I didn’t tell Kliss that I had made the gold coins myself with Modify, by modifying the closest thing available to gold - mercury. There was a lot of mercury in the Valley of Death - probably whole lakes of it, formed by some unknown magical apocalypse. Delta notified me about it a month ago, when she quickly scanned the air above the valley.

We didn’t have to travel very far down to obtain the mercury. There was an abandoned mine chasm east of the tower practically filled with cinnabar on lower levels. It took me about half a day of climbing down into the chasm and then mining the cinnabar crystals with dad’s pick. I knew that mercury vapor was a powerful neurotoxin, which could cause nervousness, trembling, personality changes, and dementia. To protect myself, I mined and handled the cinnabar crystals while wearing the Overseer’s invisibility cloak. Delta told me that the shimmering, attention-redirecting surface of the cloak also functioned akin to a very high-level filter, since I was able to breathe through the cloak while it covered up my entire face.

Once I had gathered a basket full of cinnabar, I brought it to the tower and used [Modify] on the mercury within to create gold. Gold is a chemical element with 79 protons. Every atom containing 79 protons is a gold atom, and all gold atoms behave the same chemically. By removing one proton from mercury, I created gold. I worked with Delta to design a Modify that would allow me to change mercury atom by atom. Once I made sufficient gold, I merged it into a coin. In this matter I had created four gold coins over the month of incredibly-focused work inside of the Alanian tower.

I wasn’t able to copy any of the Imperials because they contained very powerful no-spy runes in them, but the Ishikarian coins weren’t as advanced. They did have some runes inside the gold coin, but it didn’t prevent people from copying it, it simply signified that the coin was genuine and had a number assigned to it. I was able to copy the rune with ease using my Modify and fudged the number around. I knew that I couldn't create too many gold coins this way, because someone somewhere was probably checking them for matching numbers.

Magenta was back with our orders of wine. She put a bottle next to the Overseer and held a very old-looking wine in front of my face.

“This is Cutrizz wine,” she said reverently. “Year 8022. It’s worth three gold because the Cutrizz berries only bloom once every ten years. Are you sure you can afford it, Dante?” She asked.

I showed her my four gold coins. Her eyes bulged. Making the four coins was quite exhausting… but the look on Magenta’s face was absolutely worth it.

“H-how?” She uttered, staring at the gold in my hands.

“A reward from my patron, Wizard Kerenski,” I winked at her. “I unlocked my Soul-Song this season!”

“Oh my... congratulations!” Magenta clapped her hands. Then she eyed me warily, putting the wine on the table out of my reach. “I’ll need you to show me some magic Dante. I can’t take your word for it. You are a minor unless your Soul-Song is unlocked and I cannot serve a minor wine.”

I groaned. I was very low on mana after the recent Rewind. Using even the tiniest amount of [Create-Modify] would knock me out for sure.

“What? I didn’t see you having a party in here,” Magenta explained, looking at my annoyed face. “Everyone has their Soul-Song party at the Fox… except for you it seems.”

“Fine! I’ll show you my amazing LV 0 lightning magic!” I declared after a small pause. I had two thick wool cloths in my pocket that I had taken from my dad’s workshop today, because I wanted to show Kliss some more "magic without mana".

I rubbed two wool cloths vigorously under the table against each other, building up an electrostatic charge.

“Now, Mags, close your eyes and lean towards me!” I ordered.

Magenta obliged. I extended my finger towards her nose.

“Open your eyes!” I declared. “Look at your nose!”

I reached out towards her nose with my finger. A small, flicker of electricity jumped from my finger to her nose. Her eyes were focused on the tip of her nose, so she saw a big lightning bolt strike her in the nose. In the dimly-lit bar the little electrostatic charge looked far brighter and bigger than it really was. Magenta yelped, jumping backwards.

“Wow! Lightning magic! Dante, you’re a wizard!” She clapped. “Although… that was kind of mean. Oww.” She rubbed her nose.

“Just give me my damn wine,” I said. “I’ve been waiting twelve years for this pivotal moment.”

“With pleasure,” She slid the wine over to me, gave us a pair of goblets and walked away, shaking her head.

I felt the Overseer’s gaze digging into my head.

“Yes?” I asked her as I poured myself some magical wine.

“What in the Astral was that?” She asked. “That wasn’t magic! You’ve made tiny lightning!”

“Correct,” I nodded with a grin. “It was actually some very basic science.”

“Explain!” she demanded.

“Lightning naturally happens during thunderstorms, without any mana.” I said. “Electricity or electromagnetic force is a fundamental force in nature.”

Kliss nodded.

“Everything in the universe is made of microscopic objects called atoms.” I placed a gold coin on the table.

“Each atom has even tinier particles called protons and electrons. These tiny particles swirl around each other continuously.”

I made a diagram on the table by adding other coins. I used a copper coin for the proton and silver for the electron. I spun the copper and silver around the gold coin.

“An electron has what is called a negative charge,” I tapped the silver coin.

“A proton has a positive charge,” I tapped the copper piece.

“Positive and negative charges try to pull each other together. However, two positive charges, or two negative charges, will push each other away. Electricity results when electrons are pushed and pulled from atom to atom.” I set up another atom with a proton and electron using more coins, relocated the silver and pushed the coins apart to illustrate the effect.

“Now, normally… Most things have a balance of positive and negative charges, so they are considered neutral. However, extra electrons can be built up by rubbing one object against another.”

I vigorously rubbed my hair with the wool cloths. It started to float up, probably making me look ridiculous.

“Because many of my hairs now have extra electrons, and electrons repel each other… and thus they are now flying away from each other.”

“Goddess,” Kliss gaped at me. “Lightning without… mana.”

I reached out with my hand and touched her left hand that she left sitting on the table. An electrostatic charge jumped from me to her. She didn’t even wince, but she looked at her hand with deep fascination.

“Dante,” she suddenly grabbed my hand, staring into my eyes with her emerald ones. “No twelve year old can explain the inner workings of the universe with such impressive clarity of thought. How old are you… really? I need to know…”

“He’s older than you,” Delta buzzed.

Kliss glanced at the backpack and then back at me. “How… much… older?”

“I have about sixty extra years of memories in me,” I said.

“Actually, if we subtract the 25% of memories he lost when you stabbed him in the head,” Delta commented. “It's closer to 45.”

“I’m… really sorry,” Kliss whispered to Delta, lowering her eyes. “I didn’t want to do it… I swear… I just wanted the Overseer’s Vow to stop hurting my soul.”

“Aaand here’s your steaks!” Magenta appeared beside us. She noticed that Kliss was clinging to my hand and that my silver hair was standing upright.

“E-enjoy!” She hiccupped as she deposited the plates, vanishing as quickly as she appeared.

“How long have you been dead…” Kliss whispered as she looked at me again. She didn’t even bother paying attention to the barmaid.

“From when are you?” The armacus was unlocked in her right hand, pointing at me. “I’ve never heard of such a thing as Elek-tree-city. Is it arcane, lost knowledge?! Are you from before the Age of Darkness, before the Great Mage War? Are you one of the Basque nobles… maybe Taginae? Khazar? Adyghe?”

Kliss called out various names of nations that had allied themselves against the Almn-Inians. She didn’t think that I was an Inian because I was stupid enough to touch one of their artifacts and nearly died in the process.

Delta buzzed dangerously inside the backpack, ready to attack if Kliss spun the armacus’ runes to activate Destruction. She didn’t. The trembling Overseer was holding onto the [Truth-Sensing] rune for dear life like it was her safety vest and she was drowning at sea.

“None of those,” I said. “I’m not from Novazem, Kliss. Like I said before, I’m not an aberration. I hail from a world completely without magic.”

“A world… without magic.” She exhaled, letting go of my hand. “... that’s inconceivable.”

I shrugged, and tried to settle my floating hair.

We ate our steaks in silence. I was feeling relieved. Now two others knew about me! Kliss didn’t seem to freak out, didn’t execute me for being an alien right then and there. Maybe I could someday tell my parents the same thing… but then again they didn’t Vow to be my friend and Kliss did. Maybe the Vow kept her calm.

[That was extremely stupid and dangerous,] Delta sighed. [...but, what do I know? Nobody listens to me.]

[I listen to you,] I sent.

[Sure you do,] she sarcastically muttered. [If she fires Destruction at your head I’m not retrieving your butt from the Astral, you’re on your own!]

“What’s she saying?” Kliss glanced at me.

“That you’re going to fire a Destruction spell at my head,” I rolled my eyes.

“No,” Kliss shook her head. “The Overseer’s Vow is beyond confused now. An aberration is an incredibly hungry magical memory. The Imperium experimented on the few we had managed to capture. An aberrant ghost is defined by its greed, it would never share such esoteric, incredible knowledge with another.”

“Good to know,” I smiled. “There’s plenty more science to share - my head is full of it.”

“To come from a world with no magic at all…. I’ve never heard of anyone… of anything like you,” Kliss muttered as she finished her dinner. “And I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Maybe our Empire murdered all of the others, thinking that they were aberrations…”

[+5 in Mana] The System dinged as I sipped more of the wine. Hmmm… Mana-reloading drink. I shall keep some of this bottle to see if I can extrapolate how it functions!

“Hrrmm,” Kliss glanced at the gold on our table. “You’ve managed to distract me with your non-magic Elek-tricity… but…”

“Yeah?” I yawned.

“Where did this gold come from?” She demanded, tapping one of my coins.

“From a mine,” I said.

“From a mine… so it's… not minted properly?” Kliss pushed a bit of her magic into the coin and the eyes and hair of Goddess Ishira lit up as expected. “It is?! Hrmmmm…”

“I minted it,” I confessed conspiratorially.

[Danteeeeeee,] Delta whined. [Stop it before I start stinging you!]

“Did you mint any Imperials by chance?” Kliss demanded.

“No, it was too complicated,” I said.

The Overseer started to laugh.

I raised an eyebrow.

“If you minted fake Imperials I would have to arrest and interrogate you for serious transgression against the Empire,” She shook her head. “But since you’re somehow making Ishikarian gold, which has no legal tender in the Empire… my Vow doesn’t really care.”

“Yay?” I sipped some more wine.

“The Vow is practically begging me to take you to the Academy of Magic in Cessna, to recruit you as a Citizen” Kliss grinned. “You are one of the most talented artificers I’ve seen. This is incredibly high level, incredibly precise craftsmanship.” She tapped the Ishikarian coin.

“Thanks,” I made a small bow. “I’m a bit preoccupied researching the Alanian tower at the moment, maybe later, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, looking like she was lost in her thoughts. “Sure...”

[That's it, you’ve had about enough wine mister, I’m cutting you off before you tell her everything about me!] A very fat bumblebee landed on my finger, staring at me with its beady, purple eyes.

“You can’t threaten me, fuzzy,” I said, wiggling my finger. “I have the power of friendship on my side! Back me up, Klissy!”

“Right, um, friendship.” Kliss nervously glanced at the bumblebee.

“Did you just cute up her name?” Delta buzzed.

“I did, what are you going to do about it, Deltachka?” I grinned.

A fiery stinger ignited. Kliss moved with a whiplash of motion slicing through the air. When she unblurred back into view, she was holding the fat bumblebee in between her fingers.

“No hurting Dante! You can sting me if you’re mad,” she put the bee on her own hand with a look of deep conviction.

“To hell with both of you!” Delta buzzed.

“Deltyyy, let's all be friends,” I insisted. “There’s no need to be jealous. You can taste this tasty wine in my dreams later.”

“What?” Kliss blinked, looking more confused than ever.