Petra stood at the gate to the next layer of Fyor, the furthest layer that she and Thelsa had explored. Currently, she was standing with a small party of five, blending in as a typical strong adventurer. Despite her youthful appearance, nobody underestimated her after she displayed her abilities against numerous monsters on the way here.

“Is everyone ready?” The party leader, a human female in orichalcum armor asked, holding a faintly shining sword in one hand. The possibilities of a new floor were endless. They had not organized their group purely for combat strength, but rather to cover any possibilities that they could encounter.

Aside from Petra and the leader, there were three other members of the group. One, a halfling mage who firmly held a wooden staff in his hands. Another a human woman in a white cloth robe, holding a trident amulet which hung around her neck. And finally, the main fighting force that would join Petra on the front lines, a heroc male that carried a sword as large as his giant body.

These three each nodded their consent to continue, and so the leader entered the gate first. As the black stone wall opened up, and light began to shine through, everyone was able to briefly see the scene on the other side of the wall. When they did so, they were left shocked.

There was no wide forest, no rolling hills or dark caverns. No islands dotted atop a vast ocean, or even a field of flames. They had even prepared for the gate to open into a volcano. The last thing that they expected was to encounter a very modern city, people walking through the streets on their way to work or home.

Rather than pressing onwards, the leader hastily pulled back when she saw this scene, her face pale. They had prepared a force that could overcome any obstacle that they had imagined. But, they hadn’t prepared a diplomat… “If we go in there with our current group, it will likely cause a stir. We should report back to the guild, and let them know the situation.”

The others were struck dumb for a long moment, slowly nodding their heads. Only the heroc seemed interested in continuing, his combative nature wishing to look for a challenge in the people on the other side of the gate. Yet, he had come this far due to his ability to control such urges, and thus gave in to the suggestion of the leader.

While I was waiting for my shadows to mature, I decided that it was time for me to settle another matter that I had been putting off. Previously, I had been concerned that tending to this matter would cause me to fall into an ambush, should the other party have ill intentions. Now, however, I was confident enough to at least be able to escape if that should happen.

From my seat of power within the Sky Citadel, I withdrew the same stone shard that had allowed me to turn the tide in the previous invasion. Now, it no longer needed to serve quite the same purpose, so it was fine for me to use it for other matters.

Focusing, I erected a mirror in front of myself with my divinity. “Find him.” I muttered, and my divinity swept through the tidestone, entering the elemental plane and swiftly advancing towards the world of ‘life’. There was a chance that he was not currently within this elemental plane, but I had no way to make sure without first checking. I didn’t have any kind of ability that would allow me to directly contact him without ever having personally met him, after all.

The mirror swept over the endless forest within the elemental plane, looking for any signs of his presence. According to the world spirit of Fyor, James had appeared before her one day, clearly knowing what she was and attempting to help her. However, he had not appeared right away, and there were creatures capable of hunting world spirits.

As such, it was ill-advised for me to try to lure him out with a world spirit avatar. Instead, I should use what I did know to find him. When he was a Keeper, he was a major advocate of the technological path. Enough so that he personally assisted in almost every significant advancement of the world, according to Terra.

Such a man would not easily live in a feral world like this without carving out his own little home. It wasn’t feasible for him to build something like modern electronics, but--hah! There it is!

Concealed within the forest, hidden at the base of a hill, was a small home that had been constructed out of shaped wood. If not for the presence of a door and two windows, I likely would have overlooked it as the dwelling of a beast. However, what beast would need a door and windows?

I sent my sight into the home, looking for the owner. To my dismay, however, I found it empty. There was a small bed in the back, as well as a desk, but no sign of James himself.

Just as I was preparing to look for any other buildings he may have constructed in this world, I saw a note stuck to the interior of the door. It was carved from a stone slab, written in the language of halflings. Maybe the world spirit taught him the language while she was there?

‘Measure the pulses of the world of natural energy, and they form a cycle. The cycle ends when six pulses occur in rapid succession. At the start of each new cycle, I will check this hut. Sorry, but it’s hard to tell time here without a method like this, and I can’t stay here all the time. Looking for other ways to contact.’

I furrowed my brow when I read the message. I had never observed the elemental plane long enough to find the pattern of pulses that James was referring to. Most likely, it would be similar to a day, or some near-equivalent. If he was exploring the elemental planes and their connections with other layers of Fyor, there was almost no chance of him being able to come check up on this location once every hour or anything like that.

Shaking my head, I stretched out my energy to write a simple ‘Understood’ beneath his message, so that he would know that I had visited even if I missed him. Then, I created a second mirror, and caused it to pull away from the world of life. If I wanted to accomplish my goal of meeting with James, then it seemed that I would first need to measure the cycle that he spoke of.

I was… not expecting this to be an exciting activity. After all, it would be the same as staring at a clock for as long as a full day, waiting for the hands to all fall on six. Though, the idea that this cycle was only a day could just be a misconception on my part. It could be a two-day cycle, or even a week!

I was half tempted to simply leave a piece of tidestone in the hut for him to use to find his way to me. However, that would be extremely unwise. Even leaving aside the fact that I had to maintain at least a bare minimum caution when handling the situation with him, there was still the fact that numerous beasts from this elemental plane might have the ability to use the stone as well.

Watching the mirror, I began to measure the pulses, doing my best to time them. In truth, all I had to do was keep the mirror active on the hut. As long as the cycle ended, he would eventually return without me needing to measure the pulses.

However, I still decided to do so, if only to improve my own understanding of this elemental plane. For instance… what is special about this cycle? If it is an irregular pattern, what causes it? Does it have any effects on the other elemental worlds?

As I was thinking of these things, I was measuring the duration between each pulse, noting that each one came slightly more quickly than the last. From this, it could be guessed that the ‘six rapid pulses’ was when this pattern reached its peak, and the energy was reset.

The only problem was… the change between each pulse seemed too little, barely a fraction of a second. It would be hours before it reached the finish, with a rough calculation.

“This is…” A muscular human male looked at the exploration group in front of him. As the crystalized layer was unsuited for habitation, they had to trek through an entire floor just to reach the nearest city. The group was ragged, having made the round-trip without a proper moment to rest.

“I assure you, every word I’ve just said is true.” The leader of the group spoke up with an exasperated tone. She knew that they would have to once again make the journey, as they had not been able to send their priest through the gate before making the decision to hastily return. They couldn’t risk the natives of that layer taking notice of the priest in the moment she was on the other side and taking her away.

“Really… this is going to be difficult.” The guild manager muttered, shaking his head. The other party was a civilized race, so there was a decreased chance that they would immediately be hostile. However, they did not know what the treatment of the gate was like on that side. There were historical records of natives treating their gate as a heavenly object due to its indestructible nature.

If something like that were to happen here, then there was every chance that simply stepping through that gate would earn them a treatment of either heavenly guests or a demonic horde. They couldn’t risk going in without sufficient protection, but at the same time they couldn’t let their preparations be too obvious and allow it to be misunderstood as an invasion.

As Petra was listening to the manager mumble to himself, she felt a stir in her shadow. A small smile crept over her lips. You’re finally back to normal, big sis?

Sorry, I kept you waiting, didn’t I? Thelsa’s voice responded, sounding far more lively than the last time that the two spoke. After she finished going through Sora’s spellbook, she had practiced with the energy of the Shadow Saint, and then did a training routine with one of Maria’s swords. She felt that her connection to the shadows had increased greatly during this period.

It’s fine. I’m just glad that you managed to pull through. So, did you get anything out of your training? Petra asked, knowing that there wasn’t much she could do to contribute with the meeting in the guild office.

I did. I think I’ve figured out why our solii shadow wasn’t able to be a perfect copy. Unfortunately, there’s not much that I can do to fix that. Additionally, I think that there’s a new technique we can use here, but it’ll require me to learn blacksmithing.

Petra blinked in confusion when she heard that. Blacksmithing? Are you saying that we can mine the materials from our shadow world?

I don’t know. However, whether or not we can, it should be possible to directly forge our shadow energy into items. It created an entire world for us, and people to inhabit it… why would it not be able to be used to make items?

Petra had to resist the urge to nod her head at that idea. A weapon forged of living shadows. They would be able to outfit their shadows without having to spend anything. Are you going to try to get some blacksmithing lessons after we’re done with this exploration, then?

If you’re fine with letting me take over for a little while. I don’t know how much I’ll need to learn before I can create a suitable blacksmith, but at the very least I will need to learn the basics of forging a ki path into a weapon.

Petra’s smile turned a bit more wry. That was already considered a mid-level technique, from what she knew of the subject. It’s fine. I could use a vacation, anyways. But after this, can we visit my dungeon again?

Sure thing, Petra.