As I was preparing to descend back into the world after bidding Balu farewell, I found both Bihena and Aurivy blocking my way towards my room. I could just access the system mentally to descend, but the two of them had extremely determined faces, which piqued my curiosity. “What’s going on?”
“We want you to visit Fyor, Dale.” Aurivy spoke up, her tone serious. “There’s something we need you to try out.” Even Bihena seemed a bit surprised by Aurivy’s tone, before stepping forward to explain.
“The next round, we’re the ones being invaded, right? Since that’s the case, we designed Fyor to be a defensive fortress. There’s one particular ability of that area that we want you to test, to see if it is worth further developing in the future.”
Aurivy simply nodded her head at that. “Sorry, but there’s really no time to play around for now… It’ll be great if this works.”
I let out a brief sigh, smiling towards the two. “Alright. Since it seems like even little Rivy is being so serious about it, I’ll go down and try it out.”
Aurivy’s face seemed to relax, a small smile breaking out on her lips. “Thanks…” The two of them turned around and led me back towards the bedroom. “As soon as the world was done being created, we put everyone to work gathering the different spheres that had appeared on the first floor.”
From there, Bihena continued. “The spheres of the first floor were for the classes Warrior, Rogue, Farmer, and Mage, and a Level Limit of ten. Right now, roughly a thousand years have passed, but they’re still very much in the stone age.”
I was somewhat surprised to hear that even the level limit system was given spheres, but I suppose that was how that system combined with the world specifications in order to gradually increase the strength of the inhabitants. But, since they wanted to do this test right now, I had a feeling it had something to do with the new magic system. Out of the spheres that they mentioned, only the Mage had the potential to offer me anything new.
On the way, I sent a quick message to Terra. If I descend in Fyor, there won’t be any negative effects on Leowynn, right?
None at all. You won’t be able to call her out, given the power of the world so far, but it won’t hurt her to accompany you. When I heard Terra’s answer, I let out a sigh of relief.
Once I was in the room, I moved over towards the computer, and immediately chose to descend in the body of a human. If even the residents weren’t able to proceed beyond level ten, then I had very little need to fear anything living in the first level, even with my own level reset.
Upon descending, I took a moment to survey my surroundings. It appeared that it was currently night time, and in the distance I could see a glistening crystal tower that rose up and seemed to touch the sky. I’d say that this put me near the heart of the area, but in reality the first layer was so small that anywhere would be fairly close. Even the horizon seemed noticeably nearer compared to what I was used to.
Okay, Dale, now try to cast a fireball. I heard Aurivy’s voice coming through my mind. Naturally, I attempted a fireball through the same tried and true method I always used. With… no result. No, no… try to call for a fireball verbally… or imagining it in your mind.
Shrugging my shoulders, I pointed to a nearby patch of grass. “Fireball.” Sure enough… nothing happened.
Try this… Aurivy spoke, and a small stone tablet appeared where I had pointed. There was a single word on the tablet, written in a language I had never seen. However, it still translated for me immediately.
“Fire.” I said, reading the word aloud. And as soon as I did, I felt a small tug on my mana, while a fire appeared atop the tablet. That’s the fire rune? As I asked that, a familiar message window appeared in front of me.
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Mage has been unlocked! |
However… it wasn’t alone.
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Fire rune has been learned! |
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Congratulations! You have earned a personal achievement! For being the first Mage in all of history, you have received the Mage of Origin achievement! Mana +10%, +15 points. |
That’s right, Dale! Aurivy called out, now seeming closer to her usual happy self. Now… one of a Keeper’s powers is to automatically translate and learn languages… can you try to do something else with the rune language, now that you have seen it?
I couldn’t help but blink in surprise as I realized what their test really meant. If this worked, then it meant that I would be able to utilize any magic I wanted within Fyor without restraint. Furthermore, Rune Magic had an extremely low mana cost. And once Fyor joined with the rest of the worlds, this power would carry over…
Lifting my hand, I held my palm facing upwards, focusing on the rune that I had learned to access the language in my mind. “Floating light.” Above my hand, a sphere of white light appeared, simply floating there. The tug on my mana was almost inconsequential, and I was able to cut it off with a simple thought.
Is this why you girls wanted the runic magic? I asked, my heart skipping a beat when I realized just what this meant.
Correct, Dale. Bihena said in a soft tone. The description for this magic labeled itself as a language in the system. Given that one of a Keeper’s privileges in the system is to understand all languages, we believed that it was a hint that it was included. However… you will likely still need to purchase higher tiers of magic in order to be able to use them in Fyor, rather than relying on self discovery like you did with Earth.
“Still, that’s amazing.” I spoke out loud without even realizing it at first. One of the main reasons that I can’t properly understand higher levels of magic on Earth is because the shapes become too complex to process quickly… Can you get one of the swords from Tubrock’s forge? I want to try enchanting here.
A few minutes later, an iron sword appeared, its blade striking into the stone tablet in front of me. Rolling my eyes playfully, I drew the sword from the stone. “Enchant fire on contact.” The four words together pulled a considerable amount of my mana, just over half of what I had as a level one mage.
Once I felt the pull halted, I tapped the blade against the ground. The moment I did, the same rune I had recently learned lit up along the length of the blade, which was immediately engulfed in a small fire. I’m sure that if the enchanter class had already been unlocked, I would have received a level for it as well.
Curious, I wanted to see just how far I could go. This time, I accessed my Keeper mana, which was honestly only a couple points more than my own full mana. However, it was already full, unlike my own. “Maximize fire blast.”
As I spoke, I lifted my hand up towards the sky. In just a second, I felt my Keeper mana draining, a swirling ball of fire blasting out from my hand. Its width was roughly three meters, and it shot out rapidly. Unfortunately, it lost its energy before it hit the ceiling of this floor, vanishing into the air harmlessly.
And now time to leave. I thought inwardly, making sure to take the sword with me as I ascended. However, I didn’t fail to catch the string of ‘level up’ messages that I received, immediately boosting my mage level to five after that spell. I was sure that if I fired off a few more spells like that, I would quickly hit the level cap. But, I had something else in mind.
Back in the Admin Room, I saw Bihena and Aurivy waiting for me. Aurivy’s serious, determined expression was nowhere to be seen, replaced by the normally hopeful, energetic face she usually showed. “It worked! It really worked!”
I let out a brief chuckle at that, nodding. “It did, and you don’t even know how much. From what Balu told me, our next invasion will be a serious one. And the information about our opponent suggests that they will be weak to magic.”
Aurivy’s eyes went wide as she heard that, her smile growing wider. Even Bihena seemed immensely pleased by this information. “So, on that note, I want you two to continue advancing your world, as much as you can. When they get a level limit of two hundred and fifty, I’ll go train the mage class there, and then we can install the Fairy Gate.”
Bihena gave a quick nod to those commands, and even Aurivy was nodding eagerly. “Alright! We’ll do it. Don’t worry, by the time the invasion gets here, we’ll have all the magic power you could want! We’ll save up our points so that you can buy the magic tiers you need as well.”
Bihena smiled towards Aurivy’s quick words, but didn’t complain. “First, we’ll need to begin scattering the runes throughout the floors as they are discovered, hiding them in various locations. Unfortunately, that wasn’t one of the systems that was automatically handled by the world setup. I can’t promise that the world will be at that level by the time the invasion happens, though.”
“You have a hundred standard days…” I said with a slight sigh. “I’m hoping it can reach that level in time. If not, it’s not a big problem. I’ll be preparing the other worlds just in case. Just let me know whenever you are ready to upgrade the runes. For now, that is a high priority.”
The two of them nodded together, then looked at one another. Bihena’s face was filled with determination once again, while Aurivy’s held an eager smile. They both got up and left the room, no doubt to begin getting to work.
As for myself, I really did have to get the world prepared. So, I used the system to reach out to Tsubaki, who appeared to still be cleaning. Tsubaki, I have a message for you to relay to the others. I could have sent it to all of the Voices, but some of them seemed to be busy with their own projects, and the message would only disrupt their focus.
Of course, my Keeper! Tsubaki responded immediately, standing from her position and looking towards the throne.
I won’t be returning for some time. It may even be a few centuries. In the meantime, I want you to help the people of the three worlds. Make sure that by the time I return, there is a diplomatic relationship between all three worlds.
This was the first step to solidifying the defenses against these monsters. Although the system said that Earth would be the target, ‘Earth’ was merely the classification used for the collection of worlds with Earth as the center. At least, according to how Terra explained the different settings to me before. As such, it was necessary for all three worlds to cooperate, or none of them would be able to survive.
Understood, my Keeper! I shall relay your message at once! And I shall be awaiting your return. I could hear the firm will behind Tsubaki’s voice as she said that, but then what I saw next surprised me. Her body began to split apart, a total of six copies of herself forming. One copy ran towards the communication room, while each of the others rushed off to find one of the representatives living in the Sky Citadel.
Huh… I thought to myself. I never knew the Perfect Self could do that.
