Kestra loved flying, at least the way Graemire did it. The wind was at most a lazy breeze and the mana moved around them in an invigorating manner. They only flew for a little bit before Graemire set them down in an open meadow.

"You have a personal realm," Graemire stated. There was too much confidence in his voice for Kestra to evade, so she remained silent instead.

"Show me," he ordered.

Kestra scrunched up her face. "Honestly, I'm not sure how safe that is. I mentioned that I've met others who are utterly beyond me? Well, there's not much I can say about that meeting, but the personal realm came from that. It's about 500 meters wide, and I've been trying to put in soil and plants, water and air, but, well, there were some fish in the water, only they're all dead now, and the plants are dying if not dead already. I'm doing something wrong, but I also don't know how to move myself in and out of the realm so I can't feel what's wrong."

"Then we will find Ambrose and Eilith," Graemire stated. "Elementals cannot be harmed by their elements, and they can examine your realm to see what changes are needed."

Kestra brightened up. "That would excellent! You wouldn't happen to know any Air or Light Elementals who would be interested in helping, would you? Temperature doesn't seem to be an issue because the water is neither steaming nor frozen, but a lot of plants need the right kind of light, and good, fresh breezes. Then I'd just need a good source of mana to bring up the mana density, and I could finally have the alchemical garden of my dreams! Maybe I could even increase the size of it and get an alchemical forest growing in there! I'd need to find some uncontracted nature sprites and see what bargain they'd want to tend the forest if I got it to that size, though."

Graemire chuckled. "Air and Light Elementals? What nonsense! There might be some breeze sprites, but Air and Light are hardly Elements on their own! Light is a reflection of Fire!"

That brought Kestra up short, reminding her as harshly as a slap in the face that mana expressed differently in different realms. She calmed and bowed. "I would be honored to be guided by your wisdom, Honored Divine."

He laughed. "Well enough, cheeky girl! I feel a stronger bit of mana in that direction. Let's go see if it's one of my friends."

And so saying, he hoisted her up again and flew them off.

They landed in the middle of a swamp.

Graemire looked around, his lips thinning with frustration. "This is a strong area of Earth and Water mana, but something's not quite right," he said in a mutter.

Kestra's gaze alighted on a mossy hillock hosting a vibrantly growing tree. "May I take a closer look at that tree?" she asked.

Graemire set her down, and Kestra made her way, carefully, to the mound. She fired off her Inspect spell, getting back .

Mana-Fed Corribelle Mangrove

This First Horizon native swamp tree has medicinal properties that reduce swelling and ease the pain of burns and insect bites. Being mana-fed, its medicinal properties are more potent.

She carefully inspected the tree, looking for the aspects that would be good to harvest for their medicinal properties. During that inspection, she glimpsed a shiny crystal caught up in the tree's roots.

Kestra cautiously extracted the crystal. A lot of notifications started flashing for her attention.

Congratulations!

You have captured a Mana Seed! With this seed, you can start your own dungeon.

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Rewards:

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Title: Dungeon Hunter

EXP: 10,000

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Level Up!

You have reached the next level. You gain 5 boosts to distribute across your statistics.

Level Up!

You have reached the next level. You gain 5 boosts to distribute across your statistics.

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Dungeon Hunter

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You have found the seed of a dungeon or been awarded this title by an existing dungeon master.

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Spell: Dungeon Sense

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Dungeon Sense

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GRADE: Corresponds to primary core size

Use of this spell allows the caster to sense dungeon cores and mana seeds within a radius of [5 × Core Level Step] kilometers [Core Level Step] times per day.

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Components: mana seed or dungeon core (focus)

Cost: 1 mana per kilometer radius

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Graemire's voice came from directly over her shoulder, startling her. "What have you there?" he asked.

She held out her hand, showing the crystal, the mana seed.

Graemire's expression flattened. "Ah. One of those," he said, sounding less than thrilled. Then his expression smoothed out. "Well, that's fortuitous for your personal realm. Put it in there and set up a dungeon to start managing the balance of elements. With a seed that small, you should only need to give it no more than a hundred mana a day to maintain itself, though it won't be able to do much until you find a steady source of highly attuned mana."

Kestra asked, "How do I set up a dungeon?"

"Poke at the Living Scrolls. They should guide you through it." Graemire seemed to have lost interest already, and so Kestra quickly did as he bid, sending the mana seed to her cabin realm. She suppressed the blue screen notice that popped up immediately following that action.

"Will taking the mana seed harm the swamp?" she asked, even as Graemire picked her up again and launched them into the sky.

"No. The seeds are crystallized mana that form in the leylines. They get lodged in places with highly attuned mana like the swamp and form dungeons, which purify the mana. With the excess mana, they form or capture monsters. All taking the mana seed does is delay the forming of a natural dungeon by a little bit, which will keep the surrounding monster population from growing stronger with the purified mana."

Kestra nodded her understanding, and checked the flashing notices.

You Swallowed a Mana Seed!

You successfully incorporated a mana seed into your soul. This will cause the mana you gain through your innate Mana Recovery to be purified by the mana seed.

Do you wish to establish a mana well in your personal realm?

Establishing a mana well in your personal realm will cause the mana released in your realm to automatically be purified. The mana well can be grown much like a dungeon by feeding it more mana seeds or concentrates of highly attuned mana.

Do you wish to establish this mana well?

YES / NO

Kestra selected YES.

"So, the blue screens, the scrolls, said that it's not a dungeon, but a mana well. Is there a big difference?" Kestra asked Graemire.

He brightened up. "Oh, that's much different! Mana wells don't capture anything. What else happened?"

"Well, apparently the mana I draw in will be purified by the mana seed," Kestra said.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Graemire said, sounding sincere. He sighed, and added in a more resigned tone, "Well, you are human, so the likelihood of you ever forming an elemental core is low, but that pretty much precludes that." He frowned. "It might also make that later stages of Body Tempering more difficult."

"While we're speaking of cultivation, are mana apertures physical, or more mana than substance?" Kestra asked.

"Both, somewhat," Graemire said. "You need mana-conductive materials to interact with a mana aperture before undergoing the apotheosis Reborn of Mana, and they're subsumed into the body during the apotheosis. Ah! That's a bit stronger watery presence!"

He changed direction, angling a bit more to the left and increasing his speed.

Kestra shushed, sensing that the leafy man was concentrating. Their direction changed by a few degrees every so often, until they were pointed at a significant mountain peak. It wasn't quite the tallest mountain, but it was pretty close.

As they got nearer, Graemire warned Kestra, "Cover your ears." She barely got her hands up before the air around them flexed with Graemire's bellowed, "Eilith!"

A liquid sounding, "Graemire?" answered them, and quickly enough a woman with blue hair and pale violet skin flew up out of the tree line. She stopped within touching distance, studying Kestra with open curiosity. Her ears were as daintily pointed as Graemire's, her eyes indigo pools without iris or pupil.

"You're not from the Ten Horizons, are you?" she asked.

Kestra opened her mouth, thought better of prevaricating, and said, "Well, no. What suggested that to you?"

"Your water. It's a different kind of water affinity than the water elements of the Ten Horizons." The woman's eyes brightened and she leaned in close to Kestra. "Do you know anything about the Divine Seed?"

Kestra didn't hide the nervousness she felt at that question, but played it off as suddenly being startled at the height and the closeness of whom she guessed to be Eilith the Water Elemental. She used that to hide the nervousness she felt at giving a deceitful truth in answer. "Er, every time I hear that, I think of the God of the Wilds of the realm of my birth. It's said that Elahrand's daughters are the Grove Ladies, born of seeds blessed with his creative spark. The first tree of each kind is supposed to house the soul of one of his daughters, the Grove Ladies, and they have a spiritual connection to every other tree of their same kind, though the less mana in the trees, the weaker the connection."

Graemire shifted so that Eilith wasn't in Kestra's face anymore.

Eilith blew out a breath, pouting as she stomped her foot in the air. "Oh, that's not what I was asking after at all, though Graemire will probably want to know more. He's a Wood Elemental after all, and they're quite fond of trees."

"Well, yes, but first, do you know where Ambrose is?" Graemire asked.

"No!" Eilith said, looking upset. "I went looking for the strongest Earth presence I could find, and it's a dungeon! I almost broke it I was so upset! I didn't. I know how much you dislike that, and I didn't want to be lectured, but how could a dungeon have a stronger Earth presence than my Ambrose!?"

Graemire sighed. "So much for an easy search. Oh, Kestra, this is Eilith. Eilith, this is Kestra, not like the falcon. She has a personal realm, but she says the elemental balance is out of order. Would you like to look at it? Kestra will stay out here with me while I continue to look for Ambrose."

"Oh! That sounds more fun than looking for seeds!" Eilith clapped her hands.

"We found a mana seed while we were looking for you, and it's been installed as the heart of a mana well in the realm, just so you know," Graemire said.

Kestra reached out her hand to the Water Elemental. "Just tell me when you're ready to come out, okay?"

"Okay!" Eilith said, taking Kestra's hand. With a thrum of mana that made Kestra shiver, Eilith splashed into her personal retreat realm.

"Oh, there's so much of that odd water affinity here! Let's separate that out," Eilith cooed, happily splashing through the water that Kestra had brought into her personal realm. It was an odd feeling, but not unpleasant.

Graemire brought up his map and slowly swung them around. He was almost perpendicular to the mountain when he took off again.

"Where are we going?" Kestra asked.

"Knowing Ambrose, he went searching for the strongest water presence when he was separated from Eilith. If he arrived in Kelhalk, he would have found Eilith, which mean he probably arrived in Xong Zul, which would make the strongest water presence the Thousand Pearls Ocean. While we're on our way, please tell me about the realm you came from, and these Grove Ladies."

Kestra giggled at the way he wiggled his eyebrows when he spoke of the Grove Ladies, and happily told him the myths of her home.

They flew for an hour before Graemire said, "It sounds as though the gods of your realm were quite active."

"I don't know," Kestra said. "I don't have any comparison. The priests tell us the soul of our world has been sleeping for a very long time, almost since she finished making life, and the gods are her loyal children, ensuring that we all prosper, for as we become more, we help to wake her. The voice of the world is supposed to be a fragment of her awareness that ensures we are all reminded of our solidarity, but there are a lot of people who bring up the monsters that constantly attack the sapient races. The priests say they're her nightmares given form, but not all monsters are bad, and not all the sapient races are good, so, I don't know how much I believe that."

"Have you ever met one of your gods?" Graemire asked.

Kestra sighed. "Maybe? I definitely met a servitor of the god of death. He wished me well when I was healed from a life-threatening wound. And, well, the personal realm? That was the result of a blessing of tribulation, just before I was selected for transmigration. It was a very strange place, one without time, and I think if it wasn't Elamshaq, it was one of their higher servitors who oversaw the tribulation. No offense, but he was a lot more potent than you are, to the point that without being in that special place, I think I would have ceased to exist just from being near him."

"Your realm had a god of tribulations?" Graemire asked, sounding bemused.

"Well, yeah. In adversity, opportunity. There are some risks you cannot remove yourself from, and they teach how to make the most of bad situations. True, most tribulations are considered punishments, but when they come as blessings they just mean you have a lot of work to put in to earn the reward of your labors."

Graemire grunted. "These are not the tribulations of the Ten Horizons. Between the Third and the Fourth Horizons, the Sixth and the Seventh, and the Ninth and Tenth Horizons one must prove one's worth to ascend. This is why the first three Horizons are the Mortal Horizons, the Fourth through Sixth the Transcendental Horizons, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth the Immortal Horizons, and the Tenth is the Divine Horizon. The tribulations are tests of your physical body, your mental acuity, and your magical prowess. You may choose the order of your tribulations, but the difficulty of each tribulation only increases as you ascend."

"Sounds like opportunity in adversity to me," Kestra said. "Tests within tests, too. Is there a preferred order? More resources available to prepare for particular tribulations in each of the sets of Horizons?"

"Physical, Mental, Magical," Graemire said. "One can work on one's body in any realm, but the resources for higher tier crafting only begin to show up in the Third Horizon, and that but rarely. Also, the Fourth Horizon is the Cauldron of War. It is where the higher realms have agreed to wage bloody war. In the realms above, the associations and the academies have been edging out the sects. They enforce that disputes may only be settled between individuals. Feuds are only allowed in the Fourth Horizon and below. The sects who rule the Ninth Horizon permit this because it gives them a wider selection of competent recruits, and safe places for their young families. The Tenth Horizon is full of old powers and Divine Creatures such Eilith, Ambrose, and myself."

"And you came all the way down here for a seed?" Kestra asked.

"A Divine Seed," Graemire gently corrected. "And that was more of an enthusiasm of Eilith's, to see what was special enough down on the First Horizon for the gods to visit, even if only briefly. The celestials of the Divine Horizon are all too aware that they too may yet die, even if few of those from the lower Horizons are capable of landing such a blow. They are not yet to the point of godhood."

Kestra grew silent as the import of that sank in.

Eilith was happily humming as she moved the water about in Kestra's retreat realm. She seemed fascinated with the water that had transmigrated with Kestra, moving it about and studying it from all angles. The Water Elemental had slipped from her humanoid guise, and without it being Kestra's personal realm, she would have been hard pressed to identify where the water ended and the Water Elemental began.

Not long after their talk about tribulations, they saw the ocean on the Horizon. Kestra found the vast expanse of water on this realm no less awe-inspiring a sight as the same great quantities had been back around Tellenhook Village.

Graemire once again began to concentrate and make delicate course corrections, getting less and less delicate as they got closer to the shore.

All of a sudden a bloom of fire came hurtling at them. Graemire dodged and took them down to the ground. Kestra gained a few bruises from the rough landing and counted herself lucky.

"Go! Away from me!" he commanded.

Kestra took off, calling out to Eilith in her realm, «Hey! Someone shot a fireball at Graemire! Stay in or come out?»

"Out! Now!" Eilith demanded, cold fury.

Kestra had to stop to concentrate, and a man with orange hair came charging at her. He pulled back his fist, a maniacally glee contorting his face.

"Ha! That old piece of lumber wants to protect you then you have to have something to do with the Divine Seed! Gimmie!" the orange haired man screeched. He had his fist pulled back, fire swirling around it.

And then Eilith was back, out of Kestra's personal realm.

"Vostler!" she shouted, a whip of water flicking out, snuffing the orange haired man's flames.

The glee on his face changed to terror as he stumbled over his own feet trying to change his trajectory. "Uh-oh!" he gasped out.

Eilith was on him in an instant, wrapping him in water she had brought with her out of Kestra realm. "Gate. Now," the enraged Water Elemental ordered Kestra.

The order reminded Kestra of something she had recognized during the making of her realms. She nodded to show she was complying, and then focused.

In her world seed realm, pages of her copy of the book of revelations flipped, and she felt the memories click into place, solidify within her soul. She sucked in as much mana as she could to feed the gate, and was panting and sweat drenched by the time it snapped into place.

Eilith dipped her chin in acknowledgment to Kestra and then marched the man she called Vostler through the gate, into Kestra's personal retreat realm.

It wasn't feeling like a retreat just then.

Graemire arrived in time to watch, and once the orange haired man was safely away, he put a hand on Kestra's shoulder.

"Thank you," he said. "That hot head is newly ascended to the Divine Horizon, and hasn't yet comprehended that there is always someone stronger. I will personally see to the repair of any damage done to your personal realm while Eilith hammers that lesson home."

Kestra didn't even try to hold back the incredulity in her expression.

"Hoi!" a tinny, feminine voice called out. "Is that you, Graemire?"

"Nicada? Have you run into Ambrose?" Graemire asked, turning to face a trio of Divine Creatures in humanoid forms.

"Nah." The voice belonged to a woman with skin and hair that glinted with a polished brilliance under the sunlight. "Vostler took off running this way. Is Eilith chasing him?"

"Caught him," Graemire said.

"Oh, good! Here's hoping she holds on to him long enough to twist him into taking up the Righteous Oath." The woman smiled as if genuinely looking forward to that outcome. Then she glanced curiously at Kestra. "Local guide?"

"More of an interesting bit of potential. Ah, Yorgin! I didn't get a chance to talk with you at Hozinzi's banquet! Do you still have those Seven Year Sweet Breeze seeds? I may have finally found a good location for their planting, and down here, of all places! Pretty little swamp, too."

"Oh?" This sound of interest came from the man in the middle of the approaching trio. He was taller and broader than Puck, and his skin shimmered with reptilian scales. His head was bald, and he sported a pair of crystalline brown horns curling up from the sides of his head, and around until the tips jutted forward just over his shoulders.

"I'll share my map to you. Oh, I stopped by one of the Zonzhi shops here and got a full map of the realm. Does anyone else need it?" Graemire stepped forward, subtly blocking Kestra from their sight.

She happily took the reprieve, feeling wrung out from the deep mana use.

The final member of the trio was a short, older seeming man. He could have passed for one of the dwarfed giants of Kestra's home realm but for the fact that his sclera was black and his irises yellow. His hair was just as black, his skin quite a dark brown. If he had fewer lines etched into his face, Kestra would have thought his skin supple.

He walked passed Graemire and squatted down in front of Kestra. "You've the look of someone hard done by," he said, laying his hand on her shoulder. Waves of restorative warmth washed over her, and she fairly purred.

The short fellow got an interested look on his face as Kestra continued to soak up the warmth he was sharing. She felt something shifting inside her, and her notices started flashing.

Congratulations!

You have opened one of your mana apertures!

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Base Mana Recovery factor increases by 1

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Quest: Open Your Mana Apertures

Requirements: Open all 12 of your Mana Apertures.

Progress: 2/12 Apertures Open

Rewards:

‎ Sovereign of Mana Title

‎ +25 Mana

+25 Mana Recovery

EXP: 120,000

Congratulations!

Your mana cultivation has increased to the Mist stage!

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+5 Mana

EXP: 1,000

Quest: Mana Cultivation II

Requirements: Reach Liquid Mana Cultivation Stage

Rewards:

‎ +5 Mana

EXP: 5,000

Level Up!

You have reached the next level. You gain 5 boosts to distribute across your statistics.

Congratulations!

You have opened one of your mana apertures!

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Base Mana Recovery factor increases by 1

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Quest: Open Your Mana Apertures

Requirements: Open all 12 of your Mana Apertures.

Progress: 3/12 Apertures Open

Rewards:

‎ Sovereign of Mana Title

‎ +25 Mana

+25 Mana Recovery

EXP: 120,000

Graemire lifted the short man's hand from Kestra's shoulder. "Ralouf, she's internalized a mana seed already. It'll drink you dry if you let it."

"Eh, now? Didn't think anyone would try such till the Seventh Horizon at least! Interesting bit of potential, indeed!" Ralouf said, his gaze turned to Graemire. Then he turned to look back at Kestra. "Why'd you do that?"

Kestra hooked a thumb in Graemire's direction. "He told me to."

"And you just did it?" Ralouf asked, looking at her like she was insane.

Kestra shrugged. "He's thumping loads bigger than me, and I didn't know what I was getting into. Didn't get any kind of a Danger Sense warning, so, eh."

The scaled man, Yorgin, threw back his head and laughed. "I like this one!"

Ralouf, on the other hand, was glaring at Graemire. "Why'd you go and tell the child to do something fool hardy like that?"

Graemire looked around, his gaze obviously assessing. "I'll need oaths from the lot of you that you won't spread the word about my little find if I'm to tell you that."

That got perked looks.

"Credible threat of death," Kestra piped up.

"Eh?" Ralouf asked.

"I don't want anyone dying to keep me a secret," Kestra said. "So if you're put to the question about me, and you end up with someone making a credible threat to kill you if you don't talk, I don't want you bound in a damned if you do or you don't situation."

The trio glanced at each other, some silent communication passing through their expressions. Then, they turned, and starting with Ralouf, pledged not to share information outside of those present about Kestra unless faced with a credible threat of death. The light of the Realm of the Ten Horizons passed over each of them.

Graemire grinned. "She's a transmigrator with a personal realm placed by a god from her prior realm. I'm guessing she is why one of the gods peeked into the First Horizon. She says her realm needs some work, and Eilith is in there right now with Vostler."

Then Graemire asked Kestra, "How are they, by the by?"

Kestra held up a hand to show she had heard him and turned her focus toward her retreat realm. "Ew! He's soaked. Looks like he turned all the plants to ash, though. Not a bad thing considering, like I mentioned, they were all dying in there what with me not knowing how to get the right balance going. They'll at least be nutrients for when I get to properly seed everything."

She winced again, and asked, "Eilith is really vicious with those water whips of hers. I really don't want to get on her bad side."

Yorgin burst out laughing, and Nicada grinned a nasty-mean grin. Ralouf and Graemire shook their heads.

"Well," Ralouf said. "It looks like we should start looking for Ambrose, then."