I said.
Felix and I quickly shared Status Screens with each other, to get a feel for how our bodies looked and what adjustments might need to be made to our group combat style..
Felix’s Status Screen was jealousy inducing.
Physical
Mental
Essence
Strength: (60+126)
Grade 9
Intelligence: (60+102)
Grade 8
Absorption: (60+128)
Grade 9
Agility: (60+109)
Grade 8
Willpower: (60+100)
Grade 8
Manifestation: (60+76)
Grade 6
Fortitude: (60+105)
Grade 8
Perception: (60+116)
Grade 8
Binding: (60+126)
Grade 9
Alteration: (60+87)
Grade 7
Finally, the man took Felix from the maid’s arms, and walked Felix outside - where Felix’s mental images and narration abruptly cut off. For a moment, I was afraid that something had happened to him, before his mental voice returned, although he sounded somewhat shaky.
He sent me a mental image, and I also blinked in shock.
Felix wasn’t in the city. Instead, I could see the city walls, a fair distance below him. It looked as if he were standing on a massive leaf, with a clear stream of water ripping its way out of the pnt before dripping onto the city below. I gnced up, and realized that Felix’s family was probably living in the canopy of the giant tree.
But that wasn’t the strange part.
Since Felix was so far above us, he had a much better view of our surroundings than I did.
I had assumed the faint light trickling into the city was from the sun, half-covered by the leaf foliage. I had noticed that the ‘sun’ seemed to hang around for a lot longer than I was used to, but I hadn’t thought much of it. Different dimensions could have different day and night cycles, after all. However, my assumption was dead wrong.
Though the half-glimpsed sky above the tree, there was a vast, yawning abyss. It was as if we were in the middle of space. The only sources of light were giant, human eyeballs that glowed faintly in the distance - so far away that they were almost impossible to make out. Each eyeball emitted light like a small sun, beaming light towards us and several other trees in the distance.
I also quickly realized that we weren’t standing on nd. We weren’t on a continent, or an isnd, or even a pnet.
Instead, from Felix’s position, I could see the edge… of the floating isnd we were standing on. Far, far below us, I could see writhing, twisting bck mist, almost like the faint echoes of a drowned god. There were little holes in the yer of mist, barely visible in the distance. They looked like passageways into the abyss itself. I could also see that the yer of mist below us wasn’t entirely made of water vapor. Instead, it looked almost like it was some sort of half-ethereal flesh. Even though I wasn’t looking directly at it, I felt… malice from that yer of fog. As if it knew we were there, and it wanted us dead.
In the distance, I could see a few other ‘flying isnds’ just like ours. Each one had a glowing tree somewhere on the isnd, followed by a few cities nestled near the trunk of the tree, and a surrounding yer of dirt and roots. Most isnds had dozens of smaller trees nestled atop the roots of the massive tree, like fungal growths on a giant. Felix could see four of them, although it was entirely possible that there were more in the distance that we just weren’t noticing.
I also froze in shock.
I felt a faint movement from the real world, jostling me out of my conversation with Felix.
I realized that my father was talking with some of the other people in the group. It didn’t sound like they were afraid - more like they were exchanging contacts and preparing for a friendly outing. I rexed… right up until I heard something strange.
“I thought I felt someone using essence during the fight too,” said the singing mage. She frowned.
“That’s impossible,” said one of the other members. “I don’t think anyone in this area can afford essence food, right? That stuff’s %#(*#.”
The singing mage frowned. “Maybe I was mistaken? Or maybe one of the #%*&# were passing through and gave us a hand.” She gnced around the room again, and then sighed. “Well, I suppose there really isn’t very much chance that a #%*&# is here. Regur mana food is also far too pricy for even the simplest of spells or magical abilities.” She ughed, and scratched the back of her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter now. I’m gd that everyone is all right, but I think it’s time I returned home.” She smiled at everyone, before she left the house. After a few minutes of awkward chattering, the rest of the group started to disperse. Meanwhile, I frowned.
Essence food?
Even the simplest spells were expensive?
How odd.
All of this time, I had assumed that the actual, biological ability to cast spells was limited. That was the way it had worked in our second world - people who could interact with an essence were rare, and thus valued. This world seemed simir at first gnce, because there were only a few spellcasters. But based on the bits of the conversation I had overheard, it didn’t sound like biology was the only limitation on spellcasting here.
I frowned, and realized something I hadn’t noticed earlier.
I didn’t have binding or manifestation essence.
In our second world, even without any sort of magic system to back it up, I had constantly regenerated a bit of alteration and manifestation essence. Every second, small wisps of it gathered inside of my body, refilling whatever I had spent. Here, I knew for a fact that all four essences existed. Based on our understanding of how the Market’s system interacted with biology, that SHOULD have meant I would have four essence pools, two of which would be basically unusable without training. Instead, I had two essence pools, and two empty ones.
I frowned more deeply. My alteration essence was regenerating just fine. That was probably because it was fueled by an ability, so it was no longer subject to the biological limitations of the people here. On the other hand…
A suspicion started to form in my mind.
There was a momentary pause. Then, Felix’s mental voice sounded in my mind again.
My suspicion was confirmed. I didn’t know whether everyone in this dimension had access to all four essences, but I now knew something for sure.
I felt a sense of understanding settle in my mind.
So that was how the Market kept this world under control. They cut off natural essence regeneration for the local popuce, then propped up incoming Market people as ‘heroes’ by simple virtue of logistics.
I frowned, before I shook my head. How long ago had people from the Market stopped coming to this world?
If my suspicions were correct, and people here couldn’t regenerate essence naturally, we would need to think very carefully about how we managed things. If we revealed our magical abilities, we might be accused of stealing precious materials, rather than appuded as new mages. I hoped my suspicions were wrong, but I had a sinking feeling that things in this world were a lot more complicated than they normally would have been. We would need to tread carefully before we got the full story. Either way, our new direction was clear.
Before making any moves, we needed more information.
acaswell