The urge to slap a bitch had never been so strong in Perrin's soul as the Merchant Floriana's daughter drowned on and on about the stupidest shit he'd ever heard. Mazikeen had physically stopped him from outright attacking the daft woman twice already. He'd stopped Mazikeen at least four times himself after the woman had made offhand comments about her "cow tit's." No amount of the woman's mother would shut the dumb slut up. He briefly felt sorry for the Merchant then decided that she should have smothered the child a long time ago.

"I swear lover if I hear her speak about me again, we are going to slaughter the lot of them and go back to the study."

"Maze, calm down. I want to strangle the bent just as much as you do, but we have to do this escort. If we had a choice, we obviously wouldn't be here."

It had been the eighth time they had exchanged similar words since they had met the Merchant and her daughter at the west end of town. They were now a few hours into the journey. The wretched offspring had been insulting everyone in the entourage. She might as well be letting every bandit and monster in a 20 km area know their whereabouts.

He assured Mazikeen that, "Yes, we had to escort the merchant, no we couldn't just kill the daughter, yes we could probably get away with it, and no he didn't think the Merchant would approve of her daughter's death."

"Mother, I can't understand why we would have peasants like this guarding our trip. Mother, are you listening to me? Mother!" The wretched woman screamed.

"What, oh yes yes, sorry, my dear, I drifted off. What were you saying?" Floriana said groggily.

"You never listen to me, mother. I hate being around these…" She shot a look at Mazikeen then reconsidered her words. "I dislike being around the help." Mazikeen smiled maliciously at the frumpy looking elf.

That was another thing that annoyed Perrin about the woman. She was a fat elf and rather homely looking. Her mother was slender, agelessly beautiful, creamy dark tan skin, and with almond-shaped golden eyes. The daughter had a gut with her tits sagging to each side of it, and chicken leg cankles that confused him. It was really killing his well-established fantasy image of the race.

He heard a light ping go off in his head and could see an icon jingling away on the bottom left of his vision. He wasn't sure when that became a thing, but he tried mentally prodding it, and a blue popup appeared.

Body Stage Information Dump: Progress 100/100 % (complete)

Would you like to assimilate the knowledge?

Yes/No

Perrin selected yes, and a new red popup appeared over the first one.

Scanning. Please Wait…

Warning: Due to the current body's anima level, instant transfer is not possible. In order to safely assimilate data, the user will be forced into unconsciousness.

Estimated time of unconsciousness: 7 hours

Assimilation will complete in user's next sleep cycle.

He selected No, and the screen disappeared.

Well, at least it didn't knock me out without warning. I'd probably woken up to Maze having slaughtered the Merchant and her daughter. Guess I'll have to wait till I go to sleep tonight. Maybe Maze will tell me a little about my options. I think I remember something about there being options to choose from for the body stage.

"Maze, what can you tell me about the different body types? My crystal thingy said I'll be unconscious for seven hours once I start the assimilation. Something about lacking anima, whatever that is."

Mazikeen looked pensive at his question before answering. "I suppose that would make some sense. I have been considering this and what I should be able to get away with telling you. Now that you have the information on the body stage. I should be able to help you with some things that are common knowledge to most who grew up on Ascendant planes." She paused for a minute, gathering her thoughts.

"Let us start with anima first. Anima, Mana, Aether, Spirit, Order, Numina, Aura, Ase, Qi, Chi, Ki, Exotic matter, Universal Energy, Planar energy. All of these are different names representing powers that are tangible or esoteric in nature. The reality is that they are all different aspects of the same energy. But that's not quite right either. Our world concluded that it was better to say that they are all the same thing. The individual's perception alters the energy. If the man or woman grows up thinking the mana is used to fuel spells or some other workings, then said person alters the energy to what they know. Are you following me so far?"

"Yeah, that sort of makes sense. The stuff is like clay. We can mold the clay into a pot. It may now be known as a pot, but it's still just clay we shaped together."

"That is close but not exactly correct. It's more like the clay turned into steel. You can do just about anything with the energy if you have the know-how. A good bit of what you can do with anima is closely guarded for good and selfish reasons. That doesn't really pertain to our current topic, though. So to summarize, anima is the energy that permeates throughout all planes, magical or non-magical, to a greater and lesser degree, respectively. It can be altered to almost anything by the user's perception, knowledge, and ability. There are limitations, but that doesn't matter currently."

"Alright, I think I understand. What about affinities? Is that a thing?"

"Personal power-wise, no. I will beat that out of you if you start altering your thoughts towards that limitation. A path or a Mantle is a whole other thing. Let us just say that these two things are reality-bending constants with their own rules and purposes. I'm sorry, Perrin. You will have to ask Dio for that particular information."

"Hey, I appreciate whatever you will give me. That info isn't even relevant to me right now though my inner nerd would love the information."

"Right as long as you know that I would if I could. I just don't want to alter whatever plans that have been put in place for you. I know you aren't… him, but I suspect that he had his reasons. I mean, he could have just left you a data crystal with all the information on it if he really wanted to."

"Journey before destination and what not. He did say he had condensed it all down to building blocks, but it looks like I'm doing it the hard way for now. Okay, sorry for the tangent. You said something about non-magical and magical planes. What does that mean?" Perrin said, kicking a small rock off the road.

"Non-magical plane is generally considered to be a plane that lacks anima density. It's still there, of course. Everything runs on it. They are also heavily restricted and protected to prevent Ascendants from coming in, and just deciding they are now "God." That isn't to say that if the plane can't produce their own Ascendants. Depending on which plane you are on if a person reaches true ascension, they may or may not be able to stay on their home plane. I know very little of why this happens. I'm pretty sure he knew, but that was after we… stopped speaking."

Mazikeen looked off in thought before she continued, "Right, now you know anima but what you don't know is what it does to your body. At the base level, a human takes in the energy as they grow to a certain point in their life. Depending on your race and your plane, the energy slowly decays after you reach full maturity. Our aging process is governed by our organic machinery for humans and how well it does its thing. Basically, our DNA. Do you know about evolution? Okay, good. Now that you understand what anima is and know that all things have it. What do you think happens when an isolated population is put under pressure with anima involved?"

"Mutation?"

"Exactly, that is where the user's perception and anima's ability to be altered by said perception come into play. It's another planar constant, in fact. Every plane will eventually produce a sentient race at some point. Most have thousands. What race it will become depends on the environment. The pressure to survive is usually the driving force. Most semi-advanced civilizations come to this conclusion and base their theories on how their race came into existence around that idea. Some things are true. Some are not. Research is based on evidence. If you lack a key piece of a puzzle, like knowledge of anima, then you may come to less accurate conclusions." Mazikeen thrust a finger out in front of her excitedly. He thought she looked like a professor making a crucial point in the lecture.

Perrin laughed at her, and she grinned. He could tell that she was a scientist at heart. Intelligence had always been an attractive quality to him. He couldn't understand why a man wouldn't want such a trait in their partner. If a person planned to have children with their spouse, he thought it was pretty stupid not to want your partner to be as intelligent as possible.

No reason to screw your kids over before they even get started. I'm all about the looks just as much as the next person. The great thing is though in that department you can get your cake and eat it too. There are billions of people in the world, or at least there was in mine. There is someone with both somewhere. Maze indeed has both. Damn, the woman is insanely beautiful. If we had met on Earth. I would have been trying to put babies in that woman like there was no tomorrow.

Mazikeen tripped on something he didn't see. He reached out to catch and steady the woman. She thanked him, and they continued walking.

I like Mazikeen too. She's that perfect kinda crazy. We get along pretty well, even better than I did with Addison if I am honest with myself. Something always felt off even before the dreams. We had just been together so long that I didn't even realize it till after the fact. Maze, on the other hand, and despite her shortcomings. I could see myself with her. She is just different enough from me that I don't think it would ever get boring. The fact that she's sexy enough to be an FDA approved treatment for erectile dysfunction is just a bonus. She left out the other part that went along with survival, though. Survival and procreation are the driving forces. In another life, I'd worship the ground that woman walked on and pump her…

"Perrin!"

He jumped, startled by Mazikeen's overly loud calling of his name. He turned to see a red-faced Mazikeen. "Hey, sorry, I got lost in my own thoughts there for a sec."

"That's quite all right."

Feeling like he ought to say something about her tripping a moment ago. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you don't have to be so embarrassed about tripping back there. It happens to us all." The woman went even redder before she said, "What… What are you talking about? Oh… yes, that. Silly me, haha."

"It's okay, Maze. I don't judge." He wouldn't look down on her if she weren't that horizontally inclined.

Speaking of horizontally inclined. I wonder how good she is in…

"The body stage," she said rather loudly, causing him to lose his train of thought again. Perrin turned back to her to listen.

"The body stage is all about the beginning process of enhancing your body to its ideal shape. All minor flaws that you have will slowly fade away as you get a genetic make-over. This happens gradually over the years. When you achieve Unity, you actually can change things about yourself physically. Unity is more than just unity with your path but absolute control over your body at all levels. I digress."

Well, I guess plastic surgeons are out of the job in ascendant planes.

"Your movements become anima enhanced, but the mind and soul stage is needed if you want to be able to keep up with the more superhuman aspects that anima infused muscles give you. A crucial thing about the body stage is that you gain physical defense, although the names aren't literal. For instance, a body like stone should mean that you possess an entire body, organs, and all that are stone hard. It's not the case. You become very sturdy, though. Depending on what type you pick decides how sturdy you become."

"You also gain regeneration mid-way through this stage. Given enough time, your body will repair itself from external and internal injury. Some body types are actually geared towards this aspect, but not many. It's really a waste because, in the third stage, your body will heal itself from almost anything." Mazikeen joined Perrin in his game of kicking rocks off the road.

"You can actually only achieve certain body types by progressing through set body stage paths. You want a body like a diamond, then you will have to start with some equivalent of stone and progress from there. I'm speaking about the ancient methods. New things have been established that can make this part hassle-free. We aren't in that world, and Dio is a fucker, so the hard way it is."

"I've worked for everything I've had so far in my life. Why change now." Perrin did believe that. Still, right now, he wanted one of those handy dandy microwave options instead. He wouldn't chide himself on that either. He was standing at the foot of an insurmountable summit.

If I could take a helicopter to even part of the way up, you can bet your sweet ass I’d be on it.

"There are all different types. Adamantine, Heart-stone, Mithril, stone, poison, and so on. They all have neat things about them and are more or less relevant depending on where or when you started ascending. Suppose you began to ascension in an environment of political intrigue. In that case, you might consider obtaining poison body first to protect yourself. Suppose you were born on Haliaxe, where they constantly war against their neighboring nations. In that case, the heartstone or adamantine body might be something that you would want. The main point is that there are endless options, and they only serve you during your climb. Once you make it to the top, they become less relevant. What they all have in common is an anima enhanced body, which is necessary for the completion of the mind and soul stage."

"So pick your favorite color, basically."

"Yeah, that's how I see it anyway. It's been thousands of years since I went through the process. I did go through it the hard way, though. It was the only way taught at our… my academy."

Ignoring the hitch, Perrin pushed onto a change in subject. "So, exactly what's going on that has you barred from achieving Unity? You don't have to tell me and forgive my rudeness if it's impolite."

She waved away his concern, "It's fine. I don't really know a hundred percent why. I was supposed to gain assistance from… it's part of the reason I changed sides. I was offered help shortly after I had a falling out with my friends. The assistance never came directly, but I gained access to knowledge that is forbidden. After researching that information, I discovered that you needed to lack certain things, on a fundamental level, about yourself to even touch the path. The realization was difficult for me to accept. I consider myself one of the "good guys." However, the information I found says otherwise. I'm reasonably confident that I unwittingly gave away a part of myself I didn't realize was precious. I refuse to give the thing anymore, which is why I suspect I can't achieve Unity. There is a reason some things are forbidden."

Perrin could tell that she had suffered considerably for what sounded like nothing more than scientific curiosity. On the other hand, she had full knowledge that she was playing with powers on a cosmic scale. He wasn't sure what he would have done in her place. He liked beating the odds when he could. He'd done it more times than he should be comfortable with.

I can't fault the woman for it, though. We are talking thousands of years of punishment here. Her friends turned their back on her, and it was so bad that she flipped a side in the war. I think it's time to try to get her to set that burden down. I'm still pissed at her, but we can put that one down, too, tonight. She is more fragile than she acts, and with good reason, it seems.

Perrin looked ahead as they trudged up a decent size hill. He looked over at the carriage that was carrying the two "VIP's." The frump master had finally decided to shut up and take a nap. Her snores were loud and the drool coming out of her mouth was disgusting.

He'd done a few escort missions during college summer breaks to earn money with a mercenary outfit one of his battles had linked up with. Some of those people were pretty bad, but this bitch here was next level. He'd be refusing any quest like this again if he could help it. The legacy rich weren't always cock suckers but damn if the ones that were didn't overshadow them all. He thought if he ever made it out of this shit and were able to have kids, he'd have them shoveling shit in stables or chicken houses every summer. Entitlement and new-age parenting practices were not doing his country any favors.

Shaking his head, he kept walking. He'd been scanning the area in random intervals since they started, but he hadn't seen anything suspicious. The land in this place was gorgeous. A few wooded areas that shaded the road as they passed through had been picturesque. He didn't recognize any plant life, but it wasn't so foreign that it disturbs him. The weather was perfect, and the breeze was slightly crisp.

Reaching the top of the hill Perrin's heart stopped at what he saw. He looked out on a forest of vast darkness. It did not look natural at all. The surrounding area was beyond breathtaking in its vibrant colors, but the ink stain made his stomach clench in fear. The road ran right through the only piece of it that looked relatively thin. Outside that narrow strip, the thing just kept going and going on both sides.

"Dear gods, is that the forest the quest warned us about," Mazikeen asked.

Her face looked about the same as what Perrin thought he was. Their charges kept trucking along the road without them like there wasn't some evil forest right in front of them. It made him feel a little better about the situation. If they weren't so concerned about the void black centennials, then he thought they might be okay. He grabbed Mazikeen by the arm so they could catch up to the carriage.

"How far away do you think we are from it, Maze."

"I'm guessing that we will be right outside the thing by sundown."

"Not much we can do, I suppose. How long do you think it would take you to scout the way to a campsite and back. Doing that ninja thing you do" He hopped up on one foot in his best flying crane pose and gave a kick at some phantom enemy making a "WHAAA" sound. Mazikeen burst out into fits of giggles at his ridiculous display.

He chuckled too, then said, "What! You disappear like a ninja. You know what a ninja is, right?”

"Yes, Perrin, I know what shinobi are. Been around for thousands of years, and pretty much every plane. I doubt you actually know what real shinobi are like though."

"Well, when I think about the crap I've seen so far, combined with my knowledge of anime and manga. I'd say I have a pretty good idea."

"Aren't those for children? Little animated cartoons and picture books" She snickered at him, and Perrin's face transitioned through horrified expression before landing on offended.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that as some things cannot be forgiven" Mazikeen laughed at him again, and he thought she had a beautiful laugh.

"ANYways, shinobi one, how do you do your little disappearing act."

"I have no clue what you're talking about," She grinned.

"Come off it now. It can't be teleporting. That should leave some popping sound from displaced air. So it has to be something else."

"Perrin, dear, you know absolutely nothing about teleporting"

"Well, explain it to me."

"It's actually commonly known as shifting. You wouldn't believe me if I tried to explain it to you right now."

"Try me," He scowled at her.

"You turn your body into digital packets and travel along a pipeline of information called the feed. Then you appear at the address you requested to be at." She smiled a little too wide, and he thought she was full of horse shit."

"I'm pretty sure you just said teleporting is like sending a fax. You're right. I don't believe you."

She shrugged like she knew he'd say that, "I'm not sure what a fax is, but you made my point. No, I wasn't "teleporting" . What I was doing is called quick-step. It's a movement technique. I like using it because it doesn't disturb the environment around you. There are actually a couple of different ways to do it, but that one is basic. Even you could," she shut her mouth as it looked like a light bulb clicked on in her head.

"Even I cou..." she put a finger over his mouth to shhh him and mouthed, "tonight" He nodded that he understood. He didn't know what she was going on about, but it put him on edge. Mazikeen clearly just came up with something, but she didn't want to say it out loud. Were they being watched by someone? He looked around, scanning the hillside they were walking down, but he saw nothing out of place.

He started to ask her about it, but she beat him to the punch, "I'm going to go scouting ahead and find us a camping spot for tonight. Stay with the carriage," She added silently at the end, "Act normal," which he nodded to. Then she was gone.

That's the second time she has kept me from talking. This time I'm confident that she was worried about being overheard. No, that's not right, or it is but not exactly what she was going for. She wasn't sure someone was listening, and she stopped her train of thought intentionally. That first time it was like she was in a rush to get me to agree, and she didn't want me to talk to Zimon first either. There is something there between the two episodes. That laugh after I accepted her prices … There's something there.

Perrin gave his head a shake and put the thoughts out of his mind for the moment. He knew that she would tell him what was going on at camp. He could wait till then.

***************

The carriage arrived at the campsite just before the sun had set behind the giant creepy forest. Mazikeen had returned but not said much of anything since her abrupt departure. The sleeping troll of an elf had woken up from her sawmill slumber to fly into a temper tantrum immediately. He found out from one of the other house guards accompanying them that her name was Agatha. He promptly changed it to Hagatha in his mind. The guard had told Perrin about the reason behind the escort mission. Hagatha was to be married in the next town.

Hagatha's family had paid a rather large dowry to get rid of the woman. Unsurprisingly the daughter had been causing significant issues in the Merchant family's business, insulting clients leading them to start losing favor with the town's governor. They had needed to get rid of the woman as fast as possible, so they had struck a deal with a neighboring Jacu Merchant family.

A marriage contract that had cost half the wealth of the family. Perrin wasn't surprised by the gossip. He had hated the horrid elf abomination after only three minutes of meeting her. The blue demon guard had been a chatty fucker, but Perrin had liked him well enough. Soldiers were the same everywhere it seemed. He was just happy they didn't need to worry about taking turns at night watch.

He swapped out of his armor for the more comfortable toga. He looked over as Mazikeen did the same. She hadn't been wearing the same armor that she had put on in the Toggi's shop. Perrin thought about how it looked. The more he considered it, the more he felt that armor looked sinister. It looked unnatural somehow and gave him an uneasy feeling just thinking about it.

"What's the deal with the armor worn in the shop?"

"That armor is part of my path."

"It was… impressive."

"It's disgusting, but if I need to go all out, I have to wear it."

Cringing at his statements, he said, "Sorry for bringing it up."

Then he nudged Mazikeen playfully with his shoulder to get her attention off it, "You know, I don't think we have a tent or anything. The supplies the carpetbagging fuck gave me has some type of timer on it before it will be available."

"That sounds strange. Why does it have a timer."

"I'm not sure, but the sword art and whatever the other thing was also had a timer. I'm guessing those can be explained because they are something similar to the Body crystal. Not sure why the supplies would work that way."

"Maybe. An instant transfer without enough anima does sort of make sense." Mazikeen didn't sound convinced by her own words, but she continued, "Doesn't really matter though. I'm here with you, so unless a team of individuals shows up at my power level, you should have time to make use of the information once you get it. As to supplies, let's move over here."

Perrin followed the woman over to a small wooden shack that sat a little outside camp. He thought it was an outhouse due to its size and the camping site looking well worn down. Mazikeen opened the door to the small building and ushered him inside the park entrance.

"Maze, why are you trying to get me to go inside a shitter with you."

"Just go inside, lover, and you will see.” She winked at him mischievously.

"You have some strange tastes" He shook his head but walked through the entrance.

The moment he crossed the threshold, a spacious bedroom replaced the previous darkness. He turned around to see Mazikeen shutting the door. He could still see out of the door and even hear the guards chatting as they continued setting up the cloth tent. The bedroom was very feminine in style, with a large four-post bed. A bathtub sat off in the left corner in a tiled area with a small sink. There were nicknacks and other random things scattered around the walls on shelves and a chest of draws with a mirror attached. He thought the place felt homie and personal.

"But… how? This is amazing. Is this like the study?"

"No, I don't have a personal pocket dimension of my own, although your study may be something entirely different. This is a Shrunk. I don't completely know how it works other than the room has been compressed to a very tiny space. When you walk through the door, you too become tiny. I picked up this novelty in a plane that specializes in spatial magic. This is my home away from home. At least when I'm off galavanting the planes and don't have time to return to my home. Nifty right?"

"I mean, yeah! I had been trying to access the study since we started on the trip. I was able to call the golden door just right outside of town, but the moment we got on the western road, it felt like the study was being blocked somehow. It just gives me a headache when I try."

"Well, we knew that we probably wouldn't be able to use it. Plus, we do have to stay with the escort, so we can't leave anyway. I killed anything that would be a threat to us up to this point while I was scouting. And before you start on me, know that they would have killed you and everyone else easily."

Perrin was about to start bitching at her about kill stealing. He wanted to see what happened if he leveled up. There had to be something, or why else would the screen have given him levels. He ached to look at those stats more closely and see how they worked.

He stopped his scowl and said, "Fine, but I need to fight something in my range of power. I need to understand how this place works. It was designed to power level me. I'm pretty sure that my level and stats have some type of tangible benefit. There is no other reason to give me a screen like that unless it actually helped me in some way. Wait a sec, do you have a status screen."

Mazikeen's face became guarded, "I'm sure I have something similar to your own. What do you see when you look at your screen."

"It's pretty simplistic. I have an inventory tab, a character tab, and a status tab, which looks like a summary with my level, stats, and skills. There are other things, but they are blurred and greyed out. I'm not sure why."

"It sounds familiar. They are probably greyed out because you aren't supposed to be able to access that until you have touched a path. I know of devices that do that, but there aren't many floating around. The plane they originated on was destroyed, and the knowledge on how to make them was lost."

"So it's actually a rare item, kinda like the wine. Neato. What do you see? Do you have levels too? Wait, don't tell me. I don't think the gamer in me can take that level gap right now," He said sullenly. He was serious too. He did not want to see some ridiculous level, probably with some type of prestige rank on it. The sound of the three stages felt much more doable. Right now, though, he had levels to grind, and he wanted to see how they worked.

Mazikeen patted him on the shoulder, "Yes, there seem to be quite a few things in this place that shouldn't be around. But to answer your question, lover. What I see is something like what you see, except I don't have levels on mine. Which is not surprising. This place was made for you, not me."

"If you say so. Okay, enough standing around. Maze, I need to kill some monsters, preferably ones that can't one-shot me with a single blow. I need to see how leveling up affects me and start working out the game mechanics. Do you think you can find something like that around here?"

"I could do that, or we could," and she gestured behind Perrin. He turned his head on reflex and then felt warm silky hands start running down his stomach.

"MAZE," he said warningly.

"Oh, you're no fun, lover," she chided playfully as she let go.

"We barely know each other, Maze. I'm not a modest prude, but I don't think it would be a healthy thing to do right now. I'm also still mad at you, and we need to talk about what you did to me the other day" She lost her playful grin after that.

He was still angry with her, but it had mostly faded at this point. The long hike and companionable banter between them had done wonders on his attitude towards her. He felt like they were growing a good friendship, and he didn't want to complicate it with the vixen's tempting offers.

"Look, let's go tell the guards that we are going to patrol the area and get this over with. Then we come back and talk."

"Okay, lover," she said.

Accessing his inventory and dragging his armor to his smiling avatar. Perrin accepted the change. He also equipped Gertha. Catching sight of part of his get up in the mirror, he walked over. Perrin smiled at what he saw.

He looked badass. He pulled the hood of the dark smoke-colored cloak over his head and gaped. His face seemed to disappear under the cowl. It looked creepy as hell and a little domineering. He loved it.

He turned to Mazikeen to see her watching him admiring himself in the mirror. "How do I look."

"Delicious," she said in a sultry tone and started walking towards him in that graceful alluring way she moved.

He put his hand out for her to stop, "Easy, easy, down, Maze, down. You can admire the manliness all you like but no touchy. Come on, get geared up, and let's go."

As he walked by her reached out and gave her tight rump a swat and copped a feel. She yelped and went for him, but he shot out the door calling over his shoulder. "That was for earlier" She could have caught him, but she let him get away, for which he was thankful. The woman deserved a little teasing herself.