When I woke up, I lay staring at the ceiling for a several long moments before climbing to my feet in order to use a cleansing pill, before donning my second set of self-cleaning robes. In my short second-life, I had seen far too many sets destroyed, and I wondered how often regular people – who were not embroiled in quests for bossy Ascended – went through clothing. If it was even half as fast I did, I was willing to bet that most tailors did a brisk business. Maybe not the especially snotty ones, like the short-guy I had met in Everwood City...

Fully dressed, I checked my reserves, and finding them full, did not bother meditating. It was going to be tough to get completely back into the habit once I was off that gold-mine of energy, but I thought the ability to continually experience new things would probably make up for the relative lack.

I went looking for DUK3; even if he was not the most talkative person in the world outside of his particular area of interest, another discussion on the philosophy of divine purpose was still better than sitting in silence, and it would help me build up some energy for actually getting some practice in.

If somebody had told my old self that I would be on an alien world, with a mad scientist, fighting off invaders with my magic super-powers, and then bored stiff, I would have laughed in their faces. The very idea of it was absurd, even as I was living it, let alone back then. But that was the reality; life on the alien planet, inside the Construct’s bodily facility, had become so samey it was dull.

With a sigh, I Focused – using only as much Experience as I remembered using normally – and began to run down the corridors, flipping and dodging imaginary enemies half-heartedly. I know it sounds dumb, but I was apparently a people person in my second life.

I checked several labs before I found the one DUK3 was using, and what I found was profoundly shocking after more than a month of near isolation. Dropping my Focus, I stared numbly at a crowd of thirty or so bird-lizards gathered around the Construct, who sat next to a familiar dark figure that topped seven feet and wore a blindfold.

“Walker?!”

If the thirty new arrivals represented a second invasion, I had no fear as to it potentially succeeding with my mentor there. I pictured millions of swords spinning their way through the many halls of the facility, mincing people as they went.

“Hunter. You seem to have a habit of wandering to new worlds, though this one seems stranger than most. At least this time you remembered to keep the dagger outside of a spatial pocket. I was just speaking to your friend, Dee Yu Kay Three here about the insights they have made in regards to your ability to world walk.”

“Wait, when did you get here? Did these guys,” I gestured at the gathered bird-lizards, “come with you? You two can understand each other?”

The last time Walker had come to fetch me from another world, he had not seemed to speak the local language, though knowing Apexes – and others at that level – were manipulating reality itself, I put nothing past them. And of course, I did not really believe the crowd had come with him, but it was a hell of a coincidence.

“The Level Zeroes were brought here by a colleague from my sect. I thought it fortuitous that a war gate should open at this time, as it allowed me to implement a suggestion, I mentioned to you previously, which is to say bringing others of my kind here, Hunter.”

I blinked at the construct’s words, because they were not in whatever language Lucas spoke, but rather in the native tongue of Walker’s and my world.

“You speak Lostrian, Dee Yu Kay Three?” Lostrian? I guessed I had never tried to actually say the name of the language before, but it made sense that it would have a word for itself in it.

“I do now. I am a quick study, Hunter.”

A quick study? Learning a language in the time I had been sleeping was more than quick, it was downright impossible. At least, I thought it was impossible. I supposed the Construct had been made out to be something of a genius...

“I arrived about two hours ago to find you asleep. Reff and the others arrived shortly before to inform me you had once again opted to visit another world.”

Two hours? I did not sleep for long by that point, but it was stll amazing to have it quantified like that. Two hours to learn a language. Still, my amazement was overridden by the mention of my friends, and the phrasing.

“It wasn’t so much that I ‘opted’ to do it, so much as Lucas picked me up and pulled me through the gate. Apparently, there was some miscommunication as to how we’d meet again... Anyway, are they all fine? Everyone’s okay?”

“They are fine, Hunter. Darina insisted that the Alchemy Association’s representative be treated as a diplomatic guest, which Reff seemed to understand meant housing him... further away from her than would otherwise be the case.”

“They’re still not getting along, huh?”

“I believe the Mending Flesh’s apprentice to be... tolerating him, though barely.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Darina... well, a slightly more understanding version of Darina, but close enough.”

“It is fortuitous that they have sent a representative, as their aid will be much appreciated in locating the Risen Throne. Even for us, searching the entire planet is a significant undertaking.”

“Honestly, his commander just wanted a break from him, and saw it as killing two birds with one stone. I’d have probably begged, but I was under the effects of truth serum at the time. And here we are.”

“’Truth serum’?”

“It’s a potion that makes you tell the truth. It’s a long story. Well, it’s not that long, but it can probably wait.”

Turning to DUK3, I gestured at the crowd.

“So, you’re going to be trying out your new designs on these guys? And you’re sure it won’t hurt? Or explode, Dee Yu Kay Three?”

“I am sure to the point of near certainty, Hunter.”

“Fair enough, Dee Yu Kay Three. Uh, so, no Lucas? I was hoping to ask him to sketch me some symbols or something...”

“Lucas returned to his own world shorty after testing was completed, Hunter.”

“I see. Well should we get going, Walker? I’m eager to get back. See everyone.”

Inside, I was kind of seething; Lucas had dragged me to this world without asking, and though it had been of immense benefit to me, it was still kind of a dick move, and it was even more of a dick move to just leave without saying anything, and especially without making sure I got home at all.

“I should be ready to return in an hour, given the amount of free Experience in the air here. Perhaps you can show me how your sword work has progressed?”

*

***

*

As it turned out, my sword work had not progressed a great deal, at least by my dark mentor’s exacting standards. I was really dreading Aella putting me through my paces, because if my efforts with the sword had been a disappointment, my teacher was probably going to slap me into the ground next week over my near abandonment of the chain.

“Some progress is better than none, Hunter, but more would have been better. I had not taken you for the type to shirk his training.”

“Sorry, Walker. My Exemplar destroyed the first sword I tried to use with it; I’ve been trying to get to a point where I can use one, but I’m mostly limited to a long dagger’s length at the moment.”

“Hmmm.” Walker stared blindly at me for a moment, his eyebrows bunched as he considered what I had said, before replying. “I am aware you have started upon your Path, but the nature of it is not discernible. Perhaps if you can explain, I may offer my assistance?”

“Sure. My Exemplar was – is – called an Instant Frog. It seems to be the ability to manipulate time, to compress it, giving me more time in which to act.”

I went on to what I had discovered about the use of my Path, including my theories about the sword and how it had been broken.

“It is an interesting ability, and not one I have heard of others possessing, though the world is wide and time is deep. It seems that the field you describe naturally flows around areas containing your Experience. Have you attempted to invest your energy into the blade?”

I stood in silence for a few seconds under Walker’s covered gaze; I knew, theoretically, that energy could be pushed into things. The glue I had used in Ben Won Ro’s shop had required it to set, and my storage rings all required it to function, but they were things designed to have energy invested into them. My thoughts turned to the conversations I had had with DUK3 about the nature of materials and their intrinsic absorption of Experience, and about how I could push Praxis into my arm. It made sense that what Walker was suggesting was possible, because otherwise his own blades would have been eminently vulnerable to the powers of other cultivators, as would the weapons of any such wielders. But it had simply never occurred to me.

“I... haven’t. I was mostly trying to bend my aura around it... I don’t suppose you have any spare swords? I only have the one.”

Walker crouched and one by one placed half a dozen swords on the ground, mostly normal metal colours, though there was a dark grey one and one that was a deep emerald green. They were all straight, like the one I had, and largely undecorated.

“These should be sufficient for testing, and should be of higher quality than the one you have been using. The Risen Throne seem to be pernicious in their expansive presence, but they appear to be relatively... miserly... with their equipment.”

I looked down at the arrayed swords and wondered why he had not offered me one before, but I quickly wiped that thought away, knowing it was an unworthy one. Walker had done a lot for me, and it was unfair to ask for more.

Reaching down, I picked up the emerald green sword first; it was similar in hue to some of the metal I had seen in my travels, and I thought it to be a middle of the road material. Better than what I had, but not as strong – or heavy – as the blue blade Aella had claimed. The green sword felt solid in my hand in a way that my shiny chrome-like sword no-longer did. It was not a strain for my Path stage body, but it felt... real.

Not tapping my abilities, I instead simply concentrated in trying to push energy into it. There was resistance at first, as if I was trying to stuff something into an already full container, but after a moment, I felt a flow within the metal of the blade and my Praxis began to push in and suffuse it. I could not feel the blade like I could my new arm, but I made my best guess as to when it was fully suffused and began to tease Praxis through my Exemplar. I felt my aura spring into existence around me, barely there. Without being able to feel the Praxis in the weapon, it was more difficult to judge where the aura flowed, but as I began to pull more energy, I thought it was expanding past where it had on previous occasions. But it was taking a significantly greater amount of Experience to maintain it, to the point that it felt more like I was going all out.

I panicked slightly as I felt my reserves dipping sharply, and decided to get the test over with as quickly as possible. Concentrating on my arm and sword, I felt the familiar sense of lost control, and then blackness.

I was not out for long, and in fact had not even fallen when I came back to myself as my almost dry reserves were forcibly replenished by the weight of the world’s energy. Staggering, I glanced at the sword which now bore a deep scar about two thirds of the way up the blade; it had been damaged, but at least it was in one piece.

“You should sit, Hunter. That took significantly more energy than it should have.”

“Yeah... yeah.”

I sat down by the other five swords and set the now scarred blade down, taking a deep breath as I began to cultivate Experience, the joyous rush being automatically refined into Praxis by my hammering Core.

“Perhaps we should refrain from further tests; it is possible your Path does not include the sword.”

I heard Walker’s words, but I did not reply immediately, my mind spinning through the latest events of my life, and through old conversations too.

“I... have an idea, Walker.”

My mind was on my arm, an inanimate object with a living energy network, and one that used Experience so much more efficiently than the rest of me... was it possible to make a sword, using DUK3’s design?