The mountain chain was very large.

It had now been a good two months of him wandering in an easterly direction, pausing from time-to-time to take note of various deposits and unusual flora.

He’d also spent a good week reshaping a cliff-face that was made of a golden granite-like stone. He wasn’t sure what people would make of it, seeing as how he’d decided to make a giant good-fortune kitty out of it. He’d thought of making a giant buddha (due to the golden rock) but had decided that that particular theme had been overdone.

Hence, the fortune kitty.

He wondered if there’d be some civilization that popped up around it sometime in the future, worshiping the thing. That would make the effort worth it. Or maybe some new martial skill would be created by someone who had been inspired by it? The future was limitless!

Ah, the tangents.

One thing that seemed to be the same as the Light Novels he’d read was this: the more interesting the plant, the more likely that it had some sort of strong being protecting it.

He said “being”, but they all seemed like magic-steroid versions of their mundane counterparts.

Did one expect to see a giant snake in the mountains in the middle of winter? He sure as hell didn’t.

The bloody thing had been so big that it had swallowed him whole when it had struck from under the snow.

Fortunately, he’d been in his outsider from at the time which gave him a half-decent resistance to acid. Which had saved his life.

Sure, holding ones’ breath in the belly of a beast was hard, but not getting digested was a more difficult task for most people.

A quick teleport out, then a psychic smashing of its brain later, and he was back to studying the interesting tree with developing fruit on it.

The tree was only a few metres tall but was lush as could be in winter. The maturing fruit on it had a faint glow to them that was quite appealing. Sure, they were still green and shaped vaguely like a five-pointed star, but something about them attracted ones’ gaze.

Well, after a lengthy pros and cons session in his brain, Joram decided to transplant it into his realm for future study. He made sure to [Delve] down to ensure that he didn’t clip the roots at all, which wound up being quite the depth.

The tree was only about four metres tall, but its roots wend down a good twenty metres. They didn’t spread much to either side, which helped immensely, but it did mean that it took him longer than normal to store it away in a cleared-out space he’d made for it in his realm/soul.

His next project was the behemoth of a snake. It made Titanoboa look like a baby, this one coming in at a whopping forty-eight metres long.

He really didn’t like wasting things, so he [Delve]d the beast, taking note of its unique anatomy and structure, then its DNA and then put all that information aside for later addition to his “Bestiary” Crystal Mind. He had a codex for the flora he’d found as well, taking all the notes he could about any plant he found: colour, shape, texture, scent, taste, and even the soil composition it was found in, then adding their genetic and magical structure to the entry.

Was it time-consuming? Yup.

Did it give him something to do besides worry about silly things like how ridiculously large the planet was? And how hard it would likely be to find one person somewhere on the surface of said ridiculously large planet? It sure did!!

Sigh.

Joram looked down at the felled beast. Was this likely the largest thing he’d find here? Not even close. That colossus he’d hidden from was much larger that this gigantic snake was.

“Wonder if it tastes like chicken?” Joram asked himself as he got to work dissecting it, storing away just about everything as he wanted to experiment with it all later.

Once he’d taken everything, bones and all, he sat down and started a fire with some deadwood he found nearby and began roasting a large slab of snake meat. He’d have to see what the natural flavour of the meat tasted like before he would be able to determine what herbs and spices he’d need to add to it.

This wasn’t the first time he’d killed something that had attacked him, but it was one of the first times that he’d taken some time to roast up some meat to see what it tasted like.

‘Joram.’

‘Yes, Avi?’

‘Why bother cooking? You know that you don’t need to eat.’

‘Yes, well, it gives me something to do.’

There was a pause.

‘Aren’t you exploring though?’

‘Yes, but that gets old,’ he sent as he slowly turned the meat on its spit. ‘I remembered a time where I liked cooking and experimenting with food, and the nostalgia of it kind of got to me.’

‘Ah, the power of nostalgia. Careful not to fall into any old habits,’ Avi sent, unhelpfully.

Joram frowned a bit.

Sure, he was an introvert. Sure, he enjoyed his quiet time. But he also enjoyed being around friends and missed it terribly. When the whole pandemic issue had hit back home, he’d not been able to gather with his best friends for almost a year and a half.

Now, now he was stuck in the middle of a mountain range, wandering about, trying to keep busy.

What Avi was probably referring to was his tendency to just sit down with a book or a show/movie when he got lonely. Well, not that he had needed an excuse to sit down with a book. But this was on the level of reading for almost sixteen hours a day or binging on a new tv show.

He’d hoped that Avi would have differentiated between that old habit and him actually working on something. Or was it that she saw his cataloging everything as a diversion for him?

Hmmmm…

Well, it was certainly that. But it was also his innate curiosity coming out. Who on Earth had ever seen things like these in person? Was this world even populated by sapient species that he would recognize? Were there humans or elves or dwarves or any other species that he knew from literature/game systems back home?

Was this whole planet just one insanely huge set of mountains? Or were there plains, forests, and deserts out there? Was there a vast ocean to explore and get terrified of? Was this a post-apocalyptic world where only the beasts remained? Is that why they were so huge? Did they mutate to become what they were today?

Joram shrugged.

It wasn’t like he’d get any of those answers today, just by thinking about them. Well, maybe he could get some.

Sure, he could send his senses out with a clairsentience power or something.

But.

Would that take away from the thrill of exploration? Would he just find disappointment wherever he looked? Or would he find civilization at last?

Those were questions he really didn’t want to find the answer to just yet. Yes, it would be nice to see people and maybe interact with them… but he was also somewhat enjoying himself.

Sure, Avi was busy most of the time managing his personal realm, an extension of his very soul, and the many plants and trees and such that he’d transplanted there, but he could still talk with her. She’d pipe in whenever she thought he needed guidance or even just conversation.

This work of cataloging pretty much everything he came across was… fulfilling. He enjoyed seeing something new, learning about it, and writing everything down. Heck, he even still took the time to pull out his laptop to keep up his journal writing.

There wasn’t much to say beyond what he came across day after day, but he still recorded his thoughts on what he saw, how he felt. It was… cathartic. He really should have listened to his dad all those years ago.

With a bitter smile, Joram checked the meat and decided it was done.

It was surprisingly tender considering that it came from an absolutely massive specimen. It was a bit gamey, but had a nice texture, similar to chicken, but closer to fish, surprisingly enough.

The crispy exterior held in the juices very well, it even tasted a bit like chicken, though if you’d ever eaten snake before you’d recognize the taste.

Overall, not bad. Good, actually.

So it was that he spent the next hour or so slowly eating bits of meat while taking mental notes on what seasoning(s) he should use on it.

-

Another few months passed by as he explored, catalogued, and fought.

It was a curious thing. As he fought, and meditated after each fight to recover, he noticed gradual changes in himself.

Like, for some reason his sight and hearing had improved beyond what he’d consider normal ranges. Sure, he’d always had very acute senses, but now he could make out the veins on a leaf almost forty metres away and hear a rabbit-like creature eating from almost as far away.

It didn’t stop there.

He also noticed that he was stronger than before. At first, he thought that it was just him getting into better shape from his many exertions, but then he began to start measuring it in the form of making a set of weights he’d test himself with every day.

Yes, he’d gotten crazy-strong after his extreme training with Altaea, but this was beyond that. Beyond what he would consider “normal”.

So, each night he’d take out his weights to see if picking them up got any easier.

It did.

He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he slowly felt his body getting… tougher, stronger. To say that it was a peculiar feeling wouldn’t do it justice.

What was causing these changes in him? Was it the meat he was eating? The edible plants he found?

One thing he did notice, however, was that his body was absorbing the ambient mana in his environment, possibly in the food he ate for fun. Was this a good thing? Or would it negatively impact him in some way?

Or was this some sort of wuxia world where you gradually got stronger and stronger until you could punch a planet in half? Would he become one of those overpowered main characters one read about? Or would he come across one of those “cultivation accidents” that were such a popular trope in those light novels?

Joram shook his head as he investigated an interesting fern-like plant that had stalks that grew in a double-helix pattern. It was quite the specimen. Not just the unique shape, but the fact that it had a faint glow to it that registered on the magic-spectrum instead of the visual light spectrum.

He’d found that many plants actually contained at least some mana in them, while others practically blazed like a burning building.

It was the latter category of flora that seemed to attract those guardians. Maybe, like what was in those light novels, they got some benefits from staying around them? Probably.

Magic!!

Sigh.

After transplanting a couple of those ferns, Joram got up and looked around.

Spring was here and only a bit of snow remained in shaded areas that didn’t see very much sun, or any at all. The local wildlife had also gotten more active during this time, causing the great need to hide as various animals were out for mating season.

Yup. One didn’t want to be mistaken for a competitor of some sort. Or, heaven forbid, a potential mate. By far, though, he was just seen as some sort of snack/offering for a potential mate. Guess they needed all the energy they could get to reproduce.

Good to have an updated [Astral Seed] always on the go! Who knew when his luck would run out?

He quickly looked around, round a tree, then hit it. No sense jinxing it…

“Back to it!” He shout-whispered so that he didn’t attract too much attention. Safety first!

Then he was back to wandering about, looking at this and that as he kept out of sight of anything larger than he was.

It was slow-going at times. Sometimes he’d find something interesting to analyze, other times he’d need to run and hide in a quickly excavated hole in the ground while whatever it was that thought he’d be a good snack rummaged about then left for an easier snack somewhere else.

One particular event that had had him hiding for a most of a day was when the sky had exploded.

Well, that’s what it looked like from where he had been clinging to a cliff-face peering at a wonderful flower that seemed to be made of fire.

Before he knew what was going on, he’d been knocked off the cliff-face by a wall of wind and sent tumbling to the ground below. The first few rotations were confusing as anything could be, but once he stopped the rolling and began to slide down the cliff and he landed on his feet. That’s when he saw the fireworks.

Well, it looked more like giant balls of fire and lightning exploding in the sky, so bright that it hurt so see, even in his planar form.

As he came to a stop at the foot of the cliff, Joram limp-dashed over to a small fissure in the cliff and used [Modify Matter] to open it enough so that he could slip in and hide.

As he watched the explosions in the sky, he took the time to heal, sending psionic energy rushing through his body to repair the damage done to it.

Then he saw the most amazing thing he’d seen to date.

What looked like a bird made of flames streaked across the sky, closely followed by what he’d call an Eastern dragon. It had an amazing mane that looked like molten gold, its scales an electric jade, and claws that shone silver. It was hard to describe the legendary beasts flying about in the sky, fighting back and forth in a blur.

One moment they were in the east, the next they were in the west, then in the north, back to the east, then south. It went so fast that he couldn’t keep up, his eyes straining almost to the point of injury.

Something that did strike him, though, was the sheer amount of magic being thrown around by the dragon and the phoenix, nevermind their overwhelming auras. It was so thick, so pervasive, that he found it hard to breath, instead relying on [Adapt Body] to get him through. Even then, he passed out at some point before the end of the fight, only waking up when Avi smacked him in the face.

Well, he said “smack”, but her wings didn’t really have enough mass to them to really do much of anything to him. She did, however, manage to wake him.

‘Why didn’t you retreat to your realm?’ Avi demanded as she continued to smack him with her wings as she clung to the side of the fissure.

‘… Right,’ he coughed. ‘That would have made sense.’

What he didn’t say was that he wasn’t sure if he would have been able to do so given the ridiculous amounts of magical turbulence that had been rocking the region.

He looked outside and saw devastation on the level of a natural disaster and a war zone, all rolled into one.

Gone were most of the trees in the valley, the ones that remained nothing more then slow-burning torches. Her and there he saw new rockslides, upturned earth, and scorch marks where things weren’t just on fire.

Avi seemed to catch on to his mood because she didn’t say anything else, instead choosing to now observe from on top of his head.

Dusk had fallen by the time Joram got the courage to leave his small hidey-hole.

Slowly, and as carefully as he could, using every trick that Altaea had taught him about sneaking and stealth, he snuck out of the fissure.

Most of the fires had gone out by now, leaving a smoke-haze laying over the valley. It really did look like some post-apocalyptic scene from a movie. The air was still, nothing flying in the sky. The sounds of insects hadn’t even come back yet; the few that probably remained too scared to risk revealing their presence by making any sort of sound.

It was the eeriest thing he could remember having experienced. It was like someone had turned off all the sound in the entire world and forced you to just watch the video feed.

Doesn’t sound that bad? Try walking through a forest at night with earplugs in to deafen you, but still letting you hear the beat of your heart.

Yes, it was that bad.

With a silent shudder, Joram looked up at the cliff he’d been on when it had all started.

Only a few dozen metres to the left he found another rockslide. He was very glad that it hadn’t occurred where he was hiding. Sure, it wouldn’t have taken long to dig himself out, but he’d have missed the mind-blowing sight of those two great beings. He even felt that there was some higher law that he could touch on if he spent the time meditating on it…

Further up the cliff he found a surprise. The fire flower was still there, still burning. With a grin, he brought his wings out and quickly flew up and transferred the flower, and a good one cubic metre of the surrounding cliff, into his realm for replanting.

Then it was time to look around.

Several hours later found him looking down at a vermillion feather taller than he was. It was slightly bent and covered in a bit of blood, but still radiated heat like an open oven. He didn’t know how the blood hadn’t dried yet but decided that that wasn’t important right now. What was important was getting it into storage, into stasis. He really didn’t want to miss the opportunity to study the sample, so he reached out, gritting his teeth at the pain of getting so close to it, even with his fire resistance, carefully avoided the blood, and stored it away.

Not long after that, he found a few of the amazing jade dragon scales scattered over a small area. They, too, had blood on them, so he really wanted to store them away as well.

But.

The scales still sparked with electricity, causing even his short hair to stand straight up when he got too close.

Heat was one thing; you could easily heal any burn that might get through ones’ resistances. Electricity on the other hand, had the unfortunate ability to lock up ones’ muscles and nervous system.

He was already fairly resistant to electricity but decided that [Energy Adaptation] might be a wise choice for this one. He’d have to create a new power to cover “immunity” to the various elements because this was likely going to hurt.

Sure enough, he felt his hand lock-up as electricity surged through him when he touched the giant scale, easily the size of his torso. After taking a few minutes to allow the feeling to come back to his hand, he went on to the next one, repeating the process eight more times.

If he had to judge the fight of the dragon and the phoenix by what he found down here, he’d say that the phoenix had come out on top of that battle. One feather compared to nine scales. Either way, he was happy to have what he’d found. Who knew how valuable the samples would be?

With that thought, Joram looked around again, this time looking for some cover to hide in while he updated his [Astral Seed]. At length, he decided to go back to his little fissure and meditate there.

When morning came, Joram once again left his hiding spot, this time to leave the area entirely. Who knew what would show up after this, or how long things might stay away?

If this was a semi-regular occurrence, then he thought it would be better to just get out of here before anything came stiffing around… and found him.

With only a glance at the sky he decided that running would be best. Who knew if the dragon and the phoenix would come back? With how fast they were he didn’t have the confidence that he’d be able to escape before being atomized by one of their attacks.

Overall, it didn’t take too long to leave the devastated valley and get to the next one. That said, the next valley over was also an ecological horror story.

This valley had been more densely forested than the one he’d come from. But by the looks of it, one of the attacks had landed near the edge of the valley, vaporizing everything within several hundred metres and laying everything else scorched, stripped, and flat.

He’d seen picture of forests that had been too close to a volcanic eruption, and this scene could have easily been swapped out for one of those pictures. The trees looked like fallen, burnt-out, matchsticks all pointing away from the source of the blast. If any animals had been present, they had likely been burned to ash.

Joram activated his augmented [Touchsight] as he did a half-hearted search of the valley for any other fallen treasures.

Sure enough, he managed to find two phoenix feathers this time, but only six dragon scales. As he searched though, he had Avi retrieve the blood from each sample and store it in the best jade bottles he had, labeling each bottle, and then putting each sample back into stasis.

He was finishing his fourth ruined valley when he met his first person.

Well, other than Altaea that is, he thought to himself as he sized up the old man floating in front of him. Human, long scraggly white hair, and skinny as a scarecrow. Well, he wasn’t just floating, he was standing on a flying sword.

Yes, this must either be a coma-dream, or I’m now in a wuxia world…

The old man - he was even wearing those ceremonial kung-fu robes and slippers - was giving him a look that told Joram volumes.

One: that Joram was far beneath his auguste status.

Two: that Joram meant less to him than the dirt of the ground he disdained to walk upon.

Three: he probably had a rod stuck so far up his ass that he could no longer bend his neck.

Why the third point? Well, the old man seemed incapable of looking at Joram without looking down his nose at him.

“You,” the man started, arrogance practically dripping from his tone. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” Joram replied in as neutral a tone as he could muster. He really hated dealing with entitled people.

That got him a sneer.

“Don’t be smart with me welp,” he said. “Did you find anything in this valley?”

“Just what we can see,” Joram lied. If this was one of those famous “shake-downs” he really didn’t want to deal with it.

The old man’s eyes lit up, literally. His eyes blazed as a look of fury replaced the arrogant one from a moment ago.

“You dare lie to me?!” The old man yelled, raising a hand.

Everything went dark.

* * *

Avi wanted to say something to Joram, but she wasn’t sure of the old man’s abilities. Better to keep quiet in this case.

Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out that way.

Her “tv screen”, what she called the panel she used to see out of Joram’s eyes with, went black. A fraction of a second later she felt the realm shake.

Not like the tremors that had rocked the valley that the colossus had walked through, but almost like reality itself had been picked up and shaken like a puppy playing with a new chew toy.

Then it suddenly stopped.

Avi looked around, then flew about looking here and there to see if anything was amiss.

Well, aside from a few things falling over, everything seemed to be in order.

Then she checked on Joram’s [Astral Seed].

From what she knew of the power, and she knew as much as Altaea knew, the bright glow that it was now emitting indicated that Joram’s soul was now residing in it… Or, in this case, that the [Astral Seed] was now active.

Avi nodded to herself. This would be where Avi and Joram would be the closest to being the same as they would likely get. Because Joram’s consciousness had been transferred to the Seed, the Seed would then act as a body for him, like her psicrystal body, until he was able to form his new organic body.

Back to work!

-

- Day 10 -

Avi was starting to get a bit concerned.

Normally, Joram should have been walking around as a psicrystal, doing his thing. Or even just concentrating on forming his new body.

Neither were happening.

The Seed was still glowing, which she took as a good sign, but nothing else had changed.

She’d already finished cleaning up, properly storing the phoenix and dragon blood, and organizing the many specimens that he’d collected.

So she sat and stared at the Astral Seed.

Day 20

At this point Avi was having as close to a freak-out moment as a V.I. could have.

There had been no changes in the Seed this entire time.

And he was running out of time.

If someone got to day thirty without having formed their new body, or taken other drastic measures, then they’d dissipate into nothing.

If that happened, only very strong magics or psionics could bring someone back. She really hoped that Joram’s soul hadn’t passed to the afterlife.

But the Seed was still glowing. That was something. But what did that mean exactly?

Avi did every test that she could think of on the Seed to see what might be wrong. Well, every test that didn’t require someone to touch it anyways. She really didn’t want to risk something happening to it.

She couldn’t tell what had affected Joram. She had no idea what was wrong. His consciousness was still in the Seed, but it was quiet, dormant.

If he didn’t start to form his body today, he wouldn’t have enough time to finish it before his consciousness dissipated…

-

Day 30

Avi stared at the glowing Seed.

She had done everything that she could think of. Still nothing.

Today was the day that he would pass on. She didn’t know if the afterlife was the same in this universe/reality/whatever-it-was as it was in Altaea’s, but she hoped that he’d find himself somewhere nice.

She thought she was a bit depressed. Could a V.I. get depressed?

She’d failed in keeping Joram safe. Well, as safe as she could being a psicrystal and all. She wouldn’t get to tutor him. She wouldn’t get to show him the designs for the omni-tool that Altaea had worked on, or any of the other cool things that had been prepared for him.

Avi looked around the growing pocket-realm. They’d put a lot of work into the place, making it into a wonderful garden and retreat.

She hadn’t had much to do in the past month, so she’d been tending the garden, adding more plots as space opened up… or, rather, was created. The boundary of the realm was ever expanding after all.

Well, if she was going to be alone, she may as well keep busy.

Maybe she’d take up brewing and distilling…?

Day 48

Avi looked at the neat stacks of Joram’s personal effects and had a thought.

If he was gone, did they matter?

Well, they were mementos of him, so she supposed that they mattered to her.

But what to do with them? She could make an area of preservation, preventing the items from decaying with time.

Hmmm… Yes. She would expand the stasis storage space to accommodate his things.

With that decision made, Avi felt a bit better about things. Joram did, after all, love his houseplants and she wanted to preserve them as a kind of tribute to him.

Oh, and his other stuff too. Who knew when any of that stuff would be useful again some day?

Day 237

Still no change in the Seed. She was quite thoroughly impressed and confused by that. By all rights, Joram’s consciousness should have dissipated by now and the Seed crumbled to dust.

But there it was, still glowing on its little, cushioned, pedestal that overlooked the gardens.

The growing space was now much, much larger. When the realm had stopped growing at its initial rate, Avi had decided to renew [Genesis] to keep the realm growing at its advanced rate.

After all, she needed more space for the orchards and vineyards…

-

Day 9,999

Still no change with the Seed.

“Maybe I should write a paper on this unusual occurrence?” Avi mused to herself.

She’d long since gotten into the habit of vocalizing her thoughts, giving the realm a bit of variation in its quiet, everyday, existence.

Year 113, day 62

Avi gazed out at the vast realm before her, now tended by minor golems that she’d crafted. It was just getting too big for her to keep up by her lonesome.

Maybe she should stop renewing [Genesis] every 180 days?

Nah. One should keep on the path they’d chosen for themselves after all.

She glanced over and nodded to the Seed.

“Yes, this is what I should do.”

She looked over at the rather expansive estates and winery that she’d had built. She would have to expand the orchard and the gardens some more to accommodate the demand for more base materials. She was very proud of her accomplishments in the field of brewing/distilling/wine making.

Avi nodded to herself as she regarded the main building, a mansion really. She’d have to add more sub-levels to the estates soon.

You always needed more room for stock.

-

Year 999, day 329

Something was different.

Avi looked around trying to discern what had changed.

The sky was the same. The fields, vineyards, and orchards were the same.

Then she turned to the Seed.

It was flickering.

Avi panicked.

* * *

Badum-badum… badum-badum…

What was that?

Badum-badum… badum-badum…

He tried to roll over but found that he not only didn’t have purchase to do so, but also didn’t have the room to do so.

What’s going on? Joram thought to himself as he tried to open his eyes but found that that only confused him more.

Everything was red. Everything was warm.

Badum-badum… badum-badum…

He then tried to run and hand through his hair but found a problem.

His arm was too short.

What is going on here?! He tried to say but found that he couldn’t speak.

He looked at his hand and frowned. At least he thought he frowned but didn’t know because his face felt weird.

His hand, though, was definitely weird.

What he could make out, anyway.

Badum-badum… badum-badum…

Short, stubby fingers atop stubby hands attached to little t-rex-like arms greeted his blurry vision.

‘Joram?!’

Joram gave a great start, jerking a bit in his tight confines.

What was that?

‘Is that you Avi?’ Joram asked as he tried to figure out what was going on.

‘Yes, it’s so good to hear your voice again!’

Joram tried to quirk an eyebrow at that but found that his face still felt weird.

‘You say that like we didn’t just speak an hour ago,’ he sent back.

There was a long pause.

Badum-badum… badum-badum…

Was it getting further apart?

‘Joram,’ Avi sent. ‘I have been waiting a thousand years to hear your voice again.’

That got his attention right back to the conversation.

‘What? How is that possible? I was just settling down for some meditation after renewing my [Astral Seed],’ he sent back, not quite following along.

‘Joram, you died,’ Avi sent back after a short pause.

Was it getting colder? Or was that just his visceral reaction to hearing that he’d died? A chill down the spine?

‘What happened?’

‘The last thing that I saw out of your eyes was an old man standing on a sword attacking you,’ she sent. ‘Everything went black after that.’

Another long pause.

It really did feel like it was getting colder.

Badum-badum… Badum-badum…

‘Avi, where am I?’ He sent, getting a terrible feeling in his gut.

A moment later Avi popped out of his head, looking much bigger than she used to.

‘It would seem that you’re in someone’s womb,’ she sent after a moment of looking around. ‘And it seems as though they are dying.’

Joram’s eyes bugged out at that.

‘What do we do?!’ Joram sent back, panic rising.

‘Why don’t you heal her?’

He could have smacked himself, but his arms were too weird at the moment.

Why hadn’t he thought of that?

With as much care as he could, Joram prepared and then manifested [Natural Healing], augmented as high as he could.

Badum-badum… badum-badum…

‘Can you see if anything else is wrong?’ Joram asked Avi as he manifested [Natural Healing] again.

He felt her use [Delve] and waited as she concentrated.

‘There seems to be trauma to the head,’ she reported.

Joram immediately manifested [Physical Restoration], focussing on a mental image of a person’s head.

Badum-badum, badum-badum…

‘I think it might be a good time to teach you how to form a Network,’ Avi sent as she melded back into Joram’s head.

Still panicking somewhat, Joram replied. ‘Is this really the best time for that?’

‘This would, in fact, be the best time for it,’ she sent, with obvious patience.

Joram closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then realized that his lungs were full of amniotic fluid and began to hiccup.

Damn, he really hadn’t missed hiccups.

With a mental nod to Avi to proceed, she then started to impart the knowledge of how to form a Psionic Network, as well as how to share powers over said network, directly into his consciousness. In short, he was learning to be a Vitalist in the most compact course he’d ever taken.

Badum-badum, badum-badum…

He wasn’t sure how long it had taken, but by the time he came back around he noticed that it was appreciably warmer in the womb.

He also noticed many muffled voices in the background, but ignored them as he quickly went over the process of starting a connection with another person.

Normally you’d need their consent to join the network… but it seemed that he was considered a part of his “mother” because the connection automatically formed when he sent the invite.

Badum-badum, badum-badum…

He could immediately feel a torrent of emotions flooding through the link, confusing him further.

Normally the Network didn’t convey feelings, only the thoughts one wanted to send to another in the network. This, however, was well beyond that. Or was it that it was a more primitive link?

Did I get it right?

Well, he’d see. [Health Sense].

Joram got a flood of information from his “mother”. She was indeed injured and seemed to be healing without issue. Her blood pressure seemed to be on the lower side, but nothing life-threatening anymore. Then he concentrated again, this time to manifest [Sustenance] to make sure that she would get what she needed for healing, nevermind what he needed to get from her.

He paused.

That was incredibly selfish of him. He took another moment to manifest [Sustenance] on himself so that he’d alleviate the stress on her system.

Next, he manifested [Touchsight] on himself so that he could get a better picture of, well, everything.

Going by his somewhat limited knowledge of fetal development, he guessed that he was around eight months along.

Well, that is if his mother had the same gestation period as a human.

Was he a human?

Upon closer inspection, he was pretty sure that he was a human. No weird bone structure, no discernable points to his ears, normal’ish face… Well, it was an infant’s face. Everything looked all right though.

Ten digits on his hands, ten toes on his feet. Checked out.

An extra one between his legs.

That was more of a relief than he’d thought it would be.

With a sigh that turned into a hiccup, he went back to relaxing as he monitored his mother.

-

‘You’re telling me that you did all of this,’ Joram sent as he looked through Avi’s “eyes” at what she’d accomplished over the last millennium that she’d been waiting for him.

‘Yes,’ Avi sent back, a slightly smug tone coming through the link.

‘Well, damn,’ he sent back.

He was quite thoroughly impressed with what she’d done.

For one, she had kept expanding the realm every time she could over the last thousand years, resulting in the realm now being over a hundred kilometres across.

Then there was the multitude of farming golems.

Everywhere he looked he could see them doing anything from ploughing, seeding, watering, harvesting, pruning, repairing, and building. It was, quite frankly, beyond impressive.

As far as he could see there were farmlands, orchards, and vineyards.

Many sections of farmland weren’t touched. Instead, as Avi informed him, they were set aside for special plants that seemed to get more potent with age. She hadn’t experimented with Alchemy while he was gone but had instead gone into the business of booze.

It was, again, quite frankly impressive. She’d shown him the first sub-level of the estates and it was filled with the infrastructure needed to make anything from a simple ale all the way to the finest wine or distilled spirits.

The next four sub-levels were filled with aging product. With another level being excavated.

There were tens of thousands of bottles, barrels, casks, kegs, butts, and tuns. It was, to be honest, intimidating.

‘Um…’ Joram started then paused. ‘You don’t expect me to drink all that, do you?’

He heard a chuckle over the link. ‘No, silly,’ she started. ‘I know full-well that you don’t like alcohol. This is just in case we need to make some quick money or something…’

Joram waited, then waited some more.

‘I’m sorry I wasn’t with you that whole time.’

Another pause.

‘At least I had a hobby,’ Avi sent with forced enthusiasm.

That gave him another thing to think about. Had she grown, evolved, over the last thousand years? What had changed in her over this time? Was she OK?

He wasn’t really comfortable with delving into that with her. But who else would?

‘Would you like to talk about it?’

Another pause.

‘Yeah, I’d like that.’

* * *

“Will she be all right?” A man asked, sitting next to a bed, holding the hand of a woman laying prone on the bead, her head wrapped in bandages.

“The healer said that she just needs rest now,” a woman replied, presumably a servant of some sort judging by her posture, her clothing, and where she stood in relation to the man.

“How did this happen?” He asked. It was, presumably, a rhetorical question because he spoke softly as he gazed at the pale woman.

“The healer can’t explain what happened after the incident,” she said. “Either way, he is glad it did. It saved them both.”

“Let the Matriarch know that I’ll be staying here.”

The woman bowed and quietly left the room.

“We need to be more careful, my love,” the man said as he kissed the back of the hand that he was holding while he placed his right hand over her enlarged belly. “I can’t lose you.”

* * *

‘Any change in your… mother?’ Avi asked as she walked through the orchard of the trees that had those star-shaped fruits hanging from its boughs.

‘She seems to be sleeping right now,’ Joram replied as he inspected the indigo fruit. ‘Say, have you made lots of stuff with this fruit?’

Avi focussed for a moment then replied. ‘Yes, there is a large section dedicated to them.’

‘Good-good…’ Joram trailed off. ‘Avi?’

‘Yes.’

‘Would you stay with me while I’m being born?’

A pregnant pause.

‘I’m always with you, Joram.’

‘Yeah, but I’m… nervous about it.’

‘That is understandable.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, but I’m a V.I., so I’m not sure about all of that.’

‘That’s fair.’

‘Joram?’

‘Yes?’

‘Can I be part of your network too?’

If he had had the ability to fall over, he would have. ‘I’m so sorry!!’ He sent, then sent the invitation to Avi who then promptly accepted.

That gave him pause.

If she’d been part of him, he didn’t think that she’d need to “accept” the invitation, instead she’d have just automatically joined.

That made him think. Why hadn’t his mother needed to accept his invitation to the network, but Avi had had to? Was it some weird biological thing? He was pretty sure that Avi was a part of him, his psicrystal being the medium of her creation and all. But she was also a distinct personality.

Was she really just a V.I. now? Or had she become… more… over the last thousand years? There were so many questions that he’d love to ask Altaea… but he wasn’t even sure she was still in this realm… or alive.

That thought sobered him up.

By most measures, he had probably been considered decently strong, yet he hadn’t even been able to survive one hit from that old fart. What if Altaea had run across someone like that? Would she have been able to escape? Or was she just another victim of assholes who thought they were all that?

Though, given how beautiful she was, he really hoped that she didn’t fall into some perv’s hands…

Joram shook his head, trying to rid himself of those negative thoughts.

Once he “grew up” he’d be able to go out and investigate.

He just hoped that he wouldn’t be too late.

* * *

“Reporting to Matriarch,” a woman said, bowing low, hands cupped together.

A dignified woman in elegant plum robes, who didn’t look a day over thirty, sat in an important looking chair in a large hall with many people milling about. When she heard that, and saw who it was, the Matriarch rose and waved a hand.

“Leave us.”

Soon enough, the hall cleared of the murmuring people. The Matriarch touched a blue gem on her bracelet and a shimmering bubble appeared around her and the still-bowing woman.

“Rise.”

The woman rose, revealing her to be the same woman who’d been standing behind the man beside the bed.

“The Healer Reursa reports that Sulia’s life is no longer in danger, and in fact is healing at an astonishing rate,” the servant woman reported, still bowing low.

“He doesn’t know the cause?”

“No, Matriarch.”

“Is this an auspicious moment for the clan?” The Matriarch mused out loud as thoughts raced through her head.

The servant kept her head bowed and hands cupped but managed a slight shrug.

The Matriarch pondered for a short time before she spoke. “Tell Healer Reursa to spare no expense in finding out how Sulia was healed. This could mean a new age of prosperity for our clan.”

“Yes, Matriarch,” the servant lady replied. “By your leave.”

A slight nod, then the servant lady hurried off, stepping through the shimmering bubble.

The Matriarch stood there for a while, arms folded, her slender index finger tapping her lip.

* * *

“Is that you, my love?” A weak voice asked.

The man, laying slumped over on the side of the bed, practically jumped to his feat.

“I’m here, my love,” he hurried to assure her.

The woman, Sulia, reached up with her left hand and touched her bandaged head. “What happened?”

“We were on our way back from our assignment in Osmanthus Country when we were attacked by bandits,” the man explained.

Sulia’s eyes opened wide. “Was anyone else hurt, Ivaryn?”

The man, Ivaryn, shook his head, but sadly. “All but one of our guards were killed, the others gave their lives to allow us to escape.”

Sulia paused, taking it in. The look of profound sadness only seemed to make her look younger than the twenty years that she appeared to be.

“Have their families been informed?”

“The Matriarch will do so,” Ivaryn said as he turned on his chair to face her more directly, the cleared his throat. “We are very blessed, Sulia. The healer said that the baby is still healthy.”

Sulia’s hand immediately went to her belly, feeling around as though she could touch the child directly.

“Yes, we are…” Sulia said absently, finally noticing the new ball of feelings in her head. “He seems well.”

Ivaryn’s eyes opened wide for a moment before he schooled his features to stillness.

“He?” He asked, his tone carefully neutral.

Sulia looked over at her husband and knew what was going on inside his head.

Sulia was part of the Clear Knowledge Clan, a matriarchal clan through and through. The women of their clan were the ones who led, who made the decisions. So, in this clan, having a daughter was what everyone hoped for. While having a son born first tended to drop that family’s position in the hierarchy.

While they had both prayed for a daughter, she knew that Ivaryn also hoped for a son. It was understandable, as he had married into the clan from a patriarchal family.

As for his neutral tone, Sulia knew that it was so that he could gauge her feelings on this new revelation.

“Yes, I get the distinct impression that our child is a boy,” Sulia responded after a few moments, also allowing herself to get over the shock.

“Why are you so certain?” Ivaryn asked, a look of puzzlement on his face.

Sulia couldn’t blame him. They’d spoken with many midwives, healers, and soothsayers, yet none of them had been unified in their answers… except the midwives who had generally thought they’d have a boy, much to the displeasure of the clan.

“I don’t know,” Sulia started. “It’s as though we now share… a connection,” she finished after a brief pause.

“How so?”

“It is hard to explain,” Sulia said as she moved her deep purple hair out of her face, then returned her hand to her belly. “It’s like… our hearts are connected. I can feel that he’s happy and resting.”

Ivaryn took a moment to process that. “But how?” Was all he could think to ask.

“I would call it a miracle,” Sulia replied, then yawned.

Ivaryn immediately began to fuss over her, adjusting her pillows, pulling up the blankets even though it was a beautiful day outside.

Sulia, however, bore it with good grace knowing that she would likely have done the same if Ivaryn was the one laid-up in bed.

Soon enough he was done and promised to return shortly with some dinner.

Though, funnily enough, she really didn’t feel as though she’d been heavily wounded. She wasn’t hungry, nor was she nauseated – what would have been a sure sign of a head-wound. She touched her head again, feeling at the padded bandages on the left side of her head.

Slowly, carefully, she reached up and unwound the bandage, taking care to not allow the matted blood to pull too much on her hair. By the time she had unwound the bandages, and removed the wadded gauze, she had a not insignificant pile of bloodied bandages laying beside her.

Sulia reached out her hand, spoke a strange word and then caught the hand mirror that flew over from the vanity in the corner by the window.

She brought the mirror up to inspect the wound and found what she had suspected.

The reflection showed her that most of the hair on the left side of her head had been shaved off revealing smooth, alabaster, skin.

Completely smooth.

Even with the best medicinal pills there was usually some sign of an injury as extensive as the one Ivaryn had told her about.

Had some Old Master or Mistress provided the clan healer with a Tier 6 medicinal pill?

She felt her heartrate begin to race as she thought about how this might have come to be. But then a soothing warmth radiated out from her womb, relaxing and comforting her. She sat back on her pillows and brought her arms down to cradle her belly.

Had the gods blessed them with a miracle?

* * *

Joram felt his mother’s heartrate increase and pulsed a bit of fast healing for her. He didn’t know what was going on, but he could feel a mixture of anxiety and excitement practically rolling off her in waves.

‘So, you’re saying that all of the plants absorb ambient mana to help them grow?’ Joram asked as his brought his attention back to his conversation with Avi.

‘Yes, and I posit that the improvements that you saw after you arrived on this world are related to that,’ Avi replied in such an academic tone that he had to blink. He could just picture her standing there in business attire, a pair of spectacles on her face with her hair tied up in a neat bun.

He grinned.

‘Well, how do I go about doing the same?’ He asked. If he could get a head start on his training, he’d be that much closer to being able to search for Altaea.

‘I don’t know,’ Avi replied neutrally. ‘I have only the hypothesis for now.’

How did it go in those wuxia novels? You needed to circulate the energy in your body a certain way, thus allowing your body to absorb the energy more efficiently and thus strengthening your body.

The big problem was that if you did it wrong you might cripple or even kill yourself through a backlash.

So, Joram put his metaphorical thinking cap on and thought back to his training with Altaea and the many fights that he’d gone through since then.

The smallest gains that he’d noticed, or rather, Altaea had noticed, were during his training with her. While his largest gains had been while he was exploring the mountains.

But why was that? Was it because he’d been with Altaea? Was there some sort of danger factor involved? Was there some sort of meta-system out there that allocated XP or something ridiculous like that?

He’d received no tell-tale system notifications, alerts, bells, ringing, or anything of the sort that you read about in those light novels/manga/manhua and such.

Both while training and exploring he’d taken time every day to meditate to restore himself. He was pretty sure that that wasn’t the major factor there.

But what had changed? The only thing he could think of was that he’d started eating monsters every now and then…

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Was this some sort of Foodie-themed world that made you stronger the more you ate?!

He face-palmed, which was pretty difficult given his cramped quarters.

Then he felt a warmth radiate from the side of the womb. He glanced over and was able to make out a shadow. Was that his mother’s hand?

He smiled. Or tried to. He still wasn’t used to this body yet.

That aside, he really hoped that it wasn’t a Foodie-based world as he’d finally gotten his long-desired wish: to not have to eat. Eating being optional was where it was at for him.

Then he nearly face-palmed again. He’d already thought of all this while he was exploring. How had he forgotten all that so soon?

He’d have to get a board or something so that he could write things down on, so as not to forget important stuff like that.

But really, why hadn’t he remembered something so important?

* * *

Sulia smiled as she felt the slight wiggle in her womb. Though she was confused by the overwhelming feeling of exasperation coming from him.

She was then taken out of her musings when Ivaryn came in with a tray of food then paused as he saw her.

Eyes nearly popping out of his head, he rushed over, barely taking the time to set the tray of food down on his chair before sitting beside her on the bed.

“My love! Why did you take your bandages off?” He asked, reaching out to cup her face in his right hand as he leaned over to look at her left side.

“Dear, I’m fine,” Sulia said as she gently swatted his hand down. “Did someone use a Tier 6 medicinal pill on me?”

Ivaryn blinked a few times, then blushed. “Sulia, my love. The healer only had Tier 3 pills that he could use,” he said slowly as he tried to lean over to inspect his wife’s head. It was made difficult by her leaning the other way, not allowing him to lean over her for fear of squishing the baby.

Sulia paused a moment in thought. “Is there some hidden Immortal watching out for us?” She asked seriously, finally turning her head so that Ivaryn could see the now bald side of her head.

His mouth dropped open so wide that Sulia was tempted to see if she could fit an egg into it. The only thing that stopped her was the lack of an egg.

“How is this possible?” He finally managed to get out as his hand rubbed her smooth scalp, searching for the tell-tale scars that should be there.

Sulia just shook her head, her deep purple hair falling over Ivaryn’s hand. “That’s why I asked if there was some hidden Immortal looking out for us.”

Ivaryn paused, then shook his head. “I don’t think that the Kellam Clan has any Immortals in it.”

“And I’m pretty sure that my Aneath Clan doesn’t have any either.”

Both exchanged a glance and, as one, looked down at her belly as they finally felt a faint whisp of mental strength coming from there.