Chapter 224 - An Arrival Noted

A/N: There were a couple of edits/fixes applied to the last chapter already, everything else will likely be done in the Dev Edit (when I get back from the Dev Editor). In the meantime, this is the first chapter of Book 5, currently titled 'Colours of the Wild'. Enjoy!

Nate’s eyes roamed over the place between universes. The vista was just as magical and beautiful as he remembered. The only difference was this time he had the senses to truly appreciate and experience its depth. The bubble surrounding Kiri, Frick and himself was so transparent as to be almost invisible, and beyond it lay a rainbow wonderland. Within the swirling colours floated orbs that might’ve been planets, or at least fragments of them. With his sphere of awareness, he was able to perceive what lay beyond the bubble that protected them from the ravages of this place that exemplified the rules of their Reality. The colours were ever-shifting because space in this place was ever-shifting, forming tiny crystal lattices that would refract and reflect the light trapped within this place between universes. With nowhere to go, and nothing capable of absorbing the light trapped here, except the few floating planetoids, it bounced endlessly, creating a spectacle both beautiful and chaotic.

“Your painting didn’t do it justice,” Kiri muttered, gobsmacked as she stared intently.

“I agree, though I didn’t have the tools to recreate it back then.”

“And now?” asked Kiri, her head unwavering as she was clearly unwilling to miss a second of the amazing view.

“And now… I think, no, I know I could recreate it. Smaller scale, obviously, but I could make something to mimic what is going on here.”

Kiri smiled a little, “Your world had a thing about giving gifts on birthdays, right? You know it’s my birthday soon.”

“Liar,” Nate replied, though he smiled as he said so, as he knew her birthday by Galle’s calendar was still months away. “But sure, I’ll make you one.”

“It’s a promise. No take backs,” replied Kiri.

“Promise. Trip is coming to an end though. Get ready.”

Nate had noticed the dot of white light in the distance that they were hurtling towards as Kiri spoke. They were probably headed into a Wild Realm, a universe that existed close to the Source. The place where mana entered their Reality. Who knew what was waiting for them on the other side. He thought ‘probably’ because of the notification he had received from The System completely unbidden as they stepped into the portal back on Galle. He glanced at the notification, as the white dot in the distance started to grow, ready to swallow them and spit them out.

Assistance granted. Debt owed reduced. Seek that beyond me.

He had a small idea about what The System had done. As they had stepped into the portal, Nate had sensed the runic structure throughout the Mythic portal shift ever so slightly, specifically around the parts that detailed the destination. He was almost certain The System had changed their destination. The changes to the structure had been small which was why he thought they were probably still headed to a Wild Realm, maybe even the same one Arikanvil had intended for them. After all, a Wild Realm was a universe, and universes had plenty of planets. There could be more than one world in a Wild Realm to send them to. Ultimately, he didn’t know, which is why he wanted them to be prepared for anything. In his Runic Gallery, he had a stack of Epic materials and a few Legendaries all ready for use with Conceptual Automated Existence. On top of that he had raised his Barrier Bracer to Mythic. As long as they had a short while to prepare he was confident Kiri and he could handle anything. They just needed to stick the landing.

The white dot finally grew to fill their vision and as their bubble impacted its smooth sheen they were catapulted into a new universe.

Nate rolled across the green grass as his barrier protected him. Kiri, with her far higher agility managed to land on her feet, her tethered arms flicking out as daggers appeared in them, making her look a lot like a spider, only with extra legs. Then Nate felt his skin tingle and his eyebrows went up. He was level sixty-three now, in possession of a Divine-tier Class for his Primary Class which marked him as a Lesser Divine. He had thought he was beyond the days when a high mana concentration would affect him at all. He was wrong. 

Frick popped out and lay down on the green grass, relaxing as though on holiday. Nate stood up and looked around, taking in this new world. Tropical was his first thought. They stood in a small open area surrounded by trees. The air was humid, but breathable. Beyond the trees, far in the distance, lay a towering mountain range that reached up towards the heavens, its peaks wreathed in clouds. Behind them, far in the distance, he thought he could hear the sound of waves. Around them, the grass was lush and green. Overgrown, it reached up to their knees at the lowest and stomachs at the highest. Hidden within that grass, Nate could sense holes dug into the earth.

As he watched through his sphere of awareness, he sensed a giant ant the size of a pitbull exit one of those holes, its antennae flicking around as it searched for the disturbance.

Nate activated Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist and his eyebrows climbed even higher.

Worker Ant (E) (70) / Worker Ant (R) (50) / Worker Ant (U) (20)

On one hand, he wanted to inform Kiri there was a level one-hundred-and-forty Worker Ant near them. On the other hand, he really didn’t want to make a sound. Some quick mental math told him the creature had probably started out with a Common Class, which meant he and Kiri actually had more Stats than it did. But if they were standing on top of a nest, then there were certainly more ants below, and not just workers. Taking out a hive sounded like a good way to power-level, but collecting information about their enemies first seemed like a better idea. As Nate was about to try and get Kiri’s attention, a colossal roar washed over the entire forest. The ant bolted back into its nest, but Nate could barely move as his head slowly tilted back to look up. The roar itself had felt like the herald of the end, but seeing the dark scaled creature casually wing through the sky above them felt like they were standing beneath the shadow of oblivion. A dragon. A fucking dragon. Long minutes passed as, without pause, the dragon continued to fly over them, never changing direction as it slowly vanished into the clouds near the peaks of the mountain range. Finally, as it vanished, it felt like Nate could take a breath again. He looked at Kiri to find her staring back at him in fright.

“What the fuck was that?” she whispered, fear still colouring her voice.

“A dragon,” Nate said quietly, struggling to speak himself.

The dragon's presence had been palpable, like a physical thing. A blanket covering the world and promising absolute destruction.

Kiri shook herself as though trying to remove cobwebs covering her as she whispered, “Was it hunting?”

Nate knew she was just musing, not expecting an actual answer, but he had a thought. Their arrival would likely have been noticed by any creature powerful enough to detect the rip in space. A dragon certainly fit the bill of a creature powerful enough to notice them.

“I think it was a warning,” Nate answered.

Kiri shook herself at the very thought, “Alright. Fuck… alright. Let’s not piss it off, then. That was the worst feeling ever, after this incessant itch! Feels like the mana is crawling over my skin and trying to burrow in.”

“It is,” Nate commented quietly, his sphere of awareness roaming over the ant holes, making sure no more decided to investigate just yet. “Place seems liveable. It’s not a wasteland. Probably be able to find food. But first, we need shelter. Which way do you want to go? My vote is towards the water.”

“Your vote it is then. Let's go. Quick and quiet.”

Nate spun up two runes. The first was a Sound, Light and Illusion rune meant to conceal them and, the second was a Smell Barrier to keep their scent close to them. He noted as he did so that the mana cost was slightly higher than usual to power the runes, as though Reality was more resistant to his manipulations. The change made him wonder if the high mana concentration in the air was naturally reinforcing the underlying Concepts of Reality and that he had to push a little harder to get them to bend. He kept it in mind as something he could test later, as it would be relevant in the Heartlands, when they eventually ventured there to fulfil Arikanvil’s tasks. That however, was not the only change he detected. While the mana cost had gone up, the actual runes were significantly more powerful. With his Embodiment in play, his Conceptual Amplified Magic was improving the effective tier of the Sigils he was using. Then there was Conceptual Runic Mastery which was increasing his already doubled Magic Power by an additional seven-hundred-and-thirty-eight. The result was that his dynamic runes had an effective Magic Power of over a thousand. The change to his capabilities would take a little while to get used to, but his Embodiment was already showing its worth along with how much of a force multiplier Embodiments were within The System.

Together, Nate and Kiri started walking towards the sound of water. Kiri’s original training as a ranger by her Father showed as she was careful not to touch anything she didn’t have to and was constantly testing her footing. Nate, on the other hand, cheated with his sphere of awareness, avoiding the few pitfalls, along with a level one-hundred-sixty-seven spider hiding beneath an earthen trapdoor. Kiri had clearly noted the creature as well since she had carefully avoided it, though she was likely relying on her ability to sense soul energy to do so. Nate noted that the spider, like the ant, had most likely started as a Common Class. The entire time Frick floated along beside them, blessedly silent and not putting additional pressure on Nate’s runes.

Finally, after thirty sweaty minutes of trekking through the tropical rainforest, they broke through the green foliage onto a pristine, white sand beach. The pale blue water stretched into the horizon, and beneath the waves Nate could sense a myriad variety of sea life. From here, they should have no problem acquiring additional food to supplement the supplies they had brought from Galle. More importantly, it would give them ready access to water that Nate was confident he could easily purify, meaning baths and showers. They had plenty of drinking water in their supplies, but not enough to bathe, and with the loss of his Legendary robe, consumed by Conceptual Automated Existence to end Bordain, he would need to bathe more often.

“Okay, let's rehash the plan,” Nate opened.

“I’m on scout duty. To go where no goblin has gone before!” Frick piped up.

“And what are you scouting for?” asked Kiri pointedly.

“Dungeons and threats near us,” answered Frick primly. “Since I can’t enter Dungeons on my own, I am to map them so that Kiri can check their Tiers and the rules governing any I find.”

“And threats?” Kiri pressed.

“Determine levels, numbers, location and any other useful information.”

“No further than a kilometre for now,” Nate added to which Frick huffed but agreed.

“We’ll expand slowly, but first we need to get situated. There is a lot to do and we only have six months to do it,” Nate continued.

“Right,” agreed Kiri. “I will be dealing with every threat nearby and using the processed mana gathering arrays to collect all the processed mana. Initial range is one-hundred metres but I will expand out further, while investigating any points of interest Frick finds.”

“And I will be setting up our living arrangements for the foreseeable future. Fortifying the area and preparing all our necessities,” finished Nate.

With everyone settled on their roles, they all got to work. As Kiri and Frick vanished into the forest, Nate looked over his new Skills. When they had made their plans originally, they hadn’t been evolved to Divine, and so had lacked the new Classes and Skills now available to him. The plan had been to create a Rune Fort, a classic and a favourite of Nate’s, but he had a better option now. Simple Spatial Creation was able to take control of his Runic Gallery, which meant he could use Spatial Anchors to create a pathway into the miniature spatial realm he had created. It also freed up space on his skeleton for future runic inscriptions, which considering his new Secondary Class of Conceptual Life Artist, he had plenty of ideas to work with around that. But most importantly, it meant Kiri could enter his Runic Gallery as well. Though, the idea of turning it into a wizard’s tower had occurred to him. With Spatial Expansion and a potential evolution for Simple Spatial Creation, he imagined he could create a miniature world within which he could store everything. His home, or tower he supposed, his art, even a place for Kiri if she wanted one. But for now, he needed to rework his Runic Gallery into a home rather than a storage closet. As he got to work, he created his first spatial anchor, letting it hang in the air much like the entrance to a Dungeon. Switching to an Earth and Rock rune he shaped a dome around it, much like an enlarged igloo, before using a Reinforcement and Durability rune to harden the dome into something that wouldn’t easily collapse.

Satisfied that his workspace was reasonably protected from any passers by, he stepped through the anchor and, for the first time, walked through his Runic Gallery physically. Around him were various artworks that he had kept for himself. The paintings from back in Helmfirth, a few of Kiri, one of Britt, another of Frick, of the space between universes. There was one of Baroness Olithia in all her ‘glory’ and a few from his art class at the Etruan Royal University. At the back of the room were two slabs of stone with paintings across them. These were the ones he had created in the Smuggler’s Nest. One detailed Kiri, her achievements and her Path. The other detailed his own life and the things important to him. He’d extracted them from the walls when they had moved from the Smuggler’s Nest into the new Artist’s Emporium building. With a small smile as he gazed upon them both, thinking about how far they had come, he finally got to work. Stepping out of the Runic Gallery, he set up four mana gathering arrays, filling them with empty mana gems. As the mana rushed in, like a never-ending tide, Nate sat down on the sand and got to work. Splitting his mind four ways, he started activating his Skills. The first and second both activated Multi Conceptual Material Shaping. From the trees, he started creating wooden planks and from beneath the ground he pulled forth rocks that he shaped into stone blocks. His Runic Gallery was just over thirty metres wide, deep, and tall. That should be enough for a three-story house, to begin with anyway. The third part of his mind held a piece of dark-blue cloth in his hand as he channelled his ability to improve materials. After all, he’d lost his robe in the battle. It was time to make a new one with his own hands, and this one would feel Divine.