“Oh, calm down, Varna,” Miriam scoffed at her sister’s overreaction. “It’s just a kid.”

“This kid, is the reason our schemes have been disappearin’ over the past few months!” the receptionist bit back.

At that moment, the little criminal noticed I was there and rolled her eyes at me. She was an incorrigible, unapologetic little shit even when she got caught. “Aren’t you going to save me?”

“Nah, you’re an ungrateful thief. Unlike you, I learn from my mistakes,” I told her.

“Then you’re just like everyone else!” she screamed. She was finally losing her cool; her scowl at me proved that.

August looked unfettered, as was I. Miriam was defeated by Varna’s resolution; it seemed they had their fair share of loss due to the hands of the child. The guy who was just excited about the prototype engine clearly found that this type of thing wasn’t his cup of tea so he just watched from afar with a look of suspension about him.

Varna on the other hand, wasn’t as passive as us. She was fuming, more so than I’d anticipated for I knew not the depths of how important those stolen schematics were to their family. She dragged the kid along and bound her to a chair and was about to call the authorities to report the little thief, but Qora stopped her.

The avatar of space pulled the chair that the girl was tied to over to me, looked me in the eye, and told me, “Deal with it.”

I was confused. August was massively confused. Qora never acted like this before, at all. In fact, I’d never heard her even speak that much. And by the looks of perplexity August gave off, neither did he. After looking at him for advice, he simply shrugged.

Oh, boy. Well, I guess this will be good parent training for me, huh? I unbound the girl, activated Mana Perception and brought her into a void plane with me. “So, it’s just us here. Qora wanted me to do something about it, so I’m doing it.” I leaned back onto a nearby counter, “So, why do you steal?”

“What’s it matter to you anyway? You don’t even care,” the girl folded her arms and huffed. Disobedient and unyielding, but Qora saw something in her.

“You’re right,” I laughed, “I don’t care. So, give me a reason to care. What’s your name?”

She scoped the place out and knew I had total control of the space we were in. Reluctantly, she muttered, “Candace.”

I flicked her forehead, “I can tell when you’re lying, Candace. What’s your real name?”

“It’s, Ylda…”

“Well, that’s a unique one. I’m Eric. So,” I conjured a few tuna-filled puffs, “why do you steal stuff? Is it money?”

She rolled her eyes again, “Obviously. What other reason is there?”

“Some people do it for the fun, you know? So, money, huh?” I took a bite of the puff. “What do you need money for?”

“To survive?” she asked in a rather condescending way.

I lethargic exhale escaped me, “You can be more specific than that, Ylda.”

“I can’t trust you,” she said flatly.

“Well,” I shrugged, “you might not want to trust me, but at this moment, I’m capable of helping you.” I put a hand on her shoulder, “I promise you I won’t tell anyone else,” and started weaving mind magic so she would trust me. “Besides, it’s hard to help you with your problem if I don’t know what the problem is.”

Her face contorted. She was seriously considering telling me, but whatever occurred in her past was bogging her down.

“You know,” I stretched my arms upward, “my dad was a thief too. And he was a damn good one. When he met my mom, he was able to stop and change his life. And then I came along and they lived happily ever after,” I boasted. “But seriously, you suck at stealing. It’s not your–”

“What choice do I have?! I’m a kid! No one’s gonna make me an apprentice anywhere! Even if they do, it’s not enough money for us!”

There it was, a clue. “Who’s us?” I offered her a puff.

Ylda looked at me and rubbed her head in frustration. After almost a minute of silent contemplation, she sighed. She knew dealing with me was better than dealing with the ireful Varna. “My parents went missing. A lot of other people had their parents taken away too. Some of us got a bit of training to be fancy engineers and architects, or blacksmiths, the popular stuff. But others have to pay to learn, and I can’t make enough money to pay for their training, buy food, buy clothes, and all that other stuff, if I don’t steal.”

Hmm, kidnappings? Interesting… “Is it happening in this town only?”

She shrugged. Mana Perception saw that she didn’t lie. In fact, Mana Perception was a little weird when I looked at dwarves for some reason. “Tell you what. I can provide clothing and food, and hopefully shelter too. But I might take a while before I can earn money for the training thing. If I provide these things, will you stop stealing?”

“Well, yeah,” she tapped her cheek in thought. “The only reason I steal is because those of us who work don’t earn enough money.”

That was a reason I was okay with. “I see. Well, don’t worry about it anymore, okay?”

I could see her still tussling with the decision, but she chose to trust me for now. Mind magic did its due diligence. Later into the day, Ylda led me to their shoddy hideout where they all lived. It was an abandoned barn next to a condemned farmhouse outside the town, Reamer. There were a few dozen children, close to fifty of them. Ylda said there were children as young as seven years old, and the oldest was sixteen. Most of the teens worked to provide for everyone else, which basically meant they were robbed of their childhood.

Qora’s fire form around August’s longsword would flicker and lose its rhythm every now and then. She was bothered by it and we had no idea why.

“Well,” I made a clone, “this guy will help you.” With that, I cast Voidport and returned us to Miriam’s workshop.

When we got there, Miriam tried to convince August to protect the Bronzels – her family name – while they transported the new engine to be patented. They were worried about being mugged again, as it wasn’t exactly uncommon for other engineering families to keep track of the others’ progress and plan to steal their plans so that they could claim it was they who invented it.

To have something patented, they would have to go to the closest city, Cogland, by train. August had no problem with the three-day journey, so neither did I. Varna and Miriam began packing their things, but their brother, Thak, stayed behind to continue other projects. It seemed like he was the real engineer. Miriam, the eldest, took the position of family figurehead, and Varna kept them in business by finding customers because she was a very good actress.

We boarded the fancy and detailed locomotive after Miriam almost had a heart attack because of the price of five three-day tickets. Because the engine they made was so heavy, big, and would be considered special cargo because it was on its way to be patented, we had to secure a special area in the train. So, she basically had to pay for five VIP tickets to a special room.

There were your normal seats, which could double as beds after a bit of adjusting. Many of the designs were a notch above the rest. We had our own refrigerator and wines available to us. A special caretaker would deliver our food and drinks to us whenever we so pleased. The damn car even had air conditioning.

Ah, this is so comfy, I stretched and relaxed with a good draft clutched in my hands. Ah, yes, they had a couple kegs with beer in them – because why not?

Unfortunately, we could only relax for the first day. Not-so-bright and early the next morning, some people entered our car and demanded we hand over the engine. They had what looked to be crossbows, but in a much smaller and compact form, probably to get past undetected.

Miriam was very clearly rustled by it. Her sister, Varna, glared at them with seething rage, but she knew better than to go against the words of thugs wielding weapons that could end her life.

The men quickly lost their patience. One of the three fired a bolt next to Varna in attempts to scare us, “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

The threat spurred Varna. “It’s too heavy for us to carry out!” she complained. “The workers did the heavy lifting for us…”

August stretched and trembled like he was having an orgasm, yawned audibly, and stood up. The dwarves towered over him, as moronic as that sounds. But he was unfettered, and why wouldn’t he be? This was August King, the man who exceeded five hundred percent in quintessential energy usage. He ran his fingers through his unkempt hair, “What kind of weapon is this? Looks cool.”

His compliment made one of the thugs raise a brow. The nonchalant way in which he walked towards them made them question if he was a madman. In the first place, they were having difficulties even figuring out what race August was.

“Hold your position!” one of them demanded.

So, he did; August stopped his leisurely advance. He groaned on the inside because he didn’t get close enough to them to use his body as a shield. The robbers would still easily be able to aim at the rest of us, so he shrugged and suddenly turned invisible. Two thugs suddenly fell to the floor after their heads rocked side to side – presumably from a well-placed punch. The third highwayman had his weapon crushed. At that point, August cancelled Invisibility and used space magic to drag the remaining dwarf by his hair. He made it so that the now very regretful man was kneeled before Varna and Miriam.

“Mind doing the lie-detector thing?” August asked me, to which I readily obliged. He then put a hand on Miriam’s shoulder to calm her down a little. “You two may ask him anything you wish. If he lies, Eric will know. Have fun,” he encouraged. He then sprawled himself over the sofa-made-bed again and retrieved an old cloak from his inventory which he used as a sleep mask to fend off the ever-brightening lights of the morning.

After Varna went to town on him – not in the sexual way – he fessed up as much as he could. He was a member of a crime syndicate called Firemoon that operated in all cities, towns, and many villages. But their headquarters was in the capital of Vaingot, Primeforge. He said that he was sent here to do exactly what he just tried to do, which was nothing out of the ordinary for him. Firemoon dabbled in theft, kidnapping, and murder, amongst other things.

According to him, their activities mostly came in the form an independent, pre-emptive strike, or a contractual basis. “This was both,” he said. He explained that the Craghammer family, the most prestigious engineering family paid Firemoon to keep tabs on other engineering families’ work. Firemoon would sabotage any projects that would let the creators rise into stardom. Small projects would be allowed to live. However, something as game-changing as the engine that the Bronzels worked so hard on wouldn’t just be sabotaged or damaged, but stolen so that the Craghammers could add it to their repertoire of devices and strengthen their grip on market monopoly.

So, machines are dwarves’ lovechild, huh?

Throughout our journeys, we learnt about how much cultures could differ, especially in terms of what allowed someone to rise through the social hierarchy. The Virai was physical prowess and duels. The Ingen was intelligence and wisdom. Hyzek valued quint usage. Ulanos was military rank and war. Tyrr was simple on the surface but complicated underneath; but they still had a healthy mix of valuing riches, family and community investment, magic, architecture. They were certainly a developed country, but perhaps that was attributed to their meticulous laws. Yunaris valued their dungeoneers, but dungeoneers were still very separated from normal citizens. People in the world of dungeons would be respected based on which guild they were in and their ranks from the Regulations Committee. The Baruum Empire in Pargat was the most similar to Methelia – they valued their warlocks as Methelia did its mages. T’Ghuuz had a strong emphasis on power – magical or physical.

Every society had their differences. Vaingot valued ingenuity and creativity which would manifest through their machinery. So, for this Craghammer family to destroy, sabotage, and steal the creations of other families, I expected they would be heavily punished if this country’s judicial system was worth anything.

I crossed my leg and leaned back in comfort, “You said you do kidnappings, right? Did Firemoon conduct any in Reamer?”

The hairy criminal winced at the question, but looked at August and decided that rebellion was a foolish thing to indulge in at that point. He nodded, “The higherups don’t tell us why we kidnap who we kidnap. But the Craghammers is our biggest client. So…”

“Our family,” Miriam clenched her fists and glared at him. “Did Firemoon target my family for their kidnappings?”

“Y-yes. But I don’t know where they are. No one who does kidnappings knows what happens to the people after we hand them in.”

Qora suddenly materialised next to August. “Why do dwarves not use magic?”

“We, can’t,” Varna answered.

“You can. Dwarves have proficiency in space magic, I can feel it from most people,” Qora said. She was confused. “Is it because of Burra’s Seal?”

Varna shrugged, “That’s just an old legend. How do you know we can use space magic?”

“I am space magic,” she confirmed.

August patted Qora’s head and she melted, “She means that in a literal sense. She is the manifestation of space magic, the avatar of space, a spirit lord.”

Our dwarven friends had an appalled look to them, which was understandable. Soon, August released the three thugs and we enjoyed the rest of our journey to Cogland. Miriam and Varna spoke with Qora a lot about what she meant by dwarves being capable of magic. Qora questioned them about what they knew concerning Burra’s Seal.

Finally, we got to the city. All manner of moving machinery and buildings as big as the ones in Tyrr amazed us. Hissing streams of steam fizzled out randomly, especially from the city’s transport systems. The streets bustled with scores of people as the day progressed.

We entered a colossal building. The first floor was like a museum with many small inventions on pedestals encased by glass and a little information about the inventor written on it. The ceiling was high, and a few pillars kept it from falling in on us. Miriam walked up to the information desk and successfully patented the engine after she was asked some questions about it and signed some documents.

“Great, so what now?” August inquired.

Varna smiled, “Now we pitch it to manufacturing families and convince them to produce it. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. Just leave it to me.”

“August, Eric,” Miriam pulled our attention, “I don’t know how to thank you for this. If you weren’t with us…”

“Well, I know. Let me touch your body,” I said, quite nonchalantly.

She must’ve grown used to my bullshit because she completely ignored me.

We rented a room for the day and I used that time to copy and merge her cells, so I could add the dwarven race to my belt of nature magic. With Timedial, I finished in no time. Dwarven cells somewhat replicated the effect of the crystal shard mana powerup, without the mana powerup. It didn’t reengineer all my cells, but it did strengthen my skeleton and muscle fibres. My robes were suddenly tighter. I noticed a very clear difference in muscle mass as I grew much closer in the size of guns I had when compared to August.

“I feel a definite increase in strength and durability,” I reported to August.

“Nice! You really needed to lift so–” he suddenly stopped and grinned. “Did you feel that?”

“Feel wha–” I stopped too upon receiving memories of my clone that I left to do Earth-Sky Tower in Yunaris. “Wow!” I began to get excited. “Wait, so what did you get?”

“Well,” he smirked, “another buff to my enchanting. Primary and secondary attributes can now be increased by a percentage of the base attribute instead of a static number!”

“Oh, whoa! Your reward is way more important than mine! What percentage is the increase?” I questioned. We were so excited about the rewards that we didn’t stop to think how our clones were able to complete Earth-Sky Tower in two to three days instead of an entire month.

“Twenty percent!” he boasted with a smug grin.

My eyes popped out, “Holy shit, dude! Do me, do me!”

“Phrasing…” August recoiled. “Well, create some rings or something for us.”

So, I got to creating, but instead of a ring for me, I simply asked him to place all the enchantments on the staff of Scien instead. My reward was mana, but not as much as the first time I got mana from the dungeon. After absorbing two filled gemstones of mana, my base mana power became 1,800%. And now with a 20% increase to that, it became 2,160%.

That meant I was able to stack Purist and Clone one hundred and eight times. I powered up with Purist, but it didn’t go past one hundred stacks. Hmm, so that’s the limit to that spell. Well, it is just a spell after all. I was able to have one hundred and eight clones active, so that’s how I figured out Purist’s limit. I could hardly move a finger with all those stacks of Purist on me, but the sheer amount of magical power coming from me was monstrous.

My maximum mana power went above 10,000%. Hmm, 12,160% max mana power. As I stood there, admiring myself like the vainglorious bastard I was, I felt my mana suddenly began moving differently.

It was a strange feeling, and very soon it began to feel dangerous so I released the stacks of Purist immediately, but that didn’t help a damn thing. Hell’s happening to me? I began to panic a little, but resorted to Renew to calm my mind. It worked, which was nice, but it didn’t help to stop my mana from flipping out. Even mana from my subconscious clone felt like it was changing its rhythm.

My mind was getting fuzzy and my body became a little jumpy.

“Why is your mana evolving?!” Donna interrogated.

Why is it what?