I jog into a large meeting room, approaching the only council member I ever came in contact with. I wish protocol didn’t require me to bring this particular piece of bad news, but no bureaucratic maneuvering would save me this late in the game, not even switching career tracks. I look at him and wait patiently until whatever was on his mind is dealt with and then I say my first words directly to him while trying to keep my voice steady.

“Somebody is waking up the underlayers of the system.”

“WHO?” he asks in a soft tone, but even with all my constitution points, my body threatens to disintegrate.

“No idea, their identity is too nebulous to even get a glimpse.”

“Likely nothing to be concerned about. Every few million years somebody goes poking where they don’t belong. Whomever it is will slip up eventually, be it now or in another million years.”

“I don’t know what called my attention but this just feels different from the previous cases. The weaves of Aether of the system’s core constructs… are stirring.”

“Report this to someone in the lower council. They will know when and if it becomes dangerous. If this situation grows to be worthy of my time, then and only then you come back to me. Make sure you two agree should the need to see me arise.”

He nearly whispers and just the echoes of his power feel like a mountain crashing on my soul.

I bend my waist in deep respect and take my leave as his attention heads elsewhere. With each step, I grow relieved. I had done my duty and though it was a major thing to me, it was just another annoying little tasks taking his attention.

Hopefully, I wouldn’t have to come back here, where a single yell would make sure that even the greatest of healers would have nothing to work with. Not even a single whole shard of bone.

Now I have the leeway to deal only with a lower council member and they did not have that same presence to them. I just need to find one of them that will work well with me.

A shrill voice cuts through the air and scrambles my thoughts. I cringe at the mere thought, holding to the hope that she isn’t aware of what he told me. Only that gives a modicum of comfort, she wouldn't dare to spy on him.

“So you have a project?”

I curse whatever gods I angered today. She may not know what we talked about, but the Madam’s pet is keen.

“Ohh yes, the Madam’s pet.”

Ohhh, you learned….

===========

Nash’s POV

My mind becomes a hurricane, as the last minute ticks down but just as this month was ending I gather enough of my wits to fly a few meters in the air. Wouldn’t want to waste the chance for someone else to get a few percent in their exploration rating. Then I’m free to let my mind whirl at full speed.

The system is not a dead creature. A thing that was created to be a simple tool. Everything that I read or felt from it lead me to believe that it was as alive as a computer. Perhaps a smart computer, but still at the same level as a computer.

That wave of Aether I absorbed changes things.

It was brief, it was protonic and unconscious, but every single fleeting impression that I had to this day that the system was a child throwing a tantrum holds more truth than I knew what to do with.

A single moment that alters my life and it might be the impetus for a lot more than that.

The Aether constructs that power the direct stat transformation are very similar to most other system functions, and though I felt a mystery or two in its construction, it was nothing compared to my discovery.

That wave of loose Aether… I woke up a giant creature and got a full morning breath. Proof of life beyond all reasonable doubt. Now the giant was sleeping once again I can’t simply go back and poke with my stick. I did something that I feel nobody had for a long time and it took notice. That is all.

How can I get its attention again is completely beyond me.

My trail of thoughts gets interrupted as someone pops back to Earth just 712 meters away.

The system’s usual faint mechanical attention goes to her and I shake my head.

Now I know why nobody else, even had a minuscule chance to get the title I acquired. It was impossible by following the rules.

Primordial Title: World explorer.

(You can only equip one Primordial Title at a time.)

Requirements:

Be the first to reach all the 30 most significant places on your planet

Hold at least 10 Common exploration titles.

Hold at least 1 Major exploration title.

Enjoy and learn throughout your journey.

Reached at Lv.100: percentual loss of effectiveness: 0%.

Rewards:

+20% to all stats.

+10% effectiveness to one skill.

+3% to one class special effect

Note: This is not a permanent title. You may lose it depending on your actions.

I simply stare at it. Both dumbstruck and fearful.

The entire world seemed to have taken notice of my actions and I know that it was rare, but if something like this existed and somebody could get it, what other thousands of things could take them so much beyond even what my imagination could conjure up?

Then I read the last line again and let it sink in.

‘You may lose this title….’

What actions could this be referencing?

I try to taste what it’s talking about with my Aether and I only get a very faint sense, but after a minute another line helps me fit it all together.

‘Enjoy and learn throughout your journey..’

That is a valuable lesson and right now it feels like just as much proof of life as the Aether that it released. That hint of life hidden under thousands of layers of rubber, glass fiber and silicon covering the skin of the system.

Then a smile threatens to break out as I look at the hint of Aether that I managed to absorb. I have far too much to go randomly experimenting, but it would probably teach me something eventually.

Normally nobody could even approach the system’s ‘core’, only the outer layers that must have been sterilized and long ago made unfeeling by the council’s machinations.

The greatest creation of sentient beings corrupted.

Another piece of coal is thrown in the smoldering embers that are my heart.

“I need to correct this. Whatever the cost, I need to make it right.”

A flailing and waving form sprints to me even as I drift a few meters from the ground aimlessly. I let her approach me before turning off the mana flow to the repelling runes infused in my body. If I wasn’t stealing a primordial title from anyone any longer I didn’t need to waste one more single mana point.

“Quién eres tú?”

I try to decipher her words and I even think of going to her to use telepathy She heaves and pats her dress down, but though she did approach me, that doesn’t sound like the best idea, just rushing forward and touching her hand might spook her.

I didn’t know Spanish, but her last word is similar enough to one of the few words I knew in Portuguese, “tú” meaning “you”. So she is probably asking my name.

“Nash,” I say pointing to myself.

Her next words, however, I completely fail to understand, but after a minute I start to get the gist. She wants to head to the nearest concentration of people. As scary as approaching me might be, at least I was flying and could get her there much faster than if she had to walk or even running all the way.

And she is nervous, I can hear that in her heartbeats, I smell that in her sweat, and I can feel it even ever so slightly influencing the Aether around her. And for a nonwielder to have even this much influence on their surroundings… she is out of her mind, but she still did what was necessary. So at the prompting of the other people in the inner world ‘whispering’ in my ear, I open a portal and invite her inside which takes another minute, before I take off in flight to the closest village along the coast.

This time the ten kilometer trip doesn’t require me to cross the sound barrier as I fly at a comfortable and leisurely pace. Curious about what I will find given I didn’t use the root network to try and get a sense of what was going on before I flew over, I’m slightly surprised to see the results.

Buildings of mortar recently erected follow a mixture of styles. The simple and almost medieval look of the instance village of plain doors and windows melds with the slopped clay roof tiles that I guess were fairly common in Mexico.

A group of people huddles together in the center talking. All combined they don’t even reach 100 people and so I come down from the sky to their amazement.

Pointing and staring are accompanied by hundreds of overlapping phrases, but I simply open the gates of the inner world letting more qualified diplomats step out of it.

As the engraver that had become the de facto chief steps out at the end of the line, I ask:

“So did anybody manage to talk to her?”

“Ohh, yeah. We have like a hundred people that learned Spanish. Hell, I thought you knew. We have at least 2 people fluent in 42 of the 50 most common languages. We thought it would be useful, though most of those were learned from books, so our practical knowledge leaves a to be desired.”

“If I really need to talk to someone, I tend to rely on Telepathy, but she was already skittish enough and I didn’t want to spook her. Maybe I could give it a try when I have eh time. With my intelligence stat as it is, I could probably brute force the issue and basically memorize a dictionary every couple of days. It might be useful.”

“One of our mages tried that. Really high intelligence stat so he managed to read through it in no time, but it didn’t work. Sure… he ‘knew’ all the words. He could translate text, albeit slowly and worse than most machine translation software but the more complex passages totally went over his head, which should be exactly where humans shine compared to machines.”

“Damn! That bad?”

“Yeah. He tried he memorizing a couple of grammar textbooks afterward, but it didn’t help a whole lot. It might help to get someone started, but it won’t take you far without a lot of actual practice.”

“Yeah, intelligence may be useful, but it seems there are some hard limits.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth. Now, how long are we staying here?

“A few more minutes, let them stretch their legs before we go back to the village if they want to. I mean you stayed cooped up inside for centuries. We can afford five minutes and if anyone wants to be in a new place, all the power to them.”

“I don’t think anyone is gonna be interested around here. I mean there isn’t even a single interesting thing that we aren’t gonna have in Pando’s village. Hell if half our plans work out we are going to the world capital.”

A glance around causes me to chuckle and ignoring the comment about Pando’s grove, I point my chin to one of the youngest men in the inner world. Someone roughly 30 years old chatting with the same woman that approached me.

“Ohh yes, nothing interesting. He is definitely not going to stay around.”

But as my thoughts drift back to his previous words, the smile that was glued to my face fades and I look around to take in what he actually meant with his first comment. Unlike the instance villages, these don’t have a single tool in the larger buildings meant to be workshops. There aren’t even simple stuff like tables or chairs in any of them.

There are a few growing fields of food outside planted by the people in the inner world.

I do the math in my head for providing the rest of the stuff they need. Even just food had taken them a long time, I can’t do this for everyone, but I’m already here, so why wouldn’t I do it if I can save them days or weeks of labor for so little cost while leaving a much higher quality end product?

Absorbing everything within a kilometer of myself I focus on a single set of runes.

Nature.

Qi and mana pass through it, as every single one of my seeds goes out hard and creates hundreds of chairs, tables, simple tools and surrounding it all, a wall encircling the village.

Nothing fancy, but I keep the effort with more and more of the seeds finishing the smaller implements and adding the brunt of their strength aiming for a defensive perimeter 6 meters high. The thick streams of mana seem to flow through space almost a liquid instead of fog. They thicken up with more and more passing through the air and heading through the loose network underground and though I know the force is actually a lot less, I feel I’m handling a dozen fireman hoses.

Then it’s over and I suddenly drop to the ground. Each of the streams induces a negligible amount of momentum. The sheer magnitude of the resource however aimed straight at the ground nearly sends me flying.

It’s not within my capabilities and it would require my abundant inner world, but eventually, I could probably learn to fly ith must my mana control.

To rely only on my bare will and take on the skies.