It was early afternoon when they arrived at the mansion. Celenia had seen it afar yesterday but walking into the island was a completely different experience. On the bridge you can really feel the scale of the city and the private island. She gawked in wonder.

“If you aren't the owner, who is?” Celenia asked.

“Lester Tayler. A Lost One from the planet Earth.” Max answered nonchalantly. “Lesterwood is named after him also.”

“Oh? And why do you get to live here?” she asked, her voice caring her skepticism.

“Secret.” Max said with a wink.

“Very mysterious, black plate Max.” Clammy jokes.

“Yeah, what's up with the black plate?”

Max glared at Clammy. She winked back.

“Remember the assassin? Let's just say, you are better off not knowing.” Max said, in a mysterious voice.

Clammy rolled her eyes.

They found the others in one of the living rooms. The Orcs were sitting together, listening to Goob talk about… Something... Reep was massaging her eyebrows. Vel was sitting in the corner fake reading a book. In reality she was listening intently to Goob’s story. After they entered, Vel stood up motioning for Max to follow.

They moved to a private study. Books and small artifacts took up most of the shelving. Vel sat down on the couch, and Max on an armchair. She had her eyes closed, obviously thinking of the best way to approach the conversation.

“Icarus, can you come in here?” Vel announced to the empty air.

Icarus materialized along with a large bonsai tree. The light from them lit up the dim room.

“You should hear this also. I think that speaking to you when you are not in the room is weird.” She took a deep breath. “You were not the assassin's target. We found orders for a wealthy [Merchant] to be killed. We assume he was doing as I said earlier, and preemptively killing anyone of worry.”

Max breathed a sigh of relief. Max had tried to play it cool with the others, but inside he was worried.

“With that said. You cannot gain any more renown. At least for now. Your first quest was a one in a thousand chance, but you gained a lot of fame from it. You need to be stronger before you start making a name for yourself. Arthur’s stunt at the Guild was dumb and he has already been reprimanded.”

Max understood where she was coming from. After all, there was a large group discussing his bout in the common room of the Mage Guild. The more fame Max had, the more likely his past, or lack thereof, will come to light.

“That's fine. We can take quests where there is less interaction with people.” Max said.

Vel nodded, happy to see he understands. “On to the next topic. You created a Rain Cloud spell? At tier one? Without a large water source?”

“Er... when you put it like that...” Max shook his head. He willed the spell box to them “I was about to pass out, and with my last bit of mana I added a few commands.”

“Commands.” Vel asked, her eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know how to describe it in terms native to this world. Back on Earth we had a thing called programs. They are a set of instructions machines normally read to do a task. The program I imbued into the spell was a recursive call. It made the Rain Cloud continuously absorb water from the nearby air, moving to a new spot when the vapor got low.” Max checked their faces, making sure they were following him, “I’m not sure how my mana kept recharging, but once I woke up I had to send a new mana command to stop gathering water. Only then did the rain stop.”

They digested the information for a few minutes. Max could tell that both Vel and Icurus were thinking of something, trying to decide whether to tell Max or not. Icarus spoke first.

“I think what you did is called will imbuing. We all do it subconsciously. Lester once spoke of programs being similar. It is a surprise you figured out how to do it so soon, but not the most surprising thing about your spell.”

“The self-charging mana?” Max guessed.

“Correct.” Vel answered. “I know of a few [Rain Arch Mages] who would kill not to have to continuously channel their spells.”

“Is it really that surprising? I mean, I did it by accident. Someone must have figured it out before me?” Max said.

“Maybe. But if they did, they did not share it.” Vel sighed. “Just another thing people would kill you over.”

“Would they? Honestly? It doesn’t seem that useful. I can infinitely create rain...oh.” Max went quiet in his revelation.

Icarus nodded. “There is a warning on the spell.”

“It's not just Rain Cloud that this technique could be used in. Think about any channeled spell, infinitely running. Domain mages would become kings of the world.” Vel said.

Max shuttered remembering Vel’s dark ice domain spell.

If that could go on forever... There would be a new ice age eventually, Max thought.

“I don’t even know how I did it. What portion of my will-imbed command can cause mana recharging?” Max asked.

Icarus and Vel looked at each other.

“I don’t think it's that simple. I doubt your conscious command did it. You probably imbued a subconscious idea, and it took. One of the first lessons of will imbuing is to learn to disregard subconscious commands.” Icarus explained.

“Oh, I see. So, the only way for me to figure out how to do it, is to experiment.”

He received nods.

“My last concern is why you want to learn aura.”

“Uhm... It seems cool? And I already know I can do it just not well.”

“Show me.” Vel said.

Max spent the next few minutes forcing his aura “film” out. He knew that it was the wrong way to project his aura, but it would work for the demonstration. Max pulled his aura back, breathing hard. Vel and Icarus had fearful looks.

“Come on, it wasn’t that strong.” Max said teasingly.

“It wasn’t that it was strong…” Icarus said, “It felt like an old enemy of ours… A Demigod.”

If there was ever a definition of “deer in the headlight look”, Max’s face would be it. Max quickly tried to play it off.

"Wha-what's a Demigod."

"Max.."

Max doubled down. "What? Sorry for not knowing Nava lore."

"Max... what did you do?"

Vel is too good, Max thought. He couldn't see a way out of this. Lying seemed out of the question and telling them that he couldn't tell them seemed wrong. They had done so much for him already.

Max decided the best course of action was only to show them the Divine Aura box. Not the whole Demigod racial

Max could see them both reading though it. Eyes widening. Mad had a thought.

"Vel, I unlocked this from when we were in the clinic. Wouldn't you have felt divine there?"

"You unlocked it?” Icarus asked.

Again, Max realized he fucked up. “It's part of a racial… Demigod.”

“One of your racials is Demigod.” Vel said, uncomprehending.

“Yes.” Max was now staring down, in defeat. “And I unlocked Divine Aura from it.”

“Just another thing someone would kill you for if it was found out.” Vel muttered. “Is there anything else you wish to tell us?”

“Yes... But I don’t think I should.”

“That is fair.” Icarus interjected, glaring at Vel. She held up her hands in surrender.

“I have to recommend not using your aura for the time being. Learn from Arthur, but never release it around others, unless you have to.” Vel finally said.

“I agree.” Icarus added.

“I can do that...”

Max sat on his bed, in a meditative pose. Once his meeting with Vel and Icarus was over, he told the others he was going to meditate. Now, he was deep within his inner self, observing. Max watched as the lifeless ocean rose and receded with the tide. He felt at peace.

Deciding it was time to try again, he took out his mysterious box. The box was the real box, Max had already tested to make sure his inventory worked within his inner self. Max had concluded that this was a real place mainly because of his ancient benefactor drenching him in sea water. This was the only ocean Max had been to, so Max concluded that this place was real.

The box was a simple dark wood. No design or carvings shown on the outside. Only a line indicating a seam was visible. Max had done a lot of thinking these past few hours while meditating. Time seemed to flow slower in there, days turned out to only be hours in the real world. Max had been thinking of home, his life before. He was happy, he thought. He knows that he would be happier if he was back home. But there was a hesitation as to whether or not he was happy with his old life.

Max lived and worked day to day, month to month. Nothing ever changed except the small interactions with clients. Some were angry, others desperate. They were all the same though. Empty conversations that at the end of the day, did not matter. The one thing he really missed was his family. Max often thought of them, wondering how they were doing. Did they wonder about him? Did they cry at his funeral? Did they ever give up looking?

Max knew this line of thinking was doing him no good. He moved his focus to the box. Max sat with the box in front of him. The damp sand acting as a table and a seat. Max reached out, trying to connect to the box like last time in the shop. Max remembered the feeling, like a hypnotic trance. Max could feel a small connection, he slowly poured mana into it. The connection suddenly dropped, disappearing completely.

“Manas not the way to go huh...” Max said aloud.

Max had an idea he wanted to try. He saw it in a movie once. The character opened a prize underwater, allowing it to be heard. Max stood up, box in hand, he walked into the cool water. Slowly the water raised around him, first reaching his knees, then hips, chest and finally his head.

The ocean was the one area of his inner world that he had yet to explore. He knew it was safe, but something always held him back. Maybe it was the leviathan and some kind of subconscious manipulation. Whatever it was, this was the first time Max felt he was allowed to enter into the water.

Max ducked his head under the water. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the salt, but eventually he was able to see. He could see deeper, the water gradually turned darker. Max couldn't tell how deep the water went, but Max suddenly remembered the second part of his blessing. No pressure would harm him.

Standing with his head underwater, Max turned his attention back to the box. Nothing of note was different. He focused, looking for the connection. Something was different about it, it seemed stronger, more stable. Max felt that he COULD add mana to it, slowly that is what he did. The connection grew larger and larger, Max moved his hand to open the box. Water rushed to fill the gap the seam had created upon it’s opening. The shock of water pushed the top lid of the box a little. Max steadied his hand, fully opening it.

Inside were two small books, and an egg. The books were bound in an ethereal blue and green material and they slightly glowed. The green book had a small picture of a book on it. The blue, a small runic circle. Between the two, the green book was much smaller. It looked to be a page or two long. The blue, on the other hand, was several dozen.

The egg was dark blue and black. Splotches of light radiated from the egg, highlighting the colors like a heartbeat. The egg was smaller than an ostrich egg, but larger than a chickens. The shell itself was not the normal calcium material. Instead, it was a firm mucus membrane.

Max turned to head back to the shore, but before he took his first step, something stopped him. The same subconscious flicker of an idea filled his head. It told him not to go above the water. That the egg needed the water. Max stayed right where he was.

Max inspected the three items.

Spell Book

Manual

Unknown Egg

Well, that’s helpful. Max thought.

Starting with the green manual, Max began to read. The pages were almost nonexistent, weather to time. A delicate touch had to be used.

To the reader of this manual. Be warned that the spell and monster included in this prison are both potentially life ending. Failure to care for or miss treat either will result in the death of you or others.

The spell is called Raging Construct. It creates a highly detailed construct of a monster or structure. The more detail about the monster you know or more throughout the structure, the stronger it will be. Obviously, the construct will be made of water, but no water is needed. This is important. This spell does not create its own material. You must attach the anchor somewhere within a large body of water. The anchor draws water from around it, summoning it to you. This is technically a space spell.

Spacial Affinity is a prerequisite.

If you do not have the required Water Manipulation level the spell will fail. You can still learn the spell, however.

This is my greatest and worst creation. I regret making it.

Be careful and pray you are strong enough to live with the outcomes.

-A humbled [Water Arch Sage]

Max read through the manual a few times. After the initial mention, the egg was never brought up again. Max thought. What kind of crazy class is [Arch Sage]?

The only kind of egg that would make sense would be a water-based monster. Max had to do research. He made a mental note to look into known [Water Arch Sages], and black and blue water eggs.

Max reached for the spell book, and as soon as he touched the book, a prompt appeared.

Learn Raging Construct? Y/N

Max decided to select no for now. Last thing he wanted to do was pass out in here. Max turned his attention fully to the egg. With the manual and spell book stowed in his inventory, he touched the egg. It felt exactly as it looked. Rough and slippery. Max couldn't explain it, it had the texture of hard rubber, but the feeling of cooked eggplant.

As Max softly rubbed the egg, he felt their connection grow. Slowly, Max could feel a presence. Max quickly looked past the box, into the depths. After a few moments of staring, Max felt the egg grow stronger, the presence along with it. Max concluded the presence was the egg.

The pulsing glow was becoming stronger. A subconscious idea to push mana into it came into existence. Max followed the mysterious thought. As his mana slowly entered the egg, it started to shake. Max had no idea how much time had passed, but the shaking grew stronger, until it cracked.

Max’s eyes widened in shock. He briefly stopped his flow of mana, but something screamed at him in his mind to continue. A few moments later, a small, webbed hand broke through. A second came through, abruptly opening a large hole. The small creature slowly wiggled his way through the hole.

The creature was a deep blue, its shimmering scales reflected a deep green. Its long torso looked disproportionate to its small legs and head. Max’s initial thought was sea serpent, but the longer he looked at it, the more he thought differently.

Its head was prism shaped, its jaw and snout coming to a flat angled edge. Small sharp teeth could be seen past its undeveloped gums. Across its back, is a webbed dorsal fin. A matching pair of fins showed towards the back of its head, acting like ears. Its tail came to a point, slightly sharp scales coved it.

The way its body and head came together reminded Max of a dachshund mixed with the common Earthen depiction of a dragon. The creature was struggling to stand, having already fully climbed out of the egg. It eventually tired itself out, opting to lay flat on its belly, the box acting as its bed. It opened its eyes, mucus coated its eyelids, making it flutter them to remove it. Finally, it seemed content, and looked at Max. Its eyes were the deepest bright emerald Max had ever seen. It was cute.

Almost like it could feel Max’s feeling, a prompt appeared.

Congratulations juvenile ????? has declared you, its bond.

Name ????? Y/N

Max thought long and hard about a name. For some reason, he instantly accepted that this creature would be bonded to him. Max felt that he needed it, and it needed him. They were one and the same now, family.

“Your name is Emi,” Max said aloud. “After your eyes.”

Emi accepted its name with a low purr. The prompt vanished, and Max inspected Emi, again.

Emi

“That's good. I was afraid those question marks would still be there.” Emi tilted her head. Max could feel that it was confused. “Don’t worry about it. Now then. Are you a boy or a girl, Emi?”

More confusion entered Max’s mind. The feeling of hunger also came about.

“Hungry huh... Alright I can whip you up some food, but that means going outside of the water can you do that?”

More confused thoughts surfaced. Max tried something different. He sent images of open air to Emi. Max got the feeling that she understood. Max cut his connection to his inner world, taking one last glance at the deep dark abyss.

Suddenly Max and Emi were inside his room. This room configuration was a warm log cabin, set in the mountains. Max took in his surroundings for a moment before feeling the fear Emi was in. Emi’s feeling mentally hurt Max. He could tell she had no air. Max quickly brought forth his gourd and poured the water out. He surrounded Emi in a blob of water, allowing her to breathe again.

Max sent reassurances that it was safe. She eventually calmed down. Max could hold a water bubble for a while, but eventually he had to sleep. Max sent his worries over to Emi. Suddenly there was the sound of glass breaking, and a thud against his door. Max slowly got up.

Icarus appeared next to him, his eyes wide in shock.

“Um... Max. What is an ‘Emi’ and where did it come from.”

“I uh opened that box. Emi’s egg was inside.” Max thought for a moment, adding, “It's my bond now.”

“YOUR WHAT?”

“A prompt came up saying that it declared me as its bond, and I named it Emi.”

“You are saying that creature there is intelligent and strong enough to BOND to you?”

“I guess I am.”

There was a second thump at the door. Max held up a finger, interrupting Icarus. Max slowly opened the door, and water started flowing in. It went straight to Emi, causing her bubble of water to grow. Max felt he didn’t need to hold his control over the original bubble any longer.

“I guess it can control water.” Max said nonchalantly. “Well, that solves that issue.”

“What. Issue.” Icarus was seething.

“Well. It needs water to breathe right? I can’t keep up a water bubble at all times. But now, that's not an issue.”

“I’m waking Vel.”

Icarus disappeared, and Max felt that his world was about to get much more complicated. Emi tilted its head at his thoughts.

After explaining to Emi that it did not need to fill the room with water, they made their way to the kitchen. Max used his feet to travel while Emi controlled the bubble of water to carry itself. Max tried again asking about its sex. Eventually Max decided after a bunch of confused images and thoughts, Emi is a girl.

Max found some raw fish and sent her an image of cooked fish. She responded by shaking her head, mentally saying “no”. Max cut the fish into small pieces, after all, Emi’s mouth is only a few inches big. Emi garbled the food down and pleaded for more. Max couldn’t say no to her...weird sea creature puppy dog eyes.

After the fourth serving of this world's equivalent to trout, Emi stretched and curled herself into a ball and promptly fell asleep. She laid on her belly, making contact with the table. Her bubble of water remained, partially on the table. Icarus formed, perched on the back of the chair next to Max. Soon Vel arrived. She wore some kind of pajamas, not her usual robes.

As soon as she walked in, she stopped to stare at Emi. Max was silently smiling. He couldn’t tell what Vel was thinking, but he felt that she was in awe. This little creature was the most unique thing Max had ever seen, and he would bet Vel would agree. She eventually got over the sleeping monster and sat down. She looked away from Emi to glare at Max.

“Her name is Emi. She is my bond. She can also control water!” Max said, trying to hide the excitement in his voice.

“Max. What is it?” Vel asked.

“Don’t know. When I inspected her egg, it just said question marks. When she hatched, the bond prompt also had question marks when it referred to her.”

“Oh, I see.”

Vel went back to staring at the cutie, ignoring Icarus’s ire. Icarus spoke up, unable to handle what was going on.

“Max. I want you to listen closely to what I am about to say.” he waited for Max’s acknowledgement. “It took Lester and I close to one hundred years to bond. Lester and I made a contract after he originally summoned me. Do you understand what I am saying?”

“You were summoned?”

Icarus opened and closed his beak, not knowing what to say. Max had completely missed what he was saying and opted to latch on to the least important part.

“Yes, I was summoned. I thought you researched familiars?”

“Ah. No. I was going too, but there was a water trap in one of the books I was reading. I had to deal with that.”

“I see. There are two types of familiars. The first is natural, meaning from egg or birth. The other is summoned. Those are normally an elemental variety, such as me. Lester summoned me and we made a contract. Back then my intelligence was not much more than say... a pet dog’s. It took one hundred years to bond, do you understand?”

“I think so. What you are saying is that Emi is very smart!”

“Yes, but I think you are missing the issue.” Icarus said, shaking his head. “I’ve never heard of a creature bonding right away, unless it is millennia old. And I can count on one hand, the number of times that has ever happened. You say Emi was just born from an egg?”

Max nodded his head and brought forth the opened box and broken eggshell. The two books were in his inventory. Max slid the box over to Icarus, who examined the shell. After a few glances with Vel, he slid the box to her. Again, they exchanged a few more glances, making Max start to worry.

“I have never seen an egg like this. Or a creature like Emi for that matter.” Vel announced.

“Same for me.” Icarus agreed. “But one thing I can say for certain. Lester and I only ever came across one thing that Inspect gave question marks for.” His tone became haunting.

“Well don't leave us in suspense.” Vel Chided.

Icarus glared at her. “One of Cazdis’s creations. It was later named Hero’s Executioner, and why the fort Hero’s Fall exists.”

Vel leaned back in her chair, taking in this outlandish information. Max was about to question Icarus when he added clarification.

“Cazdis, is the Goddess of the Eldritch. She is often referred to as the Goddess of Extermination. She creates the Eldritch, beings of unfathomable power and destruction. They live for one reason only, to kill. From plants and insects to other gods and goddesses. Oftentimes the other gods have to use their power and influence to appoint heroes and their chosen to deal with an Eldritch. Hero’s Fall was named after the great battle against the Hero’s Executioner.” He stopped for a moment to catch his thoughts.

“Hero’s Fall is around 800 kilometers from here, on a very large island. Due to its proximity to Lesterwood, Lester and I set out to help defeat it. We did in the end, but the casualties were far too great. The land where it died, holds unimaginable death, that the fort was created. Still to this day, lesser eldritch form from the tainted desolation.”

“When was this?” Max asked.

“Some one hundred and fifty years maybe?”

“Thirty years before he went missing?” Vel asked accusingly.

“Vel…”

“Don’t Vel me, BIRD. You two went off to save the world, leaving me behind! He comes back for thirty years and then disappears off the face of Nava! Tell me the two aren't related!”

Vel’s shouting woke Emi. She ran to Max’s protection, splashing him with her water bubble.

“You know I can’t say anything.”

“Just to make sure. But you don’t think that Emi is an Eldritch right?” Max interrupted.

“I don’t think so.” Icarus answered.

Vel didn’t say anything else. She just stared at the glowing owl. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Max excused himself and Emi. They went back to Max’s room and quickly fell asleep.