Owtz Eerth's POV(Age: 4213):

I decided to put a small hold on my very crucial soul research to focus on studying the new metal from that rod that I had gotten in quite the fortunate encounter.

Ahh....

I think back to the mana crystal I still have in my pocket dimension, and how that god must have forgotten to come to claim his trade. I can't tell if he is a genius or a fool, I have far better crystals I could have offered so I had planned to start small and work my way up to something actually decent. But he ended up settling for trash.... but at the same time, he also made this marvelous rod! I have named the metal 'Owtz Gold' since it shows some of my best qualities.

The hardness is an 11 or higher (I'm having a hard time trying to determine it exactly). Since no matter what I find, be it steel or diamond... it can easily tear right through it with little force. The metal itself is also extremely light. I would expect something like this to weigh at the very least 3lb's. But it actually has no weight at all... it's almost like it doesn't exist. but the mana I see from my passives running is clear proof that it does.

The only problem is melting it. I have a blast furnace made and powered by magic (which allows me to push the temperature all the way to around 3000 degrees Celcius. Which should be far more than enough to melt ordinary gold, but it continues to do nothing.

As expected of Owtz Gold... Since such low temperatures wouldn't be able to do anything to me as well... The only thing I can think of that would be too hot for me (shocking right?) is potentially is a sun, but even then... I'm not sure if it would be able to melt this.

I pull out all the stops in my lab, it begins to look less like a cave and more like a generic scientist's wet dream. Books lie scattered across the floor, tons of different rocks, and minerals all messily resting about. With oh so many test tubes that use a special magic barrier instead of glass to test elements and various characteristics surrounding me, mostly being used for heat reaction test.

It's only been 3 years, and I have found a suitable combination to use as a bit of insurance in case things backfire. I don't plan to put myself in any real danger though, I'll simply make a few copies of myself to carry out the mission. But I will need us to be able to work and stay in such temperatures for a prolonged period of time. Which is a little tricky, even for someone as great as me. I imagine the great one could do it with the snap of his fingers though.... he's been acting pretty funny lately... I can feel the huge disturbances in mana (his mana pool is insane, even when you compared it to me). He usually doesn't spend this much time down here in the mortal realm, I wonder what the deal is with that?

Using the excess amount of hellstone I have from my past experiments in combination with hafnium (very similar to zirconium) as well as mana locked nitrogen to fill in the air spaces. With a carbon insulator... I have created a cube.

Yes a cube.

The cube that is going to break me through another level! expand my horizons! I think to myself while rubbing the golden rod. This cube will serve as a sort of new personal lab (I will still be sending out my copies to test its safety first). I call this combination of elements 'Owtz Hellstone', Even stronger then hellstone... sadly it can withstand more heat then I can(although I'm working on quite the spell...) so it puts me to shame a bit in that regard.

With a combination of a few spells I think I can withstand being close to the sun.... but for how long I don't know, and I mainly want to be able to keep it hot (which the cube will be even though it should be able to hold), so I can work with the liquid.

This rod has had an interesting reaction to my soul shrine, so I plan on using 'extract essence' on it.... which should make it a permanent part of me. I just need it to be in liquid form.

I salute myself before I send the copies off...

Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary from the shared views I get back from my clones. So I decided to head there as well. 'Fire Immunity' 'Blast Protection' 'Fire Protection' 'Pressure Immunity' 'Physical Nullification' 'Body of the Phoenix'. I also place a 'soul bind' on a body of one of my standards I keep deeper underground. Body of the phoenix is based on an old legend I had fought in the dream realm... I especially prepared this spell for today.

Let's do this!

I teleport there and take the box with the golden rod in it.

The cube is almost touching the sun.... the inside of our cube is extremely hot.... and continues to get even more so... even with the magic cooling and Owtz Hellstone.... we are getting to temperatures of over 4000 Celcius.... some of the hellstone on the clones are melting... I'm obviously fine since I have the body of the phoenix activated. Which should make me immune t-

...

The cube evaporates away and everything around me disappears... I am surrounded by some type of gas cloud

I-Impossible! Even with the body of the phoenix.... which should make me 100% immune to heat... my mana pool is going down extremely fast. At the rate it's draining I would have to be sitting in the equivalence of 2 million celcius!!!! I am getting blasted away from the sun... WHAT THE FUCKKK!!!!

I quickly snap out of my panic, my years of battle and triumph in my ever lower and lower exploration of the abyss of magic were not for nothing. I remember the goal and grab the golden rod... it's slightly mushy...

even in this heat.... it still hasn't melted... my mana pool begins to drain at twice the speed! It's now depleting faster then it would take for me to keep time frozen...

The golden rod on my hand begins to become a liquid

NOWS MY CHANCE!!!!

'extract essence'

The liquid seeps into my skin, I only have a few pools of mana left... I make my retreat. Be glad sun! you have forced me back.... but I've already gotten my use out of you!!! 'teleport'

I return to my lab and immediately everything starts exploding, melting, and falling apart. I keep falling deeper and deeper into the ground, but with the smile on my face, right now... you wouldn't think I had just lost many years of work, you would think I just became a god.

I fall into a deep sleep(The first time I've slept in sooooo long).

Incredibly interesting. Ever since I have become one with Owtz Gold... I have been able to actually manipulate my soul as easily as mana. I was able to do basic strengthening of it before, but this adds so many possibilities! It seems to also affect more than just my soul manipulation abilities... my mana pool before could be compared to oceans, now it can be compared to planets! I'm even able to see souls now....without needing to use any spells... Great One... you better prepare yourself for our next battle!

What an incredibly interesting metal! Even if I leave this body and enter a new one... the effects still persist.

Muahahhahaha... I had thought my soul research was on hold, but this was really the breakthrough I had needed.

Even creatures deeper in the dream realm should be no match for me now!

My hearts begin to tremble as I become so excited about the future.

Owtz Eerth's POV(Age: 736):

I have actually found an interesting planet! It has so much mana in its atmosphere as well.... my mana begins to regenerate (I start to feel more at ease, I had been getting too far out... so a recovery station is a welcome discovery).

One half of it was full of luscious forest that went on and on. In the center of this forest that looked too uniform to have grown randomly was a fountain...

I tried digging under the fountain and moving it to various places... even drinking the water from it. But I did not get any reaction or insights from it. With that, I left the forest. In hopes that the other side of the world would be just as interesting. The other side of the world was almost a perfect parallel(with weird obsidian pyramids instead of trees). I spent a few weeks flying around making sure there was nothing else of interest. When In a circular clearing I had found an obsidian fountain (the other one had been made out of wood). I wonder how a world like this had come to exist.

This time I felt a huge urge to drink the lava in the fountain, it was almost like it was calling my name. I don't like being told what to do, so I resist...but I had begun to lose control of my body.

I hear inside of my head 'yEes!!! yEes!!! Whhat aA fIine HOost!'. I didn't like where that was going but I am losing control and slowly begin to walk towards the fountain, I then stop and cup my hands to bring the lava to my mouth. I try to think of a spell that would get me out of the situation (but this was before I became obsessed with making hundreds upon hundreds of spells, or even had the ability to do so... during this time in my life creating a spell was a very time-consuming process).

I drink the lava... and get to experience my first ever battle

Owtz Eerth's POV (Age: 178):

I have spent so many years working on a single spell called 'fly'. But once I had started teaching people it, they started to act like I wasn't even the creator... nobody wanted to fund my potential or help me with my experiments. People would merely memorize the runes of the mind without trying to actually understand the fundamental concepts behind the spell. It made me absolutely sick. I couldn't stand it and used the spell I had spent so much of my time working on (that the people had spit on) and left my planet to explore what was beyond it.

I did not care if nobody took an interest in my life's work

I did not care if people looked at magic as merely a tool

I just wanted to go deeper, and staying in this safe haven will not let me do that.

I want immortality.

People may be busy enjoying fine food and marveling at their crafts of entertainment. But I was always working on the next spell, always pushing the body that defied all laws of the land (that everyone seemed to take for granted). People did not want to experience pain, even if it would lead to growth.... people were too happy with themselves as they were, while I seemed to be the only one worried about the days our bodies made of minerals and tougher then most substances would start to crumble and fall apart!

'You worry too much Owtz! The Great One has said we should be able to live somewhere between 5000-10000 years!'

'By the end, I imagine I will be tired of existing at that point....'

'What would be the point in living forever?'

They didn't see the issue

They did not see the problem

The flow of time is a very consistent thing, but our perception of it is very biased.

By the time I was 200 years old, I begin to notice a week would feel like a day, and a day would barely feel like an hour. I brought this up with the first generation of humans(the generation I had 'grown-up' with. But they merely laughed at the theories I presented.

'You need to add variety to your life, if you do the same thing every day... of course the days will pass you by!'

(It wasn't until waaaay later that people started to worry about this, I seemed to have caught it quite early on... even in the future people do not see magic as the solution... and are afraid to leave the planet).

My fly spell was not fast enough though... I could only move a little bit faster than light at the time. My first planet I had found after traveling for what felt like a few minutes (likely a few hours). While being huge it was a barren desert... I did not find anything interesting. My second planet took me a few hours to get to (likely days). It was a kinda malleable mineral... I collected a sample of it (and decided to spend a few weeks exploring the planet). I did not find anything interesting.... my next planet took me a few years to get to... I had kinda thought I had found everything there was to be found (Oh, how wrong I was). It was mostly gas and its surface was completely liquid... I moved on shortly afterward. While I didn't find the next one for nearly a century.... during that time I set up runes in my mind that should theoretically allow me to teleport. The only problem was the amount of mana that I had, I could hold about 50 gallons of mana (which is actually a little below average). But compared to an animal I'm a freak (most living things besides humans barely have a teacup of mana). This planet had no surface and was merely a gas planet... my mana was able to regenerate here though.

While my flight spell barely uses any mana at all... after all these years of flying around, I am running low (my mana stopped regenerating the moment I left Gante). When I was on the gas planet it started to regenerate again (which is pretty odd). I planned to study this phenomenon later and set a course back for home (I realized at this point that I was starting to get closer to a giant ball of plasma, that I have yet to name).

Owtz Eerth's POV (Age: 389):

As I draw closer to Gante, bitter feelings begin to resurface out of me. I'm only about halfway there... I've made sure to stop and recheck all of the planets in my passing.

A sudden flash of inspiration strikes me... I have about 27 gallons of mana left. This may be a bit risky... but what if I were to try teleporting back to that gas planet I had found!!

I'm a little scared of the potential outcome but decide to not ease myself into it and cast 'teleport'

I lose 10 gallons of mana (when flying would take 50ish years and at least 23 Gallons from my location)... the problem is only my arm was transported.... my arm slowly regenerates back... and I sit there in space while in deep thought.

I have 17 gallons of mana left... there's no way I'll make it back! The only option left is for me to refine my teleportation spell.... so I sit there trying to make the spell work properly.

Owtz Eerth POV(Age: 413):

Everything is as close to perfect as I expect to ever get it. I now only have 16 gallons of mana (I had to use some for some very small test, to get my accuracy up). It's a good thing my body does not require anything at all to sustain itself besides mana (this applies to all humans, yet they are still scared to explore).

Here goes everything!

'teleport'

I only lose 5 gallons of mana (the spell became more accurate after making a few adjustments). I ended up near the outer layer of the gas planet... my mana is pretty steadily recovering. After a few minutes its completely refilled (far faster regeneration then on Gante).

'teleport'

I teleport back to my previous location with now 45 gallons of mana to use... Using the teleport from here to the gas planet and back as an example... I push forward (and teleport along the path I had taken here back towards Gante). I am now at 40 gallons of mana left. Although close to the atmosphere of Gante...

I could report back on what I've found...

But I'm the one that risked everything for this...

Nobody helped me...

Someone else will eventually do what I've done.

I don't feel like stopping at Gante, so I teleport two more times, as I get down to 20 mana I teleport back to the gas planet

it only takes 10 gallons (I figured it would take more). I repeat this cycle... while the cost to teleport back increases (slower than expected) as I get further out I continue on this path... and improve my spell more and more with each use.

I continue this cycle of abusing this spell to the max and retreating. Moving at speeds I never could have wished for with my previous method of travel.

There were times when I thought I couldn't go any further

But I did

There were time when I nearly ran out of mana

But I persisted

If I could not teleport I would fly

If I could not fly, I would swim

I WOULD LET NOTHING STOP ME!!!

I would go further and further, no longer relying on the gas planet to recover mana (I simply don't have enough mana to teleport that far). I had a map in my mind of all the planets I had found that allowed me to recover mana. I would go to the nearest one and repeat this cycle...

over... and over...

Owtz Eerth's POV(Age: 736):

I can feel a foreign entity invade my body... but then I no longer feel its presence.

I get flashbacks to the day I was born (from the amphalos pods). Unlike animals, we are not born from biological means... we come from special parts of Gante. I was among the first generation of humans born. The first generation was born with a natural ability to understand language.

There were only 20 of us, we already had a few cities to start with.... (The Great One had shown up very quickly, and called it a 'welcoming gift'... and then promptly left). Every 10 years another 20 were born.... but to me it seemed they just got more dumb as time went on(we had to teach them how to communicate). Unlike animals, we do not need much at all to survive... so not a single person (as far as I know) has perished even to this day.

But who knows? Maybe I will actually be the first to die.

Maybe I made a mistake leaving Gante

I will probably die alone...

Noone will remember me

I shake my head

This isn't right, and these are not my thoughts!

I should just give up now

If I cooperate, I'll become an unrivaled existence

Hahahhahahaha

I laugh within my own mind, but then use every bit of will power I have to move my mouth

"DOo you THINK I give a fuck about your offer?"

You can become an immortal, don't you want to be free to research?

I don't know who this thing thinks it is talking to, I don't even know what this is. But if it thinks it can sway me with these empty promises it's got another thing coming. I then shout within my mind.

I am OWTZ EERTH! If you want my respect you will need to earn it! Get out of my body now... I'll give you to the count of three.

Muhahahaha, or what?

I do not respond back, I smash my hand into my chest and rip out the stasis!

The pain makes me regret it a little bit... I'm hoping this thing shares my senses as well.

Ahhh! What are you doing!?

The hole in my chest begins to regenerate. But I act quickly and smash my hand straight through my head... pulling out my prose. I can no longer see... and start to lose a bit of my reasoning.

Aragarvodas!???!?!

I keep one arm in the center of my head (while holding a heart crystal as well as my prose in that same hand). While the other arm is through the center of my chest...holding my heart crystal and stasis. I still have 4 smaller brains to work with, but the intruder continues to linger

I fall into the ground...

Stop! I'll give you an even better deal... you'll get full control!

Listen kid, you remind me of myself! I'll spare you... just let me go!!!!

Throw up the lava, you'll free both of us!

I lay there in the ground.... unable to really do anything.

I do not trust his deal... and so

I wait

Owtz Eerth's POV(Age: 739):

The voice continued to try to reason with me... but I was having none of it. It became more and more quiet and then eventually disappeared completely...

I pulled out both of my arms and regenerated my brains as well as my heart crystals.

....

That was an experience I suppose...

I then begin to do what I had previously done to the water fountain but to this new one (besides drinking the lava of course). When I lift up the fountain I see a very deep hole. But before I could even go into it. all of the pyramids around me begin to rise out of the ground, forming obelisk's everywhere.

Curious I watch them slowly rise.

A sort of field shoots out of the one that rises the highest, and I feel a horrible pain in my side. Far worst then what I felt when I ripped out my stasis. I fall over.... and realize that half of my body has been destroyed. Along with the creation of a huge crater in the ground that extends across the clearing to the towers.

The hole is still there though...

I try to teleport away... but it does not work.

I see purple spots of light flash... whenever they hit me that part of my body simply disappears, with a variation of an orange blast that simply causes the entire area to explode. I am not able to fly off the planet and end up doing awkward dodges and running off into more obelisk.... getting constantly vaporized (but then regenerating and carrying on). Sometimes I'm hit a few times and am left with nothing but a hand, head or a foot.

This continues for a little while... before I give up and make my way back to the hole...

Throwing caution to the wind I jump down it

Hopefully more things won't hurt me down there (how wrong I was).

Owtz Eerth's POV(Age: 4232):

"Muhahahahahhaah"

It's been pure hell living in this dream realm (it's not really a realm I should say, but to teleport to my lab from here would be impossible... I have a special shortcut I found while exploring planets a long time ago... this place is far outside of my original galaxy).

This monster makes the other existences I've fought seem like a joke! But as nearly anything that picks a fight with me.... it had to lose.

"I beat the legendary Nightmare! With it's own Death Magic!!!!!!"

This isn't the first one I have fought. The first one was a lot tougher because of my lack of experience... its attacks are...

let's say unique....

I have been trying to copy its main one, which I have named 'death'. It actually killed me the very first time it hit me, that was quite the shock... I turned out to be the first person to die(twice at that) of my people it would seem.

Hahaha

My manapool has recently gotten a tiny bit bigger, so I decided to splurge and quickly make a few new spells... one of them is a sort of dead mans hand, that turns back time the moment my soul is detected to have left the universe. I'm actually able to rewind time now! But it's only by a few moments, but I much prefer this to having to switch into one of my bodies stored in the lab. Sadly this passive takes about 1 Gante's worth of mana on every use... (My mana stores are about three times the size of Gante). Judging from what I have seen from Gorgo.... I would say I'm close to catching up to him (and my pool continues to grow at an insane speed).

'teleport'

I stop the god from flying into yet another mountain.... I'm surprised a simple wind attack (not even in the form of a spell, I've begun to dabble a bit with using the soul as a form of mana) seemed so effective against him.

He didn't really contribute much at all, I was never in any real danger.... it is a bad time for him to have teleported to me though... this is the one place I don't feel comfortable with anybody knowing anything about.

I am running relatively low on mana...luckily I can simply temporarily copy someone elses soul and deplete that version of it to exchange it for mana if I feel the need. Or even just take a few bits of my soul and turn it into mana... I'm quite the cheaty existence I would say. But he clearly does not have a soul.

Should I fight him? I need to lead him away from this spot... five nightmares are born here everyday... I don't really feel like dealing with that again.

I also haven't collected a single core yet from these guys (while I the silencer I killed earlier dropped one on the first fight!). So I haven't been able to add another one to the good old list of body spells.

I do have a slight phobia of someone finding this place and making my hunts less efficient...

Maybe I should fight him? I mean... The Great One kicked my ass, but that was then. This is now.... I'm feeling confident.

"It's been a little while huh?"

Gaia's POV:

"Yes, I was busy with trying to figure out how to bring my body here"

The look Owtz gives me, makes me flinch... just a little bit

"Let me get this straight..."

"You spent half a century trying to figure out how to teleport?"

My response is a given

"I still don't know how to teleport...."

Please don't look at me like that!

Oh I know!

Before I can say anything a grey ball of energy with static flying around it begins to form in Owtz's hand

He slowly walks towards me.....

He's joking right?

Please be joking....

Why!?!

"Wait! Wait! I managed to bring my actual body over though! Now I can learn how to do magic right!?"

I still really want to be able to do the whole portals thing....

and teleporting

don't forget inventories... I want my own little dimension to store things in as well.

Why does magic get all the cool things!

The glare of a predator quickly flashes through the eyes of Owtz, but is soon replaced with a smile. He claps his hands slightly and the energy ball disappears. He then says

"Meh... I was just joking."

"Let's leave, and head to your body. I'll give you an even better mana crystal then agreed upon"

There was a better one?

I thought they were rare

Free Upgrade!

"Sweet!"

"Follow me"

Search

I get a feel for my location and start to head in its direction. But am quickly stopped by a cube that blocks me off.

Owtz says to me

"You're in a false body right? I wasn't able to feel any huge souls because we are pretty far out"

"We won't be able to travel to your body in any reasonable time I imagine"

"Since I didn't notice you, there's no way your anywhere even close to this galaxy. We should try the origin galaxy"

The cube disappears and he holds out his hand.

"What are you staring at, grab my hand..."

"Ah... right."

I take his hand and am instantly underground.

There is a hole at the epicenter of the room, that looks like it goes very far up. Below that is a five-pointed star... with each point having a soul on it.... and various elemental pools.

I look around and that is not all!

the walls make up a huge library, and there are podiums with many books(that have souls themselves).... there's also a fountain of lava smack in the center of it all (right in the middle of the star).

Owtz then tells me to

"Drink the lava in the fountain"