After their meeting with Cadmus, James snuck off to buy some gifts for his friends. He still had a lot of money left from when they killed the sentient dungeon. There could be a lot of uses for that money, but none of them would be as satisfying as bringing a smile to his friends’ faces.

As he was walking through the market and browsing the various shops at Hedonia, he didn’t find anything that stood out to him as a good gift. He could have probably found something on the Aetherweb, but randomly browsing the vast web would be too overwhelming.

He was ready to give up and just buy a random knick-knack, when something finally caught his eye. Two [Belts of Soothing].

He almost didn’t notice them, in the corner of the shop, covered in a thin layer of dust.

And it wasn’t surprising that nobody wanted them. At first, their effect seems useless. Hell, it was useless from a combat perspective.

But James didn’t care about combat right now. He just wanted to do something nice for his friends and make them happy. And these belts could do just that.

James valued happiness and relaxation over everything else. But he had been dragging his friends into the exact opposite of that. Tough battles, stressful environments, constant hard work.

And these belts could at least help relieve some of that stress.

[Belt of Soothing. Effects: Provides a calming effect to the wearer. Noticeably improves one’s mood, eliminates stress, bestows a tranquility buff.]

As dusty as they were, they weren’t cheap. He barely had enough to purchase both of them. But he’d even go into debt if it meant doing something nice for his friends. Even though James’s neuroticism hated the idea of debt. Luckily, he had just enough this time around.

But these prices reminded James of something. He needed a lot more money. That was another form of progression that he couldn’t ignore. It could be crucial to his further development.

Not only that, after looking around the shops, he realized that Helios and Lunaris must’ve been spending giant amounts of money on supplies, but they didn’t say a word to him.

Suddenly, his little belts seemed a lot less generous. But the gesture was nice nonetheless, and he at least wanted to see the smile on their faces.

“Mate, you didn’t have to do that. You should’ve spent the money on yourself!” Helios said while trying on the belt. “Ahh, you’re right, that is nice! I never would’ve thought of buying one of these, you’ve got quite the eye on you! Thanks brother!”

“You silly little man, I told you to not worry about us.” Lunaris said while blushing, her smile betraying her excitement. “Thank you, James.” She said softly.

After a good night’s sleep, it was time to get to training.

The trio decided to spend their hiatus at Helios’s house. James’s house was comfy, but tiny and without many facilities. Lunaris’s house was better, but it was mostly just filled with books and papers. It didn’t compare to Helios’s, who had a surprisingly deep love for expanding and enhancing his house.

“Man, I’ve been here many times by now, but it seems like your house changes every time I step inside it.” James said incredulously. The first time he saw Helios’s house it was more like a gym than a house. Every time he visited, the house was vastly different, with new rooms added.

“It does, actually! It’s one of my weaknesses. What I don’t reserve for supplies and other things I need to increase my power, I just spend on my house.” Helios answered.

“But … the three of us have been together pretty much the whole time I’ve been in this world. When did you have the time to constantly order or design all these changes?”

Lunaris chuckled and replied before Helios could. “Did you forget about the Aetherweb? It only takes a few presses and you can order pretty much anything you want. A pet, a house … a legendary artifact. All you need is a few seconds on your phone, and you can order even a blessing from a God. If you have the money, of course.”

Helios smiled. “Indeed! It’s very convenient. While we’re out and about, a mage specialized in construction and conjuration comes over, creates or drops over whatever I requested, and then leaves.” Helios said proudly, admiring the latest addition to his house, a dojo in which they’ll be training for the next few weeks.

James looked around with his mouth open. He could hardly believe how such a huge dojo could fit in Helios’s house. It was probably the size of a football stadium. This dojo alone looked much bigger than the entire house did from the outside.

“Wow, you must really like having a nice house if you’re spending so much money. I’m no expert, but it can’t be cheap to hire a mage that can use spatial magic or whatever, powerful enough to make a dojo this big look like a normal room from the outside.” James said while staring at the ceiling and walls like a little child.

“You’ve been in a rush to level up since you got to this world, so you probably didn’t have the time to sit back and realize what a pleasure it is to have a home that fulfills all your needs and wants.” Helios answered with a proud smile. “A man’s home is his castle. But more importantly, it’s his haven! It’s so nice to come home and have access to anything you could possibly want. Absolute comfort, absolute convenience. It’s a man’s own little slice of heaven. Of couse, you two are like my family, so what’s mine is yours. Think of this as your house too.” Helios said gleefully.

Helios was so generous that James was almost feeling ashamed. Helios didn’t say it, but he probably bought this dojo exclusively for them to train together. His friends were just too good to him.

“I’ll show you guys, you’ll see! As soon as I get power and money, I’ll be ten times as kind and friendly and generous to you as you were to me.” James mumbled under his breath.

“What was that? I didn’t hear you.” Lunaris asked.

“Uhh, nothing! I was just saying how awesome the dojo is.” James lied, too embarrassed to actually say those things audibly.

“I know right? It’s awesome!” Filled with energy and excitement, Helios conjured three giant fireballs and threw them at the ceiling and walls of the dojo. The explosions shook the entire room, but they didn’t leave a single scratch anywhere.

“See that? We can go hog-wild in here, and we won’t damage a thing! And we can spawn training dummies, soft mats if you plan on crash landing, and anything else we might need.” Helios was excited about his new toy. He began launching wild attacks at the walls of the dojo, trying to see if he could break anything. He even took out his sword and started stabbing the walls.

James was beginning to see the usefulness of having a house like this. Bit by bit, Helios kept adding useful rooms and facilities to his cozy piece of paradise. Helios was right, and so a small desire to create his own little base awoke inside James. Perhaps one day, when he’s rich and powerful, he could build his own mind-boggling base that he could share with Lunaris and Helios.

But that was far into the future. Right now, they had a job to do.

“All right, I think damage-wise, I’ve got Chaos Javelin for a single target attack, and Chaos Flower for an AoE nuke. So I should probably focus on things other than damage for now, right?” James said.

“Did you forget that you can’t really use those attacks, dummy? They leave you damaged. In fact, can you even use magic again yet? And don’t you dare think that damaging yourself is ok just because of your fancy new spell that enhances you greatly when you are damaged.” Lunaris replied, slightly annoyed and worried by his recklesness.

“Ehh, the damage is fine, I can just heal it. But real problem is that the damage to my mana channels leaves me unable to cast anything for a while. So I guess I do need some other damaging spell until I increase my mana pool, recovery and the capacity of my mana channels to the point I can freely cast chaos spells.”

“Well, you’re the spell man, got any ideas for new spells?” Helios asked a bit sarcastically, still amused even now by James’s unorthodox approach to spellcraft.

“Hmm. As always, it’s a lot harder to manifest my ideas when I’m not in some dingy dungeon fighting for my life. Idk what it is, maybe danger makes my brain’s juices flow more efficiently. Or maybe I need an actual, real-life situation to mold my ideas and to properly bridge the picture in my head with reality. Or maybe it’s just how my magic works, I don’t know. Regardless, with my arcane simulation/mediation, I think I should be able to create a proper spell while in comfort and safety this time around. I just need time.”

Satisfied by his answer, Helios and Lunaris started practicing their own skills while James started simulating various ideas for spells. His arcane simulation had evolved into an arcane mediation, but he still found it useful to alternate between the two states. One felt like a frantic swim against the current, while the other was like letting the water guide you to nirvana. The meditation was clearly better than the simulation, but the simulation was like a workout for the brain that was still useful in moderation.

It didn’t take long for a spell to be created, but James was rather disappointed.

“Ok, so I think I have it.” James said.

“Why so gloomy then? You don’t seem excited at all.” Lunaris asked.

“Well ... I don’t know, take a look I guess.” James replied.

James then extended his hand and spawned a saw.

[Skill unlocked: Chaos Saw]

Helios and Lunaris burst into laughter.

“Oh, I see why you’re disappointed.” Helios said.

“Yep. It’s another god damn saw. I don’t know why, I don’t even like saws, but my mind keeps thinking of them.”

Lunaris giggled and replied. ”Hey, they’ve been useful to your so far. There’s nothing wrong with having more types of saws. What’s special about this one?”

“It’s a chaos saw. Well, not entirely, I can’t use too much chaos cause it’s very taxing on me, but I just added just a bit of chaos magic to it, so it’s supposed to be a lot more powerful now. I don’t know how powerful it is though, I’m not entirely convinced it’s any good.”

“Luckily, this dojo can answer that.” Helios said with glee. He then raised his finger and sent some mana into the floor.

A fully white training dummy popped up.

“Hit it with a Razorice saw, mate.” Helios said with a smile.

“Razorice? Why?” James asked.

“It’s your most powerful saw, not including the Chaos saw since we don’t know how powerful it is. Just do it, you’ll see what I mean soon enough.” Helios replied.

James did as he was told and spawned a Razorice saw. He had forgotten just how slow of a process it was. Now that he had many types of saws that were very quick casts, he couldn’t believe that he ever considered this a viable weapon.

As soon as it was ready, which seemed like an eternity to the impatient James, he hit the dummy with it.

“Not even a scratch? Wow, what the hell is this dummy made of?” James looked at the dummy closely, hoping to see at least one tiny little scuff. “Anyway, what now bro?” James asked dejectedly, thinking he made a mistake.

But Helios was smiling. “Don’t worry, this is what was supposed to happen. Now hit it with a Chaos saw.”

James quickly prepared one and launched it. It was much faster than the Razorice Saw, but it was still slightly slower than the flimsiest of saws he was usually using for his armies of saws. He needed to make the blueprint for the sword a little sturdier if he wanted it to be able to hold the powers of chaos.

As soon as the Chaos saw hit the dummy, the dummy turned from white to a very, very light green. The green was so light that it was barely perceptible.

“Yes! That’s fantastic!” Helios shouted in excitement.

“What’s great? What does green mean?” James asked. Lunaris was very intrigued as well.

“You see, this dummy is quite expensive, but it’s worth every penny. It can actually compare the power of two different spells! If it turns green, it means the second spell is more powerful than the first one. If it turns red, it means it’s weaker.”

James was stunned for a moment. This dummy was amazing. But then he was shocked for an entirely different reason.

“The Chaos saw is actually more powerful than the Razorice Saw!” James exclaimed, excited as well.

“Yep! Not by much, mind you. The strength of the color shows the different in power between the spells. In this case, a very light green means it’s ever so slightly stronger than the Razorice Saw. Whereas a dark green would’ve meant a vast difference in power. Still, for a spell that has a much lower cast time, it’s actually quite extraordinary, isn’t it?” Helios was glad about his new dojo, but he was also happy that his friend had a new weapon in his arsenal. The excitement made him bombard the dummy with a barrage of his own spells. The excited flurry was so random that the dummy kept turning red and green after every other spell.

James was excited as well for a few minutes. But then he fell into deep thought.

Lunaris knew exactly what he was thinking about.

“You want something more, don’t you? Something other than a saw.” She asked.

He looked at her and smiled. He hadn’t been in this world for long, not even a single year had passed, but the three of them already knew each other so well that they could guess what the other was thinking.

“Yeah, it’s powerful but it just feels wrong. It’s not reliable enough, you know? Every time I see a saw hitting its target and barely doing any damage, I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. It makes me feel weak.”

Lunaris smiled and replied. “You know, your unorthodox methods work very well. But how about you try to combine them with my orthodox methods? At the very least, they can serve as an inspiration. To get the juices flowing, as you say.”

Lunaris then took a huge book out of her storage ring and plopped it on a nearby table. The book was so heavy that the sturdy, wooden table seemed like it was about to break.

“I made this by combining parts of many different books I thought would be useful to you. It contains detailed descriptions of various spells. I know you’ve got your own way of doing things, but I think this will help. The book is yours now, just read through it slowly, maybe you’ll be inspired.”

Yet again, his friends were being incredibly kind and caring. James didn’t even want to think about how much time and possibly even money Lunaris had spent on this.

“You’ll see, I’ll pay you back a million fold, you’ll live like gods on my dime.” James mumbled inaudibly.

“What was that? Sorry, I didn’t hear you.” Lunaris asked earnestly.

“I said thanks, thank you very much!”

James couldn’t wait to dive into a new book. He had no idea how useful it would actually be, but the mere size of this behemoth of a book made him quite curious.