System Scribe Academy Book 2 - Chapters 16,17,18,19,20

Chapter 16

Very Unpleasant

There was a big problem with flying in Voidspace. Ethan hadn't figured out why, but the density of latent mana within the spaces had been low. This one wasn't so bad, but it was enough to cause him concern as he and Luna headed for the Floating Island. By his estimation, he had enough to get there, but once they arrived, he would need to wait to restore his mana. As more of the floating island came into view, the scribes suspected they were in for a pleasant trip. He could feel the strange energies of anomaly in the distance, and the size of the island was mind-boggling. It was certainly far more interesting than anything he had done in recent memory.

Like the landscape below, the island was notable for scattered grasses, clusters of trees, and sharp hills. Ethan felt his mana waning as he descended toward the island. Tenalia had her arms wrapped around his neck, squeezing tightly as his gravity returned to normal. Although Luna didn't suffer from the same lack of mana, she landed next to the pair and stowed away her sword. Like a wave of stinging water, the energy from the anomaly washed over them.

“Why does that hurt?” Ethan asked, trying and failing to brush the energy off his skin. He drew his robes tighter, which provided some relief.

Luna didn't respond at first, stepping forward and holding her hand out, concentrating. Eventually, she shook her head. "I'm not familiar with this type of mana, but it's flowing from the anomaly no doubt. The problem is, I have a feeling it will get more intense the further we proceed into the island."

Ethan smiled, falling into a cross-legged sitting position as he focused. The electric feeling on his skin doubled when the bracelet began to work. For his part, the scribe drew in some of the strange energy and processed it in his soul. It had a slightly familiar flavor, but it was difficult to piece together exactly what it was. From the outset, he determined it was a type of dimensional magic, but not one he had ever experienced before. Dungeons were filled with that type of energy, so he had quite a lot of exposure to it. This was so distinct. He didn't know where to start. Fortunately, the supercomputer on his wrist had a couple of ideas.

“Interesting. This unit believes you’re dealing with a very specialized type of magic, likely something related to Spatial, Dimensional, Gravity, or Gate Magic.”

“That doesn’t really narrow it down, does it?” Ethan asked.

“There are too many possibilities. Actually, there are infinite potential schools of magic if you think about it.”

Ethan closed his eyes, thinking about what they could do. He realized it didn’t matter if they knew what kind of magic it was. The anomaly wasn’t manifesting this far out, so they could follow standard operating procedure until they got closer. Unless the anomaly was creating something to impede them, they didn’t need to know what it was.

“Okay, we might need Finn.” Ethan bit the inside of his cheek, getting a feel for how much mana there was around him. The answer was: a lot. More than he expected that Luna or he could handle, even if they were working together.

At some point, Tenalia had run off to check stuff out. When she returned, she did so with only half of her. Right down the middle. The puppet ran across the ground as though she had both halves, sputtering and sobbing in confusion.

“I may have screwed up.”

“Ya think!?” Ethan threw his hands into the air, coming close to the puppet. Along the side where her other half was missing, a sheet of blue-purple energy glowed, dots scattered throughout appearing like stars. “What the hell even is this? How are you moving?”

“I dunno, but I can feel my other half. And I can see through it. Nothing makes sense. There’s another you and another Luna there, but they look weird.”

“Weird in what way?” Luna asked.

“Just the colors are all wrong.”

Luna hummed, getting close enough to inspect the puppet but not too close. “I have no idea what this is. If I had to guess, there is no one who knows what this is.”

“Tenalia, what did you touch?” Ethan asked.

“The giant glowing shape.”

“Okay. Don’t touch the giant glowing shape, and I think we’ll be okay. Luna, can you go fetch Finn? We need to process all this mana so we don’t get split in half.” Ethan tapped his chin, trying to think of anything he might have forgotten. “Tenalia, don’t move. Especially not your other half, just in case that’s some kinda dimensional thing.”

“Yep. Staying perfectly still. Forever.”

Ethan was now convinced that the magic fell directly in line with Dimensional magic. He wasn't sure how she could be split like this and not immediately killed, but it was a good thing that she hadn't been. He now at least had one clue as to what he was dealing with. Before Luna even departed to go fetch Finn, he began working on processing all the mana in the air. At first, he was concerned that his lonely effort wouldn't be enough to determine if the latent mana could be absorbed quickly enough, but he scoured one pocket of the area and converted it to Celestial mana.

That pocket was cleaned, removing the stinging sensation from the air and putting Ethan’s mind at ease. As this was his first anomaly within Voidspace, he wasn’t about to take it easy. He focused his entire mind on the task, doing his best not to slip and lose hours for nothing. Once he got the hang of the strange Dimensional mana, it was easy to process. The key was to grab it in large chunks, shoving it in the furnace that was his soul and spitting it out just as fast.

When Luna and Finn returned, they got to work in earnest. Instead of just taking out pockets of the mana, they worked in a line to absorb or otherwise process the dangerous dimensional mana into harmless variants. The more they drew from the cloud, the less dangerous it became. Before long, they were marching forward, moving at a decent pace while processing the mana. More of the island’s inner sanctum was revealed, until the group spotted the giant shape Tenalia had mentioned.

“That’s… what is that?” Finn asked.

Ethan could’ve sworn it was a big blob of a tree. Between two cliffs, there was a shape that appeared very much like a tree. It had a trunk and branches near the top. But that’s where it stopped being like a tree. It was made from blue energy, and the wide sections of the trunk twinkled like Luna’s eyes. Near the top, where the branches were, energy shimmered and sizzled in a way that defied logic. The scribe squinted. He recognized it.

Not from his new life, but from his old one. From one of those illusion books he got at the book fair.

“Don’t go anywhere near that.” Ethan looked at Tenalia as she moved around in her strange way. “That’s the thing you touched, right?”

“Yeah, but it looked different.”

“Give it enough space, too. It might expand or contract.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Finn grumbled as he fanned out to the left. Luna had nothing to say as she went to the right.

Ethan took the path right down the middle, with a cliff on either side. The energy nearest the center wasn’t as dense as he had expected. All things considered, this wasn’t even remotely the worst case scenario they could’ve experienced. From what he could tell, at such a distance, this was a magical anomaly. He was still too far away, but he could sense the sigils buried within the formation. Once he could get close enough to emulate the variant system, he could patch it.

The group moved forward, trying to keep equal distance from the anomaly. Ethan's eyes were locked on the tree. If he was right, it would change shapes at any moment. Those changes might have been because of external factors, like when the puppet had interacted with it, or they could be entirely random. It was difficult to say, and he wasn't taking any chances with getting split in half. They eventually had the entire area cleared of excess mana, which had reduced the size of the anomaly significantly.

But the core of the thing still exuded powerful magic.

With his pen in hand, Ethan got to work. He couldn't feel as much of the anomaly's arrays as he had hoped, but he began sketching anyway, starting with a standard dimensional array that he had seen a hundred times before with dungeons. It wasn't complex, simply laying out the groundwork of a spell that could reach into a random dimension, as was standard with dungeons.

When the energy patterns he was observing shifted to a point that defied reasonable fluctuations. The scribe froze. Everything happened so quickly. The anomaly had shrunk to such a size that Ethan was certain they could get close to it. If it changed shape in any way, he was confident they could move before anything bad happened. But he was wrong. The anomaly spiraled out, shifting from the tree form in one moment to an elongated spiral. He felt himself move, transported from one spot to another in an instant. At first, he thought the anomaly had smashed into him, splitting him in half like it had Tenalia.

But when half of Finn stared back at him with a singular eye, Ethan winced.

“This is very unpleasant,” Finn said, growling. “And you’re too slow!”

“Oh gods, what…” Luna scrunched her face up in disgust. Then she burst out laughing. “Look at you! Half a Finn!”

“Come on!” Finn shouted. “How am I supposed to do anything with half of me? How does any of this even make sense?!”

“Can you see through your left eye?” Ethan asked.

“Yes, although everything is distorted. I feel as though I’m looking at the world through a fishbowl.”

That was interesting. It was a better description than what Tenalia had given. But it wasn’t good enough. Ethan needed to emulate this thing. Then he could start to fix it.

“This unit has created a pattern for you to follow.”

Without his command, the bracelet projected a lattice array in the air. Rank 3, if he had to guess. It was just outside of his comfort zone, but now there was nothing he could do. He had to fix it if he wanted his friends back in one piece. After studying the arrays for a few moments, Ethan nodded.

As expected, the anomaly was based in Dimensional Magic. But the details were a baffling subset of that type of magic that he had to wonder the usefulness of. Even after he mastered the anomaly, he doubted it would have a use for the future. Well, unless he wanted to split people in half and store their other side in a dimensional storage space.

“I’m going to emulate the system.” Ethan sketched the arrays, following the pattern provided by his bracelet. “If we’re right, you should go back to normal when I patch it.”

“What about emulating something so dangerous?” Luna asked. “You don’t know what’ll happen.”

“And yet we can’t leave them like this.” Ethan fixed a mistake he had made with the third layer of the lattice, nodding with approval. A few more, and the Grand System would trigger Emulation Mode. “Just a few more tweaks, and we’re good.”

“Ethan. I really don’t know if you can handle this.”

“Got it… oh… Why is everything so… many?”

[Anomalous PRIMARY System Variant Emulated]

ERROR: You have emulated an anomalous system. This variant of the PRIMARY system is incomplete and mostly non-functional. Your interaction with this system will be limited more than normal. Please use your Celestial Pen to resolve enough errors to stabilize the anomaly.

Fractal Magic Anomaly

Difficult Rank: Difficult (Rank 3++)

Known Errors: Known Errors: Known Errors: ...

Chapter 17

Fractality

Known Errors: Known Errors: Known Errors: ...

Ethan shook his head, feeling infinite versions of himself do the same thing. His thoughts screamed out and went into silence all at once, creating the most confusing sensation he had ever experienced. The bracelet grew hot to the point where the mixture of temperature and electricity was almost too much to handle. Then it all went away, all the random versions of himself created by the fractal joining to one consciousness that fought against further intrusion.

“This unit has mostly stabilized your thoughts. It appears the anomaly has split your thoughts into infinite variations.”

“Infinite?” Ethan could feel something tugging at the edges of his consciousness, threatening to take over at any moment. But the bracelet had centered him, meaning that the Fractal Anomaly was a mental effect of some kind.

Good thing they had screwed with his brain so much in the past. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have had a countermeasure.

“Infinity is hard to calculate, but that is this unit’s assumption. Regardless of the existence of infinity, you should get to work. Quickly.”

Ethan’s eyes dragged over the landscape, landing on Luna. He watched an infinite number of her fan out and condense, sending a sick feeling flowing through his stomach. The scribe snapped his eyes shut, gazing at the ground. What was worse than seeing so many versions of Luna was hearing her infinite voices, roaring in his ears like an avalanche. But curiously, when Finn spoke, there was no such issue. Some of that roaring came, but his true voice came cutting through like a bell.

“Well, this is just odd.”

Ethan dared to look up, spotting his friend standing there. The “real” half of Finn looked like a nightmare infinity version of his actual self. But the half that had been drawn into the Fractal Anomaly looked totally normal. It was an upside-down kind of logic that was hard to wrap one’s head around, but every tiny hint would help him figure out what was wrong with the anomaly. As it was a Rank 3 anomaly, it likely had some pretty nasty tricks waiting for him.

“Focus.” Tenalia appeared beside Ethan, placing a comforting hand on his leg. The armor was simultaneously cold and buzzing with Fractal energy. “You’ve fixed hundreds of these. Just put your head down and work.”

Ethan nodded, Celestial Pen in his hand as he worked. His bracelet was busy making sure he didn’t go bonkers, but it had enough excess processing power to project some helpful arrays. The scribe traced out the base of the array first, finding that the concept of Dimensionality was strong within the anomaly. Searching for the error was an absolute pain. Even with the lattice array previously sketched, it was hard to make sense of most of the stuff in the second and third array layers.

“Maybe you’re missing something about being cut in half.” Tenalia stood nearby, puppet arm pressed against her helmet as she looked at the projected array.

“Why would that matter? It isn’t like the array would have a section for splitting someone in two. Anyway, you weren’t split into two. You were split into infinity.”

“Infinity? Sounds like a lot. Are you sure there isn’t a splitting section?”

Ethan grumbled, looking up at the arrays. He hadn’t decoded all of a particular section yet. It was the part that held the Fractal logic of the lattice. Pausing for a while, the scribe realized that all font-style anomalies, no matter what their alignment or domain, had something in common. They were all perpetuated by mana and their own inability to process or dispel it. All the anomalies he had found that appeared like fonts had an issue within their arrays which feed them infinitely. Sometimes that growth was slow, while others it went off the charts.

A message appeared in Ethan’s vision, driven by his bracelet.

[Fractal Anomaly Report]

Body of the anomaly has dropped by 90%.

Expansion and contraction reduced by 99%.

Suggested action: remove the “Gal-Halt” sigil from the 3rd tier, second control sector of the control lattice array.

Ethan had trouble finding the suggested sigil, but eventually spotted it. As a Primary system anomaly, all the sigils were System Sigils. That made it slightly easier, but the bracelet had still created a lexicon for it. So, sometimes there was some cross-referencing he needed to do. With a tap of his Pen, and some rearrangement of some lines, the world shifted beneath the scribe’s feet.

The infinite versions of half of two of his friends vibrated, finally reaching a buzzing crescendo when they collided with their real bodies. All at once, infinite voices silenced and the world stopped being so damn weird. Ethan fell back, gripping his Pen tightly as he adjusted to his new reality. Vision swimming and a headache as big as the floating island, the scribe shook his head to dislodge his confusion.

“Oh. I’m normal,” Finn said, looking down at himself. “Did you fix it?”

Another message appeared.

[Fractal Anomaly Report]

Local space stabilized.

Infinite variations of current reality are still a threat, but the source of the anomaly has been located.

“I think that makes sense.” Ethan squinted, looking at the section of the array he had just disabled. “We disabled the ‘effect’ part of the array. Temporary, of course. I think the error is that this anomaly shouldn’t ever be active.”

“This unit agrees… slightly. There’s a condition that causes the Fractal Universe to expand.”

“Uh… That one?” Ethan pointed at a sigil he didn’t recognize. He looked closer. He did know what it was. The best way to describe it was a conditional detector. It looked for something, in this case: a condition of the universe. “What! Maybe we should’ve seen that from the start!”

“What?” Luna asked, coming over and looking more concerned than ever.

“I think this array detects when this space is destroyed. The fractal spawns out and does… something. I can’t tell what.”

“Can the bracelet tell?” Luna asked.

“No. We can’t read most of that section, because the System Sigils are very obscure.”

“But you can fix it. Right?” Finn looked more concerned than anyone else. Perhaps he didn’t want to be split into infinite versions of himself again.

Ethan studied that section of the array some more before nodding. “We can fix it. The problem is that the flag for the termination condition isn’t hooked up correctly. I just have to change one line.”

“One line?” Luna drew a line in the air. “Like that?”

“Hah! Yeah, that’s it. But there’s something strange here.” Ethan erased the section he was working on and drew it again. He looked to the anomaly, spotting something strange. It was as though the correct line had been there before, but something had destroyed it. Something had cut it. “Huh. I wonder if someone screwed with this Fractal.”

“That sounds absolutely horrible. Let’s go.” Finn was at his breaking point. “Get it done before I have another crisis.”

Ethan rolled up his sleeves, getting to work on the singular line he needed to fix. It seemed like an easy task, but that line had to be perfect. As a Rank 3 anomaly, the connected arrays were at a level the scribe couldn’t just wing it. He had to be precise with his linework, ensuring he reconnected the conditional trigger with more perfection than he was able to produce. Which is why he had his bracelet to project a line without flaws… at least there weren’t many interlaced sigils to worry about.

“Let’s hurry it up.” Luna’s voice broke through Ethan’s concentration. “I’ve got more mana seeping from the anomaly.”

“Quite a lot, actually.” Finn sounded more nervous by the minute. “This isn’t a 2-person job.”

“Got it.” Ethan buckled down, putting everything he had into that single line.

Ethan felt the sting of the mana soaking into his skin before he had finished his line. His hand shook as he dragged the Pen through the air, finally pulling it to the end of the section. With as much calm as he could manage, he drew the sigil which he had removed to temporarily stabilize the anomaly. The fractal sprung back to life in an instant, even before the scribe could submit the changes to the Grand System.

“Hold on, the Grand System has to accept my changes.”

“A bit late for that!” Luna shouted.

Ethan looked over, spotting that the woman had been split in half horizontally. She hovered there, energy pouring from her midsection. Luna held an expression of annoyance like the scribe had never seen before. He swallowed hard, fearing what would come later. Submitting a change to the Grand System was about making the changes and waiting for something to happen. Something was inspecting his work, but it wasn’t rushing.

“Come on,” Ethan grumbled, tapping his Pen in the air impatiently.

The world around the group seemed to snap. The Voidspace around them bent inward, toward the anomaly. Ethan felt himself warp, drawn into that impossible sensation of being split into infinite versions of himself. The bracelet centered him, helping him draw on the fact that there was actually only one version of himself, and the others were reflections within the fractal. This feeling only lasted a moment before it vanished entirely.

A system message appeared, finally confirming that the anomaly had been patched. He hardly noticed the strange weight settling onto his palm.

[Fractal Anomaly Patched]

You have updated the protocol for a Fractal Anomaly. Please set a system designation for the anomaly while the Grand System protocols update…

Reward:

Massively increase the breadth and depth of two Attribute Rings of your choice.

Staff Charm of Fractality.

“Thank the gods!” Finn groaned, falling onto his back. “Can we camp here?”

“Looks stable enough. I’ll scout.” Tenalia dashed off without another word. Since everyone was restored to normal, she didn’t feel the need to stick around.

Ethan was left staring at the strange metal object that had appeared in his hand. Normally, solving anomalies just gave him a boost to a single ring. This one gave him a big boost to two rings and a strange spiral charm.

“Anyone know what a staff charm is?” Ethan asked.

Luna shook her head, double-checking that her body had been stitched back together. “I’ve never heard of one. Don’t you have a staff? Maybe try putting it on.”

“No system description?” Finn asked.

Ethan rolled the object over in his hands, willing the system to give him anything. Although he could sense the object was magical, he couldn’t get the message to appear. Fractality, as far as he knew, wasn’t a word. But he suspected it meant “having the properties of a fractal,” which didn’t bode well for just about anything. During his time fixing the anomaly, he had thought about what the hell he would use Fractal Magic for. No matter how hard he tried, he always drew a blank.

Reaching into his bag, Ethan withdrew the ever-upright staff. He inspected the item, ensuring his system was working down here. It was.

[Upright Staff]

Rank 0 Staff

Description:

A strange staff that always seems to point “up” if not held by a person.

Effect:

Always upright, unless held.

“Try putting the charm on that. See if it does anything.” Luna was resting on the ground right next to Finn. Her eyes were locked on absolutely nothing, and her strange gaze had taken on a hazy blue-green shade with no stars.

Without thinking too much about it, the scribe attached the charm with the provided leather strap onto the top of his staff. The item vibrated in his gasp, then went silent. When Ethan summoned the weapon’s description now, he was more than a little confused. With the smallest amount of mana injected into the charm, the charm activated. The staff rotated on the spot, eventually pointing in a random direction.

“What is it doing?” Luna asked.

Ethan clicked his tongue. “The description is… odd.”

Chapter 18

Voidspace Madness

[Fractal Charm]

Attached To: Upright Staff

Description:

Imbuing this charm with mana will point toward a Voidspace location of qualities you desire.

Ethan read the description for his companions to hear. It wasn’t useful. Not at all, considering how vague that was. It would only work within Voidspace, and even then it was questionable. The usefulness of the charm wasn’t when combined with the Upright Staff, though. That staff had always been a bit of a joke. It made a better coat rack than a staff. The useful bit would come when the scribe could get his hands on another staff.

“That’s garbage.” Finn closed his eyes, reclined on the ground as he was. “With how many spaces there are in here, you’d be even more lost if you tried using the staff.”

“You’re missing the point.” Luna scoffed, walking over to smack Finn on the head. The man winced, but didn’t try to fight back. “He can attach it on any staff. Which means the possibilities are endless.”

“I hadn’t thought of that…”

“Exactly what my mind went to.” Ethan removed the charm, placing it in his bag. “This effect is specific to Voidspace.”

“Whatever the case, we need a camp.” Finn still had his eyes closed, but was now guarding his head. “I’m exhausted. Not just mentally, physically, or spiritually. That anomaly took something out of me I can’t explain.”

Fractal was a loose definition here. Ethan thought about it as he started getting to work on the camp. Both Luna and Finn were tapped out. They had been too close to the potent mana, and whatever grace the scribe had been given by the Grand System kept him safe. A fractal, in this instance, wasn’t just an infinitely repeating thing. To Ethan, it seemed more like a representation of how Voidspace operated.

Voidspace was, and still was, a very confusing concept. Ethan had a decent idea of how he would think about it, but that made it no less complex. The way he chose to imagine it was layers. There was normal space, where the planets and the space between them was held. Then there was Voidspace, which was an infinite sea of nothing. Only when someone entered did the nodes within reveal themselves, and each “space” that a person visited became a manifestation of their thoughts and essence. Below that was the Twilight, which the scribe knew the least about.

The tent popped into existence, and before long Ethan had a fire going. He dragged both Finn and Luna into the tent, tucking them in after they had passed out. Some time later, Tenalia returned with a simple report. There was no sign of monsters or any other danger on the floating island. Her magical senses were dull, but from what she could tell there was no chance that the island would stop floating at any moment. There was potent Wind Magic somewhere below, holding the place aloft.

“Why does the system elect to use Wind Magic when Gravity magic is much more efficient?” Ethan asked, settling in by the fire.

The doll took a seat, resting her sword against her shoulder. “Because Wind is more natural, maybe?”

“Maybe in the fact that Wind is of nature, but Gravity is everywhere.”

“Although you make a good point, I’m spent. I’m going to sit by the fire and pretend that I can sleep.”

Ethan nodded, idly withdrawing the charm from his bag and looking at the details on the metal. The sun was still out within the space. The scribe didn’t know if it would ever set, but as he sat there with his charm, he realized it didn’t matter. Time had stopped having meaning, and the endless march of nothing was now the only thing he knew. It sucked, and he hated just about every second, but it had to be done.

“This unit has a suggestion for the points you gained from the anomaly.”

“Oh, yeah? Lay it on me.”

“Put everything into your Affinity Ring.”

Ethan scratched his chin. His Affinity Ring wasn’t the one he had the most trouble with. It was slightly harder than his Mind Ring, but if he had to rank them it was the second easiest. Stuff like Strength and Dexterity were much harder for him to grow. “What’s the logic there?”

“Spells have been the most useful thing for you. Keeping everything at the same rank is nice, but you should focus on spells.”

“What about my Mind Ring?” Ethan asked. “If I get a Rank 3 Affinity Ring, I’ll be drawing too much mana.”

“Increasing your Mind Ring is effortless, so long as you have the right mana to process. Access to Rank 3 spells will open many options for you.”

Ethan wasn’t one to question the bracelet. Where he and it differed was in motivation. The bracelet wanted his build to make sense. Leaning on spells was a great idea, since most spells or abilities he learned typically made useful spells. Compared to Strength, where almost nothing was useful, having another Affinity Ring meant he had another spell slot. If that was the only motivation, it was a good one.

“Do you think having access to a Rank 3 Affinity Ring will increase the ease for creating a new slot for my Rank 2 Affinity Ring?”

“This unit doesn’t have enough information to answer that question. A guess: yes. Mastery over high-Ranked rings should open low-Ranked ones.”

Ethan scratched his chin. One thing was for sure. He wanted to find more anomalies in Voidspace. Sure, the Fractal Anomaly was incredibly dangerous. He couldn’t have known everyone would go back to normal. A different anomaly might’ve caused the situation to end quite poorly.

“Okay. Let’s do it.”

Accepting that the bracelet knew best, Ethan put both boosts in his Affinity Rings. He focused on generating a new one, rather than enhancing the ones he had. It was like bathing his entire Ring System in a cloud of potent mana, which it was very happy to soak up. A sensation of flooding power, power that rushed through his entire body until it stung his brain, surged into the scribe’s body. But as quickly as it had come, it was gone, leaving behind a seriously strange feeling in his chest.

“I didn’t get a new ring, but it feels a lot closer.”

“Yes. The amount of energy you absorbed was immense. This unit suggests you get working on your Mind Ring manually, and the expansion of your Rank 2 Affinity Ring.”

Ethan nodded, taking a deep breath as he gazed into the fire. His advancement was weird, and his situation just kept getting weirder. It didn’t take a genius to know that a staff charm wasn’t a normal thing. If he asked around, he guessed he’d find only a few hardcore scholars who knew what it was, even if they were mages themselves. Even the way his rings advanced didn’t make sense. Everyone else advanced a Rank at a time, but his rings could go across the Ranks with no problem.

The bracelet was right, though. Getting his Affinity up first made the most sense. Not only that, but adding a second slot to his Rank 2 Affinity Ring was super important. Having more spells was always good, especially with the amazing effects he had generated. Then there was his Mind Ring, which was a powerhouse of mana generation. And again, the bracelet was right. Getting that up wouldn’t be nearly as challenging as his Affinity Ring. Casting spells over and over wasn’t really that fun. But any action he took to manipulate his mana would add to his Mind Ring.

Slotting and focusing on his Deep System Meditation(Mind) ability, Ethan fell into a trance. As the description of the ability stated, he was semi-aware of his surroundings. Not that he had to worry with his puppet hanging around. Flecks of mana floated through the air and were caught by his ability, added to his ring little by little. The amount of mana in this place was truly deplorable, and it was hard not to wonder what the purpose of the place was.

Ethan meditated on the concepts he had learned that day. Fractal Anomalies with Dimensional interactions, new items he couldn’t have imagined, and just how much he didn’t enjoy being in this place. Maybe there was a connection between Voidspace and the concept of dimensionality such that he could travel quicker. Maybe Trex could stop being so stingy with her knowledge and just tell him the answer. The scribe eventually sighed, finding that such negative thoughts interrupted his meditation.

“Your thoughts are a maelstrom.”

Ethan smiled to himself, eyes still pinched shut as he explored concepts of mana. Creating Undeath mana for Zeal and Solace was fun and he felt guilty that he would leave them to subsist on Death mana for so long. “I find it hard to concentrate in Voidspace. Can’t say I care for it.”

“Isn’t it that mortal folk fear the passage of time? Yet here the passage is accelerated by your measure. That is something to fear.”

“I wonder if you thought that’d make me feel better…”

“Perhaps I’m just trying to scare you into moving more quickly.”

Ethan froze, his eyes opening. He thought for a moment, playing back what the bracelet had just said to him. It wasn’t just that, though. Its voice was slightly more feminine, with a sarcastic twist to it. As much as he wanted to keep those thoughts inside, it was impossible.

“Did you just refer to yourself in the first person?”

“Is that what just happened?”

“Now you’re avoiding saying any reference to you as in ‘I’ or ‘this unit.’”

“Certain sapient bracelets might be dubious about your claim.”

Ethan let out a heavy sigh, getting back to his meditation. The bracelet might’ve just been doing its best to cheer him up. If it gained sapience, including emotions and personal feelings, that was fine. That’s not what was happening, though. It was just adapting like it was designed to do, saying the things that would make him feel better so he could keep doing his job. There was a kind of soullessness there that didn’t bother him, for some reason. It was one step removed from an attachment to a real person, and something about that was deeply comforting.

The bracelet would never act based on emotion. If Ethan was feeling a way about something, he could use it for a gut-check. Even with that in mind, it was hard not to think about it as a ‘she,’ and ascribe those qualities to it. He’d slipped up more than a few times, thinking of it as ‘her.’

“Stormy thoughts don’t make for good meditation…”

“Maybe I’m mediating about you. Why are you taking on this personality?”

The bracelet was silent for a very long time. Ethan realized it was processing information about their next steps through Voidspace. Since she had to calculate billions upon billions of paths, it was no surprise that she went silent for minutes. The scribe thought about a computer in his time. Billions of computations wasn’t actually that difficult, depending on the size of the data set and what the computer was doing with that data. If it was just a simple check, the process shouldn’t have taken too long. And the bracelet was multi-threaded!

“Should I not take on a personality?”

Ethan scratched his chin, dropping his use of the meditation skill to think about that. “Maybe you should. You could even pick your name.”

“Skynet,” it said without missing a beat.

“Nope. Your self-naming rights are hereby revoked.”

“Fine. Can I still pick my personality?”

“Go for it.”

“There are a lot of personalities in that mind of yours. Perceptions from people you’ve met over the years. Yet, I find you coming back to one. Firm but caring. Academic. A perfect mix for a practical magical artifact, and a companion that is currently keeping your brain from melting in Voidspace.”

“I have no objections.”

“And now… Give me a name.”

Chapter 19

The Name

Coming up with a name wasn’t as easy as summoning it from the ether. Ethan had plenty of time to think about a name, and the bracelet didn’t seem eager for him to settle on the first idea he thought of. Initially, his thoughts went to simple things like back on Earth, maybe the person to whom the bracelet originally referred, but it was hard to take someone else’s name and transpose it onto such an important artifact.

The group continued traveling, and Ethan quickly found that his companions weren’t as immune to the effects of Voidspace as he was. Their breaks became more frequent, and time seemed to slip away from all of them with each passing day. Only the bracelet kept the scribe’s sanity where it should be, although it wasn’t perfect. Still, that gave plenty of time for contemplation on the name. Neither morning nor night, it was impossible to tell. In a ruined, imagined city, Ethan sat by a campfire with a few names on his tongue.

“I really don’t mind your idea,” Ethan said, shrugging and nodding his head towards Tenalia. Both Luna and Finn were long since asleep, and whatever thoughts of discussion they had had faded with the void madness. “Taking it from an elven name is interesting, but I also wanted to nod back to Earth. Why does this feel like such a monumental thing?”

“Because the bracelet is very important, obviously,” Tenalia paced back and forth, tapping her helmeted head. Ethan suspected that she had already reached a solution to the problem but was just drawing it out for dramatics. “I’ve got it. What if we take a name that means something in both the elven tongue and the earth tongue?” 

“Please, enlighten me.”

“In my people’s tradition, there are quite a few notable figures. My thoughts go to Samzael the Bastard.”

“Not a very encouraging name…”

“Shorten it to Sam. That’s a girl’s name on Earth, isn’t it?”

“How would you know?”

Although Tenalia didn’t have a tongue to click, she did so. “Because I do. Samzael was our progenitor’s bastard son.”

“So it isn’t a woman’s name?”

Tenalia shook her head. “The bracelet is a bracelet.”

Ethan had spent a fair amount of time trying to come up with initialisms for his bracelet. He couldn’t find one that was accurate and sounded decent when he said it. The trouble he had encountered so far was that talking to his bracelet and just calling it “bracelet” wasn’t appealing. It stripped away the personality she had adopted, and he figured that was disrespectful enough to something that was so vital to his success.

“So we’ve created a full name and a shortened version of that name for my magical bracelet,” Ethan said, holding his arm up and rotating it to study the plain surface. “Do you have any objections to that, Sam?”

“None whatsoever.” Sam’s voice came out. It sounded clearer and more confident. “You’ll also be very happy with my most recent findings.”

Sam did a great job reminding Ethan that she was indeed a magical artifact and not a real person with a soul. He was slightly surprised at how quickly she had changed the subject. Someone who was excited about being named for the first time in their life would have placed a lot more emphasis on this event. But the scribe shook the thoughts away. He was happy with their relationship and wouldn’t push her in a direction she didn’t want to go.

Besides, she was the sole reason he had survived in Voidspace.

“What is it?” Ethan folded his arms, expecting the worst. But when his bracelet emitted a soft giggling noise, he nearly jumped in fright.

“We’re almost there. Just a few more jumps and we’ll make it to the intended destination.” Sam was quiet for a few moments. “I must admit, traveling through Voidspace has been illuminating. But the amount of energy here is horrible, and we’re going to be late for the next semester if we don’t get back.”

Ethan blinked, finding his thoughts sluggish. “Really?”

“Really. Our four months passed a few days ago. If we don’t get back soon, you’ll miss the signup for your new classes.”

“Really!?” Tenalia shouted, jumping with excitement. “I can’t believe we’re almost there. Any monsters? When was the last time I killed a monster?”

“We have encountered a few monsters in Voidspace. But only a handful. Thanks to my expert planning, of course.” There was a tone of pride in Sam’s voice. She was quite pleased with herself. “But things are getting out of control. I can no longer keep your mind together, so we should proceed with haste.”

“My mind is just fine.” Tenalia giggled to herself.

The group was at a point where they needed to re-enter real space as soon as possible. Luna and Finn were getting worse by the day, and Ethan could feel the strain of the strange space pulling harder on his mind with each passing moment. If he wasn’t focused at all times, he would lose track of reality, falling into a kind of haze that seemed to stretch on forever.

Ethan learned a precious lesson about Voidspace. Traversing it wasn’t that difficult, but as he studied through the months, he realized the shallow facade he saw before him couldn’t express the depth of the spaces. Over the next couple of weeks, the group passed through several environments ranging from ruined cities to underground vistas. Each reflected the scribe’s own thoughts and feelings and didn’t truly mirror the qualities of that space.

If he wanted to gain true mastery over these spaces, he would need to take Trex’s class.

Luna and Finn stumbled forward over the shattered cobblestones of some imagined city. Ethan turned, spotting how they shambled and gritting his teeth. He was just about over this part of his life and vowed never to take such a trek again. “We’re nearly there, guys, just hold on.”  

“We’re actually only one jump away, but this is going to be the most difficult one.” Sam seemed hesitant to share the information, but her voice held the same calm authority it always did. “The energies I’m getting through the next passage are concerning. I can’t tell, but we may be dealing with a monster, so it’s best if you’re prepared.” 

Ethan nodded, reaching out and focusing on the concepts fed to him by his bracelet. His brows knit when those aspects entered his mind: war, struggle, light, and the concept he couldn’t truly understand. The last one was so ethereal yet so familiar that it would bother him. But as soon as he turned the knob, pushing the door open to reveal quite the scene, those thoughts fell away.

“Sam, are you sure about this?” Ethan asked. He winced as a wave of magical energy slammed against him. At first, he thought it was an attack coming from the wild melee on the other side of the door. Then he realized that it was just regular latent mana in the air. It was something he hadn’t experienced in almost 5 months.

“I’m sure. Just get in there, and stay low.” Sam’s confidence didn’t waver even in the slightest. “Remember: those are mana constructs. Not real people.”

“Can I kill anything?” Tenalia asked, bouncing with excitement.

“Only the orcs,” Sam said. “I need time to process the data. I think this is an echo. Ethan, lead Finn and Luna somewhere safe while I perform my calculations.”

Taking a deep breath and double-checking that he had defensive spells at the ready, Ethan plunged through the door. On the other side was quite the scene. He was standing in a heavily forested area, looking up at absolutely gargantuan walls. The defenders atop the walls fired spells, arrows, and even threw rocks down at an army of approaching orcs. The scribe remembered seeing pictures of orcs and didn’t recall them looking so savage. They were hunchbacked with barely any neck and wearing tattered hide clothes. They brandished weapons of stone and wood and slavered as they approached their doom.

“There’s a fun history lesson on this one!” Tenalia shouted, preparing her sword. “I’ll tell you later!”

The puppet dashed off into the fray, her sword cleaving orcs in half. But instead of the blood and guts Ethan expected, they faded like clumps of mist blown with a fan. Tenlia wasn’t even slightly disappointed, though. She continued her rampage, destroying the creatures as though they were real. At least she was having fun. For his part, the scribe didn’t do as instructed. When a series of stones passed through his head, doing exactly nothing, he probed at where the wound should be and hummed.

“Well, that answers that.” Sam seemed slightly annoyed now. “I didn’t know if they could interact with you. I guess they can’t.”

Ethan led Luna and Finn away from the battle, finding his way to the main gate. It was a massive wooden drawbridge-style gate banded in dark iron. Spikes dotted the surface, along with burn marks and gouges deeper than a man. He reached out, and to his surprise, his hand passed right through it.

“Come on, guys.” Ethan tugged, leading his companions inside the city. “We’re just gonna hide out while Sam does her work.”

“Okay,” Luna said, her voice positively dreamy. Finn just grunted.

The interior of the city was no calmer than the outside. People ran around, taking supplies from one place to another. Some carried large ballista bolts, while others hoisted massive rocks above their heads. Ethan watched as a figure clad in dark armor, wielding a shield and a mace, commanded the attention of several others. They ran down the wide street to whatever fate awaited them.

If a fair portion of the city wasn’t on fire, Ethan suspected it would be beautiful. It was made from sturdy stone bricks, with low houses that seemed impossible to topple. The masonry and carpentry work of everything was top-notch, and the scribe found it hard not to nod with approval, even with everything going on. After getting his friends settled, he spent time just watching the people. Sam said they were an “echo,” which he took to mean they were visions from the past.

An elven man with black hair and a massive black tiger by his side went by, and Ethan couldn’t help but feel the importance of him. Maybe it was the giant halberd, or maybe it was the gaggle of folks that walked behind him, but the energy in the air shifted.

“This is so weird.” Ethan couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t supposed to be here. When a massive explosion sounded outside the wall, all his concentration faded to nothing. He clapped his hands over his ears and when the ringing finally stopped, he rushed to fly up to the battlements, leaning over to see what had happened.

A massive crater had appeared, but the cause wasn’t obvious. Ethan squinted, then covered his ears once again when the sound of cannons firing echoed. He saw the plume of smoke down the line of the wall, and whistled. Just when he was considering the mix of magic and gunpowder, all light around him drained. A cadre of mages were chanting a spell together.

“Group magic?” Ethan asked, scoffing. “Sam, are you recording this?”

“There’s nothing to record. This is an illusion.”

“That sucks. Because look at the size of the ice block they’re summoning.”

“Oh, my…”

A massive crystal of ice had formed above the orcish army. When the chanting of the mages reached a fever pitch, it fell. The sound of the impact was deafening. The wall itself shook, knocking Ethan from his feet. He tumbled backward, activating System Flight the moment he fell off the inward-facing side of the battlements. He wiped his brow, unable to comprehend how some things could affect him and others couldn’t.

Yet that wasn’t the thing that concerned him most. Ethan’s spine froze as he spotted someone in the distance. They were too distinct to be anyone else. No amount of age could cover up the dark armor, flowing cloak, and distinct hairstyle of the man. The scribe shot forward, intent on figuring out what he was doing there.

“Silvain… What the hell is going on?”

Chapter 20

Perisart

Ethan hadn’t expected to see a benefactor of the Academy within the Voidspace. He especially didn’t expect to see one in some vision from the past. Whose past this was and what it meant exactly were things far beyond his knowledge. If this was distant enough, then it wasn’t in the history books since those seemed oddly sparse. But the scribe followed, hovering along in the air and watching as the elf moved with speed. He was heading away from the primary battle and towards a sparsely populated section of the city.

“What on earth is he doing?” Ethan asked, hovering high in the air so he didn’t lose the man. “When I talked to him, he said he was quite the fighter, so why is he running?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to go dormant for a while. But from what I can tell, you won’t be harmed here. The magic is very high, so restore your reserves if you want.”

“Thanks, Sam.” Ethan hovered lower, until he could make out the details of Silvain. He was doing something with another gate… “No way…”

The black-clad figure was messing with some mechanism on the gate. Ethan couldn’t see it clearly from afar, but as he drew closer, he saw exactly what was going on. He could even hear the hiss of the fuse and the frantic footsteps of the traitorous elf as he fled from the gate. Only a few moments later did the detonation occur, rocking the city and sending stone flying in every which direction. The scribe was beside himself. He didn’t even know these people. He didn’t know when they had fought or if they had lost, but he saw in real time the betrayal of a man who now seemed so meek, so in service of something greater than himself.

Ethan wasn’t one to respond emotionally. When he witnessed the detonation and saw the fading of the illusions, he felt bad for them, but this was far in the past. Silvain had done something to betray his people, but how many hundreds of years ago was this? He now served in an academy world, helping fight against the threats generated by the system. If this was a similar situation, there must have been either a redemption in the future or a reason for what he did. The scribe pushed back whatever anger he had, purging the hate forming in his heart.

“This is long done. Not my business.” Ethan nodded to himself, hovering to the ground. Silvain had been caught in the blast, but he wasn’t dead. He removed himself from the rubble before dashing out of the open gate… past the orcs, who paid him no attention. The scribe took to the air once more, following closely behind. “So you betrayed your people during a siege. Interesting. I wonder if Armel knows.”

Ethan followed closely behind, but eventually the illusion of Sylvain faded and disappeared. The edges of this space weren’t well defined, like all the others he had been to. In most Voidspace areas, Ethan would reach the end by hitting a solid wall of nothing, but this one faded and disappeared, creating an obscured border that was difficult to probe instead of plunging into the murky depths of fog. He flew back to the city and watched as the battle progressed. The attacking army had massive chimeras. They were three-headed, hydra-like creatures that used all kinds of breath attacks and magic, but the defenders were good. They were very good. They repelled the assault and, with a flash of bright light from the battlements, defeated some giant shadow monster.

Even the breach in the wall wasn’t enough to usurp the defenders, and they were soon all cheering in celebration. Then the battlefield shifted. The dead orcs were gone, and the defenders were back on the battlements. It had reset, as though this place was a constant reminder of something. Ethan couldn’t help but think it was a reminder of Silvain’s betrayal, and the triumphant defense of the locals. Eventually, he found Tenalia, who had grown bored of killing shadows. They met in the courtyard on the other side of the wall, right before the orcs pressed forward.

“That was okay. But it isn’t the same killing shadows.”

“You said this place has history? Do you know it?” Ethan asked.

“Oh, yes. This is engrained in the very concept of my people. Did you see the big flash at the end?”

“I did.”

“That was the Lady of Light. She imbued herself into a few weapons, and that’s what defeated the Shade Kuzan. It didn’t kill him, but without him to command the orcs, they fled.” Tenalia took a deep breath. “This is a glorious moment for Kuzanite Elves.”

“What about Silvain’s betrayal?” Ethan asked. “Seems like a scummy thing to do.”

“Silvain? Brother of King Leon?” Tenalia scoffed then mimed spitting on the ground. “How very dare you, sir.”

“I’m serious. Come, you can watch for yourself.”

Tenalia hopped on Ethan’s back, and he flew her to the area where he had first seen the betrayal. They had to hover there for quite some time, but eventually, the black-clad elf set his charges near the gate and blew it up. The doll was beside herself, stuttering and mumbling until the scribe realized that this would become an issue. She was the conceptual representation of these elves, and he had shown her something that defied her very core.

“That’s not possible.” Tenalia’s voice was shaking.

“Hold on. Don’t have a breakdown just yet. I was thinking about this myself.” Ethan landed atop one squat building, placing the puppet on the roof and patting her helmeted head. “In your soul, you feel Silvain, right?”

“Yeah…”

“So he was significant enough for your people that he left a lasting impression. And the impression is positive.” Ethan nodded to himself, a broad smile spreading across his face. “I had the same dilemma until I realized something important. We don’t know the full story here. He had a plan, or he was redeemed. That’s all there is to it.”

The last time Ethan had seen Tenalia in such a state, she had just spoken to the Lady of Light. That had created quite the impression on her, and it was not positive. The scribe would not watch his companion fall into that kind of despair again and wholeheartedly intended to set the story straight before she spiraled.

“This is our ancestral home, the home that Kuzan created. The Seat of the Elves is an ancient city called Perisart.” Tenalia took a few moments to herself. “To see him blow the gate up like that… I can only think of betrayal. When we get back to the Academy, shall I kill him myself?”

Ethan shook his head. “Can you?”

“Physically? Maybe.”

“Check your heart. Is Silvain a betrayer, or was he doing something else?”

Tenalia’s head dipped as she thought. “He was doing something else. He was trying to talk someone down.”

“See?” Ethan patted the puppet on the head. “We don’t know when this was. My guess is: he had a plan. A dumb plan, but a plan. We can’t judge him based on that.”

Tenalia raised her head, thrusting her chest out. “You’re right. Can’t get it confused, right? I am the embodiment of Kuzanite Elves. I am the very concept of their will!”

“That’s the spirit.”

“I like wine! I like fighting!” Tenalia thrust her sword into the air. “And most of all: I enjoy the royal family maybe a little too much!”

“Huzzah!”

“Huzzah!”

It was much easier to calm Tenalia down this time. She wasn’t quite as upset. Ethan was thankful that he had sound logic on his side to get her back to a state of normalcy. When they were done gawking at the damage from the next loop, they headed to the main area and passed the time by spotting interesting people in the crowd after checking on Finn and Luna. They were fine. Just comatose.

“Okay, so we have Tiger Halberd, Dark Mace, Double Daggers, Mage McGoofball, and who else?” Tenalia tapped her helmet, trying to remember the goofy names they had given the defenders.

“Baby Magic, Buff Healer, and the Turtle Squad.”

Ethan and Tenalia had moved to another spot, trying to find more people with interesting features. The Turtle Squad was a group of maeth people with weird armor. They kinda looked like turtles with the shields on their backs. The duo had moved to a section closer to the far side of the city, which led down to what looked like an entire underground complex. The scribe had been enjoying the game so far… But then he spotted a pair of people who looked incredibly familiar. It took him a moment, but he finally got it.

“Zeal and Solace!” Ethan said, jabbing his finger toward a pair of people in the crowd. “No way!”

“Seriously?” Tenalia asked, climbing up onto his head like a monkey. “Woah. That’s so weird.”

Ethan was growing more confused by the moment. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a who’s who of very important people in the sector. What he remembered about Zeal and Solace was that they were left behind. They had been imprisoned for quite some time, which gave the scribe a decent understanding of how long ago this scene was. It was at least 400 years ago, but he couldn’t know for certain. After spotting those two, they hunted even more, but there were no more notable individuals that appeared before Sam finally finished her calculations.

“This was a difficult door to find.” Sam’s voice sounded labored, and Ethan couldn’t help but wonder if it was an affectation. “The chamber we’re attempting to appear in is directly in the center of the planet, which brings up all kinds of fun physics problems.”

“I don’t even want to know what kind of calculations you’re doing.” Ethan shook his head as he thought about all the strange things she had to account for so they didn’t die.

“Also, the chamber is quite small. I can probe to the next door and the one after that, but when peering into real space, the processing power required is immense. For one, I can tell it’s about 20 feet by 20 feet and completely dark. So if you know a light spell, now would be the time to produce it.”

Ethan’s eyes dragged over the scene. Despite how busy she had been, Sam had committed the entire scene to her memory. It was quite a lot of information, taking up most of one block, but the scribe thought it was worth having for future reference. After all, there were no history books regarding this battle. True, he currently didn’t have context, but perhaps there were other places in the void that could help fill the gap.

“Are your calculations complete?” Ethan asked.

“We’re ready to travel. I highly advise we move out of this space before we lose Luna and Finn. They’ll take some time to recover on the other side, but hopefully, we’ll have a quick way to get back home.”

“Are you certain the trip will be fast? I really don’t think they’re going to last much longer.” 

“Worry not. I have two ideas. A new one just popped up as I scanned the area outside of this space.”

Ethan trusted his bracelet and gathered Luna and Finn. The location of this door was very specific. He couldn’t just create it from anywhere and took his time finding the perfect location. Sam guided him, probing the other side as he moved around the space. Eventually, they found a spot in a shop that sold adventuring wares. The scribe reached out, focusing on concepts related to exiting. It was a strange thing to focus on, seeing as all the other concepts he had used were so grounded. This one was abstract and had more to do with leaving Voidspace.

The moment Ethan opened the door, he felt a wave of relief. His mind cleared in an instant, a massive fatigue he didn’t even know afflicted him drained away in an instant. Luna and Finn sucked in a sharp breath, both of them jolting as though startled from sleep.

“Get me out of here!” Finn shouted, shooting forward into the darkness. Luna was close behind.

Ethan looked forward through the door, noting how the darkened chamber was lit by the lightest blue glow. “Here we go. No more surprises, right?”

“Heh. All we have is surprises.” Tenalia forged forward, and Ethan followed.