I am scared.

Even admitting as much makes me more nervous than before. But so what? If I can’t come clean with myself, who else can I turn to? I guess the reality of being in an alien world is finally getting to me. Back in that cavern, it was just me and Inanna, a goddess that only I could see or hear. But still, I was myself.

There were times when I thought this was all a dream.

That maybe, just maybe, I got hit in the head really hard from the earthquake and I’m currently in a medically induced coma at a hospital. Maybe everything I’ve experienced is my mind making stuff up.

Even that excuse is stale now. It’s true, this is a different world. It might look and feel like Earth, but it isn’t. This isn’t some half-forgotten mountain village in India or New Zealand. This is real.

There are no moons.

There are two suns.

And it’s all fucking absurd. But this is the story of my life.

And… now I’ve rambled nonsense for half a page without writing anything worthwhile.

Damn.

…

With an audible groan, Lukas rested the pen on top of his notebook and exhaled. His wrists were throbbing horrifically. Who knew holding a damn pen could end up being so difficult?

He looked at his trembling hands. After being on a lifeforce high for what felt like ages, it was an odd feeling, like he was trapped in his own body. Walking around the inn with Tanya helped. Sitting in the sunlight and feeling the earth beneath his feet hastened the rise in his energy levels. But until the Omphalos decided to give him some leeway, he was basically stuck being in an ordinary human body.

Never had Lukas imagined there would come a time when he’d loathe being human.

“Check Energy Level.”

Current Energy Level — 19%

It was worrisome. He’d gotten his first percent by staying in the field for five hours. Three days had passed since then, and he’d only gotten another percent increase. Either there was a glitch in the system, or he was missing something fundamental.

But what?

With a newly gained fervor, he picked up his fountain pen. When Lukas had first realized this world hadn’t upgraded to ballpoints, he’d immediately classified this new world as some kind of pre-renaissance era.

And then Tanya had handed him a notebook.

It was… sophisticated, to say the least.

For starters, the material wasn’t paper. Or, at least, not the kind of paper he was familiar with. It was made of fibers and bound in monster hide, but it was a smart object. Everything he wrote was automatically synchronized with what he assumed was this world’s magical variant of the Cloud, while allowing the feel of writing on a traditional notepad. And this was commonly available technology.

On the other hand, he saw nothing similar to computers. Yet even the shoddiest of inns was crafted out of energy-storing bricks that soaked the twin suns’ power all day long to provide illumination and power for the facilities.

Talk about a stark dichotomy.

Here he was, in a world unfamiliar to himself, stuck in a body that couldn’t access its inactive Skills until he managed to push past the twenty percent threshold. It was a bitterly familiar fish-out-of-water scenario, much like when he first woke up in the Crypt and had to figure out the Screen and his newfound abilities from scratch through trial and error.

There was that strange feminine laughter again, mocking him in his mind.

Shaking his head, he tried putting his thoughts into writing a second time.

…

If I were to put everything into little boxes, there would be one question standing above all else.

Who do I trust?

It’s just like when I came to California for the first time and I was the new kid on the block. At least then, there was the university to put things into perspective. Back in the anomaly, I had little to no choice. I could have either trusted Inanna or fended for myself— a choice that would have definitely gotten me killed. And now Inanna’s gone, and I have to find a way to get her back.

And I don’t know where to begin.

This Banksi character seems to have some honor. Elena just rubs me the wrong way, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual. Burger has the funniest reactions. Of them all, he’s the easiest to figure out. Tanya’s… well, complicated. She seems to want me safe, or at least alive. Is it because of what Inanna did? It can’t just be to protect her secret, or else she’d have just killed me and been done with it.

Instead, she’s going above and beyond to get the others to help me out. But why?

Sometimes, it feels like she likes me. I can’t help but wonder how much of that is her rather than the thrall. I have a slight fear that one day, I’ll wake up to find her driving a shard of frost into my heart. At least if I had my powers…

In the end, it all comes down to that, doesn’t it?

…

“I thought you wanted to put down your thoughts,” Tanya’s familiar, sassy tone interrupted his thoughts, “yet here you are doodling away.”

“I am not doodling,” Lukas retorted. “I was writing.”

Tanya bent down to shoulder-level and squinted at his somewhat legible handwriting. “Yeah, that definitely counts as doodling.”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t you have anyone else to bully?”

“Oh, what happened to the big bad Outsider willing to show me my place?” she teased back.

“Oh bite me,” Lukas bantered good-naturedly, flipping through the pages of the notebook. “By the way, this thing is awesome. Is this seriously a commonplace tool?”

Tanya shrugged. “It cost me thirty coins if that’s what you’re asking. And I didn’t buy it. You did.”

He frowned. “You mean—”

“The money Zuken promised, remember? Your fooding and lodging has been taken from that too. Taking care of your tantrums is a freebie, though. But only because I tolerate you.”

“You’re too kind.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

“Purely out of professional curiosity,” Lukas asked, keeping his expression as neutral as possible, “how much of that money do I have left?”

Tanya snorted in amusement. “Enough to keep you alive for a month.”

“And after that?”

“I’m willing to hire you as a man-slave?” Tanya offered. “I offer reasonable rates.”

“I knew you had the hots for me.”

“In your dreams.”

“Oh, count on it.”

Tanya threw a pillow at him.

And Lukas’s ensuing laughter was as carefree as it was liberating. It was entirely possible that this was all just an act. But so what? Until reality set in, he may as well enjoy it.

Zuken Banksi gazed down at the courtyard from between the blinds of the window. On the other side of the building, just past the road, was the famous Guild Hall of Haviskali— infamously called the Citadel of Commerce. After returning victorious from the mission, the Governor had happily authorized a freeholding permit for him to open a private guild.

Secretary Tatun’s expression had been downright hilarious.

Now only if the rest of his plans could gain a little more momentum.

“I don’t get it,” Olfric frowned, standing by his side. After their return, he and Olfric had a comprehensive discussion. It hadn’t been a talk between heirs of two prestigious families, but rather between two educated, intelligent, ambitious young men who wanted to leave their mark on the world. Both had their secrets to hide, and both believed that coming clean with the Governor and the High Council would be an utterly terrible idea.

That was why Zuken had arranged for private treatment with regards to Olfric’s blood curse. Complete removal of the curse was impossible unless the caster perished, but the healer had been able to significantly slow its effects to give Olfric a fair few years before it adversely affected his life.

Olfric then signed an unbreakable contract with him naming them both as co-conspirators in their attempt to vandalize the yokai colony in the desert to requisition the wondrous technology Olfric had seen within— technology that, according to the Bergott heir, could advance the Llaisy Kingdom by decades, if not more. In return, he would gain fifteen percent ownership of the guild, which was filed under the name Iylaerion.

Naturally, he had shifted his own association from the Guild Hall to Iylaerion because, by his own words, ‘an arrogant, blowhard, smartass like Banksi couldn't possibly keep a Guild running by himself’.

Elena had thought Olfric's choice of words was spot on. He was clearly a bad influence on her. Or maybe it was the other way around. It was getting hard to tell.

“What don’t you get?” Zuken asked.

“Why we’re setting up a rival guild directly opposite of the Guild Hall.”

The place in question was a four-story building that initially belonged to Clan Valette, but had become mysteriously available for sale right after Zuken had waltzed into Haviskali after his successful mission.

“Well,” he drawled, his voice colored with amusement, “if you’re going to set up a rival Guild, where else are you supposed to build it?”

Olfric looked stumped. “But— but this just screams of an open challenge.”

Zuken gave him a long-suffering look but said nothing.

“I think you're playing a risky game, Banksi. Forging fake documentation for that nuisance was one thing, but setting yourself up for a showdown with the Adventurers Guild? You never struck me as someone with a death wish.”

Zuken snorted. “I take offense to that, Bergott. I certainly didn't pay all that coin for a forgery.”

Olfric sputtered in disbelief. "You mean you got him real ones?"

“It’s the best kind of forgery there is,” Zuken shot him a winning smile. “A lot less of a headache, too.”

Olfric looked like he wanted to say something, but was finding it difficult to express his thoughts properly. Apparently, he didn't react well to surprises. Good to know. Zuken needed to remember that. Best to keep as much information stocked about co-workers. It was just good business sense.

“I’m playing a long game here, Bergott,” Zuken replied as he gazed at the Guild Hall. “Lukas Aguilar might be a nuisance, but he’s also an investment.”

“I don't see how.”

Zuken chortled. “Of course you don't. I haven't shown you yet. One thing you have to understand is that when Elena says something odd, I take it very seriously."

“Yeah, well I figured you had a few screws loose.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Remember how she claimed that our nuisance had apparently consumed a monster from those crystals?”

Olfric nodded.

“Well, I believed her. It might seem odd, but our guest has proven that everyday rules don't apply to him. He does not have a kami bound to him, but we saw him spew fire from his hands.”

“You only know that 'cause Tanya said so.”

Zuken arched an eyebrow. “Would she lie to me?”

“In a heartbeat, if she thought she could get away with it,” Olfric swiftly returned. “I know she revealed her checkered past and all, but there's still something about her that just bugs me.”

“That may be, but I trust both their viewpoints about Aguilar nonetheless. So I got him checked.”

“You did?”

He gave Olfric a not-smile. “Did you seriously think I would keep an unknown in my mansion for all that time without acquiring as much information as possible? He’s an empty slate, which means that if he means trouble, I need to know before everyone else. And if he has potential, then I need it harnessed for myself.”

Olfric wryly smiled. “Whatever happened to nobility and honor?”

“Honor has a tendency to meddle with deals, so I prefer pragmatism. Besides, our mutual friend produced some rather astonishing results.”

He took out a thin film from his pocket and tapped a finger on the surface. It expanded and quadrupled in size, settling down in the form of an ultra-thin notebook. Upon the surface was an image frozen in time.

“Here.” He handed the notebook to Olfric. “Have a look.”

Shrugging, Olfric grabbed the device for himself. It took him a couple of seconds to go through the information before it clicked. His eyes widened like saucers and he whipped his neck towards Zuken.

“What kind of lunacy is this?" he asked, waving the notebook in the air like a baton. “And here, I thought you were being serious for a change—”

“Dead serious.”

Olfric froze, before looking back down at the information a second time. “That’s impossible.”

“Impossible? Like finding an absolute stranger from an unknown land inside a subterranean anomaly? Or finding highly advanced mana-tech inside a hidden yokai colony in the middle of an accursed desert? Are you referring to those kinds of impossible?”

Olfric sent him a withering glare.

“Believe me, I was astounded by the results too. And just to be certain, I repeated the tests twelve times.”

“…Twelve times?”

“I like to be thorough.”

“…All the tests?”

“I like to be very thorough.”

Seeing the Bergott heir's flabbergasted expression, Zuken grabbed the notebook from his hands. The information on the page would seem utterly absurd to anyone, but for him, it represented something vital.

A paradigm shift.

SCHEMATIC ANALYSIS

TARGET: LUKAS AGUILAR

Total Soul Capacity

140,423

Used Soul Capacity

92,795

Total Lifeforce Capacity

2,570

Lifeforce Production Rate

134/hour

Mana Production Rate

118/hour

Tanya was right. Lukas’s ability to dish out lifeforce was comparable to the jotnar of the north. But being capable of both lifeforce and mana, without any external augmentations… The possibilities were endless, especially if Zuken could find a way to replicate whatever it was that made him tick.

But perhaps most astounding of all was his Soul Capacity.

Over one hundred and forty thousand.

Zuken had heard of beings like that before. Existences that had their roots in divinity, but not deep enough to lose their mortal shell and transcend into a greater existence shaped by Faith. Entities about whom prophecies were made. Those that, more often than not, carved their names into the history of their world, changing the world by their very presence.

Given all that, he wasn’t the least bit surprised when Olfric Bergott, whose face was slowly reddening all this time, finally lost it and grabbed his collar, pulling his face inches away from his own nose.

“Are you telling me that Lukas Aguilar is a fucking demigod?”

Zuken grinned.