Let me recap what I learned about this planet from my students. The dungeon city has a name, Neutalinn, but is commonly referred to as the Tower by everyone. That’s pretty self-explanatory. I am currently in the Shi-eit kingdom. Best name ever. The first part is pronounced like shie from shield, followed by eit, which sounds like the last part of bite. The Capital, it has a name but nobody bothers with it, is to the north, right where the nobles table map said it is. The king is called the First Defender and loses his or her own name upon taking the crown. It sounds pretentious as fuck, but the name flows nicely in the local language. It sounds like a catchy commercial jingle.

The Capital is a coastal city, with beaches running from east to west. Further north are the pirate island states. This world’s mages have made their headquarters on these islands, and any ship that is flying a mage flag receives safe passage. Any ship with a mage flag without an officially sanctioned mage on board will become a floating pile of driftwood and corpses very quickly The mages and pirates must be working together. The same goes for any ship without the mage flag. It’s a pretty good system of controlled trade extortion, called the magos tax. I'm slightly impressed.

The beastkin have their countries to the east. They are heavily divided based on their origin animals, creating multiple tribal kingdoms with their own rules and law. The moment a beastkin is born, they are placed in a caste or class that is set for life. You will never see a goat beastkin ruling over other beastkin, only predators have that right. The only exception are mana sensitive beast people, but they are so rare that it rarely happens. And why is the image of a horned goat farmer tending crops so funny to me?

A lot of raiding, slaving and fighting happens on that border, from both the Shi-eit kingdom and the beast people. Centuries of aggression building itself up in a vicious cycle of violence. I will have to teach each of my disciples some sort of body changing or disguising techniques if we ever want to traverse those lands.

Food comes from the dungeon thus explaining the lack of any farms. There are other dungeons scattered around the lands. If a dungeon isn't farmed regularly the beasts inside will spill out and make a danger zone. Big swathes of land are made uninhabitable by such uncontrolled dungeons. Any new dungeons found are claimed by the Kingdom and if the contents of said dungeon are profitable, a city will spring up around it very quickly. There have been no publicly known cases of people finishing a dungeon. Their origin and how they work remain a mystery to the populace.

The massive walls around the Tower are there to defend against autumn. Why autumn?

“So all the beasts roam around in autumn?”

Tess answers me swiftly. “Yes, the all-rain drives the beasts out of their dungeons.”

“All-rain? Does it rain everywhere in autumn?”

She looks at me weirdly again. I’ve been here for just about a week, please be a little more understanding.

“It rains everywhere in Autumn.”

I focus my attention on my real body on top of the tower. The sun does indeed seem to be growing smaller. This planet must be on an elliptical orbit. Earth has seasons due to its axial tilt, this planet is rotating on a straight axis, the seasons must thus come from the difference in proximity to the sun. I want to slap myself for not noticing the sun getting bigger and smaller, my excuse is that… I have no excuse. I love anything space related, damn it.

Worldwide seasons seems pretty neat though, I wonder if this planet knows about skiing and snowboarding yet? I focus back on my clone and continue asking questions.

“And it's cold and snows everywhere after that?”

“Yes, winter is followed by spring when new life blooms, followed by the current calm season, summer.”

I add the unknown season words to my library, picking up their meaning from context.

“You guys know anything about the rest of the world? Are there other continents beyond the sea?”

My word for continent literally means big swath of land. Sometimes one has to improvise.

“What, why? Why would you ask that?”

Tess is looking at me like I murdered her parents. That seems to be a taboo topic of some kind.

“That's lethal knowledge, you know.”

Information that kills. This is getting interesting.

“Are you automatically killed when you learn such information?”

“No, the world ends there, the gods of old have forbidden us from going beyond the islands. It’s a death penalty to even talk about it.”

That is very interesting information. As soon as I build my foundation I plan on making scanning drones to go check it out. It’s also one of the first mentions of gods I have heard. I derived the meaning of the word from making a language context diagram, and deity or god was the most likely result. And they are old. Are they just old or gone?

“Okay, that is enough questioning for now. BORD, WAKE UP!”

I make a chopping motion with my hand, sending out a sharp strand of qi. The tangle of roots around Angeta falls apart and shows me an unconscious and sweaty heap of fur. Bord has wiggled himself upright and is intensely staring at the few scraps of food left on the plate. I just sigh again and put it back into my spatial ring. He looks at me with teary eyes.

“Did you even try to solve the sums?”

“Ah, I am still stuck in this chair, why?”

I look him in the eyes and only see confusion. I was getting my hopes up with how Lola turned out, but it truly seems that pig-headedness and body cultivation go hand in hand.

“Please try to notice when things happen around you.”

“Why? First master Fellis took care of me, now you’re doing it!”

He beams a happy smile at my face. I try to dodge but the sickening happiness on display sours my mood.

“This master Fellis was buttering you up, you know.”

I get a confused face in return.

“He was going to make you his boy toy. I think he is a feeder, he must like his pets with some meat on their bones.”

“Master Fellis said that I was his special boy!”

Is he mentally handicapped? He looks so happy right now.

“He was going...”

I mime my left pointy finger going closer to my right fist.

“To put his penis...”

I pantomime the act with my hands.

“In your bum and fuck you.”

These are not baseless rumours, I had the… pleasure… to observe him going at it himself. That was the first time looking at a map mentally scarred me. That basement under his mansion is a true horror show.

“His garden is filled with decaying fat eighteen-year-old corpses.”

He still looks at me without a trace of intelligence in his eyes.

“Haaah, I don't care. You would have had a miserable few years left to live in his dungeon when you became fat enough. He likes to raise his toys like livestock and seems to enjoy the look of betrayal on their faces when he displays his true sadistic nature.”

The quarter hasn't dropped yet but now the rest are looking at me askance.

“I was curious if the Fellis guy has maps, so I scanned his entire house. Including the dungeon.”

Now let a shiver run up my spine while showing a slightly haunted look in my eyes. I don't let it show too much, though Tess and Ket seem to get the hint. Vox is looking at me as if I am telling him the sky is blue.

“Do you guys know anything about an army marching here?”

Changing the subject is not running away, is what I tell myself. The lack of a reply tells me that they have no knowledge on the changed subject.

“How about a big flying beast in the sky?”

They all turn pale.

“Y-You saw one of the F-F… Flight?”

Vox barely manages to push that last word out of his mouth.

“Give me all you know about the Flight in one sentence please.”

They all look at each other for a long while, until Ket decides to speak up.

“They are the true rulers, every kingdom has a few assigned to them. We don't know where they come from.”

“They are immortal and all powerful I assume?”

Selis butts in for once.

“Even all the grand mages in the kingdom couldn't possibly crack one scale, they are really pretty though. Why are you white by the way? Grass is sooooo pretty, there are so many blades! Thanks you again for this looking thing, I really like it. The king meets with the white dragon once every five years, I got to see them from afar, it was huge! The dragon I mean, the king is normal person sized. There was also this...”

I hold up my hand to stop the deluge of words.

“They are called glasses, thanks. That is enough for today. Here are your next assignments.”

I let my body breathe out a large portion of qi and push it inside the pocket dimension. I then create six massive pillars, reaching high into the sky. I float my qi clone upwards and pull some items from my spatial ring, putting them on the flat tops. Bands of colour mark which pillar belongs to whom.

“Tess, yours is the black one, Vox is white, Selis blue, Ket grey, Bord red and Angeta’s is green. Please tell her when she comes to. Don't bother climbing a pillar not your own.”

Casting one last look at the hope of this word, I shake my head and pull my qi clone outside.

Let's get an update on the army and the dragon. With the wind whipping my hair around I take a look at the sights below me. The army is still marching. Their destination seems to be the Tower, they are coming here in a straight line. I can't see any dragons at the moment and the city is covered by clouds. Looking downwards over the edge nets me a white and fluffy view. I think it's about time I come up with a solution to this qi spewing tower.