Welcome to the Realm of the Ten Horizons!

You have been selected via divine nomination to join the Realm of the Ten Horizons. Each Horizon is an interconnected sub-realm. One may choose to ascend through the Horizons once one satisfies the requirements for each Horizon's Ascension.

Reach levels 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 to ascend the Horizons!

The blue screen that filled up Kestra's vision was her first clue that she wasn't laying in the bed in which she went to sleep. The second was the breeze playing over her skin -- especially the parts that had been covered by clothing and blankets.

She blinked her eyes, discovering that the blue screen was oddly translucent. She could look through it merely by shifting her attention, but she remained aware of its existence.

The screen could wait for the moment. She assessed her location and state.

Bare-ass-nekkid in the middle of some old woods, to judge by the size of the trees and the ferns and bushes that made up the undergrowth. Oh, and with temperate forest trees that had needles in place of leaves, because more than a few of the fallen needles were poking her sensitive bits.

At least her Holding ring was still on her finger. She directed a bit of her attention to the inventory enchantment and was reassured that her stored equipment was still with her. A bit more focus had clothes popping out of the Holding enchantment. She carefully stood and dusted herself free of the tree needles before dressing. Then she pulled out her simple dagger, bow, quiver of arrows, and stalking boots.

Pulling on her experience as a hunter, Kestra then settled down into a more relaxed position, retaining a bit of her attention to scan her surroundings while she read over the blue screen again. The screen was filled with odd glyphs, but despite having never seen them before, Kestra understood their meanings. Someone had force-fed the local language into her mind while she slept. It was a disturbing thought.

She found she could dismiss the screen with a bit of her focused will, somewhat similar to how she had been able to feel her class and skills before the transmigration. Before she had a chance to seek out more of her new connection to this Realm of the Ten Horizons, a new screen filled her mental vision.

Quest: Welcome to the Realm of the Ten Horizons

Requirements: Reach a Realm Anchor

Rewards:

‎ Guide to the Ten Horizons

‎ Minor Ring of Storing

‎ Minor Mana Recovery Potion

‎ Minor Stamina Recovery Potion

EXP: 100

Even as she wondered how she was supposed to find one of these realm anchors, a simplistic map, a bit more substantial than the holographic blue screens, blipped into her perception. The cartographic elements may have been simplistic, but the map included a compass and an enchantment that identified where she was currently located on the map. There were more of the language glyphs, too, acting as labels for different places.

She was in an area noted as the White Swine Woods. A quest mark, she guessed, indicated a city called Sortalheim as her destination. With a bit of orienteering, Kestra decided to call the direction to Sortalheim north-north-west of her current position. She wasn't sure about the scale of the map, but that was something she could figure out as she went, she guessed.

With that out of the way, she dismissed the quest notice. Oddly, she felt that she could pull it up again with a bit of focus, and she played around with that. The Welcome screen was beyond her. Perhaps it was only the latest screen that could be summoned after dismissal? Or maybe it had to do with the quest not yet being complete?

Well, no matter.

On to the next bit of psychic exploration. Kestra looked around for that same sense of connection she had shared with the voice of her last world. Unsurprisingly, it produced another blue screen.

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PROFILE

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NAME : Kestra Boom-Smiter

LEVEL : 0

EXP : 0/100

RACE : Human

TITLES :

‎ Transmigrator

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BOOSTS: 0

STRENGTH: 7 + 0 = 7

AGILITY: 10 + 0 = 10

STAMINA: 8 + 0 = 8 [120]

STAMINA RECOVERY: 8 + 0 = 8 [0.8/s]

MANA: 10 + 0 = 10 [100]

MANA RECOVERY: 10 + 0 = 10 [1.0/s]

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OPEN APERTURES: 1

TEMPERING STEPS: (0) Untempered

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Kestra spent more than a few moments staring at the second name this Profile had given her. Boom-Smiter. It was a joking name her team mates had given her when she first earned her class advancement to [Combat Alchemist]. She had been outwardly exasperated, but inwardly enjoyed the name, and apparently, now it was part of who she was.

She focused in on each of the different pieces of her profile, getting a few new screens and two new quests.

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Transmigrator

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You were not born within the Realm of the Ten Horizons.

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1 Mana Aperture has been opened for you, and your basic attributes have been tested and applied to your Profile.

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Quest: Open Your Mana Apertures

Requirements: Open all 12 of your Mana Apertures.

Progress: 1/12 Apertures Open

Rewards:

‎ Sovereign of Mana Title

‎ +25 Mana

+25 Mana Recovery

EXP: 120,000

Quest: Temper Your Body

Requirements: Temper your body to the Foundational Level

Progress: 0/5 Steps

Rewards:

‎ Tempered Foundation Title

‎ +15 Strength

‎ +15 Agility

‎ +15 Stamina

+15 Stamina Recovery

EXP: 50,000

Kestra dismissed the Quest and Profile screens, pulled up the quest screen again just to see if she could, and then checked over her gear and supplies. She didn't know what mana apertures were or how to do this body tempering thing, so she wouldn't worry about it for now.

Having no better direction to head off in, and figuring the Guide to the Ten Horizons was as good of a place as any to start figuring out this transmigration thing, Kestra resolved herself to investigate Sortalheim.

On the way, though, she could see what she could make of the skills she still had, starting with Identify.

She swept her gaze around, and started with the plants around her. Something sluggishly responded when she pushed out with the same kind of psychic intent that had been so much a part of communing with the voice of the world, so she fiddled with that, and after about ten minutes of messing around, she felt tired, but she got a few blue screens.

Horseblood Fern

A fern used in creating low grade Stamina powders and potions.

Congratulations!

You have successfully taught yourself the [Novice] Grade [Identify] spell!

+100 EXP

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Identify

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GRADE: Novice

Learn the basic akashic record of an object or life form type.

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Components: None

Cost: 2 Mana

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Level Up!

You have reached the next level. You gain 5 points to distribute across your statistics.

That was very useful. And an entire level based on learning a single spell? Well, it was the first level.

Kestra pulled up her profile again, noting that while her level had incremented to 1, her EXP line read the same, 0 / 100. The line for BOOSTS now had a 5 beside it. She wasn't sure what she could boost, and what was worth boosting, so she figured she could leave well enough alone for now.

Then there was the description given for the Horseblood Fern. That potion-making was a thing indicated something like Alchemy was also a thing. Kestra made a more thorough examination of the fern before carefully digging up one of the clumps, using a nearby fallen branch no wider than her thumb as a digging stick. She visually inspected the roots as she unearthed them and gently removed the dirt to better understand the plant in her hands.

Congratulations!

You have successfully learned the [Alchemy] skill! View your Skill Book to keep track of your skill ranks.

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Alchemy

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Alchemy begins with sourcing appropriate ingredients. From there, one must extract the properties of one's ingredients. Then one much carefully combine the properties and finally condense the resultant combination into a useful form.

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You must yet prove your worth to reap the rewards of this craft.

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That was … different. The "condense" part looked like an interesting change from the understanding of Alchemy Kestra was used to, but the rest of it was a decent high level description she could endorse. But this left her wondering just what a Skill Book was.

Hopefully something discussed in that Guide book.

Kestra performed a few simple tests with the fern, discovering that it was a mild stimulant with a nasty bitter taste. She stored the harvested plant in her Holding ring and set a cautious, exploratory pace toward Sortalheim.

Just from moving through the woods with care, Kestra learned the Stealth skill. She constantly worked to find that state of awareness that had been called One with the Land in her home world, but while she felt something similar enough, it wasn't the same.

The plants in this realm were so very similar to the world Kestra left behind, but all completely unknown to her. It made her careful about brushing up against any of them without having first identified their properties. Poisoning their leaves had been a common enough trick back home, and Kestra had no idea if that similarity traveled over, too. She took careful samples of the interesting plants she identified, especially the ones her new spell identified as edible, which somehow earned her a second level.

Now, she needed a total of 200 of these E.X.P.s and had 10 boosts.

When the darkness of night began to fall, Kestra estimated her slow progress might have taken her a league's distance. She wasn't sure how long the sun had been up, but it seemed to have traveled from a mid-morning position in the sky to what she was calling the western horizon.

Out of her Holding ring, she pulled a blank journal and a mark stick to record her first day's impressions. She intended to write in her familiar script, but the new glyphs of this world appeared. She frowned, but continued, until when she went to write her estimated travel, instead of "a league", "3 and some kilometers" went down on the paper.

Kestra turned the page and concentrated, hard, on writing as she had learned. She felt sweat beading up on her body from the concentration needed to write down a single sentence.

Then she watched as her careful, hard fought script turned fluid and reshaped itself into this realm's glyphs.

What an utterly odd thing for Diving Intervention to be turned upon.

Divine Intervention …? Something about that phrase tickled at Kestra's memories.

She blinked, and hung in a void, reading a tome too vast for her mortal senses to fully comprehend, and worked at understanding … something. Then she blinked again, and was sitting under a tree in an unknown wood, a realm or more away from her team and her family.

Personal realm.

A tribulation? A blessing from the God of Trials. She stretched her mind, searching for memories that felt hazy and scattered. Instead of memories, she felt something shift inside herself, her soul maybe. Instinct more than reasoned thought had her reaching toward the shift.

«Greetings.» The voice that said that came from that internal shift, and it was a light voice and clear, with a crispness that reminded Kestra of metal instruments.

With the voice came more memories. This was the Inventory Sprite she had made for her personal storage realm. The realm that held the copy of the book of revelations from her tribulation.

«Greetings. Do you require anything?» she asked her sprite.

«No, Maker.» Something about that didn't seem quite true, but lying was strictly forbidden by the way Kestra had made the sprite. She thought, at least.

«Do you desire anything?» she asked.

«Yes, Maker.» And that was the discordance.

«What do you desire, in order of priority?» Kestra asked.

«A name, more to order, and to read the book.»

Kestra considered. A name would give the sprite something to anchor a personality to, which could be good and could be bad, depending how that personality grew. The book of revelations might well cause the sprite to grow too quickly, turning demonic in its need to order everything.

«A name is a terribly important thing. I will consider this. In the mean time, you are an Inventory Sprite. I will refer to you as Inspri, not as a name, but as a quick designation.» The sense of a thrill running through her sprite made Kestra wonder if she hadn't just made a mistake in conceding that much. Sadly, what was done was done. She continued. «No, you may not read the book. However, I shall send more items for you to order in just a moment.»

In fact, it was probably worthwhile to transfer that book to her other personal realm, the one she had made to pass her tribulation. First, she went about harvesting more of the plants around her. These she sent to Inspri to sort.

She tried to remember why she hadn't used her personal storage realm to bring more with her, but this disturbing feeling of being watched by creepy, unseen somethings pushed back.

"I think," she murmured to herself, "the old Punisher left me with a compulsion to keep quiet. I wonder why."

No use worrying at it now. Kestra peeked into her third personal realm. It was as void-like as before, the crystal, the World Seed Elamshaq had named it, centered in the sphere of her personal realm. She retrieved the book of revelations and then tucked it into the realm with the world seed.

Then she peeked into her little retreat realm, with the cabin. If she was sure she could get back from the cabin before she ran out of food, Kestra might have been tempted to move her physical self over, too, but she wasn't so she didn't.

Anyhow, the book should be safe enough for now, and she could retrieve it when she was ready to study the tome again.

Then she returned her attention to her surroundings. A blue screen flashed itself for her focus. She gave it.

Attention!

A Divine Seed has appeared on the First Horizon.

That … probably wasn't good news for Kestra. Was her book of revelations that Divine Seed thing? She dismissed the screen only for the one behind it to flash its message at her.

Attention!

The Divine Seed has left the First Horizon.

Yeah, Kestra wasn't going to be pulling out her book of revelations again anytime soon.

Hozinzi sucked in a deep breath at the Living Scroll that flashed across his vision.

Attention!

A Divine Seed has appeared on the First Horizon.

For a Divine Seed to appear at all was so rare an occurrence that a hundred generations of Immortals might never experience it, but it was the stuff of legends -- and quests. Quests to ascend beyond the Ten Horizons.

Before he truly had a chance to react, though, another Living Scroll flashed its sad message.

Attention!

The Divine Seed has left the First Horizon.

Gone? Already? Someone had claimed the seed and slurped it down that quickly? What monstrous being could do such a thing? Were there gods playing across the Horizons? True gods, not those like Hozinzi's esteemed grandfather who had gained all the levels possible within the Realm of the Ten Horizons.

It was a sobering and terrifying thought.

Hozinzi cleared his throat, the sound echoing in the sudden silence of his soir ée. "Honored guests, in light of this development, I am sure you all shall need to confer with your clans. I will take no insult if you depart."

The banquet hall broke into cacophonous noise, and every out-clan guest bowed and said their farewells en masse. The Awakened laughed heartily, and several were heard chortling about running for an anchor to descend to the First Horizon and see what they might see.

Hozinzi felt a pang of pity for the poor people of the Horizon of Nations. If the fates were kind, the Awakened would give up their lark of a search within days of suffering the thin mana of the Mortal Horizons. Most of his guests would be highly discomforted by the lack of mana density in the Transcendental Horizons, even. Awakened, though, were not the same as Ascended.

Well, one could only hope for the best now