Chương 11: Chapter 10 - Fey and Favors

The greatest tragedy to befall our people came not from the [Demon Lord] nor from the demons that he unleashed upon the world. No. The nation of Pumil owes its demise to nothing but the hatred of men and elves. Perhaps they were envious of our wealth, for we did indeed used to be wealthy. Perhaps they wanted our military secrets because we did have several breakthrough inventions in that realm during the first century. Or perhaps they had always been that cruel and needed only an excuse.

No matter the reason, they turned on us. Worse, they did so with weapons we ourselves had made. The stone throwers, the great crossbows, and the explosive runes that had been created to safeguard the wall in the west from the demons were the very things that led to the breach of our own wall. And our Stone Guard was no match for the organized invading armies. For Pumil had always prided itself on its bulwark, and without it, we had nothing left to defend ourselves with. From there, things would only get darker.

Introduction to "Blood from Stone," a banned Pumil historical treatise As cool as it was that I had accidentally created a mana-stealing knife, I realized that I should really get back on track with solving my mana generation problems. Besides, the knife at least proves the idea's possible. There's definitely a way to pull the mana back out. I chuckled briefly.

"In the long term, I'll just have to come up with a way that doesn't involve stabbing the magicite with a knife." That meant that I was good to go to carve the mana-gathering array into my next giant piece of magicite. I didn't quite do that yet, though. I still had the problem of where the heck I was going to leave the giant crystal to let it charge up. Can't leave it here. Everyone knows where this is, and all it would take is one [Hero] to barge in and ruin everything. I looked around the room.

I might also need more space. That was saying a lot since my throne room could hold basically my entire demon army in it. That'll be doubly true if it turns out that the crystals will interfere with each other. I frowned. That means a lot of space. The throne room was out.

"A different dungeon, maybe? The fire dungeon?" I asked. On the plus side, I already had a beacon there and it was guarded by giant flaming snails that were far stronger than they had any right to be. However, something about leaving the giant crystals dotting the volcanic countryside felt… unwise. Come on. I berated myself. Think! There has to be somewhere capable of hiding the entire operation, easily defendable against the entirety of Placeholder, and can fit large amounts of mana-gathering crystals!

And that sparked a memory. Not a pleasant one to relive, but a helpful one nonetheless.

"Gram basically tossed me on a prison island in the dragonlands," I muttered.

"I don't think the dragonlands are a good idea because their side has ice dragons in the water, and I sank the prison, but what if I go to this side's version of it?" I nodded slowly.

"Then I have only one island to defend, and I can probably set up some type of illusion to keep people away… and maybe a warning trigger if I can figure that out too?" I wasn't sure what school of magic the second one would fall under, but I was starting to like the idea better and better.

"Now, if only I knew a magical race that were experts at creating wide-range sustained illusions," I muttered. I knew about the fey, of course. My issue was that I wasn't sure if they would be willing to talk to me. First, I tricked them into filling up the giant magicite crystal for the ritual. Then, I failed the ritual and flubbed my chance at bringing Primavia back. Well, the worst they can say is no. I thought… perhaps a tad optimistically.

"[Message] Secondavia," I started.

"Hey, it's me again. I know you may not want to talk to me since the ritual failed, but I was wondering if you would be willing to do some more trades? I have some spells I'm looking to learn." I paused.

"Oh, and not to worry, it's not time magic. It turns out that you can't really travel to the past the way I thought. Which means…" I trailed off again.

"Sorry about Primavia. I'd be willing to take another look at healing her if that would help?" Secondavia: Gather th**! The cystal portion of 'ere dawn! Secondavia: Thou art ignor I hath no time! *** or thine w* be for*********** I furrowed my brow as I looked at the completely broken-up reply messages. What the frick could cause the [Message] spell to do that? I asked. Also, Secondavia completely ignored me.

I would have felt like that was a bit rude, but it seemed like she was busy with something important. [Message] was out. Fortunately, I had another option to get a handle on the situation.

"[Scry] Secondavia," I cast as I pulled out my hand mirror. The scry crackled and flickered in and out, but I soon saw the 2 nd fairy queen. She was flying somewhat erratically, zipping from place to place in a way that seemed like she wasn't under control.

"Gather thy possessions knaves! The crystal shalt overtake this portion of the woods 'ere dawn!" she commanded.

"My own [Queen]! Any farther and we shalt exit our own abode!" one of the other fairies interjected.

"We have nay a choice!" Secondavia snapped back.

"Get thee gone! Gather thy belongings and flee!" The fey did as they were told but didn't seem very happy about things.

"Oh, my [Queen], were that you were here… and not the harbinger of our current woes," Secondavia whispered with a forlorn look on her face. Then, as if finally noticing the [Scry], she spun and faced it.

"There exists only one ne'erdowell who would dare trespass upon our domain," she stated as she looked directly at me.

"Titus!" she shouted. Uh oh. She's mad. Maybe I should-"Please! Aid us!" she continued as she fell prostrate in front of the spell's view.

"Mine people stand on the brink of disaster! A neverending winter away from the forest we call our abode! Out of the kindness of thine heart, and to aid a cousin immortal, please! Come hither and save our forest!" I just stood there and blinked for a few seconds. That's… not quite what I was expecting. Then, with a shake of my head and a shrug for good measure, I replied.

"Sure, I'll help. I'll just want a favor or two in return." Secondavia stayed kneeling there.

"Oh, right," I stated.

"[Scry] is one-way… but don't the fey normally do something to look back through to my end?" I asked. If anything, that just sold how desperate they were.

"[Message] Secondavia," I cast.

"I'll help in return for a few favors. How do I get to your forest? Where are you located right now?" Her head popped up as soon as the [Message] went through, and she immediately started casting.

"There art not time for the slow way! Thou must come hither immediately. [Grand Teleport]!" she shouted. For a moment, I was impressed that Secondavia was casting that spell all by herself. That was something that only Primavia had ever pulled off, and it spoke of a lot of growth from the new fairy [Queen]. Then, I was… slightly less impressed. Unlike when the ritual version was cast or when Primavia had cast it on me, I felt like I could resist the spell if I wanted to.

I didn't have to go along with the teleportation if I wanted to stay put. In addition, the spell felt… unstable. While the worst-case scenario was probably just death, which wasn't that serious all things considered, I would really rather not waste 50 years that I didn't have to and possibly reroll a body that had way more issues with it than the wrong dominant hand. I helped stabilize the spell, and then suddenly, I was in the fey forest. The first thing I noticed was the ambient magic.

While their forest always felt like mana was just floating in the air, ready to be plucked away, it felt like a literal blanket on my body this time. The second thing I noticed was the giant pink crystal that eclipsed the middle of the forest and that seemed to visibly grow before my eyes. I took the latter in by mostly just staring at it and blinking.

"So, you're under threat from a giant crystal?" I asked.

"What even is that thing?"

"Thou must recall thy healing of mine own [Queen]?" Secondavia asked.

"Oh yeah, that was… like more than a century ago, though." I furrowed my brow.

"She was covered in some type of growing… crystal." I looked back at the pink obstruction with a new eye.

"That's all from your [Queen's]… err… illness?" I asked.

"Indeed," Secondavia nodded seriously.

"For her crime of interfering with the ordinary, she hast become an apocalypse 'pon her own people." She grimaced.

"The crystal doth push the mana from the forest ever outward and meanwhile takes its place. Soon, we shalt have an abode no longer." I nodded slowly.

"Alright, so, first order of business sounds like to cut this crystal down to size. So, if I just…" I [Flash Stepped] towards it and drew one of my "backup" swords. I brought it down on a protruding chunk of the crystal, even as Secondavia screamed at me to stop. I lopped a piece of the pink crystal off. The entire forest groaned as if in pain, and the fey that were around me yelled along with it.

"Prithee, cease attacking the crystal," Secondavia stated breathlessly.

"It art our [Queen], and our [Queens] art our forest itself." That was information I probably should have realized already, given that it had shrunk when I cast [Restore] on Primavia the last time, but part of me also wanted to take a sample of that crystal too. Crystal that could displace mana was an unusual find, and I was sure I could come up with a use for it… if it hadn't disappeared as soon as it was removed from the main body, rendering that entire plan useless.

"Sorry about that," I said a bit sheepishly.

"Well, I guess that means I'll just have to do this the hard way…" Out came Singularity once more, and I placed a hand on the crystal.

"[Restore]," I cast with a grimace at the coming queasiness that healing spells always were accompanied by. It felt terrible, but the mana flowed into the crystal, just as it would into any other ailment I had tried to heal. The crystal visibly shrunk back, and I had to take a step forward before emptying my mana pool.

"Phew," I stated as I stared at the empty resource bar.

"This is going to take quite a bit." I took my hand off the crystal to start regaining my mana but frowned as we watched it slowly grow back over the area that I had just recovered for us.

"Tis my fear that thou art too late," she stated softly.

"The malady hath progressed too far."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," I muttered. It was time to try something a bit riskier. Back went Singularity, out came Essence Thief… and a small chunk of magicite.

"Thou moon-possessed imbecile! Stop!" Secondavia shouted as the mana started being sucked into the magicite like a vortex. It was even doubled in strength since the last time I had pulled that stunt, probably because the mana was so dense in the air now. I didn't listen to her. Instead, I took Essence Thief and stabbed it into the crystal that was quickly getting saturated with mana. The resulting mana transfer was a bit of a rush. I hesitated for a few seconds. Would this be enough? I asked.

If I drained this whole forest of mana, would that be enough to take down the OmniverseEngine? The thought lasted only a moment because the answer was obviously no. Even if this was enough mana, I still don't know enough about the System to try to take it down. It will take years of experiments… probably decades or centuries. I nodded slowly to myself. There was no reason to sacrifice the fey at that point in time.

Besides, they're probably the only beings on Placeholder that can actually teach me anything about magic at this point. I paused for another second as I realized there was an insistent tugging on my very being. Oh, right. And the oaths. I can't harm the fey anyway. And so, with that doubly squared away and with Secondavia still screaming bloody murder, I walked up to the crystal once more.

"[Restore]," I cast. From there, I really started making some progress. I also wanted to puke my guts out, but that was just par for the course. I mean, saving the entire fey race wasn't supposed to be easy. I kept up the frantic healing for about an hour before Secondavia finally came forward. I was confused about why she was walking but figured that it must have been because her flight used magic that had been mostly stripped from the area.

"Prithee, fellow immortal," she started.

"Cease using this method for now. This portion of the forest doth requireth time to replenish its stock. Shouldst thou proceed with pulling its mana furthermore, it mayest not recover."

"Alright," I stated. Stowing the crystal with Essence Thief still plunged into it.

"So, should we continue with the next section, then?" From there, we went around to three more sections of the forest, and I repeated the process in each of them. Unfortunately, while I had made a ton of headway against the crystalline malady, it was still growing too fast, and I was running out of forest mana to sacrifice against it. Fortunately, with an idea born mostly from desperation, I cast [Appraise] on the giant pink crystal.

Status Name Primavia Level 25 Race Fey HP #ERROR MP -12, 135, 394/0 SP 0/25 Holy crud. I thought. The crystal really is Primavia. The second thing that caught my eye was the negative mana that she was sitting at. Is that what I'm actually [Restoring]? I asked. I pumped a bit more mana in via [Restore] and then recast [Appraise]. Sure enough, a couple dozen points of mana put into [Restore] dropped the number by a few points. Oof. Not even one-to-one… Either that or her mana is just dropping that fast. I frowned.

I needed another solution to her mana loss, but fortunately, pulling mana into crystals was a problem I had been working on for quite a bit. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Secondavia screamed bloody murder when I pulled out the adamantium knife to do my carving, but it seemed that, fortunately, making the shallow cuts for my runes didn't have the same impact on the forest that lopping off entire pieces did.

Powering the runes was much more difficult than for magicite, though. While magicite wanted to suck in mana, the crystal seemed more like an anti-mana that grew by forcibly expelling mana. Or, I guess, it grew by decreasing Primavia's mana further into the negatives? Either way, one set of runes took almost 10 times the mana that a single one of my giant magicite crystals would take, and I had to race against the clock to get them put together because otherwise, the crystal would grow back and ruin the enchantment.

Fortunately, it worked. The mana-gathering arrays didn't cause the crystal to shrink, but at the very least, they stopped it from growing everywhere that I had them. It was a painstaking process, but we at least had a method to combat the crystal now. Step 1, [Restore] back sections of the crystal until the forest was nearing mana-depletion. Step 2, re-create the mana-gathering enchantment and power it. Step 3, repeat on other sections until the entire forest was nearing mana-depletion.

Step 4, wait with Secondavia for the forest to regain its mana, and tell the gathered fairies stories. During step 4, I also started cashing in one of my favors early. Specifically, I was curious about the widespread fog surrounding the forest.

"That has to be some kind of magical effect, right?" I asked.

"But it can't be an illusion because I can see it. So is that even possible?" Secondavia grinned.

"That beeth because thou hast the wrong spell school." I frowned and tried to think.

"Wait… is it [Spatius]?" I asked incredulously.

"Is the entire fey forest actually a pocket dimension of some kind?" Secondavia laughed.

"Indeed!" Then, giving me a serious look, she continued.

"Prithee, reveal that not to any mortal. Tis a secret most secretive." I shrugged.

"Yeah, don't have anyone I would think to reveal that to anyway." Then I cocked my head.

"So, space magic makes sense. You have your own zone, and now that I think about it, the outside is probably smaller than the inside. But how do you keep that spell running?" I asked.

"There aren't any spells that last forever like that, right? Is it a magic item instead?" Secondavia shook her head.

"Haply. Tis an enchant, similar to thine, but it beeth not carved 'pon unliving stone, but 'pon the great trees of our forest." I grinned.

"Can I take a look at it? I want to make something similar and turn an island into my own place." She gave me a cunning grin back.

"Most certainly!... Shouldst we reacheth them. They art located within the innermost part of the forest." I gave her a look.

"Well, it's a good thing I was already committed to cleaning all this up anyway," I sighed. Then, I wrinkled my brow.

"Wait. If they're in the innermost part of the forest… and if the inner part of the forest is taken over completely by the crystal… how is the enchantment still running? Shouldn't it have stopped working when the crystal pushed all of the mana out?" Secondavia opened her mouth and then shut it.

"Well, it beeth…" She started and then trailed off. I gave her a meaningful look.

"You don't know, do you?" I asked.

"Silence, knave!" she replied.

"Twas a secret guarded by our most fair [Queen] 'ere she passed from us! The workings of the magic wert established in eons past, and have performed with nary a flaw from time immemorial! There beeth no need to know their innermost workings!"

"That's a lot of words to say that you never took the time to figure it out," I teased. She stuck out her tongue at me and refused to speak to me for a week. Which, honestly, wasn't that long. It was a drop in the bucket for either of us, and I'm sure that compared to any normal person, our sense of time was completely skewed. That's also probably why I spent much more time there than anticipated. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. And months turned into years…

and I was pretty sure that the years turned into a decade or two? It was a bit boring between the nauseating [Restore] sessions, but things really picked up when we got to the heart of the forest, and I got to study the "runes" that kept it in its own personal pocket dimension. They were grown into a tree. I'm sure that it was basically sacrilege for Secondavia to show them to me, but she owed me big time for saving her people, and she couldn't exactly say no.

Figuring the runes out was complex, and trying to convert it to something usable in my situation even more so, but I had nothing but time. I eventually got something figured out… and also tentatively figured out why the tree's enchantment continued to work even with the giant crystal blocking it previously. The tree roots. I thought. They spread out through the entirety of the forest. That gave me an inkling of another idea, but it would be quite some time before I could put it into practice.

And then, the ordeal was pretty much over.

"Here we are," I stated as we had finally revealed the briar on which Primavia's sealed body lay. The crystal was down to a minimum, and I felt that if I just pushed a bit more that I could probably heal the entire thing. No. I thought after a moment. How did the [Hero] get all the way from the ashlands to the deathlands to try to stop the ritual? How did Garrik's horse become a unicornis-… alicorn that he could fly to come and stop me? Two underhanded attempts by the fey to stop me in the final act.

There would undoubtedly be three, and that would be worse should Primavia, the fey's best spellcaster, be allowed to come back.

"I'm afraid this as much as I can do," I lied with a sigh.

"Though, I can at least engrave the crystal with the mana-gathering runes so it won't grow again."

"And with that, our lady's torment shall be lessened," Secondavia stated softly as she put her tiny hand on the crystal above Primavia.

"Pritthee, proceed." With that, I carved one last array into the crystal. This time it encompassed nearly the entire thing, and I was pretty dang sure that we had achieved equilibrium. Secondavia landed on top of the crystal and gave me a deep bow.

"Thank thee, Titus, for thy timely aid. With thine support, mine people were saved, and as a boon for thy valor, I offer thee favors three," she stated. Then, she held up a tiny hand.

"Misfortunate it is, but thine first favor is spent. I hath shown thee the heart of mine forest, and I must insist that beeth counted as thy first. Friend and savior thou art, but the secrecy of our heart shall not be transgressed." I nodded slowly.

"Yeah, that's fair. I probably would have spent a favor on that anyway, so no worries." I paused. What the heck do I want for a second favor? I asked myself. I knew it would be spellcasting related, but I didn't know what to ask for specifically. While the runes I had learned from the heart of the fey forest had been intriguing, part of me wanted to ask for more help with that and pocket dimension creation in general. I was in no way confident I could recreate the fey's secret technique yet.

Another part of me wanted help with some other spells, though. I was a bit tired of the cooldowns and distance restrictions of [Teleport]. I could use both my favors. I thought. Then, I grinned. Or…

"For my second favor, I want you to be my teacher in spatius magic," I stated.

"I'm particularly interested in pocket dimension creation and better teleportation spells. Similar to how you cast that [Grand Teleport] instantly."

"Thou hast asked for two favors in one," Secondavia grumbled. However, I could tell it was a good-natured sort of grumble.

"Verily. I wisheth my [Queen] were here as she could giveth thee an education most complete, but thou shalt have to maketh do with me."

"Before we shalt we begin this endeavor, I requireth understanding of thy talents," Secondavia stated as we began the tutoring in earnest the next day.

"Well, I'm level 6 in the [Spatius] skill and level 5 in-" I started.

"Bah," she said with a wave of her hand.

"I care not for thy skill. I care more about thine skill." I stared at her with a raised eyebrow. While that had made sense in a way, it seemed like a silly way to put it. Then, I remembered that she wasn't even speaking English, and that the System had probably just done its best.

"Right, well, if you don't care about the level of my skill, what do you actually want to see?" I asked.

"Reveal unto myself thy spell repertoire," she said with a curt nod.

"What canst thou cast in the domain of space?"

"Alright, I guess I'll start at the beginning then…" I pulled out Singularity.

"[Port]," I cast. My staff reappeared two feet above my hand, and I caught it on the way down. Seconavia snorted.

"A mere parlor trick, but I suppose a fitting spell for a novice." I shrugged.

"Hey, it was just the first one I learned. If you want something more impressive, how about… [Blink]!" I reappeared right behind her. She spun around, and her eyes narrowed.

"Mayhaps I judged thee a bit early," she muttered.

"Thine short-range portaling is nothing to be mocked." She shook her head.

"Now, for longer range?"

"This one will take a bit," I replied as I began casting [Teleport]. She snorted as she felt the mana taking shape.

"If that beeth the case, why doth thou not speed things up?" she asked.

"I can't," I replied.

"This is the spell I learned from…" I trailed off.

"Primavia," I stated softly. Secondavia looked a bit stricken, but I continued on.

"Anyway, it has a cast time of 10 minutes, and there doesn't seem to really be a way around that." I shrugged.

"Leveling up the related skills has greatly increased the range but hasn't done anything for the cast time or mana cost." We waited the full 10 minutes, with Secondavia simply observing. Then, it was ready.

"Shimmering void of spell, guideth me twixt hither and thither as I traverse the path unseen by the ordinary," I chanted, feeling all the more judged by the fairy [Queen] as I did so.

"[Teleport]!" I finished. I disappeared… and then reappeared a few feet away. I didn't want to have to walk back to the fey forest after all. Secondavia gave a slightly sad smirk. I responded by cocking my head.

"What is it?"

"It wouldst seem my own [Queen] hath played a prank in her way," she stated.

"Wait, my version of [Teleport] is a prank?" I asked, aghast.

"It seemed solid! There weren't any issues, and-" Secondavia laughed.

"I refer solely to the words of the spell, Titus," she replied.

"Indeed, the [Teleport] she hath taught thee is well suited to a beginner. However, thou hast struggled 'gainst it because thou hast outgrown thy spell as a caster." I paused.

"So what you're saying is…"

"That thee couldst decrease the cast time or the mana cost or increase the range thou traveleth in a cast should thou use a more fitting spell," she explained.

"Thou couldst endeavor to make thine current [Teleport] do any of such things, but twould be a heroic struggle to overcome. That version contains safeguards that keepest thou from fatal error, but they also keepeth thee locked into one method of invoking."

"I see," I nodded. So, my problem is basically that [Teleport] is a bike with the training wheels on. It's safe, but it won't go very fast… unless you like strap rockets to it or something. I paused. But if I have the option to strap rockets to something, a rocket, or even a car or a train, would be a better bet than a tricycle. I gave a small chuckle and then focused back on my teacher.

"So, to begin thine education, allowest me to divulge a better version of thine spell," she stated. Then, she began slowly casting so that I could get a feel for the mana.

"[Grand Teleport]?" I asked hopefully. Secondavia laughed.

"Nay. Thou art not ready for such a spell. Thou must first learn the intermediary." She continued casting and gave me a look. I nodded to show that I got it.

"[Advanced Teleport]," she cast. She also reappeared just a few feet away.

"So, what are the fundamental differences between [Teleport] and [Advanced Teleport]?" I asked.

"The primary is that [Advanced Teleport] no longer holds thine hand," she stated.

"Shouldst thou [Teleport] underground, or into a tree, or another foolhardy place that thou wast not familiar with, [Teleport] would keep thee safe and relocate thee within an acceptable range." She gave me a serious look.

"[Advanced Teleport] and [Grand Teleport] do no such thing," she stated.

"Thine security blanket will be removed, but thou can traverse the same distance at a fraction of the cost in time or mana or travel much farther, depending 'pon thine skill." She gave a bittersweet smile.

"Thou knowest how my own [Queen] couldst [Grand Teleport] thee 'gainst thy will, even whilst thou was in a dimension removed from our own. It is power of that sort I doth refer to." I nodded slowly.

"Wait," I said with a pause.

"Doesn't that mean that I could just [Grand Teleport] the [Hero] or Mishael into the ground or something if I ever master that? Isn't that OP?" Secondavia laughed.

"While thou couldst perhaps achieve such things, wouldst thou deal less damage or more than if thee used a spell meant for combat?" she asked. I opened my mouth and then shut it. She's got a point there. If I have hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand mana for a [Grand Teleport] and the time to cast it, then it would probably be easier to just hit them with a [Lightning Spear]. I frowned as I remembered that Mishael was 2 for 2 when it came to splitting lightning bolts in half with his sword.

Well, maybe it would work better on Mishael anyway. If he doesn't have some way to resist forced relocation.

"Alright, let's get this started," I replied.

Months went by. It turned out that the jump from [Teleport] to [Advanced Teleport] was pretty huge. It had some pros and cons. For cons, I could no longer specify something as vague as "as far north as I can go" when I was just traveling around. Well, actually I could, but everytime I tried that I ended up buried in the dirt, inside of a tree, or otherwise stuck in some part of nature that I had to slowly dig/[Elemental Strike] my way out of.

Since that never killed me, I did realize that even that con wouldn't stop me if I truly had to get to somewhere I had never been before in a hurry. In other words, there was only one con, and it wasn't even that huge of a deal, all things considered. The pros were many, though. First, it was way more flexible, as Secondavia had explained. I could lengthen the distance I teleported, or cut the cast time shorter (though the fastest I got it down to was a minute).

Second, it was better experience for the [Spatius] skill. I could tell. Third, and perhaps most important to my skewed priorities, I got to pick my own chant for the spell.

"With the power of space, I break the constraints of dimensionality. I place my destination right next to the source, and I step through the path between to arrive immediately. [Advanced Teleport]." It probably wasn't the best, but it sure beat the heck out of the apparently prank version of the words for [Teleport] that Primavia had fed me. When my months of learning [Advanced Teleport] ended, I was ready to move on to the next thing.

"I think I've finally gotten the hang of it," I told Secondavia as I cast [Advanced Teleport] without issue for the fifth time that day.

"So, do we move on to [Grand Teleport] next?" Secondavia laughed.

"If thou hast five decades to spare, and thou wishest for thine favor to be concluded, certainly! We canst proceed with thy tutoring of [Grand Teleport]." I frowned. I still hadn't learned about pocket dimensions.

"I guess not," I sighed. While I could have used up favor 2 and then used favor 3 to continue my pocket dimension education, I had something I knew I would need that favor for. And favors from the fey were rather rare.

"Can we continue by looking at pocket dimensions?" I asked.

"I want to make an island into one, similar to the fey forest." Secondavia's brow furrowed.

"Tricky. That beeth not mine area of expertise." She trailed off.

"Are there any other fairies who know it better?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Nay, twas solely my own [Queen] who knew the deepest arts of dimensionality. Twas her area of expertise." She gave a soft snort.

"And twas an expertise among many talents twould make many a lesser fey envious." She hmmed. Then, after a second, she pulled out one of the orbs from the fey trials.

"For this, we shalt hath to study together," she stated. Then she held up a hand, "Worry not. I shalt consider that in the sum of thy favor being fulfilled. A study partner is less worthy of favor than a teacher, after all."

To put it in other words, Secondavia was just about as lost with pocket dimensions as I was. Fortunately, we had some good examples between the fey trial orbs and runes engraved in the trees in the heart of the fey forest (yes, it took her a bit to convince her that we should go and take a look at them. However, I had already seen them once. It wasn't like the rules were going to be more broken by letting me go back and take another look).

Those examples took months to figure out and even longer to create a workable prototype. We started small… literally. The first goal was a pocket dimension that could only fit me in it, made from an orb of mithril about the size of my fist. No dice. We couldn't get it to go, and we had to size it up until I was eventually using a hunk of mithril the size of a beach ball as the spell's focus. With that over-the-top expense, we finally succeeded…

and then promptly got stuck inside of it because we had misconfigured the normal spatial pathways that were supposed to be used for entrance and exit. The good news was that [Disrupt] was still sufficient to temporarily deactivate the space entirely, which, thankfully, only resulted in us being vomited out onto the forest floor. Secondavia wasn't happy at the close call, so I was the only one entering our test dimensions after that until I gave the all-clear.

From there, the goal became to shrink things down until we got closer to the fey artifacts. Once we succeeded at that, we would then expand things until I got a good feel for what I would use for my personal island. That ended up taking several years. It turns out that pocket dimension creation is hard. Who knew? The System did, apparently. At the very least, my efforts were awarded as [Spatius] hit level 7, and [Spatial-Temporus] finally gained a level and hit 6.

That helped quite a bit with our pocket dimension creations. It also helped with the secondary project that I worked on when I needed a break. It was a bit of a doozy. I wanted a near-instant cast time, recall to one specific location, and for the mana cost to be paid by a piece of charged magicite kept in reserve at the other end. It was a headache and a half to figure out, but I finally had the bright idea to include bits of [Communicatio] magic in the mix.

The idea was to basically turn it into a [Message] but aimed at an object that would then complete the spell and transport me. I was getting closer and closer to figuring it out because my [Teleport Beacon] ritual had about a quarter of the spell that I needed. Though.. speaking of [Teleport Beacons]…

"What art thou casting now?" Secondavia asked as she came upon me casting said ritual.

"I'm making a beacon to make it easier to teleport back here," I answered.

"Bah," she said with a dismissive wave.

"Thou shouldst just [Advanced Teleport] thine way hither!" I snorted.

"Secondavia, not all of us have the privilege of living our entire lives in an enchanted pocket dimension that practically spews out mana we can use for our casts. Some of us have to be a bit more economical with our spells."

"Indeed, most poor louts are not blessed with being fey," she preened. Then, she took a closer look at the ritual.

"So, thou art marking the coordinates for simpler recall… Twill that not fail 'ere the next [Grand Teleport] of the forest?" I paused for a moment.

"Yeah, I didn't think about that… And, will it even work since the fey forest is a pocket dimension?" Secondavia examined it for a moment.

"Shouldst yond spell complete as expected, I see nay a problem. A pocket dimension tis not a full dimension, after all. If twere, teleportation across the gap twould be much more difficult. Good to know… That will also impact my island. I should still be able to teleport to it. I paused. But so could other people…

"How long 'til thy ritual completes?" she asked.

"It takes me about 6 hours," I replied. She gagged.

"I shalt return later then, methinks. Watching thee watch trees grow art not entertainment." She flew off and left me to my devices but returned towards the end.

"Hey, random question," I asked upon her return.

"Thine random answer is apple cobbler," she stated. I groaned.

"That wasn't funny the first dozen times," I complained. Her only reply was a stuck-out tongue. I continued.

"I get the points of coordinates 1 through 4. I need to establish X, Y, Z- err- length, breadth, height, I guess? And then the 4 th coordinate is dimension. However, do you know what the 5 th and 6 th coordinates are?" Secondavia flitted around me.

"Nay, as far as I am aware, the fifth and sixth have nay meaning save a constant form from System," she said with a shake of her head.

"It beeth like the rising of the sun or the growth of trees. We know not a reason for it." Well, drat. There goes that idea. I paused. But if they're from the System… Okay. Programmer hat on. 6 parameters. X, Y, Z, dimension, five and six. X, Y, Z is all that is needed to locate someone in space unless there are multiple dimensions. So… I trailed off.

"Five and six are designations for containers bigger than dimensions," I muttered.

"What sayeth thee?" Secondavia asked, inclining her head.

"Nothing," I replied, waving her off.

"It's nothing." The System's name is the Omniverse Engine. Omniverse implies multiple universes. So, it's entirely possible that coordinates five and six are something like which universe you're located in. I paused. That could be five, but then I have no idea what six would be.

"Titus, art thou still present with us?" Secondavia asked as she waved a hand in front of my face.

"Yeah," I replied as I shook off my thoughts.

"I'm almost ready to test things out. Just give me a few more minutes."

It turned out that the first test of my pet project didn't work out. Neither did my second, or my third… I lost track of the number of tries that it took and the number of jabs that Secondavia took at my "foolish foolery." Meanwhile, my pocket dimension creation continued to improve, and soon I had far outstripped Secondavia in terms of that skill. I could tell she was a bit jealous, but I kept the tutoring up for a bit longer until my other project finally succeeded.

Secondavia hadn't thought it possible, so something was quickly becoming apparent…

"Thou hast learned all that I beeth capable of tutoring," Secondavia stated.

"With that, thine second favor of three is closed. What shalt be thine third?" she asked. I had an idea for my third favor… but now wasn't the time to call it in.

"I think I'm going to hold onto that one for now," I stated. Then, after thinking for a moment, I realized something.

"Actually, one last thing before I call my second favor closed," I told the fairy [Queen]. She rolled her eyes.

"That beeth what thou hast said before! Nay more trickery! Close thy favor, and make it short!"

"Easy, easy!" I said, holding up my hands placatingly.

"I just want some help teleporting out of here and maybe with picking a good island to claim as my own. See, not a big deal!"

"I shalt allow it as the ultimate act of our training," Secondavia grumbled.

"But thou canst not add to it!" she warned.

"Any further thee takes from me shalt count against thee as favor three!" After that, Secondavia helped me scry around in the ocean so that we could find an unoccupied and unused-by-the-fey island. It only took a couple of hours, so it was completely inconsequential in comparison to the totality of my second favor… and one more casting of [Grand Teleport] wasn't that big of a deal either.

"It's been good, Secondavia," I stated as she started casting the spell to teleport me out.

"Stay well."

"Indeed. Beeth thou well in addition," she stated. Then with the barest hint of a smirk, she cast the spell.

"[Grand Teleport]!" I instantly popped into existence more than a thousand miles away. It was hard to tell who was more startled. Me, or the person who I appeared right in front of. We stared at each other for an awkward moment before he fled at top speed, screaming about the "coming of the calamitous one." Meanwhile, it was difficult for me to tell what to be most confused about. The fact that Secondavia had pranked me by teleporting me deep underwater or… Why is he speaking Virian? Why am I the calamitous one?

And… I trailed off. Since when does Placeholder have merfolk? I asked as I watched the half-man half-fish swim away in terror.