or really, anything from her.

Finally, after a few minutes of silence, she turned around and walked off deeper into the workshop. A few minutes passed again before she returned with the unfinished body of a whole new construct and placed it on the table. The new construct was much smaller and looked a bit like a mechanical bird.

It was also, very obviously not even really close to finished. If Felix had to guess, it was about 40% of the way complete if he ignored the time required to actually design and plan the whole thing. Physically, nearly one symmetrical half was complete which meant all one would have to do to finish it, was to copy the other half.

Crossing her arms, Professor Sal nodded her head towards Felix’s construct, “Have it finish this.”

Felix nodded permission to his creation and it got to work.

While it didn’t have eyes to be able to see what it was working on, it didn’t need them. Felix had spent a while trying to figure out how to make his Seeing Eye constructs see efficiently and in doing so, had explored many ways in which constructs could see. This construct, used none of them.

Instead, all his research had led him in a completely different direction with a whole new idea. With this construct, he had purchased the nearly complete, captured soul of a Matter Sprite, using Melody’s wallet. He then took a sizable portion of his own soul and separated out what he needed from what he didn’t then combined it all together. The result, was a soul that could sense the world around it. The range wasn’t great at just a few dozen meters of clarity, but it was a huge boon for a construct meant to create constructs.

While it didn’t have the same mana control Felix had, it did have very precise mana senses and mediocre matter control. It couldn’t do any actual separation or reconfiguration of matter like Nova could, but it could hold tools or parts without its hands or connect two parts together if needed. The hands were simply there for when it needed more power or a specific tool.

With those senses, and with a fair bit of help from Mark, it was able to completely analyze the construct Professor Sal had presented in a matter of seconds. From there, all it had to do was follow a script to complete the rest of the construct.

It could have done the analysis itself, but it would have taken much longer as much of its brain was dedicated to controlling its body and it hadn’t fully calibrated everything yet.

Despite all of that and Felix knowing it would likely complete the construct, it wasn’t working fast enough for it to finish during the examination period. It was still slower than even he would have been, let alone an Adept or the Professors themselves.

Two hours passed as Felix’s construct silently worked away and Professor Sal scrutinized everything it did.

Felix was convinced they would just sit and stare at it until it was done but instead, Professor Ked appeared after having finished the exams with the normal class. Walking into the lab, he headed directly to them and met Felix’s gaze with a friendly smile, a stark contrast to Professor Sal’s permanently dour expression.

“You made this?” Ked looked at Felix and gestured towards his construct.

Felix nodded.

Ked grinned, which was a little creepy on his very alien face despite his intentions, “So for your exam… You decided to present a construct… That makes constructs?”

Felix shrugged, “It was something I wanted to make anyways. I had most of the parts and pieces from the event, I just had to reconfigure and adapt some of them.”

Ked laughed a few times before shaking his head at Felix’s gall as he walked around the table, examining the construct from every side.

After circling around twice, Ked stopped and got a little closer at which point the construct stopped and finally spoke for the first time since it had woken up, “Uh… Could you… Say something? You’re making me a little nervous.”

Ked fell back a step, clearly not expecting the construct to speak and it continued, “At least she gave me some room. You’re a little… close.”

Spinning towards Felix with a cocked brow and wide eyes, Ked’s grin returned and he lightly bowed to the construct, “My apologies. I didn’t think you would mind.” Then he stepped back until he was standing next to Professor Sal.

He nudged her with one of the joints in his arm, “Have you examined them yet?”

She shook her head, “No need. He bound the soul right in front of me.”

Ked looked over at Felix with wide eyes once again, “You didn’t test it ahead of time? You bound it during the exam?”

Felix shrugged, “Sort of. I tested all the individual pieces and connected them to the construct to make sure everything would work but I avoided permanent bindings.”

Professor Sal cocked her head slightly, “You bound and unbound the soul multiple times?”

“Sort of. I mostly just held it in the construct body and loosely tied it to the bindings. Nothing too strong though so I could separate it again later.”

Ked’s grin grew even wider, “While this isn’t the most impressive construct I’ve ever seen, this is definitely the boldest choice for a final project presentation I’ve ever seen.”

Over the next 45 minutes, they went over a number of technical details and examined the construct in depth, despite its timid nature. Professor Sal continued to seem perpetually annoyed while Ked was overall, jubilant.

After that though, Professor Sal had to go and evaluate the normal class while Professor Ked and Felix talked through some of the decisions he’d made on this construct. They moved on to talk about a number of other constructs Felix had made, including the Seeing Eye constructs which he seemed even more impressed by.

A couple hours later, Felix had to cut their discussion short as he had his Soul Manipulation exam to head to, Luckily Professor Ked insisted he could leave his new construct with him. He assured Felix that the exam was over but both of them agreed that there was no better place for it then in a construct research and production laboratory.

Walking out of the lab and towards his next exam, Felix couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. The construct’s personality hadn’t been anything he had chosen. Rather, he wanted to prove he could add a personality, mostly to boost his grade in Animancy, so he had mixed together small pieces of a bunch of souls from event participants he had harvested. He had focused on crafters and profession focused participants which seemed to have resulted in a somewhat timid personality.

It didn’t matter much though as Felix fully planned on making more, similar constructs down the road and he could adjust those and iterate as needed.

Arriving in the class for Soul Manipulation, Reading & Cultivation a little earlier than necessary, Felix found a seat and simply waited.

Peace arrived a little bit later and sat next to him, also a bit early for the exam as a whole.

“Hey. Thanks for your help back in the event.” Felix kept his statement of gratitude purposefully vague just in case.

“Sure, no problem. Did you… succeed?”

Felix tilted his head a little, “Yeah more or less, got more than I was hoping for in fact.”

“I heard you were injured, pretty badly too.”

“Yeah, I’m fine now. In large part thanks to Melody actually.”

Peace placed his hand on Felix’s shoulder and spoke directly into his mind, sort of like how Grim did but less elegantly without any bond in place, Does it have to do with you going offline for a bit? Reaper was worried because… it really shouldn’t be possible.

Felix tried a few times to respond but after a few tries, decided not to bother, “That was when I got injured. I’m fine now though. Where have you been? I expected to see you sooner.”

Peace’s expression fell just slightly, “I had something urgent to take care of.”

Felix got the hint verbally, tonally and from a feeling of sorrow and regret Peace purposefully let him feel, and didn’t press the issue.

They sat in silence for a bit, Felix mentally checked out in his Soul Space working out some kinks in his mana channel and core designs.

Eventually Melody also arrived somewhere in the middle of the other students streaming in and took the seat next to Felix. He didn’t even bother bringing his consciousness back to his body at first but a moment later, he felt a hand on his chest and his consciousness snapped back.

His head spun down and towards Melody who had reached into his robes and was feeling around at this chest.

While he didn’t physically stop her, Felix looked at Melody with a cocked brow and an unimpressed expression. He knew what she was doing and why, which was the only reason he didn’t stop her.

After chewing and swallowing the bite of whatever chocolate pastry was in her other hand, Melody nodded slowly and thoughtfully, “Hmm… You seem to be mostly normal. Well, not normal but more you at least.”

He nodded then plucked her hand off his chest with two of his fingers, like it was a disgusting bug, “Mostly. Thank you.”

She shrugged like it was no big deal, “You know, maybe I shouldn’t have. Not being able to feel you again is… lame.”

Felix shook his head and lightly sighed at the double entendre which he knew was intentional, “You already got your question. Plus, you can feel everyone else. Isn’t that enough?”

Her face lit up when Felix finally acknowledged some of her teasing and she shrugged, “Yeah, you’re right.” Sighing dramatically she slouched down in her chair a little and dropped her head back, “I’ll just have to go feel some demigod later to reassure myself.”

They were interrupted a moment later by Director Fen walking into the room and towards the front of the class. The entire class watched her and waited as she opened a portal next to the podium and fiddled with some things to set up for the test. Once she was ready, she nodded once then looked up from the podium and around the room.

As her eyes settled on Felix’s trio at the back, she frowned, “What are you three doing here?”

They all looked at each-other with confusion, hoping one of them knew what was happening.

“Leave. I’m not evaluating any of you.” Then she waved them away, like she was shooing a bug, or three.

Melody asked the obvious question before their Professor could call over the first student, “Where are we supposed to go then?”

She drew her head back like the question had the most obvious answer, “Home?”

Before any of them could clarify, she called over the first student and walked through the portal with them, disappearing from the room.

They all looked at each-other for a few moments then Peace shrugged and Melody excitedly jumped up, “Oooh! Since we suddenly have a bunch of free time, you guys want to go shopping?”

Neither of them immediately declared their nonexistent excitement but they wouldn’t have had a chance to anyways as she just kept going, “Or we could to a bakery- or or, there’s this new restaurant that serves dishes made only from metal that I- OH! Or we could go and visit this planet I know where everything creature is domesticated and adorable.”

They had already made it out of the room and onto the greenery of the lawn as the classroom was fairly close to the open doorway of its particular building.

Stopping, Felix cocked his head towards Peace, “I can’t speak for him but today, I’ll do whatever you want Melody.”

Her eyes lit up even more than they normally did as she leaned in, “Really?”

He nodded, “Within reason.”

Peace shrugged, “I’m game for anything.”

The mischievous grin that followed worried Felix just a little. What she said next as she whipped something out of her inventory, was possibly even more worrying, “Change into these.”

Following Melody into the portal after she whispered their destination into El’s ear, Felix and Peace both looked around to try and figure out where they were. The portal had led them into a small secluded room in what appeared to be a tent. Dragging Felix by the wrist, Melody pulled him out of the tent and onto a massive dock.

Looking around, Felix couldn’t actually see land, but he also couldn’t see the end of the dock either, or very far at all for that matter. The dock beneath their feet was made of wood and had the same sound Felix expected from a dock made of normal earth wood. Looking down at the patchwork construction of graying wood in different sizes and each a slightly different age, It definitely splintered, degraded and rotted in the same way. The nails holding the boards down were also rusted and some of them stuck out in a way that had definitely injured someone at some point.

All around him there were either tents or water in every direction. The tents dominated the landscape around him and it was essentially a full blown city but one built entirely on docks with nothing but cloth construction for any of the buildings around. With nothing sturdier than cloth, none of the tents were more than a single story tall but the city was still about as dense as it could be.

As Felix looked around and examined their surroundings, he also noticed all the people walking around and more importantly, how low level they were. Not a single person he saw was above low D grade. The highest level he saw, by a few hundred levels, was 421.

Aside from the levels too, Felix rarely noticed what anyone was wearing unless it particularly stood out but standing where he was, he saw almost exclusively rags and simple clothes. There were a few people he saw wearing nicer cloth, but not a single person wore metal armor of any kind as far as he could see.

It at least explained to him why Melody had had them change into much simpler clothes that were still, some of the nicest on the entire dock. There weren’t even pockets or extra folds for Nova to slip into so she was instead delegated to his shoulder, not that she minded.

Melody dragged Felix through the densest crowd he had ever seen in the multiverse and they bumped shoulders with most of the people they passed, annoying Felix greatly. What were even more annoying, were all the wandering hands that slipped into his robes. There was nothing there for them to take and Felix’s Perception, Dexterity and Agility were way too high for anyone to get anything he was wearing but they still tried. He was pretty sure no one could actually see his level because if they could, the dozen or so E grades and couple of D grades definitely wouldn’t have dared try to steal from him.

Apparently Melody trusted Peace enough to follow them because she was only pulling Felix by the wrist.

Winding their way through the docks, around multiple tents and through one of the densest crowds Felix had ever seen, Melody finally pulled them into a large red tent with intricate but flaky and mostly worn gold filigree. Stepping inside, the cacophonous hustle and bustle of the outside was dampened considerably, not by any magical means but simply by of the overall mass of the four layers of thick cloth that made up the outside of the tent.

Inside, the tent appeared to be an inn or a tavern. All of the furniture was made of carved coral but only the bar was polished to a mostly smooth surface. There were no shelves behind the bar holding bottles or glasses, just a curtain that separated off another section.

The bar was lit by an open skylight in the tent above them and all of the tables were filled with people playing cards, drinking, passed out or whispering to other patrons. They weren’t particularly loud though, especially as their trio walked in and most of the patrons started staring, some from the corners of their eyes, others outright and not bothering to hide anything.

Melody released Felix’s wrist as soon as he was fully inside and looking back, Felix checked just out of curiosity and saw Peace enter right after him.

They followed a few steps behind as Melody walked over to the bar and sat on one of the coral stools that Felix was convinced would be one of the most uncomfortable sitting experiences ever, even at his grade. He opted to stand next to her instead of sitting.

They waited for just over a minute of near silence, the only sounds being mugs and cards hitting the table along with the occasional whisper. Of course, with Felix’s senses he heard much more than that and even the conversation being whispered in the corner about robbing them was completely audible to him.

Finally the bartender showed up, walking through one of the back curtains at an awfully slow, bog-standard human walking pace.

The bartender was a gruff looking man that was some race Felix had actually never seen before. He looked mostly human but his head above his ears was slightly more bulbous and larger, his ears were pointed but much thinner than an elf’s and his skin was a darkish purple. Other than that though, he was human shaped with two arms, five fingers on one hand and a missing pinky on the other. He also had a number of scars visible on his face, across his nose, distorting the shape of his lip, on his cheek and on his forehead.

The injuries confused Felix a little as theoretically they shouldn’t exist with The System but he hid his confusion entirely and figured he would just ask Melody if he remembered to later.

With an unpleasant expression that had no place in the hospitality business, the bartender grunted at them, “What’you want.”

Melody placed one arm on the counter and responded with most of her usual joviality complimenting a mischievous look, “We’re looking to hire a crew.”

A few ears perked up and a few whispers passed through the bar before the bartender grunted again, “What for?”

Melody scoffed like it was the obvious answer, “Fishin.”

One of the players at the card table slapped the table, “How much you offerin.”

Casually twisting around, Melody leaned against the bar, “50.”

He snorted a little then spit on the ground next to him, “Ere to? Minimum’s 200 for a fishin trip these days.”

Melody laughed, “My ass it is. 60 and The Carboris Expanse.”

Multiple people guffawed and one man spat the swill he was drinking. The man she was talking to frowned in disgust, “You won’t find a single sailor in the whole Alder Bluff Pier who’ll take you out there for less ’an un-fifty.”

She smiled and cocked her head a little, “Thought you said the minimum was 200 for a fishing trip these days?”

He grumbled angrily then stood up and walked right up to her, stopping just a few inches from her face, “What’d you just say to me? You think I’m stupid?”

Leaning back a little further, Melody waved her hand in front of her nose, “And you smell like a clam’s arse too.”

The man’s lip began twitching and Felix would have bet money he was going to hit her but he just licked his teeth and stepped back, “It ain’t werth it.”

Twisting around and reaching behind the counter, Melody grabbed a mug carved out of coral faster than the bartender could react to then tossed it lightly at the man’s head before he made it to his table.

Spinning around, the man shook his head with his tongue weirdly licking his beard, “Oi, I don’t care if yer a girl. If you and yer friends don’t walk outta this bar ’ight now, I’mma start hittin somethin.”

“Oh that’s good, finally? Cause I was just laying in the hammock with your mother last night and she seems worried you’ll never find a woman willing to lay with you.” Pointing at one of the other men playing cards, the angrier looking one, “She says you been hittin that too long and that yer mates don’t count.”

His face, and the face of the other man she had pointed too, as well as the barkeep to a lesser extent, were all red and furious. Screaming and spewing spittle into the air, the man ran at Melody as fast as he could and tried to ram his head into her face.

What followed was one of the silliest things Felix had ever been a part of. He honestly felt like the three of them were parents and the dozen and a half gruff sailors in the room, were tiny children or puppies fighting.

Melody easily hopped to the side causing the man charging at her to fly over the bar. The barkeep tried to grab her but she just stepped to the side and tapped the back of his head, sending his head flying into the bar and knocking him out.

The men playing cards were all on their feet and two of them sauntered over to Peace who didn’t even bother moving. One of them went to grab him and he just backhanded him on the head with two fingers, instantly knocking him out. The other was too angry to think and a quick backhanded slap to his stomach completely winded him.

A couple of sailors rushed Felix and he wanted to try knocking them out as casually as Peace had but he was honestly worried he would accidentally kill them. Instead, he simply stepped aside and lightly pushed them into each-other, making sure their heads collided, knocking them out.

Even after dispensing with a third of the sailors so casually and trivially, the rest still decided to rn at them and were knocked out or disabled just as quickly.

Once they were all groaning and rolling on the ground or unconscious, Felix looked over at Melody with a cocked brow. She gave him a look of I-know-what-I’m-doing-just-watch-but-also-you-have-to-admit-that-was-kind-of-fun in response. The fact that she was an expert in soul reading and communication and advertised her intents definitely helped Felix decipher her expressions.

Hopping up onto a stool then lying on the bar-which Felix found odd because she definitely could have hopped or flew right onto the bar-Melody reached over the counter and lifted the sailor she had originally angered by the scruff of his clothes.

He was the only one that hadn’t been knocked out and was just dazed after flying over the counter.

Melody grinned, “75.”

He exhaled audibly through his nose, “120.”

“Deal.” Then she dropped him back to the floor.

Rejoining the other two, Melody nodded to them with an expression of see-I-told-you-it-would-work-out-and-I-knew-what-I-was-doing-now-wait-until-you-see-what-comes-next.

It only took a quarter hour for all of the sailors to get to their feet, the ones who were up slowly rousing the others until everyone was awake. They chugged whatever was left of their drinks then limped and drunkenly wandered out of the back of the tent and down the docks.

The trio followed them and Felix couldn’t help but feel incredibly unimpressed with how slowly they were walking and simultaneously incredibly impressed at how they slapped away pickpockets in their drunken and delirious states.

It took them an hour to finally make it to a dock that wasn’t surrounded by tents on all sides and another half hour to make it to their specific ship. As they walked up the plank onto the ship, Felix immediately thought to himself that if he couldn’t fly, he never would have boarded.

The ship was a fat, bulbous, double masted behemoth that was covered in barely patched holes and constructed entirely from mismatched boards in various states of rot. There were ropes holding some of the boards together and no railing on the deck. As Felix could feel matter around him as well, he already knew before seeing it that the inside of the ship, was empty. It wasn’t split into floors with multiple decks or rooms. He felt hammocks and a couple of curtains, and that was it.

The three of them walked over and stood on the edge of the deck, to get out of the crew’s way, as they ran around and readied the ship in a mostly drunken yet, practiced, shuffle.

A half hour passed and the man Melody had been harassing and insulting stood at the back of the ship, on the same level as the rest of them because there was only one deck, and bellowed out, “Make sure to tie yer leashes tight, we sail for The Carboris Expanse!”

Felix had no idea what he was saying and looked around to see if he had simply misheard but instead, he saw the sailors pulling ropes out of various hiding holes around the ship and tying them around their waists. The other end was tied around one of the masts and Felix couldn’t help but scowl. Not one of the ‘leashes’ was in tact. Each and every one of them was made up of multiple scraps of rope, twisted cloth and even some algae here and there, tied together until they were a suitable length. He was pretty sure in a storm or really any situation where they would be forced to rely on the leashes, they wouldn’t do anything anyways.

The ship slowly made its way out of the harbor and began tacking its way into the wind. As they-painfully slowly-made their way away from the docks, Felix looked back and confirmed a theory he had had, the docks weren’t attached to land at all. They were like a constructed island in the middle of the ocean.

Looking up, the sky was as bright and blue as could be with not a single cloud in sight which made it that much easier for Felix to change the wind’s direction. He offered his hand to Melody and she took it with a cocked brow, her consciousness immediately being drawn into his head, There isn’t a cloud in the sky. Can I use magic now? I’ll make it seem like the wind changed directions.

She giggled, Yeah, go for it. Just don’t make it obvious.

He released her consciousness then positioned his spells just so to make it seem like they had found some kind of air current. It was just slightly off to the side of the boat but obvious enough that the captain noticed it and steered them into it, with the intent of riding it for as long as possible, which Felix knew was as long as he wanted.

As soon as he had done so, they began moving way faster without the need to tack back and forth which made the trip much easier for Felix. He didn’t really have any idea how far it was and no one was bellowing out their location or anything so he just waited. Maintaining the spells was pretty trivial for him so he distracted himself in his own mind as they sailed.

It took just over three hours for them arrive in a rougher part of the sea with noticeably darker waters below. Despite Felix continuing to move the wind, the sailors lifted the sails causing the ship to slow to a steady drift.

The captain walked over to them and addressed Melody, cocking his head overboard, “We’re here. Feel free to fish to yer heart’s content.” Then started walking away.

Melody crossed her arms, “Wait hold on. I said The Carboris Expanse, not the very edge of what could be considered, The Carboris Expanse.”

The captain spun on his heel, “I ain’t sailin any further into these waters. It’s dangerous bein this close as is.”

“250.”

The captain shook his head, “There ain’t no amount that’ll convince me. Now you better start fishin while the sun’s up.”

Melody hesitated for a moment then groaned a little, turned back to the other two and leaned in, “Alright get ready.”

Using her outer robe as a temporary container, Melody dropped a bunch of diced meat out of a spatial storage creating effectively a wearable bucket of chum.

Grabbing a handful, she tossed it out onto the sea and chummed the waters. She managed to get through three quarters of the pile before one of the sailors spotted what she was doing and yelled, “The fuck are you doing?”

The captain overheard the yelling and ran over just as Melody tossed the last quarter in, “What the fuck do you lubbers think yer doing? Where’d you even get that?”

Melody shrugged innocently, “Fishing.”

He looked at them each one at a time, slack jawed and looking for any kind of logic but neither Felix nor Peace actually knew what was happening, “Ye just killed us all. Was this yer goal? Havin us sail to The Carboris Expanse then chumming the waters? You were trying to kill me? Why?”

She laughed, “Where’s your sense of adventure, captain?”

“Sense of adventure? The creatures I seen out here scared the last o’ the hair off my balls. I reckon’ I’m un the last sailors in the Alder Bluff that’ll still sail two klicks from The Expanse. My sense of adventure died when I had my second kid.”

Felix spoke reactively, not entirely intentionally, “Second kid? Why not the first?”

The captain spat into the water, “My first wife’s a bitch.”

Melody gestured over the side of the boat with her head, “Well, I hope you can resurrect it cause I hear em coming.”

The captain jumped a step back from the edge of the boat and even though Felix could hear them too, their senses were strong enough that whatever was coming was still a few minutes away.

The entire crew desperately raced around trying to sail away and then out but they were way too slow, especially moving a ship of their size. By the time the sails were down and they had moved all of a few meters out of the current, Felix saw a number of creatures jumping up and eating the bait Melody had thrown.

The creatures were water drakes. Felix didn’t even have to identify them to know so. They looked like slightly more serpentine drakes with longer, stronger and flatter tails, webbed claws and gills. Otherwise, they looked like drakes, Dragons without wings.

Most of them were blue, others were more green and they had some orange accents on their claws and fins.

[D - Uncommon] Sea Drake (Lvl 231)

Nodding to the two of them, Melody turned back to the captain and dropped a bunch of lumber onto the deck of the ship from her spatial storage. Felix wasn’t measuring, but he was pretty sure there was about 120 meters worth of lumber all neatly piled up. He quickly identified it but it was just normal E grade wood, nothing special about it.

Melody waved to the captain, “This is our ride. Thanks for bringing us out here!” Then she hopped off the ship, into the water and swam over to the feeding drakes.

Peace shrugged at Felix then hopped in after her and Felix dove in a moment later to follow.

He used a quick Force Spell to turn the ship as he fell then pushed himself with his Matter Control through the water to follow.

Looking up, Melody was in the process of wrestling with the drakes in an attempt to mount one of them but, while it should have been easy just from the difference in their stats, the drakes were slippery. They kept squirming and trying to bite her, many of them succeeding, but none of them managing to sink their teeth very far.

She punched the ones that bit her in the nose until they released and wrestled with the others until she finally managed to get onto its back and grab hold of its gills. “Woo!” She cheered as she directed her drake off and out of the school.

Swimming over, Peace locked eyes with one of the drakes and it basically just swam over to him and willingly let him mount it. He rode it off towards Melody as Felix grabbed the protruding spikes on one of them and climbed his way onto its back. He didn’t mind it trying to pull him under and simply directed it back to the surface once he was properly mounted.

Nova had fallen off at some point but he spotted her a few seconds later by identifying all the drakes and realizing she had turned into one of them, likely after eating one or a few of them.

Together they split off from the feeding group and rejoined Melody who was trying to get her drake to jump into the air with her on it.

Once they were all ready, she led the way and they rode deeper into The Carboris Expanse.

They rode for a few hours, the waters growing gradually colder and darker as they traveled until Felix spotted what looked to be a tiny island. It was less than a hundred meters wide at most but it was the only land he had seen on the entire planet since stepping out of the portal.

It was barely visible though, sitting just on the edge of the horizon, so they still had a ways to go. Felix probably could have reached it in less than a minute if he could fly but he promised to do whatever Melody wanted and apparently this was it so, he complied.

They only got a few kilometers closer before Felix saw something moving below them. Melody was apparently ready for and actually expecting this so she immediately started circling around, even as their drakes grew squeamish and squirmy. Whatever was coming, they could also sense it and were frightened.

Felix mostly lost control of his drake a half minute later, Melody losing control of hers shortly afterwards. Peace still seemed to be completely in control of his but he released it nonetheless and stepped off of it onto the water. Felix and Melody simply floated nearby and waited.

From even just a few meters up, Felix could see that whatever was below them, was massive. He wasn’t even slightly worried considering the average level on this planet but the size did at least make him curious.

It was serpentine and a few hundred meters long, at least, dwarfing anything that had ever lived on earth.

“Okay shoo, take Peace way up into the air. It’s my turn first.” Melody shooed them over her shoulder, her gaze ever locked on the sea below them.

Felix had Nova fly up beneath Peace to lift him up into the air as he flew and gained distance himself. They settled a hundred meters above the water, Felix deeming that to be a safe distance for the time being.

Melody hovered just a few meters off the water with her arms outstretched in front of her like she was trying to catch some critter.

The gargantuan serpentine circled around a few more times before finally disappearing into the depths for a few moments only to reappear right below Melody, moving vertically.

The shadow below Melody grew rapidly until it was easily big enough to completely engulf her then, there was water everywhere. The creature breached the surface and jumped into the air a few dozen meters, enough to get Felix wet but not enough for them to fly any higher.

The creature reminded Felix in many ways of the Leviathan, but more serpent like. It’s face was flatter and not like a lizard’s at all. Instead, with its maw stretched all the way open, its jaw almost split the entire head in two, much like a snake but even more extreme. It wasn’t scaled with small and round scales but rather with concentric rings all the way along its body that were flexible. It also had hundreds of arms all along its body.

The arms all came in trios, mirrored on either side of its body. Each trio spread themselves out to stretch the webbing between them to make itself seem as big as possible, not that it would have mattered against much of anything.

[D - Epic] Dhirkkesh of the Depths (Lvl 862)

In the commotion of Dhirkkesh surfacing, Felix had lost track of Melody and only spotted her just as the serpent fell back towards the sea and she was on it’s side clinging to one of the arms. All around her, the webbing between the nearest arms retracted, freeing them to claw and grab at her. She deftly swung between them like a gymnast on a bar and kicked a few arms here and there then vanished below the water along with Dhirkkesh.

Neither of them reappeared for half a minute or so until, way off to the left, Felix heard splashing and Dhirkkesh resurfaced.

Melody had climbed her way much closer to its head, and as they soared through the air on the serpent’s thrashing momentum, she made one final leap and latched onto one of the ridges around it’s head. As she adjusted and centered herself, they dove down into the depths once again.

Finally, they emerged some distance away, Melody now sitting on the back of its neck, her hands latched onto its ridges as Dhirkkesh continued to thrash and swim in every which direction.

“Woooooo!” Melody’s cheers echoed out across the surface of the sea as Dhirkkesh swam as fast as it could, weaving through the surface of the ocean, desperately trying to get rid of its uninvited rider.

Together, the two of them made a couple rounds around the island before she backflipped off of its neck and into the air, floating up next to the two of them and slapping Peace on the back, “Quick, go go go before it gets away!”

Peace leapt off of Nova and dove into the sea below but without the ability to fly, Felix wasn’t sure how Peace was even going to get to it. There was no reason to worry though as Peace resurfaced hundreds of meters away, swimming at a ridiculous speed that would outpace most sea creatures.

He dove down a few times before managing to catch up to Dhirkkesh that seemed wary to approach anything at this point. It wasn’t running away but it was also obviously aware of Peace’s presence and trying to give him a wider berth.

As he approached, Dhirkkesh rushed to meet him, like it just wanted to protect its territory and felt forced to engage, and Peace jumped out of the water like a dolphin.

Dhirkkesh opened its maw to grab Peace but he flipped and kicked in the air to maneuver himself out of the way then grabbed hold of the side of its head. Melody had been holding onto Dhirkkesh, Peace was actively controlling it. His strength was easily a few times more than the creature’s, even despite their size and so he wrestled with it easily.

Twisting and pointing its head wherever he wanted, Peace took a half minute to get the hang of things then directed it over towards the island Melody had ridden around.

Felix, Melody and Nova all flew over to follow and they watched as Peace dragged the creature up onto the island, its body only half surfaced because of the island’s size, and hopped off of it.

With the webbing retracted between all of its visible arms, it used them as legs on land and scurried around the island multiple times. Peace stood at the center of the island and tracked its head as it circled, winding its massive body around him multiple times, effectively trapping him in a wall of serpent.

It stopped after a few layers and even still, a portion of its body remained below the surface.

Gazes locked, Dhirkkesh’s head rose up and looked down on Peace as he planted his feet like a sumo wrestler then, roared.

The roar Peace released wasn’t something that should have been possible from a human with their tiny, constricted throats and small lungs. It was deep, bellowing and the sheer amount of air it moved created a gust that blew past the serpent and whipped Melody’s hair into the air.

Dhirkkesh stared down at him for a few moments then leaned forwards, Peace’s face ready and anticipatory, then it roared back. The roar from the serpent was a little disappointing by comparison and whatever Peace had been attempting, had clearly failed as his expression went from determined to ‘oh-shit’ in a moment.

The serpent smashed its face into the ground as Peace dodged out of the way then kicked off its body and landed on its head before it had a chance to recover. Gripping its ridges as Melody had, Peace pulled its head up high then leapt off of it and gestured with his hand for someone to grab him.

Felix cast a simple portal below him before he fell too far and dropped him back onto Nova’s back next to him.

Looking at the two of them, Peace shrugged with a light smile, “Well, I tried.”

Melody chuckled jovially then slapped Felix on the back and he flew out over the creature.

Positioning himself where he needed to be, he accelerated his own descent and landed directly on top of Dhirkkesh’s neck as it dove back into the water. Felix grabbed onto one of the ridges nearby but only managed to latch on with one hand before he was submerged and dragged through the sea. He immediately cast an air bubble around his head not because he couldn’t hold his breath, but to make it easier to keep his eyes open and see.

Wrestling with the creature, Felix’s strength wasn’t anywhere near Peace’s but it was enough for him to be able to climb his way along its neck into position. Dhirkkesh dove further and further down, trying to follow along the bottom and Felix waited for it to surface again but he eventually realized it wasn’t going to do so on its own.

Pulling up with his arms, Felix also cast a huge Force Spell below its neck and knocked Dhirkkesh’s head upwards. Straining himself, he managed to wrestle it up to the surface where he forced it to stay with spells and raw strength.

Zipping through the ocean, he circled the island a few times before forcing the serpent to dive down then leap into the air directly over and clearing the island. At the apex of its jump, he leapt off and rejoined the others.

Melody’s face advertised her overflowing, childlike glee, “Wasn’t that fun?”

Felix nodded, “Yeah.”

She looked at Peace who nodded as well then she nodded once, “Alright, now we can kill it.”

Felix held up his hand, “Hold on, Nova wants a go.”

Melody’s brows raised in surprise, “Oh! Sorry Nova.”

Nova didn’t mind being forgotten and dove down into the sea below, Felix holding Peace with Force spells to pick up where she left off.

She lightly plopped into the sea, not making nearly as big of a splash as the massive sea serpent. A few moments later though, a second sea serpent emerged from the sea, not quite as big as Dhirkkesh at only a few dozen meters long but otherwise similar. Like it was Dhirkkesh’s child.

Nova still had the same scar on her chest though, the hand print with lines webbing out of it in every direction across her body. It was distorted and only recognizable for what it was to Felix, otherwise it just looked like a scar. Felix noticed Melody notice it and stare curiously for a few seconds but, she didn’t ask.

Chasing after Dhirkkesh with multiple times its speed, Nova caught up in no time and immediately jumped onto it, wrapping herself around its neck and wrestling with it.

Dhirkkesh squirmed and struggled desperately to get away while Nova kept trying to play with it, like it was a friend or they were dogs meeting for the first time. Nova though, was way stronger than it and even Peace. Along with her size, she dominated the massive serpent and was completely in charge of what they did and where they went.

Refusing to play with her, Nova quickly got bored of poking and prodding Dhirkkesh and finally released it.

Melody was waiting for that and directed Peace and Felix to work together to bring it back up onto the island.

Peace wrestled with Dhirkkesh manually while Felix used spells to maneuver them over. They managed to get most of it ashore before Felix killed it with a series of blade spells released into the roof of it’s mouth and into its brain.

Looking up at Melody, Peace crossed his arms, “So why exactly did we kill this thing? Couldn’t we have just… let it go?”

She grinned, “You’ll see. Now help me drag the rest of its body up onto the island.”

They both helped, along with Nova, and eventually they managed to pile up the serpent’s corpse onto the island after wrapping and twisting it just right to be tight enough.

Looking at Melody for directions once they were done, she turned to Felix, “Alright now, can you go get me a piece of the tree from your Pocket Home?”

He frowned and cocked his head, “Like… a crystal?”

“No. A branch, leaf, root, bark, anything other than a crystal should work.”

Felix shrugged and opened his Pocket Home against the serpent’s body, walked over to the tree and carefully trimmed off a sliver of bark. Walking back out, Felix offered it to Melody before closing the entrance, “Is this enough?”

She nodded and carefully picked it up out of his hands, “Perfect.”

He closed the portal to his Pocket Home and watched her float herself up to the peak of the serpent corpse pile, take out a small knife, then plant the sliver very precisely into the corpse.

Felix and Peace both looked at each-other to see if the other knew what was happening but they were equally clueless.

Melody hopped off the pile when she was done and landed next to them, “Alright, now we just need to wait… Although we should wait at sea because we don’t want to be nearby.”

Just before taking off and flying out, Nova meowed at them then had a brief mental conversation with Felix.

Once they were done, she stepped out onto the sea as a kitten and morphed into a small but sleek looking ship without any masts. Felix had helped her by providing inspiration and refining the overall design but everything else was her. She ended up as a short and sleek boat that was a dozen meters wide and a few dozen long with just one deck and a little cabin.

Melody looked at Felix excitedly then hopped aboard followed shortly afterwards by the other two.

From the small room in the middle of the deck, Melody assumed the role of captain and steered them out to sea. With Nova propelling them instead of relying on the wind, and being a smaller and sleeker vessel, they tore through the water.

They moved fast enough that Melody had them jumping waves and aggressively carving through the water for a little while before she settled into a particular spot just as the sun began to set.

Rejoining Felix and Peace on the deck of the ship, she looked out towards the island and watched the sunset roughly 45 degrees to the left.

Felix stood next to her as she leaned on the railing, “So… You going to explain?”

She nodded, “I looked into some things after seeing the tree for the first time and I’m almost certain I figured out what it is.”

He asked as soon as it was obvious she wasn’t going to continue on her own, “What is it?”

“Its a spawn of The World Tree.”

Felix raised a brow but Peace nodded once slowly, like it all made sense, meaning Felix was the only one left in the dark, “The what?”

“There exists a tree in the multiverse that is… massive. When I say World Tree, that’s just the name. It does not clearly indicate its size. The tree is… well it’s basically a primordial.” She looked at Peace for confirmation and he nodded.

“Its roots stretch throughout a galaxy and pierce all of the planets and stars within, drawing in nutrients from them.”

Felix shook his head as he tried to grasp the scale, “That’s… absurd.”

She nodded, “Yup. Its a primordial because it existed before The System but its still, a tree. It’s a really big plant.”

Peace nodded, “A weed really.”

“Yeah. Basically, being so big, its seeds end up everywhere and they can grow in anything. I’ve seen trees growing on barren planets with no life, in deserts, in the ice and I’ve heard of lava trees and water trees. Wherever they end up, they will almost definitely grow.”

Felix frowned, “Is my Pocket Home going to get covered in trees I can’t get rid of?”

She shook her head, “Luckily, the spawns of The World Tree are less… virile. They’ll grow if you plant them in something nutritious but it won’t naturally spread so easily and each generation is exponentially less… fertile?”

“So this thing will grow on that island?”

She nodded, “And provide an infinite source of wood for the planet.”

Felix leaned against the railing as well, “Gotcha. So that’s why we came here?”

She swung her head to look at him, “That and for the adventure. We got in a bar fight, sailed the seas with pirates, rode sea monsters and finally saved this world.”

Melody looked at each of them in turn and Felix shrugged, “I guess so. It just feels a little low stakes when everything is so… weak?”

She sighed, “Yeah… I know. It’s impossible to find anything strong enough that isn’t aware of who I am or can’t identify us though. Even just finding places this far hidden from everything else is hard. You know most of the gods don’t even know about this planet?”

Felix frowned, “I mean… would it matter if they did? The entire planet is kind of…. weak?”

“Yeah. They have it pretty rough though. I mapped the planet when I first found it a few epochs ago and that island,” She pointed to the pile of serpent corpse they were facing, “Is the only land I found at all. It’s kind of hard to push yourself when you’re struggling for basic necessities like shelter.”

Felix didn’t have anything to say to that so he just looked out towards the island. A few moments of silence followed before Peace spoke up though barely surpassed a whisper, “That was fun. Thanks Melody, I think… I needed this.”

She looked over at him with a slightly worried expression, “I’ve been meaning to ask…”

He sighed, “Just… something I had to take care of has been on my mind.”

She pushed herself away from the railing into a upright position, “You okay?”

Peace nodded, “Yeah. Just…”

He didn’t finish his sentence but neither of them pressed him. Felix was happy to patiently wait in his own head, playing with Mana Channel designs, and Melody was an expert at sensing other people’s state of mind.

A few minutes passed in silence and Peace shed a single tear, letting it fall off the side of the ship, “As a child of The Reaper… The main… purpose, of the entire cult… is to remember. Ever since I was born, even before, I was trained and raised to be able to reap the memories from the souls of creatures as they die. That’s what The Reaper does, it’s what we do. Remember.”

Melody cocked her head a little then whispered under her breath, “Arrow of the Weeping Soul. You have Joledrin’s memories.”

Peace nodded softly without raising his gaze from the sea below them, “Yeah. Some people contact us and request they be remembered. With afterlives now, we don’t have to deal with too many but still… a lot of people die.”

Felix leaned forwards past Melody so he could look at Peace, “Is that how the whole, Reaper cult are assassins thing came to be? You guys were just around when people died?”

He shrugged, “Probably….”

Peace was silent for another minute or so before continuing, “Before this… I was reaping the memories of a civilization… There was a war and… they all died…” Peace sighed, “We’re allowed to save people, if we can. With natural disasters, we can divert them, move people, evacuate them to a new planet. With wars… we can try to convince them, disable their weapons…”

Melody placed a hand on his shoulder, “You couldn’t stop it though?”

He nodded, “They wanted to kill. That’s the hardest thing to stop… the burning desire to kill and the… hatred. Misguided religions… It’s just… hard…”

Melody shivered a little and Felix nodded, “You can’t save everyone though. People make choices, people die. Sounds like you at least remembered them though?”

Peace nodded, “Yeah… I did.”

Somehow Felix thought that made him even more upset but he didn’t understand enough to understand why.

None of them had anything else to say and they all stood there waiting as the sun set, slowly falling below the horizon. Just as the last bit of light receded, Melody tapped Peace and nudged Felix with her shoulder as she pointed towards the island.

Looking out towards it, it was a little hard to see but squinting a little, there was in fact a sapling that had already sprouted a half meter into the air.

Felix blinked a few times to be sure of what he was seeing, “Holy shit that grew quickly. Why isn’t mine growing as fast?”

Melody reached her arms up as she stretched, “They grow based on what they land in and what’s around them. Yours is growing from mana crystal suffused water and mostly thrives on mana. Not to mention you stuck some of your soul in it so it was slowed way down. That thing has an entire serpent to consume as well as a whole planet worth of water.”

Felix cocked his head, “Wait… Will it be a meat tree then?”

“Yeah, meat and water probably. The wood will probably be blood red for its entire existence.” Melody nodded.

Taking a step back and facing the other two, Felix began preparing a portal spell form, “So… adventure complete? Should we head back?”

Melody held up a finger, “Just one more thing. Can you launch a firework or something in the direction of the pier?”

Felix nodded and quickly crafted a spell, making sure it would fly far enough then launched a few of them.

Melody nodded in approval, “That should make them curious enough to investigate. Alright, lets go.”

Finishing the portal spell, they all stepped through back onto the green lawn at the center of Eramith’s campus, the sun still yet to set there. Nova morphed back and hopped through behind them, leaping up into Felix’s robes in her kitten form.

Closing the portal behind them, Felix glanced over and saw Melody rest a hand on Peace’s shoulder then close her eyes. Peace took a few halted breaths and shed two tears then slowly exhaled and looked much more relaxed. He nodded, smiled and met her gaze, “Thank you.”

She smiled and nodded as well, “Course.” Skipping forwards, she spun around and waved to the two of them, “See you guys for Group exam, yeah?”

Felix took a step forwards, “Actually, any chance you have Erevos on you?”

“Oh! Forgot about that.” Pulling a small object out of nowhere, Melody activated it and a portal appeared. A moment later, Erevos floated out and Felix desummoned it back onto his wrist. Peering into the portal out of curiosity, Felix saw a number of slicers inside.

“What is that place?”

Melody shrugged as she closed the portal, “That’s my portable garage.”

Felix cocked his head, “You have a portable garage?”

“Yeah. Multiple, actually. This one is my ‘everyday carry’ garage and I keep the others at home usually.”

Felix was pretty sure she was entirely serious and he just shook his head, “Wild.”

She shrugged and waved one last time then skipped off. Peace turned to Felix and dropped a massive pile of chain and blade at his feet, “Almost forgot about this.”

Felix nodded and stowed the chain in the Kryptos Repository. Peace nodded to Felix then vanished and Felix headed back to his dorm.