Jill P.O.V

Jill was thoroughly annoyed. She was currently walking through Mash’s world, exploring the ground to see if she could find anything of interest. It was weird referring to a world as belonging to Mash, but that was what it was for the moment. He still hadn’t come up with a name. She had hoped to see monsters or something and was glad not to be ferrying messages for the Elders or Masters. The two groups were forming a semblance of peace and had agreed to set up near the dungeon portal itself, that way Jill or Luke could act as messengers instead of relying solely on Jill. Mash had been out of commission for almost two days now. They had set up a rotation of who would stay in Mash’s world since they did not want to leave him alone for the moment. Still, she was infuriated with the overly complex and polite interactions between the Master and Elders.

Both of which used terrible titles. Like Mash, she had thought Master was a poor choice for describing someone who was little more than a leader. Although Elder was probably the worst of the bunch. It just didn’t fit the people. They looked only a little older than her. Even if they were in their fifties or sixties, it still wouldn’t be considered old. Sure, they were older than she was, but that didn’t make someone an elder.

Her world was slightly biased for that though. While immortality was out of the grasp of the majority, many people still achieved it. Even if they didn’t, once a person got above level 100, they would have already doubled their lifespan. Only about ten percent of people usually got to level 100 and less than half of that got to level 150. However, it wasn’t as uncommon as most people tended to believe. Normally, those people just didn’t do much around those of lower levels.

Their world was structured somewhat strangely. There were five central countries, each of which typically housed two or three kingdoms. There were more lands outside of those, but those were home to much higher leveled monsters. That was where people who were trying to pursue the apex usually went. The Lich’s island was among those territories. She wondered how people leveled beyond that though. The only person who she knew was above level 200 was the king, and she had no idea how he continued to level. Or if he even could still. It was a growing concern as they were leveling quite quickly.

She was a little jealous of Mash. He had gained several different avenues for getting stronger, while she was still limited to the one. In reality, she should be able to get her own golden body, but it would take a while and the training was boring. She would need to find more time for that, although she wasn’t that interested in it. She was more jealous of the path that he had gotten. He had told them how he had made a core, and that was what she was trying to figure out. Even if he was right, she might ruin her class by attempting to replicate it. She wanted to see if she could even replicate it.

Mash made it sound easy, and the fact that he had achieved it as a child was annoying. It showcased just how deficient her talent was in comparison. He had said that one just needs to move mana out of their body and take in what was around them. From his recollection of the method, he suggested that they practice just moving raw mana first. She was shown just how different they were when she tried to do it.

Every time she had tried to move the mana in front of her, she just ended up using her spatial manipulation. In her attempts to move mana to develop a core, she had learned of another problem altogether. She didn’t really understand what the skill did. It let her move space, but that could mean just about anything to her. So far, she had just used it as an attack, but never actually considered what the skill did beyond that. She just replicated what it had been when she first got the skill without exploring what the change to the skill might allow. Now, she had stumbled onto the skill as she tried to move the mana that was around her.

As it implied, it let her manipulate the space around her. But that could mean just about anything. So far, she had managed to shift the air. It was an almost unnoticeable effect, but she could catch it with her vision. It didn’t create a breeze or wind, just moved it. However, it didn’t really feel like she was manipulating space. What she was doing, just amounted to moving the air within the space. What was the difference anyway? She stared at the space in front of her looking at the trees in the distance but focusing on the space directly before her.

Slowly she lifted her hand to it and tried to shift the space around her hand. She didn’t feel any passage of air, but she felt something. It only happened for an instant, and she couldn’t even recognize what it was. She looked down at the ground beneath her and tried shifting that as she had just done with air. The mana drained from her, but the ground didn’t look like it had changed. She bent down and ran her hand across the ground, and actually felt a difference. There was a seam on the ground, an outline of the square she had been picturing. It was like she had moved the ground, but it was instantly filled.

She stood up straight and stomped her foot on the ground a few times. The seam she had made was gone now, and she tried to think of what else she could do with the skill. Hopefully, figure out something more useful. It wasn’t that her use of the skill was bad, it would be helpful in avoiding and redirecting attacks, but she could do that with her teleports. Plus, that wouldn’t drain any mana. She wanted a more extreme effect, to shift the very space itself. She was hoping to rend it and create an unblockable attack. There had to be some way to use it better, to make something that could hurt a god. If the pure offense wasn’t working then she would try defense first. Everything she worked on now was with that Fey god in mind. She would get her revenge, but there was a lot she would need to figure out first.

The air before her was constantly moving, a gentle breeze seemed to always run in Mash’s world. A steady rustling of leaves hung in the air no matter where she went. The majority of his world thus far was coated in trees. She focused again on the space just before her, and it imagined it doing the opposite of shifting. She wanted it to remain unchanged. What she hadn’t considered was how her next step would carry her into that space. She stepped and hit her head against an invisible wall. It was like she bounced off of it as if the air had just rejected her. Keeping the space as it was turned out to be surprisingly easy. It was almost like it wanted to remain unchanged.

It was a shield and one that seemed even better than her armor. Considering that, she punched the wall as hard as she could. Her immediate reaction was to take a step back and raise her hand to wind up a big swing. She probably shouldn’t have struck it with that much force, but she was feeling frustrated with her repeated failure in moving mana. Her fist struck the barrier and was bounced to the side. She almost punched herself but managed to stop before embarrassing herself. Even if no one was around, she didn’t want to punch herself in the face.

She smiled despite the near blunder. Her barrier didn’t even look like it struggled to repel her fist. It was a good sign, and she was about to try again but decided her physical strength wasn’t a good measure. There was a better option too. She held her hand to the side and summoned the needle.

“Manifest.”

The needle formed in her hand. At first, it would seem like it formed from the air, but she could tell that it tugged on the space around her to appear. It didn’t form out of anything, it seemed to come from a small fold in space. Like it was always around her, but she needed to reach into the fold to actually grab a hold of it. The tip of her weapon seemed to slice apart space itself, and she hadn’t seen anything yet that could block it. As she looked into the space in front of her, she saw nothing amiss. Her barrier was still up, but it didn’t look like anything was there. Even her senses didn’t reveal it. She would need to be careful about making those. It was a constant drain on her mana to maintain it, but if she made multiple, she could easily crash into it at a vital moment.

It was something she would need to practice. However, at the moment she just wanted to test its durability. She could check with the others and get them to test the barrier, but she hesitated. Mash was in the world currently, and he was open to talking and doing things, but she didn’t want to bother him for a few reasons. Part of it was that she wanted to give him some space to think, but another part was her growing concern. Priscilla’s message stuck in her mind, and she was still unsure if Mash was actually insane or not. He seemed normal most of the time, but that didn’t mean much. Even if he was, she wouldn’t abandon him or anything along those lines. Despite only knowing each other for a year or so, she cared for him more than she would a normal friend.

That was the real reason she was avoiding him at the moment. Her mind kept hanging on Priscilla’s message, and she couldn’t help but look for signs of madness. It made her feel a little uncomfortable around him. She wished she knew what to do. It was a stupid thought. The whole reason for her exploring her magic was to distract herself from the issue of Mash. It wouldn’t do to let herself focus on him again, though it was getting harder the longer she stayed in his world. It was like his presence had been mixing with the world itself, and she felt like she could feel his emotions even now.

Her fingers turned white as gripped the needle harder. She raised the weapon in one hand and pushed the tip toward the barrier. With the way the weapon worked, adding more strength to the thrust would do nothing. It would split space without any resistance. The tip of the weapon collided with the barrier. As she expected her needle easily entered the barrier. What she didn’t expect was the sudden twisting motion of her arm. Her foresight gave her a glimpse into what was about to happen, but she didn’t have the time to avoid it. All she could do was watch in horror as it played out.

Everything around where the weapon had pierced the barrier bent, she heard a snapping noise as the bone in her arm broke. It happened so quickly that she couldn’t even scream. At the same time, her arm broke, and the bending space seemed to ripple outward. The whole world seemed to shift, then it just broke. Everything seemed to shatter for a second. Her whole body shook, and she crashed into a tree. She didn’t know what had happened fully, but her vision was blurry. There was a ringing in her ear, and her arm hurt. She couldn’t even describe the pain, but her vision made it hard to see her injuries. Dark circles were beginning to fill her vision, and then the pain set in. She started a scream, but it slowly came out in a burst empty burst of air. As she lost consciousness.