But for a Slime

Chapter One Hundred Eight

Joe woke, extremely comfortable, Kilnia… Joe’s mind suddenly shattered like glass as betrayal, hurt, and a hint of rage welled up in his thoughts… thoughts… thoughts dissipated to the wind, softly in peaceful relaxation much like petals upon the wind and … Gwenvair rested against him. Joe felt at peace. He sighed deeply and smiled with joy. He remained in the moment, resting and enjoyed waking. They remained like that for quite some time, mainly because Gwenvair was still sleeping and Joe did not wish to wake her.

He rested by her side for quite a while then slowly drifted into his mana practice, emitting his mana and practicing some infusion into whatever was in his reach. When his system mana ended, he turned to using his personal mana and finally on to his mana points. When his system mana returned, he began working with his mana once again. In this manner, he rotated through his various mana options and noticed that he was gaining significant amounts of control, especially when he remembered his initial efforts.

As he practiced, he quickly grew to feel the moments of mana and his core became ever more accessible to him. Suddenly, the feeling he’d experienced before returned, and he quickly began to understand mana emission and mana points ever more and more. In a twist of irony, while he was personally much more capable with his mana points, the feelings he was getting seemed much more helpful in manipulating his personal and system mana. Mana flowed from his core with much greater ease, and he found his mana constructs much tighter and better, each incredibly defined along its borders and almost perfectly evenly spread, the mana somehow felt… It just… feels better… like… Joe couldn’t figure out what the qualitative difference was, but he could just feel it somehow. He knew it was better but had no way to figure out what it was.

Joe then turned to his skills, using his char: skills until he’d practiced for quite a bit, pushing to level some more of his skills. Interestingly, it seemed his mana practice seemed to offer hints to his skills that increased his control he had in executing his skills as well as the ease with which he could manipulate them. He also began to practice the various skills he’d gained, now using his ‘char:’ swaps on this healing and regen skills instead of the heal that existed in the education line jobs, both because the heal in the mage line proved stronger and because he already had his skills over level one by now thanks to his obsessive practice over the last two months or so. Regardless of that, he still put effort into still raising those skills as well, healing an ever growing important part of his survival as he saw it.

That said, he found it more enjoyable to understand heal cut and regen cut, and learned that there were practical differences between the two but for result purposes, both were almost identical. Heal was a rapid heal that returned health for any cut almost immediately. It also delayed HP from being used if he intended to heal it and enacted that healing almost immediately. If he didn't, then HP would function as it always did and instantaneously heal him. Still, the mana cost for heal cut was insane, although could be mitigated if Joe spent some time to carefully develop a healing regime. This seemed to require mostly visualizing exactly what was happening. They more carefully and exactly he did so, the lower the mana cost. It also seemed to cause the healing to occur much more rapidly and with lesser scars, although scaring seemed to be nonexistent from what he could see, the scars healing away almost immediately.

Regen cut seemed the better option, however, if you had time. The mana cost seemed to almost be zero, although it might be more accurate to say that his mana regeneration outpaced any mana cost from what he could see. It also took less effort, from his perspective, as he could just have it heal a cut with a simple thought and not much more concern than that. Heal was exhausting and costly if not carefully focused on. The downside seemed to be in time, with cuts taking five to ten times the amount of time necessary to heal any cut. Granted, heal cut appeared instantaneous, and regen cut took five to ten seconds.

Causing much deeper wounds and crossing into a more ‘stab’ territory caused heal and regen cut to substantially increase in cost and time, with heal cut quickly becoming untenable while regen cut became a grueling marathon to heal the entire wound. Still, the fascination of visibly watching his flesh meld back together had him enchanted enough to just keep on with a joyful humor.

It was in working with regen cut, a rather deeper one, that he noticed some odd behavior: regen cut was pushing out an odd ‘juice’ from his wound, leaving a layer of slime, blood, or other bodily fluids on his skin when it was all said and done. That had Joe curious so he sliced the back of his arm again and then quickly ‘intended’ to heal his cut, but took a second to drop a piece of string into the cut. His intention to ‘heal’ the cut kept his body from enacting HP usage and when the string was draped into his wound, he finally loosed his heal cut skill upon it. As usual, the wound instantly healed and Joe felt his eyebrows rising with concern, the string now embedded into his skin with the end of it sticking out of where it had be draped into the wound.

Joe felt his stomach roil at seeing a stringing going into his body like some kind of worm and he immediately reached for it, yanking on the string hard and pulling it out. That seemed to be a bad idea, as the string ripped out a massive chunk of flesh that all had seemed to grow attached to the string as a whole, leaving a long incredibly small and narrow hole deep into his skin. Joe’s stomach clenched even as he closed his throat to combat his need to hurl, the vomit twisting through his guts in a riot of upset. He stared at it a bit and then quickly punched out a regen cut skill, grateful that he’d been focused enough to let the system know he intended to heal himself with a skill.

As before, the cut took significantly longer to heal, seeming to heal from inside out first, and by the time he came near to being fully healed, gunk and chunks of refuse was pressed out of the hole in his skin to ooze along his forearm, tiny threads of left over string as well as other liquid and oil oozing out and onto his skin until the whole was replaced with completely healthy skin. OK. That… was something. Wow… uh… His stomach lurched again, and he reached for the wash basin and splashed water on his arm before wiping it off with an old dirty wash cloth. He then washed again with a clean cloth and settled back onto the bed, rocking on the bed slightly.

That almost roused Gwenvair, and Joe froze for a bit until she calmed and fell asleep again and Joe then calmed himself and turned back to study his other skills. Despite the stomach roiling nature of his discovery, he was still deeply grateful, learning that he’d likely not want to use heal cut except in emergency combat situations and even then, would likely need to find out some way to clean out any wounds. Probably… easiest was would just be to amputate, right? Let HP insta regenerate everything? Although… now I’m kinda worried what HP is actually doing! Or… scallop out that section of the flesh? Scoop it out like a scoop of ice scream?

That last thought almost made him hurl again, and something deep within him just wanted to default to amputating an entire arm, instead of scooping out the section of flesh that was contaminated. Just the thought made him think it would be more painful. It would take a deliberate act of cautious and slow work to cut into and removed the infected flesh whereas an amputation could be done quick; just a rapid forceful thunk and the entire offending area was gone. Quick is better, right? Despite that, he understood the wisdom of a targeted removal on a mental level, even if his roiling stomach could handle it.

Escaping the churning of his stomach, Joe turned back to practicing his mana skills again, now that he had more mana and slowly settled back into a calm relaxation as mana flowed in and around him in increasingly complex ways. A while back, he’d integrated mana expression and mana point movement as simultaneous efforts, since he somehow found himself able to do both with a relative ease that was surprising to him. His mana points, somehow, seemed to be intimately connected to him, and reacted and worked on a subconscious level, allowing him to focus on his personal mana with more deliberate conscious effort. After a while, he laid back down on the bed, his mana practice a physically relaxing practice.

This continued for some time until Gwenvair woke, shifting by his side. He paused, then turned to look at her, his smile growing as she came awake. She shifted, yawning, waking in a slow satisfied manner before suddenly freezing. She then carefully looked up at Joe, smiling bashfully, if with some happiness.

“Morning!”

“Morning, Joe.”

Joe chuckled, “You woke pretty fast.”

She shrugged, “I’ve been getting used to you.”

Joe smiled, flipping open his status and to looking at it quickly. Joe took a look at his MP because the rhythm of his mana use had been broken with the small interruption of speaking with Gwenvair. She noticed him checking his status and looked up at him.

“How… how do you do that?”

Joe didn’t even look at her, his focus still on his status when she spoke, “Do what?”

“Do THAT!”

Joe glanced over at her after he closed his status, “Oh… my status?”

“Yes! Understand it!”

Joe grinned, laughing, “It is not a hard thing, although it takes my people years of work to learn this. We do not have memory crystals, so the only way to pass on information if we are not close enough to speak is to write. So… we learn to read and write.”

“Reed? Right?”

“Hmm… yes. They are skills used to create messages and to understand the messages created.”

She opened her status, willing it to be seen by Joe, and Joe stared at the shifting symbols, each one slowly morphing into odd or bizarre runes with no meaning she could understand. Joe glanced over at her status then looked at her. Yeah… a bit like what Garnedell’s looked like, too, until he wanted me to read it.

“Yeah… I donno, but if I had to guess, you can’t read or write, so the status doesn’t know what to show you. It’s… kinda the only thing that makes sense to me, if I were to make an assumption. But… I’m really not sure what’s going on.”

Joe then reached across and pointed at her dexterity and then paused. Huh… can’t really use her status… oh… He flipped open his status and showed his. She noticed and willed hers to be understood by him and it immediately became English.

“No… wait… just make it for yourself. Not for me.”

She looked at him then nodded, the status shifting back to the amorphous amoebic letters from before, words shifting in form, shape, and in every other conceivable way. Joe nodded then had his status slide across to be next to hers, both floating in front of him. Gwenvair noticed his sliding to hers, then glanced at his arm resting on the bed. She dropped her arm and her status stayed in the air beside his, right before their faces.

Joe then reached up to his own status and pointed to his stats. He began listing and explaining them. Gwenvair listened avidly, but nothing changed to her status. Joe frowned but continued until the list was done, going through all stats, including both types of resistances. He then glanced at Gwenvair’s status once more. Hmm… this isn’t helping… but… I’m not really teaching her to read, so… oh… She did learn some letters yesterday, so… but… huh… maybe not enough to really know a word… how about… oh… numbers… a single symbol for a single concept… much easier than alphabetic language requiring a set of symbols to represent a sound that when sounded out in a series represents a second symbol in sound to represent a conceptual idea that then relates to an object or an action… or… yeah… other things, too… but … yeah, numbers. Easier. Concise, specific, and a single concept.

“Take a look at this,” Joe pointed to the last digit of most of his status, almost every one of them being zero, “See this circle? My people use it to represent zero, or nothing. This symbol means to not have any. So, if I were to have five apples, and you had no apples, zero is the symbol and number to represent that you have no apples. Umm…”

Joe paused and searched through his status for a five, and lucked out to find a five and a zero adjacent to one another and began pointing to both of them, “So, here is the symbol for five amongst my people. If I had five apples, this is the symbol you would choose for five. And if you had zero apples… no apples of any kind, you would use this symbol, zero.”

Gwenvair stared in fascination, seeing the zero, then quickly began pointing out other zeros and soon fives. She went through his list with ease and quickly began to recognize them, if a bit slowly as any who had to begin learning new symbols.

“Then… how do your digits work?”

Joe paused at that, having wanted to explain the ten different numerical symbols but decided to answer her question as it was a good one, “It is basically a cycle. You count from zero to nine. At ten, you return to one, and add a zero after it, you are now ‘two digits’ as your people call it. Now, count from zero to nine once again with the first digit and when you reach nine, return it to zero and make the second digit grow one number. If it was one, then now it is two. If it was two, then now it is three.”

Joe sat up and pulled out his notepad, writing down zero through nine rapidly and showed them to Gwenvair, “Here are the numbers zero through nine.” He pointed out each one to Gwenvair and Gwenvair grinned with avid excitement. He named them and pointed out each one. Gwenvair nodded as she quickly understood and rattled down the list pointing to each one. Glad they’re base ten! Man… this would suck if they weren’t… heh!

Gwenvair quickly caught on and Joe then began showing how to count indefinitely, adding another zero and allowing the digits to grow and expand. After a good half hour or so, Gwenvair sat back with a sigh and looked up at him, looking a bit exhausted.

“That… was hard! It takes so long to learn this method!”

Joe smiled, “Why do you think my people have twelve years of basic education?!”

Gwenvair’s eyebrows rose at that and she glanced back down at the paper, “It takes your people this long?”

“For children? Longer, yes. They are learning words, symbols, letters, numbers, math, calculations, history, logic, social responsibilities, government, reading, writing, the ability to read and write at higher capabilities, the understanding of foundational forces within the universe, … just… there is so much to learn.”

Gwenvair grew both more impressed and more dismayed as she listened, “That… is a lot.”

Joe nodded, “It takes … yeah… but it takes a long time to learn it all. And one cannot learn any new information until the foundations are learned and learned well.”

Gwenvair stared at him and sat back, “That… the effort to do this…”

Joe smiled, “Any great work done requires a monumental effort from many. Yes.”

Despite that, Gwenvair seemed excited and quickly went back to her own status, staring at it carefully, watching the amorphous symbols wobble across her screen like a twisting worms. She stared with greater focus before getting frustrated and then turning to Joe, willing it to be visible to him and reveal information for him. The information on the page quickly shifted to English, which was mostly useless for her, but allowed her to see the Arabic numerals. That proved the impetus she need to continue, as she quickly began to be able to rattle of the values for each of her attributes. Joe still had to read it for her, but when she was able to read the number herself, she became increasingly excited.

Reading a single number took her almost no time, now, although double and triple digit numbers slowed her down rapidly, each digit quickly having her struggling to figure out the correct value. Despite that, her excitement was infectious and soon Joe pulled out his dagger and had her focus on her HP as she pricked herself on the arm and saw it drop and refill again.

Just seeing that seemed to be enough to reveal the value of it, and she redoubled her efforts. By the end of it, she was pretty well practiced and while she would likely forget some of what she’d learned and would need to take a refresher, the paper of numbers laid out in order sat on the wash basin was more than enough for her to glance at again remember.

She finally laid back down, sighing with some contentment before the two swiped away their status and rested a bit. Gwenvair seemed to collapse a bit, her excitement wearing out with lack of energy and she remained silent for a time. They rested this way, and Joe was more than willing to allow it, soon returning to his mana practice. They didn’t stay this way long, the light from the sunrise now brightening the room considerably, and she pulled up her status one last time, the amorphous twisting of letters once again dominating her status sheet. Joe glanced at it and then froze. Gwenvair closed her status sheet with a sigh but Joe quickly caught her attention.

“Open it again!”

Gwenvair glanced over, frowning but did so and Joe’s lips soon began growing in a manic grin as he began to chuckle softly. Gwenvair looked at him with concern.

“What?”

Joe laughed a bit more but raised a hand up and pointed to the numbers on her status. Almost all of them were amorphous twisting worms, but the last digit of almost every one of her attributes, as well as a couple with the last two digits, showed a zero, unmoving, unchanging, and rigidly holding shape. Gwenvair frowned, her eyebrows wavering in confusion before they shot up in joyful surprise.

“A zero! That’s a zero!”

Joe laughed, too, joining Gwenvair, and she quickly sat back up and dove into learning the numbers again. The sun fully rose during that time, and Joe quickly noticed Gwenvair flagging again, not used to studying in this way and likely exercising a portion of her brain quite unused to such. Still, Joe was incredibly happy with the progress and the two settled to rest for a short time before choosing to rise to begin the day.

Gwenvair finally sat up and glanced to the window, the morning light now shining through. Joe looked up and sighed in agreement.

“Time to get going.”

Joe smiled, “Probably. Go exercise?”

Gwenvair nodded, “Yes. I’ll wake the others.”

“Is it alright if I head down to the courtyard early?”

Gwenvair smiled at that, “Of course. We will meet you there.”

Joe nodded, “Alright. See you soon.”

He turned to dress and prepare but Gwenvair remained behind him for a time before finally taking a deep breath and walking forward, hugging him. Joe froze and then relaxed before hugging her in return. She stepped back with a smile.

“See you soon.”

Joe chuffed a small laugh, “Not going to be gone that long! Heh!”

She shook her head and turned to the other room. Joe looked around for a couple of his weapons, including his tonfa, before growing concerned at finding them gone before he remembered that he now had transporter as a semi-permanent job. He flipped open his inventory GUI and looked through the list, finding all his weapons and meaningful tools in the list of items there. His pack was much emptier now, and much easier to carry, he still shoved it into the magic space seeing as how he wasn’t going to drop the transporter job, especially as the magic bag held the core of the advanced dungeon within.

He then headed downstairs out into the back courtyard where he began practicing. He practiced for a time, even taking a moment to try his odd meditation he’d tried yesterday and but he didn’t find anything really as life changing as what had happened yesterday. Still, he’d noticed a few interesting new things but he didn’t really put much effort since it seemed more like basking in an ‘interesting idea’ that flowed like a gentle river leading somewhere rather than the raging stream cascading in wild waterfalls and rapid movements. The slow pace caused him to be disinterested, so he turned back to his practice, maintaining his fitness as well as his skills.

As he was practicing, the others came down and Stephliquen immediately joined in, pushing herself decently hard. Xylarnae and Kalia also joined, doing well enough. What really surprised Joe was that Gwenvair was the first to drop out, stumbling to the side and gasping at the side. Joe frowned at that, glancing back at Xylarnae and Kalia, then realization hit him. Right… the system is here, not on other cradles. Xylarnae and Kalia grew up without it so must have used their body growing up… so… or wait… the coming of age blessing… maybe that’s … right… the kids are able to speak quickly and easily without worrying about stats until they hit fifteen, then… are they using natural bodies until then? So, why is Gwenvair crashing sooner… Oh! Gwenvair’s been with the system a good five years or so, while … I donno how old the other two are, but they’ve been outside their system their whole life. Probably still have their physical capabilities pretty high still then. But then… why is Stephliquen able to keep going… and she can read… oh! I should see if Kalia and Xylarnae can read? Joe finished their rounds of exercise and did exactly that, turning to Xylarnae as she seemed a bit more pleasant to deal with.

“Hey. If I could ask. Can you read?”

Xylarnae blinked in some surprise at that before frowning, “What is reading?”

Well, that answers that question… so it’s not a syst…

“Reading? Why would we read?” Kalia interjected.

Joe raised an eyebrow at that, “You can read?”

Kalia shook her head, “No. But it is a worthless mortal skill.”

“But you have heard of it?”

“It is… rare, but there are some few who do so, but as I said, it is useless.”

Joe’s eyebrows knit, “Useless? And how is it a mortal?”

Kalia shrugged, “Ha! You sound like the rebels. What… although… maybe they have a point,” Kalia trailed off, then began grumbling as a bitter smirk twisted her lips. After a few moments, she was able to begin again.

“Some of those in revolt against the emperor have called to help mortals. I… met with some rebels when my fate became clear. They sought a certain favor,” Kalia shook her head, “But, that is no of importance… bah! My mind wanders and is easily distracted. But! Again… unimportant. By happenstance, I heard them speaking of this. A mortal way to send messages. They informed me I could carry the message safely and they showed me the method. It was… absurd. It is incredibly slow to learn. There is no security as anyone who knows may gather the information. Even after learning to read, imbibing the information is slow, painful, and prone to mistakes and even forgetting. It is… useless. And costly. It is just… useless. And I had no desire to be killed for treason against the emperor.”

Joe frowned, “You see so little use in it?”

“It a poor attempt to give powerless mortals a poor option to emulate the abilities of Immortals. As I said, it’s a small and useless trick.”

“To offer a way to pass information?”

She shook her head, “A memory crystal captures instantly, teaches instantly, and transfers perfectly, both to mortals and Immortals.”

“Does it not steal all the thoughts and memories of the one who uses it? Then it crumbles to dust, destroyed after a use? How is that useful?”

“Of the mortals when they place memories into crystals yes. But trained Immortals are capable of preserving their memories with effort. And if it crumbles after a use, what of it? Simply make another.”

“Another memory crystal… aren’t they based upon cores?”

“Yes? And?”

“And aren’t they rare.”

“For the weak and powerless. Cores are common for the powerful. If there is need of a transfer, a core can be given easily.”

Joe pondered that, “So a method only for the wealthy?”

Kalia frowned at that, then shook her head, “No. For the powerful.”

Joe blinked, then slowly nodded his head. Right… hierarchy here is based on power, not wealth… Hoooo. This is… He frowned, then grit his teeth before sighing.

“Reading is so much more useful than most understand.”

Kalia shrugged, “I am uncertain mortals need such, to be honest. They are weak and poor. What can they do? And for Immortals, it is a poor mockery of what a memory crystal is capable of.”

Joe snorted, “You’d be surprised!”

Kalia seemed interested, “Then how so?”

“Placing the … memory on paper costs nothing but time. And then transferring the memory to others also is simply a matter of time. Making a duplicate is also very simple, and now many can learn from one master.”

That last seemed to intrigue Kalia, and she raised an eyebrow at that, “A duplicate… in that, this reading and writing is superior to a memory crystal, but…”

Joe nodded and continued, “Well, it also does not crumble to dust after a single use.”

Kalia’s lip twisted, “But, meaning is lost, if I remember correctly. I was told clearly that I must study meaning cautiously and express in my writing cautiously else meaning be lost.”

Joe frowned, cocking his head, “Not really. I’m not sure,” realization came to him and he nodded, “Ah… right. There are a lot of visual and verbal clues lost in writing. Is that what you mean?”

Kalia’s eyebrows furrowed, “How do you mean? I… no. I do not believe so. When I pass on my dao of illusion to another, if they are strongly compatible, they comprehend the entire dao of illusion in its entirety as well as I. They have all my insights, capabilities, knowledge, wisdom, and perceptions of the dao just as I. But in a writing, the dao is often lost, its meaning twisting when taken into the mind of another. I… cannot explain well, but… ah, it seems you understand?.”

Joe’s eyes shot into his bangs with comprehension, “I think I do!?”

Joe fell silent after that, his thoughts racing at the implications. It doesn’t just pass on knowledge of a topic, it passes on actual comprehension as well! Yeah… I could see how they would think a memory crystal is superior! That is just… nuts! To read a book and instantaneously and exactly understand it, immediately. That… wow! Although. His wonder settled a bit as he reconsidered some several negative ramifications. What about… man… that take’s ‘echo chamber’ to a whole new level, though… people … if…

“Then, what you are saying is that if you were to place your understanding of the … uh… your expertise in that portion… area of the dao into a memory crystal, and I would use that crystal, I would understand it exactly like you?”

“Yes.”

“Would I see it or comprehend it in… uh… different ways?”

Kalia’s eyebrows furrowed once more as she pursed her lips, seemingly confused, “You can form your own interpretations of the Dao. I’m uncertain… how you, where you are trying to go with this?”

“I mean, immediately after I use the memory crystal, how close in thought would my comprehension of whatever doa is in the memory crystal be to the original creator of the memory crystal?”

Understanding flooded into her eyes and Kalia nodded, “It depends on your luck. If you have perfect compatibility, it will be identical. The less compatible you are with the dao, you will lose significant comprehension.”

“So if I am not compatible, I will comprehend it differently?” Maybe not so bad.

“No, it will all be lost. You will have to struggle in your own pursuit of the dao.”

Oh. OK. Very bad then. Ya gotta think just like the guy who made the memory crystal or you don’t get the knowledge or comprehension. However, if you think differently, you gain nothing. So… think exactly the same or get nothing. That…

“If I have perfect compatibility, and gain an equal comprehension of the Dao as, say you. Am I able to change my thinking or modify it to comprehend it in some other way?”

Kalia’s eye’s dropped again, thoughtful, “I am uncertain I understand? You would likely… gain nothing, if you were so different? If you mean to deepen your understanding of the dao you gained from me, then yes, that is possible, but it would not change what you gained from me. But if you mean to change the understanding itself that you gained from a memory crystal I had, then you would likely shatter your dao rather than reform it. Although… reformation may be possible? Rare, but possible?”

Joe frowned at all of this, a grimace gracing his lips and Kalia noticed, “What? You seemed to be unsatisfied.”

Joe’s frowned deepened, “It seems that your dao comprehension stored within memory crystals requires identical or similar ways of thinking.”

Kalia quickly nodded, “Yes.”

Joe sighed as he nodded back, “But then thoughts will only develop on singular lines without variation or options of competing theories. What if you are wrong?”

Kalia’s eyebrows rose at that, “My dao works? How could I be wrong?”

Joe’s concern deepened, “I…” Joe shuttered his mouth, not wishing to respond, turning to think deeply on his concerns but uncertain he could explain the roiling worry that seemed to twist beneath his thoughts. Concerns of brainwashing, limited and narrow thoughts, blinders, by the rails thinking, and other such worries twisted through it all. He wondered at it but couldn’t quite comprehend what she was saying so found himself unable to express his concerns well.

“I’m going to need to think on this carefully.”

Kalia stared at him for a time before she nodded, “I’m willing to discuss more, eccentric.”

Joe grinned, “Thank you, but I fear if I continue, I will fail to offer you my thoughts in a useful or comprehensive way.”

Kalia smiled at that, “You are truly a scholar indeed, worried to order your thoughts.”

Joe laughed, “Ordered thoughts are a necessity to teach and pass on ideas. Without them, it makes it very difficult to teach others.”

Kalia laughed, “Another reason why memory crystals are superior. There is no need to order thoughts or ideas. The entirety of your comprehension and understanding is passed on to the student. No need to order any thoughts.”

Joe struggled to keep the grim scowl off his face and simply nodded, returning a simple chuckle. OK… yeah… brainwashing… maybe? Not intentional… but it seems to even reorder philosophical frameworks and worldview so the memory user believ… oh! Maybe that’s what compatibility is? If the receivers worldview is incompatible, it would naturally reject any constructs built upon a worldview that doesn’t match… but… at the same time, she seems to be arguing that it also can restructure basic philosophical beliefs such that it will … man… this…

Joe nodded, and moved the conversation, not wishing to really argue much more from that mainly because he didn’t want to make offend or make any mistakes. So he pivoted the conversation, still attempting to argue the benefits of reading and writing.

“Then which do you think is cheaper, paper and writing utensils or memory crystals?

“Hmm… what is paper?”

Right… uh… pulped wood… so definitely cheaper than … going to have to figure this out myself. “Uh, never mind, hmm… Then how are memory crystals made?”

Kalia shrugged, “I’m no crafter.”

Gwenvair interjected at that point, “A memory crystal can be made by a crafter.”

Joe raised an eyebrow, “One crafter?”

Gwenvair nodded, “One.”

“Then, how long for one crafter to make one memory crystal.”

Gwenvair shrugged, “Clan crafters claimed a day or two, to form a memory crystal from a single core. There are preparations needed.”

“And if the clan desired more? Maybe ten? Twenty?”

“Hmm… the time is close to the same. If there are hundreds, then sometimes the crafters need the whole two days.”

Joe frowned but nodded. Makes sense. Something to prepare them, seems like. That’s gotta take most of the day, right? One takes a day or two. Or twenty takes a day or two. So, the majority time is spent in preparing the core for whatever the crafter needs to do. Then, it’s done … pretty fast. Industrialize that… and… yeah… a hundred cores per day per person. But would they even need that? Just need it to pass on to the children, especially if the knowledge can be passed to the core without killing it… but seems like its not happening here… Everyone said the knowledge is lost, so Kalia’s people have some kind of trick. But… even then… assume you’re just taking care of your own family… ooh…

“Do the people … out there? Outside the prison here also organize by clans and families?”

Xylarnae nodded but Kalia spoke first, “Yes.”

“What’s a clan size?”

“It can be millions… even more of people.”

Joe blinked at that, “Millions? And the clans support those millions?”

Kalia frowned, “What do you mean support?”

“Feed, educate, train, teach. Just… everything?”

Kalia’s frown deepened, “Why would they do that? They are there to support the clan Patriarch or Matriarch. They will feed themselves and care for themselves. The clan Head and his family will protect them.”

“So who uses memory crystals?”

Kalia shrugged, “The clan Patriarch or Matriarch… maybe their family members.”

Joe looked at Gwenvair, and she nodded, “Most memory cores are used to carry reports from clan spies and scouts.”

Kalia nodded, “Very rarely does a clan use a memory core to pass on a legacy to their own children or possibly an unusually adept apprentice who shows incredible insight into the clan’s methods or Daos, but… compatibility is very important before a Dao is passed on.”

“So there is little need for memory cores.”

Kalia shrugged, “They are used widely and often.”

Joe frowned. Doesn’t seem like it. But… it’s kind of… making sense. Only the rich and powerful… oh…

“The… mortals, how wealthy are they?”

Kalia paused at that, then began nodding, “The mortals here on this plane? They are some of the wealthiest I’ve ever seen.”

Joe blinked, his frown deepening, “Are mortals well fed and … uh… well fed? Their homes? I guess.”

Kalia frowned in return, “What would I need to know of mortals?”

Xylarnae coughed slightly as she glanced up at Kalia and spoke, “They are poorly fed and poorly housed. They exist to support the Immortals that rule ov… protect them.”

Joe’s frown twisted, “So. Poor. Hungry. And desperate to keep their fickle overlords happy so as to not offend them.”

Kalia growled, a snarl that twisted her face and Joe looked up at her without concern, “Be angry as you wish, but what I hear is a people so poor they can do nothing but survive. Am I wrong?”

Kalia grimaced and Xylarnae put a hand on Kalia’s shoulder. Kalia stared and stomped away before Xylarnae turned to look at Joe.

“People don’t really like it if they’re called poor leaders or people.”

Joe sighed, “The people who don’t like it are often the ones who need to hear it the most and more often.”

Xylarnae shook her head, “And the people who speak it need to speak it in a way the other will listen or there is no point to speaking it and you have wasted what power you had to change or impact them all for the sake of casting a barb.”

Joe paused at that, then sighed, nodding, “You may be right. But you spoke to me rather harshly, and I listened.”

“Because you pride yourself in listening.”

Joe nodded, “And some refuse to listen.”

Xylarnae fell silent at that, then nodded with disappointment before speaking again and looking at him pointedly, “Yes. Some still refuse to listen.”

Is that… Joe blinked. Ok… that’s on me. OK. She’s got a point!

Joe sighed and stood, walking over to where Xylarnae was and stopping beside her, “I’m sorry. I don’t understand your world or people. Not yet. But, … yeah. I’ll leave it at that. But people hungry and starving is… that’s not good. At least that, you must admit.”

Xylarnae turned to stare at him before grimacing herself and nodding as well, “Yes. But, there is just not enough food for most. Famine, drought, war, invading war mongers, plague, disease, sabotage… There are so many things that destroy and very little to… to offer when so much is destroyed.”

She sighed and shook her head before turning to Joe, “You are not wrong. But what wealth there is … is wasted upon mortals.”

Joe frowned at that, but nodded softly and didn’t fight too hard on it, instead opting for compromise and a possible option, “It may seem this way, but… I promise, there are options that would astound you at what mortals can do.”

Kalia frowned bitterly, not really accepting Joe’s statement, but willing to drop it for now and simply nodded.

Joe smiled a soft sad smile of his own, “I’ll try to show you. I promise.”

Kalia looked back up at him and then joined him as they returned to the other three. Xylarnae smiled a bit to see it and Joe nodded his head in thanks of her confrontation. Joe sighed deeply and then turned back to them.

“Right. That got a bit… deep and dark. Sorry. But I’m just trying to understand how a people never learned to read and write, but given there is an even easier way to do it, that kind of makes sense. The only ones who would need it are too poor to develop or use it, so I guess that… makes sense. Still… Well, I guess my people were the same as well. The only ones reading and writing were wealthy, so…”

Kalia jumped in at that, shocked, “You’re people use reading and writing?”

Joe grinned at that, nodding, “Yeah. That’s why I said its… more useful than you think. Heh.”

Kalia’s bitterness faded and she looked at Joe with some consternation. She didn’t say anything, thinking for a bit before shaking her head.

“So much is lost in the reading and writing.”

Joe nodded, “Possibly, but there are ways to mitigate that loss and make sure the knowledge passed on is complete.”

She sighed, but said nothing so Joe tried to press a bit more, “And it seems this method is cheaper.”

She cocked an eyebrow, “Truly?”

Joe nodded, “You don’t need cores. You can just use paper and ink or graphite. Paper you just make from wood and ink is just a form of liquid dye. Simple and cheap things.”

Kalia frowned in thought, nodding softly, “You may be right, but we have little to no use for such things, except possibly the dye, although we use the dye for clothing or painting, not this writing. To turn it to writing, you would need a lot of ink, and paper. That…”

Joe frowned at that before nodding, “Yeah. You would need to make a whole new industry… uh, probably several to handle the paper creation and ink… uh… pens or pencils. Hmm.. yeah, there will be a lot of new things you would need.”

Kalia nodded, “And every clan already has everything it needs for memory crystals. The invading monsters of any tide or from any dungeon would offer all the crystals you would need.”

She then shook her head, snorting, “It seems to me reading and writing is a great waste. You would require several whole new crafts to make the tools necessary to create a memory crystal clone that is slow, weak, poor and transferring knowledge, is poorly understood by the students, and easily misunderstood. To learn the skill, you must spend years and years to teach how to do both skills. Or, you could give a memory crystal to the student and have them consume it, learning it instantly and perfectly while you, as the teacher, can pass that knowledge on into the memory crystal in moments. How long does it take to … what is a collection of knowledge on a single dao called?”

Joe frowned at that, “Well, I guess it depends on how detailed and broad it is, but… I would probably call it a book? I guess?”

Kalia nodded, “How long is it to… make this book? And how long to learn this book?”

Joe smiled at that, snorting as he realized that his championing of reading and writing was going to take a kick in the teeth again, “Well, to write a book well, it can take months or years. And to read it and learn what it is teaching well, or completely, it can take a month or two.”

Kalia goggled at him in shock before shaking her head and laughing at him with some mockery, “You wish to tell me of the superiority of reading and writing, when it is…”

She didn’t even finish her statement, turning away with scoffing laughter, turning to belittling comments under her breath, obviously having dismissed him. Joe watched her go, chagrined as he realized that she had some pretty valid points from what he could understanding and simply remained silent as she walked away. Joe waited a bit to give her time, but then nodded and turned to other things.

“Let’s talk about… something a bit more … well, I guess it’s still going to be a bit upsetting, but… could I ask about mana points?”

Kalia turned back, but this time seemed in a good mood having one the previous argument. She chuckled softly, sighing before nodding, “There is no point. But, yes… I can see how people of this plane would be incredibly interested. What do you wish to know?”

“Some verifications.”

“Certainly.”

“Gifting mana points is a fantasy.”

“Or a myth.”

Joe struggled to keep his face placid as he remembered proof against it, Garnedell coming to memory and disrupting his equilibrium. Anger and rage swept in then evaporated, and he calmed, a soft hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Gwenvair looking up at him and he smiled as his heart calmed and he closed his eyes to aid in his returning calm. He then opened it and looked at Gwenvair again to thank her but she stared up at him with a subtle but alarming look. He frowned, wondering what she was doing and she quickly realized he wasn’t understanding, despite her obvious intensity and attempt.

She paused and looked to Xylarnae and Kalia, “A moment, please.”

Both of them nodded and she led Joe back into the inn and up to their room where she stopped and looked a Joe with deliberate concern.

“You have mana points.”

Joe nodded, “Yeah. And I’m not going to tell them.”

Gwenvair seemed to collapse slightly at that in relief and she nodded, “I think that would be wise.”

Joe smiled at that, humored by her concern, “I’m not exactly dumb.”

Gwenvair grew serious at that, “Joe. You are incredibly knowledgeable… in some things. And in others… it is sometimes very hard to know when… I should help or be silent. I do not wish to insult or belittle you, but… But I am by your side in all this. I always will be, but you are naively trusting of … everyone. I am honored you trusted me and my mother… my family, but you trust… way too easily.”

Joe’s smile fell and he stared at Gwenvair for a time. He considered for a bit before frowning and sighing, “I understand. I’ll try to follow your lead, but you have to understand that not trusting others leads to rather horrible outcomes.”

“But people will use and harm you. You …”

Joe nodded, “Always. People will always harm you. It’s a fact of life. If that is what keeps you from doing what is right…” Joe trailed off and shrugged his shoulders before continuing, “I’m not going to do that.”

Gwenvair stared at him for a bit, and Joe noticed her look and he smiled softly, if a bit sadly, “I’m not going to let people walk over me, but they get a chance. At least one. Then they’re gone.”

Gwenvair finally sighed, “Then please be cautious.”

Joe smiled, “Caution doesn’t mean revealing everything. There are even some things I have not told you and will not until … some things are for family or those who have proven themselves to me.”

Gwenvair’s worry subsided but she still seemed a bit agitated, “Then, at least for that, I understand.”

Joe nodded, “But… thanks for being worried about me.”

Her grin became genuine and she nodded, “Of course!”

Joe chuckled, “Let’s head back.”

Gwenvair nodded and soon Joe was once again in the courtyard, Stephliquen still practicing with diligent effort. Kalia and Xylarnae, however, were chatting quietly with each other. Joe smiled when he saw them and nodded his head.

“Sorry. Gwenvair wanted to speak with me on some private issues.”

“That is acceptable,” Xylarnae nodded.

“My thanks. Then… where were we… oh… gifted mana points. Fantasy and myth, you say.”

Kalia rolled her eyes, “The answer is still yes.”

Joe grinned, “I have heard rumors hold a hint of truth.”

Gwenvair snorted at that, then quickly grew embarrassed as she spoke again, “Joe has a … love for rumors. He is always seeking them.”

Kalia rose an eyebrow at that with a small grin before her eyes narrowed in thought and she then nodded shallowly, “I can see … the wisdom in that. If I had listened to the rumors more cautiously… likely … bah… it means little now.”

Joe frowned with sad concern, “You… were unjustly placed here.”

Kalia sighed and nodded her head, “Yes… but it is not something I desire to explore at this time.”

Joe nodded, “I think almost all here are here against our will.”

“Xylarnae followed her fate,” Kalia replied with some bitterness.

Xylarnae glanced up, her soft smile turning subtly bitter as well, “A fate which was my only option. I had no desire to arrive here either.”

“You chose to come here, Xylarnae? Joe asked.

She smiled, “At least, if fate had not driven me, then by the thoughts of most, yes. I came of my own free will.”

Joe snorted, “But … not something you truly believe.”

Her smile grew, “Yes, quite.”

Joe nodded, “Well… if you need to talk about it, I don’t mind listening?”

Both the others shook their head and Joe took a deep breath before he continued, “So, mana points. You take them in with expressions of mana, but on this plane you cannot capture them?”

Kalia shook her head, “The plane has been cursed so the prisoners cannot gather mana points. This was explained rather… diligently if cruelly by the man who threw me in here. The experience was not… pleasant.”

Joe nodded. But I got a point… that one odd extra ‘weak’ one… and I got my other points, so… Joe fell silent for a time as he began chewing a lip, his thoughts deep and twisting as they struggled to explore what was happening before he finally sighed and looked back up.

“OK. So… then… mana points are used for … creating spells… constructs… and? What else?”

Kalia narrowed her eyes, “Why do you care? There is nothing…” she sighed in exasperation and threw her arms up before rolling her eyes and continuing, “There is no point to hide this from you. It would be foolish to tell you this outside this plane as it would likely cause a cultivation deviation, but points can be used to make mana constructs but they themselves can also be constructs. The constructs can be simple or quite elaborate. Most cultivators do not wish to use many of their mana points as constructs for then they are locked into their construct form and if you break them from your construct, rebuilding it is very difficult and long.

“For power, it is best to create containers of points to hold ever greater mana that will allow you to empower your mana constructs with an abundance of power and thus rarely lose power from the constructs or lose the constructs themselves.”

Kalia continued to speak, but Joe found the idea fascinating and quickly turned his thoughts to that last one and pulled his points up and tried to form them into a shape. Annoyingly, they proved too few to make any real shape, or at least, a shape large enough to make a difference. Still, he put it aside for consideration later when he realized he was too distracted to follow her explanations and he returned to her discussion.

“..na points also allow crafters to develop artifacts and enhance and empower many objects. This allo…”

“And their own bodies? Minds?”

Kalia paused at that before nodding carefully, “Yes. That as well.”

Joe nodded, “Anything else?”

Kalia smirked, “Mana and mana points abilities may be succinctly described but their impact is profound and only limited by one’s own understanding of the dao. The applications are… limitless.”

Joe nodded. Probably a bit like trying to explain the profundity of the internet… or computers. A network connecting all the computers in the world… but the definition lacks in fully revealing how profound and powerful it truly is… Hmm…

“OK. I can accept that for now. Can you tell me of the world … the society out there?”

Kalia quirked an eyebrow at that, “You sound like a mortal?”

Joe grunted, chuckling before nodding, “I’m uncertain by what definition you mean a mortal, but I do not live forever and my own plane is … very isolated. I know little to nothing of anything outside my own plane.”

Kalia nodded, “We… are all mortals now. We lack the mana points to reach immortal status… let alone to climb the ranks of immortality. But… you ask a large question. What do you wish to know?”

Joe smiled, “Pretend I am a child and I know nothing.”

Gwenvair grinned at that, laughing softly before she nodded and interjected, “He truly knows very little. I learned that to my own detriment. Explain things … as best you can.”

Kalia glanced at Gwenvair then smirked, “Do you know the Emperor?”

Joe shook his head, “Nope.”

Kalia frowned at that, “The Starry River?”

“Not sure I know the name or what it is.”

“The river of stars in the sky?”

“The Milky Way?”

It was Kalia’s turn to be surprised, “Milky… Way?”

Suddenly, mana swelled and the translation magic took hold and Kalia then nodded, “That is… useful. At least one good thing about this plane.”

Joe grinned, “So the Milky Way is…?”

Kalia nodded, “The Starry River.”

“Ah. OK… that makes sense.”

She nodded, “I like your name for it as well… it is poetic.”

Joe grinned, “Our own names.”

Kalia nodded, “I have not heard many others offer a separate name for the Starry River, but… it is interesting. However…”

She sighed, nodding, “You’re knowledge seems… limited.

Joe nodded in reply, “It really is.”

Kalia frowned at that, staring at him carefully before nodding and continuing, “Then, a brief history of the Great Cycle known as the Starry River. The Ancient Ones rose to power long, long, long ago. The Ancient Ones were the powers within the Starry River as soon as they spread, encompassing all the cradles quickly and also, quickly, taking control and taking all cradles as their own. Few could stand before them. Almost none, even of the empowered and certainly none of the kin.

“After the Ancient Ones spread, a great Ancient One appeared from within their midst; greater and more powerful than any other. The original Great Emperor rose to power and established his clan as overlord of all Ancient Ones. A great war occurred and the Ancient Ones warred against one another. The original Emperor quickly brought the Starry River to heel, gaining complete control of the Great Cycle. His closest allies included Aelthron, another Ancient One. I mention him only because this is Aelthron’s cradle.

“All was well for a time and to be honest, I know little of the ancient history over dozens upon dozens of Great Cycles ago. But, the Emperor established his clan and took the Great Cycle in an iron grip. For a very long time, many Great Cycles, there was a peace… a Golden Age that saw many of the mortals amongst the base, kin, and empowered rise in power as well and establish their own clans. All was well, but then there was an uprising amongst the base, kin, and empowered and the Ancient One’s quickly crushed the rebellion.

“Aelthron proved to be a traitor, as well did Karnagur and Sylnarvion, all three ancient Patriarchs and ancient clans. A young and new, relatively unknown cultivator, Taglisea, proved her mettle and greatly aided the Emperor in crushing the three traitor Ancient One clans. But… again, I know little of this except that it is a tale told to all children everywhere by parent and bard alike. I know Aelthron, along with the Karnagur and Sylnarvion and all their subservient clans, were stripped of their nobility and crushed, relegated to a single cradle: Aelthron’s cradle. There they are banished for all time and none may leave, ever, but for the Emperor’s guards watching over for any fomenting rebellion amongst the greatest enemies to the Starry River.

“Taglisea rose to prominence for her help in crushing the Aelthron Ancient One clan, and the Karnagur, and Sylvnarvion clans and even though Taglisea was not an Ancient One, the Emperor blessed Taglisea with a seat equal to all other Ancient One clans, both for her work she did in bring the traitorous clans to heel as well as in uniting the Starry River into one. I know scholars argue which was her greater work, the unitary binding of the Greater Cycle or the crushing of the clans, but I know little of this except that she was credited for both.

“That is the Ancient history of the Starry River. We have been at peace for Great Cycles now; a golden age returned. I know much more of the current politics of the empire, but it is useless to you as you will never leave. You cannot. The gate allows no one to return.”

Joe frowned. Not completely true… the guards come and go. Obviously. I would think?

“So, we live on the cradle that Aelthron used to own, turned prison to hold the three ancient clans that revolted against the Emperor and Taglisea helped in all this?”

Kalia nodded, “Yes. She is a great hero for without her, the three traitor clans would have crippled us. She is claimed to have been essential in finding proof of their betrayal and hunting them down at the behest of the Emperor. She also was essential in bringing about some… great blessing upon our empire as well. Although, much of this is likely myth and rumor. It happened a… very long time ago. Thirty… maybe thirty one, or thirty two? I do not know, but it was many Great Cycles ago. Long ago.”

“Huh… interesting.” Thirty great cycles… one great cycle is two hundred fifty million years ago, so… Joe ran the numbers. Wow… seven and a half or eight billion years ago! That’s… Joe ended his thoughts as Kalia continued.

Kalia shrugged, “It is essential myth now. None are alive from that time.”

Joe found himself in his thoughts for a moment before he quickly returned to the conversation. Right… an expert in mana points in front of me. Let’s focus. Joe nodded to himself and focused back on Kalia, and while he truly did find the history very interesting, ancient history wasn’t something that was really essential at this time, and instead he turned to something he felt would best benefit him now: Aelthron, Cradles, mana, magic, and mana points.

“Sorry. I got a bit lost in my thoughts, but if we could continue?”

“I understand, although I’m uncertain if it is useful.”

Joe nodded, “For now, I could see that, but… if you could humor me.”

She nodded and Joe continued, then paused, “This… is really bothering you. We could quit and do this later. I’m pretty sure I can’t understand how painful to remember this is, but… we could do it later, or not at all.”

Kalia looked at him, then her face softened slightly, “No. It is good to know and remember. You never know.”

Joe grinned softly at that and nodded, “I really appreciate it.”

“What do you wish to know?”

“Aelthron. What can you tell me of him?”

Kalia sighed, “I have told you all I know. He was an Ancient One from long, long ago.”

Should I ask? They seem… hmm… “Ancient One?”

“The Ancient Ones, the great rulers of the sky. The most powerful cultivators of our Great Cycle. Although, if you really did come from a backwater. Hmm… little is known of them although as a species, they are the greatest of our … galaxy, as you say. They look just like base human, but they are not in any way base. However, I know not what form they are, whether kin or Empowered, or other. Little else I can say.”

“Then, Empowered? Or kin? Is that like Gwenvair and Kil… Acokzau?”

Kalia frowned but glanced and Gwenvair before nodding, “I do not know Acokzau, but Gwenvair is a kin. Kin have two forms, the base form and one other. The Empowered do not, having only some modified slightly different form almost identical, but usually subtly different from a base. Elves, dwarves, halflings… I am an Empowered. Fae have mostly a base form, but … species such as these.”

Gwenvair frowned and interjected, “I could have told you that, Joe.”

Joe glanced over at Gwenvair with a twisted smile of embarrassment, “Sorry. Uh… yeah.”

Gwenvair sighed, huffing a small laugh, “It’s OK.”

Joe nodded gratefully before turning back to Kalia, “Then what was this Aelthron’s character? What was he like? Why did he and his clan get imprisoned in this place so… this prison must have been expensive to set up and make.”

Kalia nodded along then began to frown when Joe mentioned the cost, “Why do you think it is expensive?”

Joe’s eyes knit, “Why do you think it wasn’t? Does this… blue box thing exist outside this plane? I thought you said it was part of the prison system.”

Kalia grew thoughtful, “No. This strange… illusion is something I have never seen before.”

Joe nodded, “Then you think this was easy to make? For the entire cradle… for all people of the cradle to see?”

Kalie grew thoughtful, “I do not know.”

Joe nodded, “It seems… an extraordinary effort to put Aelthron and his people down.”

Kalia shrugged, “His rebellion was incredibly successful. Almost successful.”

Joe relaxed at that, then nodded, “But he… it was quite long ago.”

Kalia nodded, “I know nothing else.”

Joe sighed, “Hmm… then Cradles.”

Kalia quirked an eyebrow, “What of them?”

“I wish to understand them. Can you explain what you know?”

Kalia shrugged at that, “They are the source of life; all life. The bring mana and mana points into existence and allow life to exist and gain in power and strength. Without them there would be no mana or life; only Absence and death.”

Joe blinked at that, “And?”

Kalia frowned, “And what?”

Joe clenched his teeth, “You know nothing else.”

Kalia rolled her eyes and snorted, “I am no scholar. I do not have a scholarly dao. My dao was of illusion and persuasion. I know nothing of philosophy and metaphysics. I cannot tell you.”

Joe nodded, “OK. Then… you know mana and mana points well.”

“That is closer to what I know.”

“Then what could you tell me?”

“I’ve explained most of what I know. All I could offer is training.”

Joe’s interest piqued, “Please.”

Kalia opened her mouth to begin, then frowned and sighed, “I will offer the only useful exercise for us now. It is not very meaningful with the capturing of mana points, but as that is blocked to us… Exercising your own mana heart is best done by three methods: by expressing mana, by retaining mana, and by recapturing spent mana.

“For expressing mana, I hope it should be rather obvious. First is by expressing your personal mana as fast as possible, pushing yourself to empty your mana quickly. Secondly, it is an attempt to express your mana as little as possible, attempting to release mana in as miniscule amounts as possible, going ever smaller and smaller. Then, in both situations, attempt to make the expression as steady as possible, equal and unchanging. Next would be to change the expression forms. For example, expressing lines in every orientation on any plane possible, then add shapes in two dimensions, then more as you are capable.

“Secondly, retaining is another powerful exercise. This exercise is to hold in mana within your own mana heart as much as possible, including increasing the amount of mana within your mana heart, compressing to expand your mana heart. You can also then create a mana bladder, if I remember the old stories, to support your mana heart, although most modern cultivators eschew that in favor of simply increasing their mana points.”

Joe interrupted, “Ancient cultivators used a mana bladders? What is it?” Mana hearts gotta be the organ in my chest that shoots out mana… and that’s how she described it, but a bladder…

Kalia paused, raising an eyebrow and paused to rethink before continuing, “Ah… well, yes. They did. They all developed mana bladders and put great effort into it but with mana points, there was no point. But as for what it is, the mana bladder allows you to create more containers for personal mana. And the mana bladder can also be exercised in the same way with retaining, compressing, and expansion. However, mana bladders are rather useless and have been completely replaced by mana point spheres. Simply develop your points into a sphere and use them to be mana containers, as I said before. Although, now…”

Kalia frowned in thought, now reconsidering the usefulness of bladders. Joe allowed her some time to think before she glanced back up at him, smoothing her face. Joe took that as a cue to move on.

Joe nodded, “Hm… I can see that. Um, do the expressing mana exercises work with mana bladders as well?”

“Ah… no. The mana bladder simply gives more mana to your mana heart.”

“Oh… OK. Then… the last mana exercise? I think you said recapturing?”

“Ah, yes. Recapturing is rather simple, without many exercises. Essentially, you practice recapturing the mana from your own mana constructs, then from the world around you or other cultivator’s mana constructs. They are essentially the same, only the difficulty being greater. A little more advanced is to create mana trapping constructs to capture more of your mana when you disperse another construct. However, this is only truly useful if the mana used in making the trap construct is less than the mana gained from a larger more mana intensive construct you wish to recapture.”

“This is… so cool! Thank you for teaching me this. Is there anything you can tell me about mana points then? Exercises or how to develop them?”

Kalia smiled a bit bitterly but nodded and Joe immediately noticed and tried to speak up but she quickly waved him off, “There is no need. I must learn and I shall. Mana points… hmm… I can speak to you of generally accepted aspects of mana points and in their aspects you will learn of how to develop them. But, most do not find any real meaningful reason to pursue such because your primary goal must truly be to capture ever more and more mana points. Wasting time to develop each point simply slows cultivators down from capturing more mana points. But, I will teach you.

“The main attributes of a mana point, as cultivators have learned, are thickness of the wall, the hardness of the skin, the density capacity of the mana point, the attraction capability of the mana point, the repelling capabilities of the mana point, the infusion capability of the mana point, the defense of the mana point, the compression of the mana point, the refilling of the mana point, and the expelling capability of the mana point. The most important is attraction, as it allows you to find and capture new mana points regularly. This is the only attribute I fastidiously developed in a few of my mana points. Of the rest of these attributes, the only ones truly meaningful are density, refilling and expelling. Compression is important to some extent, but it should be considered last after the others have been developed.

She stopped at that and Joe’s mind struggled to understand what was being said, his mind scattering under the possibilities. When she did stop, he quickly began his next question, already deeply curious. He’d scrambled to write them down in his note book.

“Could you explain each of those... nine? Ten?” OK. Missed one… catch it later?

“Ten.”

“Ten, then. Could you explain each of those ten attributes.”

She nodded, “I know some of such, but I did not study much of them as … as I said, the drive of a cultivator is to capture new points. But in any case. The first is thickness, or the thickness of the mana point wall. It is not well known, although scholars have noted that there are differences. Thickness does not seem to affect refilling or expression in any fashion although there are some that claim to have found an effect on density and defense to a lesser extent. I offered this as you seem interested in rumors,” she added with a twist of a smile at the end before continuing.

“Next is Hardness, which speaks to the hardness of the skin and how will it rejects foreign mana. Some claim it helps with mana containers, others find it helps with density, compression, and defense.

“Density is important as it allows for one to increase the amount of mana that inhabits the point. Doing so also appears to slow refilling, although some claim that since there is more mana, it is simply is refilling more mana at the same speed and not a reduction in speed.

“Attraction speaks to how well mana points can attract other points. This can be vital for finding new mana points to capture. It allows mana points to attract one another and remain together.

“Repelling is how well mana pushes away mana points. This is a very poor attribute to develop and you should refrain from this attribute as much as possible.”

Joe frowned at that but said nothing, listening carefully. Kalia, however, noticed it and immediately rolled her eyes as she continued.

“I said and thought the same. Do not waste mana points on this attribute. And if you must, make sure it is only one. Yes, I doubted my teachers as well, hoping to discover some hidden secret that would uniquely empower myself above my peers and prove that I am superior even to my own teachers. Just… don’t do… bah! The warning is meaningless, as you have none.”

She sighed, her bad mood exacerbated by the realization that this teaching was essentially meaningless, however she pushed on.

“Next is infusion. It allows cultivators to capture other points quickly and easily. This may seem to be a powerful but ultimately simply finding a new mana point is the difficult part, not capturing one. There is some utility in attacking enemy constructs, but… the difficulty comes in finding them.

“Defense is the seventh attribute and can be important for defense against enemy points but again, a rather useless utility as most cannot find your constructs if you are wise in your defense.

“Compression is a useless and meaningless skill. Most do not understand or comprehend what it does and there is no consensus on it. Wait… wait… I will tell you the rumors. It appears that compression may… MAY help with refilling speed.

“And refilling is the speed at which your point can capture wild mana and tame it as your own. And finally, expelling is how quickly and with what control one has to expel mana from the mana point.

“And that is the conclusion to the mana points attributes. I guess one last aspect that some have noted, for those who waste their time in developing their points attributes, their development grows and becomes more difficult as you gain more points. It seems the development of points is essentially never ending. A point that was at one time perfected will become unperfected as more points are captured. It seems points infect and degrade other points to their level.

“This is why most warn that attempting to develop your points is rather worthless.”

Joe pondered that, “But you developed attraction?”

She nodded, “Yes. It was… it proved useful in the few hundred points I put effort towards it. They seemed to pull in new points with greater efficiency than others.”

“So it does work?”

“Oh. There are quantifiable differences. There is no doubt. But to lose it regularly and often…” she shrugged then frowned, simply trailing off.

“Did you lose your attraction growth with those points you did so?”

She frowned at that, “It appeared so. My earliest efforts were diligent and I had those points to perfection, but after I had gathered more points, I was able to increase them once gain. They had obviously grown weaker and lost their development.”

Joe thought on that for a bit, opening his mouth to ask a question but then stopped, deciding to bring the conversation to an end. She’s… getting frustrated. Let’s go ahead and end it here.

“Then, I will say thank you.”

Kalia bowed her head graciously and Joe nodded back and they soon fell back into general conversation and practice before Gwenvair grew too exhausted to continue and Joe called an end to the practice. Stephliquen proved to be the most eager and the one with most energy, leading everyone into the common room to eat.

They ate their breakfast quickly as it was getting late in the morning, so Joe pushed them to be up and out the door rather quickly. He considered the healer, Chulnan, but he’d long stopped coming and now no longer came to the inn. Not sure… I want him coming back anyway… not a good time to really be known… Maybe… Joe glanced towards Gwenvair then nodded to himself. Let’s maybe leave the town… head out to another place… although Gwenvair’s going to want… yeah… her family is here… that likely isn’t a good idea. Dumb… But… at least a new inn? That idea settled and Joe grew certain of it and decided to speak to Gwenvair of the idea after their dungeon dive for the day. Yeah… at least a different inn.

They marched on their way back to the beginner dungeon and Joe spent his time trying to figure out what kind of jobs he wanted to level for the day. He considered his current theorist job again, it was sitting at forty four and felt that there was no need to continue, but a rather strong desire to see what happened at level forty five hit and he decided to simply leave it. Partier was at level forty three as well and only needed two more levels to hit forty five where he hoped he could settle all of them into a decent party. Hope the group of five or six is there… that will make things much easier…

He had two jobs left, rather certain he didn’t really need to keep his priest job any longer now that Loki Pope was maxed out at fifty. If I need to, I still can use my free job swap to get Pope or ‘char:’ the skill and use it to swap my other jobs… easy enough… besides… that will free up two other slots for jobs… and I can keep going down the healing and regen mage lines! Need a bit more power behind my healing… at least turn my mana and mana points into something useful. Can’t risk transporter, so… gotta keep it on at all times, but… I can swap in partier and theorist as needed until they get forty five… that should work? But theorist first, of course!

His decision made for his jobs: transporter, regen apprentice, healing apprentice, and a swapping game between partier and theorist, he turned to the conversations they were all having with one another. He walked with them quietly as they headed to the beginners dungeon once again.

When they got there, they waited in line as they always did and as they passed through into the dungeon. As he did so, Joe felt uncomfortable, his tension welling up within him and he quickly realized something felt off. He glanced around, trying to understand what was happening. He searched the various people around them, looking carefully at all the adventurers and various people heading into the dungeons but he didn’t find anyone unusual amongst them; at least not anyone that really made him feel or understand why he was feeling antsy.

He looked through everyone again but it wasn’t until a glance at the dungeon guards that everything clicked. He made sure to take a mental snap shot of the guard before turning away and diving into the dungeon as quickly as he could. Relief flooded through him when he made it past the corner and the guards no longer were looking at him. But all he saw in his mind was the guarded but avid look, staring at him while desperately pretending to not be staring at someone of interest to the powers that be. Joe frowned. OK. That’s… we need to … We gotta get out of the city. We have to leave rig… Joe took a deep breath, clenching his jaw tightly even as his thoughts wavered suddenly and then he calmed down. Don’t be an idiot. Can’t leave yet… still gotta help Gwenvair and her mom… still…

His mind clenched, somehow. And he wrenched his thoughts back. We gotta leave! We… Something happened and his mind was pulled away. He fought against it then … Relax… we gotta help Gwenvair and her mom… It’s going to be O… he spasmed again, the fear for his own existence spiking through him. Danger! We are … this is… His mind swirled and once again he calmed as his thoughts seeming to flatten and he felt himself becoming accepting of his current situa… Danger! Danger! This is not rig… His mind spasmed and then flattened, emotions flooding away and flattening again until he felt nothing. Then calm returned again, and he smiled. Things are just fine. There’s no… His mind clenched again, and a headache quickly began to form even as danger spiked through him once again, and once again his thoughts crumbled, pulling away from his fear.

His mind quickly considered his position, remembering the guard’s studied indifference. Right… probably should try to leave… his mind stuttered slightly, flickering, then he continued, but never even noticed what was happening, passing on to his next thought without recognizing the interruption. … to leave the inn. Maybe not come back to the beginner’s dungeon… yeah… go… haven’t really done the intermediate dungeon… that would work. Yeah… we can do that. Maybe leave… late? Make it not normal? Yeah… maybe? Or… we can leave now… Joe’s mind twisted upon itself once again, his mind stuttering without him even realizing it and his thoughts went back. Maybe leave… late? Yeah… that’s probably for the best. Wait for the next shift and then sneak out then… ok… yeah. We can do that.

Unbeknownst to him, his thoughts calmed after that, and he quickly made plans to move from the inn into another place. His feeling of danger a muted worry that wasn’t too important but his paranoia kept ringing in his mind refusing him peace. His thoughts didn’t calm until they made it to their normal corner.

With his need to set them all up and prepare for the day, he quickly calmed, forgetting his previous concern now that he was able to focus on something else. He quickly showed all of them which jobs to swap to while also swapping them over and then immediately began pulling goblins for the two groups. With his char: skills added to what he needed, including the researchers bonus to party learning, the others were leveling up to level ten in only about a half an hour at most. In nine kills, they hit level ten. Of course, he had to kill nine for each group since they were still split into two groups so ended up going through eighteen kills back and forth before he had to stop and swap all their jobs to the next.

The morning went on like this and about three quarters of the way through the morning, he had to swap to another priest job due to running out of job swaps. It was annoying because he ran out of all his main job swaps and ended up wasting his left over sub job swaps since he had no jobs to spend them on. By the time the afternoon came around, Joe had already leveled all of them up to level ten on all the commoner jobs they could, leveling all fifteen of the jobs to level ten each.

Late in morning, almost around noon, he felt a wash of leveling up sweep over him. Oh… that’s definitely the theorist job! Yup… and… Joe flipped open his status and saw that the theorist had flipped over to level forty five. Joe grinned. Perfect… yup… and next is partier and then I should be looking at going with figuring out some critical skills, and… His thoughts stuttered a bit and he blinked with some surprise before he grinned. Of course… yeah… citizen theorist! Makes sense. He quickly swapped to citizen theorist and then frowned. Wait… gotta figure out partier… oh! Yeah… Joe took a look at his healer jobs and noticed that they were pretty much maxed, both sitting at forty one so Joe swapped out his regen mage for the partier job, finally feeling satisfied. He then turned back to leveling and while his other jobs remained rather static, citizen theorist leveled rapidly to forty one, then died, no longer leveling for the rest of the day, but Joe was still happy to have prepared his next theorist job.

They stopped for a rather late lunch and since they had to stay longer anyway, Joe decided to start them on their metropolitan job next for the afternoon. About a half way into the afternoon, Joe found himself pondering what he could do to help Gwenvair and her mother and to screw over Gunlan. He’d already done something rather personal by ‘stealing’ the man’s pleasure slaves, although he wasn’t sure when he’d notice. Now, Joe wanted to do something that was quite a bit more detrimental to the man. Joe started grimacing while thinking about the man, his raging spiking up and the next strike at the goblin in front of him was with quite a bit more energy than was strictly necessary.

As soon as the goblin was dead, Gwenvair leapt to his side and sidled up to him, laying an arm on his shoulder and sliding it down his arm to the elbow where she rested it there. Joe’s anger quickly subsided and he looked over at Gwenvair, thankful and grateful for her concern but then grew a bit worried himself when he saw her own anger. Joe’s anger melted at that, evaporating before the realization that Gwenvair had much more right to her anger than he had and he sighed deeply, his thankfulness turning to sad concern for Gwenvair.

Slowly, Gwenvair seemed to calm, her own face turning back to a smile and Joe felt relief settle within him. He sighed and nodded at her. The both stared for a time, understanding of each other almost magical as he seemed to understand her and he just somehow knew that she understood him. He chuckled, nodding, and she offered her own nod back. Neither spoke, but both turned back to fighting and they soon began pulling the goblins again, killing them quickly. This time, though, Joe was able to focus on thinking of a plan to cripple Gunlan where it hurt. He found his mind unusually clear, and he felt a contentment as his mind burned through the possibilities. Then, suddenly, he grinned. Heh… ha! That… yeah… that’s gonna work real well!