[Aleks POV]

I was having a strange dream, like a lucid dream but without the fog of vagueness that comes with it. I was in a world of red, with streams of what appears to be liquid gold flowing around cracked dry red earth. There was strange flora dotting the landscape, an agave-like plant that is covered in what looked like reptilian scales, flesh-like trees that had eyeballs growing from the branches, and long strands of hair-like grass was in patches around the landscape. The world was incredibly bizarre, but I strangely did not feel fear in this unknown landscape. I walked along the red earth, the sound of crunching glass echoed everytime I took a step.

I walked toward a distant mountain, not really sure why but I felt like I forgot something important up on the peak. Everytime I try to recollect what it was, the image slips away from me. But I still walked towards it, even though it should be so far away. I left my mind drift for a while, and before I knew I was at the base. This should be impossible, there was no way I could have possibly walked all the way here already, but here I was. I looked towards the peak and subsequently the sky, it was a flat top almost like it was one a taller mountain but the tip was removed. I saw thick clouds swirling around a clear eye of the storm, which was directly above the peak of the mountain. I started climbing, because something in me said to do so.

Somehow the climbing was neither vigorous or strenuous, it was somehow easy to climb up the strange surface. I reached the peak far faster than I thought, again feeling like I somehow drifted from the dream again. What was on the top was a summoning circle drawn in the golden liquid, surrounded by mysterious letters that seem almost vicious in their appearance. It oozes unusually energy from the circle, not evil as so much as strange. I tried to look around the peak to see what else was here, but every time I turned around I just found the circle again. It was impossible to escape from, it needed to be completed. I felt a desire to finish the circle somehow to...complete the ritual. I found a nice in my pocket that didn’t exist before, and before I could think about my actions I cut open the palm of my hand and let the red ichor land on the circle.

The strange energy accepted my blood, and grew vigorous. My blood began to move and trace the golden lines of the circle. Gold and crimson intertwined to make the circle new, different...mine. Once the transformation was completed, I felt a burning sensation on the back of my left hand. A circle was carved there, the summoning circle of crimson gold. The magic circle of multiple arrays of geometric shapes was now a part of my anatomy, or more like it was a part of my soul. I instinctively channeled the mana into the circle of my hand, causing it to glow furiously. The circle that was beneath my feet started spewing out a black ichor that allowed no light to pass. I could only watch as the black circle formed, growing all the way to the edge. It could only stare into the inky abyss, somehow enchanted by the process in front of me. Some arose from the center, something not from this world.

I could only see a mound of the jet ooze rise from the center, the mound slowly revealing a human-like face. I had red eyes and a massive mouth that was formed in a predatory grin almost from ear to ear. It stared at me with an inhumanly beautiful face, but it felt wrong somehow. Like there was something slight off with nearly every feature, but I couldn’t really pinpoint what exactly. It still didn’t move, just kept on staring at me with its creepy smile. But I felt I heard something in my head, it sounded like I found you. I was deeply unsettled, and refused to blink despite my eyes beginning to scream for relief. But somehow I knew that if I blink, it will come for me. I tried to get up and move away from the circle, but my body refused to listen to me. I was in a losing battle, running out of time that I could delay that...that monster. Deep in my battle of wills with the creature I heard something move behind me, which in my frightened state made me turn around…

It didn't take me long to realize what I heard was just an auditory illusion creature by the thing. As soon as I turned my head in instinct, I knew I had made a mistake. But I didn’t want to turn around to face the monster again. Because I heard something sprint at me the moment I turned around, something that fast. I just refused to look as my world begins to turn black, the last thing I heard was I caught you…

“Lady Nhlivin, are you alright?” Bryce said, rousing me from my dream.

I awoke seeing the middle-aged grandmaster stirring from my nap on the couch. He had a look of concern plastered over his face. I slowly got up from my couch to see that the sun was bright, likely noon. The grimoire I had brought with me to read after the nap was wide open revealing a magically array exactly like the one in my dreams. I felt chills of fright slowly crawl up my body as I remember the last part of my dream. I quickly checked over my body to make sure I wasn’t harmed anywhere, which luckily I was not. I finally looked back at the worried old man to give him some assurance.

“Yeah I am fine, I had quite a strange experience. I am not sure if it was a dream or not but it was certainly quite surreal.” I said to him.

“Yes, I couldn’t wake you from your sleep even though you were mumbling quite loudly. It must have been that book on the table in front of you, It was flipping pages as you were tossing and turning on the couch.” He said with growing worry.

“I had never seen that book before in our collection, it seemed to be some sort of summoning grimoire. Though I certainly recommend avoiding it, that was quite a terrifying experience.” I said with a slight tremble.

“Yes, you most certainly seemed troubled judging by your reactions in your sleep. Were you able to find anything out about summoning magic at least?” Bryce said, trying to find a silver lining in my awful experience.

“I think I have found a clue yes, but I am not sure how to implement it. I will probably need more time to figure it out.” I said with a slight sigh.

“Very well, you still have plenty of papers to sign. We need to enact more laws to properly govern the Heavenborne and the townspeople.” Bryce said while gesturing towards a mountain of paperwork on my desk.

I stare in shock at the sheer amount of paper, my mind starts to go blank as I see the rest of my day disappearing in a flash. I got up, tears in my eyes as I tried to think of any way to back out of work. But the stern face of Bryce prevents me from using any dirty tactics to escape, plus he is physically more capable than I am so I can’t out run him. Finally deciding to accept my fate, I walked toward my desk of despair in said resignation. I slowly reviewed the new laws and edicts that will be in effect, trying to protect the rights of my friends in this rather harsh world. I have few Criminal Justice majors to help guide me through these laws, they might not be lawyers but they are the best we have unfortunately. Starting a government basically from scratch is quite difficult and time consuming, luckily we don’t have any neighbors or traders to deal with so we can mostly focus on internal affairs.

I trudged along dutifully, making several corrections along before sending them to the town mayor for review on his end. He is a dutiful mayor if not a bit shady with how well he is cooperating with us. Perhaps it is just me, but I can’t trust people who agree with me completely. I hope that he will play ball long enough for a proper government to be established, the last thing we need is people in anarchy in this hostile world. After a lengthy 6 hours of solid paperwork, I was allowed outside my office again. I grabbed my umbrella in high spirits as I walked out of the temple into the garden. Even if I am sensitive to sunlight as a half-drow, it feels nice to see the bright sky again.

It is around 6 o’clock in the afternoon, and the sun won’t go down for another 2 hours. Since I finally have the free time and a clue of how to use summoning magic, I will go practice with the other magic-users. I walked over to the lot of them, each trying to work with the mana channeling we had discovered before. It seems that the practice that they are trying is to release the channeled mana outside of their body, but no one has any idea of how to do that. I joined in the practice to practice mana channeling, it seems some people are at least able to form flames on their fingertips or arc electricity between their hands. But of course, nothing that could actually be used as an attack.

I was thinking back to my “dream” with the summoning circle, how a copy of it was carved into the back of my left hand. I looked at my hand of course the moment I woke up, but there was no evidence of anything left on my hand. Though I have a feeling that it had nothing to do with me physically, but more my spiritual body that was marked with the circle. I channeled mana in my body, and made it circle around every inch of my body. This exercise is actually pretty similar to real exercise, except you are training your body to handle and produce mana efficiently. I did this while thinking back to my dream, how my body felt there. After a few more mana circulations I channeled in towards the mark on the back of my left hand, in the exact spot it was at in my dream. I felt the mana begin to react to something, and the back of my left hand had a golden array slowly appear. But just as the circle was coming into focus, the mana surged away to my other extremities. It seems that I lost control of it and the circle wasn’t able to appear.

I wanted to try again, but I actually used a ton of mana trying to get my summoning circle to form. The people practicing around felt the magic emanating from me and ran away in fear of an accidental wild magic cast. We had one of those before, and it didn’t turn too well for the caster. After my magic failed, people started coming back and staring at me with reproachful eyes. I got scolded for a while before I returned to my office. It seems I am now banned from magic practice for the day despite my best efforts to explain myself. Not like I don’t understand, but I felt genuinely close to a breakthrough before I lost control. It seems I am going to have to practice mana control before I can properly use my summoning circle.

I decided to go back to work for a while before finally calling it a night. I would like to go to my house in the town, but it is a long staircase down, and I am using the guildmaster’s room as my player home for a while now. The house that I owned in town was basically abandoned by me before we transferred here, so I decided to give it to several guild members to use while we are here. I walked across the temple to reach my room, it seems that my nightly guard is already waiting for me. After the first week of training, I would sneak out of my room to practice magic at night since I have advanced darkvision due to my drow heritage. But after the third night of practice, I overused my mana and nearly fell off of the guildhall while I stumbled in confusion. Since then, I have had a guard watch over me every night in case I do something stupid again. Trust me, I am super embarrassed about this and feel just as worthless as you think.

The night guard is usually one of the npc knights, and they directly report to Bryce. He was already there with his stool and a container to hold and warm broth while the night carried on. I greeted him with a good night and entered my room, which is as polished and posh as the rest of the guild. I call it a room, but it is more like a 4 bedroom luxury condo in terms of size and scale. Though it is quite lonely inside due to the fact that I am the only resident, The only thing I had here was a pile of books for me to read while I casually fell asleep. I grabbed 2 books on magic theory and began reading, hoping to gloss some sort of discovery from the texts. I would quietly practice my magic again in my room, but the guard outside has a magic tool to detect mana usage. So reading theory is my only way to train, I guess I will leave the practical testing for tomorrow.

The next day came quickly, early in the morning I was woken up to begin my day of steady paperwork. I went to sleep so quickly last night that I didn’t even have a chance to read the theory books, much to my disappointment. I quickly got out of my sleeping clothes and into some new robes made by the tailors of Athenaeum. I quickly took a shower in my luxurious bathroom. It wasn’t like the showers back home, but It was close enough to bring me peace of mind. I ate a few peach-like fruit that tastes almost like a black currant crossed with a cherry, and began the day long day of governor duties.

I spent a few hours of progress in blissful peace before I saw the devil, Bryce, enter my room. He luckily didn’t have more paperwork for me to sign, just gave me the list of updates and issues around the town. A few of my guildmates got a bit rowdy in a tavern last night, and Henry is still harassing his former spouse. Not too abnormal, butI should probably get on top of it. I got out of my office with Bryce following me to the offending party of members, who spent a night in the Underkeep as punishment.

“So, you guys have an interesting night?” I said gazing upon a jail cell full of incredibly hungover guild members. I even saw that Armando was one of the offenders this time around.

They all looked up with their bloodshot eyes, trying to avoid any excessive stimuli that could further upset their roaring headache. The 3 of them had an awful odor hanging around them which brought an annoyed scowl upon my face.

“Hey Al, glad you came. Can you let us out now? Not the most pleasant of places to be in and would appreciate a little fresh air.” A Tiefling named Jason (or Jace as he likes to be called) gave a rather insolent reply to my arrival which annoyed Bryce and the knights who were minding these inmates last night.

“Jace, you do know why you were placed here last night right? I thought I warned you to stay out of trouble while we were here, but it seems the warning wasn’t enough huh.” I said with visible annoyance.

“Hey come on, let's not be like that. We were just having a little fun to keep our mind off this fucking bullshit world. Armando, Amir, and I will go pay for any damages we had caused, I promise.” He said, trying to shift the blame between the 3 of them even though I know he is the instigator.

“Man, why can’t you just behave. We are trying to keep a good relation with the people who keeps this place running, if you act like a bunch hooligans every fucking night how are they going to trust us to keep them safe?” I said while motioning the knights to open the cell door.

Jace had a smile on his face when the door started opening, but was shocked when he was pushed back into the cell when he tried to leave. Amir and Armando left the cell but decided to hang around me, probably expected a lecture from me and Bryce.

“What the Hell??!?” Jace screamed.

“Don’t be so shocked, I am giving you another day in the cell to think about why I am keeping you here. Try to use your brain of yours to understand why I am upset while you recover from your hangover. And as for you 2, wait outside for Bryce and I for your lecture.” I said in an authoritative tone.

We left the cells while Jace continued to glare angrily at me, Amir and Armando still looked green to the gills but that won’t save them from my ire. I spent a good 30 minutes explaining what they did wrong and how to avoid Jace in the future, I also made them apologize to the tavern owners and pay for damages to the store. This is the general routine of my days, I am usually the peacemaker between the 2 peoples of this city. I wish would just fuck off and let me try to find a way home, but there is always some sort of dispute between us and the NPCs.

I made rounds around the city, checking the progress and status of each industry and venture we are currently doing. The farming and ranching is going strong with no issues, in fact most of the industries from before the transfer is still relatively intact. It is still the magic industry that is the most hampered, that is still the number one issue plaguing us. It took me all the way unto 1:00 in the afternoon to finish my check of the town before making it back in the guildhall. I will finally get back to work on the magic I was so close to understanding, all I need is a bit of time to practice my mana control to get it right.

I continued by mana practice with the others, but this time I will not try the circle that I believe is on my arm. I think I need to reach a better understanding of mana before I can use it. I somehow feel that our understanding or use of magic is insufficient, at least compared to how it was in the game. Most of the stuff from the game transferred over, so why is major so different then? Not even the npc magic users are able to cast spells, and they had supposedly studied magic their whole life. We are continuing to study the numerous texts we have on magic, but it is a slog to get through. We even have hired all of the npc wizards to be full time scholars, let's hope they can make a breakthrough.

I finished my mana circulation after 4 hours of training, finally draining what I could feel was my mana capacity to empty. We are all making slow progress of magic use, but we are making steady improvements to efficiency and capacity. When I first started, it would take me an hour to drain my capacity due to how efficiently I was using magic at the time. Compared to the npc scholars, we are actually progressing fast. Though I wonder how much that grimoire affected me, especially since that it was not listed anywhere in our records for the library. We had others try a grimoire to see if it reacts to them the same way, but none of them got anything out of the experience. I also tried to use this grimoire again, but every page but 1 has is empty. And the one has the same summoning circle that I saw in my dream.

I spent 3 hours researching mana through our massive tomes before finally deciding to get dinner. I went to a local pub where most of the local people go to eat. I go incognito so I can get a proper feel on the npcs feelings without it being tainted or corrupted by others words. While grabbing a porkchop meal and a tall glass of beer, I began my listening with my brilliant elven ears. I can hear some dissatisfaction with the slow amount of Guildmates causing scenes in town. There were no mentions of names, but I can feel the “Heavenborne” reputation has begun to fall in people eyes. Looks like I need to crack the whip a bit, I already know the asshole who is causing the most trouble after all. They also have some dissatisfaction towards the expeditions teams because they left with no NPCs. They would rather see at least one of them in the teams so that they could properly represent their town if either team has met people on their journeys. They still view us as 2 different people instead of united, which is definitely a problem.

I hope that either of those expeditions are successful, I think this town is in a much more precarious place than people want to admit. We severely need success, something to show that we are making progress to make it back home. People tend to be quick with blame and panic when things go wrong, especially when they only see us as useless idiots that only eat and drink the food that they grow. Even though I spent a large portion of my treasury boosting the economy, and that we pay everything full price despite the service no longer being up to par. And the fact we built this whole town, the defenses, and maintain the town through over our own dime. I will admit, I have a few gripes over the NPCs. I know that the thinking is toxic, but I don’t like being called lazy or worthless.

I finished my business with the tavern and returned quickly to my room. I gave a quick greeting to my night guard before retiring to read a new book that no one has read yet. It is one of the oldest books in our archives, and it is one of the rarest books in the whole game. It was a piece of loot in the first event this game ever held, a time limited quest that required the community to solve a puzzle to access. It took an unbelievable amount of time to solve the puzzle, the event had to be extended by a week just so people could play it. But after all that trouble the reward was only a book on lore, and no other purpose was found beyond that. It was a massive disaster of an event, and was never repeated afterwards. This book is rare simply because it is unbelievably unpopular, the only reason why people want it is so they can complete an ingame book collection.

But the reason why I want it, is because it is a lore book on magic use throughout the ages. It would detail how magic use evolved with the ages, just like how technology grew throughout the ages in our world. It was a pointless flavor item in a video game, and we had already proven that magic does not work the same here as it does in the game. But some magic does work here from the video game, perhaps I can glean some sort of wisdom or insight from this text. At the very least, it could inspire us to try a new method. I turned through the pages with a small amount of enthusiasm, dreaming of the time I could use magic properly in this fantasy world.

One of the first forms of magic detailed, is the racial magic that is inherited with certain races. Elves and their spirit magic is a good example, as well as dark elves with their magic from Lolth the spider god. It detailed that we need to find our inherent magic deep within ourselves, much like meditation. Through deep introspective thought, the knowledge buried deep into your bloodline will become apparent. This might just be some fantasy writing bullshit, but it does seem like magic is easier to control when you are calm. Perhaps there is something with this, at the very least us elves can try it to see if anything happens.

I decided to call it a night, I might have something for elves but for the other races this is not a good solution. This book also got much wordier and bigger since its incarnation in the game, making it quite a slog to get through while reading. I will be satisfied with only this for now, sleep is a rare thing for me these days so I will savor it while I can. I flop into my bed, ready to welcome a new morning. But something nagged at me, like there was something desperately important that I forgot and my subconscious is trying to warn me. I couldn’t recollect at all what it could be about, but there was an annoying feeling of a memory almost coming into focus that is preventing me from sleeping.

I looked towards the back of my left hand, still seeing blank skin even though I know something is there. It annoys me that I had a grimoire for my magic, but it still didn’t give me the method to use summoning magic. I tried to remember the ritual again, trying to remember everything that I did to make it work. I thought again at the beginning of the ritual, what started the cascade of events that led up to the monster being summoned. Then I remembered the knife...the knife I used to slice open my palm to give the sacrifice of blood. My mind exploded with realization, that it was not lack of control for my magic but instead the lack of a proper offering. I immediately began pressing the sharp nail of my right hand in the back of the left one.

But before I could draw blood, the fear of the creature made me regain my composure. I had forgotten that the creature summoned was certainly not friendly to me, and definitely is not something I can control. I almost did something incredibly stupid, to summon that creature right now would be folly. I want to try summoning it, the best plan would be with people to act as guards. If a ridiculous monster does spawn, I would rather have some people around to hopefully kill it. Though now that I think about it, I only believed it was hostile. Maybe it wasn't as hostile as I thought since I don’t remember it harming me, but that is no reason to decide to trust it.

I stopped my attempt to cut my hand, deciding that death is too likely of an outcome with the ritual. I casually returned to my bed, and tried to sleep once again. This time it was easy, since the nagging feeling was no longer haunting me...Alex was asleep faster than he could realize that it was no normal rest. His left hand glowed with mana, highlighting the magic circle that was engraved there. And the spot he almost dug his nail into began to trickle a small amount of blood. The being he was so careful not to summon was watching him the whole time, waiting for just the right moment to complete the magic in case it’s so-called master was unable too. It silently summoned in front of the bed where the Summoner was resting, watching the half-drow peacefully rest. It smiled with a grotesque grin, and decided that its master needed company for the night.